Letter to shipswap author/pinch hitters/treaters 2014

[merryghoul]

This letter's different this year, because I've decided to request a few new fandoms and pairings from last year. But fear not: other than the things I absolutely do not want, I'm easy to please.


I'll start off with the things I don't want. My huge pet peeve is character bashing. That's the number one thing that, if I sense it in a fic or in a fic summary, I'll backbutton out of the fic immediately. I like most of the characters in my fandoms, and I would be disappointed if other characters are being bashed to trump up the ships I'm requesting or other characters. Feel free to not include characters in your fic if you don't like them in the fandom you're writing for.

Other things I don't want in fic: A/B/O, vomitplay, crossovers (especially crossovers with fandoms not mentioned in this letter) and incest.

Another note: I would be disappointed if I received a fic that isn't complete (in this case, it meets the minimum word limit, but parts of it are missing) and/or a fic with glaring SPAG errors. I'm not going to name names, but I received a fic like that last year. I was polite about it, but I wasn't too pleased with the fic. So make sure you have a lot of time to get any corrections and additions in before the deadline, please.

I do like the following in fic: AUs of all sorts, hurt/comfort, casefic, fluff, porn (with or without a plot), curtain fic, and road trip/vacation fics. But if you can't work with any of my prompts or this list of things I like in fic, I'll be happy to read anything you write, as long as it doesn't include what I dislike in fic.



This year, my requests in the following fandoms: Burn Notice, Elementary, Luther, Orphan Black, Sleepy Hollow and Suits.

Burn Notice
Fiona Glenanne/Jesse Porter, Sam Axe/Fiona Glenanne

I have to admit it: Fiona's my bicycle for this fandom. And while I like her relationship with Michael, I also felt her relationships with Jesse and Sam were pretty close to being romantic, even if Sam and Jesse weren't The Ones she was destined to be with in canon (alas).

I've always liked how Sam and Fiona started out being bitter enemies at the start of the show to becoming close friends. I always like linking to this manifesto whenever I think of Sam and Fiona, because I feel that manifesto still explains how I feel about Sam and Fiona better than I ever could. Although I do think that is missing a visual representation of one of their interactions, as giffed by my friend hollymarchoias:



So yeah.

Speaking of hollymarchoias, she did a fanmix for Fiona/Jesse, and I agree with her: Fiona and Jesse have a shared love of justice and revenge. It's easy to see why Jesse fell in love with her in canon before he realized Fiona was more in love with Michael. Poor guy.

I don't mind anything you write with either pairing. They could be working on a job, hanging out together, actually doing something relaxing (or at least relaxing to Fiona). I only crave more interaction between Fiona and her boys.

Elementary
Sherlock Holmes/Irene Adler | Jamie Moriarty, Irene Adler | Jamie Moriarty/Joan Watson

In regards to Adler/Moriarty: The two of them being the same person is not a spoiler any more in my opinion. The reveal was made several episodes ago in the first season, and in the United States, the show is well into its second season. (I only wish the tag in this exchange's set reflected this the way the tags for Yuletide reflected this.)

Anyway, I feel like Moriarty is both connected to Sherlock and Joan on an intellectual level, but in different ways. Her relationship with Sherlock is one where she's constantly trying to outsmart him while hiding some personal details about herself (like her daughter). And even when Sherlock knows Moriarty's his enemy, he still has some feelings for her; even after everything she put him through, there's a part of him that still cares for her. On the other hand, her relationship with Joan is obsessive, like she's jealous that Watson's spending more time with Sherlock than she currently is (in canon), or she's really fixated on Watson and she can't get Watson out of her head.

You're not obligated to stay with this idea, but I imagine Moriarty setting up some elaborate crime for Sherlock (pretending to be Irene or after he knows she's Moriarty) or Joan as an attempt to woo them. I imagine while Moriarty was pretending to be Irene, she was also hiding a lot of secrets, like her crime ring and her daughter, and that could've caused relationship problems between her and Sherlock. But I'll be happy with whatever you can come up with if you can't work with this idea.

Luther
John Luther/Alice Morgan

I adore John and Alice's bond. Intellectually, they're a match for each other, and both of them know the other better than they know themselves. Although he's a detective and she's a psychopath, yeah.

