Dear Yuletide Writer Letter (2024)
Oct. 6th, 2024 12:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twoamDear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you for writing for me! (And if you're just looking at my letter, thank you too.) I'm really excited to see what you will create for me! I hope you find this letter helpful, although of course, optional details are optional (as they should be).
My AO3 account is![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
twoam, and I am very open to treats and have them enabled!
I realised that this year there is a definite theme to the fandoms and characters I'm requesting: a very uptight, by the book guy who is on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and a guy with an ego the size of a small country who does what he wants. They both make each other worse, and that's the magic of it. (Although Leo is much happier when he's being worse! The others...well...) Some of my requests have more detail than others, this does not reflect on how much I want them, just that I have more ideas for some!
My likes:
*Missing scenes
*Canon divergence
*Getting together
*Pining and longing, requited or unrequited
*Angst
*Realisation of feelings
*Accidental physical contact
*Hurt/comfort
*Miscommunication, mixed messages
*Fond bickering/snarking between couples
*Communication without using words
*Scenery porn
*Sense of place and scene
*Theatre and acting life, the difference between stage and reality
*Snowed in together
*Weird historical facts
*Nature
*Humour
*Bed sharing, there's only one bed!, enforced proximity
*Letter writing, epistolary fic, in-universe forms, guidance, documents etc.
Smut likes:
*Desperation
*Praise kink
*Dirty talk
*Grinding
*One partner masturbates in front of the other
*Mutual masturbation
*Fingering for its own sake
*Frottage
*Oral sex
*Anal sex
*Sex that doesn't go to plan but still ends up being a good time
*Come play
*Fantasizing during sex
DNWs:
*Unrequested AUs (Canon divergence AUs are requested for all canons)
*Unrequested non-canon pairings for requested characters
*Current events
*Sole focus on social issues (e.g. racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia etc.)
*Unrequested non-canon character death (near death is okay)
*Characters being buried alive, even if they survive it
*Graphic description of injuries/violence
*Cannibalism
*Vore
*Bodily fluids that are not sexual fluids, sweat and blood (feeling nauseated is fine as long as it doesn't lead to actual vomiting)
*Explicit sexual content with characters under 18 years old
*Ageplay
*Breathplay/choking
*Non-con
*Omegaverse
*D/s
Fandom specific DNW for The Producers (1968): Explicit sexual content (reference to sexual experiences/sexual thoughts/fades to black are fine).
Fandom: Blackadder
Requested characters: Edmund Blackadder (Blackadder Goes Forth), Kevin Darling (Blackadder Goes Forth).
While I haven't specifically requested the other nominated characters, please feel free to include them if you'd like to.
Blackadder Goes Forth is my favourite Blackadder series. It's a mixture of the setting, the excellent writing, and the characters. It is very funny...until Darling arrives at the dug-out in the final minutes of Goodbyeee, and after that, it's not funny at all. Considering that Blackadder II played its "kill 'em all" ending for laughs, it's impressive (and heart-breaking) how unfunny and instead, incredibly sad, going over the top is. What a great end for the series.
(Of course, for fic purposes, it doesn't have to end like that...or you could have them all be dead! Your call!)
I also enjoy Blackadder having such an effective foil in Darling. A lot of summaries of the overall series say that Darling plays a similar role to the one Melchett did in Blackadder II, in that they're Blackadder's enemy/rival. This is technically true, and yet, the vibes are quite different. Melchett would find any rival to Queenie's affections a nuisance and would treat them in just the same way. Darling, however...their enmity is deeply personal to him. It is because he's Edmund Blackadder, and while he gets mad at other people challenging his authority, none of it inspires the same kind of deep-down, burning loathing and hatred that Blackadder does.
While Blackadder isn't as obsessed, Darling is one of the few people who can almost equal him in smarts (when it comes to getting one over on Blackadder, at least), and he's more of a challenge/threat than practically everyone else around him. (He might be a little bored if Darling wasn't around, actually.) They're also as bad as each other and got far more in common than either of them would ever willingly want to admit.
