FFFX 2023 Letter

[seal_nonnie]

Hello Five Figure Fic Exchanger! I go by Brachylagus_fandom over on AO3. I've listed some prompts below, but feel free to take your work in whatever direction inspiration takes you; I'm sure I'll love the finished result. I've requested fic and comics of either length for all fandoms, and I'm open to treats.

 

DNWS

• porn without plot
  
• gore
  
• animal cruelty
  
• totally unhappy endings (angst is great, I'd just like a happy or bittersweet end to it)
  
• change of setting aus (e.g., High School AU - canon divergence is great)

 

Likes

• Hurt/Comfort
• Humor, crack treated seriously
• Hijinks and misadventures
• Mystery
• Character study - how did [X] get to be this way? What is their normal day like?
• Worldbuilding - how does [thing] work? Why does it work like that? How has that changed over the years? What are the logistics involved?
• Canon Divergence, especially of the "butterfly flaps its wings" sort
• Outsider POV - I love when canon/the reader takes a bunch of things for granted because the protagonist knows them, but if you take a step sideways everyone not in the know is going "wtf"
• Complicated, intense relationships
• Characters being competent in their area of expertise
• Playing with tropes or implications of canon
• All sorts of "weird" stylistic choices - flowery prose, first or second person POV, non-past tense, etc.

 

Crossover Fandom - Mysterious Benedict Society

 

Worldbuilding (ASoUE TV & MBS TV)

The aesthetics of these two canons mesh really well (which makes sense, given their directors), and I think their worlds do, too. The Emergency is a very Snicketesque piece of satire, as is the Institute, and I'd love to see how the Mysterious Benedict Society characters interact with Snicket's world. Maybe Sticky's quiz show trust is held by Mulctuary Money Management, and he has to deal with Mr. Poe, or maybe Kate's circus is really Caligari Carnival.

I'd also really love to see how VFD fits into the Mysterious Benedict Society world. Which of the adults know, and how did they learn of it? Which side of the schism are they on, or are they on no side at all? There's a couple obvious picks for this - in addition to those mentioned below, Dr. Pernalian would be an excellent choice as an amoral scientist, and I'd love to see Number Two's family drama respun as VFD-tinged - but I'd love for it to be someone totally unexpected, with the more obvious choices entirely oblivious. (How did Miss Perumal learn to hotwire a motorcycle, anyhow, and did she and Reynie ever discuss the central theme of Anna Karenina?) How does VFD tie into the Emergency; it's causing panic at the moment, but the end goal is a quiet world (under Curtain's thumb), and I could see that as justification for either side to do it. Is the Institute a recruiting ground? Boatwright Academy?

I'd also love to see A Series of Unfortunate Events characters in the Mysterious Benedict Society's world. The fire-fighters pride themselves as a group with a strong love for truth; how does the Whisperer affect them? Does halting the Emergency become a goal of theirs, or does its messaging perhaps add one more strike to the schism? I'd love to see the adult VFD members (living or dead) interact with Mister Benedict; do they take him seriously, or are they just one more party dismissing him as a kook? I'd also love to see a mirroring between the fire-fighters dying off and various government agents becoming merely departed.

The Baudelaires ending up with Mr. Benedict is a common trope, and I'd love to see another rendition of it here. How does the adjustment period go? How do they like him as a guardian, and how do they fit into the Benedict-Number Two-Rhonda(-Constance) dynamic? I know that the appeal of this trope, as with most Baudelaire adoption crossovers, is that Mr. Benedict is the One Competent Adult, but I'd also enjoy seeing him as a failboat guardian, unable to stop Olaf from pursuing the Baudelaires or, for all his preparation, not recognizing the evil he lets in. It could also be really interesting to see the Baudelaires get a different guardian in the Mysterious Benedict Society world, from Milligan to the Two family to Sticky's aunt and uncle (now that would be a tirefire) to the Perumals to either of the boarding schools shown to Curtain's cult compound. (Or maybe they end up adopted by Martina's tetherball team as mascots. The options are wide open!)

