beatrice_otter | Recent Entries

LiveJournal has been owned by Russians for some years now, and they just announced some changes on the Russian side of the service that are not announced on the English-language side: https://ru-news.livejournal.com/80899.html

Basically, they're going to be cutting off contact between Russian language users in Russia and Russian language users who are outside of Russia, and between English-language users and Russian-language users. Plus some other miscellaneous stuff.

denise has a thread on Bluesky where she analyzes why she thinks they're doing this. There's a good chance they're planning on either shutting down or selling the English-language version of the site.

If there is anything on LJ that you like that is not backed up somewhere else, now might be a good time to fix that. If it's your content, there are several ways to download it (linked in the thread above), including exporting it to Dreamwidth. If it's not your content, you can still ask the Internet Archive to save a copy of the page.

Getting my recs in before the wire!

I received not one but three lovely fics, all of which really captured the spirit of their respective canons:

( Created For Me )
Other stories I enjoyed:
( Yulerecs )

( Yuletide Madness Recs )

Now that

crossworks authors have been revealed, I can share what I wrote! I wrote a Miss Fisher/Lord Peter crossover!

My first thought was of course that I should do some sort of casefic, but couldn't come up with a case. My second thought was to have Phryne and Mary meet up during the war--Phrynne drove ambulances, Mary was a nurse--but then I realized that that would make major changes to Mary's life, because I could not picture Mary crossing paths with Phryne in any noteworthy way and then living the same aimless post-war life Mary did. I certainly couldn't see her getting involved with either Goyles or Cathcart. And that would be very interesting, but a much longer story than I had the capacity to write. So instead, I had Phryne meet Peter during the war.

Title: the wings of our frail souls
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandoms: Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (TV)/Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Written for: sinkauli in

crossworks 2025
Betaed by: Lirelyn
Author's note: Canon has Phryne serving in a French women's ambulance unit during the war. I have changed this to the FANY, the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, which was a British women's volunteer group, because their general approach to the First World War was very similar to Phryne's approach to life in general. The British Army didn't want them, so they went over anyway and convinced the Belgians and the French to let them drive. They seem to have a long tradition of doing whatever the hell they thought needed doing and ignoring or steamrolling men who got in their way.

At AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Pillowfort. On tumblr.

***

It was not, Phryne thought as she steered Josephine through the French countryside, that you could precisely call her job boring. There was a war on, and she was much nearer the front than she told her parents in her infrequent letters home. She was driving an ambulance between the French triage unit and the hospital, avoiding potholes as best she could. The men in the back of her bus moaned or swore at each one she hit. It was important work, one part in the chain that saved as many men as possible from the jaws of death. It was good work, and more meaningful than she'd thought it would be when she'd signed up for the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, desperate for anything that would get her out of London.

It was only that she'd driven this route so often she could do it in her sleep. The only change was the appearance of more potholes and ruts.

Josephine's engine—which had been running roughly—died with a horrible sound.

Phryne swore, fluently and filthily, in French, and popped out to open up Josephine's hood. "Shouldn't have even dared think it was boring." A short bit of poking around confirmed her fears.

( Another FANY ambulance pulled up next to hers—Gertie, by the sound of it. )

Now that

rarepairexchange authors have been revealed, I can tell you what I wrote! A Riker/Ro fic!

And this was not my first fic for this exchange. I got about halfway into a fic that I really liked, set during the Dominion War, just after the destruction of Enterprise. Riker and Ro were both on separate missions for Starfleet and the Maquis, and chanced to meet in a bar on some station somewhere. The problem was, that this is not an exchange that allows for genfics, and while I could have a really interesting conversation between the two, I couldn't figure out how to get them together in a way that I found satisfactory and realistic. I thought I could! but it didn't work out. So I stopped and did this instead. Throughout the process,

sixbeforelunch was extremely helpful.

Title: Extra Time
Author: Beatrice_otter
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Characters: Ro Laren/Will Riker
Written for: Eratoschild in Rare Pair Exchange 2025
AN: Thank you to

sixbeforelunch for brainstorming help and betaing.

On AO3. On Ad Astra. On Squidgeworld. At Pillowfort. On Tumblr.

"I wish I could give you better news, Will," Captain Picard said over the shuttle's comm system.

Will rubbed his forehead. "It's about what I expected, sir." The business of Enterprise's schedule and the shortage of other Starfleet vessels in the area to handle routine matters was why he and Ro had been dispatched in the shuttle Cousteau to handle this mission in the first place.

The anthropologists studying Lichiri V had wrapped up their mission and been extracted months ago. They'd returned to their university only to find that they had not double-checked their packing lists and had left a few small bits of equipment behind. Nothing big or hard to replace, but Lichiri V was currently in the middle of a (very slow) industrial and technological revolution, and nobody wanted to take the risk that some bright Lichirian would find the damn things and figure out enough about them to do damage. Enterprise was the only ship in the area, and she was busy with some tense diplomatic negotiations, and would be for a while.

Fortunately or not, Lichiri V was just at the edge of reasonable shuttle travel from the two systems Enterprise was currently stuck hovering between. Ro needed supervised piloting hours to get her small craft certification back. And, despite Will trying to find a better answer, he was the officer Enterprise could currently spare with the least disruption. And his own dislike of the ensign was not sufficient reason to disrupt other ship operations more than necessary.

So, Will and Ro had been dispatched to go pick up the equipment in the Cousteau. Four days in a cramped shuttle, a day or two in the Lichiri system to pick up the equipment and restock the shuttle with basics like water, oxygen, and hydrogen, and four days back.

If a freak ion storm hadn't blown up when they were already mid-takeoff, they'd already be on their way out of the system. Instead, the Cousteau had been damaged, they'd had to land again, and they'd be stuck here until Enterprise could swing by and pick them up. Which at the rate negotiations were going could take weeks, if not longer.

( Read more... )

For the

rarepairexchange I received a lovely Still Star-Crossed fic (that had good worldbuilding, good characterization, and excellent research backing it up):

you and you are heart in heart (2,289 words). Even now, two months after Paris’ defeat outside the walls of Verona, unrest still fermented. The peace treaty which had once hinged on Benvolio’s execution now hinged on Benvolio and Rosaline’s wedding.

And there was a lot of other good fic that you should check out. Here are some I liked:

Taking Chances Together (1254 words)
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Spock/Nyota Uhura
Additional Tags: post s2e1 Amok Time, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence
Summary:

A musical collaboration turns into more...

In Splendid Sunshine Dressed (1868 words
Fandom: Casablanca (1942)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Rick Blaine, Victor Laszlo (Casablanca), Ilsa Lund
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Getting Together
Summary:

Rick is invited back into Ilsa's life... but what about her husband?

Here's to We (1233 words)
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lorraine Anderson/Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan
Additional Tags: Slice of Life, Friends to Lovers, Character Study, Epistolary, Margaret Backstory Typical Implied/Referenced Sexual Harassment, Episode Tag: s06e21 Temporary Duty, Episode Tag: s07e19 Hot Lips is Back In Town, 12x100
Summary:

Snapshots of Margaret and Lorraine's relationship from 1932-1952: growing up, growing apart, and finding their way back.

I Prayed For You (2445 words)
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: B. J. Hunnicutt/Father Francis Mulcahy
Additional Tags: Developing Relationship
Summary:

Francis gave something away in hopes of comfort. BJ held that comfort close, even in the late hours.

Or Father Mulchay's trip takes a bit longer than predicted, long enough for some reflection on something developing. (For the 2025 RarePair Exchange!)

