Alara Rogers (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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crack_van2005-01-25 03:02 pm
alara-r.livejournal.com) wrote in crack_van2005-01-25 03:02 pm
Entry tags:
Sanity, by Tiggy Malvern (PG-13)
Two for Tuesday!
Fandom: Star Trek: TNG
Pairing: Picard/Q
Author on LJ:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tiggymalvern
Author Website: Tiggy Malvern's Slash Fanfiction
Why this must be read:
The classic form of the romance involves obstacles to the two main characters' love. Without obstacles, a story can be a PWP, or it can have a plot that *isn't* the classic romance plot and involve the romance on the side, but for a story to be about how two people began a relationship, there must be obstacles to that relationship.
Slash fanfic often uses obstacles such as "I never knew I was gay/bisexual", or "I never knew I was attracted to so-and-so". These work fine for characters under the age of 30. It is, however, really hard for me to imagine that a 50-something man in a quasi-utopian society where there are no prejudices against homosexuality doesn't know by know that he's bi and doesn't know that he's attracted to certain people. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, any guys who might be reading this, but unlike how it is with women, where you can actually confuse passionate dislike with passionate attraction because you have no physical signs one way or another, men know who they are attracted to because they get erections. Therefore just because a man dislikes another character is no good reason for him not to know that he's also attracted to that person.
Also, stories where the obstacle is "I didn't know I was attracted to that guy" are resolved easily by the discovery of the characters' true feelings. Lust equals love, and discovering you physically desire someone removes all barriers standing between you and hot sex with that person. The complexity of wanting someone and not wanting to want them is ignored.
All this is by way of explaining what blew me away about "Sanity" when I first read it. Up until that point, P/Q fic always used as the primary obstacle that Picard did not realize he was attracted to Q (pretty much everyone reads Q as knowing he's attracted to Picard), or even failed to realize that he could be attracted to a man. Discovering an attraction to Q, in these fanfics, inevitably led to Picard and Q having sex. This always bugged me because, as mentioned, I find it hard to believe that a middle-aged man could be confused about who gets him hard without an oppressive society out to confuse him. In "Sanity", Tiggy Malvern cuts the baloney and gets right to it. Picard is hot for Q, he knows it, Q knows it, but he still won't get involved with Q because nobody trusts Q. Even after he himself has come to trust Q and feel a degree of friendship, he fears for his command, for the opinion of Starfleet, for the power dynamics involved when one becomes the love object of a god. This is so utterly believable and so much more realistic than the usual obstacles, I'm amazed no one came up with it earlier.
"Sanity" is the first of two stories (I will be reccing the second one today also). In this one, no one has any sex and the ending, from the perspective of romance, is either unhappy or unresolved depending on how you look at it. But it's more *real* than "oh, yes, we're both hot for each other so let's have sex!" There are a lot of reasons in the real world why lust is not enough to make a relationship, and I like enough realism in my escapism to enjoy fanfic that acknowledges this truth.
He saw Q as the door to his quarters opened before him, the familiar form sitting in his armchair across the room, watching him. This was unusual enough to spark his brain back into alertness - Q more often arrived when Picard was already there rather than sit around waiting for him.
And he was never around when Picard was in this kind of mood.
Q slouched languidly enough in the chair, saying nothing. The silence was another anomaly. Those eyes raked slowly across his body as they had so many times, but not a trace of mockery in that look.
And Picard knew.
This was it. After all these years of half-jokes and casual insinuations, Q was finally going to say something that couldn't be ignored.
And his immediate thought was simply, *Oh, God, why now?*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He had known this was going to happen, of course. It had been there for years, an undercurrent in all their dealings, becoming more overt as time passed. And sometimes, after Q's more recent visits, he'd reflected in amazement that Q hadn't pushed the issue already.
He realised he was standing frozen outside his own quarters.
"Hello captain." Q was still regarding him with that disconcertingly open gaze.
Picard stepped into his room, hearing the door hiss shut behind him. He maintained his formal captain's voice with the aid of long years of practice. "Q, I don't think -"
Q held up a hand to stop him. "Let's skip the formalities, shall we? You know why I'm here."
Annoyance surged through him, fuelled by his exhaustion and the need to avoid this confrontation. "Stay out of my head, Q!"
Q drew himself up in his chair theatrically. "Oh, please, Jean-Luc, spare me your affronted lectures. You're really not the Ice Captain you like to think you are. Even Data would have spotted that reaction of yours."
Picard felt his tension recede just a little, back on more normal ground with the return of Q's scorn. "Then you'll understand that I really don't want to have this conversation right now."
"Oh, I understand that, Jean-Luc, but unfortunately for you I've decided that it is going to be now. You know that you want me, or are you just going to deny everything? That would be so tedious," Q concluded with a wave of the hand.
"Yes, of course I want you!" The reply was more shouted than spoken. But even through the frustration and impatience, Picard felt that long-seated desire coiling in his guts at the admission. His anger was more a product of the day's fraught negotiations than Q's needling, and he reigned it back with a conscious effort. "But that has absolutely no influence on what I'm going to do, or rather not do," he continued at more normal volume.
