strive seek find yield
| Star Trek AOS Fanfiction | |
|---|---|
| Title: | strive seek find yield |
| Author(s): | waldorph |
| Date(s): | October 10, 2010 |
| Length: | 68,199 words |
| Genre: | fusion, AU, royalty AU, virgin!fic, slash, Kirk/Spock |
| Fandom: | Star Trek (2009), The Young Victoria |
| External Links: | strive seek find yield at AO3 Cover art by theimperialpurple (2016) |
Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
strive seek find yield by waldorph is a Kirk/Spock fusion fic, where the characters of Star Trek reboot, Spock and Kirk are respectively Victoria and Albert from the film The Young Victoria which details chronicles the early years of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom's reign and her marriage to Prince Albert.
The fic is part one of three in the AO3 series Spoctoria[1], which also includes two missing scenes: You are Cordially Invited[2] by screamlet and The Virgin King[3] by waldorph. A masterpost was made by Warldorph on Dreamwidth with links to the fics, chapters and parts of the series as well as fanart was made, but is currently friendslocked.
Overview
The author's summary of the fic on AO3:
Spock is heir to the Federation throne, Jim is Prince of America because his fucking brother abdicated, and the Klingons are on the verge of blowing shit up--a love story.
The entire main cast of the Star Trek (2009) movie makes an appearance in the fic, as do many characters from Star Trek TOS. It is set in an alternate universe where the Federation is a monarchy with an entrenched, rather inbred aristocracy.
Spock and Kirk first meet after Spock, in his role of heir to the throne, pays a post-disaster state visit to Tarsus IV, where he briefly meets shell-shocked young survivor James Kirk and never forgets him. When Spock succeeds to the throne, he selects Jim as his dance partner for the first dance of his Coronation Ball. Naturally (in a universe where James Kirk is involved) this leads to Jim "assisting" Spock with sex which leads to an affair (a little long-distance while Kirk is in command of the Enterprise) which leads to an engagement (ditto) which leads to a surprisingly successful marriage. All while Kirk is working on beating the Klingons, to fulfill the offer he made Spock (instead of declarations of courtly love) that Kirk would win Spock a war against the Klingons if Spock made peace with the Romulans.
The story features many entertaining secondary characters such as Sybok, T'Pring (Countess of T'Paal and Spock's chamberlain) -- affectionately nicknamed "T'Pringles", Uhura (Duchess of Nairobi and Spock's social secretary), Christopher Pike, Number One, Gary Mitchell, Winona Kirk and Sam Kirk, and of course Bones, Sulu, Chekov, Scotty, and the rest of the Enterprise crew. The fic also contains many references to the original series.
With waldorph's permission, a ~9,000 word missing scene for the story (the actual wedding)[1] was written by screamlet: You Are Cordially Invited.
In May 2012, sevenses podficced the story and cybel turned it into an audiobook with a cover done by Arminaa that's available at the Audiofic Archive[2]. The podbook is 7 hours and 12:47 min long.
Recs and Reviews
The fic was generally reviewed positively by fans:
An AU that is, according to the author, "a very strange hybrid of The Young Victoria and AOS". This fic is nothing short of epic -- from the word count to the blazing relationship between Kirk and Spock to the absolute (and fantastic) insanity of the supporting characters. Funny, passionate, and an altogether satisfying read.[4]
This is one of the best Reboot AU's out there. It's long and plotty and totally Spock and Jim, loving each other, hurting each other, and fighting everyone else for the right to do so.[5]
It's so much fun! Spock, as King of the Universe! And Kirk, as his disreputable and unsuitable minor-Prince suitor. LOL. You should all read it at once.[6]
It’s an epic regency romance love story. Spock as king of the Federation and James T Kirk as the Prince of America? And lots of hot sex? What’s not to love?[7]
This fanfic is epic. It can be summed up as “the one where Spock is the federation’s king, and Jim is the prince of the Americas.” But what that description misses is the backstory (Tarsus), and the humor, and the fantastic supporting cast (Winona, Pike, Bones, T'Pring, Sybok, etc - they are all perfectly written) and did I mention the humor? And the life choices and the relationship and nothing being easy or perfect but - gah! This story is worth every moment you put into it.[8]
BYYYYEEEEEE this fic is one of the best in Star Trek fandom and it’s SO fun and romantic and intense. It keeps enough elements of Star Trek canon to feel familiar without being a full AU in the vein of regency romance, and it’s tropey yet original.[9]
In particular, some fans praised the emotive quality of the writing and the fic's fleshing out of supporting characters:
Ah, this is so great. And you get me every time-there's this incredible, off-the-cuff irreverence about your writing that has me grinning psychotically and then out of the blue there are these little suckerpunch moments, like "I'm okay, baby," that just make my heart twist. And it hurts so good. I also really appreciate how you took the time to flesh out the supporting characters; it made the story feel all the more rich and three-dimensional, if that makes sense. Thanks so much for a great read; I'm sure I'll be coming back to this again.
