#pc-corner

immense variety in your fics

an eye for the "little things" - minor details that you can flesh out into full-blown stories that take your breath away and will forever change your view of the the characters

encyclopedic knowledge of a lot of fics

guaranteed readable stories

OH MY HEART!

Jack Crusher, Beverly and Picard have some quiet moments before his posting to the Enterprise

The sun had just dipped behind the vineyard hills, casting golden light across the porch at Château Picard. The air was warm, the kind that clung to skin like memory. Beverly, Jean-Luc, and Jack sat in wooden chairs, glasses of wine in hand, the quiet hum of crickets in the distance.

Jack swirled his glass once, then gave it a look.

"No offence, but I still prefer whiskey."

Beverly chuckled. "That’s because you inherited your grandfather’s taste for trouble."

"Or maybe I just like drinks that don’t smell like dried grapes and existential regret."

Jean-Luc raised a brow, but there was a smile playing at the corner of his mouth. "Blasphemy. You’re sitting on hallowed ground."

They all laughed—that deep, unforced laughter that only comes when the world, for once, isn’t ending.

But as the laughter faded, the stillness settled in again. Not heavy—just present. The kind that reminded you something was on the horizon.

Jack was the first to speak. "Tomorrow."

Beverly looked at him, her eyes soft. "You ready?"

He shrugged. "I’m ready for the work. The structure. The mission." He paused, then added, quieter, "I’m not sure I’m ready to leave this."

Jean-Luc nodded slowly, sipping his wine. "That means you’re more ready than you think."

Jack glanced between them. "And... I’ve been thinking about Sidney."

That caught Beverly’s attention. "Oh?"

Jack leaned forward slightly, glass resting on his knee. "She’s… smart. Confident. Good at everything. And after everything that happened... I don’t know. I feel like I shouldn’t be thinking about someone like her. Not now. Not so soon."

Jean-Luc said nothing, letting the silence stretch.

"I mean," Jack continued, "we went through all that together, and she stood by me. But I crossed boundaries before. I was careless with people. With her. What if this is just guilt-dressed up like a crush? Or worse, what if I still can't tell the difference between what I feel and what I... pick up from others?"

Beverly reached out, covering his hand with hers. "Jack, you’re not the same man you were seven months ago. You’re trying. You’re asking these questions. That’s more than most."

Jean-Luc set his glass down. "If you're honest with her—really honest—then you'll be giving her the choice you never had. That’s how trust begins again."

Jack gave a small nod. "Yeah. I just don’t want to scare her off."

"Then don’t start with declarations," Beverly said gently. "Start with coffee. Or a walk. Something simple. Let her come to know the man you’re becoming."

Jack looked at both of them, his features softening. "Thanks. For not giving up on me."

"We never did," Jean-Luc said. "Even when you were impossible."

Jack stood slowly, stretching. "I think I need some air. Gonna walk the vineyard."

Beverly smiled. "Don’t trip over your own brooding."

He gave a mock salute and headed down the steps, his silhouette fading into the vineyard path.

As the night deepened, Beverly and Jean-Luc stayed seated. The air was cooling now, laced with the scent of lavender and earth.

Jean-Luc reached for her hand. They sat like that, fingers laced, shoulders touching, gazing up as the stars slowly made themselves known.

"We’re finally going to make it, aren’t we?" Beverly said softly.

"No starship. No emergency beacon. No war," he replied.

She leaned her head against his shoulder. "It feels strange. Like we slipped through some kind of crack in time and finally found the version of us that works."

Jean-Luc smiled. "I should’ve asked you to marry me years ago."

Beverly lifted her head to look at him. There was warmth in her eyes, and something unreadable.

She didn’t answer. Not with words.

Instead, she stood and extended a hand, and he took it.

They moved quietly into the house, hand in hand, the door clicking shut behind them, the stars kept shining.

The Next Morning

The kitchen was filled with the smell of real coffee and toasted bread. Sunlight poured through the windows, catching dust motes dancing in the beams.

Jean-Luc stood by the stove in a robe, humming something in French. Beverly sat at the table in one of his shirts, sipping coffee, barefoot, her hair mussed but eyes clear.

Jack stepped into the kitchen, blinked once, and immediately turned around.

"Nope. Not doing this. Too cozy."

Beverly laughed. "You want eggs or are you just going to mock our happiness?"

"Bit of both," Jack mumbled, grabbing a mug.

He poured himself a cup and leaned against the counter.

Jean-Luc looked over. "Big day today. You ready?"

