Updated to #46 in September of '03.
Free ideas for use - other ways for Lyta's character to have gone. :)
Updated to #46 in September of '03.
I originally had a list of over 20, (I know because after the 17th one I stopped to crack a joke about me having too much time on my hands) mostly from me, a few from some friends, but the site they were on went bye-bye and the list was lost. I can't find the friend who put it all up, either, none of her email addies worked. I couldn't find a copy anywhere, but I've re-thunk up what I could. Some of them I could find in my email storage files and just copy&pasted in. If you can think of any ideas, feel free to let me know - I've put this list on my own web page, so it'll be safe and still accessable.
Basically, anytime someone is watching the show and says 'that sucks, why didn't this happen instead', they can tell me, and it'll get added to the list. Well, the ones involving Lyta in some way would be added. The list'd be forever long if it had everything. Even if you've seen a different possibility in someone else's stories, still put a little note down about the general 'what if', and someone might be able to pick it up and go with it in another direction. Lord knows I don't have time for all my ideas, which is good, because I can still read other stuff instead of doing nothing but writing. And working, because the landlord is mighty and the outdoors are cold.
Anywho.
Here's a basic pop-off of ideas for stuff, some are mine, some I've seen done in various ways by various people, most have been argued around a bit by lists and emails, and they're all good. Even the original idea by jms. Without his, none of these ideas would matter, or even exist. :) If you come up with any at all, let me know, ok?
1: (these aren't in any real order, btw)
2: In late season 5, Someone could try to point out to her that blowing things up is not what Byron wanted. It might not work, but I'd like to see someone at least try it.
3: Before the massive teep flambe, there could be a stopover - for whatever reason - by a minbari cruiser and Morann could visit. You remember the grey council member - warrior caste - that was there at the start of the earth/minbari war - he was played by the same actor, Robin Atkin Downes. :) For whichever reason you come up with, have them do a soul scan thingy like they did for sinclair - same actor, might have 1/2 of the same soul. This little bit of trivia might mean the minbari take a keener interest in the teep's welfare. That, or Byron will suddenly suffer a horrible and mysterious death. You could even have some self-insert arrive on B5 and ask Delenn is there was any way to check Byron's soul against Morann's, who may or may not have died since we saw him last. But if you do that be prepared for your Mary Sue to need to explain to Delenn why he or she is familiar with the inner workings of the grey council!!
4: In wheel of fire, Sheridan might actually pull the trigger, giving Lyta a point-blank ppg shot to the skull. Two (or more) things might happen: either the gun has no effect - say her braincase regrows in a few moments - or she dies and this huge white glowing thing is released - they cannot contain her any longer, she's fine and well but no longer hiding inside a human shell. She could look something like the vorlons we've seen outside their encounter suits.
5: Also in wheel of fire (but seperate) when they go to arrest her, they could find out it's someone in a changling net, or some other disguise. Why they were doing this, is up to the writer, but you might have security find a rotted corpse (eeew!) that used to be Lyta in her quarters left there a month before when the evil pretender killed her to get her out of the way. (I'm going to assume that it was AFTER she got back from the drazi homeworld with franklin). OR security could find out that Lyta has left B5 (and is probably fine somewhere, they may or may not know where) weeks before, but the point would be that she still didn't know that an evil replacement was screwing around with her good name.
(Jan '02- added: Could the evil pretender be Byron modified by the Shadows and we find out that Lyta really died when we thought Byron did, Then let Zack deal with him? - Red Wulf)
o.O . . . Coooool. Infliction of pain! - Gok
6: Oooh, I thought up another one. Wheel of fire again - she's just been arrested when they find either a keeper (which Sheridan would recognise from his War Without End timetripping) or some other kind of control device. If you really want angst, make it a device they can't remove without killing her. :)
7: Back in season 2 you could have it that Talia winters does NOT leave - either there is no mole - no mole story, Lyta might just arrive because the station used to be part of the underground railway, or she might have some other valuable info - or it's some C&C lackey they end up toasting. Lyta leaves, moving on with her life, and it's probably (at least until the shadow war, she might get re-drafted for that) the last we see of her officially. Talia, with her ironheart-given skills, is the telepathic powerhouse they use. It's she who gets screwed over by the corps, if at all, and it's her (and possibly Ivanova, if she chooses to stay in S5) who gets her head messed with by Byron. Actually, this idea might end up being a full set of stories - if Susan and Talia are already firmly together, Marcus would really have his work cut out for him. I see several interesting fights coming up . . . :) Or a really bizzare 3-way (*coughs innocently*) love triangle!
