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tea-potato-gt · 4 months ago

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A Borrower at the End of the World part 11

Word count: 2000ish

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Fan art for this chapter!

***

Three Years ago…

The sun trekked across the sky and beat down on Jace, he sighed, knowing he was going to sunburn and freckle. He currently sat behind a tree waiting for one of the traps he set up to catch something.

On Briar’s part, he sat on a branch at eye level with the boy. He watched the various pitfall traps he had the boy dig.

The borrower managed to climb up there completely on his own. He even walked through the woods, though much slower than the bean. When Briar arrived at the perfect tree, he swung his hook out and climbed up on a low branch to lie in wait. Jace never touched the borrower as promised.

Each pitfall trap was about two feet deep, with a metal pot or box at the bottom. On top were piled leaves and a bit of canned corn sprinkled around to incentivise animals to come looking. When any animal that weighed more than a few ounces stepped on the trap, the creature would fall through the leaves, into the pot to be (eventually) killed and eaten by the bean and borrower waiting behind the tree.

The key to hunting is patients. Though it seemed Jace didn’t have much of that in his body. He was still young, only 11. He began to grow bored too quickly and wanted to fill the void of silence.

“So…” Jace started.

Briar sighed and looked towards the boy. The borrower wasn’t used to long conversations with others and it just seemed like a drag. His heart stopped for a second when they made eye contact, he also wasn’t used to being visually perceived by a bean. “Yes?”

“Why did you decide to help us?” Jace wondered aloud.

***

The pre-teen remembered that not too long ago, he and his sister were left to die by their own people. When food became scarce, the humans grew mean. After the kid’s mother died, they were alone. No one to care or provide or protect them. People were dying left and right. Jace had to resort to stealing from the few who were left alive. Eventually, they ran out of food too.

At the time, the kids had nothing to eat, no clean water and their clothes were filthy rags. As the days wore on and the hunger grew stronger, Jace found himself not caring anymore. He had no motivation to move, until all he wanted to do was sleep away the pain in his empty stomach. Jace had all but given up.

Then a silver can rolled into their room in the middle of the night…

No human had helped the kids. They were abandoned by their own kind. Jace felt a bitterness towards those who had forsaken him and his sister. Who left them for dead. He even felt a bitterness towards his own mother for dying and leaving her two children to fend for themselves. A bitterness towards the world that turned against them.

Only by the grace and kindness of a man the size of Jace’s hand were the kids still alive today.

Jace owed everything to this borrower, he thanked his lucky stars every day that they met.

But why? Why would this man, a stranger, (not even the from same species,) help them when their own people refused too?

***

“Do I have have a reason to help you?” The borrower seemed defensive.

“I guess not,” Jace conceded, dropping the subject.

Briar paused for a long time. Why was he helping two gigantic beans? He wasn’t entirely sure himself. There were so many potential reasons and none of them seemed to satisfy why he was doing this. But he settled on one that might make sense to a child.

The borrower let out a deep stress reliving sigh, “Borrowers believe in helping each other, no questions asked.” Briar began, “My parents always opened their doors to travelers if they ever crossed paths. We never had a lot, but what we had we shared…” he sighed, “And I mean it when I say we didn’t have a lot. My Ma and Pa couldn’t seem to stop making more mouths to feed. Then Pa would bring home travelers to add to the chaos.”

Briar chuckled at the memories of his childhood. A tiny home full of laughter and excitement. His siblings and his cousins sitting around the fire listening to the tales of the new borrower currently staying in their home. In his youth, Briar was determined to have some adventures of his own like them when he grew up. Tales he could pass on to the next generation of borrowers he might come across.

“I learned a lot from some of those people, like how to properly string up animal skin to dry in the sun. Picked that up from a vagabond guy, liked to backsass my Ma, but damn if he didn’t love yapping about his wife.” Briar believed his name was Sprout? Or Piller? He couldn’t remember.

Jace hung onto every word as the small man spoke.

“Since there are no other borrowers around anymore,” Briar looked at the bean who stared back. “I suppose you two were the next best thing.” The man’s smile revealed the years of wrinkles, pain and loss that decorated his small face.

He really is all alone too, Jace thought.

A hesitant smile slowly grew on the boy’s face. Being a borrower sounded lovely, everyone caring and looking out for each other. Even complete strangers. Jace couldn’t imagine getting the same kindness from other humans.

“Do you… Do you think your parents would have liked me?” Jace asked.

Briar was quiet for a moment, looking at the sky for an answer. “Well, if I’m being completely honest, I think my Ma would have fainted at the very sight of you.” The man gave a light chuckle. “She was deathly afraid of Beans. She even refused to move into a house where more than one lived.”

“Oh,” Jace looked down at his hands. He never thought of himself as scary. But he supposed if he faced a giant, he'd be pretty scared too.

Briar saw the change in the child’s demeanor. Jace became very self conscious, like he wanted to disappear into the tree behind him.

Briar didn’t want the poor kid to be upset so he continued, “But if she got over her fear. Yes, she probably would like you.” He chucked, “In fact, I think she’d probably yell at me for not feeding you two kids enough. She’d think you’re too skinny and try to fatten you up with the last drops of her stew. She was always giving things away to people in need.”

“She sounds nice.”

“She was.”

Silence returned between the pair, both thinking about their respective loss of parental figures. The only difference was that Briar had become a fully grown adult when he lost his parents. He had enough time to know his Ma and Pa on a personal level, he would even go as far to call them his friends.

Jace and Layla on the other hand will never get that chance.

“I envy you, Jace,” Briar offered.

“You do?”

“Yes, you have that picture of your family. Perfectly captured in a glass frame. You’ll always know what they looked like.” Briar conceded. “All I have to remember what my family looked like is up here,” he tapped his forehead. “As the years go by I remember less and less. Like, which brother had green eyes or how tall my oldest sister was. Even the sound of their laughter grows quieter in my mind.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Ah, such is life for my kind.” The borrower shrugged. “We don’t exactly have the same luxuries you Beans have… had.”

