Star Trek Holidays Letter
Sep. 17th, 2020 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakDear Creator,
thank you so much for writing this story for me. We clearly share some Trekian interests, and I'm thrilled to find out what you'll come up with.
Generally speaking: one of the prompts specifically asks for a threesome, but the others are gen in nature, though if you want to include pairings in these, be my guest. Re: fluff or dark, I'm fine with wherever the muse takes you.
DNW:
- bashing of canon pairings or characters in general. By which I don't mean the characters have to like each and everyone else, which would be oc, and honestly, I'm not exactly an admirer of, say, Chakotay's. But that doesn't mean I want to read everyone dissing him (same with other characters)
- Alpha/Beta/Omega scenarios, watersports, infantilisation. Really not my thing, sorry.
- Rape. Now, a scenario I nominated involves relationships with power differentials, even canonical captive scenarios, not to mention hidden identities, and I'm not opposed to questionable consent per se to start with, but I really want all partners to, in the end, agree with what's going on.
(Otoh: Borg assimilation has, especially when discussing Picard's experience as Locutus, been likened to rape, and I can see that. So if your story is referencing this, it wouldn't be a problem for me.)
Likes:
- character exploration
- stoics who get the job done
- wordplay and banter if ic for the characters involved
- some humor amidst the angst if you go for a darker story
- fictional politics, history and literature (i.e. if you want to let the characters discuss the politics in their universe (e.g. the Federation's decision(s) re: Romulan refugees being an obvious case in point), or debate Cardassian literature a la Garak and Bashir, I'm all for it)
The question of AUs: In general, I'm not against exploring characters in, say, a "five things that never happened" scenarios, but for the prompts and characters I requested this year, I'd prefer if you remained in canon.
On to the prompts:
Laris & Jean-Luc Picard & Zhaban:
The relationship between Picard and his two ex Tal Shiar Romulans in the first two episodes intrigued and pleased me, and I much regretted Laris and Zhaban weren't in the rest of the show. Any fanfiction focusing on them would be very welcome - how did they end up with Jean-Luc? How did the trust between the three of them develop? What was life on Earth like for them in the early days? Maybe they intended to leave originally, and changed their minds gradually. Maybe it was a case of "becoming the mask" for them, i.e. originally they were meant to spy on Picard, then he quit Starfleet, they thought it was a trick at first and that he was preparing for some secret mission, only to realize no, this is it, if we stay we're stuck with this human in Labarre, France.
(Incidentally: it may be the tie-in novels cover all of this already. If so, feel free to offer your own scenario; I see only on screen canon as canon.)
And Picard: after a life time in space, being on Earth for longer than just a holiday must have been a hard readjustment even under the best of circumstances, and these weren't good circumstances. Not to mention that he felt he failed, he felt guilty. Self discipline or not, he probably wasn't always good company in ye early days. Though maybe choosing to live with Laris and Zhaban was also because he knew he needed people to live up to, instead of brooding on his lonesome.
Otoh: if you want to write something lighthearted about the day Picard decided to adopt Number One the dog and Laris and Zhaban wondered whether Number One wasn't secretly some intelligent life form in disguise, that would be cool, too. :)
Seven of Nine:
I've always liked Seven of Nine, and am thrilled she's back in an ongoing canon. Anything Seven related would be great. The backstory between the end of Voyager and how we meet her in Picard offers a great many possibilities. Both stories showing the gradual change over the years and stories picking out just one particular important time for her. What made her decide to leave Starfleet? (Or maybe she never "officially" joined once Voyager had arrived on Earth.) Using Annika as a name again/leaving Annika behind post Bjazyl is something the conversation with Biyazyl hints at, so: was Annika someone she decided she couldn't be anymore, in general? What made her become a ranger? We've seen what happened to Icheb and how this impacted on her - what about Naomi Wildman? On Voyager, her primary focus had been on science - did her changing this have something to do with the Synth ban (maybe there was a general backlash on anything that could be deemed AI research? Missing scenes for Seven during the first season are also welcome, especially so if you manage to work in Seven's scientist side, or give me a bit more inner struggle than canon does during her stint as Queen.
Michael Burnham/Gabriel Lorca/Ash Tyler:
The brief time Michael spent posing as her Mirrorverse self on board the Shenzou with Tyler just five seconds from a mental breakdown and Lorca just a step away from seeing his plan fulfilled, but otoh locked up and tortured all the time (which, even if you're an villain used to this stuff, has to be awful) is just asking for a messed up threesome, in my humble opinion. Michael summoning Lorca in her quarters supposedly for interrogation but really to give him a break from the torture is an ideal set up, as is the fact Ash still sees Lorca as his savior (and if anything, feels guilty for deceiving him). Extra points if Lorca isn't just manipulating the both of them but does have some genuine emotion involved in both cases; not that this stops him from pursuing his Mirror universe ruling goals, but you know, a break is a break, and I don't think he'd be in a hurry to get back into the agony booth. (He might even think this will make these two even more loyal to him, in which case he's completely wrong, but there you go.)
