burglebezzlemen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
burglebezzlemen) wrote2019-06-22 07:15 am
burglebezzlemen) wrote2019-06-22 07:15 am
Dear Author: Every Woman
Every Woman has always been one of my favorite exchanges of the year, and I’m so happy it’s back. :D I’m looking forward to seeing whatever you create!
I love all of these characters, and I will be delighted to get a gift for any of them. If I have more prompts for a given character or canon, it just means I had more ideas/was requesting more characters, not that I want it more.
I’ve made some updates from my earlier requests for these fandoms, mostly to try to keep my prompts to things that are shorter-minimum-friendly, and to try to keep this letter from being hideously long(er than it already was). But in the unlikely event that you’re interested in one of my earlier prompts that didn’t get included here, go for it!
I’m also here for something different, if you have a story you’d love to tell about one of the characters I’ve requested (provided it doesn’t run into a DNW). Some of my favorite gifts have been ones I would never have thought to prompt! And I hope you also feel free to mix and match, take part of a prompt and leave the rest, etc.
General Likes
General dislikes and DNWs
I tend to prefer canon-typical levels of sexual content, which for these canons would mean nothing explicit. That being said, if you need to include a scene that’s a step above fade-to-black for reasons of the plot, I totally get it! I’m just not interested in smut/porn as the main focus of the fic.
My DNWs for these canons:
Ghostbusters (2016): Abby
I love all the Ghostbusters with all my heart. For this exchange, I would love to get a fic that puts Abby front and center. I love Erin/Holtz, and I love Patty, and there's awesome fic out there focusing on all of them. While I've read some great Abby fic, I've found she's more likely to show up as a supportive best friend or Team Mom Abby. I'd really love to see something that focuses on Abby for the awesome character she is!
In canon, Abby is committed to the science, and she's willing to do some dangerous shit to further her research goals. And she also has fun — she and Holtz have obviously played their ghost fart to enough people to have a baseline to compare Erin's reaction to. :D The way I see it, Abby from canon isn't worrying about insurance coverage. She's one of the reasons the Ghostbusters have trouble *getting* insurance coverage. In her own way, she's every bit as much of a science-obsessed emotional failboat as Holtz, and I'd love to see something exploring that.
Gen is great. Fic including the whole team is great, and fic about just Abby is great. If you're into shipfic, I do ship Erin/Abby and Abby/Holtz, and either of those would also be great. I don't think I've run across Abby/Patty before, but if that's your ship, I'm here for it!
For this canon, I DNW: ghost cats; Abby being written as explicitly aromantic or asexual (just not mentioning her love life/lack thereof is fine); or Kevin/any Ghostbuster. I enjoy Kevin a lot as comic relief, and gen fic about Abby & Kevin could be great — Abby’s got that whole "we almost had him trained!" vibe going on and I love it — but I'm not interested in seeing any of the Ghostbusters crushing on him.
-Busting ghosts! I love busting ghosts. :D What goes wrong? What goes right? Does Abby ever end up heading out on a bust alone? How does Holtz's newest experimental project go wildly awry in the field?
-Abby in the aftermath of Erin leaving. How does she get set up at Higgins? How does she come to work with Holtz? I could totally see her rescuing Holtz from the East River at 3 AM in the aftermath of a failed experiment, or inviting Holtz to stay with her after Holtz is evicted. :D
-A research project where Abby and Patty get to work together. I love Patty's skillset, and I think it's really valuable to their research! I'd love to see them working towards a common goal.
-Abby and Erin repairing their relationship! What's it like, going back to X-Files marathons again after so many years apart? Is it weird? is it weird how much it's *not* weird? Are there things they can say now that they couldn't say before?
-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?
Giant Days: Daisy, Esther, Susan
Giant Days! I love this comic and everyone in it. :D
I’m keeping up with this one in the floppies, and I’ve read all the Christmas specials, the Boom Box! shorts, and the original three issues, so no worries on spoilers. Also, if you’ve only read part of the canon so far, that’s totally fine — I’m interested in stuff set anywhere in the story.
