#gopher smith

"I think we should try it again and see if we feel anything special." "I think maybe we should." ... "That's not it."

"We stay friends." "Yeah." "Better friends." "Yeah." "Very special friends." "Very special friends."

Julie and Gopher kiss to test for sparks 2/2.

I’ve had these for a while and it took me SO LONG to write them AND I’ve put in too much effort for this stupid little tv show so I’m gonna share them 

(also I’ve gotten a few notes on my basic hc rundown post which is weird???? anyway, I digress)

Merrill Stubing: Heteroflexible Man

Stubing never questioned his sexuality. He was raised in a traditional American household. He was barely even aware of queer people. He took no notice of them. Didn’t have any specific bigotry to them— just generally ignorant. He went through life expecting to get married to a beautiful woman and have a few kids. However, the sea was his first love and what he kept going back to. Any prospective partner he had wanted to stay on land, not live and raise a family on a ship. So Stubing remained relatively single. When he hired Doctor Bricker he didn’t think anything of it. Sure the man got many ladies but that wasn’t unusual. They became close friends and he was very fond of Adam. After a few years, he began to have some doubts. His feelings towards his friend had grown. He thought he was handsome, good-looking. Fantasizing about dancing with him in the moonlight. He tried to dismiss it but it wouldn’t go away. And yet he still insisted he was straight. He’d never felt like this for another man before. One night, after a particularly difficult cruise, they hooked up. In the morning, riddled with guilt, Merrill tried to explain to Adam what had happened but to his surprise, Adam wasn’t angry. They mutually agreed that although they were attracted to one another, a relationship wouldn’t be a viable option. Adam also explained his polyamory which Stubing understood surprisingly well. After a few weeks of hookups, however, Merrill found himself thinking of the man more and more. He eventually confessed to Adam that although they had to hide, he wanted them to be together. Properly. He said that he didn’t want to ignore Adam’s polyamory so he’d allow him to continue to be romantic with others (it would also look strange if suddenly he started not seducing women) but Merrill wouldn’t go out with anyone else. They agreed to this and we’re satisfied. Eventually, they told Vicki who confessed her pansexuality to them, and over time and many years, everyone came out to each other.

Doctor Adam Bricker: Non-Binary Polyamorous Omnisexual

Doc had always been a very flirty person, full of charm and charisma. He’d always found most people attractive and had crushes left and right. He’d never felt any guilt over liking men, it was just sort of another fact of life for him. He didn’t hide it per se but he also never had any boyfriends as there weren’t any out gay men in his small hometown. As for his polyamorous nature, he never entirely understood why people were only limited to one partner. He knew it was for religious reasons and since he was rather atheistic, he thought life would be better if he had more than one partner. He tried explaining this to each partner he had but they all just misinterpreted his words and thought he was a cheater which became a sort of reputation of his. When he left his home for college he decided to bury that part of himself to avoid that humiliation. I’m college he found more freedom with being omnisexual. He had a few male partners but overall knew he liked women more. He went to an all-boys medical school and there he started to experience some uncomfortableness with being labeled a man. He knew he wasn’t a woman but liked dressing up in drag and being referred to in feminine ways. He didn’t like feminine pronouns though as they always felt mocking and never right. He didn’t identify as “non-binary” however as that wasn’t really a concept at the time and simply settled on the fact that he was “just Adam”. On the Pacific Princess, he became very good friends with Captain Stubing before becoming attracted to him. After they got together (which was explained in Stubing’s comment), he continued his relations with other women and (rarely) other men. Stubing, he found, was the first partner who genuinely understood polyamory despite his very monogamous ways.

