dorinda

(Chocolate Box is a low-pressure multifandom gift exchange with small minimum wordcount/art size, signups are open until January 7! Check out

chocolateboxcomm )

Dear Chocolatier,

Thank you so much for making me something! I know my letter explanations are ficcish sometimes, but I would also love some art, whichever you're offering.

Some of my general preferences:

* Happy or at least hopeful endings (or in art, hopefulness and possibilities). That doesn't rule out bittersweet or melancholy or dark tones, and needn't be fluffy...in fact, I don't really find total fluff as comforting in general, for some reason. But I'm just not up for hopeless/tragic stuff.

* You can have sex in your story or art if you like, or not, any level of explicit or not--whatever suits the work best. I do prefer sex to have underpinnings to it, emotions, needs, etc.--something deeper than just sex for its own sake.

Some of the tropes and approaches I enjoy (alphabetically):

bathing/washing
communicating between the lines
cooking for and/or with each other
dressing and/or undressing the other
extreme competence (with honest weakness, no need for perfection)
first time (as opposed to an established relationship)
huddling for warmth
hurt/comfort (physical and/or emotional)
me-and-you-against-the-world
nurturing via food/drink/warmth
pining
pretend or mistaken for couple
protectiveness
rescue
sharing a bed or other cozy space--bedroll, boxcar, hammock, who knows
stranded somewhere (idyllic or non-)
suffering/sacrificing for the other, especially when the other tries to stop it, has big emotions about it, tries to take it on himself instead
tending wounds
trust--especially trust being discovered, and/or trust being tested
uncovering a secret
undercover as or mistaken for rentboy
words that camouflage deeper/unspoken meanings
worry

Thoughts on my specific fandom requests, alphabetically:

THE EXORCIST (TV):
Marcus Keane/Tomas Ortega
Marcus Keane/Peter Osborne

Things I especially like about Tomas: adaptability, kindness, self-sacrifice, courage, curiosity, his ties to community (his sister, his nephew, the Rances, his former congregation). I also like his flaws, so interwoven with his strengths, his risk-taking/hubris and his secret dreams. Also, his eyes, unf. So melting, so bedroom, so dark and deep and soft.

Things I especially like about Marcus: intensity, compassion, sensitivity, rough edges, vulnerability, depth of emotions, hands-on encouraging love for each and every one of the people he tries to save. His flaws, like Tomas's, stemming from his strengths and his nature: the way his powerful personal attachments (e.g. to God, to saving people from demons) snare him into a long dark fall (feeling abandoned by the God he passionately loves, feeling personally responsible for losing those he couldn't save). Also, his body, that wiry queer-rough-trade aesthetic, oh man.

Things I especially like about Peter: we don't know him nearly as well, but he clearly seems gentle, calm, helpful, observant, quiet and wry--he's learned how to articulate his own pain, to listen, to communicate. He asks for what he wants, but he knows how to take no for an answer. We don't really get to see his flaws...what are they? Looks-wise, oh, helloooo Silver Fox.

I am perfectly fine with canon-typical violence/horror tropes, and enjoy the trappings/customs/labyrinthine histories of the Catholic church (and this show's alternate-history church; feel free to do some worldbuilding if you want). Exorcisms and other aspects of their work are great, but you don’t have to focus on that if you don’t want to--I’m also into the between-times, befores and afters, the details of daily life, etc.

HAP AND LEONARD (TV):
Hap Collins/Leonard Pine

Hap and Leonard are forever-lifemates and everyone knows it, including themselves. No matter what happens, like Leonard says, "In the end, it's always me and you." But I'd like to see that go even farther, to cross some of those last intimacies and boundaries, whether they mean to or not.

I love how tenacious and skilled each is in his own way, but also how they have big wounds and blind spots and weaknesses--and that's one of the things they do for each other, looking out for the soft places, protective. Hap has this eternal willingness to hope and trust, and Leonard doesn't want to see that openness get misused; Leonard presses his deep feelings down under a hard, hurt shell, but Hap knows very well that doesn't make the feelings gone.

I keep thinking about Leonard's private exchange with Trudy in season one, where he warns her to look after Hap while he's gone, and she responds tartly, "It's sweet, actually... the way you pretend *he* needs *you*." Ouch. She says it to hurt (i.e., you pretend Hap needs you so you don't have to admit how much you need Hap, but also wrongly implying Hap doesn't really need him), but how much might Leonard actually believe it when he's at his lowest?

The edges are rough in their world, and I love both how that shapes them and how they don't let it define them. A lot of their feelings are communicated with jokes and swearing, the back-and-forth of the crotchety old-marrieds--but they never let that be all there is to them. I love how middle-aged and worn down they are, but how together they always manage to bounce back for the next thing.

PERSON OF INTEREST:
Harold Finch/John Reese

I love seasons 1 & 2 the most. You can see some of my reactions as it aired in my person of interest tag, as well as links to some fantastic PoI vids.

Harold and John are so different on the surface, but time and circumstance have done so many of the same things to them--they're left wounded, damaged, on the fringes of society, with personal shells of titanium and yet a complete disregard for other people's boundaries. But they end up building such incredible loyalty and trust, such communication, such a bond, and such care. The trust especially hits me, because of how untrusting both of them are in general, and how hard-won it is--so many layers of shell, and yet each ends up allowed inside. Sigh!

They become so protective--as when each has a chance to rescue the other, and the rescued one at first tries to keep the rescuer from coming to save him, to keep the rescuer out of danger. The smallest thing can say volumes between them: a meal, a name, a key, a walk outside. I also really love how Harold can wield such calm authority over John, despite John being physically bigger/powerful and Harold having his chronic disabilities. The bomb-vest scene, A+++++++ omg.

(I know Nathan wasn't nominated, but just so you're aware, I am totally fine with past Harold/Nathan.)

Feel free not to have to grapple with the series ending or similar plotty events. Unless you have a fix-it idea, which would of course be welcome!

THE STING (1973):
Henry Gondorff/Johnny Hooker

I love the True Justice aspect of this type of grifting, never preying on the innocent, just helping the greedy hoist themselves with their own petards-- and I also love the "us against the world" feeling of these guys (and their grifter community) hanging in there during the Great Depression. So whether they're on a job or not, I will love it!

Henry and Johnny are the battle-worn veteran and the promoted minor-leaguer intensely eager to get in the game, whose competence and skill and risk-taking brings a little sweet justice into a hard world. They’re mentor and mentored, but also well on the way to equal partners by the end of the movie--I enjoy Henry teaching and Johnny learning, but also Johnny opening Henry's eyes or otherwise keeping him on his toes.

Henry’s more of a realist, what with everything he’s seen and lost, and he’s a worrier--up all night before the sting, giving Johnny a secret bodyguard, taking on so much responsibility and feeling it heavy on his shoulders. Johnny’s more of a risk junkie, and until the end of the movie feels he has to keep aloof and look after himself (guilt over Luther?), but oh, the look on his face when he first sees Henry (and Henry's worried faaaace) after the bodyguard reveal. Now he knows he has someone who feels so deeply about him, and he certainly seems to have deep feelings of his own in return.

I love the whole con-artist milieu, and feel free to include other characters if you want—I especially love Kid Twist, but they're all great, as is that feeling of the far-flung network of skilled grifters who network like one big shady extended family.

Have fun with it, and thanks again!