In short: weird, obsessive enemies? Yes, please!
Still...in Goodbyeee, they bury the hatchet. Blackadder gives him the chance for some dignity that Melchett completely refused him. For all their fighting and trying to get each other killed, they can silently agree a truce when they're about to die together. (Though if they survive, I'm sure they would be back at each other's throats soon enough.)
I do ship them, and their antagonistic relationship towards each other is part of why I do, so if you write them as a ship, I'd like them to still be argumentative even if they are shagging.
I'm interested in things set during, after, and even before, canon!
Ideas:
*What happened after they went over the top. Maybe they figured out a plan to get out of it together once they were in No Man's Land, perhaps Blackadder has one of those moments of very good luck he gets occasionally. Maybe the Germans capture them, much to their relief.
*Any sort of mission fic. It could be an actual good idea that inevitably goes wrong, or it was an absolutely terrible idea that never would have been approved by anyone halfway competent, but they have Melchett as their leader.
*A mission where, because of reasons (Melchett being an idiot?), they have to go undercover as a couple in order to do something incredibly dangerous, like checking on German defences. Yes, this means one of them has to cross-dress and pretend to be the other's wife. While Darling would likely be everyone's first pick (apart from Darling himself, of course), and would be a fittingly put-upon, incredibly pissed off wife, I think Blackadder could play the wife from hell very effectively, once he got into the spirit of it. Hell, he might even keep the moustache, it adds to the verisimilitude. Either way, there can be plenty of antagonistic use of 'Darling' in a spousal way...
*Anything that could be summed up as 'Blackadder would have got away with it if he hadn't been so smug and then immediately put his foot in it'.
*When was their first meeting? Was it when Darling got promoted into the position he's in during the series, or before then? Did they almost, for a moment, get along before it inevitably went to pot?
*Alternatively, they met before the war and ended up hating each other on sight back then (perhaps Blackadder was up to some bullshit scheme and Darling found out and attempted to stop him), so it feels like the most incredible misfortune to come across each other again now.
*Time loop. I've been thinking about a Groundhog Day style one day time loop a lot recently for these two. Either one or both of them being stuck on it! It could take a long time to realise that they were stuck in one with how repetitive trench warfare is! I feel they would both take advantage of it (until the pointlessness of doing so gets to them). I can also see everyone else being stuck in the loop too, but they've not noticed and these two, mistakenly think it's just them. It could be a normal day in the trenches would be good, but Goodbyeee as a time loop too could be interesting. Since this can be a very complicated set-up, and this isn't a long fic exchange, I would be thrilled with a story set at any point during the time loop, like one of the days when it's been going on for a while.
*Friends with benefits. Or enemies with benefits, more accurately. It's slim pickings in the middle of a war, and that's all there is to it. Or they would never admit to anything else...
*Pining. Angry, "I really hate your guts, but I also want to shag you" pining, or maybe something more low-key. I could see Blackadder realising Darling is pining and ruthlessly using it against him.
*Christmas in the trenches. Maybe the first Christmas (the one where Blackadder was clearly off-side) or any other Christmas.
*Time travel, either backwards or forwards. This could be to another series of Blackadder, Blackadder II would be particular fun, seeing as how many people they know also show up there in, hmm, quite different form. Or gatecrashing the canonical time travel misadventures of Blackadder Back and Forth! It could also be to another time of your choosing.
*Ghosts! I am always up for the angst of ghosts with this fandom. One of them survives going over the top, and the other doesn't, so he's going to haunt the crap out of the survivor as revenge. Or they're both ghosts! Stuck with each other, nobody else can see them (perhaps Baldrick can, it's hard to tell), they can't get to the afterlife, what now? (Ghost romance???) I would love this as a dark humour, angst or a mixture. Really, kill them off!
*It is surprising how much the waiting room in the afterlife looks like London Victoria station, and even more surprising how it's filled with people you thought that you'd finally got shot of after you died.
