skieswideopen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skieswideopen) wrote2023-10-15 05:25 pm
skieswideopen) wrote2023-10-15 05:25 pm
Entry tags:
Dear Yuletide Author
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you so much for writing for me! I'm so excited to read what you write.
My letter includes some general likes and dislikes, as well as some prompts I didn't include in my letter, in case you'd like some additional ideas. If it's more than you need, please feel free to skip this and just use my sign-up as a starting point. Also, feel free to borrow a prompt from one fandom for another if you can make it work.
I'm skieswideopen at AO3 as well, and I love treats.
Requested Fandoms: Being Human (US/Canada) | The Collector | Covert Affairs | Signora Volpe
Things I Like:
* Competence. So much love for watching competent characters be competent!
* Secrets coming out, by choice, chance, or necessity.
* Equal partnerships in romantic relationships.
* Brief moments of emotional vulnerability from generally stoic or reserved characters.
* Heroic characters being heroic: doing the right thing, saving people, sacrificing themselves for others, etc.
* Stories that pick up dropped plot threads.
* Stories that explore how characters respond to unexpected situations.
* First times of various kinds (first kiss, first date, first night together, first day on the job, etc.).
* Forced proximity (handcuffed together, snowed in, trapped together in an elevator, etc.).
* Truth serum/in vino veritas/midnight confessions. (See my love of secrets coming out.)
* Undercover as a couple (or spontaneously posing as a couple to avoid detection).
* Post-apocalyptic, trapped-in-the-wilderness or mid-disaster survival scenarios.
* Time loops and dealing with the consequences when the loop ends.
* Heading home for weddings, funerals, high school reunions, holidays, etc. Alternately, family or old friends showing up.
Things I Don't Want:
* AUs that alter the setting, premise, or character backgrounds, unless otherwise noted. However, canon divergence is absolutely fine.
* A/B/O dynamics.
* Lifestyle or 24/7 BDSM.
* Unrequested poly in requested relationships.
* Infidelity in a requested relationship, either the two of them cheating on each other or cheating on someone else in order to be together, unless it occurs in canon. (Infidelity in other contexts is fine.)
* Significant permanent mental or physical injuries to requested characters that don't occur in canon, especially any sort of amputation. (However, killing major characters is fine unless otherwise noted.)
Other Things:
* I'm flexible on both genre and rating: plot-driven, character-driven, action, introspection, casefic, slice of life, gen, romance ... it's all good. So is anything from G to E, though I prefer to avoid PWP stories.
* I'm fine with character death, including main and requested characters, unless otherwise noted.
* Background non-con is fine if it's helpful for the story, but I'd rather it not be the primary focus of the story.
* I'm okay with references to the pandemic.
* I enjoy a good holiday story from time to time, if that's what you feel like writing.
* I generally prefer happy, hopeful, and bittersweet endings to utterly bleak ones.
* I dislike plots that revolve around misunderstandings that could be cleared up with a simple conversation or that hinge on characters making foolish mistakes that they wouldn't make in canon.
Being Human (US/Canada)
Requested Character: Aidan Waite, Kat Neely
Option Chosen: My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
Being Human (US/Canada) is the North American remake of a UK show involving a vampire, a werewolf all sharing a house. It ran for four seasons, from 2011 to 2014. In Canada, it's currently included with Amazon Prime, but I don't know if they're offering it in other countries.
Sign-up Request: Aidan and Kat were my favourite characters on BHUS and also my favourite couple. As a couple, they were never destined for a happy ending, and I think Kat was absolutely right to break up with Aidan as soon as she learned the truth, but I love them together anyway. I love watching them geek out together over history. I loved their willingness to open up and be vulnerable with each other. I love the moments when they try to protect each other.
Individually, I love that Aidan tries to take care of the people he loves, not just physically but emotionally, and that he uses brains as well as brawn to solve problems. I love that Kat stands up for herself and knows her own worth, and the pride she takes in knowing things.
I would really love to see a little more of Aidan and Kat interacting, either while they're still happily dating, or later on, post-series, with the two of them meeting again after they've broken up. (Obviously the latter would involve selectively editing or otherwise hand-waving away chunks of season 4, which I'm perfectly happy for you to do.)
