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.
other things to keeep 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.
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.)
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change 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. 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.
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.
I'd love a story about magic becoming public knowledge (the conspiracy theories!) or an AU where it has been all along. Or Ettersberg never happened and the Folly is a large institution and Thomas is one wizard among many. Or Peter is the lone survivor of the old Folly, 100 years old, and Nightingale is the young new apprentice.
Mamusu & Nightingale: She has such a forceful personality, and deeply loves Peter (even if their relationship is complicated). I think Thomas probably respects her a great deal. What if something happened to Peter and the two of them had to figure it out? What if, somehow, she were the one who became an apprentice, when she was younger, instead of being a janitor? What if the Jazz Vampires had killed Richard instead of just draining him/giving him brain damage leading to addiction, AND what if the Nightingale had been investigating? And Mamusu (either with bb!Peter or without, if she hadn't had him yet) becomes his apprentice so she can become a witch finder? Or Thomas felt guilty over not catching the jazz vampires sooner, and she needs a place to stay, so he offers her one of the many empty rooms in the Folly while she's getting her feet back under her. Or maybe she leveraged her friendship with Elsie "Hatbox" Winstanley and got a librarian or archivist job instead of cleaning, and somehow that connected with a case of Nightingale's? Or maybe she just folds Nightingale in to the large extended family she keeps track of and they get together for coffee regularly or something to gossip about Peter and Beverly and stuff. What if she had some magic training from her own tradition back in Sierra Leone? What if she became friends with the Rivers earlier, before Peter was an apprentice, and they used her as a go-between when dealing with the Folly?
Mamusu & Elsie: I'm curious about how they met, whether in London or in Africa. I headcanon that Mamusu was one of those Africans who was a professional back home but couldn't get anything but janitorial work in England because racism (and also because, in her case, she was taking care of a husband and kid and didn't have time to fight through the system). But what if she could have gotten a job as a librarian, and she and Elsie worked together in special collections? Or you could do something odd-couple-ish where the major events of both lives are the same, but they're still friends who do stuff together despite the vast differences in their backgrounds and lives.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
I love how hopepunk this series is: yes, terrible things have happened, and yes, there are genuinely evil people, and yes, there are people who aren't evil but are nonetheless really awful. And yet, despite it all, good people win. There are people who can be trusted to be good, and kind, and loyal. I love how three-dimensional everyone is, not just the heroes but the villains, too. If you wanted to bring in historical flourishes, I'd be happy with parallels to European history, but I'd be ECSTATIC if you brought in non-Western ideas, practices, structures, clothing styles, and institutions.
I would be interested in what happened after the book, but I would also be interested in AUs. For example: Maia brought to court earlier by his brother! Maia ran away from Edonomee and was doing something else (pirate? courier? poacher? factory worker?) when his father and brothers were killed! Chenelo lived! Chenelo was married to Nemolis instead of Varenechibel, and Maia is Nemolis' son! Etc., etc. Please don't have Maia's time under Setheris' abuse be the focus of the fic.
Chenelo lives! There are so many possibilities. I'm fine with either "she was never sick" or "she got medical treatment she was denied in canon and got better" or pretty much anything. I'm interested in AUs where she was never relegated, or where she lived in relegation with Maia until he inherited, or even where she was relegated and then Varenechibel brought her back to court for some reason. (This is a perfect place for "villain has amnesia"--if Varenechibel hit his head and forgot everything, he'd still be a cold and unpleasant person; but if he didn't remember being in love with Pazhiro, he might not resent Chenelo as much, and might rank "diplomatic relationship with Barizhan" as more important than "my personal resentment".) Or maybe her half sister the pirate came and stole her and Maia away and they've lived quite happily in a foreign land until Varenechibel and his older sons died in the crash. Or maybe Varenechibel dies before she gets relegated, and then the Elvish court marries her off because they need a reason to keep her (and Maia) in the Ethuveraz, because while Maru would probably only want Maia as an heir because he doesn't have one, what if he wants Maia so that his heir will have a claim to the throne of the Ethuveraz. Or maybe Chenelo & Maia get sent back to Barizhan and Maia is Maru's heir!
Despite the fact that Maia is explicitly religious and Thara is a religious professional, we get very little in the way of details about how things actually work, what people actually believe and do in their day to day lives, and so on and so forth. I would love to delve into that.
Prelate politics: we get told that the prelacy in Amalo is "a nest of vipers" and Thara is supposed to be at least TRYING to sort that out, but we get nothing about it beyond "the two most powerful people in his order are jerks who don't like him." I would love to see more! Or a casefic with Thara and Velhiro.
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.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change 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.
