I use the same name everywhere so I am ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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.
Here are some other things to keep in mind:
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.
This is the queer poly family I didn't know I needed. The larger plots of the show are okay, but my favorite part is the stuff of Ye Zhao, Zhao Yujin, and the three concubines together as a family. I headcanon Ye Zhao as bi/pan, and possibly genderfluid in some way. I love the idea of her and the Prince sharing the concubines (but only if the concubines are okay with the idea.) If you happen to know enough about queerness in pre-19th Century China to feel comfortable writing it, I would be thrilled if historical details got brought in. I'm also interested in the way the household is adapting its ideas of gender/status and roles within the household (is Concubine Yang fulfilling some of the household roles that the wife would normally do, because Ye Zhao is occupied with her military duties?) But I would also just love general slice-of-life stuff with them as a household and learning about each other and caring for one another. I'd love to see Ye Zhao and Yang and Xuan'er and Mianning becoming friends. Or you could have an AU where Ye Zhao marries Hu Qing and they are very happy together and just really good friends with the Prince and the concubines. I love Hu Qing and like him far more for Ye Zhao than I like her with the Prince, but then I don't get her wonderful dynamic with the concubines, and I do appreciate how Ye Zhao and Zhao Yujin grow together and learn to trust one another over the course of the series.
I like the Prince, but I also find his petulance and immaturity a bit annoying, and I like him most when he is growing and becoming more responsible and considerate.
Now, the thing about this story is that canon depends on Ye Zhao sexually harassing the Prince to get him to accept her as his wife and sleep with her. And that's pretty gross, especially as canon doesn't condemn it, just treats it as funny because it's a woman doing it. And I would be fine with a story that just pretended that aspect of things didn't happen and everyone had full consent for everything; I would be fine with a story that went AU and got them together some other way; I would be fine with a story that dealt with the fact that what she did was not okay and she learns that. I would *not* want a fic with canon-typical levels of sexual harassment.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, sexual harassment treated as normal/okay
I have so many thoughts and feelings about Computron, ok? We all know that he DOES have feelings, even without them being programmed into him, because of the ways he reacts. I would love to see something with him learning to acknowledge that about himself. I would love to see him learning more about what the world is like and more about people, through fandom and through ways fandom encourages him to do things that are new.
I love his friendship with bjornruffian and their collaboration, I would love a fic about them and fandom and their friendship.
I would love a fic that delved into the thorny issues of personhood and autonomy and ownership and legalities--is Computron legally a person, or a possession? Does the museum own him? If they own him, are they aware of how messed up that is? If he's legally a possession, what would it take to change that? A court case? A law? Would the big software companies lobby against him getting legal personhood, because it would mean they have couldn't use the term "AI" any more without losing ownership of their programs? (I do want there to be some hopeful resolution at the end.)
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
I would like pretty much anything with Maggie being smart and determined and Will being caring and growing. What was it that caught Maggie's eye about Will? What was it Will saw in Maggie that he came to care for her? Because in the first half he's just kind of shell-shocked and along for the ride, but by the second half there's a lot of mutual love and respect there, and I'd love to see it grow. I'd love to see more of Maggie learning to stop steamrolling over Will and assuming she knows best. Or give me a day-in-the-life about their little shop in the basement, or what they're doing twenty years after the movie ends. I'd love to get more of Will's perspective, too. He's been through so much, and he's such a kind person despite it all.
I love this movie, and I love everyone in it except Mr. Hobson and his cronies. Charles Laughton may have been the "star" of the show but it's not about him, not at all. It's about Maggie and her choices, and her figuring out what she wants in life and how to get it. Her father may be the ostensible star, but he's the obstacle to the plot, not the one moving it along. Also, if possible, period accuracy is much appreciated. Like, notice how Maggie works within the social structures, instead of trying to tear them down while shouting "death to patriarchy!" I mean, I could see her as a suffragette ... but a 19th century suffragette is a very different beast from a second or third wave feminist, you know?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
The whole idea of "drift compatibility" is catnip to me. Knowing someone that well, trusting them to literally be inside your brain with you. And then going out to fight giant monsters together! What's not to love. My two favorite characters from Pacific Rim are Stacker Pentecost and Mako Mori, but I love Raleigh too and am fascinated by his relationship with his brother and what it would be like to drift with your brother vs. drifting with a stranger.
Stacker Pentecost is amazing, I love his charisma and his dedication and his love for Mako. You could do the movie from his perspective, or you could do an AU where he lives--he's dedicated his life to the Jaeger program and fighting kaiju, what does he do with himself once the breach is sealed? (What do any of them do once the breach is sealed?)
