allele_apocalypse

 

AO3 handle: Marie_L

A few notes before we start:

I like a lot and am easy to please for exchange gifts. My overriding wish is for my creator to have fun and give me their take on our shared fandom or character, or even just reveal a piece of one of these worlds that I haven’t seen before. I am also not picky on the shipping front; most of my faves operate as fandom bicycles where you can have at it with whomever you want, including background ships, past relationships, or no romance or sex at all. (Relevant to this exchange, that includes Daneel Olivaw, Obi-Wan, Luke, Leia, Padmé, Dorian, all Dune characters and all side characters in WandaVision, although I am somewhat attached to Wanda/Vision in that last one, given that Wanda’s grief is the keystone of the show). I don’t have preferences on gender configurations in relationships either. Again...have fun!

DNW: Graphic violence, bodily fluids, underage sex below 14, explicit noncon (references to it and recovery are both fine), porn in a visual medium

General likes:

* Plot-driven fic, including canon divergence AUs and fixits

* Filling in scenes that canon skips over

* Case or mission fic, canon-style adventures

* Epistolary, particularly diaries/journals/sketchbooks, letters/emails/texts, bureaucratic/scientific/academic reports, news/media accounts

* Worldbuilding. Just shamelessly throw all your ideas in there

* Cultural details for fictional groups, including religion, marriage & mating customs, holidays etc.

* Competence… in fact just keep going into hypercompetence

* Forced proximity (Canadian shack, crash landing on planet, kidnapped together etc.)

* Hurt/comfort

* Mutual pining with eventual get-together; slow burn

* Established relationship...but it’s complicated

* Teacher-student and parent-child dynamics (with children old enough to hold a conversation).

* Redemption (especially if the redeemed character has to work for it or face consequences for past actions)

* Time travel

* Psychological manipulation and slow corruption

* Telepathy and other mental superpowers, and their consequences

* People with superpowers discovering/exploring/learning to use their superpowers

* Body horror, or just body weirdness (includes dysphoria)

* Victim resistance

* Trauma aftermath and recovery

* Robots and their alien mental processes and bodies

* Aliens and their alien mental processes, bodies and technology; xeno

* Alien-human or robot-human confused relationships and everybody working it out in good faith

* Science and made-up science

* Genderbending/Rule 63 (particularly canon male to anything else)

* Fictional gender/sex dynamics

* Any trope mentioned in my Id Pro Quo letter (https://allele-apocalypse.dreamwidth.org/2908.html)

Opt-ins for all canons: All nominated art mediums, all nominated illustrated text mediums, maps, in-universe documents, essays of all types, diary/journal/notebook entries, epistolary, field reports, scientific and academic publications, psychological evaluation reports, newspaper article (feel free to get creative about what constitutes a "newspaper" in these SF canons). A few more opt-ins are noted under specific fandoms. 

Dune book series – Frank Herbert

Liet-Kynes, Ghanima Atreides & Leto Atreides II, Alia Atreides, Worldlbuilding: Any
Extra opt-ins: In-universe religious texts, Rashomon-style conflicting narratives

The new movie trailer inspired a reread of the first three Dune books. I never make it past God Emperor (the time jump is fatal every time), but the first three books have enough fascinating (if sometimes maddening) ideas stuffed into them to make up for that. I always love the worldbuilding of Dune, but some of the character decisions...eh. With each reread, Herbert’s fatalism becomes more annoying, with major characters (not only Paul) acting like they couldn’t possibly make different decisions lest Something Worse happen, although a galaxy-wide jihad that kills 60 billion (why was this inevitable again?) and getting ruled by a giant enlightened sandworm for millennia both seem pretty bad. Alternate universe plots to the rescue! Or at least alternate universe philosophical meanderings with an SF veneer.

In any case, the pre-born do hold a special fascination. How do Ghanima and Leto avoid the fate of Alia, simply taken over by any one of the infinite personalities inhabiting their heads? It’s implied their relationship is the key when they are younger, their ability to pull one another back from the brink. Alia lacks this relationship, and is abandoned by her mother who, as a Reverend Mother, might have some insight into her mental complexities, and is placed in power as some sort of priestess/God, another bad idea that is portrayed as unavoidable. I’d love any AUs on this, but also would love navalgazing epistolary, especially on the religion of Maud’dib and Alia, or also conflicting narratives or unreliable narrator of Space Feudalism Academicians. (I can’t be the only one who would buy Irulan’s or Harq al-Ada’s books). Likewise, Liet-Kynes is both an interesting character to explore, and also an excuse for ecological worldbuilding. As Arrakis is terraformed, imagine all the reports!

Robot Series – Isaac Asimov

Elijah Bailey & R. Daneel Olivaw, Elijah Bailey/R. Daneel Olivaw, Worldbuilding: Any
Extra opt-ins: Interactive fiction (I don't care what format)

Another set of books I first read as a youngster, and may have imprinted a little on Daneel as the prototypical android who can pass for human, but also has alien thought processes. Daneel’s ability to wriggle around the Three Laws of Robotics is always fun, although sometimes it can be obvious authorly attempts to get around what is nowadays called the value alignment problem. There’s always a little ghost in Asimov’s machines, no matter how much he (or the characters) protest otherwise, and this is what makes them humanly delightful. Daneel and Elijah have a classic arc: saddled together, one party culturally distrustful of the other, eventually getting around to saving each other’s lives and lifelong devotion, in Daneel’s case going on thousands of years More casefic adventures for these two! Maybe Daneel is left on Earth for reasons (cultural attache? Encourage more emigration?), or one of Elijah’s offworld adventures puts him in demand on another colony planet. Or perhaps Elijah is allowed to become a colonist, against the cultural grain of this particular time period in Asimov’s universe. Any excuse to throw these two together.

 

Star Wars – All Media Types

Obi-Wan Kenobi (SWPT) & Rey (SWST), Padmé Amidala (SWPT) & Leia Organa (SWOT) & Luke Skywalker (SWOT)

Star Wars – Original Trilogy

Obi-Wan Kenobi & Darth Vader, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Leia Organa, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Luke Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa & Darth Vader, Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader, Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader, R2-D2 & Darth Vader 

Extra opt-ins: Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives

For both the AMT and OT requests, I vaguely had in mind “Prequel characters in later era, only more interaction than in canon.” Essentially I want all the fic where Obi-Wan does a lot more training of younger characters – maybe Obi-Wan lives, maybe the Luke, Leia and even Rey are raised under radically different circumstances; or Padmé doesn’t dramatically die, raises her kids and becomes a leader in the budding or actual rebellion; or Vader captures his kid(s) for real and tries to turn them to the Dark Side (good luck with that); or maybe even R2 saves the galaxy by turning Anakin back (hey, it could happen). Conflicting narratives/shifting POV would be especially interesting along good vs evil or older vs younger era axis. For Vader in particular, I’ve always had a hard time reconciling OT Vader with the Anakin of the Prequels & Clone Wars as “really” the same person. This disjuncture tends to land on the OT/suited Vader side of things, so anything that bridges those character personas would be great.