If Aidan/Kat isn't your thing, I will also happily read a story that focuses on only one of them, so feel free to treat this as an either/or request.
Additional DNWS: Whatever else happens in the story, please don't have Aidan kill Kat, or otherwise contribute to her death (e.g. Kat dying at the hands of one of Aidan's enemies), unless it's at her request. I'd also prefer not to receive Aidan/Bishop.
Shippy prompts:
* More of Aidan and Kat geeking out over history. Maybe Aidan demonstrates a surprisingly detailed knowledge of local history or Kat tries to find out where he gets some of this very specific historical information.
* Meeting Kat's family or her colleagues, or finally going on that trip together.
* Something happens that forces Aidan to reveal to Kat that he can see ghosts, or that magic is real and he knows a little about it, or maybe some physical altercation takes place where he pushes the edge of human physical abilities a little, leading Kat to realize that there's something unusual about him without necessarily jumping to "vampire."
* Aidan and Kat run into each other post-series and end up trapped together — trapped in a broken elevator or held hostage together in a bank or snowed in at the same small inn or whatever — giving them a chance to talk and forcing them to rely on each other.
* Post-series, Kat or someone she knows — one of her students, a friend, a family member — finds themselves in some sort of supernatural trouble involving ghosts or witches or family curses, and Kat reluctantly calls on Aidan because he's the only one she knows who might be able to help.
Solo Prompts for Aidan:
* When and how did Aidan learn so much about how magic works? (Did he date a witch? Befriend one? Find himself in a fight against a coven?)
* How did he first meet Tony DePaulo, the ghost he introduces Sally to?
* What do the other nurses think of Aidan? Where was he living before he moved in with Josh?
* Have there been other instances when Aidan's ability to see ghosts or his other supernatural abilities have made a difference? Maybe in his work as a nurse or as a soldier or maybe a child ghost he decides to help or someone else he saves?
* Holidays Aidan has celebrated over the years.
* What led to him finally stop killing?
* What was life like for him when he was still enmeshed in the vampire community but beginning to be bothered by killing?
* What led Aidan and Bishop to start focusing on blue-collar jobs rather than the high-society approach vampires seem to have preferred until that point?
Solo Prompts for Kat:
* How does Kat process everything Aidan told her? Does she tell anyone? Does she find herself looking for hints that people aren't what they seem? Does she dive in and learn as much as she can in order to protect herself? Or does she try desperately to forget it all?
* Does Kat ever forgive Nora, or reconnect with her?
* If Kat finds out that Aidan died, how does she feel about that? Sad? Relieved? Something more complicated?
* Does anything she learned from Aidan influence her work? Does she change direction entirely?
* Does she ever connect with someone else who also has experience with the supernatural?0
Return to top
The Collector (Canada TV)
Requested Characters: Morgan Pym, Maya Kandinski
Option Chosen: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags; or it may use exceptions I explain in the form
Note: I'm happy to receive a story about Morgan and Maya, or just Morgan.
The Collector is a Canadian TV show about a former monk who spent centuries reluctantly sending people to hell after their ten-year deals expired, but who has since managed to gain permission from the devil to try to save his clients from their fate by helping them make up for the harm they did. I enjoyed it for the historical flashbacks, for the interesting and sometimes troubling worldbuilding, and because Morgan didn't always succeed. Sometimes he saved his client, sometimes he didn't, and you never knew which you were going to get.
Sign-up Request: Morgan can be difficult at times — overly secretive even when he doesn't need to be and angry in situations where a lighter touch might be more effective — but I really admire his persistence in trying to save others despite having no hope that he'll ever achieve salvation himself, and I love that he's managed to hold on to optimism and hope and faith in people despite everything he's seen. I also admire that he's essentially chosen to stand alone: reluctantly working with the devil because he must, but not really on heaven's or hell's side.
Maya is awesome in her stubborn efforts to rebuild her life. I love that she's trying hard not to waste the second chance she's been given, and I really admire her courage in being willing to go to hell early to save someone else. I'd like to see her succeed at creating the life she wants, whether or not that includes Morgan.
