pamdizzle: One think I think that is important to mention is that by challenging each other, they force each other to grow as people, which is something that wasn’t happening, rather obviously, between Laura and Shadow.

Perfectly stated, both of you. @wolfinthethorns - I think that’s very true, and there’s also this aspect of Laura’s foremost modus operandi being “numbness”...I think numbness, disconnect and/or apathy sort of leads one to ignore or downplay the various emotional states. Even if Laura was feeling depressed or angry or sad, it’s not as if Laura would find dwelling in those emotions or externalizing them as “useful”. It’s only when she experiences loss - loss of her life, Shadow’s love, her physical state - does she see and understand that desire, wanting things and striving for some modicum of happiness are good things, that life can be worth giving a fuck. 

And I think, with Shadow, once she got to know him better, maybe there was a part of her that decided to hide that side of her because she knew Shadow would feel burdened with that knowledge, and she didn’t want to do that to him. I think there’s something to be said about that moment Laura tells him she’s not happy, and how he goes to ridiculous lengths to rectify that. And I think Laura absolutely knew that about him, hence why she suggests they rob the casino. Sweeney, on the other hand, probably wouldn’t be as naive or self-sacrificing, but like you said, he has had the “advantage” of seeing Laura at her worst and Laura allowing herself to be at her worst, so all of that cuts through the bullshit right away. 

@pamdizzle - totally. I’m a sucker for ships where people keep each other honest. I just watched GLOW s3 (dunno if y’all watch, but it’s a great show) and I do ship the Sam/Ruth dynamic, even though there are dissenters who are like, “Omg, Sam is so mean to her!!” Um...he’s not trying to be “mean” - he’s being honest and he’s expressing his frustration towards her when Ruth’s being disingenuous, which is kinda often. It’s unfiltered communication, however unrefined it may strike you. Like, what do people want, Victorian England speak?

 And because Sweeney and Laura started off where the bar was low, like ofc things were only going to get better for them the more they got to know each other. And the more they did, the more they challenged each other and naturally offset the other’s weaknesses, e.g. 

...even if the intent was to hurt the other person,

...let it be said that it’s only because they CARE. That challenging someone can mean lots of things, but being passive and/or subscribing blindly to what the other person says or does ain’t one of them. And you only need to look at what happened after ^ those moments to see how they impacted Laura and Sweeney (even if what Laura said to him played a small part in him dying) in the growth aspect you mentioned. Laura should’ve handled that latter situation better, but we gotta cut her some slack cos she’s kind of a noob at this, lol. And it’s probably because she hasn’t been challenged emotionally for most of her life until Sweeney came along.

Hey! First off, Tarkos is an adorable ship name and I’m totally adopting it.

Oh, fuck. That is difficult. There is a lot of things I’ve learned from writing fic, but I think the strangest fact probably has to be that Dolphins have prehensile penises. Lol. I was tasked by a fellow Spirk shipper to write a fic where Spock’s alien junk is prehensile and in researching exactly what that meant, I came across Dolphin junk lol. So...yeah.

Prehensile: An Alien Love Story by Pamdizzle

TOS

Rating: Explicit

Status: Complete

Length: 2,793words

Summary: