Well, all right! *cracks knuckles* YOU ASKED FOR IT. REMEMBER THAT. (I'm so sorry for doing this to you, you do NOT actually have to read all this!)
So, okay, in order by my character requests, let's start with Two: I love Two. (True story: I bought a pair of heels for a wedding and then had to learn to walk in them, and I sucked at it until I said to myself, "Self, walk like Two," and then it worked and I stopped turning my ankles every third step and also I felt like a badass.) I read Two's reaction to Five pre-stasis and Two's reaction to Five post-stasis as coming from exactly the same place: it's just that pre-stasis, Five isn't Crew but rather poses a danger to Crew (using up additional resources! Needing to be cared for/hidden/otherwise looked out for when they are out on dangerous jobs! Might slow them down! Being looked for by someone who might not be happy with the Raza for sheltering her! NOT GOOD), and post-stasis, Five is Crew. And Two will put up with a lot for Crew, I think, which is so—I mean, I cannot overemphasize how iddy that kind of loyalty thing is for me. /o\ Especially coming from a reserved strong silent type who otherwise tries to ignore feelings. AND THEN we found out her whole backstory thing about how she was constructed and Evil Wil Wheaton was a COMPLETE CREEP, and her wanting to GTFO and not caring if she hurt people who'd hurt her (because they totally "ran tests" on her the first time around too, yeaugh) was being taken as proof of something WRONG WITH HER BRAIN (NO. NO, IT'S PROOF OF SOMETHING RIGHT WITH HER BRAIN, YOU CIRCULAR-SAW-WIELDING ASSHOLE), and it was all so awful. And so—I mean, we have no idea what order any of these people originally joined the crew of the Raza in. I hypothesized up there that the crew had already been formed and sent after her, but it's also totally possible that she's the one who started it, she escaped and stole the ship from Evil Wil Wheaton or something (it was a prototype, even, which is why everybody keeps talking about how fast it is) and then found the others one by one. But EITHER WAY I suddenly see that as her, like, being the change she wants to see, building this Crew thing around herself the way she thinks it should be, because it shouldn't be Evil Wil Wheaton and strapping people down when they don't want to be strapped down and cutting them up, it shouldn't be any of the things she experienced as Rebecca. Crew should be like this, taking care of people and killing other people to keep them safe and always coming back for them and trusting them. And so either she comes into the Raza's crew and makes it like that, or else she forms the Raza's crew up around herself with those rules. Except then the contradictions start: she wants them to trust each other, and to trust her, because it makes it easier for her to take care of them, because that's how it should be (because there should be somebody there who you know won't cut you open with a saw, there should be somebody there who'll stop other people from cutting you open with a saw); but at the same time it's so hard for her to do, so much easier to point out the speck in her brother's eye and pretend there's no plank in her own. Which is also kind of tied up in the feelings thing, because in order to unpack why it's hard for her to trust anybody, she'd have to face up to not wanting to, being afraid to, but she's the leader and she can't let herself have cracks where other people can see her. /o\ TWO. And then! Finding out she's synthetic suddenly means she can't trust herself, she can't trust herself with her Crew—I read the things she was saying about her thoughts being her own and all that as maybe 30% existential crisis and 70% OH SHIT WHAT IF I PULL A WENDY. I CAN'T PULL A WENDY. I WOULD SPACE MYSELF BEFORE PULLING A WENDY ON MY CREW. And I am a sucker for people taking care of other people so hard they push them away because THEY THEMSELVES ARE THE GREATEST DANGER. /o\ help me I'm such a cliché
(Probably ALL OF THIS will be jossed, and we're going to find out that when they had their memories the crew of the Raza professionally tolerated each other and that's it. *sticks fingers in ears* LALALA.)
