Candy Hearts Exchange Letter
Jan. 3rd, 2024 03:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakDear Writer,
this exchange will be a highlight in my Februarly, and I'm very grateful to you for creating something for me in a fandom we share. My prompts are just that, prompts, not absolutes; if you have an idea that doesn't fit with any of them, but features (some of) the characters I asked for, I'll love it with added joyful surprise.
General DNWs:
A/B/O - if you want to write a werewolf AU for any of the canons I nominated, be my guest, but I'm really not into this particular type of story -, infantilisation, golden showers. Character bashing. (If the characters in question canonically loathe someone, you can of course include this, but I think you know the difference between that and having all characters agree about how terrible X is. Rape, unless it's canon and you want to explore how Character Y deals with the aftermath, or something like that.
General likes:
Character exploration, characters helping each other recover from trauma, messed up and/or co-dependent family relationships, witty banter, friendship against the odds, the occasional light moment in a darker story or conversely some serious character stuff thrown into a comedy fic.
Treats: are very welcome.
Babylon 5
Old fandom of my heart, how do I love thee, let me count the ways.
Delenn and Londo: As Londo narrates In the Beginning, the movie about the Earth/Minbari war, Delenn must have told him the truth about what she did at some point. I have my own theory as to when she does that, but welcome any other take! It's an intriguing relationship we only see glimpses off in the show, and there are parallels between - two people who started and ended a brutal war against the people their future significant other is from.
Londo/G'Kar: here I'd love something from the canon AUs offered in "The Road Home", aka the new movie. Most of all: What's their relationship like in a timeline where the Shadows haven't woken up yet and thus neither of them met Mr. Morden? Will once the Shadows do inevitably awake history repeat itself, or differ?
Londo and Vir: from the "prime" timeline post show, pre show finale - give me a scene of them saying goodbye to each other. Londo would have been aware his time was running out, and I can't believe he wouldn't have said goodbye to Vir somehow, Keeper be damned. I'd prefer it if Vir has figured out about the Keeper by then, but it's up to you. If you want to write Londo and Vir in one of the "Road Home" AUs: Do they get away from the station together in the timeline where B5 explodes? Is there a timeline where Londo listened to Vir re: the Shadows?
Londo and Ivanova: the "Road Home" AU where they both await the apocalypse while trading drinks and snark offered a great glimpse at what might have been. They hardly had any scenes together in the show proper, so tell me more about this timeline and their relationship in it, and how they decided to face the invitable together!
Londo and Garibaldi: back to the "prime" timeline from the show: Londo losing his friendship with Garibaldi as a consequence of Londo's decisions in s2 was poignant, and also a good contrast to the growing friendship between Garibaldi and G'Kar at the same time. But I'm curious about the s5 timeframe, not least because Londo is very likely to notice once Garibaldi starts to drink again, and because Garibaldi's lie covering up for a blackout has deadful consequences for the Centauri. So give me an AU or missing scene in which the two talk after Londo's coronation. Maybe a sober Garibaldi visits Centauri Prime to apologize and almost but not quite deduces there's something seriously wrong with Londo now, but precisely because of his own addiction writes it off as being alcoholism?
Garibaldi and Lochley: both their antagonistic scenes from early s5 to the scenes late in the season where Lochley tells Garibaldi about her own past and helps him were very compelling to me, and their scenes in the Soul Hunter movie were practically the only thing I remember about said movie. So any additional scene between these two would be welcome, be it from the prime timeline (maybe Lochley visits Garibaldi when she's on Mars anyway for the Drakh plague conference during "Crusade"?) to the final "Road Home" timeline (which has Lochley on the station in a s3 like timeframe already.
Bester & Sandoval Bey: aka one of the most poignant relationships in the Telepath Trilogy (and . Would a surviving Sandoval Bey have made a difference to young Al becoming Bester? Or not. If you don't want to go AU, a glimpse of what Sandoval Bey is thinking while mentoring Al would be very welcome.
DNW for this fandom: any canon from Peter David's Centauri trilogy.
