Friends Only.
(mostly)

If you're looking for my fic, please check my author page on AO3.

Instead of a more general introduction post, how about a masterlist of pairings I ship? It's... kind of huge. Because apparently, I can barely watch or read anything without having shipper thoughts.

( OMG, really, you ship THAT?! )

( Some additional shipping / trope meta )

If you're looking for past exchange letters, I collected them all in one big handy letter here.

The Long Walk: This was one of my favorite books when I was a teenager. Thirty years on, as an adult, I find the story infinitely harder to stomach. It's incredibly brutal, and even more so when you watch it rather than read it.
But despite the brutality of the premise, it's also a really heartfelt movie about friendship that has enough moments of levity to be enjoyable. Ray's and Pete's relationship is the heart and soul of the movie. Both protagonists are more likable than their counterparts in the novel, and Cooper Hoffman (reminding me vaguely of the "Heartstopper" guy) and David Jonsson (hugely charismatic) were great. All the actors were brilliant, actually – I love how they brought the characters to life and fleshed them out, even those who only got a few scenes.
The book's ending with Ray being the last one standing but seeing an imaginary shadow walker in front of him he's trying to catch up to was so haunting that I vividly remember it decades later. Changing it made it somewhat less memorable, but also gave it more of an emotional impact because it centered the Ray/Pete friendship and was at once triumphant, tragic and ambiguous. ★★★★½

Thunderbolts*: I was fairly unimpressed with the first half hour or so because Valentina assembling a ragtag team of antiheroes, using them for shady missions and then trying to clean up the evidence felt like a knock-off Amanda Waller thing. But I liked how the team came together – grudgingly and with a lot of bickering – first to unite against her and then to save Bob (and save the world from Bob).
I enjoyed all the characters individually, though I felt like Walker turning from a rampant selfish asshole into a mostly okay guy was a bit odd. I didn't know Ava before, but I liked her. I liked Bucky's role in bringing the team together, and how gung-ho Alexei was about being a hero, and the movie's focus on Yelena really worked for me. I'm generally meh about Florence Pugh, but she's great here. Bob was at once such a likable character, and such a scary villain!
I was spoiled for the twist at the end, which is a shame, because I think it would have been hilarious to see it without knowing what was coming. Their dumbfounded looks are so great. The post-credit scene was fun too and actually makes me somewhat excited about "Doomsday", though given that there's not been a single big MCU team-up movie I actually enjoyed much, I'm trying to manage my expectations… ★★★★

The Rip: I thought the first ninety minutes of this were brilliant – I loved how it kept us in the dark who was perhaps a dirty cop the whole time, the mutual suspicion and the manipulation and the character dynamics. 10/10, instant favorite. And then it just… fell off. A predictable, boring car chase culminating in an even more predictable showdown, and a drawn-out ending sequence that looked like it might reveal a clever twist that never came. It was so incredibly frustrating! D:
Ben Affleck is very hot, though. And even though I'm not a big fan of Matt Damon, he and Affleck still have great chemistry. The antagonism between Affleck's character JD and his FBI agent brother (Scott Adkins) was fun as well. I also really enjoyed Kyle Chandler as JD's friend DEA Agent Matty, and Sasha Calle as the young woman sitting on 20 million dollars of cartel money. It was really a shame that the script didn't end up delivering what it promised. ★★★½

Kiss of the Spider Woman (2025): The new screen adaptation seems to try to find some middle ground between the movie and the musical. I wish I'd known that beforehand, because going into it expecting a straightforward movie version of the musical got me off to a disappointing start. The main plot in the prison is stripped of all of its songs, so you really only get the musical when Molina (Tonatiuh) is telling Valentin (Diego Luna) the movie plot about Aurora. It's a decision that makes sense because it enhances the stark contrast between the dire, gloomy reality and the vidid beauty of Molina's imagination.
JLo does a really good job both as the embodiment of a Golden Age Hollywood diva and as the menacing mythical Spider Woman, but it's Tonatiuh's and Diego Luna's performances who make the movie so engaging. It's been a minute since I watched the 1985 movie, but from what I remember, I find the Molina/Valentin dynamic in the new film a lot more emotionally resonant. ★★★★

The Running Man (2025): The 1987 movie with Arnold Schwarzenegger was pretty formative for me when I was a teenager. I haven't watched it in years, I don't know if it would still hold up almost 40 (and let me tell you, writing this number made me die a little on the inside) years later or if I mentally built it up to remember it as better than it was, but the remake doesn't really cut it for me. It was slow to start, has a pretty good, fast-paced and really exciting middle part where Ben is trying to outrun the Hunters, and then it falls off really badly at the end with a resolution twist that stretches suspension of disbelief until it snaps. And Glen Powell just doesn't work for me as some kind of rugged, down-on-his-luck working class guy. ★★★

In the Heights: Watching this as a fan of the stage musical was a bit of a wild ride. The newly added opening sequence with Usnavi (Anthony Ramos, who's amazing!) telling the story to the group of kids threw me for a loop because it seemed to contradict the ending of the movie (and thus turn the entire point of the story on its head), but the ending twist was SO. GOOD. and made me incredibly emotional. So that was a change that really worked well for me.
On the other hand, they cut some of my favorite songs and with it entire chunks of background story and plot – I really missed Nina's (Leslie Grace, also brilliant) parents' songs, but cutting "Everything I Know" in particular feels unforgivable because it's such a pivotal song and arguably the emotional climax of the story.
And still, standing on its own, it's a good movie. The music is fantastic, the actors are great and their voices are wonderful, and LMM as the Piragua guy was a great little easter egg. ★★★★

Eden: It's a weird movie, and it's even weirder to think that this is actually a true story and not one that seems to be heavily dramatized for the screen either. It took me a while to get into it, mostly because most of the characters are deeply unsympathetic, and even when the story started gripping me, it's not a pleasant movie to watch, in the same way "Abwärts" or the Doctor Who episode "Midnight" are unpleasant to watch, because they all show how regular people when isolated and cornered bring out the worst in each other in a way that's frankly frightening. "Eden" has a lot of actors I like (excellently) playing characters I find deeply appalling (Ana de Armas, most of all, but also Jude Law and to a minor degree Daniel Brühl, though the Wittmers are the least unlikable of the bunch).
As the closing credits rolled (presumably over real life footage of the actual settlers?), I had come to feel mostly favorable and mildly impressed by the movie – it's a good movie and an absolutely wild story that it tells in a fairly engaging manner. Will I watch it again? Eh, probably not. ★★★½

Materialists: The plot is very straightforward: a matchmaker (Dakota Johnson, looking weirdly like Anne Hathaway in "The Devil Wears Prada") with a lot of success coupling up wealthy clients but a cynical outlook on love is charmed by the attention of a rich, attractive businessman (Pedro Pascal) who seems like a perfect match for her, but she's secretly hung up on her perpetually broke ex-boyfriend (Chris Evans, looking devastatingly handsome). It's a charming movie. All the main characters are more or less good, if flawed, people, and the movie never tries to create unnecessary drama or antagonism between them, which makes for a really pleasant change of pace compared to the usual romance plots. It's also fundamentally not about two guys competing for one woman but rather a woman trying to figure out her priorities in life.
The only thing is… I was rooting for John and Lucy all along, but absolutely nothing about this story convinced me that their relationship has any kind of future. Despite all the chemistry between them, they're a terrible match, and it's plain to see that their marriage is going to fail for the exact same reasons their first relationship failed. Which made the 'happy ending' feel very bittersweet in a way that I'm 90% sure isn't intentional. ★★★½

I also watched the first 15 minutes of "Sinners", which I know got rave reviews, but I couldn't get into it. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood? I might or might not give it another try at a later point.

Heated Rivalry S1: I feel somewhat ambiguous about this. On the one hand, I totally get the hype – it's live action gay romance that's both smutty, mildly kinky and also emotional, which is a combination that mainstream TV rarely offers. And, regardless of whether it's actually fanfic with its serial numbers filed off or not, it feels very fanfic-cy, so naturally it appeals to the fandom audience. And I'm very much part of that, so I did enjoy it. The sex scenes were super hot, and I liked the feels!

Having said that, for something that's supposedly enemies/rivals-to-lovers, the rivals part feels very unsatisfying to me. We don't see them being at each other's throats (even figuratively speaking) for any significant amount of time before they hook up, which is what I need for the trope to actually feel rewarding. And I don't enjoy established relationship stories, so my interest peaked in episode one and two and then dramatically dropped. It was revived briefly at the very end of the season because I like 'people find out' stories, but I don't really see the show holding my attention through further seasons.

On a shallow note, I find the protagonists painfully unattractive, Ilya in particular, and not interesting enough to make up for it. My favorite episode was Scott's episode because François Arnaud has more sex appeal in a single lock of his hair than the other male cast combined (serious, how has he got even hotter since The Borgias?! it's extremely unfair!), and also because Scott just appeals more to me as a character. I could take or leave Kip, but the coffee shop romance was very cute.

