#i for one think the vulcans are NEAT

[junewongapologia]

I know it's been lost in the many, many annoying years of ST writers deciding Vulcans are bad and contemptible for having what amounts to just really visible cultural differences from humanity, but I really like how... Culturally Vulcan Spock is.

His colleagues have like a fixation on his mother's heritage but... he grew up culturally Vulcan on Vulcan and his human mother all but states in Babel that she's basically assimilated into Vulcan culture because she agrees with its ethos. In all of TOS Spock considers himself Vulcan.

He's... very well adjusted and settled in so he is, he's a guy who sacked off the VSA to join a pseudo-military against the wishes of his pacifist dad and on the ship he plays Vulcan musical instruments with his human colleagues, and keeps a room full of Vulcan cultural artefacts that presumably remind him from home. (I get that this is half-retconned in the movies - most explicitly in ST V 🙄 - and also pretty inconsistently written in TOS but it's still there!)

Idk it's kind of sad to me that the Vulcans are literally the innovators of IDIC and they've been flanderized into these isolationist bigots because the stoicism/pacifist vibes can be kind of confused and off-putting to people.

Like. List of Vulcans we actually meet in TOS:

Spock

Spock's dad, ambassador to Earth, married to a human in some weird 60s sitcom couple dynamic, in-text reason he is estranged from his half human son is literally stated outright as being because he thinks Starfleet is too militaristic and he's a pacifist - like most Vulcans.

T'Pring - Spock's fiancée/wife, breaks up with him because it seems like too much of a hassle to be married to a celebrity, never seems to have any issue with his parentage, clearly thinks he's Vulcan since she divorces him via Vulcan ritual (logical, fight to the death) and not Human ritual (illogical, loopholes/contacting your local divorce lawyer)

Stonn - has two lines, neither of them are about Spock.

T'Pau - kind of maybe says something bigoted ("they say thy Vulcan blood is thin"), but then pulls strings to get the Enterprise off the hook for disobeying orders at the end of the episode, presumably as a favour to Spock, who she knows is going through a rough time, or out of respect for Not-Really-Dead Jim.

Surak - from a war torn civilisation five hundred years ago, still less bigoted towards other species than McCoy lmao

I might be so wrong about this but idk I just like Spock's room full of unabashed Vulcan shit, and I think ST has ignored and wasted opportunities for interesting stories bc they're kind of obsessed with deconstruction of everything about TOS/the ST universe to the detriment of anything else including the actual original ethos of Starfleet.

#cannibistic deconstruction #is what id call it #star trek #star trek critical #vulcans #i for one think the vulcans are NEAT #also something something people's inability to read good faith intentions into a society that is very pacifist #is uhhh telling #pacifism is not inherently good!! obviously. #but it's not inherently sanctimonious and isolationist especially from a society that consciously adopted it in response to a violent past #I think people read vulcans in tos having closed cultural practices as being isolationist? #lads theyre in the ufp they're obviously not that isolationist #youve just reinvented the romulans in science vessels #i am very open to being told i am the wrongest person in st fandom about this #please help me understand i do not have encyclopaedic knowledge of the show

[sporkandpringles]

Ok here is my Surak headcanon and explenation why. Surak was Neurodivergent (autistic maybe). I mean he was basically a Romulan, as Vulcans of his age were. So to ne it makes sense that someone who functions at a complete 180 from their society would come up with a coping mechanism like logic to try and find some order in his surrounding. And I can see the idea of lofic being appealimg to the massed that would just want the end of the rampant paranoia of their culture

Ooh I like the idea of Surak being neurodivergent. Some Beta canon sources suggest that there were other Vulcans like T'Plana-Hath who dabbled in emotional suppression and logic from time to time, but iirc Surak was like the first guy to suggest it as a life-long, always, commitment. So I think this tracks. Like, I bet all that uninhibited emotion created telepathic feedback that's the sensory equivalent of being in a loud, overcrowded room. And, while I think pacifism was still Surak's first goal when he set out to preach logic to the masses, stumbling into some of his philosophy by coming up with ways to cope with being vulcanly neurodiverse makes a lot of sense too.

#hell yes send me your surak headcanons #I mean I also just think vulcans are all neurodiverse by human standards #but the idea of surak being neurodiverse even for vulcans #is a super neat one #asked and answered #surak #star trek #vulcans

[spirk-trek]

some non-canon vulcan terms of endearment i think are neat n cute:

ta'hal - light

vaksurik - beauty/beautiful

veh t' va'es - one belonging to infinity

khaf-spol - heart

t'nash-veh - of myself/mine

ha'kiv - life

taluhk - precious/treasure

wuh'rak - first/favorite

ek'zer - gem/diamond/pearl

ashau veh - loved one

katra's ha-kel - soul's home

#spirk #royalty vibes #just for fun #these were translated using a fan site ok #star trek #headcanon #text #spock #star trek tos #vulcan #my text

[ganondoodle]

totk cataclysm event wasnt just a great (but utterly missed) opportunity to change the map in techincally little ways that has drastic consequences both in stakes and in gameplay (like i mentioned before, flooding the gerudo desert would have meant devastating consequences for its ecosystem- like imagine little islands of sand still poking out, acting as a sort of last doomed refuge for sandseals- but also cahnged the entire gameplay of it, good chance to introduce some neat new ways to surf on water like a new ridable creature or an ice shield freezing a path while you surf on it, the gerudo being forced to save the city from drowing in various means or now living on the roofs, trying to adapt by building boats ect - also call back to older games?? since totk loves that so much ..-, vah naboris serving as the savest refuge being high above the water, even if non functional; similarly takign away ALL water from the zora region, gaving it all dry out would imemdiately turn into something way different and could mean death for the zora- forcing them to move to the lower parts of akkala for example- maybe vah ruta is still halfway functioning bc the faith the zora have to mipha, dorephan and sidon is, while not enough to keep it fully functional, but enough to generate some water so the most stubborn or brave zora set up around it like a last oasis; i know its somewhat done with death mountain but the gorons dont really suffer from it bc their only problem is a drugged rock that makes them mean and lazy ..- what about collapsing or exploding it, leaving a large crater that over the course of the game could start to grow with plant life since vulcanic earth is so fertile- some never seen before ones that was dormant in the lava and now that its cooled off is springing to life, which might seem good at first but for the area and its wildlife means loss of their habitat; the rito freezing over, but actually having to move, maybe into the tabantha canyon, building their new makeshift homes in between the walls of it- generally just switiching things around a bit would have done so much wihtout having to edit every last detail ((seriously tho, how did this game take so long given that botw took similar but they did that ENTIRE main map as detailed as it is AND made it all coherent with itself and its themes- im ranting again ..)

-but it ALSO would have been the perfect opportunity to introduce new weather types created by the sudden change in environment, somethign like a super strong wind that slows you when walking agaisnt and lets you jump much farther when with it- a darkness thing that clouds the world in utter darkness with only little light getting through anything that is caused by mushrooms from the udnerground invading the surface and their spores snuffs out all light (which could explain the weird darkness in the ruins from botw too!!), or just simply mist! making everything misty changes the entire feel of any environment drastically- you could make vertain enemies spawn only in certain weather conditions, lessening the repetive overuse of them; and that is only on the surface- what if the sky had sunbeams so strong it sets anything on fire if you dare to leave the shadows- to comabt it get a armor with a giant hat!! the underground could have been filled with different environments in the first place, but then of course thered be those dark spores of mushrooms, an entire forest you have to carefully travers other wise making them release their spores and make it all more difficult, glowy mushrooms, MORE glowy mushroms, theres so many weird ass shrooms IRL you could take inspo from!! maybe soemthing like a forest of kelp, long flowy plants obstructing view and making you anxious by any movement- there could be one thats a mimic or infected with miasma, slightly off color and its knobs are malice eyes that open only if it thinks you cant see it

(also for the idea of taking botws stuff and recontextualizing it, the guardians or shrines, now non fucntional, could be infected my miasma sometimes, maybe randomly to keep you guessing- an overgrown shrine suddenly lifting itself up with hands clawing at you when you get too close or do sth wrong to distrub it- similar with guardians tho the effect might be less since you know them as a threat already- or sth i mentioned in another post, a tower being used as a weapon by a gigatic miasma monster- the one in the gerudo region with the bottomless pit for example, perfect for an arena for you to run around in the spiral while its swinging at you etc etc)

JUST taking what botw had and mixing it up, expanding on it, even if technically little change, it could do so much but in the actual game death mountain and rito is the only ones that saw anything of a change like it, and it largely .. didnt change anything or was reversible easily, and had no actual consquences that meant anything, neither stakes nor environmental or narratively (the gerudo felt like it at first but its also largely reversible, its just kinda .. adding a bit of city)

i hhhhhhhhhhhhhh have so many thoughts still, i am just better at holding them back .... also dont wanna annoy lmao

#ganondoodles talks #zelda #ganondoodles rants #totk #loz totk #i still want to do the rewrite #but man wheres the time #i will never not be salty about totk #“YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE” #i wanna yell bc it could have been ... so good

[liketwoswansinbalance]

What if Rafal couldn't save Rhian in time? Like Vulcan successfully stabbed him with the pen before Rafal could prevent it?

