About the Blog & the Author Behind It
The Blog:
This blog's primary focuses include: Star Trek (The Original Series and TOS films), the Spirk ship (Kirk/Spock), other variations of ships of the triumvirate (Spones, McKirk, and McSpirk), and anything regarding Leonard Nimoy, the actor who portrayed Spock in Star Trek: TOS.
The blog was created to showcase the blog author's creations and contributions to the Star Trek fandom (coming soon, I promise). It's also to record other important contributions to the fandom; such as artwork, fanfiction, music, zines, memes, edits, behind-the-scenes facts and photos, as well as TV show and movie screen caps and scenes.
The blog was first created on November 20, 2023, but not revamped until July 16, 2024 for the Star Trek fandom.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog occasionally features text and images that are NSFW, so minors be warned (you can still interact with me, but just be wary of any adult-themed content you might see on my blog). It's also not spoiler-free -- proceed with caution!
Reason for the URL:
Mazarine: being one of the names of the author of the blog, meaning "deep blue color".
Memories: the author has always had a fascination with psychology and memories. This is also a nod to the many decades of hard work, passion, and dedication from many of the cast, writers, filming crew, and fans who kept this series alive; the legacy of multiple forms of art left behind; and the inspiration of many people to pursue STEM careers and further the advancement of human society.
The words put together: the memories of the blog's author that give them a reason to live, to be strong, to be logical, to never give up despite the hardships of life, and to leave the world a better place than when they first entered it. The URL also has a nostalgic feel to it, as the series is a source of nostalgia for some.
The title:
Ad Astra Per Aspera is Latin for "through hardship to the stars". Not only is it a personal favorite motto of the blog's author, it's also a most fitting quote for Star Trek's philosophy.
Tag system:
#about mazarineasc: Anything about the author. ('About' on site.)
#mazzy's logs: The author's thoughts and experiences in the Trekkie fandom. ('Logs' on site.)
#mazzy's asks: Any asks sent to this blog or any asks the author sends to other blogs. ('Interactions' on site.)
#mazzy's oeuvre: Original work by Mazarine, including: fanart, fics, vids/edits, audio, etc. ('Oeuvre' on site.)
#mazzy's posts: Original posts by Mazarine. ('OG Posts' on site.)
And the author makes their entrance...
My name is Mazarine A.S.C. (Mazarine Alcine Severen-Cress). I also go by Mazz, Mazzy, Mazzy Star (like the band), and Masc. (Someone once called me 'Mezzanine' and I accept that too, I like Massive Attack.) I'm a fic writer as well as a fledgling vidder and archivist. I'm also an active participator of KiScon as well as their Discord server as of July 2024.
About my name: I chose this moniker to identify myself because I wanted a unique, debonair, gender-neutral name that had the same vibes as Yves Saint Laurent or Christian Dior (not that I shop those brands but it's to give you a good picture of what I was trying to go for).
The meanings of each name are as follows:
Mazarine: Deep blue color. Feminine and French origin. The hex code for the mazarine color is 273c76.
Alcine: Strong-willed. Gender-neutral and Greek origin. (I found it when trying to look for 'witchy' names.)
Severen: Stern, severe, austere. Masculine and Latin origin.
Cress: From atop of the hill. Gender-neutral and French origin.
I like to think that when the names are put together, it means: "The stern witch from atop the deep blue hill."
My profile picture is a cropped image of one of the pictures displayed in the New York Times article regarding the death of Leonard Nimoy. (Note: the article is paywalled.)
About Mazarine the Trekkie
How Mazarine Got Into Star Trek:
I was first introduced to Star Trek like many other people have been: their relative putting on a few episodes of The Original Series or The Next Generation on TV during childhood and watching in awe as the characters solved problems in a futuristic time on a weird and wonky planet and learning a lot about themselves along the way.
I didn't truly pursue an interest in Star Trek until 2020, however. But months before I started watching the series, I stumbled upon an interesting fanvid... that's right: "Closer". Because I had no clue what exactly it all meant ("What if they never returned to Vulcan in time?" and all the spicy clips of two men going at it), I was very confused, but fascinated! I was already quite interested in mlm and yaoi content and had harbored such interests for years before encountering that video. I didn't know at all that Kirk and Spock were shipped, let alone of how much of a legacy and impact it had left.
