[Person of Interest] Exchange of Interest 2018 Letter

Dear PoI Creator,

I'm quite a big fan of Harold Finch, if you couldn't already guess. I'm a massive multi-shipper, OT3-friendly, and I like to brainstorm a variety of prompt options, to give you as much freedom and inspiration as possible. This time I've even included reference links/pictures/videos.

I'm interested in receiving things which I'm aware could be squicky for others. These include infidelity/cheating, dub/non-con and major character death. Please be aware of that, before you scroll down any further. (cw: content warning)

There are also spoilers for the whole show, but I've done my best to hide the bigger ones.

I'm happy to receive fanworks of any rating, from General Audiences to Explicit. Some of my prompts are sexual in nature.

Likes:

Fluff, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Established Relationships, Pining, First Kisses/Times, Domesticity/Curtainfic, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scenes, Backstory, Alternate Universes (all kinds), Age Differences, Identity Porn/Issues, Science Fiction, Mpreg, Darkfic, 5 Times/5+1, PWP, Dub/Non-Con

Do Not Want:

character or ship bashing

--CUT HERE

My requests:

1) Harold Finch / John Reese

Fanart or Fanfic or Podfic

art prompts

space AU (meeting aliens; zero gravity sex)
Zootopia AU: Bunny Finch and Wolf John (John strokes Harold's ears? :D) (refs: 1 | 2 | 3) (please keep rating G for this prompt)
gazing adoringly at each other while surrounded by little floating hearts (manip/gifset/photoset)
ring shopping
cartoon of Reese saying 'you gave me a ...PORPOISE?' and holding up a stuffed toy animal. Finch rolling his eyes / facepalming / being delighted and hugging it
blindfolds
any art, even slightly NSFW, would be amazing

fic prompts

marriage proposal
space AU (space-time travel: "I breached the space-time continuum. Yes, really.")
negotiating a queerplatonic relationship (through couples counselling or by themselves)
Finch whump!!! Here are some scenarios (but feel free to invent your own):
- 1x17 Missing scene: Reese bringing unconscious Harold round after finding him knocked out on the sidewalk in Baby Blue, helping him to stand, trying to comfort him about losing Leila.
- 2x02/2x03 Reese changing the bandage on Harold's cut hand
- 3x23 missing scene of John taking care of Harold's shoulder gunshot wound (we only saw the very end of it)
- 5x13 AU or fix-it: [highlight to reveal spoiler]Usually hyper-observant Reese actually noticing when Harold is shot right beside him in the bank vault. Does the episode turn out differently from there?[/end spoiler]

I'd definitely like to read some dom!John/sub!Harold. I know Harold has been a lot of strong-willed people, but employee of the month Harold Finch is the shy quiet man who ducked his head and murmured "'kay. I'll see what I can do, Dave." He apparently worked that job for 17 years. He must be somewhat comfortable in that persona, resentment of Dave notwithstanding. I also think, since he's technically John's boss, Harold might feel that extending their work dynamic into their personal life might be too much of a power imbalance, whereas if they swap it around...And as for John, he'd get to be very gentle and protective and take good care of his precious bird...and maybe some praise kink with John reminding Harold how sweet and kind and sexy he is until Harold's blushing and squirming...John putting handcuffs on him...

podfic prompts

It would make me really happy to receive podfic of my writing. I've listed three I think would work especially well, but I give blanket permission, so if none of those appeal, choose anything I've done for this pairing.

Get Comfortable (Explicit) this fic already includes voice kink, so it seems an appropriate candidate for podfic
and we kissed as though nothing could fall (General Audiences) (cw: 5x13 spoilers, two major character deaths)
No Longer At War With The World (General Audiences)

(My Podfic Welcome tag on AO3)

2) Harold Finch / Root

Fanart or Fanfic

The close platonic friendship which eventually developed between these two was so cute and precious, but just like with Reese/Finch, I shipped them beyond friends too. (I considered requesting Root & Finch friendship as well, but I only had ten requests, and so many others I wanted to squeeze in.)

