NotPrimeTime letter

[tielan]

Placeholder for the moment - there will definitely be more!

Okay, so I love these fandoms and I love the female characters of these fandoms (more specifically, I really really love one or two female characters in these fandoms: the others are nice but these ones tug my heartstrings) and I would adore it if you wrote something that is centric about these characters.

what I would love to see in my story:

• action-and-romance stories, where all the things happen and a couple just happens to come together in the process
• slice-of-life stories that tell about how characters come to an understanding of themselves (or an understanding of their relationship if the story is about a relationship)
• het or gen (no romance)
• relationships that are developed out of friendships and commonality - the process of learning each other and getting accustomed to each other
• female characters
• female characters doing their job, living their lives, struggling with their individual challenges, and developing friendships

what I don't want in my story:

• slash, even background: my slash likes/dislikes are very very specific, and I'd rather read stories involving the female characters.
• angsty endings: it doesn't have to be happy, fluffy bunnies, but the ending should at least be hopeful, with potential.
• sloppy depictions of Australians (see, specifically: Pacific Rim) - I am Australian, and I come from the area that Scissure devastated, where the Hansens lived, and where Angela Hansen died. Tread carefully.

Agents of SHIELD: Maria Hill, Melinda May, Skye, Jemma Simmonsd
Genre: Action/Adventure
Notes: At the point of writing this letter, I haven’t seen 1.18 and 1.19 (that will change in the next 24 hours).

Maria is my favourite character in the MCU/AoS universe, hands-down, no arguments. But I am loving the women of Agents of SHIELD – it took a while for me to warm up to them, but once they really got the friendships/understandings working, I was definitely in.

Skye hugging Jemma after Jemma jumps off the plane! Jemma saying she can't imagine life without Skye anymore. Melinda getting Skye off the boat so Skye can do what she does best, while Skye imitates Melinda to get what she needs

What I particularly love about this series is that the women are not 'women'. They’re specialists in their area, competent, admired, who are treated functionally. They just happen to be female. That femininity is acknowledged, part of who they are and the struggles they face, but it doesn't define them and where it hampers them, they compensate.

For ideas:
- how about a mission-based fic? Something where it's Melinda, Jemma, and Skye having to do something (could be saving one of the guys, could be something else) - bring in Maria as someone to manage the situation? (Maybe Maria's the person who calls on them to do the job?)
- What about downtime? Skye leading the charge, Jemma thinking it's an adventure, Melinda refusing at first, then turning up randomly. (Skye: "Don't glower in the corner. Get a drink!")
- Perhaps you could rewrite 'Yes, Men' to be about the women going in to deal with Lorelai? Imagine Maria and Sif dealing with each other! :D
- I'd kind of love to see Jemma and Skye's reactions to Maria: I mean, there's got to be a story behind her rise to power, right? What if Melinda plays them by telling them tall stories about Maria the way Jemma did to Skye about Melinda? Payback time! (I'd kind of love Phil's reactions to all this, too.)

Frankly, I just want a story of these characters interacting and dealing with each other - their histories, individual and shared – in the context of their work.

Pairings I like : DO NOT FEEL YOU MUST WRITE THESE PAIRINGS. These are entirely optional, but will hopefully give you an idea of my standing on the pairing situation. At this point (considering how far I've watched), I like FitzSimmons – friendship, brOTP, OTP, the whole schemozzle. They're cute, even if Fitz needs to take the leap and confess to Simmons already. I like the attraction between Skye/Ward, but I don't see a happy ever after in their future (or even a happy-for-now), so use sparingly.

Generally, however, I'm good with all friendships between anyone on the team.

--

Sanctuary(TV): Kate Freelander
Genre: Action-Adventure
Notes: Her practicality, her ruthlessness, the parts of her that she keeps hidden beneath the insouciant employee of the Sanctuary. I only really started watching after Kate turned up in the show, and I stopped watching when it became clear she wasn't going to be staying as a regular.

I like that she's not an innocent, that she think on her feet, and that she has experience in being on the wrong side of the law. (The Bank Job? I loved that!)

Ideas you might like to work with:
- how Kate got into the Abnormals game
- Kate dealing with the absurd minutiae of the Sanctuary with Will, Henry, and Bigfoot
- Kate and Helen as two professional women who aren’t exactly friendly, but who understand each other very well.

Pairings I like (TOTALLY OPTIONAL): I prefer Kate/Will, or friendship with anyone. DO NOT FEEL YOU MUST WRITE THIS PAIRING.

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Angel (the series): Faith Lehane, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Charles Gunn
Genre: Action-Adventure
Notes: Anything about these guys fighting the good fight - particularly Faith, who's my favourite character. Maybe what might have happened if Wes left the Fang Gang after the confrontation with Jasmine, and went with Faith after the defeat of the First in Sunnydale? A wandering Slayer and her Watcher - with bonus Gunn appearances!
Possible pairings: Faith/Wes, although I love the friendship between Wes and Gunn, and the potential friendship between Gunn and Faith, so either of those are good. DO NOT FEEL YOU MUST WRITE THESE PAIRINGS!

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Pacific Rim: Mako Mori, Raleigh Becket, Stacker Pentecost
Genre: Action-Adventure
Notes: This is my most recent movie love, and I am completely crazy happy about the creation of a non-white, female heroine who didn't have to sass or show off her body to be counted as worthy of a storyline, and take the view that Mako is the character with the hero's journey and Raleigh is her framing device and mentor.

One theme I particularly like in Pacific Rim is the "broken things remade" theme - Mako and the life that Stacker helped her make out of the ruins of Tokyo, Raleigh and the new life he finds in fighting the kaiju with Mako in partnership with him, Stacker and the pieces he scraped together to get the Jaeger program working - and his own loss of first Luna and also his former co-pilot Tamsin Sevier. If you want to run with that theme at the heart of these characters, that would be awesome.

Post-movie or pre-movie, whatever floats your boat, but I don't want 'fix it' fic about how everyone lives and nothing hurts: "A world in which heroes cannot die is a world without heroes."

A warning note: I'm Australian. Born here. Bred here. I live in the very area where Scissure attacked and Angela Hansen died. TREAD VERY CAREFULLY IF YOU ARE WRITING THE HANSENS.

Possible pairings/relationships: Mako/Raleigh - OTP, brOTP. Stacker/Herc - OTP, brOTP. I don't want a background slash pairing for Raleigh, and I don't want Hansencest. I'd rather the story included Mako - whether Stacker and Mako, or Mako and Raleigh.

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Captain America (movies): Maria Hill, Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson
Genre: Action-Adventure
Notes: ALL THE MARIA HILL LOVE EVER! BUT STEVE&SAM FRIENDSHIP IS ALSO MADE OF AMAZEBALLS STUFFED WITH AWESOME!

Um. Anything? (How unhelpful, I know!) But, really, Maria being awesome before or after the movie. Developing a friendship with Steve? Developing a friendship with Sam? Steve and Sam brOTP (with Maria?) hunting Bucky? The logistics side of being on the run and not being able to get about so much. (Zola may be gone, but his algorithms would remain, and Steve is very identifiable.)

Possible pairings: Maria Hill/Steve Rogers is my OTP of the MCU. I've written about 30% of the fic for it on AO3, and when she turned up in Cap2, I was all over squee. And that scene where she fires ze missiles? OH MY HEART. Feel the pain...and do it anyway. However, if this is not your thing, then you don't have to write it. Friendship of all types and kinds is perfectly okay!