I love Dax's relationship with Sisko, that lasted three hosts. 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, particularly if you throw in marriage to one of the hosts.
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.
Iliana Ghemor would be such a fascinating person. What happened to her? Did she survive? (I'm fine with her dying tragically, but I'd also be interested to see her and her father meet after he's exposed.) If so, is she still a loyal Cardassian? How did she and Marritza meet? How was he radicalized?
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 is so different from Dax, with such different priorities … and yet they had a very deep connection. I'd love to see more.
I love to hate Dukat. You can 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, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
The original Zahn trilogy and the X-Wing books are my favorite parts of the old Legends universe, but I like everything EXCEPT the Courtship of Princess Leia and the New Jedi Order stuff. (Teneniel Djo is awesome! Han kidnapping Leia is really really REALLY not. And I hated pretty much everything about the Vong.) I really like it when Luke is building a new Jedi community and rebuilding old traditions. You can bring in details from the PT and newer canon, if they don't contradict major parts of the Zahn trilogy.
Mara has such a complex past. I think she has trauma from her time with Palpatine that she can't admit even to herself--he was so good at grooming young people, so very manipulative, and even when you know your abuser did evil things to you, it's still hard to internalize. I think she has a unique perspective on the Force, and the Jedi, and galactic politics, that doesn't fit easily or neatly with the others but nevertheless is important to include if they don't want to re-make the mistakes of the past. It's about how do we remember the past while working to create a new future? How do we avoid making old mistakes? How do we heal? How do we build something better?
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.) Also, Weird Jedi Shit is always fun.
I think Lando and Mara would do very well together; both okay with shady stuff, but both with deep principles they will not compromise. My primary ship is Luke/Mara but I was livid when they retconned Lando/Mara out with "oh, no, they were never really together, it was just an undercover thing!" Even as a very sheltered middle class white teen, I could tell that was racist bullshit, and also smacked of that patriarchal extreme-monagamist trope where "if you love each other, your previous relationships can't have meant anything!" which always hits harder for women than men. No. People can decide a relationship isn't working and end it and start new ones without devaluing and denying the previous relationship. I would love Lando/Mara. I would love Luke/Mara where either she was never with Lando at all even for undercover purposes, or where Lando/Mara used to be together and broke up amicably. I would love Luke/Lando/Mara. I would be livid at "but Lando/Mara was never a real relationship!"
Plot bunnies: Standard Star Wars shenanigans where the fate of the galaxy is at stake and Our Heroes save the day. Is there critical knowledge in a hidden holocron they have to find? Is one of the other Hands (or an Inquisitor, or some other evil Force user) making trouble for Karrde and/or the New Jedi Order and/or the New Republic? Is the Empire threatening Lando's newest business venture (again)?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, twincest, the "Lando and Mara were never really together, it was all a con/undercover thing!" retcon, Kylo Ren
I love Enola, but the thing that captured my interest in the first movie was the spark between Edith and Sherlock. I love Edith; she's such a fascinating character, and I love all the things she's got going: her shop, the classes she teaches, her work with Eudoria and the feminist revolutionaries. I'd love to see some of their adventures. And also, I loved that she didn't take any shit from Sherlock, and when she called him on the ways his privilege was blinding him, he listened and respected her. I'd love to see them work a case together or deal with some issue from the feminist group spiraling out of control, or just the two of them both being mentors for Enola in different ways.
Then there's all the ... whatever Edith and Eudoria are up to. What things do they agree on? What things do they disagree on? What's the rest of their group like? What are their goals?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
Ah, B5, 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
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/Lennier
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?
Is there a mystery about Jeff/Valen and the Minbari, something having to do with prophecy, time travel and/or messages from Sinclair/Valen in the past? Does he help Delenn become more human while she helps him settle in as ambassador to Minbar (and Entil'zha?) What about an AU where he stays as commander of Babylon 5? Or where Delenn sought him out after the Battle of the Line?
Delenn & Neroon, Lennier & Neroon
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.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
What can I say, I just love Vulcans. Trip and T'Pol were hands down my favorite thing about the show. Also, I love the idea of that Enterprise that got thrown back in time and turned into a generation ship, and I would love to see more of them and what happened when they first got thrown back in time, and also what might have happened if Lorian's Enterprise had survived.
A note on worldbuilding: so much of the things we're told about Vulcans in Enterprise makes NO SENSE when compared with ... anything in any other Star Trek show ever. For example, how do you outlaw melds and telepathic contact when YOU NEED TELEPATHIC BONDS TO MATE EVERY SEVEN YEARS?!?!?!?!? You can either ignore the contradictions or lean into them and find explanations for them.
