thefourthvine | 208: A Long and Winding Road

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208: A Long and Winding Road

The One That Makes My Brain Turn in Circles, Trying to Figure out If You Can Fight Destiny or Not. For the Record, I'm Hoping That I Could and Spock and Kirk Can't. Fighting Gravity, by pantswarrior, aka

pantswarrior. Star Trek Reboot, James T. Kirk/Spock.

Okay, I will admit it. I love it when there is a slash dragon or Spock Prime in a canon, saying, "This guy is your DESTINY." I like to imagine it with sparkletext and hearts, in all honesty.

But in college, I had to write a poem about what I would say to my five-years-ago self if I met her. And I was totally stumped, because I knew for a fact that my five-years-ago self would not listen to anything I said. Because there are two things that are very true about me:

I don't take advice well. My father once said to me, "I feel comfortable giving you advice, because I know you won't take it unless you were going to do it anyway." I pointed out that I was more likely to take his advice than any other human being's on earth, and it was just that I didn't like being told what to do at all, and he just laughed. A really long time. I think I maybe made his point for him.
I don't take orders well. In high school, my favorite teacher (the detention teacher, which, um, probably tells you what I was like), a retired Air Force officer, blanched when he heard I was taking the ASVAB, a sort of military prequalification test. "Don't go into the military," he said. "Please. And I'm not telling you. I'm begging you."

I have, in fact, gotten much better since then. So, so much better. I am hardly stubborn at all these days, and I frequently solicit and then take advice. I even sat through the Alien Encounter at Disney World even though a character says, "Thank you for your submission." But I am still not 100% aces at these things. So if someone from my future showed up and said, "I know the future, and I am telling you to hook up with this person. It is your DESTINY," I don't know that I could do it. I would try! I would! Or I might do everything in my power to avoid my DESTINY, because no one tells me what to do. Not even myself.

And in this story - yes, I'm back to the story now - that is exactly what Spock does. And it makes me insanely happy. I mean, admittedly, it doesn't go well for him, but trust me: if you make a practice out of doing exactly what you're not supposed to, things often don't go well for you, and you pretty much get by on the satisfaction of at least getting to tell fate and DESTINY and your parents and the crowd and so on to go fuck themselves. (This is why I don't do this anymore. For the record. There's only so much satisfaction you can get out of this, and I have had it all.) And I just - I love Spock, and I love this version of Spock, who is so grimly stubborn he'd fuck himself over rather than fall into line.

(People who are disturbed by the first few pages, please note: I was, too. It all works out, very quickly.)

And let me just say that I also love Kirk in this, who is sort of midway between TOS Kirk and Reboot Kirk. I love seeing him forced to deal with the one person in the universe more stubborn than he is. And I love Bones. And, you know, basically everyone.

But most of all, I love Stubborn Spock. I just want to pinch his widdle ears. (Although this is nothing new.)

The One That Will Keep Me Eyeing the Skies Warily, Waiting for a Great Metal Dragon with Worrying Taste in Entertainment to Fly By. The Student Prince, by FayJay, aka

pandarus. Merlin, Arthur Pendragon/Merlin.

You've seen this recommended everywhere. By everyone. And now I am going to join in the chorus, because, people, this is some serious comfort fic, right here. It's just - it is a supremely satisfying romance story, and I don't have any other way of explaining it.

Or maybe I do.

norah told me, long ago - I am sure I have mentioned this all to you many, many times - that once upon a time, she was sick and sad and traveling on a train in another country. And she cheered herself up by telling herself a well-loved epic story. (I, being me, immediately argued with her about her choice of well-loved epic story.) This is the kind of story that could make you feel better if you were sick on a train in a distant country, is what I'm saying. (And now I want to see everyone's top ten Sick on a Train stories. Hmmm.)

And I tell you what, having read this story, I am now deeply sorry that I didn't matriculate at a university founded in 1413. I mean, okay, that would have required me going to a different continent, and also it would have changed my entire life, which would seriously suck, but - but. My university only had, like, two hundred years to build up insane traditions, and it's just not the same. (No one tell me if St. Andrews doesn't really have all these traditions. I prefer to live in a world where they exist, not the least because I will now spend my life looking at famous UK people and wondering if the university they attended had a custom wherein you have to walk around in trousers with the ass cut out for your entire freshman year or whatever. If this story is anything to go by, there is such a school out there. And. Um. UK persons on my friends list, I am now also wondering this about you. Just FYI.)

