#tales from the uss impala

[aerialworms]

Thanks for the WIP meme tag! Can I ask for more details about Boldly Go, please? 👀

Absolutely, thank you for asking!!!

Boldy Go is the first fic I wrote in my Destiel Star Trek fusion AU, Tales From the USS Impala. It's a PWP where Dean (First Officer) notices Cas (half-Vulcan Captain) has been getting real stressed and is taking it out on the crew, so he suggests they sleep together as stress relief (and totally not cause he has a crush on his captain or anything, no, he just respects his uh. professionalism.) Cas sees this as a logical arrangement to meet both of their needs, and doesn't read any emotion into it, leaving Dean confused and a little hurt at the end when he treats it like a one-night stand.

What was difficult to write about it is that I wrote it from Cas' POV (in third person, but following Cas), and trying to write smut while using the voice of someone who a) is unfamiliar with human expressions and emotions, and b) would not know 'sexy-sounding' words for genitals etc was incredibly hard (pun intended). Mad respect to K/S shippers who write from Spock's POV! I think I pulled it off, though. I did try writing it from Dean's POV, but I found getting into Cas' head and observing Dean's behaviour from his alien point of view was way more interesting to me, if more difficult to get right. Plus, from Dean's POV Cas came off as detached and cold, but I wanted to show that despite his mask of emotionlessness he feels deeply, just like Spock.

That said, I might rewrite it once I've written the first (chronologically) fic in the series. I'm wary of changing their characters in the prequel to this, so I want to have that drafted before I edit this one and the third in the series, since how they meet/interact in the prequel will inform their characterization later on. We'll see!

Also, fun fact: Boldly Go is a working title, shorthand in my WIP folder for To Boldly Come (Where No Man Has Come Before). There's a good chance I'll just publish it under that name, since I can't think of a better one 😁

Some behind the scenes stuff: I wrote this fic at the start of NaNoWriMo last year, after saying I was going to spend November finishing my other WIPs. I'd just started watching Star Trek and absolutely loved the Kirk/Spock dynamic and thought it mapped well onto Dean/Cas. So naturally, instead of working on any of my other fics, my brain latched onto the AU and made me write it. It was just supposed to be a oneshot (And then I was totally gonna go work on my WIPs!), but then I kept thinking of more and more fic ideas for this fusion AU, and I wanted to tell the story of how they met (A Rose By Any Other Name Would Be Just As Annoying), then have some angsty getting together (The Law of Possession), because after Boldly Go, they become friends with benefits and they both catch feelings, although neither of them talk about it properly cause they're repressed idiots (affectionate), and, and, and ---

I ended up with 13 fic ideas for this universe.

None of my other WIPs got finished.

So!

I hope to actually start posting this series soon, since I fixed a plot problem in A Rose and can now bash out a first draft. There's plenty of stuff in my head and on paper, I just gotta keep at it!

[aerialworms-art]

went to open krita to continue on my wip for the first time in two weeks and--

horrifying. thanks past me.

[aerialworms]

Please vote! I need external motivation! (I'm still posting Watching Over You, I just need to choose something to finish writing as well)

Summaries:

All of these are endgame Destiel!

Star Trek Fusion AU: I have two fics in this 'verse written but i need to do the prequel first. Castiel, a half-Vulcan Starfleet officer, is appointed as the new Captain of the USS Impala after Bobby retires, keeping Dean as First Officer. Dean does not take well to that. Enemies to FWB to lovers, spread out over at least three different fics! I also made a post rambling about this universe here

Dragon!Cas fic: Set during s9ish when Cas' grace is low - he can regenerate it by spending time in his true form and shutting down most higher brain functions. He essentially turns into a little dragon who gets real clingy around Dean, who is half-annoyed, half-endeared by it. Pretty much just fluff and shenanigans :3

Demon!Dean: Set during the demon dean arc in s10 while Cas is still stealing grace. Crowley captures him and offers him to Dean as a present, and Cas tries to convince Dean to come home while Dean pretends like he's definitely a big bad demon who could easily kill Cas if he wanted, he just. doesn't want to. Angst and smut with a hopeful ending.

Cat!Cas fic: Might end up as a comic, actually - I've got the first four pages sketched out but I don't know where i'm going with it :/ Cas gets turned into a cat by a witch and Dean comes to find him, not realising the injured cat he's been caring for and venting to about Cas *is* Cas. Pining!Dean and hurt/comfort for Cas!

