#i can see the change when they're like. oh. i get it. Spock

[romulancider]

oh. i understand the hype about next gen now.

Data,

[muirmarie]

👀👀 mcspirk jealousy 👀👀

So there's a prompt for mcspirk month (yes that was march, idc <3 lol) that was "Jealous Bones," and I don't always love jealousy storylines, so I was trying to think how I'd want to do it. And I was thinking that the funniest way that I'd want to write it, is established spirk, where McCoy isn't jealous of Kirk and Spock being together, BUT he acts like a territorial, jealous boyfriend anytime anyone else flirts with one of them?

He's not pining. He's actually out here flirting with other people all the time! Which makes it even weirder for other people, tbh. He's out here flirting with the beautiful princess, and then her brother the prince flirts with Spock, and McCoy shuts it down SO hard and is SO territorial, and then turns back to the princess and is like, sorry, Spock's taken by my bestie, anyway let's go back to flirting! Like this is normal human behavior <3

Now, importantly: Spock and Kirk are such codependent nightmares that they also don't see anything wrong with this. They're just like, yeah, Bones get super jealous if anyone flirts with us, and other people are like oh, I didn't realize you were dating Dr. McCoy!, and Spock and Kirk are like, we're not <3, and the other people just stare at them, flummoxed.

It starts to come to a head when McCoy is noticeably not jealous at one point, either because he's too involved in his own flirting, or something else, and it bothers Kirk and Spock so much that they're like????? Why don't you care about us anymore????????

there's also a McCoy/Uhura/Scotty friends with benefits subplot (unless I cut it, I'm not sure if it's steering the story too far another way), where they have to be like, "Leonard, we're actively sleeping with you, and you don't act jealous of us at ALL, can you try to put the pieces together, maybe?"

______________

“The Andorian Commander seemed to take a shine to Spock,” Kirk says. There's something in his voice that McCoy can't place, but to be fair, he's a little too distracted to focus on it right now.

“He does have that effect on people,” McCoy says. “At least, people who've had recent brain damage.”

“Ha,” Kirk says. “Thought I was going to have to get a crowbar to pry him off.”

“He was...persistent,” Spock allows, his gaze weirdly—weirdly heavy on McCoy's face.

“I guess you're just too charming for your own good,” McCoy says. He's trying for light, but the smile doesn't seem to want to lay flat on his face.

“You disappeared for a while there,” Kirk says, the change of subject abrupt.

“It's a party, I've been reliably told one is supposed to mingle,” McCoy says. He frowns a little, looking between the pair of them. “Everything okay?”

“That's what I'm trying to ask you!”

[calliecat93]

I just need to say it, everything with Kirk and McCoy in The Man Trap is pure perfection. The first five or so minutes is just beautiful because of Kirk's reactions alone. Look at that big smile on his face while McCoy is freaking out about meeting his ex again. I get the feeling that McCoy really doesn't like to talk about his past relationships as much as possible, so for Kirk this is a golden opportunity to see this side of the doctor. His whole reaction when he finds out the 'plum' nickname? The earlier scene where he offers McCoy the weeds to present to Nancy like the little snot he is? Oh God Kirk, I love you~

But of course we can't just have Kirk being a dork and McCoy being... well also a dork now, can we?

A crewman dies and McCoy can't figure out why or how, only ruling out that it was due to poisonous plants. Kirk is already upset that one of his men died on his watch, but then McCoy decides to start talking about how Nancy looked exactly as he saw her when they first met. We know that McCoy is talking literally because that is what he saw and is worrying that his vision is playing tricks on him. Kirk, who saw Nancy as she would have looked, gets pissed and yells at him to figure out what the Hell killed one of his men. The screencaps can't do it justice, but just look at them.

McCoy's demeanor changes completely. You know how me pretty much shut up after Kirk snapped at him in The Corbomite Manuver until they finally made some headway on the situation? It's happening again, with McCoy only able to let out a meek 'yes sir' and this time he didn't even mean to do anything. It's pretty crazy to see the guy who up to this point has never had any issue speaking up just withdrawal because he made Kirk angry, and like I said, we already saw it happen once. Kirk means so much to him, and knowing that he upset him really hits him hard. Even later, when McCoy's figured it out, you can tell that he still feels nervous and guilty. He's not at ease at all and uses 'sir' when addressing Kirk and feeling bad for seemingly messing up again.

But of course, Kirk picks up on that. Kirk was frustrated and is already over it, even using 'Bones' to signal to him that it's alright. He even offers an apology, but McCoy doesn't take it since he feels at fault too for swooning like he did. Again, like in The Corbomite Maneuver, whatever tension arises when the two argue, it doesn't last. They apologize, acknowledge their one fault, and move on. Kirk gets snappy again when they're planet-side, but that's because McCoy is freaking out about Nancy missing and Kirk doesn't want them on the planet where who knows what can kill them. And even then once they're back up, he just tells McCoy to go and rest. He may not be happy with him, but he knows that this is hard for McCoy and is at least trying to be courteous to him and his feelings.

Then of course we have the ending where Kirk goes to confront 'Nancy'. Part of me kind of wishes we saw what happened before that. They pieced together that the creature was gonna head for McCoy, so I can only imagine how freaked out Jim got over if he was even alive at that point. But alas, that's only for us to wonder about...

McCoy, not knowing what the Hell is happening, actually fights Kirk and gets physical, even ripping his phaser away from him. At that point, he's frozen, even as Nancy has Kirk cornered and is about to kill him. Even Spock rushing in, trying to rip the phaser away and outright yelling at McCoy to do something and that it's a fake does nothing except upset him more. To him, despite clearly seeing that something is very, very wrong, he can't do it. It's still Nancy to him. How can he just kill someone he still has feelings for like that. Not even the creature's true form is enough.

What finally gets him to pull the trigger?

Kirk screaming in agony. Like I said, McCoy cares about Kirk so much. Despite the struggle they had just a minute ago, McCoy could never hurt Kirk and not feel utterly horrible about it. Nor can he stand to see anyone else hurt him. The Enemy Within has him getting testy with Spock when he both points out Kirk's slipping command ability and when he's willing to merge the Kirk's back even though it could kill him. So here, hearing Jim screaming in pain as he's being killed right before his eyes, it's what finally pushes McCoy to fire the phaser. Even the creature trying the Nancy trick again does nothing but make him feel worse for what he's about to do, and he kills it for good. All that Kirk, having never wanted McCoy to be hurt like this, can do is tell him that he's sorry

And of course it hurts. No one wanted it to come to this. It's just multiple senseless losses of life. But especially for McCoy, learning that Nancy died long ago and that he nearly allowed Kirk to be killed... well, that's gonna weigh on him for a while. Sadly, whatever happened between the two after this is in the realm of fanon. Obviously neither one are going to blame each other for how they acted, but it doesn't change the fact that to McCoy, because of his foolishness, he almost let his closest friend die while he just stood there. Nor does it change the fact that this is going to hurt him for a while, and if he's unwilling to open up, there's really nothing that Kirk can do to help even though he would in a heartbeat.

