#And to Spock and to Jim: everyone is unhappy as a result.

[hummingbird-of-light]

Against All Odds

Part 769

McCoy

“Scotty—”

McCoy closed his mouth and looked into his fiancé’s eyes. His chest tightened slightly at the thought of Scotty changing his course in life to accommodate him. But he didn’t want that.

“Will staying grounded make you happy?”

“You won’t be sca—”

“Would you be happy?” McCoy pressed.

“No,” Scotty finally murmured.

“Then I wouldn’t be happy. I can overcome my fear- somehow- but your unhappiness would hang over everything. That’s not fair to you.

“But Len—”

“Scotty, I may not have known as long as the rest of you what I wanted to do, but I know now. I want to be a doctor. I want to be in Starfleet. I want you to be happy.” McCoy had reached for his own desk chair and sat down with his knees touching Scotty’s.

“Sure I’m still scared of flying, but I’m a lot better than I used to be. You’ll be there to help me. You’ve already helped me so much. I fell asleep on the flight back from my day with Dr. Lane! I’ve never done that before. That’s from you darlin’. You helped me get to that. I’ll ask Dr. Hudson if she can recommend anything to help.”

“Len…”

“The stars are beautiful Scotty and you’ve made me— I want to be out there now too. You’ve given me that. I promise you, no matter how hard it might be at times, I do want to be up there with you. Ok?”

“Ok,” Scotty said slowly.

“You’re going to get in, and I’m going to try my hardest and, well, if I don’t get in, I’ll- I’ll bribe my way in!” McCoy grinned.

Scotty chuckled.

“My mad man,” he said, and ran his fingers over the side of McCoy’s face, up into his hair. McCoy leaned across and pressed a gentle kiss to Scotty’s mouth.

“I should get my essay done,” McCoy said as he moved back.

“Aye,” Scotty said softly. He turned to the screen next to him and closed out of the tabs he had open.

McCoy reached over his own desk and opened his application from the night before again.

“I think I know what to write now,” he smiled.

“Do ye want me to go?” Scotty asked.

“No. Only if you want to.” McCoy corrected himself.

“I’ve got some homework…”

McCoy sat back in his chair with a satisfied sigh. He had read and reread his essay. With a final click he submitted the whole application. For a moment his heart raced. How had he gotten to this point? Not even a year before he had still been the heir of Georgiares, the crown prince of a planet, destined to be king someday.

He glanced at Scotty on the bed with books spread before him. Scotty had changed his life. Without him McCoy would never have spoken up about not wanting to be king. He would never have realized he wanted to be a doctor.

His PADD chirped, and his heart skipped a beat as he saw it was from Starfleet. His finger trembled slightly as he opened the message. Confirmation his application had been received. McCoy let out a breath he hadn’t realized he was holding.

He closed the message and took to watching Scotty again. His fiancé was hard at work, lost in an equation or something. McCoy wasn’t quite sure what Scott was working on. It looked more complicated than his biochem.

Gradually Scotty noticed McCoy’s stare.

“Yes love?” he asked, looking into McCoy’s eyes.

“Thank you,” McCoy managed to whisper out.

Scotty frowned lightly. “For what?”

McCoy gave his head a tiny shake. “I love you. So much Scotty.”

“I love ye too.”

Part 770

Scotty

Several weeks passed and with each day the final exams came closer and closer. All the students studied hard and yet Scotty had only one thought in mind.

He needed to know if Robbie and he had been accepted to Starfleet Academy. Since the acceptances and rejections were sent in oder of last names, the Scott brothers, Sulu, Spock and Uhura were the last of the group still waiting for the results.

Everyone else had been accepted to the Academy. Especially Jim and Leonard had received detailed answers.

Scotty was incredibly happy that his fiancé had made it. Leonard had assured him again and again that it was really his wish and slowly but surely Scotty really believed it. But Leonard, of course, would only join Starfleet if Scotty was also accepted. That was clear from the start.

When they were all sitting together in the lounge one evening and suddenly some PADDs emitted a beep, Scotty's breath caught.