It wasn't until the night of September 1, 2020 (I theorize that's the exact date), that I started watching TOS. I'm someone who prefers to watch in release order because I believe that's the best way to understand a franchise. This was back when Netflix carried all of the Star Trek shows and movies. It was in the midst of the pandemic and I was starting college. I had plenty of time on my hands apart from online schooling and freelance work, so why not start watching shows and movies I had been meaning to try? I decided to start with Star Trek. I was in my living room and I found The Original Series, and selected the very first episode: "The Cage". I found it cerebral, but interesting; I kept watching despite how cheesy the 60s production value was.
Never in my life had I seen a single show from the 60s at that time, except for The Twilight Zone. The production style was completely new to me: it was colorful, the sounds were softer than today's TV shows, and it had so much more dialogue. It was engaging even for my bad attention span. The writing of the characters was so intricate and life-like, it was no wonder the show caused such a mania and cult following.
I mostly used it as background noise whenever I did work, chores, or creating art. I was still able to pick up what was going on thanks to the frequency of the show's dialogue. In time, Spock and his suave ways began to grow on me. I noticed the way Kirk and Spock interacted with each other and began taking a liking to their friendship. Eventually, I began shipping them a little bit.
One night, I was doing some scrapbooking and I had Star Trek on. Dr. McCoy was voicing his concerns about Spock to Captain Kirk and Nurse Chapel was running out of Spock's room while he was yelling at her. The Vulcan stormed out, and his face looked so angry. I snapped my head up from my journal and my eyes were instantly glued to the screen. Now this, I HAD to watch.
My art abandoned, I watched with great interest as Spock reluctantly explained to his commanding officer that he needed to take an early leave because of a fatal condition that came every seven years and could only be satiated via coitus. I gazed with anticipation as T'Pau approached, as T'Pring declared Kal-if-fee, and when Kirk was then made to battle his first officer and best friend to the death. I leered at the screen as they fought, their theatrical movements and bodies rolling in the sand putting me in a trance. Kirk's shirt tears in a place I had no idea I needed to see. I watched in horror as Spock eventually, and inevitably, delivered the final fatal blow.
"Well, what the fuck are they gonna do now? Kirk is dead!" I thought to myself.
T'Pau bade him Live Long and Prosper. Spock forlornly responded, "I shall do neither."
My heart palpitated with an indescribable feeling upon hearing that. In sickbay, Spock was about to relinquish his authority, then I smiled like an idiot as Kirk came up right behind him.
"Don't you think you better check with me first?"
"Captain... Jim!"
And thus, a trekkie is born.
I literally GASPED out loud, hands covering my mouth, eyes going wide as saucers. He smiled. He fucking smiled. And a real smile this time -- not one caused by drugs or one of those slight smiles of amusement! A real, motherfucking smile! Oh, it was beautiful. Thank you so much, Nimoy!
The episode concluded with McCoy's sarcastic remark, and I'm left sitting in my chair giggling like crazy. Spock became my favorite character that night; and Nimoy, my most favorite actor of all time.
A moment later, it hit me like a truck: the "Closer" video! My eyes went wide as I suddenly remembered the video and then I pieced the puzzle together.
"I ship it." I whispered happily to myself.
Then, came the falling down the rabbit hole: the 3 AM fanfiction readings, the hours of perusing Tumblr blogs, hunting down rare Star Trek paraphernalia, cosplaying, discovering KiScon, and eventually joining the KiScon Discord server and making a lot of wonderful friends there, on Twitter, and Tumblr. Now I'm here, writing this About Me page to pin at the top so you can groan at how long this is. Thanks for putting up with me.
The show gave me a sense of optimism during the heavy turmoil of 2020 as it did for those in the 60s. Like many others, it inspired me to get into STEM, so I changed my course of study years after starting college and began teaching myself statistics, programming, and medicine.
I love being a Trekkie. I love that the fandom still persists to this day despite it dwindling, but I thank the internet for keeping it alive and well and warmly welcoming new people with open arms. I enjoyed watching my brother get into Star Trek, and now we can't stop quoting the original films to each other. The impact it has even to this day is timeless and unreplicable. It's art in itself. Gene Roddenberry claimed he was no guru, but it doesn't take anything less than a genius to create what he did.