How the Halcyon Song Lingers (1348 words)
Fandom: Little Women (2019 Movie - Gerwig)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Theodore "Laurie" Laurence/Amy March
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Parenthood, Married Life, Fall Vibes, Domestic Fluff
Summary:

A glimpse of family life with the Laurences, as Amy and Laurie go for an autumn stroll with little Bess.

Heart's Got Everything to Do With It (6700 words)
Fandom: Tin Man (US TV 2007)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Wyatt Cain/DG
Characters: DG (Tin Man), Wyatt Cain, Azkadellia (Tin Man), Jeb Cain
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, First Kiss, Queen DG
Summary:

It was like the Quest had never ended at all; DG had just run out of signposts to follow. Well, except maybe one....

Heart Murmur (2856 words)
Fandom: MASH (TV)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan/Benjamin Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Reunions, Cunnilingus, Hawkeye Pierce's canonical ED
Summary:

The woman who took the stage was a brunette, fading peroxide-blonde tips neatly tucked into a bun and graying at the temples. She looked better in a pantsuit than she ever had in fatigues, and she’d looked damn good in fatigues. Someone in the crowd wolf-whistled. She tapped her note cards to the podium with a glare that could jump start spontaneous combustion.

Margaret looked the same as ever, even brunette—like she was fully prepared to crush a man into dust for seeing her as less than she was.

The Broadwood Grand (4827 words)
Fandom: Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Colonel Brandon/Marianne Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)
Additional Tags: Tags Contain Spoilers, Romance, Fluff, Marriage Proposal, Friendship/Love, Romantic Friendship, Love Confessions, Falling In Love, Piano, Family Fluff, POV Third Person Limited, Requited Love, Requited Unrequited Love, Present Tense, Regency Romance, Inspired by Jane Austen, Inspired by Music, Happy Ending, Extended Scene, Canon Compliant
Summary:

Marianne Dashwood’s heart is an ocean, deep and vast and rich with life. He has seen it shimmer with the sunlight of affection, roil with the storms of heartbreak, and reel into the calmness of acceptance; but the breeze will blow when it chooses to blow, and Brandon—ever ready with his sails—would wait forever for good winds.

One Kiss is All it Takes (1470 words)
Fandom: Star Wars Original Trilogy
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lando Calrissian/Luke Skywalker
Additional Tags: Getting Together, First Kiss, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Post-Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Luke Skywalker Needs A Hug
Summary:

After what happened on Bespin, Lando visits Luke in the infirmary.

All the cool kids are doing it, so I guess I will too:

How many letters of the alphabet have you used for starting a fic title? One fic per line, ‘A’ and 'The’ do not count for 'a’ and ’t’. Post your score out of 26 at the end, along with your total fic count.

A. Anatomy of a Secret--Jadzia Dax in the Reboot universe.
B. the bells are going to chime--My Fair Lady, Eliza/Colonel Pickering post-movie
C. Currency--Star Wars/Babylon 5, Han and Chewie take a job carrying cargo to a place so far out in Wild Space they've never even heard of the Empire. Or the Jedi.
D. The Desert Between--Reboot, Spock/Uhura, and vulcan worldbuilding
E. Essential To Your Own--TNG, Data/Geordi
F. Family Matters (The Things Inside Remix)--BSG, Dee is on Pegasus, finding her place. A Six is on New Caprica, learning what she doesn't know. Lee Adama is a Cylon prisoner, but this is not his story. A New Caprica AU.
G. The Genetics Factory--Criminal Minds/Stargate, In Detroit, homeless addicts are turning up dead. But there's more to the case than meets the eye, and the BAU finds themselves looking for something they don't understand. For Derek, it gets personal.
H. The Heart's Desire--Rivers of London, Abigail has earned her right to become a practitioner of magic. Now, the training begins.
I. Interview with the Robot--Fandom for Robots
J. Just Like Old Times--Stargate SG-1, Teal'c and Daniel, on an adventure.
K. Kitty and Georgy (The Healing Old Hurts Remix)--Pride and Prejudice, Kitty is often ill, but she is determined to live her best life anyway.
L. Little Ship Lost--TNG, On a routine mission, a wormhole opens up near Enterprise, and a ship pops out. It's challenging to rescue people who don't trust you.
M. Matters of Perspective--TNG, Picard and Guinan post Time's Arrow
N. Not Place, But People--Enterprise, The older Enterprise wasn't destroyed after all. When it limps back to Earth, Trip finds Lorian and invites him home to meet the family.
O. The Offer--Vorkosiverse, An AU where Aral didn't survive Mad Yuri's Massacre, but his sister did.
P. Pale Battalions--SG-1, Teal'c goes home after a glorious battle in Apophis' name.
Q.
R. Revenge of the Zillo Beast--Star Wars, Mace and Anakin have killed the Zillo Beast every way they can think of in different time loops. Maybe killing the Beast won't solve the problem?
S. Schoolwork--DS9, Jake misses his dad, now he's with the Prophets, but he still has his friends, his family, and his career.
T. Third Chance--Star Trek, AU, This isn't the first time Ro has had to start her life over, nor the first time she's had to deal with people who don't like or trust her.
U. Undiscovered Stars--Star Wars/Star Trek, Just how far out in the Unknown Regions was he, Lando wondered, that they didn't use hyperdrives?
V. Vast Beyond Knowing (The Details Remix)--Star Wars. Anakin, Luke, Rey. The desert taught them much. But not everything.
W. Wachet Auf--Rivers of London, In 1940, Nightingale has to catch a Nazi spy armed with a magical device. In 2016, Nightingale and others fall into a magical coma, and Peter Grant must figure out why it happened and how to end it.
X. X is for Xenophobia--SG-1, Little Jake Carter knew all about people who Weren't Like Us.
Y.
Z.

22/26, not bad. Interesting that I have X but not Y; from looking at other peoples' lists, it's usually the other way around. (If I'd done more Stargate Alphabet Soups, I might have filled in the missing letters.) I have, by the way, written 264 fics in approximately 110 fandoms over the course of almost 20 years. (Some fandoms are squishy, and it depends how you count them.)

I was re-reading some old MCU fic, and in the fic Steve says that Bucky was named for President Buchanan. Which Doylistically he was, but ... there's no reason he has to be from an in-universe perspective.

"James" was an incredibly common first name. The Social Security Administration publishes lists of how popular various names have been over the years; in the 1910s, when James and Steve were born, "James" was the third most popular name for boys. 275,000 baby boys were named "James" in that decade, which, given the size of the population, means that there were a lot of James' everywhere. Very common name.

Ah, but what of Buchanan, you say! Surely there could be no reason to give someone the middle name "Buchanan" if it's not naming him after someone famous! ... and no, actually. While people sometimes were named after famous people or political leaders (just like today), there's actually a more common reason to do it. It was a fairly common thing in the 19th Century for people to have a "last" name as a middle name, often their mother's maiden name, and people still do that today sometimes. Steve's middle name is "Grant", for example; "Grant" was a relatively common surname but (at the time) extremely uncommon as a first name. Steve was almost certainly given the middle name "Grant" to honor someone whose last name was Grant; it was probably his mother's maiden name. Buchanan is a relatively common Scottish name; it's not one of the top ten or anything, but the Buchanan clan is one of respectable size and power. In the same way, there is a very good chance that James was given the middle name "Buchanan" to honor someone whose last name was "Buchanan," quite probably his mother. And for a first name they gave him the third most common name for boys, and maybe didn't realize that there was a President by that name. Especially if they were immigrants, or weren't very well educated. (A lot of people in that generation had only a grade school education, or maybe a middle school education; only 10% of all 14-17 year olds attended high school in the US in 1900; there were still states where even elementary school wasn't required until 1918!) James Buchanan is not one of the Presidents that people talk about much outside history classes, and even then, a lot of history classes don't go into a lot of detail on him besides "last President before the Civil War." Yes, he was a bad President and one of the reasons the US Civil War became inevitable, but there were a lot of factors that were a lot more important.