Jace thought long and hard about everything the borrower said. And what he didn’t say. For one thing, the small man still hadn’t told Jace his name. Something the borrower decided to keep close to his heart like the most important secret in the world. But something about the fear Briar talked about made Jace think.

“Boss… A-are you afraid of me?” Jace looked at the small man sitting on the tree branch then looked at his own hand. How could he not be afraid when Jace was so much bigger than him? “Is… is that why you didn’t show yourself sooner?”

Yes.

But the boy didn’t need to know that. Briar steeled his face to hide a flash of anxiety from crossing his features as he thought of an answer. “I’d say I have a pretty healthy fear of you, boy. I recognize that in a fight, I’d never beat you. But I trust you enough to sit here with you right now.” The Borrower nodded. “But between the two of you, I’m honestly more scared of your sister.”

“What?” Jace burst out laughing, “She wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

But Briar didn’t laugh, “I saw what she did to that doll.”

Jace immediately got quiet, he knew exactly what Briar was referring to.

***

Last week, Layla had accidentally popped the head off a barbie doll while trying to brush its hair.

Unfortunately for Briar, he was watching the whole thing from the walls. He had nightmares of his own neck snapping or his head popping clean off in her gigantic hands for days.

Briar almost ran away from the giants right then and there. Choosing to never speak to or see either of them again.

But the way Layla cried and begged her brother to fix her doll made Briar falter. She definitely wasn’t careful, but she did cared if she broke or hurt something.

Now was that ‘care’ connected to possessiveness over her toys? Maybe. She was a young kid after all.

Would she also think of Briar as a doll and try to play with him? Twist his arms and legs into shapes they weren’t supposed to bend? Or try to brush his curly hair till his head pops off too?

Layla often played too rough with her toys, smacking them into eachother and throwing them haphazardly around the room. If it was Briar’s body that she was manipulating and throwing like that, he'd be dead in minutes.

She was still a child. Briar had even seen his little siblings play the same way in his youth. He completely understood. He just never wants to be anywhere near her giant chubby hands. He wasn’t a toy. He was a living, breathing, thinking individual.

Briar had a healthy fear of the strength the children had over him. And he hoped that wouldn’t come back to bite him in the ass later.

***

Briar looked at Jace and continued, “With you, on some level at least, I feel like you respect me. You have been respecting me enough to not touch me at least.”

“I did promise,” Jace smiled.

“Now with a child, any child— not just your sister— I doubt I’d be seen as anything more than a toy.”

“I think you’re being too harsh. Layla is a good kid.”

“I’m not saying she isn’t. I just have to always be careful around beans. My life is in constant danger just by existing.”

“Well, the way I see it, the only difference between us is I’m slightly bigger than you. You’re just a person. A really, really, really, really, really–”

“I get it.”

“-Really short person.” Jace finished with a mischievous smirk.

Briar smiled back, the boy was referencing one of the first things the borrower ever revealed about himself to Jace and Layla: That he was not human, but he was still a person. “Size be damned?”

“Size be damned.” Jace agreed.

After coming to an understanding, they settled into a comfortable silence.

They really weren’t so different. Both the Borrower and Beans were trying to survive in this messed up world.

They sat under the afternoon sun in silence for a while till…

THWAP.

The sound of crushed leaves and a quiet thud interrupted the stillness.

One of their traps had been activated. Jace and Briar froze and looked around the tree towards the trap. A gaping hole in the earth sat where the pre-teen had previously laid down leaves.

Jace stood up and quickly walked towards the pitfall trap. “I think we got something, boss!”

***

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#a borrower at the end of the world #kind of a weird place to stop #not much of a cliff hanger but oh well #did anyone get the Brother’s Apart reference? no just me? 👀#size be damned hehehe #g/t #giant/tiny #gianttiny #gt #g/t community #oc briar #oc jace #parental gt #parental g/t #g/t fluff #oc #original story

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foone · 1 year ago

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weird thought: I think if I was a teenager now (or anytime in the last decade or so) I think I would have written (and read!) a lot more fanfic than I did in reality, where I was a teenager in the 90s.

See, I've never been hugely into fanfic. Never had anything against it exactly, but it just wasn't something I was into. But I think that has to do with an interesting combination of how my brain works and what time I was first really getting into being a fan.

I've got a "librarian" brain (I'm literally typing this from within a library, WHERE I WORK). It wants to know things like "what are all the works in this series/by this creator?" and "are they all accessible?" and "what info is available about how it was made?"

I'm the kind of person who will watch a show then go look it up on wikipedia to see how many seasons it has, who made it, if they're still making it, check tvtropes for any more info, etc. Or I hear a song I like by a band I've never heard of, so I go listen to their entire discography while researching them. I just focus on things I'm into that way, you know? I don't half-ass my interest. (this is probably related to my autism, of course)

So what does this have to do with fanfic? like, do I go read some fanfics as part of this process? No, and I think the reason for it is when I specifically first got into fandom, as a teen.

See, this sort of fandom-librarian was harder to do in 1997, you know? You couldn't just pull up the wikipedia for that new show and see how many episodes it had. You also couldn't just listen to the whole discography of that band! Forget Spotify or Google Music, even Napster didn't exist yet.

So my interest in fandom focused a lot more on very basic questions: How many episodes/albums/books/whatever are there? Where can I see/hear them all? Like, I remember getting excited because I found some fan magazine that had a list of all the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. Just a list! Not even descriptions or anything. I finally could take that list and see how many I'd seen, so I'd know when I saw them all in late-night reruns.

So I'm focusing on these very basic parts of being a fandom-librarian and I stumble across some fanfic. I'm like "oh, is this a transcript of an episode I haven't seen yet?" and I realize it's not, it's a story written by a fan, and I get a knee-jerk reaction of "that's not helpful to my quest to know and find all the episodes". It's like I am on a quest for the holy grail and I found a fake cup. It's not helpful to me, and at worst it's a distraction from my goal.