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.
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 (but it might take a lot of work). 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).
Prompts: what was life like when Enterprise was stuck back in time just waiting for things to come around so they could attack the Xindi weapon, knowing that Lorian was going to be the only one of them still alive when it happened? Pon Farr and its ramifications: if T'Pol has to go through Pon Farr with Trip how does that affect her relationship with them, both working and personal? What about T'Pol's neurological damage, how does that affect things? Or just a normal episode-like shenanigans!
Please ignore the last episode.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, episode: "These are the Voyages ..."
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
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
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 Kamala's husband died 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
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
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.
Deanna Troi/Worf
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.
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.
Geordi/Ro Laren
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 & Spock
They meet under such fraught circumstances. I'd love an AU where something happened at the wedding (and how did Picard end up as a guest?) Or something else early in Picard's career. Or maybe Spock's efforts bear fruit and Enterprise is sent for diplomacy, or Spock has to leave Romulus and go back to being an ambassador, or Spock and Picard have to work together to save Romulus from the supernova. (Please don't destroy Romulus. Also, I've never seen PIC, and what spoilers I have seen I'm not thrilled with; I'd prefer either something before it or an AU.)
Morgan Bateson: That's a huge adjustment, and I'd love to see it. How did they react to changes in Federation/Starfleet? How did Starfleet react to them? Also, if 17 days gave the TNG crew deja vu, what did 80 YEARS do on the Bozeman? Or was their time loop too short to notice?
Sito & Ro: They have such different experiences, both in their backgrounds and in Starfleet. It'd be interesting to see them together and what they think of each other. (Also, I bet that on Enterprise they'd get "you're both Bajoran, you must be friends/agree on everything!") They were on board the ship at the same time! Either a mission before their respective fates, or Sito survives and Ro doesn't leave, or Ro/the Maquis rescues Sito from a Cardassian prison camp, there are so many possibilities.
Spock & Lwaxana: they're both ambassadors at the same time, and they're both iconoclastic but in different ways. I'd love to see them cause productive havoc in negotiations.
Sela: I would love more details about her life, how she got her position, what it's like to be so visibly different, any ambiguity/conflict in her relationship with her mother. Or an AU where she didn't scream and Tasha escaped with her would be great.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
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
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.
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.
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.)
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change 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. 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.
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.
I'd love a story about magic becoming public knowledge (the conspiracy theories!) or an AU where it has been all along. Or Ettersberg never happened and the Folly is a large institution and Thomas is one wizard among many. Or Peter is the lone survivor of the old Folly, 100 years old, and Nightingale is the young new apprentice.
Mamusu & Nightingale: She has such a forceful personality, and deeply loves Peter (even if their relationship is complicated). I think Thomas probably respects her a great deal. What if something happened to Peter and the two of them had to figure it out? What if, somehow, she were the one who became an apprentice, when she was younger, instead of being a janitor? What if the Jazz Vampires had killed Richard instead of just draining him/giving him brain damage leading to addiction, AND what if the Nightingale had been investigating? And Mamusu (either with bb!Peter or without, if she hadn't had him yet) becomes his apprentice so she can become a witch finder? Or Thomas felt guilty over not catching the jazz vampires sooner, and she needs a place to stay, so he offers her one of the many empty rooms in the Folly while she's getting her feet back under her. Or maybe she leveraged her friendship with Elsie "Hatbox" Winstanley and got a librarian or archivist job instead of cleaning, and somehow that connected with a case of Nightingale's? Or maybe she just folds Nightingale in to the large extended family she keeps track of and they get together for coffee regularly or something to gossip about Peter and Beverly and stuff. What if she had some magic training from her own tradition back in Sierra Leone? What if she became friends with the Rivers earlier, before Peter was an apprentice, and they used her as a go-between when dealing with the Folly?
Mamusu & Elsie: I'm curious about how they met, whether in London or in Africa. I headcanon that Mamusu was one of those Africans who was a professional back home but couldn't get anything but janitorial work in England because racism (and also because, in her case, she was taking care of a husband and kid and didn't have time to fight through the system). But what if she could have gotten a job as a librarian, and she and Elsie worked together in special collections? Or you could do something odd-couple-ish where the major events of both lives are the same, but they're still friends who do stuff together despite the vast differences in their backgrounds and lives.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
I love how hopepunk this series is: yes, terrible things have happened, and yes, there are genuinely evil people, and yes, there are people who aren't evil but are nonetheless really awful. And yet, despite it all, good people win. There are people who can be trusted to be good, and kind, and loyal. I love how three-dimensional everyone is, not just the heroes but the villains, too. If you wanted to bring in historical flourishes, I'd be happy with parallels to European history, but I'd be ECSTATIC if you brought in non-Western ideas, practices, structures, clothing styles, and institutions.