Mako is wonderful, but I feel that despite getting her tragic backstory and her wonderfully expressive face, she's a little opaque. I'd love to see something about her growing up around Jaegers, or maybe what her role was before she became a pilot herself. Some exploration into what makes her tick and what made her the person she is in the movie, or what she does after it.
On the issue of sexuality and Jaeger pilots, do you feel your partner's sexual interests while you're drifting? Obviously, there's no time to focus on that while you're fighting Kaiju, but I would bet that for allosexuals it's going to cross your mind at least occasionally, right? And I don't think you have to be asexual to go "I love my sibling, but I really don't want to know that much about their sex life." Figuring out what your boundaries are and how to maintain them would be difficult. I don't subscribe to the "drifting makes you want to have sex with your partner" thing I've seen occasionally, but drifting is all about trust and so is physical intimacy.
I would love an academic perspective on anything in that movie. Every single thing is so batshit crazy, you know the academics are having a field day with it. And you know there would be bad movies (and good movies) and all kinds of fandom shenanigans and that would be brain-breaking to be one of the focuses of (as Jaeger pilots are) but also, I am interested in what the average person on the street thinks about it all.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
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 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. Or an AU where Picard doesn't get back to the present in Time's Arrow because he stays with her, and then they have adventures trying to find a way to send him forward in time. I don't like most of the Picard TV show, but I do appreciate Picard and Guinan's stuff.
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?
Geordi was great. Professional in the face of all the wackiness Star Trek could throw at him, very smart, very compassionate. Aside from that one episode with the genetically engineered society, they didn't do much with his blindness besides "disabilities give you superpowers" with his visor. What are the downsides to it? What, if any, tradeoffs did he have to make, and was it his choice or something his parents decided for him? Does he ever get grief from fellow officers about "what happens if your visor gets knocked off, you'll be blind!" as if not being able to see would make him incompetent? He and Data have that wonderful friendship that is rock solid that I love to see explored and transmuted into romance.
Picard & Ro: 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.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
I received a wonderful Dirty Computer fic for Yuletide, but I love this emotion picture and can't get enough fic for it.
As usual with Janelle Monae's work, the worldbuilding is GORGEOUS and I would LOVE something that explored it. The underground subculture that they're part of has so much richness to it. And, like, where's the money for those amazing outfits coming from? What do they do BESIDES hang out and party and be queer and subversive? Is this a post-scarcity world where everyone has a universal basic income? If there's such uber-tight control over society, how does the Pynk rest-inn stay in business? Is the tight social control universal, or only in some places? Could Jane and Zen have stayed in Pynk, but only if they were willing to never see Che again? Is Zen some kind of religious leader, and if so, how does that fit into everything? The Cleaners were some kind of hellish concatenation of bureaucracy and religion, how does that work and how does the religious part of it affect Jane and Zen's experiences? What was it like for Jane and Zen in there OUTSIDE of the cleaning? Are there lasting repercussions of the nevermind, physically or neurologically (how does disability affect things in this world)? Or you could do future-fic where they're political activists working to subvert the system. Or you could just do happy poly threesome!
Dirty Computer focuses far more on queer themes than on racial themes than Janelle's previous work, but there are still racial themes present. It can't be an accident that the people running the cleaning (both the cleaners and the mother superior) were white, and the three victims we saw were black. It hearkens back to all the times white people have decided that people of color were dangerous and subhuman and evil and needed to be made more like the white people. The destruction of memories was a literal version of things white culture has metaphorically been trying to do for centuries. The renaming, the "it's for your own good," all of it.
I love the songs of this album. Django Jane and I Like That are my favorites, but Screwed and Pynk are also awesome and I love the lush, lyrical way they feed into one another, the visuals and the lyrics and the beat together. I also love the themes: love, and being true to yourself, and at the end refusing both to give in and to respond violently. Please, please, please, give some sort of a happy ending. Like, you don't have to magically wave a magic wand and make all the screwed up things of this society go away, but I want the three to end up happy together.
If you delve into the religious aspects, the cleaners and Virgin Victoria are modeled on the worst parts of Christianity, and Jane and Zen's religious/spiritual stuff should be distinct and different.
Potential Crossovers:
Dirty Compupter/The Archandroid (Janelle Monae's first dystopian SF/F concept): Does the time-traveling android find herself dodging Cleaners as well as the Time Bureau? Is Cyndi Mayweather a reincarnation of Jane 57821 in some way?
Dirty Computer/Star Trek: is the Dirty Computer world part of the Eugenics Wars and/or WWIII?
