Otter's Rock

ficinabox revealed the authors, er, several weeks ago. But I was too caught up with yuletide to remember to post what I wrote! So here it is. I had great fun writing this crossover between Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice, where Charlotte gets a better life than canon. As I was pondering how to logically get Brandon and Charlotte to meet even though they live so far apart, it occurred to me that Sir John Middleton and Sir William Lucas are very similar people and would probably get along amazingly well. (The other easy way to do it would be to set it earlier in both canons, when William Lucas (not yet Sir William) is a prosperous tradesman, probably with business connections in London, and Colonel Brandon has just been handed custody of his dead beloved's child and is trying to figure out frantically what to do with her, before he has to go back to his regiment in India or wherever. I can easily see him marrying then to give her a mother, and if he somehow became acquainted with the Lucases while in London, might find Charlotte just the ticket.)

( Thoughts on the Lucas finances )

Title: A Summer in Devonshire
Fandom: Sense & Sensibility/Pride & Prejudice
Characters: Colonel Brandon/Charlotte Lucas
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Written for: hiddencait in Fic In A Box 2025
Summary: Sir John Middleton was happy to invite his friend Sir William Lucas and family to stay at Barton for the summer. Charlotte is happy to travel, and to meet new people.


( Author's note: travel distances and clothing details. )
***

Sir William Lucas had never aspired to visit St. James' Court, nor indeed to become a knight; he had been content with his life as a respectable (and prosperous) tradesman. When such an opportunity had been granted him, all unexpectedly, he had been so overcome with all the honor of it that he had not been able to savor the pleasures thereof. Given his humble antecedents and employment, very few in that place took any notice of him, and those who did cared more to practice their superiority than form any connection. It was an experience more pleasurable in the telling, for he spent many congenial hours describing the grandeur of the court and its people to his acquaintances in Meryton, as he and Lady Lucas took their place as one of four-and-twenty families of good breeding in the neighborhood.

It also spurred his desire to trade his business for an estate more suitable to his new dignity, for being Sir William of any estate (however small) would occasion less comment than Sir William, tradesman of a small market town.

( That being accomplished, he settled in quite happily to being a landed gentleman, and would never have stirred from Meryton again if Lady Lucas had not possessed the ambition her husband lacked )


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

( Read more... )

justmarriedexchange fics have revealed, and so I can tell you that I wrote a Trip/T'Pol fic! My recip, lionessvalenti, had several suggestions for canon-divergent AUs, which happen to be one of my favorite types of story to write--pick a canon event, tweak it slightly, and see what happens from there. And also, I love Vulcans, and have Opinions on the way Star Trek: Enterprise handled them, and this fic gave me lots of opportunities to explore all of that. I really enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it!


Title: that I could call my very own
Author: beatrice_otter 
Fandom: Star Trek: Enterprise
Pairing: Trip/T'Pol
Written for: lionessvalenti in Just Married Exchange 2025
Word count: 14k
Summary: 

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

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

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

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

***

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

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

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

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




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FFFX authors have revealed! I wrote a Persuasion AU wherein Anne's mother, Lady Elliot, did not die in childbirth when Anne was a teenager. This, then has changes when Anne meets Wentworth for the first time. The problem I had was twofold. One, the story kept trying to turn into Lady Elliot's story, rather than Anne and Wentworth's story. And two, I wanted to bring the Crofts in, both because my recip requested them and because it would be a nice counterpoint to Lady Elliot, but I couldn't think of anything for them to do besides one conversation towards the end.

Title: Faithfulness and Fortune
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandom: Persuasion
Characters: Anne Elliot/Fredrick Wentworth, Lady Elliot
Written for: fiona15351 in FFFX 2024
Betaed by: olive2read
Summary: In a world where Lady Elliot survived, Anne and Frederick's courtship goes a little differently.

AN: Thank you to the members of the Little Details and Age of Sail communities on Dreamwidth for help with Naval details. I also found a helpful paper on Academia.edu, "Golden Harvest: The British Naval Prize System, 1793-1815" by Daniel K. Benjamin.

The song Anne sings for the boys to dance to is Miss Cooper's Fancy. (This website has notations on how to dance it.)

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


***

The marriage between Sir Walter and Lady Elliott had been, at the time of its consummation, a love match; to be sure, both were from ancient families of wealth and rank, and it was an entirely suitable connection in which both sides equally bestowed honor and fortune upon the other. But that suitability had merely encouraged the match, not created it. They had become acquainted at a series of balls, while visiting in the same neighborhood; both were young, she was a noted beauty and he was remarkably handsome. He was active, and she was accomplished. That, combined with the encouragement of all others concerned, was enough to bring them to the wedding breakfast in the full flush of infatuation of which young people are capable.

