#off screen kirk is turning purple

[lichqueenlibrarian]

Someone call the HR department.

[worfs-fabulous-hair]

It's time for the famed episodes I've heard alot about and to meet my favorite boy!

Series I'm currently on : the original series

Episodes watched: 02X01-02X02

Episode names:

Amok Time

Who Mourns for Adonais

Thoughts:

Amok Time

Ok so right off the bat they get into the fact that Spock's been acting strange , not eating , ect.

Chapel coming in with the plumeek soup ( please I don't know how to spell it it's a made up soup )

I wonder who had to throw that soup across the hall seems fun

Also it's kinda brushed over they Spock threatened to snap bones' neck and McCoy seems very amused by this threat

Screams at you like it's a violent threat (and by all means might be ) " I'M NOT FEELING WELL AND I WANT TO GO HOME"

Slightly new intro , this is the intro that I'm used to from childhood

He's not even getting reprimanded for being violent towards chapel he's just like " you never take a break , that's how I know something is wrong " , really Jim that's how you know something is wrong ?

Also the comment about how a woman shouldn't bring a man who isn't her husband lunch and that is inherently sexual somehow is just brushed over like it's nothing the 60s were wild

Why does he start shaking so bad the second that Jim leaves ?

CHEKOV !!!!

also the event that they were supposed to go to and took a detour from is now a week earlier then before

They decided to not detour to Vulcan

Spock changed the course back to Vulcan

Spock is yelling at Kirk to lock him in his room

Spock's getting a physical

Jim's gonna get the pon farr talk

" Spock's not gonna tell anyone what's going on not even you" " I'll make him tell me "

" the birds and the bees are not vulcans captain "

" haven't you wondered , how vulcans choose their mates ?" Jim looks so much like he's trying hide excitement and curiosity at that , like shatner played this man to be so gay

These little tidbits between Sulu and Chekov about the course constantly being changed is so cute

Kirk is really risking everything to keep Spock alive

Chapel's happy little smile when Kirk says they're going to Vulcan

" your face is wet"

Spock is flirting with chapel

Spock asking Kirk and McCoy to be his best men at his wedding

T'PRING

Imagine working with this guy for like years you consider him a close friend and then one day there is like video call in the middle of the conference and this woman comes on the screen and says hey to the guy and you ask him who that was and he just goes "my wife " like you should know that already but he's never once told you he has a wife like this shit is so wild

Marriage or battle to the death

All of those fucking bells

I love Vulcan wedding fashion all of the metallic clothing

T'pao talks like and looks like my grandma

Damn imagine showing up to a wedding and the bride rejects the groom before it starts and tells him he has to fight someone to the death or he'll die

Spock sounds like an edgy teenager while he's saying that Kirk doesn't know what he is getting into

Why is stonn always making that face it makes him look so stupid

Weapons wrapped in purple velvet

" oh so no one was gonna tell me this was a fight to the death ?? Until I already accepted that bullshit "

Oof the way he fell on his arm I know that's gotta hurt

Pulled that medicine out of now where

Kirk being handed different weapons and having the face of what the fuck is this , what is this for ?? Is the best

Kirk's dead

" tell Chekov to find the nearest prison so I can turn myself in "

Man t'pring is kind of a bitch

" I shall do neither "

Jim's alive

Look at that smile

And then he immediately pretends like he's not happy and excited

Ay ! T'pao coming through with helping the enterprise crew from being reprimanded by star fleet for going to Vulcan

" I don't know what your talking about I didn't have an emotional reaction when I thought I'd killed the captain not at all "

Who Mourns for Adonais?

Scotty's got a crush

Hey it's crazy hand and master hand

The giant hand has grabbed the enterprise

Does the hand belong to a giant phantom space baby ?

What's the name of that movie where they all have the flower crowns ?? Is it midsommer?

This floating head entity looks like he's from that

He's gonna crush the ship because they wouldn't listen to his bible reading

" you and your officers are invited but not the one with the pointy ears he looks like this one guy that I used to know who was sooo boring "

Man this lady hasn't slept in over 24 hours and they brought her along for this shit , I'd be so peeved off

" I am Apollo " " and everyone in Russia thinks I'm incredibly attractive , yeah sure bud"

" Chekov please not right now "

"earth women mmmmm"

Just , just this :

He's also not letting them leave because he wants to be worshipped

Apollo is doing some Cheshire cat shit

He's also basically throwing a temper tantrum

Chekov and Scotty are ready to shoot a bitch but can't

Damn Scotty just got back handed so hard he was sent flying

Apollo kidnapped Caroline

Wait how do they know that he's Apollo on the ship he only said so to the landing party after they got there

So according to this dude all of the gods left the planet rather through death or in search of new worshippers

" Spock's contaminating this boy jim "

Apollo shocked Scotty with lightning and is force choking Kirk

" like that cat in the Russian story "

"We're gonna sacrifice one of us so the just of us can jump on the off handed chance he doesn't disappear "

The plan has failed because Caroline jumped between them and basically did what those high school couples do when the boy gets into a fight and then the girl jumps in the middle and holds his face going " this isn't you babe , you don't need to do this , look at me babe I'm all you need "

" how old are you ? " " I'm 22 sir" " then I'll handle it by myself "

Like what does that have to do with anything

At this point the lieutenant probably thinks this is all a dream she hasn't slept in over 24 hours and hasn't had any coffee either

" your a human you need to help out your fellow human "

Why do they keep having the women of the ship falling in love with a very obviously terrible person they have known for only a few hours

" Tell me more about yourself " " what more is there to tell I am Apollo " " yeah but like tell me about your childhood , your hobbies there's got to be more to you then just what your name is " " but ... I'm Apollo??"

" I've been studying you this entire time , your nothing more then a test subject" lmao get wrecked

They destroyed his shit and now he's real mad

He became so depressed from rejection that he died

I like how gods just exist in star trek like that's just a thing

[bearsinpotatosacks]

Sleep Deprived- Day 13- Bones Whumptober

Bleep. He never knew such a sound could be so heavenly. It wasn't anything particularly special, just the screen to clock out. But after working over sixteen hours in another catastrophe, it was the best thing he'd heard all day. 