Dirty Computer/Murderbot: Is the dystopian world of Dirty Computer part of the Corporation Rim?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
Benjamin Sisko & Ro Laren. There are two possible futures for Ro Laren. In the novels and STO, she joins the Bajoran Militia after leaving the Maquis and gets assigned to DS9 after the Dominion War; in Picard she was instead recruited by Starfleet Intelligence. I'm fine with either. Or AUs where she doesn't leave Starfleet at all. Or AUs where she's the one who is first officer on DS9 instead of Kira, as was the original plan for the show. Or other AUs for how her life went! Maybe she was Sisko's Maquis nemesis, instead of Eddington?
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.
Computron (Fandom For Robots) & Murderbot. I think Computron and Murderbot would find each other deeply weird, but there are a lot of resonances between the way Computron was handled by his creator and the museum, and the way Murderbot was treated by corporates. Both were expected to do high-level work but denied personhood. Also, both love media and learn to deal with humans through it. Please respect MB's pronouns; it's an it.
Data (TNG) & Murderbot. I think MB would find Data hard to be around, for much the same reasons that it found Miki hard, and if this took place after that MB would have a lot of emotions about Miki come up when dealing with Data. I think if Data found himself in/near the CR, he would be happy to help MB escape and/or help ART with its anti-corporate missions and/or PresAux's science missions. If MB found itself in the Federation, it would have much the same reaction it did to PresAux, and also, the Federation might want it to get therapy to deal with its deep trauma. Feel free to bring in any wacky, tropetastic Star Trek plot you want. Please respect MB's pronouns; it's an it.
Murderbot & Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (BSG). Both MB and Boomer were programmed to kill/betray humans against their will; both were deeply traumatized by it. Boomer, in the end, betrayed humans voluntarily and joined the "kill them all" faction, I think largely out of despair that anything could change. I think MB and Boomer would have a hard time getting along because their mutual traumas would get in the way. I'd be interested in either MB landing in the Fleet or among Cylons somehow, or the Colonial Fleet ending up in the Preservation Alliance and not knowing how to deal with such a different society. Please respect MB's pronouns; it's an it.
Kira Nerys & Ro Laren. There are two possible futures for Ro Laren. In the novels and STO, she joins the Bajoran Militia after leaving the Maquis and gets assigned to DS9 after the Dominion War; in Picard she was instead recruited by Starfleet Intelligence. I'm fine with either. (Or AUs where she doesn't leave Starfleet at all. Or other AUs for how her life went!) Ro is superficially similar to Kira, but there are some big differences. Ro and Kira have opposite career tracks: Kira was a terrorist young, and then became "respectable/legal" in the Bajoran Militia; Ro wasn't in the Resistance, she joined Starfleet as a young adult, and became a terrorist later. Also, Kira has deep love for and respect for her culture and religion, whereas Ro is openly hostile to it (wears her earring on the wrong side, etc.)
I haven't read the novels, but I'm interested in the idea that after the show ended Kira eventually became a Vedek and later Kai.
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.
Kathryn Janeway & Ro Laren. What if Ro was on the Maquis ship that ended up on Voyager? How would she have fit in (or not)?
T'Pol & Spock. Is T'Pol his aunt/senior female relative? Is she a mentor to him? Does she take an interest because he's half-human? What are the places they agree (about Vulcans, about Humans, about Starfleet and the Federation) and where do they disagree?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
I love alien culture worldbuilding, boldly going, exploring, wacky science hijinks, time travel, AU shenanigans. I love the hope that we can become better than we are. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out compromises--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. One of my favorite things about DS9, it dealt with consequences. If you want to take a canon event that you think didn't get enough exploration and run with it, that would be awesome.
I'd love something that dove into Bajoran religion, and the more ALIEN it is the better. We've MET the prophet and they have such a fundamentally different perspective on EVERYTHING than us linear creatures, I don't want it to feel like another screed on What Is Wrong With Christianity In America. You could lean into the Prophets' timey-wimey non-linearity and what that means for a religion that worships them. Most Earth religions are heavily time-based, with regular repeating festivals that serve a lot of purposes both social and religious--how would that work (or not work) when worshiping beings who see everything happening at once? Or explore the Orbs! What other orbs are there besides Time and Prophecy, and what do they DO? You don't have to have any ritual or belief or ANYTHING to use them, if they have line-of-sight to you they can DO THINGS. Give you visions! Send you time traveling! Whatever it is the others do! No Earth religion has any artifact that is anything like that, and besides wondering what the other orbs even are/do, I'm curious as to how they shaped Bajoran religion, and how it was that the Bajorans ended up worshiping the ones who SENT the orbs instead of the orbs themselves. Especially given that the Prophets mostly ... don't seem to want to be gods or care about being worshiped or what's going on on Bajor or anything. So it's not like they were sending messages with the Orbs about who sent them and why, which leaves a lot of scope for interpretation on the part of the Bajorans who found them.