I really liked that the show found a way for Maya to find out what Morgan does and stick around afterwards, and I'd love to see more follow-up on what happens after Maya learns the truth, seeing her learn more about what collectors do, or hearing stories about Morgan's past, or just making use of the fact that Maya is the only person Morgan sees regularly who knows the truth. What does it mean for Morgan to have someone he can talk to? What does it mean for Maya to know what's going on? How much does Morgan tell her about his past? Does Maya ever meet any of the other people Morgan has saved? Etc. Gen, UST, and full-out ship fic would all be awesome.
From a ship perspective, Maya and Morgan's relationship tends to run hot and cold, largely due to Morgan pulling away at key moments and confessing his love at the most inconvenient times, like just before pushing the button to send Maya to hell. I'd enjoy seeing something that addresses that. Is it Morgan's attempt to protect Maya from the devil? From himself? Is he not used to the idea yet that he can talk to her without sending her to hell? Is there something else going on? Can they achieve an equal relationship given the way things started? Even if they don't end up together, it would be interesting to see them talk about their relationship.
If you're feeling particularly ambitious, I'd adore seeing someone address one of the many plotlines left dangling after cancellation. Why did the devil choose Morgan in the first place? Why even create collectors given that Morgan's clients seem to end up in hell whether or not he actively sends them there? Why did the devil agreed to let Morgan try to save people? (Morgan keeps insisting to people that the devil always wins. Is the devil somehow winning here too?) What role does heaven play in all of this? Will Morgan ever achieve salvation? Why did the devil want Morgan to take Maya to Europe? What's Gabriel's role in all of this? I'm okay with leaving Maya out of this kind of story if the plot doesn't lend itself to her presence, but if you can find a space for her, that's great too.
Prompts:
* Morgan and Maya finally go on a proper date.
* A birthday or holiday celebration. Perhaps with memories of holidays past.
* Maya convinces a reluctant Morgan to play truth or dare.
* Morgan is temporarily seconded to the side of heaven to play bodyguard.
* How does Morgan get access to the resources for his medical studies? How does he run tests for his experiments? Past or present could work for this.
* How does Morgan fill all those sleepless nights?
* Morgan, a client, the pandemic: How does his client make amends when everyone is in lockdown? (And how familiar must all of this feel to Morgan?)
Return to top
Covert Affairs
Requested Characters: Eyal Lavin, Annie Walker
Option Chosen: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Covert Affairs is a show about Annie Walker, a young woman with a talent for languages who gets recruited to the CIA after a love affairs ends badly and discovers she has an aptitude for the work. Eyal is a Mossad agent, equally competent, who crosses paths with Annie a couple of times a season, appearing in a dozen episodes total. The two of them start off a bit prickly and end as the best of friends, with some excellent sexual tension in between.
Sign-up Request: The first time I watched Covert Affairs, I was all about Annie/Auggie, but a later rewatch won me over to Annie/Eyal. I love their banter, their easy ability to keep up with each other in the field, and the minor, often complementary, differences in how they do things: Eyal's professional ruthlessness vs. Annie's empathy, Eyal's careful planning vs. Annie's tendency to play it by ear. I also really enjoyed Eyal's tendency to take care of Annie, cooking for her and tending to her injuries and generally looking out for her safety, without ever questioning her competence or trying to stop her from doing her job.
I'd love to see how they finally get together, whether through one of the usual tropes — undercover as a couple and it turns real, or a near-miss or health crisis or faked death leads to certain realizations, or they get trapped together at just the right time to build feelings or force a confession of existing feelings — or whether it's more tailored to their individual experiences.
Alternately, jump ahead a bit and show what their life together might look like if they did find a way to be together. Do they both quit and start their own security business? Do they sail off into the sunset on Eyal's boat (with visits back to Israel for Avi)? Do they try to find a way to have it all?
There are some significant obstacles to a romantic relationship between the two of them, most notably that they're in the employ of competing agencies, neither of which would be happy if their agents were discovered to be involved in a serious relationship with a foreign national. Not to mention the possibility that their superiors might decide to leverage their feelings for each other to their own benefit. Feel free to address these issues, set the story at a point when it doesn't matter, or ignore it and leave it for another day.