Gen about any one of these characters or any combo would be amazing. If you are into shipfic, McGraw/Susan is my OTP in this canon. I’m enjoying Ed/Nina a lot in canon, so I’m probably not as into Ed/Esther at this point? I’m totally open to Daisy/OFC and Esther/OC. But really, my biggest ship in this canon is their friendship!
If you’re familiar with the Greater Tackleford Universe, I’ve read Bobbins (original flavor, Bobbins.horse, and New Bobbins), Bad Machinery, and Destroying History. I haven’t read Scary Go Round. If you want to pull someone in from the larger universe, I especially love Shelley, Amy, and Charlotte.
-The flat is haunted. Esther is delighted at first, but it turns out the ghost has more in common… with DAISY??
-Esther buys something at a boot sale, only to discover it’s cursed. At first she hopes it’s good cursed, but events suggest otherwise.
-Susan and McGraw buy their first flat. Too bad it’s haunted by the ghost of a very bad handyman… or maybe just by the ghost of all of the former owner’s terrible DIY projects.
-I feel like this comic is right on my wavelength with the accidental drugging plotlines (Daisy and the Poundland cold medicine, Susan at the music festival, etc.). If that's something you’re into, keep it coming.
-Susan’s (canonical) work experience as a PI fascinates me, and I’ve loved every single time it’s come up in the comic. What else could happen to make her use those skills? Maybe Daisy or Esther don’t know they need her help… but they do. Or another noir story from Susan’s perspective could be amazing!
-McGraw, possibly with assistance, comes up with a series of increasingly ridiculous plots to try to steal and clean Susan’s laptop.
-During her recovery from her breakup with Ingrid, Daisy takes up an unusual hobby, like moss graffiti or ultrarunning.
-Daisy comes up with an unusual solution to one of her mentee’s problems.
-Esther, looking to make more money than the comics shop allows, starts a business selling glitter-stuffed envelopes for revenge delivery, and does surprisingly well. Then someone starts placing orders to be sent to Susan.
-I feel like this would be an amazing canon for a State-Mandated Ghost Hunters AU! For a gen take, maybe Daisy and Susan end up as the ghost speaker and ghost fighter, and Esther is just, like, so offended not to be included. Or maybe it’s an AU where Susan and McGraw haven’t yet reconciled, and they get called to serve together. Awkward! But I bet McGraw could make a mean scythe.
Hidden Legacy: Arabella, Catalina, Grandma Frida, Runa
Hidden Legacy! I love this canon, and I’d love a chance to see more of any of these four. I’ve read the canon through Diamond Fire, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Catalina take center stage in the next set of books.
Gen is great here. I’m also happy if you want to include a ship or ships! I’m good with Nevada/Rogan as a background ship. If you want to work in a love interest for Catalina and/or Arabella, Catalina/Alessando is fine and I’d be good with Arabella/Augustine as long as Arabella’s a bit older when they get together, like maybe early-mid 20s? I’d also be interested in seeing more of Catalina and Runa together, whether it’s romantic or just as good friends. OC love interests for any of these characters would also be fine. (Grandma Frida spends a lot of time teasing her grandkids about their love lives. Maybe they turn the tables and find a match for her!)
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.
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 in both canon and fic.
-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.
-With Victoria in her prison, the Baylor sisters have to travel to her house to deal with things. (What would her house even be like? I am so curious.) While packing up the house, they stumble across another aspect of their legacy — one they didn’t expect.
-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 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.
-Or to broaden this out — epistolary fic or fic in the form of a magazine article or a collection of snippets from social media could be awesome here! What sorts of fics are getting written about House Baylor? How do Arabella and Catalina react to them?
-Or maybe people on Herald start shipping Catalina, Arabella, or Runa with [OC]. She decides she wants to find out why.
