H/C Bingo card!

[magibrain]

First time I've ever done one of these. Should be fun! ...for me more than the characters, obviously*.

Somehow, I was expecting a lot more supernatural stuff, but it looks like aside from "poltergeist", looks like not so much. Oh, well. Still plenty of trouble I can get up to with the things I've been given, I'm sure.

If anyone has takes on these prompts they'd especially like to see me take a swing at, either in White Collar or Stargate: SG-1 (classic team), feel free to lob them my way! No guarantees, but I can at least try. (Bonus points for prompts which deliberately subvert the themes in some way. What can I say; I have a soft spot. Other bonus points for prompts angled to pass the Bechdel test.)



Prompts marked with ellipses – (...) – indicate ones I'm currently working on fills for. You know, where I have a document with a (probably awful) working title and some words in it, and such. I've also mucked with the background image, because the original version made it really hard for me to read the white text in some of the squares, and the table/cell border color, because I do what I want.

depression	plane crash	toothache	combat	kidnapping (...)
dungeons	drugged	loss of home / shelter The Wind Will Ruin Everything	explosion Rockets' Red Glare	natural disasters
body image issues	burns	WILD CARD	blood loss	suicide attempt I Say Our City is Small and Teeming with Ghosts
hypoglycemia / low blood sugar (...)	bruises The Sky Never Fights Back	poltergeist (...)	therapy (...)	drowning (...)
grief	nausea (...)	loss of possessions (...)	blackmail (...)	assault

*Hopefully.

Comments

[frith_in_thorns]

Ooh, your card's good!

My generalised prompt: take practically any of those scenarios and put Neal and Diana in it together. Especially explosion or natural disaster.

[magibrain]

...I could have a lot of fun with Neal, Diana and explosions. Possibly even with bonus June, if I play my cards right.

[frith_in_thorns]

YES PLEASE.

I have a "Diana and Neal are stuck in a collapsed building" WIP that I really should brush off at some point. However, that does not at all stop me from trying to persuade other people to write this trope, because it is a good trope. And this fandom is sadly lacking in Neal&Diana peril.

My main problem with giving you prompts is that I don't really know what things you most like writing. Do you like writing drugged!Neal?

[magibrain]

Ah, the tyrrany of WIPs. Though I agree, Neal and Diana are a really kickass team – then again, Diana and pretty much anyone would be a really kickass team; she's so damn competent, and her areas of competence are sufficiently different from the people around her that her skillsets complement just about everyone's. (Which is one of the nice things about the White Collar team; they all have their areas of strength, and can support each other where they need to.)

As for what I like writing... hrm. It might be simpler to list what I don't like: most things having to do with sex and traditional romantic tropes, fluff and waff and bashing? Emotional conversations are also not my forte, unless they're happening under duress.

I like experimenting with stuff, I like trying to subvert expectations, and I like poking characters with pointy things. I have special fondness for pushing characters way past the supposed bounds of their endurance and making them keep going. I also like taking people who deal with their emotions by locking them in a closet and telling them to sit quietly and then ignoring them, and having those emotions go "NO" and break out and start smashing things until they get some attention. Moral complexity, also good, as well as What The Hell, Hero moments.

...I'm looking back at a conversation I had with a friend about fiction kinks, and yeah, a lot of mine are thematic rather than situational. (Teams working together, hidden dark sides, hidden light sides, optimistic views on technology and science, obligations and responsibilities between superiors and subordinates, protective folk, protective folk who occasionally veer into the really scary when they're protecting someone, protective folk who drag people through really unpleasant stuff because they need to get to the other side even if the journey is painful, duty, loyalty, people who have the capacity to seriously damage other people but restrain themselves from doing so, people who have psychological programming of some sort (intentionally trained or accidentally learned) who have trouble escaping from that mindset, people going to insane lengths in a half-rational attempt to show/demonstrate to someone who/what they are, externalization of inner demons, people who can see each other in pain (physical, emotional, psychological) and respect that pain and have their back even if they can't fix it, solid multilayered plot, subtext and implication.) (I feel like you can kinda tell that most of my writing has been for fandoms with military/paramilitary characters who don't always get the psychological support they need. Also, that I enjoy darkfic.)

(And then I tried to look over my body of extant work for firmer answers, and things got even more confused. You could probably boil it down to "I LIKE MESSING WITH MY CHARACTERS' BRAINS, OKAY" and get pretty close, though.)

As for drugged!Neal, one of my big WIPs is actually Neal running around, injured and off-anklet and hallucinating the crap out of everything, and having trouble working out how to get himself out of this situation because his reality is too confused for him to know what he's running from, what he's running to, or who his allies and enemies are.

