Reboot Fic: Fire Dancing 2/4 (Draws VIII)

[syredronning]

Title: Fire Dancing (Draws VIII)
Author: Acidqueen
Series: Reboot aka ST:XI aka AOS - Draws Series
Codes: Pike/Kirk/McCoy and other pairings; several original characters of various genders
Rating: NC-17 for some hot scenes; warning: teacher/student relationship
Word count: complete 41.000, this part 9.500

Thanks for helpful comments goes to madelf

Comments

[shagungu]

Interesting developments with Farnham -- there has been quite a lot of development of his character. I didn't like him -- and I guess I still don't -- but very interesting!

Most amusing moments --
the great explanation for why this Pike isn't into Orions :)
and dancing with Caren Cho and finding out that they are in the complicated intimate network together via Dr. Ochi and McCoy.

I also like the discussion with Barnett. I think it might be hard to really pull apart to what degree he is uncomfortable due to Pike's homosexuality, versus his polyamory. Pike is quite sure it is the former, even though Barnett only voiced intolerance of the "promiscuity" Homophobia isn't allowed in Starfleet it seems -- but what about intolerance of polyamory? As a poly person myself, I have often thought about whether poly should be thought of analogously to sexual orientation, or mere personal choice.

I'll be checking in again for chapter 3 tomorrow afternoon.

[syredronning]

Thanks a lot for your feedback!

I tried to tie up a lot of loose ends in this story, and I was bothered about having overlooked original Pike's obsessions with Orions, so I felt obligated to find an explanation *G*

You made me think about Pike, great! So here my meta: I think Pike takes Barnett's anti statement as homophobia because he identifies as gay (strongly, and I'll get into that in the next sequels). Pike doesn't identify as poly and he isn't really, it's more that the poly happened by getting involved with Kirk and Bones and all else develops from there.

Hope you'll like chapter 3 :)

[shagungu]

That makes a lot of sense -- being gay is a core part of Pike's identity, whereas being polyamorous is not. Pike's behavior right now is poly, but if he hadn't started a relationship with Kirk/McCoy he could just have easily ended up in a monogamous relationship. Opposite to me -- being poly is part of my core identity, but being bisexual isn't (I just realized one day that I was bisexual, shrugged my shoulders, and moved on

[syredronning]

Interesting. I wonder where this statistics "bisexuality is rare, men are almost always either gay or straight" comes from, because there seems to be a whole lot of hidden male bisexuality around. My husband is in a gay web community and there are many "straight" men looking for m/m sex without telling their wives.

So my assumption would be that most such men in such a survey would check "straight" even though they e.g. meet men for blow jobs, because they don't see themselves as bisexual (much safer for them, their straight relationships and their brain).

OTOH, one could argue with that that the survey is correct and that "real" bisexuality (as in: "would have true relationship - and not just sex - with any gender") is rarer among men. Hmmm :)

[shagungu]

I have read some of the relevant research, though of course when it comes to sexual orientation there are always a lot of caveats -- you can't assume that the subjects are being honest given issues like stigma, etc. I probably should have said bisexuality is relatively rare -- across all men, het is the most common, gay the second most, and bisexual the rarest orientation. Women are quite different -- het is still the most common, but bisexual is second most and lesbian the rarest. I think this is pretty well established, even if it isn't clear exactly what the percentages are for each orientation. Interestingly, in women sexual orientation correlates with sex drive -- in that women with a high sex drive are more likely to be bisexual, and in general orientation in women is more fluid than in men. I haven't read evidence that the same correlation is true in men. I think as a bisexual woman it is easy for me to think that men should be the same, but even men who intellectually want to be bisexual often find sexual relationships

[syredronning]

My own belief is that many people can make a sexual relationship work with someone who isn't their preferred type for awhile, but it can be hard to sustain over time especially if they are sexually exclusive.WORD. I've seen the same with couples where one is into hardcore S&M and the other is vanilla, and even flexible vanillas tend to get a problem when the kinks are heavy and/or needed a lot. I love that saying that sex is 20 percent when it works and 80 percent when it doesn't work, so I see it as mandatory that in every relationship, people feel good about the sex level they have. It may look like little from the outside, but it's all in the personal perception

[syredronning]

P.S: Looking at myself, I'd say kink is my core and bisexuality and slight poly leanings came with it *ponders*

I think the core can be identified by the groups you primarily hang out with. I'm foremost in S&M circles; Pike would alway prefer the gay scene.

Interesting :) Ah, love this discussion.

[shagungu]

Heh. For me, poly is my core relationship identity -- and I do hang out in poly groups, etc etc. Even when I am only in one relationship, I am still identifying as poly. For me, I am rarely in SM circles -- only when I have a partner that is interested (I am pretty vanilla, but flexible...) -- and don't identify as kinky (though I am kink-positive). I have no interest in single sex groups in general, or lesbian/bi woman groups in particular.

There is some interesting research in social psychology on the self concept -- in general, people are faster to process characteristics that are in their core self, rather than characteristics that are less important to them. It occurred to me that this is relevant to characterization -- it is possible to have two people or characters who share a personality trait, but for one person it is part of their core identity, and for the other it isn't. This will lead to the people having different world views and different behaviors, even though the basic trait is similar.

[syredronning]

Somehow your last comments hid in the pile of my mails, so I'm glad I checked back here.

This will lead to the people having different world views and different behaviors, even though the basic trait is similar.

Very true, and nicely put.

Kink-positive and flexible vanilla are great traits in someone who's poly. Should make the sex life much easier :)