MULTIFANDOM TROPEFEST 2023_DEAR AUTHOR LETTER

[claire_cz]

Finished 22-08-2023

Dear Writer,
thank you so much for writing a fic for me.

The first thing I’d like to point out is: I love the atmosphere of the requested TV shows and I want to have moooore of it, so I usually prefer the canon-verse or some smaller (or bigger) canon divergence over alternate universe.

I have to say that I’ve concentrated purely on hurt/comfort freeforms because I simply LOVE hurt/comfort. I may love hurt even more than comfort :D
I prefer physical hurt/comfort and injuries over illnesses. I love all kinds of injuries, you can do to my faves what you want - as long as you promise me that you won’t kill them. I’ll enjoy all their injuries, the pain and recovery or adapting to new life.
How does the character’s everyday life look like? How are they coping with the hospital stay/PT/needing help/people staring/noisy colleagues? Do they have to use a cane / crutches / a wheelchair etc.?
How will the injury/recovery/adapting influence the character’s friendships, relationships? How will the comfort look like?

I also have to admit that I usually have a very strong preference for who the hurt character in each request should be. (Though I also wouldn’t mind both characters hurt ;) )
When it comes to describing the injuries I’m ok with any level of description from omitting it to very detailed.
Feel free to use canon injuries (and give them proper attention - unlike so many TV writers) or you can always imagine shiny new ones ;)

I selected pretty similar tags for all requests so I’ll just sum them up quickly here and will say something about a tag in a concrete fandom only if needed. Though I think the freeforms are very clear and serve as perfect prompts as it is.
And also, feel free to combine as many freeforms together as you want, it’s all h/c, really, and/or combine the h/c freeforms with my general likes and other prompts.

Freeforms

Here’s the recap of the tags I’ve requested.
For all fandoms:

• Hurt/Comfort - Bedside Vigils
• Hurt/Comfort - Broken ribs
• Hurt/Comfort - Catching hurt character as they collapse
• Hurt/Comfort - Character A offering massage to Character B
• Hurt/Comfort - Character A supports Character B through Rehabilitation following an Accident
• Hurt/Comfort - Character feels useless/like a burden due to their illness/injury
• Hurt/Comfort - Chronic Condition
• Hurt/Comfort - Character A supporting Character B during physical therapy
• Hurt/Comfort - Character with high pain tolerance can't help but show visible signs of pain
• Hurt/Comfort - Coming To Terms With Life Changing Permanent Injury
• Hurt/Comfort - Having to rely on injured character's ability or expertise
• Hurt/Comfort - Injury on Top of Old Injuries
• Hurt/Comfort - Old Injuries Acting Up
• Hurt/Comfort - Gunshot Wound
• Hurt/Comfort - Having to use a cane / crutches / wheelchair etc.
• Hurt/Comfort - Mutual pining during slow recovery from near-fatal injury
• Hurt/Comfort - Permanently injured A pines for B and A thinks B won’t reciprocate due to the injury

For specific fandoms:

• Fix-it - Character survives canonical death (Seal Team)
• Hanahaki Disease (Bones, Criminal Minds, Grey’s Anatomy, MASH, Numb3rs)
• Hurt/Comfort - Career-ending injuries (Bones, Grey’s Anatomy, NCIS: LA, Numb3rs, SEAL Team)
• Hurt/Comfort - Headaches & Migraines (Criminal Minds, House M.D., MASH, Numb3rs)
• Hurt/Comfort - Physically Injured Character Giving Medical Instructions to Save Their Own Life (Bones, Criminal Minds, House M.D., Grey’s Anatomy, MASH)
• Scars - Character A is self-conscious about their scars; B touches them for comfort and affection (House M.D., NCIS: LA, SEAL Team)
• Undercover - Hurt/Comfort While Undercover (NCIS: LA)

Other freeforms from the tagset I like:

• 5+1 Things
• Alternate Universe - Academia AU
• Angst - Grief/Mourning
• Case Fic - Solving a high-stakes case
• Case Fic - Solving a murder
• Case Fic - Undercover Mission
• Confessions - Feverish Confessions
• Crossover - Two characters played by the same actor are actually the same person Sadly, here it only applies to vet Finn (GA) & G Callen (NCIS:LA)
• Enemies to Lovers
• Enemies to Lovers - A gets in trouble or injured protecting B; which makes B see A in a new light
• Epistolary - Story Told Through Tabloid Articles and Headlines
• Fix-It - Canon Breakup Doesn't Occur especially for Callie/Arizona (GA)
• Fluff - Domestic Fluff
• Fluff and Hurt/Comfort
• Forced Proximity - Stuck in an Elevator
• Friends to Lovers - Getting Together
• Getting Together
• Intimacy - Character A falls asleep on B's shoulder; B gently moves A to rest on lap instead
• Outsider POV of relationship
• Pining - Mutual Pining
• Road Trips
• Secret Relationship - Actually Everyone Else Already Knows
• Undercover - A character used to action has an everyday job and hates it
• Writing or Epistolary – Journal

General likes

• missing scenes
• prequel/sequel of a canon scene
• canon verse

• 5 + 1
• character studies
• gen fics
• friendship fics
• friends to lovers
• pining
• slowburn
• domestic fics
• fluff
• humour
• case fics
• spies and characters being undercover
• future fics
• hurt/comfort (mostly physical hurt - preferably from injuries)

• happy endings
• open endings
• second and third person POV
• unusual narrator
• lots of descriptions of the surroundings and atmosphere
• multiple timelines

And here are some little details, flavours, specific tropes I like:

• cooking together
• dancing together
• dark academia
• epistolary
• late night walks
• lazy mornings
• massage (nothing s*xual, just a massage)
• road trips
• slice of life
• taking care of cats together
• trapped in an elevator together


DNWs


• E rated fics
• explicit sexual scenes (cuddling and kissing is ok)
• excessive unnecessary violence (i.e. way over what is usual for a given show)
• kid fics (i.e. focus on an original child character or heavy focus on canon storylines involving children)
• alpha-beta-omega dynamics, mpreg and such
• royal/coffeeshop/high school/historic/sci-fi AUs
• Alzheimer’s, cancer and coronavirus related themes (mentioning it generally is ok, eg: “x event was canceled because of covid”; focus on a character being hospitalized because of covid is not ok)
• permanent brain damage
• and downright unhappy endings


1) Bones



Angela Montenegro/Jack Hodgins; Seeley Booth & Jack Hodgins; Seeley Booth & Temperance Brennan
Feel free to add other characters…the Squinterns, Aubrey, Sweets, Gordon Gordon, Camilla, Zach, Caroline…

Fandom specific DNWs: Gormogon and heavy focus on the other "big" villains

What I like about the series:
What I like about Bones is I’d say balance. Balance between the detective work and more personal story-lines. Between humour and fun on one hand and deeper thoughts and more serious themes on the other hand. Moreover, there’s a very interesting and varied group of squinterns… Wendell, Arastoo, Daisy, Fuentes, Vincent, Fisher… And then all the scientific experiments, procedures etc.

I don’t have any strong preferences for romantic relationships there, I think that Booth and Brennan - even before they started their romantic relationship - had interesting dynamics. Friendship, respect, a lot of understanding… And personally, I find this more interesting than their family life in later seasons. On the other hand, I LOVE Hodgins/Angela.

Also, I think Booth is being - in comparison to all the scientists from the Jeffersonian - a bit underestimated. But he is very intelligent in his own right, he’s an FBI agent, investigator after all. Plus he has a lot of practical knowledge and experiences, something the squinterns (and Bones) might lack.

Tags/prompts:

I prefer hurt!Hodgins and/or hurt!Booth

There are not enough fics about Hodgins dealing with his injury and having to use the wheelchair. I’d like him to realize thanks to Angela or Booth or all the others that he’s still capable of so many things. Bonus points if it’s him who rescues injured Booth in some dangerous situation.
But it doesn’t have to be about this specific injury at all and you can imagine anything you want!
Also it could be interesting to see the scientists react to a Hanahaki disease, the illness from old fairy tales ;)
Has Booth been hurt while investigating a case? Bones was studying Booth’s x-rays when he was in the hospital after the explosion in Bones’ kitchen. Are the old injuries acting up now?

