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[curator-on-ao3]

Ok, slightly off-the-wall ask, so feel free to play with it if you want, but if you could ask a question to a character of your choice and they had to answer truthfully, what would it be? And, if you want to speculate on their answer, that's cool too.

What a cool ask, anon, thank you! ❤️ And, oh wow, I would love to ask questions to so, so many characters across the Trekverse. (Idea: Send me a Trek character and I’ll reply with a question I would ask them — and, if you want, my hoped-for answer!)

For this ask, I’ll go with the first idea that popped into my head:

I would ask Will Riker what it’s like to have Lwaxana Troi as his mother-in-law, a woman larger than life yet indelibly marked by grief, in contrast to his actual mother whom he only heard of in stories and saw in pictures, Will’s grief for Betty Riker his own indelible loss.

I would speculate … let me rephrase … I would hope that Will would say Lwaxana is a kaleidoscope of cacophony in so many forms — and one of those forms is love. I would hope that Will, a man who eased up on his career aspirations because he finally had his found family on the Enterprise, would recognize the value of Lwaxana’s living, breathing, flexible, fierce ability to love and perhaps say he found inspiration in that … maybe even to take part of his found family with him to captain the Titan and blaze a path through the stars as his mother-in-law does in her own ineffable way.

So, yeah. Thank you for this ask that made my heart go out to Imzadi and Lwaxana, all loves for most of my life.

[curator-on-ao3]

I too am not normal about this scene

hi i feel 100% normal about this scene

[curator-on-ao3]

Kate says in her first book the producers had to backtrack on Elizabeth because there was a living writer by the name of Elizabeth Janeway. Kate also said the producers came to her with the idea to rename the character Kathryn, and Kate was disappointed the spelling didn’t match her own name, Katherine.

Everyone always talks about the hubris of male writers giving their hero protagonists names that share their initials but Kate Mulgrew was a last minute recast and she showed up on set of a show that was already in production and was like ‘rename the protagonist ‘Kathryn’’. Your fav could never

[curator-on-ao3]

I really love this

[curator-on-ao3]

They are the same 🤝

They are same.

[curator-on-ao3]

Listen. Do not let anyone tell you what to write or what not to write.

Do not let prevailing fandom interpretations keep you from writing something different, do not let the personal opinions/perspectives of Big Name Fans™ keep you from presenting your own interpretation of characterizations/ship dynamics. Do not be afraid to write for unpopular ships (people will read it and be forever grateful that you created content for their rarepair). 

Fandom is a communal experience, yes, but it is made up of individuals. Do not be afraid to stray from the norm. People may disagree with your choices/your interpretations/your writing; that doesn’t make them objectively right. 

Do not be ashamed to deviate from fandom narrative. 

[curator-on-ao3]

I am overwhelmed with gratitude for this gift, @pc-corner. I love how you captured their joy and closeness, as well as the slightly older Chris fondly remembering the day (as he looks forward to reuniting with Una after their planned, brief service apart due to his promotion).

The heart and love in this image are so meaningful. Liking the same pretend people is fun. Fandom bringing together actual people in a community of care is sublime. Thank you again and again.

I'm so honored today to present the final result of my illustration for @curator-on-ao3's story "Youthful Exuberance" showing an older Christopher Pike as he looks at his wedding photo with Una on Crater lake.

Things I learned while doing the picture:

patience

Una Chin-Riley's face

how to draw ears

brushes are awesome

landscapes

patience

I had immense fun and am looking forward to my next project with those two.

[curator-on-ao3]

Another fanfic ask if you like:

If you could see one of your fics adapted into a visual medium, such as comic or film, which fan fic would you pick?

Thank you for asking, anon! ❤️

Um, all of them (🙈), but to honor the spirit of the question, I wrote Asunder (Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris, T) with the idea that the story could follow film conventions. The basic plot is that, post-Endgame, Starfleet lost the capability for warp and our heroes want to fix the problem. I think it was two or three days after I posted (thank goodness I posted all chapters at once) that a trailer for Discovery came out revealing the season 3 premise that Starfleet had lost the capability for warp. The reasons why are different, but the coincidence made me feel fancy … and theatrical.

(I also envisioned The Autobiography of Kirsten Clancy as a miniseries with The Wonder Years-style narration and The Monster already has its movie trailer and Sea Level always felt a bit like a comic book to me and …)

As always, anon, I so much appreciate your asks. ❤️

[curator-on-ao3]

The thing about "Worst Case Scenario" is that Seska rewriting a program to torture and ultimately murder Tuvok for his "betrayal" of the Maquis suggests that she was loyal to the Maquis, and not only because of her feelings for Chakotay. She would've had to booby trap the program before "State of Flux," because she's under intense scrutiny then and there's not really enough time anyway. Which suggests to me that she was fueled by real rage: if Tuvok had reopened the program, and been killed by it, how could she have possibly gotten away with it? She wasn't planning to leave at that point, and (!) she specifically depicts herself as Bajoran, not, in some big gotcha moment, as Cardassian:

When Seska returns in this episode [...] the holographic Seska also slightly differs, in appearance, from how the actual Seska ever looked. "We […] see Seska in an incarnation we had never really seen her in before," Martha Hackett commented. "They changed everything – her hair and costume – because it's her creation in the hologram." (Star Trek Monthly issue 34, p. 40)

(Emphasis mine)

This, coupled with her big speech in "State of Flux," makes me wonder whether she would've ever revealed herself as Cardassian, if she hadn't been caught. She seems still to believe in the superiority of Cardassia ("If this had been a Cardassian ship, we would be home now!"), yet follows up with,

"I did it for you. I did it for this crew. We are alone here, at the mercy of any number of hostile aliens, because of the incomprehensible decision of a Federation captain. A Federation captain who destroyed our only chance to get home. Federation rules. Federation nobility. Federation compassion? Do you understand? [...] We must begin to forge alliances. To survive, we must have powerful friends."

