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selenak: (Ben by Idrilelendil)
The Rare Male Slash Exchange is open; yours truly wrote two stories, one of which is blindingly obvious, and received a staggering amount of five. This never happened to me before, and I can't tell you how giddy I've felt today. This despite the fact Darth Real Life kept calling me away from the task of reading and commenting the lovely fic written for me. Or do anything else online. But really, the stories I received are terrific. Here they are:

Lost:

Where the water is blue and the people are new: in which the author takes season 6' canon High School AU for Ben and Locke and runs with it, and then some, because Dr. Linus and Mr. Locke have a lot of unresolved issues between them and deserve happines. And maybe it's time Ben and John take a shot at it, too.

Frederician 18th Century RPF:

I'm always fascinated by the in between stages, not just the beginnings (or endings). So, between Crown Prince Friedrich near the end of the worst year of his life (so far) meeting a clever and handsome flutist and King Friedrich (who hardly trusted anyone) ascending the throne with his very much trusted right hand man Fredersdorf, how did they get there? Now Frederick's sister Wilhelmine in her memoirs gave us some gory details about the winter holidays 32/33, the first Fredersdorf spent as Friedrich's valet at the annual winter gatherings of the royal family. Two writers tackle that scenario and provide us with these gems:

With you, there's a heaven: Which in addition to Fritz/Fredersdorf delivers a great Wilhelmine (who in a rare exception in Frederician fiction isn't written in a comforter and confidante role but with the damage the abuse she went under shown clearly) and a lovely mentor Suhm.

How I survived my first Christmas with the Hohenzollern: more lighthearted and amusing, but there's a superb tense encounter with King Friedrich Wilhelm in the middle of the hilarity that showcases Fredersdorf's quick thinking and growing people handling skills.

The supporting cast of the Frederician saga gets the spotlight here: Peter Keith, aka the other friend of Crown Prince Friedrich who participated in the 1730 escape attempt - the only one who succeeded, and Lehndorff, whose diaries are one of the great vivid sources of the era, and who had a life long passion for Frederick's younger brother Heinrich. Lehndorff canonically knew and admired Keith, and considering the two of them shared being in love with a royal who had feelings for them but loved other people more, I had hoped for a story using these parallels and the relationship. I got it, and more besides, here:

Lovers lying two and two

And finally: where's an intense fraternal hateship that comes with being too similar for comfort and being allies despite all the anger, there is also hatesex, as in this tale:

A family affair
selenak: (Voltaire)
Taking a break from the siblings in favour of the most notorious monarch/writer relationship of the enlightenment:

Between the hour and the age (10040 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Voltaire (Writer), Émilie du Châtelet/Voltaire (Writer), Voltaire (Writer) & Others, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia
Characters: Voltaire (Writer), Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Émilie du Châtelet, Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Francesco Algarotti, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, Marie-Louise Denis, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis
Additional Tags: Drama & Romance, Dysfunctional Relationships, Hilarity Ensues, Pen Pals, Soulmates, Love/Hate
Summary:

In 1736, Crown Prince Friedrich of Prussia starts corresponding with the most famous writer of his time: Voltaire. Forty explosive years, scandals, arguments, reconciliations and a lot of spilled ink later, they still haven't gotten tired of each other. Frederick the Great and Voltaire in sixteen steps: a Franco-Prussian romance.

selenak: (Wilhelmine und Folichon)
My Brother Narcissus (5530 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802), Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf & Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, August Wilhelm von Preußen (1722-1758) & Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Francesco Algarotti/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)/Marwitz the Page, Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802) & Others
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow, Ernst Christoph von Manteuffel
Additional Tags: Dysfunctional Family, Brotherly Angst, Sibling Rivalry, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Power Dynamics, Power Play
Summary:

In the summer of 1749, Frederick the Great figures out a way to deal with his rebellious younger brother Heinrich. It's been a long time coming.

selenak: (Wilhelmine)
Happy new year, everyone! May it see less evil and more kindness in the world, if you’ll allow me the brief sermon. On to more frivolous but still heartfelt things, to wit, fanfiction.

This was the first Yuletide since my early Yuletide days - when I had written solely my assignment - that I wrote assignment and treats alike solely for one fandom. Inspiration had struck, and massively so. Mostly while chatting away with my two Frederician pals, whom I wrote the stories for.

The first story I wrote was a “Five Things...”. Over the course of my historical debates these last months, I had gotten more and more interested in one of those rare constellations in history where you have two people of about the same age but different genders (usually it’s two men, more rarely two women, but a man and a woman?), with very different backgrounds and yet some surprising parallels as they go on, as each other’s arch nemesis. (Which huge political consequences for the rest of Europe.) Now, I’m a sucker for “worthy opponents” type of relationships. Frustratingly, these two never met face to face, but that’s what fanfiction is for. Besides, the “Five Things” format, which I had used in many a fandom over the last decade or two, allowed me to explore them at different stages in their lives, each time independently and yet, I hope, forming an overall portrait, of both the Prussian King and the Austrian Empress (Queen, as he would insist) and the way these high scale power players squared off, tried their best to defeat each other in a myriad of ways and still ended up, most unexpectedly, saving each other in one particular way.



Five Ways in which Frederick the Great and Maria Theresia did not meet (10362 words) by Selena
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF, 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia, Franz Stephan von Lothringen | Francis I Holy Roman Emperor/Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Other(s), Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria & Joseph II, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria, Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria / Franz Stephan von Lothringen ×
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria (Frederician RPF), Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina, Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Joseph II Holy Roman Emperor, Franz Stephan von Lothringen | Francis I Holy Roman Emperor, Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Rivalry, Enemies, Seven Years' War, Character Study, Developing Relationship, Alternate History, Keep Your Enemies Closer, My Best Enemy, Yuletide, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary:

1740: Two young monarchs ascend to the throne: Frederick II of Prussia and Maria Theresa of Austria.  Over the next few decades, the rivalry between them will change Europe forever. Yet they never meet face to face. But there were five times in their lives when they might have done...