The comedic answer is that I have one word for you: gibbeting.

That's the more "fun" answer, a form of medieval execution/torture, which was specifically intended to make an example of someone, publicly, to deter further criminal acts, and if Vulcan murdered Rhian, well, he deserves the worst death possible! And why not make it a creative one? However, I think, to an extent, that gibbeting could be too extreme, and that Rafal would recognize that if Rhian were alive, he'd view it as an eyesore, tasteless, or simply too brutal, so it's probably unlikely to happen. But, Rafal might not be above it, considering that the Doom Room exists, so it could go either way, potentially.

Plus, there's some added, bonus "fun" here, in how a certain canon moment would come full circle. Vulcan put Rafal in a birdcage (while he was a black sparrow), and now, Rafal would get the pleasure of hanging Vulcan (or rather, his slowly dying and later, decomposing body) up in a cage, a pretty neat form of revenge, if I do say so myself, haha! Besides, Vulcan was a bit exhibitionistic, wasn't he? So, this would also make for an ironical fate.

⸻

Now for the serious answer. I hope you don't mind it if I get a little more subjective/personal with this one at some point. It's not quite as much an overblown, narrative-style post, and may be more understated than usual.

I took this "what if" ask to essentially mean: how would Rafal react to Rhian's death and how would he mourn Rhian over time? If I misinterpreted your ask, and this wasn't the kind of response you were expecting, please let me know. Also, everything is speculative, of course, so take my interpretations with a grain of salt. I'm open to hearing other opinions!

I think Rafal's immediate, knee-jerk reaction would probably be to murder Vulcan as revenge, but also it would serve the more practical reason of disposing of the tyrant usurper, ousting him from the School permanently. However, I don't think Rafal would find catharsis in it, not this time at least, considering why he is doing it.

He'd have to act on his feet, and quickly, because, Vulcan would still pose a threat to his own life, which would force Rafal to delay any kind of visceral, emotional reaction.

That is why I think the murder would be done instantaneously because speed is more important, and so is getting the task done right. And, having Vulcan dead sooner for everyone's safety is more important than the potential brutality of any kind of gruesome catharsis Rafal could derive from the act. That's why I think Rafal would go about performing this particular murder in a less sadistic fashion, for once, like how Vulcan died in canon by a stab wound, versus the time when Rafal turned Rufius to gold and shattered him, or did worse to others, generally. If Vulcan had simply been a foe who was already incapacitated, that could've given Rafal the opportunity to go for a worse form of murder, but Vulcan isn't harmless.

Thus, employing a "kinder" form of murder in this instance wouldn't be out of sympathy for Vulcan, but more so, to fulfill an urgent need. And, in some sense, the act of murder would be done out of a kind of duty to Rhian, for Rhian's sake and nothing more. I think Rafal deriving pleasure/catharsis out of this murder could possibly be a bit of a slight to Rhian's memory because this is somber business.

Then, after that adrenaline or rage-fueled clarity and the action taken, I think Rafal would next probably feel some kind of uncomprehending fog next because Rhian was suddenly ripped away from him with little warning. His supposedly immortal brother, who was supposed to be with him forever, just died. To an extent, that has to feel surreal.

The surreal feeling could start out as a detached, dissociated feeling, like the kind of out-of-body experience where you're like a third-person observer, (probably a similar feeling as a panic attack?) Like, what? What has my life become? Rhian is suddenly gone, for good.

(The revelation of Rhian's death being real could also prompt a lot of thought as to why their bond wasn't able to save or revive Rhian, and could evoke guilt.)

Once Rafal processes the implications of Rhian's death, his initial outburst could be the most, actual, unbridled emotion he lets out, at all, if ever—maybe, one raw, primal scream of agony into the ether and that’s it. (Yet, I'm also tempted to say, that's too dramatic of a reaction, even for him. As interesting as it is to go to extremes in other cases, I'm attempting to go for something closer to realism here, so bear with me.)

While there is probably a narrow chance, that under the exact, right conditions, he could be driven insane or become an extremist in some way, out of guilt or by how ridiculously unjust the whole situation would be, I think it's a little more plausible that Rafal would just bury himself in his work. He could devote his life to Evil, and still keep it in balance with Good, without Rhian there to keep him in check, even if he was more often the one to keep Rhian in check, from what we saw. (He could also become disillusioned with the world and the Pen.)

Given how I view Rafal, I think he would shut down emotionally but not functionally. He wouldn't let himself dwell on the grief for long, and he might even (irrationally) resent Rhian for dying, at first, on the surface, because he's now got twice the work. And yet, the work would be a welcome distraction from his actual grief.

Additionally, I think Rafal would become numb and immune to all emotional appeals from other people. Not even a trick like Hook reminding him of Rhian would work to convince him to change his mind that he's already made up in any future instance. He's never, never investing himself in the fate of another person again. Not when he could lose them. He just... does his job. Someone has to do it after all.

That said, I think his paranoia level would absolutely skyrocket, too, as a result of the whole Vulcan incident, and that he'd isolate himself more than he already did before.

Now comes the part where this may or may not take a weird turn, and I could be projecting with what I'm about to say, but I think I have actual reason to apply it to Rafal, purely out of thinking it could make sense for him, (as just one of the many possible ways he could take Rhian's death. Again, this is all just my speculation. I could easily be wrong, so keep that in mind.)

Ok, I'm not sure if this is a common or a weird thing to think and I had a feeling it could be controversial. Thus, I'm going to preface it with this: my intention is not to sound callous, but...

I (usually) do not miss people when they are gone. (Death is different from just absence though.)

I doubt that I "miss" people in what is the typical way, from what I have heard from others? Though, I have an explanation. Obviously, it depends, but missing others doesn't occupy my every waking thought. (And thoughts about fictional characters are a different type of thought to arise.)

I feel others' presence when they’re around, and when they’re not around, unless I'm concerned for them, I don’t exactly think about them. It's kind of "out of sight, out of mind," except for the cases in which I actually am holding something to say to them in mind for our next encounter.

I’m sorry if this is strange, but I think that’s how I operate most of the time. I don't "wait around" for people to return because I always have some thing to occupy myself with. Can anyone relate?

I suspect that the reason why is because, to me, missing someone is what I would classify as an active feeling. When someone I love is apart from me, I'm usually busy, regardless of whether they're present or not (that doesn't change), and I know that when you're busy, you don't have the time to feel, at least not active emotions. They just... don't occur to you? Or maybe they are not conscious?

Now, from my view of things, if something you feel becomes a problem, and interferes with your daily functioning or general contentment with everyday life, that could very well surface as a real reaction or outburst. But, that's an entirely different matter. I also think that I am reminded of people at times, but that I usually don't "miss" them without there being some kind of (internal or external) stimuli that causes me to think about them.

Maybe, I'm just projecting onto Rafal too much because I relate to him over other characters, and this is silly, or junk psychoanalysis, but it seemed to fit his character also???

Sometimes, I just want recognition more than I want actual companionship since I don't get lonely. I wonder what that says about me? That I'm an introvert, or lazy because relationships require regular maintenance to sustain them? I promise I'm not a misanthrope!

Ok, back to Rafal. He's sunken himself into his work and as such, he wouldn't actively miss Rhian. (If anyone would like more clarification, I'm not saying he wouldn't grieve Rhian at all. It's not that.)

And, if we're going down a more realistic than dramatic route, he wouldn’t lose his sense of self, or his mind over Rhian. Yes, not even Rhian. I think the only thing keeping him running and tethered to his life would be his commitment to the School/keeping himself alive.

