angstblanket1

[angstblanket1]

Dear Yuletide Writer 2024,

Thank you for writing for me or considering writing for me! Treats are enabled. Some fandoms/prompts may be more lengthy than others or different from last year- please try not to read too much into it. This is a product of many factors, but not my enthusiasm! I will be thrilled by a gift for any of these fandoms, whether you’re inspired by what I write here or whether I get to read a take on these fandoms completely different than anything I would have thought of myself!

General likes:

things that experiment with the possibilities of the medium! Whether the gradual realization of the framing device in The Strange Case of Starship Iris, or The Bletchley Circle and The Queen’s Gambit turning internal thought processes into something that is focused on (creatively, gorgeously, in a way that builds tension) instead of invisible. So for fic, anything that plays with the (change in) medium is super exciting to me- from 5+1 to epistolary to Interactive Fiction to whatever weird formatting you want to experiment with.

Using that to bring us inside the uniqueness of a character’s thought process

characters or authors showing off their specialized knowledge or overanalysis for absolutely any topic

worldbuilding

bittersweet

angst

forced to make difficult choices that have no get-out-of-jail-free, best-of-both-worlds escape hatch

loyalty- against all odds, or attempted loyalty that just isn’t enough

self-sacrifice

characters who enjoy being around each other (in their own idiosyncratic way)

Relationships that are non-monogamous, shifting, complex, difficult to define, involve competing needs, require negotiation, that are platonic yet extremely important to the people involved in them, that revolve around shared interests, that are extremely strong

characters who are messed up, abrasive, solitary, and/or super smart

making yourself better

making the world better

teamwork

team as family

The Bletchley Circle- Any (Jean McBrian, Lucy Davis, Millie Harcourt, Susan Gray)

Why I love it: Smart ladies! Who specialize in math! Well-defined characters with different strengths and ways of coping with a sexist society! Beautiful cinematography! Depicting internal thought processes is a challenge for visual mediums, so I love how the show depicts it as non-instantaneous, challenging, and also gorgeous. Teamwork!

Other notes: My gift may feature any characters from the tag set

Feel free to draw from the San Francisco spinoff too, if you’ve seen it (I have).

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore (canon-typical crimes fine, just not detailed descriptions of injuries), character bashing (characters can be products of their time and have the universal trait of thinking of themselves first without being 1-dimensional antagonists)

Fic ideas: I’d love a fic focusing on any combination of 1, 2, 3, or 4 of these ladies, as a character study, friendship and/or romantic and/or sexual relationship. Some ideas:

A character’s relationship to her skills, talents, the work she does.

Bletchley era: snapshot of the work they’re doing.

Bletchley era: what kinds of relationships are going on, when they’re able to visit each other more freely?

Bletchley era: did they ever meet Joan Clarke, or Alan Turing?

Millie seems to take Susan’s decision to get married instead of travelling the world very personally. Were they in a relationship at Bletchley? What happened?

How did Susan end up deciding to marry Timothy? Does she decide to put more effort into repairing her marriage, or not? Does she succeed? Feel free to diverge before their decision to move away, or to elaborate on it.

The Queen's Gambit- Beth Harmon

Why I love it: It keeps enough of the troubled genius trope to be fun for those of us who enjoy it, while deconstructing it enough to improve on it. She's a girl! Which impacts her story without being central to it! Her character struggles are a mix of inherent and a result of her experiences! She's talented, but does better when she admits she has to practice the parts that are less fun to her! And also when she learns to accept help! And she not only realizes drugs and madness are extraneous to her success, she does even better without them!

Other notes: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags; or it may use exceptions I explain in the form: I have listed prompts for the backstories of Alma, Annette, and Alice Harmon- if you want to focus on one of these characters, using my prompt or not, I don’t expect Beth to also be a main focus.

The extent of my chess knowledge is the basic rules and a vague idea of the tournament system. Trust me, I will not know if you are fudging the details.

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing, Beth/Borgov

Fic ideas:

tell me more about Annette Packer, that other girl at her first tournament? It must take a different type of courage to play against guys because you want to and should be allowed to and you’re just as good as them, instead of being able to prove that you’re superior.

tell me more about Alma? It sounds like she was also very good at something (piano), and that she had to give it up, and that that cost her.