Sanity
Fandom: Star Trek: TNG
Pairing: Picard/Q
Author on LJ:
tiggymalvernAuthor Website: Tiggy Malvern's Slash Fanfiction
Why this must be read:
The classic form of the romance involves obstacles to the two main characters' love. Without obstacles, a story can be a PWP, or it can have a plot that *isn't* the classic romance plot and involve the romance on the side, but for a story to be about how two people began a relationship, there must be obstacles to that relationship.
Slash fanfic often uses obstacles such as "I never knew I was gay/bisexual", or "I never knew I was attracted to so-and-so". These work fine for characters under the age of 30. It is, however, really hard for me to imagine that a 50-something man in a quasi-utopian society where there are no prejudices against homosexuality doesn't know by know that he's bi and doesn't know that he's attracted to certain people. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, any guys who might be reading this, but unlike how it is with women, where you can actually confuse passionate dislike with passionate attraction because you have no physical signs one way or another, men know who they are attracted to because they get erections. Therefore just because a man dislikes another character is no good reason for him not to know that he's also attracted to that person.
Also, stories where the obstacle is "I didn't know I was attracted to that guy" are resolved easily by the discovery of the characters' true feelings. Lust equals love, and discovering you physically desire someone removes all barriers standing between you and hot sex with that person. The complexity of wanting someone and not wanting to want them is ignored.
All this is by way of explaining what blew me away about "Sanity" when I first read it. Up until that point, P/Q fic always used as the primary obstacle that Picard did not realize he was attracted to Q (pretty much everyone reads Q as knowing he's attracted to Picard), or even failed to realize that he could be attracted to a man. Discovering an attraction to Q, in these fanfics, inevitably led to Picard and Q having sex. This always bugged me because, as mentioned, I find it hard to believe that a middle-aged man could be confused about who gets him hard without an oppressive society out to confuse him. In "Sanity", Tiggy Malvern cuts the baloney and gets right to it. Picard is hot for Q, he knows it, Q knows it, but he still won't get involved with Q because nobody trusts Q. Even after he himself has come to trust Q and feel a degree of friendship, he fears for his command, for the opinion of Starfleet, for the power dynamics involved when one becomes the love object of a god. This is so utterly believable and so much more realistic than the usual obstacles, I'm amazed no one came up with it earlier.
"Sanity" is the first of two stories (I will be reccing the second one today also). In this one, no one has any sex and the ending, from the perspective of romance, is either unhappy or unresolved depending on how you look at it. But it's more *real* than "oh, yes, we're both hot for each other so let's have sex!" There are a lot of reasons in the real world why lust is not enough to make a relationship, and I like enough realism in my escapism to enjoy fanfic that acknowledges this truth.
He saw Q as the door to his quarters opened before him, the familiar form sitting in his armchair across the room, watching him. This was unusual enough to spark his brain back into alertness - Q more often arrived when Picard was already there rather than sit around waiting for him.
And he was never around when Picard was in this kind of mood.
Q slouched languidly enough in the chair, saying nothing. The silence was another anomaly. Those eyes raked slowly across his body as they had so many times, but not a trace of mockery in that look.
And Picard knew.
This was it. After all these years of half-jokes and casual insinuations, Q was finally going to say something that couldn't be ignored.
And his immediate thought was simply, *Oh, God, why now?*
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
He had known this was going to happen, of course. It had been there for years, an undercurrent in all their dealings, becoming more overt as time passed. And sometimes, after Q's more recent visits, he'd reflected in amazement that Q hadn't pushed the issue already.
He realised he was standing frozen outside his own quarters.
"Hello captain." Q was still regarding him with that disconcertingly open gaze.
Picard stepped into his room, hearing the door hiss shut behind him. He maintained his formal captain's voice with the aid of long years of practice. "Q, I don't think -"
Q held up a hand to stop him. "Let's skip the formalities, shall we? You know why I'm here."
Annoyance surged through him, fuelled by his exhaustion and the need to avoid this confrontation. "Stay out of my head, Q!"
Q drew himself up in his chair theatrically. "Oh, please, Jean-Luc, spare me your affronted lectures. You're really not the Ice Captain you like to think you are. Even Data would have spotted that reaction of yours."
Picard felt his tension recede just a little, back on more normal ground with the return of Q's scorn. "Then you'll understand that I really don't want to have this conversation right now."
"Oh, I understand that, Jean-Luc, but unfortunately for you I've decided that it is going to be now. You know that you want me, or are you just going to deny everything? That would be so tedious," Q concluded with a wave of the hand.
"Yes, of course I want you!" The reply was more shouted than spoken. But even through the frustration and impatience, Picard felt that long-seated desire coiling in his guts at the admission. His anger was more a product of the day's fraught negotiations than Q's needling, and he reigned it back with a conscious effort. "But that has absolutely no influence on what I'm going to do, or rather not do," he continued at more normal volume.
Sanity