-Houston must still get hit by non-magical emergencies, right? It could be interesting to see something like an emergency response fic, and how different powers might help with that. Or maybe the characters aren’t sure if the situation is caused by magic or just bad luck, and need to look into the situation.
-Runa can ingest and neutralize any poison, which made me wonder about, like, forbidden fruits. Can she help someone eat something they're allergic to even if it's not a poison to other people? Is her kitchen basically toxic to anyone who's not her? Are there unexpectedly delicious things Runa can eat that are poisonous to most people, and if so, could she safely share them?
-What’s it like growing up as a poison mage? Is it challenging in other ways from what the Baylor kids had to grow up with, with their powers?
-Catalina comes across someone else who’s immune to her powers.
-What do urban legends or creepypasta look like in this universe? I would imagine Arabella especially could inspire scary stories… or star in one as the unexpected heroine. Outsider POV and/or epistolary totally welcome!
Edited 7/10:On the off-chance that you're checking and were wondering: I have read the new short story linked on the authors' blog. :D So many new questions! If you want to run with this, please do. (And if you've already created something, no worries at all, for real.) How did Arabella learn that she could do that? How long has she been hiding it from her family? *Why* is she hiding it from her family? (How is she hiding it from Nevada, I mean, really....) And how do they find out? What other aspects of the Beast can she use?
Hive Mind - Janet Edwards: Amber, Buzz, Claire, Nicole
I love this series. :D I’m always here for special, special telepaths and the people who love and serve them, so this series was an easy hit right on the sweet spot for my id… and then the author threw in some really interesting worldbuilding, too.
I love how the Hive isn’t a dystopia or a utopia, but something in between — some things are obviously better than our world, and some things are obviously worse, and some things are just different. It’s a fascinating balance and I love the unique view Amber gets of that world.
If you want to include a ship, I love Amber/Lucas — I am rather OTP-ish about them in this canon, so I’d rather not see them break up or go through a love triangle situation. I’m also here for Nicole/OC, Nicole/Melisande, Nicole/Buzz, Buzz/Melisande, Nicole/Atticus, or Claire/OC. Buzz/Forge is interesting too — I like the fact that neither of them are really certain how things are going, and the way they both have tough emotional stuff in their pasts. I’m really curious to learn more about whatever Buzz isn’t telling Amber about her own emotional damage. Buzz has a lot figured out, but I have a feeling she’s got a blind spot about her own emotions.
For Claire, I’d be delighted by fic focusing on her experiences as a telepath or some challenge faced by her unit while she was alive. Or if you’re interested, it could also be really interesting to see something with scenes with both Claire’s perspective in the past and someone else's perspective in the present. Maybe one case connects the two time periods? Or maybe someone in the present day finds some message or journal that Claire kept and left for the next telepath to occupy the unit. Or I’d even be here for reincarnation — maybe Gideon is right, and Claire has already returned to the Hive and will be a new true telepath in another 15 years or so!
-I’d love to see more of the milk run operations, where everything goes smoothly! What do more typical runs look like? What kinds of places do they get to go? I’d also love to see a run from Nicole or Buzz's perspective, since we don’t get to see that in canon!
-Backstory fic for any of the requested characters! I think Perilous (the prequel novella with Amber and Forge) may actually be my favorite of the books. I loved seeing Amber respond to an emergency without her Unit backing her up, and I also adored all of the details about daily life in the Hive. It could be really fun to see that sort of backstory for another one of the requested characters. What was their time on Teen Level like? How do their actions on Teen Level show the sorts of people they'll become? Their choices on Freedom Day?
-Nicole comes across a problem that requires a cover-up — or comes across a cover-up and recognizes it as such.
-Claire’s strong sense of justice leads her to confront someone — or come up with a scheme to solve the problem another way. Or what about the first time she used her love of Shakespeare in her work? Did Claire want to be an actress or poet, the way Melisande wanted to be a musician?