Jack took a sip, then nodded. "Yeah. I think I am."

He glanced at his parents and saw the ease between them, the kind of quiet love that doesn’t need to prove itself anymore.

And he smiled.

(And tell us why you've chosen those!)

Thank you also to @teitpp who asked me the same question? (Do I recc 10 fics now?)

I have already recced and faved my 2 All Time Favorite fics in this post: 1) Black and White and 2) The Golden King and His Dark Queen so I'm not going to repeat myself with them here.

Without much further ado:

Broken (Fandom: James Cameron's Avatar)

I started that fic in 2010 when the movie came out and it was the first ever fanfic I wrote in English at the time. It featured a fucked-up relationship between Grace Augustine and Miles Quaritch (we see an emerging pattern here, but author regrets nothing!) that eventually led up and was supposed to explain movie events and interactions between them. I uploaded the story on ff.net at the time and it literally exploded. I don't think I had ever again so many comments on a story. But then I sort of didn't write the last two chapters even though I knew exactly what was going to happen in them. Until I did. In 2023, 12 years after my last update. I finished the bastard. And that makes me proud.

The Sacrifice (Fandom: Star Trek Voyager)

In the midst of the pandemic and after having lost two mother figures in two years I wrote my second ever original English fic (all other stories were translations of my German stories to this date). It featured a situation inspired very heavily by "Counterpoint" where Voyager needed to be escorted to hostile space and the alien Commander took a fucked up interest in Kathryn Janeway who sacrifices her health and dignity in getting her crew across while they watch her helplessly be abused. The story is not graphic despite all the horrible things happening to Kathryn and it is her herself who reasserts herself. She finds allies in unlikely places and prevails and is not rescued by her crew. And then she finds time to heal among friends. That was the important part, that her sacrifice meant something although it leaves her permanently scarred.

Mate (Fandom: Star Trek Strange New Worlds)

My first foray into PikeUna territory where I happily still sit and enjoy life and which soon will be turned into a comic by the wonderful @eldar-of-zemlya. It's short, sweet, nonsensical and full of dad jokes. But it gave me opportunity to fuck around with the Zalgo Text Generator. (He comes!) Chris and Una are trapped in a white void and have to figure out what the word "Mate" means. When in doubt, always fuck.

A Tale of Two Chrises (Fandom: Star Trek Strange New Worlds)

That one was so dumb but I had a lot of fun. I needed to write an Una Threesome but had a hard time coming up with the third character, because I find most characters in SNW, regardless of gender, either too young or otherwise problematic to ship with her. (Meanwhile I know that Joseph is a valid option, hold on tight.) So I came up with Admiral Pike from the future from S1x10 "A Quality of Mercy", because why not let Una fuck two Chrises while we're at it? She's kinky enough. But then the crack sort of became more sober and the whole whing became surprisingly wholesome and bittersweet. It also made me develop Una's Illyrian name "Evynne" that was featured in other fics, too and the Illyrian bonding of mates. Overall great fun. And there exist some wonderfully steamy illustrations by @eldar-of-zemlya. Check them out on AO3.

Illyrian Hospitality (Fandom: Star Trek Strange New Worlds)

Thank you so much for your amazing support - not just for this event, but personally to me, as a writer. I'm so grateful for you.

Eep! Thank you so much for asking, @pc-corner! ❤️

An incomplete list of canon-consistent (or fix-it) fics that live rent free in my head:

The Captain's Chair by Isabel_the_Ace (@isahasarts on Tumblr), in which a post-accident, mute and paralyzed Christopher Pike captains the USS Progress.

Long Shot by @lorcaswhisky, which explains where Una Chin-Riley and Prime Universe Gabriel Lorca are by The Motion Picture era … and what the erasure of the USS Discovery did to them.

Like Their Fathers, They’ll Put to Sea by Squirrels_All_The_Way_Down (for whom I do not have a Tumblr name), which explains uninterrupted Endgame timeline Miral Paris so damn perfectly that I cried.

and while we’re talking about stories that made me cry, the hurt/no comfort Lullaby for Suffering by N_Squared (@cornwells-couch on Tumblr) isn’t what I want for a just-post-Menagerie Christopher Pike on Talos IV … but I could see it happening.

Thank you again for asking, @pc-corner! ❤️

Big thanks to @pc-corner for tagging me! ❤️ This is fun!

Rules: Use a bingo card generator (like https://myfreebingocards.com/) to create a bingo card with your usual fanfic tropes. Tag friends to increase the fun.

