Otter's Rock

Title: A Marriage of True Minds
Artist:
Author: beatrice_otter
Rating: G
Genre/Pairing: Sarek/Amanda
Word Count: 6,080
Warnings: none
Summary: A day in the life of Sarek and Amanda on Vulcan, when Spock was young.
Betaed by: medie 

( Amanda glanced at the elegant timepiece on the wall and suppressed a sigh. )

I'm a student, right?  With a month till the end of the school year.  In that month, besides all the homework and final projects, I have four fics I am currently working on:

A post-Paladin of Souls Iselle and Ista fic forfemgenficathon 
A Sarek/Amanda fic for trekreversebang 
A Spock/Uhura reboot post-movie fic currently being betaed by the lovely laurajv.
A Remix fic (for which I have yet to select a story).

That's a good number.  Enough that I'm regularly working on something, not so much I can't keep track or get the ones with deadlines done before the deadlines.

Anyway, the S/U fic is all about them discussing "where we go from here" now that Vulcan is gone and T'Pring is dead and Spock explaining all about Vulcan culture and the possibilities for their relationship within Vulcan culture and Uhura Not Happy about all the stuff he's springing on her and his lack of flexibility on what it would mean for her and possible ways of blending their two cultures rather than her just going native like his mother did.  Basically, it's my excuse to explore Vulcan culture and gender roles in fic, the fic which grew out of my meta on Vulcan culture and how it affects Worldbuilding in the New Reality.  And one of the options Spock mentions is him marrying a nice Vulcan girl who stays home and takes care of the children (hers and Nyota's) and the home, while he and Uhura stay in Starfleet and have adventures together, and come home to visit on leave.  And laurajv mentioned that now she really wants to read a fic about the nice Vulcan girl who's staying on the new Vulcan homeworld raising the kids, including some who are only 1/4 Vulcan.  I was like, "dude, whatever, I ain't got time to write it and the reason for stopping the fic where I do is that I genuinely have no clue what Uhura's going to decide, or if she'll figure out some kind of workable compromise."  And now, while I still don't know what the hypothetical wife's name would be, I know her backstory and who her best friend is and ... and I don't need another fic right now!  I don't have time for it!  And this is not something I could hand over to bunny_support or prospectus because it's so tied up in my views on Vulcan culture and the backstory that has created itself and (unlike most plot bunnies I have) it would give me hives to try and read someone else's take on it.

Title: All the Difference
Author:beatrice_otter 
Fandom: Star Trek: TOS
Characters: McCoy, Spock
Beta:tielan 
Word Count: 2,130
Summary: “We like to think we’re so much better than our ancestors, that we’ve got all these problems of bigotry and intolerance licked, and we go out into space to spread our enlightened ways, and end up making the same mistakes.”

( Leonard McCoy hesitated, his hand over the door chime. )

There's been a lot of really great Star Trek fic written recently.  There has been a lot of discussion about Vulcans.  There have been a lot of people going back and re-watching the original series and re-reading the major books.

The Word for World Is -- by laurajv is the absolute best of it.  She writes about what it looks like for Vulcans to grieve, and to rebuild.  She writes Vulcans who are truly themselves, and not just humans with pointy ears.  They have a depth and realism and vitality that is breathtaking.  She also writes a Spock and Jim Kirk who are a little out of their depth, trying to feel their way in the new reality with the new insight they have into what they can become to one another.  The writing is spare, lyrical, and perfectly fits the story.  You really, really need to read it now.

( An excerpt: )

There are those who complain about the romantic relationship in the new movie, saying it's not true to the original series. I present here a clip from TOS to the contrary:

( Spoilers for new movie! )

Basically, while they weren't in a relationship in TOS there was definitely chemistry ... and I can look at these scenes and believe they have a history.