-Buzz’s relationship with her parents. Given some of the comments she made about teachers in Hurricane, it seems like that relationship may be a tense one! Was Buzz a "resilient" child at home, and how did that play out?
-We’ve seen several urban legends the Hive uses to encourage specific behavior (“Level 99,” the fear of Outside, etc.). What other urban legends does the Hive have, and how might they come into play during a case? Do any of our characters ever have to invent/establish an urban legend while doing their jobs? Is there some Hive equivalent of creepypasta?
-Someone discovers a part of Amber’s unit that has been walled off since Claire’s time, and it’s hiding something. How did the area go undiscovered? What’s inside?
-One of the things I adore about this series is the way the Hive system includes people with all different abilities, including sometimes-invisible disabilities like Nicole’s. Did Nicole ever worry that her physical restrictions would prevent her from working a job she loves? How did that affect settling into Amber’s team (if it did)?
-Emergency response-related fic is my jam, and I’ve really enjoyed the emergency response competency we’ve seen in canon. I’d love to see more of any of these characters responding to emergencies! We’ve already seen a blackout. What other emergencies does the Hive prepare for? Are there ever storms outside large enough that they affect the inside of the Hive?
-Epidemic fic. We know the fear (and reality?) of epidemics was one of the reasons why the Hives were closed to travel. What if an epidemic hits Hive England... and Claire or Amber’s Unit has to get to the bottom of it? Could it be sabotage from disaffected Hive researchers, or sabotage from another Hive? How would the Hive and its citizens respond? Or what if the illness hit Amber's unit?
-Through her work with Amber, Buzz works out a potential method to make borderline telepaths into true telepaths. Would she try it on herself? Tell others?
-More about the Hive’s festivals! We’ve seen Carnival and Halloween a little, but what are New Year and Valentine like? Are the holidays a busy time for Amber’s unit? Are there other holidays that aren't officially sanctioned, but are still celebrated?
I love all of these characters, and I will be delighted to get a gift for any of them. If I have more prompts for a given character or canon, it just means I had more ideas/was requesting more characters, not that I want it more.
I’ve made some updates from my earlier requests for these fandoms, mostly to try to keep my prompts to things that are shorter-minimum-friendly, and to try to keep this letter from being hideously long(er than it already was). But in the unlikely event that you’re interested in one of my earlier prompts that didn’t get included here, go for it!
I’m also here for something different, if you have a story you’d love to tell about one of the characters I’ve requested (provided it doesn’t run into a DNW). Some of my favorite gifts have been ones I would never have thought to prompt! And I hope you also feel free to mix and match, take part of a prompt and leave the rest, etc.
General Likes
- Slice of life
- Domestic scenes
- Cooking and food
- General shenanigans and hijinkery
- Outdoor activities and the great outdoors
- Characters solving problems
- Established relationships
- Get-togethers
- 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
- 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
General dislikes and DNWs
I tend to prefer canon-typical levels of sexual content, which for these canons would mean nothing explicit. That being said, if you need to include a scene that’s a step above fade-to-black for reasons of the plot, I totally get it! I’m just not interested in smut/porn as the main focus of the fic.
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)
- Unrequested poly, open relationships, or incest
- Serious or terminal illness
- Cannibalism
- Animal harm/cruelty
- Ghost cats
- For Ghostbusters (2016), Abby being written as explicitly aromantic or asexual (just not mentioning her love life/lack thereof is fine); or Kevin/any Ghostbuster.
Ghostbusters (2016): Abby
I love all the Ghostbusters with all my heart. For this exchange, I would love to get a fic that puts Abby front and center. I love Erin/Holtz, and I love Patty, and there's awesome fic out there focusing on all of them. While I've read some great Abby fic, I've found she's more likely to show up as a supportive best friend or Team Mom Abby. I'd really love to see something that focuses on Abby for the awesome character she is!
