#spirk day 2024

[yirima-chai]

my piece for this years Spirk day

[spocks-husband]

Blood fever.

Happy Spirk day everyone! I really like how this turned out hehe. Alternate versions below the cut!

(Psst! Hey! My commissions are open!!)

[starrylol]

My final drawing for the shore leave bang!

Spock needs a break and Jim is more then happy to oblige and treat him to a spa day.❤️

Ao3

when your hands go out, my love by @zjofierose (4.6k)

Jim forces himself to focus again. It should be easy, here on Risa, to focus only on skin, on ease, on pleasure. Instead there are a thousand distractions - the steady thump of the distant music, the muted sound of giggles coming from further down the beach, the clink of glasses as the waitstaff make the rounds."

@thylabang

[hummingbird-of-light]

June of Doom 2024 Day 11 (@juneofdoom)

A/N: Today we'll start with Arc 2: The AU-Arc! Chapters 11 - 20 will all be alternate universes. Enjoy~

11. “We’re out of time.”                          

| Bleeding Out | Collapse | Flatline |

~

James T. Kirk was eight years old when he saw a spaceship crash into the planet Earth. It was a dark night when he was admiring the stars and dreaming of what life as an astronaut might be like. Exploring space and foreign worlds. Maybe even meet some amazing aliens! It was the big goal he had set himself when he grew up. To become an astronaut like his father.

His eyes almost popped out of their sockets when he saw a star fall from the sky and land directly in a field belonging to his family's farm.

At first the little boy hardly realized what he had witnessed, but eventually he got moving and hurried down the stairs and out of the house in his pajamas and slippers.

The field was not too far away from the house and little James reached it quickly, making his way through the tall ears of corn.

When he reached his destination, completely out of breath, he could hardly believe what he saw. Directly in front of him was a metal capsule, about the same size as him. It seemed technically far superior to anything the boy knew.

When the capsule opened with a hiss and something appeared inside, James' eyes widened a little more. That was just ... unbelievable! Beaming from ear to ear, he stepped closer and examined what he saw.

A boy! About his age. He actually looked just like a human, but the ears were pointed and the skin looked slightly different.

A lot of people would have run away, but James wasn't afraid of the creature. It was a child! Just like him! A child from outer space! An alien!

The human boy could hardly believe his luck. He was the first person in the world to see an alien! What an incredible discovery!

And when the alien child opened his dark brown eyes and their gazes met, James knew that they would be connected forever.

~

It turned out that the alien boy was called Spock and came from a distant planet called Vulcan. He had been sent to Earth to investigate humans and their technological progress after the human space base had been found. Vulcan was in radio contact with a certain George Kirk. James' father! He had made such a great discovery!

When James told his mother about what had happened in the field and asked if Spock could stay with them, she said yes. And with Spock as a roommate, she just seemed so much happier to Jim than before. He knew that his mother had been very sad since his father had gone into space because they didn't know when he would come back. But knowing that her husband had made such a big discovery, even she could no longer be sad.

Only James' big brother Sam still seemed as sullen and sad as before. He ignored Spock, wanted nothing to do with the alien and eventually moved in with their grandparents.

James never understood it, but he wasn't alone. He had Spock.

~

James – Spock called him 'Jim' because he found it difficult to pronounce his normal name – and Spock quickly became best friends.

They spent every day and every night together. Whenever Jim had a problem, he talked to Spock, who helped him with his cool and logical way of thinking.

Apart from Jim's mother, no one knew about Spock. To protect the Vulcan, they had decided to hide him away at home. Only sometimes was he allowed into town, a cap on his head to hide his pointed ears. It worked. No one paid too much attention to him.

When James turned 18, he and Spock moved into their own apartment. Jim's Uncle Frank, who had returned to Iowa after spending several years in Europe doing who knew what, took over the farm, said that he would look after his sister and kicked the young man out.

It didn't matter. After all, Jim and Spock could visit Winona at any time. But first James had to concentrate on his studies. He would become an astronaut like his father. He had sworn to himself that he would.

And he did.

~

It was to be his first mission. He had been chosen to fly to the space station and conduct research there.