I would be interested in what happened after the book, but I would also be interested in AUs. For example: Maia brought to court earlier by his brother! Maia ran away from Edonomee and was doing something else (pirate? courier? poacher? factory worker?) when his father and brothers were killed! Chenelo lived! Chenelo was married to Nemolis instead of Varenechibel, and Maia is Nemolis' son! Etc., etc. Please don't have Maia's time under Setheris' abuse be the focus of the fic.
Chenelo lives! There are so many possibilities. I'm fine with either "she was never sick" or "she got medical treatment she was denied in canon and got better" or pretty much anything. I'm interested in AUs where she was never relegated, or where she lived in relegation with Maia until he inherited, or even where she was relegated and then Varenechibel brought her back to court for some reason. (This is a perfect place for "villain has amnesia"--if Varenechibel hit his head and forgot everything, he'd still be a cold and unpleasant person; but if he didn't remember being in love with Pazhiro, he might not resent Chenelo as much, and might rank "diplomatic relationship with Barizhan" as more important than "my personal resentment".) Or maybe her half sister the pirate came and stole her and Maia away and they've lived quite happily in a foreign land until Varenechibel and his older sons died in the crash. Or maybe Varenechibel dies before she gets relegated, and then the Elvish court marries her off because they need a reason to keep her (and Maia) in the Ethuveraz, because while Maru would probably only want Maia as an heir because he doesn't have one, what if he wants Maia so that his heir will have a claim to the throne of the Ethuveraz. Or maybe Chenelo & Maia get sent back to Barizhan and Maia is Maru's heir!
Despite the fact that Maia is explicitly religious and Thara is a religious professional, we get very little in the way of details about how things actually work, what people actually believe and do in their day to day lives, and so on and so forth. I would love to delve into that.
Prelate politics: we get told that the prelacy in Amalo is "a nest of vipers" and Thara is supposed to be at least TRYING to sort that out, but we get nothing about it beyond "the two most powerful people in his order are jerks who don't like him." I would love to see more! Or a casefic with Thara and Velhiro.
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.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change 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.
I love Dax's relationship with Sisko, that lasted three hosts. 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, particularly if you throw in marriage to one of the hosts.
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.
Iliana Ghemor would be such a fascinating person. What happened to her? Did she survive? (I'm fine with her dying tragically, but I'd also be interested to see her and her father meet after he's exposed.) If so, is she still a loyal Cardassian? How did she and Marritza meet? How was he radicalized?
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 is so different from Dax, with such different priorities … and yet they had a very deep connection. I'd love to see more.
I love to hate Dukat. You can 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, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
The original Zahn trilogy and the X-Wing books are my favorite parts of the old Legends universe, but I like everything EXCEPT the Courtship of Princess Leia and the New Jedi Order stuff. (Teneniel Djo is awesome! Han kidnapping Leia is really really REALLY not. And I hated pretty much everything about the Vong.) I really like it when Luke is building a new Jedi community and rebuilding old traditions. You can bring in details from the PT and newer canon, if they don't contradict major parts of the Zahn trilogy.
Mara has such a complex past. I think she has trauma from her time with Palpatine that she can't admit even to herself--he was so good at grooming young people, so very manipulative, and even when you know your abuser did evil things to you, it's still hard to internalize. I think she has a unique perspective on the Force, and the Jedi, and galactic politics, that doesn't fit easily or neatly with the others but nevertheless is important to include if they don't want to re-make the mistakes of the past. It's about how do we remember the past while working to create a new future? How do we avoid making old mistakes? How do we heal? How do we build something better?
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.) Also, Weird Jedi Shit is always fun.
I think Lando and Mara would do very well together; both okay with shady stuff, but both with deep principles they will not compromise. My primary ship is Luke/Mara but I was livid when they retconned Lando/Mara out with "oh, no, they were never really together, it was just an undercover thing!" Even as a very sheltered middle class white teen, I could tell that was racist bullshit, and also smacked of that patriarchal extreme-monagamist trope where "if you love each other, your previous relationships can't have meant anything!" which always hits harder for women than men. No. People can decide a relationship isn't working and end it and start new ones without devaluing and denying the previous relationship. I would love Lando/Mara. I would love Luke/Mara where either she was never with Lando at all even for undercover purposes, or where Lando/Mara used to be together and broke up amicably. I would love Luke/Lando/Mara. I would be livid at "but Lando/Mara was never a real relationship!"