Tony Hale plays Jerome Squalor in ASOUE, so there could be some fun gags about that. I'm reminded of the Denouement triplets - one good, one evil, and (in this case) one clueless about the rest of the chaos. (Did they end up in the orphanage because their house mysteriously burned down as children?)

Of course, I'd be sorely remiss without mentioning the ways in which both shows discuss how orphans - too young to have legal agency, and lacking a competent and trustworthy person to have it in their stead - are vulnerable and often treated as disposable. I'd love to see the ways both shows do this - the looming threat of Count Olaf and need to take fate into their own hands, they ways in which only orphans and other parentless children can be used to infiltrate the Institute (and, in the books, how the Institute also abducts those children with no one to look for them) - being interlinked. Maybe the Baudelaires (or Quagmires!) look for a special opportunity, or perhaps Olivia Caliban or a VFD member did many years ago. Maybe Reynie learns his parents held secret fortunes and then meets his geographically nearest relative, a man named Olaf…

 

Baudelaire Orphans & Mysterious Benedict Society Members

Let's put the traumatized children together! I could see them bonding so much over their shared experiences with danger, needing to grow up quickly to deal with it, and the aftermath. Maybe they cross paths whilst still imperiled and choose to help each other out (or accidentally get in each other's way). How do their different skills foil each other's enemies?

I'd also love a lower-stakes sharing of interests. Violet and Kate are both interested in mechanics; Reynie, Sticky, and Klaus all enjoy reading; between her age and her psychic abilities, Constance understands Sunny perfectly well. (I could also see Constance and Isadora as poetry buddies and poetry rivals, depending on the time of day, if you wanted to add in the Quagmires.) I'd love to see them bond over those activities in a calm, not-immediately-imperiling environment.

 

Milligan & VFD Members

Milligan is a secret agent who passed on a spyglass to his daughter. VFD is a secret society with a penchant for the things. 'Nuff said.

To expand on this a little bit more, Milligan's former role as a secret agent (and how that informs his behavior before and after remembering), and VFD could be an interesting non-government route to take that. What secret codes does he have to spout to verify his identity? How does VFD hear of his un-demise, and how do they react? Does he get re-involved with the organization after he regains his memory? It could also be really interesting if a VFD agent finds him before he regains his memory, and so there's a conflict between the Milligan they knew and the Milligan that is (and the Milligan that was).

I think VFD's general childcare ethos could be really interesting to explore here, particularly with regards to Kate and Milligan's relationship in season 2. He wants to be a good parent, but neither of them knows how that relationship would work between them, and, if he were a lifer in the organization, Milligan might not know how that kind of family relationship works in general. Was Kate deliberately left until she was at a more trainable age, was she forgotten in the wake of other problems, or did Milligan keep her existence a secret from the org?

I'd also love to see how this impacts Milligan's relationship with Kate's mother. Was she a fellow agent, perhaps Madam Lulu, or did she know nothing of VFD?

 

Ledroptha Curtain/Count Olaf

These two would be terrible together. (For the general world, and potentially for each other, given Olaf's dropped another previous partner of his off a bridge.) Have they always known each other, or did they meet on some orphan-hating forum? What do they have in common, other than villainy? How do their plots and schemes mesh together; do they work together or get in each other's way?

If they're trying to work together, perhaps Olaf seduces Curtain to gain access to the Island, or Curtain invites his old buddy back when he sees his current targets are on site. Or Curtain outsources the abduction of Benedict and Number Two in The Perilous Journey to Olaf's troupe. Or VFD totally doesn't exist, and Olaf and Curtain are two bros, being evil in a hot tub, less than five feet apart, lol.

 

 

Crossover Fandom - Leverage

For all of these requests, I'd be equally down to see characters from the original Leverage run and characters from Leverage: Redemption.

Leverage Team & Worldbuilding (Mysterious Benedict Society TV)

For this request, I'm down to receive either OG Leverage or Leverage: Redemption teams.