8: Change something in the Thirdspace movie. Maybe have her notice the camera change (in her head) but leave her brains intact enough to not SHOW it. Piss off that little IPX hussy who's so sure that Lyta is more than a P5. Which Lyta is, of course, but there's no need to justify it to the likes of her. Or have a short fic dealing with what she was enduring during the movie - neither the novelization or film went very far into her head.
9: Have an angst peice, from when she was a Corps prisoner - interrogation tactics, etc. Be mean!
10: (Season 3?) Have Kosh Naranek (Narenek?) - the first, 'real' kosh, leave her an account full of money or a little ship or something that'll help Lyta provide for herself after he (and eventually all the first ones) are gone. Something that Ulkesh - the second, evil vorlon - couldn't get his tentacles on, because he was the kind of spiteful evil being that'd wreck her own things just for fun. Naranek should have a few hours of time - after sending the message to make the vorlons get involved but before their ships arrive to kick the snot out of the shadows. If he knew he was going to die anyway, he could at least have left something nice for his pet human. It wouldn't even need to be right away - another servant of the vorlons, possibly left behind too - could get around to dropping it off after she's been around a while longer to keep helping out. As long as it gets her out of the way before Byron can sink his evil claws into her.
11: Zack, when needing to tell her she has to move (S4?), could offer it better when he says he needs her to scan Garibaldi. He could ask her to just listen when he's around (Garibaldi having a loud mind and all) instead of doing an active scan. OR (AND?) Could ask her to listen around in DownBelow - they must still pay rewards for tips, right?
12: (S3 to S5) Forget B5 altogether - find some (alien, maybe minbari) ship that's outbound and needs another body to help do crew things - she could have her training costs deducted from her pay for the first while. None of the other species give a fig as to wether or not a person's a telepath, so she just has to avoid most humans, and she's fine.
13: (S5) Someone - Zack, maybe - could stop Bester before his bloodhounds arrive for the first time. All he'd have to do is make a reference to taking 'all' the teeps off the station. Include Carolyn Sanderson in the discussion - her being on board is a SERIOUS setback for Bester, if anyone ever bothers to use that fact, if you threaten to hurt her, or, reveal her - and the other teepsicles - presence either to the rest of the corps or the rest of the world. A cop screwing a prisoner, and getting her pregnant and, oh, by the way, getting her head stuffed with Shadow tech against her will, that's got to be a bad thing for anyone's career. It might only need a reference made - if they show Bester that they know they have this whomping big ace, he might just be inspired to find some loophole in Corps regs to leave the rogue teeps alone. Or a full threat made - Zack says if you hurt Lyta or her new friends, Carolyn will wake up in a corps office building, and you SAW how well she liked the corps emblem, and electronics, didn't you, Bester?
14: Have someone give them use of an unneeded, fringe world, and have the rogues start to ship out before Bester comes - just use Babylon 5 as a staging area. There must be some oxygen worlds inside of the territories of Methane breathers, or some other type of situation where a world isn't needed by the controlling species, where they'd be a little safe from the Psi Corps.
15: (S5: this one's a bit odd) Dr. Who could land his TARDIS in the teep's area in downbelow, put the rogues on board - maybe while Lyta stops Bester in the Hallway. Then Bester could search all he wanted on the entire station, he wouldn't find a trace. (HAHAHA!) When or if he gives up, they can come out, having only waited for what seemed like 5 minutes to them. In the meantime, Lyta could work on getting a homeworld for them - if they don't become a threat to everyone, then everyone doesn't hate the lot of them. OR the TARDIS could simply dump them all out on some unused, out of the way planet in some backwoods corner of the galaxy where they won't be disturbed for a few dozen years, and let them just have their colony. The later arrivals to B5, such as the telekinetic Peter, would have to find some way to get to the world, but they'd at least have a place to go to. Maybe Lyta sets up some kind of Ferry? Either way, Lyta can stay here with all of us, but Byron and the other troublemakers must leave.
16: Lyta gets blinded in either an accident or a deliberate attempt to make her useless or dead - she lives, but can't officially use her telepathy, because humans need line of sight to work. No sight, no powers. BUT we know that Lyta does not need line of sight to work: one very good example is when she was scanning the ducts to find a way out of brown sector. So the Corps loses (at least official) interest in her, but she is now free to do other things with her life.
