#star trek fandom invented shipping

[ebenelephant]

"my ship's better because it's canon" where were you for the last 60 years of spirk?

[rainbowresurrection]

Kinda got a love/hate relationship with the history of K/S because it's like. Can I please have a queer discussion about this 1960s television show without it being reduced to "shipper discourse". I thought Spock and Kirk were homo long before I knew that their characters spawned a fanfiction counterculture. The bisexual dude who wrote the episode that really kick-started the movement didn't know it was going to coalesce into the fan phenomenon that it did, he was just writing what he knew how to write best: the repression of burning male desire, and two dudes doing homoerotic shit. Can I just talk about the repressed burning male desire please, and the implications of a gay angle to Kirk and Spock's story, without it being referred to as shipper discourse. Can I do that. Does this make sense

[starfieldcanvas]

k/s as a math joke because it means spock INTO KIRK

how have i NEVER HEARD THAT BEFORE???

It's 2024. I have been participating in fandom for 40 years. This is a ramble commemorating some history I've experienced along the way.

In 1984, I attended my first convention, and made a beeline for the one long row of covered tables in the Dealer's Room that was, according to the whispered lore of my friends, 'the one'. "um", I said, very suavely and coherently, except for how it was totally the opposite of those things, "I'm here for the... for the, uh. For-"

"Come around here," the man behind the table said with exhausted ennui, so I went around, and he lifted up the table skirt next to him and pointed to rows and rows of boxes underneath the line of tables. "It's all under here."

It was all under there. Along with about five older ladies with glasses, graying hair, cardigans. Flipping through slash zines and chatting in whispered voices like old friends (which of course they were). I noticed one of them had the good sense to be wearing kneepads. I was still too young and ablebodied to need kneepads when crawling on a carpeted floor, but I immediately found her preparedness skills to be both impressive and hot. "You're new," one of the ladies whispered to me--a bit warily, which made sense. "Are you sure you're in the right place?"

In the faint light (the kneepads lady had also come prepared with a flashlight, additional practicality hotness points for her) I grabbed a comb-bound book with a heavy line art piece on the cover, featuring a musclebound Captain Kirk getting righteously and enthusiastically plowed by a stern-yet-ebullient Spock. "This," I said, pointing helpfully at the cover, like I was trying to make myself understood in a language I had only the vaguest knowledge of. "I'm here for this."

Outside at the convention, most of the attendees were wearing large homemade circular pins that shrieked 'K/S is BS!!!'1. But underneath the table, we reveled in the forbidden.

***

In 1985, I fell very hard for Starsky & Hutch fandom. Which was simply referred to at the time as 'the other fandom', because there were only two. We were upstarts. Many fannish elders predicted that it was just a phase.

***

The 'circulating library' was a massive stack of barely-legible pages that smelled strongly of mimeograph ink. When you were on the list, you would write stories while you waited for your turn, and when the big box was mailed to you, you would read everything (new finds, old favorites), add your own sloppily-typed or hastily-mimeographed stories, and then mail the whole thing to the next person. For me, at the time, it was an extremely expensive indulgence--but my favorite one.

***

By 1990, slash fandom had grown enough that I no longer knew everyone in it, which was both thrilling and a bit daunting. A young woman at a convention waited for me after a panel I was part of (I think it was 'writing impactful smut' or something like that), and said she had a question she didn't want to ask in a group setting. I'd heard that before. I said that's fine, go ahead and ask; and she came out with: "Why do you have to be gay?"

I blinked. "Is... that a problem?"

She looked annoyed. "Yes, because your stories are on all the recommendation lists and in all the top zines, but if you're gay and I read something you wrote and I get hot from it that makes me gay, and I'm not gay."

"Wow." I grinned, I couldn't help it. It probably made me look very predatory-dyke-about-to-score-a-toaster. Whatever, it was enough to make her back away from me fast.

When I thought about it later that night, I wondered what it would be like not to be the only queer person in slash fandom.

***

By 1997, slash started appearing on the internet. Many fannish elders claimed it was the death knell of slash fandom, or dismissed it as 'just a phase'.

***

Anyway, I wrote all this for myself as a commemoration of sorts, but if you took the time to read it--thank you. Love you, fandom. I always will.

1 In those days, m/m fandom was known as 'slash', which grew from the fannish shorthand where 'K&S' meant a story of Kirk and Spock having adventures or tribulations or what have you, and 'K/S' meant a story of Kirk and Spock getting it on (Kirk divided by Spock or Spock into Kirk--it was mathy fannish humor and I was into it then and I still am now). Slash was decidedly unpopular in the fannish world in 1984, and there was a concerted effort to force slash authors, artists, and fans out of 'mainstream' fannish public life. Hence, under the table.

[etherealspacejelly]

Jelly, buddy as someone who knows next to nothing about Star Trek, please tell me what’s happening

ok so spock/kirk is like. the oldest ship ever, okay? they invented slash fiction. these guys pioneered fandom as we know it today

in the last movies they made with those original characters, they were separated into like. alternate universes. okay. these guys were never gonna see each other again and it was very sad and tragic and the fans were kinda sad about it but it is what it is.

then. they made a short film. right. like 8 minutes long. of kirk reuniting with spock. on spocks deathbed. and kirk holds his hand, and they look off into the sunset together.

they got to be reunited. they got to be together in the end. they got their romantic ending i swear to god im losing it.

if it helps. imagine if in 50 years time, they released an 8 minute video of old man dean winchester going to the empty and saving castiel and then they sat on the hood of the impala holding hands and watching the sun set. thats what its like. you see how insane that is??? do you get it???