If you're not in the mood to write shipfic, something that focuses on their friendship and their willingness to do just about anything for each other would be great: a shared mission or a small favour or a secret confessed or a wilderness survival journey or Annie finally visits Eyal's boat. Whatever else you come up with.
Additional DNWs: It probably doesn't need to be said, but I'd prefer to avoid all reference to the attack by Hamas on Israel and related events.
Prompts:
* One of them gets dosed with truth serum while undercover together (or when they run into each other while undercover separately) and the other has to help cover for them to prevent discovery while still completing the mission.
* Someone is targeting Eyal's family, and a mole in Mossad means he can't rely on his agency, so he turns to Annie for help.
* Annie or Eyal is presumed dead on a mission, and later turns up seeking help from the other.
* Major world disaster/apocalypse (alien invasion? major war? an AI takes over?). Annie and Eyal are both survivors. Naturally they find each other.
* Work and/or old enemies invade a date/family time/a holiday celebration/a wedding celebration (their own or someone else's).
* Someone, either one of them or someone they care about, has been poisoned and they have to try to find the cure.
* Held captive together, tending injuries, keeping each other's spirits up, and trying to find a way to escape.
* Circumstances force Annie to introduce Eyal to her (helpfully matchmaking?) sister.
* The morning after an unplanned night together.
* Borrowing from![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
justmarriedexchange, Annie and Eyal get stuck in a time loop, fall in love, and decide to get married in one cycle, just for fun, only to have the time loop abruptly end.
* Alternately, Annie and Eyal get trapped in a time loop where they're racing to prevent a geopolitical catastrophe — or a more personal tragedy.
Return to top
Signora Volpe
Requested Characters: Sylvia Fox, Giovanni Riva
Option Chosen: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Signora Volpe is a cozy British mystery show that first aired last year on Acorn. It features an MI6 agent who gets fed up with the politics of her job, quits, and moves to Italy to reconnect with her sister. Once there, she uses her spy skills to solves crimes, to the combined frustration and admiration of the local Carabinieri captain, Giovanni Riva.
A second season has been confirmed, but there's no air date yet.
Sign-up Request: This is another show about two smart, highly competent people who develop an appreciation for the other's professional skills. I'd love to see how their relationship moves forward, but I'm also interested in learning a little more about who they are and how their pasts have shaped them: case fic, or a quiet evening together, or whispered secrets, or a weekend away, or one asks the other for help.
The show's cozy nature means it's not particularly interested in gritty reality, or at least not more than selectively — see, for example, Sylvia's seemingly endless supply of money and her delightfully decrepit house, with romantically crumbling stone and no signs of mould. I'm perfectly fine with sticking with that tone, only bringing in the darkness you're interested in exploring in the story while blithely ignoring inconvenient realities.
Additional DNWs: For this particular request, I'd rather both requested characters survive. You can kill off other characters if you really want to. (Murder-of-the-week victims and the like are absolutely fine, of course.) Also, given that Giovanni is still technically married, rather than a blanket veto on infidelity between requested characters, I'll just say I'd rather Sylvia and Giovanni not cheat on each other.
Prompts:
* A local disaster leaves Giovanni and Sylvia trapped together, possibly with one injured, trying to survive and get help. Alternately, they're held captive together and have to escape or hold out until rescued.
* Sylvia's long-lost father reappears under suspicious circumstances.
* A weekend trip: romantic, professional, or both.
* Second chances.
* Sylvia is asked to do another favour for her MI6 and Giovanni gets sucked in.
* Does Sylvia actually stay in Italy?
* Samir Hamdani has questions about Sylvia's rather impressive skills.
* Sylvia and Giovanni have another oblique conversation about her former job, perhaps in the context of stories from the past or in the context of her once taking action. I enjoyed how he let her know that he knows she's more than she appears without pushing too hard or expecting her to reveal anything, and I enjoyed that he isn't threatened by her abilities, so something that takes that further, where they both know what the other really means without actually coming out and saying it..
* Working together to get an innocent person out of trouble. Or one of them getting the other out of trouble.
* Stories from the past: Good experiences. Bad experiences. First times. How they ended up where they are. Family secrets. Etc.
* Google says Carabinieri can't be assigned to their home provinces for at least eight years after joining. Where was Giovanni Riva originally from? Was the transfer to Perugia a return home or another new start? Does he have family? Does Sylvia meet any of them?