That had to be it. That had to be the message from Starfleet!

His heart raced as he saw the glow on Sulu's face as he proudly showed Chekov and Keenser his PADD.

"I did it! I'm going to be a helmsman!"

Jim was also grinning all the way down to both cheeks, his eyes fixed on the PADD that was in Spock's hands.

"I knew you would do it! You'll be the first and best Vulcan the fleet ever has or will have at its Academy."

Spock raised his typical eyebrow.

"I seriously doubt that thesis, Jim. There will be many more clever minds after me."

Jim just laughed and wrapped his arms around his boyfriend.

"None will be as great as you."

Scotty could see the tips of Spock's ears turn green, and he knew how uncomfortable the Vulcan was when Jim treated him that way in public.

A shout of joy from Uhura, followed by congratulations from Christine and Jaylah caught Scotty's attention and it was clear that Uhura had made it too.

Scotty's hands shook and he stared at the PADD he had grabbed. He couldn't open the message. He couldn't face the truth.

"Scotty?"

Leonard, sitting next to him on the couch, gently placed a hand on his fiancé's knee and he swallowed hard.

"I... I cannae read the message. What if they didn't accept me?"

His voice trembled. But Leonard immediately calmed him down.

"They accepted you, leannan. I promise."

Slowly, Scotty's eyes slid to Leonard and he looked into his confident face. There was so much warmth in his gaze.

"Open the message."

A slow nod was all Scotty could manage, then with a trembling finger he pressed the message. He kept his eyes closed, took a deep breath in and out... and then he looked at the screen.

His eyes widened and just a moment later Leonard wrapped his arms around him.

"I knew it! I knew you could do it!"

A smile slowly formed on Scotty's lips and he nodded in disbelief.

They would really do it. They would join Starfleet together. It was an indescribable feeling.

Scotty looked around, saw all the happy faces of his friends. Then his eyes fell on Robbie, and he froze.

"Robbie?"

His brother looked saddened, the PADD in his lap. Scotty knew immediately what it must mean. His heart sank.

"Oh my... They... they didn't take ye?"

Why? How could Starfleet refuse a genius like his brother? Surely that was impossible!

But when Robbie's eyes met his, Scotty saw something strange in them. A faint smile was on Robbie's lips.

"No, they... didn't take me. Because... I didn't apply."

For a moment, there was shocked silence in the group of friends. Everyone looked at Robbie.

"W-what? But..."

Scotty's voice shook again. What was Robbie saying?

"I... applied to a school for engineering on Georgiares. And... they accepted me. I'm going to be an engineer. But... not for Starfleet."

In that second, Scotty's whole world seemed to collapse. It couldn't be. It... it had always been their dream. Ever since they were wee lads, they had wanted to go to the stars together.

"B-but..."

"I'm sorry, Monty. I... wanted to tell ye. Really."

Scotty shook his head. He couldn't hear it. He couldn't listen to this.

Faster than he would have dared, he got to his feet and left the lounge, ignoring the shouts behind him.

#star trek #montgomery scott #leonard mccoy #scones #au #against all odds

[kirkodiletears]

I actually enjoyed rewatching AOS. But I have to say, the way, Spock and Uhura's relationship is portrayed there feels not only unsatisfying, but actually toxic. I have no idea, how can someone possibly see it as a step forward in portraying female characters. It's totally misogynistic. What do we see? We see, that his universe evolves around his best friend: as we can see in STID, he is obsessed with Kirk. Jim is the only being, that's able to actually not even make Spock feel, but also express his emotions. When his girlfriend's life is threatened, he is cool and calm, explaining to Jim how her sacrifice is "their only logical option". When Jim's about to risk his life to save the entire ship... Spock's reaction is... well... different (to put it mildly). When he bumps into his girlfriend on his way to the engineering, he doesn't even stop to acknowledge that she is alive: just dashing right past her, as if she is an empty space. Not mentioning the reactor scene and what happens next. In Beyond the relationship continues to deteriorate: he breaks up with her and leaves her for making Vulcan babies with someone else. But as soon as his friend "snaps his fingers" and tells him, that he needs him, - he is back: all endangered species baby-making and plans of continuing Ambassador Spock's work on New Vulcan are forgotten immediately, all napoleonic plans - "out of the window". And she supposed to carry on with their relationship after that as if nothing happened? But at the end she nevertheless is smiling and wearing his pendant. We don't know, if they will get back together, but even a possibility of returning to someone, who treated you like that, feels creepy. What kind of message is that? That you got to stick to your partner under any circumstances, no matter how he treats you? Does she have self-respect issues? If, as we continuously observed, Jim is a "number one" person to Spock, then where is Uhura's place in his life? The fact, that he gave her this pendant only underlines the awkwardness of the whole affair: it's like he is trying to compensate for his lack of feelings with a jewelry. And that's super-creepy and wrong. Jewelry can be indeed a lovely gesture, but only if it comes together with the feelings: not instead of them.