It's just sad in the end and feels like there's no real closure to anything. But I do think that it shows that no matter what, no matter if they get upset with one another or hesitate or whatever else, Kirk and McCoy care about each other a lot. Kirk was pretty hard on him in the episode, but he realized that and didn't hold it against him at the end of the day. Even with what happened in the end, I don't think he's upset or angry at McCoy's hesitance, just feels horrible that on some level he put him into it to begin with. And McCoy... well, how he feels should be obvious. But despite all of that, he still chose to protect Kirk, even if that meant killing the woman he had loved so long ago. That's how devoted he is to Jim.

[lieutenantselnia]

I wanted to make a May the 4th post dedicated to my Star Wars f/os yesterday, but I gotta be honest I just did not have the energy ._. So I'm just gonna do it now though!

I never really talked much about my Star Wars f/os on here because despite having 5 of them (maybe more if you count platonics), they're all secondary f/os and I hardly find the time to dedicate art or writing to them. They still mean a lot to me though and I think they're wonderful and interesting characters, so here they are💕

First up, Grand Admiral Thrawn/Mitth'raw'nuruodo, I first got to know him properly through Rebels (I knew he had existed in the Legends universe before already but didn't particularly care about him) and not going to lie, for a while I found him really annoying. He seemed very arrogant to me and I didn't get how he could always be a step ahead of the rebels, but I learned to understand and appreciate him, and somehow I fell in love with him eventually. At the time he was probably the strongest fictional crush I ever had (this man literally made me question my asexuality at some point - I didn't know that micro-labels like grey-, demi- or fictosexual were a thing back then). I didn't know about the existence of a self ship community back then, but in my head I shipped a character that was basically myself with him (with a few changes of course, like I was 16 at the time but my s/i was obviously a grown adult, the story I had in mind for her wouldn't have made sense otherwise anyway). I also started writing character x reader fanfictions about him! I finished a few one-shots, but the only multi-chapter story I started has unfortunately been laying around abandoned for a few years. I still kind of want to write an ending for it one day, but I don't know when that will happen. I struggled with my feelings for Thrawn after some uncomfortable experience with a former acquaintance in the Star Wars community, but as this is luckily in the past and maybe I can reconnect with him some day (In the meantime I'd love to meet other Thrawn shippers who are comfortable sharing him!). Regardless of that my love for him has had a significant influence on me, because without him I would've probably never made my art instagram account (the first social media account I made aside my personal insta account that I never use) and wouldn't have met many of my wonderful online friends.

Next up, Admiral Ar'alani, she's gorgeous and at least partially responsible for my bi awakening. I mean just look at her! Due to being a book character she's probably kind of underrated and less well known, I'd love to see an animated series about her and the crew of the Steadfast! I loved her in the Thrawn trilogy, I still have to read the Ascendancy trilogy though.

Commodore Karyn Faro probably wins the price for the most underrated f/o among them (also F in the chat for her for having literally 2 canonical depictions in a comic and no other visual reference, that's why I had to choose a slightly silly picture for her). I loved reading from her perspective in the Thrawn trilogy and I always enjoyed her dynamic with him too. Despite having her as an f/o I also ship her with Ar'alani, I think they'd make a cute couple. At the moment her canonical fate is pretty much unknown (I don't think it was ever made clear whether she left the Chimaera to transfer to her own fleet before Thrawn left for Lothal or not?), but although it is unlikely I personally wish that she'd also somehow end up with the Chiss like Eli did and get a happy ending with them.

Tech was just a very relatable character for me, and I knew I'd like him pretty much from the start. I always had a weak spot for this slightly nerdy scientist type of characters (namely Kowalski from TPoM and Mr. Spock from Star Trek TOS), I just never really f/o'd any of them before since I was like 8 years old or so at the time I was obsessed with them. But oh I had so much fun watching Tech, and his quote "I may process moments and thoughts differently, but it does not mean that I feel any less than you"? That hit right in the heart especially since I could relate so much to it. Also he must still be alive, I don't accept that he's gone no matter what the canon says.

Last but not least, I think General Grievous/Qymaen jai Sheelal was actually my second proper fictional crush, but for some reason it took me until last year to properly admit to it? I don't know, apparently 13 year old me was unconsciously in denial about being a monster lover, or just somehow unaware that I could just ship myself or an oc with him and didn't have to pick one of the canon characters. He's a character I'd actually love to come back some time, it's mainly that I'm too focused on my other f/os at the moment, but I think he deserves more love (yes I know he's kind of horrible too, but I think horrible fictional guys can still be loved and cherished).

Anyway this got longer than I anticipated, but at least you have an introduction to some of my secondary f/os now I guess. Anyways I hope you all had a happy Star Wars day, and who knows, maybe some of these guys here will make an appearance on my blog again in the future <3

[ihavetoomuchhomeworkforthis]

So I found this on Google, and I accidentally ended up having a megabrainstorm session with my dad about if Vulcans were actually photosynthetic, or really just how photosynthetic humanoids would work in general and how they'd function on a Starfleet ship? It was more like me ranting excitedly at my dad for a few minutes, but there were some cool ideas in there. (I mean I think they're cool, hopefully you guys do too)

Warning: EXTREMELY long (and nerdy) bullet point list follows under the cut

green skin because chlorophyll

possibly even leafy skin, which might end up looking more like scales, but with patches of softer more leaf-like areas where we'd have more body fat and/or body hair

(they can still have that Vulcan hair though, since it's sort of a defining trait/style of the species in Star trek)

This means they have to absorb sunlight through their skin, and convert it into energy in the form of glucose, like trees

Therefore they'd have to have glucose (not copper) based blood (but the melting point of sugar is really high? Hadn't quite worked that part out)

Their blood would be white then? Amber, like tree sap. Wait actually don't some flowers/green stemmed things have white sap in the stems? (Maybe their blood would change from white to amber as they age? I know flowers aren't younger versions of trees, but it would be cool)

and they'd have to drink water just as much as humans because plants need water (as Chekhov is panicking about) but maybe since Chekhov is worried about "watering" spock, their hair can function like roots or something to soak up extra water as well. Idk if it rains much on Vulcan but when it did they'd all be going outside like the worms do on Earth lol