Gopher: Trans Man and Gay

Gopher knew he was a boy from a young age and was always described as being a “tomboy”— a label he didn’t hate because it was technically calling him a boy. He always wore shorts and kept his hair in a baseball cap. He flat out refused to wear dresses until about middle school when he started to get interested in boys and thought he had to be feminine to get them to like him. When he was in high school he discovered queer people in general (mostly due to the Stonewall Riots) and figured out that transsexuality (to use historically accurate terminology) existed. After he graduated high school he went awol and joined an underground queer group where he met doctors and such who gave him hormones and got top surgery. He received bottom surgery a little while later but told any women he ever had a relationship with that he was infertile and thus, unable to get them pregnant.  He gave himself the name Burl after his paternal grandfather who fought in WWI.  The nickname Gopher came from the friends he made before reuniting with his family.  After his physical transition was completed he began living in San Francisco to “test out” his new self in a relatively safe environment.  After he was confident enough, he went back home to a rather shocked mother and father.  His sister Jennifer was quite young at the time so she didn’t find it strange.  As Gopher had always had a strong relationship with his mother, she was more accepting than his father.  She didn’t entirely understand but she realized that it sort of made sense as Gopher had always been a masculine child.  And, she realized, it would be strange for her to keep referring to Gopher as her daughter.  His father, on the other hand, was a lot less accepting.  As he had never really known Gopher as a kid, he didn’t understand why he was trans.  He had always seen him as a feminine girl, not his tomboy side.  In private, he continued to be cold to him though in public he referred to him as “he” and his son– again, to avoid confusion and isolation.  He was touched that Gopher named himself Burl though he would only tell him that years later.  Gopher became more and more distant from his father but deep down all he wanted was to be accepted by him.  He then went to college at an all-boys school where his secret was never discovered. On Mothers Day in 1979, Gopher invited both of his parents aboard the Pacific Princess.  He hadn’t spoken to his father in a few years and hoped to repair the damage.  Things were awkward between them and Gopher spent most of his time with his mother who now saw him only as her son.  His father spent his time watching the two of them and conversing with the crew in an attempt to learn things about his son.  He found that they spoke highly of him and it caused Mr. Smith to reconsider how he saw Gopher.  When they eventually confronted one another, he apologized profusely to Gopher while he explained that all he wanted was to be a good son and do father-son things.  They made up and Mr. Smith called him Gopher for the first time.  He didn’t tell anyone else he was trans until he met Julie and they confided in each other their secrets. Ever since he transitioned he was acutely aware he was only attracted to men but had a lot more difficulty accepting his homosexuality. He consistently fooled himself into “falling for” women as a manner to try to avoid his homosexuality. Only after talking extensively to Julie was he able to finally accept himself.  

Isaac: Bisexual Man

Isaac always knew he liked men. His family was pretty open-minded when he was a kid so he sort of understood that sometimes men liked other men but due to society outside the home he knew the world wasn’t super accepting of it. He wasn’t exceedingly supportive of queer people and did feel slightly ashamed of his bisexuality. He did know, however, that he liked women which helped ease his guilt as he felt like he could sometimes act on his homosexual urges while knowing he was still mostly attracted to women. He had a brief relationship with a man when he was in high school. He had met the guy at the movie theater he was working at. Unfortunately, the boy moved away at the end of the summer and Isaac never saw him again. In his young adulthood, he went to a few gay bars occasionally but mostly hid his attraction to men. When he was hired on the Pacific Princess he almost immediately started crushing on Gopher and eventually, Julie found out. Luckily she was understanding and he was able to confide in her. What he didn’t know was that Julie was also talking to Gopher and that he was in love with Isaac. Eventually, Julie helped them get together.

Julie McCoy: Sapphic-Oriented AroAce

Julie had never liked anyone romantically. She always assumed there was something wrong with her as she wasn’t getting crushes like her friends. Eventually, she came to understand that she simply wasn’t “cut out” for romance and tried to leave that out of her life. She was very popular in high school due to her good looks but would refuse any offers from boys to take her to dances or on dates. This resulted in her getting a reputation of being “cold and callous”— something she resented as she was actually incredibly friendly but simply wasn’t interested in romance. When she went off to college she found that although she still didn’t experience romantic or sexual attraction, she found women more aesthetically appealing. She tried to convince herself that she was a lesbian but it didn’t work as she never did feel like she romantically loved any of her partners. She much preferred to be in the company and live with her friends than bother with romantic relationships. When she got her job aboard the Pacific Princess, she took up a cover of being attracted to men to protect herself from being labeled as cold again. One day, after one too many drinks Gopher confessed everything to her and for once, she felt able to talk to him about it as well. Once they had sobered up they clarified what they had said and made a pact that if society wasn’t better for them by the time they left the liner, they would get married and move in together simply to protect each other’s identities.

Vicki Stubing: Pansexual Demigirl

Vicki was raised very conservatively. Her aunt was a devout Christian and she was told from a young age that homosexuality was wrong. When she moved in with her father, he never mentioned anything about gay people. One day, however, Vicki was sitting with Julie and Gopher, doing schoolwork, when the adults mentioned something vague about gay men. Vicki told them off and said that being gay was wrong because the Bible said only men could be with women. Gopher looked disappointed and left the room while Julie calmly explained to her that it wasn’t wrong and many men liked men and many women liked women. Vicki was struck by this and although it took a while, she eventually got over her prejudice (in an albeit reluctant way). When she became older, hit puberty, and started to be interested in pop culture and such, she found that she liked the actresses in the same way as the actors. Recalling what Julie had told her a few years back, she concluded that she liked both men and women and told Julie. Julie was accepting, of course, and helped Vicki overcome any hesitation she had. She didn’t label herself as pansexual as the term didn’t exist and didn’t use any labels at all. She mostly remained in the closet. At some point, Vicki discovered that although she was very comfortable being a woman, she felt like she was more. Not a man, per se, but not entirely a woman. She confessed this to Julie who didn’t entirely understand. Having to face this herself, she went around confused until one day she overheard a man call a group of people “they” and it settled in her funny. That night, she stood in front of her mirror and spoke to herself, calling herself “them” and “they”. They really liked it and found that it aligned well with the whole “not entirely a girl” thought. She told Julie this who still was confused but enthusiastically supported her anyway.

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