A note on the sprawling Star Wars canon: You can bring in any other side characters in addition to the nominated ones if you like, for any of my Star Wars nominations. I’m working my way through the various TV series with my kids in universe chronological order, so thus far I’ve consumed all the movies, Clone Wars, Bad Batch, and the Vader and Obi-Wan & Anakin comics; we’ll probably make through Rebels by the time of FiaB reveals. I wouldn’t count on the Mandalorian or Resistance being seen by then, and I don’t know the video games or most of the books or other comics.

 

Star Wars – Prequel Trilogy

Padmé Amidala/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Original Jedi Character/Original Jedi Character, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Shmi Skywalker/Original Female Jedi, Worldbuilding: Prequels-Era Jedi Culture

Extra opt-ins: Interactive fiction (I don't care what format), in-universe religious texts, Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives

This is pretty much my open late Jedi worldbuilding nomination, plus Obi-Wan in there as the platonic ideal of a Jedi from this era. Religious or philosophical texts! Field reports and memos! Media reports demonstrating the failing Jedi reputation! Maps and diagrams of the Temple! Choose Your Own Adventure of Jedi exploits! Anakin or other padawan psych reports! Obi-Wan’s Tatooine journal! Lor San Tekka’s reconstruction of the fall the fall of the Jedi and rise of Palpatine from fragmentary evidence! Non-Jedi academic reports of Jedi culture!

I threw in the Shmi/OFJ nomination after seeing it in the tag set; who doesn’t want a better ending for gentle Shmi? Maybe she’s brought somewhere into the Jedi orbit with Anakin instead of being left on Tatooine, or maybe in another universe, the Jedi have a different social structure that doesn’t involve isolating Force-sensitive children from their families.

 

Almost Human

Dorian & Any DRN Character, Dorian & Any MX-43 Character, Dorian/Any DRN Character, Worldbuilding: Any 
Extra opt-ins: Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives, Recursive Fic of Any of the Recip's Works In This Fandom

This show has all the elements I tend to fall for in fic – live action SF crammed with interesting ideas and pretty actors, but also flawed enough to want better, or at least more, stories to be told. Almost Human only lasted half a season, so it left a lot of mysteries unresolved. The basic premise of the show was that in the not too distant (and slightly apocalyptic) future, androids will have been invented with enough sentience to be deployed in the more menial jobs, a category that apparently includes disposable cop partner. One line of androids, the DRNs, have unusual emotional capacity, but this proves to be their downfall as they experience psychological breakdowns on the job, and are subsequently retired from the police force and sold off. The show features one of the last of these “broken” androids (Dorian) paired up with an equally “broken” human (Kennex), who refuses to work alongside the more coldly logical new line of androids, the MX-43s.

Any of the central mysteries of the show would be great to explore in fic. What really happened to the DRNs, and what is their fate during the era of the show’s run? Why were they chosen to be cops in the first place, if they were as unsuited? What makes Dorian so special to keep him around? Why, in a city that’s overpopulated with the underemployed, do they need androids in the first place? Is anyone in this universe ever going to discuss how ethically dubious it is to create a group of fully sentient beings who are legally disposable property? What prevents any of these apparently intelligent robots from self-organizing for their own ends, and what will happen when they do?

I’m down with canon-like case fic of technology gone wrong (going over the Wall is classic, but also what’s outside the city?), or just an exploration of relationships, of what makes certain human beings become so attached to their android counterparts. Dorian is a bit of a fandom bicycle for me, so you can pair him up with anyone you like. I also don’t mind background ships such as Richard/MX-43, so long as the focus is on the DRNs.

WandaVision

Wanda Maximoff/Vision, Worldbuilding: Any
Extra opt-ins: Interactive fiction (I don't care what format), Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives, Fandom Primer

I’ll admit to being a casual observer of the MCU – I think I’ve seen all the movies, but not necessarily in the correct order, so the finer plot points are a jumble – but WandaVision did manage to hit a whole bunch of favorite tropes, including mind control and its horrors, android/human relations, coming to terms with the extent of one’s superpowers, and improbably attractive nerd sidekicks trying to solve a mystery. Plus the actors’ expanded performances sold me on the Wanda/Vision love affair in a way that their seeming 8 minutes of movie screen time could not. So, moar please? This seems like an especially good canon for epistolary field reports, psych profiles, post-event analyses and the like, including from the varied views of Monica, Darcy, Jimmy, Hayward, Westview victim-witnesses, etc. Or for something more straightforward, such as what would have happened if Agatha and White Vision hadn’t been around in the last few episodes, how would have Wanda played out her grief, particularly in light of all the captured townspeople and Vision’s increasing awareness of what was going on? (A story where no one from the outside ever manages to break in until Vision becomes self-aware would be fascinating). Or if Agatha had been more of a benign witch-observer rather than reverting to villain in the middle? Or if the whole thing had just dragged on into more and more sitcoms?

I also included fandom primer, in case there’s a kind person out there who’s willing to give me the complete Marvel history of the characters Wanda Maximoff and/or The Vision, including what I assume is a voluminous comics history. Yeah, I could read a wiki, but that’s boring. Someone else tell the story.

