Date: 06 Feb 2015 23:59 Title: Chapter 1
Oh, I liked what you did here with this young hybrid. Eating hamburgers after his new sister made it out of her egg. Great way to celebrate! I can't fault him for losing control when John teased him with the dead croc, but it's too bad that John lost an eye. I would have thought that the biology teacher would be a little more sensitive. Next week, cats?
I hope D'Storlin's group therapy is something more than just kids picking fights, like one that a young relative of mine is now currently involved in. Maybe they should give John a bit of therapy for being so mean? I would like to see D'Storlin make peace with his dual nature. Perhaps if Spock hangs out in this universe and timeframe, he could come and speak to the students at Archer Academy.
Author's Response:
This is, hmm, I'd have to check my notes to see when this is. His classmate - I keep meaning to get her story on the Archive. She's also got issues but she's a bit better-adjusted.
Many thanks for reading!
Date: 19 Sep 2013 12:30 Title: Chapter 1
I wonder if that school has since learned to be more species-friendly in their lab experiments. As in, don't dissect a lizard when you've got Gorn students. Don't do a cat when there are Caitians. Surely you don't dissect monkies for an all human class.
Poor Dusty's rage was understandable even if unacceptable. I feel for the kid and hopefully the folks at Archer Academy can help out.
Short but excellent insight into an alien's mind
Author's Response:
Thank you very much! Yeah, they're kind of tone-deaf with the experiments there ....
Date: 27 Sep 2011 14:02 Title: Chapter 1
I think the notion of dissecting animals appalled me more than the whole plot. I don't see a point of teaching cutting animals in a regular school and I fully understand D'Storlin feelings--someone killed those animals for sole purpose of cutting them without a reason, because you don't need to cut anything open to learn its anatomy. He felt for one species, similar to him, but I feel for all of them :(
John is a typical representative of an a-hole. There's always one of those anywhere you are, isn't there? I don't think he deserved losing eyes and such deep wounds, but I wonder if for a second he pondered why he had been wrong and if he ever realised that his behaviour was not good, either.
Author's Response:
John - is every person who was ever horrible to me in school, times about a thousand. I think, for D'Storlin, a part of it was identifying with the dissected animal, and of course a part was the utter insensitivity displayed all over.
We dissected plenty of animals when I was in Jr. High and High School (1970s). I don't suppose we ever really got into thinking about it - it was something of a different time. This included a cat (for AP Biology). I am not a cat person but I do recall thinking - this could have been someone's pet. I cannot imagine what anyone would think if it were a bonobo we were dissecting.
Date: 08 Sep 2011 01:22 Title: Chapter 1
I remember seeing this piece as a weekly prompt response, and I still find it quite chilling.
One of the things that really shocks me is that dissection of live animals is still practiced in the "modern" Federation. That in itself is pretty horrible and I can see where Dusty's initial anger came from in that regard. Even in the 21st century we are now to a point to where unless one is studying to be a doctor or a vet and practice on cadavers is necessary to save lives, such cruelty as to raise animals simply for the sake of a lab experiment is inexcusable when computer models could do the job for "amateurs" and students quite nicely. More so when you add holodecks and holography into the mix!
I'm still not sure how a human-reptilian hybrid could possibly exist, but for the sake of the story, the way you depicted the challenge his sister had to go through to get out of her shell (presumably complicated by her humanity) was really touching. The "hamburger" detail, while jarring at first, really does give it the authentic feel of a memory recalled from childhood.
In the end, I can't excuse Dusty's violence, even though he was horribly provoked by John and the teacher was apparently too stupid or too bigoted to intervene before it got that point. Dusty made his decision. I don't even think he ought to blame his hybrid nature, and the existence of the "Freak School" proves that there is a form of bigotry still existing in your Federation society if they really expect hybrids to automatically be maladjusted freaks and encourage their parents to dump their kids off that way.
True, Dusty may be a bit of an unreliable narrator considering his deep-seated issues, but at least the way he tells it, it's damn chilling.
Good job, for making me think and leaving an impression.
Author's Response:
Thank you. I wanted to think of him as being a bit like a kid who is just bullied beyond all reason, but then goes way too far in his response.
I've got other Archer Academy stories and they are less freakish as it were, but it's also a kind of, what do you do when the kid just aren't all right? There are all sorts of behavioral disconnects between humans and even Vulcans (fight to the death during Pon Farr, or even the long time in between relations with Pon Farr), Trill (dual identities), Betazoids (voices in your head, feeling others' feelings), etc. so the even more jarring difference is bound to really do it to someone.
I always look at interspecies relationships as being analogous to interracial ones here on Earth, so I suppose this is about as different as you can get, not only people who are physically dissimilar, but culturally as well. During a major drought/war, a bunch of Sudanese young men were brought to the US and ended up in, of all places, I think it was North Dakota. Culture shock upon culture shock - so it's kind of like that.
The hamburgers line was a little bit of a throwaway (it made my husband laugh) but I also wanted it for a way that a family might deal with a day like that. Sort of business as usual, sort of not, it's an eventful day but also, we had a cookout! I figure a teenaged boy might not be as intensely thrilled by birth (or might want to hide if he felt that) so there's some pullback there.