The Emergency (or rather, its run-on effects) seems just like the type of crisis Leverage wraps up a facet of in the space of forty-five minutes. I'd love to see an exploration of how they deal with it, or perhaps ways already existing marks are entangled within it. Would Curtain end up in the little black book, or is his benefit from the Emergency indirect enough that the team has to go looking for it? How does the pattern of disappearances generated by the Helpers appear to an algorithm Hardison makes? How would the team's backstories end up wrapped in the Emergency/Curtain in a crossed-over world?

Curtain just screams "Leverage mark" (or really, two different marks over the course of both seasons). (And, distinctly but relatedly, so does Doctor Pernalian.) How does he end up on Leverage's radar; is it the family of a student/Helper/cultist, a direct tip from Mr. Benedict, or some other method? How does the team's scheme unfold? Does any member of the team buy in (or "buy in") to Curtain's ideology, particularly post-book-tour?

A lot of Leverage team members were also (or could also be) the kind of extremely alone children that the Society are, and it could be fun to see them meet/interact with Mr. Benedict that way (or have a fusion AU where, e.g., Nate is the Benedict figure in the canon).

 

Leverage Team & Creator's Choice of Character (Sandman TV)

It'd be interesting to see how the cons of Leverage interact with the magic and absurdity of the Sandman universe. After all, even in the original show, some of their jobs definitely felt like they included supernatural intervention to work out as well as they did.

I'd love to see the team stumble across the supernatural by accident on a case. Maybe they're investigating Madoc for unrelated reasons (he's running a plagiarism ring or writing-related scam, or maybe he's their in into something shady with the publisher) and end up having a mission shift to rescuing Calliope, or maybe they go after Burgess and end up freeing Dream. Or maybe (some of) the team knew about the supernatural elements all along. (How do they know, and how does this alter their backstory? Did, e.g., Moreau visit the devil in Burgess' basement, or is one of the team perhaps not human?)

Or maybe they know nothing of the supernatural at all, and their meeting with one of the human characters reveals nothing out of the ordinary! (Even if it perhaps should have.) I'd also love a more mundane case where they run into the serial killer convention (and maybe have to call in McSweeney/get into costume) or help Rose find her brother.

 

Rose Walker & Breanna Casey

I think these two would get along well, and I'd love to see them encounter each other! Maybe Rose's search for Jed attracts the attention of Leverage, or maybe they meet in another fashion and hit it off then. (And then Rose gets these weird, very inspirational dreams for her next novel, and the Leverage team believe they're about to redo the Mastermind Job…) It could also be really fun for Rose to not be initally involved with a Leverage case but coincidentally end up peripherally tangled in several as she and Breanna form a relationship. Or, alternately, Rose stumbles across Breanna posing as different people over the course of different jobs, slowly getting closer with each successive occurence, and trying to play along with the heist of the day while also piecing together what's really going on.

I'd also love to see a contrast between Breanna's experience with Nana and Rose and Jed's experience with custodial separation (and then losing Jed within the foster system). Maybe an AU where Jed ends up with Nana instead, and his reunion with his sister involves no serial killers or metaphysical plots?

 

Worldbuilding (Leverage & Heist Society)

Two thief canons for the price of one! I love all the characters in both of these, and it would be great to see any set of them interact with the others. Both series follow honorable thieves; it could be interesting to see how those similar sets of morals end up clashing (or not) up close, especially if both teams have slightly different goals. How is Leverage regarded by the general thief community, and how does the team regard them in turn?

Maybe Sterling has to work with Amelia Bennett on the Bishop family's latest exploit (or Kat has to work with him/Interpol to repatriate some stolen art). Maybe Archie is friends with Uncle Eddie, or related to him. Maybe IYS gets called in to deal with Hale Industries. Maybe the Leverage team run across Kat's crew whilst on a job, and the groups end up teaming up to tackle mutual enemies, or maybe, in addition to Kat, Marcus calls on Leverage Consulting in Perfect Scoundrels. Maybe one of Bobby's (or Kat's) schemes gets foiled by still-an-insurance-investigator!Nate, or maybe Simon's dad and a young Hardison bond over counting cards in Vegas. Or maybe you've got a completely different idea as to how this could go, in which case I am very excited to see it!