If your own idea for the story doesn't fit any of the prompts, that's no problem: I love fictional surprises, too, and am very much looking forward to your story!
thank you so much for writing this story for me. We clearly share some Trekian interests, and I'm thrilled to find out what you'll come up with.
Generally speaking: one of the prompts specifically asks for a threesome, but the others are gen in nature, though if you want to include pairings in these, be my guest. Re: fluff or dark, I'm fine with wherever the muse takes you.
DNW:
- bashing of canon pairings or characters in general. By which I don't mean the characters have to like each and everyone else, which would be oc, and honestly, I'm not exactly an admirer of, say, Chakotay's. But that doesn't mean I want to read everyone dissing him (same with other characters)
- Alpha/Beta/Omega scenarios, watersports, infantilisation. Really not my thing, sorry.
- Rape. Now, a scenario I nominated involves relationships with power differentials, even canonical captive scenarios, not to mention hidden identities, and I'm not opposed to questionable consent per se to start with, but I really want all partners to, in the end, agree with what's going on.
(Otoh: Borg assimilation has, especially when discussing Picard's experience as Locutus, been likened to rape, and I can see that. So if your story is referencing this, it wouldn't be a problem for me.)
Likes:
- character exploration
- stoics who get the job done
- wordplay and banter if ic for the characters involved
- some humor amidst the angst if you go for a darker story
- fictional politics, history and literature (i.e. if you want to let the characters discuss the politics in their universe (e.g. the Federation's decision(s) re: Romulan refugees being an obvious case in point), or debate Cardassian literature a la Garak and Bashir, I'm all for it)
The question of AUs: In general, I'm not against exploring characters in, say, a "five things that never happened" scenarios, but for the prompts and characters I requested this year, I'd prefer if you remained in canon.
On to the prompts:
Laris & Jean-Luc Picard & Zhaban:
The relationship between Picard and his two ex Tal Shiar Romulans in the first two episodes intrigued and pleased me, and I much regretted Laris and Zhaban weren't in the rest of the show. Any fanfiction focusing on them would be very welcome - how did they end up with Jean-Luc? How did the trust between the three of them develop? What was life on Earth like for them in the early days? Maybe they intended to leave originally, and changed their minds gradually. Maybe it was a case of "becoming the mask" for them, i.e. originally they were meant to spy on Picard, then he quit Starfleet, they thought it was a trick at first and that he was preparing for some secret mission, only to realize no, this is it, if we stay we're stuck with this human in Labarre, France.
(Incidentally: it may be the tie-in novels cover all of this already. If so, feel free to offer your own scenario; I see only on screen canon as canon.)
And Picard: after a life time in space, being on Earth for longer than just a holiday must have been a hard readjustment even under the best of circumstances, and these weren't good circumstances. Not to mention that he felt he failed, he felt guilty. Self discipline or not, he probably wasn't always good company in ye early days. Though maybe choosing to live with Laris and Zhaban was also because he knew he needed people to live up to, instead of brooding on his lonesome.
Otoh: if you want to write something lighthearted about the day Picard decided to adopt Number One the dog and Laris and Zhaban wondered whether Number One wasn't secretly some intelligent life form in disguise, that would be cool, too. :)
Seven of Nine:
I've always liked Seven of Nine, and am thrilled she's back in an ongoing canon. Anything Seven related would be great. The backstory between the end of Voyager and how we meet her in Picard offers a great many possibilities. Both stories showing the gradual change over the years and stories picking out just one particular important time for her. What made her decide to leave Starfleet? (Or maybe she never "officially" joined once Voyager had arrived on Earth.) Using Annika as a name again/leaving Annika behind post Bjazyl is something the conversation with Biyazyl hints at, so: was Annika someone she decided she couldn't be anymore, in general? What made her become a ranger? We've seen what happened to Icheb and how this impacted on her - what about Naomi Wildman? On Voyager, her primary focus had been on science - did her changing this have something to do with the Synth ban (maybe there was a general backlash on anything that could be deemed AI research? Missing scenes for Seven during the first season are also welcome, especially so if you manage to work in Seven's scientist side, or give me a bit more inner struggle than canon does during her stint as Queen.
Michael Burnham/Gabriel Lorca/Ash Tyler:
The brief time Michael spent posing as her Mirrorverse self on board the Shenzou with Tyler just five seconds from a mental breakdown and Lorca just a step away from seeing his plan fulfilled, but otoh locked up and tortured all the time (which, even if you're an villain used to this stuff, has to be awful) is just asking for a messed up threesome, in my humble opinion. Michael summoning Lorca in her quarters supposedly for interrogation but really to give him a break from the torture is an ideal set up, as is the fact Ash still sees Lorca as his savior (and if anything, feels guilty for deceiving him). Extra points if Lorca isn't just manipulating the both of them but does have some genuine emotion involved in both cases; not that this stops him from pursuing his Mirror universe ruling goals, but you know, a break is a break, and I don't think he'd be in a hurry to get back into the agony booth. (He might even think this will make these two even more loyal to him, in which case he's completely wrong, but there you go.)
If your own idea for the story doesn't fit any of the prompts, that's no problem: I love fictional surprises, too, and am very much looking forward to your story!
