#whochick

[frwfran]

'If you're Starfleet, you spend your whole life wishing you never see an EPAS uniform right up until the moment they become your only hope. Whether you're dying a slow, cold death in space, or a long painful one on some godforsaken planet, they're going to come for you. So count your last breaths, son, and hold on tight. They leave no soul behind.'

my cover for leave no soul behind by whochick, one of my favorite stories ever ~

[betty-fran]

If you're Starfleet, you spend your whole life wishing you never see an EPAS uniform right up until the moment they become your only hope. Whether you're dying a slow, cold death in space, or a long painful one on some godforsaken planet, they're going to come for you. So count your last breaths, son, and hold on tight. They leave no soul behind.

leave no soul behind - james t. kirk / s'chn t'gai spock playlist

with all my love dedicated to the brilliant Leave No Soul Behind by whochick at ao3/livejournal

[isthebootylogical]

reading Leave No Soul Behind for the first time and can I just say that I am floored by how beautifully written this is??? I heard the praise but my god I did not know how delicious it was. I like trying to piece together what did and did not occur in this universe and all of the character dynamics being shifted by nature of their rank being different. I will say that i’m not obsessed with kirk and spock physically fighting the first two times they kiss but like hey that’s just a matter of preference. i’m looking forward to future interactions bc raw dogging it with absolutely zero prep was not to my tastes but it’s very of the time period that it was written in so I won’t fault the author. i’m 50% of the way through and not at all prepared for what is to come I have so many thoughts please send prayers.

[former-cardassian-oppressor]

🥲 ST moment that makes you cry and/or 📚 Favourite ST fic you've read?

Not a moment, but I absolutely cannot watch DS9 ep The Visitor. It tore me up and I don’t think I will ever watch it again.

My favorite fic is Leave No Soul Behind. It’s so amazing and the quality is *chefs kiss*

[yellowpamonha]

so who wanna talk about leave no soul behind with me

[betty-fran]

#my fanfiction recommendation column

leave no soul behind by whochick

james t. kirk / s'chn t'gai spock, star trek: kelvin timeline

(i love it genuinely so much, so i even have playlist for it)

The Vegans have a legend among their kind. It speaks of beings that live in the ocean. Unlike the human mermaid mythos, these water angels sing no siren song to call souls into the dark embrace of death. Far from it. They are said to flock towards the drowning, providing buoyancy, succour and support. The Vegans swear that in the water, no one dies alone.

There are many reasons why you love stories - some enchant with their beauty, some break your heart with their quiet sadness, some help you get through hard times and believe in miracles, some, especially important ones, irrevocably and forever change your life, and you carry them with you carefully as the most precious treasures in pockets near your hearts, but sometimes, and I love such stories the most, they are simply familiar to you, as if you've always known them, as if they have always been here, and you wear them like your favorite clothes, slightly worn and so undeniably yours.

And if TOS became for me that precious treasure from my pocket near my heart, Leave No Soul Behind is undoubtedly this rare, familiar, very mine story. And besides, by a strange coincidence, this was the main reason why I even turned on the first episode of TOS in early spring. Even before my sister and I found evenings together to watch the reboot, which I had fond memories of since my early 20s, I remembered K/S (my memory was hazy, but I definitely knew that there was some obvious hungry codependency between the two of them) and decided to read something purely out of curiosity. LNSB wasn't even first on the list, but I opened it, and it wasn't until halfway through that I even remembered that I sat down to read it for K/S. Because it was just, damn, why wasn't it released officially? It was so whole, so self-contained, and so tactful in the way it showed us relationships that it was probably the first time I thought I could even show it to my sister, who is very skeptical about fanfiction.

