#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!!)

[wakeuplouie]

startrek inktober day 1

backpack

back at inktober AWOOOO

[domavi]

he lowkey wants to order

[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

[affixjoy]

As we inch closer to the US election* and the creeping dread threatens to overtake us, let’s celebrate our own creativity and hard work.

(*insert whatever Horror is affecting you. I know the list is long and unrelenting worldwide)

I want to know about your favorite thing you made in 2024. Art, writing, blog post, meme, whatever. Whatever makes your heart swell and you say to yourself yes I did that (positive) I want to hear about it.

What is the thing?

What inspired the thing?

What was your process for making the thing?

What part of it are you most proud of?

Anything else you want to say?

I want to read you ramble, this is a time to be self indulgent!

I’ll go first:

What is the thing?

I’ve set myself up with an impossible question. The thing I’m most proud of is that I wrote SO DAMN MUCH this year. I think, including original stuff, I’ve passed 200k, which feels like a huge accomplishment.

Picking one thing though, I think I have to go with The Sum of All Our Accomplishments that @spongynova illustrated. (Star Trek TOS, rated E, Spock/Kirk with some friends with benefits McCoy on the side)

What inspired the thing?

This fic was part of the Shore Leave Th’y’la Reverse Bang, so the main inspiration was Spongy’s art! Once we were paired I spent a day driving around thinking about the art and what I wanted to do with it, and I caught on the idea of the way memories seem to layer and come forward when you go to the same place over and over again. During that brainstorming time I went to the beach for a few days in the town I’ve been going on vacation at since I was born, and the way memories wrap around you in a place like that is beautiful and intense and sometimes a little bittersweet. I feel like I did a pretty good job of capturing that feeling!

In a less tangible way, the boomdeahda song was also a big inspiration.

What was your process for making the thing?

Interestingly, I struggled A LOT writing this. I kept feeling like I couldn’t get it where I wanted it to be, and it felt like wrestling a bear for most of the writing process. I think I complained a lot on the McSpirk server.

This was the first year I ever tried to participate in fandom events, and I have mixed feelings about how that went. I’ve loved meeting people and collaborating with artists like Spongy! Some of my best work came from events and me forcing myself to finish things for them! But also, it took away time from things I really wanted to write especially original stuff. Next year my goal is to have a better balance.

What part of it are you most proud of?

I really love how I wrote Bones as their friend with benefits here. I love all flavors of the three of them together, but this is closest to what I see as my favorite. He loves them, they love him, but it isn’t a soulmate/romantic love in the same way Spirk is. He’s got his own stuff going on outside of them. I love how I wrote their first time together here, and I’m really proud of it!

Anything else?

This part isn’t me bragging so much as fawning over Spongy’s art again. Like WOW go look at it! Even if you don’t want to read the fic the art is just so vibrant and beautiful.

Tag some people!

@spongynova @ncc1701ohno @strangenewwords @tigereyes45 @twinkboimler @eternally-intermittent @calliecat93 @purpleenma @starrylol @celestialvoyeur

Join in, distract me from The Horrors by bragging about your creative work!

[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.

[mazarinememories]

Mazzy's Log, Stardate: 110124.11

I'm having such an amazing time in the Trek fandom. I just attended the first day of KiScon 2024 online, where I got to meet a lot of new people and see the faces of friends I have known for a while. In the art show, my art (which I will post after Nov. 3 after KiScon is over), was featured right next to a famous K/S artist, which made me feel quite special! My very first vid that I ever made (which will also be shown after Nov. 3), premiered to wildly positive reactions, which made me so happy! I wish I could have seen everyone's faces!

My first Spirk fic, which I will be publishing on AO3 after KiScon finishes, was published in the KiScon Zine! I'm excited for everyone to read it.

I attended panels on the Found Family trope, intergenerational connections in fandom, and we watched classic fanvids that were created in the 90s and 2000s. I love adding myself to the layers of this beautiful cake. I love the community, the connection, and appreciating the history that we work so hard to preserve. I love talking with older and middle-aged Trekkies. I love them so much as someone in their early twenties just figuring things out in life.

I mingled with so many talented and intelligent people. I felt like I couldn't hold a candle to them, so I made up for it by cracking jokes constantly.

I scroll through people's Tumblrs and find their old Trek posts. I mouse over the date to see that they're from 2013 - 2022, and it makes my heart thrum with nostalgia(?) when I see that they either don't post much anymore or have moved on to other fandoms.

We're all just children, searching for love.

And I found it right here in the K/S pocket of the Star Trek fandom. I love you all. To those who heart and reblog my content plenty but don't talk to me, I love you too. We're all connected and I feel your appreciation from here. You have given me reason to create and brought life to a love for art and writing that I thought I couldn't resurrect.

I'll be delivering more Trektober fics despite it no longer being October. I have ideas for the other prompts.

Please feel free to chat me up or send me asks. I love interacting with people -- it brings me the happy chemicals and it keeps me going. You're all so wonderful I could cry!

[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

[cicaklah]

Hello, it is the last day to vote for the yeomen!! Please vote for them they are so stupid and plagued by spirk.

[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.

[domavi]

(Tw suicide joke)

This took way too long for how simple it was but oh well! I really like it I’m probably gonna trace over it to put it in my sketchbook tbh :3

[awwkie]

Tags used in this blog (a masterpost):

#kie types : my text posts tag. Contains mostly random thoughts that come to me throughout the day and posts I reblogged adding a comment.

#kie loves web design : assets and resources to make web pages. Anything from blinkies, pixels, stamps, dividers.

#kie being normal about media : my crazy ramblings about media I like. Sometimes even properly articulated thoughts. Can you believe it?

#italoposting : ramblings in Italian with some Italian memes di contorno

#happy pride! : posts related to Pride Month and posts with positive news about LGBT rights.

#the great 2024 boopening : posts related to the 2024 April's Fools Tumblr evnt.

#coding tag: my rambles about the personal website I'm working on and coding.

#beast tag : posts with animals :3

This blog also uses fandom tags! Posts belonging to a specific fandom are tagged with the name (or an abbreviation of it) of the source material. On top of that I have some extra fandom tags, listed below:

#mikey way's bread fiasco : posts relating to MCR bassist Mikey Way's terrible baking.

#revenge20 : posts related to the 20th anniversary of Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge, My Chemical Romance's second studio album.

#kie being insane about MCR for 30 days : all the posts I made for this MCR 30 days challenge.

#paper kingdom leaks : posts relating to the material that was leaked from MCR's scrapped album "The Paper Kingdom". Contains some Hesitant Alien material that was leaked along it.

#star trek BTS: behind the scene material from the filming of Star Trek, interviews with the actors, etc.

#star trek lit: extracts from the Star Trek novels.

#spirk propaganda: Any Spirk (sometimes McSpirk maybe??) related clips and extracts from offical Star Trek media.