The other idea for an 18th century story I absolutely wanted to write this year also demanded an alternate course of events, history going this way instead of that way, but for a quite different reasons. The key traumatic event early in Frederick II’s life being his failed attempt at fleeing his father and the subsequent execution of his friend and probable lover Hans Herrmann von Katte in front of him, you won’t be surprised that “Katte lives!” AUs are the logical form of denial fic. Since I can be an evil minded person, my own imagination went “how about “Katte lives, but Fritz dies instead?” Followed by: “Hang on, what would Wilhelmine” - Frederick’s favourite sister, who’d shared the horror of a dysfunctional Hohenzollern childhood and youth and despite them having in their adulthood their ups and downs had an intense relationship with him all their lives - “do then?” Wilhelmine in rl dealt with her trauma by secretly writing her memoirs and openly writing operas with revenge plots. It therefore made only sense to me that she would, bereft of the key relationship of her life, go for a real life revenge plot against her father. For which she would team up with her brother’s boyfriend, with whom she had a rather tense relationship for reasons detailed in the story. I got to indulge my inner Alexandre-Dumas/Count-of-Monte-Christo fan with this one, and write a story about grief and survival as well.

Fiat Justitia (10924 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF, 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte, Hans Herrmann Von Katte & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia, Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758) & Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758) & Friedrich Wilhelm I von Preußen, Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia & Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria
Characters: Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Hans Hermann Von Katte, Friedrich Wilhelm I von Preußen | Frederick William I of Prussia, Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria, Franz Stephan von Lothringen | Francis I Holy Roman Emperor, Friedrich Wilhelm von Grumbkow, Sophia Dorothea of Hanover, Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe, POV Female Character, Katte Lives, Brother Feels, Brother-Sister Relationships, Grief/Mourning, Justice, Survivor Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Alternate History, Yuletide Treat, Misses Clause Challenge
Summary:

August 1730: Crown Prince Friedrich attempts to flee his abusive father and dies. His lover, Hans Hermann von Katte, escapes with Friedrich's sister Wilhelmine. Come what may, Wilhelmine is determined to avenge her brother...




Now, originally I had meant to gift one of these stories to [personal profile] cahn and the other one to [personal profile] mildred_of_midgard, seeing as these two were the onlie begetters of them in the Shakespearean sense. However, as Mildred didn’t officially participate in Yuletide - despite writing for it anyway, as it turned out -, I couldn’t do that. The Yuletide mods kindly informed me, though, that I could give Mildred a Yuletide Madness treat.

This was in the middle of December, and I was way too busy and exhausted to manage another long story in time. Otoh, I had something unfinished that had been started entirely to amuse Mildred anyway, so I went back to that, armed with a new idea of how to end it. It’s silly meta fun for the historically interested, plus I got to write Goethe as an exhausted chat moderator, and it did make Mildred laugh, so: win!


The Very Secret Chat Transcript of Three Fritzian Fanboys (1356 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF, 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Other(s)
Characters: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Joseph II Holy Roman Emperor, Pyotr III Fyodorovich | Peter III of Russia, Friedrich Schiller
Additional Tags: Crack, Steampunk, Seven Years' War, Alternate Universe - Crack, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

During the Seven-Years-War, Frederick the Great's ability to take on three European superpowers and survive won him a great many fans. Three in particular found each other on the internet...

selenak: (Discovery)
Revealtime for the StarTrekHolidays ficathon: I wrote a TOS/Discovery crossover in which Michael Burnham gets to meet Uhura, which had been the prompt. Naturally, there‘s time travel involved, and once I had refreshed my canon TOS knowledge and remembered Uhura was among the people who went with Kirk and Spock to the Guardian of Forever, I knew which story I wanted to tell...


First Stop on the Road to Forever (8015 words) by Selena
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Michael Burnham & Nyota Uhura, Michael Burnham & Spock, Spock & Nyota Uhura, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott & Nyota Uhura
Characters: Nyota Uhura, Michael Burnham, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Spock (Star Trek), Galloway (Star Trek), Redshirts (Star Trek), Guardian of Forever
Additional Tags: Crossover, Missing Scene, Episode: s01e28 The City on the Edge of Forever, Episode: s02e13-14 Such Sweet Sorrow Parts 1-2, Time Travel
Summary:

When the Enterprise crew inadvertently changes history through the Guardian of Forever, Michael Burnham's journey is abruptly cut short. To Uhura, the new arrival is a mystery. To Scotty, she's a threat. And more than one timeline might be at stake....

selenak: (Discovery)
Der fellow Trekker,

I really appreciate you writing a story for me. Star Trek - in all its incarnations - is dear to my heart, one of my oldest fandoms, and I am always happy to dive back into old canons. Having a new canon now to add is thrilling. Now matter which characters and relationships you'll choose to write about, your story will be treasured.

Generally speaking: I don't like character bashing, by which I don't mean one character critisizing another - especially if canon provides ample fodder for it - but the kind of "X is the WORST AND EVERY OTHER CHARACTER EVER WILL SAY SO" bashfest that usually tells more about the writer than the characters. Generally speaking, I'm more fond of stories fitting into canon than of AUs, but I've known some amazing exceptions, and as long as the AU is well plotted and/or serves as character exploration, such as the "Five things" format, for example, by all means, go for it. (One of my prompts is indeed an AU scenario.)