SO. One is a doofus, like I said, but I actually sort of love him with Two just because he's so open: he's a shit liar and he just—blurts out what he's thinking like half the time and he wears his feelings all over not just his sleeve but like his entire SHIRT, like TATTOOED ON HIS FACE. Which I think Two is a little contemptuous of but also maybe is into more than she'd like to admit, and that is ADORABLE to me. (Seriously, though, One: surprise hugs? SURPRISE HUGS? You're lucky your ARMS are still attached. /o\) She even actually admits out loud that she's hesitant to bang him because she could totally fall in love with him (we all know what "complicated" means, come on), which I say speaks volumes when it's Two. ♥ BUT THEN I also love Two/Three, because Three is, like, trying to be Two but totally failing—he tries to be detached and a douche and make decisions like a stone-cold self-interest-assessing utilitarian decision-making machine, and he sucks at it. So Two's all "it's simple with a guy like that," except then IT'S NOT, NOT AT ALL, because he's nearly as bad as she is about the whole loyalty-caretaking thing (and I'll save more of my thoughts on that for his section). And then Four! TWO HAVING THEM GO BACK FOR FOUR. (Yeah, yeah, they were all, "Once he's emperor he'll be super useful." WHATEVER, GUYS, YOU LIKE HIM. YOU DON'T WANT HIM TO DIE ALONE ON THAT CRAPPY PLANET. JUST ADMIT IT.) Like, she really doesn't interact with him much that we see, but even just the minimum of him being there and traveling with them, slicing up hapless security guards for them, is Crew enough to risk the ship. And it is a risk, I would say, because what assurance does she have that Four's half-brother doesn't have a dozen ships hiding behind that system's sun, waiting to blow them up for harboring Four? NONE. SHE HAS NONE ASSURANCE. And Five! I love Two watching out for Five—watching out for Five so hard it scares Five, and don't tell me Two wasn't remembering the way Five looked at her after the casino episode when Circular-Saw-Wielding Asshole was going on about something being wrong with her brain. /o\ I love the arc of Two and Five, Five freaking out and avoiding Two until Two's in danger from the virus and then hugging her, Five being so upset to hear Two talking about killing a crewmember that she wasn't thinking straight. (That's my favored explanation for how Five loses it over that stupid bug even though a) it apparently totally failed to record the whole conversation, unless that was the show deliberately trying to keep the context secret from the viewer, and b) FIVE. TWO DOESN'T EVEN REMEMBER HAVING THAT CONVERSATION. SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHY SHE MIGHT HAVE WANTED TO KILL ANYBODY. FIVE. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SMART.) I honestly might even ship that in a Maleficent/Aurora, Xena/Gabrielle kind of way. /o\ And then Six, who honestly barely speaks to Two most of the time, but he's quiet and level-headed, doesn't splatter feelings everywhere like One or deliberately antagonize people like Two, isn't as distant and self-contained as Four, is more sensible than Five—I think Six is just plain dependable, to Two, and if he really did screw them over I don't want to see her face when she finds out. :( :( :( :( :( And then THE ANDROID. :D I adore the friendship between Two and the android, how much Two relies on the android, and then the android going into Evil Wil Wheaton's facility for Two is just, MY HEART. /o\ I mean that prompt about Two and the android talking about what it's like to be a constructed person SO HARD, because the android has already proven she has feelings about her own identity, about personhood and emotion and attachment, about whether affection directed toward her is valid, about whether affection she directs toward others is valid (if it is affection—what makes it so? Can she rightly call it that? Why or why not? Does she have a self in any way separate from her programming? Does it matter?) So honestly I probably ship that too. /o\ OOPS.