The corridors were empty. Lights were low and there were few sounds around him, leaving just the hum of the engine in the background as he made his way back to his quarters. He hadn't seen Scotty much today but by the sound of the engine, he and his crew had fixed everything.

He wondered if he'd be bothering him when he went to bed, since he and Scotty shared a bathroom. Leonard wouldn't mind seeing someone after the day he'd had. He hadn't seen anyone but patients today. This meant he'd seen Jim. It was practically guaranteed when a crisis happened. That kid was so accident prone. 

There had been plenty of engineers cluttering up his sickbay. Red shirts torn with blood mixing into the bright shade or burns turning purple. They'd been hit pretty hard during the main dogfight that caused all the carnage.

The incident itself didn't last too long. It was quick but painful. Their enemy had weaker weapons, they thought it would be easy to avoid confrontation. But it appeared these 'weaker weapons' made up in precision for what that lacked in power. And the Enterprise was just a test run.

From what he'd heard, the bridge crew had finished on time. Chekov would've gone to engineering to help Scotty, the little genius was mastering that too, Spock helped on the corridors with first aid and Jim faced admirals. He tried to bury the bitterness there, he was tired, that was all, no gripes about his job, just him being a crotchety old bastard.

This fatigue, not physical but in his patience, was nearing its end. He put it down to needing shore leave but the same anger resided when he got back. If anything, the time away distracted him from all the issues he'd left on the transporter.

He sighed and placed his head against his door. Wait? His door? He looked up and a smile flickered onto his face, quickly going. If he was at his door, that meant his bed wasn't too far behind.

Just as he went to pull off his shirt and brush his teeth, his PADD blinked on with a message. 

All Senior Crew report to Conference Room 3 for debrief on yesterday's crisis at 07:30 hours- Captain Kirk.

Leonard stopped as his shirt was halfway over his head. He looked at the time- 7:00 hours. Perhaps he could have a small nap before he went? Or he could just not go and request a few medical staff who'd had adequate sleep to take his place?

He couldn't do that to Jim, he'd requested Senior Staff and, damn his loyalty, he had to be there. 

As he reached for the replicator to get a cup of coffee, he had time for this, maybe not sleep, but caffeine. He'd have to tell Jim what he was sacrificing. Sometimes he thought he sacrificed too much for that kid. 

"I need all your reports within the next few days and I need them to be detailed, Starfleet want to know everything about these new weapons and who used them against us. They don't want to be caught off guard,"

Jim lent on the table, giving a harsh look to the others before he turned back to his presentation. Leonard was sure that it was made by Spock with how long and in depth it was. It was also the smug look on Spock's face that told him this.

Other staff in the room were Scotty and Uhura, plus the other team leaders that he didn't know too well. They were all taking notes, their backs straight and eyes sharp- they were awake. If any were tired, they definitely weren't as tired as him.

He hoped no one had picked up on his empty document on his PADD, or his drooping eyes and slumped body. Every now and again he'd take a sip of water, but it was slowly turning room temperature, so it's shocking cold was losing its effect. 

"Bones, are you paying attention?" 

"Of course," he resisted an eye roll.

Jim side eyed him before going back to the board. He tried to pay more attention but couldn't really bring himself to care when all he was missing was Jim going through every single shot fired at them in meticulous detail. 

This is why Leonard was a doctor. He didn't care where they'd fired or how frequently, he didn't care about the maths, he cared about the people it hurt, all this pointless violence. 

It also didn't help that so far into this meeting there was no reason for him to be here at all. There'd been no mention of sickbay, only a brief comment of how many injured and fatalities they'd had, but he didn't need Jim to tell him that. He was there for most of those deaths.

He let his eyes close, his heavy head rested on his hand as he slumped lower down on the chair. He'd checked, in one of the brief moments he had to breathe during his almost 24 hour shift, and saw that the bridge crew had finished at usual time, clocked out and helped with a few things on the corridors but left most people still working to themselves.

The sick acid of bitterness rose up again. Bury it, bury it, they're your friends, you're not bitter, he tried to calm himself down and felt the spike of emotion settle just as Jim snapped at him again.

"Bones, pay attention, I know this is boring but it's important, okay? We don't know who these guys are and if you're all briefed then we can use all your expertise to make sure this doesn't happen again," he looked him straight in the eye. "Stay awake."

He stared him down, watched him go back to the board, and what must be the twentieth picture of a point of impact on the ship, and closed his eyes again. Was this actually everyone being tired or was Jim just being extra bitchy today? He couldn't tell but it couldn't all be the Admirals on the tail that was stoking the fire.

"Bones! What did I just say?"

He jumped in his chair. Jim was leaning on the table again, his face red and the last shred of patience he'd been holding onto now snapped.

"You're falling asleep, again. Why are you being this unprofessional?"

The rest of the room turned to him. Bitterness climbed his throat again and this time he didn't have the heart to suppress it.

"Unprofessional? You're the one singling me out and being bitchy because people aren't interested in the thousand or so pictures and the same hull breach from yesterday,"

Jim went to speak. Leonard put up a hand.

"I know, I know, it's important, you've told a million times now that all of this is important. But if it's so important, why have it first thing in the morning before our shifts even start?"

"So you're all informed, you're the heads of your departments and I need to keep you up to date with all the information I have," Jim shouted. "Also, you should be alert, not falling asleep right in front of me!"

"Well maybe some of us are tired and your little presentation is the perfect boring bedtime story to get me to sleep,"

Jim stood back and rubbed his brow with his hand, "I'm tired too, Bones, it's not my fault you're a workaholic who doesn't let himself rest."

Something within him snapped. He thought he chose to work for that long? He thought that the medical crew liked doing vital work on barely any sleep, knowing that it just increases the likelihood of mistakes?

He saw the glimpses in medical ensigns eyes of regret when the hours after their shift ticked by. Deep rooted fatigue that was part of his bones after over a decade of working in hospitals. And this was the thanks he got? The Captain who supposedly tried to understand all his crew, grossly oversimplifying all his staff's struggles?

"How long did you work yesterday, Jim?"

"What?"

"How long did you work yesterday?"