Alice Harmon is clearly also a talented woman who's been through some stuff. What made her into the person we see?

was being banned from playing chess the extent of her punishment for the pill incident? How did she cope?

Beth clearly spends a lot of time alone reading chess books, while Jolene clearly has other friends to fill her time… what makes their bond special compared to the other girls at the orphanage?

Beth and Mr. Shaibel are both very much not people people; I adore their special friendship. Maybe fill in some gaps about their thoughts during their fight? Why didn't Beth pay back the $10?

for her chess friends/sometimes-lovers, I love domesticity, bonding over the shared love of the game, and the messiness of hurting each other without meaning to. More in-between moments of studying? Post canon or in an AU, does one of the canon pairings make it work? Or does Beth have more messy, complicated relationships like the young adult she is?

It’s a shame Beth’s one same-sex encounter directly preceded a disastrous game, but hey, she’s perfectly capable of making bad decisions without encouragement. I’d like to see Beth spending more time in Paris or globetrotting with Cleo, having a fun but dysfunctional time getting involved in her polyamorous bohemian lifestyle- if you can make it a function of these particular characters in this particular time of their lives rather than an inherently dysfunctional choice, even better.

Now that Beth is at the top of the chess world at barely 20… what does she do next? How does she stay sober? Or does she fall off the wagon a few more times?

This canon is ripe for a 5+1 or something with different character’s perspectives on themes like gender, chess, genius, and/or madness. Don’t worry, I won’t be put of if you go hard on stuff like this.

Just doing something fun with formatting to show us inside her head!

I saw a suggestion that characters and events could be metaphors for chess pieces or moves, and: yes, please! Don't worry, I'm not a lit professor or a chess player, I'll eat up whatever halfway plausible ideas you come up with.

The Strange Case of Starship Iris- Arkady Patel, Sana Tripathi, Violet Liu

Why I love it: Complex characters! Who are super important to each other! And who work together! On the work of making the universe a better place! With great world building about what differences there would and wouldn't be between different civilizations! Linguistics is key to unravelling the plot multiple times!

Other notes: My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)- I'd equally enjoy a fic about the whole S1 gang, or any subset!

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing

Fic ideas: 

Everyone has such tantalizing backstories- I want all the details.

More cultural comparisons. Do the humans learn about a Dwarnian culture different from Krejjh’s? Does the nanobot swarm struggle to understand the concept? What's the story behind fish bullying?

Arkady- being gruff and not touchy-feely, getting embarrassed with Violet

Sana- The stress of feeling responsible for everyone, does she find other “comfort out there”? Arkady/Sana/Violet?

Violet- fighting through the fear, getting embarrassed with Arkady

Brian- How did he get from grad student to criminal underworld? What else does he uncover about aliens through linguistics?

Krejjh- cultural differences/similarities, being cute with Brian

How did Arkady & Sana become best friends?

Arkady & Violet are so different, what do they like about each other? Missing scenes in their developing romance?

Just the crew hanging out and enjoying each others' company. Maybe they solve a manageable problem, or celebrate a 22nd century holiday.

Alternately, putting them in dangerous situations where they have to worry about each other and protect each other.

[angstblanket1]

Dear Yuletide Writer 2023,

Thank you for writing for me or considering writing for me! Treats are enabled. Some fandoms/prompts may be more lengthy than others or different from last year- please try not to read too much into it. This is a product of many factors, but not my enthusiasm! I will be thrilled by a gift for any of these fandoms, whether you’re inspired by what I write here or whether I get to read a take on these fandoms completely different than anything I would have thought of myself!

General likes:

things that experiment with the possibilities of the medium! Whether the gradual realization of the framing device in The Strange Case of Starship Iris, or The Bletchley Circle and The Queen’s Gambit turning internal thought processes into something that is focused on (creatively, gorgeously, in a way that builds tension) instead of invisible. So for fic, anything that plays with the (change in) medium is super exciting to me- from 5+1 to epistolary to Interactive Fiction to whatever weird formatting you want to experiment with.