Return to top
Thank you so much for writing for me! I'm so excited to read what you write.
My letter includes some general likes and dislikes, as well as some prompts I didn't include in my letter, in case you'd like some additional ideas. If it's more than you need, please feel free to skip this and just use my sign-up as a starting point. Also, feel free to borrow a prompt from one fandom for another if you can make it work.
I'm skieswideopen at AO3 as well, and I love treats.
Requested Fandoms: Being Human (US/Canada) | The Collector | Covert Affairs | Signora Volpe
Things I Like:
* Competence. So much love for watching competent characters be competent!
* Secrets coming out, by choice, chance, or necessity.
* Equal partnerships in romantic relationships.
* Brief moments of emotional vulnerability from generally stoic or reserved characters.
* Heroic characters being heroic: doing the right thing, saving people, sacrificing themselves for others, etc.
* Stories that pick up dropped plot threads.
* Stories that explore how characters respond to unexpected situations.
* First times of various kinds (first kiss, first date, first night together, first day on the job, etc.).
* Forced proximity (handcuffed together, snowed in, trapped together in an elevator, etc.).
* Truth serum/in vino veritas/midnight confessions. (See my love of secrets coming out.)
* Undercover as a couple (or spontaneously posing as a couple to avoid detection).
* Post-apocalyptic, trapped-in-the-wilderness or mid-disaster survival scenarios.
* Time loops and dealing with the consequences when the loop ends.
* Heading home for weddings, funerals, high school reunions, holidays, etc. Alternately, family or old friends showing up.
Things I Don't Want:
* AUs that alter the setting, premise, or character backgrounds, unless otherwise noted. However, canon divergence is absolutely fine.
* A/B/O dynamics.
* Lifestyle or 24/7 BDSM.
* Unrequested poly in requested relationships.
* Infidelity in a requested relationship, either the two of them cheating on each other or cheating on someone else in order to be together, unless it occurs in canon. (Infidelity in other contexts is fine.)
* Significant permanent mental or physical injuries to requested characters that don't occur in canon, especially any sort of amputation. (However, killing major characters is fine unless otherwise noted.)
Other Things:
* I'm flexible on both genre and rating: plot-driven, character-driven, action, introspection, casefic, slice of life, gen, romance ... it's all good. So is anything from G to E, though I prefer to avoid PWP stories.
* I'm fine with character death, including main and requested characters, unless otherwise noted.
* Background non-con is fine if it's helpful for the story, but I'd rather it not be the primary focus of the story.
* I'm okay with references to the pandemic.
* I enjoy a good holiday story from time to time, if that's what you feel like writing.
* I generally prefer happy, hopeful, and bittersweet endings to utterly bleak ones.
* I dislike plots that revolve around misunderstandings that could be cleared up with a simple conversation or that hinge on characters making foolish mistakes that they wouldn't make in canon.
Being Human (US/Canada)
Requested Character: Aidan Waite, Kat Neely
Option Chosen: My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)
Being Human (US/Canada) is the North American remake of a UK show involving a vampire, a werewolf all sharing a house. It ran for four seasons, from 2011 to 2014. In Canada, it's currently included with Amazon Prime, but I don't know if they're offering it in other countries.
Sign-up Request: Aidan and Kat were my favourite characters on BHUS and also my favourite couple. As a couple, they were never destined for a happy ending, and I think Kat was absolutely right to break up with Aidan as soon as she learned the truth, but I love them together anyway. I love watching them geek out together over history. I loved their willingness to open up and be vulnerable with each other. I love the moments when they try to protect each other.
Individually, I love that Aidan tries to take care of the people he loves, not just physically but emotionally, and that he uses brains as well as brawn to solve problems. I love that Kat stands up for herself and knows her own worth, and the pride she takes in knowing things.
I would really love to see a little more of Aidan and Kat interacting, either while they're still happily dating, or later on, post-series, with the two of them meeting again after they've broken up. (Obviously the latter would involve selectively editing or otherwise hand-waving away chunks of season 4, which I'm perfectly happy for you to do.)
If Aidan/Kat isn't your thing, I will also happily read a story that focuses on only one of them, so feel free to treat this as an either/or request.