When I think of AOS, I think of LNSB first. This is simply the best reading of AOS that exists, better than AOS itself, to be honest. It's such a well-built world, with a well-maintained dynamic of speed, character relationships, plot drama, and, most importantly, this story somehow manages to take everything that was good in the reboot and make it a serious, psychologically literate thing. It does what AOS should do: explores important themes in TOS through the prism of the lost utopianism of today's harsh reality, and does it with such tenderness, with such love for the original, that it somehow disarms. This is a well-written story of the life of paramedics in a world at war, where things you know disappear with each passing day, and you fall asleep to the sound of a radio that no longer brings good news, and you don't know if tomorrow will come. It's vociferously anti-war, and it's especially familiar to us today. It openly talks about PTSD, and painfully true, and somehow simply, without undue dramatization or attempts to soften it, speaks of SA/DV childhood trauma, as it is, unremarkable, unsightly, shameful, and not heroic at all.

This is clearly the most accurate depiction of AOS Kirk, in his lostness, disrespect for authority, and trust issues. In how he only has one bag to carry his entire life in, an old, worn-out jacket, and paperback books that he sends to a house he can't return to. In how his desire to feel like he belongs is more important to him than any ambition or achievement. And this story is incredibly authentic in its little personal things, in its witty dialogues, in this nostalgia for a non-plastic life with coffee cups and bagels in the city center, for morning runs and long night car rides, for divided breathing in the cramped bed, in this "you and I, we've both been through hell, and in complete disarray and terror we don't want any loud victories, we just want a simple, quiet life". And, yes, the K/S here is something special. Despite all the drama, the constantly high degree of tension, and the roller coaster of the transitions between parts, it's a very concrete, fundamental thing from the very beginning. What's between them, they're building it step by step, they're talking and helping each other on the path to healing, and it's somehow so... right.

Just the way it should be.

And in many ways, this story is much closer to the original series in its essence than anything else, and it's strangely, humanly very dear to me, because we humans tend to get attached to stories.

[betty-fran]

Everyone knows how much I love leave no soul behind by whochick, but I also absolutely love this particular quote:

"Fair enough. How about we talk about something else?" "Okay. I heard Ops are edging out Engineering as favourites in the inter-departmental grav ball championships." "Let's talk about your mother." "Oh fuck no."

Honestly, no one does it like the author of this story.

[thisishighlyillogical]

Okay. I'm so emotionally compromised over Kirk and Spock, god it's not even funny. And I just finished one of the best k/s fics I have ever read. Imagine how agitated I feel at the moment. Like. For real. If you haven't already, go read it now. Leave No Soul Behind, by whochick. You can find it here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/187333/chapters/275539 It's a goddamn novel, that fic, but give it a chance. It's slow building, but a hundred thousands times worth it. Believe me. Dammit it's such an incredibly beautiful work. I can't get over it. It was so much better than so many things I have ever read. Definitely ranks above almost all the Star Trek novels I have read (along with much non trek related stuff). People who say or think fanfiction is not a true literary genre, that it's not real literature, seriously, PISS OFF. I will always remember that fic, its characters, its atmosphere, its incredible and breathtaking plot (seriously, all the Bob Orcys and JJ Abrams of this world should take notes). This is Star Trek. This is boldly going where no one has gone before. This is a completely different take on the events on the 2009 movie. It's a very different AU from both TOS and AOS. And yet, it is not only perfectly believable but also very well built. Sometimes even more so than AOS (even though it derives from it). This is an innovative, heartbreaking and yet heartening piece of fiction. It's hopeful, it's desperate, it's the best and the worst of times. It's a tale of two souls finally meeting each other and overcoming all obstacles to remain as one. It's the tale of love, but also one of friendship, of loyalty, of courage, of inherent goodness, of trust. It's the tale of a crew that fiercely acts as a family, that would do anything to protect itself. It's the Wrath of Khan, it's the Search for Spock, it's the Motion Picture and the Voyage Home at the same time, and yet, it's something else entirely. It's the needs of the many being fiercely dependent of the needs of the few, both being complementary rather than opposites. This is what Star Trek should always be about. Life. Love. And space. As the most beautiful frontier.