[madlori]

On being an older fangirl

I was probably 10 years old when I first conceived of what was, looking back, fanfiction. Me and my best friend would lie in bed together on sleepovers and I'd make up stories about what happened after the end of our favorite book, "The Westing Game." She'd ask me for more stories, and I'd tell her more, inventing them as I went along. "Then what?" she'd say.

I was 14 when I went to my first convention. I had discovered Star Trek: The Next Generation. It was 1987, and my youth pastor was a huge Trekkie. He took me to a one-day crappy Creation con, but it was amazing to me. I met Nichelle Nichols. My dad showed me the Trek movies. He and I watched TNG together.

When I went to college in 1991, my dad used to videotape TNG episodes onto VHS tapes and mail them to me, so I could keep watching (I didn't have TV in my dorm room).

By the time I was a senior, we had Trek watching parties in the dorm lounge, where the TV had cable. Star Trek: Voyager had started up, and I wrote a column about it for the college newspaper. I joined a mailing list about it, with people in it that I still know today.

I got my first computer that could go online in 1995. I was on newsgroups. I discovered Doctor Who. I went to Trek conventions where we still passed around fanzines containing fic and art and smutty K/S fan creations.

Then it was Harry Potter. Then there were websites. Then there was Geocities, where we could all make our own little spots. We organized them into webrings. We talked on newsgroups and mailing lists. There were fanfic archives. Then there was fanfiction.net.

Then...there was LiveJournal. And we could interact in entirely new ways. We could form communities, and debate things, and fight over canon, and get into ship wars. On LiveJournal, I met my best friend of 22 years. I was in her wedding. She's my sister of the heart (which is what she calls me).

Then there was Tumblr. And Twitter. And now there's Discord. But it's all the same.

I am the same.

I am still that little girl who made up fanfiction in her head to entertain her best friend. I am still the one who was amazed to find communities on the internet - which was so new, so raw, so uncommodified - where others like me could meet. I found there people to meet in real life.

I am still that twentysomething going to her first major convention, being told that someone loved my fic, being asked about my writing process.

I am still that thirtysomething watching something I wrote blow up. Seeing friends from other fandoms find me in new ones, finding them there, too. Forgetting which fandom I know someone from, because I've known them for twenty years.

I still know some of the people who created those early websites, those mailing lists, those archives. I still meet people in new fandoms who say "Oh, I read your fic in [fandom] fifteen years ago!" There's no feeling quite like having someone remember something you wrote for that long. Or meeting someone whose fic meant a lot to YOU, or who you talked with on rec.arts.drwho.creative in 1997.

Aging in fandom is a gift. Being middle-aged in fandom is a joy. Having people who still read what I write and ask "Then what?" is a blessing.

It breaks my heart that so many people see it as something to be ashamed of, when it is one of my life's greatest gifts.

[twink-gods-and-olive-oil]

I still remember the day I first watched Star Trek and I thought, "Wow, Kirk and Spock would make a really good couple, I wonder if there's anyone who ships them," and then I looked up 'Kirk and Spock' on the Internet and the first thing that came up was the fucking Wikipedia article about the history of slash fiction and that it was Kirk and Spock who invented modern fandom.

[trothplighted]

The other piece too is that Joanne saying “everyone who likes and engages with my books and my stories, everyone who talks about them, they’re supporting me because they agree with me, engagement is support!” is also a braindead take as an author.

Rumiko Takahashi had editorial pressure to canonize certain ships due to fan responses when she was writing and drawing Urusei Yatsura. Plenty of people who initially read The Lord of the Rings and who really loved it didn’t agree with Tolkien’s Catholicism, and we know this because they became pop culture polytheists who worshiped the gods he invented. Louisa May Alcott had and has legions of devoted fans who adore Little Women but hate that Jo and Laurie don’t end up together, or don’t mind Laurie/Amy but hate Professor Bhaer. Shirley Jackson’s books were popular with lesbians in her lifetime and she was almost pathologically afraid of the queer themes being acknowledged by those fans. Star Trek was notorious for its first thirty-five or so years of existence as a franchise for having opinionated fans who frequently wrote to complain to Paramount about how their blorbos were being treated or how certain storylines were handled. Anne Rice, need I say more. Orson Scott Card still lives and still gets heat for his homophobia. Fans do not automatically agree with creatives, and don’t like or support those creatives’ opinions.

If we’re just talking about Harry Potter, criticism of worldbuilding and characterization and plot points went hand in hand with the fandom for years, to the point that “I love the books but I hate how she handled [subplot] or [implied statement about morality] or [character choice]” was the default. People never slavishly loved her works, and if they did they were extremely shallow in their fandom - hours upon hours could pass in person or online simply talking about things that frustrated you as a fan who didn’t like all her choices. Plenty of people also extended that to criticism of her morals or her opinions on the world in addition to her fiction writing.

She’s trying to rewrite history, and she’s doing it because she herself has never liked having a fandom that was this vocal and sustained in its criticism of her.