2) Criminal minds



Jason Gideon & Spencer Reid; Emily Prentiss & Spencer Reid; Derek Morgan & Spencer Reid; Derek Morgan/Spencer Reid; Spencer Reid/Original male character; Solo: Spencer Reid

Feel free to include other characters like Rossi, Garcia, Hotch, Diana Reid…

Fandom specific DNW: Detailed descriptions of the unsub's methods how they commit crimes

I’m more familiar with the older seasons (the first eight seasons approximately)

What I love about the series:
I love Dr. Reid with all my heart but in fact, the series was too dark for me, so dark that I had to stop watching years ago. I was just vaguely keeping track of the main story lines via wikipedia or some fan pages and now I’m reading fanfics.

I’m not that interested in the parts with the unsub, when we see what they are doing but I do like the investigation, how everyone has their expertise, how they cooperate, how sometimes one of the profilers has a surprising piece of knowledge stemming from their hobbies or personal lives. And I absolutely love how they finalize the preliminary profile and then have the briefing with the local police. And I also like the flights and their discussions there… And I love Dr. Reid! And I love hurt/comfort.

Tags/prompts:

I prefer hurt!Reid

We know that Reid writes letters to his mom every day… Does he write to her about his injury?
For this request I added a tag Headaches & Migraines because of what was happening to Reid in season 6. I’d love to know more about it because in TV it just kinda faded away without any real explanation (IRL Matthew Gray-Gubler was contemplating leaving the series and the writers were preparing the possibilities for him to leave and one of the possible reasons was Reid’s cancer, but please no cancer here)

If you’ll go for Reid/OMC I’d love to know more about Reid’s partner. Where did they meet? In a cafe or when he was visiting his mom in the psychiatric hospital? Was Spencer his shy and awkward self when this person first approached him or was it Spencer who initiated the contact?!

Feel free to explore canon injuries, like after Reid was shot in the leg in season 5. Reid knowing more about his injury (at least in theory) than his doctors could also be interesting. Will he be counting probabilities about successful surgeries and recovery?
I like his friendships with Emily, Derek, Gideon, Hotch and would love to see it in the fic.


3) Grey’s Anatomy



Meredith Grey & Cristina Yang; Meredith Grey/Cristina Yang; Arizona Robbins/Callie Torres; Mark Sloan & Derek Shepherd; Solo: Cristina Yang; Solo: Arizona Robbins

Feel free to include other characters like Alex, Bailey, Richard, Addison, Burke, Owen, Teddy…

I’m more familiar with the first nine seasons

What I love about the series: Grey’s Anatomy has been running for so long and everything has already happened there. I know the most about the early seasons. I’ve watched them many times, then I stopped some time around season 7 or 8 but still paid quite a lot of attention to it until season 10. Afterwards I don’t know much about the series and new characters. But the story arcs of most of the requested characters finished while I was still watching so it shouldn’t be a problem.

My OTP was Cristina/Burke and then Calzona, Meredith/Derek seemed too much of a perfect fairy tale to me. But what I like even more than romantic ships are all the friendships and the depiction of all the different ways how a friendship between two characters can be formed.

I just love medical TV shows, all the improbable cases, crazy diagnosis, competent doctors, watching the surgeries, the tense atmosphere in the OR when something goes wrong, injuries, healing, doctors explaining the procedures…

Tags/prompts:

I prefer hurt!Arizona, otherwise I don’t have any strong preference for the others.

There have been some canon injuries… Well, quite a lot of them. I’d be interested in Arizona and her dealing with the amputation. It seemed like a season later the writers forgot she didn’t have a leg. It could be a look into everyday life - with Callie and with a bit of fluff, my girls deserve it. Then there was Derek’s hand injury. What would happen if he indeed hadn’t recovered and wasn’t able to perform surgeries? And you can create so many shiny new injuries ;)

Meredith and Cristina had such an amazing friendship, I’d love to see it in a fic. What would the relationship of Meredith/Cristina look like? When did they start dating? How are they balancing career and private life?

One of the doctors is a patient. Who is it? What happened? Who’s treating them? Do they have to undergo surgery? Does the patient "behave" or they can't help it and want to do the doctors' work?


4) House M.D.