*Post WWI fic of any flavour. They could be delighted to think they'd never see each other again but end up working together again, much to their initial loathing (and then...?). They could be navigating the changes the end of the war brings to their existing relationship, as they find their way back into civilian life. Maybe they broke up during the war, because he's a complete git, but end up getting back together after the war ends, because it turns out that actually, they miss each other and their constant fighting, and it takes returning to England to realise that. Or...perhaps there's one last go on the way back home to England to be discharged from the army that changes everything. Is it too late?
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show (TV 2019)
Requested characters: Chris Bean (The Play That Goes Wrong), Robert Grove
While I am requesting these two, I would be very happy for the rest of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society to appear, too!
A friend wrote a promo for this canon, if you're unfamiliar but interested in this show, which is available here!
This show makes me laugh a lot, and part of that is the stunt work (incredible work happens there), and the other part is the characters. It's almost inspiring how they never give up, despite what a disaster every single production is!
I find canons about actors interesting, and this canon has plenty of actors! (Good actors is another question altogether.) Feel free to dig into that side of things. I'm intrigued about their rehearsals, considering what a disaster the final shows are...
The relationship between Chris, the Director and Robert, the Lead Actor intrigues me, which is why I'm requesting them. They're two of the better actors in the society (although this isn't saying much) and take acting seriously, though their acting methods are quite different. Chris' perfectionism and temper, and Robert's humongous ego, mean they're destined to clash, even without the entire set collapsing on them and all the other disasters that beset every single production.
While I would say Robert is more obsessed with Chris than Chris is with him, Chris is hardly indifferent to him. After all, when Robert stages his coup, his revenge on Chris is a series of humiliations designed to belittle him, and make Robert look good in the process. When Chris regains control as director, he takes his revenge far more effectively: Robert gets no lines at all. Here are two people that know each other's weak points! I find it interesting how their relationship steadily gets worse over the course of the TV show, too, to the point where Chekhov's Gun is accidentally fired into Chris' shoulder in the Festievil.
I enjoy them being weird, argumentative, stubborn and a bit obsessed with each other. It's funny how they're happiest when they're being mean together about other people. So, what if...they kissed? I'm sure this would fix everything! (It wouldn't, they would probably just fight even more if they were dating, and that's what I love about them.)
I am familiar with the rest of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society Cinematic Universe (i.e. The Play That Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong and A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong). Particularly relevant for the characters I've requested: I have also listened to Christmas Goes Wrong, the BBC Radio 2 special that was hosted by Chris Bean and Robert Grove back in 2016. That's available here. It...well. One half of a pairing attempting to seduce the other's mother might normally sink a ship. Here, the whole thing comes off as Robert trying to win a final victory over Chris by getting him to call him Dad, yet, also being somewhat concerned over the lack of love in the Bean family and trying to fix it by becoming his dad (as opposed to...other roles that might be available). I don't expect you to watch/listen to the other entries, but if you have and you want to reference them, please do!
Ideas:
*I'm interested in any kind of getting-together story for Chris and Robert.
*As the show has now been officially cancelled by the BBC, a scheme is devised to try to save Play of The Week. Or perhaps a proposal for a new show, instead? Perhaps breaking into Broadcasting House and kidnapping the Director General of the BBC will fix it?
*The society puts on a gay drama, or a romance, or another kind of play that has prominent LGBT+ characters in it. Maybe Chris and Robert are the leads, and it leads to feelings, but perhaps, they aren't, and that leads to certain realisations, too.
*I love historical plays, so more, more! Let there be more disasters of costuming and historical inaccuracies!
*Historical AUs. A drama society that puts on plays that keep going wrong would work in so many historical time periods. Perhaps they're a not very successful Elizabethan theatre company who snubbed Shakespeare. Maybe they're upsetting Aristophanes by mangling his plays, or an amateur group in Regency England, and everyone is just using their performances as an excuse to meet up and gossip rather than be a good audience and watch them, damn it! Or any other time in history that you'd like to write about.
*A fight on-stage turns into something more. Or a fight in the wings while they're waiting for their cues turning into something more, and they completely miss their cues.