His voice lowered to a grumble. He hoped he felt it in his chest. Felt the anger and venom in every word.

"Nine hours? Not including the meeting with the admirals," he didn't meet his eye this time. "So about ten, eleven hours? Why?"

"Check when I clocked in and out."

"What?"

He raised his voice, "Get your first officer to check when I clocked in and out,"

"Spock you don't have to do that," Jim said.

"It's alright Captain," Spock tapped his PADD as he accessed the staff files.

 "Bones, I think you're forgetting that I'm your Captain and I don't like your tone,"

"Oh! You don't like my tone," McCoy said, feigning hurt as he swatted his hand against his chest. "Oh I'm so sorry Captain, I'm sorry for standing for myself and my fellow 'workaholics who don't let themselves rest', next time I'll just stay quiet when you're being ignorant."

Jim raised his hand from his head, his anger was rising but he used that Captain's patience to hold his tongue.

"Bones, what's this about? Have I offended you, because I'm sorry,"

He didn't reply. With his arms crossed, he averted his eyes and waited for Spock to come back with the information.

"Captain, there must be an error,"

"What do you mean, Spock?"

"According to these files, Dr McCoy clocked in at 0800 hours, as per usual, but clocked out at 0650 hours this morning,"

Jim shook his head, "That can't be right,"

"It is, because while you were off talking to Admirals, I was in surgery, while you were all relaxing my staff were taking five or ten minute breaks while they worked overtime, while you were all sleeping I was dealing with as many small cases, appointments and last minute surgeries as I could," he lost his aggression but kept the spite. "So when you called this meeting, I was minutes away from collapsing bed after working almost a full day,"

He lent forward, "I'm gonna go to sleep now, I want any of my staff who worked three shifts or more to be given the day off, any staff who worked two to work the shift after their scheduled shift and any leftover can fill in the gaps, okay?"

Jim nodded.

"And I suggest you get to know us workaholics down in sickbay, because I know you can't cater to everybody but we're all damn sick of being forgotten,"

He moved swiftly to the door and felt a flood of guilt. He turned back, "I'm sorry for shouting though, it might have been a tad excessive,"

"It's alright, I needed the wakeup call,"

Leonard nodded and left, practically skipped away as he slipped down the corridors to get some well earned rest. 

This one felt a bit off but I tried to do all I could today (because I forgot about it, pre-writing really isn't helping 😅). Hope you're enjoying it though

[revisionaryhistory]

Three Days ~ 59

~*~Emma~*~

The lake had been fun. It was initially awkward, but after we loaded into the boat and were underway it got better. I snagged a spot up front in the bow. I was joined by three girls, now women, I’d known well in high school. We started by talking about our current lives and by the time we'd found a spot to anchor we were telling old stories and laughing through our memories. Once the four of us had reconnected the others were easy with conversations and groupings overlapping. An hour later it felt like old times. There were lots of pictures taken and we were texting them to each other immediately. I posted some on Instagram and sent some directly to Sebastian. I had no problem posting bikini-clad pictures of me in a group, but solo went only to him. I've never been one for posting me. It's usually an activity with people.

There was a dock near the southeast border of the lake for gassing up and they had a sandwich shop. Sandwich included hot dogs, hamburgers, french fries, and onion rings. We decided to eat at the picnic tables. Stowing food was more to pack up and could stink. We were relaxing and waiting for the last ones to finish when my notification went off. Chris Evans was asking permission to follow my account. Interesting. Approved. Not a minute later so was Chace Crawford. Also approved, but with a snarky DM about his pickup lines. He'd hit on me at Kirk's wedding. Very unsuccessfully.

Emma ~ Tell Chris hi and nice to meet him.

Sebastian ~ We’re not talking about you. Much. Ok, we are. Sebastian ~ We're mostly looking at pictures.

Emma ~ The ones on your phone are much better than IG

Sebastian ~ Chace will be the one to figure that out.

 Chris DM'd me, “Can't wait to meet you in person. Hearing very sweet things.”

I sent back, "A few are true. He exaggerates."

"Yeah, he's got a huge crush on you."

"Nice to know."

We watched sunset out on the water. It was beautiful. The haze and clouds made for muted pinks, purples, blues, and grays. I took a dozen of those hoping to catch the perfect one. I was in a group of people, but the sunset had me feeling lonely. It was fleeting and I was back into the party spirit quickly.

Amy thought it was a good idea to take everyone back to our house for a pool party. I did not agree. Our parents were home babysitting their granddaughter and we were about to invade with a hoard of drunk friends. All of whom were inviting more and asking them to pick up booze. It felt very high school and in need of at least a phone call. However, it was Amy’s idea and no one wanted to hear from me last night. I wouldn’t be calling ahead.

I went inside to go to the bathroom and ran into dad. "What's all that noise we just got Katie in bed?"

"Amy invited some friends back to the pool."

"You’re teenagers again."

"Seems like it."

"Try and keep it down."

"I will tell her." Not my party. Not my crowd control. I did my business and went back outside. Amy was making out with Max in the pool. I tapped on her head, breaking their kiss, "Dad said to keep it down."

They went back to kissing. I'd deemed my message delivered and headed to the bar, putting in the code and retrieving a bottle of tequila. When I stood up, I was surprised to see Kai on the other side of the bar. Kai was the boyfriend who broke up with me after rehab. Kai's hands were shoved in the pockets of his swim shorts. He nodded toward the group, "Amy said you'd be ok with me coming. I wanted to check."

My current plan for Amy’s death was drowning. She was already in the pool after all. I pasted a less than genuine smile on my face, "It's fine, Kai. It was a long time ago. How are you?"

Kai was very southern lawyer attractive. Thinking back, he always had been. "I’m good. I did become a lawyer. Work for a firm here in Alpharetta. I got married three years ago. Her name is Melanie. We're expecting a baby in January."

"Congratulations. That’s wonderful."

He nodded, "Thank you. What are you up to?"

"I teach first grade, love it. I play in a volleyball rec league. My best friend's in a band so I go into the city and visit. My boyfriend lives there too."

Kai laughed, "I might have heard about him."

"I bet. He's a good guy. Lots of fun and good to me.”