Overall, this sounds more negative than I felt watching the show. I had fun, I was entertained, but I wasn't as into it or fannish about it as I would have liked to be.

---

Mozart/Mozart S1: This got terrible reviews – a big magazine dubbed it the worst TV show ever, which made me think the reviewer hasn't watched many TV shows. Mozart/Mozart is… fine. It's the typical faux-history drama that prioritizes drama over historical accuracy. It doesn't pretend otherwise – it even says so in the opening credits – and IMO if that's not your thing, you should probably steer clear of it, rather than say "oh no, this show does what it's set out to do, but I don't like that genre, so it's bad" – that's like watching splatter horror and complaining about gore.

It was fun, the acting was good, Maria Anna is a likable protagonist, her brother is a troubled genius who annoyed me at times but ultimately got his shit mostly together, and the show is doing a good job as showing them both as victims of their circumstances. I really liked the ambiguity of both Leopold's portrayal, who loves his kids but in his attempt to do what's best alienates them, as well as Marie Antoinette's – she's wasteful and decadent and scheming, but also vulnerable and trying to escape a terrible situation. And I was very very much into Maria Anna's and Salieri's storyline – now that's an enemies-to-lovers romance for me to sink my teeth in with them genuinely working against each other despite their attraction, and so much betrayal and misunderstandings. Salieri is super hot too, and blorbo material! I really felt for him, because everyone was pulling him in different directions. And he did come through for Maria Anna at the end! I have lots of feelings about him and them as a ship. ♥

The one thing I didn't like was the weird infusion of modern electro-pop during some (but not all? and there was no pattern for when it would happen?) of the performances, which seemed really unnecessary and felt jarring.

Considering its negative reception, I highly doubt that we'll get a second season, which I'm somewhat sad about, but at least it ended in a mostly good place.

Dear Yuletide author,

thank you so much for offering my fandoms! ♥ I really appreciate it, and I'm thrilled to see where you'll be taking those characters and ships.

I'm Sandrine on AO3 (gifting is enabled; I'm always happy to receive treats!). You can also find me on Tumblr as sproutwings (currently on hiatus) and here on Dreamwidth.

I generally love fic that focuses heavily on - complicated and often messy :D - character dynamics and on my requested characters interacting. I especially enjoy seeing get-together plots, characters that share complicated backstories and/or antagonistic relationships being forced to work together or being brought together by circumstances, shifting power dynamics, trust issues and overcoming them, tropey shipfic and enemies-to-lovers arcs with unexpected feelings.

Strong, emotionally charged or quippy dialogue that brings out the character voices is one of my favorite things! Give me all the bickering and banter and flirtation, all the seemingly innocuous comments that accidentally reveal too much, all the sharp-tongued fighting and the quiet admissions.

On the flip side, I'm not so keen on a detailed and complex focus on 'external' and action plots (e.g. investigating cases, political machinations, fighting some big bad) that aren't relevant to developing the relationship between my requested characters. If there's a case etc. going on in the background that serves as a vehicle to get the ship together or further character development, I'm all for it - but I'm more than okay with details being handwaved and I'd strongly prefer the focus to be on the relationship and not the case plot or the worldbuilding.

When it comes to rating, I genuinely have no preference. You'll notice that I list my favourite porn kinks and tropes in my likes, but that doesn't mean that I expect the fic to have a sex scene or that I won't be just as happy with a G-rated story. Please feel free to be as explicit or as tame as you feel comfortable with and as you think serves the story best!

I always prefer happy endings for my ships - not necessarily of the fluffy fairy tale 'happily ever after' kind, but at least the 'open, but hopeful' or 'happy for now, don't think about the future' kind rather than all doom and gloom.

Without further ado, let me get straight to gushing about my requested fandoms (in alphabetical order)! I would be thrilled to get fic in any of those fandoms, so please don't take the number or level of detail of the prompts as any kind of indication that I want something more or less than the others.

[ Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) || Eye Candy (TV) || The Firm (TV) || In the Flesh (TV) || The November Man (2014) ]

---

( Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) )

( Eye Candy (TV) )

( The Firm (TV) )

( In the Flesh (TV) )

( The November Man (2014) )

Thank you in advance and have fun writing!

Dear FiaB creator,

thank you so much for offering my fandoms! ♥ I really appreciate it, and I'm thrilled to see where you'll be taking those ships. I'm Sandrine on AO3 (gifting is enabled; I'm always happy to receive treats!). You can also find me on Tumblr (currently on hiatus) as sproutwings.

I generally love fic that focuses heavily on (complicated and often messy :D) ship dynamics and on my requested characters interacting. I especially enjoy seeing get-together plots, characters that share complicated backstories and/or antagonistic relationships being forced to work together or being brought together by circumstances, shifting power dynamics, trust issues and overcoming them, tropey shipfic and enemies-to-lovers arcs with unexpected feelings.

Strong, emotionally charged or quippy dialogue that brings out the character voices is one of my favorite things! Give me all the bickering and banter and flirtation, all the seemingly innocuous comments that accidentally reveal too much, all the sharp-tongued fighting and the quiet admissions.

On the flip side, I'm not so keen on a detailed and complex focus on 'external' and action plots (e.g. investigating cases, political machinations, fighting some big bad) that aren't relevant to developing the relationship between my requested characters. If there's a case etc. going on in the background that serves as a vehicle to get the ship together, I'm all for it - but I'm more than okay with details being handwaved and I'd strongly prefer the focus to be on the relationship and not the case plot or the worldbuilding.

I always prefer happy endings for my ships - it doesn't necessarily have to be the fluffy fairy tale 'happily ever after' kind, but at least the 'open, but hopeful' or 'happy for now, don't think about the future' kind rather than all doom and gloom.

Without further ado, let me get straight to gushing about my requested fandoms (in alphabetical order)! I would be thrilled to get fic in any of those fandoms, so please don't take the number or level of detail of the prompts as any kind of indication that I want something more or less than the others.

[ Eye Candy (TV) || Hadestown - Mitchell || In the Flesh (TV) ]

---

( Eye Candy (TV) )

( Hadestown - Mitchell )

( In the Flesh )


Thank you in advance and have fun writing!

I finally got around to watching "The Accountant 2", later than I planned because I realized that I maybe should really rewatch the first one before.

Which was a good idea because it turns out that my vague memories of the original movie, which I last watched in 2017 when it came out, were terribly, hilariously wrong. /o\ I don't know how, but I completely forgot that Christian wasn't just super smart but also a highly trained fighter and that he and Braxton hadn't been working together for the better part of "The Accountant"? I'm genuinely appalled at how the movie I remembered had very little to be with the actual movie.

Having said that, I really loved it upon rewatch – actually more than I did the first time around, mostly because the subplot with Ray and Medina worked better for the now than it did then. I loved Braxton's realization, and his reunion with Christian! And I enjoyed the chemistry between Dana and Christian – they had some really cute moments – but unlike on my first watch, I was entirely satisfied with what the movie gave us there.

I watched the sequel right afterwards and also enjoyed it even though it was more action-heavy and tonally somewhat different.

Spoilers!

It had more witty moments, mostly from the Christian/Braxton interaction (but also the scene with Medina taking off in a huff of moral superiority and then backing up because she remembered the kidnapped human trafficker in the trunk of her car), but the case was a lot heavier.

I'm a bit sad that they killed off Ray so quickly, because I enjoyed his character a lot in my rewatch of part one, and I'd been looking forward to seeing more of him.

Ben Affleck continues to do a fantastic job as Christian, and he and Jon Bernthal play off against one another incredibly well. The bickering and teamwork between Chris and Braxton was a lot of fun, and I really enjoyed Braxton wanting some sign that Christian missed him and cared for him while Christian was mostly confused because he thought that was a given. The reveal that Christian never got in touch after the first movie despite promising to was both disappointing and spot-on in terms of characterization.

Having said that… instead of being normal and shipping Christian/Braxton like I expected, I somehow came away from the second movie shipping Christian and Medina. Their entire dynamic is so interesting and iddy to me! The moral divide between them! Him feeding her information all this time and basically making her career! The way she seemed genuinely scared of him for a hot moment when he approached her in the parking garage but still fell asleep in his presence! Him spreading his jacket over her and watching her sleep! ♥ Answering her question why he was helping her with "because you asked me"! And when he realized she was in danger, he rushed off to save her and pinged the police, despite the risk. I wanted them to have another scene at the end, but Medina calling Harbor Neuroscience Academy to thank Justine (who was recast, which confused me a lot) and Chris was a nice touch.