17: She could join the rangers after the shadow war. There's longer arguements for this below, as it's come up more than once online. But, the summary: - she knows and has already worked with the minbari. - She has worked with lots of other aliens, so must have picked up a few skills in dealing with them. - She has already proven that she can follow Sheridan and Delenn's orders, just look at the whole Shadow war! - She already has some combat experience, from her days in the mars resistance, and shadow war, and civil war. - She knows tons of First One info, she'd be great at helping deal with leftover tech. - She's proven she's willing to either live for or die for a cause, we just have to make the cause the Rangers. :)
18: (S5) She could get asked, or ordered, to Ivanova's Ship as the required teep for first contact missions. Mostly because Ivanova would more than likely kill any other (military) teep as soon as it was possible, and Lyta has already stayed alive while in semi-close proximity to her. She's 'only' a P5 (insert laugh here), but she has had the training for first contact situations - she was officially posted to B5 in the beginning, remember. As long as she skips out before Byron, and is still wearing the corps uniform, some deskbound dork back on earth might think she'd be just fine. After all, not all Corps clerks would be aware if someone's been a rogue before or not. Right?
19: S2: Shoots Winters (dead, they realise she's the plant, are all safe now) in the security corridor firefight. Ivanova hates her more than ever, of course, so she flees as before BUT is less likely to come back, vorlons or no. This could lead to either a single, short story or an entirely new set of adventures.
20: When leaving in S2, she doesn't go back to human space, and then onto the vorlons. She'd still end up contacting them, of course, they wouldn't put more than 7 generations of work into a project to dump it just before it's needed. BUT she could - I don't know - go to minbar first. Or some other race that's had contact with the vorlons but no qualms about having a teep about - say the narns. But minbar is more likely, we know from the movie (forget which) that the real Kosh has been one of at least two vorlons on the planet. What if she made Minbar her base of operations, instead of B5? A simple cloak with a hood would keep her hair hidden, they'd likely think she was just another minbari. :) Or maybe they'd think she was an offduty ranger, in the later years. Or she could go and join up with the Anla-shok after the first ones leave. :)
21: Tell about some of what she did while working for the various vorlons. What is their homeworld like? What happened to her on the missions and errands she was on?
22: Tell about some of the Shadow war times - battles, training telepaths, dealing with Minbari warriors when you've just saved their arrogant lives, etc. This would be a good one for Zack writers to tackle - he's bound to show up at least once or twice, especially when screening and training telepaths.
23: Middle of Season 5 - when she's in medlab, and they're surrounded by Corps Bloodhounds and Security troops and are basically paddling without an oar, Lyta could go into the room with the cryotubes, and get Caroline out. Or any of the frozen teeps, I'm sure they'd all react just the same way. Fry anyone wearing a corps badge. PLUS when Bester (assuming he isn't asked by Lochley 'who's that she's got with them') tries to stop them - which led to a big BOOM in canon - Lyta just had to threaten to take her hand off the poor borgified teep's eyes, and Bester and the bloodhounds go Pop! Sizzle! Splat! all over the walls. 'You want us to help your friend? Fine then, you let us go and we'll find a way to help all of them. You interfere, Carol never gets to see a sunrise again. Clear?' So All the teeps get away, and continue the way they want.
24: Or you could just plain introduce Byron - before he starts to get into trouble - to the frozen teeps. Make him consider a bit more than 'we're suffering, boo, boo', because lots of others were f'd over, not just a few dozen human teeps. OR (And) make him hook up with telepaths from other races. Don't keep it strictly human, like he did. That's dumb - the other teeps would have lots to teach them, no corps boundaries, and if the other races were decently informed about how bad it really is in the Corps, they might be more inspired to do something. AND he should at least try to contact some members of the races whose worlds were destroyed by the first ones. There won't be too many, but it might help - they were both screwed over by either vorlons or shadows, so help the whole lot at once, "donate a dollar to the homeworld fund, please sir?" Something, I guess, but if Lyta's doing it she might have a bit of a hard time with the species wiped out by the vorlons. Having fought the shadows, she'd have common enemies with half of them, but still.
25: I'd like to see any story, actually, that deals with people wiped by the First ones - someone's going to want to pick bones, and you can bet all the usage of Alexander's name over the communication channels will be leaked somewhere. One is them is bound to come after her, whether during the end of the Shadow war up to years after she leaves with Byron or G'Kar. Would any of the other aliens - some that she fought beside, for instance, fellow teeps in the war - try to defend her?
26: Have other teeps who fought with her in the shadow war defend her - help her find work, maybe, someone really should have helped her stand up to Bester (I'm entirely convinced that he MUST have pissed off at least a few races along the way, not just humans), and, more importantly, someone should have gone with her when she was sent down to visit Byron for the first time. Someone with a backbone, preferrably, who wouldn't stand to see the first teep to EVER figure out how to stop a shadow cruiser being insulted. That, and the fact that the vorlons had left her behind - they obviously didn't put too much value on her (Kosh Vader trying to kill her might have been another clue), so maybe she's alright for the younger races to keep around.
