Dear Yuletide author

AO3 handle: Marie_L

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. For darker or kinkier themes I am good with dub/non-con, D/s and power differentials, incest (or clonecest, or android same-model-cest), age differences, and underage sex down to ~14 or equivalent.

Do not wants: Fluff & saccharine romance, excessive or graphic violence (I don't mind violence being mentioned, since some of these canons are fairly dark, I just don't kink on loving descriptions of it), bodily fluids, crackfic, character bashing, mundane AUs (canon divergence is fine).

All prompts optional, on with the fandoms!

Hello, Holly poly writer or artist! Thank you for producing a yummy polyamory gift for me. I'm very easy-going as a recipient, and just want my creators to have fun. Feel free to go outside these prompts/ideas, then, if something else strikes your fancy.

Themes I like: 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. Cloning/replicants/lookalikes and all the identity issues therein. Aliens, pseudo-aliens such as robots, xeno, animal/human hybrids. Competence and intelligence. Genderbending or amorpheus gender/sex. Dom/sub or other power imbalance.  I generally do not have OTPs/NOTPs or strong preferences on pairings, which certainly helps with coming up with creative poly combinations.  Since most of these are triad groups, I like both “V”-type arrangements or full triangles, or complicated chains where different characters support different needs with each other, i.e. even in a threesome, it doesn't have to be all equal emotional/psychological/sexual needs being met by everyone. Smut’s fine but optional for fic (any rating), but please no explicit porn for art.

Dislikes: Excessive or graphic violence, bodily fluids, crackfic, character bashing, mundane AUs (canon divergence or creative warping of canons to make crossovers work is fine). Normally I'm an anti-fluff sort of person, but poly sort of brings out the warm and fuzzies, especially for the art requests.

Almost Human (fic, meta, art):

Dorian/DRN-494/Kennex – For current purposes, “DRN-494” can stand in for any DRN other than Dorian, not just the 494 shown in the show. Feel free to make up an original DRN character with a different personality if you like.

Fic/meta: I looooove anything having to do with DRN history, culture, psychology, sexuality, thought processes – basically anything which shows off their slightly alien robot side, albeit robots with emotions. Dorian's an android who seems reasonably comfortable with who he is and doesn't necessarily want to become more like a human, and yet he relies on humans (and one human in particular) for his continued existence. The other DRNs presumably live an even precariously as low-level servants, so what happens when they get together? What happens when Dorian tries to reconcile his friendship/moreship with John and his interest in the other DRNs?

Art: Anything with the show's Bladerunner-esque aesthetic would be lovely, as well as the neon blue from the DRNs' thinky-face and other magic tech. I also have a deep love for cheesy old SF book covers, either of the 1950-60s pulpy variety or 1960-70s weird psychedelic covers. If you want to go for humor, something with Kennex as the half-naked “damsel in distress” would be hilarious.

AH/Star Trek AOS crossovers (fic):

Dorian/John Kennex/ Leonard McCoy – I'm not canon stickler so you can be creative on how these universes overlap. Parallel universes? Time travel, with AH set in the immediate pre-Khan era? Or, my favorite, the Almost Human verse' is actually not on Earth, but a humanoid-inhabited planet in Federation space that's on the verge of warp drive, and thus, first contact. I'm sure the Starfleet folks will look kindly on AH's android slavery and devotion to genetic engineering to create “perfect” people. Excuses, excuses, just get Kennex and his entirely coincidental doppelganger together. Feel free to add in other characters from either canon to the threesome, any gender.

Dorian/Leonard McCoy/Spock – I don't know who nominated this, but it's pure genius. On the one hand you've got a robot created expressly for mimicking humans and experiencing emotions, and the other hand an alien who's spent most of his life repressing his humanity and emotions. Plus McCoy, who'd just be annoyed with them both. This triad lends itself to the scenario of Dorian surviving the couple hundred years from the Almost Human era into the Star Trek era, R. Daneel-like. Under those circumstances I sort of see him being drawn to McCoy in memory of Kennex, which would be sad and angsty and I would gobble it up with a big fat spoon.

