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ladyfogg · 4 years

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May I? - 6/?

Fic Summary: Ensign Faith Diaz struggles to hide her mental illness from her fellow shipmates aboard the Enterprise until an intrigued Data goes out of his way to try to understand her behavior. At his insistence, Faith tries to figure out what she’s truly passionate about and eventually seeks the professional help she needs. Fic Masterpost.

Fic Rating: NC-17

Pairing: Data/Female OC

Warnings: tw: depression, tw: anxiety, fluff, friends to lovers, eventual smut

Screenshot by @ geekygwen

Faith stared at the handprint, a shudder running down her spine. "That wasn't there before," she insisted. "I would have noticed it."

"I would have as well," Data agreed, holding up the tricorder. "I am scanning the print now. If there is any organic matter we can bring it to Dr. Crusher for analysis. She can also compare it to those we have on board."

"I don't see a thumbprint," Faith said, leaning in close. "And the fingers look thicker than a human's."

"Out of the one-thousand one-hundred life forms onboard the Enterprise, only two-hundred have hands with four fingers," Data explained, lowering the tricorder. "And only ten of them have access to Engineering."

"Well, that narrows it down at least." Faith glanced at the tricorder screen. "Find anything useful?"

"The dark substance looks to be a mix of synthetic oil, bentonite clay, and bismuth carboxylate," he said, showing her the readings. "As I suspected, there is also organic matter which may have come from the culprit."

Faith sat back on her heels, searching her brain for what substance would have that chemical combination. "Would that be engine grease?" she asked. "I vaguely recall hearing about the use of it back at the academy."

Data nodded. "That would be my hypothesis at this time."

"But that doesn't make sense. No one in the Federation has used that compound in centuries."

"It seems we have an even bigger mystery on our hands than we thought," Data said, handing the tricorder back to her.

"Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent," Faith said with a sigh.

Data looked at her with wide eyes, his mouth slightly agape. "That is a quote from Sherlock Holmes."

Faith gave him a lopsided smile. "Yeah, it is," she said, pleased he caught the reference. "When I was younger I took a class on twentieth-century literature. Holmes was my favorite. Are you a fan?"

"Yes. I have read every work featuring the great consulting detective."

"That's wild. I don't know anyone else who's read them." She put the tricorder away and examined the door's panel. "Should we keep going? Maybe we'll find more prints."

Data seemed to be in a state of shock but snapped out of it. "Yes. Let us proceed."

Faith nodded and entered the access code, opening the doors to the next section. She and Data glanced around but saw no one. Still, they proceeded cautiously, checking for more prints.

This time Faith was anxious for an entirely different reason. She had been in the tubes alone and a part of her wondered if whoever did this had been nearby when she found the console. Had they heard her and run off? Were they watching as she tried to fix it? What would have happened if Data hadn't come along?

Her heart began to race. The walls felt like they were closing in on her and she was finding it difficult to keep moving.

"How did you know I was quoting Sherlock Holmes?" she asked, now finding the silence unbearable. She welcomed any kind of distraction, hoping to draw her thoughts away from her impending anxiety attack.

"I am well-versed in all works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle," Data explained. "In fact, Commander La Forge and I have enjoyed many holodeck simulations as Watson and Holmes."

The mental image of the two of them dressed in period clothing as they ran around the holodeck was enough to refocus her attention.

"Now that I would like to see."

"Perhaps next time you will join us."

"Yeah, alright. Sounds fun."

They reached the end of the tube and found no other strange handprints. The juncture split off into multiple directions and the two paused so Faith could take out the tricorder again.

"Check for any signs of that chemical compound," Data said.

"On it." As Faith circled the tight space, Data kept his eyes on the surrounding area. "This way." She pointed to the tube on the left. "There are trace amounts of the grease coming from this direction."

Faith made a move to go forward but Data stopped her. From his back pocket, he pulled out a phaser. "Stay close," he ordered.

Knowing he was armed eased Faith's anxiety. At least if they came across someone, they wouldn't be totally defenseless. Though she supposed with Data's strength he was never without an advantage. Slowly, they crawled along the tube. She kept the tricorder out, continuing to monitor their surroundings.

But they saw nothing. No more prints and no more signs of tampering. The trace amounts lessened until they eventually disappeared. It wasn't until they reached the end that Data pocketed his phaser.

"This problem is bigger than we anticipated," he said. "That door leads to another juncture that comes out on the next deck."

"Then whoever this is could have hit other departments and we wouldn't even know."

Data opened the door so they could make for the exit. "I must talk to Geordi. I believe it is time to inform the captain of our findings."

"While you do that, I'll take these readings to Dr. Crusher, like we talked about," Faith said, following behind him.

"Excellent. Contact me as soon as you have the results."

Data climbed out of the tube, offering Faith his hand for help. She accepted, breathing a sigh of relief when she was free of the constriction.

They went their separate ways. He headed back to Engineering while she made for the sickbay. She was so wrapped up in their findings, she didn't have a chance to feel anxious about seeing Dr. Crusher again.

When she walked in, Beverly looked pleasantly surprised. "Faith! It's good to see you again."

