Suits fics I'm working on now
Feb. 9th, 2013 12:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thatotherpervOnce upon a time, I really enjoyed tracking my plot bunnies / fic progress on lj. Partly because the creative process is an ephemeral thing, and looking back on my own ideas or processes a few years in the future can be like looking in on someone else's (seriously, the number of times I've gone...wait...I wrote that?), and partly because (see icon), I like getting other people's responses. And these days I try not to post wips until I'm relatively certain they're close to completion.
So I'm going to give that habit a bit of a resurrection. Blanket warning that I can't finish all the fics I start because I have so many ideas and I'm a relatively slow writer these days....so you know, if it's gonna kill you read about a bunny and have it not come to fruition, you probably don't want to click the link. Also, for things that do get posted, you'd probably be a little spoiled on details from my blather.
(after writing out all my current projects, should also warn you that apparently all of them involve explicit sex with other people in a non-villainous manner. OTP is *the* OTP, but I also love poly and dislike jealousy, and basically, see icon. It has more than one application.)
the new epic D/s fic
most active thing I'm working on now. It's actually slower going than Needs Must was at the beginning – I can't tell whether this is because I've already written a fair amount of Harvey/Mike, or because it's from Harvey's pov and dom pov is always harder for me, or because the flood has naturally slowed to a more sane flow, but I'm at ~15k and it's actual *work*. Not to mention, it's ~15k and they've ONLY HAD ONE CONVERSATION WTF.
Otoh, I have pretty much the whole thing plotted out, the way I did for Needs Must...it'll morph, no doubt, but the bones are all in place and I know what direction I'm headed. It's a trick for me to find a balance between “I have no idea where this is headed and that's exciting” and “I know exactly what's happening and I'm bored getting it on paper now so I'll stop.” I seem to be riding that groove pretty well on this one – there's still enough uncertainty to keep me engaged in the fic.
One thing I've been super conscious of is how to differentiate it from Needs Must, because there *are* a lot of similarities: Mike and Harvey meeting as strangers and navigating their way into a D/s relationship, in which Mike is newer to kink than Harvey. An element of them working together at Pearson Hardman in conjunction with having a kink relationship, with the kink coming first and the working relationship coming later.
I'm comfortable, at this point, that the similarities are more superficial than the differences. In Needs Must, the core of the kink for both of them was affirmation and comfort (it cracked me up when I read one bookmark of my fic somewhere that basically said “as far as I can tell, the kink is mostly Harvey petting Mike a lot” and I thought: accurate!). In this new project, it's mostly about possession and control. The negotations are, in a way, more fast-and-loose – they negotiate kink, but Harvey likes to push the envelope a little more than he should. He likes to make Mike uncomfortable and off-balance and seize control of Mike in ways that they haven't previously discussed – and Mike likes it.
The kink is also going to be a little harder, more concrete and traditional, though still on the relatively mild side of things. And one element I'm definitely incorporating (which I know might not make hardcore shippers happy) is sex with other people as a part of their play.
Ugh, I haven't even gotten into the plot yet, but I could literally talk about this one forever, so...moving on.
the one where Harvey's a porn kingpin
complete and total AU – no one is a lawyer, everyone's in the porn industry. I actually started writing this one after I put up a prompt on the kinkmeme and said that I could never write Harvey in the porn industry personally. Which doomed me, because it became a challenge and my little brain started eating away at it.
Basically, this Harvey is a little more...brittle than canon Harvey, because although he's taken his industry by he balls and found his own niche in it, it wasn't what he ever *wanted* to do. But after an early start being in porn himself, he switched to the other side of the camera and built a company with his own brand of ethics. He doesn't sleep with his stars, ever, but then along comes Mike, who is remarkably unjaded and willing to give him lip like no one else but Donna (and Louis and Jessica), and keeps blatantly, unshamedly hitting on him and goes so far as to tell Donna he's *courting* Harvey.
And well, you know. Harvey's intrigued.
I'm sitting at ~7k on this one right now, and I really love it. I have a vague idea of where it's going – it will involve explicit sex with others in a professional capacity. And no jealousy over it. But Mike is basically the thing that Harvey's always needed to make work fun, and it's otp all over the place. This one's also from Harvey's pov – almost everything I've been working on currently is, which....I'm not sure why.
the polyamorous threesome fic
I started writing this before s2 began and Jenny went bye-bye for good – so it sort of ignores / glosses over their breakup and sees them as an inevitable endgame for Mike.