So, yes, the setting is part of what makes this work for me. But there are so many other things. All of which, tragically, are spoilers. So, please, go read this, or if you've already read it (and, frankly, I have to think that at least 98.9% of you have, because this is a justly famous story), comment here, so I can squee with you about the many events in this story that made me bounce with joy. It is taking all my self-restraint not to do that here and now.

The One That Suggests to Me That If Vala Mal Doran and Captain Jack Sparrow Ever Teamed up, Nowhere in the Multiverse Would Be Rich. Sexier, Sure, but Not Rich. Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves. Stargate universe, John Sheppard/Rodney Meredith McKay (plus other pairings).

As it happens, one of the things I like in a story - canon, fan fiction, whatever - is dinged and dented characters. I like people who have that dull patina that trouble leaves behind when you survive it. And Auburn, in this story, has given me a whole dings-and-dents universe. Yeah, sure, most of the main characters go well beyond mere dings and dents, into the broken-and-put-back-together-with-Elmer's-glue-and-a-couple-pieces-from-the-train-set territory, but everyone is less shiny than in canon. And while I would probably not enjoy a story about how everyone got that way, I really love seeing them deal with it, and live with it, and move beyond it, and get better from it. And live happily ever after. (Happily ever after is not optional.)

Plus, there can be no bad when there are space pirates. I firmly believe that every fandom in the world needs a pirate AU (yes, even pirate fandoms), and when you combine pirates with spaceships, I am very likely to need to run around in circles barking joyfully until I have to go lie down for an hour.

It's also nice - I think nice is the word I'm looking for here - when a story confirms my strongly-felt suspicions about a fictional race. (Any story that disses the Ancients, for example, and I am there. Those people - well, let's just say they pioneered new and exciting advances in ethics-free science, medicine, and government, shall we?) I have always been sort of narrow-eyed and tight-lipped about the Tok'ra, even though I've read some incredible stories that have even made me like them. I just, when it comes down to it, do not trust mind-controlling parasites. It's a personal prejudice of mine! Even if they are supposedly choosing not to mind control right then, you have to ask yourself if it's one of those choices like keeping kosher, or if it's more one of those choices like promising yourself this will be the last chip you eat tonight. And there's no way to tell until it's much too late. I just - I cannot get behind that, no matter how many declarations of mutual non-loathing occur between the Tok'ra and the good guys.

So, you know, I feel good about this story, which in addition to punching my dings and dents button, and my space pirates button, and my plot is awesome button, also lets me rest smugly satisfied in the knowledge that I was right all along, and mind-controlling parasites are not to be trusted.

The One That Proves, Once and for All, That Fashion Is Truly High-Risk. I Know I Won't Be Wearing Scarves for a While. The Scourge of Trion, by

ellen_fremedon. Doctor Who universe, Doctor/Vislor Turlough. (No, I had no idea who this was, either. IT DOESN'T MATTER. READ IT ANYWAY.)

I am used to reading outside my canonical knowledge zone, but Doctor Who takes this to a new level. It's just daunting. I mean, Doctor Who has so much canon that the BBC lost some of it. This doesn't happen with your average canon. (Of course, if the average canon is TV aired on Fox, it doesn't happen because there's only 12 episodes of it. Much easier to keep track of.) There's just - this whole fucking fandom is bigger on the inside, you know?

But. If I thought for a minute that there was existing canon that was even a little like this story, I would go out and purchase every damned episode, I tell you what. I would probably even watch some of them. This story is that good.

And, okay, if you are a Who Alumna, a graduate with honors of Who University, with a degree in Companion Studies and a special certificate in TARDIS Interior Design, then this story is totally for you. But if you've seen only some of the new Who, and you always lose at Pin the Companion on the Doctor, and you couldn't, off-hand, name three doctors who wore bowties - this story is still for you. It doesn't matter if you don't know who these people are when you go in; by the time you come out, you will know who they are. And you will want to know even more. (And, if you're me, will be nodding thoughtfully, wondering if certain people on your friends list imprinted on some of these people - Turlough, for example - way back when. It just strikes me that there are certain people I know who would love this guy.)

I mean, I came out of this wanting more Sarah Jane, and more Turlough, and more Martha Jones, and more Jack Harkness. I even wanted more Doctor, and, in all honesty, there's already quite a lot of Doctor in here. (He can double up, see.) Of course, then sanity prevailed - I only have a handful of decades left to me, and I have to assume that Who scholars have to start young and stay dedicated throughout their lives, eschewing all distractions and occasionally making use of limited temporal anomalies to stay on top of their chosen fandom. But my point is: I came out of this story with happiness in every cell of my body. And then I looked around for more, realized there wasn't any (because, okay, I could get more of the characters, but it cannot possibly be this good), and went back to the beginning and started again.