Most of the relationships I've requested I see as non-sexual, but I'm not dogmatic about it. If you want to, say, pair up T'Pol and T'Pau romantically, go ahead.

Specific ideas and prompts:

TNG/DS9:

I would love an encounter between Picard and Sisko post DS9 pilot. Can be a "What if" AU, as in: what if it had been Sisko, not Worf, on board the Defiant in First Contact. Do his Borg issues and Picard's Borg issues clash or allign? Given Sisko has Jake to go home to, I don't think he'd go along with Picard's brief flirtation with a suicide stand. Conversely, Sisko as a survivor of Locutus and someone who lost his wife in that attack would be someone whom Picard couldn't help but listen to. Then again: Maybe Sisko's own issues overwhelm him.

Or can be be set at any point in later DS9 canon (maybe the Enterprise pays a visit during the Dominion War, or Sisko and Picard are both at the same conference during those six episodes where DS9 is again under Cardassian and Dominion command, or the Enterprise pays a visit to their friend Worf when he's a widower and that's where Picard also runs into Sisko - any scenario would do). I can see room for sympathy with Sisko's late season situation - yes, Picard never married, nor did he become a father, but he has the memories of several men in his head who did (Sarek and Kamin) - and more disagreement, as I suspect Jean-Luc would be far more sceptical about the Prophets. As long as both characters and their histories are treated with respect and sympathy, I'm good with anything that unfolds then.

Picard & O'Brien - could be within the same story (given O'Brien served on both the Enterprise and DS9, and respects both men a lot, he'd be an ideal mediator), but doesn't have to be; it can just as as well be about being tortured by Cardassians, or having memories implanted in your head, as the two meet again and share a bottle post TNG canon.

DS9 only:

Quark & Jake Sisko: here I have a story set during the Second Occupation in mind. Is Quark keeping an eye on Jake, though he'd deny that, because Jake is his nephew's friend? Or maybe Jake starts with thinking Quark would be an excellent source for those reports he wants to write but mostly thinks of him as Nog's grumpy and embarassing uncle and by the end of the occupation has come to see Quark in a different light, both in terms of survivor skills and emotion? Your choice.

ENTERPRISE/DISCOVERY:

T'Pol & Sarek, Michael, Amanda and Spock: I'm firmly subscribing to the fanon that Sarek and his family knew T'Pol, with any or all of them mentored by her at different points in their lives. Even if you disagree, perhaps not seeing T'Pol as interested in mentoring, I'd love a story about her encounters with them. Both similarities and differences to her own life and relationships could be fascinating to explore

If you haven't watched any ENT (or just don't want to use T'Pol): I'd also be delighted with a Discovery-only story about Michael and her adopted Vulcan/Human family. These are all complicated and intense relationships, and I'd love some exploration of the family dynamics at any point of Michael's life. If you want to choose just one other character to focus on - i.e. either Spock, Amanda or Sarek - that would also be fine with me, as long as Michael's relationship with them gets explored.

ENT/TOS:

T'Pol & T'Pau: here I'd love a story set later in their lives. By Amok Time, T'Pau is a venerated VIP in the Federation (even if she declined a seat in the council); maybe T'Pol, who encountered her when she was a supposed terrorist, is one of the few people who still interact with her without that veneration and more on a basis of equals? Or maybe they're frenemies with very different view points on Vulcan society and Federation policy? Just a few ideas, I'd be happy with whichever direction you take.
selenak: (Contessina)
Day 02 ~ Favourite female character

No question about it: Contessina de' Bardi, heroine of the first season, wife to Cosimo de' Medici, grandmother of Lorenzo de' Medici, vividly played by Annabel Scholey in both seasons, and the lady depicted in the icon of this entry.

Contessina joins the Medici family the way this usually goes, as a business arrangement between fathers, and soon finds out that a) everyone in this clan, except for her brother-in-law, is incredibly screwed up, b) her betrothed, who'd just had his life's dreams annihilated by his father, takes this out on her while also feeling powerfully attracted to her, and c) her new family is in the middle of a feud to the death with the current most powerful family of Florence, the Albizzi.

Any of this might have made a lesser woman run for the hills (except that wasn't really an option for most women in the Renaissance); Contessina handles it with aplomb and proceeds to make herself the sine qua non person of the family. (You do not want to cross Contessina. On the other hand, you do want her as your ally, especially if you're under a death sentence with most people hating your guts.) As she tells her own daughter-in-law later, "make yourself indispensible, and no one will dare to dismiss you, believe me". At the same time, she's by no means invulnerable, or without flaws. She has the misfortune of actually falling in love with her husband, who basically resents that he's not able to resent her and is incredibly paranoid to boot. Also, she can be petty enough to take out her grievances on a third party at one point. In short, she's my queen and I love her dearly.

The other days )

Still on a Medici note, I committed yet another fanfiction. This one was inspired by my frustration along the lines of „I can totally see the main m/m pairing of this fandom (which is a hero/antagonist one), but why is it written so fluffily when the appeal to me is that it’s incredibly fucked up?“ As I always believed in the principle of „stop complaining, do better“ , here’s my take on what’s going on with Francesco de‘ Pazzi:

Age of Iron (3818 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: I Medici | Medici: Masters of Florence (TV)
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici/Francesco de' Pazzi, Francesco de' Pazzi & Guglielmo de' Pazzi, Novella Foscari/Francesco de' Pazzi, Giuliano de' Medici & Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici, Giuliano de' Medici & Francesco de' Pazzi, Francesco de' Pazzi & Jacopo de' Pazzi
Characters: Francesco de' Pazzi, Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici, Jacopo de' Pazzi, Giuliano de' Medici, Guglielmo de' Pazzi
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Fucked Up, Character Study, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Summary:

Francesco sees clearly now, as he makes his choices.