Jim was filled with pride as he put on his spacesuit and looked in the mirror with a grin on his face. At last he was going into space! At last he would see his father again!

He turned and looked at Spock. The Vulcan, who had been with him for most of his life, was looking at him, serious as ever. He glanced at the clock.

"We're out of time, Jim. I need to go."

Jim just smiled. Spock had already told him that he couldn't go in the rocket, but that he would be picked up by his own people.

"I know, Spock. I can hardly wait to finally fly to the stars and see my father. Then we can finally strengthen and cultivate our contact and friendship with the Vulcans together."

Spock also smiled. A rare sight. But somehow ... his smile seemed sad. He shook his head.

"I don't think we'll see each other again, Jim. The humans ... will destroy me."

All at once, Jim's smile turned to shock and his face dropped. He opened his mouth, shaking his head in disbelief.

"W-what? But ... the people down here don't know anything about you! Besides, you're not a threat! Why would they do anything to you?"

Spock sighed heavily. He slowly approached Jim, placed a hand on his cheek and stroked it.

"Because they found the right medicine to help you, Jim."

Jim just stared at the Vulcan. Tears filled his eyes and for the first time in many years he felt a terrible feeling. Fear.

"What–"

"Jim," Spock closed his eyes for a moment before opening them again and looking firmly at the human. "I am not real. None of this is real. You are not going into space. You are not an astronaut either. You are in a mental institution. When you turned 18, your uncle sent you and your mother there."

No ... Jim's breathing quickened and he gasped for air. That wasn't true!

"W-why?"

"When you were a child, you created me. A mind construct to deal with what you couldn't handle on your own."

Jim shook his head again. He just didn't understand any of this! What was Spock talking about?

"Jim ... your father isn't in space. The rocket never reached its destination. Your father ... is dead."

Slowly the tears began to flow and Jim felt paralyzed.

Everything he had experienced with Spock in the last few years. Everything he had dreamed of and worked towards ... had not been real?

It had simply been his imagination.

Slowly, the young man fell to his knees. His heart seemed to burst into a thousand pieces. Too many thoughts were running through his head. Thoughts of Spock. Thoughts of his father. Thoughts of everything they had been through.

And when he heard Spock say his goodbye, hugging him one last time, Jim simply collapsed. It was too much for him to take.

If reality was a place without Spock, then he wished to never wake up again.

[boldlyexplorational]

I know you all know this scene, but what if I told you: It's not as gay as it looks?

But wait! It still makes a great point for Spirk, the episode and Kirk's character. Ok hear me out:

When Spock enters the room he's surprised and confused. Some (me included), watching this for the first time, immediately identified his reaction as Gay Panic. Which is not all wrong. Then the whole exchange sounds like the incipit of an adult movie ... But then I thought about it, tried to contextualize the scene.

Imagine a colleague calls you at work to tell you your boss is acting really strange, drinking on the job, even. They ask you to go check on them and you go to your boss' office to find them there, half naked. This is the first time you see their nipples. And he's talking all low and acting gentle while they're usually loud and commending. You would probably register this as strange behavior as well.

This is what is happening to Spock here.

So I think his actual main sentiment there is surprise because the Captain is showing himself in a very vulnerable state. Even if Kirk and Spock consider each close friends, Spock makes a point of reminding Kirk how important it is that he appears as flawless, strong and decisive as possible in front of the crew to maintain control. And Spock doesn't feel exempted from this. But apparently suddenly he is? Something is wrong.

Of course we know that that shirtless guy is Soft Kirk (as opposed to Feral Kirk) the most gentle and vulnerable version of the Captain, that's the reason why he didn't think he needed to put his shirt back on to receive his first officer in his room.

To the audience this scene should be the equivalent of the violent scene with Janice. The one with Janice shows us the true dangers of Feral Kirk, the one with Spock is meant to make us understand that the other Kirk is not just "real Kirk" but "Soft Kirk". We should also be surprised that Kirk is letting someone see him in such a casual, informal state. Kirk would never.

