@proteusrex: Is Merrik the "real" Merrik somehow suffused with silverblood "essence," or is he a clone and the original is dead? On how openly you write Merrik, I admit I have only read one of your stories thus far, so I can't really form an opinion on that subject.
The 'real' Merrik is a silverblood copy/clone, in the same way that Harry and Tom (and eventually the entire crew) were duplicated in Demons.
The fate of the original Dennis Merrik is still unknown, I suspect he's alive (to be used in a future story) but I don't know where or doing what. That said, by now he's a decade or so older than Silverblood Merrik, who no longer ages. Merrik will hopefully find him someday.
The 'real' Merrik is a silverblood copy/clone, in the same way that Harry and Tom (and eventually the entire crew) were duplicated in Demons.
The fate of the original Dennis Merrik is still unknown, I suspect he's alive (to be used in a future story) but I don't know where or doing what. That said, by now he's a decade or so older than Silverblood Merrik, who no longer ages. Merrik will hopefully find him someday.
I bet that would be an awkward meeting, to say the least! I also couldn't imagine how Merrik copes with having memories of family who would never acknowledge him. At least Alyosha knows for certain who he was raised by and has a real relationship with them, not just memories of something that isn't his.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
@worffan: Sorry, but I don't buy the Federation's propaganda. What "should" be and what is are two different things. DS9 shattered a lot of TNG's myths, and that is the approach I take: some things are indeed better than now but other things are shoved under the carpet and people pretend they aren't there when in fact they are.
I don't know. Canon shows pretty well that Starfleet is gender-egalitarian. The only sexism I see in TNG-era Trek is from non-Federation personnel.
Indeed, and you have every right to write exactly what you choose, how you choose to write it. As a reader, I have every right to say when I find something to be unrealistic.
If you would rather have something that buys into the Fed propaganda, then my writing is not the place for you.
Actually, I usually like your stuff, because canon shows pretty clearly that while Starfleet and the Federation's peace-and-prosperity ideals may hold just fine on Earth, on the frontiers they're just BS. In fact, I liked this story for the most part; I just felt that it dipped on one occasion a little too much into issues that affect 21st century Terrans more than 25th century members of hundreds of species with different biologies, physiologies, and cultures.
For example, there are real-life African tribes that would consider Female!Alyosha to be distressingly and unattractively thin, and one would think that certain alien cultures would also have this prejudice towards women with large body fat concentrations.
Also, I would rather my work not be used as a platform for your beef with Smirk. Anyway, I do not plan to debate it.
I wouldn't call it beef; I'm not actually angry. More like...me shaking my head in confusion, saying "Smirk, you know that this is a game based on a franchise that is most popular with 18- to 65-year-olds. You know that the people on these forums are computer- and internet-savvy. So why break out the Modhammer when someone writes a story intended for consumption by 18- to 65-year-olds?"
I mean, I genuinely like Smirk; I think that he's funny and quite intelligent and a decent person, but on very rare occasions he does things that leave me confused like this. Maybe it's a new leadership style that I don't understand yet, maybe it's nerves about stepping into BranFlakes' shoes (a monolithic task if there ever was one), or maybe it's something else entirely, but I am on occasion left completely confused when Smirk does something that seems completely out of left field.
But it doesn't matter right now, as I've already said that I'm entirely uninterested in writing for all three prompts, I've explained my position in greater detail upthread, and because you are 100% right that getting into a debate here is a tremendously stupid idea.
So TEHO, I guess.
I love your writing and writing style, and Alyosha is a very interesting character. The alternate crew reacted in a very appropriate manner to an unidentified Devidian in human form just showing up on their ship, and I was pleased to see characters react logically and rationally to a sticky/crazy situation.
Actually, I don't really see Alesya's body choices as being driven by sexism, so much as by standards held up against both (all?) genders in Trek. When was the last time you saw a crew member more than even slightly out of shape in TNG? (Or DS9 or VOY, for that matter?) The only one I can think of is Argyle, the chubby guy with the beard who was briefly Ent-D's chief engineer, and the next season he was replaced by Geordi.