In canon, Abby is committed to the science, and she's willing to do some dangerous shit to further her research goals. And she also has fun — she and Holtz have obviously played their ghost fart to enough people to have a baseline to compare Erin's reaction to. :D The way I see it, Abby from canon isn't worrying about insurance coverage. She's one of the reasons the Ghostbusters have trouble *getting* insurance coverage. In her own way, she's every bit as much of a science-obsessed emotional failboat as Holtz, and I'd love to see something exploring that.
Gen is great. Fic including the whole team is great, and fic about just Abby is great. If you're into shipfic, I do ship Erin/Abby and Abby/Holtz, and either of those would also be great. I don't think I've run across Abby/Patty before, but if that's your ship, I'm here for it!
For this canon, I DNW: ghost cats; Abby being written as explicitly aromantic or asexual (just not mentioning her love life/lack thereof is fine); or Kevin/any Ghostbuster. I enjoy Kevin a lot as comic relief, and gen fic about Abby & Kevin could be great — Abby’s got that whole "we almost had him trained!" vibe going on and I love it — but I'm not interested in seeing any of the Ghostbusters crushing on him.
-Busting ghosts! I love busting ghosts. :D What goes wrong? What goes right? Does Abby ever end up heading out on a bust alone? How does Holtz's newest experimental project go wildly awry in the field?
-Abby in the aftermath of Erin leaving. How does she get set up at Higgins? How does she come to work with Holtz? I could totally see her rescuing Holtz from the East River at 3 AM in the aftermath of a failed experiment, or inviting Holtz to stay with her after Holtz is evicted. :D
-A research project where Abby and Patty get to work together. I love Patty's skillset, and I think it's really valuable to their research! I'd love to see them working towards a common goal.
-Abby and Erin repairing their relationship! What's it like, going back to X-Files marathons again after so many years apart? Is it weird? is it weird how much it's *not* weird? Are there things they can say now that they couldn't say before?
-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?
Giant Days: Daisy, Esther, Susan
Giant Days! I love this comic and everyone in it. :D
I’m keeping up with this one in the floppies, and I’ve read all the Christmas specials, the Boom Box! shorts, and the original three issues, so no worries on spoilers. Also, if you’ve only read part of the canon so far, that’s totally fine — I’m interested in stuff set anywhere in the story.
Gen about any one of these characters or any combo would be amazing. If you are into shipfic, McGraw/Susan is my OTP in this canon. I’m enjoying Ed/Nina a lot in canon, so I’m probably not as into Ed/Esther at this point? I’m totally open to Daisy/OFC and Esther/OC. But really, my biggest ship in this canon is their friendship!
If you’re familiar with the Greater Tackleford Universe, I’ve read Bobbins (original flavor, Bobbins.horse, and New Bobbins), Bad Machinery, and Destroying History. I haven’t read Scary Go Round. If you want to pull someone in from the larger universe, I especially love Shelley, Amy, and Charlotte.
-The flat is haunted. Esther is delighted at first, but it turns out the ghost has more in common… with DAISY??
-Esther buys something at a boot sale, only to discover it’s cursed. At first she hopes it’s good cursed, but events suggest otherwise.
-Susan and McGraw buy their first flat. Too bad it’s haunted by the ghost of a very bad handyman… or maybe just by the ghost of all of the former owner’s terrible DIY projects.
-I feel like this comic is right on my wavelength with the accidental drugging plotlines (Daisy and the Poundland cold medicine, Susan at the music festival, etc.). If that's something you’re into, keep it coming.
-Susan’s (canonical) work experience as a PI fascinates me, and I’ve loved every single time it’s come up in the comic. What else could happen to make her use those skills? Maybe Daisy or Esther don’t know they need her help… but they do. Or another noir story from Susan’s perspective could be amazing!
-McGraw, possibly with assistance, comes up with a series of increasingly ridiculous plots to try to steal and clean Susan’s laptop.
-During her recovery from her breakup with Ingrid, Daisy takes up an unusual hobby, like moss graffiti or ultrarunning.
