[Report This]Date: 06 Oct 2016 10:23 Title: The Reptile Speaks
Awww, shucks. This is sweet and kept me guessing.
And I love that poor Trip and his fateful rowboat ride get a mention - definitely the type of thing to warn mingled species about!
Author's Response:
Ha! Most definitely! And thank you for reading. <3
Date: 06 Feb 2015 23:59 Title: D'Storlin
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: D'Storlin
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: 08 May 2012 16:12 Title: The Reptile Speaks
Wow, this is an interesting piece, shining some light on the Gorn and Geckonians in different ways. I like the story, I was remembering prom dances myself. Good work.
Author's Response:
Thanks! And now that I'm back in their heads, I'm going to tap into them for this week's Truths challenge.
Date: 27 Sep 2011 14:02 Title: D'Storlin
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: D'Storlin
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.
Date: 24 Aug 2011 23:04 Title: The Reptile Speaks
“You really think so? I like her teeth. She has the best teeth,” Ha! When I read that, I knew I was on to a winner. There lots of terrific lines throughout, lots of laddish bravado and talk of getting some tail. It achieved an alien feel and a teenage horny males vib, which all contrasted wonderfully with Bron's infatuation - with a warmie! LOL! More winning lines and comments.
Well done for creating such a young vibe to the characters and as was very phlisophically pointed out: “You’re eighteen years old! If now’s not the time to be shallow, then I don’t know when is!”
A great start to this. I think you should definitely consider trying a follow-up or continutation to this little romance. It's different but has all the hallmarks and trappings of a neat romance too.
With any fanfic I often measure part of its success in terms of if it intrigues me, makes me wonder, makes me want to write something. In the case here, you've given me a hankerign to write me some Gorn. You really just peeled away the scales and made these characters love struck or just plain horny guys. Off I go to create me a Gorn! Thankies!
Author's Response:
Oh that made me laugh.
When I wrote these dudes, I figured Skrol was channeling over half of the guys I went to High School with. The other half or so are Bron, kind of, the nice guys who often finish last.
I've got other teenaged aliens -- I should post 'em. I do believe Rayna needs to show herself.
Thank you so much.
Date: 21 Aug 2011 02:19 Title: The Reptile Speaks
I don't know why I took so long to review this one, but I really liked it.
I see you've classified the Cardassians as warm-blooded and closer to mammalians than reptiles. Not everyone does, though I do. (In my own continuity they are "therapsids.")
I think it makes sense--the Gorn would see just enough to keep the idea of attraction from being totally creepy to him (she does have scales and ridges, after all), but she is also very, very different from him.
In their spirits it's very clear that Sophra and Bron are a good match even though they are probably too far apart physically to be compatible with each other.
Do you think that in the Trekiverse such couples marry, and then adopt children? Do you think these two will?
Oh, and I gather this is a boarding school?
Author's Response:
Yes, it's a boarding school. I kind of like the idea of teenagers being semi-on their own, not quite, but having parents being a little less hovering, perhaps.
I also use that as an analogy of how we experiment with attraction when we are so young. Not necessarily an experiment with sexuality (although a lot of people do that, of course), more along the lines of -- today I like a brown-haired boy, yesterday I liked a red-haired boy, tomorrow I like a blond-haired boy, and our allegiances kind of shift and change and we are very fickle as we tentatively determine our place in the world. And in other areas as well, for we are also figuring out the kinds of people we want to be.
I wanted them, as a couple, to be almost like the shy boy who is perhaps unattractive has a chance with a lovely girl because she can see beyond the fact that he's got braces or whatever. The other thing about teens is how visually-oriented they are when it comes to attraction, and how they can often engage in petty cruelties, even when they don't truly mean to.
Thank you so much. You are very kind. And - I didn't realize that Cardassians are kind of in the middle. That was serendipity!
PS Will they marry? I dunno. I'll have to think up a future for them.
Date: 05 Aug 2011 13:46 Title: The Reptile Speaks
The alienness of species was shows very clearly, yet still it if a part of the story without banging a reader with dry info. It took dialogues and returning subject of the tail, how different species regard teeth, etc. To them it's so natural that this is what they should pay attention to when assessing attractiveness of another person--to us, Earthlings, it's so...strange.
You also chose species that belong to a groups of animals, namely reptiles, that usually aren't considered very romantic or gentle. And I think it was a very good choice, because that kind of thing is related to one's heart and not having ro not having scales.
I enjoyed the story :)
Author's Response:
Thank you so much!
The teeth and tail things were -- I was trying to figure out, what would a sentient reptile think of as "getting to second base" or "that's someone who's hot". The secondary sex characteristics that we think of as attractive (and also things like hair and skin smoothness) weren't there. But two things that a raptor does have are teeth and a tail. In ENT, the Xindi Reptilian characters are shown fully clothed (and I believe they were all male) and so the tail, if any, is hidden. A teenaged guy would be panting to see a tail, I thought, because it would be an intimate act, a preliminary to other things but also just a plain old turn-on. I saw Skrol that way, a somewhat typical teenaged guy, wanting what he wants and not nasty, but just hormonal.
With Bron, I wanted him to be painfully scared of being rejected. He needs someone who can see his inner self. When the Xindi were introduced on ENT, they were essentially monsters, and it takes much of the Third Season story arc to get the audience to see them as individuals. Eventually even the Reptilians are seen, if not as gentle, then at least as sending a rep to Archer's speech at the founding of what becomes the Federation. But the Gorn aren't shown enough to get that kind of a treatment. They should be individuals - an intelligent species isn't just going to be a monolith of warriors. They have to have cooperated at least a little bit in order to get as far as they have. So someone in there has got to be a good guy.
[Report This]Date: 29 Jul 2011 03:29 Title: The Reptile Speaks
I like it.My curiosity is peaked and I am wondering how you are going to visualize the male. Near as I can tell among lizards there are two types of males. What sort are you going for? In any case can't wait to see how this develops. Added to favorites. Thank you Jes
Author's Response:
Thank you! I was worried that Sophra didn't have a lot to say, she just kinda looks pretty except at the end. I adore writing about teens -- they are (well, I was, too) such fishes out of water. Alien teens have gotta be that in spades.