NPT letter
Let me apologize up front for the fact that this is a terrifyingly long Dear Writer letter. :-) It's because I've let my inner fan off the leash, and she likes to squee all over the page. There are lots of suggestions in here, but if reading them makes you think of something else entirely you suspect I'd enjoy, then go for it! At this point I have a decent number of fics posted on AO3, plus gifts I've received in the past, so you can divine from their entrails if you need more clues. (And I have some more general notes at the end.)
***
Fandom: Captain America (Movies)
Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes
I saw The Winter Soldier with some friends -- and then went back two days later and saw it again with a friend who hadn't been able to join us the first time. Because apparently the way to get me into the theatre is to tell a story about a guy who's had his mind wiped and reprogrammed countless times over the last seventy years. :-D
Seriously, I love that concept so much. I'm kind of sadistic as a reader, and for that matter as a writer; I enjoy watching characters suffer. (Maybe I shouldn't admit that so readily . . . .) And one thing prose fiction does really well -- better than movies and other AV media -- is interiority, i.e. the subjective experience of a character, what's going on behind the eyes. So I find myself craving a story that really digs into Bucky's head during his time as the Winter Soldier.
What did that feel like? I haven't read the comics, so my only knowledge of canon there is basically what you get glimpses of in the movie, i.e. he was kept on ice in between jobs, and apparently they have a way of reformatting his brain when he starts to slip free of their control. Was any part of him aware during the periods of cryogenic stasis? Did he have weird, fucked-up dreams? How did they program him to be their pet killer in the first place? What's it like when the memories start to come back, and how does it feel when they get torn away again? I'm also interested in his relationship with his body, if that makes any sense -- the cyborg arm and the fact that he seems to be stronger/more resilient than he used to be.
You're welcome to approach this from any point in time that appeals to you, whether it's the early stages in which the Winter Soldier was created, the decades after that in which he was killing people for Hydra (maybe a Russian branch of Hydra, if you want to cross with comics canon?), his encounters with Steve in the movie, or what happens after. I just want a story that will dig into his brain, so to speak. It doesn't have to be straight-up introspection, either; it just occurred to me that what I'm asking for could be read that way. I have no objection to action or plot or interactions with other characters! Introspection usually packs more punch when it's embedded in that kind of stuff anyway, though if you want to deep-dive straight into his thoughts, feel free.
(Dang it, now I want to watch the movie again . . . .)
***
Fandom: Highlander
Character: Methos
True story: back in the Stone Age of Compuserve et al, when I had only seen a few episodes of Highlander, I was nosing around on internet fansites and came across references to Methos: the Oldest Immortal Alive! He’s Five Thousand Years Old!!! And I rolled my eyes because my god did that sound like a terrible idea.
Then I saw an episode with Methos in it, and realized he's the best character in the show.
So, um. The tl;dr version is METHOS YES PLEASE. The rest of this is me fangirling about why I like him, followed by some vague nods to what I'm keen on seeing.
Why I like him: uh, because he’s awesome? The writers avoided the pitfalls I automatically expected when I saw “five thousand years old, world’s oldest living immortal.” He’s not some uber-powerful demigod; he’s just a guy, and not even the strongest one out there. He’s also not some wise, enlightened elder -- though they poke at that idea entertainingly in “The Messenger.” He isn’t weighted down by the angst of his life; he has a fabulous sense of humour (that extends to mocking himself), and I loved how they handled the relationship with Alexa. So often, immortal characters (vampires, etc) moan about how they can’t get attached because the people they love will die and then it’ll be grief foreeeeeever; with Alexa, Methos is all, “Let’s date! Wait, you’re dying of cancer? NO TIME TO LOSE THEN” instead of flinching away from the pain. At the same time, man does he have some trauma and angst in his past (Horsemen, anybody?), which I am very much a sucker for. He doesn’t put dignity (or sometimes even honor) ahead of his own survival; yet on the other hand he will risk himself for his friends -- and also, every so often, this sort of masochistic or even self-destructive streak rears its head. He nearly suicides to Duncan in his first appearance (which, to be fair, is mostly because the writers originally intended him to be a one-off character), and then in “Comes a Horseman,” when he’s trying to squirm out of the conversation and Duncan won’t let him, he turns around and just starts twisting the knife in himself, talking about his own past in the most blunt way possible. And yet, there are moments where the wisdom comes out. I love the exchange between him and Duncan at the end of “The Valkyrie,” about who judges whom, and his epic speech at Amanda in “Methuselah’s Gift” is sheer brilliance. (The plot of that episode is Macguffin Ahoy! from one end to the other, but it’s worth it just for that speech.)