But we're not, surprised, because we're biased by our own idea of Spock and Kirk being very close, and even the scene being slightly sexually charged because of nudity. In 2024 we see a lot of naked man chests every day, and if we are open minded enough we can see homoerotic subtext in a man being exposed to the sight of another man's bare chest. But at that time I have to assume it was much more unusual, so it carried a completely different meaning in context: it's not one of those times where one may say "if Spock were a woman in that scene, there would be no doubt about the implied attraction in there"

A woman would never be put in that situation, it would have been improper exactly because if it's a woman it implies sexual tension (which is not the point, because Soft Kirk is not sexual, Feral Kirk is). But this scene between men is, by society perception at the time, devoid of sexual undertones because two men could never be implied to be attracted to each other in that circumstances. Because gay isn't an option to begin with.

It's pretty ironic of course how a lot of people weren't actually thinking like that and went like "these guys are about to kiss on the mouth". Because proper society said "no homo" but the fangirlies had other ideas. And it's fascinating how on the end this appeared to be a revelatory experience for Kirk, who then must have discovered he actually had no problem being half naked in front of Spock. So much so that he seems to punctually wait to be shirtless before calling Spock on the videophone.

So in the end this scene, which I believe had a totally different purpose than the way it is perceived today, actually triggered a new level of intimacy between Kirk and Spock, which led to that landslide that's their peculiar... one might say queer, lifelong bond

[android-and-ale]

AO3 Spirk Posts By Year

If it feels like you can't keep up with this year's crop of fics, there's a wonderful reason.

2024 is shaping up to be a bumper year for Spirk! I saw a post of the top 100 fandoms on AO3 and wondered what being number 73 in 2024 meant in actual numbers.

This inspired me to do a medium dive (because I didn't break it up by TOS/AOS/SNW-Disco and instead just looked for all Spirk) into total AO3 posts.

For those of you who are curious, here's the total number of posts tagged James T. Kirk/Spock by year.

With the notable exception of 2013, Spirk has remained steady with around 1000 total posts per year from 2011 - 2020. There's been a slow but notable increase starting in 2021.

2024 - 1400 (as of August 6)

2023 - 1697

2022 - 1381

2021 - 1145

2020 - 1076

2019 - 961

2018 - 874

2017 - 1170

2016 - 1056

2015 - 1013

2014 - 1288

2013 - 2006 (top year)

2012 - 961

2011 - 1009

2010 - 751

2009 - 580

2008 - 33

Note: these numbers are JUST for slash, not "&"

Furthermore, there's not currently a good way to sort posts by just fic or just art. Since Gumroad and others have kicked NSFW art to the curb, I suspect there's been a rise of artwork posted on AO3.

I hope we'll come up with a good, commonly used tag for AO3 art soon so it'll be easier to find. It's quickly becoming the one place I can reliably find uncensored spicy artwork, though I still have to work to find it.

As of this morning (August 6, 2024) there have been 1400 Spirk posts on AO3 this year. That makes 2024 the most active year in Spirk fandom since 2013.

I know several Discords have events that will result in big post collections going live before the end of the year. There's even a slight chance those might even push 2024 into the #1 spot for most AO3 posts.

So if it feels like you're struggling to narrow down your 2024 Philon Awards nominations, it's for the best possible reason.

Last year's eligibility period (2022-08-01 to 2023-07-31) saw 1640 works posted on AO3.

This year's eligibility period (2023-08-01 to 2024-07-31) has 2252 AO3 posts, plus another 26 days left in the nomination period. That's literally 600 more posts than last year!

So get out there and rec your favorite fics and art. I promise a lot of great dishes have been missed at this year's veritable buffet of choices.

[mortalmab]

When Martha and the Doctor got stuck in 1969, Martha made a friend at the shop she had to get a job at. They became friends because this person loved Star Trek and Martha was amused because she has ACTUALLY been to space. She didn’t know TOO much about TOS, but enough that the friend asked if she was a fan of “The Premise.” Thinking that was an episode title (because in her day it was k/s or Spirk), she said yes and the friend handed her a fan zine. Martha was at least aware enough to understand what she had been handed and after work she raced back to the apartment, burst into the front door yelling “DOCTOR DROP WHAT YOU ARE DOING!!”

