Otter's Rock

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. )

I do a lot of exchanges in fall/winter, and I love all of them, but I just learned about another one that I might have to do instead of one of them. There is an exchange entirely dedicated to sedoretus, that weird 4-person poly marriage LeGuin came up with. And I love Sedoretu stories. It's called sedoretuex and it runs from now through December (currently in nominations). If I do it, I would have to give up doing startrekholidays, which I've done the last several years and really enjoyed.

My problem is that there are a number of ships I have where there are THREE characters, but nobody to really slot in for the fourth. For example, Lando/Mara/Luke and then who would you put in for the fourth? There are a dearth of women in the Legends universe, even fewer in the OT, and most of the ones who exist are already paired up. I don't want to break up Han/Leia, or Corran/Mirax. Then with Babylon 5, I love the idea of Delenn/John/Lennier and Delenn/John/Neroon, but then who to put in as a fourth? Mayal? Susan?

And you know, there aren't that many possible sedoretus in most of my fandoms. I'm used to offering, like, ten different characters/pairing in a lot of my fandoms because they tend to have large casts and I love them all. But most of them, I'm going through, and there's like one possible sedoretu.

I do love the concept of sedoretus.

But I also love startrekholidays