*Chris has the weirdest anxiety dreams, all of which involve Robert for reasons he is completely not considering, thank you. (Robert, on the other hand, keeps having dreams where he humiliates Chris in increasingly more elaborate ways.)
*Robert is convinced Chris is in love with him. Chris is not, but he decides to use his acting skills to pretend he is, to see if it makes Robert more willing to work with him. It does, and Chris finds himself digging a bigger and bigger hole. Was Chris in love with him before all this, and just in denial? Or has he actually ended up falling because he's been pretending so much? Make it messy and drama-filled, they are, after all, actors, and actors are great at messy relationships.
*Anything relating to Christmas Goes Wrong. It's medically fascinating what happens in that special. What's the fallout of Robert's attempt to seduce Mrs Bean, which appears to be more motivated by Robert wanting to be Chris' dad than any feelings for her? Of Chris calling him Dad? Or on a less fraught note, the revelation that Robert enjoys dressing up as Santa Claus at home when it's not Christmas.Sexy Santa???
*I am so curious about what the rehearsal process looks like for them. Are their rehearsals somewhat successful? Or does what goes wrong there get fixed, only for something else to go completely off the rails on the night?
*The cat in Harper's Locket is the best actor in the whole play, which is probably why Robert tries to bump them off. Anyway, more cats! I would love more cats.
*"Completely Incapacitated" is one of my favourite running jokes in this canon. Please throw it in wherever you would like.
*Freeform that I've previously requested in a different exchange that I saw and went "ah, also perfect for these two!": "Faking own kidnapping in attempt to get the other person to admit their feelings"
Fandom: The Producers (1968)
Requested characters: Max Bialystock, Leopold "Leo" Bloom
If you'd like include any of the nominated other characters too, please do!
I'm fond of this movie, even though parts of it haven't aged that well, a lot of it still holds up and it's got some very, very catchy earworms. Everyone remembers Springtime for Hitler (deservedly!), but Prisoners of Love is really catchy too.
The relationship between Max and Leo is one of my favourite parts. At first, they're a complete odd couple who don't like/are terrified of each other, but they go from Max making asides to inanimate objects to making them to Leo, pulling him in as his partner in crime and the only two sane men in the cast. By the end they're genuinely fond of each other, with the apology in the theatre for their earlier fighting and Leo's heartfelt speech/attempt to get them off in court. They're also quite touchy-feely, all things considered. I'd like more of that odd couple who argue but do have each other's backs and care about each other, even when they're committing fraud. I'm happy with this being either platonic or romantic for these two, as long as they're important to each other!
As my friend said, "that's two people who, in finding together, have completed each other...not in a good way. It actively made them worse people from the point of view of society at large. But still."
Ideas:
*The original plan was to take the money and run off to Rio, so what if they'd actually been able to do it? Or at least tried to make it to the airport as soon as the interval happened.
*Any missing scenes!
*Prisoners of Love! With Max declaring next time, no author, did he decide to write it himself? Or did Leo do it? Is it embarrassingly autobiographical without realising it? Or is it more of a case of 'I can't talk about these feelings so they're going into our new production'. I would love to see the production itself, too!
*Prisoners of Love makes a successful transfer to Broadway.
*After getting out of jail, they get back into the theatre business. Maybe this time they're trying to do things honestly, but old habits are hard to resist. Or maybe this time, it will be an absolute flop.
*Ulla seems quite interested (and amused) by the idea of Max and Leo going to a motel together. Perhaps she gives them a little push? Sure, Mr Bialystock is always flirting with her, but that's just what everyone does. It's not like his relationship with Mr Bloom...
*Leo declared that 'I want everything I've ever seen in a movie'. What if that wasn't just flashing the cash, but also the more romantic elements too?
*The concierge is my favourite one-scene character, so if she made a cameo somewhere, I would love it.
*A crossover with The Goes Wrong Show. If you wanted your show to be a flop, what better way to do it than by getting the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society as your actors? It could be an alternate version of Springtime for Hitler, or Prisoners of Love, or a completely new production that's also a disaster.