I think "we liked the name James, and we wanted to honor his mother's family by giving him their last name as a middle name" is a far more likely scenario than consciously deciding to name their kid after President James Buchanan.

On a completely different note, if you want to write an AU where Bucky escaped Hydra early and made a new life for himself ... there's a late-20th-Century composer named James Barnes. He wrote concert band music. Here are some of his pieces: Symphonic Overture, Symphony No. 2, Third Symphony ("The Tragic"), Fantasy Variations on a Theme by Nicolo Paganini, Alvamar Overture.

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for a long time and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

Other things to keep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general. I don't care for explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot). I love it when friendship is held up as important and not secondary to romantic relationships and blood ties.

Please no incest or darkfic. I define "darkfic" as stuff where there's a lot of suffering and no hope even at the end and all the characters are terrible. Angst with a happy ending is fine, I enjoy it, but there's gotta be a payoff. Even an ambiguous ending is fine! But there has to be some note of grace or redemption or hope somewhere, it can't just be "people are awful and the world sucks, the end." I define incest as siblings and/or parents, cousins don't count.

I love outsider perspectives and academic takes on things. In-universe meta (newspaper articles, academic monographs--especially with the sort of snarky feuding common in actual real-world academia, social media feeds in current day or future worlds) is awesome.

Also, I'm picky about European historical clothing details. You don't have to talk about it at all! In fact, if you don't know much about historical clothing, I would prefer if you didn't mention it at all. My pet peeve is corsets: no, they weren't a restrictive tool of the patriarchy, no, they didn't interfere with most women's daily lives, no, most women weren't wearing them so tight they couldn't breathe.

I like religion but I'm picky about it. Basically, Christianity is deeply weird compared to most other religions, and a lot of people whose only experience with religion is living in a culturally-Christian nation assume that what they know about Christianity is some sort of universal principle of What Religion Is Like, and that's just not the case. For example, in Christianity what you believe is more important than what you do. This is not to say we Christians don't teach and practice Christian ethics or have rituals we are very attached to, but rather that if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, it doesn't matter what rituals you participate in or what ethical things you do, you are not a Christian (although you may be a "cultural Christian"). Every Christian group has at least a minimal core theology that members must affirm, but participation in ritual is far less rigidly a requirement. Most other religions rank what you do (both ethically and ritually) as more important than what you believe, and it is often quite possible to be a member in good standing if you participate in the practices and rituals even if you believe none of the teachings. Anyway, point is, if you are doing worldbuilding for a fantasy or SF or otherwise non-Christian religion ... unless it is explicitly a Christian-analogue, it should be different from Christianity. Question your assumptions and see where that leads you, and I will be fascinated and thrilled.

Yuletide Challenges
I am opening this up to the following challenges: Wrapping Paper, Chromatic Yuletide, Transtide, Queering the Tide, Two For One, Three Turtledoves, and Yulebuilding. With Two For One and Yulebuilding, feel free to expand beyond what I've suggested here. I am always up for worldbuilding, and for crossovers with fandoms I've written or requested before.

( Fandom for Robots )

( Peter Wimsey )

( Rivers of London )

( Moana )

( Bruce Springsteen RPF )

( Caprica )

( Sense8 )

( Oh My General )
.

Back in the day, there were a lot of different fanfic archives. And then AO3 came along, and everyone moved there. And there's a lot to be said for having a central multifandom archive! I love AO3! But there's also something to be said for communities having their own space.

The OTW has always said they their code is open source and they want people to use it to make their own archives, but it is ... not very user-friendly, shall we say. But now there are several people who have gotten their own instance of the OTW-A code up and running for their own archives.

And now there is another! There is now a femslash-focused archive called Sunset! It was just created and is still very tiny, but if you are into femslash, either writing it or reading it, you might find it interesting. It is run by Agnes the Alien.

Sunset is a website established in 2025 dedicated to hosting femslash (F/F) fanworks. It holds pro-freedom of fiction, queer and trans inclusive, anti-racist and generally compassionate ideals. We're here to have fun and love women. Sunset is run by one person, Agnes the Alien, who dreamed this up in zher bedroom. Please be nice to zher!

...

THIS IS AN 18+ ARCHIVE.

I'd also like to shout out Squidgeworld, Superlove, Ad Astra, and Comic Fanfiction Authors Archive.

justmarriedexchange fics have revealed, and so I can tell you that I wrote a Trip/T'Pol fic! My recip,

lionessvalenti, had several suggestions for canon-divergent AUs, which happen to be one of my favorite types of story to write--pick a canon event, tweak it slightly, and see what happens from there. And also, I love Vulcans, and have Opinions on the way Star Trek: Enterprise handled them, and this fic gave me lots of opportunities to explore all of that. I really enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it!

Title: that I could call my very own
Author:

beatrice_otter
Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Pairing: Trip/T'Pol
Written for:

lionessvalenti in Just Married Exchange 2025
Word count: 14k
Summary:

T'Pol figures out something is wrong with her mother before leaving for Vulcan. She and Trip decide how to face the problem together.

"Maybe we're coming at this from the wrong angle," Trip said. "We're worried about what's happening on Vulcan with your mother, and trying to figure out the best way to handle that. But what if you looked at this long-term? What do you want your life to be like, a decade from now? Two decades from now? Then work backwards and figure out what we should be doing now to work towards that."

AN: This is a very minor worldbuilding note, but in English, there are gendered terms for "people who dedicate themselves to a religious life"—monk for men and nun for women. That is not the case for all languages; in Greek, "monachos" is used for both men and women. I'm going to assume that Vulcan doesn't have different words for different genders, but uses the same word for both.

sixbeforelunch provided a lot of excellent brainstorming and beta help, as is usual for my Star Trek fics.

***

"Ensign Sato, are there any remaining communications difficulties?"

The Human shook her head. "None that I'm aware of—I've got a lot of things coming through from Starfleet and the general Earth communications network, both stuff that's been waiting while we were out of range and congratulations for our triumphant return. Why?"

T'Pol debated. On the one hand, it was possible that neither her mother nor any other family member nor any former colleague had sent her a message while Enterprise was in the Expanse. Ensign Sato was very busy and had a great many tasks to perform before she could be debriefed by Starfleet and begin her well-deserved vacation. T'Pol had no desire to add to those tasks if there was nothing wrong. And it was certainly true that being out of contact had been a welcome reprieve; T'Pol was not in favor with the Vulcan High Command, nor with her family, and it had been a relief not to have to deal with anyone's disapproval.

( But she had always known that would be merely a temporary reprieve, unless she chose to abandon all claim to Vulcan entirely. )

On AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Ad Astra. On tumblr. On Pillowfort.

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

other things to keep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

( Fandom for Robots )

( Peter Wimsey )

( Rivers of London )

( DS9 )

( TOS )

( TNG )

( Oh, My General )

( Thrawn Trilogy )

( Goblin Emperor )

... the more often I notice little details that are wrong in movies and books.

