hearteating | Yuletide 2019

Dear Yuletide Author,

Thanks for writing for me! I'm hearteating here and on AO3. Below are my likes and DNW, and then fandom-specific prompts and ideas. I'm looking forward to whatever you produce, and I hope you have fun with your assignment. Don't be afraid to get self-indulgent, either! I love reading stories where it's clear the author is just having the time of their life.

General/Narrative Likes: monsters; magical realism; larger-than-life characters/scenarios; canon-divergent AUs; non-mundane AUs; future-fic; adventure; character studies; need vs want vs have; missing scenes; ethical dilemmas; friendship; found/made family; competence; cooking; dream sequences (that aren’t the entire fic); banter; fight sequences; introspection; worldbuilding; time travel; loyalty (to people or to causes); casefic

Ship-related Likes: Complicated feelings; bad at feelings; friends-to-lovers; enemies-to-lovers; slow burn; awkward flirting; fake relationships turned real; intimacy; sensory details; handholding; pining; forehead-touching

Smut Stuff: intercrural; orgasm delay/denial; multiple orgasms; overstimulation; awkward sex; hand kink; oral; messy sex; nonpenetrative sex; bloodplay; manhandling; hair kink; power dynamics; laughter during sex; body worship; consent issues due to outside forces; eye contact during sex

DNW: Pregnancy; body horror or body modification beyond canon-levels; A/B/O; incest; major character death (permanent); infidelity/cheating as a focus or plot point; medical kink; underage (15 and under); hopeless endings; mundane AUs; issuefic, cannibalism ft discussion of different cuts of meat

Fandoms: Daniel Blackland series, The Exorcist (TV), Killjoys, The Lion in Winter

Daniel Blackland series
Any (Gabriel Argent, Max, The Hierarch)

I love the worldbuilding in these books. Bone eating! Cannibalism! Water magic through signs and sigils! Bureaucracy! The alternate history! There's so much hinted at and ripe for exploration. I've received a fic for this series before, and it was absolutely fantastic, and now I crave more.

I love what a bureaucratic nerd Gabriel is, and Max's progression from hound to AD of the Water Dept. I definitely ship Gabriel and Max, and love their loyalty to each other. We don't see much of the Hierarch, but his touch is everywhere; he's ruined so many lives.

I nearly nominated the Emmas, but they're all individuals and so realized that probably wouldn't go through. If you want to write worldbuilding fic focusing on any of the Emmas though, absolutely go for it! I'd love to read it.

Prompts if you want them:

"Are you fucking my hound?"- Considering how Gabriel was very careful in trying to establish a sense of equality between him and Max, and not to make Max feel like he was a thing, how would their relationship change if they were fucking (from the start)? Would it be a power play on one of their parts? Gabriel trying to keep Max loyal or Max trying to make sure Gabriel finds him useful? Would it change things down the line?
Osteomancer!Gabriel AU- I feel like this would be pretty dark, but I'm also very intrigued by how osteomancer!Gabriel would be different from how he is in canon. How would his and Max's relationship be different, considering Max's sensitive nose and Gabriel's relatives?
What happened during the ten years between California Bones and Pacific Fire? What sort of power plays went down in LA that the new Director of the Water Department and his Assistant Director had to deal with? How did the progression from allies to best friends go, and did they even notice the progression? How many attempts on Gabriel's life have they had to deal with (or on Max's life)? How many people assume they're fucking, and are they/did they?
What was Max's life like before he became a hound?
Character study of the Heirarch- after all this time and all those bodies, what is life like? Can he still taste anything? Was he always like that? Does he have any family sentiment?
Worldbuilding- Walt Disney is an osteomancer in this series, and I would love to know more about that! Just Walt building his empire of bone magic and wonder, and also maybe eating his rivals

The Exorcist
Marcus Keane

I started watching this show due to my massive crush on Geena Davis, and fell in love with the rest of the cast, the writing, and the potential of the show. I was so disappointed when it was cancelled- it’s the kind of horror I love, and I was so curious as to what was going to happen with Tomas and Marcus and Mouse and Bennett and the whole conspiracy!

I struggled trying to decide which character, or characters, to request, because I would have been happy with almost any of them- in the interests of that “almost”, and not wanting to come up with prompts for every permutation of characters, I forced myself down to one: my favorite old man, Marcus Keane.

Ben Daniels does such an excellent job as Marcus, and I love his complicated relationship with the church, where he both barely respects it and has his entire identity built around it. I love his fierce love of God, and the equally intense betrayal he feels when he stops hearing Him. One thing that really interests me is how he says Gabriel is the first one he’s lost during an exorcism…and then in S2 we find out he abandoned Mouse midway- I guess it doesn’t count if you don’t finish? Or if you hear afterwards they made it through? Marcus compartmentalizes a lot, and yet lets his emotions just tear through the place as well. I love him. I love his relationships with pretty much everyone he comes across, and any author should feel free to include any other characters from the show, if they so desire. I’d also be interested in OCs, if that’s what takes your fancy. If you want to get shippy- I like Marcus/Tomas, Marcus/Peter, Marcus/Regos, Marcus/Bennett, and Marcus/God. DNW: Marcus/OC as the focus (off-hand references and/or one-night stands are fine).