 

Katarina Bishop & Leverage Crew

Given Kat's "thief for a cause" self-discovery arc in Heist Society, I think it'd be really fun to see her interact with the "bad guys make the best good guys" Leverage crew (especially if they're in a "are we the bad guys?/yeah!" phase at the moment). Maybe a Leverage mark is also in posession of Nazi art, and Kat has to work around Leverage (and vice versa) to steal it, or maybe they butt heads over something the other group considers beyond the pale. (Or maybe they pretend to, but it's the third-act twist of the episode, with a fake heel turn to boot.) Maybe stories of Leverage act as inspiration for Kat when she decides to be a thief for good, or maybe they're treated like a cautionary tale (particularly post-OG finale, if rumors of the team's death remain exaggerated for a while).

It could also be fun to see how a member of the crew shaped Kat's ethics in a more direct way as a family friend of the Bishop's. Maybe Kat sees their heel-face turn as it's happening (and she's starting to develop her own moral compass), or maybe, to Kat, they've always been like that, and they're someone she can go to for advice.

 

 

Crossover Fandom - Miscellaneous

 

Jessica Fletcher & Dave Rossi

Jessica is a mystery writer and citizen sleuth; Rossi is a true-crime (iirc) writer and (ex-)FBI agent. I'd love to see them interact from either half of that equation.

For the writing, do they have arguments over whose genre is best? Do they have opinions on each other's work? Are said opinions positive or negative?

For the crime, I'd love to see Jessica stumble into a BAU case (either during Criminal Minds or before it, during Rossi's first tenure at the BAU). Does she help or hurt the investigation? Does Rossi end up wondering if she was the real serial killer after all? It could also be interesting to have Jess on as a consultant when their unsub of the week decides to riff on mystery tropes/her work specifically.

Or maybe combine the two! Writer's retreat/conference/dinner by their mutual publisher gets snowed in, lights go out, bodies hit the floor, and now they must work together to solve the case.

 

Matilda Wormwood & Carrie White

Girls with terrible home lives and psychic powers! I think these two would have a lot to talk about, and I'd love to see them make each other's lives better (or worse). Maybe Miss Honey and Matilda end up taking a trip to the US after the events of the musical (or Matilda ends up moving with her family anyways) and they meet then, or maybe Carrie survives the prom, learns of someone else with similar powers to her, and seeks Matilda out. (Or maybe something entirely different!) I'd also really love a version of Matilda's escapologist stories, except the person she's unintentionally picking up the story of is Carrie (or Carrie is picking up hers).

It could be really interesting to contrast the ways their abusive homes affected them and how that influenced their powers.

 

Mina Murray Harker/Elizabeth Lavenza

The early monster heroines club! These two have had a rough couple of weeks, and I'd love to see them bond over that. How have their experiences with monsters affected them differently, and how do those experiences affect their relationship? (For Elizabeth in a post-canon scenario, I'm equally down with her having narrowly survived the monster's attack, with Victor himself having brought her back to life via dubious means, or something else entirely.)

It could be equally interesting to see them in a relationship before the plots of their respective works. How do they meet, and what do they bond over? How do their experiences with the supernatural affect their relationship, and their relationship affect the outcomes of their stories? (If one canon has already happened and the other hasn't, how does the first's experience affect their interpretation/feelings around the second?)

Both canons use an epistolary format, and I think it could be fun to play with in a fic or comic. What aren't they telling the other, and what does the other pick up anyways?

 

 

Leverage

 

Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer

This OT3 is so shippy, and I'd love to see more from them! I love how well they work as a team for the cons and how dedicated they are to each other.

I'd love to see the work they did in the interim between the original show and Leverage: Redemption, learning to function as a crew without Nate and Sophie to help. Did they end up calling anyone else in, like in The Last Dam Job, or calling Tara for help, like when Sophie was on leave? How did their romantic relationship affect how they worked as a con team?