At first annoyed, he then got really excited when he saw what she had, as he himself was a HUGE Trekkie (he loved seeing what Star Trek would predict a few decades before it happened, like the Irish Reunification of 2024. He privately suspected some retired time agents had been on the original writing staff). They spent that evening curled up on their crappy sofa, reading OG Trek fics together and giggling.

It’s Martha’s favorite memory of 1969

[letteredlettered]

Can I just say thank you from the bottom of my heart for continuing to hold the line and calling it H/D even in 2024 when it seems like the battle is long lost

hahahaha yes I can never bring myself to say or write the word "drarry" except when discussing the word "drarry" on a meta level.

I put in the tags recently that back in my day, we called in H/D, and someone was like wow, you must've been in fandom a long time, because they were calling it drarry in 2003! They may have been! But not in my neck of the woods. In my neck of the woods was all initials and slashes, with only the rare smush name, until tumblr. People explained at the time that for some reason tumblr tags didn't respond well to slashes? So they started using smush names way more.

I really dislike them, though I'll admit to being fine with wangxian because it's canon, and also the names are allowed to be broken up that way? Like dracoharry is fine to me. Drarry is not. It reminds me of dairy and sounds ugly. But I honestly also hate the ones that are some clever combination of monikers, like gentlebeard. Still not as bad as stucky, but then again, nothing is.

But the true crime of them all is K/S. Wasn't this pairing called KirkSpock or KS or even kiss for literally decades? From whence came spirk? Like why do times have to be a-changin'? Why can't we just exist in a perfect stasis? Seriously though if you were going to smush you could have had Kock or Spork but you elected not to and that really is a tragedy of the 21st century that the 20th century never had to contend with. back in my day we had to slash uphill both ways

[laney-rockin]

Happy 2024 y'all!!

I have returned from my seclusion (ie. i forgot this app existed) to bring you what I call "New Years Spirk/Enterprise Crew thoughts"

Such thoughts are:

• Kirk and Spock have probably slow danced a minimum of 5 times during their time on the Enterprise

• Everyone makes a resolution that absolutely nobody keeps

• Bones and Spock once kissed at midnight one year and just moved on

• Since a lot of planets probably don't have the same calendars, New Years is on a ton of different days and every single time there's still a massive party where mistakes get made.

[twinkboimler]

I think it's my duty to ask you about mcspirk big bang 2024

but also: mosh mckirk?! sounds fun

Answered a different ask here about mosh mckirk!

As for the big bang, I'm writing an AOS fic. For the spirk side of things it's a meet-cute, but for the spones side of thing it's absolutely a meet-ugly. Jim's working a summer job as a delivery driver, which is how he meets Spock, but it isn't until Jim gets injured and Spock is the one to bring him to Bones that Bones and Spock meet.

I'll include below a snippet of the triumvirate having a beach day, in which Spock has been cajoled into joining them in the water:

"What about you, Spock? You gonna get deeper into the water?” Spock had thought he was already in deep. The water is at his waist. He does not think he would enjoy it any higher.  Something swims past his leg and Spock startles, jumping to the side.  “Spock? What is it?” Spock’s heart is racing. Carefully, in case the creature might hear him, Spock says, “There is something in the water with us.” Leonard snorts. “Oh, is there? Well I’ll be, there’s fish in the ocean!” “It’s probably just seaweed,” Jim says reassuringly, but Spock frowns. He does not like the idea of seaweed brushing up against him either. “I think,” Spock says after a beat, “that I will go sit at the shore.”

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (28 Jan-3 Feb 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

🥰 The Last Devil to Die (Thursday Murder Club #4) (Richard Osman, author; Fiona Shaw, narrator) - still loving the characters, love to hang out with them & Osman's plots move along nicely so you don't get bored at all. Fiona Shaw's narration is great & as a little treat she & Osman have a nice little chat at the end.

🥰 Four Letter Word For Intercourse (bendingsignpost) - 194K, destiel AU - adult college student Dean & professor (and phone sex worker) Cas - LOVE this fic so much & had kind of forgotten about it until it came up as a rec in one of my romance discord servers. Just, so good.

