Reversal, a Fanfiction Revival
Reversal got its name on a lark. I hadn’t written Star Trek: Enterprise fanfiction in quite a while.
So I was, in all honesty, spinning it out from nothing. I had nearly no plan for the story, no outline and at first I wasn’t even saving it to Word. And so, when I was saving the first post, the topic had to have a name. On an impulse, I named it Reversal.
And the title proved to be perfect.
Origins
Reversal
I had a dream. No, not like Martin Luther King!
It was a rather earthy dream, truth be told. And it was about a character on Enterprise. And I woke up, thinking – there’s a story there.
From such beginnings, I developed an idea. The septum between the Prime Universe and the Mirror would be thinner at one particular point in the galaxy. This was in parallel to the reality of the Earth’s crust. It is not uniform. Hence I wanted the separation to not be of uniform thickness/difficulty in crossing.
Bare Bones Story Line
The idea was for it to be possible to cross the boundary between the Prime Universe and the mirror through the dream state. The concept was that, for a certain species, the connections would be normal. And then, as the NX-01 Enterprise on our side, and the ISS Defiant on the other, enter that same system, the psionically charged atmosphere would cause two people to simultaneously start to pick up on that same wavelength. But for them, it would be a romance.
It starts off with a bang. The first line is – It didn’t hurt. I love this opening line, as the reader should immediately be thinking – what? What didn’t hurt? Was it supposed to? And then the story moves along from there. The first dream is a coupling dream, where a fantasy plays out in what seems to be a normal Freudian fashion. People kiss, their clothes fly away and of course more happens. It’s pitch black. They remain silent, although they can hear each other breathing. But then the heroine – Lili O’Day – breaks the spell by incoherently calling out loud.
And so we’re off to the races, for the next two scenes shift from her and her roommate in our universe to her fellow and his roommate – a woman – in the mirror. We know Lili’s name, but not the guy’s. He’s just referred to – and rather pejoratively at that – as the old man. His name is kept out of the first few chapters as he is a counterpart to a canon character.
Clues abound and some come from the characters’ speaking whereas others come from Lili talking in her sleep or references from the twin surfaces. Something is going on, in both universes. There is more happening than just the dreams.
Symbolism
From the beginning, I wanted the story to have symbolic meanings. For the title, the first half of the word, rêve, is French for dream. This also works as the second half symbolizes waking life. Plus there is the word itself and its connotations of reinvention and retrograde changes.
Oranges
Other symbols abound. After the first dream, Lili – who is the sous-chef on the Enterprise – is ordered to make every meal with oranges for one day. When she goes to sleep that night, she reeks of oranges, and it’s the first word that her fellow says to her. So, not only can he smell her, but there is also what oranges kind of mean. They are of course different from apples (and apples connote temptation and the fall from purity). Oranges, I felt would symbolize sunshine and happiness, and warmth and light.
Artist’s impression of HD 98800. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Another symbol or rather symbols is the quadruple star system. The largest star is a white giant named Lo, which should make the reader think of the phrase lo and behold. The second-largest star is a yellow medium-size star like the sun. It’s Abic (Ay-bick), a bit like abba, the Hebrew word for father. The third star is a small orange star, Fep. The smallest one is a red dwarf (yes, it’s a shout out to that TV series) called Ub. Hoshi herself explains that there are value judgments behind the names – Lo is for goodness, Abic is secondary, Fep is small and Ub is sinister.
Subject Matter
The five main books in the In Between Days series are each about one of the five main characters (Pamela Hudson is essentially the sixth main character, but she isn’t connected with any book as well as she is with Intolerance). Reversal is, essentially, about Lili. From learning about the fire that killed her parents, to getting to know her as a chef, a lover and a friend, to even peeking at her finances, Lili is all over most of the pages, particularly in the dream sequences and the Prime Universe scenes. This is Lili’s tale.
Music
This story is less musically-driven than others but it does have a few melodic moments. Lili’s theme song is Roy Orbison’s Sweet Dreams Baby. Her fellow’s song is Robbie Williams’s Feel.
Story Postings
- Reversal on Issuu
- Reversal in ePub format
- also, Reversal in Mobi format for the Amazon Kindle
- Reversal on Ad Astra (contains reviews)
- Reversal on Fictionpad
- in addition, Reversal on TrekBBS (this version is Rated T) (contains reviews)
- Reversal on the G & T Show forums
- Reversal on Fanfiction.net (this version is Rated T)
- furthermore, Reversal on Wattpad (this version is Rated T)
- Reversal in context
- Reversal in Hall of Mirrors context
Rating
The story is rated T/M although there is a K+/T version on Fanfiction.net.