I'd also love to see them working together in the original show (dealing with the season 3 finale could be a fun source of angst), or acting outside of a con altogether. I really loved Hardison and Eliot's dynamic wrt the brewpub, and that could be fun to see more of.

 

Jim Sterling

He's a magnificent magnificent bastard. Just… so much bastard in such a convenient package. I love all of his appearances on the original show, how he's always one step ahead of the team just as they're always one step ahead of the mark, and I'd love his perspective on any of those appearances (or any time they crossed swords off-screen). What is his day-to-day like at IYS or Interpol?

I'd love to learn more about Sterling's backstory. How did he get to his position at IYS? What drove him to be the person he is in the show? What's his relationship with his daughter like, and how has it changed over the years? Nate's described as always being supportive of IYS's office staff; what was Sterling's relationship with them like?

His appearance in the finale is just… chef's kiss. What was going through his head at that moment? Did he have similar subtle aid moments with Leverage International, or was it a one-and-done thing? I'd love to see Sterling interacting with the Redemption cast. Maybe he's Breanna's childhood boogieman, maybe Olivia is a client (or mark), or maybe one of their cases goes international and hey, guess who's still working at Interpol…

 

Jim Sterling & Nate Ford

These two have such a messy relationship, and I'd love to see it explored in more detail. What was it like when they were at IYS? What was Sterling's initial reaction to Sam's illness/death and Nate's subsequent downward spiral? How does their relationship shift over the course of the series, and what's it like post-finale? How does he react to Nate's death?

 

Maggie Collins

Maggie is such a fun character, and I'd love to see more of her. What's her day-to-day life like, before, during, or after the show? (It'd be really interesting to see her perspective on the first season of Leverage and its immediate leadup, I feel. So many conflicting feelings, and so many heavy nonconflicting ones.) Does she ever have to deal with blowback/attention from Leverage's schemes, or is everyone convinced that she and Nate are totally estranged?

How does she interact with either Nate & Sophie or Leverage International post-finale? What's that like? I'd also really love to see her and part or all of the Redemption crew interact, as a client, accomplice, or just friend. Is she someone Breanna knows, at least by reputation? (Or, given her career, is she someone Harry knows from a time she was doing art curation for a particularly terrible client?)

 

Original Leverage Crew

I love how they work as a team, and I really enjoy the way the cons are structured so that all their parts mesh together, any one deviation potentially sending everything toppling down (only for it to be revealed that the deviation was, in fact, part of the plan). I'd love to see them on a job (either one of the ones in the episodes, one of the ones during the original show that's not shown like the one they were coming off of in The Cross My Heart Job, or one last job, for realsies this time.)

I also really liked how their paths intersected in The Rashomon Job, and I'd love to see if that happened elsewhere. (Maybe they all go after a thing at different times? Or they're all trying to pull off different jobs at the same party.)

I also really love their relationship outside of jobs, and it would be fun to see more of that. Maybe everyone gets roped into helping a theater production of Sophie's, or they're in a couple different slice of life plots (that perhaps swerve into jobs) that end up colliding together.

 

Redemption Leverage Crew

I really love the crew in Leverage: Redemption. Their dynamic is really fun, and I enjoy the way it diverges from the OG crew's. Their personality clashes are really interesting to watch, and I love the way Redemption explores different info levels between different members of the team, where not only the audience but half the crew is surprised with what someone's doing/done. I'd love to see them on a job, or a more in-depth POV on one of the jobs in the show.

It could be really fun to see their dynamic before the team formed as well. Harry is definitely the kind of guy who would be working for a Leverage mark, and maybe this isn't the first time Breanna's tagged along with her Uncle Alec. (The idea of bb!Breanna interacting with the crew is just great in general. Parker taught her how to pick locks when she was ten!)

I'd also really love to see their relationship outside of jobs - dealing with the aftermath of a job or in the lull between them.

 

Todd McSweeten & Parker & Alec Hardison

I love every time McSweeten & Taggart appear on screen, and every time Parker & Hardison pose as FBI agents. When/how does McSweeten figure out they're not who they say they are? How does he react? What are their interactions like in jobs not shown in the OG Leverage and after the finale? He's a director by the time of Redemption; did Parker and Hardison's work help get him there? How has he lent aid to Leverage International over the years?