Dark Angel (fic, art):

Logan/Max/Alec –

Fic: A good group for a “V” arrangement with Max as the pivot, or a full triad if Logan and Alec could get over the rivalry set up in the show. Speaking of the show, it was wildly uneven in its themes, so feel free to ignore or hand-wave aspects of canon (such as, ahem, the anti-touch virus). I always liked the anti-government protest stuff from season one, which fit the dystopian environment better than the Asha-group in two. But I also always enjoyed the escaped genetically engineered Manticoreans running around in season two, which could have made Max less of a loner and more of a leader, had they set up the season better. Logan can effectively teach her how to run a propaganda campaign, while Max and Alec know more about how to logistically run an underground movement. This canon is great for making up details related to part-animal characteristics, heat cycles, physical strength and stamina. Also, it was never brought up in the show, but Max and Alec are both quite young despite more or less never being allowed to be children, while Logan is probably around 30. What's it like, being involved with two ridiculously hot and fit twenty-year-olds, who are nevertheless sometimes immature?

Art: Anything where Max and Alec's feline-ness is played up, and I would love you forever. Wouldn't object to full-on cat-human here, or other cross animal/human characteristics. The dark, punky, future-depression look of Seattle would make a wonderful backdrop.

Dark Angel/SPN crossover (fic):

Alec/Max/Dean – Making these two canons work is fun due to the juxtaposition of Dean hunting monsters, versus his little brother/clone/genetic offspring who's in many ways a genetically engineered “monster” himself. Since it's already 2015 and the Dark Angel timepoint is rapidly approaching, you could merge the two timelines and have 40-something Dean interact with his cocky 20-something almost-self. Lots of possibilities – maybe the Manticore soldiers are just part of the background after the Apocalypse of 2010, maybe Max and Alec, while running interference for what they assume is one of their own, discover there are a lot more than genetically engineered monsters out there.

Supernatural (fic):

Castiel/Anna/Dean – Angels being angels, or better yet fallen angels new and old discovering their human side. Naturally Dean is around to teach them a few things. Bonus: Anything involving their trueform. Anna one of those SPN characters where I don't mind if you just ignore the fact that canon killed them off (see also Jo below).

Endverse Castiel/Dean/Endverse Dean – Cult leader/freelove!Cas never gets old, and neither does burnt-out barely-gives-a-fuck Dean, or really, the dystopian Endverse itself. Survival porn is great. Add in slightly less jaded Dean = perfection.

Jo/Sam/Dean – This could be a get-together fic set in canon seasons 1-2. Later, though, it could go in a different direction: After ten hard years, all I want for Sam and Dean at this point is for them to settle down with a decent hunter girl or guy, someone who knows all about their lifestyle and background and shares it. Could be Jo or Jody or even someone like Jess let in on the secret, but for this prompt say Jo. It doesn't have to be a perfect romance or the One True Triad, but just someone who gets their voluminous issues, and whom they trust and trusts them. Could make this incesty or a non-incesty V, and place it anywhere in the canon timeline (the bunker would be mighty convenient for threesomes).

Dean/John/Sam – Sam's the odd one out here, given all his alienation and anger at John during season 1-2.  I'm good with darkfic themes here, besides incest (obviously), dubcon, non-con and underage down to about 14 are okay.

Imperial Radch (fic):

Breq/Ekalu/Seivarden (+/- Mercy of Kalr) – Polyship practically canon! I love how this group meets each other's needs in such disparate ways. Ekalu and Sevarden are attracted to each other phsyically, but Seivarden in particular can't meet anyone's emotional needs because she's so wrapped up in her problems. While Breq doesn't seem to need/want actual sex (I leave her potential aceness optional), but due to the combination of her position as captain and her history with Seivarden, she's one of the few that can meet Breq's physical needs, whatever those are (cuddly hurt/comfort included). Breq and Ekalu could probably come closer, if it weren't for Breq's distancing herself as captain and an AI. And Mercy of Kalr may or may not “like” Breq in the same manner as a human captain, even if Breq doesn't believe it does.

This whole books series has fascinating relationships and viewpoints, so anything exploring its themes of mind-identities vs the (non-importance?) of the body would be fantastic.

Original Work (fic, art):

Alien/Human/Alien, Faerie/Husband/Wife

Art: Go wild with the alienness or xeno! Including the fairies, who are really just unusually pretty alien/spirits to my mind. Any sex/gender (or none/ambiguous) is fine.