So, er, yes. I enjoy drugged!Neal. :)



I feel like I should acquire a Teal Deer icon at some point.

RANDOMLY

[squeemu]

Loss of possessions: SG-1. Point of view of something that is capable of possessing other beings, and their reaction to losing them.

Burns just makes me want to see a crossover with White Collar and Burn Notice, even though I never really got into Burn Notice.

And dungeons makes me want to see the White Collar team have to work on a case related to BDSM dungeons and discussions and explorations of kink ensue, but I have nothing else to offer, so this may not be entirely helpful. :\

Every night for the last month, Neal has dreamt he's drowning.

Peter has noticed that right before things turn sour, his teeth start to ache.

In the year 200x (or whenever SG-1 takes place), a plane crashes a mile away from the SG base. Optional: its a fighter plane from WWII. Bonus optional: its crew is Russian.

(I am not super invested in any of these, by the way, so I will not be offended if you ignore any of these. Or all of them.)

[squeemu]

WAIT I didn't process this was hurt/comfort. Some of these don't, uh, make sense anymore. *facepalm*

whatever, you can still ignore them >.>

[magibrain]

XD I could MAKE them make sense.

I have to ask where the danger-sensing teeth and the WWII Russian fighter came from. There must be stories behind those.

Also, I feel like Burn Notice/White Collar would cross over beautifully, if their respective main characters weren't chained to Miami and NYC. (Unless that changes later in Burn Notice! I fell out of it sometime in S3.) Mostly, I want to see Michael Westen being Neal Caffrey's worst nightmare, because he cannot con this guy, and then Westen getting being all "Seriously? This again? WHY?" when Peter starts investigating him because he has already dealt with the FBI, thank you very much.

[squeemu]

Oh, it's a challenge now. XD

I.. have no idea where the danger-sensing teeth come from, tbh. Mostly, I was just trying to think of a way to make them even slightly more speculative and that was the first thing to come to mind. (Well, the first semi-rational thing. The actual first thing involved parasites living in the root of teeth and then shattering the tooth, which is... really unpleasant, and I'm not sure I want to know what that says about the condition of my brain.)

And for the Russian fighters, well. I left it kind of ambiguous so you could have, you know, somebody stealing a WWII aircraft that had made it through a gate to come back more recently, aka, the crew didn't actually have to be from WWII, but I think the concept of Night Witches are awesome and have been kind of resting at the back of my brain for a couple of days.

You could always have Peter get a temporary assignment out of town? And of course he has to bring Neal with him, to keep him out of trouble, because the LAST time this happened, Neal ran off after his 'girlfriend.'

[magibrain]

There is no way to keep Neal out of trouble. Short of, you know, killing him or putting him in a coma or something, though if we're honest, Peter would probably see either of those as Neal getting into trouble anyway, and then be very angsty in his particular Burkeish way. (Though there is a scene from Walpurgisnacht where, spoilers, Peter, under the influence of a Witch's Kiss, uses the "Because there's really only one way to know you won't be getting in trouble" rationalization to try to kill Neal, and Neal has to pickpocket his gun and run off into the labyrinth of some assless freak of a Witch in order to, you know, not get killed by one of his best friends. Needless to say, Peter is not okay with this after the fact.)

Also, you? With parasitic organisms on the brain? For some reason, I'm not surprised by this at all. :P

Adn aww, yes, the Night Witches. Now I'm trying to remember where I ran into them, earlier. Though I'm not sure how a plane would come through a Gate; given that the SGC Gate is twentysome floors underground. ...there was a Torchwood episode where a WWII-era civilian plane fell through the Rift and emerged into the modern day, but core Stargate does not have a Rift. (The magibrain has fixed this in a number of braintics, though.)

[magibrain]

I'm glad that both our minds immediately went to BDSM for the "dungeons" square. (It probably doesn't help that Neal is frequently referred to as both collared and leashed.)

–and then you left another comment OKAY I'LL GO SEE WHAT THAT COMMENT IS.

Re: RANDOMLY

[squeemu]

Okay, okay, we could have "Every night for the past month, Diana has dreamt she's drowning." and then you could include Eizabeth? Or Diana's girlfriend, if she has one? I still haven't watched more than ...three? episodes of White Collar.

[magibrain]

She does have a girlfriend! Her girlfriend is a doctor. (I'm not sure it's ever explicitly stated that she's a medical doctor, but fanon seems to like the idea that she's an ER doctor. Probably because it opens up chances for her to treat the main characters for the awful things ficcers do to them.)