Upshot
Reversal is not the best story I have ever written. It drags at the end, as I was reluctant to give it up. But it gets the series off splendidly and, truly, almost everything else springs from it in one way or another (albeit sometimes indirectly). I continually mine it for backstory tales of Lili and her fellow and their many supporting cast members, like Chip Masterson, Leonora Digiorno, Melissa Madden, Pamela Hudson, Andrew Miller, Brian Delacroix and Jun Daniels Sato and many others.
It’s just the gift that keeps on giving; it’s so incredibly dense with plot. I am grateful to have such a pond to fish in. Apparently readers have agreed; on various platforms, it has racked up over 500,000 total reads.
[…] been shown more. A rather earthy dream about him was the basis and initial kernel of an idea for Reversal, a story where he is referred to, and is seen in this photograph. However, by the time of Reversal […]
[…] Reversal, I establish that the food in the Mirror Universe is, for the most part, pretty lousy. Doug even […]
[…] I first started writing Reversal, I was beginning to come to grips with my own aging process. It’s inevitable – you begin to […]
[…] death, at the hands of Hoshi, is also canon. I don’t mess with that. Hence, at the time of Reversal, the mirror universe Archer is long dead, and Doug and Tripp do not have to deal with him. Since he […]
[…] Reversal, the Empress’s power is well-established and has been consolidated. Doug offhandedly tells […]
[…] I first started writing Reversal, I was a bit upset at the prospect of aging. Of course, the alternative is far worse. Hence I […]
[…] Reversal, I establish that Lili O’Day‘s favorite color is blue. Reversal also, happily, ends up […]
[…] October 15th, Reversal on Ad Astra rang up 10,000 views, the most I have ever had on any given story. That story has been […]
[…] is a Calafan doctor seen in Reversal, and is a part of the […]
[…] in a lot of ways informs Reversal, as Lili first goes on a disastrous blind date with Brian Delacroix (as Jenny Crossman pushes away […]
[…] more of a left turn than anything else. It is ostensibly Malcolm’s story in the same way that Reversal is Lili‘s story, Together is Melissa‘s, Temper is Doug‘s and Fortune is […]
[…] Reversal, I liked the idea of Jenny Crossman having a solid, stable relationship. Here she is, the Redheaded […]
[…] numbers for Reversal and Together on Ad Astra continue to climb. I suspect that, with them both at over 10,000 views, […]
[…] why I write him the way I do, particularly with Lili and particularly with the failed connection in Reversal and then the achieved one in Together. And then when I wrote Temper, I hit upon the ending as it […]
[…] original species called the Derellian bat. This bat has been in all sorts of places – in Reversal, Temper, Throwing Rocks at Looking Glass Houses and Intolerance, just to name a […]
[…] my fiction work, I needed a means of stepping from our universe to the Mirror, and vice versa. In Reversal, this is accomplished via shared dreaming, and a crossover is performed by the Calafans by using […]
[…] Reversal, he’s sympathetic and is willing to give Doug a chance. He also has his fun, particularly in […]
[…] He was stronger, and could fight, so he could fend off rivals. And he was rarely too tired for sex, and could be described as “endlessly insatiable“. […]
[…] ← Previous Next → […]
[…] and so it was easy for me to center my first big story and big series around a chef. The story is Reversal, the series is In Between Days, and the chef is Lili […]
[…] mixed here. Temper is usually on the lower end of read counts for the first five big books (Reversal, Intolerance, Together and Fortune are the other four), along with Intolerance, but in the case of […]
[…] the end of Reversal, Empress Hoshi is looking for a little brother for her son, Jun. But Jun’s father, Ritchie […]
[…] Susan was originally just an ex-girlfriend of Doug‘s. She was meant to be mentioned quickly and then set aside. But she became interesting as I wrote more of Reversal. […]
[…] the end of Reversal, Doug tells Lili that Jay had a sister. In order to keep that sister, Laura, from just stumbling […]
[…] Reversal, when he’s unsure whether he’ll be separated from Lili, Doug investigates Lili’s […]
[…] response to a weekly prompt about painting a scene, I submitted Atlas. As far back as Reversal, I had described Titania as a kind of Southerners’ paradise. This story gave me an […]
[…] my own prompt about temptation, I decided to fill in a missing scene from Reversal. The idea was also to dovetail with a scene in Fortune, where Shelby and Travis spend time […]
