#first best destiny

[minpage]

First, Best Destiny (Part I) by @ophelia-j

(Thank you so, so much for letting me bind this)

I’ve been watching people make books of fanfic for years, and knew it was only a matter of time before I caved and started a new hobby. And here it is! Voila! The first of (hopefully) a library of some of my favourite stories.

Had a lot of fun figuring out the formatting of the pages and drawing things for it. Especially the cover. That was a challenge but I’m so happy with it!

Putting the other pictures under the cut so this isn’t too long :)

- The title page. Made the circular design and then realised after I printed it it would look cooler if it went across both pages. Got a lot better at freehanding circles though as a result.

- The chapter headings. Ended up doing Vulcan numbers in the background, which I think turned out nice! Each chapter covers several episodes from the series, so I added a footnote to show which ones.

- The page break after the epilogue. I wanted to put an illustration somewhere in the book, and thought here worked well. Had fun drawing the Enterprise!

- The copyright page. Standard stuff. Put a lot of the fic information here (and the rest at the end of the book)

- I also added a section at the end for all the author notes, cause it felt like a shame to cut them entirely even though they didn’t fit with the formatting of the chapters. They feel like an intrinsic part of the fanfic experience, and I always enjoy reading them alongside the story!

So yeah, that’s that! Incredibly happy with how it came together. I also highly recommend this fic to anyone who likes The Original Series — it’s brilliantly written and captures the characters’ voices perfectly. You can find it here :)

[kirkscarr]

it’s official!! First, Best Destiny -- Part 1 by the lovely @ophelia-j finally has the physical form that it deserves!! here’s a little photoshoot of the finished product (:

to see how i bound this book i have another post that can be found here.

next up: specialty pages!!

first off there are these title pages

and then the copyright page!

the table of contents!

*note: i did remove the chapter notes to format it more like a “real” book. (looking back, i honestly wish i hadn’t because i do always love reading those!) because i removed the notes, i decided to include which episode/movie the chapters follow in the table of contents!!

the chapter headers!! THEORETICALLY it says t'hy'la in vulcan script.

and then i have this TBC page that i stuck in right before the epilogue!

this is such a small detail but it honestly might be one of my favorite parts. i did my very best to emulate a real book's design, so i have this fun little barcode/QR code at the very back. and!! the QR code links to the actual Ao3 story!! how cool is that???

conclusion!!

throughout every step of the bookbinding process i was mentally like "this is gonna be the step where it ALL FALLS APART" and??? it never did??? like? i just made a 900 page book??? that's crazy guys.

anyways!! i am so, so, SO thrilled that i am now the proud owner of a physical copy of First, Best Destiny -- Part 1.

*sidenote for the author!! thank you so much for all your support on my last post - it actually made my day! <33

[ophelia-j]

AO3 commenters: you have no idea how important you are to keeping authors writing. To making us happy. To improving our day, by even the smallest amount.

I've been struggling with my mental health a bit lately and I was feeling more than a little down this afternoon, as life was feeling especially relentless. Then I got this comment, over a year after I posted the final chapter:

I was so touched. Touched that PrincessFi1 had not only read FBD once, but read it TWICE!! Over two parts, it's 387k words! That's genuinely astonishing to me, and it parted some of the clouds that had been over me all day.

Yes, I love it. Yes, it contains some of my writing I'm most proud of, out of anything I've ever written. To find out that other people love it too, even now, over a year after I finished it, means so much to me.

I made myself laugh, cry, sob like a baby, smile like an idiot. I worked through some stuff, alongside our boys, and I just wanted to say here, for the record: everyone who's been on that journey with me, especially those who took the time to tell me in the comments, THANK YOU. From the bottom of my heart: thank you. Your investment, your encouragement, your love - for K/S and for FBD, meant I actually finished a work I'm still proud of, and look back on with such affection.