Interactive time loop confession fix it: An interactive fic, made using Twine. You play as Dean, stuck in a time loop of the confession until you find a way to save Cas and break free

Cas Swap: (post-confession fix it) In two seperate universes, at the same time, two versions of Dean perform a spell to resurrect their own Cas from the Empty. Canon!Cas is brought back into a world with a Dean his counterpart has been in a relationship with since Tombstone. Canon!Dean gets that AU!Cas, who is unafraid of showing his love for Dean, but also won't put up with any of Dean's bullshit. Each set of Dean-and-Cas-es have to work together to get Cas back to his own universe, and deal with their issues along the way.

The Wrong Avalon: A BBC Merlin/SPN crossover, with endgame Destiel and Merthur! Set vaguely pre-s12 of SPN and post s5 of Merlin. The British Men of Letters have been trying to raise the mythical King Arthur from the dead for some time. When they finally succeed, however, he does not come up in the UK. Instead, he surfaces in Lake Avalon, Michigan, where two hunters and a put-upon angel discover him. Since he can only speak Old English, he becomes fast friends with Cas, which totally doesn't make Dean jealous at all, but he still mourns for his old life and family. When he discovers that Merlin may still be alive, he dedicates himself to finding him, but when the BMoL close in, intent on using Arthur for their own gain, Arthur must rely on his new friends, as well as his oldest one, to gain his freedom and his happiness.

Btw if you wanna know when I post these, you can follow me on AO3 (same username as tumblr) and/or ask to be tagged!

[aerialworms]

i cannot tell you how much i love the title A Rose By Any Other Name Is Just As Annoying!!!!

Aha! Thank you!!! It's funny you say that, because I chose it as a placeholder name for the first installment in my destiel Star Trek AU based off that one text post that's like "Every other Star Trek episode name is a line from Shakespeare." It's an antagonists-to-lovers one and I couldn't find a good quote, so I just chose the most memorable (imo) Shakespeare line and tweaked it to fit as a joke to myself. I was going to try and find a more serious title, but now you've said you like it I don't want to!

[aerialworms]

21, 25 and 28 for the fic ask game if you so please :3

21. Could you ever quit writing? Do you ever wish you could? Why or why not?

I don't think I'd ever be able to quit writing, not completely! I like it too much. I enjoy coming up with ideas and crafting narratives and being able to entertain others with my words. I did frequently want to quit while I was doing my degree, but that's because I kept making it way more serious than it had to be and it became a chore. Even right now, when my brain's being a bastard and making it incredibly hard to write or edit, I still want to, I just can't get my brain to think creatively and cooperate with what I want.

25. What is a weird, hyper-specific detail you know about one of your characters that is completely irrelevant to the story?

Okay, technically it's completely irrelevant to the story, but I did write an entire oneshot fic about it. I still wanna talk about it though :D

In my destiel Star Trek AU series, Tales From the USS Impala, I made Dean openly bisexual, because I figured there's no room in space for homophobia. I've set the series in The Next Generation's universe/time period, and as I was idly pondering what this Dean's backstory could be, I was like oh you know what? Commander Riker is absolutely his type. And then I was like wouldn't it be funny if they hooked up with each other on vacation from their respective ships (Dean trying to get over his crush on Cas, Riker distracting himself from Deanna Troi) and then had to work together later on with both Cas and Picard wondering why they're being so awkward around each other. And then it kept building and building in my head until I wrote the fic where they hook up!

So the weird detail that isn't relevant to the main story of the series is that Dean had a one night stand with Riker on vacation to try and get over Cas. But that hookup actually made him realise how deep his feelings for Cas are, which kickstarts him trying to start a physical relationship with Cas, which eventually leads to them getting together (although with some idiocy in between, because of course).

Also it took me three weeks after coming up with this to remember that Riker's main love interest is called Deanna and I laughed so goddamn hard at that. He slips up while he's with Dean and accidentally calls him Deanna and Dean's like why did you just call me my grandma's name???

The title of the Dean/Riker fic is Get a Leg Over (The Riker Manouver) :D I think I'm hilarious

28. Who is the most delightful character you’ve ever written? Why?

That's a very good question. I wouldn't call any of the people I write fic about as delightful, except for Gwen, who isn't in either of the Merlin fics I have published but is in one that's been languishing in editing hell for like. 4 years.