Using that to bring us inside the uniqueness of a character’s though process

characters or authors showing off their specialized knowledge or overanalysis for absolutely any topic

worldbuilding

bittersweet

angst

forced to make difficult choices that have no get-out-of-jail-free, best-of-both-worlds escape hatch

loyalty- against all odds, or attempted loyalty that just isn’t enough

self-sacrifice

characters who enjoy being around each other (in their own idiosyncratic way)

Relationships that are non-monogamous, shifting, complex, difficult to define, involve competing needs, require negotiation, that are platonic yet extremely important to the people involved in them, that revolve around shared interests, that are extremely strong

characters who are messed up, abrasive, solitary, and/or super smart

making yourself better

making the world better

teamwork

team as family

The Bletchley Circle- Any (Jean McBrian, Lucy Davis, Millie Harcourt, Susan Gray)

Why I love it: Smart ladies! Who specialize in math! Well-defined characters with different strengths and ways of coping with a sexist society! Beautiful cinematography! Depicting internal thought processes is a challenge for visual mediums, so I love how the show depicts it as non-instantaneous, challenging, and also gorgeous. Teamwork!

Other notes: My gift may feature any characters from the tag set

Feel free to draw from the San Francisco spinoff too, if you’ve seen it (I have).

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore (canon-typical crimes fine, just not detailed descriptions of injuries), character bashing (characters can be products of their time and have the universal trait of thinking of themselves first without being 1-dimensional antagonists)

Fic ideas: I’d love a fic focusing on any combination of 1, 2, 3, or 4 of these ladies, as a character study, friendship and/or romantic and/or sexual relationship. Some ideas:

A character’s relationship to her skills, talents, the work she does.

Bletchley era: snapshot of the work they’re doing.

Bletchley era: what kinds of relationships are going on, when they’re able to visit each other more freely?

Bletchley era: did they ever meet Joan Clarke, or Alan Turing?

Millie seems to take Susan’s decision to get married instead of travelling the world very personally. Were they in a relationship at Bletchley? What happened?

How did Susan end up deciding to marry Timothy? Does she decide to put more effort into repairing her marriage, or not? Does she succeed? Feel free to diverge before their decision to move away, or to elaborate on it.

The Queen's Gambit- Beth Harmon

Why I love it: It keeps enough of the troubled genius trope to be fun for those of us who enjoy it, while deconstructing it enough to improve on it. She's a girl! Which impacts her story without being central to it! Her character struggles are a mix of inherent and a result of her experiences! She's talented, but does better when she admits she has to practice the parts that are less fun to her! And also when she learns to accept help! And she not only realizes drugs and madness are extraneous to her success, she does even better without them!

Other notes: My gift must feature all of my chosen character tags; or it may use exceptions I explain in the form: I have listed prompts for the backstories of Alma, Annette, and Alice Harmon- if you want to focus on one of these characters, using my prompt or not, I don’t expect Beth to also be a main focus.

The extent of my chess knowledge is the basic rules and a vague idea of the tournament system. Trust me, I will not know if you are fudging the details.

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing, Beth/Borgov

Fic ideas:

tell me more about Annette Packer, that other girl at her first tournament? It must take a different type of courage to play against guys because you want to and should be allowed to and you’re just as good as them, instead of being able to prove that you’re superior.

tell me more about Alma? It sounds like she was also very good at something (piano), and that she had to give it up, and that that cost her.

Alice Harmon is clearly also a talented woman who's been through some stuff. What made her into the person we see?

was being banned from playing chess the extent of her punishment for the pill incident? How did she cope?

Beth clearly spends a lot of time alone reading chess books, while Jolene clearly has other friends to fill her time… what makes their bond special compared to the other girls at the orphanage?

Beth and Mr. Shaibel are both very much not people people; I adore their special friendship. Maybe fill in some gaps about their thoughts during their fight? Why didn't Beth pay back the $10?

for her chess friends/sometimes-lovers, I love domesticity, bonding over the shared love of the game, and the messiness of hurting each other without meaning to. More in-between moments of studying? Post canon or in an AU, does one of the canon pairings make it work? Or does Beth have more messy, complicated relationships like the young adult she is?