Greg House/James Wilson; Greg House & James Wilson; Lisa Cuddy & Greg House; Solo: Greg House
Feel free to add other characters: Cameron, Chase, Foreman, Kutner, Taub, Thirteen, Stacy…

Fandom specific DNWs: Vogler, Tritter

What I love about the series:

I love everything about House. An “unlikeable” main character, cynicism and irony, crime case-like approach to medicine…
I have to admit that the first three seasons were the best in my opinion. I'm much more familiar with the first five seasons… I know all the important events that happened afterwards (but we can totally make a deal that season 7 and 8 didn’t ever happen, especially not the whole House/Cuddy breakup, car “accident”, prison etc.)

Tags/prompts:

I prefer hurt!House

Of course, we have House, his leg and his pain. When it comes to canon portrayal of his pain I prefer the first three seasons. But you don’t have to concentrate only on this. House did many crazy things that resulted in other injuries, other crazy things just happened to him… or you can come up with more.
I just simply love Wilson taking care of House.
You can explore House’s rehab immediately after the infarction or we can fast forward to seventy year old married House and Wilson complaining about old age and more pain ;)


5) MASH



“Trapper” John McIntyre & Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce
“Trapper” John McIntyre/Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce
Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan & Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce
Solo: Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce

Feel free to add other characters: Potter, Radar, Klinger, Henry, Frank, Charles, Father Mulcahy…

What I love about the series:
I can’t even count how many times I’ve watched the series. I think there were times when immediately after the last episode ended the TV started to broadcast the series again from the beginning and again and again and I wasn’t complaining.
My favourite character is Hawkeye and his blue eyes and humour and professional skills and how human he is.
I appreciate how humorous and fun the series was on one hand and didn't shy away from difficult topics on the other hand. They balanced the fun, OR scenes, anti-war message, individual characters’ arcs so well. There isn’t a single character I wouldn’t like, I mean Frank for sure wasn’t likable but you have to love him anyway, right? ;) It really doesn’t feel that the series started FIFTY years ago.
Maybe I should also mention that I had a phase of intense interest for anything US military connected. I’m not an expert in any way but I did watch SEALS Buds Class 234, Inside combat rescue etc…

Tags/prompts

: I prefer hurt!Hawkeye

I’m open to so many possibilities here: the fic taking place during the war or a future fic after the war or even transporting the character to a modern-day hospital.
Hawkeye did have his fair share of injuries and illnesses in the course of the show but there’s always room for more.
And of course, Hawkeye being a brilliant surgeon himself, will it make matters worse or better? And will the injury have an influence on his career?


6) NCIS: Los Angeles



G Callen; G Callen & Sam Hanna; G Callen/Sam Hanna, G Callen & Hetty Lange, G Callen & Arkady Kolcheck
Feel free to add Hetty, Granger, Vance, Nell, Eric, Michelle, Arkady, Anna, Gibbs…

(For Callen/Sam I wouldn’t want Sam to be cheating on Michelle, she may simply be out of the picture altogether or they got together after she died or any other scenario you can imagine)

Fandom specific DNWs:Joelle, Mosley, focus on Deeks/Kensi

What I love about the series:
I love this series. Though I should also add I stopped watching somewhere after season 6. Now I prefer to rewatch my fave episodes over and over and to read one fanfic after another ;) I do know, in the broadest sense, the general development of the further seasons and have seen some of the episodes, though…
(What I’m trying to say is: if you’d decide to write a direct continuation of let’s say episode 10 season 9 I probably would have to watch it first, I have no idea about it, haven’t watched it… but if you’d use a new piece of info let’s say about Callen’s childhood or favourite food or whatever that was revealed in episode 10 season 9 that’s totally ok, gimmeee all the info)
I love spies so much, I love undercover work, creating the backstories and agents slipping into “fake” characters. And Mr. Callen is the master of the game. I also love men with blue eyes and characters with tough childhood behind them and mysterious past. Basically, NCIS: LA is Mr. Callen for me.
Some of my favourite episodes are: Past Lives, Pusback, LD50, Callen G., Familia, Reznikov N., Matryoshka, The Chosen One, Purity

Tags/prompts:

I prefer hurt!Callen

There have been quite a few times Callen was injured but the writers skipped so much of the recovery and just brushed on it. We need to know moooore. After he was shot five times in Legend, after he rolled over in the car in season one, after he was severely injured in Mexico… etc.
I love spies and undercover missions and would love to know how will Sam help injured Callen during one of these.
Or if it’s a non-canon injury (also very yummy) how serious is it? Can Callen still work as an agent? Also, I’d love to know everything about the recovery. Callen is so independent, how will he handle it, that he needs some help? And how will Sam or Hetty handle it? I love their tough-love approach.