More commentary in the notes.

#Such a bummer of a pairing really: so unfair to Uhura... #And to Spock and to Jim: everyone is unhappy as a result. #abrams you butt! #spirk #k/s #kirk/spock #kirk and spock #spock #kirk #star trek #space husbands #kirk x spock #spirk is canon #aos spirk #star trek aos #spock and kirk #jim kirk

[sporkandpringles]

While we’re on the subject of continuity errors, I felt like I should share the large list of headcanons I’ve amassed to explain how AOS can still be a divergent timeline from 2233, just with a lot of things happening differently in those 25 years between Kirk’s birth and his academic hearing. 

It’s under the cut because I have no self-control and it’s huge. 

James T Kirk was born two months premature in space. I.e. he was supposed to be born, on earth, on March 22nd, which he was in the Prime Timeline. But in AOS he was born on January 4th in space, due to the stress levels of suddenly coming under attack forcing Winona Kirk into premature labor (stress can do that sometimes). Space birth is weird, and it majorly fucked Jim up. Gave him blue eyes instead of brown (most babies are born with blue eyes anyway, so maybe the pigments just never matured right??? Idk I’m not a biologist). Gave him even more allergies than his TOS counterpart. Etc.

Starfleet has never visually encountered Romulans before Nero. (In the Prime timeline, they don’t see their faces until 2266). However, they have seen their mines and heard their voices communicated over audio. So it’s not unreasonable that their warp signature could be recognizable (or some other aspect of their ship). And though the captain who went over to the Narada died, the USS Kelvin was receiving transmissions and scanning the Narada, so the rest of the crew may have had time to send that information to Starfleet, and they could put together the pieces from there. I feel like I should add that the Narada is also part Borg technology, so that’s fun.

Oh also, to explain warp speed discrepancies, some of that transmitted data included information about the Narada’s weapons systems and propulsion systems, and Starfleet used that information to wildly improve their speeds in the next 20-30 years. They got so much better in such a short time they had to re-scale their warp factors so people wouldn’t get confused. (they’re used to using warp 8 for maximum warp, so instead of changing habits, they just scaled it up).

A lot has already been written about AOS Kirk’s characterization. But to sum it up briefly, the lack of George Kirk, and the addition of Frank into AOS Kirk’s life really screwed him up. I say he also still went to Tarsus IV and that really messed him up bad, especially when he had virtually no support system to return home to after he came back to Earth.

Spock’s discrepancy in characterization can be explained by the lack of Michael in his life. I actually say the whole show never happened in the Kelvin Timeline. Michael’s parents were never attacked by Klingons. Michael never went to live with Spock. She grew up with her biological parents and probably joined Starfleet as a scientist later on, but with a very different personality and a lot less trauma. (Admiral Marcus in Into Darkness claims that the war with the Klingons has always been cold, so further evidence that DISCO didn’t happen in AOS)

Uhura and Chekov were both born earlier in AOS. These dates took place after the timeline diverged, so I guess their parents just decided to have babies earlier. Or maybe in the Prime universe they had miscarriages that technological advances in the AOS universe were able to prevent? Idk.