It’s a shame Beth’s one same-sex encounter directly preceded a disastrous game, but hey, she’s perfectly capable of making bad decisions without encouragement. I’d like to see Beth spending more time in Paris or globetrotting with Cleo, having a fun but dysfunctional time getting involved in her polyamorous bohemian lifestyle- if you can make it a function of these particular characters in this particular time of their lives rather than an inherently dysfunctional choice, even better.

Now that Beth is at the top of the chess world at barely 20… what does she do next? How does she stay sober? Or does she fall off the wagon a few more times?

This canon is ripe for a 5+1 or something with different character’s perspectives on themes like gender, chess, genius, and/or madness. Don’t worry, I won’t be put of if you go hard on stuff like this.

Just doing something fun with formatting to show us inside her head!

I saw a suggestion that characters and events could be metaphors for chess pieces or moves, and: yes, please! Don't worry, I'm not a lit professor or a chess player, I'll eat up whatever halfway plausible ideas you come up with.

The Strange Case of Starship Iris- Arkady Patel, Sana Tripathi, Violet Liu

Why I love it: Complex characters! Who are super important to each other! And who work together! On the work of making the universe a better place! With great world building about what differences there would and wouldn't be between different civilizations! Linguistics is key to unravelling the plot multiple times!

Other notes: My gift must feature one or more of my chosen character tags (giver's choice)- I'd equally enjoy a fic about the whole S1 gang, or any subset!

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing

Fic ideas: 

Everyone has such tantalizing backstories- I want all the details.

More cultural comparisons. Do the humans learn about a Dwarnian culture different from Krejjh’s? Does the nanobot swarm struggle to understand the concept? What's the story behind fish bullying?

Arkady- being gruff and not touchy-feely, getting embarrassed with Violet

Sana- The stress of feeling responsible for everyone, does she find other “comfort out there”? Arkady/Sana/Violet?

Violet- fighting through the fear, getting embarrassed with Arkady

Brian- How did he get from grad student to criminal underworld? What else does he uncover about aliens through linguistics?

Krejjh- cultural differences/similarities, being cute with Brian

How did Arkady & Sana become best friends?

Just the crew hanging out and enjoying each others' company. Maybe they solve a manageable problem, or celebrate a 22nd century holiday.

Alternately, putting them in dangerous situations where they have to worry about each other and protect each other.

[angstblanket1]

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you for writing for me or considering writing for me! Treats are enabled. Some fandoms/prompts may be more lengthy than others or different from last year- please try not to read too much into it. This is a product of many factors, but not my enthusiasm! I will be thrilled by a gift for any of these fandoms, whether you’re inspired by what I write here or whether I get to read a take on these fandoms completely different than anything I would have thought of myself!

General likes:

things that experiment with the possibilities of the medium! Whether The Good Place tricking you into dismissing demonic manipulation as classic sitcom coincidences, the gradual realization of the framing device in The Strange Case of Starship Iris, or The Bletchley Circle and The Queen’s Gambit turning internal thought processes into something that is focused on (creatively, gorgeously, in a way that builds tension) instead of invisible. So for fic, anything that plays with the (change in) medium is super exciting to me- from 5+1 to epistolary to Interactive Fiction to whatever weird formatting you want to experiment with.

Using that to bring us inside the uniqueness of a character’s though process

characters or authors showing off their specialized knowledge or overanalysis for absolutely any topic

worldbuilding

bittersweet

angst

forced to make difficult choices that have no get-out-of-jail-free, best-of-both-worlds escape hatch

loyalty- against all odds, or attempted loyalty that just isn’t enough

self-sacrifice

characters who enjoy being around each other (in their own idiosyncratic way)

Relationships that are non-monogamous, shifting, complex, difficult to define, involve competing needs, require negotiation, that are platonic yet extremely important to the people involved in them, that revolve around shared interests, that are extremely strong

characters who are messed up, abrasive, solitary, and/or super smart

making yourself better

making the world better

teamwork

team as family

The Bletchley Circle- any (Joan, Millie, Lucy, Susan)

Why I love it: Smart ladies! Who specialize in math! Well-defined characters with different strengths and ways of coping with a sexist society! Beautiful cinematography! Depicting internal thought processes is a challenge for visual mediums, so I love how the show depicts it as non-instantaneous, challenging, and also gorgeous. Teamwork!