😊 Mrs Sidhu Investigates (Suk Pannu, author; full voice cast) - 2 episodes of the BBC Radio 4 program: #1 Murder with Masala; #2 Mrs Sidhu's Dangerous Highland Game - I prefer the slight changes made for the TV show's characterizations but still eminently enjoyable. (Meera Syal still absolutely rules!)

🥰 Lucky Bounce (Cait Nary) - extremely delightful hockey romance. Low/no angst, charming, cutie MCs. Definitely in the 'no plot, just vibes' category which honestly I love when done skillfully.

💖💖 +102K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

Ye Olde YouTube Love Story (Aria_Lerendeair) - The Sandman: Dreamling, 7K - love dreamling human AUs

Any Givens Sundae (dancinbutterfly) - Justified: Boyd/Raylan, 25K - excellently written 'what-if' pinging off a random line of dialogue: what IF Raylan had retired & decided to sell ice cream?

A Warning from Henry the Eighth (Writer_at_the_Table) - "I'm Henry VIII I Am" - Herman's Hermits: , 152 - a villianelle about I'm 'Enry The Eighth by Herman's Hermits - the creativity & cleverness of fan makers truly is boundless

master of a nothing place (strzyga) - Star Trek: Spirk, 6K - short, great fic about Spock going feral when they're trapped on a planet

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Austin City Limits - Pat Benatar & Neil Giraldo (s49, e9)

Austin City Limits - Duran Duran (s47, e11)

Murdoch Mysteries - s16, e7

Dirty Laundry - s3, e11

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "Under Pressure" (s21, e4)

D20: Adventuring Party - "A Sea of Effluvia" (s16, e4)

Hazbin Hotel - s1, e1

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

What Next: TBD - Why Is Everybody Sick?

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - Cannabis Marketing

⭐ The Sporkful - Why Hibachi Gets Complicated

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - The Guerrero

How To! - How To Be Free Of Body Shame

⭐ The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Hello From The Otter Side

The Allusionist - 188. Lipread

The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week - Nature's Weirdest Sleepers, Iron Maiden Myths, Parking Psychology

⭐ Today, Explained - Living in Zyn

It's Been a Minute - Ayesha Rascoe on 'HBCU Made' — and some good old college memories

⭐ Switched on Pop - The b*tch of loving musical theater (with Bridger Winegar)

99% Invisible #568 - Don't Forget to Remember

⭐ Vibe Check - You’ve Got Mouth Bangs, Girl

I Said No Gifts! - Lou Wilson Disobeys Bridger

Well, Now - How ER Taught Thousands Of Viewers About Cervical Cancer

Off Menu - Ep 220: Peter Capaldi

Films To Be Buried With - Kyle MacLachlan

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Seeking The (Minnesota-shaped) Forest Through The Trees - Part 1 & 2

Welcome to Night Vale #241 - He Is Still Holding a Knife

I Said No Gifts! - Zac Oyama Disobeys Bridger

Dear Prudence - Am I a Bigot If I Don’t Want to Date Foreigners? Help!

What Next: TBD - The Taylor Swift Deepfake Saga

It's Been a Minute - Charlamagne tha Pundit?; plus, was Tony Soprano white?

⭐ All Songs Considered - Why we still love Green Day

Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly - The Marketing of Taylor Swift: (Taylor's Version)

Consider This from NPR - Masturbation Abstinence Is Popular, And Doctors Are Worried

⭐ You're Dead to Me - Madam C.J. Walker

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

Pop Radio • Romance

'80s Metal

The Cars Radio • Pump-up

Psychobilly Swing

Rock Mix • Party

Presenting Iron Maiden

[smallblueandloud]

