And The Poor People On AO3 That Get My Pre-beta Versions...

I will not write an AU with Airiam and Seven. Or Michael and Nhan.

I WILL NOT.

....yet 😩

"You're gonna have to do better than that. If you come after me one more time, I'm coming back for the rest of this tree."

Once Upon a Time - Season 1, Episode 2: The Thing You Love Most (2011)

100%

lesbian situationship break-ups on the voyager must have been lethal

🙋‍♀️...particularly when Emma dragged Regina into the closet after Henry ate the apple turnover 🔥😬😬

Who else?

The ultimate chonk for your Monday, still watching over my new chapter progress.

"I’m not supposed to be here."

Breathe, Judith commanded herself. In and out. It’s just a ship. Just another goddamn ship. But it wasn’t. She wasn’t sure how she knew. Ithaca was beautiful, the flawless, blinding white of her walls an homage to the glory of Gestalt’s ambition. The pride of her builders shown in every bolt and every weld, but every inch of her demanded deference from the ones whose lives she’d carry into the abyss. Nearly a thousand souls aboard and yet Ithaca had none, her hull an empty carapace against the vastness of the void, and so, she required theirs. The vessel rumbled beneath Judith’s feet, but it wasn’t pleasant like Ardent. It was a warning to her, like Ithaca knew Judith wasn’t like the rest–like she knew Judith didn’t really belong there at all. Judith was an intrusion, an unexpected variable this entity hadn’t foreseen–one she didn’t quite understand how to bend. She doesn't want me here.

"He asked about you," Eva said, rubbing one arm and then shoving a hand in her pocket. "Who you are, why you care."

"I don't like bullies, is all," Taryn replied with a frown, and she crossed her arms over her chest. "Ain't need no more reason than that."

"He says you got a mouth on you. Says you oughtta learn when to shut it."

Eva looked at the ground as she said it, kicking at the gravel with the toe of her boot.

"That what he said?" Taryn asked, and she almost grinned as she leaned back on the column.

"That's what he said."

"And what d'you think Miss Eva Kincaid?"

"I don't think nothin'."

"That means you think somethin'."

Eva looked up, and her mouth and her brows settled into hard lines.

"I think you gone an' pissed off Mister Sterling. An' I think you just might wanna listen to him."

Taryn regarded her. She still wasn't swayed. She could tell Eva knew it, too. She pushed off the column and came a step closer.

"I'll think about shuttin' my mouth when he thinks about keepin' his hands off o' you. You can tell him I said that, too."

-----

Taryn Monroe prefers simplicity–her place in the mountains, the predictable rhythm of her job at the mill, and the peace that comes with keeping to herself.

Every Tuesday, a woman shows up at precisely fifteen minutes to close. Taryn doesn’t know much about her–just the rumble of her truck, the way she never wastes words, and the peculiar gallon of sulfur she buys each week. Then one Tuesday, she doesn’t show up. Taryn tells herself to leave it alone, that it’s not her business and the woman can handle herself. But when she overhears an argument and starts asking questions, she can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong–and her life becomes anything but simple. Something wild is living in the barn at Wardenwood Hollow. Something keeping the woman bound to the old Sterling Farm. And Taryn may be her only chance to break free.

How about six of them...?

YOU!! YES, YOU!! GO WRITE THAT FANFIC YOU THINK NOBODY BUT YOU WILL READ!!

On Writing & Rarepairs

One of my favorite aspects of writing characters is really trying to get into how their minds might work--and when it comes to pairings, I greatly enjoy making something out of nothing.

Prior to 2023, I wasn't a Star Trek fan. I had seen the newer movies, and as a lifelong sci-fi nerd, they were fun to watch, but I always preferred Stargate and Farscape. I've historically been one to connect with characters who are "different"--Seven, Scorpius, Airiam, Saru--and I was in the midst of a particularly bad mental health spiral when I happened to turn on Star Trek: Picard. Seven of Nine was immediately someone that piqued my interest, not only because she was canonically LGBTQ, but because she was clearly someone that had a backstory. This led me to Voyager, because I wanted to see that backstory.

Shipping Janeway and Seven dragged me out of a 6 year writing hiatus, and I started working on a fanfic, though I never intended to post it, and I never finished it.

In 2024, I started Discovery, and was completely unprepared for how much S2E09 would mess me up. I'm a sucker for a tragic character on a good day. Make it a character we didn't know much about, then add an emotional scene between her and the female lead who barely ever interacted and apparently this is all it takes--that and being a bit grouchy about rare pair voids. For the first time since 2017 I was able to not only write something, but FINISH writing it. And then write and finish five more. More than that, I was actually happy with how they turned out, and how my writing evolved as they went from a one-shot to the longest thing I'd ever written.

Sometimes it seemed strange to Burnham, feeling that Airiam was beautiful. She suspected not everyone did, that they might see Michael as defective or faulty for feeling that way about someone–some thing–like that. She knew from the outside it was easy to forget Airiam had once been human, had once looked just like every other human aboard Discovery, but they only ever saw the augmentations the Commander couldn't hide beneath the trim navy and silver Starfleet uniform. They couldn't see the rest, the places where metal and machine fused into the organic remnants of a woman who had lost far more than just her life.

Brains are weird, and they latch onto weird things. As terrible as I consider Discovery overall, I can't complain about the fact that it was able to bring something back to me I hadn't been able to do in many years. The fact that it has now also translated into letting me write my own original fiction again, and allowed me to get back into the HABIT of writing again, is something I will be forever weirdly grateful for. The last time I finished an original piece was 2007. I'm looking forward to changing that next month <3

Saw a debate about using s' or s's at the end of a character's name whose name ends in s to show possessive.

My conclusion: it depends on the style guide you're using, and whether you are an ancient prophet (???) holding a stick that belongs to Moses or a friend of Moses holding a stick that belongs to Moses. Also, just be consistent.

I will only use s' and I will die on this hill.