-Daisy comes up with an unusual solution to one of her mentee’s problems.
-Esther, looking to make more money than the comics shop allows, starts a business selling glitter-stuffed envelopes for revenge delivery, and does surprisingly well. Then someone starts placing orders to be sent to Susan.
-I feel like this would be an amazing canon for a State-Mandated Ghost Hunters AU! For a gen take, maybe Daisy and Susan end up as the ghost speaker and ghost fighter, and Esther is just, like, so offended not to be included. Or maybe it’s an AU where Susan and McGraw haven’t yet reconciled, and they get called to serve together. Awkward! But I bet McGraw could make a mean scythe.
Hidden Legacy: Arabella, Catalina, Grandma Frida, Runa
Hidden Legacy! I love this canon, and I’d love a chance to see more of any of these four. I’ve read the canon through Diamond Fire, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Catalina take center stage in the next set of books.
Gen is great here. I’m also happy if you want to include a ship or ships! I’m good with Nevada/Rogan as a background ship. If you want to work in a love interest for Catalina and/or Arabella, Catalina/Alessando is fine and I’d be good with Arabella/Augustine as long as Arabella’s a bit older when they get together, like maybe early-mid 20s? I’d also be interested in seeing more of Catalina and Runa together, whether it’s romantic or just as good friends. OC love interests for any of these characters would also be fine. (Grandma Frida spends a lot of time teasing her grandkids about their love lives. Maybe they turn the tables and find a match for her!)
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.
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 in both canon and fic.
-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.
-With Victoria in her prison, the Baylor sisters have to travel to her house to deal with things. (What would her house even be like? I am so curious.) While packing up the house, they stumble across another aspect of their legacy — one they didn’t expect.
-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 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.
-Or to broaden this out — epistolary fic or fic in the form of a magazine article or a collection of snippets from social media could be awesome here! What sorts of fics are getting written about House Baylor? How do Arabella and Catalina react to them?
-Or maybe people on Herald start shipping Catalina, Arabella, or Runa with [OC]. She decides she wants to find out why.
-Houston must still get hit by non-magical emergencies, right? It could be interesting to see something like an emergency response fic, and how different powers might help with that. Or maybe the characters aren’t sure if the situation is caused by magic or just bad luck, and need to look into the situation.
-Runa can ingest and neutralize any poison, which made me wonder about, like, forbidden fruits. Can she help someone eat something they're allergic to even if it's not a poison to other people? Is her kitchen basically toxic to anyone who's not her? Are there unexpectedly delicious things Runa can eat that are poisonous to most people, and if so, could she safely share them?
-What’s it like growing up as a poison mage? Is it challenging in other ways from what the Baylor kids had to grow up with, with their powers?
-Catalina comes across someone else who’s immune to her powers.
-What do urban legends or creepypasta look like in this universe? I would imagine Arabella especially could inspire scary stories… or star in one as the unexpected heroine. Outsider POV and/or epistolary totally welcome!
Edited 7/10:On the off-chance that you're checking and were wondering: I have read the new short story linked on the authors' blog. :D So many new questions! If you want to run with this, please do. (And if you've already created something, no worries at all, for real.) How did Arabella learn that she could do that? How long has she been hiding it from her family? *Why* is she hiding it from her family? (How is she hiding it from Nevada, I mean, really....) And how do they find out? What other aspects of the Beast can she use?
Hive Mind - Janet Edwards: Amber, Buzz, Claire, Nicole
I love this series. :D I’m always here for special, special telepaths and the people who love and serve them, so this series was an easy hit right on the sweet spot for my id… and then the author threw in some really interesting worldbuilding, too.
I love how the Hive isn’t a dystopia or a utopia, but something in between — some things are obviously better than our world, and some things are obviously worse, and some things are just different. It’s a fascinating balance and I love the unique view Amber gets of that world.