2023 fic roundup

2023 was the year of the comeback. in 2021, i wrote about 25k; in 2022, i didn't even keep track. meanwhile, my total wordcount last year was 119,226 words. while that doesn't come close to my 200k from 2020, i am arguably prouder of last year and what it represented. my writing isn't dead! my abilities haven't vanished! i can have fun making art again :D

as always, the summer was the most productive for me. you can see that i wrote more in the spring than the fall -- this roughly corresponds to how i was doing during those times, lol. i had a Much Better spring semester than the fall. september was very rough, i had a very bad time, and it meant my mental health suffered for the rest of the year. but hey, at least i was writing essays :')

some more scattered thoughts:

i was arguably pretty consistent this year? may/june/july all had about the same wordcount (roughly) and i think that's cool. my goal isn't to be doing NaNos, it's to be writing consistently, so i'm very happy with this

ao3 says i published 67k in 2023. minus the first chapter of something out of a dream, which was published in 2020, i believe that's 65k or so total. i wrote 72k of fanfic last year, meaning that there's about 8k from last year still sitting in my google drive (a rough eyeball at my WIPs folder confirms this). these numbers don't QUITE make sense to me, since i used a fair bit of old material in what i published last year, but i'm not going to think about it too hard

i published fic for a whopping fifteen fandoms in 2023. nine of those were fandoms i'd never published anything for before! i am so, so proud of this stat. i remain multifandom as all hell and seeing that represented in my work makes me really :D

two fics -- be amazed by the sky and i got your back (and you got mine) -- were crossovers! i'd only ever written one crossover before (stay all day in the sun, which i still love dearly) and it was fun to play in these playgrounds (mostly by sticking the librarians into other universes, xD)

i published 25 fics last year! and five of those fics were less than 1k, which i also really love. this year i really tried to let go of my idea that my fics Had to be more than 4k (and super polished) before they could see the light of day. i think my writing has been more fun and less stressful because of that.

i polished off 4 multi-year WIPs last year: but the verse is sweet, something out of a dream, don't wanna see you go (but it's not forever), and all we can do today. it felt so, so good to finally get those out there. the only one i have left from The Great Hiatus of 2021-2022 is éponine de bergerac. i will finish that someday, but i'm letting her take her time, because she deserves it. (i DID make good progress on that fic, which is something at least!)

most popular fic of the year was sit there in your heartache, which. is a spirk fic written right after a relevant episode, so not a surprise lol. the fic that surprised me most is actually the sisterhood of the travelling main character plotpoints -- i kinda expected that one to vanish quietly, but the hatchetfield fandom is WAY more active than i expected! which is very cool :D

the fic with the fewest hits was sidenote, which doesn't surprise me, since the librarians isn't a very active fandom and it's a rareship within the fandom anyway. the people who DID read it were very sweet, so i am very grateful for them. (i'm doing fic with the fewest hits because i feel like it's better to focus on that than What Didn't Get Kudos)

i started 2024 with 5 WIPs. i actually already finished one (and then immediately started its sequel, whoops) (shoutout to the ds9 modern au, i'll make a real post about that sometime). none of these fics are particularly progressed, but i'll keep working on them and try to find the Finishing A Project Dopamine from ficlets if i need it.

i didn't really have any Writing Goals for 2023 aside from doing any writing at all, lol. i think for 2024 i want to try to get more consistent with my writing -- instead of doing x number of words per month (which usually happen over 3-4 Big Writing Days), i'd rather try to write for 5 days out of every week, or something like that. we'll see what i can get done.

in the meantime: thank you guys for listening. i'm proud of what i did last year, and i'm excited to see what happens next year :D

[cicaklah]

23!

23. fics I wanted to write but didn't.

I had 'finish watch me' on my to do list for 2023, but that obviously did not happen. I did manage to move forward part 7, but it never clicked enough, and then I was infected with the spirk brainworms and well, not sorry but also sorry. However, one day I will rewatch oxventure in the dark and will fall in love all over again. I am sure of it.

I have a few hitman fics I wanted to write, this includes the full length version of notre femme a paris called our woman in paris, but I still might write that. I wanted to write a fic where 47 grows hair after he gets the serum. I have a half-finished ABO hitman fic that WILL be finished one day.

SNW wise, a lot of the work I did that I didn't publish is banked for future One Man instalments which will be coming in 2024. I do have a 'La'an brings Kirk back to the future and it all goes wrong' story that I desperately want to finish. I have a Pike/Spock bad future fic that is maybe 25% finished but that I really want to get round to one day.

Also I have a Seven/Janeway fic called hometown glory that I WILL write that even the clusterfuck of Picard couldn't kill in my heart, as much as it did kill off any remaining love I had for that series.