We are alone. We must have powerful friends. I don't know how this has never occurred to me, but textually speaking, with the notable exception of Incomprehensible Federation Captain Janeway, Seska seems deeply invested in the community she is ultimately forced to leave. It's, actually, a kind of reverse Ro Laren situation. What a twist.

[curator-on-ao3]

it actually is super important to “write for the audience you want and not the audience you’re afraid of.” because if you do write for the people who would hate your work if you didn’t bend over backwards trying to cater to them, inevitably you are going to have more of those people engaging with you and your work than you would otherwise. you have every right to explore how YOU feel in your own work and every right to target one audience over another, so don’t try and impress people you don’t want anything to do with. it’ll hurt you in the long run, in more ways than one.

[curator-on-ao3]

a few reminders because i’m tired and angry

fandom is a hobby, not a form of activism

adult women aren’t inherently creepy for being in fandom and having hobbies apart from raising babies and doing taxes

the vast majority of people pushing back against the worrying trend of instigating harassment over fictional characters and relationships aren’t incest supporters or pedophiles, actually

liking a m/f ship doesn’t make someone a dirty heterosexual invading your space

preferring gay ships doesn’t make you ‘’woke’’ and good

no one owes you a disclaimer that they are a good person who recognizes that their favorite fictional villain’s actions are evil and that they don’t condone those actions irl

liking a fictional villain is in no way comparable to advocating abuse/murder/genocide/etc and you’re a fucking idiot if you believe that

just because a woman is attracted to a fictional villain doesn’t mean she’s promoting toxic relationships or going to end up in a toxic relationship. assuming women can’t tell fiction and reality apart stinks of internalized misogyny 

some rando’s a/b/o fanfics have none of the level of influence that popular tv shows and movies spreading propaganda have

no one owes you a detailed description of their traumas and mental health problems

abusive relationships are not the same as enemies to lovers ships

y’all need to chill the fuck out over people, relationships, actions and events that don’t actually exist and learn how to enjoy and discuss them like normal people

fandom is a hobby, not a form of activism

feel free to add more

[curator-on-ao3]

last line challenge

rules: in a new post, show the last line(s) you wrote/drew and tag as many people as there are words (or as many as you feel like)

tagged by: @starrybouquet — thank you so much for tagging me! ❤️

“So …” He adjusts his own napkin on his lap, chuckles — nervous, he’s nervous, thank goodness Una isn’t the only one who’s nervous. “We’re on a date.”

“Yes, we are.” Serve out the salad. Focus on roughage, not wanting to touch him, to let her thumb trace the rough stubble on his jawline or her fingertips slide under his shirt. Talking is more important and she promised she would talk with him. 

“Yeah. We are.” Chris coughs slightly, that adorably panicked cough that means he’s around someone he finds attractive, and it’s not going to be easy for Una to eat with flutters in her belly. 

From my WIP tentatively titled This Time: A Love Story, which I mentioned here for a snippet from chapter 2. The snippet above is from chapter 5. 🎶It’s been a long road.

tagging: tag anxiety is kicking in, so please consider yourself tagged if you want to play ❤️

[curator-on-ao3]

You are my stars...

Without my graphics tablet I had to use watercolors and colored pencils to spread my PikeUna love. I'm happy that it turned out better than expected after the sketch really challenged me.

Enjoy those two!

[curator-on-ao3]

when people talk about ao3 and are like ohh its the gay yaoi porn website for 30 year old white women it makes me cackle because the majority of works on the site fall under teen or general audiences 😭

there's a literal 2 million work difference between those two combined vs the 3 other ratings combined

[curator-on-ao3]

And she was afraid of something else that isn’t found in the Midwest … and she beat the phobia! From Good Shepherd:

JANEWAY: Maybe I do. When I was a girl, I was afraid of the ocean. I liked to swim, but in a pool or a pond where I knew exactly what was beneath me. But in the open water, with no way to know what was down there? It scared me to death. It wasn't until my first year at the Academy, after I went through zero G training in the Coral Sea, that I finally got over it. I think you just came up from your first deep dive.

Every time someone tries to tell Janeway that they've been through some scary bad weather, she's like, "That's nothing compared to Indiana!"

[curator-on-ao3]

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What this blog offers: fanfic, answered asks, and plenty of Star Trek stuff — especially Voyager and Strange New Worlds. Plus! Lots of love for Una Chin-Riley and Kathryn Janeway, among others, as well as occasional echoes of my Kirsten Clancy phase that led me to blog about her for Women at Warp.

What this blog will not have: antisemitism, anti-Christianity, Islamophobia, anti-Hindu, or content that diminishes or mocks any other peace-seeking religion — including atheists, Wiccans, and pagans. There also will be no queerphobia or transphobia, ableism, racism, sexism, ageism, or any other form of cruelty or discrimination including toward straight people or men. We all share the same planet so we’d better learn to be kind to each other. IDIC.

What I like: asks, thoughtful commentary, fanworks, funny stuff, the occasional shitpost.

Linky: my other online home is AO3

Welcome!

[curator-on-ao3]

Ahhhh, my wonderful friends — thank you! Gorgeous art and kind words. Means so much to me. 🥹🥹❤️❤️

After fighting with Una's face I think I won the fight with Chris' face now as well. Progress update (still WIP) for the illustration I'm doing for @curator-on-ao3 and here still awesome fic Youthful Exuberance that you really should read.

Signing off for the weekend!