Basically, I love every episode he’s in and everything they do with the character (though I don’t remember season six very well), so if you have a Favorite Methos Moment, odds are I like it, too. Hanging out with Byron? Shooting Duncan in the head? His confrontation with Kristin at the end of “Chivalry?” (“A man born long before the age of chivalry” -- that was a nicely chilling moment.) Awesomesauce, all of it. :-D
Now that I’ve written a mini-dissertation, what about the actual request? Well, I'm open for pretty much anything, but there are a few approaches I’d prefer you to avoid:
1) Anything that flat-out contradicts canon. Unless I specifically ask for an AU or crossover or fixit fic, etc, I like receiving things that fit into the world and history presented in canon. This doesn’t mean you have to drive yourself batty double-checking every last detail for fear of contradicting one (I probably wouldn’t notice the contradiction anyway), but it does mean I’m not keen on “the Horsemen team up for realz in the twenty-second century” or whatever.
2) Shippy fic or porn. Although I like his relationship with Alexa, I’m not that interested in a fic that focuses on it, nor do I really want to see him slashed with Duncan/Joe/Richie/whoever. Which is not to say you have to avoid relationships like the plague; if it would fit your story to have Methos be involved with some character of your own devising, that’s fine. (Female or male. I read him as straight, but open-minded enough that he wouldn’t say no to other kinds of fun. Especially if he were in a time and place where that sort of thing was mainstream, e.g. ancient Greece or pre-Meiji Japan.)
3) Horsemen-era stuff. I’m not hugely averse to this, so if you have a brilliant idea for something in that time period, go for it. But Horsemen-era Methos is not yet the complex character I love, so he’s less interesting to me. Also, I’m an archaeologist, so the TV version of the Bronze Age makes me roll my eyes. Though if you can do a more realistic Bronze Age, rock on!
Since now I feel like that makes me sound choosy, let me say that beyond those three things, I really am up for just about anything! Emo fic about some tragedy in Methos’ past; hilarious fic about a ridiculous caper; introspective fic musing on immortality and being thousands of years older than everybody around you; grimdark fic about the Gathering actually coming down. If you have a time period you really like, feel free to set the story there; if it’s a time period you know a crap-ton about, yes please. I adore historical fiction full of chewy little period details.
(If it’s a historical period in which -isms become an issue: you’re welcome to address them or sweep them under the narrative rug, whichever suits you better. I kind of think that Methos, with that range of experiences under his belt, has probably learned not to make snap judgments about people based on externalities, but that doesn’t mean he’s 100% free of prejudice. I also know that the prejudices we’re familiar with are very much an inheritance of the last few centuries, and that racism and sexism in, say, republican Rome operated in different ways than ours. So basically, do whatever serves the story best/you are okay with writing; I don’t particularly need this to be issuefic, nor am I driven off by characters acting in less than fully enlightened ways.)
***
Fandom: Star Trek
Character: Spock
Right, so this request is kind of weird. :-)
As I said in my signup, I want a pon farr story -- but not the usual kind of pon farr story. I'm actually not looking for smut, though if sex ends up being part of what you write, that's fine. (It would be a bit silly to say "pon farr!" and then insist on no smut.)
What I want -- and this won't surprise you if you've read some of my other requests -- is Spock's experience of pon farr. It's kind of a fascinating concept to me, given the Vulcan culture it's a part of; these people are all about rationality and logic and mind over body, and then they have these moments where instinct and the body say, it's our turn now. Loss of control, inflicted on characters who prize their self-control above all, is one of my favorite tropes, so it's no surprise that this one has caught my interest so strongly.