Black Sails
All the relationships I listed intrigue me, and whichever one you pick to write will make me happy. Possible ideas:
- Eleanor and Madi: early childhood, were they truly friends, or was the knowledge of their difference present for Madi at least? Missing scene in which adult Eleanor and Madi during their brief time together talk about Mr. Scott, Madi's father and Eleanor's mentor? Eleanor pov as she realises why he kept his family hidden (and only thus free) - did she really know him?
- I don't think it's impossible for Madi to live with Silver again after the finale, but there's certainly some work to be done; if she does make that decision, give me her pov? Or, years later, when they're in England - what is their relationship like then?
Miranda was my favourite character in the first two seasons. Anything from her pov during either the time the three of them - Thomas, her and James - were together or from that painful decade later as James became Flint and she became Mrs. Barlow and they formed their own relationship would be great. How did Miranda adjust to not being Lady Hamilton anymore? And while they were all still in London, did she ever consider leaving Thomas and James? Did she and Thomas talk about what was developing with James before James realised? What would have happened if all three of them had gone into exile - would their relationship have survived?
The way the show made the Flint and Silver relationship so emotionally intense and central was a powerful hook to me, especially as it kept changing, from Flint being annoyed at having to put up with this irritating newbie who'd been clever enough to ensure his survival to mutual respect growing to their co-dependent partnership while there were still massive differences which would cause its ending. Silver, much as he changes, is unlike either Thomas or Miranda, or for that matter Mr. Gates, the people Flint/James McGraw was otherwise close to; while it's probably not a coincidence Silver's closest relationships are with Madi and Flint, i.e. two people who would die for a cause, the very thing he wouldn't, though he's able to connect to and risk his life for individuals. Maybe four different takes on the relationship from each season of the show, and a fifth from Silver (or Flint), looking back years later?
Silver and Max without being romantically interested in each other seem to "get" each other as survivor types who are very good at adapting (but also able to deeply connect to individuals). If you prefer a post show future/ Treasure Island era where Madi isn't the woman living with older Silver managing an inn together, Max is (presumably in a future where Anne and Jack have met their historical ends): I can see them ending up up as partners and friends, and anything from a scene showing them making the decision to team up and semi retire to a Max pov once Silver breaks the news he's off to one last quest for gold with the Hispianola would be great.
For All Mankind
- I'm fascinated by the way the show parallels (and contrasts) the mentor & protegé relationships between Margo and von Braun on the one hand, and Margo and Aleida on the other. Some exploration of this, please?
- Larry seems to mainly be seen as an obstacle to an Ellen/Pam happy ending, but I'm intrigued by the relationship between him and Ellen: two gay people who do start out from a genuine friendship (bonding over their film likes) and have a lot in common (including the awareness that coming out can end their careers). They deal with living in the closet differently - Larry's casual relationships versus Ellen's love for Pam and no one else -, but I doubt the show wants to do a "bad gay person versus good gay person" subtext here. So give me a slice of life for Ellen and Larry through their decades long relationship/marriage (can but doesn't have to include that they must have decided to become parents at some point).
Jude Morgan - The King's Touch
I really like this novel, and its take on the various relationships, but by necessity - for this is Jemmy's pov, after all - there is a lot we we see only second hand through his perspective, and/or filtered through his biases. So, possible prompts:
Minette: how did she see her various relationships, with her brother Charles, with Jemmy, with her mother? Why did she agree to marry Philippe? Was their relationship always so abusive as Jemmy sees it, or were there better times as well? After all, Philippe wasn't a stranger, she'd grown up meeting her cousins repeatedly.