What this makes me think of is how people romanticize grief or unrequited love, how they may end up looking wan and eventually wasting away (well, if we're talking about being heartsick in literary/symbolic contexts...). And, I just don't think Rafal would be the type of person to fall into some kind of "madness" or melancholic malady. Grief just wouldn’t be so debilitating or all-consuming to him because he wouldn’t let it do that to him. He wouldn’t stop eating or sleeping as I would expect these behaviors more from someone like Rhian, not him.

Similarly, he might not indulge in pleasurable things, but he’s a bit of an ascetic already anyway, so that’s that. He could potentially renounce pleasurable things in life out of mourning, in a traditional way, but I doubt that would happen either, to be honest. It probably wouldn't cross his mind. At least, it wouldn't happen on a formal, conscious level, even if he could very well deprive himself without realizing it.

I just don't think Rafal would be engulfed by grief, simply because he isn’t that much of an emotionally driven person or that vulnerable to being swept up by personal tragedy, when compared to Rhian, who's more "wild." He’d only let his grief manifest so far, assuming his emotions do still remained locked down and under his control.

So, while he may think about Rhian regularly, he might just accept the fact of Rhian's death, carry on, and not miss him because Rafal missing Rhian could (implicitly) mean becoming non-functional due to grief (or guilt) and that would be too great of a risk for Rafal to take, considering his current reality alone. Basically, to let himself wallow in those emotions would be an unnecessary "risk," from his viewpoint. That's why he might repress that reflective type of thought.

Such feelings would be too much mess or potential disorder for someone like him, especially if he realized he couldn't keep them contained, and they, as a consequence, actually jeopardized his fate or the School's, assuming the grief made him unable to perform his job properly.

(He'd probably subtly resent the Storian as well, for not preserving Rhian's life.)

Also, one small point: in canon, was his bond with Rhian really, truly all-consuming? Let's stop and ask ourselves that for a moment.

Yes, for a time, their bond may have seemed like it was priority no. 1, but Rafal was apart from Rhian for six months, and might not have consciously missed him, if it took him that long to return after getting an external reminder from his interactions with Hook. It might have taken something outside of himself (like the prophecy) for him to come to the realization that he had to return and reestablish his loyalty to Rhian (which was arguably never gone, just dormant for a while). And this would mean that if left alone to his own devices, had he never been moved by James, or "awakened" and been made aware by Adela Sader, he could have taken longer than even six months to return... if he ever decided to at all, if the thought ever arose in the first place.

So, overall, it would only be rarely, when he has nothing to occupy himself with, that Rafal would grieve in some quiet way, and over time, the grief would fade. It wouldn't leave him entirely, but it would diminish, I think, the more and more he distances himself from everything else.

Also, in canon, I suspect that he lies to himself about how much he cares for Rhian. He never shows Rhian much affection, but he sacrifices his life for him, on instinct, which probably means a grieving Rafal would also lie to himself about how “little” he mourns Rhian. In reality, he’d probably mourn Rhian a great deal more than he could know, but wouldn’t have enough self-awareness to realize it.

Perhaps, at night, he would be haunted by Rhian's memory, and take on Rhian's insomniac trait on occasion. Also, to credit @cursed-daydreamer, I think it would be plausible for Rafal to take on a few of Rhian's traits, unconsciously, to compensate for the loss, and fill his void; it could be a way of keeping Rhian's presence in his life.

Lastly, I doubt that Rafal would publicly erect monuments or dedicate anything to Rhian. He wouldn’t want a painful, visual reminder around. His rituals, if we were to call them that, any form of remembrance, I mean, would likely be private, away from prying eyes and students. Rafal wouldn't want to come across as weak or sentimental. That’s the last thing he needs at the moment, a ruined reputation, another so-called threat to his own life/power. Because, increased paranoia could lead him to believe that if he were to show any sign of vulnerability, more "Vulcans" could prey on him and the School.

He could maintain the cherry blossom trees though, but it'd always be a sobering occasion, and he'd never take the credit.

Besides that, he probably wouldn’t go eulogizing his brother or canonizing him. He can still recognize Rhian's flaws, and to praise Rhian so completely would be "too much," too public, and the performative (or contrived) nature of certain mourning customs like those would probably strike him as "wrong" because they just seem... insincere. I don't think Nevers (if we're assuming Rafal remains Evil) put as much much stock in praise anyway, according to their value system.

The exception to the rule would probably be if he recognized that it would be Rhian's wish, to receive some recognition or a dedication. Then, he would do it, out of reverence, I think. He'd have reason to "excuse" it (Rhian's dying wishes), unlike visible emotions, which don't have an excuse to be felt.

⸻

Also, I was wondering: does anyone agree or disagree? I'm really curious because this ask provoked a train of thought I'd never considered before!

#school for good and evil #rise of the school for good and evil #rafal #rafal mistral #rhian #rhian mistral #vulcan of netherwood #sge #sfgae #the school for good and evil #tsfgae #rotsge #rotsfgae #my post #ask #death #grief

[who-dat-homeless]

Hey hi hello I am agender and one the silly things I often think about is how culture can be accostumizes for gnc/genderless/nonbinary people (for ex. I'm Belarusian, and in my culture both men and women have to wear belts. Men wear them on their waist, and women under their chest. So I thought it would be neat for a nonbinary character to wear a belt across their body)

And as I'm dived into star trek fandom I wanted to do the same for Vulcan. Specifically for their names.

I present you nonbinary Vulcan name:

St.[the end of the name]

St.ock

St.pau

St.pring

Humans are very baffled upon hearing these names

#ITS A JOKE OKAY #I CAME OUT WITH THIS LIKE TWO SECONDS AGO #ITS NOTHING DEEP #just hehe haha #okay #tos #star trek #star trek tos #vulcan #nonbinary #agender #gnc

[girlsgoneplague]

Spock headcannons, don't judge me i just think he's neat

He will NEVER ask you to neglect your duties but he will often apologize for putting you in harms way, even if its not his fault

Anytime you want to watch a movie he indulges you because he can get work done while you're leaning against him (but it is hard to watch dramas they infuriate him)

If you're an Ensign your relationship is quite secret but to be honest only people close to him will notice anything is different

Once you become a lieutenant he takes you out to dinner in the mess hall, and MANY people realize you're together but its still just a rumor since no one can read his facial expressions

You don't often get in harms way, but he almost broke a PADD whenever he found out your ankle got broken while running away, he doesn't recall any other details of rhe mission only that you were nearly left behind

Theres no kissing him in public, you respect his privacy and he has never had the urge to kiss you in front of anyone because he knows that what you share is for each other to enjoy.

There have been quite a few times (after a close call) where he did hold his hand out for a vulcan kiss, and somehow it makes you blush more than when he asks you in private to kiss like humans

There have been only a few times where Kirk has attempted to tease you both, but when you got hurt and spock nearly broke multiple pieces of equipment he realized that he wouldn't get a rise out of either of you unless he did something crazy

Kirk regularly gives him advice about dates because they're in fact the bestest of friends

His dates mostly consist of legitimate quality time, playing games together, eating dinner and discussing your day, or even just reviewing particularly interesting mission logs you've went on without each other

Bones had to physically restrain Spock more than once from leaving the med bay (so he could see you) and you're the only one that can convince him to take Bones adivice

Before you dated Kirk and Bones bet on every aspect of your relationship and once Spock found out he waited 2 weeks to tell them you were together

Spock never thinks about retiring but anytime you're allowed shore leave he imagines life with you to be enough. after he's gotten too old to be with starfleet of course

And if anyone is wondering, no he will never do public sex, this is Spock and in my opinion he only does it every once in awhile because he doesn't find it as satisfying as spending time with you and making conversation.

Side note even though this is x reader Spock is for sure in love with Kirk thats just a fact

I also couldn't decide which version to use so here's both!

#spock #x reader #headcanon #non-sexual intimacy

[strangenewwords]

WIP Wednesday

tagged by the lovely @kcscribbler regarding the WIP's I'm currently working on.

Hahahahah OH MY GOD THERE'S SO MANY.

Also I have a new rule where I write chaptered fics in full before publishing because that'll take the pressure off yay.

I think the two that are most prominent in my mind (other than McSpirk Month, and the handful of amazing ideas y'all inject into my brain) are impulse, my role-swapped Spirk, and emotionally compromised, my super whumpy Spones/Spirk/McKirk (It really is all of those things separately). That one turned into a fucking UNIVERSE thanks to @ncc1701ohno.

