Fandom5K 2018

[allele_apocalypse]

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?