Dear Yuletide Author
Oct. 13th, 2023 11:11 am![[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. Also, if you've not been matched with me and are here anyway, treats are more than welcome!
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 and torture, noncon or dubcon (unless specified for the fandom), 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, and 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: The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960).
Available for free here; here is my promo post.
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 proper, 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. And, when Finch gets all sad, where does he go? TO NORGATE OF COURSE TO POUR OUT HIS HEART. Seriously man, it's unreal.
FWIW, the movie is great even away from their relationship, but it's definitely the best thing about it. The movie ends with Norgate getting caught, of course, and it's Finch who figures everything out to get him nabbed, which is a perfect setup for anything you could want — angsty soul-searching, apologies, reconciliation by prison visits, etc, etc. Me, I feel like Norgate would forgive pretty easily, since Finch was just doing his job, and since Finch obviously loves Norgate more than the dumb job, there's a fabulous future there, whether it's an exciting prison break (engineered by newly born scofflaw Monty Finch), or Finch declaring his love and waiting for Norgate to be released. Or an AU, where Finch throws in with Norgate, they successfully rob the bank, and run off to crime and bang and have the happiest of happy endings. For real though, as with all of my requests: reading them together is all I need to be thrilled.
REQUEST #2: The Twilight Zone: Dead Man's Shoes (TV 1962)
Available on DVD and to buy as a single episode on Amazon and YT; my promo post is here.
So, basically, a violent gangster type is murdered and dumped in an alley. When an unhoused person finds and put on the dead guy's flashy shoes, he also puts on the guy's personality and memories (or, I guess, his soul?). He looks just the same, but his behavioral similarity to the original owner of the shoes that the guy's girlfriend very quickly knows who is wearing this stranger's meatsuit.
ANYWAY. The new meatsuit is killed at the end of the episode, but the shoes live on, and I am OBSESSED with both a)the idea of the cycle continuing and the guy's girlfriend (her name is Wilma) figuring it out, and navigating this new normal, or b)the meatsuit not dying, and the story continuing with him and Wilma and whatever the hell they do with this bizarre situation. Honestly, if you're into this kind of mindfuck scenario, go wild with it — AU it up, if that's what you feel like, or dig into the timeloop element for Wilma, or reveal the criminal mastermind that she turns into once she understands how the shoes work, and how to use them. Honestly I would love to see a Wilma-focused story, b/c it's clear that the gangster (Dane) dominates here completely, and it would be amazing to see her begin to assert herself as the only one who actually understands what is going on in this bizarro world.
REQUEST #3: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
REQUEST #1: The Day They Robbed the Bank of England (1960).
Available for free here; here is my promo post.
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 proper, 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. And, when Finch gets all sad, where does he go? TO NORGATE OF COURSE TO POUR OUT HIS HEART. Seriously man, it's unreal.
FWIW, the movie is great even away from their relationship, but it's definitely the best thing about it. The movie ends with Norgate getting caught, of course, and it's Finch who figures everything out to get him nabbed, which is a perfect setup for anything you could want — angsty soul-searching, apologies, reconciliation by prison visits, etc, etc. Me, I feel like Norgate would forgive pretty easily, since Finch was just doing his job, and since Finch obviously loves Norgate more than the dumb job, there's a fabulous future there, whether it's an exciting prison break (engineered by newly born scofflaw Monty Finch), or Finch declaring his love and waiting for Norgate to be released. Or an AU, where Finch throws in with Norgate, they successfully rob the bank, and run off to crime and bang and have the happiest of happy endings. For real though, as with all of my requests: reading them together is all I need to be thrilled.
REQUEST #2: The Twilight Zone: Dead Man's Shoes (TV 1962)
Available on DVD and to buy as a single episode on Amazon and YT; my promo post is here.
So, basically, a violent gangster type is murdered and dumped in an alley. When an unhoused person finds and put on the dead guy's flashy shoes, he also puts on the guy's personality and memories (or, I guess, his soul?). He looks just the same, but his behavioral similarity to the original owner of the shoes that the guy's girlfriend very quickly knows who is wearing this stranger's meatsuit.