IMPULSE

The sound of voices carries from around a row of plants. Orchids. It’s the first moment he’s noticed them, dozens of them kept in fastidious arrangement. Leaning forward Jim makes to reach for the closest one, the tips of the fingers of his right hand just barely brushing against the silk of the petals. 

“Please, do not touch them.” Spock’s directive comes as he steps around the corner, hands clasped as always behind his back.

He looks different than Jim’s ever seen him. He’s draped in robes, but they’re not the formal things he wears to official gatherings or the stark tunics of their uniforms. He looks good. Almost vibrant. Vulcans exist with a line of tension that runs through them, like being strung up by piano wire, and Spock’s has been cut. As a result, his shoulders are slightly more rounded and the cant of his chin is not quite as sharp.

“Sorry.” Jim steps back from the plant, offering a gentle curving of his mouth. “They’re beautiful.” 

Spock stops before him, a professional distance away, and observes the orchid Jim had just barely grazed as if checking for damage.”It is of no concern.” Satisfied, he straightens. “It does not appear to have been harmed.

It was obviously of some concern, or Jim could have kept on petting the damn thing. Instead of pointing that out, Jim just puts his hands in his pockets.

Oh neat, he’s got pockets. He’s wearing jeans. He hasn’t worn a pair of those since he’d been enlisted in Starfleet.

EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED

“Tush ah nask dey kod lu.” Nope. That wasn’t right. “Turshah naz va koddle.” Okay, so Leonard's not doing well at this.

He swallows rough, feeling it as red rushes up his neck. Sarek, for his part, remains patient and unbothered, waiting for Leonard to get it right.

It takes a moment to psych himself up as he repeats the words in his head yet again before trying a final time. “Tushah nash-veh k'odu.” Each is spoken with precise articulation, fighting against the gentle curves of his accent, and it takes all of Leonard’s failing brain power but he gets it.

He thinks.

Sarek inclines his head lightly, reaching for the tea which has been set out before him. 

“As you are of my house, the informal is more fitting.” Leonard isn’t. Not yet. It makes something in him twist for Sarek to already consider him so. “Tushah nash-veh k'du.”

“Tushah nash-veh k'du,”  Leonard repeats, that same fierce intention focused on each and every syllable.

“And I grieve with you, Dr. McCoy.” Sarek sips at the tea and, well, he doesn’t pull a face. But Leonard can see the tiny tightening at the corner of his mouth. He’s gotta be exhausted or Leonard knows nothing would escape at all.

tagging @twinkboimler, @ncc1701ohno, @introvertia, @flippyspoon and @spock-in-awe in a totally non pressure way to see what y'all are up to (because we all know it's gonna be amaaaazing).

#tag game #writing #fanfiction #wip wednesday

[bardicious]

Recently I've been thinking of fanfic ideas, aus, headcanons, and I'm convinced Spock is the one who left Jim first after the 5 year mission.

He felt so emotionally compromised, and feared Jim leaving to admiralty, that he left. (Like Chapel had done to him prior presumably). He needed to purge those feelings because there was no future in them. What place would Spock have by Kirk's position as an admiral? What point is there in staying on the Enterprise when Jim is gone?

And for Jim, when Spock leaves, it guts him. Jim loves captaincy, he was on the flag ship! The dream ship, finding life forms no ones ever seen before. And he freaking loved it. But Spock is gone.

Just like that, poof! Jim's most intimate relationship, and Spock couldn't stand it so much, he left to purge his emotions. Like, holy shit, isn't that a smack to the head. Jim, wasn't planning to move up the ranks, but he is now. Perhaps it's not even conscious? He hears Spock left (did he even say goodbye? Was the goodbye distant? Or did he not tell Kirk, only for Jim to find out later). So Jim accepts his promotion, it's definitely got nothing to do with his best friend not wanting to be near him.

So we get to the motion picture, and we see Kirk after two and a half years, and he is miserable. Lonely, and literally only accepting Vulcan Science officers! Like??? (Motion Picture really was Trek's gayest movie and I fuckin love it). And Admiralty isn't for him. Deep down he always knew it wasn't, he needs to get back on his ship. He needs to get back to saving people, be on the front lines because he knows he can and will help.

And then Spock is BACK! Really back! They've been brought back again to stop a disaster. This is what they were both made for. Jim just wants Spock to be himself again, not the perfect Vulcan he's trying to be. Not a human version either, because Jim is comfortable with Vulcans, he gets them (And I bet they all fall in love with him too - not the bigoted ones), but he wants Spock. Anything that will remind him of Spock, but now he doesn't need a reminder because he's here!... and he's not.

And why won't Spock, please just sit down?

It takes Spock a little bit longer to accept his feelings, but he gets there. Jim is patient, and he is so freaking happy that his love indeed was reciprocated.

And then we are brought to one of Trek's most iconic scenes. (Where they make out. You know the one. lmao)

Its just neat.

#Where No Man Has Gone Before and Then Some #star trek #jim kirk #spock #star trek the motion picture #star trek snw #strange new worlds #star trek tos #spirk #snw spirk #tos spirk #Im convinced Spock left first - just the whole way they interacted in the motion picture #like jim didn't know what he did so wrong that spock became that

[ao3feed-spirk]

One (1) Daily Shoulder Pat

read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52644523 by Android_And_Ale Shenanigans ensue when one middle finger to the Academy too many gets Starfleet Cadet James T. Kirk booted off planet for a summer internship aboard the V.S.S. Sh'Raan. He's hiding a major secret from the oh so earnest and helpful Vulcans, but the longer he's on the ship, the more Jim starts to wonder if they're keeping secrets from him, too. --- Captain Spisee handed Jim a heavy sheet of rich, cream paper embossed with gold dusted Vulcan calligraphy bearing the ship’s name. It was a bit cheap by the standards of Vulcan stationary aesthetics, but shipboard life meant some sacrifices. In the most elegant handwriting he’d ever had the privilege to lay eyes on, it read: Human Enrichment and Optimal Health Program: - One (1) Daily Shoulder Pat (more provided upon request) - Seventy (70) Seconds of Hug Time Per Week (divided between crew members as you deem necessary) - Three (3) Discrete Instances of Daily Praise - Three (3) Structured Entertainments per week - Minimum of One (1) Social Companion per meal (more available upon request) “We would appreciate detailed weekly feedback on the efficacy of our Human integration efforts." Words: 3256, Chapters: 3/12, Language: English Fandoms: Star Trek, Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M, M/M Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek), Nyota Uhura, Gaila (Star Trek: Alternate Original Series), Christopher Pike, Vulcan Characters (Star Trek) Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock, Spock/Nyota Uhura, James T Kirk/Vulcan OC Additional Tags: Starfleet Academy Era (Star Trek), Set the summer between years 2 and 3, canon adjacent, Because AOS implies Vulcans never settled any colonies, TOS and I agree that there are more Vulcan colonies than human ones, Shi'Khar is full of assoles, But what if most Vulcans aren't giant Space Racists?, And instead are living their best IDIC lives!, Rural Vulcans, IN SPACE!, Look I just think Vulcans are neat, and so does Jim, Which is good because Jimmy is a sexy slab of tempeh and lots of Vulcans want a bite, consensual polyamory, Tarsus IV References (Star Trek), (nothing too grim), Spirk Endgame, Rating May Change, Dramedy read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/52644523

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #spock/kirk #kirk/spock #spirk #spockxkirk #kirkxspock

[gremoria411]

Next up from SD Gundam G Generation:

The AMX-001 Prototype Qubeley. Originally designed as the MSN-008 during the waning days of the one year war, it was one of several units that were eventually completed at Axis. It was designed to be a direct successor to the MAN-08 Elmeth (MAN: Mobile Armour Newtype to MSN: Mobile Suit Newtype), best known for its use by Lahlah Sune, the Ghost of Solomon. Though the psycommu system was largely miniaturised, the Prototype Qubeley was still a large mobile suit, being roughly 25 metres tall. For reference, the RX-78 Gundam stood at roughly 18 meters tall, and the Qubeley itself, which succeeded the Prototype, was only 18.9 meters tall.