They wouldn't really have to eat if sunlight is their primary energy source. Their mouth would be just for water, breathing, and speaking. In which case they'd have ALL different organ systems, seeing as our digestive system takes up a good chunk of space in the torso, what would they fill it with? Being humanoid, they'd still need lungs, as well as a heart to circulate the (glucose based?) blood. They can still have a liver as a toxin filter and whatever else livers do (trees have to deal with not-so-clean water, so the photosynthetic Vulcans could probably deal with pretty muddy/questionable water as well. And maybe that connects to a very basic digestive system (liver-filters > short and singular intestine > rectum) which is mostly just for getting rid of the mud (yes, pooping.) And the liver can also deal with dusty/sandy air probably. Oh they might not need to eat (maybe even CAN'T eat since they wouldn't need or have the organs to deal with it) but they could drink liquids other than water, and it might be helpful/necessary to drink sugary fruit drinks if it's been cloudy for a few days, because humanoids expend a LOT more energy than plants probably do. They probably have a "stomach" which acts as a storage and distribution-into-bloodstream area for water and sugar, a little like how a camel's hump works, so it might not only be "OMG did anyone water Spock today!?" But also "OMG Spock fainted, somebody get him fruit juice!" *frantic running to the mess hall* *20 ccs of sugar* "I told you to drink more sugary stuff, our artificial light here just can't give you as much energy as your THREE ENTIRE SUNS back home, you ****ing idiotic hobgoblin!" *definitely not crying over Spock's wellbeing*

Idk what would make up the rest of their torso since they don't need as much space for organs. Heart, lungs, liver, one intestine + waste management, storage stomach, and the rest of ours is primarily taken over by about 15 feet of scrunched intestines, so maybe for them it's all leg, or they could maybe have a redundant extra pair of lungs, and/or another heart, especially to lessen the workload since tree sap is significantly thicker than human blood? Or maybe all the water would thin it out? Or one heart is more connected to the skin where they absorb light energy and cycles the glucose-based blood (which goes from white to amber as they grow up) and the other heart connects more to the water/fruit juice storage stomach and cycles water as well as somehow sends old water off to get peed out? And they should also have an organ that somehow counters sunburn and helps then deal with their world's elevated levels of radiation.

So: two pairs of lungs (for no real reason), two hearts (and two circulatory systems?), one for water and one that's more for the nutrients of glucose from sunlight, a storage stomach, a liver, an organ that deals with radiation and sunburn, a short intestine for the undrinkable parts of potentially muddy/contaminated water, the rectum to poop out the mud, the kidneys/bladder/urinary system for old water, and I think that's it.

I've been occasionally researching (googling) during the process of writing this, and I found that trees actually do have 2 different kinds of sap! Phloem is the "more nutrient rich form, and flows from the leaves bringing sugars and hormones to nutrient-hungry parts of the plant," while Xylem "consists mostly of water" so it's perfectly reasonable for them to have 2 hearts, one for each kind!

But how can we design starships to be more Vulcan-friendly then, if they need so much light? Well first of all, having sugar as an option for hyposprays in the medbay/sickbay, as well as plenty of sugary drinks available in the replicators, and the sugary fruit drinks shouldn't "cost" as much in rations since the Vulcans sort of need it as much as they need water when they aren't able to access direct sunlight. Speaking of which, all the hallways should have strips of light off to the side (one on the floor and another shining down from the ceiling above it) that the Vulcan crewmembers can walk through, and there should be a solarium room which does its best to replicate at least the lighting and radiation conditions of Vulcan (the planet). This solarium should have the light panels be able to slide away to reveal actual windows, and starships with any Vulcans in their crew should be required to spend a minimum amount of time every so often in orbit of an actual sun or star system so that the Vulcans can have genuine sunlight. It would be really funny if Spock just had a spotlight that follows him around like Olaf's snow cloud in Frozen, but it would be more practical if his station on the bridge just had extra light panels which are positioned in some way so as not to shine in his eyes. Also, this photosynthesis sort of depends on their skin actually being exposed to light, so the uniform would probably be modified for Vulcans to be short sleeves and shorts despite how weird that would be, or it would be designed like tinted glass somehow, or... some other way of letting the light in without being immodest, idk

And now for a very important question: some trees are deciduous, yes? Oh dang it I just googled whether Vulcan has seasons and the answer was no. Scrolling down pointed out that Vulcan is a desert planet and so they'd naturally be able to go without water for longer periods of time than humans. That second one is okay, that's why they have a water storage organ sort of like camels, and I guess maybe they wouldn't need so much water after all. More like cacti than trees. But the no axis tilt / no seasons thing sort of cancels out what I was about to write :(

I'll write it anyway. Let's pretend for a second that Vulcan has seasons, because this whole thing can really apply to "photosynthetic humanoids" in general, not just photosynthetic Vulcans in particular. So, I was about to talk about deciduous trees :) When the seasons shift towards winter, the sunlight is weaker, trees go red before losing their leaves and sort of hibernating, right? Well what if Vulcans start going pale, then yellowy, and eventually taking on a pale reddish hue, and since they can't lose their skin to conserve energy, they consume as much sugar/fruit juice as they can over a period of a few weeks, before going into hibernation like bears?

This means that your Vulcan crewmate is kind of useless for at least a quarter of every year, which isn't really a problem unless they're a senior officer, but if they ARE a senior officer, they better have an apprentice or someone who can cover for them while they hibernate. Maybe another Vulcan from the opposite side of the planet, who would naturally hibernate during the opposite half of the year.

Would this Vulcan and their opposite-side-of-the-planet counterpart be best friends, or bitter rivals? Who knows!

Now, starships do not actually have seasons, so the hibernation cycle wouldn't be technically necessary. The Vulcan has two options: either slowly adjust to the year-round availability of sunlight over a period of multiple years so that they don't have to abandon their crew for a few months out of every year (and be SEVERELY messed up if they ever retire and go back to the hypothetical version of Vulcan which has seasons), OR, make sure that the availability of light mimics the seasonal cycle of pretend-Vulcan-with-seasons so that they can have their hibernation cycle properly. (Clearly the better option if they aren't a senior officer, especially if they don't plan to spend the rest of their life on the ship.)

Also it would be really cute to see what kind of pillow fort nest Spock would probably end up making in his quarters to hibernate in. I wonder if they'd visit him.

DO NOT WAKE THE HIBERNATING SPOCK. Google says waking up an animal from hibernation too early can have fatal consequences. On the other hand, it also said bears can wake themselves up immediately to protect cubs if necessary or if they're startled awake, so maybe he can respond to red alerts. However going based off the first point, it might be necessary to completely soundproof his quarters and make sure he remains undisturbed. And yet another possibility is that photosynthetic Vulcans wouldn't need to hibernate at all if they come from a part of the planet which is mostly friendly year-round (which would technically be true, since it doesn't actually have seasons at all, and they would choose to have civilizations in the most habitable areas. Maybe civilizations closer to the poles would have Vulcans that are naturally paler or more reddish, like how the Aenar on the Andorian homeworld are blind and paler.)

Animals coming out of hibernation can have lost up to 30% of their body weight (over a QUARTER), so Vulcans coming out of hibernation would look so sick and weak, and they'd probably take a while to get their full green color back, and the more soft leafy areas of higher body fat would have shriveled into just the small scale-like leaves that make up the majority of their skin, and their uniforms would be all baggy on them, and the human crew would probably be so so so worried for them, especially the first few hibernation cycles

*Spock stumbles onto the bridge for the first time in several months, pale orange-red and extremely skinny* "Oh my god, Spock!" (overjoyed at his return) -- "Oh my god Spock you look like crap, are you alright?" (softer and full of concern upon actually noticing what he looks like) -- "This is perfectly normal, I'll be fine, you need me on du-" *faints*

[thegeminisage]

for never have i ever: amnesia?