27: Have Byron die in some random, meaningless way, after he's gotten permission for teeps to come but before bester and trouble show up. Maybe some higher power would take pity on the rest of them . . . Just axe off the 23rd century's version of Tristan Brawn BEFORE he meets Lyta!
28: In Season 4, have Lyta stand up for herself - or at least react differently - at Z'ha'dum. Don't let Sheridan put her down - have her say she was trying to keep the ship hidden, no matter how hard it might be to hide a vorlon-tech transport when approaching shadow space. Or some other reaction, before he decides she tried to kill them (yeah, right - she was ON the same ship, john-boy!), to make him think that maybe she didn't do it. Or do it on purpose - she might need to try to hurt herself or something drastic to think that it was brainwashing, not free will, if you do want her to have set off a planet's self-nuke buttons.
29: Have some alien - maybe drakh, or some other - come to B5 after Z goes BOOM and try to kill her. For either setting off the planet - which you may or may not want to have the alien confirm out loud, or because she's the only remaining vorlonish thing they can get to. Whitestars being able to shoot back, of course. A nice rant about the 'vorlon puppet bitch' or the like, have it mock them - they tried to get to master's world, they had Lyta to hide their ship so that the Drakh would not know they were coming until too late, alien is only sorry that they were a little too slow and weren't caught in the blast. Take this blast instead, boom, alien was walking kamikazi. Or something cool like that - let the boys in charge hear it from the known enemy that Lyta did not help them out. At least let them hear enough to assume that.
30: Have Zack admit to her (the 5 minutes bit) that yes, he IS jealous. Truth can do wonders for a relationship. If she won't leave Byron, at least let him keep her options open.
31: Same as the last one (#30), but go further. Have him tell her how much he likes her (she's bound to know this already, being a telepath and all, but if he's never acted upon the feelings any girl would get tired), he doesn't have to be good with words to get the meaning out, but he has to actually say it for it to be worth squat. Have him tell her the reasons why he doesn't like Byron (apart from the ravingly jealous part), show her the info on the guy on Io, he doesn't want her to get caught in the middle of the shooting that's bound to happen. It might not change her mind - she was rather brainwiped by then, but he should at least let her see what's around her. He could even bring up seeing the uniform and then not, and saying he knows it must have been unpleasant - before she spits it into his face.
32: Series 4: she could go talk to Zack about putting on the uniform or not, talk to him as a friend about the lousy choices she's got left. He could either support it or not. Or he could see her for the first time wearing the uniform, either wonder in silence (since Zack was a dork at times, it'd be in character) or go talk to her about it. Did he see her and Bester on the Security Cameras, when he harrased her in the Zocalo? Could he have interveined then? (Another strategic name-dropping of Caroline would fit in well here, don't you agree?)
33: Could have a short story - in S2, after she reveals Talia but before Lyta has to leave again - meets up with Zack - in cell, protective custody? - he's friendly to her, but not pushy, and she needs the kindness. She'd remember it later. Zack was the one Garibaldi had set up a cell for her to stay in, whether or not she ever got around to using it in canon is unknown. He might not have known (at first?) who it was for, but you could use this as a base for their first meeting. I want to read about the first time they met!
34: Post S5 - with G'Kar - or any number of alternates with Bryon, but I still hate him myself - looking at planets to find a homeworld, exploring. She did set up ships and resources with the Narn in late S5 - they could find an unused, tucked away world far from earth space. Spend some time setting it up, even, maybe use Narns sworn to secrecy for getting supplies and people moved around. She and G'Kar could explore other worlds, before and after the homeworld. Either redeem her, and have her work towards a good cause, or have her spiral further into the anger and self-destruct like jms led us to believe happened - You could have her fake a death in some firey corps-killing, or have others use her name for bad things while she's out doing nothing bad. She might not even know about the bad things. You might even have her meet up with Dureena (from Crusade), or others who have lost their homes.
35: Crossover! Have a whitestar (or something) from B5 end up in the Farscape universe. Or have a wonky Starburst dump Moya near B5 - either way, how is Lyta, used to Vorlon living ships, going to react to a Leviathan living ship? How would Moya react to Lyta? (Or the baby, depending on when in FS you crossed over.) Her and Pilot would make a good conversation - they both angst so well, both are servicers bound for life (not totally willingly at first but they adore kosh/moya now) . . . and Susan Ivanova meeting Aeryn Sun is too good to miss! :) You could even set it when the vorlons were still around, if you want.
36: I've seen two interesting crossovers with Star Wars already - but neither has gone very far into the Force/telepathy connection - I'd like to read about someone who can explore that!