selenak: (Rodrigo Borgia by Twinstrike)
Because historical siblings more often than not refuse to leave me alone, and the Borgias-shaped gap in my fannish life has been filled, it seems. :)


In the hour of our death (5366 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: I Medici | Medici: Masters of Florence (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Giuliano de' Medici & Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici, Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici & Francesco de' Pazzi, Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici/Clarice Orsini, Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici & Girolamo Savonarola
Characters: Lorenzo "Il Magnifico" de' Medici, Giuliano de' Medici, Girolamo Savonarola, Francesco de' Pazzi, Piero di Lorenzo de' Medici, Lucrezia de' Medici, Clarice Orsini, Angelo "Poliziano" Ambrogini, Cesare Borgia, Contessina de' Bardi
Additional Tags: Siblings, Codependency, Grief/Mourning, Survivor Guilt, Forgiveness, Enemies, Angst and Hurt/Comfort
Summary:

Lorenzo de' Medici faces death and the enemy threatening to take over his city, but his greatest challenge might be the past he never left behind.

selenak: (The Future Queen by Kathyh)
Aka the first of the fictional results of my recent rewatch. Aka the one in which Gwen gets to deal with the trauma conga she‘s been put through and confronts Morgana. (I suppose that also makes it Discordance: The Sequel.)

Here Lie We (8728 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Merlin (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Gwen & Morgana (Merlin), Gwen/Morgana (Merlin), Gwen/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Gwen & Merlin (Merlin)
Characters: Gwen (Merlin), Morgana (Merlin), Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Merlin (Merlin), Gaius (Merlin), Mordred (Merlin), Gelda Seward
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Episode Tag, Episode Related, Character Study, Episode: s05e09 With All My Heart, Episode: s05e06 The Dark Tower, Episode: s05e07 A Lesson in Vengeance, Relationship(s), Mind Games
Summary:

The enchantment Morgana put on her may be broken, but Gwen still has to live with the consequences: blood on her hands and nightmarish memories which may or may not be real. In the end, there can be only one way to truly free herself: to confront Morgana again.

selenak: (Equations by Such_Heights)
Turns out my Doctor Who muse wasn't done yet with me. This is the other result of my recent months of rewatching. Could be alternatively summarized as: he loves them all. Though his methods of showing it...

Signs on the slow path (5638 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005), Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Twelfth Doctor & Missy, Twelfth Doctor & Nardole, The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Sixth Doctor & Evelyn Smythe, Twelfth Doctor & Evelyn Smythe, Ashildr | Lady Me & Twelfth Doctor, Twelfth Doctor & Sarah Jane Smith, Twelfth Doctor & Jack Harkness, Twelfth Doctor & Ace McShane, Seventh Doctor & Ace McShane, Twelfth Doctor & Donna Noble, Tenth Doctor & Donna Noble, Twelfth Doctor & Susan Foreman, First Doctor & Susan Foreman
Characters: Twelfth Doctor, Missy (Doctor Who), Nardole (Doctor Who), Evelyn Smythe, Ashildr | Lady Me, Sarah Jane Smith, Jack Harkness, Ace McShane, Audrey McShane, Donna Noble, Susan Foreman
Additional Tags: Character Study, The Vault (Doctor Who), Friendship/Love, Past Relationship(s)
Summary:

The Doctor has a lot of reasons for choosing the twentieth and twenty-first century on Earth when guarding the vault. Some he even admits to. Though not necessarily to the people in question.

selenak: (Thirteen by Fueschgast)
It's been a while, but my recent rewatch turned out to inspire this little thing:

Graham O'Brien's Survival Kit For Companions (2329 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Thirteenth Doctor & Graham O’Brien, Graham O'Brien & Ryan Sinclair, Twelfth Doctor & Nardole, Third Doctor & Jo Grant, Tenth Doctor & Martha Jones, Eleventh Doctor & Rory Williams
Characters: Graham O'Brien, Thirteenth Doctor, Yasmin Khan, Ryan Sinclair
Additional Tags: Character Study, Friendship, Past Relationship(s)
Summary:

Graham adjusts to life with the Doctor, comes across echoes of her past friends, and collects useful tips for her future friends while he's at it.

Album Meme

Mar. 31st, 2019 10:43 am
selenak: (Malcolm and Vanessa)
"If your fic were an album, what would the track list be?"

From [personal profile] muccamukk:

1. The popular, catchy one: Teachers, about Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano, written after I had marathoned The Clone Wars. It's by far my most popular fanfiction, which was such a weird experience after being grateful to get into double digits with kudos at all in fandoms less popular than Star Wars. And with a story that's not about a romantic pairing (either het or slash)! I still can't believe it.

2. The obscure early one no one bought at the time: Facets, which was my second Alias (the tv show, not the comic) story and an Arvin Sloane character portrait, for a given value of "no one" - all four of us who were really into Sloane liked it. :)

3. The "experimental" one, written when you were possibly on some substance: Ten leagues beyond the wild world's end , which was the answer to a challenge; [personal profile] likeadeuce had dared me to connect Hank McCoy (X-Men comics edition) to Elizabeth Swann (Pirates of the Caribbean). This was the result, which plays a bit with two timelines as well.

4. The slushy one: Miracles, which is my unabashedly sentimental take on what a Babylon 5 Christmas Special, Centauri edition, would be like - set in late s3, after A rock cried out, no hiding place left poor Vir badly bruised in both the physical and emotional sense.

5. The brash, loud one, mid album: Five in One, a Buffy the Vampire Slayer tale about Spike from the pov of his (canonical) victims, which was the first time I consciously wrote (angry) meta via fanfiction. I mean, I otherwise avoided the Spike Wars at the time they were waged, and these days the point I was trying to make feels more than redundant, but at the time this was the result of reading one too many "Spike never diid anything wrong" posts and stories.

