Cardassian

27
Dec
2016

Review – Truth

Review – Truth

Truth, of course, matters.

Background

So once again, the prompt is the same as the name of the story. However, I did not realize how the plot would turn out until I was writing it. Bron suddenly spoke to me, and I just took dictation. And that is the most fun when you write.

Plot

Barking up the muse tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | The truth about Bron

The truth about Bron

So a year after Bron and Sophra start going out, he meets her parents. As they fret a bit about the relationship and he gets even more nervous, he suddenly blurts out the truth. And he absolutely did not plan to do that.

Poor Bron! Always so sensitive and sweet. Sophra’s parents are skeptical, and her father in particular is unsure of things. Bron doesn’t even tell or ask Sophra first. Instead, as her father asks for his intentions, Bron blurts out that his intention is marriage. Yet this surprises everyone – in particular, Sophra herself. While she had to have known she was a serious individual, she might have considered that their relationship would have moved a little more slowly. However, she accepts his sudden proposal gladly.

Initially appalled, Sophra’s parents come around when Bron tells them he will have a good engineering job and they will likely adopt children as the chance of having their own probably isn’t there. A little grudgingly, perhaps, they accept him.  I like to think they can look beyond his clearly rather alien appearance.

Story Postings

Rating

This story is rated K.

Upshot

So as is always the case with Bron, a little bit of haplessness creeps in. But he’s kind, smart, and committed, and I think you just can’t help but to root for him. I think those two crazy kids might just make it after all.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Mixing It Up Collection, Review, 2 comments
09
Dec
2016

Review – Losin’ It

Review – Losin’ It

Losin (Losin’) It? So, what does that mean? Of course, it has to do with sex. However, it also has a lot to do with innocence.  So this means truth and it means lies. And while I can’t recall whether this story came before Truth or the other way around, it does serve as a tidy bookend to the other short tale. For Bron, clearly, it’s all about the truth. And for Skrol, equally as clearly, it is more about the exaggeration.

Background

The prompt for a monthly challenge was, if I recall correctly, about lying. And who better to lie than the semi-silver-tongued reptilian devil himself, Skrol?

Losin the Plot

Barking up the muse tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Losin' It

Losin’ It

Oh, what has Skrol done now?

Like teenagers from time immemorial, Tr’Dorna, Skrol, Etrina, Bron, and Sophra are all a little obsessed with each others’ lives. So this includes the inevitable question of, are you still a virgin? Because by that time, not everyone is.

Skrol hatches a plan to get Tr’Dorna to flip her tail for him (essentially, for them to have sex or at least get close to that) by lying to her and saying that not only is he a virgin, but that she is the first female he has ever kissed.

Bron calls him out on it and he threatens to tell Tr’Dorna. As a result, Skrol is forced to confess.

Story Postings

Rating

This story is rated T.

Upshot

The story is okay; it’s not great and I would not put it up there with my better work. It’s just a little teenaged humor story more than anything else. However, it told me more about Skrol, and that’s always a good thing, to know the characters even better.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Mixing It Up Collection, Review, 1 comment
02
Dec
2016

Review – Insecurity

Review – Insecurity

Insecurity can happen to any of us. So who better to illustrate that than my favorite Gorn?

Background

Therefore, in response to a prompt of the same name, I decided to revisit one of my favorite non-human interspecies couples. For these mixed-alien lovers, who also just so happen to be teenagers, a short separation is a cause for concern. And like so many teens throughout history, it hurts to be apart. Even someone who is not jealous can wonder just what is going on. And slow or missing communications make that even worse.

Plot

Barking up the muse tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | The truth about Bron | Insecurity

Insecurity

A few weeks after Bron and Sophra start going out, they are separated due to the school’s vacation schedule.

Bron, as always, is the somewhat nerdy and very shy and perhaps overly sensitive. Hence it’s a somewhat banal thing, for a teenaged couple to be separated for some reason or another, and for one of them to be freaking out.

And of all the people to come to Bron’s rescue, it’s Tr’Dorna who tells him to hang in there, and that it’s all going to be okay. Bron even gets in an aside to Skrol, telling him that Tr’Dorna is a good person and he should better appreciate her. As a result, this story also represents me getting to know and better appreciate Tr’Dorna! And when she becomes Bron’s comforter (and, in a way, something of a confessor for him), she suddenly had a dimension and a character. She had not had those before.

Story Postings

Rating

This story is rated K.

Upshot

I love my poor little sensitive New Aged-Gorn. And – spoiler alert – it will be okay.  Because Sophra understands. Long live Bron!

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Mixing It Up Collection, Review, 1 comment
04
Aug
2015

Review – Hold Your Dominion

Review – Dominion

One of the major battles of the Dominion War was the attack on Earth, by the Breen, on October tenth, 2375. Millions of human lives were lost. One of those was Michael Nolan, a Xenobotanist in Beijing. He left a widow, Gina Righetti Nolan, who was expecting their first child. This piece is Deep Space Nine/Voyager.