"Hi, Dr. Crusher. Data and I found something strange in the Jefferies tubes. Could you take a look?"

Her smile faltered only slightly, no doubt disappointed Faith was there on business. "Of course. Come on, let's use my lab."

Faith followed her out of the main sickbay and into one of the side rooms. Once inside, she brought up the scan of the print on the screen. Beverly looked confused.

"Where did you find that?" she asked.

"On one of the doors in the Jefferies tube," Faith explained. "We discovered a console had been tampered with and found this in the area."

Beverly tapped the screen, moving through the options. "I'll run a print comparison to those on the ship," she said. "And it looks like you found some organic matter in there as well."

"And some chemical compounds associated with old-school engine grease."

"Strange."

"An understatement."

Faith let her work, hoping for some kind of answers. As the program ran, searching the Enterprise database, Beverly cast Faith a side-long look.

"Are you feeling any better?" she asked.

"My head is fine, no more headaches or sensitivity," Faith answered, distracted by watching the analyses.

"And your mood?"

She picked up on the probing but this time wasn't as annoyed as she had been before. "I spoke with Counselor Troi for a bit. It wasn't so bad."

"That's great," Beverly said. "Do you think you'll keep seeing her?"

"Possibly." Faith paused for a moment before turning her attention to the doctor. "Just so you know, I don't appreciate being cornered by a counselor in my own quarters."

"Well, I don't appreciate my concussion patients avoiding me." Beverly gave her a stern look as she took a seat behind her desk. "And while I have you here and you can't run away, please have a seat."

Sighing, Faith sank into the chair across from her. She didn't speak but she maintained eye contact.

"While I am glad you are talking with Counselor Troi, I suggest we start you on a low dosage of citalopram—"

"I don't want to start anything."

"Why not?"

"I just don't."

Beverly studied her carefully. "Faith, there is nothing wrong with taking medication," she told her. "It's very common and nothing to be ashamed of."

"I can handle it on my own."

"But you don't have to."

Faith opened her mouth to argue but was cut off. There was a beep and the two women looked at the screen on the wall. The results of the handprint flashed and Faith's stomach dropped.

"No known matches," Beverly said, focus pulled as she got to her feet. Faith followed her, staring at the results. "Not just the print but the organic matter as well. That's disconcerting."

"And terrifying," Faith said. She tapped her communicator. "Diaz to Commander Data?"

"Data here."

"We have the results of the analysis," Faith said.

"Please bring them to me on the Bridge. Data out."

The Bridge. What was he doing on the Bridge? He was supposed to be in Engineering. He wanted her to join him up there, with the captain. And his senior officers.

"Faith? Are you alright?" Beverly asked.

The ensign didn't realize her breathing had picked up until Dr. Crusher led her back to the chair. Her anxiety spiked and she shut her eyes tight, taking a deep breath in and a slow exhale out. At least, she tried.

It wasn't working.

By the time she registered what the doctor was doing, she felt the tip of a hypospray touch her neck. "You are having an anxiety attack," she said. "I'm giving you a light sedative to help."

Faith nodded, movements jerky. Seconds later, the tightness in her chest eased and her breathing became easier to control. When she opened her eyes, Dr. Crusher was kneeling before her.

"Thank you," Faith said.

Beverly pursed her lips and got to her feet. A second later she returned, pressing a fresh hypospray into her hands. "Whether you choose to take the medication or not is up to you," she said. "There are enough doses in there for two weeks. If you begin the medication, see me when this runs out and we'll readjust the dose if need be."

Faith closed her hands around it and gave a muted nod. "I'm needed on the Bridge." She got to her feet, grabbing her tricorder on the way out.

She shoved the hypospray into her pocket, willing herself to forget about it for the time being.

Dr. Crusher's injection took the edge off but did not neutralize the anxiety completely, it just made it easier to work through. She fiddled with the tricorder as she rode the turbo-lift. She had never been to the Bridge nor did she have any desire to. It was too intense and there was too much pressure involved.

When she reached the Bridge, it took all her willpower to step onto it.

Data was sitting at Science Station One and turned when he saw her. "Ah, Faith, welcome," he said. "Geordi will be joining us shortly. What did you find out?"

She focused on him as she crossed the threshold onto the most important area of the ship. Seeing his calm demeanor helped her keep calm as well.

"I wish I had better news for you," she said, standing by his side. "The print and organic matter doesn't match anything in our database."

"Fascinating," Data said, bringing up the information on his station. "I have spoken to the captain. He wishes us to lead a debriefing as soon as we are able."

If it wasn't for the medication, Faith's shoulders would have tensed. "O-Okay," she muttered. "Okay."

"You said that already."

"Right…"

Data studied her for a moment. "Let us go to the Observation Lounge to prepare."

Faith nodded and numbly followed him off the Bridge. Once in Observation, he turned to look at her.

"You look distressed."

"I am."

"If this is too much for you, you may be excused. I can conduct the briefing alone."

Collapsing into one of the chairs, Faith put her head in her hands. "Damn it, I should be able to do this."