And so basically I'm interested in EVERYTHING to do with Two. Creepy fic with scenes from her construction and original testing (that ends in her getting away!), and the immediate aftermath—did she have a plan? Did she just kill everybody and run like hell? Did she steal the Raza from Dwarf Star Technologies? Or did she steal something else of theirs to get away, and then do ... what? Count cards? Join Fight Club? Something for money, to obtain the Portia Lin identity, etc. Did she join up with the crew of the Raza of her own volition, looking for a place where someone with violent urges and a brain flaw (IT'S LIES, TWO, YOU'RE PERFECT JUST THE WAY YOU ARE) might fit in? Were they contacted by Dwarf Star and sent after her, except she nearly kicked their asses and they decided they preferred to have her on their side so screw Dwarf Star? (And really, we have no idea what order the crew joined up in—if they existed before Two joined them, was it all of them, or did some of them join up before her and some after? Were there other members of the crew to start with, but Two gave them the boot because they failed her somehow/didn't live up to her standards for Crew?) Did they have any idea she was synthetic? Did they guess she was, but knew better than to ask/bring it up? How does her relationship with any of them now compare to her relationships with them before—contrast them with a flash forward-flash back setup, maybe? (Obviously this would be making stuff up, it could go any way you liked.) My personal theory regarding the bug conversation, incidentally, is that she'd figured out about Derrick Moss replacing Jace Corso, and wasn't going to permit a threat to Crew (even if she HATED Marcus Boone, I would argue); but that doesn't mean it's the answer! Was she really talking about Six? Had she somehow discovered that, say, he'd made a deal with the GA to get himself immunity for the space station bombing in exchange for him bringing down the Raza? And post-stasis, seriously, any missing scene or episode tag or anything would be great. Does the Raza itself feel intuitively familiar, or just the controls? What about her quarters? The weight room? How exactly did she work out that deal with Mikkei to save the miners? Did she ever look herself up once they were linked to a station? What are the details of Portia Lin's crimes (and given the bullshit we've already seen the GNN anchor spouting, does the reality differ from the official reports?)? Does Two ever talk with Six—spar with Four—drink with Three? (Can she actually get drunk, or do her nanites clear her system immediately? Is it just that she's more relaxed and happier when her Crew is relaxed and happy, which is almost as good?) I would love any ridiculous tropey fuckbuddies-to-lovers story where she and Three are simultaneously ignoring their own feelings because as long as they pretend not to have any they can keep banging; or where she needs to pretend to be married to anyone (One! Four! Six! THE ANDROID); or where someone hurts her Crew or takes her Crew hostage and she wrecks them; or hurt/comfort where she's all frustrated because her nanites heal her but she can't do anything to fix anybody else (... or can she, if she wants to badly enough? With the android's help, could she find a way to tell her nanites what she wants them to do?). What exactly are the limits of her physical strength? Any deliriously awesome story about her, you know, punching her way through duracrete or whatever to save people and kick ass would be great. TWO.
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So, okay, in order by my character requests, let's start with Two: I love Two. (True story: I bought a pair of heels for a wedding and then had to learn to walk in them, and I sucked at it until I said to myself, "Self, walk like Two," and then it worked and I stopped turning my ankles every third step and also I felt like a badass.) I read Two's reaction to Five pre-stasis and Two's reaction to Five post-stasis as coming from exactly the same place: it's just that pre-stasis, Five isn't Crew but rather poses a danger to Crew (using up additional resources! Needing to be cared for/hidden/otherwise looked out for when they are out on dangerous jobs! Might slow them down! Being looked for by someone who might not be happy with the Raza for sheltering her! NOT GOOD), and post-stasis, Five is Crew. And Two will put up with a lot for Crew, I think, which is so—I mean, I cannot overemphasize how iddy that kind of loyalty thing is for me. /o\ Especially coming from a reserved strong silent type who otherwise tries to ignore feelings. AND THEN we found out her whole backstory thing about how she was constructed and Evil Wil Wheaton was a COMPLETE CREEP, and her wanting to GTFO and not caring if she hurt people who'd hurt her (because they totally "ran tests" on her the first time around too, yeaugh) was being taken as proof of something WRONG WITH HER BRAIN (NO. NO, IT'S PROOF OF SOMETHING RIGHT WITH HER BRAIN, YOU CIRCULAR-SAW-WIELDING ASSHOLE), and it was all so awful. And so—I mean, we have no idea what order any of these people originally joined the crew of the Raza in. I hypothesized up there that the crew had already been formed and sent after her, but it's also totally possible that she's the one who started it, she escaped and stole the ship from Evil Wil Wheaton or something (it was a prototype, even, which is why everybody keeps talking about how fast it is) and then found the others one by one. But EITHER WAY I suddenly see that as her, like, being the change she wants to see, building this Crew thing around herself the way she thinks it should be, because it shouldn't be Evil Wil Wheaton and strapping people down when they don't want to be strapped down and cutting them up, it shouldn't be any of the things she experienced as