Fulfilled and Unfulfilled by Samantha Quinn (PG-13)

[beatrice_otter]

Fandom: STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE
Pairing: T'Pol/Archer, Trip/T'Pol
Length: two multi-part stories
Author on LJ: samanthaquinn and pervyficgirl
Author Website: Merely an Illusion, her fic at Warp 5, and ff.net.
Why this must be read:

Another nicely angsty look at the problems and misunderstandings inherent in a relationship between Vulcans and Humans.

Those of you in the DC fandom know her as pervyficgirl, but she started out in 2002 as a firmly PG/PG-13 rated het shipper named Samantha Quinn. While she is an excellent writer today of higher-rated slash stories, her early work is proof that lack of explicit sex is no barrier to writing intimately intricate relationships. Unfulfilled was written in 2003 (begun before the Xindi arc), while Enterprise was still on air, so it's firmly AU.

This story is about consequences. It's about what happens when people try to do "the right thing" without understanding the expectations and belief systems of the people those actions affect. It's about the impossibility of building true and lasting relationships when one or more party of the relationship doesn't understand--or want to understand--the other. It's about what happens when you assume that either pure emotion or pure logic is enough to build a life on.

And it's about what happens to the kids caught in the middle.


My husband knows little about my people. He is not one of us. He is a human. I am a Vulcan. He believes the differences to be minimal.

He believes us to be no more different than humans who are adept at suppressing their feelings.

He is wrong, on both accounts.

Then, if he knew my people well, he would understand the significance of my calling him “my husband” and not “my bondmate.” Jonathan Archer would know that we are not truly bonded as my people traditionally do with their mates.
He waits for me now, in the bed we share while I sit in a separate room and concentrate on my meditation. My husband is an overly sexual being. Most humans are, I have been told. I knew of his persistence before our marriage. I did not prevent the ceremony.

Nor did I prevent the child that resulted from our union, Koval. Koval was conceived with relative ease. Both his physiology and his persona are primarily that of my people, a fact which causes my husband considerable amounts of distress. Many one sided arguments have been fought by my husband over that issue.

Unfulfilled and Fulfilled

Comments

[zarabithia.livejournal.com]

This story is about consequences. It's about what happens when people try to do "the right thing" without understanding the expectations and belief systems of the people those actions affect. It's about the impossibility of building true and lasting relationships when one or more party of the relationship doesn't understand--or want to understand--the other. It's about what happens when you assume that either pure emotion or pure logic is enough to build a life on.

*grins.* I think that is the most true and awesome understanding of any fic I have ever written.

It's perhaps because Star Trek will always remain the fandom that I fell in love with at age four that I still can't write much above a PG-13 in the Star Trek fandom, even now that I write porn all the time. :)

The rec was lovely! I'm very flattered. :)

[beatrice_otter]

I actually prefer non-explicit stories. It's not that I'm a prude, it's that I don't read fanfic for the porn value. If the explicitness in some way advances the plot or character development, that's one thing. If it's only explicit because the author wants to write hawt sexx, I generally skip through the sex bits. I get really annoyed when authors substitute sex for plot or character development, as if the readers won't notice it's a crappy story even if it is hot. (You've never done this, that I'm aware of; this is just my general take on explicit sex in fic.)