[…] prefigures the Daranaeans, and the switching between the scenes was altered to great effect in Reversal. I like the story but don’t love it; the Alien of the Week plot could have been stronger, I […]
[…] I first began writing Reversal, I did not perform too much research (oops). I knew that Dr. Phlox kept a bat, but I could not […]
[…] the opportunity to show Lili and Doug first moving to Lafa II. This is the morning after the end of Reversal; Local Flavor is the very beginning of “happily ever […]
[…] begins with Doug and Lili happy. It’s a direct sequel to Reversal, and they are living their dream. The first chapter makes it abundantly clear that they are where […]
[…] Reversal, I established that the Empress had given birth to Daniels’s child, but she thought him (the […]
[…] she begins a meal. It’s made clear, very quickly (and hearkens back to the same conditions in Reveral and Temper in particular), that MU food is bad, and the fact that there is bread is a minor […]
[…] Reversal […]
[…] Reversal‘s opening line was written on the fly (as was nearly all of that story). It is, simply, this – […]
[…] scene was referred to in Reversal, and in Fortune, but it never really got its due until a Weekly Free Write about […]
[…] Reversal […]
[…] to have them work under him, in a more cooperative type of venture. This continues to the time of Reversal. Aidan repays Doug’s kindness by cuckolding him and trying to take his girl, Jenn […]
[…] was thinking about writing Reversal for a while before I started, and I needed a name for my heroine. I decided on her full name for […]
[…] if she didn’t want to. As a child, Yimar fits the bill, particularly in Bribery and then in Reversal, where she’s forced to accept her father’s lover, Polloria, as a family member, even as […]
[…] a few more short works, I set it aside until 2010. Ever since starting up again (with Reversal), I have written something pretty much every day, whether it’s fan fiction, wholly original […]
[…] I write Cutler, in the Mirror, she and Tucker have a history. During Reversal, when the opportunity presents itself, they get together. By the time that story is finished, they […]
[…] had established a rodent infestation on the Defiant in Reversal, and had originally intended for the mice to be a bit of comic relief (after all, the Star Trek […]
[…] I wrote Reversal, one of the things I had Doug describe was his early childhood and how he was sent off to boarding […]
[…] fanfiction story did not set out to be that way. Instead, I was in the middle of spinning out Reversal (pretty close to the end) when in late 2010 I was asked to provide a story for a project called […]
[…] specialties – the Harvest Salad and the Duck Burger. The Harvest Salad is mentioned in both Reversal and Fortune. The Duck Burger gets a shout-out in Together. Will decides to have both, plus a glass […]
[…] a story more or less assigned (albeit not completely devoted) to them. Lili’s story was in Reversal, Malcolm’s was in Intolerance, Melissa’s was in Together and Doug’s was in […]
[…] my attitude changed considerably, and then suddenly it was October of 2010 and I was spinning Reversal out of whole cloth. And it became a monster that launched two big series and tons of stories, and, […]
[…] giving away spoilers, the story does prefigure goings on in later stories such as The Mess and Reversal. One thing I do like about the story is that, although it’s really an alien of the week […]
[…] He never switches over to Communications, and instead is promoted to run Tactical at the end of Reversal (his start in Tactical is shown in Paving Stones Made From Good Intentions). He also runs Game […]
[…] example, the Reversal storyline hinges, to a large extent, upon the fact that Lili and Doug are pretty much down to their […]
[…] played. References to Desperate Housewives come from E2 characters Bree Tanner and Rex Ryan and Reversal characters Jennifer Crossman and Brian Delacroix are references to Marcia […]
[…] aliens need to eat, they need food animals. In Reversal, I established that the Mirror Universe members of the Defiant‘s crew often go hunting, as […]
[…] be sure, the mirror universe is an obvious analog to Through the Looking Glass. In particular, in Reversal, when Doug passes from the mirror to our universe, he is passing through the looking glass and life […]
[…] I wrote Reversal, one of the things I wanted was for Empress Hoshi to have a child. This was a somewhat quick […]
[…] continued spinning out Reversal on Star Trek […]
[…] also have some works on Issuu, under the Trek United imprimatur. Two of my works there, Reversal and Intolerance, are rated Mature, so they are not searchable that way. I like Issuu for how the […]
