Star Trek Holidays 2022 Letter

[peasina]

Dear Creator,

Happy startrekholidays! I’m so glad you’re here checking out my letter, you’re the best. Thank you for creating for me if you’ve been assigned to me, or for treating me if you’re so inclined! Having some Trekky goodness waiting for me will be a highlight of my holiday period. I can’t wait.

I’m asking for Star Trek: The Next Generation only (as it's the only Trek series I’ve seen in full) and I’m very open when it comes to this show. It’s my happy place, and I’m asking for my favourite happy-making pairings, so anything you’d like to create about them will be wonderful. If it features my likes or follows one of my rambly prompts, I consider that a bonus, so please don’t feel bound by them.

I’m asking for fic, podfic, and art. I have a few short sections below about things I like about those mediums. I don’t want one more than another and apologise if my prompts/likes don’t fit well with the medium you want to make for me – if that should be the case, do go with your heart.

Have fun!

***Do Not Wants: female breasts (even mentions of - it's fine to show nude breasts in art!), crossovers (even with other Trek series), genderswaps and trans headcanons, setting change AUs (e.g. coffee shop, not in space, etc.), poetry (unless it's Data's terrible poetry!)

MEDIUM LIKES

Note: If you are inspired to create something including more than one medium, please go for it. I’d also love fanvid treats even though I’m not requesting that medium officially.

***Fanfiction likes:

• 5+1 Things, 5 times fics
• Triple drabbles, drabble series/sequences/collections
• Food and cooking-related stories, hand feeding, spoon feeding, kink + food, all that good stuff
• Whump and hurt/comfort
• Hair (touching, stroking, brushing, washing, tugging, etc.)
• Medical-related (hospital stays, recovery, needles, stitches, pain relief, fainting, hiding injuries, especially if this is something set away from the Enterprise's top notch medical facilities)
• Angst (with or without a happy ending)
• One character carrying another, especially if they're injured
• Time loops / Groundhog Day
• Missing scenes
• Canon divergent AUs
• Shielding the one you love from harm with your body
• Characters helping a loved one through a panic attack, pain, or any kind of distress
• Cuddles that start as platonic (or some kind of huddling for warmth) and feelings develop

***Podfic likes:

• Background music or sounds/ambience throughout – There’s something about background noise that really sharpens my focus, if that makes sense. Example: something set on the Enterprise having ship engine ambience throughout.
• SFX & soundscapes – From having a sound indicate section/chapter breaks to reproducing sounds mentioned in the story, I’ll love it. I also love podfics without SFX, so don’t feel like you have to include them.
• Repods – If you find something you’d think I’d like but it’s been recorded before (even by me or as a gift for me) please don’t feel like you can’t gift it to me!
• Podfics with streaming options – My setup makes downloading tricky, so I’d appreciate being able to stream my gift if possible.
• Unconventional formats – Epistolary, mission reports, meta & essays, etc. (Note: I’m not keen on oral not!fic.)
• Image descriptions – If there’s imagery/art in the work you record, I’d love to hear a description of it. The more detailed the better!

***Art likes:

• Bright colours and patterns – think Bowling Alley carpet!
• Pastel palettes.
• Tarot card style – Taking a pose from an existing card or creating something new are both awesome.
• Orange palettes, from bright popping oranges to more muted autumnal ones.
• Art featuring flowers/plants, whether as a background element, incorporated into a frame, being given as a gift, worn as a flower crown, or maybe the characters are just walking in the arboretum.
• Pixelly look.
• Smutty art!
• Focus on a character’s hair, especially Deanna’s.

PAIRINGS, LIKES & PROMPTS

Data/Deanna Troi

I love any interaction between these two in the show – they’re so cute and such polar opposites, it's fantastic. I have more prompts than I do waffle about why I love them, so I'm going to jump straight into those!...