Alas, there's not a single fanfic for the ship, which is a little frustrating considering that the fandom has 200+ works (most of which are apparently Napoleon Solo/Christian Wolff… in Chinese, all by the same writer, who's clearly living their best rare ship life! Good for them!). D:

The Murderbot episodes only being about half an hour each and released weekly really worked for me because it meant I didn't put it off and have it remain on my 'to watch' list infinitely like so many other shows. I actually watched the season finale on the day it was released.

Murderbot S1 (spoilers!)

I really enjoyed the show overall. I came for Alexander Skarsgård and admittedly mostly stayed for Alexander Skarsgård, but the wry humor of Murderbot's narration was really fun, and I loved his delivery and how sympathetic he made the character. And him just wanting to be left alone and watch his soap operas in peace is so relatable! It took me a bit to warm up to the team, but they grew on me (like they grew on Murderbot… so this might or might not actually have been an intentional writers' choice) with their earnest sincerity and their often misplaced optimism. Mensah in particular was very sweet and easy to like, and I was quite fond of Ratthi – bless, he's so hellbent on being 'Seccy's' friend! :D

I'm feeling conflicted about Gurathin because a lot of his attitude and prickliness rubbed me the wrong way, but on the other hand, him downloading Murderbot's memories and storing them in his mind in the finale was touching. I think him gradually overcoming the antagonism and suspicion might have been ship fodder for me if a) I found Gurathin more attractive and b) his change of heart had been given more room to breathe.

The finale was the weakest point of the season for me in many ways. There were many moments in it that I liked, but the shift between the penultimate episode and the finale was too jarring for me. Yes, the time-skip made sense narratively because we got almost everything from Murderbot's POV, and he was not online for whatever happened between the episodes. But he was also not present for some scenes they included in the finale (like the PresAux team negotiates with Corporation Rim for Murderbot's release) so if they broke POV anyway, they might as well have given us the aftermath of the beacon launch and the trip back home.

And I admittedly also disliked the ending. I haven't read the books, so I don't care about following the book storyline, and Murderbot taking off like that was just disappointing, and if they hadn't renewed the show for a second season, that would have been a downer ending. I'm not sure how I feel about a S2 that has less focus on Murderbot's interaction with the team because now that they made me care about these characters, I really want to see more of them.

Dear Battleship creator,

I'm thrilled that my prompts have caught your eye! ♥ I'm Sandrine on AO3. You can also find me on Tumblr (currently on hiatus) as sproutwings.

I generally love fic that focuses heavily on (complicated and often messy :D) ship dynamics and on my requested characters interacting. I especially enjoy seeing get-together plots, characters that share complicated backstories and/or antagonistic relationships being forced to work together or being brought together by circumstances, shifting power dynamics, trust issues and overcoming them, tropey shipfic and enemies-to-lovers arcs with unexpected feelings.

Strong, emotionally charged or quippy dialogue that brings out the character voices is one of my favorite things! Give me all the bickering and banter and flirtation, all the seemingly innocuous comments that accidentally reveal too much, all the sharp-tongued fighting and the quiet admissions.

On the flip side, I'm not so keen on a detailed and complex focus on 'external' and action plots (e.g. investigating cases, political machinations, fighting some big bad) that aren't relevant to developing the relationship between my requested characters. If there's a case etc. going on in the background that serves as a vehicle to get the ship together, I'm all for it - but I'm more than okay with details being handwaved and I'd strongly prefer the focus to be on the relationship and not the case plot or the worldbuilding.

I always prefer happy endings for my ships - it doesn't necessarily have to be the fluffy fairy tale 'happily ever after' kind, but at least the 'open, but hopeful' or 'happy for now, don't think about the future' kind rather than all doom and gloom.

Without further ado, let me get straight to gushing about my requested fandoms (in alphabetical order)! I would be thrilled to get fic in any of those fandoms, so please don't take the number or level of detail of the prompts as any kind of indication that I want something more or less than the others.

[ DCU Comics || Eye Candy (TV) || Hadestown - Mitchell || The Firm (TV) || The November Man || Crossover: DCU/Titans (TV) ]

---

( DCU Comics )

( Eye Candy (TV) )

( Hadestown - Mitchell )

( The Firm (TV) )

( The November Man (2014) )

( Crossover: DCU/Titans (TV) )

Thank you in advance and have fun writing!

Daredevil: Born Again S1: I really struggled to get through this, and only the promise of a Frank/Matt team-up made me finish watching.

I didn't always like Matt's friendship with Foggy and Karen in the past and found Foggy's attitude towards Daredevil extremely grating, so I wasn't sad that neither of them was in the spin-off much. But the new supporting cast was terribly written and two-dimensional – they all felt like plot devices rather than characters. So it essentially became the Matt-and-Fisk show, and I really don't care about Fisk. I found the main storyline incredibly dull, and there were almost no noteworthy side storylines to distract me. I really enjoyed the episode with the bank robbery, which felt like a bottle episode in some ways, and had a fun case-of-the-week feeling. That was the sole highlight of the show for me, though,

I did like Karen calling Frank to save Matt, and the three of them bickering for a moment in the season finale, which was a lot of fun, but too little too late, and the fact that there was no ending to the season – not even a proper cliffhanger; It just stopped without any kind of resolution – ruined it for me. I don't think I'll be back for S2 unless it mixes things up a lot. And I hope the Punisher spin-off will be better written.


The Empress S2: They're doing some wild time jumps, but if it makes them able to tell more of Elisabeth's story than the RTL show did, that works for me. I wasn't into Devrim Lingnau's wig this season (what's with the weird bangs?), but her acting remains sublime – her grief over her daughter's death felt so real and painful. I generally liked how they tackled actual historical events and court politics.

Maximilian remains one of my favorite (he's ridiculously handsome this season), though I wasn't impressed with his new wife. Knowing what's to come for him, the ending with him leaving court felt more tragic than Franz deciding to join the war himself. (He'll be fine. Maximilian won't.)

I like what the show is doing with Sophie – how she cold-hearted when she feels she needs to be, and she keeps it all bottled up, but there are moments when she allows herself to be soft (she clearly adored her first-born grandchild!) and moments when she feels too disillusioned to maintain the facade. I liked her weird thing with von Bach – maybe more than I liked von Bach's romance with 'Leontine'. Him sending her away when he found out she was a fraud pissed me off. In general, I wasn't into what the show did with the ladies in waiting this season. Charlotte blackmailing Leontine and keeping her from the Empress was very WTF?! and Margarete only enduring court politics while drunk or high seemed at odds with her role last season.


Netflix announced a third and final season of The Empress (to be released next year), so I'm curious how they'll wrap things up.

In other TV news, Mobland has been renewed for a second season! *\o/*

I enjoyed the first season of MobLand so much! Apparently, it's from the creators of Ray Donovan and was originally supposed to be a Ray Donovan prequel but then became its own thing – which I think was a good choice because as much as I like Ray, I'm glad that Harry is not Ray. And I'm especially glad that Harry isn't weighted down by Ray's dysfunctional family. He's already too entangled in the Harrigans' dysfunctional family. :D

Spoilers!

Tom Hardy is fantastic! I like how Harry's both sympathetic and utterly ruthless when he needs to be, and incredibly calm under pressure. I like how loyal he is to the Harrigans – well, to Kevin at least. I thought around the mid-point of the show that maybe Harry was the police informant after all, trying to bring down the Harrigans from within, but in the end it turned out that his friendship to Kevin was important enough for him to stick with them even though Conrad is slipping and Meave is fucking insane.

Conrad is an unusual role for Pierce Brosnan. At the beginning, I expected him to be the all-powerful mob boss who was moving everyone around like pieces on a chess board, and it was great how the show revealed bit by bit that he'd long since lost control and was just lashing out. And Meave! She's horrible! I don't buy her "I was just testing everyone" explanation at the end – I think she's a vengeful sadist attempting to make a power play that failed and now she's trying to justify it. Good on Kevin to stand up to them in the final episode. I also liked the scene with Kevin and Bella at the end where they both revealed their traumatic history of sexual assault to each other and bonded over it. I'm not quite sure if Kevin should trust Bella completely, considering that she's been hitting on Harry, but it was a sweet hurt/comfort-y moment, anyhow.

Seeing Lara Pulver and Joanne Froggatt in a show together took me all the way back to my Robin Hood days. And imagine that – I feel the same way about their characters here than I did about their Robin Hood characters! /:D\ As in, I like Bella, but wouldn't trust her as far as I could throw her, and I think Jan is annoying as hell. I'm sympathetic to the whole 'my husband is a mob enforcer and I hate how my life is shaped by fear and violence' but at the same time, I don't think this is news to her, considering her 'I don't want to know about your job' speech earlier in the season. And what's worse – I don't get the impression that she even likes Harry or is into him. Like, why is she with him to begin with? It doesn't help that she and Hardy have no chemistry at all. It shouldn't come as a surprise that I hated the cliffhanger ending. It was so dumb, it was almost funny.