Favorites:
Character: Spock (TOS version)
Show in the series: The Original Series
Films: The Motion Picture, V: The Final Frontier
Favorite episodes: "Amok Time" (S2E1), "I, Mudd" (S2E8), "The Corbomite Maneuver" (S1E10), "The Menagerie" (S1E12/13), and "Assignment: Earth" (S2, E26)
Ship pairing: Spirk (Kirk x Spock, or K/S, or "The Premise")
Show tropes: the way Kirk looks at Spock, Spock and Bones bickering
Fanfic tropes: old married Spirk, pon farr, domestic life (living together in San Francisco or the flop in "The City on the Edge of Forever")
Quote: "Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many far outweigh the needs of the few." "Or the one." "You are my superior officer. You are also my friend. I have been and always shall be yours." (The Wrath of Khan)
Scenes of all time: When Spock Realizes Kirk Isn't Dead, Spock Motivates Kirk to Take Command, Spock's Arrival on the Enterprise, This Simple Feeling, It Gives Me Emotional Security
Favorite fanart: I Shall Do Neither by Nox Zaiden
Favorite fanfiction: And Filled With Tomorrows by Android_And_Ale (Pairing: Kirk/Spock, Rated: E, Words: 5,886, Published: March 22, 2024)
About Mazarine Themselves:
Interests:
Star Trek: TOS
Wong Kar Wai films
Portishead (90s band formed in England)
60s gogo dancers
Geisha and maiko (Japanese culture)
Psychology and mental health
Art history
LGBTQIA+ history
Writing (poetry, plays, and fanfics)
Documentaries/docuseries of literally anything
Favorite Things:
Colors: mazarine blue, sky blue, indigo, lavender, mauve, jade green, seafoam green, ivory, black, and vermillion
Singers/Bands: Portishead, Fleetwoood Mac, Björk, Massive Attack, Mazzy Star, Röyksopp, Daft Punk, The Flaming Lips, David Bowie, Garbage, Nirvana, The xx
Song: "Glory Box" (Portishead, 1994)
Music Genres: house, trip-hop, electronica, jazz, classic rock, industrial, k-pop, alternative/indie, lofi, vaporwave, 60s garage rock, and anything 70s, 80s, and 90s.
Actors: Leonard Nimoy, Michelle Reis, Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie, Lauren Bacall
Authors: Franz Kafka, Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood, V.E. Schwab, Oscar Wilde, Edgar Allen Poe
Films: Fallen Angels (Wong Kar Wai, 1995), Frances Ha (Noah Baumbach, 2013), 2001: A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968), American Graffiti (George Lucas, 1973), World of Tomorrow (Don Hertzfeldt, 2015), Deathwatch (Vic Morrow, 1965)
TV Shows: Star Trek (TOS), Arrested Development, Parks and Rec, Nathan For You, Community, Better Call Saul, The Sopranos, Squid Game, The Good Place
Directors: Don Hertzfeldt, Wong Kar Wai
Art: Ballet Rehearsal on Stage (Edgar Degas, 1874), The Brooch. Eva Mudocci (Edvard Munch, 1903), Fireflies on the Water (Yayoi Kusama, 2002), Composition with Red, Blue, and Yellow (Piet Mondrian, 1930)
Interesting Facts About Me:
I'm an active duty U.S. Marine. (There are more weirdos in this branch than you think!) My astrological signs are Aries Sun, Pisces Moon, and Taurus Ascendant.
I'm an INTJ-T on the MBTI scale. (I know the history of it, but I still found it interesting.)
My ancestral research has linked me to Irish and Scottish druids, as well as Nordic vikings. It's quite funny, because their blood now resides in an anxious shut-in obsessed with a fictional show.
My hobbies include writing, poetry, journaling (regular journaling and bullet journaling), listening to music, learning languages (currently Japanese, Mandarin, and Arabic), collecting CDs, reading fanfiction, doodling, and people-watching.
I'm older Gen Z, born in 2002.
I have maladaptive daydreaming disorder (MDD).
I own a first edition copy of Killing Time by Della Van Hise and a signed copy of Leonard Nimoy's autobiography I Am Spock.
My Socials:
Linktree
Discord: mazarinememories (Please, feel free to friend me there! I love making new Trekkie friends and just any new friends in general. I think I'm pretty cool.)
Email (for artistic inquiries): mazarine.asc @ gmail.com
By all means, friends: be well to each other. Live long, and prosper.
Ad astra per aspera.