Background

Barking up the muse tree | jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | Hold Your Dominion

Hold Your Dominion

As the tenth anniversary of 9/11 loomed, I looked for a way to get that event onto virtual paper.

Plot

So beginning with the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross stages of grief, Gina Nolan‘s story begins on a rather dark note indeed, as she watches the viewer and frets.

Review – Hold Your Dominion

Breen (Star Trek) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Therefore, the idea I was going for was of a Star Trek Deep Space Nine era version of endlessly watching television during and right after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Then a small shuttle-style ship lands right on her front lawn, directly on top of the little tree that she and her husband, Michael, planted together, thereby killing the tree. The effect is metaphoric, and Gina is well aware who the people who are landing are, and why they’re there. In denial, she hides until she absolutely has to answer the door.

As the story progresses, she goes to Andoria for a memorial service, and then eventually back home again to Proxima Centauri, where her parents attempt to provide some company and help. But everyone’s efforts are clumsy and strange. This is not how Gina’s life was supposed to turn out.

And then the story moves beyond grief, finally, to five years after the attack and a certain moment of clarity.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K+.

Upshot

I think the initial parts of the story do drag a bit, as I had overly committed myself to equating Gina’s grief with the standard pattern of grieving. But overall, I think the storyline is a decent one.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Review, 1 comment
22
May
2015

Portrait of a Character – Sophra

Portrait of a Character – Sophra

Origins

For The Reptile Speaks, I wanted a Gorn to be reciting poetry to a Cardassian girl. As a result, Sophra was created.

Portrayal

Sophra is played by actress Selena Gomez.

Portrait of a Character – Sophra

Selena Gomez as Sophra

I really like the idea of the character being cute and not desperate, that she and Bron would enjoy each other’s company and it would not be her settling.

Personality

Sweet and caring, Sophra is more mature than most of the other girls in school, who care more for parties and field trips than the heavy lifting of serious relationships.

Relationships

Bron

They meet at Picard High School, and he falls for her, hard. But his roommate, Skrol, tells him that it is impossible, and he should court a Xindi Reptilian girl, like he is with Tr’Dorna. The Sadie Hawkins Day dance is an occasion when Bron can impress, and he does. They begin to date. Bron is certainly more smitten with Sophra than the other way around, at least to start. But she cares and even stands up for him when he meets her parents for the first time and it looks as if he’s blown it.

Mirror Universe

Portrait of a Character – Sophra

Selena Gomez as Mirror Sophra

There are no impediments to Sophra existing in the Mirror Universe.

However, like any other cute girl of any species, she would likely be sexualized rather early. As for a relationship with Bron’s counterpart, it would likely be impossible.

Quote

“Don’t you like the middle of the day? When the sun is high up and shadows are close to people? I know that’s the time that I like the best. When the shadow is right there, touching.”

Upshot

I would love to be able to give Sophra more of a personality. As she currently exists, she is more of a sweet girlfriend and then fiancée than anything else. I would like for this character to have more of an independent existence at some point. Otherwise, she ends up being kind of bland.

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Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Mixing It Up Collection, Portrait, 3 comments
28
May
2013

Review – The Reptile Speaks

Review – The Reptile Speaks

A reptile speaks?

Background

I can’t recall the precise circumstances, but I was a fairly new member of Ad Astra and we were talking about mixed-species couples in Star Trek fanfiction.

Barking up the Muse Tree | Jespah | Janet Gershen-Siegel | The Reptile Speaks

The Reptile Speaks

My point was, as we get deeper and deeper into the future, we’d start to see a lot of – to us – bizarre combinations.

Why wouldn’t a Gorn recite love poetry to a lovely, blushing Cardassian maiden?

And so someone threw the gauntlet down and told me, write this.

Plot

For teenaged boys Bron and Skrol, the upcoming Sadie Hawkins dance is an occasion for nerves. Skrol is trying to make time with his girl, Tr’Dorna. Skrol encourages Bron to ask out Tr’Dorna’s roommate, Etrina. But Bron will have none of that – he likes Sophra.

Oh, and did I mention that the boys are Gorn, Etrina and Tr’Dorna are Xindi Reptilian, and Sophra (and her roommate, Ylinka) is a Cardassian?

Perhaps that detail shouldn’t have been left out.

But, truly, teens are teens, wherever you go, and whatever age adolescence happens for a particular species (for Vulcans, it apparently happens somewhat later). And so there is a bit of a push and pull. Who will end up together? Will she accept or repel Bron’s advances? Bron’s got a secret weapon, but you’ll have to read the story in order to find out just what it is.

Story Postings

Rating

The story is rated K.

Upshot

Finally, Gorn are nearly universally hissing, sneering bad guys, and I wanted there to be a way to redeem them. After all, they’re not too terribly different from Xindi Reptilians, and that species saw redemption by the end of ENT. Plus, I would hope that, eventually, the entire galaxy will be at peace. That means breaking bread with Gorn. And if they are at all like Bron, and even Skrol, it’ll be easy.

Posted by jespah in Fan fiction, Mixing It Up Collection, Review, 7 comments