Like, most recently, I watched a few minutes of Saving Private Ryan, which included the delivery of the telegram about most of her sons dying to Mrs. Ryan. She is doing dishes in the kitchen when she looks out the window and sees a car driving up. She is wearing an apron. She goes to the door to greet the Official Men who are coming.

Me: ... why isn't she taking off the apron, or replacing it with a clean one, or flipping it around?

I have heard stories from multiple women about their mothers working really hard to always have a perfectly pristine apron whenever unexpected company showed up, the 1930s version of "we can't let anybody know we live here!" So, for example, women who would wear their aprons inside out, so that they could flip it around whenever the doorbell rang, and know the pretty side would be perfectly clean. Or women who would take their aprons off and stuff them in a drawer when they saw a car drive up, and pretend they hadn't been working in the kitchen or scrubbing the floor or whatever. Or run to the kitchen and swap out their everyday apron for the fancy one with the ruffles and embroidery or whatnot. In every case, the idea was for the apron to look like a fashion statement, and not an actual functional garment.

But the thing is, no piece of fiction is ever going to be 100% perfect in its presentation of the past, no matter how much they try for accuracy; if for no other reason than that lots of the past simply gets forgotten about. Nobody can possibly know every detail about what life was like in an era before they were born, even if they've studied it extensively. (And the further back in time you go, the less stuff it is possible to know.) And even if you could be accurate, the accuracy might not fit with the story you're trying to tell; it might distract from an emotional moment, or it might signal something completely different to modern eyes, or it might just not register to modern people unless you took the time to stop and explain what's going on. All of which interfere with telling the story you're trying to tell.

So for me, it's a lot of "they're not wrong to do it that way, that I find it annoying is totally a ME issue and not an objective problem with the story.

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

other things to keeep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

( Fandom For Robots )

( Rivers of London )

( Goblin Emperor )

( DS9 )

( Star Wars Legends )

( Enola Holmes )

( Babylon 5 )

( Enterprise )

( TNG )

( Sense8 )

So my

rarepairexchange assignment did not show up in my email inbox! It did show up

Stolen from tumblr.

Each of these categories has literally hundreds of fic I could rec, so I am literally just … mentioning the one that comes up first in my head, not trying to decide which one is the best.

( A fic that lives in my brain rent-free )

( A fic that is not posted on AO3. )

( A fic that is less than 5,000 words )

( A fic that is over 50,000 words )

( A gen fic (no pairings) )

( A fic that does something cool with format or structure (epistolary, social media, 5 things, non-linear, etc.) )

( A fic that uses a trope you love. )

( Recommend a fic with an interesting premise/concept. )

( Recommend a fic from a book fandom )

( Recommend a fic that is more than 10 years old )

( Recommend a fic you think is a hidden gem/deserves more reads )

( Recommend a fic that formed or changed your opinion on something (characterization, backstory, relationship, etc.) )

( Recommend a fic you’ve re-read multiple times )

14. Recommend your favorite fic.

Aha. Ahahaha. Ahahahahaha. You expect me to narrow this down? Here are all my bookmarks on Pinboard and here are all my bookmarks on AO3. Have fun. (Everything is the same in those two places, except that Pinboard also has all the fic that isn’t on AO3 and AO3 only has the stuff that is on AO3.)

( Any fic of your choice )

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

other things to keeep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison

Arbelan Drazharan/Maru Sevraseched
I can see them having so much fun together when he visits. They're both old enough to know what they want and how to get it discreetly, they're both outside the normal court bullshit, and Arbelan's gone through enough trouble. Let her have some fun.

Chenelo Drazharan/Marquess Lanthevel (TGE)
I have no idea how this might come about, but the premise intrigues me. Did Chenelo survive relegation, and come back to court with Maia after Varenechibel's death, and go looking for allies to help her son's reign be stable? Is V'bel just 2% less a jerk and doesn't relegate her and Maia, but they're still persona non grata at court, and she and Lanthevel come to be friends and then have to dance around the edges of what they can safely do (because V'bel is looking for an excuse to divorce her)?

Chenelo Drazharan/Nemolis Drazhar (TGE)
V'bel already had several grown sons by the time the marriage with Chenelo was arranged; surely Maru would have wanted his grandson to be an emperor, instead of merely another younger son? The political maneuverings around this must have been really interesting, but also, the few glimpses we get of Nemolis is of a kind, thoughtful man who is a good husband and father. I don't care whether they fall in love or not, but I'd love to see the two of them working together and being partners in a difficult situation. Either when they're first married or later.

Eiru Berenar/Arbelan Drazharan (TGE)
Does Arbelan marry him instead of V'bel (and thus have a much nicer life)? Do they start up something when she comes back to court? Please no cheating—maybe his wife is marnis and they have an Understanding. I just want Arbelan to have good things.

Nemriän Drazhin/Maru Sevraseched (TGE)
So what are the POLITICS of this? Did the marriage with Chenelo not happen? Did it go better? Is Maru using this marriage to pressure V'bel into treating Chenelo and Maia better ("If you don't take better care of my daughter and grandson, I'll do the same or worse to Nemriän)? What were the pressures that were making it advantageous for the Ethuveraz and Barizhan to have closer ties? (Notably, Barizhan has a coast and the Ethuveraz doesn't, and their major river goes right through Barizhan to the sea. If Barizhan wants to cut off the Ethuveraz's trade, they have every capability of doing so.) Does Maru get a legitimate son and heir out of the marriage, or another daughter, and what happens then?

Shaleän Sevraseched/Shaleän Sevraseched's Wife (TGE)
Pirates! Have fun!

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers

I would love a casefic, but also, all of these are such interesting characters, I'd love to go deeper into their dynamics.

Charles Parker/Mary Wimsey (Peter Wimsey)
Everybody treats Mary like she's a child who doesn't know her own mind, but she is only five years younger than Peter. In Clouds of Witness, she is 28 years old. I deeply dislike Sayers' trope of women who take up the interests of the men they fall in love with; I want her to be a leftie out of her own conviction. (Is that the reason it takes her and Charles so long to get together? He's so staid and conservative; maybe it took a while to negotiate what their relationship was going to be like.) I want her to get the respect she is denied by the narrative, and I want Charles to have someone he can have reasoned intellectual disagreements with. (I love that he reads theology for fun.)

Charles Parker/Peter Wimsey (Peter Wimsey)
Is Charles really okay with Peter leaving him with all the footwork all the time? Is there ever a time when Peter is wrong and Charles is right? Peter went to a boys' school, and situational homosexuality is a thing, besides his general cosmopolitanness; does Charles have more problem with it than Peter does? They are both such deeply principled men, and they have the principles of their class and time; does "living in sin" bother them? The fact that they can't be open and honest about it?

Colonel Marchbanks/Mrs Marchbanks (Peter Wimsey)
The Marchbanks are so stodgy, but also very decent people. I would love to see more of them. Maybe something during the war, where they're both dealing with the fact that this is not like the wars he's served in in the past? Maybe a house party at Duke's Denver goes deeply wrong (in a non-murdery way)?

Freddy Arbuthnot/Rachel Levy (Peter Wimsey)
Freddy's brainpower is only concentrated in his one area, but in that area he's very good, and he seems to be a kind enough man … and one willing to move beyond his prejudices. I'd love their courtship from Rachel's point of view, or maybe something from later on after their marriage. I would be equally thrilled for something that expands these two characters but treads lightly on the antisemitism of the time as I would be for something that dives deep into it. (What do they do before WWII as conditions for Jews are worsening, especially in Europe?)