And the thing is, I think the fact I had that reaction is entirely due to the time and situation in which I first encountered fanfic. It was in that environment of "I can't even find a list of the episodes, let alone a way to watch them all!" and that anxiety that colored my response to finding fanfic.

I think if I instead was first introduced to fanfic NOW, where those fandom-librarian drives aren't so difficult to fulfill, I'd be way more positive about fanfic. If I could get a list of episodes with a quick google search, and watch them easily on netflix/prime/whatever, I'd be less "THIS DOESN'T HELP! I AM STRUGGLING WITH THE BASICS HERE!" and more "yay, more content for the fandom I'm obsessed with!"

Like I said, I'm not anti-fanfic, I never have been, I just never got into it. From the beginning I had this reaction that was "this is not useful" and I never developed any real interest in it. Which is a shame, honestly. Fanfic is great. It just never became one of my interests, and while I've written it and read it from time to time, I imagine I'd be way more into it if I didn't have the weird reaction to it due to the worries of the time in which I first encountered it.

I don't know how many other people have brains that work anything like mine, but if they exist, I'm glad they're now growing up in a world where they won't have these problems. They can get into fanfic without this weird baggage caused by a lack of information.

#fanfic meta

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catgrassplantdad · 1 month ago

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weekly tag wednesday (thursday!) ⚡

i was tagged by so many pals! thank you @deedala @sgtmickeyslaughter @jrooc @mmmichyyy @sam-loves-seb @heymrspatel @gardenerian @gallawitchxx 🖤

name: jessie

age: 35

today we're going to be doing our very own Day in the Life! what's the very first thing you do when you wake up? grab my phone and check the time, then check my notifications

what are we having for breakfast? black coffee, and usually i toast a couple of frozen protein waffles and have those with cream cheese

your caffeine order, if that's your thing: light roast black coffee

today we're wearing our favorite outfit! describe it to me: i have so many outfits that are favorites! hmmm but lately i've been wearing black turtlenecks and black jeans and black boots a lot

no work today! what's the first thing you're doing on your day off? omg hell yeah. sleeping until at least 7, then ngl i'm gonna fuck around on my phone in bed for like an hour

you need to run your most frequent errand, where are you headed? grocery store!

are you driving, walking, or taking public transit? driving, because this town is not walkable and there is no public transit. american suburbs, baybee. i do like driving, though

it's lunch time and you're out and about! where are you going and what's on the menu? oh okay so there's this little deli near me that makes the best sandwiches, and i am obsessed with their roast beef sandwich and i have to stop myself from going there all the time. so, maybe that haha

while heading home, you pass the mall and decide to stop in. what's the first store you're hitting up? hmmmmm bookstore

it's time for a Little Treat, what are you getting? ice cream at one of the farms/creameries near me

you're finally home! what show are you turning on for background noise? i don't like tv for background noise, i find it really distracting if i'm trying to do stuff

you decide to do a few chores. what are your favorite and least favorite ones? i love organizing/decluttering the house, i loathe doing the dishes

it's Hobby Time! what are you doing to flex your creative muscles? i'm gonna write

time for dinner! what are we having, and what are you listening to while you make it/wait for it to arrive? i'm gonna make some veggie fried rice and probably dance around the kitchen to ted leo and the pharmacists because that's usually what my husband puts on while we cook

you're getting comfy for the evening, describe your favorite cozy outfit: sweatpants that say "slut trek" down the side in the star trek font, mastodon hoodie, slippers

time to turn on something you'll actually watch, what is it? right now we are watching andor, anthony bourdain parts unknown, and unbreakable kimmy schmidt, depending on our mood that night lmao. what a mix

it's bedtime! tell me about your wind-down routine: make my sleepy time tea and hang out with that for a bit, then when i'm ready for sleep i wash my face, brush my teeth, and read fic on my phone in bed until i actually fall asleep

what time do you usually go to bed? 10-ish

and finally, was it a good day? yeah, it was really nice!

tagging just a few sweethearts @whatthebodygraspsnot @whatwouldmickeydo @howlinchickhowl @iansfreckles ✨

#tag game #look at me actually participating!

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mikuchan · 2 months ago

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🥤

🥤 ⇢ recommend an author or fanfic you love

I've said this before but I love love love teefling's florrickthara fics + patchwork_author's modern AU for them. All works that live rent-free in my head. Impeccable character work happening in both of these collections.

The Ecstasy of Murder by winterlyre is one of my flat favorites, really great examination of both Minthara and Araj. Not a happy ending, so be warned, but better for it.

I enjoy all of anotheropti's works but one of my faves is Nightsongs, a modern AU with metal band Shadowheart x mechanic tav Asheera! Angst, romance, and a really seamless transition from canon to contemporary.

I don't read a lot of Arcane fics, but I love gaeldricge's Mel x Grayson ship and accompanying work: On Your Knees, Councillor! love me a rarepair of two strong political women just lost in the emotional sauce.

A Dragon Age fave is Draw and Quarter a Stranger to Feel Some Blood on Your Fingers by heartymanlaughter:

^ I honestly recommend all of their fics but this particular exchange is always in the back of my mind. love self-piteous, so-not-stoic Hawke and Aveline having to keep her on track.

also Dragon Age, I love There Used to be Five of Us by UnreadPoppy. beautiful sad exploration of each Hawke family member and how they interconnected. She also has been writing Hawke/Meredith lately which is peak.

aaaand I want to throw Daxs10thHost out there -- I don't actually watch Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, I've only watched '90s Trek, but their STW works are so well written I'm a subscribed fan anyway lol. And their DS9 Kira/Dax works are very sweet.

#long #asks #thank you!!#mine #fic rec

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azazelsazaleas · 6 months ago

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Set a course...for home

So I just finished Voyager. And I have thoughts.