( The depths of his vanity and the limitations of his intellect had not been revealed over the course of their courtship, for balls and card parties and picnics do not encourage deep conversation )

The third yuletide fic I wrote was a treat for a pinch-hitter, which was an excuse to write Wimsey fic. Now, I love the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries, but I have only once been brave enough to write Peter himself--and that was only for a few scenes in a crossover. I minored in English, but that is simply not enough to give one the depth of knowledge of pre-20th-century British literature that one needs to be able to write Peter, who drops allusions and quotes like nobody's business. I spent so much time doing keyword searches through poetry archives, it was ridiculous. So instead, I wrote about Harriet and Mary, who I think would get along well together.

But in the course of doing canon review, I looked for a timeline, and discovered that Mary is much older than I thought she was--she's only five years younger than Peter! He, the Dowager Duchess, and the narrative all treat Mary like she's some silly young girl in Clouds of Witness, and she's actually 28! She and Parker don't marry until she's 35! She's older than Harriet! She served as a nurse in WWI, and she was old enough that she might have served in France itself! (Younger women were only allowed to nurse in British hospitals.) That changed a lot about how I saw her and interpreted the few scenes she's in, and also changed how I saw her and Parker's relationship. I now headcanon that the reason it took so long for Mary and Parker to marry is that at first he was hoping she'd grow out of her radicalism, and she wasn't willing to marry him on that basis, and also had to work out if she was okay with someone as socially conservative as Parker is. Which left them with some things to work out.

Title: Tea for Two
Fandom: Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Characters: Harriet Vane, Mary Wimsey
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Written for: tucuxi in Yuletide 2024
Rating: Gen

Harriet regarded the invitation with some suspicion. She had resolved to put Lord Peter—and all the tangle of gratitude, resentment, and admiration he provoked in her—out of her mind, at least for now. He was out of town, on a case, and Harriet had rather been hoping to use the time to settle her mind a bit.

She was beginning to plot out the next Templeton novel, and it was going as well as it ever did at this stage—meaning she was wondering why on earth she'd ever thought detective novels should be her passion, as she poked holes in every possible complication she dreamed up, and the ones she couldn't poke holes in would require ever so much research. But it would come; it always did. When she could focus; Lord Peter was not always conducive to that.

And here, as Lord Peter (and all his distractions) was safely out of the way, came a note from his sister, Lady Mary—or, as she styled herself, Mrs. Charles Parker, with an invitation to tea. Not at the Parker residence, but at a restaurant. There would be little danger of seeing the detective, and thus being unpleasantly reminded of her recent sojourn as a target of the judicial system. The restaurant was a respectable one, well within her budget, and easy to get to.

(  Much as she was grateful that Lord Peter was out of town for the moment, she was curious about him; what had made him, and why he was so interested in her. Lady Mary might answer some of her curiosity, without having to deal with the confounding man directly. )

With yuletide fics revealed, I can post the three fics that I wrote!

I was assigned to przed and we matched on Enola Holmes, with a request for Eudoria and Edith. Now, I'm actually more interested in Edith and Sherlock, but anything with Edith is great and of course writing her adventures with Eudoria would be fun (though I'd much rather someone else wrote them so I could read them--I find writing action very difficult). In reviewing the canon, the interesting thing I found was that although I remembered quite well how Edith took Sherlock down a peg, and her adventures with Eudoria, I'd forgotten or downplayed how kind and gentle she was with Enola when Enola was looking for her mother. There's a softer side to her character that I had forgotten all about. I don't know that it necessarily affected this story--it's about Edith and Eudoria, not Edith and Enola--but I was certainly conscious of it while writing.

Title: Women's Will
Author: beatrice_otter 
Fandom: Enola Holmes (movies)
Characters: Edith Grayston, Eudoria Vernet Holmes
Rating: Gen
Length: 2046 words
Written for: przed in yuletide 2024
Betaed by: kurushi

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


'Mrs. Treven' was not the first wealthy woman gone slumming with radicals in search of adventure. They were not terribly common, given the sort of social consequences polite society would heap upon them if it became known, to say nothing of the other sort of consequences their male relations might dole out.

But they did happen. Edith cast a cool eye over the newcomer; unlike most such tourists, at least she had the sense to wear sensible clothing that was unremarkable in color, cut, and style. There were no distinctive marks visible, nothing to catch the eye … except for her manners, which spoke loudly of being more accustomed to giving orders to servants than of sitting down with them. And the accent, of course. And the hands, which were softer than any other woman's here.

