Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brightknightie) wrote2015-02-23 10:10 pm
brightknightie) wrote2015-02-23 10:10 pm
2015 RarelyWritten "Dear Author" Letter
Dear ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
rarelywritten Ficathon Exchange Author,
Thank you for accepting my prompts in this game! And applause for your excellent taste in fandoms. :-)
I'll strive to keep this year's letter shorter than its predecessors. If you'd like oodles more details, I have a standing "Fanfic Likes and Dislikes" post (updated February 2015), and individual letters for past rounds of this game (2014, 2013, 2012) with different prompts in many of the same fandoms that you're welcome to recycle and choose instead.
Overall, my fannish tastes run to characters striving to be good and true in the face of obstacles and at a cost. Everything from grand adventures to quiet domesticity to wrenching tragedy is welcome. My favorite fandoms tend to grapple with themes of survivorship, identity and purpose; often, a motivating quest shapes canon.
Please mix, match or isolate the characters as suits your imagination.
I'm sure I'll enjoy and appreciate anything you're moved to write in our shared fandom!
Characters: Urs, Janette, Serena, Tracy, Cohen
Prompt option A: "Urs doesn't know her own strength." — Vachon, "Hearts of Darkness"
Prompt option B: "How can the earthen pot go with the metal cauldron? / When they knock together, the pot will be smashed." — Sirach (Eccelsiasticus) 13:2
Parameters: I'd love gen featuring any of these characters, or romance for Nick/Urs or Nick/Janette. (Otherwise, I'm sure I'd also enjoy Nick/Serena, Tracy/Vachon, Janette/Serena or Janette/Urs if romance is your thing and one of those couples is much more your style.) Please, don't go "dark" (that is, please don't celebrate vampirism or evil). Feel free to branch off from canon with a "What if?" — especially if avoiding or reshaping third season's present-day events.
Characters: Jacqueline Roget (aka Jacques Laponte), Anne of Austria (Queen Anne), Emanuelle (the regular Cafe Nouveau waitress), Liana (from "Enchanted"), Pauline LaRue (referenced in "To Heir is Human;" I actually meant to nominate Celeste LaRue from that same episode; my mistake!)
Prompt option A: "But you exacted justice for your father! What holds you?" / "Justice for France." — Charles and Jacqueline, "The Exile"
Prompt option B: "France is an absolute monarchy, tempered by ballads." — Unknown, saying; first quoted in the 18th century by Nicolas Chamfort
Parameters: I'd love gen featuring any of these characters! Flirtation and UST/longing are welcome if romance is much more your thing. (I should say that I don't personally see Jacqueline sharing d'Artagnan's vision of them as a couple; being a wife and mother in their era would be a huge obstacle to her mission, never mind the price on her head and her disguise, besides personal inclinations. Yet she did seriously consider Charles.) Please don't blame Mazarin's evil on the Church; his evil is his own, while the Church is everyone else's, too, including Jacqueline's and mine. ~wry~
Characters: Cassiopeia, Serina, Tinia (from "Baltar's Escape"), Athena, Sheba
Prompt option A: "A relationship based on possession isn't for me. I don't want to own Starbuck." — Cassiopeia, "Take the Celestra"
Prompt option B: "Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people's heads..." — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
Parameters: I'd love gen starring Cassiopeia, Serina or Tinia, or romance for Starbuck/Cassiopeia. (Otherwise, I'd also enjoy gen featuring Athena or Sheba, or romance for Apollo/Serina or Adama/Tinia.) Please tread just a little carefully around Apollo/Sheba, if applicable; I've never felt wholly right about Sheba so swiftly stepping into Serina's family (and Boomer's job).
Note: Are you familiar with the Battlestar Galactica wiki? It's very handy.
Characters: Diana (the Acrobat), Sheila (the Thief), Varla (from "The Last Illusion"), Martha (from "The Winds Of Darkness")
Prompt option A: "We're outnumbered ten to one!" / "All right, then. You take two; I'll take eighteen." — Eric and Diana, "The Traitor"
Prompt option B: "Violets for the grave of youth, / And bay for those dead in their prime; / Give me the withered leaves I chose / Before in the old time." — Christina Rossetti, "O roses for the flush of youth" in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)
Parameters: I'd love gen starring any of these characters. I'd especially adore a plot from Diana or Sheila's perspective with scenes both on earth and in the Realm, whether while they're still teenagers or after they've grown up. (If romance is more your style than gen, any canon-sensitive, era-aware pairing that's age-appropriate could be wholly satisfying. (If you decide on f/f, please recall how that was different to the culture in the 1980s than it is today.) No underage sex, please! If your story goes that direction, please set it after the applicable eighteenth birthday(s).) I'm equally open to integrating or ignoring the unfilmed finale script, as best serves your idea.