However, the fic was criticised by some fans; in particular, for being out of character:
First of all, why the fuck is it so long? Is it because of the amount of gratuitous sex scenes (also heaven forbid we let Jim top)? OK, fine, that’s not a big deal, really, self-indulgent sex scenes aren’t necessarily a bad thing. Anyway if I remember correctly, Jim and Spock only meet once when they’re younger and then the next time is when Spock is about to become king and Jim’s all “YES I WILL DIE FOR THIS MAN” already? Spock is all “I WANT TO MAKE HIM HAPPY” already? How quickly they’re invested in each other makes no sense.And every time Spock uses a contraction I gasped SPOCK WOULD NEVER. Also if in canon, he struggles with his human side while Winona, his human, well-adjusted mother, is alive, how the fuck does he embrace it and rebel against Surak’s ways when Winona is dead? I couldn’t roll my eyes enough at that one line where he glares at T’Pring or something because she’s talking about logic. Don’t get me started on Sybok. It is actually possible to stay true to him embracing things other than the Vulcan way and not make him sound like a perpetually douchey human teenager. Spock is just so far from being a Vulcan that he’s an entirely different character; he spends so much time being love-sick and pining (as does Jim) that I got bored of it.
There’s the super quippy, fast dialogue that doesn’t suit the characters and is trying too hard to be witty. Then there’s the standard Awesome Ladies are Awesome (so much of it) and the overaccomplished!Jim – how the hell is it OK for a Captain to get a 15 year old to work full time on their ship? That 15 year is still a child. I mean, I know Chekov is on the Enterprise at 17, but surely it’s not wise to go below that?
Also at some point Jim and T’Pring watch Pride and Prejudice together, which is just....why? Why would you do this to your readers?
Tl;dr: WHO ARE THESE CHARACTERS? Why have they stolen the names ‘Jim Kirk’ and ‘Spock’ for themselves? Where are the real Jim Kirk and Spock? Don't bother re-reading it, nonny, your time is better spent watching cat videos on youtube.
Oh my God, I read some of Waldorph's Spocktoria fic and I wish I could just erase it all from my mind. It's gone beyond OOC crap to just plain who the hell are these characters, because I do not recognize Kirk or Spock in them at all, they might as well just be OCs. Spock especially is a travesty. One frustrating thing in particular (and this isn't specific to Waldorph's fics, a lot of the most-kudosed Trek fic suffers from this in my opinion, but I guess my tolerance for it has now reached its limit) is how unrealistic the dialogue tends to be for the characters/the Trek universe. The characters are way too flippant, the humor overdone, and they talk and make certain references like they're from the 21st century. Not just from the 21st century at that, but like, from tumblr or something, and I know it's obviously because the writers are from the twenty first century, but it's still jarring.
Example Art Gallery
Podfic cover art by Arminaa (2012)
Inspired Fanworks
Fan art
- Cover fan art for Strive Seek Find Yield by theimperialpurple
- Star Trek (Reboot) Redesign by avoxsus
Fan mix
- Star Trek Big Bang '10; Fanmix #1 by jazzy_peaches
Podfic
- Strive Seek Find Yield (Podfic) by ofsevenseas
Translation
- 【翻译】Strive Seek Find Yield by 炏燚 (kait)
References
- ^ "and then, when I refused to write the wedding, [screamlet] wrote it her own damn self." in notes at the story masterpost by waldorph, 11 October 2010 (Accessed 11 April 2011)
- ^ Strive seek find yield Audiobook at Audio Archive (Accessed 13 June 2012)
- ^ rec at fanfiction-rec, 7 January 2011 (Accessed 11 April 2011)
- ^ 18 October 2010 Kirk/Spock recs at LJ comm crackenterprise (Accessed 11 April 2011)
- ^ rec by mickanick at Crack Van, 31 October 2010 (Accessed 11 April 2011)
- ^ reccing like the wiiind by cupidsbow, 11 November 2010 (Accessed 11 April 2011)
- ^ "Feb 19, 2012 blog post". Archived from the original on 2022-09-03.
- ^ "Fanfic Rec: Strive, Seek, Find, Yield (Star Trek, Kirk/Spock)". Archived from the original on 2023-02-13.
- ^ "The Rec Center #124". Archived from the original on 2024-07-21.