5th Annual Numb3rs Slash Ficathon: Idea Toss

[spikedluv]

Yep, as the subject line implies, this is the place to toss around ideas for your reversal. Whether you’ve already signed up and are boggling over the sheer number of possibilities, or if you’re still sitting on the fence, come on in and throw your ideas into the hat. Offer up suggestions for other people, or tell us about the reversal you’re thinking about writing.

(You might think that I already knew who I was going to reverse when I decided to use this theme for the ficathon this year. You’d be wrong. *g* I found myself coming up with ideas and getting really excited about this theme when I was going back and forth with Andi, so I decided to create this post to give everyone someone to toss ideas around with.)

I listed some suggestions in the Sign-up Post, which I’ll repeat here to get the ball rolling:

~Charlie is the FBI agent and Don’s the math genius
~Charlie’s the student and Amita his thesis advisor
~Megan is the elder Eppes and team leader, while Don’s the profiler
~David’s the spy and Colby feels betrayed
~Colby’s the grad student and Amita the FBI Agent (Charlie struggles with his attraction to his grad student Colby Granger)
~Edgerton’s the profiler and Megan the sniper (write sniper!Megan/Amita, or profiler!Edgerton/Larry) [reversal idea snagged from admiralandrea]

The possibilities are endless! (And I know, that’s part of the problem. *g*)

Some of you may not want to share the ideas you’re writing, and that’s fine. But if you do want to toss the idea around to figure out where you’re going with it, that’s great, too.

So, if you want help narrowing your ideas down, or you want to flesh out your reversal, or you want to throw out some reversal ideas that you’re not going to use for others to ponder, this is the place to do that.

Comments

[spikedluv]

I'll go first! *g*

I was stymied at first not only by the sheer number of reversal possibilities, but also by trying to figure out who I was going to slash. My first idea was to reverse Don and Charlie (make Charlie the older brother, though still a math genius), and write a Don/Charlie story that took place during Margaret’s illness, focusing on Don’s ability to pull Charlie out of his math (with possible cameos by little!Charlie holding baby!Don *g*).

Then I went to bed one night and, as they’re wont to do, an idea came to me, which I thought was brilliant! (Most ideas appear brilliant when you’re half asleep. *g*) The idea is to reverse Don and Coop, have Coop leave FR and Don stay in. I’d like to write a bit about Don’s time in FR (assuming I get writing soon so I have time to do that), and ultimately end up with a very loose re-write of Manhunt, with Don coming back to LA. The fic would be Don/Charlie (with other slash pairings, possibly).

While I liked the first idea, I’m really excited about the second idea I came up with. I can’t wait to see how it turns out. *g*

[admiralandrea.livejournal.com]

I struggled like you for a while with all the wonderful possibilities out there. But I'm going to reverse Don and Megan, making Don the profiler and Megan the team leader. Don spends years in the BAU, driven to profiling because of his obsession with Charlie, until he ends up going back to L.A., joining Megan's team and getting back together with Charlie.

I think Don would make an excellent profiler - he talks to Bradford about getting in the heads of bad guys and Tony Amendola's character makes that comment to him in 36 hours. So I'm really hoping I can do justice to the idea.

[spikedluv]

I loveLoveLOVE your idea!!! I remember squeeing about it, and then immediately panicking, O_O OMG, I don't have an idea yet!!! *g*

I think this is going to be a fabulous story and I so can't wait to read it!

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

My reversal: Alan dies, Margaret lives.

Some suggestions to perhaps spark other people's muses:
(Up to the mod how many of them are acceptable levels of reversal.)

Ian's the team leader, Don's the sniper they call in.
Kim stays in the FBI, Don joins the Secret Service.
Terry stays in LA, Don goes back to Quantico.
Don's the senior partner in Fugitive Recovery, Coop's his newbie partner who later leaves for an instructor position at Quantico then later New Mexico.
Colby was the legend in Afghanistan and Ian is his fanboy.
David is the mixed martial arts fighter and Ben is the friend who turned his back on him when they were young.
Amita stays at Cal Sci and Charlie gets an offer to go back east to Harvard or MIT.
Charlie seeks out Judaism to deal with what he's seen in the FBI and Don sticks with alcohol like he always has.
Don buys the Craftsman and lives with Alan while Charlie has an apartment.
Alan's the FBI Agent and Don's a city planner.
Don's a lawyer and his mother Margaret is/was an FBI Agent.
Don stays in baseball and Charlie's the one who switches careers midstream to do something different.
Megan is on the Janus List, not Colby.
Colby pulled Dwayne out of the burning Humvee and saved his life.
Robin's the team leader, Don's the AUSA prosecuting her cases.
Colby went into Fugitive Recovery and worked with Billy instead of Don.
Don knew David since Quantico and Terry was put on his team as the AD's mole.
Charlie is the Bureau's best tracker and Ian teaches at Cal Sci.
Amita works with Matt Li in the FBI tech lab and Billy is a Cal Sci professor working with Ray Ray.
Colby is Charlie's big brother and Don is just Colby's teammate at the FBI.
Larry helps the FBI on cases and Charlie goes into space.
Professor Don is socially awkward over student Amita's attentions and turns to suave brother Agent Charlie for advice.

[spikedluv]

Thanks so much for these suggestions! Most of them sound great --

Colby was the legend in Afghanistan and Ian is his fanboy

Love the idea of Ian being the fanboy. *g*

(A few of them don't fit the reversal concept: the Amita-Coop reversal wouldn’t work, for example, since the two characters have to reverse roles with each other, but I wouldn’t mind seeing Amita as a kick ass Fugitive Recovery agent. *g*).