[…] Reversal, and then in Temper, the concept of two universes and crosses between them, comes to the fore. […]
[…] Reversal, Aidan was, at least in the Mirror Universe, fairly well doomed. But I wanted to redeem him, […]
[…] Fortune (and earlier, in Apple, which takes place during Reversal), Shelby makes the first moves with Travis. However, by the time of the events of Equinox, he has […]
[…] lot about this character is, truly, Reversal spoilers. Avert your eyes if you haven’t read Reversal and want to maintain the mystery of […]
[…] episode, and becomes a family man when Lili gives birth to Declan (Temper, Fortune). Initially, in Reversal, Lili is denied him, as she goes with […]
[…] the 22nd. Intolerance was the first story on Fanfiction.net to hit 1,000 overall reads. Concord and Reversal should follow […]
[…] is explained by Doug in Reversal, the Empress committed genocide on the Xindi, so there are few left of any species. Therefore, the […]
[…] Stays a Stranger made it to 10,000 combined reads! On TrekBBS alone, Reversal went over 5,000 reads! See the Stats page for individual read and review […]
[…] first shows up in Reversal (injectible form), then in Intolerance (gas), then in Temper (naturally occurring), then in Fortune […]
[…] writing Reversal, I needed a female Security crewman who could handle both erotic scenes and provide muscle as […]
[…] Reversal […]
[…] a Calafan, started off as the criminal, Baden’s, nighttime lover, in Reversal in my Star Trek fanfiction. She was a doctor, although I did not have a handle on the type of […]
[…] Reversal was concluded, I had placed the Star Trek: Mirror Universe Tripp and Beth on the surface of Lafa […]
[…] a lot of my Star Trek fan fiction. Much of this was by the accident of the time when I was posting Reversal. The story, and its initial posting dates, both occurred near […]
[…] Reversal was written, I needed a character who would, in our universe, be someone who the natives would […]
[…] in Reversal (and in other stories), it’s rumored that he was the one to kill Ian Reed, although […]
[…] version of the character is also canon. In Reversal, T’Pol is already dead – an easy way for me to avoid writing a character who I’ve […]
[…] into my preexisting fanfiction. After all, if I said that Deborah was on the ship in 2157, in Reversal, then it made sense for her to have also been on the ship in 2154, when the ship was kicked back in […]
[…] also wanted to tie up a small loose end in my overall story arc in In Between Days. In Reversal, the Calafan people are ruled by a High Priestess (Yipran) and her consort, the First Minister […]
[…] work we’re writing together, Dear Naurr, Dear Lili, which takes place in the period between Reversal and Intolerance. Together, he and I collaborated and created Dishing it […]
[…] Reversal has to be mentioned, as it is not only the love of the dark stranger for the light, but it’s also an amazing kick-off story. A ton of roads lead straight to Reversal. […]
[…] put olowa – and it didn’t have a name yet – into a dining table scene of Calafans, in Reversal. The idea was not to showcase the food (it was just referred to as a large purple vegetable) but, […]
[…] Reversal, Lili asks Doug if there’s baseball on his side of the pond. He replies, “Five bases, […]
[…] made available as an option there (thanks to my friend who goes by tahmtahm) and so I made sure that Reversal, Demotion, Together and Paving Stones listed that […]
[…] Reversal […]
[…] some more leisurely exploratory moments, such as are in The Light, Intolerance and Reversal, things begin to get down to business in Together. While the ship speeds toward Earth to deliver […]
[…] Reversal, it is he who does most of the heavy calculations necessary, and he ends up risking his life in […]
[…] Lili relives killing She Who Almost Didn’t Breed in Time, which was originally outlined in Reversal and The […]
[…] 20,000 reads or more, plus two (Intolerance and Fortune) have over 20,000 reads on combined URLs. Reversal now has over 40,000 reads on combined URLs. See the Stats page for individual read and review […]
[…] a villainess character in Reversal, I wanted someone who would be utterly ruthless, but who would also bide her time and be careful […]
[…] continued posting Reversal on Wattpad and The Three of Us on Fanfiction.net. On the G & T Show forums, I posted Across the […]
[…] writing Reversal, I got to thinking about a missing piece of […]
[…] or more reads. And of those, two have one hundred or more combined reviews and over 20,000 reads, Reversal and Revved Up, which accomplishes this feat with only one […]