Rebecca. Crew should be like this, taking care of people and killing other people to keep them safe and always coming back for them and trusting them. And so either she comes into the Raza's crew and makes it like that, or else she forms the Raza's crew up around herself with those rules. Except then the contradictions start: she wants them to trust each other, and to trust her, because it makes it easier for her to take care of them, because that's how it should be (because there should be somebody there who you know won't cut you open with a saw, there should be somebody there who'll stop other people from cutting you open with a saw); but at the same time it's so hard for her to do, so much easier to point out the speck in her brother's eye and pretend there's no plank in her own. Which is also kind of tied up in the feelings thing, because in order to unpack why it's hard for her to trust anybody, she'd have to face up to not wanting to, being afraid to, but she's the leader and she can't let herself have cracks where other people can see her. /o\ TWO. And then! Finding out she's synthetic suddenly means she can't trust herself, she can't trust herself with her Crew—I read the things she was saying about her thoughts being her own and all that as maybe 30% existential crisis and 70% OH SHIT WHAT IF I PULL A WENDY. I CAN'T PULL A WENDY. I WOULD SPACE MYSELF BEFORE PULLING A WENDY ON MY CREW. And I am a sucker for people taking care of other people so hard they push them away because THEY THEMSELVES ARE THE GREATEST DANGER. /o\ help me I'm such a cliché
(Probably ALL OF THIS will be jossed, and we're going to find out that when they had their memories the crew of the Raza professionally tolerated each other and that's it. *sticks fingers in ears* LALALA.)
SO. One is a doofus, like I said, but I actually sort of love him with Two just because he's so open: he's a shit liar and he just—blurts out what he's thinking like half the time and he wears his feelings all over not just his sleeve but like his entire SHIRT, like TATTOOED ON HIS FACE. Which I think Two is a little contemptuous of but also maybe is into more than she'd like to admit, and that is ADORABLE to me. (Seriously, though, One: surprise hugs? SURPRISE HUGS? You're lucky your ARMS are still attached. /o\) She even actually admits out loud that she's hesitant to bang him because she could totally fall in love with him (we all know what "complicated" means, come on), which I say speaks volumes when it's Two. ♥ BUT THEN I also love Two/Three, because Three is, like, trying to be Two but totally failing—he tries to be detached and a douche and make decisions like a stone-cold self-interest-assessing utilitarian decision-making machine, and he sucks at it. So Two's all "it's simple with a guy like that," except then IT'S NOT, NOT AT ALL, because he's nearly as bad as she is about the whole loyalty-caretaking thing (and I'll save more of my thoughts on that for his section). And then Four! TWO HAVING THEM GO BACK FOR FOUR. (Yeah, yeah, they were all, "Once he's emperor he'll be super useful." WHATEVER, GUYS, YOU LIKE HIM. YOU DON'T WANT HIM TO DIE ALONE ON THAT CRAPPY PLANET. JUST ADMIT IT.) Like, she really doesn't interact with him much that we see, but even just the minimum of him being there and traveling with them, slicing up hapless security guards for them, is Crew enough to risk the ship. And it is a risk, I would say, because what assurance does she have that Four's half-brother doesn't have a dozen ships hiding behind that system's sun, waiting to blow them up for harboring Four? NONE. SHE HAS NONE ASSURANCE. And Five! I love Two watching out for Five—watching out for Five so hard it scares Five, and don't tell me Two wasn't remembering the way Five looked at her after the casino episode when Circular-Saw-Wielding Asshole was going on about something being wrong with her brain. /o\ I love the arc of Two and Five, Five freaking out and avoiding Two until Two's in danger from the virus and then hugging her, Five being so upset to hear Two talking about killing a crewmember that she wasn't thinking straight. (That's my favored explanation for how Five loses it over that stupid bug even though a) it apparently totally failed to record the whole conversation, unless that was the show deliberately trying to keep the context secret from the viewer, and b) FIVE. TWO DOESN'T EVEN REMEMBER HAVING THAT CONVERSATION. SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW WHY SHE MIGHT HAVE WANTED TO KILL ANYBODY. FIVE. YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE SMART.) I honestly might even ship that in a Maleficent/Aurora, Xena/Gabrielle kind of way. /o\ And then Six, who honestly barely speaks to Two most of the time, but he's quiet and level-headed, doesn't splatter feelings everywhere like One or deliberately antagonize people like Two, isn't as distant and self-contained as Four, is more sensible than Five—I think Six is just plain dependable, to Two, and if he really did screw them over I don't want to see her face when she finds out. :( :( :( :( :( And then THE ANDROID. :D I adore the friendship between Two and the android, how much Two relies on the android, and then the android going into Evil Wil Wheaton's facility for Two is just, MY HEART. /o\ I mean that prompt about Two and the android talking about what it's like to be a constructed person SO HARD, because the android has already proven she has feelings about her own identity, about personhood and emotion and attachment, about whether affection directed toward her is valid, about whether affection she directs toward others is valid (if it is affection—what makes it so? Can she rightly call it that? Why or why not? Does she have a self in any way separate from her programming? Does it matter?) So honestly I probably ship that too. /o\ OOPS.