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I really enjoyed classicfilmex because I love old movies. This was actually not my first thought for this assignment; originally, I was going to do something with Maria and the kids (which sinkauli also requested). I had the skeleton of what it was going to be, and Maria's side all plotted out in my head. It was her figuring out how to handle it when one of the kids genuinely does something wrong. I had all the details, but the kids' voices just didn't come through, and so I switched to this, instead.

The song "Something Good" has always bugged me, because it's a beautiful song. Neither character has ever mentioned their childhoods, neither character has ever mentioned that anything in their life before the movie was anything but perfect (except for the death of the Captain's first wife). Now all of a sudden we get a whole song about how miserable they were as kids but it can't have been all bad because now they're here? WTF?

The reason it comes out of nowhere, btw, is that it was written for the film adaptation. The stage version has some notable differences. First, the Baroness and Max keep trying to convince the Captain to come to an accommodation with the Nazis (like they have), and second, there's a song about how rich people can't ever truly fall in love because life is too easy for them. So the love song between the Captain and Maria is all about how they're just an ordinary couple in love. It's not as good a song as "Something Good," and also, it's not true! Neither the Captain nor Maria are ordinary people! He's a war hero about to defy the new government, and she's an iconoclastic nun! It's even more of a WTF moment than Something Good, and it's not as good a song. (Though I do like the subplot about the Baroness and Max trying to convince the Captain to go along with the Nazis; it ties together the two halves of the story better than the film version does.)

Anyway, this fic goes the direction that it does to explain the song "Something Good" and what was going on in their childhoods that made them miserable. I headcanon Maria as having ADD/ADHD, and wrote her from that perspective.

Title: A Moment Of Truth
Author: beatrice_otter
Fandom: The Sound of Music
Characters: Maria/Georg
Rating: Gen
Length: 2,152 words
Written For: sinkauli in Classic Movie Exchange 2024

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

The terrace looking over the lake and the mountains beyond was the only part of the core estate where she truly felt at home; the rest of it was too grand for Maria to feel like she belonged in it.

Or at least, that was how it had felt when she'd first arrived. She had a place here, now, and the respect of the children and the household. Even the Captain—severe and angry as he'd been at first—had come around. She still felt like she might accidentally break some vase or chair that cost more than the house she'd grown up in, but even that was fading.

Maria still loved looking at the mountains more than at any part of the manicured, perfect grounds. But she didn't feel homesick for them in the way she'd expected to.

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fandom5k authors have revealed! So I can reveal what I wrote. First of all, thank you to my recip violet_pencil for having some great prompts, that was lovely. It's such a help to get an idea that inspires me, but which I also know my recip will also like. The relationship and pairing sent me in a direction I'd never considered before, and also I think in the process I figured out a bit more of why the Prophets are the way they are and why Sisko is important to them.


Title: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Author: Beatrice_otter
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Characters: James T. Kirk, Benjamin Sisko
Written For: violet_pencil in Fandom 5k 2024
Rating: Gen
Length: 5,787 words
Betaed by: Greenygal

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

Benjamin Sisko was watching the heat death of the universe. Benjamin Sisko was helping the Bantaca Spire be erected in B'Hala. Benjamin Sisko was trying to comfort Kasidy over his entering the Celestial Temple, and failing because he could not collect enough of himself in one time and one place to give her the attention and care she needed. Benjamin Sisko was watching Cardassian soldiers use tractor beams and force-fields to remove the Orb of Harmony from the ruins of the monastery at Choddosh. Benjamin Sisko was in the Celestial Temple, teaching the Prophets about linearity for the first time using baseball as a metaphor. Benjamin Sisko was watching Kai Kira direct the Vedek Assembly to begin considering her successor, because she was going to retire to the monastery of Basyo Ume in nine weeks. Benjamin Sisko was watching the star that would one day be named B'hava'el coalesce and begin to burn.

( Benjamin Sisko was no longer corporeal, but he had a headache anyway. )

I suppose I should probably actually post my worldbuilding_exchange fic here. Wouldn't want to be too quick off the mark, it's only been a month since it was revealed 🤣.

I wrote a BSG fic, which gave me a lovely excuse to write a fic about a headcanon I've had since I first watched the show. (What the headcanon is, you'll have to read the fic to find out ...)

Title: Fertile Ground
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Characters: Original Four
Length: 5383 words
Written for: redrikki in Worldbuilding Exchange 2024

Summary: Simon only bothered to continue the fertility experiments because the others demanded it. Things are different on New Caprica.

AO3. Squidgeworld. Rebloggable on tumblr. Pillowfort.

Simon sat at his lab bench, waiting for his samples to finish processing—as well as they could, given the abysmal shortages of everything on New Caprica—and contemplated whether it would be worth it to take his turn as the Four representative at consensus meetings. The Ones were dead set against shipping in medical supplies from the Colonies. The Sixes and Eights should be pushing for it—if they truly wanted to build a relationship with the humans, helping them stay alive should be high on their priority list—but Fours were the only Cylons who really understood the fragility of the human body.