HIII thank you both <333

never have i ever written amnesia, believe it or not, even though i'm a HUGE fan, as in, it's my number one bestie. actually, no, i sort of have to take that back...i've lowkey written amnesia INTO larger stuff, but never an amnesia fic on its own. so there's been: a couple of da kmeme fills with fenris who has amnesia (they're lost to the sands of time now), ben originally had amnesia during his djinn dream in @cambionverse (but it got cut and revised), and i wrote derek as having amnesia about his encounters with jennifer in anchor. but not an Actual Amnesia Fic. every time i try to think about how i'd want to do it i sort of...blank out? there's so many ways to do it i get too excited and want to do all of them at once and then something else comes along and grabs my attention. i can't tell you how many times i tried to toss around a leverage amnesia fic and just couldn't settle anywhere.

so, just off the top of my head, as a thought experiment...i'd want it to be trek because that's what i'm into rn. i actually started to formulate this as a generations fixit (kirk in the nexus can't remember his old life/that he died/something something + spock and bones pull him out) but there's a small, small, SMALL chance i might ACTUALLY write a generations fixit (sans amnesia, sadly) so i don't want to do it here and accidentally make myself less likely to do it fr in the future.

my second choice is kira/odo because i have been thinking about them nonstop for a WEEK, possibly longer. since you can't have amnesia without brainwashing, i would have odo get mindwiped and carted back to the founders or whatever. and since it's my fic and i can do what i want odo remembers like, ds9's weak points and security routines but he doesn't remember any of the people or being friends with them. so he's like helping the bad guys do evil bad guy stuff or whatever and then when the good guys are almost beat they board the defiant and he and kira are fighting until she says something important and just as she's about to go down for good he oh my fucking god i'm just rewriting the winter soldier. god damn it. maybe this is the real reason i've ever done an amnesia fic. embarrassing. winter soldier wasn't the thing that introduced me to a love of brainwashed amnesiac assassins but it is the thing that made me crazy about them. ANYWAY. let me try again.

so odo gets his memories wiped so he'll return to that great collective or whatever. and he learns what it means to Be A Changeling. he can perfect the human face like that other evil changeling that i hate. so he doesn't look like odo anymore when he changes into a humanoid form, but also he doesn't do that because THEY only did that to communicate with him and kira, so he doesn't even NEED a humanoid form. and he's like yay im so happy here i love being a changeling :) except when somebody stumbles onto their asteroid or he needs to open a door or whatever requires a humanoid form...he just winds up becoming kira. and maybe he catches sight of his/kira's face in the reflection on the water or something and is like Whoa...who is That and that other changeling lady is like dw about it come back to the goop so he does but he also keeps insisting he can't have made that form w/o seeing her and he wants to know where. and since he's got such a good sixth sense about solving unsolved mysteries he solves his own mystery of who he is and how he got there. meanwhile the ds9 gang are searching EVERYWHEREEE for him and when they finally go check the asteroid odo goes out to meet them in kiraform and is very surprised to see. kira. and everybody else is like who tf is this why is this changeling pretending to be kira but kira knows Right Away it HAS to be odo and so they recognize each other even when they aren't able to recognize each other, which is basically the same thing that happened when they met. and odo either intimidates that other changeling into giving his memories back or he remembers on his own and they leave together and live happily ever after.

WHEW. you guys thought you were throwing me softballs but i was sweating bullets over that thing. kiraodo winter soldier au would be fun as hell though don't lie

[ASK MEME]

[marley-manson]

Hmm for the tropes: prophetic visions, sharing a bed, and characters who used to date getting back together? 🤔

Thank you!!

prophetic visions

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

I don't generally like prophecies played straight, but I do enjoy a misleading vision that leads to a self-fulfilled prophecy, or the character being able to change the future they see, that kind of thing. And it can be a good source of angst if it's a dark vision.

sharing a bed

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

I'm pretty neutral on this one, but it's definitely elevated when it's characters with negative tension (again enemies, rivals, or ascerbic friends) being forced to share a bed. Like, a much better trope with Spock/McCoy than Kirk/Spock, imo.

characters who used to date getting back together

No | rather not | I dunno | I guess | Sure | Yes | FUCK yes | Oh god you don’t even know |

This is definitely one of my favorite tropes, especially if they're enemies with bitter ex energy. Cherik, Doctor/Master, griffguts frankly, absolutely solid dynamic every time. Even if they aren't enemies a temporary break up makes things jucier. Like that TMP Kirk/Spock vibe. And it's def one reason I'm into post-canon Hawk/Trapper.

Send me a Trope and I’ll rate it!

[anonymousewrites]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I just love how you portray the relationships in Logos and Pathos. Not just Spock and Y/Ns mutual respect, admiration and security in each other and the development into love and the subtle shifts in their interactions that come with the knowledge that they are in love but the friendships with the crew!! Do many stories focus only on the romantic pairing and while it may be the purpose of the story it can be disappointing when it makes it seem as if people undervalue friendships in comparison. But your writing conveys such genuine love from each character FOR each character that I can't help but smile when reading it! The characters also seem to all have slight differences in their friendships with Y/N so I admire the effort and dedication put in to write it that way!

I also love/find it hilarious (in a non condescending way) how everyone thinks Y/N is attractive.

The stories seem so welcoming and comforting which I really love! I also appreciate how Y/N is useful and seen as an important part of the crew (and is) without being OP, they're allowed flaws and to not be always perfect or strong and it shows how fleshed out the character is. Speaking of, the fact that Y/Ns softness - though not always advantageous - is not seen as a weakness but rather a strength of a different kind is so awesome, no one would want them to change and no one discredits them or their kindness. In the same breath, they're not a push over. It's a well written and plausible balance of characteristics that don't come off as opposing or suddenly switching with the story.

(also love how Spock accepts how down bad he is, it doesn't unnecessarily draw out angst and drama, even tho he had his moment of disbelief at feeling things for someone he has fully accepted them and I feel it's really in tune with his character)

Love it!!

Thank you so much for the remarks! I absolutely loved reading your thoughts!

Yes, I really like slow burns, and I like to build up friendship to show how people have a bond before any romance. I also like to keep up friendships with other characters because I like having a side thing of found family. Uhura and MC are besties, Chekov is a young brother, Kirk is the sibling always getting in trouble, etc. I think it's fun.

And I'm glad that the MC is seen as useful. I try to balance their psychic abilities and prowess with normal human error and weaknesses. They're kind but in a strong way, and I'm glad that's clear. I work really hard to try to make my characters fairly balanced and interesting, so to know it's working is really good.