Thank you for writing for me! (And if you're just looking at my letter, thank you too.) I'm really excited to see what you will create for me! I hope you find this letter helpful, although of course, optional details are optional (as they should be).
My AO3 account is
I realised that this year there is a definite theme to the fandoms and characters I'm requesting: a very uptight, by the book guy who is on the edge of a nervous breakdown, and a guy with an ego the size of a small country who does what he wants. They both make each other worse, and that's the magic of it. (Although Leo is much happier when he's being worse! The others...well...) Some of my requests have more detail than others, this does not reflect on how much I want them, just that I have more ideas for some!
My likes:
*Missing scenes
*Canon divergence
*Getting together
*Pining and longing, requited or unrequited
*Angst
*Realisation of feelings
*Accidental physical contact
*Hurt/comfort
*Miscommunication, mixed messages
*Fond bickering/snarking between couples
*Communication without using words
*Scenery porn
*Sense of place and scene
*Theatre and acting life, the difference between stage and reality
*Snowed in together
*Weird historical facts
*Nature
*Humour
*Bed sharing, there's only one bed!, enforced proximity
*Letter writing, epistolary fic, in-universe forms, guidance, documents etc.
Smut likes:
*Desperation
*Praise kink
*Dirty talk
*Grinding
*One partner masturbates in front of the other
*Mutual masturbation
*Fingering for its own sake
*Frottage
*Oral sex
*Anal sex
*Sex that doesn't go to plan but still ends up being a good time
*Come play
*Fantasizing during sex
DNWs:
*Unrequested AUs (Canon divergence AUs are requested for all canons)
*Unrequested non-canon pairings for requested characters
*Current events
*Sole focus on social issues (e.g. racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia etc.)
*Unrequested non-canon character death (near death is okay)
*Characters being buried alive, even if they survive it
*Graphic description of injuries/violence
*Cannibalism
*Vore
*Bodily fluids that are not sexual fluids, sweat and blood (feeling nauseated is fine as long as it doesn't lead to actual vomiting)
*Explicit sexual content with characters under 18 years old
*Ageplay
*Breathplay/choking
*Non-con
*Omegaverse
*D/s
Fandom specific DNW for The Producers (1968): Explicit sexual content (reference to sexual experiences/sexual thoughts/fades to black are fine).
Fandom: Blackadder
Requested characters: Edmund Blackadder (Blackadder Goes Forth), Kevin Darling (Blackadder Goes Forth).
While I haven't specifically requested the other nominated characters, please feel free to include them if you'd like to.
Blackadder Goes Forth is my favourite Blackadder series. It's a mixture of the setting, the excellent writing, and the characters. It is very funny...until Darling arrives at the dug-out in the final minutes of Goodbyeee, and after that, it's not funny at all. Considering that Blackadder II played its "kill 'em all" ending for laughs, it's impressive (and heart-breaking) how unfunny and instead, incredibly sad, going over the top is. What a great end for the series.
(Of course, for fic purposes, it doesn't have to end like that...or you could have them all be dead! Your call!)
I also enjoy Blackadder having such an effective foil in Darling. A lot of summaries of the overall series say that Darling plays a similar role to the one Melchett did in Blackadder II, in that they're Blackadder's enemy/rival. This is technically true, and yet, the vibes are quite different. Melchett would find any rival to Queenie's affections a nuisance and would treat them in just the same way. Darling, however...their enmity is deeply personal to him. It is because he's Edmund Blackadder, and while he gets mad at other people challenging his authority, none of it inspires the same kind of deep-down, burning loathing and hatred that Blackadder does.
While Blackadder isn't as obsessed, Darling is one of the few people who can almost equal him in smarts (when it comes to getting one over on Blackadder, at least), and he's more of a challenge/threat than practically everyone else around him. (He might be a little bored if Darling wasn't around, actually.) They're also as bad as each other and got far more in common than either of them would ever willingly want to admit.
In short: weird, obsessive enemies? Yes, please!