There was a knock at the door. Nurse Sashon popped her head in. "There's a human who's actually willing to have you treat her."

"Really?" Simon stripped off his gloves and tossed them in the laundry basket. Medical staff had been dramatically under-represented in the refugee fleet, and several years of trauma and poor healthcare and worse food hadn't been helped by the living conditions on New Caprica. But people would rather wait for Doc Cottle or one of the others, than be treated by a Cylon. "What's wrong with her?"

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sedoretuex has revealed, and I can now reveal that I wrote TWO stories! (I have not yet had time to read any stories but my own--I have been really busy this January--but I am planning on making my way through the collection soon.)

( Sedoretu explanation )

My second story for this exchange was a pinch hit for tielan that I had been eyeing for treat purposes since the beginning, because our tastes are very similar and every one of her ideas was amazing and absolutely a story I wanted to exist. But there was a problem! Each one of those stories, my feeling was "I want that to exist, but I don't know if I can do justice to it."

Here were my main options:

1) Relationship and prompt I have written for tielan before (MCU, Steve/Maria/Natasha/Bucky, the previous fic being Look Clear and Calm)

2) Really interesting relationship and prompt from a TV show I've only seen sporadic episodes of (Simon Basset/Anthony Bridgerton/Daphne Bridgerton/Kate Sharma (Bridgerton TV), The oldest son and oldest daughter of the Bridgerton family finding and settling on a sedoretu husband and wife for their familial quartet. In the middle of the season. With the ton looking on.)

3) Relationship I requested myself and would really like to se done, but I requested it because I'm not sure of my ability to write it and the canon is a TV show I haven't watched in almost 2 decades. (BSG, Lee/Kara/Sam/Dee)

4) Relationship I already wrote for this ficathon for my original assignment. (Star Wars Legends, Luke/Mara/Leia/Han, the other fic being Dawning Understanding)

And these were just the top four. There were 13 requested quartets and I could have written 10 of them! I was spoiled for choice! Honestly, it was a little bit paralyzing.

But in the end, I went with BSG, and decided that Wikipedia would have to be enough canon review. And it really did write itself; everything poured out. As always, for me, Dee was going to have a major role and survive; I love her and she was done so dirty by canon. Her death was the first time I got incandescently angry about a fridging because I could see it for what it was. And of the relationships in this foursome, Lee/Kara is my least favorite. (I am glad that in Kara we got to have a female character who was fucked up and messy and not punished for it or considered 'whiny,' but at the same time, there were a lot of other fucked up and messy female characters on that show, and a lot of the other character arcs interested me more than 'cosmic destiny + will she and Lee ever get their act together.' But I know that Lee/Kara is tielan's favorite! So as I was plotting out each section I had to restrain myself: how much Dee was too much? What could I find to say about the other three? Because if I was writing it for myself, the balance would have been very different. (But I think it would have been a weaker story, less balanced.)


Title: Six Things That Changed Because They Were In A Sedoretu, and One Thing That Didn't
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica
Relationship: Lee "Apollo" Adama/Sam Anders/Anastasia "Dee" Dualla/Kara "Starbuck" Thrace
Rating: T
Length: 7930 words
Author: Beatrice_Otter
Written For: tielan in Sedoretu Exchange
Betaed by: iberiandoctor

On AO3. On Squidgeworld. Rebloggable on tumblr and pillowfort.


One.
Collaborators

Sam was waiting for Lee when he came off the flight deck after his flight. It had been a routine combat air patrol, relaxing, not even a hint of a ghost of a problem, and Lee was feeling pretty good.

"Hey, Sam," he said, giving him a peck on the lips. "How's it going?"

Sam smiled, but his eyes were stormy. "I know our room's supposed to be mine and Kara's tonight, but that's not happening. Would you like to join me?" The room they shared was tiny, barely room for a bed, and they were lucky to get it. And the bed could only fit all four of them if they got really close. They had a rotation for who got it, and the rest of the time they slept in their individual racks.

Lee stopped himself from asking what had happened. Sam and Kara were a lot less volatile than he'd ever imagined a relationship with Kara could be, so it wasn't anything petty. But Lee appreciated that Sam didn't try to interfere with Lee and Kara's fights, and he tried to return the favor. "Sure," he said. A (slightly) bigger bed than his rack and a handsome man to fill it—of course he was interested.

***

( Dinner was no worse than usual, the sex was excellent, and afterwards Lee was looking forward to cuddling with Sam in a way neither Kara nor Dee tended to prefer. But Sam turned away and curled up on his side as soon as they were done. )