Aenar

05
Jul
2016

Review – Candy

Review – Candy

Candy came about because of a short throwaway line about Jhasi’s wedding dress having a stripe.

Background

In response to a prompt about rituals, I decided to go with a renewal of wedding vows. I had already established that this event had happened, but I had not yet shown it.  However, for Kevin O’Connor and Jhasi Tantharis O’Connor, the occasion is bittersweet, for she is dying.

Plot

Barking up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Clockworks | Candy

Clockworks

Kevin and Josie prepare for May 4, 3108, a special day on Tandar Prime.

Because Piaris Syndrome is killing her, and it is going to be sooner, rather than later. So Kevin knows this and, while he is not exactly keeping the truth from Josie, he is also not in a rush to tell her, either. But Josie would have to be either a fool or too far gone to not know her fate. Furthermore, she would have to know time was running low. Very, painfully, low.

And so they perform the initial and familiar rituals of caregiver and patient, as he cleans her up and dresses her. Eventually, she asks why, and he tells her. Finally, the last moment of the story consists of of him picking her up to carry her.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

While I like to think that I don’t write tearjerkers, this one just might qualify  as one. I hope that the push and pull of Josie and Kevin feels real and not forced or manipulated. Furthermore, it is a hard story to read, at times, for this, or something like it, might be the fate of us all.

And may we all be blessed with someone as devoted as Kevin.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Review, Times of the HG Wells series, 0 comments
22
Apr
2016

Review – The Honky Tonk Angel

Review – The Honky Tonk Angel

Who is the Honky Tonk Angel? The answer might surprise you.

Background

For a prompt about vices, I decided that the vices would, perhaps, be small ones. It would be the kinds of things that you might talk about on a first date. And so I thought of my favorite odd couple. Their first date had been mentioned but not shown; this proved to be a good opportunity to rectify that.

Plot

Barking up the Muse Tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Clockworks | The Honk Tonk Angel

Clockworks

Kevin O’Connor and Jhasi Tantharis go on their first date, on December 21, 3088.

They go to a baseball game, and he has to help her get a cap that will fit. However, she accidentally grabs one for the wrong team. But that is more than forgivable.

After all, she’s blind.

But that hardly matters, as they have a lovely time of it. Then Kevin messes up, and calls her Josie. But Jhasi is okay with this, and finds it amusing. She then confesses that she does not always keep in touch with her family like she should, and gives up on things too soon. Kevin, to his credit, seizes the opportunity and asks her to not give up on the two of them.

Josie, of course, does not.

Music

The music is, of course, the Kitty Wells song, It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is Rated K.

Upshot

I really enjoyed putting together this first glimpse into one of my favorite love stories.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Review, Times of the HG Wells series, 0 comments
16
Jun
2015

Focus on Andorians in Star Trek Fan Fiction

Focus on Andorians

Andorians are just plain fun.

Focus

A focus Barking up the Muse Tree | Janet Gershen-Siegel | jespah | Focus Magnifying Glass | Andorians (unlike a spotlight) is an in-depth look at a Star Trek fanfiction canon item and my twist(s) on it.

Of course, all of fan fiction is like that, but the idea here is to provide a window into how a single canon concept can be used in fan fiction.

Star Trek Enterprise did one thing extremely well, which is that it gave audiences a good, solid look at Andorians, a canon alien species that has been around back to The Original Series, about fifty years ago.

Background – Andorians

The look of Andorians has changed over time, as advancements in makeup and prosthetic technology have made the blue-skilled antennaed aliens look more and more real.

Focus on Andorians

Shran

Shran is easily the most fully-realized of all Andorians ever shown in the series, if not canon.

One thing that Shran does is, he engages in casual racial prejudice, often referring to Jonathan Archer as “pinkskin”. Interestingly enough, these scenes were never filmed (so far as I am aware) in the presence of Anthony Montgomery or any other non-Caucasian actors on the show.

He even passes his prejudice onto his daughter, Talla, even though she is an Andorian–Aenar hybrid and is the color of pea soup.

Occurrences

Half

While there are Andorians in the Barnstorming series, the main occasion for showing them is in this short story. To dovetail with Shran’s casual prejudice, I made the entire species (more or less) like that. And so Talla, who is half and half, is bullied at school. In order to shout down her persecutors, she claims that her father still has the Teneebian Amethyst. And that’s when things get difficult ….

Upshot

Andorians are a fascinating canon species, and I’d love to showcase them more. At some point, I’ll try to find a place for them, and not just in contrast to the related Aenar.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Focus, 10 comments