And it gets complicated in the reboot because of the destruction of Vulcan. Is T'Pring still around? (Probably not, though if having her be one of the survivors suits your story, I have no objection. She's kind of a fascinating character in TOS, the way she works within the constraints of tradition to try and get what she wants.) Does the loss of the planet and most of their race change the schedule for Spock, making his episode occur earlier/later/at some unexpected time? Given that Spock is half-human, how does he feel about the Vulcan half asserting itself so inexorably, especially when there are so few Vulcans left? Does he realize what's going on right away, or does he fail to recognize the early signs/think it can't happen to him because he's half-human or because T'Pring is dead/etc?
Per what I said above, I'm okay with sex being part of the story. I'm also okay with violence being part of it; the idea that the other way to snap out of pon farr is to kill somebody is kind of fascinating in its own right. (And I'm a big fan of the way fight scenes can reveal or change or confirm aspects of a character. Which is also true of sex scenes, of course.) Mainly I just want the focus to be on Spock's interior experience during the whole thing. Is he ashamed of it, the way human cultures surround some of our own unavoidable bodily functions with shame? Does his rationality go away, leaving him driven purely by id -- and if so, how does it feel to watch it slip away, and then to have it come back afterward? Who (if anybody) does he choose to involve in the situation, and who (if anybody) gets involved without him choosing, and how does that change his interactions with them when it's all over? Sure, theoretically Spock could be all "yes, this is a natural function and a necessary one for my species at the moment, so I'm going to handle this in a sensible and uncomplicated fashion." But it's more fun when the experience is traumatic instead. :-) (See above re: me liking characters to suffer.)
***
Other info: I think the above gives a pretty good picture of the spectrum of things I like. Drama is good, drama mixed with humor is even better when the story suits it, I don't mind violence so long as it isn't splatterpunk gore. I adore stories with plot in. My default preference is for stories that fit in with canon -- "this could be the secret backstory/sequel you never knew about" or "if you changed X, things could totally have gone this way" -- as opposed to outright revisions, though some of my specific requests deviate from that.
Above all, I hope you have fun!
***
Fandom: Captain America (Movies)
Characters: James "Bucky" Barnes
I saw The Winter Soldier with some friends -- and then went back two days later and saw it again with a friend who hadn't been able to join us the first time. Because apparently the way to get me into the theatre is to tell a story about a guy who's had his mind wiped and reprogrammed countless times over the last seventy years. :-D
Seriously, I love that concept so much. I'm kind of sadistic as a reader, and for that matter as a writer; I enjoy watching characters suffer. (Maybe I shouldn't admit that so readily . . . .) And one thing prose fiction does really well -- better than movies and other AV media -- is interiority, i.e. the subjective experience of a character, what's going on behind the eyes. So I find myself craving a story that really digs into Bucky's head during his time as the Winter Soldier.
What did that feel like? I haven't read the comics, so my only knowledge of canon there is basically what you get glimpses of in the movie, i.e. he was kept on ice in between jobs, and apparently they have a way of reformatting his brain when he starts to slip free of their control. Was any part of him aware during the periods of cryogenic stasis? Did he have weird, fucked-up dreams? How did they program him to be their pet killer in the first place? What's it like when the memories start to come back, and how does it feel when they get torn away again? I'm also interested in his relationship with his body, if that makes any sense -- the cyborg arm and the fact that he seems to be stronger/more resilient than he used to be.
You're welcome to approach this from any point in time that appeals to you, whether it's the early stages in which the Winter Soldier was created, the decades after that in which he was killing people for Hydra (maybe a Russian branch of Hydra, if you want to cross with comics canon?), his encounters with Steve in the movie, or what happens after. I just want a story that will dig into his brain, so to speak. It doesn't have to be straight-up introspection, either; it just occurred to me that what I'm asking for could be read that way. I have no objection to action or plot or interactions with other characters! Introspection usually packs more punch when it's embedded in that kind of stuff anyway, though if you want to deep-dive straight into his thoughts, feel free.