ANYWAY. The new meatsuit is killed at the end of the episode, but the shoes live on, and I am OBSESSED with both a)the idea of the cycle continuing and the guy's girlfriend (her name is Wilma) figuring it out, and navigating this new normal, or b)the meatsuit not dying, and the story continuing with him and Wilma and whatever the hell they do with this bizarre situation. Honestly, if you're into this kind of mindfuck scenario, go wild with it — AU it up, if that's what you feel like, or dig into the timeloop element for Wilma, or reveal the criminal mastermind that she turns into once she understands how the shoes work, and how to use them. Honestly I would love to see a Wilma-focused story, b/c it's clear that the gangster (Dane) dominates here completely, and it would be amazing to see her begin to assert herself as the only one who actually understands what is going on in this bizarro world.
REQUEST #3: The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
Available free here (ok.ru); also rentable at the usual places.
I am obsessed with the way Cora is with Arthur Keats. (Note: dubcon is extremely ok with these two.) If you've not seen the movie, in this version of the story, Keats is her lawyer, and is literally the only one who can get Cora off balance. She's completely in charge in her relationships with both her husband and her lover, and she's a dominant presence in the rest of her life, too — an authority figure so sure of her own power that no one dares brook it. But Keats does. Not only that, but he expects Cora to obey him — and she does. Y'all, it's so incredibly hot to watch them together: he is almost obnoxiously casual in his command because he knows she'll give in, and she's, like, both furious and angrily curious, because she's literally never met anyone who can do this to her?
As someone who is very (very) into fucked up fictional power dynamics, this relationship is on my personal Old Hollywood Mount Rushmore. I would weep with joy to read anything about these two, the dirtier the better. I'm not even sure that Keats is into girls (a throwaway line tells us he's got a wife, but his relationship with the DA is so casually close I would 100% believe they were a couple), or even if physical intimacy is his thing, but he likes power, and I would love to see him using it on Cora is a more ~private~ setting, whether or not it was explicitly sexual. How does she get her head in a place where she can accept what he can do to her? Or does she never get there, and their relationship is never anything other than deeply unhealthy and badwrong (but also: hot). Either of their POVs would be fascinating, because Cora is not stupid, and she can improvise like the rest of us breathe — can she even handle being at this dude's mercy, no matter how hard she tries to regain the upper hand? And what does Keats think of her? Is she just someone whose mind he wants to fuck with because he can, or is it more than that? Different?
Also, I'm kinda fascinated by evil!hypnosis movies recently, and I love the idea of Keats as a stage hypnotist, and Cora as either his assistant or some girl who ends up interacting with him (extra points if she's all "this shit is so fake come on"), and falls under his sway.
REQUEST #4: Les Enfants du Paradis | Children of Paradise (1945)
streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, and Criterion Channel
Listen, I am but a simple woman with simple needs, and I love Pierre Brasseur and every character he ever played to the moon and back. Thus, if you give me anything involving Frédérick, I will weep with joy. (None of the other characters need to be around but, if they are, that's totally cool.) Frédérick and Lacenaire, continuing to be amazing together? Incredible! An AU about vampire!Frédérick? Fuck yeah! The complex villain (?) in a hard-boiled detective novel? Shit yes! COWBOY FRÉDÉRICK? INJECT IT DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS. ANYTHING ANYTHING ANYTHING.
REQUEST #4: Les Enfants du Paradis | Children of Paradise (1945)
streaming on Amazon, Apple TV, and Criterion Channel
Listen, I am but a simple woman with simple needs, and I love Pierre Brasseur and every character he ever played to the moon and back. Thus, if you give me anything involving Frédérick, I will weep with joy. (None of the other characters need to be around but, if they are, that's totally cool.) Frédérick and Lacenaire, continuing to be amazing together? Incredible! An AU about vampire!Frédérick? Fuck yeah! The complex villain (?) in a hard-boiled detective novel? Shit yes! COWBOY FRÉDÉRICK? INJECT IT DIRECTLY INTO MY VEINS. ANYTHING ANYTHING ANYTHING.