Jemmy's wife Anna: here we have another miserable royal marriage, but they have their moments of partnership early on when she informs him of what's going on at court, when they both enjoy dancing, and besides, you get the sense that narrator!Jemmy's insistence that their marriage could never have worked is informed by hindsight. But they did have children together (whom narrator!Jemmy hardly mentions.) The epilogue, written from Jemmy's lover's pov, of course isn't unbiased, either, in its description of Anna only caring that Jemmy doesn't implicate her politically in his death. So give me Anna's pov on this particular marital disaster. What was it like, getting married as a child to another child (and the King's bastard?) When did she give up on the marriage? Historically, Jemmy did apologize to Anna during their last encounter, so an Anna pov on this scene (not in the novel) would also be interesting. Anna lived through James II, William and Mary, and Anne's reign and into the Hannover era, where as an old lady she regaled Caroline, the new Princess of Wales, with her stories from the court of Charles II, so a pov of old Anna, looking back at the novel's events from literally a very different age, might be fascinating?
Lastly: Jemmy's warm relationships with cousins Mary and William during his Dutch exile are a welcome relief in the otherwise tense and gloomy last part of the novel, and even before Mary admits she used to have a crush on Jemmy as a girl, I always thought with just one more push, she, William and Jemmy could have been a threesome. Now, there is of course the fact - which Jemmy manages to ignore most of the time - that if and when he makes a play for the crown, then William and Mary are bound to be his rivals as the legal Protestant heirs - and you can but don't have to include this. Or just give me a scene where Jemmy after teaching his cousins to skate on ice (history) gets seduced by both of them. Whatever works best for you. :)
16th Century RPF
I got interested in the early Stuarts this year, mostly via two podcasts, and would welcome anything related to any of these relationships:
- James and Anne: seems to have been one of the better "gay royal/ straight spouse" combinations from history, which isn't to say it was always good (what with him not being there when she died); so how did their arrangement work through the years, what did Anne make of all the boyfriends after their seemingly romantic (for an arranged marriage) beginning, why did she support some of his boyfriends (read: Buckingham) over others (read: Somerset)? And James, what did he see in her?
- James and Buckingham: Buckingham managed what hardly another favourite (male or female) managed, befriending the future monarch while keeping the favour of the ruling monarch, thus remaining the favourite once the later had died. What did James make of his lover befriending his son? Was he pleased (more harmony instead of fighting between people he loved)? Secretly resentful? (Especially once Buckingham started to change his politics to suit a post James age while James was still alive.) Both?
- Conversely, from Charles' pov: what was it like to befriend Dad's lover? (Especially since he hadn't gotten on with the previous ones, and also had to live through his mother's death when James did not show up.) I haven't seen the slightest suggestion Charles I. was anything but straight anywhere, but did he ever wonder, growing up in his father's court, especially after his own relationship with Buckingham intensified?
(DNW: Buckingham killing James. Both because I don't believe he did, it was a very clearly drummed up accusation because Charles would have shielded him from any other, and because I don't want to read about it.)
James and his daughter Elizabeth: deciding to not support her and her husband once the Thirty Years War was there in earnest, going as far as forbidding her to return to England, may have been the right thing to do as King of England, but as a father? Did James - who had had an abusive childhood himself via his various guardians and had heard nothing good about either of his parents - find this easy or hard? Elizabeth would have been made Queen by the Gunpowder Plot conspirators had they succeeded - did that change the way he saw her? (She was a child, not a guilty party, but it did underline that she had a good claim on the succession, and her brother Charles was always sickly.)
18th Century RPF
Franz Stephan/Maria Theresia: one of the few royal marriages which worked, and where their different temperaments were part of what made it work. Here I'd like to read a scene of mutual support at any point - when he's looked down on as a foreigner by the Viennese nobility, when their first few children are girls, seemingly continuing the Habsburg succession problem, when Friedrich invading Silesia is just the start for lots of other European powers trying to get a slice of Austrian territory and MT still refuses to cave, when Joseph starts to grow up and clearly has his own ideas of what kind of a monarch he wants to be, when Isabella of Parma dies (especially if MT and FS, as opposed to Joseph, do have a clue about Isabella's love for Mimi).
Joseph and Marie Antoinette: anything from his famous visit. Yes, he had a big case of know-it-all-ness and lecturing, but he wanted and did help her after seven not so great years for her in France, and while he clearly saw (some) of the problems of the French monarchy, he also returned impressed by his little sister and lauded her to his friends at home. Sibling scenes, both teasing and supporting each other, would be great!