Still...in Goodbyeee, they bury the hatchet. Blackadder gives him the chance for some dignity that Melchett completely refused him. For all their fighting and trying to get each other killed, they can silently agree a truce when they're about to die together. (Though if they survive, I'm sure they would be back at each other's throats soon enough.)
I do ship them, and their antagonistic relationship towards each other is part of why I do, so if you write them as a ship, I'd like them to still be argumentative even if they are shagging.
I'm interested in things set during, after, and even before, canon!
Ideas:
*What happened after they went over the top. Maybe they figured out a plan to get out of it together once they were in No Man's Land, perhaps Blackadder has one of those moments of very good luck he gets occasionally. Maybe the Germans capture them, much to their relief.
*Any sort of mission fic. It could be an actual good idea that inevitably goes wrong, or it was an absolutely terrible idea that never would have been approved by anyone halfway competent, but they have Melchett as their leader.
*A mission where, because of reasons (Melchett being an idiot?), they have to go undercover as a couple in order to do something incredibly dangerous, like checking on German defences. Yes, this means one of them has to cross-dress and pretend to be the other's wife. While Darling would likely be everyone's first pick (apart from Darling himself, of course), and would be a fittingly put-upon, incredibly pissed off wife, I think Blackadder could play the wife from hell very effectively, once he got into the spirit of it. Hell, he might even keep the moustache, it adds to the verisimilitude. Either way, there can be plenty of antagonistic use of 'Darling' in a spousal way...
*Anything that could be summed up as 'Blackadder would have got away with it if he hadn't been so smug and then immediately put his foot in it'.
*When was their first meeting? Was it when Darling got promoted into the position he's in during the series, or before then? Did they almost, for a moment, get along before it inevitably went to pot?
*Alternatively, they met before the war and ended up hating each other on sight back then (perhaps Blackadder was up to some bullshit scheme and Darling found out and attempted to stop him), so it feels like the most incredible misfortune to come across each other again now.
*Time loop. I've been thinking about a Groundhog Day style one day time loop a lot recently for these two. Either one or both of them being stuck on it! It could take a long time to realise that they were stuck in one with how repetitive trench warfare is! I feel they would both take advantage of it (until the pointlessness of doing so gets to them). I can also see everyone else being stuck in the loop too, but they've not noticed and these two, mistakenly think it's just them. It could be a normal day in the trenches would be good, but Goodbyeee as a time loop too could be interesting. Since this can be a very complicated set-up, and this isn't a long fic exchange, I would be thrilled with a story set at any point during the time loop, like one of the days when it's been going on for a while.
*Friends with benefits. Or enemies with benefits, more accurately. It's slim pickings in the middle of a war, and that's all there is to it. Or they would never admit to anything else...
*Pining. Angry, "I really hate your guts, but I also want to shag you" pining, or maybe something more low-key. I could see Blackadder realising Darling is pining and ruthlessly using it against him.
*Christmas in the trenches. Maybe the first Christmas (the one where Blackadder was clearly off-side) or any other Christmas.
*Time travel, either backwards or forwards. This could be to another series of Blackadder, Blackadder II would be particular fun, seeing as how many people they know also show up there in, hmm, quite different form. Or gatecrashing the canonical time travel misadventures of Blackadder Back and Forth! It could also be to another time of your choosing.
*Ghosts! I am always up for the angst of ghosts with this fandom. One of them survives going over the top, and the other doesn't, so he's going to haunt the crap out of the survivor as revenge. Or they're both ghosts! Stuck with each other, nobody else can see them (perhaps Baldrick can, it's hard to tell), they can't get to the afterlife, what now? (Ghost romance???) I would love this as a dark humour, angst or a mixture. Really, kill them off!
*It is surprising how much the waiting room in the afterlife looks like London Victoria station, and even more surprising how it's filled with people you thought that you'd finally got shot of after you died.