Males in Starfleet are strong, generally tall, and with low body fat. Females in Starfleet are generally strong, slim, and again with low body fat, except those individuals with large pads of redundant fat on their chests. Alesya has selected a body type that seems approachable to Humans and similar species, one that might remind them more of a parental or grandparental figure than some stern martinet. And she has consciously avoided being the "Starfleet ideal", with holostar good looks (an ideal that is available fairly trivially to just about anyone in the Fleet, given the levels of casual plastic surgery we saw as early as TOS). It tells us something pretty significant about the character - she wants to be liked, not gazed at from afar or worse, feared. She wants her crew to feel they can come to her with any issues. Psychologically, she's really not so very different from Alyosha.
I really think, though, that this prompt will work best with characters that are far outside the norm (like, for instance, silverbloods or Devidians ), precisely because Starfleet prides itself on its egalitarianism. Grunt, in a gender-swapped universe, would have pretty much the same relationships with the crew, because he/she isn't intimately involved with any of them, and because to the best of our knowledge Andorian, Klingon, and Pakled society is pretty much as gender-blind as Human. There's no hook there for me to hang a story from - and believe me, I've been trying!
I really think, though, that this prompt will work best with characters that are far outside the norm (like, for instance, silverbloods or Devidians ), precisely because Starfleet prides itself on its egalitarianism. Grunt, in a gender-swapped universe, would have pretty much the same relationships with the crew, because he/she isn't intimately involved with any of them, and because to the best of our knowledge Andorian, Klingon, and Pakled society is pretty much as gender-blind as Human. There's no hook there for me to hang a story from - and believe me, I've been trying!
Now that's a good point.
And TBH, now that you've said that I might actually be able to write a story for this starring Captain Trenek and the Patagonia crew.
Trenek himself is a member of a typical Federation species, but his chief science officer is a member of a species with only one gender...
This could actually be interesting. I'll see if I can get something together.
Nothing on screen says they have four genders. Just four in a marriage. Where do people keep getting this four gender thing from?
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A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Nothing on screen says they have four genders. Just four in a marriage. Where do people keep getting this four gender thing from?
I consulted memory beta, and while it is partially considered AU/book canon, i like it in that it separates Andorians from the two gender norm seen on screen.
Nothing on screen says they have four genders. Just four in a marriage. Where do people keep getting this four gender thing from?
It's from the licensed novels, which makes it official, with soft canon status.
Nothing on screen has confirmed Andorian genders, so the novels stand (at present) as providing an 'official answer'. If a film or episode was to say otherwise, then that would become the official answer... And given that is highly unlikely to happen, the four genders is a safe acceptance :cool:
I see. Well, since it's only in books, I shall be ignoring it and have my andorian marriages like denobulan marriages. Assuming it will ever come up in my stories. Which I highly doubt. Despite having an andorian captain.
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A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Nothing on screen says they have four genders. Just four in a marriage. Where do people keep getting this four gender thing from?
When you have an Andorian or Aenar captain or BOFF, check their profiles. You will see the two Andorian genders closest to the human gender that character appears to have. You only see it if you open their detailed info, though. So it is actually in STO that way.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
When you have an Andorian or Aenar captain or BOFF, check their profiles. You will see the two Andorian genders closest to the human gender that character appears to have. You only see it if you open their detailed info, though. So it is actually in STO that way.
Huh. Never noticed that. I'll have to check it out tonight.
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A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Aaaaand there's my entry for prompt 2. Follows on from prompt 1. Yes, I am essentially pulling a Voyager with my crew.
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A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
"Very well. Liase with her."
"Him."
Kazzur looked to Talaina. "Excuse me?"
"T'Fon is a male."
"But.... it's a woman's name."
"I know. I didn't ask."
...is how you handle that issue.
I presume that a future prompt will show us the treknobabble negative space wedgie they use to get home? (Intergalactic travel, after all, is a bit much, even with transwarp and quantum slipstream.)
I am actually forming a proper reason for my blunder with his name, which will be revealed when I've got it properly thought out and the story allows it, but I was determined to at least address the issue here.
One of the future prompts will get them home. I don't know how, I don't know when, but provided the ship isn't lost (no reset button here) they will hopefully get back someday.