6. The one born of your depressive introspection: Last one before closing (Angel, Wesley in late s5 which should tell you all you need to know). This one come to be because [personal profile] bimo asked for a story featuring Wesley and Lorne. I suspect she wanted something uplifting. Instead...

7. The bitter one about your ex/former manager/cat: Second Coming, which isn't about any of the above, but it's definitely me being bitter about one of my few DS9 pet peeves, the s7 Sarah Sisko story and how it was (not) dealt with.

8. The one only you like, you insular weirdo: Fear no more (The May-December Remix): "only me" would be going too far, but it's probably the least popular of my stories in a reasonably big fandom (DS9), and still one of my favourites. It takes a bit of backstory for Dax from one of the (deservedly) least popular DS9 eps as its basis, and was my attempt to do something with an older man/young woman pairing that felt real to me.

9. The genre-hopping crossover hit: Tea and Sympathy, which is probably (in terms of kudos) my most successful crossover, imagining a friendship between Guinan from Star Trek: The Next Generatiion and the Doctor (from Doctor Who). Though the genre in this one is pretty straightforward (i.e. a crossover). If, otoh, I put the emphasis on "genre-hopping" instead of crossover, then probably The Lay of Sir William of Daira, which is a Merlin story that both qualifies as an entry into the "crack fic" (it's unabashedly silly), the "fleshing out one shot character", and the minor character pov genres. I was having great fun writing it, and I'm pleased it still gets read.

10. The one where you tried to be "modern": when yours truly had only a very few fanfic stories beneath her belt, starting ouit with missing scenes and daringly advancing to stories with a plot, Death and the Maiden (Hilghlander) was the first time I tried to write something non-linear, it was definitely the darkest thing I ever wrote until that point, and it was also me trying out different tenses in a story written in a language not my own. I suppose this qualifes as trying to be "modern" at the time?

11. The anthemic final track:Anthemic, hm? Well, Falling Towards Apotheosis, aka my attempt to write the ultimate Penny Dreadful story as well as the ending to satisfy my epic needs certainly qualifies in ambition.
selenak: (Goethe/Schiller - Shezan)
My assignment this year was also my first Star Trek: Discovery story. As my recipient's prompt had only been "anything about Michael Burnham and L'Rell interacting, other than non-con", I first was planning on a future fic set in the TOS era or after, but quickly backed away from that idea. The chance of getting thoroughly jossed by new canon within weeks of posting was simply too big for me. As I rewatched the L'Rell heavy episodes in s1, it occured to me that all Michael knows about L'Rell comes from Tyler, both the earlier negative (the story of torture and rape) and the later positive (true believer in T'Kuvma's ideal of Klingon unity, she and Voq were in love), which makes a certain decision Michael makes in the s1 finale regarding L'Rell an incredible gamble. This, in turn, made me decide to give them some missing scenes of direct interaction leading up to this decision of Michael's, but from L'Rell's pov, exploring the parallels and contrasts between them.

Catalyst (3783 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Trek: Discovery
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: L'Rell & Michael Burnham, L'Rell/Ash Tyler | Voq, Katrina Cornwell & L'Rell, Michael Burnham/Ash Tyler | Voq
Characters: L'Rell (Star Trek), Michael Burnham
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Character Study, Yuletide, Misses Clause Challenge, Complicated Relationships
Summary:

Michael Burnham changed L'Rell's life twice without meaning to. This is the story of how it happened for a third time.




Due to rl business, I hadn't planned on writing a treat. But otoh, a post of [personal profile] cahn's had started a conversation about Schiller's (versus Verdi's, and also by itself) Don Carlos between us, which made me think about the play again; in school, and later in college, it had been very present in my life, and talking about it for the first time since decades reminded me of much, including my wish to provide the two prominent female characters in it with a fix-it. (BTW, this seems to be my lot in fannish life. Don Carlos is a very male centric canon, with intense and/or slashy relationships abounding, not just between Carlos and Posa but also between Posa and Philip. Yet whom am I drawn to? Elisabeth and the Princess Eboli. Reminds me of being a Breaking Bad fan and going for Skyler and Marie) instead of Jesse and Walt.) Since both ladies are alive at the end of the play and in an ambiguous state of liberty, or lack of same, this wasn't impossible. Also, my having written a story about Catherine de' Medici and her daughters a while ago meant I had my facts re: the historical Elisabeth de Valois at hand, though they were only of limited use in terms of my story, since good old Schiller took his usual great liberties. (Starting, of course, with Carlos himself, who was very different in rl. But also the type of marriage historical Philip and Elisabeth had; in rl, it had of course been a political arrangment as well but worked out so well that he remained at her side even when she had smallpox, no small risk, and not something the Philip of Schiller's play would have done.)

Anyway, the Elisabeth of this story is most definitely Catherine de' Medici's daughter but also, hopefully, recognizably Schiller's Queen (who is one of the smartest and most politically minded of Schiller's female characters while also being emotionally insightful). And thus I found myself writing Schiller fanfiction. What would my university professors say!


Queen‘s Gambit (4382 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Don Carlos - Friedrich Schiller, 16th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Élisabeth de Valois & Princess Eboli, Élisabeth de Valois/Philip II of Spain, La princesse Eboli | La Principessa Eboli/Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain, Phillippe II of Spain/Ridrigue (Don Carlos), Carlos/Élisabeth de Valois, Élisabeth de Valois/Rodrigo
Characters: Élisabeth de Valois | Elisabetta di Valois, La princesse Eboli | La Principessa Eboli, Felipe II de España | Philip II of Spain
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Character Study, Complicated Relationships, Post-Canon, Unrequited Love, Survival, Yuletide, Yuletide Treat
Summary:

How Elisabeth de Valois escapes her doom, with some help from the Princess Eboli.

selenak: (Spider-man by Peaked)
So not what I should be doing, but the muse wants what it wants. In this case, a "Five things" story about Peter Parker and Tony Stark. Beware of Infinity War spoilers.