(Dang it, now I want to watch the movie again . . . .)
***
Fandom: Highlander
Character: Methos
True story: back in the Stone Age of Compuserve et al, when I had only seen a few episodes of Highlander, I was nosing around on internet fansites and came across references to Methos: the Oldest Immortal Alive! He’s Five Thousand Years Old!!! And I rolled my eyes because my god did that sound like a terrible idea.
Then I saw an episode with Methos in it, and realized he's the best character in the show.
So, um. The tl;dr version is METHOS YES PLEASE. The rest of this is me fangirling about why I like him, followed by some vague nods to what I'm keen on seeing.
Why I like him: uh, because he’s awesome? The writers avoided the pitfalls I automatically expected when I saw “five thousand years old, world’s oldest living immortal.” He’s not some uber-powerful demigod; he’s just a guy, and not even the strongest one out there. He’s also not some wise, enlightened elder -- though they poke at that idea entertainingly in “The Messenger.” He isn’t weighted down by the angst of his life; he has a fabulous sense of humour (that extends to mocking himself), and I loved how they handled the relationship with Alexa. So often, immortal characters (vampires, etc) moan about how they can’t get attached because the people they love will die and then it’ll be grief foreeeeeever; with Alexa, Methos is all, “Let’s date! Wait, you’re dying of cancer? NO TIME TO LOSE THEN” instead of flinching away from the pain. At the same time, man does he have some trauma and angst in his past (Horsemen, anybody?), which I am very much a sucker for. He doesn’t put dignity (or sometimes even honor) ahead of his own survival; yet on the other hand he will risk himself for his friends -- and also, every so often, this sort of masochistic or even self-destructive streak rears its head. He nearly suicides to Duncan in his first appearance (which, to be fair, is mostly because the writers originally intended him to be a one-off character), and then in “Comes a Horseman,” when he’s trying to squirm out of the conversation and Duncan won’t let him, he turns around and just starts twisting the knife in himself, talking about his own past in the most blunt way possible. And yet, there are moments where the wisdom comes out. I love the exchange between him and Duncan at the end of “The Valkyrie,” about who judges whom, and his epic speech at Amanda in “Methuselah’s Gift” is sheer brilliance. (The plot of that episode is Macguffin Ahoy! from one end to the other, but it’s worth it just for that speech.)
Basically, I love every episode he’s in and everything they do with the character (though I don’t remember season six very well), so if you have a Favorite Methos Moment, odds are I like it, too. Hanging out with Byron? Shooting Duncan in the head? His confrontation with Kristin at the end of “Chivalry?” (“A man born long before the age of chivalry” -- that was a nicely chilling moment.) Awesomesauce, all of it. :-D
Now that I’ve written a mini-dissertation, what about the actual request? Well, I'm open for pretty much anything, but there are a few approaches I’d prefer you to avoid:
1) Anything that flat-out contradicts canon. Unless I specifically ask for an AU or crossover or fixit fic, etc, I like receiving things that fit into the world and history presented in canon. This doesn’t mean you have to drive yourself batty double-checking every last detail for fear of contradicting one (I probably wouldn’t notice the contradiction anyway), but it does mean I’m not keen on “the Horsemen team up for realz in the twenty-second century” or whatever.
2) Shippy fic or porn. Although I like his relationship with Alexa, I’m not that interested in a fic that focuses on it, nor do I really want to see him slashed with Duncan/Joe/Richie/whoever. Which is not to say you have to avoid relationships like the plague; if it would fit your story to have Methos be involved with some character of your own devising, that’s fine. (Female or male. I read him as straight, but open-minded enough that he wouldn’t say no to other kinds of fun. Especially if he were in a time and place where that sort of thing was mainstream, e.g. ancient Greece or pre-Meiji Japan.)