This is - this is everything you could ever want in a story. With whipped cream and a morally dubious schoolboy-businessman on top.

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re: St. Andrews

apparently,

it's all

true!

(boy, did that ever make me happy.)

If Ellen isn't blushing and stammering over that rec, I will smack her until she blushes and stammers. I'm that glad you liked it. :-D

I was the 4th or 5th person to start reading The Student Prince, having been surfing AO3 just as Fay posted the first chapters, and I tracked her journal closely as she updated the rest, and omigod it is such a glorious, glorious AU with the hilarious and chaotic thoughts that tumbled willy-nilly out of Merlin's head, and the more! awesome! women!, and Lance being a Buddhist, and THE KRAKEN. It's such a beautifully detailed world--the fact that it's so firmly grounded in the RL St Andrews helps, of course, but it's also Fay's wonderful story-telling.

Re the Ancients: I actually have the opposite view. I don't think they're perfect, certainly, but IMO SGA fandom has built up fanon expectations of the Ancients that isn't strictly supported in canon. But then, the Ancients as depicted on SGA are a wee bit different from the Ancients as depicted on SG-1, and I still lean towards SG-1 as the show with better (read: less cracky and unsupported) canon.

I am! I am blushing and stammering so much I thought I had better stay in my own space until I got it under control.

Oh my God, I spent ALL of The Student Prince wishing my school had had Academic Families and whatnot. ♥_____♥

And now that I'm breathing normally again-- I am ecstatic that you liked Scourge so much, even without knowing Turlough beforehand. Thank you for the fantastic rec! I am in good company up there :-).

Doctor Who has so much canon that the BBC lost some of it.

I'm laughing hysterically because it's true and it makes me sad when I don't think about how hilarious it is.

I like to think that sometime in my lifetime, future CGI/animation will get to the point where fans will be able to seamlessly reconstruct the missing episodes (including the original hysterically-bad special effects).

<off to read fics>

Oh, thank you for that. So much.

Y'know, one of the things I love about fandom is deliriously enthusiastic and detailed story rec/love posts like this one.

New tabs opened for reading, and thank you for making my vacation brighter!

ps - As far as comfort reading goes, fanfic is definitely my happy place, and that's why I'm so thrilled to have a new e-reader and have begun putting stories on it.

I feel like stubbing my toe in the dirt and saying, gosh and golly and thank you kindly while blushing lobster red. But I'm inside, so at least I won't need to wash my toe later.

GOSH! GOLLY! THANK YOU KINDLY!

I've found a way to reconcile the difference in the Ancients as seen from SG-1 and from Atlantis. They aren't really the same people. The ones SG-1, and say Daniel, think of are the amazing people who created the stargates and seeded them through the galaxy, forged the alliance with the Nox, Asgard, and Furlings, and did great things. But the history of the Ancients covers huge spans of time that the history of all of Earth's civilizations could get lost in. The Ancients who took Atlantis from Earth to Pegasus were the sad, devolved remnants of greatness. They had lost their moral way and ethics, while holding onto the technology (but not coming up with new stuff successfully, that's why they lost to the Wraith). It's like... Republican Romans and Imperial Romans - all Romans, but not the same culture, though certainly sharing much, even living in the same place. They weren't static.

When I look at it that way, the two shows don't contradict each other in that regard. Which makes it more fun for me.

this whole fucking fandom is bigger on the inside, you know?

*hearts you like crazy*

That makes me irrationally happy! (And the author of that story is over on the LJ comments for this entry, and apparently there is EVEN MORE TRADITIONAL CRAZINESS that she didn't get to include in the story.)

Oh, those pictures. I don't think I was ever that young. I am drawing sparkly pink hearts around them!

Ellen should not be blushing and stammering. She should be printing up a t-shirt reading, "Yes, I am just that awesome." (And the back should say, in small type, "Actually, I am more awesome than that.")

It's such a beautifully detailed world--the fact that it's so firmly grounded in the RL St Andrews helps, of course, but it's also Fay's wonderful story-telling.

Both things, totally. I cannot get over the awesomeness of this story. It is definitely on my Sick on a Train list.

I actually have the opposite view.

I very much like Auburn's reconciliation, which totally explains the dichotomy for me. (Although, truthfully, I was dubious about the Ancients even before SGA, just because I am inherently suspicious of all-powerful beings who choose to hang back and watch. But that is my unfortunate nature, I totally acknowledge that.)