Anything like me (5446 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark, May Parker & Peter Parker, Happy Hogan & Peter Parker, Happy Hogan & Tony Stark, Liz Allan/Peter Parker, Karen (Spider-Man: Homecoming) & Peter Parker
Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Happy Hogan, Karen (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Mantis (Marvel)
Additional Tags: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Relationship Study, Character Study, Canon Compliant, Non-Linear Narrative
Summary:

Five times Peter Parker thinks he's figured out something about his relationship with Tony Stark.

selenak: (Peggy Carter by Misbegotten)
The [community profile] ssrconfidential stories are no longer anonymous. Thus, here are the two I wrote this year.

For Their Eyes Only (11281 words) by Selena
Chapters: 10/10
Fandom: Agent Carter (TV), James Bond - Ian Fleming, James Bond (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peggy Carter & Howard Stark, Peggy Carter & James Bond, Howard Stark & James Bond
Characters: Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, James Bond, Edwin Jarvis, Male M (James Bond), Moneypenny (James Bond), Whitney Frost, Bernard Stark, Bill Tanner
Additional Tags: Crossover, Peggy's Spy Kit, Howard's Lab, Challenge Response, Historical References, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 02, 1950s
Summary:

Whitney Frost is at large again, and Peggy and Howard are determined to stop her. They didn't count on a certain British agent's interference...

Or:

Vulgar millionaires, mad scientists, lethally dangerous women - it's just another day in the life of James Bond, until he realises that this time, the roles keep switching...




This was my official assignment. One of my recipient's prompts asked for Peggy, Howard and shenanigans. Now I had a Peggy character study on my brain which I'd been meaning to write for a while, but that one was going to be dark in tone, whereas this request sounded like the recipient wanted something lighthearted, so it would have bean a jerk move to ignore that. No problem, thought I, a fun adventure for Peggy and Howard sounds like my kind of thing, too, I adore both characters. What kind of adventure could it be? Something like a Bond movie, perhaps. And then it hit me: the originall, very first version of James Bond, the one from the Fleming novels, would actually have been their contemporary.

This proved to be all the incentive I needed. I had a blast plotting a Carter/Bond crossover. Using as many Bond tropes (from books and movies alike) as I could, with a Carter twist. It also gave me the opportunity to give Whitney Frost another outing, and the banter between the three main characters just came naturally. Oh, and since my beta asked: no, I didn't have a particular Bond actor in mind. Insert your Bond of choice to be this adventure's morally ambiguous Carter boy.)



Five Times Peggy Carter Compromised (4063 words) by Selena
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peggy Carter & Howard Stark, Peggy Carter & J. Edgar Hoover, Peggy Carter & Tony Stark, Peggy Carter & Howard Stark & Tony Stark, Peggy Carter & Armin Zola, Howard Stark & Tony Stark
Characters: Peggy Carter, Howard Stark, Chester Phillips, J. Edgar Hoover, Tony Stark, Arnim Zola
Additional Tags: Moral Ambiguity, Moral Dilemmas, Treat, Historical References, Backstory, World War II, Character Study, Historical, Post-Canon, Post-Season/Series 02, Challenge Response, 1940s, 1950s, 1990s, 1960s
Summary:

Before Nick Fury, Peggy Carter was the spy, and even her secrets had secrets. Five times Peggy made moral compromises, and the reasons why.




This was the story I wrote as a treat, which has been haunting me for years. (Ever since the Captain America: Winter Soldier reveal about Zola having worked for SHIELD, to be precise.) If the assignment was a lighthearted Peggy-as-Bond (only not) romp, this was my John Le Carré outing for her. Basically Peggy Carter as George Smiley, with all the shadiness in addition to the good intentions that implies. The case for morally ambigious Peggy Carter, let me make it. (Also, it's another of those partly meta stories of mine where I argue with a lot of fanon.)
selenak: (Emily by Lotesse)
The three stories I wrote for this year‘s Yuletide were:

1.) My Assignment:

Icebound (13024 words) by Selena
Chapters: 7/7
Fandom: Order of the Air Series - Melissa Scott & Jo Graham, 20th Century CE RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mitchell Sorley/Stasi Rostov
Characters: Mitchell Sorley, Stasi Rostov, Henry Kershaw, Leni Riefenstahl, Max Schirmer, Franz Schrieck, Hans Schneeberger
Additional Tags: Yuletide, 1930s, Adventure & Romance, Foreshadowing, Films, Antisemitism, POV Jewish Character
Summary:

Spring of 1933: Mitch and Stasi hadn't planned on spending their honeymoon dodging bears and icebergs. But the pilot supposed to do the hair raising stunt flying on the German-American movie "SOS Iceberg" has fallen sick, the leading lady may or may not be possessed, and there is a ghost bent on revenge involving the new German leader...



My recipient requested Stasi and Mitch from the Order of the Air novels by Melissa Scott and Jo Graham. Since I adore the novels, and also their characters, this was a joy to write. The reason why it‘s also tagged for 20th Century RPF is that other than Mitch, Stasi and briefly a friend of theirs, all the other characters are historical. The novels themselves, which start in the 1920s and by now have reached the later 1930s, are adventures involving flying, archaeology and supernatural elements, and they give both cameos and important roles to figures of history. My beta, who hadn‘t yet a chance to read them, told me she had no trouble following the story, which gives me the hope it‘s understandable for fans of the book and not-yet-readers of same alike.