Unfortunately, there's nothing for me to ship, so I don't have any fannish interest in the show. In the first episode, I briefly entertained the idea of Eddie Harrigan and Tommy Stevenson canonically hooking up in some kind of Romeo-and-Juliet sort of romance, but it turned out that my perceptions of where their relationship was going were… grossly misguided. 😬😬 That was unfortunate. I really enjoyed their interactions, but how it ended ruined by interest in exploring the dynamic further (and also, Eddie is batshit insane). Alas. And I can see the potential of Harry/Kevin, but their relationship is lacking the antagonism I prefer in my ships.

Either way, I really hope the show will be renewed and we'll get another series!

NBC has cancelled Found. *sadface* Apparently, the production company is trying to shop it off to other networks, but I'm not holding my breath. Having said that, I didn't love the show's second season as much as the first.

Found S2 thoughts & spoilers!

I was really into the whole 'Gabi holds her former kidnapper captive in her basement and makes him help her with cases and he secretly wants to be there' thing, and even though I see that the show had to change things up eventually, I think they should have given it at least one or two more seasons to get Sir out of the basement. And I found the 'Trent is big mad at Gabi and everyone (including herself) moralizes about how terrible she is' part of the storyline really aggravating. I thought we were done with it, except then the last scene of the finale had Gabi try to 'atone' by admitting what she's done to the world, which rather ruined the otherwise good finale for me.

I also didn't love how the show handled Sir's siblings. Christian getting killed off-screen didn't sit well with me. I always love seeing Michael Cassidy on my screen – most of all when he gets to make out with guys, but I also loved how his Christian clearly carried a torch for Gabi too, but in a much healthier way than his brother. He would have deserved better closure to his storyline. Whereas Lena's jealousy for Gabi was interesting, but overall 'Sir has a sister who is even more unhinged than him' seemed to be a bit much.

We did get some great Sir/Gabi moments this season, most of all the prison scenes where he tried to protect her and she clearly was prepared to choose the bear choose an angry mob of dangerous criminals over him. And I liked the Sir/Trent antagonism. And how Sir kept calling him 'Heavy Boots' both when referring to him and to his face, except when he was screaming into the void for Trent to pick up his phone because he had just realized that Lena was planning to kill Gabi. I don't buy the cliffhanger with Sir lying in a pool of his own blood at the end of the finale – they wouldn't kill him off like that. So I'm going to pretend that he's injured but fine (and will probably use his upcoming hospital stay to escape).

It took me too long to warm up to the Jamie storyline. He was acting really suspicious at first, and not always in a way that retroactively, knowing what we now know about what happened to him, makes sense. I did like how he joined the team in the later episodes and was actually useful, and his antagonism with Dhan was fun. Meanwhile, Dhan and Trent seem to have bonded this season over their shared protectiveness for Gabi. Good for them!

And, for a final gripe, I was very much not into the relationship drama between Zeke and Lacey, which felt contrived and unnecessary. I'm somewhat biased because I very much don't ship them, but even if they had done the same storyline with, say, Zeke and Dhan, I would have thought it was stupid.

It wasn't a bad season! I liked the cases of the week a lot, I'm still very much into the messed up codependent dynamic between Gabi and Sir, and I adore Dhan. I would have loved to get more of it, so I'm sad about the cancellation. It's such a shame, because apparently we would have got more about Dhan's and Zeke's backstory in the next season. D:

Conversely, apparently Watson was renewed for a second series, which I very much didn't see coming. Yay, more twin Peter Mark Kendall action! *\o/*

 

Watson S1 thoughts & spoilers!

I love the Crofts and how different they are. I keep forgetting that it's actually the same actor. (Flashbacks to TVD when news broke that Elena wouldn't be in the last season because Nina Dobrev quit and I thought 'Hey, maybe they could have Katherine on as a regular now— No, wait!') I like how Adam is at once more light-hearted and sassy but also kind of full of himself, whereas Stevens is a bit awkward and serious but also absolutely vicious when he wants to be and gives me Bubonic vibes now and then. Absolutely hilarious that when his secret camgirl girlfriend got sick and they had to diagnose her, it turned out to be the bubonic plague. :D

The season finale really had me worrying that at least one of the twins wasn't going to make it, but I'm so glad they both pulled through.

I came for Peter Mark Kendall, but I really enjoy the show for its own sake. It's nice to have a medical procedural I can actually watch because the cases are never stuff that makes me go 'maybe I have that?' And the team is great. I love Ingrid's sociopathic tendencies and her dramatic backstory where she killed her dad, which now everyone else knows and apparently doesn't care much about. Stephens telling her he couldn't work with her anymore because of her manipulating the lab cultures on Moriarty's behalf felt a bit off to me – she had no idea that the cultures would make a difference between life and death, and much less that they would make a difference between life and death for one of their own, and she was the one who helped resolve the situation and save his life. It felt like they were trying to force some fall-out from the episode to make not everything resolve too smoothly, but it didn't seem logical or in-character for Stevens – if it had been Sasha, I think it would have made more sense.

Sasha/Stevens is cute and I'm not opposed to the ship, but obviously Sasha has more chemistry with Ingrid and Stevens has more chemistry with Adam. Meanwhile, Watson and Mary should obviously get back together.

Ironically, the whole Sherlock Holmes shebang is my least favorite part of the show. Look, I'm sorry, I don't care for Sherlock Holmes in most incarnations. I don't care about Irene Adler, and I don't care about Moriarty. I don't care about Watson in terms of Dr. Watson from "Sherlock Holmes" either – I think this Watson here is a great character, but I kind of wish he was an original character without inviting on all that backstory I'm meh about. Basically, I like the show best when it's House V2.0 rather than a "Sherlock Holmes" spin-off.

Anyway, excited for S2. Moriarty is dead now, but I'm not hopeful that this will be the last we've seen of the Sherlock connections. I read that the entire team will be back for the second season, so it sounds like Ingrid isn't leaving after all? I hope she isn't! She's my favorite after the Crofts!

MobLand continues to be amazing! Zero fannish feelings, I'm not shipping anyone (I almost did, back in the first episode… but that took a dark turn so bad it put me off shipping 😬), but it's so good, it keeps me on the edge of my seat the whole time. Tom Hardy and Pierce Brosnan are killing it, and Helen Mirren's character is the literal worst, but she's giving such a brilliant performance!

I've also started watching Murderbot, which a) has Alex Skarsgard and b) looks like it's a lot of fun, but so far I'm not feeling fannish about it. Which is probably a good thing because the (pre-existing) fandom for it seems to be Very Intense™ and has opposite interests as I have.

I should catch up with Daredevil: Born Again because there's apparently more Frank in the back half of the season, but I don't want to because everything unrelated to Frank feels as interesting as watching paint dry. 😩

Conclave: I loved how much suspense the movie created around the election process and how it kept me on the edge of my seat purely for the election – for the most part without artificially creating cheap thrills (like, it would have been easy to insert a 'the pope has been MURDERED!' story line or have someone die during the attack). I wasn't spoiled for the ending twist, and I was in two minds about it because on the one hand, I can see why it was necessary to introduce a last-minute climax for the pacing of the film, but on the other hand, I felt like the most exciting part of the movie happened before that and adding a "BUT ACTUALLY!" moment cheapened the understated suspense that I praised earlier a little. Really great acting all around, though – Ralph Fiennes was sublime as always. ★★★★

Warden: That turned heavy very fast! On surface level, it's a fake documentary about a superhero in São Paulo, interviewing loved ones, politician and academics about how the young man who calls himself Warden rose to fame and how he operated, and it quickly showed how his noble goals soon fell by the wayside as he position himself above the law. I think as a superhero movie, it's fascinating and unique due to its unusual approach and how it gives us the flipside of 'with great power comes great responsibility' when it's not wrapped in a feel-good story. But beyond that, it's not really about superheroes at all – it's a painfully relevant story about how authoritarianism and populism gradually corrodes what seemed like a functional system. Warden's superpowers are the least relevant part; it's all about how someone rises to popularity and wins over people and then uses the devotion of the masses and the fear to get on their bad side to his own gain. And while you might argue we don't need movies to tell this tale as we see it unfolding before our eyes in the real world, the way this film handles it is just very clever and poignant and it packs a punch. ★★★★★

Captain America Brave New World: I was excited to see Sam back on the screen, but the movie was largely disappointing. I don't care about Ross, I don't care about Sterns and his ability to allegedly calculate every possible outcome (and yet fail to predict the failure of his plans) like an ugly, knock-off version of Midnighter, the action scenes were mostly boring and I didn't care for the plot at all. I really liked the opening scene with Sam and Torres going against a mercenary team! I think it would have been a better movie with Giancarlo Esposito's Sidewinder as the main villain. I also thought killing off hot bearded military guy was pointless and a waste of a good character.
I did like Ruth and the way she wasn't just following Ross's orders and ended up on Sam's side very fast once she figured out what was going on. And I liked Bucky visiting Sam, though I'm scratching my head over the whole 'running for Congress' thing. Bucky doesn't strike me to be the kind of character who'd want to be a politician. Or should be, either! ★★★