Basically in this one, Harvey's been in love with Mike for a long time, but has come to accept and even adore Jenny as Mike's partner. After they get engaged and Mike gets promoted to a junior partnership, Jenny calls Harvey on it and says that she wants to give Harvey to Mike for their wedding present. Harvey pretty much thinks this whole thing is a recipe for disaster, but he can't really resist the offer when it's on the table and Jenny is so confident.
Mike thinks he's straight(ish), so what follows is a series of threesomes easing him into it, haha. Basically he's really horny and on board with the idea of watching while Harvey fucks Jenny, and then the more often they're naked together, the more open he is to doing stuff with Harvey.
I really intended this to be, basically, pwp that drifts vaguely into a place of committed polyamory, but then one day my brain cooked up this thing where several years in the future, Mike and Jenny tell Harvey they're thinking about having a baby, and Harvey is all bummed because he assumes it's the end of the three of them, and tries to gracefully bow out. And Mike and Jenny are like *stares*, no, we're asking if that's somethnig *you* want, too. *with* us. They end up moving forward with it, and they agree to have the baby together and not paternity test, but the baby is born and it's the spitting image of Harvey and Harvey's a little concerned that this will be some sort of last straw for Mike, but Mike and Jenny are in love with Harvey's son and everyone lives schmoopily ever after
*vomits rainbows* I don't even know what's happening to me, yall.
Things that are sort of on the shelf, but still on my mind
the one where Harvey is Mike's Big Brother - Harvey just started working at PH, Mike is a punk kid, and Jessica snookers Harvey into mentoring him. Mike wants Harvey's body. Harvey pretends not to notice, because....jailbait. But then he fucks him anyway. This one actually has potential to be epic, but that's the gist of it – waiting for more info on both their histories so that when I write this one, it can be someone canon-compliant.
the one where Mike is a bike messenger - Mike delivers something late at night / early in the morning to Harvey when Harvey is a Senior Associate, and when Mike is cranky about a tip, Harvey offers to blow him instead. He doesn't let Mike get him off. I love this idea so much, but the characters won't fucking TALK to me so I can write it.
the one at the strip club - canonish (gasp, whut?) where Harvey and Mike get private lap dances in the same room and watch each other and are all horny. Came out of some convo I had with Kate when we were rewatching a Suits episode, idek. I want this like burning, but ditto the above – I can't quite bring this to life enough to make it Go, and it's frustrating.
the one where they're DHS interrogators - this one blatantly rips off the plot of that two-part terrorism episode of Castle, though I rearranged a lot and tried to make it a bit less sweepstakey. I have this one mapped out pretty specifically, and in a way that makes me feel all clever and proud of myself, but I lost momentum on it, probably because I *do* know what happens so specifically, and because it's basically gen – preslash because in no universe do my boys *not* want to fuck, but they're a little busy saving the city and being awesome to actually manage it or even think about it very much. Otoh, I really like the idea of Harvey as this badass dominant interrogator and I get horny every time I write him being all 'grrr.' so it's a dilemma.
the one where Mike's a girl...but with porn - I really *want* to write a D/s fic where Mike is female and see how that changes the dynamic and keeps it the same. I just have no specifics yet, or particular burning inspiration. I originally intended this to be in the same verse as my posted Micah fic, but the tone of those was so flippant and comic that I have a hard time imagining going forward with that, so it might be a separate fic altogether. Whenever I get to it.
the one set in a pseudo-slavery verse - I have this idea for a fic set in a verse where America has bridged the opportunity gap by having the wealthy 'sponsor' entry into lucrative, highly educated professions through a sort of...apprenticeship program that essentially grants enough power to the sponsor that it makes the recipient a defacto slave / indentured servant with few rights. Harvey narrowly escaped being one himself through Jessica's generosity, but when he's made Senior Partner, he's forced to take on one of these associates himself. Instead, he finds Mike, who hasn't gone to any law school, much less the required tier-two program at Harvard. While they're playing this part at work, it stirs up a lot of dominant impulses that Harvey's always been sort of ashamed of, given the state of their world, and Mike – who has always been into D/s – maneuvers Harvey into acting on them. Their relationship is very Master/slave in the BDSM sense which both of them find so fucking wrong, given the circumstances, but it's also incredibly hot, because Mike isn't *actually* obligated to him and they're both so into it. In the meantime, they find a way to bring the whole system tumbling down. This one's in a holding pattern because (while it might sound like I know exactly where it's going) there are a lot of dynamics involved that need to cook for a while. Also, I wish I'd stop coming up with bunnies that can only be fulfilled by 25k+ word fics, because it's PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for me to do them all.