Sisko's position as Emmisary is fascinating, and how it shaped his relationship with Kira, and how he came to be more comfortable with it as the show went on. What was that like for Bajorans? He's an outsider! He doesn't believe in the Prophets! Especially after years of occupation and the Cardassians stealing the Orbs to experiment on, there's got to be more complexity to it than we saw on the show. What was it like for the Bajorans who served on DS9, for whom he was both commanding officer and religious figure. The Federation/Starfleet perspective on that had to be interesting.
I haven't read the novels, but I'm interested in the idea that after the show ended Kira eventually became a Vedek and later Kai.
I love Dax's relationship with Sisko, that lasted three hosts. When Sisko comes back from the wormhole (if he ever does) will Dax still be Ezri or will enough time have passed that the relationship stretches to four hosts? And what about when Sisko and Jadzia were still getting to know each other? They went from one power dynamic (Ambassador with lots of political power mentors callow youth) to a very different one (Sisko is all grown up, and Dax's superior officer, and with more life experience than Dax's current host). Negotiating that change must have been interesting.
I thought that Kira and the O'Briens had a lot of chemistry, but also they have such radically different backgrounds and expectations. Culture, religion, childhood trauma--all radically different. I'd like to see how they could make it work.
I love Jake, and I love that he is different from his father and his father loves and supports him. More Sisko Family stuff is always welcome, but also, for Jake, he grew up a lot during the series, and what he experienced on DS9 shaped him, and I'd love to see more of that.
I love to hate Dukat. You're welcome to use him as a villain, but don't ever forget that he's a manipulative weasel who most often actively chooses to do the worst thing possible. Even if he's doing something good in the moment, the moment is temporary.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
The snark! the vivid characters! the worldbuilding! the digressions! the wry-but-pointed social commentary on race and class and bureaucracy! the community and relationship building! Casefic is always welcome, but so is worldbuilding and exploring the demi-monde and magic, or character-focused stuff. I love stories that bring up weird aspects of the demi-monde and magic which Peter then has to deal with.
I love community-building. Peter goes out there and he gets to know people and builds relationships with them, and that opens up possibilities. There are good reasons things became fragmented, mostly the fault of the old Folly--but I love to see healing and reconciliation and new relationships growing.
Peter's not naïve, he knows how bad the world can get and how much evil can be done by the institutions he is serving, and yet he firmly believes that they can and should do better. I love how he is willing to risk himself to help people. I think Nightingale sees in Peter something he didn't know he was missing: a way to be and do better than the sins of the past he's been carrying around all these years. I think it's great that Nightingale's going to retire from the police to focus on teaching, I think that will allow much better scope for them both to grow, and yet still be working together. (Just in a different capacity.)
I find Beverly hard to parse in the earlier books. She's enough younger than Peter that the whole "suddenly we're pregnant and expecting kids!" and everyone's happy about it!" is weird to me. Peter's in his mid-late 20s, and is settled in his career, but Bev is in university! I would have expected her to prefer to wait. And then there's the fact that she's a goddess, and a geographical feature, and to some degree a reincarnation of a previous deity. So something exploring that dynamic from her perspective would be interesting. Her perspective on Peter, the Folly, and Thomas would also be really interesting to me. I love stories that bring up weird aspects of the demi-monde and magic.
Abigail Kamara: I love her as a girl detective/problem solver/apprentice wizard, but would prefer she not end up joining the Met. I like her perspective on magic and things and the way she is building her own connections to the demimonde that don't go through Peter and Nightingale. I love the mutual respect she and Thomas have for one another.
Also, I'd be thrilled to get either a story about magic becoming public knowledge (oh, the conspiracy theories!) or an AU where it has been all along and an exploration of how that changed. Or a story where Ettersberg never happened and the Folly is a large institution and Thomas is one wizard among many. Or a story where Peter is the lone survivor of the old Folly, 100 years old, and Nightingale is the young new apprentice.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
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 serve as the practical "let's get support and resources for this new Jedi Order you're building" while Luke swans around being compassionate and heroic and saving the day? (But make sure that Lando's contributions are valued and not taken for granted.) 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. Also, Weird Jedi Shit is always fun.
Treats are enabled and welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, Kylo Ren
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
Here are some 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.
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.