Fic: Either one of these could be set in an exotic location (fairy-land, mythical fantasy setting, different planet/dimension) or in present-day.  Perhaps aliens are among us and a human discovers them (along the lines of the old show Roswell), or perhaps one half of a couple makes a deal with a fairy, and the other spouse finds out. For the aliens, maybe an alien/human is already established, and they nee a third to reproduce or deal with some alien life-cycle event. For fairies, maybe the couple needs to make a magical deal of some kind, or they live in a world where the existence of fairies is widely known as a sort of second species inhabiting the planet.

Hello, fellow Yuletider! Thank you for writing, and I apologize about the lateness of this letter. The good news is that I'm very flexible and easy to write for – I like gen, smut (not picky on pairings), darkfic all equally.

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.

Kinks I like: D/s, negotiated or not. Incest/clonecest/other taboo power-imbalance relationships like teacher/student. Poly.  Non-con and dubcon, especially where the victim resists to the best of their ability. Psychological manipulation. Some specific Crueltide/darkfic themes posted here, if that is appealing (feel free to ignore if not.)

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

Almost Human – Any

I do mean any! I love all these characters, and will gladly take any pairings (or none), or fill-in-the-blanks background or character studies on any of them. But some areas of particular interest:

– Anything on the background of the DRNs, XRN or MXs. Why were the DRNs really decommissioned (and what does Maldonado know about it)? Why were Dorian's memories permanently erased, if he's back to being a cop? What happened with Danica, either to set her off, or with her programming by Nigel Vaughn? Some of the characters, such as Paul and Maldonado, were probably around for both the DRN and MX eras, so how do they feel about their relationships with different sorts of AI? In a world that's repeatedly shown to be overcrowded and have a burgeoning underclass, why not hire people in the first place instead of building buggy robots?

– The future of the DRNs as a group after decommissioning, or DRN culture. Do they communicate with each other? Or other androids? DRN-494 seemed amiable to friendship with Dorian (who was pretty desperate for it), but it was pure chance that they met. All the androids (including Mxs) have a lot of network capabilities, so what's to stop them from organizing, or at least pursuing relationships with each other?

– Genetic engineering and the chromes. I find it interesting that the only use of GE we see in the show is to create chromes, even though with that level of technology there could be a wide variety of plants, animals and humans. Instead of growing blue roses, they “print” them; instead of throwing open human diversity, they create one similar type of “elite” person, and also insist on keeping an android slave race. Any exploration of Stahl would be welcome: Why is she such an exception? What motivated her to buck her privileged “place” in life to become a cop?

– Anything exploring the “rules” of human/robot relations, particularly what that means in terms of free will and consent. Dorian appears to have free will, but as a programmed machine, does he really? Do the DRNs have more free will will than the others, or is that an illusion of their emotional capabilities? Is Dorian really “special” compared to the others? What if he were ordered or even programmed to do something he might not otherwise want to do?

Imperial Radch – Breq, Anaander Mianaai

Just finished the third book, so I feel like I'm still absorbing it all. I'd love anything exploring Breq and Anaander's antagonistic relationship, at any point in the timeline (including before Justice of Toren's destruction, or during the events at Athoek, or post-book.) Anaander herself is pretty fascinating; after three thousand years and unknown number of bodies/collective lives, in what sense is she still human, as Breq points out? How does it work when one Anaander faction is confronted with another? Do they share memories, or are the individual Anaander clones (or clusters of clones) capable of withholding information from the other factions? What controls them, or how do they make collective decisions?

Breq gets three books from her perspective, so it is sort of an embarrassment of riches of the ancillary/Ship viewpoint. But still, I never get tired of the creepy horror of the whole concept of the “corpse soldiers,” or the notion of the Ships having a coherent identity while occupying multiple places/people at once. So, more of Justice of Toren (perhaps before Valskaay or Shisurna, when the various Anaanders are first trying to influence it). Or Breq's perspective when Toren is first lost. Or any sort of continuation after the third book, as Breq and the other AIs take over a system and manipulate, er, persuade their humans to do their bidding.

I'd also love any sort of detailed worldbuilding in this universe (using either character is fine), including the history of Anaander's takeover (Sphene!), what's going on in the Radch proper/Dyson sphere alluded to in the text, more exploration of the ancillaries, how Ships/Stations are “grown.” Including any other characters (Awn, Tisarwat, Zeiat, Mercy of Kalr etc.) is fine.

The Pretender – Jarod, Sydney, The Clone (Gemini)

Any two of these three together is fine. Getting all three of them into the same fic would be awesome, but also require some canon bending (also not opposed to).