*flops on the floor and weeps a little because all that probably adds up to 200k of fic and I have, you know....a job* and these are just the ones I'm hopelessly attached to.
So I'm going to give that habit a bit of a resurrection. Blanket warning that I can't finish all the fics I start because I have so many ideas and I'm a relatively slow writer these days....so you know, if it's gonna kill you read about a bunny and have it not come to fruition, you probably don't want to click the link. Also, for things that do get posted, you'd probably be a little spoiled on details from my blather.
(after writing out all my current projects, should also warn you that apparently all of them involve explicit sex with other people in a non-villainous manner. OTP is *the* OTP, but I also love poly and dislike jealousy, and basically, see icon. It has more than one application.)
the new epic D/s fic
most active thing I'm working on now. It's actually slower going than Needs Must was at the beginning – I can't tell whether this is because I've already written a fair amount of Harvey/Mike, or because it's from Harvey's pov and dom pov is always harder for me, or because the flood has naturally slowed to a more sane flow, but I'm at ~15k and it's actual *work*. Not to mention, it's ~15k and they've ONLY HAD ONE CONVERSATION WTF.
Otoh, I have pretty much the whole thing plotted out, the way I did for Needs Must...it'll morph, no doubt, but the bones are all in place and I know what direction I'm headed. It's a trick for me to find a balance between “I have no idea where this is headed and that's exciting” and “I know exactly what's happening and I'm bored getting it on paper now so I'll stop.” I seem to be riding that groove pretty well on this one – there's still enough uncertainty to keep me engaged in the fic.
One thing I've been super conscious of is how to differentiate it from Needs Must, because there *are* a lot of similarities: Mike and Harvey meeting as strangers and navigating their way into a D/s relationship, in which Mike is newer to kink than Harvey. An element of them working together at Pearson Hardman in conjunction with having a kink relationship, with the kink coming first and the working relationship coming later.
I'm comfortable, at this point, that the similarities are more superficial than the differences. In Needs Must, the core of the kink for both of them was affirmation and comfort (it cracked me up when I read one bookmark of my fic somewhere that basically said “as far as I can tell, the kink is mostly Harvey petting Mike a lot” and I thought: accurate!). In this new project, it's mostly about possession and control. The negotations are, in a way, more fast-and-loose – they negotiate kink, but Harvey likes to push the envelope a little more than he should. He likes to make Mike uncomfortable and off-balance and seize control of Mike in ways that they haven't previously discussed – and Mike likes it.
The kink is also going to be a little harder, more concrete and traditional, though still on the relatively mild side of things. And one element I'm definitely incorporating (which I know might not make hardcore shippers happy) is sex with other people as a part of their play.
Ugh, I haven't even gotten into the plot yet, but I could literally talk about this one forever, so...moving on.
the one where Harvey's a porn kingpin
complete and total AU – no one is a lawyer, everyone's in the porn industry. I actually started writing this one after I put up a prompt on the kinkmeme and said that I could never write Harvey in the porn industry personally. Which doomed me, because it became a challenge and my little brain started eating away at it.
Basically, this Harvey is a little more...brittle than canon Harvey, because although he's taken his industry by he balls and found his own niche in it, it wasn't what he ever *wanted* to do. But after an early start being in porn himself, he switched to the other side of the camera and built a company with his own brand of ethics. He doesn't sleep with his stars, ever, but then along comes Mike, who is remarkably unjaded and willing to give him lip like no one else but Donna (and Louis and Jessica), and keeps blatantly, unshamedly hitting on him and goes so far as to tell Donna he's *courting* Harvey.
And well, you know. Harvey's intrigued.