Data took the seat next to her. "As I understand, not everyone is comfortable speaking in front of people. It is a very common fear."

"Still. I should be able to do it."

"Why?"

Faith looked up at him. "What do you mean?"

"Why do you feel you should be able to proceed? Everyone has limits."

"I feel like I've been hitting mine more and more."

Data processed her words. "And this makes you unhappy?"

"More like frustrated."

"I see." He reached out and stiffly patted her shoulder. "There there."

Faith snorted with laughter. "Thanks."

"I am unsure of how to offer comfort."

"I appreciate the gesture," she said, giving his hand a small pat of her own. She took a deep breath. "I'm okay. I can stay."

Data nodded in acknowledgment and tapped his communicator. "Data to Captain Picard. Ensign Diaz and I are on the Observation Lounge when you are ready."

"I'm on my way. Picard out."

Faith and Data remained seated while they waited. She was not aware his hand was still on her shoulder until the captain arrived and they stood. When it fell away, she missed the weight of it.

"Captain Picard, may I introduce Ensign Faith Diaz," Data said as Picard extended his hand to her.

Faith accepted it, giving him a firm handshake.

"Ensign Diaz, a pleasure to finally meet you," Picard said. "Mr. Data speaks very highly of you. I hear we have a bit of a mystery on our hands."

"Aye, sir," she said, finding her voice. "And I'm afraid it's only gotten stranger."

The doors opened and Geordi entered. "I see you two have been busy," he commented.

They sat and Data brought up the research he and Faith had compiled. As he walked Picard and Geordi through what they discovered, Faith found herself relaxing by the sound of his voice. Leadership suited him well and his ability to step in when she couldn't was greatly appreciated.

She was so busy admiring him, she almost missed Picard's question. "What would you suggest?" he asked.

"We need to do a full sweep of the Jefferies tubes," Geordi said. "We need to make sure no one is hiding in them or any other consoles have been touched."

"That was my thought as well," Data agreed.

"But we should be subtle about it," Faith interjected, drawing the men's gazes. "If we do have a stowaway on the ship, bringing attention to them could be disastrous. Especially since we don't know their intent."

Data nodded. "Another good point. Subtly and stealth is our best defense at this time."

Picard nodded thoughtfully. After a moment, he tapped his communicator. "Commander Riker, Lieutenant Worf, join me on the Observation Lounge."

The door opened seconds later and the two men joined them at the table.

"We have a possible situation on board that needs to be approached with the utmost discretion," Picard said. "Mr. Data and Ms. Diaz have found evidence we may have an uninvited visitor aboard the Enterprise. We do not know who or what we are dealing with. As of right now, only a few minor pieces of machinery have gone missing, that we know of."

Picard continued the debriefing and Faith focused on her breathing. The sedative made it difficult to concentrate but she did the best that she could.

"Mr. Wolf, organize a security sweep of the Jefferies tubes," Picard ordered. "Number One, I want you to connect with the department heads, see if anyone else has found physical disturbances. Geordi, have your staff do maintenance in each console in Engineering to make sure nothing else is missing." He turned back to Faith and Data. "I would like you two to continue your investigation. I want to be notified immediately of any developments. Dismissed."

They gave him nods of acknowledgment and stood. Faith was eager to get to her quarters and away from people. She had had enough excitement for one day.

Data joined her in the turbo-lift. Once the doors closed he said, "You did very well."

"Thanks," Faith said, slowly exhaling. "That was intense."

"I understand the captain is an intimidating figure. It is perfectly natural to be tense in his presence."

"Having a direct order from him puts a lot of pressure on a person."

"I am confident you can handle it."

Faith suddenly remembered Picard's words when he shook her hand. "Data, he said you spoke highly of me?"

"Because I think highly of you."

Faith couldn't help but smile, cheeks flushing with embarrassment. "You do?" she asked.

Data looked at her as though he were surprised by her surprise. "Of course. You are capable, smart, and meticulous in your work. I admire these traits."

Faith glanced at the floor, face growing hot.

"You are embarrassed by my words," Data noted.

"I'm...unaccustomed to compliments."

"That is a shame. Would you like me to stop?"

Faith could feel her embarrassment wane and she smiled up at him. "It's very nice to hear. Please continue."

"You are focused when something catches your attention. You face your fears though they cripple you…"

Faith laughed, putting her hand up to stop him. "While I'm sorry to interrupt you, I didn't mean to keep going right now. I only meant in general."

"Ah, I see. Duly noted."

They fell into silence as the turbo-lift continued to move. It slowed to a stop at Faith's deck but before she got off the lift, she turned to Data.

"For the record," she said softly. "I think very highly of you too."

Data's face broke out into a wide smile. She was unprepared for the way it made her stomach clench. "Thank you."

Embarrassed for an entirely different reason, Faith stepped off the lift, even more, determined to get to her quarters than before. She had a lot of thinking to do.

#commander data #lt commander data #data tng #data soong #star trek next generation

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bigskydreaming · 5 years

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I dont want to intrude on your convo with your friend but I've been reading all your posts about your changelings verse since you started making them. Is the Alicia you mentioned next to Boyd in the poart about the changeling market meant to be Boyd's little sister from TW? What's her change, if you don't mind telling??