Other notes: I’d be equally thrilled by a focus on all of these ladies, or any subset!

Feel free to draw from the San Francisco spinoff too, if you’ve seen it (I have).

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore (canon-typical crimes fine, just not detailed descriptions of injuries), character bashing (characters can be products of their time and have the universal trait of thinking of themselves first without being 1-dimensional antagonists)

Fic ideas: I’d love a fic focusing on any combination of 1, 2, 3, or 4 of these ladies, as a character study, friendship and/or romantic and/or sexual relationship. Some ideas:

A character’s relationship to her skills, talents, the work she does.

Bletchley era: snapshot of the work they’re doing.

Bletchley era: what kinds of relationships are going on, when they’re able to visit each other more freely?

Bletchley era: did they ever meet Joan Clarke, or Alan Turing?

Millie seems to take Susan’s decision to get married instead of travelling the world very personally. Were they in a relationship at Bletchley? What happened?

How did Susan end up deciding to marry Timothy? Does she decide to put more effort into repairing her marriage, or not? Does she succeed? Feel free to diverge before their decision to move away, or to elaborate on it.

The Good Place- Janet

Why I love it: A sitcom with heart, something to say, and fantasy worldbuilding! The ridiculous love polygon in 1x10 went right to my id, as did the self-sacrificial argument in 1x13!

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing, soulmates are real (demons pretending they are is fine)

Other: I would equally enjoy fic focused on Janet or the whole gang together!

Fic ideas: 

We hear a lot about what Janet’s not- not a robot, not a girl- but what exactly is a Janet?

Janet may very well want to continue doing the same job she always has by the time everyone else is moving on to their next phase of existence in the universe, but it bothers me that no one ever asked what she wanted. So, what does she want?

what does a Janet POV fic look like?

Tell me more about how the afterlife works! The bureaucracy? The abilities and limitations of immortal beings?

What happened during the other reboots? With some of the ridiculous glimpses we got, how was that situation explained, and how long did it take to figure it out?

angsty h/c where they end up in the real bad place?

There's no way the majority of the squad just so happens to pair off into seemingly-heterosexual monogamous pairs for the rest of eternity, right? Even if they have their favourite person who will always come first, I'm sure they hook up with other people they met during any stage of their afterlife for a few Jeremy Bearimys. What are some of those relationships like?

The Queen's Gambit- Beth

Why I love it: It keeps enough of the troubled genius trope to be fun for those of us who enjoy it, while deconstructing it enough to improve on it. She's a girl! Which impacts her story without being central to it! Her character struggles are a mix of inherent and a result of her experiences! She's talented, but does better when she admits she has to practice the parts that are less fun to her! And also when she learns to accept help! And she realizes drugs and madness aren’t only extraneous to her success, she does even better without them!

Other notes: I have provided prompts for the backstories of Alma, Annette Parker, and Beth’s bio mom- if you want to focus on one of these characters, using my prompt or not, I don’t expect Beth to also be a main focus.

The extent of my chess knowledge is the basic rules and a vague idea of the tournament system. Trust me, I will not know if you are fudging the details.

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing, Beth/Borgov

Fic ideas:

tell me more about Annette Parker, that other girl at her first tournament? It must take a different type of courage to play against guys because you want to and should be allowed to and you’re just as good as them, instead of being able to prove that you’re superior.

tell me more about Alma? It sounds like she was also very good at something (piano), and that she had to give it up, and that that cost her.

her bio mom is clearly also a talented woman who's been through some stuff. What made her into the person we see?

was being banned from playing chess the extent of her punishment for the pill incident? How did she cope?

Beth clearly spends a lot of time alone reading chess books, while Jolene clearly has other friends to fill her time… what makes their bond special compared to the other girls at the orphanage?

