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

[igrockspock]

EEEE! You posted it! I've said it already, but I love this story so much. Kirk's emotions are so realistic, and I love how both Spock and McCoy treat him. More than that, I love your integrity in recognizing that neither of them can totally fix this situation. Honestly, this is one of my favorite Trek stories to date.

[thistlerose]

I poured myself a glass of wine and posted! Eee! Thank you SO much - for your help and your lovely comment! I didn't think I could pull this thing off.

I really wanted to show Spock and McCoy as equals here. One saves Jim's mind or soul while the other saves his body. They love him equally, and he really needs them both.

I was really worried about this one. Like I said, it isn't meant to be allegorical, but it's still a pregnancy and an abortion, and I'm vehemently pro-choice, but I didn't want an easy fix. Jim is probably going to be messed up about this for a while. As are McCoy and Spock. :(

On a lighter note, I totally forgot: boosette basically dared me to write this back when I first posted my hc_bingo card. I'm so easy.

[igrockspock]

Perahps I am overly optimistic, or just blind to symbolism, but I still feel like you have to work hard to interpret this as a political statement. It's not that pregnancy is bad or that abortion is bad; it's that mind controlling, life sucking parasites are bad.

[thistlerose]

*g* I always worry about overanalyzing.

My chief concern was with the part where Bones overrides Jim's insistence that he doesn't want surgery. I mean, he couldn't have done anything else, and it was absolutely the right thing to do, but it makes me *think* about men making decisions about women's bodies.

But I know I'm overanalyzing. Though I think Bones will continue to be haunted by that moment, and if I ever do remix this, I think that's going to be the focus.

Anyway, yes. Mind-controlling parasites = BAD.

[withthepilot]

Oh, that was heartbreaking. It's such a wonderful crew that Jim has and I love how they look out for him and take care of him here. Jim's downward spiral as the parasite takes control is also quite chilling. You did a fantastic job with this!

[thistlerose]

Thank you!

I've never written anything like this before, and I was nervous. (I owe Jim so much TLC, good lord...)

His crew really does love him. Though I think they're going to do a better job of taking care of him from now on.

[888mph]

Ok, so... (I'm sober now) The only thing I know about ST is that Spock is the one with the big ears *ducks from millions of treckkies*, but, yeah, I had to read this.

Damn, it was sad!

[thistlerose]

I think I made need a drink after posting this.

Yes, Spock is the one with the ears. *g* Jim is the one in my icon. Whom, for some reason, I like to pick on.

Thank you, bb!

[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.

[mardia]

Oh, this is just wildly impressive, not just in the concept but in the execution--fantastic job, seriously.

[thistlerose]

Whew! (This story worried me.)

Thank you *so* much!