Finally, yes, Spock is completely head-over-heels in love with MC, and he knows it and accepts it. Spock is a big softie, and he is caring. That's one of the biggest things I noticed about TOS: Spock is actually really soft with his friends, even if he hides it behind logic. I really enjoy characterizing him as such. (Also, I always laugh in my head when I imagine other Vulcans seeing him and several being like "Oh my Surak. What a simp." I may or may not have one Vulcan immediately clue in).

[straightfacedstrangeness]

So you know in the Transformers movies, Sentinel Prime is the big bad guy that betrayed the transformers and does all that bad stuff.

The funny thing is in Gen 1, Sentinel Prime was a very minor character and by all accounts, was a nice & benevolent warhero whom was murdered in cold blood by Megatron when he ended the Golden Age of Cybertron before the events of the series.

Sentinel also wasn't named at first, being simply described as the previous prime in his first appearance in Marvel comics & "U-Haul robot" in the sunbow cartoon which featured him, though a later issue of the marvel comics said the previous Prime was named Sentinel.

I think his funniest death was in the Dreamwave comics, where Sentinel was invited to Megatron to a "Peace Summit" & against Orion's advice, arrived there unarmed where Megatron promptly tortured him to death. In his only appearance, all we see is a disembodied orange hand on the floor, implying the rest of him was too gruesome to show.

Anyhow, whenever a newer Transformer media wanted to depict an autobot in a negative light, Hasbro would intervene & force them to change the character to "Sentinel Prime". For example, the character in the Bay Movie, Dark of the Moon, was originally Alpha Trion.

Hasbro is a toy company and they're worried people won't buy characters like Ultra Magnus, Rodimus, Alpha Trion and such if they're depicted as mean or evil in a different continuity.

All in the plus side for Sentinel Prime, this means he's finally getting toys unlike his earlier heroic incarnations, even if they can never decide on a consistent appearance!

Oh, that's interesting that Hasbro intervened and insisted that the character in Dark Of The Moon should be Sentinel Prime. Before I got to that part of your ask, I was thinking it was a smart choice to use him in that role because viewers familiar with the character's history would immediately think of him as a tragic war hero and then be more surprised by the reveal that he was working with Megatron. (And adult viewers who DON'T know his history immediately like and trust him because he's voiced by Mr. Spock 😂)

[eremji]

Fic Questions Meme

How do you come up with the titles for your fics?

Is there anything worse than writing a title? Can I interest you in an action scene instead?

2. Any of your stories inspired by personal experience?

cw: abuse (and the fic itself addresses pretty dark shit)

each lovely phrase (E) - Outlast - Eddie Gluskin/Waylon Park.

This is a weird vehicle for it, but this was written in part after my experience losing my abusive father to terminal illnesses without receiving any kind of resolution to my grief and anger. My situation was nowhere near as severe as the POV character's – my experience was entirely verbal/psychological mistreatment – and the fic wasn't intended to be a mirror of reality, but the rage and grief I felt definitely informed the POV character's pretty heavily.

3. What character do you identify with most?

I didn't have an answer to questions like this for a long time, but Kim Wexler from Better Call Saul is probably the closest I've ever come to wholly seeing myself in a character. She's a small town escapee with big ambitions, where her choices early in her life led her to some toxic and morally grey situations. There are innate tensions between competing goals – her desire to do something genuinely good, her desire to make all her work worthwhile by being intensely career oriented, and her desire to get one over on the people who have made her life harder – that really resonate with my early adult experience.

4. If you wrote a sequel to any of your published fics, what would it be about?

I'm satisfied with all of the currently published fics as they stand, actually; if I felt like something warranted a sequel or epilogue I generally wrote it directly after the first thing and posted it.

5. How would you describe your style?

I don't actually know how to answer this; I lack the technical vocabulary to define it. I'm sure someone has an answer, looking at my fic externally, but all I try to do is climb as far into a character's head as possible. Sometimes canon makes this easier; sometimes a film, a tv show, or a piece of written fiction has a very distinct voice to it, either in diction or visually, so its easy to match. Otherwise, I tend to do some exploratory writing from a character's POV to see if I can hit on something that makes me feel good.

6. Do you have a guilty pleasure in fic (reading or writing)?

I don't actually believe in guilty pleasures when reading/writing, because its fiction! It isn't real! I'm unabashedly a monsterlover, robot fucker, dubious consent supporter, villain/hero shipper, and a whole mess of other things.

7. What's the angstiest idea you've ever come up with?

I have a half-written fic rotting in my drafts folder where one of the main characters is dead from the start (they eventually get better, see my addendum to MCD fics in question 16 later on) and the whole thing is just a wild ride through grief and love, and not in any fandom or for any pairing you'd probably expect looking at either my reading or writing history.

8. What's the weirdest AU you've ever come up with?

I desperately wanted to write the Dinotopia!AU for SteveBucky where Bucky was a Skybax rider and Steve was a scholar but I couldn't figure out a good plot for the premise.

9. Got any premises on the back burner that you'd care to share?

I have an Inception fic due for a rewrite that was started based off a bunch of dreams I'd actually had, but the plot has changed (it actually has one instead of being a series of set pieces) so I need to restructure it.

10. Is there a fic you wish someone else would write (or finish) for you?

I have a few pages of a ST (AOS) WIP that's dom!Spock/mouthy sub!Kirk that explores D/s dynamics in the vein of Spock's enjoyment of having control (after feeling out of control compared to other Vulcans) and Kirk's unresolved issues with authority. Oh – and the entirety of the AOS plot after Kirk's disciplinary hearing doesn't happen, they're still at the Academy, and instead of punting Kirk they assign him to Spock under probation and Spock is actively one of Kirk's professors.

11. How do you begin a story--with the plot, or the characters?

Characters, by asking if there's any story there I'd want to tell for them in the first place. Sometimes that doesn't come along right away, but usually I can cook up a premise. Then it's seeing if I like it enough that I can get a plot up and running.

12. Are you what George R. R. Martin would call an "architect" or a "gardener"? (How much do you plan in advance, versus letting the story unfold as you go?)

Bigtime gardener. Sometimes I plant things that don't ever grow or need to be heavily pruned, but largely I don't write in order OR plot in order. Sometimes I write two scenes on opposite sides of the fic one right after another and use the results of the later scene to fill in the middle.

13. Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Robert E. Howard is unquestionably at the top, outstripping any competition by miles.

14. Any fandom tropes you can't resist?

I will make at least a cursory attempt to read any fuck or die fic no matter how much I dislike the writing style. That link will never be unclicked.

15. Any fandom tropes you can't stand?

SO many. I'm one of the pickier readers and both my kudos and bookmarks reflect it. Most in the form of AUs (coffee shop, college, domestic, etc.) are a hard pass for me, but it genuinely varies from fandom to fandom and even ship to ship within the same fandom. If I don't like something generally (i.e. omegaverse) there's almost always at least one very well-written exception to that somewhere.