My bingo card:

Oh! you have no idea how my heart leapt when I received this ask! I am simply overjoyed that you want to know more and for the opportunity to talk about this fic😁

The first scene between Pike and Lyric is based on a scene in Hell on Wheels. In the scene, Cullen (Anson Mount’s character) is drunk and lonely and missing his wife, and he goes to the brothel seeking comfort. The scene kind of goes the way it’s written in the fic with Cullen coming to his senses and leaving before anything happens. It is such a beautifully acted scene—zero dialogue, so much emotion. (Other sources of inspiration for that chapter include Firefly, Kushiel’s Dart, and even Altered Carbon. )

When I first wrote the chapter, I didn’t really know what to do with the girl; she wasn’t “Lyric” yet in my head, and the girl in Hell on Wheels plays no further part in the show. But I knew that I wanted to introduce Pike’s loneliness and grief in that he chooses a girl who resembles his wife.

Lyric as a character was born when I started thinking about subplots. I knew that Pike would be on this quest for revenge and that it would very closely resemble Cullen’s revenge journey in Hell on Wheels but remain faithful to the Discovery storyline, but what happened between chapter two and his return to the Enterprise was still undecided.

My first thought was that authorities of some sort, maybe Klingons, would be after Pike and that he would realize that he’d endangered the girl at the brothel and rush back to rescue her, thus saddling himself with a girl he had to protect. I didn’t go that route mainly due to effort it would have taken to craft that subplot and craft it well. Also, I didn’t think it added much to the story. But I’m actually glad I didn’t write that plot line because I think Lyric finding Pike and begging for asylum was a better means of showing her character’s personality and strength. Not to mention, the fight was the perfect opportunity to showcase Pike’s guilt. So, the authorities after Pike became the bounty hunters that come after Lyric.

Mrs. Lee’s restaurant was originally an American diner. I switched it to a Chinese restaurant for a couple of reasons. First, my favorite pho (yes, I know pho is not Chinese) is a sick day/hangover soup because of the gingered broth. Pike is hungover, I was eating pho, and his hashbrowns became Chinese noodle soup. Second, season 5 of Hell on Wheels focuses on the Chinese contributions to the transcontinental railroad and the abuses they faced. Making the restaurant Chinese and making Lyric bilingual pays homage to that and to the character of Mei. And third, it was another piece of Firefly inspiration, and I needed Pike staring dumbfounded while Lyric spoke in Mandarin.

There is one more source of inspiration for the Lyric character from Hell on Wheels that I can’t share much of due to spoilers, but in the show, Cullen pseudo-adopts a boy named Ezra. That relationship helped shape Pike beginning to think of Lyric as a daughter.

Thank you so much for asking, @pc-corner! ❤️ Wow, my baby is three years old? Time flies.

This is an interesting question because, although there is new canon, I’ve only seen it in gifs or read about it in text posts. If I understand season three potential implications correctly, Chris tells a story where some people feel he was guilty of animal cruelty in childhood, and Una had her lascivious past and present (bonus booty call?) with Doug. I’m not sure of the nature of the potential animal cruelty (and I don’t want to know) or how it might matter to Chris, and I’m not sure when Una met Doug. (Since Una in the story had a sexual past before she met Chris, I could maybe believe one of her former partners was Doug? And perhaps Chris didn’t mention it in the story, but his tears upon saying goodbye to the horse stables where he grew up were in part due to the upsetting memory he shared in season three canon?)

Other than those two things, I honestly don’t know if any new canon would impact the Chris or Una of Youthful Exuberance (Some Kind of Love) … or La’an, Una’s parents, Chris’ parents, Neera, Bob April, or anyone else (especially since I kept Katrina Cornwell alive).

In general, that story lives in my heart and I’m proud of it. The parenthetical in the title speaks to how I view life in terms of many possible loves including but not limited to:

romantic love for Chris and Una (which required friendship to deepen)

unbreakable friendship love for Una and La’an

familial love for Una and her parents and for Chris and his mom

love transmuted into grief for Chris and his dad

reluctant love in recognition of their shared love for Chris that became true familial love by choice for Una and Chris’ mom

non-familial maternal love from Kat to Una, and Una’s appreciative love in response

broken friendship love between Una and Neera that mended in large part due to Neera’s loving empathy for and friendship with La’an

mentor-mentee love for Bob and Chris

love of Starfleet for Una, Chris, La’an, Kat, Bob, and so many more (including the trio of admiral judges who work to do their best)

love of the USS Enterprise (a love at first sight for Una)

love of crew

and the surprise love at the end