Additional DNWS: Whatever else happens in the story, please don't have Aidan kill Kat, or otherwise contribute to her death (e.g. Kat dying at the hands of one of Aidan's enemies), unless it's at her request. I'd also prefer not to receive Aidan/Bishop.
Shippy prompts:
* More of Aidan and Kat geeking out over history. Maybe Aidan demonstrates a surprisingly detailed knowledge of local history or Kat tries to find out where he gets some of this very specific historical information.
* Meeting Kat's family or her colleagues, or finally going on that trip together.
* Something happens that forces Aidan to reveal to Kat that he can see ghosts, or that magic is real and he knows a little about it, or maybe some physical altercation takes place where he pushes the edge of human physical abilities a little, leading Kat to realize that there's something unusual about him without necessarily jumping to "vampire."
* Aidan and Kat run into each other post-series and end up trapped together — trapped in a broken elevator or held hostage together in a bank or snowed in at the same small inn or whatever — giving them a chance to talk and forcing them to rely on each other.
* Post-series, Kat or someone she knows — one of her students, a friend, a family member — finds themselves in some sort of supernatural trouble involving ghosts or witches or family curses, and Kat reluctantly calls on Aidan because he's the only one she knows who might be able to help.
Solo Prompts for Aidan:
* When and how did Aidan learn so much about how magic works? (Did he date a witch? Befriend one? Find himself in a fight against a coven?)
* How did he first meet Tony DePaulo, the ghost he introduces Sally to?
* What do the other nurses think of Aidan? Where was he living before he moved in with Josh?
* Have there been other instances when Aidan's ability to see ghosts or his other supernatural abilities have made a difference? Maybe in his work as a nurse or as a soldier or maybe a child ghost he decides to help or someone else he saves?
* Holidays Aidan has celebrated over the years.
* What led to him finally stop killing?
* What was life like for him when he was still enmeshed in the vampire community but beginning to be bothered by killing?
* What led Aidan and Bishop to start focusing on blue-collar jobs rather than the high-society approach vampires seem to have preferred until that point?
Solo Prompts for Kat:
* How does Kat process everything Aidan told her? Does she tell anyone? Does she find herself looking for hints that people aren't what they seem? Does she dive in and learn as much as she can in order to protect herself? Or does she try desperately to forget it all?
* Does Kat ever forgive Nora, or reconnect with her?
* If Kat finds out that Aidan died, how does she feel about that? Sad? Relieved? Something more complicated?
* Does anything she learned from Aidan influence her work? Does she change direction entirely?
* Does she ever connect with someone else who also has experience with the supernatural?0
Return to top
The Collector (Canada TV)
Requested Characters: Morgan Pym, Maya Kandinski
Option Chosen: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags; or it may use exceptions I explain in the form
Note: I'm happy to receive a story about Morgan and Maya, or just Morgan.
The Collector is a Canadian TV show about a former monk who spent centuries reluctantly sending people to hell after their ten-year deals expired, but who has since managed to gain permission from the devil to try to save his clients from their fate by helping them make up for the harm they did. I enjoyed it for the historical flashbacks, for the interesting and sometimes troubling worldbuilding, and because Morgan didn't always succeed. Sometimes he saved his client, sometimes he didn't, and you never knew which you were going to get.
Sign-up Request: Morgan can be difficult at times — overly secretive even when he doesn't need to be and angry in situations where a lighter touch might be more effective — but I really admire his persistence in trying to save others despite having no hope that he'll ever achieve salvation himself, and I love that he's managed to hold on to optimism and hope and faith in people despite everything he's seen. I also admire that he's essentially chosen to stand alone: reluctantly working with the devil because he must, but not really on heaven's or hell's side.
Maya is awesome in her stubborn efforts to rebuild her life. I love that she's trying hard not to waste the second chance she's been given, and I really admire her courage in being willing to go to hell early to save someone else. I'd like to see her succeed at creating the life she wants, whether or not that includes Morgan.