[yuttikkele]

i love seeing your startrek post bcs every time i see it i think about how you were basically asking if people liked the fan ship on The fandom show. that thing started fandom. star trek fanfiction invented the mary sue and you are asking if its ok to ship the most popular ship in the fandom

hey guys this wheat? you think we could turn this stuff into bread maybe possibly?

in my defense guys I thought I’d get a lot of side-eyes for shipping spirk 😭😭 I DIDN’T KNOW THEY WERE THE GRANDFATHERS OF GAY PEOPLE

looking at it from a star trek fan’s perspective, I can understand how what I said would be hysterical now tho. I’m glad it brings a little happiness to you :D

[princesscolumbia]

Star Trek Captains, A Review and Categorization

Star Trek is a show about a Neo-military organization that has rank structures, ships, and fights wars, so naturally there's plenty of captains to talk about, but for this post I'll be highlighting specifically the main cast captains, in something resembling chronological order. (But, I mean, this is Star Trek, so even that's kinda up in the air)

Captain Archer

That Guy who had to hand crank the warp engine up-hill both ways in the blinding ion storm. We don't need no stinkin' Prime Directive! Remember The Alamo Pearl Harbor 9/11 Florida! But...uh, maybe don't be dicks about it, not everyone who looks like the ones responsible for that thing we're never going to forget actually wants us dead. Got transformed into an alien, got possessed by another alien, slept with a couple more. Never got pregnant, though (that was his chief engineer)

Scorecard

Ships commanded: 1

Wars started: 0

Wars ended: 3

Times on screen naked: 1

Nazi facilities destroyed: 1

Category: Grampa

Captain Pike

Midlife crisis? What midlife crisis? Everything's fiiiiine. Now eat something, it'll make you feel better. I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. Number One, don't tell me I can't adopt more kids, I don't care that they're from the future they're mine now. Besides, we've already got a whole ship-full, what's two more?

Scorecard

Ships commanded: 2

Violations of the Temporal Prime Directive: -3 (yes, it's an irrational number, we're talking time travel, people!)

Musical Numbers Participated While On Duty: 3

Hair: Really Great

Category: Dad (or DILF if you swing that way)

Captain Georgiou

You will be captain when you can snatch the stone from my hand.

Scorecard

Ships commanded: 1

Protege's who required a redemption arc: 1

Awesomeness: Transcendent

Category: Gone too soon, also, MILF who can kick your ass

(Edit: Courtesy of @cheer-me-up-scotty for pointing out an oversite on my part)

Captain Burnham

Cosplays as a Vulcan 'cause she's jealous of her adoptive brother. Accurately called an audience-stand-in-self-insert-mary-sue (shut up, Star Trek fandom invented the Mary Sue, it was a term coined by women fans, so shut up!), but by season 2 she actually gets interesting.

Scorecard

Mommy Issues: Has a subscription

Moms: 4

PTSD inducing life events: Like, all of them

Ships commanded: 3

Mutinies led failed: 1

Category: That One Cousin who married surprisingly well and made something of herself in spite of all expectations

Captain Kirk

Golden retriever energy, would be the Useless Bisexual Himbo if he didn't have so much game. Probably smarter than he lets on. Polyamory King and certified Alien Fucker. Boyfriend is a half-space-elf, main sometimes-girlfriend will go on to create the deadliest super-weapon ever built by humans by accident.

Scorecard

Number of Klingon Bounties on his head: [CLASSIFIED]

Number of women he's slept with: [CLASSIFIED]

Nazi regimes toppled: 1

Number of times he should have had a test that determines if you can stick your dick in it that got named after an upstart from that other science fiction show instead: 1

Ships Commanded: 3

Ships He's Stolen: 3

Category: Slut(affectionate)

Captain Kirk (the other one)

Golden Retriever that got left behind when his family moved away and had to lead a ragtag team of a crotchety older dog and a wet cat on a journey...

No, wait, hold on...

Right! That's the one!

Scorecard

Times he should have been kicked out of Starfleet: At least 4

Ships commanded: 3

Ground transport destroyed: 2 (that we know of)

Number of middle fingers given to Admiralty: 2

Category: Bad Boy

Captain Picard

You know that guy who you see going to the library all the time and always seems to have his nose in a book and always seems to be telling people off for breaking the rules and doing dangerous shit? You'd never know it but he used to be That Guy in college who got, like, ALL the girls and is going to be the Hot Grampa that you don't know how he has that much game, but he got it.

Scorecard

Ships lost in the line of duty: 2

Number of times he married and then estranged his best friend's wife who named their son after her dead first husband: 1

Number of toxic omnipotent and omniscient boyfriends who are obsessed with him and spends their spare time playing with ponies: 1

Category: Inexplicable Sexyman

Captain Badass Sisko

The Cool Dad with baggage. He's got game, but he's got priorities as well, and DON'T mess with his son or you won't even exist anymore to regret it. BLM before it was cool. Led a civil rights riot two centuries before he was born. Space Jesus who can make the best jambalaya you've ever had. Fought and won a war, punched a god, then became one.

Scorecard

Civilizations saved: 4

Native Cultures Treated With the Respect They Deserve: Many

Times He Bent the Rules so his CMO could get some nookie from a Cardasian spy plain, simple tailor: The counter broke

Successful black-ops assassinations completed: 1

Category: BAMF

Captain Janeway

THE single most decorated captain in Starfleet history. Successfully dropped the hammer on dozens of petty tyrants, oppressive regimes, roaming mass murderers, and the Borg. What Prime Directive? Your Mom. Also, probably slept with your mom, that's how much she is the Domme-est of Dommes. She told the Borg to use the safe word...and they DID!

Scorecard

Borg Daughters: 1

Times she told the Borg to step off: 3 (or 4...or 5? Honestly, with the time travel shenanigans it's hard to know for sure)

Nazis she's personally shot: 1

Category: Mistress, but it's "Ma'am" to you

Captain Freeman

She's angry AND disappointed! She's just as good as all the other captains in the fleet, and the good ones know it, but all the rest? They see "cali class" and assume all they're good for is the jobs nobody else wants. But jokes on them, because thanks to that attitude her crew are the flippin' Jacks and Jills of all trades and are more capable of fixing AND fucking AND "fucking" shit up than damn near anyone else!

Scorecard

Times the ship has nearly been destroyed but she and her crew got through it: ...uh...how many episodes are there? And then there's the times that get casual mentions that we never get the details on!