"Better than I was, I’m sure."

Ah! This was going to be some sort of apology. I cringed and pulled up my shades for a second, "Well Kai, you did break up will me three days after I got back from rehab. You kinda failed at supportive boyfriend."

"Yeah, I did. Sorry. In hindsight, it was a shitty thing to do. Bad timing and a lie of a reason."

"I knew that."

"Sorry. I’ve always felt guilty."

I smiled, "It was a long time ago, Kai. We've grown up. We're both doing well."

"I wish we could go back to friends again. We were friends since middle school."

I don't think he realized that made it worse. We’d been friends before we were anything else and none of that mattered when he left me. It didn’t matter to me now. “I stopped being angry with you a very, very long time ago, Kai. Forgave you for leaving me when I needed you. But there’s no reason for us to be friends now. I come back a couple of times a year. You and I are strangers now. And while I have forgiven you, I’d never trust you again.” His guilt is not a reason for me to welcome him back into my life.

“Wow.” He looked surprised.

I smiled, “I wish nothing but the best for you.”  I leaned back to see under the bar and brought up a couple of glasses. “Drink to old times?”

He looked surprised again. “Yeah, Em.”

“Good.” I poured the tequila and tapped my glass against his. “To happy memories and years of fun times.”

We both drank and he walked around to my side of the bar. It was my turn to be surprised when he hugged me, “I wish nothing but the best for you too, Emma.”

I patted his back, “Thank you.”

Kai let go and walked back toward the pool.

I tell you what, this has been the strangest visit I’ve ever had and that’s saying a lot. I’m starting to get paranoid about what the next three days are going to bring. I poured another tequila and questioned my decision to not hop back on a plane last night. I could be home in my bed or in the city tucked into Sebastian’s bed waiting for him to get home or out with Eli and Angie. All preferable to this mixed bag of what the fuck.

I hung out for another hour before letting Amy I was heading to bed. Family day was supposed to start at about noon. That gave me time to sleep in a little, go for a run, and shower before arrivals started. Of course, because I had time to sleep in, I woke up at my normal time. I texted Sebastian, saying good morning, and was pleasantly surprised when his face showed up on my phone.

“It’s morning, but good is a stretch.”

He looked a little rough, but still handsome. “Good night with the boys?”

Sebastian nodded then winced, “Very.” He filled me in on his night. There’d been lots of laughs and he gave me back story on any conversations. I liked watching him talk. In his hungover state, he was less animated than usual, but his expressions and eyes still conveyed a range of emotions. I laughed at the late-night stories. My favorite was Chris edging between Chace and Sebastian in the bathroom, sharing a urinal with Seb because he couldn’t wait.

My stories weren’t nearly as funny. It’s possible things got out of hand after I’d gone to bed. I’m sure Amy would fill me in. I told him about the conversation with Kai.

“Ouch, you’re tough.”

I rolled to my side, putting the phone against the pillow, “It’s not my responsibility to ease his guilt.”

“True.”

“If we were going to be around each other my response might have been different, but there’s no reason. Haven’t seen him in twelve years, likely won’t for at least that long. We talked at the party, laughed. We’re just not going to be friends.”

“No, no, I get it.” He was shaking his head. “I think you might still be a little angry.”

I laughed, “Maybe I should have been less direct. I wasn’t expecting to see him. More indifferent than angry.”

“I don’t know if you should have. I just don’t want to be on the receiving end of your directness. The indifferent version.” He smiled with his using my word instead of his “angry”. “You were pretty direct with Drew in the bar too. I like you having a little bite.” He looked like he was thinking and I stayed quiet. “You are incredibly kind until you’re not. I mean, I think you give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but once they cross over the line where you don’t trust them you have no problem putting them in their place. That’s a good thing. Sometimes people don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.”

“Ed tells me I let people get away with too much.”

“Do you think so?”

“Sometimes. I can give too many chances. It all depends on how much I care about someone and the size of the bad behavior. I think I’m usually direct and kind at the same time, but when I’ve had enough, I’ve had enough.”

“I tend to sugar coat too much. Then get pissy when nothing changes and sometimes it’s because I wasn’t clear.”

Now I had a question. “Are you sugar-coating and think I was mean to Kai?”

“I was imagining being on the receiving end. I wouldn’t have liked it, but, no, I don’t think you were mean.”

“You’d have to fuck up a lot.” Sebastian’s opinion was important. “I’m direct with the good stuff too.”

“I know you are.” His blue eyes lit up with his smile. “I always know where I stand, how you feel.”

Not always. Not right now. “You read me bedtime stories when I’m sad.”

“And you ask me what I need when I’m anxious.”

“Quite the pair.”

“Yes, we are.”

We just looked at each other for a long time. “Your flight is at three.”

“Twelve, moved up to squeeze in a dinner tonight.”

I looked at the time on my phone, “You need to get to the airport.”

“Yeah.” He turned the camera where I could see his bags. “All packed. I’ll call you when I get back to the hotel for our date.”

Our phone sex date. I smiled and kissed my screen, “I’ll talk to you later.”

“Definitely.”

I laid in bed for a few more minutes, just enjoying being happy, before I got up and got dressed to go for a run.  Mom and dad were already downstairs having coffee. I walked around the table, kissing both of their cheeks, “I’m going for a run before everyone gets here.”

Mom nodded over her cup, “How late was everyone here last night?”

I shrugged, “I went to bed about ten. Long day in the sun and then old friends showing up. I was done. Kai showed up. That was less than fun.”

“You left your sister to manage all your friends?”

Notice how they failed to ask how I was after an unexpected visit from my ex-boyfriend. I know I did. I thought about the conversation with Sebastian and what he’d said about some people not deserving the benefit of the doubt. The other night was the first time I’d been so confrontational with my parents in a very long time. Like since I was sixteen right before I moved to Seattle. I took a deep breath and tried to pull in some of the calmness I’d had upstairs in bed. “Guys, we’re almost thirty, not thirteen. Hopefully, we’ve grown out of getting so drunk we knock over patio furniture and throw up in the pool. If not, they are Amy’s problem. They are her friends, not mine. She invited them over. I haven’t seen most of these people for over ten years. And are you telling me in addition to not talking too much about my boyfriend or anything else that makes me happy, I am also expected to babysit my sister?”