LOL no worries, and you’re not intruding, I don’t mind comments or weighing in on any post I make ever, unless its specifically under a cut and I’m like ‘plz dont reblog Im gonna delete this in ten minutes anyway, IM JUST HAVING A MOMENT OKAY’ lolol.

So yeah, you’re fine, and if you follow me because of TW which you obvsly know well enough to recognize Alicia’s name, you probably know how much I love exploring minor or barely ever used characters, haha. Alicia Boyd is no exception and I have a ridiculous number of headcanons and places I’ve used her in various unposted WIPs considering that she made all of one appearance on the show and it was a hallucination/flashback. BUT WHATEVER.

Anyway, Alicia’s Change is one of my faves, and given that she’s such a barely there presence in TW, she’s a character I’m pretty comfortable keeping just as she is in my TW changeling headcanons, when writing the official ‘to be published’ stuff in this ‘verse.

All Changelings’ physical changes and magic are in some way related to their personalities and individual traits, even if that connection isn’t immediately obvious. And even though the Changelings are supernatural in origin, given that their magic reflects who they are and who they are is a product of a 21st century modern society, I wanted some of them to have changes and magic that seems in some ways almost sci-fi or technology based, even while still definitively being magic at its source.

So for no particular reason other than just its my head, I’ll headcanon what I want, I’ve always pictured Alicia as a STEM girl, very much into science and math, and her change and magic ties into that.

Basically, she looks just like she did before she was Changed, so she’s a fourteen year old black girl who’s just a slightly older version of the character we saw briefly on TW….except for the fact that she’s at all times surrounded by what appear to be like…ghostly versions of herself.

Like, at any given time there’s a half dozen to a dozen different versions of herself, totally intangible and somewhat faded/transparent like a photo that hasn’t been fully developed….and they’re all ‘orbiting’ her, for lack of a better term….kinda like the electrons of an atom orbit it.

And these other versions of herself all look slightly different upon closer inspection - different hairstyles, clothing, a couple have glasses, etc….and some appear like they’re floating in mid-air, others like their feet are sinking into the ground….and most of them usually look like they’re just hovering or flickering around Alicia like half-formed images or ghosts that are all moving, doing something - whether appearing like they’re talking, walking, fighting, reading, any number of things….and all of them seemingly paying no attention to what’s going on around Alicia here and now, if they’re even aware of it.

Which they are though, because the thing is, these ‘satellite versions of herself’ are all alternate versions of herself existing currently in other parallel universes where the Change still occurred and they all ended up with the same magic as this Alicia.

So essentially, there are between ten and sixteen versions of Alicia, spread across an equivalent number of parallel universes….who are all Changelings with the exact same magic….which connects them all.

Just like they appear like ghostly images of this Alicia here, this Alicia appears as one of the ghostly images hovering around each of the other versions of herself in their realities.

And despite them always looking like they’re doing their own thing for the most part and oblivious to anything happening in a different reality, that’s just a matter of them learning after a loooot of practice and trial and error, how to primarily just focus on their main reality and only keep a vague/back of their mind awareness trained on what’s happening with the other versions of herself via their magical connection.

Whenever something big happens to one of them though, no matter which reality, like if one of them is in danger, the others can immediately stop what they’re doing in their home realities and pay attention to the one who’s actively in danger….because all the Alicias can communicate with each other, share knowledge and life experiences and skills with each other, and so whenever one of them really needs the others, the others can all focus on them and come to their aid or support them in a variety of ways, even without being physically present.

And some of these parallel universes are more similar than others, and some of them are just sliiiiightly out of sync with the others….like one of the Alicias lives in a universe that for the most part is almost identical to this Alicia’s universe….except its timeline is like, thirty seconds ahead of this one’s.

Meaning while its not foolproof, due to the very very minor differences in realities resulting in the people in each reality making slightly different choices….that 30 seconds ahead Alicia tends to for the most part be able to give this Alicia a 30 seconds heads up to any unexpected danger.

And there’s a bunch of other ways their magic is helpful too….each of the Alicias’ has their own fields of study…remember since Changeling magic reflects the person, the fact that these Alicias all have the same magic is because all of these versions of her are precocious little science and math prodigies in some way….but they all have slightly different interests and scientific and mathematic pursuits they’ve applied themselves towards or decided to study in earnest. Which means any one of them can at any time draw on the knowledge possessed by one of the others due to studying a specific field that the other one doesn’t know a ton about. Or they can just talk to each other directly, ask each other questions about something, or use themselves as a sounding board or to bounce ideas off of each other.

So sometimes Alicia will just stop in the middle of talking to other Changelings in town here to be like hang on a sec, I need to get this….and appear to just be talking to one of her own flickering reflections in the middle of the sidewalk, while anyone who knows her well is pretty used to this and just chills like someone waiting for a friend to finish up on the phone after she had to take an urgent call, lol.