Jarod & Sydney: Like a father and son relationship, except that Sydney only keeps up his end when it benefits his vision of the Pretender project. He obviously loves Jarod but also has conflicting motives for showing that love: the desire to remain an impartial “scientist” (and surviving the Centre, 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.

Jarod & Gemini: Since the show wrote out Gemini, it was a massive lost opportunity to do more father/son, only with Jarod as the father. The show characterized them as brothers, which is a legit as far as it goes, but with twenty-plus years between them, Jarod's obsessive need to “help” people, and Gemini's emotional repression and obedience training and what have to be the worst identity issues ever, I'd guess it would have fallen into a dysfunctional parent-of-teenager relationship – much to both of their frustration, if they ever had to actually live with each other. I would love what canon did not provide, i.e. Jarod and Gemini working out their issues together, long-term, post both of their escapes. Or an AU in which they know about each other and interact while still at the Centre – perhaps Jarod is required to train up Gemini as a replacement Pretender, much to Sydney's horror.

Sydney & Gemini: Surely Sydney had Thoughts as he maneuvered to get control of the Gemini project, if only to help Jarod free him. From Gemini's perspective Sydney is just another handler, albeit a more skilled one than Raines. But Sydney spent decades bending Jarod to his will, so why doesn't he view Gemini as a “chance to relive the warped experiments of your youth,” as Miss Parker puts it? Sydney is still ostensibly working to get Jarod back, but a kid who was born at the Centre (as opposed to kidnapped from his parents) deserves to be free?

Sleeper Cell – Darwyn al-Sayeed, Faris al-Farik

My hail-Mary request. Sleeper Cell was a short-lived series on Showtime about ten years ago, involving a black Muslim FBI agent (Darwyn/Michael Ealy) going deep undercover in an LA terrorist cell, run by the mysterious Farik (Oded Fehr). It's available is the US on streaming Netflix. The show had a lot of multifaceted identity issues, as Darwyn must navigate appearing as a radical Muslim in the cell, while hiding his actual moderate beliefs. The other cell members all have variety of backgrounds and motivations for carrying out a terrorist attack. The show goes off the rails somewhat in season two (and ends on an unresolved cliffhanger), but season one is pretty masterful for its pacing and characterization.

To be honest, this is the only one of my requested canons where, due to character details and cultural background, I can't see any sort of sexual shipping together, even of the dubcon/non-con variety. The two characters are nevertheless obsessed with each, for professional and personal reasons. What I would love to see here is a plotty gen followup either canon divergent after season one, or fix-it resolving the mess of the end of season two. Or psychological piece from any point in canon, as they both try to obliquely figure out what makes the other tick, without revealing their own hand.

So, the season for Yuletide -- the giant fic exchange for small fandoms -- is here, and nominations end tomorrow. I couldn’t help notice Common Law isn’t on the unofficial spreadsheet of nominations. I’m out of nom slots but maybe someone else wants to add that in? Or other stuff, Yuletide is gloriously massive and sprawling for all your obscure fandom needs. Almost Human is pretty well taken care of (John, Dorian, Rudy, Sandra, Richard, Val, MX-43, and Danica all nommed!) and I also did Sleeper Cell, just for the hell of it.

Nomination form here.

slashersivi, mizufallsfromkumo, allthatisbizarre, mehay1, benadrylthegoodstuff ...aaand I realize I don’t know many people in Common Law, forward at will.

Femslash Exchange Letter

Hello, fair writer! Thank you so much for considering these prompts. And assignments have been out for a couple of days, so I apologize for the delay in getting this up. On AO3 I’m Marie_L and my works can be found here.

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.

Kinks I like: D/s, negotiated or not. Incest/clonecest/other taboo power-imbalance relationships like teacher/student. Poly.  Non-con and dubcon, especially where the victim resists to the best of their ability. Darkfic. Psychological Manipulation. Underage down to teenagers is fine, although probably not relevant to this exchange.

Themes I dislike: Fluff is the big one, especially romantic fluff. Also best to steer clear of mundane/radical AUs, as I'm picky about which settings I like. Exception would be ABO or the catgirl AUs from the Original Works section; if someone wants to work in these alternative biology/sexuality themes into canons, go for it. Now's your chance to do alpha!Ivanova/omega!Talia…

Kinks I dislike: Excessive bodily fluids. Gory violence. Infantalization. Competent characters made into crying woobies.