If you want to include a ship, I love Amber/Lucas — I am rather OTP-ish about them in this canon, so I’d rather not see them break up or go through a love triangle situation. I’m also here for Nicole/OC, Nicole/Melisande, Nicole/Buzz, Buzz/Melisande, Nicole/Atticus, or Claire/OC. Buzz/Forge is interesting too — I like the fact that neither of them are really certain how things are going, and the way they both have tough emotional stuff in their pasts. I’m really curious to learn more about whatever Buzz isn’t telling Amber about her own emotional damage. Buzz has a lot figured out, but I have a feeling she’s got a blind spot about her own emotions.
For Claire, I’d be delighted by fic focusing on her experiences as a telepath or some challenge faced by her unit while she was alive. Or if you’re interested, it could also be really interesting to see something with scenes with both Claire’s perspective in the past and someone else's perspective in the present. Maybe one case connects the two time periods? Or maybe someone in the present day finds some message or journal that Claire kept and left for the next telepath to occupy the unit. Or I’d even be here for reincarnation — maybe Gideon is right, and Claire has already returned to the Hive and will be a new true telepath in another 15 years or so!
-I’d love to see more of the milk run operations, where everything goes smoothly! What do more typical runs look like? What kinds of places do they get to go? I’d also love to see a run from Nicole or Buzz's perspective, since we don’t get to see that in canon!
-Backstory fic for any of the requested characters! I think Perilous (the prequel novella with Amber and Forge) may actually be my favorite of the books. I loved seeing Amber respond to an emergency without her Unit backing her up, and I also adored all of the details about daily life in the Hive. It could be really fun to see that sort of backstory for another one of the requested characters. What was their time on Teen Level like? How do their actions on Teen Level show the sorts of people they'll become? Their choices on Freedom Day?
-Nicole comes across a problem that requires a cover-up — or comes across a cover-up and recognizes it as such.
-Claire’s strong sense of justice leads her to confront someone — or come up with a scheme to solve the problem another way. Or what about the first time she used her love of Shakespeare in her work? Did Claire want to be an actress or poet, the way Melisande wanted to be a musician?
-Buzz’s relationship with her parents. Given some of the comments she made about teachers in Hurricane, it seems like that relationship may be a tense one! Was Buzz a "resilient" child at home, and how did that play out?
-We’ve seen several urban legends the Hive uses to encourage specific behavior (“Level 99,” the fear of Outside, etc.). What other urban legends does the Hive have, and how might they come into play during a case? Do any of our characters ever have to invent/establish an urban legend while doing their jobs? Is there some Hive equivalent of creepypasta?
-Someone discovers a part of Amber’s unit that has been walled off since Claire’s time, and it’s hiding something. How did the area go undiscovered? What’s inside?
-One of the things I adore about this series is the way the Hive system includes people with all different abilities, including sometimes-invisible disabilities like Nicole’s. Did Nicole ever worry that her physical restrictions would prevent her from working a job she loves? How did that affect settling into Amber’s team (if it did)?
-Emergency response-related fic is my jam, and I’ve really enjoyed the emergency response competency we’ve seen in canon. I’d love to see more of any of these characters responding to emergencies! We’ve already seen a blackout. What other emergencies does the Hive prepare for? Are there ever storms outside large enough that they affect the inside of the Hive?
-Epidemic fic. We know the fear (and reality?) of epidemics was one of the reasons why the Hives were closed to travel. What if an epidemic hits Hive England... and Claire or Amber’s Unit has to get to the bottom of it? Could it be sabotage from disaffected Hive researchers, or sabotage from another Hive? How would the Hive and its citizens respond? Or what if the illness hit Amber's unit?
-Through her work with Amber, Buzz works out a potential method to make borderline telepaths into true telepaths. Would she try it on herself? Tell others?
-More about the Hive’s festivals! We’ve seen Carnival and Halloween a little, but what are New Year and Valentine like? Are the holidays a busy time for Amber’s unit? Are there other holidays that aren't officially sanctioned, but are still celebrated?