Prompts or ideas:

• Deanna realises being close to Data muffles/stops emphatic interference on the ship. Does she come to him to escape after a stressful mission? I’d love some cuddles and Deanna getting comfort, especially if Data’s terrible attempts at comfort are actually really helpful.
• I’m so into the Frank Hollander persona (either the holodeck character or Data dressing up as him after the events of A Fistful of Datas) and Deanna’s Durango character. Anything set in Deadwood would be amazing. What happens in Deadwood stays in Deadwood?
• Something happens that means Deanna can feel Data’s emotions, even when he thinks he doesn’t have any. How does she share this with him and how do they work through it? What if she decides to wait for him to realise but feels his love for her first? Would she address it?
• Data thinks Deanna is the best person to go to with his questions about sex, kissing, love, female anatomy, etc. Deanna finds she’s surprisingly open to helping him with practical demonstrations.
• Something made them do it? Fake relationship on a mission ends up with Deanna developing feelings? This can get as angsty as you want.
• The classic Mission Goes Wrong scenario happens. Stranded on a planet together?
• Involving Data with the Deanna/Riker relationship somehow (I ship them too.) How might that go down?

Guinan/Jean-Luc Picard

Time’s Arrow had me shipping these two instantly. Guinan waits for centuries to meet Picard, ahh! All the time she’s spent on the Enterprise before that episode, she’s known a day would come when he’d travel back to meet her, and when it does she encourages him, and he’s so enamoured by her when he meets her in the past, gosh it’s romantic. Then he stays with her knowing full well he might not ever be able to return to the Enterprise because she’s hurt and he refuses to leave her. Oh, my heart. Anything set in that episode would be wonderful.

I also love, love, love that whenever Guinan has a hunch about something, Picard puts his entire faith in her. (Like in Yesterday’s Enterprise – even in that timeline, their bond is so strong.) Picard trusts her so deeply. The ways they are both wise but in different ways is fascinating to me. How about a scenario where Guinan’s intuition or knowledge from her long, long life is what saves Picard in particular?

How might they get together (or at least allow themselves to be soft and loving with each other)? Do they meet in other places in history? Time travel, Groundhog Day, playing with universes, that could be so fun with this pairing. I’d love Guinan comforting Picard after his experience with the Borg, or the two of them going down to a planet for some reason (where something goes wrong, or goes right?) and I will love any idea you come up with!

Jean-Luc Picard/Ro Laren

I’m totally about the guilt when it comes to these two. Picard’s guilt for having feelings he believes are inappropriate, Ro’s guilt (or confusion?) over her feelings for Picard. Guilt about acting on those feelings after the fact. Just lovely, lovely guilt.

I near expire every rewatch of Preemptive Strike, especially the scene where Ro pretends Picard is her client. For years I’ve wondered how far they might’ve gone if there was a little extra pressure for them to go further for those watching. I’d love something that deals with that particular Something Made Them do it scenario, with Picard comforting/reassuring Ro throughout the ordeal only for them to secretly realise that this is the only way they can ever get what they want but would never allow themselves otherwise (resulting in more guilt?!) Also, might Picard slip up in the moment and tell her how beautiful she is, how brave or well she's doing? Yum.

I love age gap relationships and size difference, so anything that plays up to those would make me so happy too. I like Picard being fatherly and protective of Ro and Ro thinking she doesn’t want it but still clinging to it. These two are complicated and I love it.

Jean-Luc Picard/William Riker

Hello, loyalty kink! Pretty much every moment these two are on screen together, I’m staring at those tiny interactions between them, the way they can read each other so well without a word, how physically close they are, the shifting levels of comfort and tension in the air between them. Riker is so protective of his captain, too. He even declines his own command to stay with him! They need each other, they push each other to be better or to give themselves a break, they share things they wouldn’t with anyone else. Ugh, I just love them.

What kind of situation might have them finally admitting (or acting on) their feelings for each other? Perhaps a confession of feelings following a near-death experience down on a planet somewhere? Also, Something Made Them Do It is always great, as is them having to pretend to be in a relationship for reasons. It’s all great.

I also love the idea of Riker having feelings for Picard and his Imzadi knowing (because of course she would) and getting him to open up and work through them with her as he knows they’re unrequited or not possible, even that they've been denied. I mean, if you want to take it as far as them bringing Riker’s feelings into the bedroom with Deanna encouraging Will to let his imagination get that UST with his captain out of his system, I wouldn’t say no. (I’d say yes, yes, yes!)