Original Work

Contestant On Dystopian Game Show & Their Teammates, Female Cop Skeptical About Androids/Android Who's Been Assigned as Her Partner, Human man or woman who works in a brothel for aliens/aliens, Jaded Alien Soldier Stationed To Protect Farming World/Cheerful Human Space Sheep Herder, Post-Apocalypse Survivor/Post-Apocalypse Survivor Who's Her Ex-wife, Teenagers Who Are On The Run From The Evil Intergalactic Empire & Same, Worldbuilding: Arcanepunk Society, Worldbuilding: Steampunk Society, Worldbuilding: Matriarchal Steampunk Society, Worldbuilding: Post-Climate Change Apocalyptic World 

Extra opt-ins: Interactive fiction (I don't care what format), in-universe religious texts, Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives

I never know what to say about Original Work except to wave vaguely at the already fine prompts (anything would be great, I promise), but here’s some 100% optional thoughts:

* Contestant on Dystopian Game Show – Two elements are appealing here. First, the design of the “game” (give me all the awful details! Bonus for thinly veiled social commentary!), and then the problem-solving aspect as our plucky contestants must escape and/or survive. I’m down for Hunger Games-like societal spectacles, people trapped in puzzles like the Cube movie, or evil versions of actual game shows like the Price is Right,

* Female Cop/Android Cop – I swear I did not nominate this, given it’s the third human/android cop request in this exchange. I think the element I like about this trope is two disparate beings, possibly with conflicting values, forced to work in close proximity and eventually becoming buddies (plus friends to lovers if you want). The cop format naturally lends itself to casefic as easily designed plots, and more excuses to throw the partners in ridiculous situations such as Undercover Android Prostitute/Client or Fake Owner/Servant. If someone wants to use the android angle to introduce a more complicated narrative about police than the usual cop-centered morality, I opt-in to that.

* Man or Woman in Alien Brothel – What it says on the tin: Xeno, with possible humor. CYOA is potentially hilarious here.

* Alien Soldier/Sheep Farmer – Besides the obvious, all the alien planet farming! Also, is this some kind of alien UN cooperative situation for the soldier, or an occupation sort of situation?

* Post-Apocalypse Survivors Who Are Exes & Post-Climate Change Apocalyptic World – Conflict and survival encampments! Modern people being thrown back to per-industrial level technology! Recognizable yet devastated landscapes! Bringing up old fights while under scavenging for survival! Etc.

* Teenagers Running From Intergalactic Evil – The teens could have special abilities or magic genes, or perhaps simply ran away from Evil Secret Program or stole a macguffin. I’m good with unrealistically competent young people too.

* Steampunk, Matriarchal Steampunk, Arcanepunk – Feel free to make the setting somewhere other than Alt-19th Century England. Surely some other cultures – or a made up one – can have fancy clothes and style, non-electric technology, magic with pseudoscientific rules. How about steampunk arboreal elves? An alien interpretation or a complete alt-Earth with different continents and history?

 

General likes: Worldbuilding, some kind of plot no matter how flimsy, genderbending canonically male characters, angst & psychological stress, humor, competence & intelligence, hard science, fake science, crack taken seriously, fictional culture/biology/psychology, telepathy and other mental powers, Everyone Is A Badass (even if they are terrible people), complicated relationships, psychological manipulation, moral ambiguity, non- and dubcon (watch for a few specific exceptions), victim resistance, recovery

More kinks and tropes that I enjoy: A/B/O worldbuilding, Aftermath of… (pick a trauma), ___ Made Them Do It, AU: Canon Divergence, AU: Dom/sub, BDSM, Banter, Bondage, Both Captured & Forced to work Together, Breast Worship, Careful Sex with Injured Partner, Comfort Sex, Competence Kink, Consensual Underage Sex, Corruption, Dubcon – Character didn't want it but begins to enjoy it during the act, Enthusiastic Consent, Extremely detailed descriptions of food and culture around food, perceptive Character A is attracted to complicated Character B immediately, First Time, Fisting, Guilt, Hurt/Comfort, Internalized Homophobia (and getting over it), Incest, Lactation, Loneliness, Loss of Virginity, Loyalty, Magic, Mating Bonds, Mating Cycles, Medical Experimentation, Mind Control, Mind Control Aftermath/Recovery, Mind/Mood Altering Substances, Non-sentient technology gone wrong, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Overstimulation, Oviposition, Past Rape/Non-con, Pain, Pregnancy, Pregnancy Sex, Psychic Feedback Loop, Rape Recovery, Rescues, Ritual Sex, Rough Sex, Secret Relationship, Self/Mutual Experimentation, Sensation Play, Sex Magic, Sexual Rites of Passage, Sex Slaves Escape Together, Sexual Training, Snowed In, Soul Sex, Stranded Together, Student/Teacher, Time Loops, Whump, Xeno

General DNWs: Underage below 15, complete dehumanization, objectification, humiliation, public use, bodily fluids, an emphasis on graphic violence, mundane AUs, death of nominated characters

 

Star Wars Prequel Trilogy: Padmé Amidala/Anakin Skywalker (SWPT)

Accidental Soulbond

Character A gets off on how well they can fuck Character B

Character A promises to be gentle if B surrenders; B takes them up on it

Corruption – Magically Corrupted Character Purposely Corrupts Lover

Corrupting the hero with compelling moral arguments (and backing them up with dubcon sex)

Dubcon – Conditioning Means Unable to Say No For Sex

Entering someone's dreams/nightmares

Mind Control

Mind Control – Victim pretending to be mind controlled to trick the villain

Noncon - Victim is treated like a lover

oblivious mental conditioning/mind control

Star Wars: Sith AU

DNW for this request: Fluffy romance, significant appearance of post-Mustafar Darth Vader

 

Star wars Prequel Trilogy: Padmé Amidala/Obi-Wan Kenobi (SWPT)

Character A is aroused by Character B's Display of Competence

Character's Magical Powers Are Kept in Check with Institutionalized Sex Ritual

Characters Have Sex As Part Of Diplomatic Negotiations and/or Relations

Characters have to pretend they're not in a relationship when in public

Deep-delving into all the politics and court dynamics canon barely touched on

Emotionally constipated character realizes they are in love

Getting Together While Pregnant

Hurt/comfort – A is hurt protecting B; B is emotionally devastated while trying to comfort A

If I Must Solve A Dozen Geopolitical Problems Just To Have Sex With You Then I Will

Intricate Courting Rituals Across Cultural Differences

Marriage – Characters Consider Themselves Married Even if in the Eyes of the Law They're Not

Mating Bond

Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery

Pining – Characters try to resist due to religious guilt but still end up together

Psychic/Magical Bond allows Partners to Share Physical Sensations During Sex (Sensory Feedback Loop)

Secret Relationship

Telepathic Bond

Touch-Starved Character Having Overwhelming Tender Long Foreplay First Time Sex
 

DNW for this request: Noncon between Padme & Obi-Wan

It’s probably clear from the tags that I view Padme/Anakin as the fundamentally fucked up ship, while Padme/Ben get all the secret relationship/forbidden romance/meeting of two powerful people from very different cultures vibes that canon tried to make work for Anakin. Sorry Lucas, you can’t expect me to root for sweet romance in the second act, and have the love interest slaughter the younglings in the third. I am 100% on board with the idea that Anakin was consciously or unconsciously Force-mojoing Padme into love and sex, although I can see many different potential motivations, such as emotional longing and loneliness, obsession, slowly descending corruption, pre-existing evil, or the active machinations of Palpatine cackling from the sidelines. I’m also good with Dark Padme reversals of this dynamic, or scenarios in which corrupted Anakin tries or succeeds in corrupting Padme in turn.