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A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
I am actually forming a proper reason for my blunder with his name, which will be revealed when I've got it properly thought out and the story allows it, but I was determined to at least address the issue here.
No, I think this is perfect. Vulcans are notoriously private beings, after all - they were among the founders of the Federation in the 22nd century, but a hundred years later, Dr. McCoy knew nothing about pon farr or mind-melding. T'Fon probably has some reason that seems to him perfectly logical for carrying a female name, but equally probably he has no interest whatsoever in telling anyone what it is.
Grylak, to my mind it is not unreasonable for your "misnamed" character to be transgendered. Knowing how the Vulcans are, I have a distinct feeling they would refuse to discuss it.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-) Proudly F2P.Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
It is true, they would not discuss things. Nor will t'fon reveal it. I just like having my characters having their history, even if its just in my own head. Unless a story comes up which would naturally have him reveal why, this will be the only reference to it.
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A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Finally! This is for prompt 1 and was *not* easy for me. I hope it is treknobabbly-correct. Memory Alpha was studied and it still doesn't make much sense to me
I was kinda puzzled how it ended up ending that way... but I might continue it this way, perhaps throw out a separate one-shot/sequel...probably not. I may retcon it even. Meh.
:rolleyes::D:D:cool:
It took a awhile to get the motivation to write this, but I got there in the end. Please enjoy
For ease of reference/visualization, here're the actors I would cast if I was filming this tomorrow...
Bellic Chanos - Vin Diesel
Ael t'Kazanak - Cobie Smulders
ch'Shaan - James Marsters
Brandene Mayer - Rosamund Pike
Bellica Chanos - Yaya DaCosta
Cecelia Bernardez - Kate del Castillo
Keilly Staros - Gemma Arterton
Ely Fisher - James McAvoy
Stellar as usual, marcusdkane.
It felt a little rushed, but I definitely liked the Bernandez twist. TBH, I feel that this could be expanded really easily; as-is, everything seems to "fall into place" neatly.
Also, both Captains are going to need a couple of therapy sessions over this, or at least some liquid therapy, aren't they?
Comments
The 'real' Merrik is a silverblood copy/clone, in the same way that Harry and Tom (and eventually the entire crew) were duplicated in Demons.
The fate of the original Dennis Merrik is still unknown, I suspect he's alive (to be used in a future story) but I don't know where or doing what. That said, by now he's a decade or so older than Silverblood Merrik, who no longer ages. Merrik will hopefully find him someday.
LOL, I figured it was autocorrect.
I bet that would be an awkward meeting, to say the least! I also couldn't imagine how Merrik copes with having memories of family who would never acknowledge him. At least Alyosha knows for certain who he was raised by and has a real relationship with them, not just memories of something that isn't his.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
For example, there are real-life African tribes that would consider Female!Alyosha to be distressingly and unattractively thin, and one would think that certain alien cultures would also have this prejudice towards women with large body fat concentrations.
I wouldn't call it beef; I'm not actually angry. More like...me shaking my head in confusion, saying "Smirk, you know that this is a game based on a franchise that is most popular with 18- to 65-year-olds. You know that the people on these forums are computer- and internet-savvy. So why break out the Modhammer when someone writes a story intended for consumption by 18- to 65-year-olds?"
I mean, I genuinely like Smirk; I think that he's funny and quite intelligent and a decent person, but on very rare occasions he does things that leave me confused like this. Maybe it's a new leadership style that I don't understand yet, maybe it's nerves about stepping into BranFlakes' shoes (a monolithic task if there ever was one), or maybe it's something else entirely, but I am on occasion left completely confused when Smirk does something that seems completely out of left field.
But it doesn't matter right now, as I've already said that I'm entirely uninterested in writing for all three prompts, I've explained my position in greater detail upthread, and because you are 100% right that getting into a debate here is a tremendously stupid idea.
So TEHO, I guess.
I love your writing and writing style, and Alyosha is a very interesting character. The alternate crew reacted in a very appropriate manner to an unidentified Devidian in human form just showing up on their ship, and I was pleased to see characters react logically and rationally to a sticky/crazy situation.
