vulcan mocha, extra sweet

Bringing out those tags because so, so interesting, perhaps one of my favourite things, to mess around with patterns of story*. When I sat down with Spock to transcribe his autobiography, we came up with a form for what Vulcan memoir might look like, which he subverts. (There’s some of Sarek’s poetry too.)

Meditations on a Crimson Shadow is described as being set during a future war, so is a Cardassian sf novel. I figured it would surely, at least superficially, tell the story of Cardassian supremacy and permanent conquest, like Orwell’s boot stamping on a human face forever. Except maybe if you were reading it in the basement of your father’s home as your whole civilization implodes around you. Then I thought it might read differently. Or at least you would start the previously unimaginable work of imagining differently.

If historical fiction tries to reconfigure what we think was possible for people in the past, sf tries to configure what we think can be possible to us in the future. They feel very close, in my mind. Can we find sources or traditions in the past that give us succour or hope? What visions of the future are available to us, or do we need to imagine, and how do we map our way there? I think about these things all the time.

Walter Benjamin, On the Concept of History, VI

I’ve done a piece before of rugal and ziyal and Jake discussing Star wars franchise as a piece of cardassian literature, with decades of one family either serving or destroying the state, with the filial obligations to the generation before as a repetitive epic, now I really want to revisit it with your incredible class lens of Patterns of Story.

I know there’s something on the bones of murder mystery thriller pulp that could be translated to Vulcan, something probably closer to the Detective kosuke kindaichi books, where it takes you through every single clue and a diagram of the house so you can see the logical leaps and make them yourself, as opposed to a Sherlock Holmes where you only really get the clues after they’ve amounted to a solution. The elements of murder mystery undertone of an empire in decline and a new era struggling to establish itself while ancient secrets come unburied that’s in both Agatha Christie and in Yokomizo is really the part that I cannot figure out how to change for Vulcan culture itself.

the first ever pride flag (1978) versus the TMP movie poster (1979)

Billionaire crypto-executive Rutash controls everything—his monopoly, his image, his life. But when meticulous, fascinating, female FCA accountant Biano is called in to audit his sprawling fortune, he discovers a ferengi who he cannot afford… or so she thinks.

Rutash is used to people falling in line, but Biano’s sharp mind and strange independence ignite a dangerous curiosity in him. He starts testing her limits with subtle bribes—illicit luxury clothes, secret allowances, whispered promises of indulgence—but each offer is a challenge, a dare. With every temptation, the game intensifies: will she uphold her integrity, or will she raise the stakes even higher?

As the audit dives deeper, the lines between money and desire blur. Every ledger, every transaction, every bribe becomes a pulse-quickening act of dominance and submission. Biano finds herself drawn to Rutash’s wealth, his power, and the intoxicating control he wields—learning that sometimes pleasure comes at a price, and sometimes the cost is more than she ever hoped.

In a world ruled by profit, bribery is seduction, and temptation is irresistible. The ultimate question looms: who truly controls whom, and what will they sacrifice when lust and power collide?

Quick B'Elanna for practice! Timelapse on Reddit.

-Half human/half psychic alien species

-Both's non-human parents were specifically famously effective Star Fleet diplomats

-Whether real or perceived seen as lacking in a lot of the qualities prized/specialized in by the non-human parent's culture. This is brought up untactfully by said non-human parent

-Nevertheless the field they went into heavily relies on said trait they allegedly don't have

-So much family drama

-Shenanigans related to betrothals that neither of them goes through with