16. Major character death--do you ever write/read it?

I've only read a handful of 'real' MCD fics. If the canon conceit is that death is actually temporary, I'll go in as long as the condition is guaranteed to be reversed in some way (rebirth, resurrection, reincarnation) for a happy ending. I have a couple sitting in the background that I hope I could turn into something really wrenching (with revival and happy endings!).

[justreckin]

Oh man I love the idea of them being Eve's parents so much!

Chris and Una have to have been Air Force though. Or she could be Air Force and he could be a Navy Pilot. It could be one of those things that these two snark at each other about on a regular basis. (Maybe Una still occasionally calls him Captain) And then Eve goes off and joins (probably) the Army and then NATO and her parents are just sitting there like well, guess we should've seen that one coming.

But maybe they don't talk about their military background around their daughter. I could see Chris being totally willing to have taken Una's name when they first got married, but when it comes time for them to leave the Library he's also the one to sit her down and go "honey, we need to hide." So they change their last name to Baird (because, let's be honest, there are way too many people who are 100% aware of the Librarian(s) names and you would absolutely have to hide that if you were able to retire)

And then Eve doesn't find out until they get the Library back. She never really got the chance to explore before it was gone, so once it's back she's taking her time wandering the halls and "holy shit, that's my parents! and holy holy shit, that's Spock!!" Flynn is, of course, flabbergasted and very very excited. Eve calls her mum and is just like "so... apparently we need to talk about this whole Library thing..." (it's a very awkward conversation. it happens at the Library. Jenkins loves Una, he's attentive in a way that might honestly scare the kids a bit. Eve gets that her parents couldn't tell her about the Library but she's still a little mad, very confused (because seriously, how much of her life is real), and also maybe a little worried that her mum's going to be upset that she's a Guardian, not Librarian. Flynn fan-girls the whole time. Jake and Cass are trying to figure out what's going on and who they should be siding with. Chris drags Ezekiel into the kitchen with him because bonding time with his youngest grandson.)

Spock and La'an can just pop in at random. Because, let's be real, La'an's not dealing with this drama and Spock has mold to look at.

On the not fun note, I'd say there's three possible prejudice routes to go with Una. Religious, immigrant, or minor medical thing (like maybe her visions not actually good enough to be a pilot, or her hearing was damaged during childhood and it's not really enough to be an issue in everyday life but would be an issue in the military). I'm most partial to her being an Italian immigrant (because I love that Eve speaks Italian, but I want to know why) or the hearing, and it was exacerbated by her military stint and then Librarian work and contributed to her and Chris retiring.

Also I love the idea of the kids just randomly being over at Chris and Una's house. They get a place in Portland because of the Annex and on any given day of the week if you can't find one of the kids it's even money they're on grandma and grandpa's couch.

Una would be the Librarian, Chris the Guardian.

[beyondthisdarkhouse]

@sisterreisaid made fun of Canadian coins incorrectly by saying they're named for Looney Toons. This is Incorrect. Let me show you the Correct way to make fun of Canadian money, because today I am an Arbiter of Taste apparently.

The coin on the left is a gold-coloured (brass plated) $1 coin. It has a common loon on it, so it's called the loonie. It was introduced in 1987. As it came out, Canada took our $1 bank notes out of circulation. It's a very common word—financial analysts talking about exchange rates discuss "the strength of the Loonie against the US dollar" (though you never say, like, "That cost me 50 loonies" unless you literally plunked down all those coins)

The coin on the right is the two-toned $2 coin introduced in 1996. People tried giving it lofty and dignified names, or dumb-but-clever names like the "twofer", but Yard Sard effect took over. "Toonies and loonies" is just too easy to say.

The fact that all change under $5 is in coins means you can end up with a really heavy change purse that isn't actually worth much. That and the fact that only our $20 bills are green makes going to America really weird because I get all these $1 bills and then think "Oh, my billfold has lots of green bills in it, I must have lots of money left," and really I just have $8.25.

There is a trick you can do where you heat the toonie up a lot to make its metals expand at different rates and them slam it really hard in the ground to make the brass core come out and then wear the silver rim on the necklace. I was in elementary school when the toonie came out so In my newly-appointed role as Queen of Some of Canada, I'm going to say my experiences are universal and declare this trick only cool to people whose life revolves around the game of Pogs.

So the actual correct way to make fun of the toonie is to put your thumb on the polar bear's head and rotate the coin 90 degrees clockwise so you can see the T-Rex, like this edit I stole off a guy on Twitter:

Another coin you can make fun of is the 2007 Remembrance quarter, the world's first colorized coin, which honestly did look a bit like the poppy was drawn on with a ballpoint pen.

That's not the reason you should make fun of it. For one, it's bad form to make fun of Remembrance stuff for being mawkish and amateur. You just don't do that. The amusing thing is not the art itself, but the audience; when it came out a US intelligence agent received this quarter in their change, and wrote a later-leaked report raising concerns that this coin represented Canada's devious plan to inveigle harmful nanotechnology into the ordinary lives of ordinary people. Which meant we needed to have a national campout and discuss the whole The Americans Are Onto Us situation, which was a good time remembered fondly.

The old $5 bills aren't being made anymore — all our bills are polymer-based now — but if you find an old one, you can turn Sir Wilfrid Laurier into Spock (which is frankly an improvement IMO). It might be technically illegal of you to deface currency or whatever, but it still counts as legal tender.

Finally, there is a persistent rumour that Canadian $100 bills smell faintly of maple. I don't know if it's true, but if anyone wants to send me a few of them I'll happily subject them to the sniff test.

[chikabika]

So like. I was on tumblr in 2012. Earlier, even.

I watched Supernatural, and BBC Sherlock, and Teen Wolf. In fact, I finally gave SPN a shot after three tries because the way tumblr talked about Destiel had me thinking they were actually dating. I asked google "when does Dean's boyfriend show up" and google said "Castiel shows up in Season 4" and I was like, great, let's watch 8 seasons in 3 weeks.

I've watched plenty of other things, but I think SPN, Sherlock, and Teen Wolf are the most relevant, because I remember fan spaces, I remember shipping, and I remember how show runners, writers, and actors treated fans and shipper fans. Teen Wolf capitalized on the Sterek ship, used it to win awards. BBC Sherlock teased a queer romance in the text of the show and then derided fans for thinking there could be anything between Sherlock and John Watson (nevermind that that ship is even older than Kirk/Spock). I know I was deep in the sauce, but before I stopped watching Supernatural, it felt like, yeah, maybe, in the last episode, there could be a confession. Or something. And I guess there was a confession, but we all know how Supernatural ended.

As a queer person, it has felt like, as each year has passed, it'll be this year that queer stories get told in a major show. There have been incredible strides in children's media, and of course there are queer characters in other tv and movies.