And since the Alicias don’t have to be in the same or similar physical space to still appear as satellites of each other Alicia in her home reality, one Alicia can be physically present at one side of town and really need something like….from a book she left at home on the other side of town. And one of the other Alicias is usually bound to be at home and by focusing on her, Alicia can just ask her to read from her own book what this Alicia needs to know, or like, check something online, or solve a problem real quick for her and give her the answer while she focuses on doing something else urgent at the same time, etc.

Then there’s the fact that some of the Alicias have a lot of self-defense training and teach the others some tricks, and a couple are very practiced with a variety of weapons they can pass along expertise about….one Alicia excels at picking locks, which comes in handy as this Alicia, along with about five of the others, is kinda like….the Nancy Drew of their respective Bordertowns, the pint-sized, precocious PI that other Changelings often turn to despite her age, because Alicia (all the Alicias, really) is damn good at what she does.

Also via their connection to each other’s realities, when they focus they can basically see what’s going on around one of the others, so for instance, when this one is in danger or running from someone or something like that, and a few of the others are safe and sound at home, they can just focus solely on her and everything going on around her, and its like Alicia has preternatural awareness of her surroundings then, because she’s got five or six other versions of herself flickering around her head and at her back like ghostly shadows…and all of them are shouting instructions to her or to look out for this or that or turn here, etc. So there’s basically six pairs of eyes looking out for her and keeping her apprised of everything that’s going on in her vicinity at the moment.

That really comes in handy.

Everyone can see the other versions of herself that are most present via her connection at any given moment, given that that’s the nature of her physical Change, but since its her magic specifically, only she can actually hear the other versions of her or interact with them….with very rare exceptions. None of them have quite figured out yet how the connection totally works, in the sense that some of them are in sharper focus at times than others, like, there’s always some connection between all of them, but at different times some feel further away and are harder to communicate or interact with than others. And they’re not sure if that’s because like, their different universes are engaged in some kind of movement or orbit or rotation relative to each other, or if there’s some other reason for it, but a few of them are always working on that particular puzzle at any given moment, lol.

But on a related note, on three separate occasions, when one of the Alicias in one reality was in extreme danger, another Alicia was able to temporarily ‘jump into the driver’s seat’ of that Alicia’s body, via their connection….one time was when one of the skilled fighters jumped into one of the Alicias who was being attacked by someone she’d followed during one of her investigations and turned out to be more dangerous than she’d expected….another time one of the other Alicias jumped into the body of an Alicia who’d been knocked unconscious in an accident and the other Alicia was able to assume control of her body and get her out of danger until she woke up and it bumped the other one back into her own body….and then the third time, one of the Alicias saw that this Alicia was about to get hit by a car that she didn’t see coming, and the alternate Alicia tried to warn her by projecting through their connection as hard as she could, to look out….and somehow accidentally jumped fully into this Alicia’s body and threw her(self) out of the way, before almost immediately being slingshotted back into her own body.

Except none of them have figured out how to do anything like that on command, despite it vexing a number of them. They just know it most likely has something to do with the intensity of a life or death threat or situation making it possible…even though it doesn’t always seem to happen, so they try not to rely on it.

And on one particularly memorable occasion that none of them have the faintest clue why or how it happened, eight of them went from flickering around this Alicia like satellite ghosts….to manifesting physically around her in this reality in their own bodies, and shocking the hell out of the guy trying to intimidate her, who was not at all prepared for the teen girl to suddenly be just one of a literal crowd of nine girls all staring him down. So he turned tail and ran, and they all almost instantly winked back into their home realities and returned to just being afterimage-esque glimpses of them still orbiting around her.

None of them have any idea how that happened or why, let alone how to make it happen again, which irritates the crap out of most of them because ugh, screw magic, there has to be a logical explanation for at least the mechanism of this, damn you supernatural forces with no coherent consistency!

(All the Alicias rant quite often about their inability to pin down firm rules for a lot of Changeling magic and how and why it operates the way it does. Big fans of logic, the Alicias. Not so much the bafflement).

Sooooo….she’s a LOT of fun to write, even though she’s very challenging to…maneuver around, narratively speaking, if that makes sense, lol….but like, yeah, I have a blast writing her.

The main Alicia, the one who’s always front and center, is snarky but never in a mean-spirited way. More like….her mind is always twenty steps ahead of everyone around her, sometimes literally, lol, and so she rolls her eyes a lot and sometimes makes a show of being exasperated that she has to slow down and wait for everyone to catch up, but its not because of “oh I think everyone but me is so stupid” or anything like that, its usually just….pure impatience on her part.

The second she figures something out she wants to go, go, go, move on to wherever that leads. She winds up getting in various less than totally safe situations purely because she doesn’t want to stop and grab someone to go along with her when checking something out, but also just because the nature of her magic means she’s never truly completely on her own, and she sometimes forgets to factor that in, or remember that her other selves aren’t usually physically present and able to help her out of a jam.

She’s so used to their presences that every so often she just genuinely forgets that they’re not right there in the room with her, which has caused some confusion to more than one person when meeting her for the first time and realizing those silent movie-style images of her are actually real and she’s actually communicating with them, not just talking to thin air.