Read more... )


2.) Treat for a friend who had a tough year the first:

Selkie Bride (10911 words) by Selena
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Emily Peggotty/James Steerforth, David Copperfield/James Steerforth, Emily Peggotty & Martha Endell, Emily Peggotty & Daniel Peggotty, Emily Peggotty & David Copperfield, Emily Peggotty/ Ham Peggotty
Characters: Emily Peggotty, James Steerforth, Littimer, Daniel Peggotty, Ham Peggotty, Clara Peggotty, David Copperfield, Martha Endell, Mrs. Gummidge
Additional Tags: POV Female Character, Misses Clause Challenge, Character Study, Crossdressing, Power Dynamics, Yuletide Treat, Complicated Relationships, Yuletide
Summary:

In which Emily Peggotty becomes the heroine of her own life, and the villain, too.



When I saw [personal profile] likeadeuce in her Yuletide letter had requested David Copperfield, and spefically Steerforth, David/Steerforth and had added that if Emily was to show up, she‘d want her to have her own agenda, inspiration struck. Me being me, the result is a story about Emily first and foremost, with David/Steerforth a subplot, so to speak, but years of personal aquaintance had made me reasonable certain ‚Deuce would not mind.

Emily is one one of Dickens‘ takes on that very Victorian trope, the seduced woman promptly punished by fate, though as opposed to many another Victorian fallen woman she makes it out of her novel alive and actually well. Still, it struck me upon rereading how much he keeps the adult Emily (as opposed to the child Emily) off stage, so to speak - she‘s mostly reported or talked about, and since the narrator is David who is canonically clueless about women (and a lot of men as well), this provided me with ample room for fleshing out the character. And canon gave me a lot to work with, actually. (For example: Rereading the novel, it far clearer than I had recalled that Emily really did not want to marry Ham quite independent from the Steerforth factor. Also, according to Littimer she became fluent in French, Italian and possibly German in a very quick time, which says a lot about her linguistic gifts and smarts. And while David insists on seeing her as utterly helpless, it stands to reason that a woman who can make it back from Naples to London on her own without any money to start that journey with has good surival skills.)

Providing Emily with a story of her own while still keeping with all that happens in the novel, and trying my hand at plausible Dickensian dialogue for Steerforth was a very enjoyable challenge, and I loved meeting it.


3.) Treat for a friend who had a tough year the second:

Ash and Iron (6291 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Rome (TV 2005)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Atia of the Julii & Servilia of the Junii, Julius Caesar/Servilia of the Junii, Atia of the Julii & Octavia of the Julii, Mark Antony/Atia of the Julii, Octavia of the Julii/Servilia of the Junii, Servilia of the Junii & Cato the Younger
Characters: Atia of the Julii, Servilia of the Junii, Octavia of the Julii, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Cato the Younger, Terentia (c. 98 BCE–5 CE)
Additional Tags: Backstory, Character Study, POV Female Character, Misses Clause Challenge, Yuletide Treat, Yuletide
Summary:


Atia would never concede victory to Servilia, in anything.



[personal profile] kangeiko asked for Atia and Servilia (in their Rome incarnations) in her letter. While the feud between these two ladies in central to the tv show they‘re in, it hasn‘t been covered all that much by fanfic, so I couldn‘t resist, and returned to Rome for some more fanfiction. It even gave me the chance to include one of my favourite anecdotes about the historical Servilia, as well as the fact that this anecdote and the birth of the later Augustus both happened during Cicero‘s consulate, in the year of the Catiline Conspiracy. Rewatching some of the Atia and Servilia centric episodes was an added bonus for me.
selenak: (Missy by Yamiinsane123)
Reveals at [community profile] missy_fest, so I can link the story I wrote here. It's a Torchwood/Doctor Who crossover. The original vignette, which featured Jack centuries later meeting, courtesy of the Rift, Tosh, gave me the pre Exit Wounds time frame, and the first idea I had for this story was to confront a Jack Harkness to whom his torture by the Master was still very recent with The Doctor Falls era Missy. (Which of course meant confronting Missy, whose state of mind re: people not the Doctor the show left ambiguous, with one of her victims.) Hard on its heels came the second idea, which was that this wouldn't be in Jack's pov, not least because I'd already written Jack (albeit post Children of Earth Jack, which makes a big difference) versus the Master relatively recently. Nor would it be Missy's. Because if it's pre-Exit Wounds, then my original point of interest character in TW is still around, and dealing (or trying to) with being effectively a zombie, which makes for a given contrast to Missy's (and the Master's) spoilery doings ). Not to mention that the original vignette's theme of immortality and how it effects Jack in his interactions with others could be mirrored and contrasted in Missy and Owen (who doesn't know at this point whether he'll die next week or will stay in this condition for centuries). And, as a bonus, I got to explore the Owen and Jack relationship a bit more, which, to me, was the most interesting one within the team in the first two seasons. Lastly: [personal profile] jesuswasbatman and other readers of my previous tales featuring the Master, I swear, this time the Master does not end up in the wrong body. ;)


Further on up the road (9120 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Torchwood, Doctor Who
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jack Harkness & Owen Harper, Jack Harkness & The Master, Owen Harper & Missy, Jack Harkness & Missy, The Doctor/The Master (Doctor Who), Owen Harper & Toshiko Sato
Characters: Owen Harper, Missy (Doctor Who), Jack Harkness, Toshiko Sato, Ianto Jones
Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s10e12 The Doctor Falls, Remix
Summary:

When a Time Lord emerges from the Rift, it's the wrong one for Jack Harkness. But could Owen Harper be the right Doctor?