Note: Are you familiar with the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon encyclopedia? It's awe-inspiring.
Characters: Tessa Noel, Randi McFarland, Angie Burke, Rachel MacLeod, Grace Chandel, Michelle Webster, Anne Lindsey, Annie Devlin, May-Ling Shen, Cierdwyn
Prompt option A: "I thought ridding the world of evil would feel better than this." — Tessa, "See No Evil"
Prompt option B: "Measure twice, cut once." — Unknown, saying; versions dating at least to 16th century
Parameters: I'd adore a Tessa story, with or without Duncan/Tessa romance! And I'd love gen featuring any of these characters. (Otherwise, I'd also enjoy Richie/Angie, Duncan/Anne, other canonical pairings, Randi/OC, Rachel/OC, if romance is your thing and one of those couples is much more your style than Duncan/Tessa.) Please don't include the Horsemen, but Methos alone is fine if your story needs him.
rarelywritten Ficathon Exchange Author,Thank you for accepting my prompts in this game! And applause for your excellent taste in fandoms. :-)
I'll strive to keep this year's letter shorter than its predecessors. If you'd like oodles more details, I have a standing "Fanfic Likes and Dislikes" post (updated February 2015), and individual letters for past rounds of this game (2014, 2013, 2012) with different prompts in many of the same fandoms that you're welcome to recycle and choose instead.
Overall, my fannish tastes run to characters striving to be good and true in the face of obstacles and at a cost. Everything from grand adventures to quiet domesticity to wrenching tragedy is welcome. My favorite fandoms tend to grapple with themes of survivorship, identity and purpose; often, a motivating quest shapes canon.
- I love canonicity, history and metaphor; steadfastness, longing and struggles for the good and right; friendships and chosen families; mutuality and equality; second chances ("seventy times seven" chances).
- I avoid most things commonly called kinks; out-of-character, vulgarity and absurdity; lack of consequences; depictions of evil as admirable or even easily excused.
- I believe that fandom too often overlooks its canonical women characters for many reasons, some purely gender-biased, and that this is sad. Yay, RarelyWritten!
Please mix, match or isolate the characters as suits your imagination.
I'm sure I'll enjoy and appreciate anything you're moved to write in our shared fandom!
(1) Forever Knight
Characters: Urs, Janette, Serena, Tracy, Cohen
Prompt option A: "Urs doesn't know her own strength." — Vachon, "Hearts of Darkness"
Prompt option B: "How can the earthen pot go with the metal cauldron? / When they knock together, the pot will be smashed." — Sirach (Eccelsiasticus) 13:2
Parameters: I'd love gen featuring any of these characters, or romance for Nick/Urs or Nick/Janette. (Otherwise, I'm sure I'd also enjoy Nick/Serena, Tracy/Vachon, Janette/Serena or Janette/Urs if romance is your thing and one of those couples is much more your style.) Please, don't go "dark" (that is, please don't celebrate vampirism or evil). Feel free to branch off from canon with a "What if?" — especially if avoiding or reshaping third season's present-day events.
(2) Young Blades
Characters: Jacqueline Roget (aka Jacques Laponte), Anne of Austria (Queen Anne), Emanuelle (the regular Cafe Nouveau waitress), Liana (from "Enchanted"), Pauline LaRue (referenced in "To Heir is Human;" I actually meant to nominate Celeste LaRue from that same episode; my mistake!)
Prompt option A: "But you exacted justice for your father! What holds you?" / "Justice for France." — Charles and Jacqueline, "The Exile"
Prompt option B: "France is an absolute monarchy, tempered by ballads." — Unknown, saying; first quoted in the 18th century by Nicolas Chamfort
Parameters: I'd love gen featuring any of these characters! Flirtation and UST/longing are welcome if romance is much more your thing. (I should say that I don't personally see Jacqueline sharing d'Artagnan's vision of them as a couple; being a wife and mother in their era would be a huge obstacle to her mission, never mind the price on her head and her disguise, besides personal inclinations. Yet she did seriously consider Charles.) Please don't blame Mazarin's evil on the Church; his evil is his own, while the Church is everyone else's, too, including Jacqueline's and mine. ~wry~
(3) Battlestar Galactica (1978)
Characters: Cassiopeia, Serina, Tinia (from "Baltar's Escape"), Athena, Sheba
Prompt option A: "A relationship based on possession isn't for me. I don't want to own Starbuck." — Cassiopeia, "Take the Celestra"
Prompt option B: "Somewhere the saving and putting away had to begin again and someone had to do the saving and keeping, one way or another, in books, in records, in people's heads..." — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 (1953)
Parameters: I'd love gen starring Cassiopeia, Serina or Tinia, or romance for Starbuck/Cassiopeia. (Otherwise, I'd also enjoy gen featuring Athena or Sheba, or romance for Apollo/Serina or Adama/Tinia.) Please tread just a little carefully around Apollo/Sheba, if applicable; I've never felt wholly right about Sheba so swiftly stepping into Serina's family (and Boomer's job).