 

 

Lockwood & Co. (TV)

Very fun Netflix series! I haven't read the books, though if you want to use them as inspiration for what the future of the show would look like, I'm not averse to spoilers.

 

 

Lucy Carlyle

Lucy's such a fun character: snarky, dedicated to her team, bristling to avoid vulnerability. I'd love to see more of her backstory and how that defense mechanism developed. The first episode gives a look into her time at Jacobs, but I'd love a more in-depth examination of what it felt like to work for that agency, or a deep look into her life before she was old enough to become an agent. I'd also love an AU where she had been able to get into Fittes or Rotwell, either before or after the mill incident, or where she quit being an agent or never became one in the first place. What would her life have looked like in that situation?

Lucy's listening skills are obviously a major part of her character, and I'd also love how they developed and strengthened over time. When did she realize her ability was atypical, first among the general populace and then among her Listening peers? Do her skills continue to expand, and if so, how?

 

Lucy Carlyle/George Karim/Anthony Lockwood

I love these three! The initial mistrust to ride-or-die loyalty is so fun. I'd love a more interior look into the three of them as that loyalty (and general feelings) develop. Does one of them fall faster than the others? Who falls first, and who's the first to bring it up? What was the time between Lucy joining the agency and burning down the house like, or the time between solving the Ward case and beginning the Bickerstaff one?

These three get into so much trouble that they really deserve a break. What do they do in their off time? What hobbies do they explore together, and which ones do the other two fundamentally not get? What little ways do they show their affection for each other?

I'd also love case fic, of course. How does their relationship as romantic partners bleed into their work life? Is there an attempt to draw lines between them-as-romantic-partners and them-as-work-partners, or is everything in one messy, complicated box? Does one case end up hitting particularly close to home?

 

Lucy Carlyle/Norrie White

The flashes of these two we got are so compelling! I love the ways in which Norrie introduces Lucy into life as an agent, and I'd love to see how feelings develop between them during that period (one of the few good things either of them has). How do they steal little moments with each other outside of work? How does their bond grow over time?

And then after the mill! Such a rich source for angst and complicated feelings of guilt and grief. Lucy sending back tapes of her adventures to Norrie's family for them to play back to her. I'd love to see an AU where Norrie's ghost-lock breaks somehow; how does Norrie deal with the way Lucy's life and Lucy have changed in the meantime? Does Lockwood & Co. gain a new member, or merely another houseguest? I'd also love an AU where Norrie is the sole survivor, having to deal with the whole mess left behind, and venturing out to London in pursuit of their shared dream. How would a ghost-locked Lucy's experience differ from Norrie's, and how would she adapt to waking up in a world where everything's changed?

 

Montagu Barnes

Had I seen this show as a teen or tween, I am 100% sure I would've pegged Barnes as an annoying meddling adult who just didn't understand what Lockwood & Co. are dealing with. Having seen this show as an adult, all I can think is "you're right, dude, these dumbasses DID forget their basic safety equipment". I'd love to see more of his perspective during the course of the show, from frustration at Lockwood & Kipps' bet to the paperwork mess surrounding Lucy's agent status to waking up to a phone call that an agency just purned down a house.

I'd love to see Barnes' day-to-day work schedule. What are his primary duties at DEPRAC? How have they shifted over time, or during the span of individual cases/crises?

I'd also love to see Barnes' backstory. What was his childhood like? Was he originally an agent, or did he have no Talent whatsoever? What led him to join DEPRAC, and what motivates him to stay?

 

Worldbuilding

I love the peek into the Problem's logistics that the show gives us: the ghost-defense items (and relics) for sale, the reminder of nightly curfews, the system of night cabs. I'd love to see more of that, and a broader perspective for how the Problem works on society/the world as a whole. I'd also love to see more detail on any part of the worldbuilding from someone deeply involved in it, like Flo Bones' experience with and perspective on other relic hunters.