OMG I KNOW. What is WRONG with U.S. universities, Dira?

I *am* a Who alumna from way back, and in that case, the story is even more unexpectedly awesome. Because back in the day, we all HATED Turlough. I never felt anything other than loathing for him before this story. In which I loved him and found him fully developed and hot. It was *bizarre*.

Also, I am in the middle of the Student Prince right now! Reading these recs was taking a break from it!

You know that there are fan episodes to the scripts of the lost episodes, right?

I'm glad the rec made you happy, because the story totally made me happy. And I was doubtful going in, because it all seemed very much above my fannish pay grade, if you see what I mean. And I'm sure it was - I doubt I got a tenth of the references that a true Who fan would - but it was wholly wonderful even so.

(And I probably should have told you how much I loved it back when I read it, but, you know. Reading fan fiction on the Kindle has turned me from a very occasional commenter to a never commenter. Sorry!)

It is better to laugh than cry! And I really do think we'll get there with the computer animation, pretty damn soon.

Enjoy the stories!

I know exactly what you mean! I have had that reading experience! And it's usually a good experience; reverse-engineering the worldbuilding is the thing I love most about SF and historical fiction, and reading fanfic in unfamiliar fandoms can be a workout for the same reading muscles.

But as a writer I have a really hard time stepping back and seeing how something would look to a reader who was reverse-engineering the context, instead of coming in with it in place. (And this story had kind of insane amounts of context, because apparently the way I write plot is to throw more canon at the story until it spontaneously self-organizes into some sort of plot-like structure.) So, yeah, no matter how many times I hear that the story worked without the Ph.D. in Whovian Studies, it is always an immense relief :-).

Edited 2010-08-16 05:00 (UTC)

The Beeb has already released one serial, "The Invasion," with animated recons of the missing episodes; it worked really well. But they've said they're not planning on doing it again, which makes me sad.

But the history of the Ancients covers huge spans of time that the history of all of Earth's civilizations could get lost in.

That is a very good point, and I actually agree. But I think that, story-wise, the Ancients were doomed to be dissed. The Stargate writers have always loved tearing down advanced civilisations (Asgard, Tokra, Tollan) in favour of the "Earth must stand alone" story--it's the same impulse for making the Russians and Chinese so antagonistic and ineffectual, so the Americans can keep doing their own thing. But then I'm a Trekkie--I prefer the "let's build a great ~~federation~~ alliance" story. *g*

I understand they can't have Oma/Thor/etc be deus ex machina, but all too often it results in rather OOC "plot-twists". ("Between Two Fires", I'm looking at you.)

Anyway, I sometimes feel we approach the SGA Ancients through a very narrow lens: we know them best through their failures, and we think that's all there is to them. Their SGA story has been about how they screwed up, how they were arrogant and were defeated. But that's only a fraction of what they must have been. They spent 5-10 million years in Pegasus--I have to assume there was more to them than 100 years of desperately fighting the Wraith, inventing dangerous weapons that didn't work properly, and an ignominious retreat to Earth. You know?

To be fair, it's really that the SGA writers didn't plan in advance. They were never interested in world-building on a Star Trek level, so it's up to us to fill in the blanks so canon makes sense to us. Obviously my fanwank is a bit different from most of SGA fandom's, but that's okay :)

I agree with you - looking at the storytelling from outside the framework of the show, there are things that episodic television sort of forces on the writers if they don't think everything out from the beginning. Both shows, but particularly Atlantis, suffered from the over use of the reset button. Can't let the good guys win too much, so every time they do win, the rug gets jerked out from under them and the easiest way to do that is to show the powerful good guys were actually bad/incompetent/whatever.

Within the framework of the show, I agree too. We see only the Ancients' failures. Much like we only hear about disasters and criminals on the news. The good seldom show up as clearly in history, even if it is really built from all the small, regular deeds of the regular people. That is really a failure on the writers part in regard to Atlantis, where it was the city they lived in, in good shape, and should have yielded all sorts of insight into the Ancients' every day lives, but all we ever see is Mad Scientist Janus and the stuck up Council. Out of a population filling a city the size of Manhattan over ages. TV writers don't respect viewers enough to get that we'd have been interested in an anthropological episode, where they explored Atlantis and pieced together a day in the life an average Ancient, sans ethical quandaries or explosions.

Now I'm even sadder of all the potential that went to waste.

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208: A Long and Winding Road

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