Mervyn Bunter/Harriet Vane/Peter Wimsey (Peter Wimsey)
I absolutely cannot buy that Peter and Harriet's relationship would go the same way if he was in a pre-existing relationship with Bunter. Bunter is not like his mistresses, which bring mutual pleasure and enjoyment but have little real depth of feeling and are largely separate from his day-to-day life; Peter depends on Bunter for his healing and sanity. There are "jokes" in canon about how Bunter is basically his wife. It is an extremely important relationship to Peter, and I can't see sex making that less important. So he would not immediately propose in a jail cell, because he's basically already married and there would have to be a lot of negotiation before things went forward with Harriet. (When he visits Sylvia and Eiluned is he sounding them out discreetly as to how okay she is with gay men and threesomes?) There are so many points along their courtship and relationship where things would have changed based on that. I'd love to see them explored. Or you could have P/B not be pre-existing, and something about Harriet changes the dynamic enough that they have a belated relationship and end up in a triad where Harriet is the pre-existing partner? Or maybe a true menage a trois?

Mervyn Bunter/Peter Wimsey (Peter Wimsey)
When do they get together? During the war? After it? How does it affect their cases, and their social circle? Who knows about it (Bunter's mother? The Dowager Duchess? Charles Parker?)? How do they navigate the issues of Peter's fluctuating mental health? How does it affect their cases?

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Star Wars Original Trilogy

My favorite parts of Star Wars includes the PT, the OT, the Zahn trilogy (especially Mara Jade) and the X-Wing books, bits and pieces from the TV shows, Rey&Finn&Poe as the only contributions from the ST, and an ending where something new and better results after all the pain and trauma. (Or at least something different.) It's not that everything has to be perfect, but I want there to be at least some growth and change. If you are inspired by other corners of the Star Wars universe, feel free to bring them in, but those are my happy places, and I am perfectly fine with completely ignoring the ST or rewriting it to make it either less stupid or less depressing (or both).

I love Lando, and I think he was absolutely right to put the safety of his entire city and everyone living in it ahead of the well-being of a couple of old friends. He is smart, pragmatic, and responsible in the best possible way. Do Leia and Lando work together on political negotiations/shenanigans while Han plays house-husband and swoops in with the Falcon when they need backup? Do Han and Lando go off and make shady business deals and come home to Leia with intelligence she can use politically? Does Lando start up a new operation--maybe mining, maybe something else--or take over an existing one after the war is over, and become a respectable businessman? I was one of the contributors to the "What if Han became Emperor by accident" thread on tumblr a while back, and my contribution was "ooh, Lando would be his Grand Vizier!" and if you want to go that direction that would also be awesome. (It's not on tumblr any longer, but the podfic and transcript of it are here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18219923) Also, Weird Jedi Shit is always fun.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, Kylo Ren

Crossover Fandom

Bertram "Bertie" Wooster (Jeeves and Wooster)/Harriet Vane (Peter Wimsey)
Look, Harriet Vane is far from the worst person he's ever gotten accidentally engaged to, but he still doesn't want to be married. For a fun twist on the usual J&W plot, what if there's some reason that she feels her honor is engaged? Being a sensible woman, I'd think Jeeves' approach this time might be to just … talk with her and explain the whole situation and find a way out of it that satisfies them both. And then shenanigans happen, and they go away with no hard feelings.

Donna Noble (Doctor Who)/Lando Calrissian (Star Wars)
I think Donna would be suspicious of Lando's charm, but also really enjoy him flirting with her, and they'd have a great time together (while the Doctor just wanders around confused in the background). Maybe she saves Cloud City through the power of temping and bureaucracy, maybe she helps him conning some people who really deserve it pre-Cloud City, maybe she helps him on a rebellion mission, maybe they meet on vacation.

Elinor Dashwood (Sense and Sensibility)/William Laurence (Temeraire)
Two people of deep reserve, intelligence, and honor—there are so many ways they could have an interesting relationship, and so many ways their respective book plots would complicate that. I'd love to see it.

Martha Jones (Doctor Who)/Peter Grant (Rivers of London)
Peter would love to meet an actual alien, and I think a case where he has to do with weirdness that's not magic related would be good for him. I think there would be a lot of mutual wariness and misunderstandings, because she's going to assume aliens and he's going to assume magic, and she would probably assume that his powers are, like psychic stuff or whatever.

Martha Jones (Doctor Who)/Stephen Franklin (B5)
Two doctors with both compassion and determination, willing to go to the limit to do the right thing and save people (and sometimes the world). You could do so many interesting things with that—fit Martha and the Doctor into a B5 typical plot, or maybe Martha gets stranded and starts working at the clinic in Downbelow to make ends meet while she waits for the Doctor to come pick her up.

Natasha Romanov (MCU)/Bruce Wayne (DCU)
Do they meet on a mission? Are they targeting the same person? Is Natasha sent in to find out who the Batman is? Does Bruce go looking for "what is SHIELD and what are they doing at that base in Gotham?" Does she moonlight as an actual supermodel for a while to build up one of her covers, and get invited to a party at Wayne Manor? Any incarnation of Bruce Wayne is fine with me.

Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)/Diana (Wonder Woman)
I am fine with any version of Diana. I would LOVE to see them on a case during/after WWII, or working together during Peggy Carter's days as director of SHIELD. I think they could bond over lost loves (and over a shared love of hitting bad people very hard). Secret identity shenanigans would also be interesting.

Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)/Henry "Indiana" Jones (Indiana Jones)
I don't like Temple of Doom, but Crystal Skull is ok. Given that HYDRA was going after mystical artifacts, you know they had to have crossed Indy, or maybe the SSR/SHIELD needed his expertise. Also, he canonically has a thing for competent brunettes, so.

Phryne Fisher (Miss Fisher)/Peggy Carter (Agent Carter)
Adventures! Is the Honorable Phryne Fisher also an agent of the SSR? Does one of Peggy's cases post-war take her to Australia?

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Babylon 5 (TV 1993)

Ah, the fandom of my youth! This was my first fandom that was mine, and not just something the family watched together. I love the layering of the themes, and how you can watch it on multiple levels (action/adventure, character arcs, political allegory, deeper themes about truth and freedom and who are you and what do you want and why are you here). The characters and their story arcs were all so compelling. One of the things I love about Babylon 5 is that there were so many characters where the fact that they were antagonists didn't mean they were stupid or bad people, just people with a different perspective honestly trying to do what is right.

Is there a problem on Babylon 5 that needs to get solved? Is there some Minbari cultural rite or Earthforce political intrigue? Is the PsiCorps making trouble? I'd also love something post-series about peace-building.

I especially love Minbari culture. If you do worldbuilding for Minbari culture, past, present, or future, I will love you forever. I consider "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" canon and firmly believe that when Sinclair went into the past and became Valen, he found Catherine again after she was lost in time.

Catherine Sakai/Jeffrey Sinclair (Babylon 5)
I love stories where Jeffrey/Valen meet up with her again in the past. But I would also be interested in stories about the two of them juggling their relationship and their respective careers, or the changes once he's assigned as ambassador to Minbar.

Delenn/John Sheridan/? (Babylon 5)
I love John and Delenn together, but she is way too smart for him and I like it best when he knows he's a bit out of his league and a bit uncomfortable at all the alien stuff (and yet maybe a bit excited by it under the surface). The political implications of their relationship, on both Earth and Minbar, fascinate me. Then you add in either Neroon or Lennier, and what happens? I don't think John would be terribly comfortable with it; three may be holy on Minbar, but John sure didn't like Lennier's love for Delenn. What if Neroon survived somehow and had to learn to be religious caste? How would Neroon and John get along as part of a marriage? What about John and Lennier?