Armaments wise, the Prototype Qubeley was armed with two beam sabers built into the hands, analogous to those on the regular Qubeley. However, though powerful, they are not removable like the later model, nor can they double as beam guns. Perhaps in recognition of this, it was also armed with Vulcan guns, mounted on the chest, presumably to dissuade enemies from getting close. Instead of the aforementioned beam guns, the Prototype Qubeley had a set of Mega Particle Cannons mounted in the forearms, which were wired directly to the suits reactor, giving them high output. Interestingly, in order to fire these weapons, the hand would fold away and the arm would split in half to form a firing channel. Lastly, it was armed with psycommu system with which it controlled its funnels, which are miniaturised from the Elmeth’s Bits in both form and function. (It appears in Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Define (below) with a funnel design similar to that of the Qubeley, but in the original game, Sd Gundam G Generation F, they appear as smaller versions of the Elmeth’s). Interestingly, the rear of the Prototype Qubeley where the Funnels are stored does resemble a smaller Elmeth.

(Piloted by Haman, obviously)

Design-wise, really good. The powder blue and yellow and red really make it pop, and it certainly feels Zeonic, with its slim, mono-eyed head and little crown. I like its bulk, since it’s a transition between the round Elmenth to the elegant Qubeley, so it being a little ungainly fits very well, and yet all the spikes and pointy bits give it a good silhouette. My only criticism is that I can’t for the life of me figure out where its waist goes. The above-left picture of it from Z-Define just looks too hunched to me, but its official art makes its body look rather squat, atop its long and graceful legs. (Also, despite what you may think, that large yellow part just in front of the arm isn’t the mega particle cannon, it’s just the side of the chest). In a nutshell, it’s a nice design, I just wish we had more art of it, so it was a little clearer how it all fits together.

Also, wasn’t really sure where to put this, but that red and yellow panelled area on the side of the head? That apparently flashes in a rainbow when it’s charging it’s mega particle cannons, which is just a neat detail.

(Feel free to throw any more art of this thing at me, I know there’s a Gundam War Card design for it I haven’t seen)

#gundam #ramblings #SD Gundam G Generation Design Series #Prototype Qubeley #Qubeley #Haman Karn #Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam Define #Mobile Suit Gundam #SD Gundam

[mask131]

Roman gods are not Greek gods: General intro

I keep repeating it again and again: for years and years we have been told that “Roman gods are just the Greek gods with another name”, but it is a lie. The concept that the Roman pantheon is just a copy-paste of the Greek one is… Well, it is true, I can’t deny it. The Roman gods were copies (not to say rip-offs) of the Greek gods. We can say truthfully “Jupiter is the Roman equivalent of Zeus” or “the figure of Ceres is based on the one of Demeter, from Greek mythology”. 

However, this concept is also false by many ways – or rather, it is the exaggeration and simplification of an actual cultural fact, which in turn leads to a massive misconception of what Roman deities were. You can’t say “Juno is the same goddess as Hera” or treat Aphrodite as if she was identical to Venus. As a result, if someone with knowledge of Greek mythology starts studying the Roman pantheon, they will immediately feel comfortable due to spotting a lot of common ground and things they know already, but the more time they will spend in the world of Ancient Rome, the more they will feel like aliens in a foreign land due to the many specific differences, unusual divergences and bizarre local traits of the Roman gods.

Anyway, I have been talking about this over and over again – and I finally decided to make a series of post about it! To truly talk about the differences and specificities of the Roman religion/pantheon/mythology compared to the Greek one. To do so I think I will go by the Olympian gods, which are the most famous of the Greek gods, looking at their Roman self to see how they differ from the Greeks.

BUT BEFORE ALL! A general introduction. A general introduction to specify some context points about Roman history, religion and culture – points that are actually quite important to understand why Roman gods are like they are.

POINT 1: Roman gods are copies of Greek gods.

That’s a fact: as the Romans built their civilization, culture and religion, they looked over at their neighbor, the mighty Ancient Greece (that soon would become just a part of the vast Roman Empire), thought their gods were really neat, and decided to “adopt” them. As a result, they took back the main and most important Greek Gods, and gave them Roman names and temples. Zeus became Jupiter, Poseidon became Neptune, Hephaistos became Vulcan… The legends, symbolism, attributes and relationships of the Greek gods were brought over in the Roman religion, and this is why nowadays everybody says “The Roman gods are Greek gods by another name”.  HOWEVER…

POINT 2: Roman gods were transformed into the Greek gods

Roman gods were not “invented” to copy the Greek gods as many would believe. The Roman gods existed long before the Romans decided to Hellenize their religions. They were the Italic deities, formed and born out of the many previous communities and civilizations that lived and existed in Italy before the rise of Rome: we are talking about the Etruscans, the Sabines, the Albans, all the Latin people. And this early Latin religion had its own gods, often very unique, which formed the proto-pantheon of Rome, its religion in its early days.

When the “Hellenization” of the pantheon happened (in fact the very use of the word “pantheon” is anachronistic since it was a Greek concept the Romans brought over), what the Romans did was that they looked in their local religion to see which gods corresponded to the Greek deities, and then reshaped their own gods to look more like the Greeks. As a result, yes, the Romans didn’t “copy-paste” the Greek gods, because it would imply that there was nothing before them – rather, the Romans did a full makeover of the original Latin gods so that they would look and act more like the Greek gods. 

However, the copying process was far from perfect: the Romans kept around many of their important gods they could not find equivalents of (such as Janus), had to completely invent new spots in their religion for gods they did not find equivalents of in their own cults (such as Apollo), the newly formed Greco-Roman gods still kept primitive Latin and Italic particularities that led to a divergence from their Greek model ; and finally, the Hellenization of the Roman gods led to massive shifts in divine relationships and positions, that also led to conflicts in characterization (such as Saturn, who was an important and benevolent deity, and that the Romans had to equate to a non-religious villainous figure, the one of Kronos).

POINT 3: Romans were farmers and soldiers

The pre-Roman civilization(s) was an agricultural one. It was a community of farmers of various kinds, living in the countryside and the wilds, and who relied heavily on plants, crops, the cycles of nature… And this led to a lot of the early Latin deities being nature or agricultural deities. Then the early Roman civilization gained geographical and political power through wars and conquests, and another big social group was introduced: the military. So, the Romans gained gods more focused on weapons, soldiers, armies, victory and defeat. And these were the original Roman gods, the core Roman religion: agricultural gods and war gods. Even after the Hellenization, even as the Roman gods became copies of the Greek gods, they kept this intense focus on either nature/agriculture, either the military and everything that came with it – such as politics. But with the advance of the Roman Empire, a third element could be included: urbanism. The Greek civilization was spread across numerous islands and state-cities, and it relied on a shared language, a shared religion, shared customs. The Roman civilization? It was all about Rome. It was about living in Rome, having the customs of Rome, being born in Rome. It was all focused around this one city versus the rest of the world, this one city that became the center of the world – and as a result, the Roman gods also reflected this aspect of the civilization by becoming very urban and city-focused, more than the Greeks. God of the farmer, god of the soldier, god of the city. This is why the Roman gods are more naturalistic, militaristic and urban than the Greek gods.

But this all leads to another massive difference in religions that I will talk about in my next point (which is in fact just a continuation of this one)

POINT 4: Roman religion is rituals. Just rituals. Tons of rituals.

Roman religion is a ritualistic religion. The “farmer and soldier” mindset on which the Roman religion was based led to a very… let’s say pragmatic, down-to-earth religion, all centered about rituals. In fact, this ritualistic nature is precisely the reason why Roman religion thrived in the Antique world until the arrival of Christianity. Given it was ritualistic in nature, all you needed to do to be “part” of the religion was to simply practice a set of rituals for the gods. Offerings, sacrifices, festivals, temple-building… 

The Roman religion didn’t rely on something like a dogma or a belief. It was all about the acts, the rituals, about a regular worship – but not about a specific faith. This is why, as the Empire grew, new gods from foreign lands kept being added to the pantheon; and this is why the Roman religion kept syncretizing itself with other cultures, and why the Roman empire could allow the conquered nations to keep their religion as long as they practiced the Roman cults alongside it and recognized them as just as valid.