For Padme/Obi-wan, the essence of the ship for me is Jedi-meets-politician and they sooner or later get it on. Everything else about the scenario can be changed. I would love lighthearted fun, or angst/guilt over the oh-so-wrongness of our feelings, or instant attraction that cannot be resisted, or sex pollen that uncovers hidden emotions, or even recovery fic after Anakin (including post-canon and Padme Lives). I do like explorations of fictional cultures and Jedi culture in particular, and how that clashes with the galaxy at large, so feel free to pontificate on all the worldbuilding details (philosophy, clothes, food, Jedi-Senate politics...)

 

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren (SWST)

Accidental Soulbond

Accidental Soulbond – distance and lack of touch and regular sex causes characters pain and illness

Bad Guys Capture Ship to Breed Them Because of Super Genes

Characters Captured By Non-Earth Species & Kept as Pets & Bred With Each Other

Dreams – Sharing Dreams

Codependency – Actively Encouraging Each Other's Self-Destructive Tendencies

Dub-Con – Rough Sex Used as Punishment in Training

Dystopic soulmate AU

Enemies to Lovers - Accidental soulbond between enemies

Hate Sex Turns Unexpectedly Tender

Incest – character(s) realize they’re related during sex

Psychic/Magical Bond allows Partners to Share Physical Sensations During Sex (Sensory Feedback Loop)

Seduction to the Dark Side

Telepathic Bond

DNW for this request: Fluffy romance, woobification of either Ren or Rey

The essence of Kylo/Rey for me is this: Two pretty and absurdly overpowered people are mindlinked for ~reasons~, and each tries to convert/corrupt the other to their own worldview. All other details are fun and porn. Unlike Anakin/Padme, Kylo is already on the Dark Side from the beginning, and Rey is equally powerful as him, so the dynamic is much more of a Mutually Assured Destruction struggle between the two of them. I’m pretty fond of scenarios where Rey gets captured (again? Or doesn’t get out quickly?) and Kylo tries (a lot) harder to corrupt her, or where she takes up Kylo’s offer to to conquer the galaxy together and she tries to get them to rule for good, or they are thrown together by external forces and (attempted breeding by Snoke or Palpatine is pretty classic) and must either work together and/or duke it out. A pre-canon AU where Rey is a rival at Luke’s school also would not go amiss. Like the other Star Wars requests, I love all the extraneous worldbuilding details, and I am not a canon-stickler so feel free to make stuff up.

Dark Angel: Solo: Alec McDowell (Dark Angel TV)

Accidental Baby Acquisition – Turns Out the Villains Grew a Baby in a Lab Using Your DNA

Adult or Teenage Character's Childhood Backstory

Aftermath of Non-Consensual Body Modification

BDSM as a way to deal with trauma/mental illness

bondage for the sake of aesthetics/beauty (at least) as much as effectiveness

Brainwashing – Character Recovered from Brainwashing Gets Captured and Brainwashed Again

Character seeks out rough sex as coping mechanism

conflicted horny feelings towards an alternative version of yourself

Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane

Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery

Pregnant through medical experimentation and super protective of the baby

surprise pregnancy reveals true extent of past noncon body modification

Ah Alec, such a beautiful fandom bicycle. Ship him with anyone or no one, so long as banter, emotional immaturity, trauma fallout and superpowers are involved. I would be happy with either light-hearted or humorous stories, or something heavier involving the non-con/aftermath tags, or some darkly humorous combination of the two. For the mpreg prompts, I don’t think Alec would exactly be shocked by whatever his weird body is serving up, but definitely dealing with an actual child may throw him.

The Pretender: Jarod/Miss Parker (The Pretender TV)

A/B/O - alpha dubcons alpha into getting fucked and knotted

A/B/O - Female Alpha doms male omega

Alpha is nonconned until they become an omega

Bad Guys Capture Ship to Breed Them Because of Super Genes

Breeding kink- forced breeding

Character A Thinks they're the Only One Good Enough to Take Character B's Virginity

D/s - under-negotiated or unnegotiated but mutually enjoyed dynamic

Femdom

Masked Ball As An Excuse for Inadvisable Sex

Mpreg

DNW for this request: Fluffy romance, Jarod unilaterally nonconning Miss Parker (mutual or reciprocating abuse is fine), Miss Parker as an omega

This old fandom predates the advent of omegaverse, and – let’s face it – was fairly vanilla to begin with. So, uh, does someone want to be the first? Canon practically hands these breeding storylines to us on a plate, so why not add some fake biology and gender dynamics to it for fun? The dynamic between these two is fairly complicated – childhood friends, adult adversaries, both effectively brainwashed or manipulated by the organization that raised them – and out of this, Miss Parker’s character seems to be the one that people struggle the most with in fic. I think it is sometimes difficult for writers to break out of a binary villain or woobie victim conceptualization for her, but I am fine with a morally gray or ambiguous combination of both. Jarod more straightforwardly has two radically different modes, the his brainwashed Centre self, and post-escape gleefully taunting self, where he is fully complicit in keeping up the chase. I’m fine with stories spanning any of these eras (although age them up to at least 15 for sexualized flashback kid sort of stories), or changing canon with Jarod permanently captured, or both of them taking over the Centre together. Or, if you just want to do a non-heavy Jarod/MP hookup, Masked Ball As An Excuse for Inadvisable Sex would be fabulous.