Daughters who should probably be captains now if they were at least a LITTLE more respectful and didn't actively try to piss off Admirals: 1

Times the Cerritos has had to be rebuilt to the point it might as well be called "The Ship of Cerritos Problem": At least 4

Category: Your mom...get back here, I'M NOT DONE TALKING TO YOU!

Captain R'El

Cinnamon Roll, just let m'boy into Starfleet! He just wants a home and a family! I'd like to see full-grown captains who can keep up with half of what this Best Boy is capable of!

Scorecard

Number of species his genetic code is made up of: All of 'em. Even the GODDAMN Q!

Number of Janeways he impressed the socks off of: 2

Quality of his Janeway impression: Bad

Number of Ferengi he out-Ferengi'd: 1

Nazis punched: Give him time...

Category: Teenage Boy Who's NOT GOING THROUGH A PHASE, MOM!

Should I do Captains Shaw and Seven? How about Alternate Timeline Tripp or Future Chakotay? (Going too far down that rabbit hole will eventually lead to Imperial Kirk and Captain Spock from the movies.) Let me know in the comments.

Next Post in this series

[jesterbells]

Tumblr New Word Dictionary

I love new words. So here's a list of recently created words and idioms I have learned through tumblr (not all of these terms were invented on tumblr but that's where I learned them--the citations specify whether the term was coined by a specific post, or cite a source for where I first heard the term even if that is not necessarily where the term originated):

blorbo: a fictional character you're a fan of. Coined by thelustiestargonianmaid.

"I'm so hungry I could get banned from facebook": coined by babyslime in response to a Wil Wheaton post

GORIMM: Gross Older Relation I Must Marry. Source: bethanydelleman

hlep: when a disabled person asks for a specific kind of help and "they do something that is not what you ask for but is what they think you should have asked for ... Sure, it looks like help; it kind of sounds like help too; and if it was adjusted just a little bit, it could be help. But it's not help. It's hlep." Source: giantkillerjack's therapist.

horse fantasy: something that is theoretically possible unicorn fantasy: something that is definitely (or almost definitely) impossible. Source: bemusedlybespectacled.

zomancy: soup divination. Source: cryptotheism.

UFOs: unfinished objects--"something that is unfinished but in hibernation," as distinct from WIPs. Source: knitting community and bylambd.

autoenshittification: turning cars into digital extraction machines to steal your data and money through digital infrastructure and microchips, and the endless repair nightmare of digital car systems and cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Source: mostlysignssomeportents

nude: "when your clothes are off." naked: "when you're clothes are off when you're up to something." nakey: "when you are an animal and your collar has been removed." Source.

sideways fan: following a fandom second-hand. Source: capricorn-0mnikorn.

spoken Garamond: "the over-emphasized voice people use to read poems." Source: Frances Klein's friend.

nongry/nungry: when you're starving but also don't want to eat any of the food in your kitchen. Coined by tathrin.

scrumbling: scrolling on tumblr. Coined by the mum of anti-terf-posts.

window shipping: "any shipping done without actually watching/reading the work in question." Coined by lurker-no-more.

friend John / a Friend John answer: "when someone asks a relatively reasonable question in context and the enquiree 1) speaks at length without answering the question, and 2) implies the enquirer has injured the enquiree by even asking such a thing how could you." Coined by sileana.

bitism: a new school of media criticism which asks the simple question: is the work committed to the bit? Coined by linecoveredinjellyfish

snors d'oeuvre: having a little nap on the sofa before taking onseself to bed for main sleep. Coined by SJKSalisbury (can't find the tumblr repost now).

socratic terror: "what every athenian felt when they went down to the agora in the 5th century and saw an old man with a beard approaching them." Coined by lesbianshepard.

introvirtuous: "when you're introverted but have taken on numerous leadership and outgoing roles in your life." "I'm here to help. But I'd rather not be." "Someone around here has to get things done. and unfortunately it's going to be me." Coined by soundslikerhetorical.

grundlous: "of or pertaining to grundle." Coined by IMLIZY.

concretes: specific aspects of a character that persist across interpretations. The essential, structural essence that makes a character recognizable as the same person. Rarely physical traits; subjective. Coined by Ladylark and kayanem.

skeletonin: "the happiness chemical released when you see a ghoul or perhaps a ghost." Coined by gwentrification.

broflakes: "the weak, fragile 'alpha' males who are so easily threatened by strong women." Source: rickladd (can't find the tumblr reblog atm).

the planet of hats: "the thing where a people only have one thing going for them, like 'everyone wears a silly hat.'" Source: Star Trek fandom & TV tropes, learned via homonculus-argument.

feelings yakuza: "those who turn their personal discomfort into a social evil and try to erase the target completely." Source: Japanese fandom via マロミチャン.

Ship of Thesaurus / Rogetism: "When a student copies an essay online instead of writing it and then painstakingly changes every word to a synonym until the text no longer makes any sense." Coined by trek-tracks and Chris Sadler respectively.

Flemming's law / vibe dysphoria: "the most toxic person you've ever met over-relates to woodland creatures on social media." Coined by Chris Flemming and canadianwheatpirates.

fight with a gorilla: "any secret or invisible struggle." Coined by punksandcannonballers.

squimbus from my polls: the poll version of blorbo except for obscure fan favorite characters. Coined by yardsards.

pebbling: "the act of sending your friends & family little videos and tweets and memes you find online, like how penguins bring back pebbles to their little penguin loved ones." Source: NurseKelsey (can't find the tumblr reblog atm).

serpentineabouts: roundabouts that aren't round. Coined by paulgadzikowski.

luft: air equivalent of wet. Coined by questbedhead.

getting the good bologna: "when you experience something of better quality and then you’re doomed to no longer be satisfied." Coined by the family of kelssiel.

hypofixation: "the kind of things that you've autisticly decided you Do Not Care About." Antonym of hyperfixation. Coined by animate-mush.