I’m glad to see that, despite your earlier misgivings that you’d be able to think of anything to write for this particular theme, you were actually able to come up with quite a few ideas. Thanks for sharing them.

[emmademarais.livejournal.com]

I always have a surplus of ideas. I don't always have ideas I'm willing to write myself.

Amita is an FBI agent in that one. Amita as Cal Sci math professor works with Ray Ray at times so I can't see why a FR Agent wouldn't work with a techie at times. After all, both Ian and Billy saw the value in Charlie's 'voodoo'. /grins/

There were a few that were in the gray area. I wasn't sure about the Don staying in baseball one, but I liked the idea of it so I left it in figuring all of these are just to hopefully spark ideas in others. /shrugs/

[umbralillium.livejournal.com]

Ooh! I really like the Colby-as-a-grad-student idea! *ponders*

So far, my only original idea is Charlie was the one on the Janus List. Will definitely need to think on this more.

[swingandswirl]

Aww, darn, I had planned on writing that one. *pouts*

But Charlie on the Janus List sounds fab, but poor Don... *pets him while encouraging bunny*

[umbralillium.livejournal.com]

Sorry! *pets*

And think of the added angst from him losing his FBI credentials after sending Professor Sanjrani's work to Pakistan. Will he have a harder or easier time getting his credentials back? Food for thought. ^__~

[spikedluv]

You could both write it, and we could see how two authors handle the same premise. *g*

[swingandswirl]

That's possible? Yay! *claps*

Just how much of a role reversal does there need to be, though? Can I still have Colby in the Army and pursuing a slightly different but still related field? 'Cause I don't think I want to make him a white male version of Amita... *plays with bunny some more*

Edit: Also, is there a beta sign-up list somewhere? We've got some new folk participating so it might be nice for there to be a resource like that so they don't get lost in the usual beta/author shuffle...

[spikedluv]

Sure! If it hadn't been mentioned here, you both may have written it anyway, we just wouldn't have known until the fic were posted.

The main reversal (Colby = grad student and Amita = FBI agent) is the important thing. The backstory you give them could be the same (as you say, Colby being in the Army), or completely different. If, for example, Amita was switched with Don, and she was Charlie's older sister, I wouldn't expect her to have played baseball and hockey, though she could have (it might have to be softball and field hockey, though *g*), if you wanted to write that for her.

I could do a beta post here, if you think that it would be helpful.

[swingandswirl]

*gets to plotting*

And yes, a beta post would be awesome, just to make sure no-one's left in the lurch. *is willing to volunteer her own services*

[spikedluv]

Okay. I'll probably wait until sign-ups close to post the beta post. *g*

[mercilynn]

If I don't sign up for it, remind me to list my services as a beta!

[spikedluv]

Oh, lordy, you expect ME to remember?!!! O_O I might need help remembering to MAKE the post, lol!

[spikedluv]

I was inspired when I came up with that one, lol! (Of course, it could also be a Don/Colby fic, working with the bit of flirting they gave us between Don and Amita early on.)

Oooh, Charlie on the Janus list! That would be very intriguing! Just hearing that idea makes me wonder how he got on there. *g*

[spikedluv]

I like the reversal idea, but my brain has been stuck in a look of 'you're going to write Don/Charlie slash?!!' Really?!!! Cool. *g* (Although, I guess with this reversal it won't be incest, huh? Sneaky. *g*)

[spikedluv]

That was supposed to be 'loop' not 'look'. *g*

[spikedluv]

I was surprised that was your pairing because I thought I'd read a comment of yours that you weren't fond of the Don/charlie pairing? Am I confused?!! *g*

Hee, but yes, sleeping with your sister's boyfriend is a bad thing. *g*

[spikedluv]

Ahhh, lol! Yeah, I guess that would make it tough to write Don/Charlie fic. *g*

[admiralandrea.livejournal.com]

I had this wild idea, which may not really work, as technically he's a minor character, but if someone wrote Don-as-surfer, Nate-as-Fed, that would be awesome! Except for the part where I don't want it to be a rewrite of Charlie Don't Surf, with a dead!Don of course *g* And it could then be Colby/Don, with Don amazed to find a Fed who surfs *g*

[spikedluv]

Ohh, thats an awesome idea! (I had an idea for an AU fic that was similar, except for the role reversal and Don surfing, lol, so I guess not all THAT similar, where Don was still playing baseball and he came home for a visit and ran into Nate and his surfer friend, Colby. And it was Don/Colby, of course. *g*)

You've got some really neat reversal ideas. Keep 'em coming! *g*

[pot-and-kettle.livejournal.com]

I think I have an idea, but I'm not sure whether it really qualifies as trading places--it's role reversal of a sort. Don is kidnapped and held hostage because Charlie and Amita are out with each other and Don's still recovering, so Amita/Don trade places as the hostage but all other aspects stay the same. Is this too literal an interpretation of trading places? >.>;

[spikedluv]

Hi! The type of trading places we want for the ficathon is a direct reversal of the roles they play on the show. If you wanted to make Amita the FBI Agent and Don the grad student, that would be an appropriate role reveral. Or Charlie the grad student and Amita the genius professor. Or Don the genius math professor and Charlie the FBI Agent. There's a ton more options, but I just played with the characters you mentioned here. *g*

[pot-and-kettle.livejournal.com]

Bla, that's what I thought. No matter, I shall work it another way. :D