Dear Author: Every Woman 2018

[burglebezzlemen]

Happy Every Woman! I love this exchange, and I’m excited to see what you come up with.

Please feel free to mix and match my prompts, take a prompt in a different direction, or ignore them entirely. Some of my favorite gifts have been the ones that took my general likes in directions I never would have thought to prompt.

I enjoy fic of all lengths. I’ve mixed up or removed some earlier prompts for these canons to make my requests more appropriate for a 500-word-minimum exchange, but if a prompt from one my my earlier letters inspires you, go for it!

Finally, if I have more prompts for a particular fandom/character, it just means I had more ideas, not that I want it more. All of these fandoms and characters are great. :D

GENERAL LIKES | DNWs | CRAZY EX-GIRLFRIEND | GHOSTBUSTERS | THE GOOD PLACE | HIDDEN LEGACY | THE KATERING SHOW

General Likes

• Slice of life


• Domestic scenes


• Cooking and food


• General shenanigans and hijinkery


• Outdoor activities and the great outdoors


• Epistolary fic


• Outsider POV


• Small towns, whether heartwarming or creepy


• Ghost stories


• Cryptids


• Cursed objects


• Thrift score/eBay purchase gone wrong


• Someone gets turned into an unusual animal


• The Hangover and/or Waking Up In Vegas plotlines


• Someone is accidentally drugged; someone else takes care of them


• Gothic themes, whether subverted or played straight


• Exploring new places together


• Vacations gone awry


• Stuck in the bathroom/elevator/wherever


• Characters coming up with MacGyver-style solutions to problems


• Trapped/stranded by the weather


• Abandoned houses, whether exploring or fixing them up


• Five Times fic


• State-Mandated Ghost Hunting AU


• Undercover as a couple


• Casefic, including unusual cases


• That fic where the characters have to go to a remote island or resort, possibly while pretending to be a couple, in order to investigate a haunting/why everyone has been invited and someone’s killing them off one-by-one/other mystery here

Do Not Wants

My DNWs for these canons:

• Dubcon, noncon, underage, or fic focusing on explicit porn/kink content


• Major character death (although temporary MCD or minor character death in service of a casefic are fine)


• Terminal illness


• Cannibalism


• Animal harm/cruelty


• For Ghostbusters: aro or ace Abby, cat ghosts, or poly ships

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend: Rebecca Bunch

I love this canon, and all the wacky, wonderful characters in it. I’d really enjoy something fun and shenanigan-filled, where the characters get to bounce off one another and show their weirdest sides. And, uh, please feel free to canon-depart before the ending of last season — I’m interested to see where that all goes in canon, but I’d also totally be down with something that just ignored that bit.

I love Heather and Valencia and Paula and all of Rebecca's friendships. For minor characters, I also really enjoy Maya or Father Brah. If you’re feeling more of a shippy vibe, I ship Rebecca/Nathaniel. I’d also be into Rebecca/Valencia, especially if it’s canon-departure from earlier in the series. Background Valencia/Heather or Valencia/Beth is great, too.

• Nathaniel decides to have a Whitefeather & Associates Valentine’s Party (for reasons totally not related to Rebecca Bunch). Someone orders a haunted prom dress off eBay to wear, leading to general hijinks.



• Fake dating for Rebecca/Nathaniel. Maybe there’s a client who thinks married lawyers are better. Maybe Rebecca’s got an old college roommate in town, and things get out of hand. Maybe it’s Buy-One-Get-One Valentine’s Special at Cup of Boba, and Rebecca wants to get her free boba. Or maybe something else!



• Ridiculous soulmate tropes for Rebecca/Nathaniel, and I mean the more ridiculous the better. The soulmate-finding goose. Soulmate-or-500-roaches. That kind.



• State-mandated ghost hunting AU, also great for Rebecca/Nathaniel! Or maybe Heather and Valencia are the ones called, and Rebecca keeps interfering with their jobs because she just wants to help….



• Heather and Rebecca’s creepy murder house ends up actually being haunted. :D And maybe the ghost is a type of person we’d never expect?



• The Hangover would be really fun with in this canon, with pretty much any set of characters. They thought they were going to a totally normal ceramic painting night or something, and end up waking up somewhere weird and having to figure out what happened.

Ghostbusters (2016): Erin Gilbert/Abby Yates, Jillian Holtzmann

I rewatched this recently, and I love it as much as I did two years ago — maybe more. I’d love to get something more about the Ghostbusters, their world, and where they go next!