Black Bag: A weird, but engaging mix of "Perfect Strangers" and "Mr. & Mrs. Smith". I really love the idea of three couples of spies getting together over dinner and casually deceiving and backstabbing each other over both trivial private matters and matters of national security. Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett are both very intense, to a degree that I found sometimes uncomfortable to watch but which worked well for their characters and their relationship. I also enjoyed Tom Burke, Naomie Harris and Marisa Abela. I know most people know Regé-Jean Page as a Bridgerton heartthrob but I've only seen him in "The Gray Man" and now this one, so I get to the point where I see him and think "villain!" Pierce Brosnan was unfortunately underused, but overall, I really enjoyed how things came together at the showdown. ★★★★

The Companion: I'm glad I went into this unspoiled, because the twist caught me cold and it was such a gut-punch. I loved Iris and the heartbreaking way she reacted when Josh told her the truth, I loved Eli's and Patrick's genuine devotion to one another (even though Eli was still an ass for being happy to go along with Josh's plan and trying to kill Iris), I loved how Josh was such an irredeemable villain on a scarily 'normal' real world incel basis. Not sure I find the happy ending believable – I can't see it last, unfortunately, even though I want to believe it does. Iris deserves all the good things! ★★★★½

Kraven the Hunter: I feel like this movie is unfairly maligned. It's a perfectly serviceable Marvel movie that's not been noticeably worse than most other Marvel movies. I think it doing so badly at the box office was probably more because the average cinema goer knows who Thor or Captain America are but are drawing a blank when it comes to Kraven, plus general superhero movie fatigue. But it was a solid story, I liked the moral ambiguity of Kraven's hunt, and the action scene were great. Aaron Johnson was great, Russell Crowe was a great villain, Alessandro Nivola did some delightful scenery chewing, and only Ariana DeBose was severely underused. I also liked that there wasn't any romance between Kraven and Calypso shoehorned in. It was pretty fun overall, and it has a killer ending. No complaints. ★★★½

The Critic: Not a terrible movie, but I really struggled to get through it. Erskine (Ian McKellen) was so relentlessly, irredeemably unpleasant, wreaking havoc on people's lives just because he could. I found everything about this movie incredibly dire and depressing, apart from the initial heart-to-heart between Nina (Gemma Arterton) and Erskine, which shortly after turned out to be just another of Erskine's manipulations. I'm glad he got his comeuppance at the end, but the damage was already been done, and the way it played out was so unnecessary that it was frustrating rather than tragic. ★★★

Barbie: Eh. It was… okay? I think Margot Robbie was a perfect casting choice. I loved America Ferrera, and her speech about how being a woman is an impossible compromise in never been 'too' anything. There were a few really powerful emotional moments sprinkled through the movie. Beyond that, though, the absurdism was too much, Ken was annoying, and the storyline was pretty bland and unrefined. It was entertaining and very watchable; I just genuinely don't get the hype or agree that it's some feminist masterpiece. Oh, and I also disliked the ending a lot. ★★★

The Cleaner: Very solid, entertaining action movie that kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time. I liked Daisy Ridley as Joey a lot and her relationship with her brother, and I enjoyed the banter with the coworker, so the twist was a gut-punch. I thought Clive Owen was the main villain, so I was a little in denial that he was actually dead-dead and not just fake-dead for a good while. ★★★½

Reunion: That was a fantastic and incredibly fun whodunit. I've seen a bunch of 'someone gets murdered at a high school reunion' movies / episodes. But rarely one that had such a hilariously OTT cast of characters. I especially loved Jillian Bell as slightly creepy outsider Vivian, and Nina Dobrev bringing her best Katherine Pierce act as cut-throat politician Amanda. The ending with the uncovering of the murder felt a bit overtly rushed – too much telling and too little showing made the pacing fall a little flat at the climax. ★★★★

Fight or Flight: I'm normally not into action movies with absurdist humor (slippery_fish made me watch a few that didn't quite work for me), but this one was toeing the line between crazy OTT and serious perfectly. The toad poison sequence was so terrible it tipped over into amazing, and I always love a good 'hired gun ends up having to protect his mark and they both have to fight off their enemies together' story. Josh Hartnett and Charithra Chandran have great chemistry, and the twist about who Lucas' employers were sneaked up on me nicely. The open ending made me hope for a sequel, but I would have preferred something a little more neatly tied up. ★★★★

Red One: That was like a wild Christmas fever dream wherein Chris Evans and The Rock rescue a kidnapped Santa from the Christmas Witch who wants to punish every naughty person (spoiler: that's pretty much everyone) and save Christmas. If it had been a fic, it would have deserved a 'crack treated seriously' tag, which I certainly appreciate more than pure crack. I enjoyed J.K. Simmons as hunky Santa (a combination of words I definitely never thought I'd write…), and Chris Evans as the loser conman with a good heart, and Kristofer Hivju as gruff morally ambiguous Krampus, but overall it was a very very weird fairy tale action movie. ★★½

Jurassic World: Dominion: The "Jurassic Park" franchise suffers the problem many franchises do, where each new installment tries to outmatch its predecessor and it's all getting more and more OTT and implausible as the series continues. Especially the action sequence at the black market den in Malta was entirely ridiculous. Wu's redemption arc was a bit dubious and poorly built-up, and the whole backstory about Maisie being a genetically improved clone of Charlotte required too much suspension of disbelief.
I still enjoyed this one, overall, mostly because it was great to see the original trio again, though I don't remember Malcolm being quite that eccentric back in the original movie. And Blue, of course. If they'd make an entire series of films just with Blue and her family (which includes Owen, and I will not hear any argument about it), I'd be here for it. ★★★½

Last Christmas: Kate (Emilia Clarke) has been adrift after receiving a heart transplant a year ago, constantly messing up her life in big and small ways, until she meets Tom (Henry Golding) who tries to get her back on track. This one made me weep uncontrollably. I suspect I would have disliked it if it had been a straightforward romcon because Tom was getting on my nerves a little with the way he was pushing Kate to be a better version of herself. But even though I saw the twist coming by miles, it hit me right in the feels. ★★★★

Deadpool & Wolverine: I didn't see any of the Deadpool movies so far, and now I know why. It's just... not my humor. That's just a level of crack I find tiring instead of funny. I didn't like the character, I didn't like the plot, I didn't like Emma Corrin as the OTT villain.
What I did like, most of all, were all the cameos. Pyro! Electra! Blade! Johnny Storm! Sabretooth (Tyler Mane Sabrerooth and not Liev Schreiber Sabretooth, but still). I also liked Matthew Macfadyen as the pencil pusher bad guy. And Wolverine. Like, 80% of my enjoyment of this movie was seeing Wolverine again. I didn't even realize how much I missed him before this. Alas, shame about the other guy. ★★½

My Policeman: I liked this, even though it was both heartbreaking and depressing. I had sympathy for all three characters despite not really liking any of them. They all did some abhorrent things to each other, Tom most of all. Marion reporting Patrick to the museum was an awful thing to do, but Marion never should have been in the situation she was in to begin with, and Tom's selfishness and complete ignorance for her needs and wishes was painful and didn't appear to change even after his and Patrick's relationship had long since ended.
All of the actors did an amazing job – I love how seamless the transition between their 1950s characters (David Dawson / Emma Corrin / Harry Styles) and the present day selves (Linus Roache / Gina McKee / Rupert Everett) was.
The ending was sweet – I was as excited for Marion to head off to a fresh start as I was for Patrick and Tom to get a second chance – but man, the whole 'such wasted lives' sentiment was strong. :( ★★★★

Fatale: Successful businessman (Michael Early) cheats on his wife while on a business trip in Vegas, but when he crosses paths with the woman he had an affair with (Hilary Swank) again, she turns out to be a vengeful cop with the means and motives to ruin his life. It sounds like an erotic thriller from the 90s starring Sharon Stone or Linda Fiorentino, and I'm sure it would have been great. Sometime during the last 30 years (holy fuck, it was painful to write down this number! How has it been 30 years already?!) Hollywood lost the ability to make those kind of movies. It wasn't particularly sexy (a single two minute sex scene does not an erotic thriller make), it wasn't clever or twisted or shocking, and any kind of nuance that seemed to exist in the first half hour or so was flattened into nonexistence by the murder pile-up in the second half of the movie. ★½