Maria Theresia & Wilhelmine: that shared lunch in 1745 which got Wilhelmine in so much trouble with her brother. What was said, what remained unsaid? How did they react to each other?
Mary Wortley Montagu, Lord Hervey and Algarotti: the triangle which thankfully didn't destroy Lady Mary's friendship with Hervey but certainly put a lot of stress on it at the time, as they both competed for the same guy. (And while in retrospect Hervey was the clear winner - at least until Algarotti ditched him for Frederick the Great - he still managed to be wildly jealous Algarotti spent any time with Lady Mary at all.) So: either a glimpse of those wild months, or a Mary pov, ruefully looking back years later from Italy? Or, if you don't want to write about Algarotti, a look at another time of the Mary/Hervey friendship, m/f friendships being a soft spot of mine. And they were important allies for each other - as when both got bashed by her former admirer Alexander Pope.
Speaking of Hervey: his going from comparing himself to Hephaistion and Frederick Prince of Wales to Alexander to calling Fritz of Wales all vile names under the sun and bashing him relentlessly in his memoirs makes for such entertaining drama - but we only have Hervey's pov. What did Frederick make of all of this? Do tell!
Around the World in 80 Days (TV 2021)
I love this series and the way it handles its three main characters, their growing bond and OT3 status by the end of it. New adventures for Phileas Fogg, Fix and Passepartout are more than welcome. If you want, you can pick up the hint in the finale that they'll go after the Nautilus next, presumably in place of the 20 000 Miles under the Sea characters - what do they make of Nemo? Or how about a Dracula crossover - Abigail the reporter is on to the story of the "Bloofer lady", or maybe they want to solve the mystery of the Demeter?
Conversely: a quiet moment in their travels would be just welcome. Maybe Passepartout offers to teach Fogg how to cook (not too successfully) and they get to talk about his brother? Abigail gets an offer from another newspaper which would, however, require her to be somewhere the other two had no plan or wish to go at first, and she must decide whether or not to accept it?
Fandom specific DNW: Abigail only present as Yenta. I want all three being equally invested in each other.
this exchange will be a highlight in my Februarly, and I'm very grateful to you for creating something for me in a fandom we share. My prompts are just that, prompts, not absolutes; if you have an idea that doesn't fit with any of them, but features (some of) the characters I asked for, I'll love it with added joyful surprise.
General DNWs:
A/B/O - if you want to write a werewolf AU for any of the canons I nominated, be my guest, but I'm really not into this particular type of story -, infantilisation, golden showers. Character bashing. (If the characters in question canonically loathe someone, you can of course include this, but I think you know the difference between that and having all characters agree about how terrible X is. Rape, unless it's canon and you want to explore how Character Y deals with the aftermath, or something like that.
General likes:
Character exploration, characters helping each other recover from trauma, messed up and/or co-dependent family relationships, witty banter, friendship against the odds, the occasional light moment in a darker story or conversely some serious character stuff thrown into a comedy fic.
Treats: are very welcome.
Babylon 5
Old fandom of my heart, how do I love thee, let me count the ways.
Delenn and Londo: As Londo narrates In the Beginning, the movie about the Earth/Minbari war, Delenn must have told him the truth about what she did at some point. I have my own theory as to when she does that, but welcome any other take! It's an intriguing relationship we only see glimpses off in the show, and there are parallels between - two people who started and ended a brutal war against the people their future significant other is from.
Londo/G'Kar: here I'd love something from the canon AUs offered in "The Road Home", aka the new movie. Most of all: What's their relationship like in a timeline where the Shadows haven't woken up yet and thus neither of them met Mr. Morden? Will once the Shadows do inevitably awake history repeat itself, or differ?
Londo and Vir: from the "prime" timeline post show, pre show finale - give me a scene of them saying goodbye to each other. Londo would have been aware his time was running out, and I can't believe he wouldn't have said goodbye to Vir somehow, Keeper be damned. I'd prefer it if Vir has figured out about the Keeper by then, but it's up to you. If you want to write Londo and Vir in one of the "Road Home" AUs: Do they get away from the station together in the timeline where B5 explodes? Is there a timeline where Londo listened to Vir re: the Shadows?