Beth and Mr. Shaibel are both very much not people people; I adore their special friendship. Maybe fill in some gaps about their thoughts during their fight? Why didn't Beth pay back the $10?

for her chess friends/sometimes-lovers, I love domesticity, bonding over the shared love of the game, and the messiness of hurting each other without meaning to. More in-between moments of studying? Post canon or in an AU, does one of the canon pairings make it work? Or does Beth have more messy, complicated relationships like the young adult she is?

It’s a shame Beth’s one same-sex encounter directly preceded a disastrous game, but hey, she’s perfectly capable of making bad decisions without encouragement. I’d like to see Beth spending more time in Paris or globetrotting with Cleo, having a fun but dysfunctional time getting involved in her polyamorous bohemian lifestyle- if you can make it a function of these particular characters in this particular time of their lives rather than an inherently dysfunctional choice, even better.

Now that Beth is at the top of the chess world at barely 20… what does she do next? How does she stay sober? Or does she fall off the wagon a few more times?

This canon is ripe for a 5+1 or something with different character’s perspectives on themes like gender, chess, genius, and/or madness. Don’t worry, I won’t be put of if you go hard on stuff like this.

Just doing something fun with formatting to show us inside her head!

I saw a suggestion that characters and events could be metaphors for chess pieces or moves, and: yes, please! Don't worry, I'm not a lit professor or a chess player, I'll eat up whatever halfway plausible ideas you come up with.

The Strange Case of Starship Iris- Arkady, Brian, Sana, Violet

Why I love it: Complex characters! Who are super important to each other! And who work together! On the work of making the universe a better place! With great world building about what differences there would and wouldn't be between different civilizations! Linguistics is key to unravelling the plot multiple times!

Other notes: You can treat this as an OR request- I'd equally enjoy a fic about the whole S1 gang, or any subset (including Krejjh)!

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing

Fic ideas: 

Everyone has such tantalizing backstories- I want all the details.

More cultural comparisons. Do the humans learn about a Dwarnian culture different from Krejjh’s? Does the nanobot swarm struggle to understand the concept? What's the story behind fish bullying?

Arkady- being gruff and not touchy-feely, getting embarrassed with Violet

Brian- How did he get from grad student to criminal underworld? What else does he uncover about aliens through linguistics?

Sana- The stress of feeling responsible for everyone, does she find other “comfort out there”?

Violet- fighting through the fear, getting embarrassed with Arkady

Krejjh- cultural differences/similarities, being cute with Brian

How did Arkady & Sana become best friends?

Just the crew hanging out and enjoying each others' company. Maybe they solve a manageable problem, or celebrate a 22nd century holiday.

Alternately, putting them in dangerous situations where they have to worry about each other and protect each other.

[angstblanket1]

Dear Yuletider,

Some fandoms/prompts may be more lengthy than others- please don’t try to read too much into it. This is a product of many factors, but not my enthusiasm! I will be thrilled by a gift for any of these fandoms, whether you’re inspired by what I write here or whether I get to read a take on these fandoms completely different than anything I would have thought of!

General likes:

So, looking at the list of fandoms I requested, there’s a lot of overlap between what I love about them. Give me a character who is

female

messed up

solitary

abrasive

and/or super smart

And give her a story that’s ultimately hopeful even though it shows, instead of skipping over, the fact that it’s really hard but ultimately worthwhile work to

become a better version of yourself

exist in an unjust world

change an unjust world

and/or connect with other people

So yeah… anything that has more of any of that, or of the things listed under fandom-specific “why I love it”, will thrill me.

Less thematically connected list of miscellaneous bulletproof likes:

things that experiment with the possibilities of the medium! Whether it’s Fleabag’s camera asides, The Good Place tricking you into dismissing demonic manipulation as classic sitcom coincidences, or The Bletchley Circle and The Queen’s Gambit turning internal thought processes into something that is focused on (creatively, gorgeously, in a way that builds tension) instead of invisible. So for fic, anything that plays with the (change in) medium is super exciting to me- from 5+1 to epistolary to Interactive Fiction to whatever weird formatting you want to experiment with.

