STRANGE CHARM

This is the quirkiest and most absurd story I’ve written, and will probably ever write. Humor is incredibly difficult and tastes are highly personal; what one individual finds amusing, bores another. Frankly, it’s stressful and while I have a distinct sense of humor, I find myself dependent of audience response for issues of timing and trajectory, which one can do live, but not in the written form. It’s like being in an isolation chamber, and that is not a native form of humor for me. That said, I loved all the Easter eggs hidden throughout the story, which are not meant to frustrate the reader, but bring a small smile as they recognize things. Don’t worry about finding them, they’re not critical to the story itself, but rather, function as an ornamental layer. In the end, it became a smorgasbord of pop culture references, intentional and subconscious, and poking beloved M/M romance tropes—completely intentional.

The premise was to be crazy. So, I sat there thinking, What’s the weirdest thing to base a story on?—Galacticaching, like geocaching, but in SPACE! Yeah, it was geeky, but gave me an excellent reason for littermates Ajax and Igor Anthera to be gallivanting around on their ‘Adventure of a Lifetime”. Basically, the boys’ lives were beginning to separate as they matured and their respective careers began pulling them in different directions. This token caching game was a way for them to spend time enjoying each other before they found themselves alone.

In Ajax’s case, quite literally, as he was scheduled to beginning a rotation of training that involved ascetic living. He would be isolated from all his family for years. Igor’s career in genetic manipulations was taking off and he had research waiting and findings to present. As a reproduction specialist, Igor concentrated on genome design in a large and competitive field. Feldoonae, are feline humanoids that reproduce exclusively via artificial fertilization. Pair bondings are not based on sex or gender, rather compatibility. Coalition partners form prides and design their offspring to meet family goals. In Ajax’s case, his parents desired a guardian to help protect both the family and their homeworld. Igor’s genes were skewed more towards engineering tempered with empathy; he’s far more  emotionally reactive than Ajax.

This brings us to the fractious issue of “brothers” having sex. This is definitely where I, as the writer, was disrupting preconceived notions, and flirting with taboo elements. Technically, they are not genetically related, so it is not incest. They are socially connected though, and thus, is still in many ways frowned upon. Honestly, this is a huge kettle of fish that we could discuss ad nauseam, but the fact is that it was meant to be a reader tweak. A ‘Stop and Think’ moment, or alternatively, let your id run wild and ride the illicit wave. Either works for me. Essentially, I attempted to let the reader eat their cake and have it, too.

Lastly, the title is multivalent. It’s supposed to reference multiple things; I’m a huge fan of double or triple entendres. What can I say, word play excites me. The token they find on SPV 7Z-218 is indeed oddly different than any other they’ve come across in the course their travels, and as a high value token it required special handling. Strange Charm also references Ajax and Igor’s relationship, which for spoiler reasons I won’t elaborate on. Finally, and this is again geeky, but Strange and Charm are two quarks, and everything’s better with quantum physics. Everything.

For Super Geek Fans here is a cute video about quarks: WATCH

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