Endgame, like the series, was good but felt like it could've been so much more. I'm not the first fan to point out that it's weird that the last thing we see is Voyager flying towards Earth, with no coda or montage or anything showing each of the crew when they get home. What really surprised me on this viewing (I saw it once back when it first aired, but it's been over 20 years and I barely remembered it) was how slow the pacing was until the last 20 minutes or so. I kinda feel like the writers could've trimmed a bit out of it so we could have a more satisfying denouement. Oh well. They got home, Janeway thoroughly wrecked the Borg, and I'm not going to lie - I got a little choked up when they fly out of the exploding Borg Sphere and Janeway says, "We did it."

With that said, may as well go through the good, the not-so-good, and any other random thoughts I have in retrospect.

The good :

Captain Kathryn Janeway.

I'm sorry, that deserves to be written thusly:

CAPTAIN KATHRYN FUCKING JANEWAY

Oh my god, I love this woman. I think, at this point, she's my favorite Star Trek captain and easily one of my favorite characters in the franchise. She absolutely radiates an aura of "I am in charge here, and this situation is going to go how I decide it goes," and she delivers every damn time. Strong-willed, controversial, authoritative, intelligent, creative, and just damned incredible. Janeway alone is a major reason to give this show a watchthrough.

Not to mention, Kate Mulgrew is a fucking INCREDIBLE actress. She brings 110% to every episode, and I swear to god, she basically carried the first two or three seasons.

And speaking of amazing actresses, Jeri Ryan was incredible. A lot of people loved her performance in Body and Soul (and yes, watching her channel Robert Picardo was delightful), but seeing her constantly changing personalities in Infinite Regress two seasons earlier was the big "Holy Shit" moment for me. Even beyond that, she was brilliant as Seven of Nine (and say what you will about ST:Picard, I loved seeing her step back into the role). It also doesn't hurt that Seven is one of the most interesting characters on the show, if not on Star Trek.

In general, the show had some great characters on the main cast. I found I really liked Tuvok and B'Elanna as well. Tim Russ nailed that "annoyed Vulcan who secretly cares" thing, and I thought B'Elanna's struggles with her identity were generally well-handled, at least for mid-late-90s TV.

I'm honestly surprised how fine I was with Tom/B'Elanna. I was not expecting that relationship to work as well as it did.

Speaking of "didn't expect that to work," Naomi Wildman was genuinely endearing as the "kid on the starship" character type that Star Trek seemed adamant on having in the 80s and 90s. I"m glad the writers learned their lessons post-Wesley Crusher.

Oddly enough, I also found I enjoyed some of the "bad" episodes - Threshold, Tuvix, etc. Voyager got pretty weird, so some of the more questionable creative choices were just damned entertaining. Not all of them, though. Which brings me to...

The Bad:

Oh my god fuck the Kazon. They are easily the worst recurring villain race I've seen on Star Trek. They don't even seem like ST villains, they seem like the kind of thing you'd see on a b-rate late night 1990s crappy sci-fi action show. They're like an attempt to make Klingon copies but without literally anything whatsoever that makes the Klingons compelling.

Speaking of which, fuck Seska, too. I still have a hard time buying that any self-respecting Cardassian would look at the Kazon and go, "yep, I'll throw my lot in with them."

The whole Neelix/Kes thing was...gross. I'm sorry, there's no way around that. They had no chemistry, no compelling reason to be in a relationship, and the whole thing with Kes's age felt like a variation on the theme of "she may look 12 but she's actually a 5000 year old dragon." Whichever producer came up with that needs to have something solid thrown at them.

In general, Neelix was just the worst character for the first couple or three seasons. He got a lot better, but early Neelix was...yikes. I got genuinely frustrated with how much time was focused on him.

I also have mixed feelings about Chakotay. Sometimes he was pretty great, but the whole behind-the-seasons thing with the "cultural advisor" made for some pretty bad early character building, and after they gave up on that, he felt kind of flat. And now that I think of it, inconsistent. It seems like the writers (at least in the early seasons) couldn't decide between making him a tough hardass who'll punch you if you don't get in line or the more calm, measured, cautious voice in contrast to Janeway's bullheadedness.

Seven/Chakotay was just...no.

Other random thoughts:

I have mixed feelings about the EMH. Robert Picardo was great in the role, but as the character progressed, I feel like he got away with crossing lines he really should not have. The entire episode Renaissance Man just pissed me off. Can't say I was thrilled with some of his behavior in Body and Soul, either. The whole running gag of him having a giant ego seemed to swing between hilarious and painful to watch, as well.

The show was good, but it felt like it could've been so much more. Part of it was Paramount's insistence on not having anything serialized, but part of it was also how actionized it got. There's a number of episodes that felt like they could've done something more interesting but instead the producers wanted phasers and explosions.

I have very mixed feelings about how the Borg were handled. On one hand, Seven is an amazing character, the Scorpion 2-parter is probably my favorite pair of episodes in the show's run, and there are a couple other Borg-relate episodes I liked. On the other hand, I thought the Borg as a direct threat got stale quickly, Dark Frontier nerfed them way too much, they felt underwhelming as an enemy in Endgame, and (yes I know this is more of a criticism of First Contact, but still) the Borg having a Queen ruins a lot of the creepy mystique they have. No matter how you slice it, I think the Borg as a recurring enemy were pretty much spent by the end of Voyager.

Favorite episodes (off the top of my head): Scorpion 1&2, Equinox 1&2, Bride of Chaotica!

Final score: 7 out of 9 (you were expecting anything else?)

#star trek #voyager #janeway #chakotay #tuvok #b'elanna torres #tom paris #harry kim #neelix #kes #seven of nine #star trek voyager

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annikathewitch · 17 days ago

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Ive noticed you posting about a star trek (?) show lately, would you recomend watching it? If yes, is there any sort of show that one should watch beforehand for prerequisite knowledge?

Oh yes absolutely! The specific trek show I've been watching is Deep Space Nine (often abbreviated DS9), and it's a great show, definitely recommend.

The various Star Trek shows are all like... loosely interconnected, and they do reference one another a fair bit, but (with the exception of one of the more recent shows) they don't necessarily follow directly on from one another, so you don't really need to watch them in any set order or anything. You can pick up any relevant info pretty easily from context.