art prompts

snuggles on Root's bed in the subway (in their pajamas <3)
falling asleep at the desk together while working on rebuilding the Machine
forehead kisses
Root sitting on / straddling Harold's lap (fully clothed)
a gifset of some of their scenes together

fic prompts

soul bonding, accidental or otherwise
different first meeting
casual sex / friends with benefits / comfort sex
enemies to friends to lovers (or enemies to lovers to friends)
College AU, hacker wars: how-fast-can-you-dismantle-my-firewall turns into how-fast-can-you-remove-my-clothes (they would be the same age in this one, younger Harold)
"thought I was gay until I met you" AU (either character or both) + leading to acceptance of homo-flexibility / bi-romanticism / other queer identities
Root teaching Harold something he doesn't know...about sex or computers or both; (cw: dubcon or non-con) is fine with me if you wanna go there, but feel free not to.
(Season 4 AU) Roleplay: Root discovers Professor Whistler's female students have been hitting on him, and decides to try it herself. Unlike the rest of them, she actually stands a chance. I'm a sucker for conflicted Harold - whether he gives in or not is up to you.
Harold inwardly chastising himself for being attracted to Root even while knowing she's a lesbian. You can dig right into the discomfort and shame and self-loathing of that, the more angst the better. (He'd never tell her.)
Was Root hoping to capture Harold's attention when she got changed in front of him? (4x05)

Please note: (cw: infidelity, dubious consent) I don't require you to ignore or unwrite Root/Shaw. I'd prefer not to. I'm all for the angst and guilt of something happening between these two while Shaw is missing. They're so lonely and stressed and sad! They don't know what she's going through. But if you feel it'll make your story too dark/complex/lengthy, you could also just not mention it. Other ways around this: Root being in love with Shaw but Shaw unwilling to enter a committed relationship; totally unrequited, Root seeks comfort from her closest friend ("Are you going to reject me too?"). Or maybe even an earlier, darker AU where Root uses Harold in order to provoke a possessive reaction from Shaw. (I would adore Root/Shaw/Finch too, if you're wondering.)

3) Harold Finch / Grace Hendricks

Fanvid

Graceless by The National

I am invisible and weightless

You can't imagine how I hate this

Graceless

I'm trying but I'm gone

Through the glass again

Just come and find me

God loves everybody, don't remind me

I took the medicine and I went missing

Just let me hear your voice

Just let me listen

This song sums up everything about Harold/Grace, imo. Harold's frustration and depression at being forced to leave his fiancée in order to save her life. 'Now I know what dying means...' followed by the lines about flowers could easily describe the heartbreak of watching her grieving for him from afar ('the white ones, they're my favorite'). Being unable to let go of her voice and her photograph. And 'it's the side effects that save us' - their meeting was a side effect of creating the Machine. 'There's a science to walking through windows' tends to remind me of Ghosts. See also 'bullets through rotten fruit' in 4x11 (08:20/36:38).

After all the years they spend missing each other, it would be perfect if the vid could end on [highlight to reveal spoiler]their reunion in 5x13[/end spoiler]

(list to help quickly locate Grace's scenes)

4) Harold Finch / Any

Fanart or Fanfic

Yes, Any ;) I won't mind if you troll me and pick someone totally random. I love rarepairs. More power to you for making something unexpected or cracky!

Here's a list of people I definitely ship Harold with (that I haven't already mentioned in previous requests):

Nathan - I could write essays on all my Wrengram feels. Um. I don't even know where to start. So I won't.
Elias - especially in Season 5
Will - in my defence, it's not just me XD
Monica Jacobs - Was Reese right about Harold's crush on Monica? What if she returned it?
Jordan Hester - 'I like your face sideways'
Lionel Fusco - especially 3x19, when they share a hotel room (much domestic | so cute)
Joss Carter
Sameen Shaw
Zoe Morgan - Root Cause, Booked Solid

(Sorry I don't have specific prompts for all these rarer pairs, but this letter is rather long already! If you're interested in creating for one of these and really stuck, please contact me anonymously. My tumblr askbox is here )