I really liked that the show found a way for Maya to find out what Morgan does and stick around afterwards, and I'd love to see more follow-up on what happens after Maya learns the truth, seeing her learn more about what collectors do, or hearing stories about Morgan's past, or just making use of the fact that Maya is the only person Morgan sees regularly who knows the truth. What does it mean for Morgan to have someone he can talk to? What does it mean for Maya to know what's going on? How much does Morgan tell her about his past? Does Maya ever meet any of the other people Morgan has saved? Etc. Gen, UST, and full-out ship fic would all be awesome.
From a ship perspective, Maya and Morgan's relationship tends to run hot and cold, largely due to Morgan pulling away at key moments and confessing his love at the most inconvenient times, like just before pushing the button to send Maya to hell. I'd enjoy seeing something that addresses that. Is it Morgan's attempt to protect Maya from the devil? From himself? Is he not used to the idea yet that he can talk to her without sending her to hell? Is there something else going on? Can they achieve an equal relationship given the way things started? Even if they don't end up together, it would be interesting to see them talk about their relationship.
If you're feeling particularly ambitious, I'd adore seeing someone address one of the many plotlines left dangling after cancellation. Why did the devil choose Morgan in the first place? Why even create collectors given that Morgan's clients seem to end up in hell whether or not he actively sends them there? Why did the devil agreed to let Morgan try to save people? (Morgan keeps insisting to people that the devil always wins. Is the devil somehow winning here too?) What role does heaven play in all of this? Will Morgan ever achieve salvation? Why did the devil want Morgan to take Maya to Europe? What's Gabriel's role in all of this? I'm okay with leaving Maya out of this kind of story if the plot doesn't lend itself to her presence, but if you can find a space for her, that's great too.
Prompts:
* Morgan and Maya finally go on a proper date.
* A birthday or holiday celebration. Perhaps with memories of holidays past.
* Maya convinces a reluctant Morgan to play truth or dare.
* Morgan is temporarily seconded to the side of heaven to play bodyguard.
* How does Morgan get access to the resources for his medical studies? How does he run tests for his experiments? Past or present could work for this.
* How does Morgan fill all those sleepless nights?
* Morgan, a client, the pandemic: How does his client make amends when everyone is in lockdown? (And how familiar must all of this feel to Morgan?)
Return to top
Covert Affairs
Requested Characters: Eyal Lavin, Annie Walker
Option Chosen: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Covert Affairs is a show about Annie Walker, a young woman with a talent for languages who gets recruited to the CIA after a love affairs ends badly and discovers she has an aptitude for the work. Eyal is a Mossad agent, equally competent, who crosses paths with Annie a couple of times a season, appearing in a dozen episodes total. The two of them start off a bit prickly and end as the best of friends, with some excellent sexual tension in between.
Sign-up Request: The first time I watched Covert Affairs, I was all about Annie/Auggie, but a later rewatch won me over to Annie/Eyal. I love their banter, their easy ability to keep up with each other in the field, and the minor, often complementary, differences in how they do things: Eyal's professional ruthlessness vs. Annie's empathy, Eyal's careful planning vs. Annie's tendency to play it by ear. I also really enjoyed Eyal's tendency to take care of Annie, cooking for her and tending to her injuries and generally looking out for her safety, without ever questioning her competence or trying to stop her from doing her job.
I'd love to see how they finally get together, whether through one of the usual tropes — undercover as a couple and it turns real, or a near-miss or health crisis or faked death leads to certain realizations, or they get trapped together at just the right time to build feelings or force a confession of existing feelings — or whether it's more tailored to their individual experiences.
Alternately, jump ahead a bit and show what their life together might look like if they did find a way to be together. Do they both quit and start their own security business? Do they sail off into the sunset on Eyal's boat (with visits back to Israel for Avi)? Do they try to find a way to have it all?
There are some significant obstacles to a romantic relationship between the two of them, most notably that they're in the employ of competing agencies, neither of which would be happy if their agents were discovered to be involved in a serious relationship with a foreign national. Not to mention the possibility that their superiors might decide to leverage their feelings for each other to their own benefit. Feel free to address these issues, set the story at a point when it doesn't matter, or ignore it and leave it for another day.
If you're not in the mood to write shipfic, something that focuses on their friendship and their willingness to do just about anything for each other would be great: a shared mission or a small favour or a secret confessed or a wilderness survival journey or Annie finally visits Eyal's boat. Whatever else you come up with.