Note: Are you familiar with the Battlestar Galactica wiki? It's very handy.
(4) Dungeons and Dragons (cartoon) (1983-1985)
Characters: Diana (the Acrobat), Sheila (the Thief), Varla (from "The Last Illusion"), Martha (from "The Winds Of Darkness")
Prompt option A: "We're outnumbered ten to one!" / "All right, then. You take two; I'll take eighteen." — Eric and Diana, "The Traitor"
Prompt option B: "Violets for the grave of youth, / And bay for those dead in their prime; / Give me the withered leaves I chose / Before in the old time." — Christina Rossetti, "O roses for the flush of youth" in Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)
Parameters: I'd love gen starring any of these characters. I'd especially adore a plot from Diana or Sheila's perspective with scenes both on earth and in the Realm, whether while they're still teenagers or after they've grown up. (If romance is more your style than gen, any canon-sensitive, era-aware pairing that's age-appropriate could be wholly satisfying. (If you decide on f/f, please recall how that was different to the culture in the 1980s than it is today.) No underage sex, please! If your story goes that direction, please set it after the applicable eighteenth birthday(s).) I'm equally open to integrating or ignoring the unfilmed finale script, as best serves your idea.
Note: Are you familiar with the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon encyclopedia? It's awe-inspiring.
(5) Highlander: The Series
Characters: Tessa Noel, Randi McFarland, Angie Burke, Rachel MacLeod, Grace Chandel, Michelle Webster, Anne Lindsey, Annie Devlin, May-Ling Shen, Cierdwyn
Prompt option A: "I thought ridding the world of evil would feel better than this." — Tessa, "See No Evil"
Prompt option B: "Measure twice, cut once." — Unknown, saying; versions dating at least to 16th century
Parameters: I'd adore a Tessa story, with or without Duncan/Tessa romance! And I'd love gen featuring any of these characters. (Otherwise, I'd also enjoy Richie/Angie, Duncan/Anne, other canonical pairings, Randi/OC, Rachel/OC, if romance is your thing and one of those couples is much more your style than Duncan/Tessa.) Please don't include the Horsemen, but Methos alone is fine if your story needs him.
Re: YB - Jacqueline
(Anonymous) 2015-03-14 12:58 am (UTC)(link)The more I think about it, the more I think it's not that Siroc truly lacks people skills - it's that he doesn't pay enough attention to use the skills he has sometimes. Other times, he's as astute as anyone.
One scene I adore (it's just funny to me) is in "Wanted" when after Jacqueline says to forget about her previous story and Siroc says "awfully nice of you" and then d'Artagnan is like "he means he was lying." That could have been played as Siroc being straight when he said it and not picking up on what Jacques meant. But it wasn't. Instead Siroc was sarcastic and d'Artagnan took him literally, and then Siroc looks at d'Artagnan like he's a complete moron. I just love the look on his face.
On the other hand, Siroc often seems entirely surprised that the others don't share his interest in why fabrics cling to one another or other such things. It seems to me to usually be when he's actually working in his lab that he becomes more a little emotionally-tone-deaf, and I think that's probably because he's just focused on what he's doing instead of the people in the room with him. It's like he doesn't stop to think why Duval would be introducing his good friend d'Artagnan to him - he's just not paying sufficient attention to notice the oddity, I think. Other times, he's fine. Like he picked up on the history between Duval and his ex-fiancee.
Can I ask which ep the autopsy was in? I'd like to rewatch for it. I thought "Coat of Arms" but I just watched that one again, and there was no autopsy. Duval asked Siroc to examine the first body, but there was no cutting involved. The second, Duval's old friend, Siroc politely asked permission and then checked for a tattoo and looked at the fatal wound and that was all that was done (he seemed aware of Duval's feelings, and Duval seemed to understand it as necessary to the investigation to me). And I can't think which other ep it would be.
Re: YB - Jacqueline
No autopsy happens. I regret any misunderstanding. As I wrote above, I believe that there is an episode in which "he [Siroc] wants to perform an autopsy" (not that he actually does perform an autopsy). I thought that the episode in question was "Coat of Arms."
If I recall correctly, Duval does not permit Siroc to continue past a suggestion that an autopsy is something that he could do to gather more information. But I very well may have misremembered. Perhaps the scene is in fanfic! Or perhaps your copy of the episode and mine don't quite match; the show was edited differently for different national markets.
It has been years since I've had occasion to engage with this storyline. I believe that I still have great enthusiasm for the story, but I'm afraid that I cannot keep up with you in it at this time.