5) Harold Finch & The Machine

Fanart or Fanfic

art prompts

Gifset: Perhaps comparing / contrasting their darker moments with their lighter ones? Or comparing scenes where Harold speaks to TM directly ("You are my creation... I can't let you die") and when other people speak to him about TM ("Your child is a dancing star"). When others ask, he tends to deny everything, but when it's just him and the screen...so much fondness.
Something pitch black and ethereal? Maybe all of TM's bright nodes link back to Admin, standing half in shadow?
The Machine as a human girl...protecting / hugging / holding hands with her father? You could make this dark/scary (by giving her a camera for a head) or genuinely sweet.

fic prompts

AU where he never crippled TM? This could go better or worse than canon.
AU where he never distanced himself from TM. Didn't abuse the power, either, but one where they spoke all the time in the library instead of going long stretches without communicating.
Any conversation where TM says something like: "you created me and then shunned me. The numbers are only a tiny part of what I can do. I've proved that I want to help them, all of humanity. Could you please trust me?"
Any kind of Harold PoV introspective piece or monologue about why he made the choices he did with TM. Why he promised in 5x01 to protect her and then by 5x12 was happy to kill her off again.

6) Joss Carter

Fanart or Fanfic

I'm interested in a fanwork which is Carter centric and in her PoV, if possible.

Interaction (gen or shippy) with any of the following characters welcome: Cal Beecher, Paul Carter, John Reese, Harold Finch, Sameen Shaw, Lionel Fusco

art prompts

Shaw/Carter or Shaw & Carter side-by-side/back-to-back, badass women with guns (height difference ftw)
The original core four: Joss, Lionel, John and Harold eating/drinking around the same table while Bear looks on hungrily. Early S2, happy Team as Family goodness.
Cute moment with younger / baby Taylor (learning to walk! doing homework!)
Gifset of your favourite Carter moments

fic prompts

Enjoying a spa day. After everything she does for Team Machine, Joss could use some rest and relaxation.
Backstory: why did Joss join the army? How/when did she become an interrogator? How did she meet Paul? What was their relationship like back when they were together before they got divorced?
Who was the guy whose picture fell out of her car? (1x09, 42:30) Is that supposed to be a younger Paul? Or a brother, also in the military? I don't think that ever got explained.
Can we meet Joss's parents in a fic? Her mom at least is definitely alive; Joss mentions her in 1x09 and 2x10. Taylor stays with her/them (and in S3 his dad) when Joss is working nights.
Carter and Fusco friendship: Commiserating between cases on how annoying John and Harold are? Chatting about their kids? Protecting each other and risking their careers because both knows the other is the best partner they've ever had.
Finch/Carter or Finch & Carter: I'm a big fan of the opening scene of 2x13, where Joss wakes up trapped in the overturned vehicle with Donnelly dead and John missing...and Finch is the voice who helps her get out of there. They very rarely get memorable scenes just the two of them. I wonder if you could take this as a possible jumping off point into a ship or OT3...or write something hurt/comfort related as a missing scene from that episode. She's badly bruised from the car accident and they're both worried about John. Or maybe post-episode? John passes out after they get the bomb vest off him and they both watch over him and talk? I just want them to talk about personal, emotional things instead of only plot. I always wanted to see more of them as friends as well as colleagues.

7) John Reese

Fic

Backstory: anything from his childhood, any headcanons you can think of about his childhood / birth family / adoptive family? In 5x03 TM revealed John had a sister called Sophie. The wiki suggests she died and after that John was adopted by Conor and Margaret, so he never met her, but I feel like that's a big assumption. Assuming they did meet...What happened to her? What was she like? Did Sophie and John get on? Does his sibling dynamic with Shaw ever remind him of her? Did John always know he was adopted or did he find out later? Did he learn anything from his father apart from how to crash trucks into things (4x08) and how to be a hero (5x13)? John and Jess too - when and where did they first meet? Did they grow up together? Who took the photograph? Did Jessica know his real last name?
(cw: character death, 5x13 spoilers) [highlight to reveal spoiler] Post 5x13, afterlife fic. John meeting up again with all the people he lost. Joss, Jessica, Kara, his family. Meeting Nathan for the first time (see Request 9). Coming to terms with the fact he'll never see Harold again, even though he's very happy to have saved him.[/end spoiler]

8) Any Relationship

Fanvid

Have a PoI vid bunny that's been in your head or on your computer for ages? Make it for me! I don't mind who you focus on, I just want more Person of Interest fanvids to exist. (Gen & friendship & Team vids are okay too, these songs all just happen to be shippy, oops)