That being said, if you want additional context for some of the stuff in DS9, there are some episodes of the original series (aka TOS) and the next generation (aka TNG) that you could watch beforehand (I'll make a list and stick it under a read more), but again, not strictly necessary.

If you are looking for Gay Shit, TOS is also really great for that in its own right (honestly most of Star Trek is), so I'll also provide some additional TOS episode recommendations, in case you wanna check that out too. If you want more episode recommendations just let me know. Most Star Trek series (except the newer ones) are pretty episodic, so you can sorta jump around however you want.

TOS episodes that provide additional context for DS9 (in order of how relevant they actually are to DS9):

S2e15 The Trouble With Tribbles

S1e22 Space Seed

S2e4 Mirror, Mirror

S1e26 Errand of Mercy

S1e14 Balance of Terror

TNG episodes that provide additional context for DS9 (not in order of relevance, TNG takes place in the same time period as DS9, so it's harder to sort by relevancy):

S3e26 The Best of Both Worlds Part I

S4e1 The Best of Both Worlds Part II

S4e12 The Wounded

S5e3 Ensign Ro

S6e10 The Chain of Command Part I

S6e11 The Chain of Command Part II

There are a lot more things that are only kinda relevant to ds9. Since TNG takes place in the same time period, a lot of things like alien species, technology, characters, etc., appear in both, so if you want to learn more about like, the borg, Q, Romulans, Klingons, etc., I can also make lists with additional context for those. (I might do that anyway in a reblog or something).

Recommended TOS Episodes (on top of the ones listed for ds9 context, which are also recommended i just don't wanna write them out twice) (also I'm just going in order for these):

S1e4 The Naked Time

S1e11 The Menagerie Part 1

S1e12 The Menagerie Part 2

S1e25 The Devil in the Dark

S1e28 The City on the Edge of Forever

S2e1 Amok Time

S2e10 Journey to Babel

There are definitely a bunch more good ones, these are just some of my favorites!

#star trek was how i got into fandom #i have been obsessed with it since i was like 12 #So I am... very familiar with it by this point lol #If you want any more information #or recommendations #or anything #i would be happy to provide

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kcscribbler · 4 months ago

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20 Questions with a Fanfic Author

Thank you for the tag, @andthekitchensinkao3!

1. How many works on AO3?

Looks like 167, to date. I haven't yet reposted my ACD Sherlock Holmes or BBC Sherlock fics from ff.net to AO3, or a couple of the SPN fics, so the total count IDK.

2. Total AO3 Word Count?

1,889,222 right now. I believe I have about 1.5M in as-yet unposted from the above fandoms (another reason the cross-posting hasn't happened, lol).

3. Top 5 Fics by Kudos

Kudos aren't something I pay attention to, but it looks like:

Open Books & Closed Doors (Star Trek AOS, gen, 28K) 477 Kudos Five times Jim Kirk epically failed to keep a secret from his command crew, and one time his command crew kept it for him.

As a General Rule (Star Trek AOS, gen, 20K) 434 Kudos Five times Jim Kirk protected his crew, and one time they returned the favor

Watching the Watchman (Star Trek TOS, McSpirk vibes, 21K) 419 Kudos Five times Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock went all protective on Dr. McCoy, and one time McCoy showed them that he doesn't need y'all's coddling and can darn well take care of himself, thanks very much.

Living in the Shadows (Star Trek AOS, gen, 21K) 354 Kudos Five times Jim noticed one of his officers wasn't doing well, and one time they returned the favor.

My Captain (Star Trek TOS, Spirk vibes, 45K) 327 Kudos Five reasons why the crew of the Enterprise would follow James T. Kirk to Hell and back, and one reason why he would do the same.

We all like a good 5+1, don't we.

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Right now, actively writing for the Loki fandom and kicking around some ideas for getting back into Star Trek TOS and AOS. Other potential fandoms can be seen on my pinned post, though I'm not actively looking at anything other than ACD Sherlock Holmes and potentially Good Omens.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I really try to, though I'm very behind on that at the moment. I've had very few spoons lately due to IRL things.

6. Angstiest Ending?

I dislike major character death, though I've written it (not recently, so I can't link to it). Since I tend to write for fun and don't find writing angst much fun usually, I don't write a lot of angsty endings. But the end of Act Two: Civil War was fairly angsty by my low standards.

7. Fic with the Happiest Ending?

I'm not sure my readers would agree, but I personally think the ending of the Storyteller series is the happiest. For me, it "fixed" the S2 ending without actually discounting the sacrifices of that story arc, and the older I get, the more attractive the idea seems, of just growing old peacefully being loved by someone special.

Otherwise, I'd choose Second-Best Destiny, my AOS/TOS crossover and Generations fix-it.

8. Do you get hate?

Not often, and not recently, since I turned off anon messages on Tumblr and deleted my ff.net profile (though oddly, I also got a lot of hate for doing that). Most people in my fandoms are lovely, as a rule.

9. Do you write smut?

I don't. I'm on the gray end of demisexual and don't really enjoy reading smut unless it also has great emotional connection, so I also don't really enjoy writing it. There are plenty of amazing writers who do write the spicy stuff very, very well, and so I think I'm good to just play in my corner of the sandbox.

10. Do you write crossovers?

Not very often. They're super hard to do, and you have to really know both fandoms very well to do them properly, IMHO. I usually hyperfixate on only one fandom at a time, especially because my fics tend to be dialogue heavy and that gets diluted if I'm mixing fandoms.

I've written a few Star Trek AOS/TOS crossovers and one wild Star Trek TOS/Sherlock Holmes crossover that is still one of my favorite things I've ever written, but I haven't done one recently.

11. Ever had a fic stolen?

Not to my knowledge. I've been made aware of them being circulated off-platform without my knowledge, which is a big ick, but at least no one's claiming them as their own.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Several times. It's super flattering! I have a blanket consent policy on my profiles for translation (or things like podfics, etc.), provided I'm credited with the original. I'm always amazed and honored when that happens.