37: (Jan '02) Anthony says: here's a thought.....Lyta wasn't recalled to Earth [or Sinclair didn't let her go].....Morden recruits her for the Shadows? might be a very different Lyta....yet the basics would remain the same...right? after all, if Morden can get Londo on his side...maybe appealling to the part of Lyta that's pissed at Earthdome for trying to force her home? - if she didn't go to the vorlon, but was instead more pissed at corps, and hooked up with morden. It might work - the vorlon sighting [in "Divided Loyalties"] would have to have been removed - maybe instead of [kosh's] coming out to show off in front of her (after they reveal the spy) he wipes her memory to keep his species safer? And without that to draw on, Lyta 'succumbs to the dark side'. Once the Shadows realise (years earlier than in canon) what teeps can do, they'd push their schedule forward and POW! Unlike Londo, a break from Earthdome would mean she doesn't have any contacts outside the B5 station...[and she never had friends, right? Aside from Zack, later]. She's unaltered, of course, just a p5.....not like in season 5. But still - they'd realise - 'gee this human confuses our ships, I wonder why? Gee, she's a teep! we better get some of those working for us'. So, rather than ally with PsiCorps and Earth...destroy them. They were already trying to hook up with the corps in canon - remember Carolyn? The shadow-borgified popsicle? Say if they raided the outermost colonies for rogues, moved up having destroyer ships that were immune to telepathic interferce - B5 is doomed! Like in the "War Without End" alternate universe - it would be like the message sent from the overpowered, valen-less universe.
38: Or! You could have Lyta do something different in the pilot so that she did NOT implicate Sinclair - or that Kosh died - Sinclair's career is altered, or he is killed, and cannot later go back in time to become Valen. Also a big Angst story. (Anthony, Jan '02)
39: Have something where someone finds her gills. A break in a facemask in the alien sector, she gets dumped into a deep pool of water and they keep her from drowning - something - the truth is out. The medlab bioscans when she returned from the vorlon homeworld showed no trace of them, but they were definately there - what else might be hiding where scanners cannot detect? (Feb '02)
40: Lyta does not wake up the telepath in Medlab (in 'The Exercise of Vital Powers'), hence no waking of the Martian Shipkillers. . . What would that do to Mars and the rebel fleet, with 30 extra destroyers on Clarke's side?
>> In other words, the Mars Resistance would likely be a casualty of war ... unless Stephen can get one of the non-human governments (or businesses) to lend some ships ... granted, Sheridan'll be mad, now that it's no longer a human-vs-human war ... But then, using Shadow tech and Vorlon tech (the "zombies" and Lyta, respectively) kinda is outside purely human-vs-human too.
This means:
- No teepsicles to take down the 30 destroyers aiming at Mars and Sheridan's rebel fleet. Heavy casualties for all concerned in the fighting that would follow, instead of the relatively 'light' losses of about 30 teepsicles that canon had.
- And Lyta would never have gone to Mars, so she's probably doing what she was doing in late S4 and ThirdSpace. (no, not talking to herself and writing on walls.) Being a commerical telepath, staying somewhat safe, and trying to make a living as something other than a rebel.
----- Idea conconcted and refined by Rodlox :)
41: (From Rodlox) one more idea...you may not like this:
Lyta and Byron don't sleep together. (But Byron's still around).
As far as I can tell, Byron's motives and tactics changed, however subtlely, after he learned that the Vorlons created telepaths. Before then, his tactics were acceptible, and he wasn't a danger to anyone.
After he learned that the Vorlons had a "hand" in things, he became more like Bester - "we need to send a message" (as Bester said to Byron in the flashback in _Pheonix Rising_).
(Note from the Webmistress: I sooo disagreed with him over email. But as long as this version kept his gruppy paws off Lyta, I'd have no real problems with the character. - Gok) << Sept '02
42: "How powerful, and what abilities, would a child have if it had vorlon-enhanced Lyta for a mother ... and a vorlon-enhanced man as a father (I exclude Sebastian/Jack, of course)?" - Gok
43: Okay, okay ... Rodlox promised me a story if I mentioned this: "How powerful, and what abilities, would a child have if it had vorlon-enhanced Lyta for a mother and a vorlon-enhanced Sebastian/Jack-the-Ripper-turned-Inquistitor for a father?"
44: Sebastian vs. Byron in a fight. Byron must of course lose and be tortured for weeks on end.
45: "Lyta/John Sheridan. Be creative." - Rodlox.
46: Lyta betrays someone. - Rodlox. (Sept '03)
I'll keep adding more to the list as I receive them. Let me know if you want your name attached to the idea, ok? - Gok
**** Extra bits - some of the ideas were bandered about for a while, but haven't been used yet. Have a peek, see if there's anything here you could use - Even if you don't stick to what we came up with, I'd rather it be tried in a story than just sit around collecting dust forever.
