Otter's Rock

blackisbeautifulex was a lot of fun, and I am SO glad I did it! I ended up starting not one, not two, but THREE stories for it and only got one completed to show for it. I started off by looking at my recip's Benjamin Sisko prompts (I LOVE Sisko and it is a CRIME that he does not get more fic), and I started one about Starfleet's response to him being the Emissary. Then I read their list of likes (they didn't have any prompts :( but at least they had likes) and they like soulmark stories, so then I went "ooooooooooh, what if it's a deconstruction of the soulmate trope because Sisko's soulmark is from the Prophets, not about any mortal soulmate relationship, and what would that say about his relationships with Jennifer and Kassidy?" I started that one, but then realized that if they like soulmate stories, they may not like the trope being deconstructed, and so that would probably not be a great gift, so went back to the first story. It was almost done, I had one scene left, and then I went back to double-check their DNWs and realized that while my fic didn't cross them, it was getting pretty darn close to one. (The DNW was depression, and part of the fic was talking about Sisko's deep grief for Jennifer and how he only really and truly emerged from the fog of grief during that first encounter with the Prophets. Grief is not depression, but a long-term deep grief has a LOT of similarities, and if they DNW'd depression they probably wouldn't want something where deep grief was that important to the story.)

And this was, like, a day before the upload deadline.

Cue panic. I went back and forth on things for a while, and realized that while the last scene (which I was in the midst of writing) was the one that got closest to the DNW, and the story would work as a complete whole without it (even if the last scene would make the story better). So I uploaded a bus-pass version of the story without the final scene (i.e. one that would fulfill the requirements if I got hit by a bus between then and reveals, even if it wasn't as polished as I would like). But I was still fretting about things, so I went back to their letter to see if anything else they'd requested grabbed me.

Lo and behold, there in the TNG section was Geordi/Data. Now, I enjoy both characters separately and together, but I'm fairly meh about them--there are other TNG pairings I find more compelling. But! the idea of a Geordi/Data soulmate fic was interesting. Could an android have a soulmate? What would it be like to be an android's soulmate? And the whole idea blossomed from there, and I wrote over 8k in a week and uploaded it in place of the Sisko fic the day before it was due. Despite the rush and not having a beta, I really like how it turned out.

Title: open your heart knowing
Author: Beatrice_otter
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Characters: Geordi LaForge/Data
Written for: eafay70 in Black Is Beautiful 2021
AN: Yes, I know that the show implies that Data had never played poker before he played it with the senior officers, but given how common poker is in Starfleet, I am disregarding that.

Summary: Geordi had no idea what his soulmark meant, until he saw Data's manual.

At AO3. On tumblr.

Geordi had always known his soulmark was a little unusual. For one thing, it was on his back, and most humans had their soulmark in a place where they could see it themselves without a mirror. For another, it wasn't a word or symbol anyone recognized. Instead, it was a semi-regular pattern of dots.

( Read more... )

Title: Processing
Author: beatrice_otter 
Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Rating: PG
Characters: Data, Deanna Troi
Warnings: none
Episode Related: Descent, I & II
Word Count: 1,900
Written For: winged_mammal in help_haiti 
Betaed by: newsbean 
Summary: Sometimes having a thing is not so pleasing as wanting. Data, after Descent.

( 5.6 seconds after Data pressed the door chime, he heard Deanna Troi's voice. )