But something about Our Flag Means Death just. I don't know, it was hitting the same beats that I have seen in stuff like the shows above, and because I have seen the potential for queer romance in them, and been disappointed, I couldn't quite trust it. I have seen the same looks between two men, the intimacy, that Stede and Ed share, and been told "oh, but they're just friends, you're reading too much into it." And yes, obligatory disclaimer that friendships can change your life and caring looks and intimacy between friends should and does exist. If you knew me in person you'd know I invest strongly in my friendships.

The point is that I have seen "friend" used to cover up or deny queer relationships. I mean damn, we've all seen it, in media and history and modern tabloids. "Kristen Stewart and gal pal spend day on friendly outing". THEY'RE GAY! Star Trek TOS came out in the 60s, when homosexuality was illegal. Of course they weren't going to say anything about a queer romance between the two. But there are plenty of lines about their friendship. Spock says "Jim when I feel friendship for you, I feel ashamed." They are close, they touch, there are long gazes and heart eyes and held hands.

These are all things I was seeing and hearing in Our Flag Means Death, and it is why I was on the edge of my seat, unsure, untrusting, despite being reasonably sure that the shipping on tumblr was not just people latching on to some great "subtext".

In BBC Sherlock, there are plenty of characters who assume or insinuate or straight out claim a romantic relationship between Sherlock and John Watson. In a straight romance, those would be signs that there is something going on, and any denial from the characters comes with a wink-wink, nudge-nudge. There is a scene in OFMD in which Stede is asked/accused of sleeping with Ed. I could see it for what it was supposed to be-introducing the idea of a sexual component to their relationship in Stede's mind, making him ask himself if that's what he wants-and still the spectre of Sherlock, and Supernatural hung over me.

Teen Wolf even had queer characters, it felt that much more possible for two characters whose sexuality hadn't been established at the beginning to realize they had feelings for someone of the same gender. OFMD does not state Stede or Ed's sexuality from the get-go, we do not learn about relationships they might have had with other men, until the scene I just mentioned. And of course I know about matelotage and how queer pirates were, but does a showrunner? Do they even care?

And yes. They do. And it is a balm on an old wound.

Older men, falling in love, surrounded by other queers. Wow.

I have to rewatch this show, because I had my heart guarded the whole time. When Fleetwood Mac came on and Ed reached out with his boot, this show reached through the screen and punched me in the heart. I felt that excitement and longing, and delighted when the music and camera treated the delicate vulnerable awkward kiss with the moment it deserved.

I just.

This show means a lot to me, for these reasons, and it's also just a good show.

[fiadorable]

78 Great Things in Ghosts of Illyria (Part 2)

Strange New Worlds | Children of the Comet | Ghosts of Illyria Part 1 & Part 2 | Memento Mori | Spock Amok | Lift Us Where Suffering Cannot Reach | Serene Squall | The Elysian Kingdom | All Those Who Wander | A Quality of Mercy

Part One

40. And there's the first concrete clue about Number One's background and the fact that it is very secret - she does the wipe all cookies maneuver when she leaves the room

Enterprise hallways are NEVER empty which makes Number One's walk down to the transporter room extra creepy

i want to feel the radiance on my skin 😎

Hemmer, my man, what in the actual fuck. The planet's CORE?! Oh my god. Between him La'an 😂

Convenient plot phaser on the transporter console is convenient

Number One's badass walk down the hallway with Hemmer slung over her shoulder like a sack of Andorian potatoes

"I am arming us with knowledge."

Plasma Illyrian Circle of Friendship is the quickest way to ride out an ion storm in an insufficiently shielded library

Number One revealing her secret to M'Benga and Chapel is such a great scene. I love how M'Benga is initially suspicious and frustrated and sympathetic all at once and Chapel just takes it in stride and is like how do we make this work and Number One is crestfallen that she can't help her crewmates

Also Chapel being like how dare you suggest I quote Starfleet regulations at you, sir, in the middle of a medical crisis

La'An rising up from the biobed behind Chapel is so eerie - I feel like she would be the type to wake up during surgery

"You're a Starfleet doctor. There's always something."

"Starfleet is right about a lot of things, but not all of them. Not about us." 😭

The look of shame on her face when M'Benga is talking about prejudices and how she can't help but he would beg her if she could 😭😭😭

The ship recommending the warp containment field be reactivated. Like if anyone has time. Probably a good idea. If you want to, you know.

Number One being like ffs when the computer alerts about the containment field

Holy shit the first officer and chief of security are having a knockdown drag out in Engineering and they are both FEROCIOUS damn no thank you I will not be sparring with either of them

Gosh just A+ acting when La'An confronts Number One about being Illyrian

Number One's genetic modification CURES RADIATION AND CAN PASS ON TO ANOTHER PERSON 👀👀👀 (who else do I know who will be subjected to a large dose of radiation in the future?)

Creepy Illyrian library is creepy when another archive tube pops out at just the right moment

"La'An tried to jump into the warp core while the containment field was down," she said, like it was no big deal. 😂

Chapel being EXCELLENT at her job 😁

Ugh, that moment when Number One enters the ten forward room but before she reaches La'An's table she pauses and you can see she's visibly nervous and a little scared, but then by the time she sits down with La'An she's got the professional work shield and the professional friend shield back up

The lighting in this scene is also fantastic with the storm outside the window and the light from the center of the table illuminating their faces as they have one of the hardest conversations they've ever had as friends

Man, I really get the sense that Number One misses home as she's talking about how her people are different from Earth's augments.

"All I ever wanted, since I first saw the stars, was to join Starfleet"

Strawberries are their comfort food ♥

The mildly concerned but mostly curious look on Pike's face as Number One is confessing in the ready room. They're both so formal here at the beginning, with his hands on the desk and her standing at attention.

The way Pike's body language changes after she admits she is an Illyrian. He leans back, like he's disengaging from her, putting distance between them, (augment, monster), but it's actually because he's no longer worried about what she might say, he can stand down

The utter sincerity in her voice as she asks for her desire to join Starfleet be considered when going before the disciplinary panel

"I don't care where you come from. You're the best first officer in the fleet."

And here Pike leans forward again, but not back into the formal hands clasped on the table. He's got like his elbows on his knees and is looking up at her as she's looking down on him as he's like you're amazing, don't worry about anything and she's like I broke seven Federation laws just by waking up this morning, you walnut and it's great, that's the relationship

okay but her little pleased but don't show him how pleased she is at his defense of her smile

Bahahaha when Pike says before you go and she whips around with this look on her face like I knew it or maybe something else but it's just like, let's not forget to get that bug patched in the transporters and then she just slips back into command mode and is like yes, sir, that is absolutely a Thing I Can Handle

And now it's M'Benga's turn to confess to a stone cold Number One, and ugh, man, is that a whopper of a confession. And the parallel between their situations is really nice, too. They both admit to breaking regulations and both are told by their superior officers to screw regulations. Great acting.

M'Benga and Rukiya are so cute together. He's trying to so hard to walk the line between being a good dad and a good doctor.