The Lion King: I had been reluctant to watch this for ages because I really love the original animation and what I had seen of the updated version with its pseudo-realistic live action look from the trailers didn't convince me. It was on TV when I accidentally zapped into it, though, and I liked it better than I expected. I still think traditional animation works better for animal characters to bring out the anthropomorphism, but the photorealism of the remake was pretty impressive!
I watched the German dubbing, so I can't comment on the quality of the singing in the original English version (the German singing was so-so). I was surprised how few songs the movie has, but it turns out that the 1994 version didn't have more either – I think my memory of it has been somewhat affected by the stage musical.
I'm glad I saw it, and I'm looking forward to the sequel/prequel. I can't see it reach 'classic' status the way the 1994 version did, but it's so different that it doesn't feel like one of those remakes that were really unnecessary. And 'Hamlet with Lions' is still a great story, no matter which techniques you use to tell it. ★★★★

Borg vs McEnroe: I recently rewatched "Rush" and it's hard not to compare the two because they're both focused on an infamous rivalry between two great sportsmen. "Borg vs McEnroe" is a much slower paced movie where the dramatic climax has less of an emotional and narrative impact – and while you might argue that this is due to the nature of the respective sport and car racing is just faster and more exciting than tennis, it's mostly because of the storytelling.
I still liked the movie, mostly because of the two lead actors and the way they made their characters into complex, three-dimensional characters – difficult men with issues, and yet made the audience care about them. Shia LaBeouf and Sverrir Gudnason were both incredible! ★★★½

The Bricklayer: What an impressively terrible action film! If I wasn't generally adverse to switching movies off halfway through, I probably wouldn't have finished this. Aaron Eckhart stars as a forcer CIA operative who's unofficially brought out of retirement to hunt down his former protegé (Clifton Collins Jr.) who's gone rogue and who he supposedly eliminated years ago (surprise! he didn't!). Nina Dobrev is the by-the-book rookie agent tasked with keeping an eye on him, who's basically a damsel in constant distress while Eckhart's character is overwhelmingly competent. Every single female character in this movie is either a plot device who's killed off, incompetent and/or a villainous seductress. Which might be forgivable if the movie was at least fun, but it's not. It's dire and predictable and painfully stupid. And there's zero chemistry between any of the characters. Boo! ★

La La Land: One of the rare DNFs for me. I made it to the 40 minute mark, patiently waiting for some kind of cinematic magic to wow me, and instead I only found the most unoriginal boy-meets-girl story with bland songs sung by below-mediocre singers. Maybe it got better afterwards and by not finishing it, I missed some heart-stopping twist, but I already felt I wasted over half an hour of my life and I didn't want to invest any more time.

Dear author,

thank you so much for offering my fandoms! ♥ I really appreciate it, and I'm thrilled to see where you'll be taking those ships. I'm Sandrine on AO3 (gifting is enabled; I'm always happy to receive treats!).

I generally love fic that focuses heavily on (complicated and often messy :D) ship dynamics and on my requested characters interacting. I especially enjoy seeing get-together plots, characters that share complicated backstories and/or antagonistic relationships being forced to work together or being brought together by circumstances, shifting power dynamics, trust issues and overcoming them, tropey shipfic and enemies-to-lovers arcs with unexpected feelings.

Strong, emotionally charged or quippy dialogue that brings out the character voices is one of my favorite things! Give me all the bickering and banter and flirtation, all the seemingly innocuous comments that accidentally reveal too much, all the sharp-tongued fighting and the quiet admissions.

On the flip side, I'm not so keen on a detailed and complex focus on 'external' and action plots (e.g. investigating cases, political machinations, fighting some big bad) that aren't relevant to developing the relationship between my requested characters. If there's a case etc. going on in the background that serves as a vehicle to get the ship together, I'm all for it - but I'm more than okay with details being handwaved and I'd strongly prefer the focus to be on the relationship and not the case plot or the worldbuilding.

I always prefer happy endings for my ships - it doesn't necessarily have to be the fluffy fairy tale 'happily ever after' kind, but at least the 'open, but hopeful' or 'happy for now, don't think about the future' kind rather than all doom and gloom.


Without further ado, let me get straight to gushing about my requested fandoms (in alphabetical order)! I would be thrilled to get fic in any of those fandoms, so please don't take the number or level of detail of the prompts as any kind of indication that I want something more or less than the others.

[ Eye Candy (TV) || Hadestown - Mitchell || In the Flesh (TV) || South Beach (TV 1993) ]

---

( Eye Candy (TV) )

( Hadestown - Mitchell )

( In the Flesh )

( South Beach (TV 1993) )

Thank you in advance and have fun writing!

I can't do Spotify Wrapped because I don't stream music (I know, I'm a dinosaur), but I thought I could do AO3 Wrapped instead.

So here's a summary of my fannish reading habits 2024:











I used this script to get the data (you have to fiddle with it a bit and change the years at the very least or else you'll end up with a summary of everything you read since the beginning of 2023, and I also asked it to give me more data and not just my top 5s; and also filtered out duplicates (mainly for fandoms, because DCU and DCU (comics) are not separate fandoms) and did the graphics myself in Canvas. The script does give you handy graphics, but I wanted something a little different.

As with any Wrapped, it's not perfect reflection of my preferences and likes, but I think it's still interesting!

Dear Yuletide author,

thank you so much for offering my fandoms! ♥ I really appreciate it, and I'm thrilled to see where you'll be taking those characters and ships.

I'm Sandrine on AO3 (gifting is enabled; I'm always happy to receive treats!). You can also find me on Tumblr as sproutwings and (well... obviously) on Dreamwidth here.

I generally love fic that focuses heavily on - complicated and often messy :D - character dynamics and on my requested characters interacting. I especially enjoy seeing get-together plots, characters that share complicated backstories and/or antagonistic relationships being forced to work together or being brought together by circumstances, shifting power dynamics, trust issues and overcoming them, tropey shipfic and enemies-to-lovers arcs with unexpected feelings.

Strong, emotionally charged or quippy dialogue that brings out the character voices is one of my favorite things! Give me all the bickering and banter and flirtation, all the seemingly innocuous comments that accidentally reveal too much, all the sharp-tongued fighting and the quiet admissions.

On the flip side, I'm not so keen on a detailed and complex focus on 'external' and action plots (e.g. investigating cases, political machinations, fighting some big bad) that aren't relevant to developing the relationship between my requested characters. If there's a case etc. going on in the background that serves as a vehicle to get the ship together or further character development, I'm all for it - but I'm more than okay with details being handwaved and I'd strongly prefer the focus to be on the relationship and not the case plot or the worldbuilding.

When it comes to rating, I genuinely have no preference. You'll notice that I list my favourite porn kinks and tropes in my likes, but that doesn't mean that I expect the fic to have a sex scene or that I won't be just as happy with a G-rated story. Please feel free to be as explicit or as tame as you feel comfortable with and as you think serves the story best!

I always prefer happy endings for my ships - not necessarily of the fluffy fairy tale 'happily ever after' kind, but at least the 'open, but hopeful' or 'happy for now, don't think about the future' kind rather than all doom and gloom.

Without further ado, let me get straight to gushing about my requested fandoms (in alphabetical order)! I would be thrilled to get fic in any of those fandoms, so please don't take the number or level of detail of the prompts as any kind of indication that I want something more or less than the others.

[ Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) || Eye Candy (TV) || South Beach (TV 1993) ]

---

( Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) )

( Eye Candy (TV) )

( South Beach (TV 1993) )

Thank you in advance and have fun writing!

I wasn't a fan of the show during season one, to the point where I probably wasn't going to continue watching. But then I read spoilers for the new season and lots of Daniel/Armand squeeing on meme, and I thought I'd give it a go.

I really liked this part a lot better than the first, probably because Sam Reed's Lestat was barely in it (still not a fan, sorry, although there were moments in the later episodes when I found him sympathetic).

Claudia was still my favorite character, even though (or perhaps because?) she still doesn't feel like Claudia to me. I didn't mind the recasting – Delainey Hayles is excellent and I think she took the role over very smoothly from Bailey Bass, but they're both way too old. Which I don't think would be that big a deal for any other character – I grew up watching Dawson's Creek, I'm fine with 30-year-olds playing high schoolers – but with Claudia, her being a literal child is so essential to the character and the story that there's no way to suspend disbelief. (And frankly, I think the character being 14 already makes her too old in the script, regardless of the casting.)

Of course, actually loving Claudia made the trial and her death really difficult to watch. The scene where she and Madelaine talked about their plans to explore the world, I was so happy for them and I was briefly in total denial about their fate.

I was startled how likable Santiago was at first – he and Claudia had such a good rapport at the beginning, but Ben Daniels really sold his descent into jealous rage and the way it turned him into such a threat.

I liked Louis more this season too – not 1970's Louis, but both his present day self and the flashbacks of him during war-time and after the war. And Assad Zaman's Armand really is as fascinating as fandom makes him out to be. He's like a snake in the grass you want to pet, both exceedingly terrible and weirdly sympathetic. I'm very much not into Louis/Armand – their lovey-dovey routine was boring, and the enormity of Armand's betrayal feels unforgivable to me – but I'm happy to board the Armand/Daniel train. Daniel is a crouchy old asshole, and I'm really enjoying it, and the reveal at the end with Armand having turned him (and then left) made for a fun twist.