Fortunately, she’s smart and capable in her own right, so when you multiply that by a factor of twelve to fifteen similar minds all attuned to all of their best interests….there’s very few situations she isn’t capable of getting out of on her own. Not that this makes her big brother facepalm any less when she blithely handwaves off a recent escapade as no big deal and something she has no idea why he’s getting so worked up about.

(I mean, she does totally get his concerns and isn’t lacking in self-awareness, its just that she’s also committed to giving him gray hairs before he’s forty. She is, among other things, still a little sister after all.)

Due to her many alternate selves, and the vast array of personality differences between each of them, that many of her close friends are at least aware of by proxy, given that even though they can’t hear her other selves, they’ve all heard her casually talk about them often enough to know them in a sense as well….

Anyway, so a lot of Changelings have nicknames based on their Changes or magic, and she’s no exception. She goes by her own name and just introduces herself as Alicia, but its not uncommon to hear others address her as or reference her as ‘Sybil.’

When asked how she feels about that name, she tends to just shrug and stare off into the distance contemplatively. “I don’t know,” she’ll say at last. “Part of me loves it, and part of me hates it.”

And then she’ll just grin as everyone around her just groans, because she’s just Like This, and just looooves being literal in little ways like that - given that she’s literally acknowledging that half of her alternates feel the one way, and the other half feel the other way.

Another common line of hers is something like “Hey, I’m only problematic on Thursdays,” or “that wasn’t me, that was Alicia Number Nine, its not my fault she hates you.”

Her magic is just weird enough and behaves just erratically and unexpectedly enough, that its hard to be entirely sure when she’s just bullshitting you and when she might actually be telling the truth and some weird power snafu had one of the other Alicias in her body the last time you interacted with her and she was short with you.

There’s never a dull moment with her.

#changelings 'verse

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mvsquerades · 5 years

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⋆ ° ⟡ ( KELSEY MERRITT, twenty-five, cisfemale, she/hers ) has AVELINE DAYAO, the HEIRESS from THE PHILIPPINES arrived yet? i heard they can be quite HEADSTRONG, but also DYNAMIC. there’s rumours they’ve come to genovia to ESCAPE THE PRESSURE OF HER FAMILY, but you never know. SCATTERED SHEET MUSIC, RUNNING THROUGH OCEAN WAVES, & BRIGHT LAUGHTER HEARD IN A CROWDED ROOM always remind me of them. ( isa, 23, gmt+1, she/hers )

like this & i’ll slide into your dms to plot !!

history

i. the daughter of french cinematic royalty and a filipino business tycoon, aveline “vivi” juliet masson dayao is given the world but expected it of her. pressure is placed on her at a young age to be the best ; as the oldest, she’ll inherit the company and oversee its operations. her family is splashed all over european and asian magazines and newspapers — her mother is a former actress turned entrepreneur / philanthropist and her father is the CEO of one of the biggest conglomerates in southeast asia, with interests in department stores, finance, real estate, telecom, transportation, and power. to think it started all from one tiny store in the 60s!

ii. she’s put into fencing lessons, ballet & tap, violin & piano. there’s swimming lessons and tennis practice ; her parents believe in being well-rounded and trying at least once. one by one, she quits ( some sooner rather than later ), but swimming and piano stick. she can spend hours at the piano, practicing classical pieces or improvising, and she nearly went to school for music.

iii. she spends equal time in manila and the french riviera, getting to know both sides of her family, and her love of travel spawns from her grandfather. his stories of all the different film locations & the myriad of paths he’s taken inspire her to see the world ; she’s a jet-setter & a trendsetter. she explores phuket and marrakesh and los angeles ; she parties in berlin and monte carlo and seoul. she lounges on the white sand beaches of el nido and eats breakfast in paris all while looking fantastic while doing it — the philippine tatler adores her.

iv. she completes primary education at a private school in the philippines, and then attends boarding school in europe. away from the prying eyes of her parents, she’s given free reign to do what she wants as long as she delivers high marks. college takes her back to the philippines, and after graduating from ateneo de manila, she attends the university of oxford for her MBA. she completed the program last year and has since been dedicating time to traveling & philanthropy. she works hard & plays harder ; aveline’s schooling years are spent pulling all-nighters to study for a midterms & go clubbing until 5 am.

v. though there always was a looming pressure to join the family company, her father never really pushed it until now, having assumed aveline would do so after completing her education. but aveline has big plans, and that includes forging her own path. his patience is wearing thin the more she champions for what she believes & the more outspoken she gets.

vi. ( cheating tw ) the tumultuous marriage of ophelie masson and ramon dayao and its jagged end is largely kept secret from the press — they were once madly in love, but that infatuation ran its course. they adore aveline, and dote on her so, but it’s always a tug of war between them. aveline’s brought up in two countries, yet doesn’t feel at home full in neither. there have been extra-marital affairs on both sides ( though her father started it first ) and the result is a years-long separation culminating in divorce. aveline’s father has currently remarried. her mom’s dating.