Because Roman religion was all about practicing rituals, and as long as you practice the rituals, the gods are pleased, and as long as you practice the rituals, even if you do not believe in them, you are part of the religion, of the community and of society that go alongside it. Roman religion was very social (again, the “urban god” part). This is why it was so lax and inclusive when confronted to gods and worships different from its own. And when Christianity arrived… They were confronted with an entirely different model. A dogmatic religion, a religion based on belief and faith – a religion that, as such, could not work in the same syncretism-and-expansion project ; a religion that excluded all other religions as “false” and “incompatible” with their own worship. Christianty wasn’t just about honoring a god by rituals but about believing in a god in such a way you couldn’t admit anything that would contradict your beliefs… Cue to the Roman persecutions of the Christians.

Anyway, I got carried away here. The important thing is: Roman religion is a ritualistic religion. And the consequence is that the Roman gods were, for a very long time (and still were, until the end), ritualistic gods. The reason the Hellenization of the Roman gods worked so well was because the early Romans did not have any… “mythology”. They did not have any myths. Look at the legends forming Roman religion: 90% of them or so are Greek in origin. The purely Roman legends are a minority, and mostly tied to actual historical facts. Early Romans did not think of the gods as creatures with personalities or humanity, and even less as beings able to have adventures or be the characters of stories! For them the gods were abstractions and personifications, entirely centered around rituals and offerings and specific festivals – forces of nature and manifestations of a ritualistic power. But the Greeks were storytellers, and when the Romans saw this extensive, carefully-crafted universe of legends and tales, with each god having specific relationships and personality, they gobbled it up and imported it all to fill their own void when it came to myths.

Even then, it is something you will notice if you look at the Roman gods – even after their Hellenization, they still stayed extremely ritualistic. Take the epithets of the gods. In Ancient Greece, these epithets usually depicted the essence, appearance or power of the gods, and were used in a quite poetic way. In Ancient Rome, the epithets of the gods almost always describe the different aspects and functions of the gods in religion, each nickname or title being about one of the jobs of the god or what a deity does. No “gray-eyed”, “white-armed” or “fast of feet” in Rome, oh no, we are talking of things like “Purifier”, “Protector”, “Judging”, “Ruling”. Similarly, a god in Ancient Rome is defined first and foremost by the rituals, festivals and religion around it – the myths and legends are just fancy ornaments and pretty stories. Which leads to a lot of minor or secondary Roman gods having no tales or personalities of their own, and being solely defined by a specific rite or festival. Ritual first, myth later.

[  As an addition, if you want some temporal indications, the Hellenization of the Roman pantheon is said to have “finished” somewhere between the third and second century BC, the third century being the most talked about due to it being the century of Enius’ record of the “twelve great gods”, obviously based off the twelve Olympians of Greek mythology. But the Hellenization was actually said to have started at quite an early time, due to the Greeks interacting frequently and having some religious influence over the main civilization that preceded the Romans: the Etruscans, whose religion served as a “foundation” and “basis” for the future Roman religion. This light-Hellenization of the Etruscans is thought by certain to be a “proto-Roman Hellenization”, an indirect and minor Hellenization of the early Roman religion that paved the way for the “true Hellenization” of the Roman gods later on. We are here talking mostly about the Greek colonies founded during the 8th century BCE in Sicily and meridional Italy (the 8th century being the same century at the end of which Rome was founded): the colonies of the Euboeans on both sides of the strait of Messina; the founding of Syracuse and Taranto by the Dorians; or Sybaris, Metapontum and Crotone by the Achaeans. Apparently this colonized part of Italy was even called “Great-Greece” by the Ancient Greeks, the same way we have Britain VS Great-Britain).]

EDIT:

I was asked about the sources I used for my “Roman gods are not Greek gods” series, and so I will add them below. In this time of massive misinformation, actual sources are always dearly needed. Note that I literaly just pulled them off my shelves to write quickly those posts - these posts are NOT deep-down, scholarly, expert dives on the Roman religion. I am just a person who enjoys talking and reading about this and wants to share basic knowledge.

So, beyond looking at Wikipedia articles (because Wikipedia does have a lot of useful info, when properly sourced) and at Theoi.com articles (they are mostly about Greek texts but they do have a lot of Roman extracts, sometimes exclusively Roman ones), I mostly use for these posts three French books of mine. While each has been a reference in their time, each one is incomplete or flawed in a way and so I need to use them simulatenously, plus a side fact-check, to get things right.

Source 1: “Mythologie générale” by Félix Guirand - it has an entire section about the religion and mythology of Ancient Rome. Advantage: Very complete and very scholarly. Disadvantage: It is old, and thus aged badly in some ways (some points later discovered to be false for example).

Source 2: Dictionnaire de la mythologie grecque et romaine, by Joël Schmidt. Advantage: As scholarly as the previous one, but more recent. Disadvantage: It is a short dictionnary meaning it keeps every article as concise as possible and doesn’t offer much, even though it goes straight to the point.

Source 3: Edition Atlas ‘ La Mythologie (book-form of the Atlas collection “Mythologie”). Advantage: It has two full and extensive parts for both Greek and Roman mythologies, with different articles for each deity (one for Hermes, one for Mercury ; one for Hera, one for Juno), meaning they take their time exploring each deity on its own. Disadvantage: It is meant to be for a non-scholarly audience, so it has a bit of vulgarization to it ; plus the book-form lacks many of the articles in the originally published collection, and while I do have some of those extra-articles, others are missing.

#roman gods #greek gods #roman mythology #greek mythology #roman religion #roman gods are not greek gods

[astralfrontier]

I think I've figured out what I don't like about Star Trek Discovery. But to explain it, I have to talk about what I do like, and where I am - which is midway through Season 2.

First, Michael Burnham, herself, is a good character. She's confident, talented, driven, capable of making mistakes (and makes a very big one at the opening of the show), but also capable of taking big risks and coming out on top. She admits when she's wrong, but she's not afraid to tell other people when they are. For the most part, she's the sort of character we're told Starfleet wants to have as officers.

Second, she's surrounded by interesting oddballs. Stamets is a wonderful academic who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty, and he's got a loving and tender relationship which is a fucking rarity in Starfleet. Tilly is like a visitor from a more mature Lower Decks. And so on. It's really Michael's show, but she's got a good crew around her - some of whom can give her orders.

Third, the ship's concept is really neat. It's a combination flying science labs and black-ops project, like Half-Life's Black Mesa in space.

So I'm still watching the show, because I feel all this potential there, but I sometimes wrestle with it. And here's why.

Every plotline has to orbit Michael Burnham. Most recently, she takes a mentally tortured Vulcan to a planet for help and the point of being on that planet, seemingly, is to just tell her a story about what happened, then see some exposition. That trip could have just happened, she could look angsty while specialists do their work, and then there's a scene of truth if not reconciliation.

But this isn't an isolated case. Just over and over, the writing pushes her to the center of the action. She's got personal connections to every single thing that matters. Some hypothetical time traveler could apparently screw up the Federation for centuries just by messing with her timeline a tiny bit.

The times when this doesn't happen - like when it's Stamets, not her, in a time loop - are so delicious, because she's smart and clever and has this out of context problem thrown at her repeatedly, and she prevails. It's episodes like this that convince me Burnham is a good character independent of the spotlight the writers seem intent on locking onto her 24/7.

(This is also my problem with Voyager - some of the characters there are good, some are meh, a few are fantastic, but MY GOD the writing is like a vampire that just sucks the enjoyment out of watching it)

The show is having wild hate-sex with TOS-era canon. The show really, really wants to remind you that it's the immediate prequel to TOS. Like look, here's Captain Pike, here's Spock, there's the Enterprise, but we're also going to drop this multiversal mushroom network on you out of NOWHERE, we're going to a lot of stuff with Klingons, we're just doing all this wild shit.

I'm glad they're swinging for the fences though. The Sphere is probably the most impactful encounter they have in Season 2 in terms of its story impacts, and it's just such a wonderful TOS-era thing. There's this big weird object in space, there's literally nothing like it anywhere else, it's dangerous but not malicious, we're going to pit Federation ingenuity against the puzzle it represents, and we're going to have a good outcome if we're lucky.

The show sure likes to sleep on its ensemble. I love Saru and Stamets and Tilly, but I wish we'd heard more about that weird cyborg lady, Airiam, who's on the bridge before she's under it. They dropped TIG NOTARO on us as a sassy engineer, give her more love. Detmer clearly has a ton of emotion she's processing. I want to see her actress, Emily Coutts, in more stuff. It feels like they almost put in too many characters and then shone spotlight on the same few all the time, and then would pull others from their back pocket for moments of drama.