Holtzman: I’m always a sucker for Holtz’s new inventions and Holtz setting things on fire. Holtz letting down her hair, or someone else taking down her hair for her when she’s injured or incapacitated. Holtz dancing. Ship-wise, I’m good with Holtz/Erin, Holtz/Abby, Holtz/Patty, or Holtz/Jennifer Lynch, or gen fic focusing on just Holtz. Or friendship fic about Holtz and the rest of the Ghostbusters would be amazing!

Abby & Erin: I came out of Ghostbusters shipping Abby/Erin hard, and I love their friendship just as much. Erin literally throws herself into a vortex to save Abby? Yes, please! I love their history together, the way it’s tough but they manage to find their way back to one another. I’d love to see where they go next.

For this canon, I do not want ghost cats, asexual or aromatic Abby, or poly ships. If you’re writing a ship that doesn’t involve Abby, I’m fine with Abby being single or dating someone either on- or off-screen, or with her love life just not being mentioned. I love Kevin, especially as comic relief, but I don’t ship him with any of the Ghostbusters.

• Anything involving ghost investigations, whether in NYC or on the road. A short scene from mid-bust! Setting up a system to monitor ghost incursions! Working through paperwork from City Hall!



• Someone gets accidentally drugged (or something like being drugged — feel free to handwave paranormal reasons for this); someone else has to take care of them.



• Dude, Where’s Ecto 1: The Ghostbusters wake up somewhere unexpected, with fuzzy memories, and have to unravel what happened. Is it a paranormal event?



• Bedsharing is great for any of these ships. Someone’s apartment is uninhabitable (let’s face it, Holtz probably destroys apartments on the regular), or they’re traveling and there’s only one bed.



• I love accidental marriage fics for this canon. Vegas Wedding it up, or have a “wait, the paperwork went through on that?” marriage for Abby/Erin or Abby/Holtz!



• A bust goes wrong, and two or more Ghostbusters end up in an unexpected survival situation. (Maybe one of Holtz’s inventions unexpectedly teleports them somewhere… or somewhen!)



• Something paranormal happens, and as a result, A can't touch B. (Maybe an accident in Holtzman's lab leaves someone negatively-charged ionic blah blah science words that mean they can't touch other people or someone will die. Maybe someone accidentally gets turned into a spirit version of herself and has no mass. Handwave freely.) A doesn't realize how much she wants to touch B until it's suddenly no longer an option... but can the Ghostbusters figure out how to fix this terrible paranormal situation which is totally not an excuse for touch-starvation and angst?

The Good Place: Vicky, Judge Hydrogen

I love this show so much! I love all the characters, but I decided to go with two of my less-written faves. 

Ship-wise, I don’t really have any ships for Judge Gen. I enjoy seeing Vicky with Chidi, Eleanor, or Tahani, either in a “messing with them” way or in a “maybe there’s feelings here but Vicky’s never going to admit it” way. For background ships, go nuts. 

Worldbuilding is always amazing in this canon, so if you have a worldbuildy idea that you’re excited about, go for it! 

• I loved the bits about Judge Gen making slideshows and stuff. She's all-knowing and has to sit in a room doing nothing for 30 years at a time -- how does she cope? Nowadays the answer seems to be internet + media, but what was it like in, say, the 1300s, or Roman times?



• After the success of her slideshow, Judge Gen decides to try other ridiculous traditions. Maybe she decides that she, Janet, and Michael are going to get some strong magnets (Janet) and some concept-of-time (Gen and Michael) and play Never Have I Ever. Maybe she decides everyone’s having a sleepover. Maybe something even worse!



• Five Cases Judge Gen Didn’t Take (And One She Did)



• Judge Gen starts a food blog! What would her long, rambling recipe intros look like? (Or for that matter, her recipes?)



• A look at some aspect of Vicky’s life after Shawn lets her out of that cocoon. What’s changed back in the Bad Place? Is it hard going back to normal torture when you could have been something great?



• Chidi/Vicky set during the final reboot. Vicky starts making demon!romantic overtures to Chidi — just normal flirty stuff, like filling his scalp with needles or having him sit still while fish nibble on his feet. Maybe killing him a unicorn or two. Michael ends up having to clue Chidi in.



• A look at Vicky’s role in one of the stranger reboots, like monk!reboot or clown!reboot or farm!reboot or the one where Eleanor’s soulmate was a dog. 



• Vicky gets wasted and tries to trash the Good Place exhibit at the museum.



• Vicky/Eleanor in which Vicky makes it to Earth to try to tempt Eleanor back to the dark side. Unfortunately, Eleanor’s harder to tempt than Vicky remembers. Hotter, too. 