将军在上 | Oh My General
This is the queer poly family I didn't know I needed. The larger plots of the show are okay, but my favorite part is the stuff of Ye Zhao, Zhao Yujin, and the three concubines together as a family. I headcanon Ye Zhao as bi/pan, and possibly genderfluid in some way. I love the idea of her and the Prince sharing the concubines (but only if the concubines are okay with the idea.) If you happen to know enough about queerness in pre-19th Century China to feel comfortable writing it, I would be thrilled if historical details got brought in. I'm also interested in the way the household is adapting its ideas of gender/status and roles within the household (is Concubine Yang fulfilling some of the household roles that the wife would normally do, because Ye Zhao is occupied with her military duties?) But I would also just love general slice-of-life stuff with them as a household and learning about each other and caring for one another. I'd love to see Ye Zhao and Yang and Xuan'er and Mianning becoming friends. Or you could have an AU where Ye Zhao marries Hu Qing and they are very happy together and just really good friends with the Prince and the concubines. I love Hu Qing and like him far more for Ye Zhao than I like her with the Prince, but then I don't get her wonderful dynamic with the concubines, and I do appreciate how Ye Zhao and Zhao Yujin grow together and learn to trust one another over the course of the series.
I like the Prince, but I also find his petulance and immaturity a bit annoying, and I like him most when he is growing and becoming more responsible and considerate.
Now, the thing about this story is that canon depends on Ye Zhao sexually harassing the Prince to get him to accept her as his wife and sleep with her. And that's pretty gross, especially as canon doesn't condemn it, just treats it as funny because it's a woman doing it. And I would be fine with a story that just pretended that aspect of things didn't happen and everyone had full consent for everything; I would be fine with a story that went AU and got them together some other way; I would be fine with a story that dealt with the fact that what she did was not okay and she learns that. I would *not* want a fic with canon-typical levels of sexual harassment.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, sexual harassment treated as normal/okay
[SAFETY] Fandom for Robots
I have so many thoughts and feelings about Computron, ok? We all know that he DOES have feelings, even without them being programmed into him, because of the ways he reacts. I would love to see something with him learning to acknowledge that about himself. I would love to see him learning more about what the world is like and more about people, through fandom and through ways fandom encourages him to do things that are new.
I love his friendship with bjornruffian and their collaboration, I would love a fic about them and fandom and their friendship.
I would love a fic that delved into the thorny issues of personhood and autonomy and ownership and legalities--is Computron legally a person, or a possession? Does the museum own him? If they own him, are they aware of how messed up that is? If he's legally a possession, what would it take to change that? A court case? A law? Would the big software companies lobby against him getting legal personhood, because it would mean they have couldn't use the term "AI" any more without losing ownership of their programs? (I do want there to be some hopeful resolution at the end.)
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
Hobson's Choice
I would like pretty much anything with Maggie being smart and determined and Will being caring and growing. What was it that caught Maggie's eye about Will? What was it Will saw in Maggie that he came to care for her? Because in the first half he's just kind of shell-shocked and along for the ride, but by the second half there's a lot of mutual love and respect there, and I'd love to see it grow. I'd love to see more of Maggie learning to stop steamrolling over Will and assuming she knows best. Or give me a day-in-the-life about their little shop in the basement, or what they're doing twenty years after the movie ends. I'd love to get more of Will's perspective, too. He's been through so much, and he's such a kind person despite it all.
I love this movie, and I love everyone in it except Mr. Hobson and his cronies. Charles Laughton may have been the "star" of the show but it's not about him, not at all. It's about Maggie and her choices, and her figuring out what she wants in life and how to get it. Her father may be the ostensible star, but he's the obstacle to the plot, not the one moving it along. Also, if possible, period accuracy is much appreciated. Like, notice how Maggie works within the social structures, instead of trying to tear them down while shouting "death to patriarchy!" I mean, I could see her as a suffragette ... but a 19th century suffragette is a very different beast from a second or third wave feminist, you know?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
Pacific Rim
The whole idea of "drift compatibility" is catnip to me. Knowing someone that well, trusting them to literally be inside your brain with you. And then going out to fight giant monsters together! What's not to love. My two favorite characters from Pacific Rim are Stacker Pentecost and Mako Mori, but I love Raleigh too and am fascinated by his relationship with his brother and what it would be like to drift with your brother vs. drifting with a stranger.
Stacker Pentecost is amazing, I love his charisma and his dedication and his love for Mako. You could do the movie from his perspective, or you could do an AU where he lives--he's dedicated his life to the Jaeger program and fighting kaiju, what does he do with himself once the breach is sealed? (What do any of them do once the breach is sealed?)
