fic: Consumed (Star Trek AOS)

[thistlerose]

Title: Consumed
Fandom: Star Trek AOS
Rating: Adult
Characters: Kirk, Spock, McCoy
Contains: disturbing stuff (highlight to reveal) a lethal, mind-controlling parasite manipulates Jim into believing he's pregnant; involuntary (due to mind control) termination of said imagined pregnancy, including graphic description of surgery
Notes: Many thanks to

Comments

[lindmere]

That was absolutely, fabulously chilling, and one of my favorite underused genres in fic.

There's a fine tradition of sublimating the scarier aspects of pregnancy into horror, going right back to Mary Shelley, and you've captured that perfectly.

“You’ll be a father, Jim,” says Bones, sounding very weary and far away, though his hand is on Jim’s shoulder. “Someday. If that’s what you want. You’ll be a good father.”

And the tragedy of miscarriage as well. Brilliant take on an MPREG prompt, and I'm glad I read it despite the warnings (OK, because of the warnings :)

Coincidentally, a "Jim gets parasitized" fic was the first thing I wrote in fandom, although it was a lot more decorous. Maybe it's something that haunts all women's nightmares? Anyhow, outstanding job!

[thistlerose]

Hee. For a while, I wasn't sure how to warn for this thing. It's an unwanted pregnancy, but he thinks he wants it, Bones aborts it over Jim's protests, though it's exactly what he would have wanted had he been in his right mind... *shakes head* This fic was a challenge for me. The idea of pregnancy makes me uneasy. I wanted to write a horror story so I could turn the mpreg genre on its head a little, but I didn't want to make light of situation like this.

Poor Jim. My poor, poor Jimmy. He needs some serious loving.

Anyway. Thank you *so* much!!

I'll check out your story. I tend to gloss over everything labeled K/S, but I love the way you write, so I'm curious about your take.

[florahart]

I think you may want to flesh out the warnings more, not because I am alarmed by having read this, but because I think there will be people who will be very bothered by the fairly explicit assertion here that pregnancy is just like a lethal parasitic infection. I mean, you're calling it a pregnancy, and I'm not so sure I agree. I say this as someone whose second pregnancy would actually have turned out to be most likely lethal due to her body treating the kidlet somewhat like a parasitic infection had she not been sitting in a hospital when everything went straight to hell.

This is not me saying you shouldn't write this, or even that you shouldn't be calling it mpreg, but I think... I dunno. I think without the header making it clear that this is really that Jim believes he is pregnant (in the more typical sense of not just protecting and feeding a new entity until it can survive independent, rather than what's actually true here which is that a life is manipulating him into providing that safe harbor to such detriment to himself

[thistlerose]

a lethal, mind-controlling parasite manipulates Jim into believing he's pregnant; involuntary termination of said imagined pregnancy, including graphic description of surgery

Better this way? I've never had to warn for stuff like this before, so I wasn't sure of the wording. I don't know if imagined is quite the right word.

[florahart]

Maybe? I really do mean it's hard to know, heh.

Anyway, yes, very chilling mind control, and I do like the Spock voice in it, too.

[thistlerose]

Yeah. Like I said... Anyway, I wasn't trying to make that equation. So, thanks for the warning. I don't mind freaking people out a little (it's horror, after all) but I don't want to trigger anyone.

Glad you liked the Spock voice. Thank you!