Number One's happy little smile when she talks about Pike defending her and then the crushing fear that if she wasn't "one of the good ones" he wouldn't have been so quick to defend her, if he and Spock had returned to the ship to find everyone except her dead or incapacitated, would he still like her for being her? And she's right. She was right back in the ready room, too, when she said she was just doing her job because that's 100% true. But Pike is also right to an extent because according to the Federation in general it's implied they don't think an Illyrian would have just done their job in that crisis.

"Computer, delete log entry." Say it with me, kids, personal logs (cough blogs, social media cough) are not truly private.

Storytime

[thegeminisage]

now that we're almost halfway through tng (we're at the start of s4, so...close enough) i feel like it's time to do an updated ranking of tng characters favorite to least favorite. here is the previous ranking. this time it will be much harder.

data - this will never change, ever. he gets the most interesting episodes. he is the most interesting premise. he is the the man the myth the legend the moment. he is autistic. he is not less perfect than lore

wesley - i don't want to talk about it

tasha - GIRL I MISS YOU SO BAD COME BACK FOR MORE THAN ONE EPISODE. don't kiss any boys

worf and riker tie - this is going to sound crazy but worf reminds me so much of spock sometimes. because they both struggle to find their place in the world but they do find it on board the enterprise. i like howmad he gets and his strict code of ethics. also, i think what he did on the klingon planet is fucking crazy. i hope they come back to it someday

as for riker: poker king. down to clown. cool with deanna's hookups. how can u not love him. i wish he did more outrageous stuff it's like the best thing about him and they never utilize it. he and worf (e deanna) should kiss

guinan - we like basically never see her and know nothing about her but it's always really exciting when she's there. it's like oh we got guinan this ep! always something to look forward to.

beverly - in a shocking twist i've decided that beverly is currently my favorite alive woman cast regular. this was a contentious decision which may have been influenced by having very recently watched a beverly ep but here's the thing. when they give her a half-decent script she's fucking amazing. when they let her do stuff besides Be A Mom. like she's so brave at times, in a different way than bones was brave - she's afraid of dying in a way that he isn't, but she'll still put herself in danger to help others anyway. actually i've finally mostly stopped mentally comparing her to bones, an honor which pulaski never got. unfortunately we almost never get the Great version of beverly

deanna and geordi tie - i'm sorry women. deanna dropped several rankings because what made her so special to me (yelling at her horrible mother) was immediately backtracked like it didn't matter in the following episodes with her horrible mother. i still feel deep sympathy and solidarity, and also deep gayness, but most of the time when we get Deanna Episodes(tm) they're about her shitty mom being shitty or about some guy sexually harassing her and it's very sad. like i love deanna. this bums me out. please treat her eally niceys

as for geordi, they simply have given him no screentime to do anything cool. i think there's been a total of three really good geordi moments since my last post like this. he's cool but they just never do anything with him. also, i don't like whatever he had going on with that holodeck girlfriend

picard - well SOMEBODY had to be last. i definitely don't actively dislike him anymore, and in fact he has quite a few good moments, he just doesn't make me insane in the brain the way (for example) data or spock does.

look forward to another ranking in like season 7 probably.

[olderthannetfic]

I've been following the various conversations about fandom friendship for a while now and it's made me want to get up and actually put myself out there to make it happen for me. Do you have any tips for finding smaller local fan events? I mostly only know of the big nationally-known conventions like ComiCon and the PAX conventions.

--

Fanlore often lists the dinky slash con type ones. You may have to do some research to see what's still running and what's dead.

Escapade Con is one I attend, for example. (Los Angeles, partly online this year, end of April 2022, but usually around February.)

We're voting on panels right now. The proposed ones are things like:

Age Gap: The Ultimate Taboo

"With fandom reaching more mainstream audiences, a new Worst Trope has arisen: any pairing where one character is more than three years older than the other. (I can hear you laughing. Stop that.) Let's talk about how this came to be "the worst" of fanfic tropes, exchange horror stories about the attacks on people who write or read it, and brainstorm ways to deal with this kind of schism between "old" and "new" fandom communities."

Scales Are Sexy

First vampires, then werewolves, now... tentacled fish-men? What's appealing about the monstrously different, and what does this say about how the socially acceptable expression of sexual desire changes over time?

(Personally, I think last time's "Fantastic Bits and Where to Find Them" monsterfucking panel was a better title than this one, but hey.)

Old con panels can give you a sense of the con's vibe. Are they salty and funny? Are they a bit more gentle for the sensitive?

--

The very best success rate is a kind of con experience I haven't had in years. This is when the con is a small, fan-run one, the con is new (in its first 5 years, say), and you yourself are around college age with lots of other people that age also looking for new friends at the con.

The minute you go to a much older event or you're in a different phase of life, things feel harder. I know that feeling of being out of step with other people your age. Oh look, everyone got married 5 years ago, and now our lives have diverged. What do? etc.

This is not an insurmountable barrier, just an emotional pitfall to be aware of. You do have to put yourself out there a little more if it's a con of people who've known each other for 30 years.

--

The LJ era produced a bunch of cons, lots of them now gone. The Tumblr era also produced cons, but I'm not as familiar with them. No, I don't mean the hot mess that was Dashcon. I mean the little fan-run Sherlock cons and such. If you're in a big fandom, there might be a little con for your specific thing.

There's a very old Kirk/Spock con that's still running and an old Starsky/Hutch one. There are more recent Sherlock-focused ones. Looks like 221B Con is actually coming up on April 8th in Atlanta.

On the online end of things, there are cons like Fujocon that not only bring people together during the con but tend to funnel them to various discords after. If you like discord communities, attending events can be a way to find some.

--

For truly local and not $$$, I'd see what kind of geek meetups happen in the nearest big city. Some things, like the SCA, are more organized and easier to find. Fanfic-related meetups exist in some places, but not as consistently. Some people meet up to write their Yuletide fics together (in October/November). Sometimes, you can find meetups like that through some online fandom thing. Lolitas (people who wear that Japanese fashion) have meetups some places. So do anime nerds. If you don't find something fanfic-specific, you might find something for some flavor of geekdom you're into and/or that would have a good chance of members who also like fic.

Some of the oldschool geek subcultures and venues can be pretty white. (And that goes for the ones that make big protestations about social justice as much as for the ones that say nothing.) They're not necessarily bad, but it's just something to keep in mind if you haven't gone to geeky events in person before. Local anime meetups tend to be a little more ethnically diverse than the SCA in my experience.

One can always start some kind of meetup oneself. Meetup.com and Facebook seem to be the two big places people do it. It could be something like fanfic writers' club where you meet at a cafe to work on your stuff. (So if people don't show up much, you can at least work on your own stuff at said cafe.) Pick a place super convenient to you or a place that has some kind of geeky theme if there is one around.

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Of course, all of this is my perspective based on the US. It's going to be different if you're somewhere else (but I'm presuming not given what you mentioned).