Additional DNWs: It probably doesn't need to be said, but I'd prefer to avoid all reference to the attack by Hamas on Israel and related events.
Prompts:
* One of them gets dosed with truth serum while undercover together (or when they run into each other while undercover separately) and the other has to help cover for them to prevent discovery while still completing the mission.
* Someone is targeting Eyal's family, and a mole in Mossad means he can't rely on his agency, so he turns to Annie for help.
* Annie or Eyal is presumed dead on a mission, and later turns up seeking help from the other.
* Major world disaster/apocalypse (alien invasion? major war? an AI takes over?). Annie and Eyal are both survivors. Naturally they find each other.
* Work and/or old enemies invade a date/family time/a holiday celebration/a wedding celebration (their own or someone else's).
* Someone, either one of them or someone they care about, has been poisoned and they have to try to find the cure.
* Held captive together, tending injuries, keeping each other's spirits up, and trying to find a way to escape.
* Circumstances force Annie to introduce Eyal to her (helpfully matchmaking?) sister.
* The morning after an unplanned night together.
* Borrowing from
justmarriedexchange, Annie and Eyal get stuck in a time loop, fall in love, and decide to get married in one cycle, just for fun, only to have the time loop abruptly end.* Alternately, Annie and Eyal get trapped in a time loop where they're racing to prevent a geopolitical catastrophe — or a more personal tragedy.
Return to top
Signora Volpe
Requested Characters: Sylvia Fox, Giovanni Riva
Option Chosen: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags (if 0: any from tag set)
Signora Volpe is a cozy British mystery show that first aired last year on Acorn. It features an MI6 agent who gets fed up with the politics of her job, quits, and moves to Italy to reconnect with her sister. Once there, she uses her spy skills to solves crimes, to the combined frustration and admiration of the local Carabinieri captain, Giovanni Riva.
A second season has been confirmed, but there's no air date yet.
Sign-up Request: This is another show about two smart, highly competent people who develop an appreciation for the other's professional skills. I'd love to see how their relationship moves forward, but I'm also interested in learning a little more about who they are and how their pasts have shaped them: case fic, or a quiet evening together, or whispered secrets, or a weekend away, or one asks the other for help.
The show's cozy nature means it's not particularly interested in gritty reality, or at least not more than selectively — see, for example, Sylvia's seemingly endless supply of money and her delightfully decrepit house, with romantically crumbling stone and no signs of mould. I'm perfectly fine with sticking with that tone, only bringing in the darkness you're interested in exploring in the story while blithely ignoring inconvenient realities.
Additional DNWs: For this particular request, I'd rather both requested characters survive. You can kill off other characters if you really want to. (Murder-of-the-week victims and the like are absolutely fine, of course.) Also, given that Giovanni is still technically married, rather than a blanket veto on infidelity between requested characters, I'll just say I'd rather Sylvia and Giovanni not cheat on each other.
Prompts:
* A local disaster leaves Giovanni and Sylvia trapped together, possibly with one injured, trying to survive and get help. Alternately, they're held captive together and have to escape or hold out until rescued.
* Sylvia's long-lost father reappears under suspicious circumstances.
* A weekend trip: romantic, professional, or both.
* Second chances.
* Sylvia is asked to do another favour for her MI6 and Giovanni gets sucked in.
* Does Sylvia actually stay in Italy?
* Samir Hamdani has questions about Sylvia's rather impressive skills.
* Sylvia and Giovanni have another oblique conversation about her former job, perhaps in the context of stories from the past or in the context of her once taking action. I enjoyed how he let her know that he knows she's more than she appears without pushing too hard or expecting her to reveal anything, and I enjoyed that he isn't threatened by her abilities, so something that takes that further, where they both know what the other really means without actually coming out and saying it..
* Working together to get an innocent person out of trouble. Or one of them getting the other out of trouble.
* Stories from the past: Good experiences. Bad experiences. First times. How they ended up where they are. Family secrets. Etc.
* Google says Carabinieri can't be assigned to their home provinces for at least eight years after joining. Where was Giovanni Riva originally from? Was the transfer to Perugia a return home or another new start? Does he have family? Does Sylvia meet any of them?
Return to top