13. Have you ever cowritten a fic?

Several times and with a few different writers, though not recently. It was a super fun experience, and crucial to my development as a baby fic writer. But it does mean both parties have to have great communication and complementary styles, IMHO, to stay enjoyable to the end. Super fun if you have the right collaborator.

14. All time favorite ship?

I'd probably go with the OG and choose Kirk/Spock, because Star Trek TOS was a formative fandom experience, but I'm pretty ship-agnostic if the fic and characters are well-written.

15. WIPs you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

My WIP "dump document" is over 100 pages long, so. Let's not go there.

16. Writing strengths?

Dialogue and plot twists, maybe. Over the last decade-plus, I've also developed a pretty solid process for ruthlessly cutting and editing, as well as being able to write out of order, which helps get around writer's block sometimes.

17. Writing Weaknesses?

Actual plots. 🤣 And descriptions. I tend to lean too hard into dialogue to carry a scene and then two pages later remember "oh right, they were supposed to be walking outside."

18. Thoughts on mixed language dialogue?

As a reader, I don't mind it if its basic meaning can be easily extrapolated from context. I would love to be multilingual, but I'm not, and it takes me out of the story if I have to scroll down to read a footnote and come back.

In writing, I presume that's the majority opinion and only use it if it can be extrapolated from context, unless it's plot-twist related (such as a communications breakdown and designed to increase the reader's confusion as well).

19. First fandom you wrote for?

ACC Sherlock Holmes, though I'm guessing most of the stories I wrote as a teenager were probably just unintentional Nancy Drew self-inserts.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

The Last Dream (Star Trek TOS, Spirk vibes, 15K) Missing chapter from the end of The Voyage Home, because I wanted more emotional resolution.

No-pressure tagging @elodiah, @lokimobius @in-my-loki-feels @justabigoldnerd @thewildballyntynesgrow

@tigereyes45 @strangenewwords @affixjoy and open tagging anyone else who wants to join!

#ask box #tag games #fic writing #star trek tos #star trek aos #loki series

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danae-inprogress · 6 months ago

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Diary Entry - January 19, 2025 // Weekend Reflections

Hey, lovelies. I didn’t post or even write for a couple of days because I really needed to rest. While work weeks don’t seem extremely long to me, they’re busy and I usually have 6 or 7 classes in a row with no time in between (besides 5 minutes here or 15 minutes there). This is only one of the reasons I can’t wait for this school year to end. My contract ends in late June, and I don’t plan to renew it. Anyway, I had a good weekend, and I hope you did too and that you’re feeling ready and motivated enough for the new week. Highlights of this weekend ✨I had the chance to rest and sleep in - both were much needed. ✨I spent time with my lovely doggo, Frodo. ✨I practiced Spanish on Duolingo - I’m veeeery close to completing the January challenge. ✨I played Stardew Valley with my partner!!! ✨I also played Sims 3, and gosh it was so fun. ✨I prepped all nicely for the new week! I took care of myself and my body, printed materials and activities for my classes, tidied and cleaned up my space. ✨I reflected on the past week and kept track of the progress I’m making with my goals. My meh moments ❌I had in mind to have a long work-out or yoga session but I didn’t. My muscles were in pain on Saturday, and I just felt like resting my body. ❌Somehow, I didn’t write at all - besides this post for this blog. ❌I want to get started on my bullet journal for this year but I’ve procrastinating a lot. Oh, gosh. My goals for this week (more or less) 💜Get to 7k words (my monthly goal is 8k words and I’ve written around 5.500 words so far). 💜Write a blog post and finish a fanfiction that’s been a wip for a while. 💜Track calories on MyFitnessPal. 💜Renew car assistance. 💜Work-out twice this week. 💜Read 40 pages of the book I've been reading. 💜Get started on my bullet journal, finally. 💜Make a February content calendar. 💜Watch one Star Trek The Next Generation episode. I mean, I’ve been watching it forever and I feel like I’ll never finish it. I don’t know how many of these things I’ll actually do, but I’m hopeful. I’m also grateful for my 3 new followers on this blog. Thank you all for joining me on this journey! Happy New Week!

#it girl #self love #inspiration #diary entry #self improvement #that girl #weekend reflections

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starseneyes · 20 days ago

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Healing Via Entertainment

Have you ever watched a film and found yourself sobbing with a catharsis you didn't know you craved?

Or sat in a theater filled with eager fans, enthusiastically sharing the destruction of a familiar, spherical-shaped space station?

Or have you swooned as the would-be lovers finally realized they both pined for the same thing—to be together—and acted on it?

It's the rush of connection that fuels fandom, the thread of understanding that draws us in and makes us care about a character's fate.

And sometimes it's exactly what we need to get through the hardest parts of this thing we call life.

I've been contemplating fandom a lot lately. I've been in active online fandom since 1996 when I first starting hanging out in X-Files AOL Chatrooms where I had to pretend to be 13 instead of 12 so nobody would bully me.

I had a few friends to share shows with in the real world, but finding my fellow X-Philes and then landing on this incredible Star Trek message board, it changed things. It shaped my understanding of the shared experience of fandom across languages, countries, and oceans.

There's something magical in the way we all come together on platforms like this to engage one another in spirited debate, communal elation, and heartfelt commiseration.

And it reminds me of something made abundantly clear during the early days of the Pandemic—entertainment is essential.

Yes, there is a difference between what is real and what is not. I'm a firm believer in understanding and repecting that. That's not what I mean.

I mean that having the opportunity to engage in the fantastical and imaginative is often healing and needed in a world where chaos reigns and so many of us live in fear of what the next day's news cycle means for those we love.

Entertainment is a balm on weary hearts.

All this to say—thank you to the entertainers. Not just the performers we see on our screens, but the writers, directors, camera folk, hair, makeup, grip, electric, costuming, set dressing, DPs, Storyboarders, Editors, Production Assistants, Writer's Assistants, Script Supervisors, Sound, Crafty, and all the others who bring these things we love to life.