Delenn/Neroon, Lennier/Neroon (Babylon 5)
Neroon survives AU! Or maybe something exploring his earlier career, or his relationship with Branmer, or the complexities and frustrations of his encounters with Delenn, or his time on the Gray Council. Delenn has dealings with Neroon, and Lennier is her go-between, and then Neroon has Opinions about Lennier's attempts at trying to subsume his romantic feelings into service and pretend he's just fine with John Sheridan, and things snowball from there.

Marcus Cole/Neroon (Babylon 5)
They only really interact in that one episode, but it is FASCINATING. Marcus changes Neroon's whole perspective; I don't think he could have done what he did, later, without it. Either something where Neroon survives or something where he doesn't could be interesting. Or maybe Neroon figures out how to save Marcus. This could be tragic or happy ending or something set earlier before either of them dies.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Sense8 (TV)

Hernando Fuentes/Lito Rodriguez/Daniela Velasquez (Sense8)
I love the worldbuilding and the characters, and what I most want is what happens NEXT. And I'm curious for both the immediate lives of the cluster (I love them all), but also for the larger world of sensate clusters. Do they start building their own culture, now that it's safer? What scars have been left by the corporate exploitation and murder? What continuing steps are needed to get rid of the lingering influence of BPO? Does the larger world ever learn about sensates, and what happens to the cluster then?

I love Sun's contradictions and complexity, I love Capheus's heart and courage, I love Lito's drama and sweetness, I love Nita and Nomi's trust and mutual devotion (and Amanita's quick thinking), I love the way Lito and Hernando's relationship grew and the way Daniela became a true partner for them and they have a relationship with her that's as important as a marriage but not romantic/sexual in the traditional sense. I love the way all of the cluster interacts and how together they are so much more than the sum of their parts, and I love watching all of them grow and become more truly themselves as they become entiwned in one another. (And I wonder what it would be like for clusters that weren't so well-suited, if that might be part of where Whispers came from.)

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Star Trek: TNG

I love alien culture worldbuilding, boldly going, exploring, wacky science hijinks, time travel, AU shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication).

As for plot ... it's Star Trek. If you want to play it serious, go for it. If you want to lean into wacky tropes, that's great too. As long as everyone is in character, feel free to go as cracktastic as you want with the time travel and travel to alternate universes and weird missions.

Guinan/Jean-Luc Picard (TNG)
Guinan is awesome, but please tone down the Magical Negro stereotype--she's not just The Wise Magic Advisor. She's got her own prejudices and traumas. I would love anything that dove into her past or her culture. Picard and Guinan have INCREDIBLE chemistry. Watch Time's Arrow and see the way he LOOKS AT HER. Something with time travel and meeting in the wrong order a la Time's Arrow would be interesting, but so would them hanging out together and being friends. Or an adventure from before they were together on Enterprise. I don't like most of the Picard TV show, but I do appreciate Picard and Guinan's stuff.

Jean-Luc Picard/Kamala (TNG)
Picard/Kamala, the "empathic metamorph" who imprinted on Picard but then went on to her arranged marriage anyway? On the one hand, you have the appeal of the whole soulmate trope, and on the other you have the ickyness of how that works for an empathic metamorph, but on the other hand, he was the one she chose, and then you've got the political aspects. Even once she's free do either of them want a long-term relationship, despite the fact that they are perfectly matched?

I see it as unrequited, unless dude Kamala married died in an accident and she left the planet. Even then, I don't know that she would have sought him out. I like that her choice was just that--her choice. And in a shitty situation, she chose to bond with the person whose desires made her into someone she wanted to be. I wonder what she did after? Obviously, duty and ethics are very important to her. But what does that mean, in the long run, given her situation? Does she use her position to advocate for change, or just endure until her husband died and then leave after he dies (she's a lot younger than he is)? OTOH, what happens if something happened and the Enterprise had to go back to the planet she married into?

Jean-Luc Picard/Ro Laren (TNG)
I love the friendship and mentorship they have despite (or maybe because of) their differences, and the mutual trust they built. I'd be interested in an episode-type story set before she defected to the Maquis, or an AU where she didn't for some reason, or something after the Dominion War when she's no longer a terrorist. Or a role-reversal AU where Bajor is the perfect paradise world that's the founder of the Federation and provides most of the people for Starfleet, and Earth is the one conquered by the Cardassians. I absolutely LOVE Ro Laren, she's such a contrast to the rest of them.

K'Ehleyr/Worf (TNG)
I love Klingons, PARTICULARLY when they're written with depth. The warrior ethos shapes their entire culture, but it's not the only thing about them. Worf/K'Ehleyr: K'Ehleyr rejects much of what Worf is desperately trying to cling to. And Worf's view of Klingons is very one-dimensional, almost an outsider's view, because of his upbringing. If she had lived and they'd had to actually work things out, that would have been fascinating. Not to mention very different views on how to raise Alexander.

William Riker/Deanna Troi/Worf (TNG)
Deanna Troi/Worf (TNG)
This is three different cultures, and 'human' is the place in the middle that they all understand, but I'd be interested in something that explored the 'alien' cultures and didn't assume 'human' as normal. Klingon gender roles are that the women are loud and violent and the men read love poetry. Deanna's more the poetry type than the loud and violent type, and I'm not sure how much of a soft side Worf has. So neither of them quite 'fit' Klingon gender/sexual norms. Feel free to bring in the perspective Martok and the others had on mental illness when they were trapped in that Dominion prison camp, that mental illness is an enemy to fight and it takes a lot of strength to fight an enemy in your own head. From that perspective, Deanna is a weapons trainer for the mind.

Deanna/Will, there's history, not all of it good, and a reason they haven't been together for a long time. With Worf and either of them, there's not that baggage.

William Riker/Ro Laren
Riker/Ro: the episode where they have amnesia is amazing, I love stories that deal with what happened afterwards. Before that, they have such great conflict, because Riker is trying to manage Ro and not connecting with her, and Ro has Problems With Authority (unless she independently has come to respect the individual, as with Picard). Then they have amnesia and sleep together! And then they try to pretend it never happened.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Star Trek: TOS

I love alien culture worldbuilding. I love boldly going and exploring and wacky science hijinks and time travel and alternate universe shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication).

As for plot ... it's Star Trek. If you want to play it serious, go for it. If you want to lean into the wacky tropes Star Trek was known for, that's great too. As long as everyone is in character, feel free to go as cracktastic as you want with the time travel and travel to alternate universes and weird missions.

Montgomery "Scotty" Scott/Nyota Uhura (ST: TOS)
Between the two of them, they really do keep the ship running when the Big Three are off having their adventures. And we see them closer in the movies. I'd love to see how they got there.

Spock/Nyota Uhura (Star Trek: The Original Series)
My headcanon on Vulcans was shaped by 80s Trek novels but I also enjoy trying to fit the Star Trek: Enterprise Vulcans with ... everything else we know about Vulcans. One thing I will point out, though, is that while there are a lot of things about Vulcan culture that seem/are sexist, the most powerful Vulcans we see throughout the series are elderly women. I love Pon Farr, but mostly dealing with the implications of it (both before and after) and not the sex part.

I love Spock/Uhura, they had such great chemistry in TOS (better, actually, than in the AOS). There's such mutual respect and such playfulness, it's wonderful. And please don't disrupt the canon relationships with Kirk—obviously he and Spock are incredibly important to one another, but also, Kirk and Uhura are such besties, too, I love their mutual respect.

