Dear Fandom5K Creator,

[paleomnesis]

John Wick (Movies) 

John Wick/Winston

 

Just when I think the series can't possibly give me any more of what I love – namely, badass fights, fine tailoring, and loyalty kink like you wouldn't believe, John Wick turns around and goes, oh, I'm sorry, did you think you were finished with me? Like seriously, these movies are just filled with all the kinds of things I adore, especially the bond between John and Winston. I just have always had a thing for mentor/protégé ships, especially when it involves classy suits, fine dining, and murder. There's just something about the way Winston and John interact that always made me want more - more tailoring, more teaching, more of the two of them just sitting and talking and ending up in a far too intimate relationship that everyone realizes is a terrible idea, but hey, that's what this series is made of . (Oh, and John Wick: Chapter 4, you may think that by Winston calling John his son it will keep me from shipping the two of them, but I assure you, it only makes me ship them harder.)

 

DNWs: No animal harm, extreme underage, scat/watersports, no focus on unrequested pairings involving nominated characters (mentions of past canon relationships are fine and if you want to refer to past Winston/Charon, I wouldn't say no), no permanent nominated character death (transformations are fine).

Prompts:

 

AU – Canon divergence:

Really, the sky's the limit here. There's so many places where things could have gone differently – maybe John ended up working for the Continental under Winston and he becomes privy to Winston's grand schemes that way. Or maybe something where Helen was the assassin, not John, and after her death, John starts researching her background, which naturally leads to violence, death, and John realizing the value of a well-tailored suit. I'd even take something, if you're so inclined, where John and Winston are father and son, which just makes things more complicated, but no less sexy.

 

AU - Genre Shift:

I love canon, but I also love putting those same dynamics in changed settings, so I'd love to see an exploration of John and Winston in different genres. Noir where John's the detective pulled into one last case and Winston's the club owner warning off of it? Ancient Rome with gladiators and patricians and plots against a mad emperor? Space opera because you'd still get the gorgeous clothing, the intricate scheming, and maybe someone blows up a planet? 

 

Fantasy: 

My brain went down a few routes for this one. On the one hand, I could see something where it's good old medieval fantasy with the Church not even needing to murder you to make excommunication serious business, Winston as a local lord chafing under the higher-ups, and John running around being a knight errant and messing up everyone's plans. Or it's urban fantasy time and you know what, I love it all, so feel free to get as weird as you want to with your worldbuilding. 

 

Fix-it fic: 

So I've said previously about John Wick 4 that I was certain the upcoming movie was going to break my heart about the two of them and their relationship – and it did, just not in the way I expected. So I'd love something where Winston really is just faking John's death at the end of the fourth movie, or John survives but it's touch and go, just anything where John survives his death even if it means it's not a tragically poetic ending. 

 

Hurt/Comfort:

I'd still love to see something set during any part of the canon where John get injured and Winston ends up taking care of him. It could be something early in John's career where he's just starting out and Winston realizes he has a special fondness for this young man that outstrips what he feels about anyone else. But I'd also adore something set during or after the Big Betrayal, where either Winston ends up secretly helping John out and giving him sanctuary until they're both forced to run, or John comes back after it all and there's a whole thorny mess to work through. If that involves tremendous amounts of angst and a few murder attempts on anyone's part, I'd be down for that as well.

 

Three Days of the Condor (1975) 

G. Joubert/Joseph Turner (Three Days of the Condor (1975))

 

So I'm kind of a sucker for these type of dynamics – suave, professional assassin hunting a less experienced, but more creative person on the run, who then meet face to face only to realize that they're not so different after all (even the non-assassin doesn't want to admit it). And Three Days of the Condor is just so great with this! I love Joubert, all classy and calm, growing to respect and possibly even root for Turner (that last speech he gives him is just perfect). Then there's Turner, outwitting everyone until the very end, rejecting Joubert's advice, but not his gun, because there's always that car and that day. I'd love something more with the two of them – we really don't get nearly enough in the movie with them together, which is such a shame. 

 

DNWs: No animal harm, extreme underage, scat/watersports, no focus on unrequested pairings involving nominated characters (mentions of past canon relationships are fine), no permanent nominated character death (transformations are fine). Also, please no references to the TV show remake. 

