Dear Unsent Letters Author
Mar. 1st, 2023 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bustedxflushHi, I’m great_whatsit at AO3! First and foremost: THANK YOU! I am so lucky to be getting a gift from you, and I’m immensely grateful for the time and energy you're putting into this. Taking the time to do something like this is a huge deal.
In terms of narrative I’m pretty easy to please, and any rating and/or combination of gender identities and bodies is cool with me. That said, I do have a few DNWs, mainly: extreme or explicit violence, non-con, horror, and A/B/O.
Things I love (but in no way require) in fic: found family, sex that is urgent, angry, awkward, or familiar and full of laughter (or all of the above), complicated or fucked up power dynamics (please never think anything in this department will be Too Much), quiet devotion, humor, bittersweet endings, day in the life snapshots, tragically stoic characters who only one other person understands, damaged people who are trying, whether it's just to do as little harm as possible, or to heal themselves, even a little (ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ðŸ˜).
All of that said: everything that follows is mere suggestion, nothing more. I am already over the moon that anyone else shares any of these interests, and is willing to write something about one of them for me. Anything you come up with will be incredible.
REQUEST #1: Suspense (Radio), episode: Pearls are a Nuisance! (1950)
This is an old timey radio show that is COMPLETELY WONDERFUL. The canon (linked above) runs under 30 minutes, and that's with ads — you can finish it in no time, especially if you listen to it at 1.25x or 1.5x! Anyway, the story brings together a gruff bruiser (Henry Eigelberger, played by William Bendix) and a cowardly, idle rich boy (Allyn Joslyn as Walter Gage) as the latter tries to track down missing pearls, which he initially assumes the former stole. The two butt heads but quickly become allies (Gage very much likes having a badass criminal pal), and it's just achingly adorable and very funny. Plus, it ends with a super cute letter from Eigelberger to Gage, so they're already going down epistolary paths!
When the story ends, Eigelberger is in Hawaii, and Gage is at home in CA (I think?) with his pushy fiancée, probably bored out of his mind without his cool bro to hang out with and make him feel smart. I would love anything with the two of them, slash or not — I think they're soulmates, and whatever form that takes is cool with me. If you give me then interacting (or really even Gage thinking/writing about Eigelberger), I'll be over the moon.
REQUEST #2: Rebecca (1940). Available here for free, and at the usual rental places.
I know it's weird, but I really love Jack. He's a terrible person, but he genuinely loved Rebecca — the only moment in both the film and the book in which he is staggered, even for a moment, is when he finds out about her illness, and her suffering. I would love to see the two of them interacting at any period in their lives, from childhood on up. We know they grew up together, and that they share(d) both a disregard for social mores and an embrace of carnal pleasures, and I'm here for all of it — or for them just ... talking about quieter things, and being friends. Seeing the hidden side of one or both of them would delight me (they both hid/hide so much), as would seeing them being honest together, about ANYTHING. Letters, journals (Jack's personal musings about Rebecca?!), whatever — give me any and all insights into them and their relationship.
REQUEST #3: The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960). Available for free here.
Forget what the summary says, this movie is about Peter O'Toole (Captain Finch) being completely in love with Aldo Ray (Norgate). Their first fishing date (yes really) is ridiculous, Finch is so smitten he can hardly contain himself and, when they get back to London properly, he starts inviting his new bff to have dinner with him at work (which happens to be The Bank of England, cos he's a rich boy whose job is wearing a uniform and wandering around there) so often that, when Norgate doesn't show up, the ... work butler or whatever is unsettled by his absence. Seriously man, it's unreal.
FWIW, the movie is great even away from their relationship, but it's definitely the best thing about it. And, when the movie ends, Norgate is headed to court and, presumably, jail — perfect time for long, heartfelt letters! Or, if you want, give me an AU in which Norgate escapes, and they're apart but he's free, and their relationship continues through the post. What does that look like? IDK, anything. Anything! It'll all make me so happy.
REQUEST #4: I Married a Witch. Available here for free.