[do-you-ship-it-polls]

Do you ship it?

reason: they *invented* modern fandom and shipping practices

[more-better-words]

20 Questions for (Fanfiction) Writers

Tagged by @1lostsoul0fishbowl! 😍😍😍

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

68 😳

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count

680,442 (granted, nearly 200k of that is one fic 😅)

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

What We Build Here

For the Duration

The Place We Call Home 

From the Ground Up

Not Just Any Vulcan

(so basically the four main works of the Built to Last series and Karveth's first POV piece!)

4. What fandoms do you write for?

Currently just Star Trek Enterprise, though at this point I've strayed so far into my own original canon I'm not sure it counts anymore. 😅

I have, historically, written for...a lot of different fandoms, though. All small, niche, and mostly dead lol

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I do! I used to not be so good about it, so I've made a real effort to always respond, because comments are better than raindrops on roses.

6. What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Hmmmm....I'm kind of a fluff machine, so if I do angst, it only lasts for a minute. But probably What We Build Here, because it ends with Trip and T'Pol being separated (but only because I knew I would be writing a followup)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Most of them! 😂 But probably any of my Karveth/Monica fics, because those are just soooooo fluffy.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

I've gotten the occasional bit of anon hate, though that's mostly dried up lately since I started just blocking mean anons. I've never gotten a hateful comment on AO3, thankfully.

9. Do you write smut?

I have and do! Though it is invariably sweet and extremely fluffy. 😄

10. Do you write crossovers?

No, I don't think my brain is wired right for that. I just can't imagine characters outside of their canon context. Guess that's a me problem.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Again, not that I know of.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

A long, LONG time ago, I worked on a shared AU with a friend. None of it was ever published, which is a shame, because there was some good stuff! But it was fun to play with.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Whichever one I'm writing at the moment. 😂

15. What’s the WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

Hmmm...probably either my Shadowrun: Dragonfall continuation, or my Green Hornet series. I kinda lost all the steam on both of them.

16. What are your writing strengths?

Dialogue and banter and generally having characters sit around and talk to each other, I think.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

Everything else. 😅 I struggle with plotting and action sequences and any kind of angst or conflict and I'm constantly comparing myself to other people's writing and feeling myself lacking.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I've invented a fair number of Andorian words and phrases, but certainly not enough for whole lines of dialogue. But if someone else can do it, more power to them!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Let's see....there's still some deeply mediocre Buffy the Vampire Slayer fic on a LiveJournal that used to be mine.

20. Favorite fic you’ve ever written?

Oh, that's unfair! That's like asking me to pick a favorite child! I love all of them for different reasons! I'm probably proudest of Under a White Sky just because I kind of feel like I was firing on all cylinders for that one, though others may disagree.

Tagging....hmmm... @phoenixflames12, @aprofessionalprotagonist, @mytardisisparked, and anybody else who is/has written fic and wants to play along!

[merrysithmas]

spirk shippers deserve an award for inventing modern fandom, inventing shipping, and carrying star trek on our backs for over 60 years only to have to watch the characters continually get paired with others for the blatant purpose of not putting them together as if we are simultaneously straddling two Parallel Realities, one of which insists on asserting dominance but will never be the prime timeline - it's like a real life mirrorverse ep, the ship continues to achieve meta analysis captain 😂

[4th-make-quail]

4, 5, 8, 21 for the fandom/fanfic asks!

4. Pairing that makes no sense to you?

HMMM god, honestly I'd say the majority of my notps I can actually see why people ship it but it doesn't tickle my fancy, you know? But I'd probably have to go with hm. I think Vossler/Gabranth - someone really recced this long fic of them to me and I'm just like. Well FOR ONE Basch is right there, FOR BOTH THEM?? And for another, Ashe is right there!!! That one makes absolutely zero sense to me, I just don't get it! Then again, I have absolutely no room to talk considering how much I'm into Ghis/Bergan, two guys who just absolutely would loathe each other lmao. Stones, glass houses etc.

5. Favorite platonic pairing?

God, I think I'm too much of a shipper to really be into platonic pairings, idk idk. Let me think. 🤔🤔 OH WAIT NO I KNOW. Emmrich and Harding!! Their friendship means everything to me, they're just so fucking cute!! Going camping together..... Harding altering her famous sandwich to make it vegetarian for him..... 😭😭 Too damn cute!!

8. Fandom you're a part of that's the most obscure?

Well, quite a few of my fandoms qualify for Yuletide which is for rare fandoms! But most likely C.S Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy! I'm only tangentially part of it (there's a very small discord), but I'm fairly sure I'm getting that for my Yuletide gift and I'm SO EXCITED!! It's a trilogy of fantasy books from the 90s about a priest and an emotional vampire who invented the priest's religion going on a journey for world saving reasons, and it's fucking fantastic. And very gay, despite what Friedman says lol. Fellas, is it gay to have a parasitic mindlink with a guy u hate so he can feed off the terror he sends u in ur dreams? Is it gay to wade into actual, literal hell for the guy? Is it gay to constantly think about how beautiful he is? Surely not!!! Anyway READ COLDFIRE TRILOGY IT'S FUCKING AWESOME

21. Favorite fic trope?

THIS ONE IS SO HARD FKFKFKF I loooove missionfic, especially for star trek stuff, but I think my fave more traditional tropes are like. There was only one bed, fake marriage, hurt/comfort and good old fashioned whump, UST and pining is a big one, and fix it is my ultimate fave I think - ESPECIALLY when one half of the ship doesn't die and then has to live with the consequences of their actions!! That's like fucking catnip for me >:3

[electronickingdomfox]

"Corona" review

Novel from 1984, by Greg Bear. I had my doubts about this novel during the early chapters, but it grew on me, and by the end I was pretty enthralled. More slow-paced than the usual TOS adventure, it presents truly interesting ideas, and their ethical ramifications. The most scientific concepts may be hard to grasp for the uninitiated like me, but the language is never dry. In fact, many passages dealing with physics come off curiously poetic and beautiful.

