donutsweeper: (a captain)
donutsweeper ([personal profile] donutsweeper) wrote2016-09-29 03:13 pm
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Yuletide Letter 2016

Thank you for writing for me!

In general I like stories that focus on character development and interactions, hurt/comfort (especially hurt/comfort as I am a terrible person and can never read enough about beatings, gunshot wounds, hypothermia, whatever, and how the characters deal with it), competence (it's always great to read stories where people do their jobs and do it well even under extreme circumstances), missing scenes, and plotty adventures. Humor, snappy dialog and/or snark are all wonderful and canon type violence is fine.

Graphic violence and rape can be a trigger of mine, so I'd appreciate if you did not include either in a story written for me. Other DNWs include A/B/O, genderswap, character death and mpreg.

Longstreet Mike Longstreet

Being blinded might cause most people to turn away from a lifestyle of investigative work, but not Mike Longstreet. If anything it just made him that much more determined to do his job and do it well. Tell me a story about one of his cases, a time Pax helped him in an unusual way, when he and Li teamed up to save the day, or just what he does on his days off. Mike is such a great character, I'd really love to read a story about him.

I love Longstreet because I am a total sucker for fandoms where life's thrown one of the characters a curve ball but they're just too stubborn not to keep getting up and going forward not matter what. Mike is stubborn and strong and wants to keep doing his job and he's not going to let a little thing like being blinded stop him and his friends, despite how hard it is for them, realize he needs to do that and do what they can to help him along the way. Bruce Lee's character, Li Tsung, is able to teach him some of the skills he requires to accomplish his goals, but overall it's on Mike to rely on his skills and determination to succeed.

This isn't even a fandom of one, it's a fandom of none with no fic, and no gif sets or pic spams other than the occasional Bruce Lee nod so I can honestly say I'd really be happy with whatever anyone manages to come up with for me here. Some specific prompts for things I'd love to read would be something focusing on Mike using his other senses in ways most sighted people might take for granted to solve a case; Nikki and/or Duke wryly dealing with Mike and his stubbornness, maybe helping him in subtle ways or just grumbling over his actions; Pax the guide dog saving the day; any kind of hurt/comfort at all (despite all the canon h/c, there's never enough in my opinion); Mike and Li teaming up for a case; or just anything with competent!Mike doing his job and doing it well.

The entire series is available online. The pilot movie and all episodes other than the first are on youtube here and here (the movie is mislabeled as episode 1), while the actual first episode (the one where Mike is taught Jeet Kune Do by Li and probably has the best insight to the various characters) is here on dailymotion here.

The Big Valley Heath Barkley, Victoria Barkley

Canon never told us exactly why or when Heath started calling Victoria "Mother." A story that focused on that would be wonderful, but I truly love their relationship in the show and any story about the relationship between these two would be absolutely fantastic. Gen please.

Ah, my perennial request. It's a foolish hope to keep asking for this, I suppose, but if I don't ask I definitely won't get it so what can it hurt, right? In all seriousness, I love Big Valley, especially the first season. For such an old show it has, in general, held up very well. I was always amazed how gracious Victoria was with Heath; she truly came to consider him one of her sons (as is completely obvious by the end of the first season and the episode "By Force or Violence"). I'd love to see any story about these two but in particular something that focused on their relationship as mother and son. What made her open her heart up to him in that way? Why did he go from calling her Ma'am (as we see in "Boots With My Father's Name" and others) to Mother (as we see later in the first season like in "The Guilt Of Matt Burnell" or "The Invaders")? Also, something I've always wondered about Heath in relation to taking the Barkley name and finding his place with them was how (or if) his new family and new mother affected his feelings towards his biological mother and the women who raised him.

Boiled down, I love this show and there is very little fic for it, anything you write for it, especially focused on Heath, would be appreciated although please do not have him romantically paired with Victoria or any of his siblings.

S1 of Big Valley is available on Yahoo view as well as offered by hulu and xfinitytv for folks who've subscribed to either of those. Even better, and for anyone interested in the later seasons, many of the episodes have also been uploaded by this user on youtube.

Nero Wolfe - Rex Stout Archie Goodwin, Nero Wolfe

While one of the things I absolutely love about these stories is seeing the mysteries unfold through Archie's eyes, it would be really interesting to see one through Nero Wolfe's point of view instead. What does Wolfe think about sending Archie and the others off into danger on a regular basis? Does he get frustrated when they fail to return with the information he needs? How would he react to Archie getting hurt or missing a check-in? Gen please.

I love the Nero Wolfe (both the books and the A&E series starring Maury Chaykin and Timothy Hutton) mysteries. I love how Archie's street smarts mix with Nero's brilliance and result in them solving even the most befuddling of cases. Rex Stout created such incredibly detailed characters as well as an amazingly detailed world for them to interact within.

It is through Archie's eyes that we see Nero Wolfe and how he lives and works and manages his orchids and cases and Rex Stout used that POV to his advantage. Reveals were more dramatic because Archie (and thus the readers) were missing vital details that Nero had ferreted out without Archie's assistance. And sometimes characters' motivations and actions surprised us because we had first viewed them through the lens of Archie's interpretation of what they were doing (a technique best used, perhaps, in "A Family Affair").

I would really love to read a story where that technique is turned on its head and we see things through Wolfe's point of view instead. What are Wolfe's reasons for keeping Archie (sometimes deliberately) out of the loop of some investigations? What does he do when Archie is off investigating? How does he feel when Archie is hurt? (Archie got shot in "The Twisted Scarf" aka "Disguise For Murder" after all, but canon just glosses over the injury.) Other things I'd love to see would be casefic or any kind, hurt/comfort (particularily what Wolfe's brand of comfort might entail), one of the other detectives (Saul, Fred or Orrie) or policemen (Cramer or Stebbins)'s or Fritz's opinions or perspective on Nero and Archie, or perhaps a look at one of their dinners with Lon Cohen as he tries to ferret out enough details to craft the next day's newspaper article from the story they're telling him over dinner?

I'd appreciate if you kept this story gen, while I think there is a deep abiding respect and care (if not love) for one another, I just don't see Archie and Wolfe's relationship to be romantic in nature.

Your local library might have the books and you can find the A&E mysteries on youtube here or on DVDs via Netflix or perhaps also at your library.


I hang out in #yuletide chat a lot using the name ibble so if you have any questions or would like more information just ping a hippo to ask me.

[identity profile] capt-facepalm.livejournal.com 2016-10-02 08:56 pm (UTC)(link)
OMG Longstreet! I remember Pax and wanting to get a dog, preferably a white shepherd. (I was very young.)

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2016-10-02 09:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Young you was very smart :)

[identity profile] rabidsamfan.livejournal.com 2016-10-04 01:11 am (UTC)(link)
Me too! I loved that show!

[identity profile] donutsweeper.livejournal.com 2016-10-04 01:20 am (UTC)(link)
Pax was definitely awesome :)