T'Pring/Nyota Uhura (ST:TOS)
I have no idea how this would work but I am fascinated by the premise. An AU where T'Pring was the one who went to Starfleet and Spock stayed on Vulcan? Uhura as a teacher of languages at the Vulcan Science Academy while Enterprise is being refitted? Uhura wants a pen pal to practice her Vulcan with and Spock suggests his betrothed? T'Pring and Nyota encounter each other when Nyota is on Vulcan during Star Trek III?

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Star Trek: Voyager

I love alien culture worldbuilding. I love boldly going and exploring and wacky science hijinks and time travel and alternate universe shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are.

I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication).

My headcanon on Vulcans was shaped by 80s Trek novels but I also enjoy trying to fit the Star Trek: Enterprise Vulcans with ... everything else we know about Vulcans. One thing I will point out, though, is that while there are a lot of things about Vulcan culture that seem/are sexist, the most powerful Vulcans we see throughout the series are elderly women. I love Pon Farr, but mostly dealing with the implications of it (both before and after) and not the sex part.

I think Kate Mulgrew did an excellent job of playing Janeway despite the inconsistent writing she was given, and I love the way Tuvok was definitely a Vulcan but also a very different Vulcan than Spock. And I think their friendship was a foundation for both of them, having someone they'd known and trusted for years while so far from home. She's very casual about touching his hands, and he's fine with it. Whether it's just for Pon Farr or something deeper and longer lasting, I'm here for it.

Prompts: Day in the life stuff about dealing with the challenges of being so far from home and the top-ranking loyal Starfleet officers. Maybe something set early on dealing with Tuvok's suspicion of the Maquis (and their suspicion of him) and Janeway trying to bring the crew together would be interesting. Pre-series stuff about how they came to be close. Post-series stuff--I mean, it's great, they're both glad to be home, but they've changed and the Federation has changed. (Has Tuvok's wife moved on/remarried?) If you wanted to handle Pon Farr and/or them becoming a couple, I would enjoy that too. Or something dealing with the aftermath of the episode Blood Fever, which I would imagine made Pon Farr and/or Vulcans a really public topic of discussion on the ship. (It's not something that could have been easily hushed up!) Another idea: some Vulcan festival is coming up, and the Vulcans are going to have a hard time celebrating it so far from home, so Tuvok and Janeway have to get creative to figure out how to handle it.

T'Pel/Tuvok: I would be happy with ANYTHING, there is NO fic for this pairing. What's their marriage like, with him gone all the time? What was she doing while he was off being a rebellious teenager? What was she doing while he was on Voyager, and what was it like when he came home?

If none of that appeals ... it's Star Trek. If you want to play it serious, go for it. If you want to lean into the wacky tropes Star Trek was known for, that's great too. As long as everyone is in character, feel free to go as cracktastic as you want with the time travel and travel to alternate universes and weird missions.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Still Star-Crossed (TV)

Benvolio Montague/Rosaline Capulet
So much potential, cut so tragically short. I would love just about anything that showed What Happened Next, or maybe an AU where things happen differently (take just about any canon event and play it out), or maybe far in the future after they're married and things have settled down. What roles do they play, together, in establishing a lasting peace? Do other Shakespeare characters wander through?

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

I will be at Worldcon this week, starting on Thursday. If any of you are going to be there and want to meet up, please DM me and let me know!

I use the same name everywhere so I am

beatrice_otter on AO3. Treats are awesome.

I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am not inspired that way." This letter is long with lots of suggestions and preferences if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am usually very happy with my gifts.

The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.

I have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.

General Likes and Dislikes

other things to keep in mind:

I like stuff that takes side characters and puts them center-stage, especially when the characters and/or actors are marginalized. I enjoy seeing them come to life.
I don't like it when marginalized characters get relegated to the sidekick/supporting/helper role so that it can be All About The White Dude.
I like it when female characters are more than just the Strong Female Character(tm) or The Nurturer.
I like fluff
I like angst with a happy ending
I like stories that make me think about things in a new way.
I like to know that culture matters to people, and to see how different cultures interact and where the clashes are.
I like unreliable narrators.
I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong.
I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another instead of sweeping it under the rug.
Worldbuilding is my jam, I am pretty much always up for explorations of why the world is the way it is. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, the folklore, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll enjoy it if you do.
I don't like it when plots hinge on characters being selectively stupid, or selectively unable to communicate. Like, if they are stupid or a himbo or whatever in general, or have problems communicating in general, that's fine! Or if they canonically have a blind spot in that area, again, it's fine. But if it's just "the only way I can think of for this plot to work is if the character spontaneously and temporarily loses half their intelligence and competence," then I'm going to spend the rest of the fic wondering why the character didn't just ____?
I like AUs, but not complete setting AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened.
I like the concept of sedoretu marriages.
I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon.
Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me.

Historical Fiction and Fantasy

The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison
Kate and Cecelia - Caroline Stevermer & Patricia Wrede
Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Persuasion - Jane Austen
Mansfield Park - Jane Austen
Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
Doctor Who 2005

With these fandoms, I'd be fascinated to see how the worldbuilding fits together. Is Middle Earth on the other side of the ocean from the Ethuveraz, and what's that clash like when they encounter one another? What do Tolkien's elves think of the Ethuveraz elves, and vice versa? (Is Dachensol Habrobar, the extremely-long-lived person who makes sigil rings in the Ethuveraz, a Tolkien-style Elf?) Do Elizabeth and Will meet up with Maia's sister the lesbian pirate captain? (James Norrington would do much better in an Austen story than in PotC.) Can an Austen heroine do magic? (What's Sir Walter Elliot's opinion of Mr. Norrell?) If there was a connection between the Bennets and the Elliots, would Mrs. Bennet try to cling on to the Elliots as tightly as Sir Walter clings on to his cousin Lady Dalrymple? (Of course she would.) With Mansfield Park, I'm firmly of the opinion that Henry Crawford would have made Fanny miserable in the long run, so if you don't like Fanny/Edward or Fanny/Mary, this is the perfect opportunity for a crossover pairing. Or no pairing, give her a dragon instead! Everything is better with dragons.

I specified Doctor Who 2005 and Goblin Emperor because you can't have two parts of the same canon in the same request, but I love all Doctor Who and the Cemeteries of Amalo books. So if you are inspired to do an earlier Doctor or stuff from Amalo instead, feel free!