7) Numb3rs



Charlie Eppes/Larry Fleinhardt; Charlie Eppes & Don Eppes; Charlie Eppes & Amita Ramanujan; Charlie Eppes/Amita Ramanujan; Charlie Eppes & Larry Fleinhardt

Feel free to include other characters: Megan, David, Mildred, Alan, Colby, Ian…

What I love about the series:
Numb3rs is such a feel-good series for me, I really love all characters - so feel free to add any others. I mainly like the friendships and good relationships among them. Romantic storylines are not the main focus for me there, though Charlie/Larry or Charlie/Amita are always welcome. I also love the insights into university life.
(I’m freely admitting that my knowledge of math is not great so I’ll be admiring Charlie’s brilliant explanations from afar ;) )
Larry is so wonderfully absent-minded and a brilliant genius at the same time. I love Charlie and his quirky ways, how intelligent and yet human he is, his friendship with Larry, Amita, Megan, Colby, David…

Tags/prompts:

I prefer hurt!Charlie (and/or hurt!Don)

I may be misremembering but Charlie really wasn’t hurt in canon??
So what happened here? Was it during a case or was it an accident? And who’s taking care of Charlie? How is Alan coping with the news about his son's injury?
Does he apply some of his math theories to his injury? Maybe he’s predicting the prognosis this way.
How will the injury influence his teaching and his cooperation with the FBI?


8) SEAL Team



Stella Baxter/Clay Spenser; Sonny Quinn/Clay Spenser; Sonny Quinn & Clay Spenser; Jason Hayes & Sonny Quinn & Clay Spenser; Solo: Clay Spenser
Feel free to include other characters: Ray, Omar, Brock, Trent, Naima, Lisa, Blackburn…

(For Sonny/Clay I would prefer Clay not cheating on Stella and Stella just out of the picture altogether)

Fandom specific DNWs: Clay’s death, anything related to Clay’s death; mentioning the vet center; focus on canon storylines about traumatic brain injury

What I love about the series:
It’s so improbable: me falling in love with a military drama because I didn’t know much about military and army things and yet here we are. Years ago I watched the first two seasons. And now suddenly I remembered the show and read some fics about it just in time season 6 was about to premiere. And I’m hooked again.
I love their brotherhood, I love watching these confident men who can just do anything anywhere anytime they want. I love Sonny & Clay’s friendship.
Season 6 episode 8 never happened. Please don’t. No. Please use canon up to S06E07.

Tags/prompts:

I prefer hurt!Clay

Obviously, the amputation is one of the first things that come to my (maybe your) mind. But it doesn’t have to be about it at all. There’s the Manila bombing in 2x17 and Clay’s serious injury. And that’s just canon. There are so many other possibilities.

For the happenings of season 6 - I have to admit that I have a pretty developed fix-it AU in my mind (and in a wip) where Clay returns to Bravo even with a prosthetic leg. It’s the only way I’m able to deal with season 6… and I totally do get it that you might not share this view. So in this case could you please concentrate more on the earlier stages of the rehab and coming to terms with the amputation (like episode 6x2, 6x3, 6x4) instead of long-term career and life plans? (or maybe Clay could be accompanying Bravo on a mission as an interpreter?)
Though if you do share this view that Clay returns, I need to know everything about how it goes!
Also, there was a 3-month-jump in the events in episode 6x2 so what happened during this time?

For Manila - I loved everything about it. What if Bravo returned from the Philippines after the bombing and was there for Clay instead of Swanny?
What if “the very real possibility that your operating days will be over” the doctors kept talking about in 2x18 did happen and Clay couldn’t return to the field?
Or maybe the Manila injuries are acting up now, on top of everything else.
I just love Clay so much and I love to hurt him.


Thank you so much for writing for me.