*Post WWI fic of any flavour. They could be delighted to think they'd never see each other again but end up working together again, much to their initial loathing (and then...?). They could be navigating the changes the end of the war brings to their existing relationship, as they find their way back into civilian life. Maybe they broke up during the war, because he's a complete git, but end up getting back together after the war ends, because it turns out that actually, they miss each other and their constant fighting, and it takes returning to England to realise that. Or...perhaps there's one last go on the way back home to England to be discharged from the army that changes everything. Is it too late?
Fandom: The Goes Wrong Show (TV 2019)
Requested characters: Chris Bean (The Play That Goes Wrong), Robert Grove
While I am requesting these two, I would be very happy for the rest of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society to appear, too!
A friend wrote a promo for this canon, if you're unfamiliar but interested in this show, which is available here!
This show makes me laugh a lot, and part of that is the stunt work (incredible work happens there), and the other part is the characters. It's almost inspiring how they never give up, despite what a disaster every single production is!
I find canons about actors interesting, and this canon has plenty of actors! (Good actors is another question altogether.) Feel free to dig into that side of things. I'm intrigued about their rehearsals, considering what a disaster the final shows are...
The relationship between Chris, the Director and Robert, the Lead Actor intrigues me, which is why I'm requesting them. They're two of the better actors in the society (although this isn't saying much) and take acting seriously, though their acting methods are quite different. Chris' perfectionism and temper, and Robert's humongous ego, mean they're destined to clash, even without the entire set collapsing on them and all the other disasters that beset every single production.
While I would say Robert is more obsessed with Chris than Chris is with him, Chris is hardly indifferent to him. After all, when Robert stages his coup, his revenge on Chris is a series of humiliations designed to belittle him, and make Robert look good in the process. When Chris regains control as director, he takes his revenge far more effectively: Robert gets no lines at all. Here are two people that know each other's weak points! I find it interesting how their relationship steadily gets worse over the course of the TV show, too, to the point where Chekhov's Gun is accidentally fired into Chris' shoulder in the Festievil.
I enjoy them being weird, argumentative, stubborn and a bit obsessed with each other. It's funny how they're happiest when they're being mean together about other people. So, what if...they kissed? I'm sure this would fix everything! (It wouldn't, they would probably just fight even more if they were dating, and that's what I love about them.)
I am familiar with the rest of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society Cinematic Universe (i.e. The Play That Goes Wrong, Peter Pan Goes Wrong and A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong). Particularly relevant for the characters I've requested: I have also listened to Christmas Goes Wrong, the BBC Radio 2 special that was hosted by Chris Bean and Robert Grove back in 2016. That's available here. It...well. One half of a pairing attempting to seduce the other's mother might normally sink a ship. Here, the whole thing comes off as Robert trying to win a final victory over Chris by getting him to call him Dad, yet, also being somewhat concerned over the lack of love in the Bean family and trying to fix it by becoming his dad (as opposed to...other roles that might be available). I don't expect you to watch/listen to the other entries, but if you have and you want to reference them, please do!
Ideas:
*I'm interested in any kind of getting-together story for Chris and Robert.
*As the show has now been officially cancelled by the BBC, a scheme is devised to try to save Play of The Week. Or perhaps a proposal for a new show, instead? Perhaps breaking into Broadcasting House and kidnapping the Director General of the BBC will fix it?
*The society puts on a gay drama, or a romance, or another kind of play that has prominent LGBT+ characters in it. Maybe Chris and Robert are the leads, and it leads to feelings, but perhaps, they aren't, and that leads to certain realisations, too.
*I love historical plays, so more, more! Let there be more disasters of costuming and historical inaccuracies!
*Historical AUs. A drama society that puts on plays that keep going wrong would work in so many historical time periods. Perhaps they're a not very successful Elizabethan theatre company who snubbed Shakespeare. Maybe they're upsetting Aristophanes by mangling his plays, or an amateur group in Regency England, and everyone is just using their performances as an excuse to meet up and gossip rather than be a good audience and watch them, damn it! Or any other time in history that you'd like to write about.
*A fight on-stage turns into something more. Or a fight in the wings while they're waiting for their cues turning into something more, and they completely miss their cues.