It doesn't delve much into characters, save the new introduction (a journalist girl named Mason), and at times McCoy, who is revealed to be a much more tormented man than normally assumed. Though in the case of Mason, she's a mere observer for most of the novel, and doesn't have much to do until the end, when her true role in the story is revealed.

What the narrative does fine, however, is creating an increasingly disquieting mood, once the Enterprise crew comes face to face with the dead-eyed Vulcan researchers of a distant station. In particular, their creepy children. The titular "Corona" is easily one of the most alien (one could say, Lovecraftian) entities that have appeared so far in these books. At first only obliquely referenced, its true nature and purpose are revealed in a gradual, pretty effective way. The reader doesn't really know what's going on, and it's not like anything terrible is happening (there are no murders or monsters around, nobody is injured). Yet I appreciated the feeling of lingering horror behind it.

The technology presented is a bit baffling, and it tends to play loose with canon. For example, we have the Enterprise sustaining warp eleven for seventeen days! Kirk is said to have a brain implant to receive directly certain transmissions (a gadget that was introduced, I think, in the TMP novelization). And the Federation has developed a new device to implant a person's memory in a new body, should the worst happen in the transporter. In all aspects, it's a cloning machine, but is much better received than I'd expect (after all, cloning machines are usually the domain of villains). All these things, as well as the misleading cover, made me think the story was set some time after TMP. However, the stardate firmly places the events during the five-year mission.

Another point of interest, is the introduction of novel ideas in regards to Vulcan culture. In particular, a coming-of-age ritual that awakens dormant conditioning in Vulcan children, to help them become adults. There are also full sentences in Vulcan. I don't know if all this was invented by the author, or taken from some reference material (or even fandom ideas!), but it's certainly the first time I encounter it.

Overall, this was a solid story. I'm surprised the author didn't write any more Star Trek books.

Spoilers under the cut:

A remote scientific station in a nebula has been cut off from communication for ten years (funny how nobody cared to check on the poor losers during all that time). But now, Starfleet has received a distress call sent from the station a decade ago, through conventional radio. The scientists at the station were studying Ybakra radiation, and were all Vulcan: T'Prylla (a distant relative of Spock, and presumably the woman depicted in the cover), her husband Grake, their two children Radak and T'Raus, and two other scientists. Besides them, the other members of the scientific expedition had been put in hybernation chambers, until the radiation in the nebula subsided. The Enterprise is tasked with a rescue mission. Though, after ten years, I don't know why the mission is so urgent: either everyone's fine, or everyone's dead by now.

However, Kirk has his own problems aboard the ship. Starfleet wants him to test a new monitor system, for command and medical decisions, capable of overriding the Captain's orders if it considers them contrary to Federation policies (so imagine how well this sits with Kirk). The monitor computer is imbued with the personalities and memories of several renowned admirals, who supposedly would find together the best course of action. Also, sickbay has been equipped with that new "cloning machine" I mentioned above. On top of that, journalist Rowena Mason will travel in the Enterprise, to cover the results of the new monitor system. She's a true country bumpkin that has never left her home planet, has all sorts of prejudices about non-human races like Vulcans, and feels pretty anxious about being in a starship. Kirk is annoyed by Mason sticking her nose in his business. But wants to keep her around as objective observer, to have some proof to rub in, in case the monitors fail (as he secretly wishes).

Once they arrive at the station, it becomes apparent that something doesn't add up. A redshirt glimpses a young boy, that the tricorder doesn't register at all, and the station seems at first deserted. When they later encounter T'Prylla and the others, they're in good health and polite, but also pretty stonewalling against any rescue attempt. And the children, rather than the adults, seem to be in charge of the compound. McCoy wants to revive the frozen scientists with the new machine in sickbay, but T'Prylla also objects to this. There's a further complication when the medical monitor registers the sleepers as legally dead (nervous system destroyed by radiation), and thus not elligible for resucitation.

Meanwhile, Chekov starts feeling influenced by a conscience inside his head, that forces him to do things against his will. He sends detailed plans of the Enterprise to the station, and later sabotages the shuttlecraft; the only means of transport for the landing party, since Ybakra radiation seems to be messing with transporters.

Tired of the newcomers' interference, Grake decides it's about time to show them their scientific achievements. The Vulcans have developed a transformer to control subatomic particles around the nearby area, which allows them to pop up anywhere in a certain radius. And through this transformer, they can also reproduce the conditions at the universe's birth. So they plan to start their own Big Bang. They show them a miniature demonstration of it. And there's an interesting insight into the characters, when each of them interprets different things in those images. Kirk realizes this is all madness, and blames it on the effects of Ybakra radiation on the scientists. He manages to get Chekov and T'Prylla inside an isolation container, which frees them from the radiation effects. And T'Prylla, again herself, tells them about the alien influence inside their minds. It manifests as a corona around one of the suns in the nebula, and its control is greater in the Vulcan children.

With the shuttlecraft dead, the landing party has to risk using the transporters. Almost everyone comes aboard the Enterprise, but the transporter can't retrieve Spock and Mason, who are sent back to the station. Spock feels Corona is about to control him, so in a last, desperate attempt, he transfers part of his conscience to Mason, though in the process, some of Corona's comes into her too. The journalist must overcome her fear of Vulcans, and use Spock's knowledge to awaken T'Raus, by means of imparting a coming-of-age ritual on her. For his part, Radak has materialized inside the Enterprise, and tries to sabotage the engines. But his mother imparts on him the same ritual. Once "adults" per Vulcan custom, Corona's influence on the children diminishes. But the Big Bang machine is ready, and starts the countdown to restart the universe.