The Pretender: Solo: Jarod (The Pretender TV)

Accidental Baby Acquisition – Turns Out the Villains Grew a Baby in a Lab Using Your DNA

Alternate Universe – Daemons

BDSM as a way to deal with trauma/mental illness

Comfort Sex

Coming Out - Realization when Meeting Another LGBTQ Person

Deeply Sexually Repressed Character Slowly Becomes Sluttier Over Time

Journey of gay/queer self-discovery

Pregnant through medical experimentation and super protective of the baby

Sex – Touch-Starved Character So Overwhelmed They Don't Know What to Do With Themselves

Solo sex experiments

surprise pregnancy reveals true extent of past noncon body modification

Touch-Starved Character Having Overwhelming Tender Long Foreplay First Time Sex

Mpreg

Jarod is another little black dress character that I can see in a lot of different pairings and settings (and so does canon, lol). Basically what I’d like here is an exploration of themes that inexplicably haven’t been dealt with in fic very often before, such as: What if Jarod actual had to care for a kid by himself (instead of conveniently foisting it off on others), or if that was the motivation to leave the Centre in the first place? Or what if Jarod were gay but still had been forced to do het sims forever, how would he adjust to a different self-identity? Or what if, instead reserving himself sexually, he embarked on a journey of thorough self-discovery with the same enthusiasm as discovering ice cream? What if the universe had daemons, how would that affect Jarod’s life-long loneliness, or his behavior after getting out? Jarod/OC is fine for any of these scenarios.

Star Trek: Picard: Soji Asha/Narek (ST: Picard)

Brainwashing – Character Recovered from Brainwashing Gets Captured and Brainwashed Again

Character A gets off on how well they can fuck Character B

Character A lost character B's trust; trying desperately to get it back

Character A Modified Character B's Body For Character A's Pleasure

Characters Captured By Non-Earth Species & Kept as Pets & Bred With Each Other

Characters' old memories & lives replaced with new ones – effect isn't permanent

Creating your moral code from scratch after the last one imploded

Dubcon – Conditioning Means Unable to Say No For Sex

Dubcon leads to feeling

Enemy uses mindwipe on hero but mindwipe is only partially effective

Hacking Robot/Cyborg/AI Victim to Inhibit Movement

Mind Control

Mind Control – Victim pretending to be mind controlled to trick the villain

Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery

Robot Has Hardware and/or Software Installed To Sleep With Their Partner

Slow and painful process of recovering from lifetime of cultural brainwashing

It would hardly be an idfest without a hot android … plus a creepy Romulan spy with deep-rooted android issues? Mmm, yes, bring it on. The writing in canon was a mess, so really the take home situation here is an android who doesn’t remember she’s android until she does, plus a gaslighting Romulan who does know she’s an android and maybe loves her, maybe hates her, maybe doesn’t know what the fuck he ‘s doing. Just run with that and them into any other situation you want. One of the most interesting aspects of this is Soji’s mental state and identity – are you human if you think you are human? What happens when your programming is manipulated, by your own people or by external malevolent forces? How do you recover a relationship once that sense of self is betrayed?



Star Trek: Picard: Hugh | Third of Five & Seven of Nine (ST: Picard), Solo: Hugh | Third of Five (ST: Picard)

all the diaspora feelings

Creating your moral code from scratch after the last one imploded

Hurt/Comfort – Aftermath of Torture

Hurt/Comfort – Character Doesn't Expect Tenderness But Gets It Anyway

Mind Control – Recovery while in high pressure circumstances

Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery

Slow and painful process of recovering from lifetime of cultural brainwashing

Touch-Starved – Stoic Character Falls Apart When Someone Touches Them

Recovery from Canon Illness/Injury

DNW for this request: Hugh and Seven as antagonists against each other

All I want for Christmas is deBorging fic, especially the psychological ramifications of having to reform your identity and very consciousness, as well as physical body, to a foreign or dimly recalled sense of self. This could be long or short term, and I’d welcome anything along the timeline here, from Hugh returning to his cube and planting the seeds of individuality, to the Lore era, to the establishment of the idea of xBs in the Federation (Hugh must meet Seven somewhere in there) and through the Borg Reclamation Project, with its touchy Romulan/Federation relationship. The latter is particularly fascinating with how the xBs appear to be establishing their own culture out of individual journeys of reclaiming themselves.

AO3: Marie_L

Hello, fellow 5Ker! I'm pretty psyched to do some longer fic, and hope you are too. In general I have a pretty wide range of interests, including: plotty gen fic and relationship buildup equally well, worldbuilding details (make it up if canon does not provide!), “sciency” SF, alien biology & cultures (robots count as aliens in my book), cultural clashes, telepathy & other mental powers (and problems resulting from them), angst, humor, and premises taken seriously.

On the shipping front I tend to have OTCs instead of OTPs, and then am fine with hooking up my fave with anybody, of any gender, including original characters. I mostly requested individual characters with this in mind, so if your heart really leans towards, say, Dorian/John or Michael/Tilly, go for it, so long as the nominated character remains central. For this one I am asking for no PWPs – on the assumption that this is an exchange where we can indulge in plotty fic requests – but if you want to throw some smut in there with your plot, that's fine too. I'm also good with darkfic, moral ambiguity and bad endings (abusing my faves is also an enthusiastic fic pasttime), although certainly not required.

All prompts for inspiration only, completely optional.

DNWs for this exchange are: (a) no explicit, over-the-top, lovingly described violence, (b) no pure fluff, (c) no PWPs, (d) no mundane AUs (high school, coffee shop, etc.), although you can go pretty far afield with canon divergence. For the underage characters (or close to it, such as Max & Alec), no sex below age 14.
 

Almost Human – Dorian

AU Canon Divegence, Canon-Style Plot, Mystery/Procedural, SF/Fantasy, Worldbuilding

This is one of those short-lived, highly flawed SF shows that clutter my television viewing history, and happens to star super charismatic and appealing lead characters. The flaws and dangling plot holes somehow make it easier to imagine fic, as you want to explain everything, starring those pretty, pretty actors of course. Here we have robots with a secret tragic history! Dystopian setting! Magical technology including cyborgs and genetic engineering! Did I mention the sentient, oppressed robots with emotional chips that have been rejected for being too human?

* DRN rebellion, resistance or secret societies never get old. Or: MX anti-human rebellion, where Dorian needs to intervene to save the day.

* The Wall is always a great setting for case fic or getting your worldbuilding on. One of the dangling mysteries with the Wall is not only what's over there, but why this side feels the need to broadcast propaganda to prevent the populace from going over there. Anarchist zone? Disease or nanobot infection? Anti-technology zealots? Alien anomaly, Annihilation-like?The place where non-”perfect” bots or people are sent to die (maybe John gets booted over there and Dorian follows)?

* Dorian's background and an explanation for why the police force deleted his old memories. Why the DRNs failed in the first place, and why Dorian is “special” according to Maldonado.

* Dorian ends up slated for deactivation, and he & his friends secretly conspire to keep him alive.
 