Mako is wonderful, but I feel that despite getting her tragic backstory and her wonderfully expressive face, she's a little opaque. I'd love to see something about her growing up around Jaegers, or maybe what her role was before she became a pilot herself. Some exploration into what makes her tick and what made her the person she is in the movie, or what she does after it.
On the issue of sexuality and Jaeger pilots, do you feel your partner's sexual interests while you're drifting? Obviously, there's no time to focus on that while you're fighting Kaiju, but I would bet that for allosexuals it's going to cross your mind at least occasionally, right? And I don't think you have to be asexual to go "I love my sibling, but I really don't want to know that much about their sex life." Figuring out what your boundaries are and how to maintain them would be difficult. I don't subscribe to the "drifting makes you want to have sex with your partner" thing I've seen occasionally, but drifting is all about trust and so is physical intimacy.
I would love an academic perspective on anything in that movie. Every single thing is so batshit crazy, you know the academics are having a field day with it. And you know there would be bad movies (and good movies) and all kinds of fandom shenanigans and that would be brain-breaking to be one of the focuses of (as Jaeger pilots are) but also, I am interested in what the average person on the street thinks about it all.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
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 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. Or an AU where Picard doesn't get back to the present in Time's Arrow because he stays with her, and then they have adventures trying to find a way to send him forward in time. I don't like most of the Picard TV show, but I do appreciate Picard and Guinan's stuff.
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?
Geordi was great. Professional in the face of all the wackiness Star Trek could throw at him, very smart, very compassionate. Aside from that one episode with the genetically engineered society, they didn't do much with his blindness besides "disabilities give you superpowers" with his visor. What are the downsides to it? What, if any, tradeoffs did he have to make, and was it his choice or something his parents decided for him? Does he ever get grief from fellow officers about "what happens if your visor gets knocked off, you'll be blind!" as if not being able to see would make him incompetent? He and Data have that wonderful friendship that is rock solid that I love to see explored and transmuted into romance.
Picard & Ro: 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.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
Dirty Computer
I received a wonderful Dirty Computer fic for Yuletide, but I love this emotion picture and can't get enough fic for it.
As usual with Janelle Monae's work, the worldbuilding is GORGEOUS and I would LOVE something that explored it. The underground subculture that they're part of has so much richness to it. And, like, where's the money for those amazing outfits coming from? What do they do BESIDES hang out and party and be queer and subversive? Is this a post-scarcity world where everyone has a universal basic income? If there's such uber-tight control over society, how does the Pynk rest-inn stay in business? Is the tight social control universal, or only in some places? Could Jane and Zen have stayed in Pynk, but only if they were willing to never see Che again? Is Zen some kind of religious leader, and if so, how does that fit into everything? The Cleaners were some kind of hellish concatenation of bureaucracy and religion, how does that work and how does the religious part of it affect Jane and Zen's experiences? What was it like for Jane and Zen in there OUTSIDE of the cleaning? Are there lasting repercussions of the nevermind, physically or neurologically (how does disability affect things in this world)? Or you could do future-fic where they're political activists working to subvert the system. Or you could just do happy poly threesome!
Dirty Computer focuses far more on queer themes than on racial themes than Janelle's previous work, but there are still racial themes present. It can't be an accident that the people running the cleaning (both the cleaners and the mother superior) were white, and the three victims we saw were black. It hearkens back to all the times white people have decided that people of color were dangerous and subhuman and evil and needed to be made more like the white people. The destruction of memories was a literal version of things white culture has metaphorically been trying to do for centuries. The renaming, the "it's for your own good," all of it.
I love the songs of this album. Django Jane and I Like That are my favorites, but Screwed and Pynk are also awesome and I love the lush, lyrical way they feed into one another, the visuals and the lyrics and the beat together. I also love the themes: love, and being true to yourself, and at the end refusing both to give in and to respond violently. Please, please, please, give some sort of a happy ending. Like, you don't have to magically wave a magic wand and make all the screwed up things of this society go away, but I want the three to end up happy together.
If you delve into the religious aspects, the cleaners and Virgin Victoria are modeled on the worst parts of Christianity, and Jane and Zen's religious/spiritual stuff should be distinct and different.
Potential Crossovers:
Dirty Compupter/The Archandroid (Janelle Monae's first dystopian SF/F concept): Does the time-traveling android find herself dodging Cleaners as well as the Time Bureau? Is Cyndi Mayweather a reincarnation of Jane 57821 in some way?
Dirty Computer/Star Trek: is the Dirty Computer world part of the Eugenics Wars and/or WWIII?