about

a whirlwind of a woman, aveline is vivacious, compassionate, and open, the type to treat you like an old friend even if she’s only known you for a few hours. she’s well-versed in intercultural communication and business ; understanding cultural nuances is just as important as understanding what people are saying.

passionate and tenacious. she puts in 110% into her interests and goals, though she can be single-minded in this sense — if something doesn’t interest her, she won’t put the effort in. generous & loyal to those she cares about. stubborn to a fault ; she’s firm in her opinions and it’s difficult to get her to budge once she’s set her mind on something. she’s known for pissing her parents’ friends & associates off, as she can be quite blunt when she wants to be, and refuses to change herself for the sake of appearances. altruistic to the point of self-sacrificing, she has a tendency to give too much of herself — whether that’s her time, affection, or both — even when she shouldn’t.

fluent in french, english, tagalog, and bicol.

taking a note from her mother, aveline is heavily involved in philanthropy. she’s primarily interested in working with children and women, including victims of trafficking & abuse, education, and human rights. she both donates and participates, and has since started a charity of her own. she’s also openly bisexual ( which caused a fair amount of friction in her family ) and advocates for lgbt rights in the philippines.

she’s done a few modeling campaigns, but has known since she was a child acting is not for her.

wanted connections

ride-or-dies & close friends, the people she’d do anything for. drinking buddies, party friends, a looser sort of friendship. travel buddies. exes. flings. current flings. one-night-stands. skinny love. first love. enemies. frenemies. flirtationship. friends with benefits. will they won’t they. the bad influence. the protective friend. confidants ( midnight talks & that sort of thing ).

( pinterest. )

#genoviaintro #( aveline | about. )#cheating tw

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ficsforfangirls · 6 years

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Favorite Fanfiction (That I’ve Written)

A Tomco where Star accidentally gives Marco hypothermia and calls upon Tom to keep him warm while she finds a cure.I’m going to link some of my favorite fanfiction - that I’ve written. I’ve decided to link my Top 10 Faves out of a total of 108 fanfiction stories between my Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own profiles. I do have some stories that are on both platforms, but there are plenty of stories that are exclusive to either website. Not all of my work on there is perfect, I’ve not always edited my work and I’ve been doing this for 12 years (though I think the oldest work I’ve left posted is from 2011). As I’ve gotten older, the work quality has improved, but that being said - this list is going to be the stories I’m most proud of and felt the happiest with when I was finished writing them.

So I’ll tag the story, include the fandom and the summary below the linked title. These are in no particular order. I will also have a small, bolded explanation why each story has made it onto this list. 1. A Hazard to Myself

(Harry Potter, Post-War)

This song!fic inspired by "Don't Let Me Get Me" by P!NK showcases Draco Malfoy reflecting with and talking to his psychiatrist - because he's not handling life after the war very well. TW: Mentions of alcohol abuse and self-harm, only in passing with absolutely no details of those acts.

This piece is one of those stories where the ending line was so powerful to me, and that song meant so much to me growing up, that I can’t ever read it without getting chills. Perhaps it could have been written better with fewer constraints, but the impact of it doesn’t change for me. This story always moves me every time I revisit it.

2. Dear Reader

(Harry Potter, Golden Era)

(5th Year - Assumed/Slight AU) Hermione decides the Hogwarts Library needs a piece of Muggle literature. Even though she doesn't expect anyone to find it, let alone respond to it, she is surprised when it is sent back to her within a couple of days – and with a letter, wouldn't you believe it? {rated based on future chapters}

This was the first wildly popular story I’d done in my fanfiction career. I even entered it into a contest to have it published after reworking it as an original piece. However, I was naive at the time and I didn’t edit it enough to get the votes. Still, it remains one of my favorites because I took something I loved from two different stories and made it my own so much so that it was wildly well received. I will always be proud of what I accomplished with this story.

3. Forever & Always, Clara

(Doctor Who, 12th Doctor)

This piece is a letter written to the Doctor as a means for Clara to say a proper and final farewell to the man who has so radically defined her life.

This was just a personal piece. I didn’t write it for any particular reason other than I was inspired to do so. I loved these characters together and by themselves separately. Losing them on the show was difficult and I wanted a more solid closure. I wrote this entirely for myself but I felt that, despite the distinct lack of popularity, it was still a good piece all together.

4. I Don’t F-cking Care

(Carry On)

This fanfiction depicts the struggles that Simon Snow and Baz Grimm-Pitch experience in their relationship that starts with them being enemies, how their timing is never quite right, and big life changes that force them to reassess what truly matters when it comes to their love for each other. ! Please review disclaimer thoroughly prior to reading this piece to avoid triggers !

Thanks to my good friend @ouranose - I got into the Carry On fandom. I had already read Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, so it wouldn’t have been long before I got into it on my own, but she jumpstarted the process. It’s been a great time, of course, and one of my comfort fandoms now. What I really enjoyed about this one was that it was dark and imperfect and realistic and true to the blurry nature of their relationship. It’s one of the longest one-shot pieces I’ve ever written, and for that reason alone, on of those stories I’ll never forget. I put a lot of work into it and I think it shows.