[…] I had stories of her being hired to work on the NX-01, and she had talked about her childhood in Reversal and Together in particular, there was no depiction of Lili as a teenager until this […]
[…] Reversal in particular to work, there had a to be a number of people ready and able to go to […]
[…] by her, before she is unable to do so. Sharp readers will recall that a large part of the plot of Reversal was to try to jigger the succession and undermine the correct process. There is a fear that any more […]
[…] I began to put together Doug and Lili‘s life after Reversal, the question began to arise, namely, where would they […]
[…] the G & T Show forums, I finished posting Reversal. I then started with a new compilation, In Between Days, and added An Announcement, Dear Captain, […]
[…] Reversal, the Empress Hoshi is ensconced in power but is bested by Doug as Jennifer, Tripp, and Beth also […]
[…] I finished Reversal on Trek BBS and also spooled out Intolerance. Reversal and Intolerance have both gotten some very […]
[…] Reversal […]
[…] It was a month for continuations, and not really for starting anything new. On Wattpad, I continued posting Fortune. On Fanfiction.net, I continued to post A Long, Long Time Ago. On the G & T Show forums, I continued to post Reversal. […]
[…] On the G & T Show forums, I continued to post Reversal. […]
[…] the Stats page for individual read and review counts. Reversal made it to over 100,000 reads, and Together hit over […]
[…] Reversal, the former two conspire to kill High Priestess Yipran. Chawev is the only one who hesitates, and […]
[…] triggered the addition of that story, at times, into my Star Trek fan fiction. Lili O’Day and Reversal, in particular, are in some ways a space version of at least parts of that […]
[…] the end of Reversal, Chawev is hauled off to jail (I seem to incarcerate my leaders a lot), for the crime of poisoning […]
[…] some more leisurely exploratory moments, such as are in The Light, Intolerance and Reversal, things begin to get down to business in Together. While the ship speeds toward Earth to deliver […]
[…] to Doug and pregnant with Joss, not to mention opening up Reversal on Lafa II, Lili is one busy lady. But she needs to confide a bit in someone. Treve, her business […]
[…] Before Days by adding First Born. I also finished The Social Media Guide, and began to post Reversal. I submitted eight works to the #Wattys2014 (The 2014 Watty […]
[…] Reversal (accomplished this month) […]
[…] I added Finnan Haddie. Flip was a response to a prompt about food (and the title is a play on Reversal). Gremlins was about breaking down. I placed all of these into […]
[…] to Be You with That’s Not My Name, which is a prequel to It Had to Be You. I also finished Reversal and began posting Intolerance. Because there have been so many stories posted there, I will finish […]
[…] it was my first time responding to a challenge there. I continued spinning out the PG-13 version of Reversal. I also added First Born as a response to their February […]
[…] he gets a chance, in Reversal, to do something else, he rises to the occasion and shows that he has some talent. This eventually […]
[…] Reversal, Lili goes on a disastrous blind date for Movie Night, but the film is important because it’s […]
[…] Doug’s crimes have been outlined before in this blog. The Mirror Universe ends up being quite the ruthless place when I write it. And his crimes come to life in Fortune when Q shows them to Lili. The final killing, of Deborah Haddon, is an accident seen in Reversal. […]
[…] is my first-ever published novel. Much like Reversal, it begins with a dream. And that makes perfect sense, as a dream inspired […]
[…] (the act is shown) and The Mess (the immediate aftermath). Lili discusses the matter with Doug in Reversal, and with Malcolm during Together. There’s even a small foreshadowing in Protocols, where […]
[…] Reversal, she seems to be dying. But Yipran, the High Priestess of the Calafan people, is not going down […]
[…] that year and then shelved everything for five years, returning to it on October 21st, 2010, with Reversal, a story that I spun out as I was posting it, with no plans […]
[…] character is an engineer in only our universe but not the mirror (Reversal), where he’s a security crewman. In our universe, he starts off as third in Engineering, […]
[…] so I changed into a red tee shirt and shorts and we were gonna go to my Mom’s restaurant, Reversal, and stuff and it was gonna be nice and kinda classy and […]
[…] a villainess character in Reversal, I wanted someone who would be utterly ruthless, but who would also bide her time and be careful […]
[…] Reversal begins, Beth has the unenviable position of babysitter to the Empress Hoshi Sato‘s lone royal […]