I'm sitting at ~7k on this one right now, and I really love it. I have a vague idea of where it's going – it will involve explicit sex with others in a professional capacity. And no jealousy over it. But Mike is basically the thing that Harvey's always needed to make work fun, and it's otp all over the place. This one's also from Harvey's pov – almost everything I've been working on currently is, which....I'm not sure why.
the polyamorous threesome fic
I started writing this before s2 began and Jenny went bye-bye for good – so it sort of ignores / glosses over their breakup and sees them as an inevitable endgame for Mike.
Basically in this one, Harvey's been in love with Mike for a long time, but has come to accept and even adore Jenny as Mike's partner. After they get engaged and Mike gets promoted to a junior partnership, Jenny calls Harvey on it and says that she wants to give Harvey to Mike for their wedding present. Harvey pretty much thinks this whole thing is a recipe for disaster, but he can't really resist the offer when it's on the table and Jenny is so confident.
Mike thinks he's straight(ish), so what follows is a series of threesomes easing him into it, haha. Basically he's really horny and on board with the idea of watching while Harvey fucks Jenny, and then the more often they're naked together, the more open he is to doing stuff with Harvey.
I really intended this to be, basically, pwp that drifts vaguely into a place of committed polyamory, but then one day my brain cooked up this thing where several years in the future, Mike and Jenny tell Harvey they're thinking about having a baby, and Harvey is all bummed because he assumes it's the end of the three of them, and tries to gracefully bow out. And Mike and Jenny are like *stares*, no, we're asking if that's somethnig *you* want, too. *with* us. They end up moving forward with it, and they agree to have the baby together and not paternity test, but the baby is born and it's the spitting image of Harvey and Harvey's a little concerned that this will be some sort of last straw for Mike, but Mike and Jenny are in love with Harvey's son and everyone lives schmoopily ever after
*vomits rainbows* I don't even know what's happening to me, yall.
Things that are sort of on the shelf, but still on my mind
the one where Harvey is Mike's Big Brother - Harvey just started working at PH, Mike is a punk kid, and Jessica snookers Harvey into mentoring him. Mike wants Harvey's body. Harvey pretends not to notice, because....jailbait. But then he fucks him anyway. This one actually has potential to be epic, but that's the gist of it – waiting for more info on both their histories so that when I write this one, it can be someone canon-compliant.
the one where Mike is a bike messenger - Mike delivers something late at night / early in the morning to Harvey when Harvey is a Senior Associate, and when Mike is cranky about a tip, Harvey offers to blow him instead. He doesn't let Mike get him off. I love this idea so much, but the characters won't fucking TALK to me so I can write it.
the one at the strip club - canonish (gasp, whut?) where Harvey and Mike get private lap dances in the same room and watch each other and are all horny. Came out of some convo I had with Kate when we were rewatching a Suits episode, idek. I want this like burning, but ditto the above – I can't quite bring this to life enough to make it Go, and it's frustrating.
the one where they're DHS interrogators - this one blatantly rips off the plot of that two-part terrorism episode of Castle, though I rearranged a lot and tried to make it a bit less sweepstakey. I have this one mapped out pretty specifically, and in a way that makes me feel all clever and proud of myself, but I lost momentum on it, probably because I *do* know what happens so specifically, and because it's basically gen – preslash because in no universe do my boys *not* want to fuck, but they're a little busy saving the city and being awesome to actually manage it or even think about it very much. Otoh, I really like the idea of Harvey as this badass dominant interrogator and I get horny every time I write him being all 'grrr.' so it's a dilemma.
the one where Mike's a girl...but with porn - I really *want* to write a D/s fic where Mike is female and see how that changes the dynamic and keeps it the same. I just have no specifics yet, or particular burning inspiration. I originally intended this to be in the same verse as my posted Micah fic, but the tone of those was so flippant and comic that I have a hard time imagining going forward with that, so it might be a separate fic altogether. Whenever I get to it.
the one set in a pseudo-slavery verse - I have this idea for a fic set in a verse where America has bridged the opportunity gap by having the wealthy 'sponsor' entry into lucrative, highly educated professions through a sort of...apprenticeship program that essentially grants enough power to the sponsor that it makes the recipient a defacto slave / indentured servant with few rights. Harvey narrowly escaped being one himself through Jessica's generosity, but when he's made Senior Partner, he's forced to take on one of these associates himself. Instead, he finds Mike, who hasn't gone to any law school, much less the required tier-two program at Harvard. While they're playing this part at work, it stirs up a lot of dominant impulses that Harvey's always been sort of ashamed of, given the state of their world, and Mike – who has always been into D/s – maneuvers Harvey into acting on them. Their relationship is very Master/slave in the BDSM sense which both of them find so fucking wrong, given the circumstances, but it's also incredibly hot, because Mike isn't *actually* obligated to him and they're both so into it. In the meantime, they find a way to bring the whole system tumbling down. This one's in a holding pattern because (while it might sound like I know exactly where it's going) there are a lot of dynamics involved that need to cook for a while. Also, I wish I'd stop coming up with bunnies that can only be fulfilled by 25k+ word fics, because it's PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE for me to do them all.