“Emma, you’re overreacting.”

Again, with the fucking overreacting. I’m not an overreactor. If anything, I’m an underreactor. I’m positive I’m not overeating here. I guess it’s nice to know it’s not they don’t like Sebastian and don’t want to talk about him. They don’t want to talk about Kai either and I know they liked him. I muttered, “Unbelievable”, as I headed for the front door.

I ran far longer than I'd planned.

It took a long time to calm my mind and get into the zone. What often happens once I let go of my thoughts and get into a rhythm is that the thoughts organize themselves. When I stopped or during cool down I could see things more clearly. What I saw when I slowed my pace to a walk wasn't pretty. It had been my choice to leave rehab when it was no longer good for me. It had been my choice to call Ed to get me away from here when it was no longer good for me. I don't remember my parents favoriting Amy before that summer. Twenty-three days that strengthened me and weakened Amy. Broke my family and gave me a new one.

Choices, even ones that are good for you, have consequences. A tangled web of choices and consequences have led to now. This isn't my home. My parents' focus, as it had been since I went to Seattle or before, was Amy. I didn't agree with how they sheltered her, but I hadn't been here. In their view I was strong, I was fine, and they didn't have to worry about me. I had another family to worry about me. When I thought about it like this, it made sense. I'd left because being here was a threat to me. Now me being here was a threat to Amy. The situation was fucked. We'd all done the best we could. We still were. If what I'd told Sebastian was true, I wouldn't change anything if it meant I didn't know Ed, Jill, Olivia, and Harper. I had to accept the negatives too. I don't know what that means for the future, but as Ed tells me I put up with things too long sometimes.

I arrived back at the house as everyone was finishing breakfast. I'd separated myself from family time by taking a run. Or maybe I'd taken a run because I was separate from my family. I poured a cup of coffee and joined them at the table, helping myself to the container of Greek yogurt and covering it with berries. Blueberries for Sebastian and raspberries for me. That made me smile.

After I showered Amy and I went to pick up my grandparents. Amy told me what happened after I'd gone to bed, including her and Max having sex on the big round double lounger. I told her... nothing. I didn’t tell her about my fights with our parents, I didn’t tell her about the conversation with Kai. I most certainly didn't tell her about my phone sex date later with Sebastian, the early morning just woke up FaceTime, or how he'd read me Winnie the Pooh until I fell asleep. I hated it. I hated how yesterday we were back to talking like sisters and today it was not. Again, my choice, but I knew she’d tell our parents, which under any other circumstance would be fine, but I could not take any more. I could, but I didn’t want to.

The back yard easily held the gathering of aunts, uncles, and cousins. Kids played in the pool while adults talked with glasses of sangria and bottles of beer. The last stragglers were finishing their drinks when Katie crawled into my lap. She wanted me to take her to bed and read her a story. When the book was done, she curled up next to me, looked up, and said, "I love you, Emma."

I kissed her nose, "I love you, too.”

I joined my parents and sister in the family room. Amy explained they hadn't known how long I'd be with Katie and had started a movie without me. I lied and said it was fine, I'd seen it. There couldn't have been much left when “Dancing Queen” started playing from my phone. I stood up, "That’s Sebastian. He's in Canada. I'm going to take it upstairs. See you in the morning."

Mom yelled after me, "We need to leave at nine-thirty."

"OK." I connected the call, "Hey, baby, how was your flight and dinner?"

"Bumpy."

"Which one?"

"Both." His laughter was a balm that smoothed away the roughness of the day. "How was the barbeque and why can't I see you?"

I shut the door behind me and switched the call to video. "I was waiting until I could get you alone."

Sebastian put his arms across his chest, "What kind of a boy do you think I am?"

"A very handsome one." The top three buttons of his white dress shirt were unbuttoned and his tie hung loosely around his neck. "Damn, you look good."

"So do you."

I was in a plain peach t-shirt. He didn't care. To him, I looked good. I went back to his question, "It was fun. Caught up with lots of family. Watched kids in the pool. Mostly sat with my grandparents. Granny was happy to hold my hand and tell me I’m beautiful."

Sebastian's mouth dropped open in a gasp, "I like doing that too." He turned his head to the side looking over my face, "You don't look sad, but you don't look happy either. What's going on with you?"

I looked up for an answer, "I am accepting the reality of the situation. This isn't really home or really my family anymore. Their priority is Amy."

His face fell, "I’m sorry, baby. What can I do? What do you need?"

I smiled a real smile, "Nothing I don't already have." I could see he was struggling to believe me. "Since we were sixteen, they took care of Amy and Ed took care of me. I didn't realize exactly what that meant. Amy is doing better than she ever has. I always thought that when Amy was better." I stopped myself to figure out how I wanted to say this. "It took me coming home while things are good to realize it doesn't matter. Even if she is fine it's all a house of cards. I expected at some time things would be normal, but it won't be. I am changing my expectations."

"How do stop expecting your parents to support you?"

Good question. "You know why Jimmy and I broke up."

"He cheated."

"My parents do not. Amy didn't until Friday."

"Why not?" Sebastian's sadness for me was tinged with anger.

The list of things my parents didn’t know was long. "Just telling them we'd split. I felt like I might drown. The way they wanted to baby and take care of me felt like an anchor around my neck, like I was incapable of surviving a breakup. When I came here for Christmas, they had all these ideas for my life, but they never asked what I wanted. I knew if I told them he'd cheated it would be ten times worse. Does this make any sense?" It wasn't completely clear to me so how could it be to him.

Sebastian rubbed his fingers over his beard, pulling at the grey patch. "I hurt my knee once. They told me to take it easy for twenty-four hours, ice it, stay off it. Then I had exercises and had to move. Walking hurt like hell but it was the best thing if I wanted to heal. Your parents wanted you on bed rest when what you needed was PT. Support to get on your feet. Support should help, not cripple you."

"Exactly!" I smiled and ran my fingers over the video version of his face. "So not having their support isn’t new. I am working on accepting that's not going to change." I watched Sebastian bite his lip and let it slip free. "What's that about?"