I love Jennifer. I love her power, and her confidence, and the way that she seems to lose nothing of herself when under the sway of a love potion. I also love Dudley, with his determination to put a positive spin on everything, and the way he's so politic that it's in the air he breaths. And I love Estelle: her toughness, and her intelligence, and how she has worked so hard to establish a life for herself outside of her father and his circle. If either of these people hooked up with Jennifer: look out, world! The combination of brains and audacity and power would be genuinely unstoppable, and I just want to see Jennifer and Estelle as allies, or Dudley accidentally getting drawn into being Jennifer's bro, and loving it but trying not to let the outside world see how delighted he is (everyone can see).
REQUEST #1: Suspense (Radio), episode: Pearls are a Nuisance! (1950)
This is an old timey radio show that is COMPLETELY WONDERFUL. The canon (linked above) runs under 30 minutes, and that's with ads — you can finish it in no time, especially if you listen to it at 1.25x or 1.5x! Anyway, the story brings together a gruff bruiser (Henry Eigelberger, played by William Bendix) and a cowardly, idle rich boy (Allyn Joslyn as Walter Gage) as the latter tries to track down missing pearls, which he initially assumes the former stole. The two butt heads but quickly become allies (Gage very much likes having a badass criminal pal), and it's just achingly adorable and very funny. Plus, it ends with a super cute letter from Eigelberger to Gage, so they're already going down epistolary paths!
When the story ends, Eigelberger is in Hawaii, and Gage is at home in CA (I think?) with his pushy fiancée, probably bored out of his mind without his cool bro to hang out with and make him feel smart. I would love anything with the two of them, slash or not — I think they're soulmates, and whatever form that takes is cool with me. If you give me then interacting (or really even Gage thinking/writing about Eigelberger), I'll be over the moon.
REQUEST #2: Rebecca (1940). Available here for free, and at the usual rental places.
I know it's weird, but I really love Jack. He's a terrible person, but he genuinely loved Rebecca — the only moment in both the film and the book in which he is staggered, even for a moment, is when he finds out about her illness, and her suffering. I would love to see the two of them interacting at any period in their lives, from childhood on up. We know they grew up together, and that they share(d) both a disregard for social mores and an embrace of carnal pleasures, and I'm here for all of it — or for them just ... talking about quieter things, and being friends. Seeing the hidden side of one or both of them would delight me (they both hid/hide so much), as would seeing them being honest together, about ANYTHING. Letters, journals (Jack's personal musings about Rebecca?!), whatever — give me any and all insights into them and their relationship.
REQUEST #3: The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960). Available for free here.
Forget what the summary says, this movie is about Peter O'Toole (Captain Finch) being completely in love with Aldo Ray (Norgate). Their first fishing date (yes really) is ridiculous, Finch is so smitten he can hardly contain himself and, when they get back to London properly, he starts inviting his new bff to have dinner with him at work (which happens to be The Bank of England, cos he's a rich boy whose job is wearing a uniform and wandering around there) so often that, when Norgate doesn't show up, the ... work butler or whatever is unsettled by his absence. Seriously man, it's unreal.
FWIW, the movie is great even away from their relationship, but it's definitely the best thing about it. And, when the movie ends, Norgate is headed to court and, presumably, jail — perfect time for long, heartfelt letters! Or, if you want, give me an AU in which Norgate escapes, and they're apart but he's free, and their relationship continues through the post. What does that look like? IDK, anything. Anything! It'll all make me so happy.
REQUEST #4: I Married a Witch. Available here for free.
I love Jennifer. I love her power, and her confidence, and the way that she seems to lose nothing of herself when under the sway of a love potion. I also love Dudley, with his determination to put a positive spin on everything, and the way he's so politic that it's in the air he breaths. And I love Estelle: her toughness, and her intelligence, and how she has worked so hard to establish a life for herself outside of her father and his circle. If either of these people hooked up with Jennifer: look out, world! The combination of brains and audacity and power would be genuinely unstoppable, and I just want to see Jennifer and Estelle as allies, or Dudley accidentally getting drawn into being Jennifer's bro, and loving it but trying not to let the outside world see how delighted he is (everyone can see).