Using that to bring us inside the uniqueness of a character’s though process

bittersweet

characters or authors showing off their specialized knowledge or overanalysis for absolutely any topic

worldbuilding

forced to make difficult choices that have no get-out-of-jail-free, best-of-both-worlds escape hatch

loyalty- against all odds, or attempted loyalty that just isn’t enough

characters who enjoy being around each other (in their own idiosyncratic way)

Relationships that are non-monogamous, shifting, complex, difficult to define, involve competing needs, require negotiation, that are platonic yet extremely important to the people involved in them, that revolve around shared interests

teamwork

The Bletchley Circle- any (Joan, Millie, Lucy, Susan)

Why I love it: Smart ladies! Who specialize in math! Well-defined characters with different strengths and ways of coping with a sexist society! Beautiful cinematography! Depicting internal thought processes is a challenge for visual mediums, so I love how the show depicts it as non-instantaneous, challenging, and also gorgeous. Teamwork!

Other notes: I’d be equally thrilled by a focus on all of these ladies, or any subset!

Feel free to draw from the San Francisco spinoff too, if you’ve seen it (I have).

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore (canon-typical crimes fine, just not detailed descriptions of injuries), character bashing (characters can be products of their time and have the universal trait of thinking of themselves first without being1-dimensional antagonists)

Fic ideas: I’d love a fic focusing on any combination of 1, 2, 3, or 4 of these ladies, as a character study, friendship and/or romantic and/or sexual relationship. Some ideas:

A character’s relationship to her skills, talents, the work she does.

Bletchley era: snapshot of the work they’re doing.

Bletchley era: what kinds of relationships are going on, when they’re able to visit each other more freely?

Bletchley era: did they ever meet Joan Clarke, or Alan Turing?

Millie seems to take Susan’s decision to get married instead of travelling the world very personally. Were they in a relationship at Bletchley? What happened?

How did Susan end up deciding to marry Timothy? Does she decide to put more effort into repairing her marriage, or not? Does she succeed? Feel free to diverge before their decision to move away, or to elaborate on it.

Fleabag- Fleabag

Why I love it: A deeply flawed and damaged woman, who doesn’t necessarily see a need to change, but ends up in a better place anyway.

Other notes:

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing (everyone’s terrible, but let’s not dwell on making them into 1-dimensional antagonists), Fleabag ending the story in a romantic relationship that’s implied to continue indefinitely

Fic ideas:

Fleabag-centric: How would you convey the series’ stylistic choices in prose? Or, how would you use completely different techniques to get us inside her head?

Fleabag-centric: Deciding to be a person is hard, but ultimately worth it. Why?

Fleabag/the Priest: the happy moments in something that can’t last forever

Fleabag/the Priest: post-canon, learning to cope

Fleabag & Claire: Whereas Fleabag’s relationship with The Priest and with the Best Woman in Business show that sometimes love and/or desire aren’t enough to make something work, her relationship with Claire is about how some people will always be part of you, even if saying you outright like them doesn’t seem quite accurate. Was, or will, their relationship ever be better? Or is the love/hate dynamic just who they are?

Fleabag & her dad: ditto

Fleabag/other: more doomed or bad idea romances? Opting into OCs or crossover characters for this.

Fleabag & other: Got any other screwed up characters she can commiserate with over (too many) drinks? Opting into crossovers for this. Some of my other requested fandoms would fit pretty well here, or tell me about your fave!

The Good Place- Janet, Tahani

Why I love it: A sitcom with heart, something to say, and fantasy worldbuilding! The ridiculous love polygon in 1x10 went right to my id, as did the self-sacrificial argument in 1x13.

Other notes: You can treat this as an OR request- I would equally enjoy fic focused on either of these characters, both, or the whole gang.

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing, soulmates are real (demons pretending they are is fine)

Fic ideas:

Tahani:

Did Tahani have a good relationship with her sister early on, or was it poisoned from the start? How much self-awareness did she have before she died- did she believe she was a good person, or not even think about questions like that?

What happened in the reboot where Eleanor and Tahani were soulmates?

How’s Tahani doing with apprenticing for a job normally done by way more powerful beings? What has she learned about the afterlife?

Janet:

We hear a lot about what Janet’s not- not a robot, not a girl- but what exactly is a Janet?