"I feel lucky to know you. I'm so fucking proud of you. You don't get stuck in self-pity; you dig yourself out. It's the difference between seeing yourself as a victim or just someone who had something bad happen. They keep Amy stuck and Ed taught you resilience."

My heart stopped and I forgot how to breathe. Not in the good way. In the almost a panic attack way.

"I can do that with work, most things. Relationships." He scrunched up his face and rocked his head from side to side. "I'm learning."

"I'm not always good at it either." Sometimes I needed my ass kicked.

"That’s ok. I'll be here to help. You're still learning too."

I felt a slow smile form across my face and Sebastian raised an eyebrow. "Aren't you supposed to be teaching me something tonight?"

I fought back the laugh at the way he squeezed his eyes shut and scrunched up his face. It took a good ten seconds for him to come back to me. I let go of the lip I was biting, "You ok there?"

"You cause me physical pain." He chuckled and smiled looking at me.

I don't think he minds all that much. "Where's it hurt, baby?" I dropped the tone and volume of my voice.

He made the face again and pointed his finger at me. "Turn off the camera."

My eyes went wide, "Why?"

"The first time I watch you get yourself off is going to be live."

"You have a lot of phone sex rules, Bastian." Still, I switched the phone to voice only. My screen went dark. I pouted. Not that he could see.

"Stop pouting and tell me what you're wearing."

I resisted the urge to tell him if he let me turn the damned camera back on, I'd show him. I didn't need to be taught how to do this. I was confident I could wing it just fine. What I didn’t know was if this was to be purely descriptive, giving each other instructions, or a role-play. It didn't matter. Any would be fun.

"I have on a peach t-shirt. It's not tight, but it fits against my body. Soft. My shorts are white. If you listen close, I bet you can hear me unzip them," I moved my phone lower to make sure he could. I left the phone by my hip, "I'm going to go ahead and take them off. My legs are smooth against my fingers."

"Take off your shirt too. Tell me about your bra and panties." His voice had taken on the timbre it gets when he's turned on.

"Nothing special. No one to see them. Simple white cotton. They do look nice against my tan."

"Next time we're together I’m licking those tan lines."

"Mmm, I'm looking forward to that. Tell me about you."

"Dressed from dinner. Black pants, long sleeve white shirt, black tie. You saw. Tie undone. A couple of buttons open and sleeves rolled up."

"Unbutton them all, but leave your shirt on. I like you undone. What’s going on with your pants?"

"They're tight. I’m not completely hard."

"Take them off. Rub yourself over your boxers. I love feeling you grow in my hand or my mouth. Your skin is so soft."

"Spread your legs. Touch yourself. Over your panties. I want them wet.” I heard a change in his breathing. Subtle. “I’m hard. Had to adjust my boxers. My cock's up toward my stomach where I can rub the underside. Feels good." He let out a little moan and I could easily imagine the little smile on his face.

"Take your cock out. I've got my hand over my pussy. Massaging myself. Warm. Panties are a little damp. I can tell I'm wet though. I can feel it."

"What's it like, Emma?"

"All the blood’s rushed between my legs. There's an ache, a throbbing, almost like I can feel my heart beating. An itch I need to scratch."

"My hand's around my cock. Slow strokes along the whole length. I flip my thumb over the tip every so often." His breath caught. "Hits the spot, you know the one, sends a jolt, like a shock through me. Feels even better when it's your tongue."

"Fuck. Your talking has me squirming. My hand is in my panties. My middle finger sliding from my clit to inside me. So slippery. How tight is your grip?"

"Tight. Not stroking my length anymore. Turned my hand around where my thumbs against the vein. Holding tight above the middle to the edge of the head. Feels good. Thinking about you touching your clit."

"Moving up and down, kind of slow. Tightening my muscles like you're inside me."

Words stopped, but it wasn't quiet.

Our breathing had synced up and there were these little catches, sighs, and soft moans.

"Faster and firmer now."

"Me too. I'm close."

I might not be able to see him, but I knew exactly what he looked like. His face, his body, were starting to tense.

"Feels good. Not as good as you touching me. Not even close."

"If I was there, I'd put my hand over yours. Feel how you like to be touched. So, I can match it. I'd kiss along your neck, taste you. My other hand, my fingers, barely touching your side, over your hip, across your thigh." The last word was interrupted.

" Em... fuck... yes..." Then a few seconds of silence followed by a long sigh.

"Where are you, baby?"

"Unhooked my bra. Nipples so tight."

"Perfect for me to suck on. I'd use my teeth. Run my hand up your inner thigh. Touching close. I can look down and see you touching yourself. God, how much I want to shove your hand away and taste you. Make you come."

"Oh fuck... Bastian." Everything tightened up then let go.

His voice was in my ear, "Turn your camera back on."

When I picked the phone up off my chest his face was already there. I hit the button and saw my face appear in the small rectangle. "Now you want to see me." I stretched with a contented sigh.

"I always want to see you after you come. The way your mouth is open and you lick your lips. Beautiful."

I rolled to my side, "What's an orgasm feel like for you?"

"Tonight. Mmm, for a while it just felt good. Like any touch, nothing special, except the where. Only more. Then it's like a switch. Goes from feels good to oh shit this is amazing. Starts where I’m touching and spreads down to my balls and lower stomach, base of my spine. It's like tightening a spring until it can't anymore and just let’s go."

"Is sex different? The orgasm."

"Oh yeah." His smile and eyes told me he drifted away a little. "I'll tell you all about it next time we have sex." Sebastian raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"Similar. Like you said just feels good. More of a building for me though. Sometimes it's a slow steady increase. Other times like stair steps. I have to remind myself to relax or I clench my butt and thighs too much."

"I've noticed this. You start to rise off the bed and I have to hold you down." He was clearly enjoying the memory. "Does it change how it feels?"

I nodded, "Tightening up takes the focus away. Eventually, everything gets warm, tingly, and tightens up. Finally, it's like a wave breaking on the shore with muscle contractions."

"I feel those."

"I like the resistance of having something to hold onto." His eyes had questions. I had to search for a workable metaphor. "If you're sitting in a chair and lift your foot you can feel your thigh tighten, but if you're on a leg machine with weights you feel that muscle more."