Dirty Computer/Murderbot: Is the dystopian world of Dirty Computer part of the Corporation Rim?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
Crossover Fandom
Benjamin Sisko & Ro Laren. There are two possible futures for Ro Laren. In the novels and STO, she joins the Bajoran Militia after leaving the Maquis and gets assigned to DS9 after the Dominion War; in Picard she was instead recruited by Starfleet Intelligence. I'm fine with either. Or AUs where she doesn't leave Starfleet at all. Or AUs where she's the one who is first officer on DS9 instead of Kira, as was the original plan for the show. Or other AUs for how her life went! Maybe she was Sisko's Maquis nemesis, instead of Eddington?
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.
Computron (Fandom For Robots) & Murderbot. I think Computron and Murderbot would find each other deeply weird, but there are a lot of resonances between the way Computron was handled by his creator and the museum, and the way Murderbot was treated by corporates. Both were expected to do high-level work but denied personhood. Also, both love media and learn to deal with humans through it. Please respect MB's pronouns; it's an it.
Data (TNG) & Murderbot. I think MB would find Data hard to be around, for much the same reasons that it found Miki hard, and if this took place after that MB would have a lot of emotions about Miki come up when dealing with Data. I think if Data found himself in/near the CR, he would be happy to help MB escape and/or help ART with its anti-corporate missions and/or PresAux's science missions. If MB found itself in the Federation, it would have much the same reaction it did to PresAux, and also, the Federation might want it to get therapy to deal with its deep trauma. Feel free to bring in any wacky, tropetastic Star Trek plot you want. Please respect MB's pronouns; it's an it.
Murderbot & Sharon "Boomer" Valerii (BSG). Both MB and Boomer were programmed to kill/betray humans against their will; both were deeply traumatized by it. Boomer, in the end, betrayed humans voluntarily and joined the "kill them all" faction, I think largely out of despair that anything could change. I think MB and Boomer would have a hard time getting along because their mutual traumas would get in the way. I'd be interested in either MB landing in the Fleet or among Cylons somehow, or the Colonial Fleet ending up in the Preservation Alliance and not knowing how to deal with such a different society. Please respect MB's pronouns; it's an it.
Kira Nerys & Ro Laren. There are two possible futures for Ro Laren. In the novels and STO, she joins the Bajoran Militia after leaving the Maquis and gets assigned to DS9 after the Dominion War; in Picard she was instead recruited by Starfleet Intelligence. I'm fine with either. (Or AUs where she doesn't leave Starfleet at all. Or other AUs for how her life went!) Ro is superficially similar to Kira, but there are some big differences. Ro and Kira have opposite career tracks: Kira was a terrorist young, and then became "respectable/legal" in the Bajoran Militia; Ro wasn't in the Resistance, she joined Starfleet as a young adult, and became a terrorist later. Also, Kira has deep love for and respect for her culture and religion, whereas Ro is openly hostile to it (wears her earring on the wrong side, etc.)
I haven't read the novels, but I'm interested in the idea that after the show ended Kira eventually became a Vedek and later Kai.
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.
Kathryn Janeway & Ro Laren. What if Ro was on the Maquis ship that ended up on Voyager? How would she have fit in (or not)?
T'Pol & Spock. Is T'Pol his aunt/senior female relative? Is she a mentor to him? Does she take an interest because he's half-human? What are the places they agree (about Vulcans, about Humans, about Starfleet and the Federation) and where do they disagree?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
DS9
I love alien culture worldbuilding, boldly going, exploring, wacky science hijinks, time travel, AU shenanigans. I love the hope that we can become better than we are. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out compromises--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. One of my favorite things about DS9, it dealt with consequences. If you want to take a canon event that you think didn't get enough exploration and run with it, that would be awesome.
I'd love something that dove into Bajoran religion, and the more ALIEN it is the better. We've MET the prophet and they have such a fundamentally different perspective on EVERYTHING than us linear creatures, I don't want it to feel like another screed on What Is Wrong With Christianity In America. You could lean into the Prophets' timey-wimey non-linearity and what that means for a religion that worships them. Most Earth religions are heavily time-based, with regular repeating festivals that serve a lot of purposes both social and religious--how would that work (or not work) when worshiping beings who see everything happening at once? Or explore the Orbs! What other orbs are there besides Time and Prophecy, and what do they DO? You don't have to have any ritual or belief or ANYTHING to use them, if they have line-of-sight to you they can DO THINGS. Give you visions! Send you time traveling! Whatever it is the others do! No Earth religion has any artifact that is anything like that, and besides wondering what the other orbs even are/do, I'm curious as to how they shaped Bajoran religion, and how it was that the Bajorans ended up worshiping the ones who SENT the orbs instead of the orbs themselves. Especially given that the Prophets mostly ... don't seem to want to be gods or care about being worshiped or what's going on on Bajor or anything. So it's not like they were sending messages with the Orbs about who sent them and why, which leaves a lot of scope for interpretation on the part of the Bajorans who found them.