Londo and Ivanova: the "Road Home" AU where they both await the apocalypse while trading drinks and snark offered a great glimpse at what might have been. They hardly had any scenes together in the show proper, so tell me more about this timeline and their relationship in it, and how they decided to face the invitable together!
Londo and Garibaldi: back to the "prime" timeline from the show: Londo losing his friendship with Garibaldi as a consequence of Londo's decisions in s2 was poignant, and also a good contrast to the growing friendship between Garibaldi and G'Kar at the same time. But I'm curious about the s5 timeframe, not least because Londo is very likely to notice once Garibaldi starts to drink again, and because Garibaldi's lie covering up for a blackout has deadful consequences for the Centauri. So give me an AU or missing scene in which the two talk after Londo's coronation. Maybe a sober Garibaldi visits Centauri Prime to apologize and almost but not quite deduces there's something seriously wrong with Londo now, but precisely because of his own addiction writes it off as being alcoholism?
Garibaldi and Lochley: both their antagonistic scenes from early s5 to the scenes late in the season where Lochley tells Garibaldi about her own past and helps him were very compelling to me, and their scenes in the Soul Hunter movie were practically the only thing I remember about said movie. So any additional scene between these two would be welcome, be it from the prime timeline (maybe Lochley visits Garibaldi when she's on Mars anyway for the Drakh plague conference during "Crusade"?) to the final "Road Home" timeline (which has Lochley on the station in a s3 like timeframe already.
Bester & Sandoval Bey: aka one of the most poignant relationships in the Telepath Trilogy (and . Would a surviving Sandoval Bey have made a difference to young Al becoming Bester? Or not. If you don't want to go AU, a glimpse of what Sandoval Bey is thinking while mentoring Al would be very welcome.
DNW for this fandom: any canon from Peter David's Centauri trilogy.
Black Sails
All the relationships I listed intrigue me, and whichever one you pick to write will make me happy. Possible ideas:
- Eleanor and Madi: early childhood, were they truly friends, or was the knowledge of their difference present for Madi at least? Missing scene in which adult Eleanor and Madi during their brief time together talk about Mr. Scott, Madi's father and Eleanor's mentor? Eleanor pov as she realises why he kept his family hidden (and only thus free) - did she really know him?
- I don't think it's impossible for Madi to live with Silver again after the finale, but there's certainly some work to be done; if she does make that decision, give me her pov? Or, years later, when they're in England - what is their relationship like then?
Miranda was my favourite character in the first two seasons. Anything from her pov during either the time the three of them - Thomas, her and James - were together or from that painful decade later as James became Flint and she became Mrs. Barlow and they formed their own relationship would be great. How did Miranda adjust to not being Lady Hamilton anymore? And while they were all still in London, did she ever consider leaving Thomas and James? Did she and Thomas talk about what was developing with James before James realised? What would have happened if all three of them had gone into exile - would their relationship have survived?
The way the show made the Flint and Silver relationship so emotionally intense and central was a powerful hook to me, especially as it kept changing, from Flint being annoyed at having to put up with this irritating newbie who'd been clever enough to ensure his survival to mutual respect growing to their co-dependent partnership while there were still massive differences which would cause its ending. Silver, much as he changes, is unlike either Thomas or Miranda, or for that matter Mr. Gates, the people Flint/James McGraw was otherwise close to; while it's probably not a coincidence Silver's closest relationships are with Madi and Flint, i.e. two people who would die for a cause, the very thing he wouldn't, though he's able to connect to and risk his life for individuals. Maybe four different takes on the relationship from each season of the show, and a fifth from Silver (or Flint), looking back years later?
Silver and Max without being romantically interested in each other seem to "get" each other as survivor types who are very good at adapting (but also able to deeply connect to individuals). If you prefer a post show future/ Treasure Island era where Madi isn't the woman living with older Silver managing an inn together, Max is (presumably in a future where Anne and Jack have met their historical ends): I can see them ending up up as partners and friends, and anything from a scene showing them making the decision to team up and semi retire to a Max pov once Silver breaks the news he's off to one last quest for gold with the Hispianola would be great.