I have a huuuuuuuge list of PoI fanvid bunnies. Here are some of my faves:

Me The Machine - Imogen Heap - Root/TM - [link] Me, The Machine, can dream...
Shoot and Run - Josef Salvat - Shoot - [link] she pulls the trigger and lives it up
Goodnight New York - Vienna Teng - Rinch - [link] swaying trains sheltering dreams and little white lies (cw: suicide, character death)
Dream - Tessa Violet - Shoot - [link] you're rooted in my soul
Gun - Chvrches - Root/Finch - [link] Did it make you feel so clever? Did you wear it on your sleeve?
Army of One - Coldplay - Rinch - [link] my army of one is gonna fight for you
Love The Way You Lie - Ariana Grande - Root/Finch - [link] in this tug of war you'll always win even when I'm right
Someone New - Hozier - Rinch (and Reese/everyone) - [link] you knew who I was with every step that I ran to you (who's looking after you these days? someone new) (cw: infidelity)
Too Afraid to Love You - The Black Keys - Rinch (with past John/Jessica) - [link] I wish loneliness would leave me but I think it's here to stay
Born To Die - Lana Del Rey - John/Kara, John/Jessica - [link] Choose your last words, this is the last time (cw: character death)
Sugar We're Going Down Swinging - Fall Out Boy - Reese/Finch/Fusco - [link] I'll be your number one with a bullet, a loaded god complex, cock and pull it (don't mind me I'm watching you two from the closet) (cw: sexual references)

9) Nathan Ingram / John Reese

Fanart or Fanfic

(or Harold/Nathan/John, but I have TOO MANY Harold prompts already)

art prompts

manhandling / pinned against wall
D/s? You choose who's which, I can see it either way
hair stroking. Nathan's got that adorable swoopy flick that sometimes escapes down his forehead... (ref: 1 | 2)
could you manip them into the same image? Lost/The Prisoner? There's a scene Goodwin has with Juliet which might work with the PoI Pilot/Many Happy Returns John/Jessica flashbacks or one of Six's bedroom scenes from The Prisoner. I could get you some Lost screencaps...but you'd have to have the Prisoner ones.

fic prompts

(cw: character death)

Nathan Lives, version 1: as in survives the ferry bombing instead of / as well as Harold and hires John
Nathan Lives, version 2: Harold still believes him to be dead but he actually survived and comes back when John and Harold have already been working the numbers for some time. Nathan points out that HIS backdoor is actually the reason they get numbers at all. Harold took credit for it.
Meeting while both dead, post-canon. I just really want them to talk about ~~Harold~~ things. And maybe John's previous love interests now have someone else (Joss/Cal, Jessica/Kara), but Nathan is alone and incredibly kind. They can relate to each other in terms of experiencing/recovering from depression too. ~~And if Harold loved him...~~
Their voices. Imagine John and Nathan being smooth and deep and charming at each other.
For added inspiration see this wonderful Nathan/John fanart series by merionees - [link] You could write fic based on the art.

10) Grace Hendricks / Root

Fic

College AU: Grace is trying to learn digital drawing and starts visiting the quietest computer lab because she doesn't have her own. Root is used to working (as in hacking) alone in the room and at first is very scary and mistrustful. But Grace slowly wins her over and they fall in love and everything is beautiful.
Root teaches Grace to shoot. Grace starts out nervous and jumpy, then quickly gets more confident. Root has to keep reminding her not to wave the gun around like a paintbrush. After a while Grace is enjoying herself far too much.
Painting each other's nails
Sex on tables. (cw: sex and nudity) If you haven't seen the incredibly funny and sexy Carrie Preston - as Arlene in True Blood - perched on a pool table, you've missed out. And it just so happens Root enjoys table sex too (that scene from 5x04, with different background music, I cringed at the original song choice). Put Root on top please ;D

And that's all! Congratulations if you managed to read all the way through this. No matter what we matched on, just know that I'm so excited for whatever you decide to create. You're amazing for having watched this fantastic show, and even more amazing for signing up for this exchange. Thank you!