Prompts if you want them:

Marcus backstory! His childhood, his first “official” exorcism, meeting Bennett, the aftermath of Mouse…anything you can think of pre-show, I’m interested in. There’s a lot we don’t know about Marcus, after all!
The missing six months. What was he up to during this time? Mental and spiritual recovery? Helping out at the local church? Learning about Pacific Northwestern wildlife? Taking odd jobs? Secret adventures?
Reunited- post-S2, Marcus reunites with Tomas and Mouse- how has he changed? How have they changed? What is the state of the demons’ plotting? Is a road trip involved?
The Trials and Temptations of Marcus Keane- how have demons tried to get into his head over the years? How close have they come to succeeding? Has he built up a resistance over time, or did he start off stalwart and his walls have become more fragile over time?
Marcus and God- I am so interested in Marcus’ very personal relationship with God. If you want any kind of saintly spiritual ecstasy, I would be very down for that, but a character study about his thoughts on God or anything like that would be great.
I love Marcus’ relationships with the kids in the show, and I’d love to see more of that, so- Marcus with any of the nominated kids! Something character-study-y or post-canon, or whatever.
This is a long shot BUT...if you want to write a crossover with Los Espookys, I would absolutely love that. Maybe a job of Los Espookys goes viral and someone from the Church comes to investigate, or maybe they end up actually summoning a malevolent demon and need the help of a real exorcist. The tone of the two shows are very different, and I'd be happy with either the light-hearted ridiculousness of Los Espookys or the darker tone of The Exorcist. If you go with this prompt you don't necessarily have to use Marcus- any character from the show will do.

For this canon, I’m especially interested in horror tropes/stories, religious symbolism, magical realism, or anything to do with fate/agency. There’s a lot of stuff to play with, I think.

Killjoys
Fancy Lee

Killjoys ended this year, and while I was sad to see it go, I was happy with where it left off. I liked the visuals, the dialogue, and the wordbuilding. I loved how tropey and fun it can be, and it had some great emotional beats that feel like a punch in the gut. The characters are all larger-than-life, but it works with the feel of the show and the world. The relationships between the leads are strong and well-done and I don't think there's a main character I actively dislike. Fandom specific DNW: No Johnny/Dutch, please.

That said, one thing I would have liked for the show is more Fancy, and so here I am. Fancy drops little hints about his life- he invents things, cooks, reads a lot, knows how to fish, etc, but there's still a lot of mystery around him. Also, he is really, really ridiculously good-looking. If you want to write shipfic with him, I'm cool with pretty much anything for him, although I'm particularly partial to Fancy/D'avin and Fancy/Khlyen. I saw a Fancy/The Lady fic a little while ago and could absolutely roll with it.

Prompts if you want them:

Fancy backstory! Why did he become a Killjoy? Was he always a solo act? How much of what we see is an act and how much is just him?
Fancy's life with the Cleansed- S3 talked about them, but we didn't see much, and I'd love to read more about dealing with not being the super-strong, essentially immortal emotionless killers they used to be. How much does Fancy regret what happened, and how much does he miss it, and how does he feel about the other Cleansed? What is it like having emotions again?
The adventures of Fancy and Khlyen- anything about their time together would be great!
Case fic! Fancy on a warrant!
AU where Fancy sells illegal tech at Utopia? I'd love to see him interacting with the others from that perspective.

Absolutely feel free to include whatever other characters from the show you want, and/or to go wild with tropes. After all, half the fun of scifi is the tropiness! (at least for me)

Lion in Winter
Geoffrey Plantaganet, Philip II of France

I don’t remember when I first watched The Lion in Winter- sometime in middle school, maybe?- but I remember loving the wit and drama and scheming. Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor was wonderful casting, and sparked my interest in the real Eleanor of Aquitaine. And there was baby Timothy Dalton, with his lovely cheekbones and beautiful eyes. And there was Geoffrey, who was a perfect bastard and unappreciated by his family. There’s a lot more in the history books about Richard and John, but what little I could find on Geoffrey had me really interested.

And, because rarepairs call to me, my main ship for Lion in Winter is Geoffrey/Philip. The couple that schemes together, stays together for a period of time until one of them dies tragically, I guess.

Prompts if you want them:

There are a number of fics out there already about Geoffrey swearing fealty to Philip and the two of them engaging in subtle scheming and one-upmanship, and also sex is involved and whoops feelings. I love these stories and would be delighted to read another one.
Being self-indulgent for a moment- political hostage AU? Where Geoffrey is kind of the worst hostage, because Richard and Eleanor don’t really care about him, and this is a poke in the eye to both him and to France (“oh sure, we’ll give you a hostage…this spare son”). How would this change things? What awful bitterness and scheming would there be? How long has Geoff been in France, and does this affect Henry’s rebellion or Richard’s time in France?
Missing scenes from the movie! Scheming, smooching, swordplay, talking about Eleanor and Alais and the whole messed up family situation…anything.
Ghost story! After Geoffrey’s death, he decides to come back and haunt Philip. Or he doesn’t decide to, but finds his spirit is bound to Philip and they’re both kind of put out by it.

Considering Geoffrey did, in fact, die in real life, consider the “no major character death” DNW waived for this fandom, but I would prefer there not be a focus on the actual death. “Geoffrey died” = cool. “Philip watched in horror as Geoffrey’s body was trampled into the ground, bones broken, skull split as Philip’s heart was now split…” = no thanks.