3) Horsemen-era stuff. I’m not hugely averse to this, so if you have a brilliant idea for something in that time period, go for it. But Horsemen-era Methos is not yet the complex character I love, so he’s less interesting to me. Also, I’m an archaeologist, so the TV version of the Bronze Age makes me roll my eyes. Though if you can do a more realistic Bronze Age, rock on!
Since now I feel like that makes me sound choosy, let me say that beyond those three things, I really am up for just about anything! Emo fic about some tragedy in Methos’ past; hilarious fic about a ridiculous caper; introspective fic musing on immortality and being thousands of years older than everybody around you; grimdark fic about the Gathering actually coming down. If you have a time period you really like, feel free to set the story there; if it’s a time period you know a crap-ton about, yes please. I adore historical fiction full of chewy little period details.
(If it’s a historical period in which -isms become an issue: you’re welcome to address them or sweep them under the narrative rug, whichever suits you better. I kind of think that Methos, with that range of experiences under his belt, has probably learned not to make snap judgments about people based on externalities, but that doesn’t mean he’s 100% free of prejudice. I also know that the prejudices we’re familiar with are very much an inheritance of the last few centuries, and that racism and sexism in, say, republican Rome operated in different ways than ours. So basically, do whatever serves the story best/you are okay with writing; I don’t particularly need this to be issuefic, nor am I driven off by characters acting in less than fully enlightened ways.)
***
Fandom: Star Trek
Character: Spock
Right, so this request is kind of weird. :-)
As I said in my signup, I want a pon farr story -- but not the usual kind of pon farr story. I'm actually not looking for smut, though if sex ends up being part of what you write, that's fine. (It would be a bit silly to say "pon farr!" and then insist on no smut.)
What I want -- and this won't surprise you if you've read some of my other requests -- is Spock's experience of pon farr. It's kind of a fascinating concept to me, given the Vulcan culture it's a part of; these people are all about rationality and logic and mind over body, and then they have these moments where instinct and the body say, it's our turn now. Loss of control, inflicted on characters who prize their self-control above all, is one of my favorite tropes, so it's no surprise that this one has caught my interest so strongly.
And it gets complicated in the reboot because of the destruction of Vulcan. Is T'Pring still around? (Probably not, though if having her be one of the survivors suits your story, I have no objection. She's kind of a fascinating character in TOS, the way she works within the constraints of tradition to try and get what she wants.) Does the loss of the planet and most of their race change the schedule for Spock, making his episode occur earlier/later/at some unexpected time? Given that Spock is half-human, how does he feel about the Vulcan half asserting itself so inexorably, especially when there are so few Vulcans left? Does he realize what's going on right away, or does he fail to recognize the early signs/think it can't happen to him because he's half-human or because T'Pring is dead/etc?
Per what I said above, I'm okay with sex being part of the story. I'm also okay with violence being part of it; the idea that the other way to snap out of pon farr is to kill somebody is kind of fascinating in its own right. (And I'm a big fan of the way fight scenes can reveal or change or confirm aspects of a character. Which is also true of sex scenes, of course.) Mainly I just want the focus to be on Spock's interior experience during the whole thing. Is he ashamed of it, the way human cultures surround some of our own unavoidable bodily functions with shame? Does his rationality go away, leaving him driven purely by id -- and if so, how does it feel to watch it slip away, and then to have it come back afterward? Who (if anybody) does he choose to involve in the situation, and who (if anybody) gets involved without him choosing, and how does that change his interactions with them when it's all over? Sure, theoretically Spock could be all "yes, this is a natural function and a necessary one for my species at the moment, so I'm going to handle this in a sensible and uncomplicated fashion." But it's more fun when the experience is traumatic instead. :-) (See above re: me liking characters to suffer.)
***
Other info: I think the above gives a pretty good picture of the spectrum of things I like. Drama is good, drama mixed with humor is even better when the story suits it, I don't mind violence so long as it isn't splatterpunk gore. I adore stories with plot in. My default preference is for stories that fit in with canon -- "this could be the secret backstory/sequel you never knew about" or "if you changed X, things could totally have gone this way" -- as opposed to outright revisions, though some of my specific requests deviate from that.
Above all, I hope you have fun!
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