The whole thing with the Talamasca went over my head a little, and I'm not sure if I've missed some context because I've forgotten (or didn't pay attention) or if it's left deliberately vague in the show. I don't know what's the deal with them, and, perhaps more crucially, I also can't bring myself to care much. I googled them, read two lines and then backclicked.

Overall, though, I'm just really fascinated how my feelings for the characters in the show vs. the movie version are often polar opposites. I think it helps treating the two as two entirely separate, only vaguely related stories, because it doesn't really feel like they're the same characters. But maybe that doesn't have to be a bad thing.

Dear Fic in a Box creator,

I'm thrilled that my prompts have caught your eye! ♥ I'm Sandrine on AO3. You can also find me on Tumblr (currently on hiatus) as sproutwings.

I generally love fic that focuses heavily on (complicated and often messy :D) ship dynamics and on my requested characters interacting. I especially enjoy seeing get-together plots, characters that share complicated backstories and/or antagonistic relationships being forced to work together or being brought together by circumstances, shifting power dynamics, trust issues and overcoming them, tropey shipfic and enemies-to-lovers arcs with unexpected feelings.

Strong, emotionally charged or quippy dialogue that brings out the character voices is one of my favorite things! Give me all the bickering and banter and flirtation, all the seemingly innocuous comments that accidentally reveal too much, all the sharp-tongued fighting and the quiet admissions.

On the flip side, I'm not so keen on a detailed and complex focus on 'external' and action plots (e.g. investigating cases, political machinations, fighting some big bad) that aren't relevant to developing the relationship between my requested characters. If there's a case etc. going on in the background that serves as a vehicle to get the ship together, I'm all for it - but I'm more than okay with details being handwaved and I'd strongly prefer the focus to be on the relationship and not the case plot or the worldbuilding.

I always prefer happy endings for my ships - it doesn't necessarily have to be the fluffy fairy tale 'happily ever after' kind, but at least the 'open, but hopeful' or 'happy for now, don't think about the future' kind rather than all doom and gloom.


Without further ado, let me get straight to gushing about my requested fandoms (in alphabetical order)! I would be thrilled to get fic in any of those fandoms, so please don't take the number or level of detail of the prompts as any kind of indication that I want something more or less than the others.

[ Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) || DCU || Eye Candy (TV) || Hadestown - Mitchell || In the Flesh (TV) ]

---

( Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) )

( DCU - Slade/Dick )

( Eye Candy (TV) )

( Hadestown - Mitchell )

( In the Flesh )

Thank you in advance and have fun writing!

Dear Battleship creator,

I'm thrilled that my prompts have caught your eye! ♥ I'm Sandrine on AO3. You can also find me on Tumblr (currently on hiatus) as sproutwings.

I generally love fic that focuses heavily on (complicated and often messy :D) ship dynamics and on my requested characters interacting. I especially enjoy seeing get-together plots, characters that share complicated backstories and/or antagonistic relationships being forced to work together or being brought together by circumstances, shifting power dynamics, trust issues and overcoming them, tropey shipfic and enemies-to-lovers arcs with unexpected feelings.

Strong, emotionally charged or quippy dialogue that brings out the character voices is one of my favorite things! Give me all the bickering and banter and flirtation, all the seemingly innocuous comments that accidentally reveal too much, all the sharp-tongued fighting and the quiet admissions.

On the flip side, I'm not so keen on a detailed and complex focus on 'external' and action plots (e.g. investigating cases, political machinations, fighting some big bad) that aren't relevant to developing the relationship between my requested characters. If there's a case etc. going on in the background that serves as a vehicle to get the ship together, I'm all for it - but I'm more than okay with details being handwaved and I'd strongly prefer the focus to be on the relationship and not the case plot or the worldbuilding.

I always prefer happy endings for my ships - it doesn't necessarily have to be the fluffy fairy tale 'happily ever after' kind, but at least the 'open, but hopeful' or 'happy for now, don't think about the future' kind rather than all doom and gloom.

For fanart, I love realistically drawn characters in scenes of quiet, comfortable or emotionally charged moments, morning afters, stalemates during a fight, pushed against a wall, kissing, and touches; I generally prefer digital art to traditional media. (Art DNWs: manga/anime style, symbolic art, collages or manips.)


Without further ado, let me get straight to gushing about my requested fandoms (in alphabetical order)! I would be thrilled to get fic in any of those fandoms, so please don't take the number or level of detail of the prompts as any kind of indication that I want something more or less than the others.

[ Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) || DCU - Slade/Dick || DCU - Jason/Tim || Eye Candy (TV) || Hadestown - Mitchell || In the Flesh (TV) ]

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( Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) )

( DCU - Slade/Dick )

( DCU - Jason/Tim )

( Eye Candy (TV) )

( Hadestown - Mitchell )

( In the Flesh )

Thank you in advance and have fun writing!

15-year-old Olivia sneaks out to a party her parents told her not to go to. When she comes home, distraught by something that happened that night, she gets into a fight with her mother Hannah that only escalates during the next days. When their kitchen is vandalized and someone pulls an awful prank on her, Hannah and her husband suspect that Olivia's teenage rebellion has gotten out of hand.

Told in alternating POV chapters from Olivia and Hannah, "The Argument" is a quick read, engaging but ultimate unsatisfying. It relies on keeping its readers in the dark and only revealing the true horrors of what's happening beneath the atmosphere of mundane normalcy. The problem is that it doesn't really work with the close third POVs. Because both Olivia and Hannah know the things the author is clearly trying to keep from the reader as long as possible, and 'they're in denial' only works for so long.

Spoilers!

Especially Olivia is spending so much time bemoaning her mother's controlling nature and how she's never allowed to do anything – it just doesn't make sense that she never thinks 'what the fuck, how dare they lock me in and chain me to the bed and gag me almost every night; shit, what if they do that to my baby sister?!'.

It escalated from what seemed like a very mundane parent vs. teenager conflict where the mom was a bit out of her depth to OTT psychological horror so fast and so viciously that it didn't feel realistic. Instead of the shock Jenkins was probably hoping to evoke, I was just rolling my eyes hard at the end. Some of the lesser twists were very predictable, but ultimately, I liked those better because they worked for the story.

I did enjoy the writing, especially Olivia's POV, which felt very realistic for a teenage girl and made her a troubled, but sympathetic character. Hannah was never fully likable to me; something seemed to be off about her from the start. It was good foreshadowing, but I think I would have enjoyed "The Argument" more if it had simply been about a mother unable to emotionally connect with her daughter due to her own trauma rather than... whatever the hell this was.

★★½

Challengers: Like many people, I assumed from the trailer that this would be a lot different to what it actually was, and it took me a moment to mourn the movie I had expected that never came to be. Different doesn't mean bad, though, and I really enjoyed this. The flashback-within-a-flashback format was the fun kind of frustrating – I was so impatient to find out how they got from best friends Patrick and Art awkwardly flirting with Tashi to the point in the present day where Art and Tashi were a obviously-not-happy power couple and Patrick was sleeping in his car.
What surprised me was how messy they were. Like, let's face it, none of them were good people, and Tashi in particular was downright terrible for both of them. I was rooting for Patrick more than anything, though more for Art and Patrick to be able to salvage their friendship (I'm not even sure how it fell apart so badly) than for Tashi/Patrick to get together, even though they did have great chemistry! Well, Patrick had great chemistry with both of them, while Art/Tashi was kind of meh to me. I liked the ending, even though it did feel a bit like a cliffhanger cutting off at the most interesting moment. But I guess that's what fanfic is for.
I'm generally an OT3 person, but in this case, I kind of want Art/Patrick to reconcile (while fucking) and Tashi to find something tennis-related to make her happy or maybe find someone who shares her passion, because it's very obvious that neither Art nor Patrick do. ★★★★½

Saltburn: After all the hype, the movie was such a let-down! I didn't find it witty or emotionally engaging, nor all that edgy. It didn't do anything I hadn't already seen other movies do better. And it utterly failed to make me care about any of the characters. In some ways, it reminded me of "The Grotesque" (aka "Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets" aka "Grave Indiscretion"), just less fun and less sexy. ★★

Extraction (2013): weirdwednesday recced me this a million years ago and I only got around to watching it now. /o\ It's a solid action movie – the plot is not particularly unique but it's entertaining, and the quippy dialogues are a lot of fun. Vinnie Jones is doing what he does best chewing the scenery as the main villain, and I really enjoyed the 'enemies forced to work together part' with Mercy and Vincent. They're very shippable! ★★★½

