The Storyteller (Star Trek: TOS story)

Fanfiction
Title:	The Storyteller
Author(s):	Kate Sheridan
Date(s):	1995
Length:
Genre(s):	slash
Fandom(s):	Star Trek: TOS
Relationship(s):	Kirk/Spock
External Links:
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The Storyteller is a K/S story by Kate Sheridan.

Chris Soto for "The Storyteller" -- "So many beautiful pieces in this zine from this extraordinary artist to comment on. First of all, the seductive Kirk in blue jeans on page 44. With that "come-hither" look, my heart just melts (or is that race?). Great pose, perfectly done with grace and style."

It was published in the print zine First Time #43.

Summary

"Kirk slugs McCoy when, after a night of drinking, McCoy taunts him about his love for Spock, and the next day McCoy demands that Kirk tell Spock or he will press charges."

Reactions and Reviews

1996

This is an interesting idea. Although I expected Kirk to take advantage of the opportunity to tell Spock an arousing story, I admired the way Spock took charge, Another story might have Spock and Kirk competing in telling erotic stories, That's a bull session I'd like to attend.

Kirk as storyteller, specifically of the erotic kind, is woven into this unusual story of Kirk's unspoken desire for his "very male, very Vulcan first officer".

McCoy serves as the feisty catalyst for K and S to admit their feelings. Some good dialogue between Kirk and McCoy except for the many and varied descriptions such as "the other man", "the older man", "the younger man", etc. These are fine when used sparingly. but I think we needed some "doctor" or "captain" at least.

Much of the writing captivated me. Lines such as: "He couldn't look at Spock. Instead, he studied his own bare toes, wishing he had on shoes. Wishing he had on underwear."

I loved Spock's smooth manner when he first encounters Kirk in his cabin. Spock's easy acceptance of the situation proved highly enjoyable and you'd better believe that it did not pass my attention that Spock insinuates he is not "inexperienced".

And hey! Not bad at all in the sex department! Not bad at all.... Including a wonderful moment when Kirk found being held by Spock was "both calming and arousing" and the relief Kirk feels because his "dark secret" is out in the open.

And I engaged in my requisite carpet-thrashing when faced with some lovemaking that included this: "...the Vulcan very carefully pulled off just enough so that the head of the human's cock rested on the center of his tongue, pulsing its cream into the hot mouth where it was eagerly tasted and swallowed."

Even though I couldn't exactly figure out what Spock was doing to Kirk at a certain point, I loved it whatever it was.

This story delighted me right off, with McCoy getting hard from Kirk telling an erotic story. Scotty and another guy are there too, and they're all getting drunk. I was glad the other two guys left; so they weren't privy to the scene that followed. I wondered exactly why they were included in the first place. I guess because it's likely that a group such as this would indulge in a "bull session" on off hours; but it seemed the story could have done as well without them.

It seems that the explanation of the Enterprise being stuck in orbit around a planet for a while, was a bit of over-explaining (even though the author admirably kept the explanation to a minimum). Maybe if the bare details had been casually mentioned in dialogue, rather than explained as a narrative aside, it wouldn't have felt extraneous. I agree with what I presume the author was doing—justifying their being in a situation where it was basically OK to get plastered on the ship—but it felt like a "device" rather than an integral part of the story.

The next morning, Kirk and Scotty have a conversation about how Kirk got to be such a good erotic storyteller. This also seemed a bit unnecessary. It felt unnecessary to explain why he is; just show us that he is, which the author did do. Then again, I said to myself, why not explain why? It's a nice touch of Kirk's personal history.

I think these scenes I mentioned felt a bit out of place only because otherwise the story is focused at a certain level of energy with a lovely and unusual poetry to it: the use of Kirk as storyteller woven into the real-life events.

I'm aware I'm being very picky in this LOC. I'm just bringing these things up for our learning enjoyment I guess; indulging myself as a writer. I realize very well that if we took out all the "unnecessary" passages, the peripheral characters, the story-devices, etc., etc., we ended up writing haiku rather than stories. So take all this with a grain of salt, for sure.

While Kirk's telling this erotic tale, McCoy says (tugging at his pants which have become too tight), stop or you might get raped. I like this McCoy; too often he is portrayed (and I'm one who does this) as an asexual character. He accuses Kirk of half-wanting to get raped, not by any of them, but by Spock. Kirk gets pissed—this is too close to home, obviously. McCoy continues to crudely goad Kirk about Spock, and Kirk hits him. Cool scene, I liked it — a touch of drunken brawl.

McCoy wants to force Kirk to talk to Spock; he sets it up with Spock to go to Kirk and make him talk. When Spock does go, Kirk's a mess, drinking again. Ah but what a beautiful scene, when Kirk finally blurts it out, how he feels. Really nicely done; I hung on every word, and then through the tense silence, and then Spock's reply. Oh god, oh god, I said breathlessly. Perfect words. Finally it registers on both of them that they both have these feelings. Spock takes the initiative in this gorgeous moment. He is beautifully masterful here. And the sex is wonderful.

I love the end, the use of "happily ever after."

Not to belabor the POV issue, but I'm going to belabor it. Here are two examples that I think show how a diffused POV removes us from the immediacy of experience. These are subtle shifts in perception, rather than the obvious times when we have one character overtly feeling this mixed in with the other feeling that.

"Kirk tipped his head slightly so he could look at the dark eyes and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Spock leaned forward and claimed full lips in a searing, open-mouthed kiss."

We are feeling along with Kirk, until some outside observer sees Spock (or Spock sees himself) kissing "full lips." "Full" isn't something that Kirk feels about his own lips. Whether it's the narrator saying this, or it's Spock's perception at that moment, either way, it's out of place in the middle of Kirk's feelings. Just "claimed his lips" would do it, and we would have stayed with Kirk's feelings through the end of the sentence, sigh.... I know, I know, we love Kirk's lips, and want to say they're full and gorgeous and tempting and everything else they are as much as we possibly can. But that wasn't a place to say it.

Here's another: "Being held by the Vulcan was having a strangely dichotomous effect on the human. It was both calming and arousing. The lean, hard body against his...."

Again, Kirk doesn't think of himself as "the human." So the narrator said those words, and it removed us from Kirk's feelings. It reads perfectly well as "was having a strangely dichotomous effect on him."

I know it's perfectly proper to be an omniscient narrator, but once you're writing close to a character's feelings, might as well get real close and stay there.

Enough said. I enjoyed this story—it warmed and amused and melted me. These things did not mar my enjoyment of the story; it's just that afterward I got verbose and decided to expound on these points.