Line #34 Fanfic/ToAbsentFriends


1	!Spoiler warning for ''Fanfic/TheWrongReflection''.
2	[[http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=20061121#post20061121 "To Absent Friends"]] is a one-shot ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' fanfic by Tropers/StarSword, written for [[http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1239941 Literary Challenge #68: STO Halloween]] on the ''STO'' forum.
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4	Instead of doing a straight HalloweenEpisode as suggested by the prompt, Tropers/StarSword and Takeshi6 collaborated on a Bajoran equivalent of the Latin American [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_Dead Day of the Dead]] to produce a {{crossover}} between the ''Fanfic/{{Bait and Switch\|STO}}'' series and ''Fanfic/TheWarOfTheMasters'' SharedUniverse, "Fanfic/RemembranceOfTheFallen". Tropers/StarSword then took the background material produced and applied it to the prior HeroicSacrifice of Kanril Eleya's former operations officer Lieutenant Commander T'Var in ''Fanfic/TheWrongReflection''. The result was "To Absent Friends".
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6	It's two months after ''Fanfic/TheWrongReflection'' and the USS ''Bajor'' is between adventures. By the Bajoran calendar it's also the Fourth of Kadera, a Bajoran holy day called the Day of Remembrance, where fallen friends and family are mourned and remembered.
7	----
8	!!Tropes:
9	* AlternateCalendar: The Bajoran calendar pioneered in ''Fanfic/FromBajorToTheBlack'' reappears. The story apparently takes place on 4 Kadera, Seventh Era 957, the Year of Distant Travails.
10	* ArrangedMarriage: {{Discussed\|Trope}} in the {{flashback}}. Vulcans typically use these, per canon, but T'Var's parents thought it more logical to let her seek her own mate.
11	* BilingualBonus: The ''Bajor'''s PretentiousLatinMotto? Not so pretentious. [[spoiler:It's a ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' reference: "We who are about to die don't want to."]]
12	* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
13	-->'''Eleya:''' Doc? Care to explain the piano?\
14	'''HMC. Anoeza Watkins:''' Fairly simple, ma’am. You press one of these keys and—\
15	'''Tess:''' Ha ha. She meant how did you get it on board and where have you been keeping it.
16	* CultureClash: Dul'krah comments on Eleya and Gaarra's relationship.
17	-->“It was not a secret, Commander Reshek,” Dul’krah says. “The only question I had was when your first children would be born.” There’s an oddly musical clunk from Warragul dropping his guitar. I feel my cheeks burning and Dul’krah has the good sense to start looking embarrassed. “My apologies. Clearly I have run afoul of, I believe the term Lieutenant Commander Bo’tok at the Academy used was ‘culture clash’.”\
18	\
19	“''Phekk’tem'' understatement,” somebody female in the crowd mutters in Perikian.\
20	\
21	“Watch it,” I warn over my shoulder.
22	* TheDeadHaveNames: There are forty-five Starfleet chevrons on the USS ''Bajor'''s memorial wall. We get about five, and Eleya complains a bit that she doesn't remember most of the people behind the names.
23	* {{Epigraph}}: The first two verses of Creator/JamesTaylor's [[http://youtu.be/jitJp1-bmQ0 "Fire and Rain"]].
24	* EverybodyKnewAlready: Yeah, Eleya, your SecretRelationship with Gaarra? Not so secret. This line comes after the others catch the two of them slow-dancing to Warragul, Dul'krah, and Watkins playing Music/SarahMcLachlan.
25	-->'''Tess:''' Oh, [[OhMyGods for Uzaveh’s sake]], Captain, just kiss him already!
26	* HalloweenEpisode: More like Day of the Dead Episode.
27	* HappyFlashback: Eleya remembers her, T'Var, Birail, and Tess going on vacation [[BeachEpisode at the beach]] and somehow getting onto the subject of sex and of how T'Var is apparently a virgin. When queried by Gaarra Eleya insists that she has absolutely no idea how they got on the subject. Tess theorizes:
28	-->“Some combination of booze and the natural tendency of soldiers to turn roughly anything sexual if you leave them alone long enough.”
29	* PretentiousLatinMotto: [[SubvertedTrope Not so much.]] The ''Bajor'''s crew-chosen motto "Morituri Nolumus Mori" means [[spoiler:"We who are about to die don't want to."]]
30	* ShoutOut: To Jayne and Book's conversation in the ''Series/{{Firefly}}'' episode [[Recap/FireflyE14ObjectsInSpace "Objects in Space"]] when Biri has trouble believing that T'Var's a virgin.
31	-->'''Biri:''' What, never?\
32	'''T'Var:''' No.\
33	'''Biri:''' "Not ever", never?
34	* TitleDrop: In the last line of the fic Eleya and her crew raise glasses to the names on the memorial wall:
35	-->"To absent friends. Rest with the Prophets."
36	* ToAbsentFriends: The Bajoran Day of Remembrance is part this, part ''Día de los Muertos''. It's focused on celebrating the memory of friends and family who are no longer with us, telling stories about them, and eating their favorite foods. Eleya also offers the trope and fic name as a toast.
37	* UnexpectedVirgin: T'Var in a flashback. The other ladies are surprised at this, but she calmly explains that she's was able to break her ''pon farr'' through meditation, and her parents had decided not to [[ArrangedMarriage arrange a match for her]].

Context Fanfic / ToAbsentFriends