Babylon 5 – Valen, Sinclair, Lennier, Susan Ivanova, Susan Ivanova/Talia Winters

AU Canon Divegence, Canon-Style Plot, Character Development, Fix-It, SF/Fantasy

B5 is an old favorite, having watched it when it was first airing. I'm especially fond of fix-its for this canon, which the the arc plot structure lends itself to. What happens if Sinclair isn't sent to Minbar after season one, but develops the Anla'shok while Commander of Babylon 5? (I'm convinced that JMS' original plan before O'Hare's illness was to have Sinclair carry what eventually became Sheridan's storylines, plus the Ranger stuff. But maybe you have a different idea of how it would go?). What happens to Susan/Talia if Talia doesn't turn evil and end up with her brain in a jar at Psi Corps? Lennier… ugh, somebody just fix the whole thing. Other ideas:

* Ivanova is the one who ends up with enhanced Psi powers from Ironheart – and has to keep it a secret from Psi Corps while learning to live as a telepath. Or maybe Psi Corps does find her.

* Ivanova doesn't leave at the end of the fourth season, but has to deal with the cult in S5. Or she (and Talia?) becomes an Underground ringleader with independent B5 as the center of resistance (i.e. write out Byron).

* Anything about how Minbari!Sinclair really turns into the Valen of legend. Or anything about how Sinclair adjusts to becoming an alien, forever.

* Lennier is kind of my Minbari Everyman (for the religious caste at least), which is why I wasn't fond of the original Ranger storyline, even before the Ending Which Shall Not Be Named. Lennier's desire to go from a religious life of service to a more Warrior-type role needs explaining. But gong with the Anla'shok, Lennier's story in training could be fascinating, as he is one of the rare Minbari who has worked with humans, and could potentially bridge the inevitable Minbari-Human conflicts that arise in the group. Perhaps he even ends up assisting Sinclair adjust to his role as Ranger One, just as he must help Delenn adjust to her part-human status. Come to think of it, Delenn sending Lennier to the Rangers as an emissary between her and Sinclair makes more sense for the character.
 

Dark Angel –Alec, Max, Alec/Max, Alec & Max

AU Canon Divegence, Darkfic, Fix-It, Getting Together, Hurt/Comfort, SF/Fantasy, Worldbuilding

One of my favorite canons for genetic engineering hijinks (or darkfic, or both), despite how badly the original show was mucked with. This has a lot of elements I love: the Hero getting chased down by Authorities for unjust and wicked reasons, bad childhoods haunting characters, yet another dystopian environment (for no real reason outside of Manticore, other than cyberpunky aesthetics), beautiful people with mild superpowers, angst over hiding one's True Self from the people around them, cross-species fuckery that lends itself to the exploration of alien vs human. Again, I'm fond of canon divergences that play with the structural flaws of the original, in this case either by putting Max in with Alec at Manticore (she doesn't escape, she's captured earlier) or putting Alec in Max's orbit, but earlier in canon (he's one of the ones that escapes with her instead of Ben, or they send him out to locate her in Season 1).

I also like fixits/canon divergence around the Freak Nation rebellion. Resistance of the oppressed is kind of my jam, but the build-up to it was handled poorly in the show. IMO they failed to sell the audience on either Max being the natural leader of the Nomalies, or why any of the new escapees (including Alec) would trust each other enough to come out in the open in such a vulnerable way. Somebody...rewrite the last half of season 2 for me? All right, that's probably too much to ask, but any story dealing with either the lead-up to FN or post-series finale that sells the mutants as a coherant community would be great.
 

MCU/Black Panther – Nakia, Shuri

AU Canon Divegence, Canon-Style Plot, Character Development, SF/Fantasy, Worldbuilding

Confession time: Although I've seen most of the MCU movies and enjoyed them (along with Jessica Jones and Luke Cake), I never paid attention to the close details or became especially fannish about any of it until Black Panther. Something about the unabashed Afrofuturism of that movie pushed it over from isn't that nice, a shiny superhero flick I'll forget about in 5 minutes to Holy shit what is this fantastic SF-alternate history fusion thingie?! I still don't really care about Black Panther as a superhero (although T'challa as benign ruler is cool) or much about fight scenes or battles, but I want allll the fic about Wakandan history or politics or how they dealt (or will deal) with the outside world.

I chose Nakia and Shuri as characters because they both represent the interface between Wakanda and the rest of the world. I'd love to see more of Nakia's undercover missions – what are their strategic purpose, besides random acts of do-goodery? What does Wakanda do with the information from its imbedded spies in various other countries? Do they ever subtly interfere in other governments for Wakanda's benefit or to protect their secrecy? And what adventures will Nakia get into once Wakanda's advanced knowledge and rare resources are known to the world?

Shuri is more on the educational end of the Wakandan outreach. I'd love to see more of her as science ambassador, maybe bringing some young African Americans to Wkanda for the first time for some advanced training, or setting up the soon-to-be renouned Wakanda University. Basically, showing off Wakanda's tech to awed outsiders. Or perhaps we could see something of Shuri's education when younger – can all Wakandans become engineers as teenagers if they want to, or is that sort of training reserved for royalty? How do they balance educating their young people at a crazy high level with having to maintain the front that they are a poor underdeveloped country? (Before the events of the movie does anyone from the outside ever visit Wakanda, and what would they be allowed to see?) Is there a Wakandan equivalent of worrying about disruptive tech on their traditional culture(s), and how do they navigate it?
 

Star Trek: Discovery – Michael Burnham

AU Canon Divegence, Canon-Style Plot, Character Development, SF/Fantasy, Worldbuilding

The first season of Disco was weirdly paced for me, but I still came out of it loving Burnham and wanting to see more. Her, Sarek, Amanda and Spock on Vulcan? Yes, please! Philippa training that emotional constipation out of her bit by bit, and teaching her how to interact and lead her fellow humans? Mmm, yes. Some other ideas:

* Burnham becomes suspicious of Lorca's non-Starfleet behavior, and somehow Stamets in the spore drive gets confirmation that he is not who he says he is before that last series of insane jumps. But how to prove it?

* Burnham meets her Mirror self – either in Mirror!verse (not captain of the mirror!Discovery?) or in Prime (mirror!Discovery doesn't get blown up right away, and still exists when they get back.)

* A planet of the week encounter while Michael is mirror!captain, with all the mental angst while holding it totgether externally.

* Mirror!Saru figures out pretty quick that Burnham is not “herself.” Michael finds a way to bring him back to prime verse.