You should watch more episodes. Diana is only in the first and last episodes of S1, but then she comes back and becomes a major character in S2 and following, and completely rocks my world. And it has been an enduring sadness that Diana and Elizabeth have next-to-no interaction onscreen.

Also, you should get on AIM. :P

[squeemu]

And it has been an enduring sadness that Diana and Elizabeth have next-to-no interaction onscreen.

I think we both know how you can fix this. XD

Also I can't! I am working. On some birthday fic for Baco, and since her birthday is in a couple of days, I should, you know, at least make an attempt at getting it to her on time.

[magibrain]

[I think we both know how you can fix this. XD]

BY DOING HORRIBLE THINGS TO BOTH OF THEM. TOGETHER.

We could have a working-on-fic party. I'm theoretically working on the Neal & Diana explosions prompt.

ALSO RANDOMLY

[magibrain]

No, wait, we do know Diana's girlfriend a medical doctor, because she makes a reference to having to deal with heaps of insurance, and is able to run a list of drug serial numbers through a pharmacy in one episode. So.

[sholio]

Since I am still staunchly resisting the temptation to sign up for an hc_bingo card of my own, I'm just going around stalking other people's cards and offering suggestions. XD

hypoglycemia/low blood sugar - heh, you could do this one with Peter: he usually eats breakfast with Elizabeth, but on the days that she's not around or they're both rushing out the door, he doesn't bother (there's actually an episode where this happens, I think; they both start to sit down to breakfast, then realize they're too busy, and run out the door without eating), so on those days he just drinks coffee 'til lunch. Or possibly 'til dinner, depending on how busy the workday gets. And he doesn't really notice being hungry per se, but he gets grouchier and ever more sarcastic until he's borderline unbearable. Then on one particularly busy day, he goes like 16 hours without consuming anything but coffee, and either actually passes out, or reaches the point where he can't think properly anymore (but doesn't realize he can't), which totally freaks Neal out. So Neal starts ~subtly~ making sure that he eats (sneakily leaving food around, coming up with excuses why they have to take a break and go to lunch), out of self-preservation if nothing else.

:D

[sholio]

Poltergeist: Neal and Peter in a haunted house, 'nuff said. :D

(Or: you could do the basic plot of SG-1's "Crystal Skull" with Neal in the Daniel role. Best of all, only Mozzie can kinda/sorta hear him or communicate with him, but no one believes him, and he's not even sure if he believes himself.)

Loss of possessions: Diana moved around all the time when she was a kid (and even afterward), and has a ~special thing!~ that she carried around with her through all the moves, but something bad happens to it, so she's totally down about it but doesn't want to admit it because she thinks it's silly.

I also think any of the more blatantly h/c-ish prompts would be a lot of fun with Peter and Diana, because there is so little fic with them and I find their bantery interactions a load of fun! It would be great to see them, oh, kidnapped together, or interrogated together ("blood loss" or "bruises" or "dungeons").

Therapy- Maybe Elizabeth after being kidnapped by Keller?

[magibrain]

...okay, now I want to see if there's a way to bring in the actual Crystal Skull, or just one more of Quetzalcotl's skull devices, and still have it fit the prompt. Paul Davis could make a surprise guest appearance! I don't know, maybe some guy has fled New York under some kind of serious Adler-level allegations, and the White Collar team has to investigate his mansion, which is full of weird artifacts. Then Neal stares into the eyes of the skull too long and disappears, but the skull is slightly defective and doesn't shift him out all the way, leaving him with some limited ability to interact with the world around him; after the reports get filed, Davis (who must be a Colonel or something by now, seriously) shows up and wants them to hand over the crime scene to a governmental organization Peter's never heard of before, citing national security. But Davis being Davis, Peter is able to convince him to give the White Collar team 24 hours to see what happened to Neal. So the team ends up working through the night in this guy's mansion, with Neal trying desperately to communicate with them and most of them just thinking the place is haunted.

Also, Peter and Diana, yes. I would not be disappointed if every fic I wrote for this involved Diana, because Diana. ...I feel like the two of them fighting their way out of somewhere would be amazing, because everyone would underestimate them ("Hey, it's some old guy and a chick!"), and then they would regret that. Like, a lot.

[magibrain]

Ahaha. Now I'm just picturing him doing things like replacing Peter's badge, wallet, etc. with various food items, and Peter just being incredibly unamused and failing to take the hint. probably because when he's reaching for his badge or his wallet, he has more pressing concerns than snack foods.

[sholio]

*giggles* I can totally imagine that: Peter reaches for his badge ... and gets a banana. "NEAL!" And since they're right in the middle of something, the thought never even occurs to him that it's anything other than Neal messing with him.