Since Mason has part of Corona's memories inside her, she tries to reason with the entity. Through T'Raus, Corona explains its motives. Its race had existed in the first moments of the universe's birth, when everything was just energy in flux. As the universe cooled down and matter appeared, its whole race died. Only Corona survived in certain radiations, such as those in the present nebula. And all this time, it's been trying to go back to these initial moments of the Big Bang. The universe in its present state, is a dead corpse for Corona, and living beings are like germs.

In the Enterprise, Kirk hesitates about destroying the station while Spock and Mason are still there. But the fabric of reality is already starting to disintegrate at subatomic levels. The monitors consider that Kirk has failed for not destroying the station yet, and they override his command. The ship starts firing, but Corona controls all energy in the area, and deactivates both phasers and torpedoes. This gives Mason a bit more time to convince the entity of the worth of living beings. At last, Corona has a glimpse of her memories. And in the recollections of her planet's clouds, and the feeling of freedom she associated with them, the entity finds a parallel with its own world and memories. Corona decides to give living things a chance, and spares the universe. At least until the final moment when entropy reduces everything to nothing. Then it should be restarted. And it may seem corny to have the poor country girl saving the day against such an entity. But I think it's somehow fitting that precisely the most humble character, communicating with the greatest, is the one who achieves this. Also because, as a writer, her most distinct skill is that of communication.

In the aftermath, Mason has overcome her narrow views of the world. And McCoy finds out that the monitors will now let him revive the sleepers. As a parting gift, Corona tampered with the system to redefine what counts as "legally dead". There's also a funny moment when McCoy contacts one of the personalities inside the monitors: his (now dead) teacher from Academy days, who almost flunked him. And the teacher reprimands him for slacking off, when he learns that McCoy is still just a Lt. Commander. The monitors, however, proved to be faulty, and Starfleet will discontinue their use. But Kirk ponders what would have happened if they hadn't overriden him, and whether he could have fired at the station himself.

Spirk Meter: 2/10*. A couple of brief moments. At one point, Kirk feels he's almost in telepathic communication with Spock, and doing what he just would do. Later, Kirk is certain that Spock is still alive in the station, as he can feel his reassuring presence.

There's a bit of Spones too. This novel makes McCoy and Spock very similar at their most intimate level. We're told that McCoy also suffers because he can't control his emotions, too extreme in his case. And he has adopted brusqueness to disguise them, just as Spock has adopted logic. McCoy seems also pleased whenever Spock agrees with him. And when everything starts coming undone, described as McCoy's most terrifying experience ever, his last thoughts are reserved for Spock, whom he feels sorry about. He recognizes that, behind all their bickering, he hides a deep respect for the Vulcan.

Apart from this, Kirk really wants to fuck the ship. Take this passage into consideration:

"At the touch of his fingers -resting on buttons set into his chair arms-and at the sound of his voice, he could make the Enterprise come alive. Stroking... He put such errant nonsense from his thoughts (and a good thing neither Spock nor McCoy could read minds at a distance)"

Funny that he's specially concerned by Spock and McCoy's reaction to this...

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

[em-writes-stuff-sometimes]

what was the creative process behind your spike fic? i always love reading your notes on creating fic!

OMG, anon, thank you for the opportunity to ramble!

I'm actually gonna put a cut on this thing because I know people will want to scroll past the absolute wall of text I'm about to put out. I'm literally gonna write an essay on the birth of this beast, timeline-wise.

Kay. So, I've been reading a ton of Spike fics in like the last month or two. Before that, I was bouncing around with The Vampire Diaries, Star Wars, Star Trek, a lot of sci-fi/modern/futuristic stuff. I think that made the progression easier for me to 'get into' writing a modern fic.

This might be a bit dumb, but I cried when I found out that Michelle Trachtenberg died. Buffy was the legit first thing me and my dad had in common when I was a teenager (extenuating circumstances, but let's just say that we didn't get on great due to mutual, if separate, issues). It was a bit of a gut punch, you know? So I started looking at old Dawn fanfics I'd read back in the day—sue me, but when I was like 14 and my biggest crush was Spike, I read Dawn x Spike (given that I wasn't involved in wider fandom discourse at the time, I wasn't exactly literate on the whole ew-that-ship-is-NOT-okay thing)—and stumbled across the oldies I pored over. Geez, I swear fanfiction.net used to be a better quality site? Haven't been there in literal years, and I've gotten so spoiled by AO3 that it felt a bit like slummin' it. But the trip down memory lane was fun. Ran out of steam for Dawn x Spike, so I turned to Spuffy, Spander, Spillow, read all my old faves. Then I saw that there were new Buffy Funko Pops, and as a Funko ho I got them. Then I started rewatching episodes here and there. All the scenes of Spike getting verbally shat on by Buffy in Seasons 5 and 6 made my heart hurt—funny, because I don't really recall if it was quite so horrible to watch as a kid—and I was like "see, this is where fanfic comes in." Decided to hop back online and see if there were any good Spike x OC/Reader fics. A few, and really good (I'll reblog my reads if anyone's interested in that at all), but nothing that scratched the exact itch I was after. The whole "Spike should have an ending where he doesn't have to hide or excuse a part of himself" itch. Then the creativity itch started up.