I'd like post-canon adventures with Alice and John. I imagine they went away from London and Alice introduced him to her vagabond life, but maybe that's not the case. Maybe they stayed in London and are quietly hiding out from the authorities. Maybe Alice did get arrested for her crimes somewhere; that would be most inconvenient. If you have your own ideas for this idea, I'm excited to read about them! But if you don't want to write post-canon adventures with Alice and John and you'd like to write something else, I'm totally happy with that.

Orphan Black
Beth Childs/Alison Hendrix

Before Beth's death, I feel Beth taught Sarah how to stand up for herself, even as the two of them were spiraling into depression and drug and alcohol abuse. It's a relationship that, I feel, was a good relationship as well as a tragic one at the same time.

With Alison/Beth, I'd love to see a snippet of their relationship before Beth died, like Beth showing Alison how to use a gun or even needing to do something away from Paul, convincing Alison to get away from Donnie and her kids. Fix-it fic is fine for this pairing, if you want to go in that direction instead.

Sleepy Hollow
Frank Irving/Jenny Mills, Ichabod Crane/Katrina Crane

I feel the show has been teasing a potential relationship between Frank and Jenny, but because of the crazy plot and the focus on Ichabod and family, we haven't really seen a lot of these two interact. They certainly had a connection when Cynthia and Macy came to visit him at the station, and Jenny likes Macy. If you can write it, I'd love to see what would happen if the two of them would have a date--I feel like it would be very amusing. If you can't, or you have another idea instead, I'd love to read it. Changing canon (e.g. having Jenny stay at Abbie's or even Ichabod's instead of the mental hospital) or writing future!fic here is fine.

Speaking of crazy plots, there hasn't been a focus on Ichabod and Katrina's relationship. The show informs us he's deeply in love with her, and there was even a mention of Katrina going to Europe to seek a cure for the hex she put Ichabod and Headless under, but it hasn't actually taken a breather to explore their relationship. Anything you can come up with for Ichabod and Katrina would be great. But I do have some ideas, if you'd rather work with them: how about that one time when Ichabod risked his life to get Katrina some sort of gift? Or when Katrina had to use her powers to get Ichabod out of some sort of fix? Once again, anything's great with those two.

Suits
Donna Paulsen/Rachel Zane, Mike Ross/Rachel Zane

Donna and Rachel! I feel their relationship borders very, very close to being romantic. They hit it off when Rachel first joined what was Pearson Hardman at the time. Their relationship has had some ups and downs, but they're still friends. And their actors have amazing chemistry. Anything you can come up with these two would be great. You're not bound by these scenarios, but I've often wondered about their shenanigans the show hasn't shown us, like a slow day at Pearson [Whatever], a business trip at the firm's expense, a quiet night in, a date where Harriet Specter and Michelle Ross con some guys into thinking they're lawyers, even tropey fandom AUs like coffee shop and fandom AUs (e.g. they're both Trekkies) where Rachel and Donna are the focus. (Those were all separate ideas, by the way. You don't have to jam every idea into a fic. That would be bad.) But like I said, I only want more fic for these two, so whatever you write for those two will be awesome.

And Mike/Rachel! The two of them together are hot. I might be alone in saying this, but they have the sexiest scenes on Suits at the moment. The hate!sex scene in the file room? Their opening scene in the third season opener, where they're naked in bed? So hot. Of course, these two aren't without their spats in canon as well, but they've been able to make compromises. A fic where the two of them are very close to blowing their secret romance in the office is something I'd like to read, but if you can't write that, whatever you write for me will be great.


If you're interested in looking to see what I've written and other things I've made public on the internet, I'm on AO3 (vmarigoldabrams, but I've signed up as merryghoul [vmarigoldabrams], and that should come up if you're looking for me there), LJ (merryghoul), Dreamwidth (merryghoul) and Pinboard (merryghoul). (Note: I haven't written for Elementary. Yet. But I have written things for the other fandoms I've requested.) I have a Tumblr (merryghoul), but to be honest, I'm not on it much, and I usually reblog fannish things that catch my eye instead of, say, actively looking for Tumblr fic-writing challenges to get involved in.

Thanks for writing for me. I'm sure what you'll write for me will be awesome!