Sisko's position as Emmisary is fascinating, and how it shaped his relationship with Kira, and how he came to be more comfortable with it as the show went on. What was that like for Bajorans? He's an outsider! He doesn't believe in the Prophets! Especially after years of occupation and the Cardassians stealing the Orbs to experiment on, there's got to be more complexity to it than we saw on the show. What was it like for the Bajorans who served on DS9, for whom he was both commanding officer and religious figure. The Federation/Starfleet perspective on that had to be interesting.
I haven't read the novels, but I'm interested in the idea that after the show ended Kira eventually became a Vedek and later Kai.
I love Dax's relationship with Sisko, that lasted three hosts. When Sisko comes back from the wormhole (if he ever does) will Dax still be Ezri or will enough time have passed that the relationship stretches to four hosts? And what about when Sisko and Jadzia were still getting to know each other? They went from one power dynamic (Ambassador with lots of political power mentors callow youth) to a very different one (Sisko is all grown up, and Dax's superior officer, and with more life experience than Dax's current host). Negotiating that change must have been interesting.
I thought that Kira and the O'Briens had a lot of chemistry, but also they have such radically different backgrounds and expectations. Culture, religion, childhood trauma--all radically different. I'd like to see how they could make it work.
I love Jake, and I love that he is different from his father and his father loves and supports him. More Sisko Family stuff is always welcome, but also, for Jake, he grew up a lot during the series, and what he experienced on DS9 shaped him, and I'd love to see more of that.
I love to hate Dukat. You're welcome to use him as a villain, but don't ever forget that he's a manipulative weasel who most often actively chooses to do the worst thing possible. Even if he's doing something good in the moment, the moment is temporary.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
Rivers of London
The snark! the vivid characters! the worldbuilding! the digressions! the wry-but-pointed social commentary on race and class and bureaucracy! the community and relationship building! Casefic is always welcome, but so is worldbuilding and exploring the demi-monde and magic, or character-focused stuff. I love stories that bring up weird aspects of the demi-monde and magic which Peter then has to deal with.
I love community-building. Peter goes out there and he gets to know people and builds relationships with them, and that opens up possibilities. There are good reasons things became fragmented, mostly the fault of the old Folly--but I love to see healing and reconciliation and new relationships growing.
Peter's not naïve, he knows how bad the world can get and how much evil can be done by the institutions he is serving, and yet he firmly believes that they can and should do better. I love how he is willing to risk himself to help people. I think Nightingale sees in Peter something he didn't know he was missing: a way to be and do better than the sins of the past he's been carrying around all these years. I think it's great that Nightingale's going to retire from the police to focus on teaching, I think that will allow much better scope for them both to grow, and yet still be working together. (Just in a different capacity.)
I find Beverly hard to parse in the earlier books. She's enough younger than Peter that the whole "suddenly we're pregnant and expecting kids!" and everyone's happy about it!" is weird to me. Peter's in his mid-late 20s, and is settled in his career, but Bev is in university! I would have expected her to prefer to wait. And then there's the fact that she's a goddess, and a geographical feature, and to some degree a reincarnation of a previous deity. So something exploring that dynamic from her perspective would be interesting. Her perspective on Peter, the Folly, and Thomas would also be really interesting to me. I love stories that bring up weird aspects of the demi-monde and magic.
Abigail Kamara: I love her as a girl detective/problem solver/apprentice wizard, but would prefer she not end up joining the Met. I like her perspective on magic and things and the way she is building her own connections to the demimonde that don't go through Peter and Nightingale. I love the mutual respect she and Thomas have for one another.
Also, I'd be thrilled to get either a story about magic becoming public knowledge (oh, the conspiracy theories!) or an AU where it has been all along and an exploration of how that changed. Or a story where Ettersberg never happened and the Folly is a large institution and Thomas is one wizard among many. Or a story where Peter is the lone survivor of the old Folly, 100 years old, and Nightingale is the young new apprentice.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
SW OT
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 serve as the practical "let's get support and resources for this new Jedi Order you're building" while Luke swans around being compassionate and heroic and saving the day? (But make sure that Lando's contributions are valued and not taken for granted.) 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. Also, Weird Jedi Shit is always fun.
Treats are enabled and welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, Kylo Ren