Ooh, also, Cas from my WIP fic where he temporarily turns into a dragon is delightful, to me at least. He gets real cuddly and real protective over Dean, and behaves like a particularly intelligent cat. He's a feathered dragon, too, and I want to pet him so much. I don't think Dean finds him as delightful, seeing as he keeps trying to bite him (affectionately!), but I think he's adorable :3

Thank you for the ask, friend!!!

Ask me something weird about my writing!

[aerialworms]

2, 3, 17 and 40 for the ask game!

Thank you for the ask, friend!!!

2) talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

Oh jeez, that could be almost all of my fics. They tend to keep growing and growing because the characters want to do more and more things, until a 500 word ficlet becomes a 12k multichap! The most notable, I think, is my destiel star trek fusion au, which started out as a quick oneshot to get the kirk/spock/dean/cas brainworms out of my head before last year's NaNoWriMo so that I could focus on my goal of finishing several WIPs I'd been working on for months. Instead of doing that, like I intended, I kept thinking of more and more ideas and plot points to add into the universe, and ended up with 13 total fic ideas, two fully written first drafts for them, plus a couple halves of other ones, and like. maybe a thousand words on one of the WIPs I'd intended on finishing. For the whole of NaNo. I think that's the problem with writing Dean and Cas, though - it's literally canon that they'll fight against the narrative the author sets them, even when I'm actively trying to get the two ungrateful bastards together /j

3) on a scale of 1-10 how much do you enjoy incorporating romance into the average story?

10, baby! I love writing romance. I do write stuff without romance (mostly in my original works), but I really enjoy writing romance in fics, which is all I've been writing lately.

17) what is your favorite line you’ve ever written?

"the world was thrown into a greyscale majesty, pierced with shadows that were darker than spilt ink."

Annoyingly, it's from a fic that I don't really want people to read anymore, and have only left up because a) it was my first ever fic (published 10 years ago!!!!) and b) it was a gift for my best friend at the time who I've since lost contact with, and I want her to be able to find it if she ever wants to (Ruby, if you still follow me on here, I miss you!). The phrase "a greyscale majesty" popped into my head when I was writing it and keeps popping back in. I just like the way it sounds, although it's a lot more flowery than I like to write these days. Not my best line, but definitely my favourite.

40) best piece of feedback you’ve ever gotten.

Oh man, how to choose! I think it's a three way tie of comments left on my latest fic, Watching Over You - my wonderful friend Liz rereading chapter 3 before bed multiple times, someone here on tumblr saying it's a perfect bedtime story and they've reread it multiple times and it was an instant bookmark, and the absolutely tear-inducing comment on actual ao3 that my writing was cinematic and also "flows beautifully and is so enjoyable to read." I actually couldn't reply to that comment for almost a week cause my brain kept making dialup noises every time I read it! I actually got so much lovely feedback on that fic, I'm grateful for every single comment!!!

[aerialworms]

Writing update!

So! Since I finally finished posting Watching Over You (Hooray!!!! Yippee!!!!!), I can focus on finishing my other destiel WIPs! I did a poll a little while back to determine what my next fic should be, and the result was The Wrong Avalon, my BBC Merlin/SPN crossover, tied with my demon Dean fic.

However, my Star Trek brainworms have come back with full force, and I'm tempted to bash out the first fic in the Tales From The USS Impala series (I've already written the second and third ones) before I lose interest in it again. Plus, I started live-writing a silly Dean-and-Cas-go-to-couples-therapy-without-realising-its-couples-therapy fic over in the Profound Bond discord server that I feel bad about leaving half-finished.

Also, I'm gonna do Camp NaNoWriMo in July, and I need to decide on a project/goal for that. I'd like to write every day, and I might set my daily word count to 100/day, since I did 50/day in April Camp and that went pretty well.

So, I think my plan for the next month or so is this:

Bash out a discord message's worth of the therapy fic at least once a day until I finish it or July Camp starts, whichever's sooner

Reread/replot the demon dean fic (it was supposed to be a oneshot but it grew a plot and now I've gotta get a chainsaw and trim it back into coherency)

July Camp:

Goal: 100 words per day, every day of Camp

Write Rose by any other name (star trek au) first draft OR finish writing the demon dean fic depending on what makes my brain go brrr

Reread/double-check plot for Wrong Avalon (words don't count for NaNo)

Think up a title for the therapy fic, maaaaaybe edit and post it (otherwise I'll edit + post after Camp)

Also, would you lot be interested if I posted snippets/writing updates? I'm aware 99% of my blog is just reblogging memes and fanart but if people are interested I can keep y'all posted on how my WIPs are going.