Snowflake Challenge #4

[justanorthernlight]

Challenge #4

In your own space, add something to your fandom’s canon. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

For Babylon 5, I want an explanation of how/whether the telepathy gene can conceivably skip a generation and what happens to non-telepaths born to two members of the Psi Corps.

It must happen, because there are no canonical hints or implications that Ivanova's brother Ganya was also a telepath, and the Corps doesn't treat it as suspicious or impossible that Ivanova could be a mundane when her mother was a telepath. To borrow a term from Harry Potter, there must be some telepath equivalent of Squibs.

Are there support groups for kids whose entire families are members of the Psi Corps, who are perpetual outsiders with both the Corps and the world of the Mundanes? Do those kids get put straight into foster-care or are they raised in the Corps? Are they ever pressured into doing some kind of liaison job between the Corps and the rest of human civilization? Do they run away and form their own communes? 

(Also, and only semi-related, post season 5 Lise Hampton-Edgars-Garibaldi uses her billions of credits to sue her first husband for joint custody of their daughter and/or uses the media to draw attention to inequality in how Earth and Mars citizens get treated in the courts and effect some positive change other people who have been in her situation.)

Comments

[flo_nelja]

Oooh, super-interesting question, thanks!

[vysila]

Oh my goodness, what fabulous thought-provoking questions! The whole Telepath arc was treated rather haphazardly and inconsistently in so many ways and it would be great to get some more background there. In the meantime, that's what fanfic is for, yes?

You know, I wondered about Lise's daughter as well, she just disappeared after that one announcement and we never saw Lise indicate how much she missed her, or anything.

Hmmm, I've never written in B5 but these questions have set my mind whirling. Maybe I need to rewatch the series.

[colls]

The telepath arc really felt like it could use its own spinoff in some ways. So much detail unexplored!

[hamsterwoman]

These are really interesting questions! I found the PsiCorps fascinating, but did not really like the season(s) that engaged most deeply with telepath stuff, so there's definitely a lot of things left to ponder along those lines!

Are they ever pressured into doing some kind of liaison job between the Corps and the rest of human civilization?

That would be my guess for what the PsyCorps wants to happen with them -- like, seed various agencies with people who have some transitive loyalty to the Corps because they were raised with its dogma while being non-telepaths themselves and therefore being unregulated.

[shipperslist]

There are SO many unanswered questions about the telepaths and Psi Corps. Inquiring minds demand to know!

Are there support groups for kids whose entire families are members of the Psi Corps, who are perpetual outsiders with both the Corps and the world of the Mundanes? Do those kids get put straight into foster-care or are they raised in the Corps? Are they ever pressured into doing some kind of liaison job between the Corps and the rest of human civilization? Do they run away and form their own communes?

And think about all the mental strain and feeling like an unworthy cast-out sub-human? I can sort of see the story of a non-telepath kid nurturing that bitterness inside them and going after the Psi Corps and--

Ssshhiit. I'd really like to read that.

[silveradept]

That's a very good question. I would have assumed that the Corps would get rid of non-telepaths, but there might be eugenics values involved where skipping a generation means the next one will be stronger, or something.