A lot of changes in AOS are about taking something away and making it more broken and sad, but I think it’s be interesting to play with the idea that taking things away isn’t always sad. Maybe the reason Chekov is a ray of sunshine in AOS and a grumpy feral bastard in TOS is because in the Prime Timeline his parents stayed in an unhappy marriage, but in AOS they divorced.

The Kelvin Timeline comics also reveal that Uhura’s father died in some kind of shuttle accident. The comics aren’t canon, but I think this is interesting, and could explain some of the discrepancies in Uhura’s character as well.

Scotty? Who knows? But like… I think you’re catching my drift here. A lot can happen differently in 25 years.  

‘Admiral Archer’s prized beagle’ was an obvious Porthos/Jonathan Archer cameo, but both of them would be dead by 2258, so it’s obviously Jonathan Archer III and Porthos XI or something.

The Prime timeline switched from a mix of Gregorian calendar dates to stardates exclusively sometime after 2233, following a long period of using both and possibly a combination of other date systems to try and be accomodating. That was very confusing however. The AOS timeline solved the confusion by basically saying “Starfleet Headquarters are on Earth, so everyone goes by Earth Time.” Basically, “Our house, our rules, tough luck”. And as a result, the Federation in AOS is a lot more human-centric, despite their stated mission of diversity. (Of course, the Prime universe has its own share of human-centrism, it’s just better hidden).

The aesthetics of the uniforms and interiors of starships are different in part because of @protectspock ‘s headcanon that Starfleet uniforms change with power changes in the Admiralty (and AOS has different people in the higher ups than the Prime Timeline). And partly because Starfleet decided to hire different interior designers.  

Delta Vega is the dumb name humans gave to T’Khut, Vulcan’s sister planet. And it’s further away and icier in AOS because like... a big asteroid knocked it out into a farther away orbit or something. (Though not too far away, since Vulcan is still visible from it’s surface). 

Am I missing anything?

#i'm out of control everyone #this is what I do for fun #no seriously #star trek aos #star trek #jj abrams was just lazy #but I WILL fix his continuity errors #star trek headcanons #star trek meta

[whalefucker69]

11 Questions Tag Game

I was tagged by @onedamnminuteadmiral who now has a whale url, which reminds me of how I have “whalefucker69″ saved because of senior year when I wrote my 20 page term paper on Moby Dick.

1.What is the coolest vehicle you’ve ever driven/ridden in?

Well, okay, so my grandfather was a fighter pilot right, then he was a pilot for continental when the war ended, and after he retired he built his own little 2 seater plane (being extra runs in the family I guess).  He sold it a few years ago but when I was like 10 or 11 he would take me up in it and let me take control once we were high enough up that it wouldn’t be a big danger. 

2. Do you believe in the paranormal? Ever had any weird experiences?

I definitely don’t.  The most paranormal experiences I’ve had are when I sometimes hallucinate spiders crawling on the walls and ceiling when I’m falling asleep.

3. Describe your ideal climate.

Temperature in the 90s but low humidity; like the Texas hill country.  I like the cold for the ability to wear fun jackets, but I could survive on Vulcan no problem.

4. What is your favorite thing to do with friends?

Probably just watch stupid movies/TV, honestly.  My roommates and I just watched the season finale of Bachelor in Paradise which is a surprisingly okay show.  I also like cooking for people.

5. What do you think is your best quality?

Can I pass? It’s hard for me to think of things I like about myself without instantly turning them into things I don’t like.  

6. If you could mash up two of your favorite TV shows, what would you mash up, and what would the resulting show be like? (For instance, Galavant and Star Trek, a space-faring musical farce that makes fun of the genre of sci-fi. Sorry if I stole yours. I think about this a lot.)