Males in Starfleet are strong, generally tall, and with low body fat. Females in Starfleet are generally strong, slim, and again with low body fat, except those individuals with large pads of redundant fat on their chests. Alesya has selected a body type that seems approachable to Humans and similar species, one that might remind them more of a parental or grandparental figure than some stern martinet. And she has consciously avoided being the "Starfleet ideal", with holostar good looks (an ideal that is available fairly trivially to just about anyone in the Fleet, given the levels of casual plastic surgery we saw as early as TOS). It tells us something pretty significant about the character - she wants to be liked, not gazed at from afar or worse, feared. She wants her crew to feel they can come to her with any issues. Psychologically, she's really not so very different from Alyosha.
I really think, though, that this prompt will work best with characters that are far outside the norm (like, for instance, silverbloods or Devidians
Now that's a good point.
And TBH, now that you've said that I might actually be able to write a story for this starring Captain Trenek and the Patagonia crew.
Trenek himself is a member of a typical Federation species, but his chief science officer is a member of a species with only one gender...
This could actually be interesting. I'll see if I can get something together.
Jonsillis: I like Iain, he's very cool and a nice relaxation to all your Grunt focused stories.
proteusrex: Liked your story a lot, I find the silverblood idea to be cool.\\
Masopw: Tell me, did the cardassian scientist get spaced on the way back, and if he did, with or without an EV suit?
Gulberat: I liked the alternate universe! I so totally forgot Andorians and Aenar had four genders, I'll have to keep that in mind!
Just wanted to add to my post count with the post.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Therefore, I blame Obamacare :P
I consulted memory beta, and while it is partially considered AU/book canon, i like it in that it separates Andorians from the two gender norm seen on screen.
It's from the licensed novels, which makes it official, with soft canon status.
Nothing on screen has confirmed Andorian genders, so the novels stand (at present) as providing an 'official answer'. If a film or episode was to say otherwise, then that would become the official answer... And given that is highly unlikely to happen, the four genders is a safe acceptance :cool:
@hawku001x - That was a fun read
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
When you have an Andorian or Aenar captain or BOFF, check their profiles. You will see the two Andorian genders closest to the human gender that character appears to have. You only see it if you open their detailed info, though. So it is actually in STO that way.
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
Huh. Never noticed that. I'll have to check it out tonight.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
I presume that a future prompt will show us the treknobabble negative space wedgie they use to get home? (Intergalactic travel, after all, is a bit much, even with transwarp and quantum slipstream.)
One of the future prompts will get them home. I don't know how, I don't know when, but provided the ship isn't lost (no reset button here) they will hopefully get back someday.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Christian Gaming Community Fleets--Faith, Fun, and Fellowship! See the website and PM for more. :-)
Proudly F2P. Signature image by gulberat. Avatar image by balsavor.deviantart.com.
A Romulan Strike Team, Missing Farmers and an ancient base on a Klingon Border world. But what connects them? Find out in my First Foundary mission: 'The Jeroan Farmer Escapade'
Cast for crew:
Kathryn Beringer - Rachel Nichols
Anthi Ythysi - Katheryn Winnick
Karl Melango - Jeremy Renner
Thel Ythysi - Kevin Sorbo
Ian McKinnon - Ben Browder
Omazei - Gemma Arterton
Romas Verthir- Idris Elba
I was kinda puzzled how it ended up ending that way... but I might continue it this way, perhaps throw out a separate one-shot/sequel...probably not. I may retcon it even. Meh.
:rolleyes::D:D:cool:
For ease of reference/visualization, here're the actors I would cast if I was filming this tomorrow...
Bellic Chanos - Vin Diesel
Ael t'Kazanak - Cobie Smulders
ch'Shaan - James Marsters
Brandene Mayer - Rosamund Pike
Bellica Chanos - Yaya DaCosta
Cecelia Bernardez - Kate del Castillo
Keilly Staros - Gemma Arterton
Ely Fisher - James McAvoy
Stellar as usual, marcusdkane.
It felt a little rushed, but I definitely liked the Bernandez twist. TBH, I feel that this could be expanded really easily; as-is, everything seems to "fall into place" neatly.
Also, both Captains are going to need a couple of therapy sessions over this, or at least some liquid therapy, aren't they?