All of these things are why I'm looking forward to Season 3, where it seems the writers hit the reset button on a lot of this and are trying something new. I don't know if it'll be a better new, but it'll solve the problems Season 1-2 have given me. And I want to see what Strange New Worlds does.

#star trek #star trek discovery #star trek disco spoilers

[slivensays]

Trick or Treat!

A small comic or fic drabble maybe? :3

Oh, fun! Thanks for the ask!

I wrote a little something, sure hope you'll like it! It's not my usual fandom, but I tried to get it right. 😊

My mind to your mind Star Trek Voyager Tuvok and Lon Suder General audiences

Lon Suder really wishes to experience the Mind Meld once more.

¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨

Tuvok visits him sometimes. The officer doesn’t see it fit to delegate such a task to anyone else, and so, Suder tries his best to behave in a way that the Vulcan will find agreeable.

Has he been meditating? Of course, it is the one tool he has access to that will help with overcoming his violent impulses, which, when supressed for too long, threaten to take over.

It was the ultimate result of one such impulse that landed him in here; lacking a proper outlet for his compulsive aggression, he beat a man to death for looking at him the wrong way. Not the way to behave in a social context, he always knew this. Which is why he tried to hide the body and deny his involvement, when it was discovered.

It would have been different, had he still been in the Maquis, where skirmishes were a regular occurrence and could always be used as an excuse to get the aggression out of his system. He didn’t always find it necessary to kill, in those days, but would readily volunteer for missions whenever possible, in order to release the tension that would inevitably have built up inside him. He didn’t always need to kill. But when he got the chance, he would; the feeling of relief an instant reward. He had made a good soldier. But a good crew member on a peaceful Starfleet ship? No, something was bound to give way.  

To the best of his knowledge, Suder will be confined to his quarters until the Voyager reaches the destination called ‘home’ in the Alpha Quadrant. Suder isn’t sure, however, that he still regards it his home. Stranded in a strange part of space, well, but he’s been adrift for most of his life. It was always hard, being the odd one out, unable to learn or understand the proper responses that everybody else knew instinctively. Betazoids are known for their ability to read and connect with the minds of others. Not so Suder; he fails to connect with anyone at all.

That is, until the Meld.

Abandoning all sense of self to the Vulcan, thinking (no, hoping) he would surely perish in the process, is the closest Suder has ever felt to another. Understood another. Surrendered to another.

The first time he has ever felt relieved without first resorting to violence.

Remembering the Meld is… well. It’s something. No. It’s everything. It’s… connecting for the first time with another person. Truly connecting. With someone who sees you, who reads you, and who allows you to see them in turn. Someone who even leaves a little bit of themselves behind for you to marvel at once they are gone.

In this case, an ability to compose himself. To store away his impulses just like putting them neatly into a box, then close the lid. And let it sit. And sit, and sit for days at a time, with Suder feeling next to no need to lift the lid or let any of those urges out. And then, when finally he did, there was the meditation to aid him.   

But the meditation is of course a poor substitute for the instant alleviation offered by the Meld. Which is why he’ll ask for it again, even though he understands that it takes a toll on Tuvok. The Vulcan doesn’t get to walk away from such an encounter feeling well at ease, since he’s at risk of receiving some unpleasant tendencies of Suder’s in turn. Still, such tendencies should be much better contained now that Suder has worked hard on his focus and his composure. Enfolding his little box in layers and layers of neat wrapping, as it were, he’d happily tie a bow on it and gift it to Tuvok so he could be rid of it forever, were it possible. Hiding it away in a dark room, then throw away the key seems to be the alternative.

He wonders sometimes what dark urge Tuvok got in exchange for sharing his interest in orchids. Or if it even works that way, but Suder assumes that it does. You share one aspect of yourself, you get another in return. It seems rational.

The orchids, when first they entered his mind, seemed random and out of place. Difficult things to grow, even given the right conditions. When given the wrong; well. It is a demanding hobby, and it takes skill and dedication to succeed. Suder feels the need to concentrate, measuring out the right amounts of water and gently pollinating the flowers in his attempts to create a hybrid. But, as he shifts his focus from the ongoings in the darker parts of his mind to the care of the orchids, Suder finds it almost as rewarding as the meditation; he feels calm.

It will not be enough, Tuvok has warned; the techniques that Suder has learned will not keep him indefinitely from repressing his inherent violence. He must keep practicing them daily, cultivate himself by adding to them in order to retain his composure. And Suder does. He closes his eyes, controls his breathing, he directs his thoughts to the orchids and how proud he’ll make Tuvok when he finally manages to produce a hybrid flower of his own.

Still, all of that will not be enough. Which is why he keeps asking for the Meld, to feel again that sweet connection with a mind that seems to understand him. And for the chance that Tuvok might leave another little piece of himself for Suder to immerse in.

This, as it turns out, is a great argument for getting Tuvok to agree, finally, to try the Mind Meld once more. By offering Suder some additional aspects of himself, Tuvok can provide him with new tools which Suder can use to improve, thus making him less of a hazard. Though Suder is hardly threatening these days, the Vulcan is in charge of security and will always keep safety one of his main priorities.

And so it is, at long last, that Suder gets to feel Tuvok’s hands on his face again. Gentler, this time; when last it happened, it was an intrusion. And although Suder did welcome it at the time, this is so much better.  

Finding the right position for his fingers, Tuvok looks into Suder’s dark eyes; searching his face for any clue that he might be in the wrong state of mind for the Meld. But no, Suder emits only anticipation, and as the Vulcan seems satisfied with his examination, he closes his eyes in concentration; “My mind to your mind.”

It is soft, this time, hardly more than a whisper, and Suder lets out a long sigh of relief as he feels Tuvok’s mind tenderly enclosing his own.  

The end

Hope you enjoyed! If you want to, I could post it as a gift for you over at Ao3?

#trick or treat #ask game #fun and games #fanfiction #my stuff #creative writing #star trek #star trek voyager #lon suder #tuvok #mind meld #meld #not my usual fandom #or pairing #not really pairing here #anyway #I tried #and I had fun #romantic undertones optional

[thegeminisage]

STAR TREK UPDATE TIME!!! thursday we watched tng's "emergence" and ds9's "crossover" (honorific)

emergence (tng):

I HATE HOLODECK EPISODES. i wanted season 7 to go out on a high note. nostalgia and time would have made me forget so many of tng's sins if it had gone out on a high note

girl, the enterprise CAME TO LIFE, had a baby, and then died, and nobody had anything to say about that except "ok let the baby fly into space hope it has a good life!"

the enterprise and moya from farscape could have raised their children together communally. like feral cats.

if kirk had been captain when the enterprise came to life he would NOT have let that baby fly into space. he would have gotten one of those little toddler leashes. he would have paid child support. he's not the step dad he's the dad who stepped up

i honestly don't remember what else happened here because the following episode blew my tits clean off

oh yeah wait i think it was racist to make worf shovel the coal. shame on them. data's way stronger than worf he should have been doing it he would have been like yay i love a novel experience :) i can add this to my file on coal shoveling :)

crossover (ds9):

WORLD'S LONGEST YEAH BOY

no, i'm just going to abandon my bullet points. where do i even begin...you know, actually, let's begin at the beginning, which is the tos mirrorverse episode. i have a wider meta on this in me somewhre i bet but it wasn't always this way! i like, initially watched this, went, "huh! that was neat," and thought no more about it until i read a fanfic (don't ask for it i'm not telling, it was more like 2-3 fanfics honestly) and then i was like WAIT HOLD ON A SECOND. see, my fascination with mirrorverse comes primarily from the following hypothesis:

everyone always says that bones in mirrorverse and bones in the prime universe are the same guy and that makes him god's specialest princess, which i don't disagree with! but i think, deep down, EVERYONE is the same. i think mirrorverse (quite accidentally) provides a pretty compelling commentary on both nature vs nurture and the cycle of violence. kirk, who undoubtedly went to a much worse version of tarsus iv in the mirrorverse, becomes a guy slaughtering colonists by the thousands, because in his mind that's what power looks like and being powerful means being safe. spock, who is brought up to believe violence is logical instead of pacifism, follows that doctrine just as strictly as he sticks to his morals in the prime universe, and indulges in his emotions just as rarely, because in either case he is punished just as much, if not more, for going against vulcan and human social norms.