9 Bullets: I have complicated feelings about this one. On the one hand, I've seen this story at least three times before, but usually it was a Grumpy Man With A Complicated Past (™) going on a road trip with a kid he had to protect from big bad criminals. Making it about a woman instead who fit into the same trope didn't really do much to change the dynamic or the vibe. On the other hand, I like Lena Headey a lot and I was intrigued by the relationship between Gypsy and Jack. I liked Tasmin a lot (I still have no idea if they killed her or not, but I really hope she lived), and Sam was a cute kid. On the creepy alien third hand, I found the movie disturbingly brutal at times, and in contrast found the happy ending too unrealistic and consequence free. Anyway, I kind of want post-movie Gypsy/Jack fic where he tracks them down and doesn't kill them. ★★★½

Red, White & Royal Blue: I really wanted to like this more than I did, but I found it horribly cheese and unrealistic to the point where it triggered my second-hand embarrassment a lot, and the acting was cringey at times. I think I might even have enjoyed it if it had been fanfic or fandom style OW posted on AO3, but what I like in fandom vs. what I like in non-fandom media are just too different. Sarah Shahi was a delight, though! ★★★

Gunpowder Milkshake: That was a lot of fun! It's very OTT and self-indulgent as a badass women kicking ass power fantasy, but in a way that was very entertaining and satisfying to watch. And the Lena Headey-Carla Gugino-Michelle Yeoh-Angela Bassett librarians-with-machine-guns team-up was amazing! Loved it, no complaints. ★★★★

Dear Evan Hansen: This has been on my to-watch list since it was released, but somehow I never got around to it. And having watched it now, I kind of get why I kept putting it off. It was tough to get through. Lots of moments triggering my embarrassment squick and a lot of heart-wrenching moments of genuine emotion.
Evan is both deeply sympathetic and unlikable, and Ben Platt does a tremendous job! His scenes with the Murphies were so awkward and so emotional, but also that last scene with his mum. Amandla Stenberg as Alana Beck was fabulous! I loved her relationship with Evan, but also her big solo. Overall, I found the songs during the first half kind of bland, but everything from "You Will Be Found" on was great. I liked it a lot, but it's probably not one I'm going to rewatch. ★★★★

Five high-school students serve detention, one of them dies of an allergic shock. Several things don't add up – from the circumstances of the death to the events that lead to the detention, and the police are treating it as a murder investigation. Suddenly, all four surviving students are suspects – and each of them had plenty of motive to want their fellow student dead...

Confession: This is the first published novel I finished reading in... an embarrassing long time. Was it just that good that it got me over my reader's block where lesser books failed? Not exactly.

It was a quick, engaging read with likable characters, and the POV change format worked well for it. On the other hand, the plot was also very predictable and the characters were incredibly stereotypical. And it was, in many way, very fanfic-cy, to the point where I've been trying to figure out if it started off as a fic that had its serial numbers filed off. I couldn't find any evidence that this is the case (though let me tell you, bad-boy-with-a-good-heart Nate strongly reminded me of fanon!Jason Todd), but the fact that it read like fic probably helped me finish it.

I liked it, but I can't say I'm interested in reading the sequels.

★★★½

thank you so much for offering my fandoms! ♥ I really appreciate it, and I'm thrilled to see where you'll be taking those ships.

I'm Sandrine on AO3. You can also find me on Tumblr as sproutwings.

I generally love fic that focuses heavily on (complicated and often messy :D) ship dynamics and on my requested characters interacting. I especially enjoy seeing get-together plots, characters that share complicated backstories and/or antagonistic relationships being forced to work together or being brought together by circumstances, shifting power dynamics, trust issues and overcoming them, tropey shipfic and enemies-to-lovers arcs with unexpected feelings.

Strong, emotionally charged or quippy dialogue that brings out the character voices is one of my favorite things! Give me all the bickering and banter and flirtation, all the seemingly innocuous comments that accidentally reveal too much, all the sharp-tongued fighting and the quiet admissions.

On the flip side, I'm not so keen on a detailed and complex focus on 'external' and action plots (e.g. investigating cases, political machinations, fighting some big bad) that aren't relevant to developing the relationship between my requested characters. If there's a case etc. going on in the background that serves as a vehicle to get the ship together, I'm all for it - but I'm more than okay with details being handwaved and I'd strongly prefer the focus to be on the relationship and not the case plot or the worldbuilding.

I always prefer happy endings for my ships - it doesn't necessarily have to be the fluffy fairy tale 'happily ever after' kind, but at least the 'open, but hopeful' or 'happy for now, don't think about the future' kind rather than all doom and gloom.

Without further ado, let me get straight to gushing about my requested fandoms (in alphabetical order)! I would be thrilled to get fic in any of those fandoms, so please don't take the number or level of detail of the prompts as any kind of indication that I want something more or less than the others.

[ Eye Candy (TV) || The Firm || In the Flesh ]

---

( Eye Candy (TV) )

( The Firm (TV) )

( In the Flesh )

Thank you in advance and have fun writing!

I really wanted to love Justified City Primeval. After all, Justified remains one of my all-time favorite shows and I'd only heard good things about the miniseries sequel, but at the end of the day I just didn't vibe with it at all and I struggled to get through some of the episodes.

Raylan is still great and as much of an enjoyable hot mess as ever. I'm happy to report that Timothy Olyphant has lost none is his appeal in 8+ years since the show ended. I love his anger issues, his struggles with morality and justice – I thought the dynamic with the criminals was interesting, and I really loved his relationship with Carolyn. It's just that taking Raylan out of Kentucky takes some of the appeal out of the show, both because he fits much better into Harlan than into Detroit but also because it robs us of Justified's brilliant supporting cast.

The last ten minutes of the show with Winona confronting Raylan about his retirement and Boyd's prison break were the most fun bit of the entire miniseries! I want more of that. I want Raylan reluctantly coming out of retirement to chase Boyd down and Boyd finding out about Ava and the two of them clashing but also having to go up against some bigger bad together, while Tim provides snarky background commentary, Rachel gets a headache and Art tells her 'see what I've been dealing with'.

But it's not just that I missed all of them during City Primeval; it's also that I really disliked the main plot. Clement was too much of a chaotic evil without any redeeming qualities and I found his senseless violence off-putting in a way I rarely felt about Justified villains. And his comeuppance was too random to be truly satisfying. I liked Sandy, I liked Sweeney, I liked the Albanians, but Clement was such a one-note villain that centering the entire season around him became repetitive and frustrating.

And damn, Willa was annoying. I get it, teenage girls are annoying, and a teenage daughter not fitting into Raylan's life was kind of the point, but I think casting Timothy's daughter was just... a bad idea.

I'd still watch any sequel, but if they do make one, I hope it'll be more like the original show and less like this one.

NBC's Found is probably my favorite thing on TV from the past few years. The procedural aspect really appeals to me – back in the day when procedurals were everywhere, I was getting a little tired of them, but I've been missing them lately, and I've had a soft spot for the 'finding missing persons' angle ever since Without A Trace – it often gets me very emotional! And the background plot with the protagonist keeping her former kidnapper captive is just very very iddy to me – to the surprise of no one, I'm sure. :D

Gabi/Sir is just delightfully fucked up. Their relationship has more layers than an onion! His obsession with her, how it's supposed to be not sexual or romantic on the surface, but he has this twisted idea of them belonging together. The way she sought out revenge at first and then clearly thought she could use him to solve her cases – but even though she's the one with all the power, the proximity opens her up to his manipulations. The push-and-pull of it, how they each try to wield whatever power they have over each other. How he tries to reframe her kidnapping and makes her doubt herself. Her controlling his food and grooming, sometimes literally – that shaving scene was something else!!! And the way he was out of his mind with worry when she was taken! I was excited when he was working with Dhan to help bring her back and then escaped – something like that was exactly what I had been holding out for since the very beginning. Especially because it proved that he could have escaped all along and only didn't because he wasn't exactly unhappy in his position as her prisoner! NGL, I'm half hoping that he's gonna show up on her doorstep next season because he doesn't really want to escape, he doesn't have any interest in changing the status quo.

I also love Dhan (and Dhan/Zeke, though they didn't get many scenes together in the back half of the season)! I like Margaret in terms of what she brings to the team, though I can take or leave her as a person. With Lacey, her development during the course of the season turned her from a character I enjoyed to someone I was mostly annoyed by – I understand her emotional responses to Gabi not trusting her, but something about her is like nails on a chalkboard. Trent is basically Gabi's lap dog, bless. I like him. I like his devotion to Gabi, but I really don't want them together. I feel like Gabi and her trauma would eat him alive, and while he thinks he would be good for her, he can't ever truly understand her. He had a few nice scenes with Dhan full of antagonistic tension, but I only ship them on a surface level. (They would be very pretty together. And explosive. But what I said re: Gabi/Trent also applies to Dhan/Trent.)

Anyway, I'm excited for season two now. And I'm still SO HAPPY that there will be a second season – I'm so used to seeing my favorite TV shows get cancelled after a single season, LOL.