5. Library Kisses

(Harry Potter, Golden Era)

This story details the romance of Hermione and Harry after a late night kiss through the Battle of Hogwarts. Hermione, Harry and Ron learn about each other and evolve as couples and friends along the way. Rated T, but may contain some M chapters.

Yikes? I shouldn’t start this by saying ‘yikes’ about the story. I wrote this many years ago, when I was very young (18 years old, just out of high school). I had a child in high school and drew heavily on the experience of being an intelligent woman who made a mistake and incorporated that into this story. It diverts from the canon quite a bit, but with this being the oldest story I’ve written available online, I think it shows that I’ve always had the skill and the drive to pursue writing as career opportunity. I love to do this, and despite my many pitfalls as an 18-year-old writer, this story has 73,368 views anyway. It is still, to this day, my third most popular story on Fanfiction.net and I’m okay with that because we should always be proud of where we started.

6. Little Talks

(Merlin, BBC)

This fic follows Merlin and Morgana from the first day they begin to fall in love until their first day together in the afterlife. Based off of the song by Of Monsters and Men. Rated T For - Brief death scene, suggestive adult themes.

Hands down, this has got to be favorite fanfiction piece that I’ve ever written. I was trying to do a lot with this story, and I think I was successful in most every front, though I wish I had edited it better at the time. It started out as a passion project and ended up being a comfort one. I hated the way Merlin ended and felt that I could write a better story - which wasn’t the first time I had ever felt that way, but the first time I ever executed those emotions to do something. It’s not my most popular piece, having written this towards the end of the Merlin fandom’s lifespan, but it doest rank among the top 10 pieces with the most traffic. I felt very connected to the song, the show, and the outline of this story. It’s also the first piece of fanfiction my husband ever read and felt was done better than the show (which is hard to do because he’s a canon-only-verse kind of guy). I’ll never not love this story.

7. Just One Yesterday

(Supernatural)

I've been hiding from him. I don't even think of him by name. I miss him but now that I'm a monster I don't think I can ever be close to him again. I am so afraid of the consequences of implicating him any further... But I just can't stop being there for him... I need him... {T for moderate violence; regular swearing; major character death}

This is yet another passion piece. I had outlined it during my lunch breaks at work, or when I was waiting for X, Y, or Z to finish loading on the computer. Am I proud to have done this is stolen moments? Not really. But the outcome is an emotional piece that I think really captured how I’ve always felt about the ship (Destiel). The stats for this piece are abysmal, but that means nothing to me because I felt awesome about the story I was telling.

8. In The Summer...

(Percy Jackson, Heroes of Olympus)

The seasons used to mean something very different to Nico, but those days are gone. And he wants Percy Jackson to know that he's moved on.

This is a poem that I wasn’t even meant to write. I had asked a friend to write it (That’s @ouranose again because she’s pretty much the only friend I’ve got). But in the end, she lost the lines she had crafted for it, I think, and it fell off the metaphorical production board. When we started this PJO/HOO series of poems, I took on the task instead because I loved the idea of it so much. I did much better than I expected, having never written anything substantial for PJO/HOO before, and for that reason I’ll always be proud of the way I show the changing of feelings towards someone that you used to love.

9. Make Memories

(Girl Meets World)

Excerpt/Summary: Shawn and Katy decide that Maya should make memories before her senior year of high school. They decide to send her to a camp out of state for six weeks so that she can experience life that is different from the city.

Lucas decides that it's time to do something for himself. After seeing an article about a six week camp out of state he decides to register and take a chance.

Unfortunately, Maya finds herself shacking up with an all-too familiar face after a transcription error by the receptionist of the camp.

“They thought your name was Luna?” Maya questions.

Goodness, where do I even start? After I had my son, I found a book a few years afterward and it was about a pregnant teenager who has to make the decision to have a baby or have an abortion. There’s so much more to the book and I loved reading it, but I drew from that story a bit to craft this Girl Meets World piece that allowed me to really be original more than most any other piece I’ve ever done. It is popular enough for a dead fandom, still getting more views and kudos every week at a slow rate. I was just proud that I could take elements from both of these shows that I loved and craft a romance that was focused on the emotional aspect of loving someone without making it too sexualized.

10. An Untitled Tomco

(Star vs. The Forces of Evil)

A Tomco where Star accidentally gives Marco hypothermia and calls upon Tom to keep him warm while she finds a cure.

I have never watched a single episode of Star vs. The Forces of Evil. Someone made a request for me to write it and I researched the characters and the ship. I wanted to craft this believable story seamlessly, as if I had seen it and knew all there was to know. And, by some miracle, it worked! This is one of the most popular stories on my Archive of Our Own despite not having been there nearly as long as the three others that surpass it’s viewership. I felt that I had done very good work and made the most of the research that I had done to craft this story. It’s one of those experiences that reminded me that I’m more than capable as a writer and that I can do anything when I’ve set myself to it.

#fanfiction #fanfiction recommendation #self promo #shameless plug #fanfic recs #harry potter #star vs the forces of evil #superantural #doctor who #carry on #girl meets world #merlin #percy jackson #heroes of olympus

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