Awareness hit him, "Really?" I nodded again. "I knew you liked, but I like knowing the why." He laughed, "I love these talks."

I joined in his laughter, "It is fun."

"Hang on a sec." He laid his phone next to him and I could hear him moving around.

"What are you doing?"

Sebastian picked his phone back up, "There was a mess to clean up."

It is so sexy that he told me this. The whole conversation is sexy. Lying in bed a thousand miles apart having a casual chat about a not at all casual topic is sexy as fuck.

"What did you use?" I was amused.

He looked at me with disbelief. Not sure if it was the question or that he was going to answer. "My underwear. They were nearby." He stood up and lifted the tie as he walked. "Can I get rid of this now?"

"Do I get to see your bare chest?"

"Do I get... ok well, there we go. Thank you."

I'd shifted my camera lower and flashed him naked breasts before he finished asking. I moved back to my face, "You're welcome."

He held his phone out where I could watch him free his arm and be shirtless. I made an appreciative noise and he asked, "Enjoying yourself?"

"I am." I hadn’t intended to lick my lips. "I'd like to lay by a pool with you. Or a beach."

"Easily arranged." He stretched out on the bed. "What haven't we done that you want to do?"

"In general, or sex."

He shrugged, "Sex is the topic. Tonight anyway."

"I want you to give me a full body massage that veers off track to a happy ending."

"That will be just as much fun for me." His face showed his interest. "I want you to tie me to the bed, blindfold me, and do whatever you want to me."

I sat up enough to take my bra off, giving him another peek "We're going to need a weekend locked in one of our bedrooms."

"My weekend is free. I think I have company coming Thursday."

"My departure time keeps creeping up to get to you sooner.”

He sang, "Oh what a lucky boy."

“Pretty soon I’ll get there before you, waiting on the floor outside your apartment.” I got hit with a memory, "We need to talk about your birthday. What do you want?"

"Well, that depends on how you feel about birthday sex? I like birthday sex. Not a deal-breaker, not my preference, but fun for a change."

He stretched out on the bed and stuck his phone to his leg. I could see chest up. I propped my head upon my hand and adjusted my phone. "I'm speaking from limited experience here." Sebastian tried very hard not to smile. He failed, but he tried. "You're such a man."

He stopped trying, "You're such a woman." His laughter was a wonderful sound.

"Less than good experience the first time because neither of us realized the amount of prep work required." He winced. I shrugged. "Next time I’d researched. I liked it, he didn't. He was too in his head, worried about being dirty. Then there's you. I knew what I was doing more in theory than practice."

"You should feel free to practice on me anytime you want." He cocked his head to the side. "You can come in and brush your teeth while I pee, but that's as far as I want to go there."

"Women have complete conversations while trading places in a bathroom."

"The group bathroom break cracks me up."

"We don't want to stop talking or want to talk about a cute guy in private."

"Mostly the last one." He wasn't wrong. "Oh..." he shook his head and pulled his eyebrows down, "not into period sex. But you've got an IUD. Do you even have a period?"

"Nope, happy side effect." Condoms eliminated the need for the birth control talk. "How do you know I have an IUD? Can you feel the strings?"

"My fingers are up there a lot."

I smirked, "You're dirty."

"About to be dirtier. Turn off your camera."

[feathersandphantoms]

I started writing this before I’d seen that people were tagging Walter x Lance as Walance, but didn’t want to change my idea so I just went with it anyway. Also, I didn’t mean for this to be over 1.8k, woops. So most of it is under the cut.

Operation: Launch the Ship

Walter’s stomach grumbles hungrily as he approaches the break room. He’s thankful it is already noon, because he is super hungry after working all morning on his latest project. He’s about to walk into the break room, when he hears his name spoken from inside. It catches his attention and he stops walking, standing just outside the open doorway. He knows he shouldn’t eavesdrop, but no one should be foolish enough to gossip in a shared office space if their conversation was not meant to be overheard. So, he listens in.

He can barely hear Eyes and Ears arguing over the whir of the microwave.

“It should be Walster! It makes more sense because Lance usually goes by Sterling.” Ears argues.

“But you can’t just combine first and last names! That’s like against the rules!” Eyes says defiantly.

“There are no rules!”

“Well, there should be! Then you’d see, it should be Wance. It concisely combines their two first names. It’s perfect.”

“That’s terrible! It sounds like a child talking. I say it should be Walster.”

“Come on, you know Wance is a better ship name. You’re just too stubborn to admit it!”

Walter cringes. Neither Walster or Wance are ideal. And, he realizes with a sigh, if they’re talking ship names for him and Lance, they’ve probably been gossiping about their relationship, too.

Walter and Lance have been dating for three months. While they haven’t kept it a secret, they have tried to keep their personal lives as separate from their work at the agency as possible. They’re professionals and don’t want their relationship to interfere with the important work they’ve been doing in their newly founded branch of the agency.

Walter waits for a break in Eyes and Ears’ conversation before wandering into the break room nonchalantly, as if he hadn’t just overheard their heated discussion. He grabs his lunch bag from the fridge and decides it’d be better to eat at his desk, where he can wallow about the lamentable options available for his ship names in private.

After Walter rushes through his lunch, he tries to focus on his work to take his mind off the office gossip. He is currently developing a Version 2.0 of his multi-pen. His first multi-pen tool has been a hit with field agents, as it is so easy to hide the gadget in plain sight. The new model will come with advanced safety features and four new functions. It’s nearly finished, with just a few more adjustments needed to the Bubble Blaster setting before he sends it to the prototype lab for testing.

But even his excitement over the improved multi-pen isn’t enough of a distraction from the terrible ship names that Ears and Eyes had debated. By the end of the day, he feels a heavy grey cloud of disappointment hanging over him that even a dose of Kitty Glitter can’t cut through. Hoping that a low key night in with Lance will improve his mood, he rushes to pack his pens and notebooks into his bag before heading home.

Coming home does not improve his mood. He still is in a strop about the ship names as he empties the dishwasher and prepares dinner. He’s unusually quiet as they eat.

