while reading, and writing, too much fic

[chanter1944]

Clicky the cut for my personal musing on one TOS Trek character. YMMV. No idea what's been up with me lately, but this particular character's been giving me all the dang feels. Sharding adorable high-strung choirboy. I need to rewatch movies 2-4, or something. Maybe that'll de-clog my subconscious. What say, meimichan? I give you permission to laugh at me all you want.


Things Pavel Andreievich Chekov is absolutely categorically bloody not:

*a sly, manipulative schemer hiding reems of wicked knowledge behind an innocent facade

*the ship's bicycle, see both above and below

*promiscuous to a ridiculous degree; he's canonically interested in women, but somehow, a wild and misspent boyhood in Russia carrying over to dealings on the ship just does not compute, at all

*17, dammit, he openly says 22 in a TOS episode and that's what I'm sticking with, all the love to his alternate counterpart where it's due

Comments

[redsixwing]

I read "Sharding adorable high-strung choirboy," and went, that just has to be! XD

I've tried reading some TOS fic and have a very difficult time finding anything that treats my favorites how I feel they ought to be treated, but then, most of my engagement with it comes from books and not from the actual episodes..? So that's a thing.

[chanter1944]

... Er, yeah, that's kind of a telling description there, isn't it?! XD *coughs* He *is*, though.

There are, I admit, some godawful TOS fics out there, including many of my early ones from back in college. Please don't go looking; they're *awful*. Once in a while, though, I'll find an absolute gem someone's posted on AO3... I really should read more of the tie-in novels, since you mention those. I've read, I think, two of them to date, and that was ages and ages ago. Ooh, time for a reread...

[redsixwing]

He /is/ :3

I won't go looking.
(I have some fic out there that is pretty awful myself. School!Six had /very/ different tastes and a poorer command of language. My unfortunate love of semicolons is consistent throughout.)

Given my character tastes, I probably should refrain from recommendation - I focused hard on anything having to do with Spock or other Vulcan characters - but it's the novels that led to my love of Star Trek in the first place, followed shortly by DS9 and TNG, in that order. And Chekov, and Sulu, and on and on.

If you do find gems, do you post fic recs? :D I sort of burned myself out after the last round of trying to find some, and mostly running afoul of Sturgeon's Law.

[chanter1944]

<3 <3 <3!

I really should get into the habit of posting fic recs! Here's one. It's DS9/TNG, and a liiiittle bit of Voyager, crossed with His Dark Materials to incredible effect. Things, by raven Singlecrow. This is an intense one, in the sense of subject matter - there are significant references to 'Dr. Bashir, I Presume?' in here, for one, and the whole thing's about Odoe's lack of a manifest daemon, so you can imagine the ground it treads - so consider your headspace.

Oof, thank you for not going looking back through my journal archive. College!Chanter's command of language was still less than stellar.

Currently working on a fic of my own from the point of view of Valeris, and sincerely hoping I don't foul up the characterization. Holy bananas writing Vulcans is a difficult task. One Vulcan I always wished we knew more about, while at the same time being grateful we *didn't* have more of a connection to him, because oh my shards, that poor man... Sonak, the ill-fated science officer who would have been Decker's. I gather there are novels that *do* bring him in?

[redsixwing]

Ohh thank you! I haven't read His Dark Materials, but I'm pretty much always down for psychological angst.

Bashir <3

I'm excited to hear more about your Valeris fic. I liked her and thought the resolution of her plot arc was .. uh, is forced putting too fine a point on it? Not a shining moment. /mutter I felt like her motivations and reasoning were not well explored, but then, that's fertile ground for fandom.

Poor Sonak indeed! I haven't read things with him in them, but then, I stopped reading the tie-in books for a while recently. ^^; It would be fun to know more about him, if a bit bittersweet because: ending.

[chanter1944]

Bashir <3, and Sisko <3 <3, and Miles O'Brien <3, and...

Re Valeris: Your turn of phrase puts an *accurate* point on things, oof. She deserves better, and so she'll get, at least in this particular fic!

Re Sonak: I do wonder. Poor dear man. Part of me would like to know more about him, and part of me would really rather not, because... well, ending, but also because of the very real possibility of the headcanon personality I've already constructed for him getting thoroughly Jossed. In my head, he's developed into someone not unlike Tuvock; logical as only a Vulcan science officer can be, but not kolinaaru (and the emotions he reins in so tightly do show, if you know him), and not without a willingness to bend a little in personal or professional contexts. Whether or not he'll admit to the willingness in quite those words is another story. And a skilled singer, which is another direct reference forward to Tuvock. I can imagine him with an aesthetic appreciation of the visual arts, poetry, music. Hmm.

Re: that ending, and Sonak: There's always Timeheart?

[redsixwing]

Yeah! And Garak and Odo and Dax -

What can I say, I'm a fan of morally grey, and DS9 does that so, so well while retaining heart and relatability.

Huzzah for better~

I really did like Tuvock, and all his little moments of warmth that the kolinaaru (intentionally, deservedly) miss. Sonak would be lovely in that sort of a role. I like a little masked willingness to bend, too; there's saying it aloud and then there's communicating it in all the silent, eloquent ways the Vulcans have.

Singer, appreciator of arts -

I would read the heck out of this.

I'm missing a reference here. What's Timeheart?

[chanter1944]

... Huh. That might be why I have such a difficult time picking up on, say, Spock's moments of warmth. I'm guessing most of his cues are visual ones? I'm told he's much... further from kolinaaru than he sounds.

Re Sonak the potential musician: I need to write the heck out of this! The trick will be not writing Tuvock in the role...


Timeheart is a Young Wizards reference. It's something equivalent, or closely equivalent, to heaven, but specific to each individual being who enters it. There's a precedent in YW canon for characters to dream about, or more accurately actually visit while asleep, recently-deceased loved ones in Timeheart.

[redsixwing]

... Yup. A lot of it is visual. In particular he does things with very subtle facial expressions and expressive eyebrows. He's easier to read than someone like the kolinaaru group in Search for Spock, or even Sarek.

Hee! Well, you have an audience. ;)

Ah, thanks. That does sound interesting.