* Anything at all with Burnham and Mirror!Geourgiou. Or, even better, somehow work in Burham, a very alive prime!Georigiou and her evil emperor version all in one.

* A reworking of the Michael/Ash Tyler betrayal storyline. I'd kind of like to see a version where Ash doesn't flip personalities to fanatic Voq, but gradually realizes that he has these alien memories without assaulting Michael. How would the two of them cope, especially being trapped together in Mirror!verse?

AO3: Marie_L

Welcome, fellow spacer! So sorry about how unconscionably late this letter is. Sick kids + being out of town turns out to not equal exchange letter writing time :/

In general, I like plotty fic and smut equally well, worldbuilding details (make it up if canon does not provide!), “sciency” SF, alien biology & cultures, cultural clashes, telepathy & other mental powers (and problems resulting from them), angst, humor, and premises taken seriously. On the shipping front I tend to have OTCs instead of OTPs, and then am fine with hooking up my fave with anybody, of any gender, including original characters. So if your heart really leans towards, say, Bashir/Garek, go for it. I'm also fine with darkfic, moral ambiguity and bad endings (abusing my faves is also an enthusiastic fic pasttime), although certainly not required.

My only DNWs relevant to this exchange are (a) no explicit, over-the-top, lovingly described violence, and (b) no pure fluff. Usually at this point I'd say no mundane AUs either, but those are against both the rules and spirit of Space Swap anyway. Canon divergence is welcome and encouraged.

I'm fond of all of these canons, warts and all, and am very open to any stories of what other people love about them too. I tried to narrow down the tags to aspects or characters I find particularly interesting, but any angle exploring their worlds would be welcome. All prompts are optional suggestions.

Babylon5
Character: Valen
Character: Lennier
Worldbuilding: Minbari Culture
Worldbuilding: Alien Telepath Culture
Relationship: Lyta Alexander/Kosh Naranek
Worldbuilding: Vorlon Homeworld

So much to love about Babylon 5. B5 and DS9 aired concurrently through most of my college years, and were my first fannish experience both with other RL people and online. I always had a particular fascination with the Minbari, and also interrelations between the Vorlons, organic tech, and the “seeding” of telepathy among the various races as future weapons against the Shadows.

Lennier is a wonderful character to explore the ordinary classes of Minbari, at least of the religious caste, plus possibly Ranger training. Beyond the Brennan book, how do humans and Minbari interact in training on Minbar, and how does Lennier – with his unusual knowledge of human culture – bridge the two? What was Lennier life like prior to his assignment on B5, or after while adapting to living among many different species? (Re: Lennier's ending, I'm in the Lennier would never! camp, but it is canon after all. Ignore, keep or canon diverge in whatever way makes sense to you.)

Valen/Sinclair is a fascinating window into ancient Minbari, molding them into the united force we see a thousand years later. He also is a window into the relationship between the Vorlons and their “client” species, both in the future and the past.

Lyta, Kosh, and the Vorlon homeworld – anything here would be amazing. What's it like, to be an assistant to the beings that, in a sense, created you? What's the nature of the relationship between Kosh and Lyta, or Kosh, Lyta and his ship?

Alien Telepaths – Doesn't have to be Minbari (although you can…), but I'd love to see some contrast between the treatment of telepaths in non-human species vs the human fear and control of the Psi Corps.


Hyperion Cantos – Dan Simmons
Character: Aenea
Character: Rachel Weintraub-Moneta
Worldbuilding: Ousters
Worldbuilding: River Tethys
Worldbuilding: Treeships

Simmons as an author as a deserved reputation as capital-P Problematic, but nevertheless the four books in the Hyperion series are pretty much his magnum opus. The worldbuilding especially is fantastic, so I'd love to hear more about how life beyond the Hegemony/Pax is lived, particularly the Ousters' adaptation to space and their construction of living Dyson spheres. The Treeships, it is implied, used the same or a more primitive version of that biotechnology. The River Tethys is an opportunity to visit many more unusual worlds in the Hegemony, just as it is in the last two novels.

Rachel's character is an interesting one on its own, particularly after her lifetime of traveling backwards through time, and on into the unseen third life traveling forwards again. How exactly does she end up to be Moneta? I could never tell if that bit was planned from the beginning or tacked on at the end of the series. And Aenea is actually one of my favorite characters. I always wanted to hear the story from her perspective – what, mentally, she could really see, even as a child-come-prophet.


Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Character: Julian Bashir
Worldbuilding: Genetic engineering

I was floored by the genetic engineering reveal while originally watching DS9. On the one hand, it seemed an unnecessary plot twist, and didn't necessary jibe with previous canon, such as TNG's Unnatural Selection. On the other hand, it made a fascinating phobia for a utopian society like Star Trek's, which has an ethos of every individual attempting to better themselves, but also followed a horrific war involving so-called “superior” genetically engineered individuals. What's the line between natural and unnatural in a universe where people are routinely ripped apart into subatomic particles and rebuilt on the other end? Where cross-species pregnancies is done as a matter of routine, presumably involving deliberate genetic tinkering to make it work?

Trek routinely depicts genetic engineering – at least when deployed for eugenic purposes – as either catastrophically error-prone or leading to malevolent megalomania, but Julian is an exception to both. What's it like, to be “outed” as some kind of menace to society? How do the other species encountered on DS9 (Cardassians, Bajorans, etc) view it? Are there other non-Federation species that have opposing viewpoints, and what would happen if they wanted to join the Federation?


Star Trek: Discovery
Character: Michael Burnham
Relationship: Michael Burnham/Mirror Philippa Georgiou
Relationship: Michael Burnham/Ash Tyler
Worldbuilding: Adapting to Prime/Mirrorverse
Worldbuilding: Cultural Clash Between Prime and Mirrorverse

Ahhh, Discovery. The latest Trek to deploy engaging characters, actors and premises, and then squander the potential of all of the above by failing to properly develop any of its interesting ideas. Makes more narrative room for fic, I suppose. Burnham is a particular favorite in this show, combining uber competence, emotional constipation and iron woobiedom. I'm pretty down with any pairing involving her – Tilly and prime!Philippa both being popular, for good reason – but here I went for a couple of the darker ships. I tend to imagine Burnham/Mirror Georgiou as dubcony (at the least), what with all the Emperor kneeling and murderous demands of fealty and such. But I can imagine her expressing some latent attraction there too, onto someone who looks like her old captain/parental figure, but isn't.

