#strokin

The other night I was strokin’ my woman, And it got so good to her, you know what she told me? Let me tell you what she told me, she said: “Stroke it Clarence Carter, but don’t stroke so fast. “If my stuff ain’t tight enough, you can stick it up my…”, woo!

I forgot I finished this Jules

He goes back to Venice by @caladeniablue​

Welcome to the Voyager Bookclub Strokin’ for 2021 – I’m a lil bit late getting the Tumblr party started on this one – apologies!

Our first fic in the limelight is the beautifully melancholy He goes back to Venice by @caladeniablue​. History, memory, love and grief are explored in this post-Endgame story set in the Beyerverse (Full Circle) in which Chakotay tries to come to terms with Kathryn Janeway’s death, visiting the city in which they had planned to meet before she was killed.

A Star Trek Voyager fic.

Brought to you by Strokin’, a fortnightly fic rec where the Voyager Bookclub community celebrates a writer so they can drown in sweet, sweet love, affection and ego strokin’. Because they deserve it.

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Some comments from @voyager-book-club​ members for @caladeniablue​:

CAMIR “This story is very wise … it struck a special cord with me regarding how Chakotay deals with grief. I even think you managed to incorporate the five phases of grief and I felt that I went the same way as him - visiting familiar places even if only mentally, seeking spiritual and religious guidance, trying to love and let go at the same time and finally grim acceptance. … Thanks for this lovely fic. I really enjoyed reading it.”

@amoderngirl​ “The most beautiful thing is the way Chakotay thaws over time - at first, he can barely stand the Venice program, and he hovers at the edges. Slowly, he opens himself up to the city, the people. You convey time passing so effectively in few words! …  Also, this is my absolute headcanon for how Chakotay views Earth. There are few ancestors’ stories here, few dreams. Chakotay isn’t home on Earth, he’s in a foreign land. He can make these astute observations, at the cost of being an ex-pat of sorts. … You gave Chakotay the depth he deserved, and gave us great moments to share with him.” @allthewians “I like the way you're structuring it around the months passing, and especially as it as been noticed before, that he can't bear to go back to the real thing until in the end. The mood is so dark and heavy with grief, and you portray it beautifully.”

@grace-among-the-stars​ “So powerful and hit me right in the feels … Any fic that puts Chakotay through the ringer has me and I absolutely loved how you wrote the depths of his grief. Very realistic and you can sense how raw he feels. I loved how you wrote this journey and how Venice itself is a central character. His relationship with this place that was once hope and now despair, is clear and devastating to see. I can imagine your words come to life and see this on screen. Beautiful, thank you for sharing.”

Servalan “I think the way Chakotay deals with his grief works well in this story … you can think you’ll know how you’ll deal with loss but you truly can’t know until you go through it and some folks react the way you might expect but others? … Sometimes he’s just going through the motions and other times something strikes him, like being in a place of worship that is nothing like what he believes, but he finds a strange comfort in that. … It’s a well done portrait of where he is in this process.”