Orphan Black –

Confession time, I've still only seen this show through season 2 (DVDs, they are late), so this will be written from that perspective. However by the time of reveals I'll have seen it, so feel free to add any spoilers or s3 plotlines.

This show hits so many things I like: Exploration of the idea that genetics is not destiny. Evil corporations hunting people down. Unethical science experiments. Crazy religious cults. A xeno/genetic engineering/post-human movement. Lil' bit of identity porn every time a clone impersonates another clone. I'm dying for some good sciency exploration of any of these themes. Or darkfic. Or angst over finding out you have a bunch of genetic siblings out there, that your life has been constantly observed, and how weird is that?

Delphine Cormier/Cosima Niehaus – I have been spoiled enough to know that they break up in s3 and Cosima hooks up with someone else. So, can fandom now move beyond romantic Cophine and reflect on the fact that this pairing is fundamentally fucked up? I don't hate Delphine, and she does appear to care for Cosima by the end of s1/s2, but her motives are murky and suspect at best. I'd love to see fic exploring their relationship from both perspectives, particularly in the beginning when it's not at all clear how much Delphine is faking it. And Cosima has a lot to deal with (besides dying of TV consumption), including being a scientist who loves her science, and yet is basically forced to live as the subject in a completely unethical experiment.

Rachel Duncan/Sarah Manning – Last I saw these two, Sarah had been recaptured for forced breeding purposes, while Rachel seems to have a deep love for domming others and lording it over her fellow clones. A better setup for femslashy darkfic/kinkfic I have yet to see.

Helena/Grace Johanssen – These two. I sort of want to see them run off together and try and navigate the regular world, sort of like the Helena/Sarah camping trip but with indoctrinated Daughters of Cults. Or, barring that, more behind the scenes stuff from before Helena escapes. Really, they should compare cult-upbringing notes somehow. Helena is an abomination to Grace, but Grace seems to be slowly realizing what a load of BS her father has fed her.

Sense8 –

Long-distance telepaths! So much potential here for complicated relationships between the eight cluster members and their SOs. Also the worldbuilding/mythology of the show thus far has been pretty sparse, so there's a huge open hole to try and explain, for instance, why the evil corporation wants to cut off all sensate abilities, whether there are other clusters out there constituting a whole sensate culture, etc.

Amanita/Nomi Marks – These two are adorable, and I'll admit to having a slight crush on Freyma form her Doctor Who days, so this role is like candy. I like that the show didn't immediately go with the “jealous SO” route with both Amanita and Hernando, but surely there's at least a little bit of weirdness knowing that on some level, your relationship has suddenly gone partially poly. Maybe Nita is into it, or genuinely doesn't care. Maybe Nomi finds “sharing” difficult, although all the sensates seem remarkably nonchalant about the others coming along for their sex lives. What's it like, then, to be with someone in the physical present, but have the spirits of others and their sensory experiences at the same time in the back of your mind?

Sun Bak/Riley Blue – Opposites attract, the sunny optimist and steely realist. It would be lovely to see a falling in love/first time story within the cluster that isn't het, and also isn't possible for the two to physically meet, since Sun's in prison. Can you have an LDR that exists entirely within your mind?

Optional addition:  Sun Bak/Riley Blue/Kala Dandekar/Nomi Marks – I swear this was in the tag set but it didn't pop up on the sign-up form. So: Femslash telepath orgy. Surely someone out there wants to do it :) Feel free to throw Amanita or other minor female characters/original characters in there too.

Babylon 5 –

More Straczynski telepaths! This show was one of my first TV SF loves, and I still have a particular fondness for the Minbari and the Psi Corps totalitarian culture and its pursuit of wayward telepaths. (Yup, even put up with the Byron/Lyta storyline, such is my love of the underground telepath railroad. Have I mentioned how much I like the whole evil-institutions-chasing-people trope?)

Delenn/Susan Ivanova – A nice opportunity for human/alien, with the added twist that the alien has a new body that's alien to herself. Pretty much any worldbuilding regarding Minbari sexuality and culture is my jam. Also, it's hinted that Delenn might have some extrasensory powers of her own (although possibly just through the triluminary), so how would that work combined with Ivanova's latent telepathy?

Susan Ivanova/Talia Winters – Talia teaching Susan telepathic games or techniques, against Susan's better judgment. Susan teaching Talia how to live as a free person with her own interests, against Talia better judgment. Fix-it where Talia doesn't die and joins up in the war effort. Or where her persona does die, and the alternate personality comes back to B5, and Ivanova has to deal.

Lyta Alexander/Number One – Hatesex? Number One gets curious about her enemy, and decides to give it her best shot? I'd be highly amused if she still hates telepaths after the encounter, even if Lyta herself is deemed maybe sorta okay.

Original Works – Feel free to ignore all the rambling musings below, if something else hits you with these tropes or you have a different vision of how they would go. Any sort of worldbuilding would be fantastic.

Alpha/Omega (with optional betas) – Soapbox time. I have a love/hate relationship with ABO. Certain aspects of it are hot as hell (such as heats/uncontrollable sexuality and built-in D/s), but I hate – hate – how unsubtly heteronormative it is, where all hypermasculine traits are piled on the alphas and all hyperfeminine traits (submissiveness! hormones! pregnancy! trod upon by society!) on the omegas. Thus in story after dudeslash story, I read it and wonder why they bother having women at all. So, fair writers, show me what female relationships are like in such a world. Do the alpha females act just like their male counterparts, with all the claiming/domming/knocking up/psuedo-slavery of the omegas? If so, what makes them different from their male counterparts, besides perhaps anatomy? If alphas and omegas are rare, what's their social relationship with betas (i.e. us)? If betas are sterile (which doesn't make a lot of evolutionary sense, but we'll let that go for now), are they as affected by traditional gender norms revolving around reproduction? If you want to get issueficcy and mock or eviscerate gender roles, I will stand up and applaud.

Catgirl/Human or (optional addition) Catgirl/Catgirl – Relatedly, I'd love to see more alternative biology/quasi-bestiality tropes take off out there. ABO is really well-suited to male slash, but why can't we have a fun biological determinist trope that's all about the ladies? Feline characteristics is one with potential. You could have poly/pride social arrangements, or a more loner-type society. Estrus-cycle heats instead of the hidden ovulation menstrual cycle, how would that affect human sexuality? Litters, with some kind of pro-social arrangement for raising them. Fur, purring, claws and tails, what could go wrong? It could be an alternate evolutionary path of humanity, or some kind of artificial addition, such as the genetic engineering in Dark Angel or the voluntary alterations of the neolutionists in Orphan Black. Or maybe there's just two different sentient verbal species that co-evolved on Earth, one primate and one feline, both territorial but have somehow managed to co-exist.

Cult Leader/Follower – The vast majority of cult leaders in real life seem to be charismatic males, so I'd love to see what a female-led cult would look like. What ideology would attract people (and what kinds of people)? The brainwashing techniques for indoctrinating people into cults are similar throughout the world, feel free to go into allll the psychologically manipulative details. Or maybe it's more of a benign do-gooder cult that flaunts society's norms. Often these try to be egalitarian, so the tension between charismatic-person-who's-really-the-leader versus wait-what-we-don't-have-any-leaders-it-says-so-right-in-our-manifesto is fertile dramatic ground.

Android/Human – It's really not an exchange without working my beloved robots in there somehow. So, fembots. Since the male image in our society is the “default” human being, female-appearing robots tend to only appear in set “feminine” roles, such as the prostitutes or caregivers. Very rarely is it asked whether any of these artificial beings (regardless of their external appearance) have any sort conception of the gender they are assigned to, whether they care at all about it, or whether they would shrug and change it if the opportunity arose. Or, having been created by human beings for a specific purpose, perhaps it's the opposite: they would be hardwired into their gender even moreso than the average person. Then there's the human end of things: What would motivate a woman to seek out an android as a sexual partner? The same porny motivations that litter the whole male-scientist-builds-a-fembot trope, or something more?

So I managed to pull myself out of the doldrums long enough to do an Almost Human thing for an exchange: Life Hack for Dorinda, (also known as That Amazing Person Who Wrote 40K For Yuletide.) This story follows up on the mystery of Dorian’s human memories left dangling from the episode “Disrupt,” from Dorian’s point of view. As an added bonus, there’s a nice dose of pre-relationship Jorian too.

And the gift for me was also Almost Human, a sweet story filling in Valerie’s background motivation in becoming a cop: Connect, Protect, Respect by Lexigent.