desert_vixen's lair

First off, thank you for agreeing to do this!  I love getting (and giving) stories, and this is my seventh Yuletide.  I hope the assignment doesn't give you TOO many fits.

Warning: I am one of the long letter-writers. 

Optional details are optional, but I tend to be one of the people who always wants MORE information, so I provide plenty for you.  Also, in case this isn't enough, previous letters can be found under the "dear yuletide writer" tag.  Also of interest may be my "recs" tag, and of course on AO3 you can see the stuff I’ve written.

General wants/don't wants: Stories don’t need to be super sappy and sugary/fluffy, but please don’t get all grim and dark.  Bittersweet can work if there are hopeful tinges.  I like humor, and I don't think I do a good job of writing it - sparkling snappy dialogue always works!  Holiday-themed is fine if that’s where the story takes you, but not required.  I generally prefer het or gen.  I'd rather not have too-explicit sex for Yuletide, but romance is always in - ESPECIALLY if you're going a holiday route because I love Christmas and mistletoe. The "fade to black" or implied sex is fine, or making out.  I'm a fan of AU, but prefer canon-divergence or "what-if" scenarios, rather than "all the characters are at boarding school together" types.

For the mystery-related prompts, I am a huge fan of "seemingly unrelated group of people trapped somewhere and discover they a) have something in common and b) can't just leave" - see Clue, see And Then There Were None.

The good news is that last year’s author wrote my long-standing “really really really want” story, so this year’s prompts are a little newer.

If you're down for the Misses Clause challenge, all of my prompts/requests should be good for you!

On to the requests!

1.     1. And Then There Were None (Play) – Agatha Christie

Vera Claythorne, Philip Lombard, Mrs. Owen (all characters do not need to appear)

This is a totally new request. I was rereading the play version of “And Then There Were None” (it does not appear in a digital standalone, but it is in both print/Kindle of The Mousetrap and Other Stories) and thinking about how much I like it, especially Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard. The dialogue is snappy (I love the verbal clashes between Vera and the spinster Emily Brent) and it’s more fun than the book, which is depressing. So I have 2 basic thoughts on this one:

1.     - Vera Claythorne and Philip Lombard are “Mr and Mrs Owen”. Why are they doing it? How does that change the story? Can the Judge please die a horrible death? Something on the island, or maybe their preparation, or them getting away with it. I’m pretty wide-open here.

2.     - “Mrs. Owen” is the mastermind, not “Mr. Owen”. Vera or Emily, or someone else (not Mrs. Rogers, I think). How does it change the story? Why is she doing it? I prefer Vera and Philip to be standing at the end (maybe figuring it out? Maybe Vera/Mrs Owen lets Philip live because he’s a mistake).

Feel free to include Emily Brent and other characters as well!

Some dialogue from the play I enjoyed:

EMILY. I should have thought you might feel a little uncomfortable in that dress.
VERA. (Not taking the point) Oh, no.
EMILY. (Nastily) It’s rather tight, isn’t it?
VERA. (Good-humoured) Oh, I don’t think so.
EMILY. (Sits Left sofa; takes out grey knitting) You’ll excuse me, my dear, but you’re a young girl and you’ve got your living to earn— VERA. Yes?
EMILY. A well-bred woman doesn’t like her secretary to appear flashy. It looks, you know, as though you were trying to attract the attention of the opposite sex.
VERA. (Coming to Right Centre) And would you say I do attract them?
EMILY. That’s beside the point. A girl who deliberately sets out to get the attention of men won’t be likely to keep her job long.
VERA. (Laughing at her) Ah! Surely that depends on who she’s working for?

VERA. (Rises, flaring up) A drink! Two corpses in the house at nine o’clock in the morning and all you say is “Have a drink!” An old man going quite crackers—“Have a drink!” Ten people accused of murder—that’s all right—just have a drink. Everything’s fine so long as you have a drink.
LOMBARD. All right. All right.—Stay thirsty.

I’ve seen the 1945 film (black and white, bad music) and the 1990s one with Frank Stallone set in Africa, and I prefer the former. Definitely set it on the island, because I love “we’re all stuck here” dynamics. If for some reason you feel like bringing in other Christie characters, go for it!  I don't think Poirot would be a good fit, but maybe someone else?  I'd be down for a crossover with Mr. Harley Quin.

2. The Scoop – Detection Club
     Beryl Blackwood, "Mr. Tracey”, Denis Oliver, Geraldine Tracey

I requested this one last year, with no luck. I just want fic in this fandom.

 All right, so there is a computer game and the novel, but the two are very close.  It's written by the London Detection Club, and is very focused on the newspaper business in 1930s-ish London.  The game is available at Abandonia if you need something to goof off on.  I had the computer game in 1990, and might have actually written my first (very bad) fanfic for it.

 For "Mr. Tracey" (Hemingway), the book/game ends with him slipping and falling to his death.  Give me another ending, preferably one with a big showy trial that the papers can cover!  (Or even give me another killer who is framing him...) 