It's not an easy life. It can be a grueling one. And we are thankful for everything you do to bring our favorite entertainment to life.

#entertainment #entertainers #thank you #gratitude #creativity #appreciation

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jesslovesboats · 10 months ago

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Getting to know someone better

Thanks for the tag @ktredshoes!

Last song: Don't Go to the Woods by the Decemberists

Favorite color: hunter green

Currently watching: Star Trek Voyager reruns. I also just finished The Good Lord Bird, which was an interesting take on John Brown

Last movie: First Cow- watched it on a friend's recommendation and it was very good!

Sweet/savory/spicy: a toss up between sweet and savory, but I'm giving it to savory because one of the saddest things about getting older is that some of my favorite things are now too sweet, which is cruel beyond words

Current obsession: Aside from polar exploration (which is less of an obsession and more of a lifestyle at this point), I am obsessed with the 588th Night Bomber Regiment, a Soviet all female aviation regiment that fought during WWII. I've been doing a lot of genealogy research lately, and I'm also volunteering with Women for Harris-Walz. Mostly, though, I'm close enough to my upcoming trip to Europe that it consumes 75% of my thoughts on any given day. I'm making a spreadsheet of friends to meet up with, museums to visit, and bookstores and perfume shops that will bankrupt me!

Last thing I searched: the address for the surgery center where my cat got neutered earlier today, but that's boring, so I will also tell you some things that I'm currently researching for Baby's First Big Writing Project That May or May Not Pan Out: the history of the US Marine Reserves in WWI, Appalachian folklore, the Christian Science movement, nativism and discrimination against German-Americans in the years leading up to WWI, spiritualism and astrology in the 1920's, and buffalo head nickels.

Absolutely no pressure tagging @i-have-loved-you-too-much, @overlysweetcoffee, @johnnystorrm, and @sastrugie, as well as anyone else who wants to play!

#ask jesslovesboats #ask game

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anonymooseforever007 · 10 months ago

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Hi Y'all! I'm gonna try to get back on here! (Y'all can skip this if you want!)

Hi ❤️ ok so I hope y'all are all doing well! I know it's been I've a year since I've posted anything really or like done any interaction and stuff. But towards the end of the summer I got really busy getting ready to go back to school and then my anxiety about interacting with like anyone started acting up and like it kinda just stayed there for a while. And then I also kinda got distracted a little bit from Peaky Blinders and writing stuff, but I'm gonna try to get back on here now. I will admit I haven't been looking at to many things for Peaky Blinders recently as I've been a bit more into other shows and have been watching them more than reading lately (EX: X-Files (Fox Mulder), Star Trek SNW (Spock), Star Trek TOS (Kirk), Justified, All the CSI's, Criminal Minds, etc).

But yeah like that's been happening and I feel bad because I kept meaning to get back on and then I didn't. But I think it should be all good now. I just stared my senior year in college, and I've started anxiety meds which have helped a lot, and I've got a remote internship I'm still going to be doing for a bit so I still can't say how regularly I'll be posting or getting on here but I just wanted to start trying to do it again, without maybe going to fast and scaring myself off again😅 Also Tumblr seems to have glitches and deleted a few messages on my end that were sent to me but I don't get a chance to respond to to if y'all sent something and I did't see it I'm very sorry. I tumblr seems to be giving me issues about working it on my phone right now which is how I usually do it all. And I'm going to try and up date that.

In terms of works written works, the WIP list I made like a year ago is still the current list of what's finished along with a small number of incorrect quotes and random stuff I need to filter through. I do have one story I'm going to try and post right after this before I go to classes again and then I'll try checking in back after I finish work today. So that will be updated. And then I've been stuck writing lately so I'm going to slowly trying to start getting back into it!

But yeah... that's all I can think of for now. I'm not sure what else to say really but that I hope y'all are doing well and thank you to everyone who enjoyed my stories even when I was gone, I'm glad that I could hopefully brighten you day a bit:)

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jchance4d4 · 5 months ago

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In a spirit of nostalgia, I've recently begun a rewatch of Star Trek: The Next Generation--it's the Trek that I grew up with, but this is the first time I've actually been intentionally watching through in order. I've just finished the first season, and...well, I'm not going to be contrarian and say it's all, or even mostly, good. As everyone says, it's generally rough, and occasionally straight-up embarrasses itself (my choices for the episodes that do are unsurprising: "Code of Honor", "Justice", "Angel One"). Still, there's an unexpected amount that's interesting about it.

First, it's remarkable how much of that roughness has to do with trying to find its own identity--you can see it very gradually pulling away from the shadow of TOS, and parts of it really remind me of the TOS fan productions that were popping up in the late 2000s and early 2010s.

Also, though, there are some interesting aspects in the early episodes (approximately the first half of the season), that don't get enough credit, and might have been nice to follow on from more explicitly instead of wander away from.

Despite Roddenberry and his lawyer demanding an absence of intracrew conflict, there's some real friction at first; it's clear that these people don't know each other that well, barring the history between Picard and Crusher, and Riker and Troi (and, of course, Data and La Forge immediately deciding the other is friend-shaped).

The "What do we do with Troi" problem wasn't always there. Early on, her professional judgment was treated as just as important as her empathic abilities, and she almost seemed like a second XO, not just generally advising but deciding who was good for what job.

La Forge and Worf very clearly start out in what I can only call a Saavik-like position: Very junior, just out of advanced training and still students in a lot of ways. Like the early friction, this obviously wasn't to last, but it would've been nice to acknowledge them moving past it more definitely.

And, a few things that are not so good that I haven't seen mentioned:

TNG actually went the opposite direction from TOS in one way--the first season was where it had a particular problem with the main characters doing everything, and it moved away from that somewhat as it went on.

The running gag with everyone telling Data to stop talking is particularly heavy here, and it just hurts. Even the computer does it!