 
Prompts:

Action/Adventure, Canon-Style Plot – Freeform

I've sort of lumped these two tags together because I think they overlap quite a bit. There's a lot of ground that could be covered after the movie – it's left deliberately ambiguous as to whether anything will really change or if the truth will just be buried under bureaucracy and bullshit, so I'd love to see where it goes from there. Does Turner keep on trying to get the truth out? Does he flee, hating himself for doing so but knowing that his death accomplishes nothing? And what does Joubert do? Does he keep tabs on Turner, even after his job is over? What might bring them back together? 

 

AU – Canon Divergence

What if Turner had taken Joubert up on his offer or Joubert had made it even earlier? Would there be circumstances where Turner might have been willing to go that route, and how would he have wrestled with making that decision? Or what if instead of doing a quick, fast kill, the agency took a longer approach to figure out exactly what Turner knew and used Joubert for the job? How would direct observation have changed his attitude towards Turner, especially when it came time to wrap all the loose ends up?

 

AU - Genre Shift

So this is a real classic 70s paranoia thriller, but I'd be fine with something that tweaks the genre/setting. Maybe it's a classic film noir, with Turner as the reporter/PI futilely trying to discover the truth while Joubert is the mysterious stranger, always there with a body and a warning. Or something more futuristic – cyberpunk with all its corporate espionage and bleak outlook would fit in equally well. 

 

Hurt/Comfort

I really feel like there was a serious lack of this in the movie – I completely understand why, tonally speaking, but that doesn't stop me from wanting it. There's a lot of scenarios that could work nicely here – on the run in a car with someone bleeding from a gunshot/stab wound and there's no safe place to go, realizing that you've just walked in on someone you've grown to care about in serious trouble and you're going to have to break cover to get them out, even the classic “I was drugged/feverish/thought I was dying and I may have said some things I didn't mean to and now I'm really regretting the whole vulnerability thing.”

 
 

Crossover Fandom

Herbert West (Re-Animator) & Randolph Carter (The Unnamable (1988))

 

This one is a bit of a long reach – let's just say I watched a lot of MonsterVision back in the day and between that and my weekly video rentals, I got to see a ton of deeply obscure and weird horror movies. And while Re-Animator still retains its cult fame, the same cannot be said for The Unnamable and its delightful sequel, which is a real shame because even though the Unnamable was clearly made to capitalize on Re-Animator's success, it's still a fun time. So I would love something where these West and Carter meet – they're both fastidious, easily irritated scholars with massive egos who have best friends that really hate the fact that multiple murders, grotesque monsters, and unspeakable horror will not stop either West or Carter from blithely doing it all over again. (Also, if you want to play some Six Degrees of Lovecraft, David Warner stars in the Unnamable sequel, and then would later do The Necronomicon with... Jeffrey Combs!)

 

DNWs: No animal harm, extreme underage, scat/watersports, no focus on unrequested pairings involving nominated characters (mentions of past canon relationships are fine and I ship both Dan/Herbert as well as Randolph/Howard and Randolph/Alyda), no permanent nominated character death (transformations are fine).

Prompts:

 

AU - Canon Divergence

I could see points in both canons where they could have benefited from either character showing up and changing things, i.e. making things worse. What if in Re-Animator, Dan was already friends with either Howard or Randolph, and the appearance of Herbert just means that there's two people eyeing each other suspiciously, trying to figure out if they're competitors or collaborators? Or people get carted off to the hospital at the start of The Unnamable 2 – do they have the greater misfortune of running into Herbert West and dealing with a fresh new horror there?  Hell, maybe even Carter and West are long lost relatives and no one wants to deal with that nightmare of a family reunion.

 

Canon-Style Plot – Freeform, Horror

These two movies mesh really well together – they're both based on short stories by Lovecraft, but adapted to the 80s and given a fresh coat of gore. Maybe West and Carter run into a new eldritch monstrosity together and of course, since Arkham is utterly shit when it comes to dealing with these type of things, they have to reluctantly team up to stop it.  Also, given that both canonically are thought dead at various points, only to pop up, none the worse for wear, I'd take some commiseration between their best friends/boyfriends on having to go through this shit all over again. 

 

Humor, Worldbuilding

I'd be utterly fascinated to see how you could make these movies work in the same universe together and what the implications would be for that. Perhaps it means that there are a number of people who have recognized that yes, Arkham is filled with terrors beyond man's comprehension and they're not just talking about West and Carter. What about the real estate market in Arkham – there seems to be a fairly good supply of abandoned historical properties with dark histories just ripe for student housing? And what exactly is Carter going to get his degree in, or is he never going to graduate? How did West and Cain manage to get jobs again after being directly connected to a massacre? Does Arkham University go through Deans like tissue paper?