put the same guys in the opposite situation (ie a mirror) and they will turn out as their own twisted reflections every time. mirror kirk is just as driven to succeed, just at a different game. he has just as much of a temper, but without the apologies that come afterward. he's just and dangerous and as handy in a fight as prime kirk, but without the moral compass that has him pulling punches instead of a knife. he has that same desire for power, though it's to protect himself rather than to protect other people. mirror spock is just as sharp and calculating, he's just running different numbers, after different results. he's just as good at sussing out emotional motives because of his forced distance from them, but he has spent a lifetime being rewarded for exploiting the emotions of others instead of trying to understand them. he even shares the same preference for being the first officer instead of in command, though the two spocks have differing reasons for this. you could even argue that he has the same capacity for loyalty, inasmuch as it's safe or possible to be loyal in the mirrorverse; he avoids trying to kill kirk as much as he possibly can, and when he finds out "his" kirk is gone, immediately does everything in his power to see to getting him back where he belongs. the mirror characters aren't opposites; they're reflections, inversions. they started out as the same base thing. they were made ugly and evil by their circumstances.

we didn't get to see much of mirror kirk and none of mirror bones (to my eternal woe), but knowing mirror spock DID ultimately take action towards pacifism and reform is extremely damning evidence for this hypothesis, at least in my mind palace. our own spock is defined by his compassion and selflessness; he gave his life in the warp core because the needs of the many outweighed his own needs. mirror spock is running the calculation in the other direction; he is thinking of his own needs. yet he comes to the SAME CONCLUSION - it is important for people to be safe, because logically nothing else can hold.

i notice that they carefully avoided saying whether or not spock ACTUALLY killed kirk, and i love that, because i loved the open-ended nature of the original mirrorverse episode - i loved that we could imagine anything happening. kirk dying or becoming a better person or becoming a worse person. i'm a little sad to have finally lost that, but i love that we can still just as gleefully imagine spock shoving a pole through kirk's ribs (in the horny way) or them being little rebels with bones and fighting the system together. ooooh and you better BELIEVE i had to pause the episode and cover my face and take a moment to have my hysterics when they implied mirror spock may have killed mirror kirk bc our kirk asking mirror spock to kill his other self was one of the horniest things tos ever did, up there with amok time and that stupid bondage harness.

speaking of horny, let's get into the actual episode. this episode was so abjectly fucking horny it's ASTOUNDING. it's mind-blowing. i think lesbian kira-on-kira was ABSOLUTELY the way to go as far as introductions. and kira-on-kira PROVES MY HYPOTHESIS!!! mirror kira has the same sympathy for her human laborers (the downtrodden), just not extended further than she extends sympathy for herself. she is also, like our kira, into girls. AND she is seduced by the idea of giving power to a weak bajor. kira's love affair with herself was probably the best part of this episode, number one because women and number two because they understood each other SO well except mirror kira was just unstable enough to be scary. and kira being like a little scared of her and them still being gay was really problematic and horny of them. fun. god. like, BATH SCENE?? HELLO??? i hope nana visitor had the time of her fucking life

mirror garak is also basically the same guy. this is just pre-exile garak. he's so conniving and gay. he didn't even do any of that seductive shit to our kira. why? he's not into girls!

i'm so sorry odo and quark didn't get a better lot in this verse. they don't come back either i checked :( odo was kind of boring, unfortunately, except for3 points: firstly, him slapping julian like 3 times was also problematic but horny. secondly, the goop he exploded into. rip king. (and kira moruning him!! otp.) thirdly, this is odo's disdain and lack of understanding for humanity (humanoidanity?) multiplied by 1000x. this is not an odo who was forced to get to know us and saw that some of us needed the protection he had to live without and now had the power to give, this is an odo who was experimented on and probably killed dr mora on his way out of the facility, and is looking to dish some out instead of take it. FUN. our odo makes hands to touch people with. this odo makes hands to slap people with. rip to that guy and i was absolutely shocked that a do-no-harm DOCTOR killed him but honestly there's probably a net good in that for our julian.

quark running the metaphorical underground railroad out here also seems to echo him selling food to bajorans...also, his, outfit? it made him look like a good person. it's a wonder it took them so long to catch him. our quark is selfish because he sees it as a path to a good life. their quark is selfLESS for the same reason, see? also SCREAM that our kira was like yes we're BESTIES on the other side when she often tells him how much she despises him lmao

o'brien!!! god i wish we had seen more of him but i LOVED him and julian being besties here too. he was like youre NOT my friend and then 20 minutes later helping him escape. it's like he was a sleeper agent, he got one whiff or someone who could afford to have a moral compass and instantly he was like actually yeah humans deserve better than this! i love that julian was just gonna take him back and have two obrien besties and fuck starfleet if they didn't like it lol. obrien secretly also the same, and i'm really glad he got to at least escape w sisko to become a pirate or whatever.

HEY. BY THE WAY. PIRATE SISKO. SO FUN AND EDGY. he was really unhinged and kind of like a lunatic. cw for discussion of rape the rest of this paragraph. so i think there was a light implication via his body language and also "you charmed your way out of the mines" that he was NOT enjoying/consenting to the sex he was having with mirror kira, but very much enjoyed the opportunity to menace her counterpart, and other people, like obrien. again, like odo, he is tired of taking it and itching to dish soem out. UNLIKE odo, we see that he has people he loves! he says "i made the best of a bad life for my crew" and even shakes his head at one of his crew members who is about to do something that will get them hurt - he's also happy enough to take obrien, former target, under his wing on the way out, when he sees something worthy there. JUST LIKE OUR SISKO, he IS protective and he DOES value his people! i loved seeing that core of him, even though his outside was deranged in a fun evil way.

ok, to finally wrap this up, bashir giving away his plate of mush at mealtime because he's gonna get to go back to a nice cozy universe soon (or die) and these people won't is soooo. god. he's SO COMPASSIONATE......like i knew that objectively but we haven't really seen it in action much up until now. it fucking kills me. his compassion, inherent Good Universe vibes, has such a profound impact on mirror obrien in such a short time, but ultimately you CAN'T change this universe. you can affect single people in it, the way kirk got mirror spock, but the point of the mirrorverse is to be evil and edgy (and horny), so no matter WHAT the characters in it do, it is a LAW OF THAT UNIVERSE that powers beyond their comprehension will always reset the status quo to STAY evil and edgy (and horny). like at first i was like oh shit kirk really stepped in it nice job breaking it hero but like it simply CAN'T be fixed. if you try, you will fail. determinism in star trek. wild.

also, wait, sorry, julian coming back filthy head to toe and kira coming back in a ballgown when our sisko has been having kittens trying to locate his people.....iconic. mister privileged having to process ore like kira used to do and kira former ore processor wearing a fancy luxurious evening gown. talk about swapping places.

TONIGHT: tng's "preemptive strike" and ds9's "the collaborator." last non-finale episode of tng!!!

#personal #star trek blogging #tng lb #ds9 lb #one of these days i'll write a real mirrorverse meta #i miss 2021 when i was writing thousands of words of s*pernatural meta daily #would that i could do that for star trek. oh to be a professor once again etc etc

[voiid-vagabond]

Hiii! :D for the ask game: 🪐 + ☄️ :)

Hi! I love these questions!

🪐 Favourite alien planet. This is really tough! I think Trek has so many amazing worlds and they all look so wonderful and fun and awesome! It's so hard for me to choose, so I'll say the first one I truly fell in love with as a Trek planet: Vulcan. I was immediately intrigued by what kind of place Spock's home is. When I first saw those establishing wides of Vulcan in Amok Time it was like... whoa. It's so familiar, but in the way those rover images of Mars are familiar. I know it's the same rock that rocks in space are made of, but it's so beautifully alien. And you can see what I think is the capital city of Shi'Kahr in the background. I just think it's neat.

☄️ Your headcanon/s about a favourite character. Ooooh. I am a big headcanoner! I also happen to have quite a few favorite characters! But as with the last one, I'll pick one and go with it! I headcanon that Nyota Uhura is as proficient a musician as she is a linguist. She plays a myriad of different instruments from different cultures/planets, but one of her favorites is the ka'athyra (Vulcan lyre) because she and Spock can perform duets on the Enterprise. :)

send me trek asks here!

#inbox #answered #the voiid answers #sunsets-and-satsumas #trekkin #tos #somehow i only answered with tos-era answers lol #i love you all the rest of trek but tonight is just an og girlie night i suppose