Somewhat related to the last point, they really overdid Picard's severity in the first season in an intermittent way that didn't fit with the rest of his actions. Watsonianly, it comes off that he has a Problem of an unclear sort.

It's a perennial Star Trek issue (and more generally a sci-fi TV issue), but, in later seasons, I don't remember thinking "you should be wearing an environmental suit" quite this often.

But not Wesley. Yes, he was too foregrounded as both cause and solution for problems, but I really suspect much of the hate came out of him striking too close to home--The awkward, nice Smart Kid, trying too hard to be one of the adults, is something that I think a lot of a "nerdy audience" was uncomfortable remembering being.

#star trek #star trek the next generation

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foxelfprincess · 1 year ago

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hey so sorry to jumpscare anyone who's still following me by posting some stuff here for the first time in like literally a year i think? adhd is fun. but yeah, i've really been missing writing something fierce, so i may try to be more present. i cannot promise that i'll be great about keeping up with what y'all are up to on here because the parts of my day i used to fill with scrolling tumblr have seemingly evaporated? but i'll do my best.

anyway, i was listening to a patreon bonus episode of one of my favorite podcasts (hey riddle riddle), and one of the hosts (adal) mentioned that every time he rewatches a tv show he hasn't watched in a while, he usually ends up with a different favorite character than he had the last time he watched it. and that got me thinking about some shows i've rewatched lately, and i realized that's largely been the case for me as well. hardly a shocking revelation of course, but i decided to do what any normal person would do with this information and write a long post no one but me is going to care about about my experience with this phenomenon.

avatar: the last airbender

original favorite: aang

current favorite: zuko

this is the most interesting one to me, and it also feels like it makes a great deal of sense both in terms of how i've changed since the first time i watched this show and also just how the show mechanically works. like... the first time you watch the first few seasons, prince zuko is unambiguously the bad guy for the first few seasons. the show even seems to go out of its way to show him being offered an off-ramp or two and not taking them. which is part of why him finally doing so feels so earned.

watching it the second time through was just a completely different experience. it didn't feel weird whenever zuko did something admirable. it didn't make me roll my eyes whenever he was Going Through It and showed us that he was hurting. it didn't make me angry to see him trying his best for a dad who would never love him. or rather, it did make me angry, very angry, but not at him.

i genuinely think atla is one of the shows that most rewards a rewatch. it was already one of my favorite shows of all time the first time i watched it, but i realized upon rewatching it that i was somehow underrating it in my memory.

star trek: the next generation

original favorite: captain picard

current favorite: riker

honestly there are a bunch of characters on this show i might've called my favorite on any given day when i was younger. i definitely went through phases with worf & geordi too. and embarrassingly i think my first favorite character was probably wesley. but i think the one i most consistently came back to was captain picard. he was aspirational. i wanted to be that good at listening to all sides of an issue but always, always making what i believed with strong moral conviction was the right choice, and being willing to put myself into the literal & figurative line of fire to defend my principles.

and don't get me wrong, there are still a lot of things i admire about picard. but also like... one other consistent thing about my favorite character years ago is that it was for sure never will riker. to be completely honest when i first watched the show i thought he was easily the most boring character. like, what even is a first officer? spock was that and a science officer at the same time. and on top of that the character himself is intentionally channeling the worst star trek captain? are you sure? and the thing that everyone likes about him is that he has a beard? (no offense to anyone but i don't find facial hair attractive.)

to be honest i still don't quite get the beard thing, but wow was i ever sleeping on this guy. will riker is my favorite tng character and it isn't particularly close. part of it is just finally noticing how dang charismatic jonathan frakes is in his unique kind of way, and how much he uses that charisma to be warm & reassuring and just... generally kind of a "good guy"? like, i hate star trek: picard, but i think seeing riker as a wholesome husband & dad is a big part of what made his character finally click for me. and going back & rewatching tng, it was hard not to notice how much he was constantly standing up for people and just... caring.

maybe that's just it. i like "boring" characters who care and want everyone to be ok and will do their best no matter what. and that's will riker.

and yeah, it helps that he's a slut.

star trek: deep space nine

original favorite: worf

current favorite: captain sisko

worf was my favorite star trek character for a good long time and there are still things i admire about him. i'll never not fall for that stupid-ass trick they pull every tng episode where he's having an interpersonal conflict in which he's been carrying the pigheaded idiot ball all episode, and he'll say something that sounds completely unredeemable and reminds you of all the reasons you're on the other person's side, but then he'll pause dramatically and start his next sentence with, "however." and immediately say the coolest shit you've ever heard that shows he's really Grown and Learned (but he'll forget by the next episode because while late-season tng got really good at having at least one character experience character development per episode, it wasn't until ds9 that they showed any signs of actually retaining what they learned from episode to episode).

also like... when we talk about autistic-coded characters i feel like worf often gets left out, but he's just... yeah, guys. yeah.

but on my last rewatch of ds9 it just became abundantly clear to me that captain sisko is the best star trek captain and it isn't especially close. he's every bit the paragon of virtue that picard is, but he's just... more human. more present. more willing to be transparent about what he's dealing with, more willing to talk through his weakness and biases, but still willing to accept the responsibility of command.

different doesn't have to mean better or worse, but especially with the way picard's character careened off the rails & burst into flames the further we got from season 7 of tng, sisko is just indisputably the best captain. and no disrespect to patrick stewart or anyone else who's ever been in front of that camera, but i think it's reasonably likely avery brooks is the best actor that's ever been on star trek. he's just incredible.

star trek: voyager

original favorite: seven of nine

current favorite: tuvok

i still like seven a lot, but tuvok was always one of my favorite characters on the show and rewatching the show really cemented it for me.

i especially like seeing the way he talks about emotions in a genuinely emotionally healthy way. he acknowledges their power, never says they're not real or unimportant, and then talks through them. it's just brilliant.

#star trek #star trek deep space nine #ds9 #tng #star trek the next generation #star trek voyager #avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla

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