Speaking of night cabs: I'd love something focused on night cabbies. How did they get into the line of work? How different is it from typical day cabs? Who are their primary clients (agents and night watch, random people trapped out after dark, something else)? What are their perspectives on the Problem - and on the agents and agencies they encounter?

I'm fascinated by the early years of the Problem. How was it determined that ghosts were the cause, and how were the primary defenses against them established? What were some alternate theories for the Problem's cause and some cures that didn't pan out? How did the concept and recognition of Talents spread; did the first generation of agents realize they'd grow out of it, or was that a nasty surprise a couple years in?

The whole agency system is fucked up in such an interesting way. I'm fascinated by the way abuse - general endangerment and, based on Lucy's comments about school, educational neglect - seems to be based into the agency system, and how supervisors, who perpetuate that abuse, are largely former agents themselves.  What training do agents receive, and how standardized is it? How does the experience of agents differ between an agency like Lucy's and Fittes or Rotwell? Or, for that matter, between Lucy's ex-agency and the smaller agencies in London or other places where there appear to be more than one? I'd also love to see the family dynamics of agents; do most agents have terrible home lives, or is Lucy an exception? Since Talents seem to run in families, are there certain families where service with a particular agency is expected?

I'd also love to see the logistics of running an agency, beyond the human factor. How are agencies started? What kind of paperwork is involved? Were Lockwood and George the first to come up with an agents-only agency, and if not, how did previous attempts turn out? How do differing budgets and coverage regions affect what cases they'll take on and research they'll do? Jacobs' agency, as best I could tell, was the only one in Lucy's area, but how do agencies advertise their services and distinguish themselves in a more crowded market like London? (Willingness to take on more difficult cases, cheaper rates, some type of special method, etc.?)

 

 

Murdle (Video Game)

 

Inspector Irratino/Deductive Logico

These two are so great. Always firm in the belief that their method of crime-solving is superior (and smug to one-up the other) but also respecting the other as a rival, antagonist, and friend (with benefits).

I'd love an exploration of how their relationship has evolved over the years and how they've influenced each other. (E.g., the marot cards - Irratino uses them to divine info, but they're also Logico's suspect/weapon/place cards, but they've got star sign info on them, which seems very much against Logico's nature and thus a result of Irratino's influence.)

And the dates! I love their various dates, and would love to see a new one (or one of those we already know). Do they ever talk about Irratino's tendency to play possum? Do they ever pull a cozy plot and have a body mysteriously appear on stage when they are at that experimental one act?

 

Inspector Irratino & Deductive Logico & Creator's Choice of Murdler

I love all the murdlers and their zany and wacky antics. What kind of relationship do Irra and Logico have with their rotating cast of suspects? Are they ex-friends, rivals, something more, or something less? What are their feelings on the clear lack of enduring justice for the murdler's actions, with many of them only ending up in jail for a week?

Alternately, what is the murdlers' perspective on Irratino and Logico? How do they interpret Irra's regular "deaths" and Logico's regular reactions? How do the Sunday cases work from the murdler's perspective? Do they believe they have committed a crime, and if so, how does Irra avoid actually dying for good?

 

Worldbuilding

I'd love a look at how forensics works in this universe; how can you tell the star sign of a suspect from the scene? Do the moon/rising signs also matter, or is it purely sun-sign-based? What happens if there is more than one suspect per location, or more suspects than weapons/locations? What happens when the guilty tell the truth and the innocent lie, knowing Logico's tactics? I would love to see the complicated boondoggle that happens when Murdle logic gets applied outside a logic grid.

Is the occult real/respected in this world, or is Irratino simply Logico's equal and opposite weirdo? What kinds of questions can ghosts answer? Is the spirit writing really from the other side, and if not, what is Irratino's alternate source?

How do some of the murder weapons work? (For example, the lawyer.) How does Irratino not actually be dead affect the legal implications of the Sunday murdle? Basically, take the details of this world seriously, to an absurd degree.

I'd also love to see more backstory (or exploration of their love isodecahedron) for any of the murdlers, or more detail on Logico's secret societies.