And so basically I'm interested in EVERYTHING to do with Two. Creepy fic with scenes from her construction and original testing (that ends in her getting away!), and the immediate aftermath—did she have a plan? Did she just kill everybody and run like hell? Did she steal the Raza from Dwarf Star Technologies? Or did she steal something else of theirs to get away, and then do ... what? Count cards? Join Fight Club? Something for money, to obtain the Portia Lin identity, etc. Did she join up with the crew of the Raza of her own volition, looking for a place where someone with violent urges and a brain flaw (IT'S LIES, TWO, YOU'RE PERFECT JUST THE WAY YOU ARE) might fit in? Were they contacted by Dwarf Star and sent after her, except she nearly kicked their asses and they decided they preferred to have her on their side so screw Dwarf Star? (And really, we have no idea what order the crew joined up in—if they existed before Two joined them, was it all of them, or did some of them join up before her and some after? Were there other members of the crew to start with, but Two gave them the boot because they failed her somehow/didn't live up to her standards for Crew?) Did they have any idea she was synthetic? Did they guess she was, but knew better than to ask/bring it up? How does her relationship with any of them now compare to her relationships with them before—contrast them with a flash forward-flash back setup, maybe? (Obviously this would be making stuff up, it could go any way you liked.) My personal theory regarding the bug conversation, incidentally, is that she'd figured out about Derrick Moss replacing Jace Corso, and wasn't going to permit a threat to Crew (even if she HATED Marcus Boone, I would argue); but that doesn't mean it's the answer! Was she really talking about Six? Had she somehow discovered that, say, he'd made a deal with the GA to get himself immunity for the space station bombing in exchange for him bringing down the Raza? And post-stasis, seriously, any missing scene or episode tag or anything would be great. Does the Raza itself feel intuitively familiar, or just the controls? What about her quarters? The weight room? How exactly did she work out that deal with Mikkei to save the miners? Did she ever look herself up once they were linked to a station? What are the details of Portia Lin's crimes (and given the bullshit we've already seen the GNN anchor spouting, does the reality differ from the official reports?)? Does Two ever talk with Six—spar with Four—drink with Three? (Can she actually get drunk, or do her nanites clear her system immediately? Is it just that she's more relaxed and happier when her Crew is relaxed and happy, which is almost as good?) I would love any ridiculous tropey fuckbuddies-to-lovers story where she and Three are simultaneously ignoring their own feelings because as long as they pretend not to have any they can keep banging; or where she needs to pretend to be married to anyone (One! Four! Six! THE ANDROID); or where someone hurts her Crew or takes her Crew hostage and she wrecks them; or hurt/comfort where she's all frustrated because her nanites heal her but she can't do anything to fix anybody else (... or can she, if she wants to badly enough? With the android's help, could she find a way to tell her nanites what she wants them to do?). What exactly are the limits of her physical strength? Any deliriously awesome story about her, you know, punching her way through duracrete or whatever to save people and kick ass would be great. TWO.