(Blinded ideas)
Ok. Basically, Lyta's done the stuff she has to do in the shadow war, and bester hasn't come to the station yet to harrass Garibaldi and her with the corpse contract. Yet. He's still trying to get it set up.
And . . .
a bomb goes off. No, bester is not killed. It's nowhere near him. Pity! You could have it kill him if you want, but that would bring mucho trouble from the Corps. But, it is near Lyta, who catches the edge of it (she wasn't right next to it) in the face. So we find her in medlab, face bandaged up, brain in shock and basically shut down, and of course, Zack by her side as worried as can be. Remember - he hasn't had to ask her to move yet, they're still pizza-munching friends.
Ok, so here's the main deal - they don't know if they can repair her eyes. So, it's a really good chance she's going to be blind permanently. For a normal person, that would be a nuisance. For a teep, no sight means no direct line of sight - her powers, as far as the B5 crew knows, has just been effectively destroyed. If a Psi cop (maybe even an annoyed bester) came by at such at time, they'd have to declare her a telepathic vegetable and so, consider her useless for most anything Corps-related. The same scan might make them think there wasn't anything vorlon left, either. (Nothing there to get, nothing there to use). Maybe the Corps would leave her alone from then on. Lyta would recover, mostly. Her body and brain would go back to pre-bomb after a bit of healing.
ouch. SO: they think she might recover her sight - or not, it would be up to the writer - with enough time to heal (read months or maybe over a year) but by then, her ability might be gone for good. So now she has to figure out what to do.
If you like happyish endings, this would be a good time for the minbari (honorable to help ppl) to step in and start to repay her for helping them frag the shadows in the war. If you are an angst fan, well . . . she could suffer. It be up to the writer.
BUT: here's the twist.
Remember in Season 5, when she was locked up with Byron (gag) and the other rogues in downbelow, and she used her powers to look for a way out through the airducts?
Her eyes were closed. No sight being used. And, of course, her mind following the twists and turns wasn't on a direct line ANYWAY. So, it is very possible she is the only teep who could be blind and still a teep.
Some bright person (Hello, Delenn!) might figure this out, and then Lyta could be very useful indeed - she wouldn't be considered as a threat (the corps might still want to dissect her, she'd have to be careful) by most everybody, but could go get information for the alliance/rangers anyway.
*****
Anyway, we didn't get any further on this idea. If you want it, you're welcome to it. Same rule as for everyone: if it's written, I wanna read! :) - Gok
******
(Lyta joining rangers ideas - this one is in the archives of the mailing list for her character @ Yahoo, partly)
Why Gok thinks that the Rangers would have been one of, if not the best, alternate direction for Lyta to travel, instead of the Evil-Blonde-Singing-Thing direction.
In no particular order: She's already worked with Minbari, as well as lots of other races. She's already at least a little bit familiar with the whitestar ships - and, because both ship and she have bits of vorlon tech inside, it might only take a wee bit of training to make her a top-notch engineer or technian. She's already proven - in more than one episode - that she's willing to follow orders that have the likely outcome of her own demise. Since she already respects Delenn, (and vice versa), it wouldn't be too hard a jump to 'live for the one die for the one'.
She's already proven that she can fight hand to hand (and not lose), shoot weapons (she does need more work with this, I admit, but the rangers would train everyone to use weapons anyway), and she has kicked a lot of Shadow ass. That last point alone should be enough to get a grudging, if not open, welcome from the Minbari et al.
Most Rangers have to learn from scratch, anyway - so her almost total lack of other 'useful' skills (thanks to psi-corps for that bit) would not be too big a hinderance: Most other human recruits haven't had any use of minbari equipment, either. Or minbari languages, or rituals, etc etc etc.
She looks good in black, and can pull one heck of an attitude - very useful at times. She can also turn off the attitude and be meekish when required.
She has plenty of reason to hate pretty much ALL first ones - they all tried to kill her, or didn't do squat to try to help her in any way. Kosh Naranek (the first one) is the only exception I can rack from my brain. She can also sense their technology: eg. "Captain? I wouldn't go down tunnel number two, I'm fairly sure it's booby-trapped in a big way. I suggest one or three in our search for leftover technology." She'd also be quite good at helping figure out said technology, she's a walking encyclopedia of first one stuff. The one drawback - at this point, but she might learn to change it - is that she has to be there with the object. Or has to be near it or see it or - you know this isn't really that much of a hinderance, is it?