I've been a bit leery of writing fanfic for a bit. Well, posting it, anyway. Done bits and bobs of ToE, but nothing substantial enough to put up as a complete chapter update. I've also been dabbling with Star Trek (Spirk x Reader, lol) and TVD fic (Klaus x Reader x Elijah, can you tell I like threesomes?), but neither of those are done. The latter is more done, and I might post that eventually, but it got away from me a bit because I made the mistake of just yeeting ideas out without making some sort of plan. Same with the Star Trek fic, TBH. I've sorta smutted myself into a hole with both—too much detail, to the point it reads like a blow-by-blow and I'm exhausted just reviewing it. The pacing's all wonky. So anyway, I sat on an idea of a Spike x Reader, partially based on old maladaptive fantasies I used to invent as a teen while trying to fight off insomnia. Being Buffy's sister. Being the one Spike falls for. It felt like the right move, in the name of nostalgia, to tackle an old daydream. And I think I've already mentioned that I've wanted to write a relationship fic using external character POVs, partly because I'm a freaky little voyeur, partly for drama and partly because it's an interesting way to practice at writing each character. If you can believably write in an approximation of their voice, you understand them, right?

Wasn't hard to draft some dot points about the order of development (something's up > too close at funeral > twoo wuv confession > sads after Buffy > catch post-nut > catch mid-nut > catch pre-nut > big blow-up > semi-resolution > happy days). Wasn't originally going to include Angel, but given Spike's hate-on for him and the necessity of filling in another character blank, I felt it held up to include him. The only possible place he could fit was Joyce's funeral, seeing as he was present in canon there, so there he was assigned. I had to think logistically in my assignments: I started with Xander getting to view the live graphic smut show, seeing as how he basically cops the same thing with Buffybot. That was a fun scene to write! I then went back to the 'huh, why's Spike being weirder than usual?' intro scene and decided that if it were anything more intense, Buffy'd probably just kill him, so she had to get that one. The other intimate scenes (confession, post- and mid-smut stuff) had to go to characters who wouldn't dob Spike and Reader in, so Anya, Dawn and Tara they went to. Dawn couldn't have the confession, she was busy being sacrificed by Glory, and she definitely couldn't have the active smut bit because she's a kid and ew. Giles got the post-Buffy's-death mourning sequence because he's mostly absent in Season 6 and I wanted to preserve that. I knew it was going to end with either Reader or Spike POV (to hit home how SWAG things are), and that basically left Willow by default with the confrontation scene.

I wrote it all out of order. Xander first, back to Buffy, then Angel, then Tara, then Anya, then Giles, then Dawn, and then Willow - Reader - Spike occurred in sequence. Had to do some editing to get them to flow on, but the beauty of the separated scenes meant that the internal monologue didn't have to be consistent between scenes. Each character's limited by what they know, which is most apparent in Giles's POV, given that he's interpreting Spike/Reader as a developing closeness rather than a secret affair masquerading as flirtation which I hope is what comes across. For authenticity, I tried to preserve the spelling, punctuation and grammar norms relative to the regions of origin for each character—everyone bar Giles and Spike have Americanised English (which I frequently stuffed up and have had to go back countless times and re-edit), while those two have good ol' British/Australian English. Not a thing most will notice, but I was determined to make that a thing, even if people don't necessarily think in words requiring correct spelling. Don't ask me why this was a compulsion, just blame my rampant autism.

I was mostly done with the fic by the time I started posting it on AO3. It came outta me with a quickness that I haven't had in a long time. I think it was mostly because I didn't really expect it to go anywhere initially; it was an itch to scratch like my other non-HotD fic dabblings, and I probably wouldn't finish it. Also, it didn't carry the burden of all these developed plot points as a brand-new fic, nor the weight of getting through the narrative arc due to the indeterminate time jumps and shifts in POV. Then I didn't really have any intention of posting it. Then it grew wings, and I decided to post on AO3 just because it seemed right to do. It actually wasn't well-edited the first go round, and I've gone back around 20 times since to change little bits that I didn't notice (I've since discovered that the easiest way for me to spot issues on my own is to post/draft it to AO3 and read it on my phone before bed, seems tired me is a picky beetch), which is annoying because I'm a perfectionist nutjob and the modern lingo did my head in a bit. I'm used to writing very floral, formal, medieval prose—very proper—and using all those contractions and incomplete sentences sent me 'round the bend. But CHARACTER CONSISTENCY, Em, CHARACTER CONSISTENCY. Must flagellate myself for the sake of realism. It helped to lean on over a decade's worth of fanfic consumption, some remembered and many hundreds not. I also think I've been a bit through the emotional/mental health wringer, so maybe there's an element of no-fuss-no-muss bleeding through? I dunno. Psychoanalysis isn't my strong suit.

I... think my answer's gotten away from me. Or maybe reads like I think I've created the next Iliad or something. Nah, it's just an excuse to write smut with one of my oldest platinum-blonde bad-boy-with-a-clear-lack-of-conscience crushes. It's nice to extend my writing abilities, diversify them a bit. I honestly didn't think I was going to move away from historical/fantasy fic, but I do have ideas for other stuff and it's cool so far getting to explore that. I struggle with single one-shots, so naturally I'm writing more to the story with a sequel. Much more direct, this next one—Spike POV only. It weaves back into some canon events, but brings up new stuff too in an attempt to generate more conflict and to showcase Spikeyboy being a kept house-husband, essentially. It ain't the chip in his head neutering him, it's the fact that his nuts are in Reader's little handbag. We see in Season 2 how over-the-top devoted he can get, and he never got the chance to show that with Buffy, so why not give him a gal just vulnerable enough for ol' Spike to swoop in and save the day for?

Anyway, yeah. There's my answer. I hope this is the deep-dive you were after, nonnie! Thanks for the question!