Hohohohoho, have I told you about the X files/fringe/twin peaks inspired Star Trek AU I had planned like all through high school?  The main conceit was that Jim was a navy pilot who had been suddenly called back stateside for a “promotion” that he was very unhappy about because he saw it as a boring desk job that would keep him from flying.  It turns out he was being assigned to basically lead a top secret operation codenamed enterprise that would track down paranormal activity localized in this small town in the northwest.  So he ends up recruiting this ragtag team of military and civilian scientists and other personnel, and they have sort of monster-of-the-week adventures.  The main overarcing plot would have Spock and Scotty basically invent warp drive, which would set up a chain of events with Spock discovering a government conspiracy (basically America wants to weaponize the rudimentary warp core) so the only way he sees to get out of the situation is to basically destroy all of the research and lead a trail of fake evidence so everyone thinks that he’s betrayed the enterprise team and gets him labeled as a terrorist.  So then Jim ofc takes this personally and asks to be in charge of the team sent to track him down and bring him in, so it becomes a sort of international spy thriller with a lot of heated scenes where Jim just barely misses Spock and there’s a lot of chess metaphors as Jim sort of tries to figure out wtf happened and Spock is terrified because he knows that if anyone is smart enough to figure it out it’s Jim, but if Jim finds out he’ll be in the same danger.  I don’t remember how I’d planned for it to end, but it definitely involved first contact with Vulcan (they had picked up on the warp tests).  The last scene would involve Jim approaching Spock at the end some sort of official party and basically saying “So it’s super classified but the UN is putting together funds to build a starship and they want me to command it so I need a science officer and you have like 16 PhDs so you’re obviously the logical choice, our personal history nonwithstanding” and them basically agreeing to start over and try to move on after all the deceit.  

7. Do you have any original characters? Tell me about one of them! If not, tell me about your favorite character from your favorite piece of media.

Okay so my main D&D character right now is a dragonborn warlock named Kashira Alazir.  She grew up the heir of a family of honor-driven royals in charge of a sort of city-state in a larger empire.  She spent all her life training to be the smartest and the strongest heir she could be, training in combat, tactics, politics, etc, but after her younger brother manifested as a sorcerer he was immediately declared the new heir because of his magic.  She spent months trying to study to be a wizard, but never made any progress, so she eventually made a pact with a devil to gain magical abilities.  She told herself this was for her family, since her irresponsible brother wouldn’t be a good ruler, but in reality she was just bitter.  When her family found out they exiled her because making deals with demons is like, super fucking illegal.  Now she’s just sad and lonely, wandering the continent trying to find a cause she can fight for to regain her honor and return to her family.

8. If you could switch places with one person for one day, who would you switch with?

Is “any astronaut currently working on the ISS” an option?

9. Are you a neat or a messy person?

Neat.  I used to be messy but at this point I clean all the fucking time because “messy” has become synonymous with “depression” in my head so I’m terrified if I slip up at all I’ll fall apart.  It’s the same thing with my grades, honestly.  

10. What do you do when you need to relax?

I run 2 miles every morning, and sometimes I go for walks at like 2am to just.. breathe you know.

11. Tell me something not a lot of people know about you! <3

I say I’m over Doctor Who but last week my roommates were watching a movie starring David Tennant and I almost started crying because his face and voice are so nostalgic for me.  Did you know he’s been cast as Crowley in the new Good Omens series? I’m a little disappointed they cast well known british actors for the main roles (I would’ve preferred unknowns for A&C, then big names for supporting roles like the did in the American Gods show) but if they had to choose one of the big British names, I’m glad it’s someone I unironically love.

I’m tagging @morganzephyr @10-screaming-horse-figurines @yogdad @leggdad @bradh2os and anyone who wants to do this.

My questions:

1. What time did you wake up this morning?

2. If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would you go?

3. If you could live in any fictional universe (but like, as a normal person and not the protagonist), which would you choose?

4. What’s a band/show/etc that you loved as a kid and still love?

5. If you could kill someone and face no consequences, would you do it?  If yes, who?

6. How many people have you slept with in the same bed all crammed together? What size bed was it? 

7. If you had to be stranded on a desert island/planet/etc and you could have only one person with you, who would it be?

8. What fictional character would make the best roommate?

9. If you could relive your life starting at like age 10, and have the chance to redo your mistakes, would you do it?  

10. If work/school/etc wasn’t an issue, when would you go to sleep and wake up?

11. What position/blanket arrangement do you sleep with?

#ask meme #long post