Oh, yes. Lyta vrs about 500 Drakh, unarmed combat: Lyta, 500 points, drakh, 0. (Duh)
But, Rebecca is quite right about two things: Her interpersonal skills suck. She needs help with those, for sure. Her self-esteem is equally dismal. She would need a lot of help with that, a few friends, a few victories ACKNOWLEDGED, you get the idea. It's nothing that a bit of work and time can't repair. And possibly a cute (new?) boyfriend . . . Dunno how likely Zack is to move, but if he'd get off his *cough*male*cough* high horse and explain that yes, he WAS jealous all might be eventaully forgiven.
Or, better yet, have her sign up after she's needed on Mars but BEFORE she's introduced to Mr.EvilSmileyHuggyCreature. Yeah, that sounds even better, don't you think? :)
I think she'd make a smashing Ranger. Once she got over a few hills, she'd just be . . . awesome. :)
(older email stuff is here)
''As for anaylzing the character . . . jms screwed her. Well, he started to when the shadow war ended. I think the Rangers would have been a neato way to go. ''
I don't know about the Rangers. She doesn't seem to have the combat skills needed. But she could learn those easily enough. But what is the purpose of the Rangers? Does Lyta support that cause? "I live for the one. I die for the one." Doesn't sound like what Lyta needs to me. I think she needs self-empowerment, to stick up for herself, or to learn to interact with people, not just a cause to support. Especially with the one being Sheridan or Delenn?
Just my opinion -Rebecca
** You know, I'm gonna need more space for that, I'll reply on the list. :) But really - this is the chick who willing went out of way to get to vorlon space, lifepod with 3 days power someplace 10 days away from help? I think if she was willing, she could learn to do really, really well in a ranger uniform. (We already know she looks good in black.) Not to mention how useful she'd be when it came to digging around in leftover first one stuff to aquire the tech . . . -Gok
*****
(Lyta shipping out with Ivanova)
notes: AU fic stuff. I like Robin, he’s sweet, funny, and all-round nice at cons. However, as far as characters go, he should have stuck with playing a minbari, because I DESPISE Byron. Which I think was the whole point jms was trying to make. But, anyway: This fic is about one of the many, hopefully BETTER, ways that the character Lyta (stand up and cheer, y’all!) might have gone during Season 5.
Ivanova has left B5, marcus has probably become the popsicle man. (In this fic, but not most others.) Having the mobility of a ship is a marvellous thing for storytelling, is it not? :)
To start with, Lyta is back on B5. Is there when needed to scan the dying ranger. Which sucks, but it shows wayyyy too much teep stuff to remove. Maybe you can get another teep to do it, there might be a minbari on board who's trained . . . hummm. So, the white star fleet gets the news it needs, goes barreling off to the emphili homeworld - wait.
Did she have to meet Byron before or after they left, to get the news the drazi were behind the whole mess?
(curses) It was afterwards. Ok. Ummmmmmmmmmmm. . . She has the first meeting with him, goes as canon (complete with slapping him in the face), goes and tells all to the council, drazi get their asses kicked. Everyone’s basically happy, except the raiders, the drazi (serves ‘em both right), and - oh, yes. Lyta isn’t exactly on top of the world, either. Unless it's another teep who did the dying scan, if she'd have already shipped out. I like the 'leave sooner' idea better, personally.
Enter the AU bit.
Lyta gets a phone call. Stellarcom, whatever. It’s from Captain Ivanova. Or maybe even some Corps lackey who never leaves his desk for the real world.
As a matter of fact, Lyta is quite surprised too. The two of them were never close friends, even though they did some serious butt-kicking in the wars together. The whole telepath-family thing.
But, as we all know, Ivanova doesn’t hate telepath so much as she hates Psi Corps. And, all long-range exploration ships, heck, any ship that has even a tinsy chance of making first contact with any aliens at all, has to, by earthforce regs, have a qualified teep along to prevent unneeded trouble. Usually a P6-9. Lyta, while a P5 (hah hah hah not anymore), has experience and training in first contact situations. So why not pick her?
Bing! Ivanova knows Lyta can keep her yap shut when it comes to secrets, and isn’t the least bit loyal to the corps anymore. Viola. Time for the red-head to move.
Actually being *wanted* someplace would be a nice change, so Lyta tosses a couple changes of clothing in a bag and gets a ride to wherever place it is she’ll meet Ivanova’s ship. I’m assumming here that the meeting is somewhere other than B5. We need to get Lyta off the station before the episode ends, should she feel the lingering need to wander back to downbelow.
Tale need not end here. After all, Ivanova has a reputation of terror to keep up. And someone who’s in the habit of tossing teeps out of 3rd story windows (darn that low Io gravity and the pool underneath) isn’t about to welcome anyone teepish with open arms. She would probably have the manners to forewarn Lyta (who would clue in pretty darn fast anyway) about the reception. Appearance of barely veiled utter loathing, underneath is 'just remember to keep your brain out of mine’.