For All Mankind
- I'm fascinated by the way the show parallels (and contrasts) the mentor & protegé relationships between Margo and von Braun on the one hand, and Margo and Aleida on the other. Some exploration of this, please?
- Larry seems to mainly be seen as an obstacle to an Ellen/Pam happy ending, but I'm intrigued by the relationship between him and Ellen: two gay people who do start out from a genuine friendship (bonding over their film likes) and have a lot in common (including the awareness that coming out can end their careers). They deal with living in the closet differently - Larry's casual relationships versus Ellen's love for Pam and no one else -, but I doubt the show wants to do a "bad gay person versus good gay person" subtext here. So give me a slice of life for Ellen and Larry through their decades long relationship/marriage (can but doesn't have to include that they must have decided to become parents at some point).
Jude Morgan - The King's Touch
I really like this novel, and its take on the various relationships, but by necessity - for this is Jemmy's pov, after all - there is a lot we we see only second hand through his perspective, and/or filtered through his biases. So, possible prompts:
Minette: how did she see her various relationships, with her brother Charles, with Jemmy, with her mother? Why did she agree to marry Philippe? Was their relationship always so abusive as Jemmy sees it, or were there better times as well? After all, Philippe wasn't a stranger, she'd grown up meeting her cousins repeatedly.
Jemmy's wife Anna: here we have another miserable royal marriage, but they have their moments of partnership early on when she informs him of what's going on at court, when they both enjoy dancing, and besides, you get the sense that narrator!Jemmy's insistence that their marriage could never have worked is informed by hindsight. But they did have children together (whom narrator!Jemmy hardly mentions.) The epilogue, written from Jemmy's lover's pov, of course isn't unbiased, either, in its description of Anna only caring that Jemmy doesn't implicate her politically in his death. So give me Anna's pov on this particular marital disaster. What was it like, getting married as a child to another child (and the King's bastard?) When did she give up on the marriage? Historically, Jemmy did apologize to Anna during their last encounter, so an Anna pov on this scene (not in the novel) would also be interesting. Anna lived through James II, William and Mary, and Anne's reign and into the Hannover era, where as an old lady she regaled Caroline, the new Princess of Wales, with her stories from the court of Charles II, so a pov of old Anna, looking back at the novel's events from literally a very different age, might be fascinating?
Lastly: Jemmy's warm relationships with cousins Mary and William during his Dutch exile are a welcome relief in the otherwise tense and gloomy last part of the novel, and even before Mary admits she used to have a crush on Jemmy as a girl, I always thought with just one more push, she, William and Jemmy could have been a threesome. Now, there is of course the fact - which Jemmy manages to ignore most of the time - that if and when he makes a play for the crown, then William and Mary are bound to be his rivals as the legal Protestant heirs - and you can but don't have to include this. Or just give me a scene where Jemmy after teaching his cousins to skate on ice (history) gets seduced by both of them. Whatever works best for you. :)
16th Century RPF
I got interested in the early Stuarts this year, mostly via two podcasts, and would welcome anything related to any of these relationships:
- James and Anne: seems to have been one of the better "gay royal/ straight spouse" combinations from history, which isn't to say it was always good (what with him not being there when she died); so how did their arrangement work through the years, what did Anne make of all the boyfriends after their seemingly romantic (for an arranged marriage) beginning, why did she support some of his boyfriends (read: Buckingham) over others (read: Somerset)? And James, what did he see in her?
- James and Buckingham: Buckingham managed what hardly another favourite (male or female) managed, befriending the future monarch while keeping the favour of the ruling monarch, thus remaining the favourite once the later had died. What did James make of his lover befriending his son? Was he pleased (more harmony instead of fighting between people he loved)? Secretly resentful? (Especially once Buckingham started to change his politics to suit a post James age while James was still alive.) Both?