Michael/Ash was handled terribly by the show, rushing the romance buildup, Ash's breakdown, his mindswitch, and all the emotional fallout for it for both of them...everything. I'd love to see some canon divergence that draws out any of these points and makes it believable for both characters. It would also be great to see stories where Ash doesn't turn out to be Voq, but retains the severe PTSD/rape victim plotline. Or something where Ash does end up retaining Voq's mind, but doesn't snap and try to kill Michael when the memories come. How would the two of them cope, if there wasn't such an obvious betrayal and breaking point?

Adapting and cultural clash between prime/mirror – Wide open here but I can see plenty of angst-filled and/or humorous stories involving our heroes or anti-heroes in the wrong verse. Either version of Lorca at the time of switch would be good, or the whole mirror!Discovery before they get blown to smithereens, or just more of the difficulties impersonating Captains Killy or Burnham.


Star Wars: Sequel Trilogy
Relationship: Luke Skywalker & Rey
Relationship: Luke Skywalker/Rey
Relationship: Kylo Ren/Rey
Worldbuilding: Luke Skywalker's Training Temple

Luke &/ Rey – Hard to go wrong with mentor/student, especially with mind powers. More explicit Force training (which leads to inappropriate feelings?) Compare and contrast to Luke's time with Yoda so many years ago? Compare and contrast to Luke's failure with Ben at his own training temple? (What all happened there, anyway? Before the split second betrayal.)

Kylo/Rey – I'll admit, I was neutral on these two the the first movie, but TLJ sort of sold me on it. Probably the annoyed telepathy across space. Or Rey's endlessly optimistic attempts at redemption, despite having been tortured by Kylo and witnessed his patricide. Some fic suggestions: Rey does try to rule the First Order with Kylo after Snokes' death, only to find out reforming evil empires isn't so easy after all. Rey is successfully delivered to Snokes in TFA… take it from there, darkficcers. Rey (child of nobodies) and Ben (child of definite somebodies) are both at Luke's training temple together, what happens?

Themes I like: Plotty gen. Hard SF. Worldbuilding. Angst. Humor, either by itself or sprinkled into heavier fic. Character studies that reveal something new that canon does not provide. Well-thought out fake science or alternative biology. Aliens and pseudo-aliens such as robots. Competence and intelligence. Smut’s fine (any rating) but totally optional. I generally do not have OTPs/NOTPs or strong preferences on pairings, but if you do, feel free to incorporate them with the nominated characters.

Kinks I like: Pretty much anything with a power differential: D/s (negotiated or not), incest/clonecest, teacher/student, non-con and dubcon (especially where the victim resists to the best of their ability), psychological manipulation.

Do not wants: Fluff & saccharine romance, excessive or graphic violence, bodily fluids, crackfic, character bashing, mundane AUs (canon divergence is fine).


Almost Human (Dorian) –

Dorian interacting with any of the other characters is welcome here. I have a longstanding interest in the history and future of the DRNs. Here we have a group of androids who are clearly Turing-compliant and possess free will, and yet are not only treated as property, for the most part seem to acquiesce to their treatment as property.  Do they ever get sick of their status as slaves, and begin to self-organize? There were some deleted scenes on the DVD with Dorian tentatively pestering Rudy about his past, indicating Dorian himself was perhaps not so accepting of the official line. Is this one of things that makes Dorian “special”? What does Maldonado know about it, anyway, and why did she keep him around? Does John ever come to any greater awareness of the android predicament, or does he continue to view Dorian as a quasi-human exception? Romantic Jorian is fine, or not, your choice.


Babylon 5 (Delenn and/or Lennier and/or Neroon) –

Minbari! This alien race always fascinated me from the show, so anything which incorporates their culture or POV – could be the Anla Shok, or the religious caste's rituals, or the warrior caste's insularity, or interactions between any of these groups. (Since “Minbari do not kill Minbari” and they seem to be rather isolationist as a whole, what do the warriors spend all their time doing?) I love all Delenn-Ivanova interactions, and Lennier's quiet devotion (although the jealousy/betrayal storyline left me cold), and Neroon's slow acceptance of humans as equals.

Dark Angel (Max, Alec) –

This show had an enormous amount going for it in terms of its concept and setting. The second season was hit and miss (the biggest miss for me was that they downplayed the dystopian/apocalyptic police state that had been a major plot element in the first season). But second season had a bunch of genetically engineering chimeric supersoldiers raised in captivity and then running around on the loose, and I'm never not gonna love the worldbuilding possibilities there, even the heavy-handed transgenics = race stuff at the end. Max and Alec are fun due to their argumentative smart-ass similarities, only one's been out in the world awhile, while the other was more or less tortured into partially-effective obedience. I do like any conflict over those differences in upbringing, or Alec discovering some new thing he's never had before, or flashbacks to Manticore. In this fandom, heat fic and psuedo-bestiliaty never get old, either.


Orphan Black (Cosima) –

(Note: I haven't seen any of the new season yet, so this will only reflect through season three). If my own personal dorky-cool Mary Sue were in the dictionary, Cosima's picture would be next to the entry. I'd love anything which explores her role as a scientist in an organization which spies on her and her siblings and treats them as literal guinea pigs, even as one of her sisters runs the place. I also love her sisterly interactions with Sarah and Alison on not-always positive terms, and possibly Beth. A romantic story with either of the girlfriends is also fine (or, uh, the other clones). My one request is that if you do Cosima/Delphine, that it address the fucked-up nature of their relationship instead of pure fluff.

The Pretender (Jarod, Sydney) –

Since I'm the only participant who requested/offered this show, I'll assume it was not the one matched on. Some background, though: This show from the 90s involved a genius (Jarod) who was kidnapped as a child by an evil corporation and forced to perform “simulations” up until his escape as an adult. Sydney was his handler/shrink/father figure who ostensibly was working to bring Jarod back – or was he? Sydney obviously loved Jarod but also had conflicting motives for showing that love: the desire to remain an impartial “scientist” (and surviving the Centre himself, in what has to be the most Kafkaesque research environment ever) vs keeping an emotional hold over Jarod. It’s hard to believe a massive amount of psychological conditioning/manipulation wasn't involved in keeping Jarod from running away all those years. Anything set before Jarod's escape would be great, especially with Jarod as an adult. The show had a lot of flashbacks to Jarod as a kid, but comparably fewer as an adult, when Jarod must recognize that he's being manipulated. Or, a story on Sydney's thought process post-escape, how he gradually shifts over from apparently rooting for Jarod's recapture to blatantly helping him escape by the end of the second season, a fact that Jarod's surely aware of.