selenak: (Toby and Andy by Amorfati)
Back when I finished marathoning The West Wing, I went on the lookout for stories about the relationship out of all the many interesting relationships the show offered that had intrigued me the most: that between speechwriter Toby Ziegler and President Jed Bartlet. Alas, there was not much. Now the story I wanted most of all to read would have been a post show having-it-all-out conversation or several, preferably trapped by snow in New Hampshire so neither of them could just leave, but I’d equally been happy with anything set earlier that explored said relationship. Sadly, fandom did not oblige. At a guess, one reason for this was that canonically, both Toby and Jed are eloquent master word smiths, and these aren’t easy to write. I know that’s what intimidated me and meant that when I followed the old advice of “if you can’t find it, write it yourself”, I did NOT write the epic lengthy tale I wanted to read but a short non linear vignette collection. Another reason might have been that a lot of fandom (as well as actor Richard Schiff) was unhappy with Toby’s s7 storyline and found it easier to just ignore it. Yours truly actually did not have this problem in that maybe due to marathoning the show as opposed to living with the characters for years, I didn’t regard it as ooc, but I did want a bit more follow up, as well as looks back. Anyway, all of this resulted in my one and only West Wing tale. (Which you can find here.)

The story of a speechwriter and his politician )
selenak: (Shadows - Saava)
[personal profile] bimo requested „Not in Words“, as she’s in a Centauri kind of mood, and since I am also in a Centauri mood, I’m gladly obliging.

Preamble: Timov has to be my favourite B5 one shot character, i.e. she’s only in a single episode, "Soul Mates", though Londo’s wives get of course referenced in several more, both before and after their actual appearances. Still, Timov’s one and only episode, in season 2, left me with such a vivid impression of her that when news got out that the writer of of said episode, Peter David, he of the many tie in novels I’d read in Star Trek, would also be writing a trilogy about the Centauri post show, I rejoiced. And looked forward to more Timov. As for the Centauri trilogy, I’ve already written in the past on why I felt it was a severe let down (short version: shoddy world building and –evolving, bad characterizations of many characters, lazy stereotypes abound), but it does have its perks, and Timov’s return in the first volume is certainly one of them. However, which is why I borrowed a scene and a premise from “The Long Night of Centauri Prime” to wrap this story up. Onwards:

Anatomy of a Centauri Marriage )
selenak: (Bruce and Tony by Corelite)
Tomorrow, in a year (8124 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peggy Carter & Howard Stark, Howard Stark & Everyone, Abraham Erskine & Howard Stark, Steve Rogers & Howard Stark
Characters: Howard Stark, Peggy Carter, Abraham Erskine, Werner Heisenberg, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Konrad Zuse, Fritz Haber
Additional Tags: For Science!, Dubious Ethics, Ethics, Nuclear Weapons, Chemical Weapons, Computers, Morality, Historical
Summary:

Inventions, the consequences they have and the choices you make: Three encounters Howard Stark has with German scientists he does and doesn't work with.



This was my [community profile] ssrconfidential story for this year. The reason why I assumed it was patently obvious who authored it was that, well, who else among this year’s participants would write about Howard having debates with a bunch of German scientists?

The prompt had asked for Howard Stark recruiting, via Operation Paperclip, the top German cybernetics expert in order to meddle in artificial life. This to me sounded like it was going for a tale with a Nazi robot on the rampage, which yours truly would not have been keen to write (there were other prompts by my recipient I’d have then gone for), but at the same time, the phrasing left me just wriggle room enough to come up with something more interesting and challenging to me, on the subject of Howard and German scientists. Given that the MCU has Howard Stark as a participant in the Manhattan project, and that I’m a fan of Michael Frayn’s play Copenhagen about Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, I already knew there’d be a Howard & German nuclear physicists encounter in my story.

Canonically, Howard worked with Abraham Erskine who in the MCU hails from Augsburg (like Bertolt Brecht) and thus most definitely qualifies as a German scientist, so the first Erskine-Stark encounter was a given opener for the story. Now the MCU Wikipedia has them meeting in 1934 at a conference in Switzerland, which sounds a bit unlikely given the birth year the same entry provides for Howard, but Switzerland in 1934 was also where Fritz Haber died, which made it a must for me. Because if there is someone ideal to embody the two sides of science and to kick start the question as to what the responsibilities of a scientist are, it’s the inventor of fertilizers and weaponized chlorine gas. Also, given Erskine’s age it made sense to make him a colleague and friend of Fritz Haber’s whose WWI experience gave him the original idea for what became the supersoldier serum.
(BTW, having recently had Fritz Haber on my mind for this story made me go “so…does Haber not exist in the DCU?” when a certain character in the new Wonder Woman was introduced.)

But I still needed a computer genius which was what the prompt had asked for, after all. Did we even have those in that era, I wondered, researched a bit, and found out about Konrad Zuse, fascinating computer inventor with a sideline in painting, two of whose war time created computers even were in the city where I lived, Munich. Zuse’s memoirs were also available for reading and contributed such details as his fondness for Fritz Lang’s movie Metropolis, language difficulties and other personal details which made it into the story. I was tempted to call the Zuse section “Zuse and Stark”, after “Einstein and Eddington”, that, or: "Science Bros: The First Generation", but you might as well have called it Iron Man 0.1, because it’s also a riff on Tony’s origin story as well as a contrast – one of my betas, asked to guess the prompt for the story, thought it must have been “Why Howard Stark didn’t become Iron Man”, and while I hadn’t thought of it like that at first, yes, that’s also one of the themes. Father and son are very similar, but there are also differences, both in circumstance and reaction to certain situations.

Lastly: I apologize for giving Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker my “Hydra makes no sense” rant. But Hydra makes no sense.

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