*flops on the floor and weeps a little because all that probably adds up to 200k of fic and I have, you know....a job* and these are just the ones I'm hopelessly attached to.
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no subject
Date: 2013-02-09 09:42 pm (UTC)I want all of these in equal amounts, it's really not fair.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-09 10:19 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-09 10:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-09 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-09 10:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-09 10:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 12:54 am (UTC)I obviously will read any of these that your write, b/c YAY. And all I can think of write now is teensy Harvey!spawn. I just. *happy sigh*
These are all wonderful ideas, and you can't go wrong!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 01:21 am (UTC)the other thing would be...most of these require at least 20k words, imo - once upon a time I could bang that out in a couple days, but now it takes me a couple months. and within that time, I'll probably have another plot bunny I like just as much.
on the upside, Suits has inspired me enough that I have the luxury of bitching about *this*, instead of complete writer's block. so there's that, haha.
*headdesk*
and yeah, teensy Harvey spawn. I am SO NOT THAT GIRL, but then with this particular verse it was like. poly schmoop and then it ate my brain.
thanks for the vote of confidence, darlin
no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 03:37 am (UTC)I'm impressed by your ability to write such seamless AUs. Is that where your brain always goes? Have you always been that way? Teach me, sensei.
the one where Harvey is Mike's Big Brother
*nudges this one to the forefront of your mind*
This fandom needs this story like whoa.
I had an idea for something similar but it was like a college AU where Jessica is the Dean of Students and Harvey gets in trouble for something (like maybe fighting with young Daniel or something)and Jessica gives him an ultimatum, mentor this local fuck up kid (Mike) or lose your scholarship. Mike is snarky and all up in Harvey's business and not listening to anything Harvey has to say,and getting on Harvey's last nerve. He's also constantly trying to get into Harvey's pants and being strangely, intriguingly sexy.
But I have no motivation to write it.
These characters were pretty much made for this type of story though.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 03:52 am (UTC)and college AUs. do eeet. I feel you on not having the motivation though - that's the worst, when you like an idea you came up with but just don't want to write it. but you want it to exist.
my mind definitely moves towards AUs on its own. sometimes AU in a small way, sometimes AU in a this-world-doesn't-even-look-like-ours way, but my plot bunnies almost always begin with "what would happen if..." and the number of AUs/ARs I've written since finding fandom far outweigh 'canon' fics, from the very beginning. I really don't know why my thinking runs that way, just like I'm baffled by how people can create missing scene canon fic that not only fits canon perfectly, but sometimes even repairs it. that sounds a lot more difficult to me, haha.
*but*...when I write AUs, I do spend a lot of time thinking about things that never appear 'on screen' - part of the reason it takes me so damn long is that I feel compelled to hash out everyone's life story in that particular universe before I know exactly how they're going to react to something. whereas when I write more canonical fic, the backstory becomes a lot easier to reach for, because it's right there.
(so very flattered by "seamless" btw - thank you! and my inner neurotic thanks you even more profusely, haha)
no subject
Date: 2013-02-10 04:38 pm (UTC)I wish my brain naturally went the way of the AU. I feel pretty bound by canon and when I start thinking "what if" I get like two or three steps out the door before my mind goes blank.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 04:04 pm (UTC)and yeah - backstory. it's horrible because I know it's better for the show if it's leaked to us little by little and it's always a *squeak* omg we know something new! but the writer in me is a greedy little bastard who needs it all NOW NOW NOW. this is actually the first time I've been super invested in something with open canon, so I'm feeling my way out over thin ice, wanting to stay as canon-compliant as possible. because I'm neurotic like that.
no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 04:25 am (UTC)HERE FOR THIS!
no subject
Date: 2013-02-11 04:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-02-12 05:15 am (UTC)