Janet may very well want to continue doing the same job she always has by the time everyone else is moving on to their next phase of existence in the universe, but it bothers me that no one ever asked what she wanted. So, what does she want?

what does a Janet POV fic look like?

Both:

making a point of not letting their mutual interest in Jason get between them

hanging out together as the last members of the squad in the afterlife

all-knowing being with little reason to filter things vs. someone used to navigating difficult social situations with touchy rich people

Your choice or ensemble:

Tell me more about how the afterlife works! The bureaucracy? The abilities and limitations of immortal beings?

If our humans are the third case between The Good Place and The Bad Place, and we know about Mindy… what was the other case?

What happened during the other reboots? With some of the ridiculous glimpses we got, how was that situation explained, and how long did it take to figure it out?

As much as I love Vicky, I also love her character of Real Eleanor as well as how complicated that would make things. What would happen in an AU where there really was a Real Eleanor, or where Vicky kept playing her in subsequent reboots?

angsty h/c where they end up in the real bad place?

There's no way the majority of the squad just so happens to pair off into seemingly-heterosexual monogamous pairs for the rest of eternity, right? Even if they have their favourite person who will always come first, I'm sure they hook up with other people they met during any stage of their afterlife for a few Jeremy Bearamys. What are some of those relationships like?

The Queen’s Gambit- Beth

Why I love it: It keeps enough of the troubled genius trope to be fun for those of us who enjoy it, while deconstructing it enough to improve on it. She's a girl! Which impacts her story without being central to it! Her character struggles are a mix of inherent and a result of her experiences! She's talented, but does better when she admits she has to practice the parts that are less fun to her! And also when she learns to accept help! And she realizes drugs and madness aren’t only extraneous to her success, she does even better without them!

Other notes: I have provided prompts for the backstories of Alma, Annette Parker, and Beth’s bio mom- if you want to focus on one of these characters, using my prompt or not, I don’t expect Beth to also be a main focus.

The extent of my chess knowledge is the basic rules and a vague idea of the tournament system. Trust me, I will not know if you are fudging the details.

DNW: PWP (explicit content fine, but not as the sole focus), gore, character bashing, Beth/Borgov

Fic ideas:

tell me more about Annette Parker, that other girl at her first tournament? It must take a different type of courage to play against guys because you want to and should be allowed to and you’re just as good as them, instead of being able to prove that you’re superior.

tell me more about Alma? It sounds like she was also very good at something (piano), and that she had to give it up, and that that cost her.

her bio mom is clearly also a talented woman who's been through some stuff. What made her into the person we see?

was being banned from playing chess the extent of her punishment for the pill incident? How did she cope?

Beth clearly spends a lot of time alone reading chess books, while Jolene clearly has other friends to fill her time… what makes their bond special compared to the other girls at the orphanage?

Beth and Mr. Shaibel are both very much not people people; I adore their special friendship. Maybe fill in some gaps about their thoughts during their fight? Why didn't Beth pay back the $10?

for her chess friends/sometimes-lovers, I love domesticity, bonding over the shared love of the game, and the messiness of hurting each other without meaning to. More in-between moments of studying? Post canon or in an AU, does one of the canon pairings make it work? Or does Beth have more messy, complicated relationships like the young adult she is?

It’s a shame Beth’s one same-sex encounter directly preceded a disastrous game, but hey, she’s perfectly capable of making bad decisions without encouragement. I’d like to see Beth spending more time in Paris or globetrotting with Cleo, having a fun but dysfunctional time getting involved in her polyamorous bohemian lifestyle- if you can make it a function of these particular characters in this particular time of their lives rather than an inherently dysfunctional choice, even better.

Now that Beth is at the top of the chess world at barely 20… what does she do next? How does she stay sober? Or does she fall off the wagon a few more times?

This canon is ripe for a 5+1 or something with different character’s perspectives on themes like gender, chess, genius, and/or madness. Don’t worry, I won’t be put of if you go hard on stuff like this.

Just doing something fun with formatting to show us inside her head!

I saw a suggestion that characters and events could be metaphors for chess pieces or moves, and: yes, please! Don't worry, I'm not a lit professor or a chess player, I'll eat up whatever halfway plausible ideas you come up with.