And I'm carrying a fair amount of guilt that there are now hundreds of comments in my inbox that I've read, but not responded to, so I wanted to post this:

If you've ever commented on a fic and didn't get a response, I am going to take the liberty of responding on behalf of all writers: we thank you, we love you, and we are so, so grateful.

[celestialvoyeur]

💛💙SPIRK FIC REC💙💛

Oh guys, I don’t even know where to start with this one. It was written as a “Generations Fix-it” but it’s SO much more than that, it’s an entire Spirk overlay for all of TOS canon.

With additional scenes, inner monologues and different POV for all the existing canon, it covers 3 seasons, 79 episodes, 7 films and 106 years of in world chronology. It’s almost 400k words long, split into 2 halves, and it is quite simply a masterpiece!

You’ll never be the same again once you read it! 💛💙🖖

[distractedducky]

Listen up people!!

My fovstorie Star Trek fic EVER! “First best destiny” We’re my canon lives in my brain, no show input needed! Just finished after years and I am here to make sure you read it!

There are two parts

It is a fix it for generations and it does everything so well.

READ IT!

LOVE IT!

LIVE IT!

And experience some of the best sprik to ever set sail 🚢

[celestialvoyeur]

This was so sweet and made me think of my own favourite fix-it fic 🥰💙💛

a comic about fix-it fanfics

[movingbones]

Friendly reminder they're married in every universe

[inkquarters]

Mavbo is so good man its like what if god worshipped you

[luck-of-the-drawings]

[OLD ART ALERT] A COLLECTION OF SCENES FROM THE GILLIONS CATSCRATCH ARC THAT BROUGHT ME GREAT JOY. i love fishy chips especially when its just gillion being delirious and violent and hostile

[chekovs-merkin]

okay, having watched the thing, I don’t think it actually “canonises” Spirk, not any more than any other time they held hands or any of the big scenes from the movies. in fact, I think this is rather more a passion-project/“elevated” fanwork from Shatner, Rod Rodenberry, and the Nimoy estate, than actual canon. That, and all my reservations about the whole cgi/deepfake “de-aging” aside,

I really like this thing, in all it’s cringey, kinda bad, earnest glory.

This felt like the “real” Kirk, a kind of hero that just doesn’t have the space to be (re)created in our present collective consciousness, who likes walking among nature and smelling pretty flowers and watching the sunset with his soulmate (platonic or romantic or both or whatever). It’s a little bit misguided, a little bit controversial, but it has heart, which I feel is also how Kirk has always been able to reflect Shatner at his best. I also like the ambiguity of how exactly it was that they were reunited. That’s best left to interpretation I think.

And I guess I’m glad that there’s a version of them that were together at the end and is a little closer to the mainstream than my favourite fics on ao3.

[twinstxrs]

there’s something so personal about the scene in fantasy high s1e7 where gorgug calls himself stupid & fabian, who up to that point had basically entirely been acting like the bad kids (especially gorgug) were beneath him & had also been the one calling ragh stupid two lines ago, instantly says “okay, do not put yourself down like that. don’t you dare do that to yourself.” like it was obvious he liked the bad kids at that point but the instinct to protect his friends manifesting as an immediate strong refusal of gorgug’s self-deprecating talk kills me. that boy loves his friends so bad oh my god i feel sick.

[hyakunana]

"Your people need their heroes."

Their heroes:

[kirkscarr]

so yall i am currently custom binding my first fanfic and it’s occurring to me!!!

i need to send my document out to get printed!!!

i’ve decided to just…suck it up and accept that some random minimum wage employee is 100% gonna at least REALIZE i’m printing well over 300 pages of fanfiction 😭😭😭

[mothdogs]

I love this simple shot from The Naked Time 🥰

[slayanyhivegodslately]

CIRCLE SQUARE TRIANGLE CONE CYLINDER PYRAMID CUBE AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[crispy0nion]

oh??? my god???? slenderman warlock armor?????