It might even be that it's real loathing, at least for the first few months or years, but sooner or later trust will be earned.
Ivanova states stuff like the fact that Miss Alexander was able to suffiently stay out of the way back on the station, so she had better do the same on the ship. Only letting her on (because if a teep from the corps came on board Ivanova’d be royally screwed) because of her ‘adequate’ (read: outstanding) performace against first one technology, some of which the ship might encounter.
Maybe even (I’d vote yes) Ivanova would go as far as to disallow her to wear (or even keep in her room) the Psi Corps uniform, unless on an actual first-contact meeting. No pin, no ugly outfit, maybe even . . . no gloves? Umm. Maybe she's want to keep the gloves. Lord knows how dirty soldiers would let their minds get. Eew.
Anyway, Lyta is now safely (although the term IS relative) on board Ivanova’s ship.
Let the various adventures commence! :)
(reply emails)
'' As a matter of fact, Lyta is quite surprised too. The two of them were never close friends, even though they did some serious butt-kicking in the wars together. The whole telepath-family thing. ''
I think they, Lyta and Ivanova, in fact, got to be fairly good friends. Zack said the station needed the quarters, so she was to be moved to smaller quarters. What wasn't said was that the smaller quarters were being provided gratis. I think most everyone missed this point. Also, Lyta tells Garibaldi that people have been helping her as much as they can. She as much as admits that her pride is suffering from the situation. So, although Johnny boy may have forgotten about her, obviously there those who haven't. That she was actually going to receive quarters after being 'evicted' from her present digs, tells me that someone on the command staff intervened to make sure she had some place to live. Odds that someone was Ivanova. -Aubrey
***** Smacks forehead. I didn't realise that! DUH! If she's getting kicked out, it should be kicked all the way. Humm. . . thank you. Very useful info. :) -Gok
''Actually being *wanted* someplace would be a nice change,''
depends upon what you mean by being 'wanted'. -Aubrey
HAHAHA. not the post office image on the wall wanted. Friend wanted. How about 'being asked, almost begged, to come save Susan's bacon?' wanted. -Gok
Since Bester has a vested interest in Lyta, you can even weave him into and out of the story lines. You can even have Ivanova be outwardly hostile to Lyta. Have her make Lyta wear the formal attire while she, Susan, makes it obvious she loathes the situation of having a teep shoved down her throat. The reason for making her wear her Psi Corps duds and icons is to 'vilify' Lyta and make sure everyone is always aware of what she represents. It becomes obvious that there is much discord between her and Lyta, so that her 'loathing' is mirrored by her crew. The possibilities for interesting story lines multiplies when Susan must 'trust' someone she 'hates' in sensitive situations with unknown value systems. By the same token, Susan can insist Lyta wear 'civvies' in selected situations...like when she might call Lyta to her cabin...reasons that she has to put up with the Psi Corps trappings in 'public', but she will be damned if she will put up with it in her cabin. -Aubrey
**** Ooh. Good point, I was just going to leave all corps ppl behind. Humm . . . interesting . . . :) You've got the basic idea - Lyta's presence, while better than a 'real' corps member, isn't totally wanted just for the kindness of Ivanova's heart. (the very phrase sounds odd!) She'd rather NOT have ANY teeps around, but she will grow to trust Lyta over a couple of missions. Ivanova got pretty close (sleeping in the same frigging BED?) to talia, which shows a lot, but she isn't going to risk herself getting burned again. But like I said, trust comes after a while. There's a bunch of evidence laying around (as if Lyta just happened to randomly end up on you-know-who's ship during the Corina battle, final ultimate first-one matchup?), espcially if crewmembers have contact with rangers, to show Lyta's neato past. Uh. The good, working-on-B5 stuff. (*ahem*) -Gok
**** I hadn't figured out the crew's pov yet. It'll probably be a mixed bag - if she has to wear gloves and the pin, but not the 'full' uniform (I HATE the clothes wardrobe came up with! EWW!) - say a blue suit, maybe deep green? Whatever - some of the crew won't care too much about having a teep around, some might have met the likes of Bester and decide that all teeps are evil, some probably have lost family to the corps (either by death or recruiting), some might have heard of the fighting first ones stuff, like any situation, there's lots of varying veiws. But the crew, mostly, will grow to like and trust Lyta. I guess. -Gok
The wearing of the Psi Corps trappings can appear to be Lyta's idea as a means of making sure the captain and crew are always aware that they are being watched. I leave it to you to work details. I can think of many ways to play with those situations. -Aubrey