Or maybe focus on Geraldine Tracey. Maybe he doesn’t successfully kill her, which makes the case quite different (see big showy trial). Maybe she is the killer instead, and leaves his dead body in her bungalow.  (I like the Lonely Bungalow aspect.) I like to keep it in the 30s milieu. Maybe it’s not her real name and Beryl actually knows her.

Denis/Beryl is fun, but I’d like to see something more focused on the crime/trial aspect. Maybe Beryl does some more investigating on her own to help him out.

 Link to the game: http://www.myabandonware.com/game/the-scoop-if
 The book is available from Amazon (actually a novella) for pretty cheap. It’s not available digitally as far as I know.

3. Twilight Zone
    Captain Farver, Janie Braden, Second Officer Wyatt

What happened to Flight 33 (from the episode "The Odyssey of Flight 33"? Did they ever land?

This is also a second-year request.

This is one of my favorite Twilight Zone episodes.  I know it has sort of a Flying Dutchman feel, but do they ever land?  Does the flight get all Groundhog Day?  There's an excellent novelization of it as well, available on Kindle in More Stories from the Twilight Zone.  They're in the wrong area for the Bermuda Triangle (which I also find interesting) - so where did they go?  You can go with either one of the men, but I definitely want Janie in there (her last name comes from the novelization).

I have included a few highlights from the novelization in case you don’t want to spring for it that help define more of what I'm after:

They don’t talk about the flight much anymore—at least the pros don’t. On occasion a vastly theoretical article will appear in a Sunday supplement or mention will be made in a book on air disasters but, by and large, the world’s day-to-day catastrophes are sufficient in scope and number to take even the loss of a giant airliner off the agenda. But with the pros it’s different. It isn’t that other flight talk takes precedence. It’s simply that Flight 33, and what did or didn’t happen to it, carries a chill. Even now, just eleven months later, you never hear it mentioned in the Ops Rooms, where the pilots chain-smoke and watch the weather reports, nor in the control towers, when the tense and tired men who talk the planes down get a respite for a quick cup of coffee and a smoke. There are other cases of disappearing aircraft on record, of course.

There was the mysterious case of the two British airliners, the Star Ariel and a sister ship the Star Tiger. Tiger vanished over that sea of weeds called Sargasso which lies in the Atlantic off the Bahamas. Thirteen days later Ariel followed her into oblivion. No trace of either plane was ever found. But Flight 33 was different. It was a jet airliner. Beautiful, graceful, full of incredible power, as safe as any plane could be. And it simply had no business disappearing. It was too fine an aircraft. And whatever yanked it out of the skies was a power that couldn’t be reckoned with on a design board or in an engineer’s manual. That’s why you rarely hear of it where pilots and crews congregate. Call it superstition, vestiges of black magic.

But whatever you call it, don’t ever ask a captain, a first officer or any crew member to talk about the Trans-Ocean flight that disappeared between London and New York on a quiet, otherwise uneventful June afternoon They’ll pretend they didn’t hear you.

She was a Trans-Ocean jet airliner on her way from London to New York, on an uneventful June afternoon in the year 1961. She was last heard from six hundred miles south of Newfoundland, then somehow she was swallowed up into the vast design of things, to be searched for on land, on sea, and in the air by anguished human beings, fearful of what they’d find. You and I, however, know where she is. You and I know what happened. So if some moment … any moment … you hear the sound of jet engines flying atop the overcast … engines that sound searching and lost … engines that sound desperate … shoot up a flare. Or do something. That would be Trans-Ocean 33 trying to get home … from The Twilight Zone.

4. The Nonesuch

Patience Chartley, Tiffany Wield, Mrs. Underhill

This is a third-time request for this story.

So, Tiffany Wield is one of the Heyer characters that many people (including me) love to hate. She’s strikingly beautiful, rich, self-centered, petted and spoiled beyond belief, but still young enough that she could change. She probably won’t though.

When last seen at the end of the Nonesuch, she was off to London to wind a bachelor uncle or two around her thumb. I would be willing to bet, however, that she doesn’t stay there long… I envision her being sent back to Staples for either her own good or her guardian’s sanity.

Give me a Heyer-esque romp, possibly concerning Patience and Julian’s wedding (don’t let her ruin it, but comeuppance is always fun to watch) in the vicinity of Staples. I’m a big fan of Patience.

Maybe a story where Sophia, Lady Lindeth, realizes how awesome a choice Patience is instead of Tiffany (I know in the book Patience’s mother and Sophia were supposed to know each other).

Maybe a story where she *almost* creates havoc.  Maybe Mrs. Underhill will finally get a little spine where little Miss Tiffany is concerned?

I want Patience to have a victory over Tiffany .

You can toss Ancilla in but I don’t need her.

This one is tied with Cotillion for my absolute favorite, and it's on my read when I'm depressed list.  If I was going to step into a Heyer book, I'd pick this one.  If only so I could strangle Tiffany.

If you feel like crossing over with other Heyers, that's cool too (I also enjoy A Civil Contract (Julia Oversley v. Tiffany Wield, I'd bet on Tiff), Cotillion, The Unknown Ajax) but certainly not required.

Good luck!

DV