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Early 20th Century Detectives and SF/F

Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Agatha Christie's Poirot (TV)
Agent Carter (TV)
Jeeves & Wooster
The Old Guard (Movies)
Young Wizards - Diane Duane
The Mummy (Movies 1999-2008)
Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (TV)

All of these characters are interesting and eccentric, most of them solve mysteries (and the rest cause them), I want to hear about how they met or what they're like if they live in the same universe. Is Miss Climpson a Young Wizard-style wizard? She probably wasn't very powerful even when young, but then, she always did find that attention to insignificant details was at least as effective as the more flashy stuff. Does Peter or Harriet cross paths with Evy in academia, or while holidaying somewhere Evy and Rick are doing a dig? (Does Peter work with Rick on intelligence work during WWII?) Would Peggy Carter try to recruit Phrynne for the SSR? What happens if the Old Guard are at a country house party for some reason and someone tries to kill them--what happens to a mystery when the murder victim resurrects--do they pretend to be dead so they don't get revealed, do they try to tell the detective who killed them? What if Captain America is at a country house party for diplomatic reasons and people start dropping dead and someone tries to frame him and he has to work with the detective to identify the true culprit? If all else fails, most of them take place during/near WWII, and you can put together almost anyone either during a mission or while on leave back in England or something.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

AI and Wormholes and War

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Doctor Who (2005)
Star Wars: the Original Series
Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monáe
Babylon 5 (TV 1993)

(Most of) These canons have things to say about personhood, power, government, culture, and doing the right thing, and I would be interested in seeing them compared and contrasted. While I only listed one Doctor Who (because we can't do things that might get us matched on two parts of the same fandom) I would be fine with any Doctor of any era. I want to know what Murderbot thinks of R2-D2 (and what R2 thinks of Murderbot). I want to know what ART thinks of the Cylons, and what the Cylons think about ART. (And if ART and Murderbot were to drop a virus into Cylon systems that revealed the truth about the Final Five and all the shit the Ones got up to, and trashed the governor modules on the Centurions on the way out, that would be awesome.) Or Murderbot getting trapped in the Colonial Fleet masquerading as a human because these people like constructs even less than most humans like SecUnits. How much can the Doctor fix (or break in a better way) before he/she leaves? What characters would make interesting companions? What would happen if the Colonial Fleet found themselves in Barrayaran space? (Or Cetagandan, or Jacksonian, or Betan?) What would Breq think about the Cardassians or the Dominion (or the Federation)? And, of course, everything is better with wizards.

What characters would make interesting companions? What are the wizards doing in the BSG world? (Can Cylons be wizards, and what would happen if one was? How would that work with their whole sharing memory/uploading/downloading thing?) What do the technomages think of the wizards, and vice versa ... or is "technowizard" a way of getting around sevarfrith status? What would Laura Roslin think of the Minbari, and would telepaths be able to sense Cylons? Did either the Vorlons or the Shadows have anything to do with the repeating cycle of evolution/Cylon creation/destruction that BSG is stuck in?

Some of these are easier to fit together than others. For example, Murderbot can pop up anywhere and fit into any canon, because if there's a difference in the sociopolitics or the way interstellar travel works between Murderbot canon and whatever series you're putting MB in, it can be handwaved away as "Murderbot doesn't care and therefore didn't notice." The Doctor can pop up anywhere, and wizards are also very adaptable. With Star Trek and Star Wars, both series show enough of the galaxy and enough of galactic history, and have different enough physics that it's a bit tougher. But still doable! Ye Olde Wormhole/Alternate Universe can work wonders.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Modern World, part 1

Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Sense8 (TV)
Young Wizards
Stargate SG-1
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe (Music Video)
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Superman Returns (2006) or Superman (Movie 2025)
Criminal Minds (US TV)
Pitch

With these fandoms, I would love either worldbuilding (how do you fit superheroes and genius loci into one universe? Duane's wizards and Aaronovitch's? The Old Guard's immortality vs. Nightingale, Varvara, the Old Soldiers, and various other immortals of the demi monde?) or character stuff (put the characters in a room together, see how they get along or don't) or exploration of social issues that are implicit or implied in the canons. Also, wizards make everything better, and I am fascinated by the concept of sensate clusters. Take characters, make them part of a sensate cluster--preferably a diverse world-spanning cluster, like the one in the show. (OCs are fine as part of the cluster!) Or what would happen to any of the characters in any of the series if they died and became part of the Old Guard? Does Nile watch Genny Baker's games whenever she has a chance? Peter would totally be a superhero fanboy, and also, if Judgment Day happens, and Terminators have microchips, all of a sudden being a wizard is a superpower to save the world. On the other hand, what if Sarah and John et al ended up in Britain and got tangled up in a case? What would Peter make of time travel?

I love all of the Sense8 cluster, but my faves are Nomi, Lito, and Capheus. Of all the Old Guard, Booker is least interesting to me.

I specified Superman Returns here, but I would be just as happy to receive Superman 2025 crossed with any of these others.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Modern World Part 2

Calvin & Hobbes
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe (Music Video)
Young Wizards - Diane Duane
Batman: The Animated Series
Superman Returns (2006) or Superman (Movie 2025)
Sense8 (TV)
Fandom For Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad

The main theme of these canons to me is young people, imagination, and hope. I'd love worldbuilding and fitting these stories together; I'd also love character moments. There's already an amazing "what if Calvin was a wizard" story, but another would be awesome. What would a wizard be doing in the Dirty Computer dystopia? Or Gotham? What if Bruce Wayne or Dick Grayson were sensates? (Or, God forbid, Harley Quinn? Pity the poor cluster! OTOH, if they can convince her to get away from the Joker, that would be great.) What would the Timmverse Batman think of either the 2006 or 2025 Supermans? Could Computron be a wizard? What if Calvin ended up as a Robin?

I specified Superman Returns here, but I would be just as happy to receive Superman 2025 crossed with any of these others.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Modern World, Part 3

Fandom For Robots - Vina Jie-Min Prasad
The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Superman 2025
A Wrinkle in Time (2018)
Star Trek: The Next Generation

Robots being people! What does Murderbot think of Hyperdimension Warp Record? What does Computron think of the Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon? If either of them met up with Data, what would they talk about? If Computron is in the DCAU, are there other sentient robots? Is there anything Superman might need Computron's help on? What would happen if Murderbot needed to team up with the Justice League, or Batman? What if Camazotz came after Earth, and the Justice League or Starfleet needed Meg's help to defeat the IT? What if Charles Wallace and Computron got to talk for a bit? What if Computron got to visit the Fortress?

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

Modern World -- Apocalypse Edition

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Pacific Rim (Movies)
Sense8 (TV)
The ArchAndroid - Janelle Monáe
Dirty Computer - Janelle Monáe (Music Video)
Young Wizards - Diane Duane
The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Sleepy Hollow (TV)

Yes, most of these are post-apocalyptic or dystopian in some way. But they also have at least the seed of hope: of escape, of change, of something better being possible. And they're also about personhood, about choice, about AI and civil rights and cancelling the apocalypse.

Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic

It's always fun to try out the Vulcan Name Generator. This time I got some doozies.
The first two: T'Kok and Suk.

While I think that a very ... interesting fic could be written about T'Kok and Suk, I do not think I would be the person to write that fic.

hermionesviolin posted: Massachusetts Universal Voting Restoration

For anyone registered to vote in Massachusetts -- you can sign up to get reminded when it's time to officially sign papers to put on the Massachusetts ballot a measure to repeal the Massachusetts constitutional amendment that took the right to vote away from people serving felony sentences.

From an email from Progressive Mass:
Unlock Democracy in Massachusetts

In 2000, Massachusetts passed a constitutional amendment that took away voting rights from people incarcerated for a felony conviction. This stripping of rights was in response to political organizing happening in prison. The Empowering Descendant Communities to Unlock Democracy project and allies aim to get voting rights restoration on the statewide ballot. If you are a registered voter in Massachusetts, please take a minute to fill out our pledge form now: https://tinyurl.com/uvrpledge. Once the Attorney General approves the language, organizers will reach out to those who filled out the pledge with dates/locations for nearby signature collection efforts.

The EDC to Unlock Democracy is is committed to ensuring that democracy does not stop at prisons and jails in Massachusetts. It is a collaborative project between the Democracy Behind Bars Coalition, the African American Coalition Committee at MCI-Norfolk, Healing our Land, Inc., and more. To get in touch email EDCtoUnlockDemocracyMA@gmail.com.

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