Plot bunnies: Standard Star Wars shenanigans where the fate of the galaxy is at stake and Our Heroes save the day. Is there critical knowledge in a hidden holocron they have to find? Is one of the other Hands (or an Inquisitor, or some other evil Force user) making trouble for Karrde and/or the New Jedi Order and/or the New Republic? Is the Empire threatening Lando's newest business venture (again)?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, modern AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, twincest, the "Lando and Mara were never really together, it was all a con/undercover thing!" retcon, Kylo Ren
I love Enola, but the thing that captured my interest in the first movie was the spark between Edith and Sherlock. I love Edith; she's such a fascinating character, and I love all the things she's got going: her shop, the classes she teaches, her work with Eudoria and the feminist revolutionaries. I'd love to see some of their adventures. And also, I loved that she didn't take any shit from Sherlock, and when she called him on the ways his privilege was blinding him, he listened and respected her. I'd love to see them work a case together or deal with some issue from the feminist group spiraling out of control, or just the two of them both being mentors for Enola in different ways.
Then there's all the ... whatever Edith and Eudoria are up to. What things do they agree on? What things do they disagree on? What's the rest of their group like? What are their goals?
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
Ah, B5, 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
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/Lennier
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?
Is there a mystery about Jeff/Valen and the Minbari, something having to do with prophecy, time travel and/or messages from Sinclair/Valen in the past? Does he help Delenn become more human while she helps him settle in as ambassador to Minbar (and Entil'zha?) What about an AU where he stays as commander of Babylon 5? Or where Delenn sought him out after the Battle of the Line?
Delenn & Neroon, Lennier & Neroon
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.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
What can I say, I just love Vulcans. Trip and T'Pol were hands down my favorite thing about the show. Also, I love the idea of that Enterprise that got thrown back in time and turned into a generation ship, and I would love to see more of them and what happened when they first got thrown back in time, and also what might have happened if Lorian's Enterprise had survived.
A note on worldbuilding: so much of the things we're told about Vulcans in Enterprise makes NO SENSE when compared with ... anything in any other Star Trek show ever. For example, how do you outlaw melds and telepathic contact when YOU NEED TELEPATHIC BONDS TO MATE EVERY SEVEN YEARS?!?!?!?!? You can either ignore the contradictions or lean into them and find explanations for them.
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.
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 (but it might take a lot of work). 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).
Prompts: what was life like when Enterprise was stuck back in time just waiting for things to come around so they could attack the Xindi weapon, knowing that Lorian was going to be the only one of them still alive when it happened? Pon Farr and its ramifications: if T'Pol has to go through Pon Farr with Trip how does that affect her relationship with them, both working and personal? What about T'Pol's neurological damage, how does that affect things? Or just a normal episode-like shenanigans!
Please ignore the last episode.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic, episode: "These are the Voyages ..."
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
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
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 Kamala's husband died 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
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
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.
Deanna Troi/Worf
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.
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.
Geordi/Ro Laren
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 & Spock
They meet under such fraught circumstances. I'd love an AU where something happened at the wedding (and how did Picard end up as a guest?) Or something else early in Picard's career. Or maybe Spock's efforts bear fruit and Enterprise is sent for diplomacy, or Spock has to leave Romulus and go back to being an ambassador, or Spock and Picard have to work together to save Romulus from the supernova. (Please don't destroy Romulus. Also, I've never seen PIC, and what spoilers I have seen I'm not thrilled with; I'd prefer either something before it or an AU.)
Morgan Bateson: That's a huge adjustment, and I'd love to see it. How did they react to changes in Federation/Starfleet? How did Starfleet react to them? Also, if 17 days gave the TNG crew deja vu, what did 80 YEARS do on the Bozeman? Or was their time loop too short to notice?
Sito & Ro: They have such different experiences, both in their backgrounds and in Starfleet. It'd be interesting to see them together and what they think of each other. (Also, I bet that on Enterprise they'd get "you're both Bajoran, you must be friends/agree on everything!") They were on board the ship at the same time! Either a mission before their respective fates, or Sito survives and Ro doesn't leave, or Ro/the Maquis rescues Sito from a Cardassian prison camp, there are so many possibilities.
Spock & Lwaxana: they're both ambassadors at the same time, and they're both iconoclastic but in different ways. I'd love to see them cause productive havoc in negotiations.
Sela: I would love more details about her life, how she got her position, what it's like to be so visibly different, any ambiguity/conflict in her relationship with her mother. Or an AU where she didn't scream and Tasha escaped with her would be great.
Treats welcome
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, rape/noncon, major embarrassment/humiliation, setting change AUs, human/no powers AUs, darkfic
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
