The plot device is pretty much guaranteed contrived in any universe that doesn't have Vulcans, but that doesn't stop it from showing up all over the place, so I was kind of motivated by a desire to bring it back to its roots, here, and make it more reminiscent of an actual back-in-the-day Star Trek pon farr story. Of course, that's only in a kind of meta way - without the 'death' element you get a lot more incredulity and awkwardness and humour, but I think it's just as well, cause I couldn't have sustained melodramatic soulmatey angstsex for this many words. ;)