Hidden Legacy: Grandma Frida, Arabella Baylor, Catalina Baylor, Arabella & Catalina & Nevada

I’m so excited we’re getting more in this world! I love the worldbuilding, and all of the characters. 

I love gen focusing on the various Baylor family relationships. If you want to go with a ship, Catalina/Alessandro is fine. I also loved the scene of Arabella and Augustine together in the second book when I re-read recently, so I’d be here for Arabella/Augustine as long as Arabella’s a bit older when they get together, like maybe early-mid 20s? I’m not tied to either of those ships, though, and I’d be open to OC love interests for either Catalina or Arabella. For background ships, I’m good with Nevada/Rogan.

I love the worldbuilding in this canon — everything around the powers, Houses, marriages, etc., but also some of the other stuff, like the magic-warped places where things don’t work the way you’d expect. I also love it when a power that seems straightforward gets used in a way you don’t expect, like Cornelius’s ferret heist.

While I’d be interested in a bachelorette party fic, I’m probably less interested in fic focused on Nevada and Rogan’s wedding/wedding planning, as I feel like that topic has been pretty well covered already.

• We know Frida is 74 now. If we assume the books are roughly present-day, she was born sometime around WWII (whatever that looked like in this world) and would have been growing up in the 1950s. How did she discover or come into her power? What was it like, being a girl with a mechanical talent back then? Or does the way this world works mean things were already more equal than in our timeline?



• I love all the background about Herald. A fic revolving around how the emerging House Baylor gets written about in Herald could be amazing, esp. if we get to see how the characters react to all of that!



• On a related note, I love Grandma Frida’s obsession with the social media side of this world, and I especially love the idea of Grandma Frida accidentally becoming House Baylor’s social media expert. Maybe someone from Texas Monthly comes to interview the emerging House Baylor and figures they have an amazing social media consultant, because their social media game is on point… and then finds out the person responsible for that is the 74-year-old grandmother who’s been reading Herald since it’s existed.



• Catalina comes across someone else who’s immune to her powers.



• At school, some kids ask Arabella to look into a local legend/ghost story/whatever with them. She didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into.



• Catalina and/or Arabella get set up on a series of dates with guys with increasingly strange powers.



• With Victoria in her prison, the Baylor sisters have to travel to her house to deal with things. Or Victoria dies, and the Baylor sisters are left something in her will. Something they want? Something they don’t? Something terrifying? 



• Catalina, Arabella, and Grandma Frida surprise Nevada with the bachelorette party she never wanted. Unfortunately, none of them expected that the swanky resort they're celebrating at is hiding a dark secret. Or maybe someone asks them to pose as a bachelorette party to go undercover for a case! Or heck, a scene of Grandma Frida picking out bachelorette party swag would also be amazing. :D

The Katering Show: Kate McCartney & Kate McLennan

This show makes me so happy! I think I mainlined all the episodes in a day and a half when I found them. I love both the Kates and their enthusiastic (McLennan) and apathetic (McCartney) exploration of food culture. Cooking, snark -- this is the best. :D

I'd be delighted by gen or ship for this request, but if you are interested in writing ship fic, I ship Kate/Kate. (Kate2? McMc?) 

I would like to note that my request here is for the characters they play on the show. While I realize it’s a fine line in a fandom like this one, I’m interested in FPF that relies on the show, rather than on sources about their real life. Non-specific mentions of them having partners and children are fine, but I don’t want their actual RL partners and children included, if that makes sense. 

• A lost episode of The Katering Show! Some possible ideas: urban foraging, craft cocktails, Tea Culture, home fermentation, comfort food -- anything would be great! Or maybe the Kates go to a farm, and things do not go well. (If you're interested, I'm totally open to script-format for this, btw!)



• I love McCartney's cat Beans and would love a fic involving Beans. Also great: McLennan's jealousy of Beans, which I find hilarious.



• Five Times McLennan was totally joking about being attracted to McCartney... and one time she admitted the truth. 



• McCartney starts accidentally dreamwalking into McLennan’s dreams. It’s a really weird place in there. 



• The Kates get bought out by Buzzfeed Australia and have to participate in one of Buzzfeed’s tropiest video concepts. Single People Get Married For A Week, We Tried [Insert Embarrassing Thing Here], We Lived In [Ridiculous Living Situation Here], forced to take a lie detector test, swimming with sharks — go for it.



• McCartney's terrible apartment finally burns down, and she's looking for a new place. McLennan's feeling weird about it.



• Freaky Friday body-swap! McLennan finally realizes that McCartney was telling the truth when she said she wasn’t that interested in cheese, while McCartney is flummoxed by what food does to her new palate. Can they manage to host an episode while trying to stay in character as one another?