*Chris has the weirdest anxiety dreams, all of which involve Robert for reasons he is completely not considering, thank you. (Robert, on the other hand, keeps having dreams where he humiliates Chris in increasingly more elaborate ways.)
*Robert is convinced Chris is in love with him. Chris is not, but he decides to use his acting skills to pretend he is, to see if it makes Robert more willing to work with him. It does, and Chris finds himself digging a bigger and bigger hole. Was Chris in love with him before all this, and just in denial? Or has he actually ended up falling because he's been pretending so much? Make it messy and drama-filled, they are, after all, actors, and actors are great at messy relationships.
*Anything relating to Christmas Goes Wrong. It's medically fascinating what happens in that special. What's the fallout of Robert's attempt to seduce Mrs Bean, which appears to be more motivated by Robert wanting to be Chris' dad than any feelings for her? Of Chris calling him Dad? Or on a less fraught note, the revelation that Robert enjoys dressing up as Santa Claus at home when it's not Christmas.
*I am so curious about what the rehearsal process looks like for them. Are their rehearsals somewhat successful? Or does what goes wrong there get fixed, only for something else to go completely off the rails on the night?
*The cat in Harper's Locket is the best actor in the whole play, which is probably why Robert tries to bump them off. Anyway, more cats! I would love more cats.
*"Completely Incapacitated" is one of my favourite running jokes in this canon. Please throw it in wherever you would like.
*Freeform that I've previously requested in a different exchange that I saw and went "ah, also perfect for these two!": "Faking own kidnapping in attempt to get the other person to admit their feelings"
Fandom: The Producers (1968)
Requested characters: Max Bialystock, Leopold "Leo" Bloom
If you'd like include any of the nominated other characters too, please do!
I'm fond of this movie, even though parts of it haven't aged that well, a lot of it still holds up and it's got some very, very catchy earworms. Everyone remembers Springtime for Hitler (deservedly!), but Prisoners of Love is really catchy too.
The relationship between Max and Leo is one of my favourite parts. At first, they're a complete odd couple who don't like/are terrified of each other, but they go from Max making asides to inanimate objects to making them to Leo, pulling him in as his partner in crime and the only two sane men in the cast. By the end they're genuinely fond of each other, with the apology in the theatre for their earlier fighting and Leo's heartfelt speech/attempt to get them off in court. They're also quite touchy-feely, all things considered. I'd like more of that odd couple who argue but do have each other's backs and care about each other, even when they're committing fraud. I'm happy with this being either platonic or romantic for these two, as long as they're important to each other!
As my friend said, "that's two people who, in finding together, have completed each other...not in a good way. It actively made them worse people from the point of view of society at large. But still."
Ideas:
*The original plan was to take the money and run off to Rio, so what if they'd actually been able to do it? Or at least tried to make it to the airport as soon as the interval happened.
*Any missing scenes!
*Prisoners of Love! With Max declaring next time, no author, did he decide to write it himself? Or did Leo do it? Is it embarrassingly autobiographical without realising it? Or is it more of a case of 'I can't talk about these feelings so they're going into our new production'. I would love to see the production itself, too!
*Prisoners of Love makes a successful transfer to Broadway.
*After getting out of jail, they get back into the theatre business. Maybe this time they're trying to do things honestly, but old habits are hard to resist. Or maybe this time, it will be an absolute flop.
*Ulla seems quite interested (and amused) by the idea of Max and Leo going to a motel together. Perhaps she gives them a little push? Sure, Mr Bialystock is always flirting with her, but that's just what everyone does. It's not like his relationship with Mr Bloom...
*Leo declared that 'I want everything I've ever seen in a movie'. What if that wasn't just flashing the cash, but also the more romantic elements too?
*The concierge is my favourite one-scene character, so if she made a cameo somewhere, I would love it.
*A crossover with The Goes Wrong Show. If you wanted your show to be a flop, what better way to do it than by getting the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society as your actors? It could be an alternate version of Springtime for Hitler, or Prisoners of Love, or a completely new production that's also a disaster.