- Conversely, from Charles' pov: what was it like to befriend Dad's lover? (Especially since he hadn't gotten on with the previous ones, and also had to live through his mother's death when James did not show up.) I haven't seen the slightest suggestion Charles I. was anything but straight anywhere, but did he ever wonder, growing up in his father's court, especially after his own relationship with Buckingham intensified?
(DNW: Buckingham killing James. Both because I don't believe he did, it was a very clearly drummed up accusation because Charles would have shielded him from any other, and because I don't want to read about it.)
James and his daughter Elizabeth: deciding to not support her and her husband once the Thirty Years War was there in earnest, going as far as forbidding her to return to England, may have been the right thing to do as King of England, but as a father? Did James - who had had an abusive childhood himself via his various guardians and had heard nothing good about either of his parents - find this easy or hard? Elizabeth would have been made Queen by the Gunpowder Plot conspirators had they succeeded - did that change the way he saw her? (She was a child, not a guilty party, but it did underline that she had a good claim on the succession, and her brother Charles was always sickly.)
18th Century RPF
Franz Stephan/Maria Theresia: one of the few royal marriages which worked, and where their different temperaments were part of what made it work. Here I'd like to read a scene of mutual support at any point - when he's looked down on as a foreigner by the Viennese nobility, when their first few children are girls, seemingly continuing the Habsburg succession problem, when Friedrich invading Silesia is just the start for lots of other European powers trying to get a slice of Austrian territory and MT still refuses to cave, when Joseph starts to grow up and clearly has his own ideas of what kind of a monarch he wants to be, when Isabella of Parma dies (especially if MT and FS, as opposed to Joseph, do have a clue about Isabella's love for Mimi).
Joseph and Marie Antoinette: anything from his famous visit. Yes, he had a big case of know-it-all-ness and lecturing, but he wanted and did help her after seven not so great years for her in France, and while he clearly saw (some) of the problems of the French monarchy, he also returned impressed by his little sister and lauded her to his friends at home. Sibling scenes, both teasing and supporting each other, would be great!
Maria Theresia & Wilhelmine: that shared lunch in 1745 which got Wilhelmine in so much trouble with her brother. What was said, what remained unsaid? How did they react to each other?
Mary Wortley Montagu, Lord Hervey and Algarotti: the triangle which thankfully didn't destroy Lady Mary's friendship with Hervey but certainly put a lot of stress on it at the time, as they both competed for the same guy. (And while in retrospect Hervey was the clear winner - at least until Algarotti ditched him for Frederick the Great - he still managed to be wildly jealous Algarotti spent any time with Lady Mary at all.) So: either a glimpse of those wild months, or a Mary pov, ruefully looking back years later from Italy? Or, if you don't want to write about Algarotti, a look at another time of the Mary/Hervey friendship, m/f friendships being a soft spot of mine. And they were important allies for each other - as when both got bashed by her former admirer Alexander Pope.
Speaking of Hervey: his going from comparing himself to Hephaistion and Frederick Prince of Wales to Alexander to calling Fritz of Wales all vile names under the sun and bashing him relentlessly in his memoirs makes for such entertaining drama - but we only have Hervey's pov. What did Frederick make of all of this? Do tell!
Around the World in 80 Days (TV 2021)
I love this series and the way it handles its three main characters, their growing bond and OT3 status by the end of it. New adventures for Phileas Fogg, Fix and Passepartout are more than welcome. If you want, you can pick up the hint in the finale that they'll go after the Nautilus next, presumably in place of the 20 000 Miles under the Sea characters - what do they make of Nemo? Or how about a Dracula crossover - Abigail the reporter is on to the story of the "Bloofer lady", or maybe they want to solve the mystery of the Demeter?
Conversely: a quiet moment in their travels would be just welcome. Maybe Passepartout offers to teach Fogg how to cook (not too successfully) and they get to talk about his brother? Abigail gets an offer from another newspaper which would, however, require her to be somewhere the other two had no plan or wish to go at first, and she must decide whether or not to accept it?
Fandom specific DNW: Abigail only present as Yenta. I want all three being equally invested in each other.
