desertvixen | Yuletide letter

My general preferences are here.

Remember, whatever you write, I will love!

Crossovers are definitely welcome, as are AUs! If you cross it over with Clue, I'm good with anything - otherwise, see my preferences - cracky or serious crossovers welcome.

DNW for all: graphic violence/gore, explicit sexual violence, death to requested characters, cruelty to animals/children

The Scoop - London Detection Club

Beryl Blackwood, Mr. Hemingway (The Scoop), Geraldine Tracey

I really just want some fic about this, with a focus on Geraldine Tracey.

Turn the Lonely Bungalow case on its head, or give me a big showy trial (with requisite headlines).

This is a multiple repeat request, but if we didn’t match on it’s okay!

All right, so there is a computer game and the novel, but the two are very close. It's written by the London Detection Club, and is very focused on the newspaper business in 1930s-ish London. The game is available at Abandonia if you need something to goof off on. I had the computer game in 1990, and might have actually written my first (very bad) fanfic for it.

For "Mr. Tracey" (Hemingway), the book/game ends with him slipping and falling to his death. Give me another ending, preferably one with a big showy trial that the papers can cover! (Or even give me another killer who is framing him...)

Or maybe focus on Geraldine Tracey. Maybe he doesn’t successfully kill her, which makes the case quite different (see big showy trial). Maybe she is the killer instead, and leaves his dead body in her bungalow. (I like the Lonely Bungalow aspect.) I like to keep it in the 30s milieu. Maybe it’s not her real name and Beryl actually knows her.

Denis/Beryl is fun, but I’d like to see something more focused on the crime/trial aspect. Maybe Beryl does some more investigating on her own to help him out.

Or…feel free to drag a Christie sleuth right in. I’m down for Poirot or Marple. Maybe Miss Silver or Lord Peter Wimsey?

Eleanor & Park - Rainbow Rowell

Park Sheridan, Eleanor Douglas, Jamie Sheridan, Min-Dae Sheridan

Give me the AU where Jamie Sheridan uses his status in the neighborhood to put the fear of God into Eleanor's stepfather, or maybe the story where Park does help his mom get Eleanor ready for their wedding day (without seeing her)

This is a repeat request from 2016 and 2018, when I read the book originally and was blown away.

These are the two prompts that are loudest in my head, but if you think of something else that works, that's awesome too. What I loved about this novel and these characters was how REAL they were.

I really liked Park's dad, who was a little dubious about Eleanor at first (and all the changes in his son), but had no real hesitation about supporting his son doing what Park saw as the right thing. I really really wanted the scene where he pounded on Eleanor's stepdad. The whole scene where Park kicks the kid in the face during the fight, and his dad is all “Good job” – I love that one too. Parent like it’s the 1980s!

I also loved the relationship between the parents - passionate and fun, like the whole interchange about how he'll use whatever language he likes and her threatening to send him to his room. I want a little of everyone, but show me a little of this relationship. Maybe post-Eleanor and Park marriage fic? I also really liked Park's grandparents and Eleanor's relationship with the black girls in her gym class. I really just wanted MORE.

If you go the route about the hairdo, don't let Min-dae make Eleanor too someone she isn't. One of the lines that caught my eye more this time was how Park with eyeliner was like having the volume turned up to 10 – or Ming the Merciless. What about makeup that turns Eleanor up to 10?

Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers

Peter Wimsey, Hilary Thorpe, Rev. Theodore Venables, Alexandra "Kitty" Climpson

I just recently read The Nine Tailors and I need more. What I'd love would be a story where Hilary gets to be useful in another mystery.

I really enjoyed Nine Tailors, and wanted to see more of the characters. Give Hilary a chance to be useful and have some fun. Maybe an association with Miss Climpson’s agency? Or maybe involve the young Viscount? Church bells optional, but I would like the absent-minded clergyman to be involved as well.

I’m not precisely anti-Harriet, but I would prefer she not appear.

Nantucket Trilogy - S.M. Stirling

Althea Walker, Odikweos, Kathryn Hollard

So, what I would really like here is an exploration of Odikweos against the familiar Odysseus. Much like Kashtiliash, he's an ally NOW because it suits him, but what if that changed?

Or perhaps the rise of Althea Walker (we get 10-plus books of Survival through SCA but nothing on her?) causes rifts among the allies. I think she would be interesting because she isn't an uptimer, and she isn't exactly a native of the time period, she's a hybrid. And she's pissed.

I couldn't nominate her because she isn't in the book, but feel free to add Odikweos' Penelope.

This is a repeat from 2017 and 2018. So I’ve written a bunch of the fic for the other requestor, and I want someone else to tackle it. Last year I was very focused on Odikweos (and his Penelope – please feel free to include her, invent her, be my guest) but I really want to know more about Althea. The last we see, she’s riding away from her home with Ohotolarix, and she’s pissed. I’d love to see her rising up, and maybe causing some rifts. Do Odikweos and Kashtiliash want to deal with her? Does she try to get vengeance for her father?

With Matilda Arminger, I feel like we get little echoes of what Althea might have been like (although Sandra and Norman are way more developed and evolved characters than Walker and Alice Hong). But I want Althea. And the Bronze Age.

I included Kathryn because I enjoy how she is caught between the Bronze Age and the uptimers.

Two Minute Mysteries - Donald J. Sobol

Dr. Haledjian, Octavia (Two Minute Mysteries)

Okay, so what DO these characters do when Haledjian's not showing off how superior he is? Does Octavia ever get to eat dinner without a gruesome story? Does she ever solve a mystery?

First off, I am not expecting a pithy Two-Minute Mystery style mystery capped off with an obscure fact that "everyone" knows. (However, if that is something you want to do, go for it!) I'm more interested in off-stage interactions - Who are these people? Why does Haledjian have so many friends who use him to test alibis? Do people dread his "Jessica Fletcher" factor? (ie, when he comes to visit, dead bodies show up). If you want to modernize the crew and bring cell phones into play, go for it.

An idea would be a mystery that Octavia solves, especially if it requires a feminine touch. Maybe she teams up with Mrs. Sydney to stump him?

If you want to play on Haledjian being an Armenian, play away!

This is a repeat from 2014.

Clue | Cluedo (Board Game)

Miss Scarlet (Clue | Cluedo), Mr. Boddy (Clue | Cluedo)

Give me something in the spirit of the board game (and kids' books if you know them) where people are at Mr. Boddy's country house and oops! people end up dead (or do they?) Miss Scarlet matching wits with Mr. Boddy - yes please!

This was a spur of the moment request but I couldn’t resist. I love the movie but I love the game too, and have multiple versions, including a reproduction of the original. Feel free to channel Clue Master Detective as well. Pretty much what it says on the tin. I would prefer Miss Scarlet win.