“Is everything alright, Walt?” Lance

“Yeah. Just some stuff at work bothering me.” Walter brushes off his concern. It’s just a silly nickname, why does he even care? Lance probably wouldn’t care.

“Alright. But, you know, I’m here if you want to talk. Or if you need me to blow someone up.” Walter flinches and Lance quickly tacks on, “With non-violent glitter bombs, of course.”

Luckily, Lance seems to drop the subject, turning the conversation to the flight training he did with Lovey and Marcy. Lance describes how Marcy ended up in the trash can while practicing a loop-di-loop maneuver and it has Walter in stitches, bad mood nearly forgotten.

After dinner, they settle in, such a quiet night together watching tv and talking about their days. He curls into Lance’s side, resting his head on Lance’s broad shoulder and is ready to forget about all the stresses from his workday. Until Lance finds a rerun of a Star Trek episode, which brings back all the same worries about the state of their ship name. As the episode plays on, his disdain for the proposed ship names his coworkers had created returns. He sighs deeply as Kirk and Spock interact. Spirk is a great ship name, short and catchy and not infantile. Not like Wance or Walster.

“Okay, what’s up.” Lance turns, jostling Walter from his position, forcing Walter to sit up and look at him.

“Nothing.” He deflects.

“Don’t “nothing” me. You’ve been weird since I got home. Did I do something?”

“No, of course not. You didn’t do anything. I just overheard something at the office. It’s fine.”

“It’s not fine if it upsets you. Who do I need to fight?” He puffs his chest up protectively.

“No one, calm down.” Walter pats his chest, then smooths a crease in his shirt down as he adds, “It’s not even a big deal.”

“If it’s not a big deal, then you can tell me.” Lance pesters.

“It’s just that I overheard Eyes and Ears talking about our ship name. I don’t know why I’m upset. It’s so embarrassing.” Walter covers his face with his hands.

“Ship name? Are you building a ship in the lab?” Lance gets overly excited.

“No not a ship- ship. Like a relationship.”

Lance looks so confused, like he’d never heard that term before. “Oh, you’ve never heard of shipping!” Walter laughs at the realization. His boyfriend’s ineptitude for understanding pop culture is enough humor to raise his spirits a bit. Of all the things his smart, strong spy boyfriend can do, from catching the bad guy to turning into a literal bird, he’s still completely clueless when it comes to pop culture.

“Why are you laughing?” Lance pouts. He never likes to be the butt of jokes that he doesn’t understand.

Walter just laughs harder. It reminds him of the night he had to explain to Lance how memes worked. But eventually, he catches his breath and explains, “Shipping is when someone thinks two or more people should be in a relationship.”

Lance’s brows furrow. “We /are/ in a relationship.”

“Let me finish. A ship name is usually a combination of the people’s names, like a shorthand way to reference them. Like Star Trek,” Walter points at the television. “Lots of people think Spock and Kirk are in a relationship, so they call them Spirk.”

“Spirk,” Lance repeats skeptically.

“Yeah. So, like, I overheard Eyes and Ears arguing about it today and I realized that we don’t have a good ship name.”

Lance has a blank look on his face, like something isn’t quite making sense. Walter knew he wouldn’t understand why it upset Walter. “Never mind. I told you it was silly.”

“No, no. It’s not silly if it’s important to you. I’m just trying to figure it out. So, it’s like a code name?”

“Kinda?”

“Well, what’d they come up with? It can’t be that bad.”

“Walster and Wance.”

Lance grimaces. “Oh, those are bad.”

“Yep.”

“Why don’t you just make up one that you like?” Lance asks.

“I can’t just make up our own ship name!” Walter throws up his hands in frustration. “There’s like rules against that! It’s a name bestowed upon the couple.”

“Oh.” Lance falls silent. The characters on the tv screen fill the silence between them. Walter doesn’t know what’s happening on screen and doesn’t even attempt to focus on the episode, mind still stuck on his own personal travesty. If only he could hint at it, or get someone else to use a better ship name.

That’s it! Walter sits upright, eyes widening as the perfect solution comes to mind. “We could do it!”

“Do what?” Lance asks.

“Create our own ship name.”

“But you just said you couldn’t.”

“But, what if they didn’t know we’d picked our own? We are spies, we should be able to infiltrate the gossip network at the office and implant a better ship name without anyone finding out.”

Lance is still skeptical, his eyebrows raising as he tries to catch up to Walter’s thoughts.

“Come on, it’s a win-win. We can pick a name we like, and no one will know it was you that did it.”

“Do you even have a name picked out?”

“Well, I was thinking Beckling. You know, like Beckett and Sterling. It’s short and catchy. And cute!”

Lance rolls his eyes subtly. He can’t say that he loves that choice, but he is endeared by his boyfriend’s enthusiasm. And though he may not understand ships, he can tell this nickname means something to Walter. After weighing a few pros and cons, he comes to a decision.

“I guess.” Lance reluctantly acquiesces.

“Alright!” Walter pumps his fist in the air excitedly. “Operation: Launch the Ship is on! But, we’ll have to work fast before one of those awful names sticks.”

Walter quickly withdraws a notebook and an ink multi-pen from his work bag, eager to plan a fun mini-mission with Lance. It’ll be sorta like when they first met, just the two of them working together. “Let’s begin!” He clicks on the purple ink button with gusto!

The purple button, however, does not activate his favorite purple ballpoint. Instead it launches a stream of bubbles from the tip of the multi-pen. Walter watches in horror as the activated Bubble Blaster quickly fills the living room with a sea of foam. He must have accidentally brought home the unfinished multi-pen 2.0 instead of his favorite multi-pen. Unfortunately, as he was still tinkering with the design, there was no way to shut off the Bubble Blaster until the multi-pen ran out of ammo.

Finally, the multi-pen finally fizzles out and the last sudsy drops spill out of the end. Walter’s cheeks flame red, embarrassed to have accidentally brought another of his unfinished inventions into Lance’s house. It’d been two weeks since the last incident, and Walter had promised to be more careful. He is afraid of how Lance will react to this latest mishap.

“Walter… are the bubbles part of the operation?” Lance asks, tone unreadable.

“No…” Walter turns back to Lance, hoping that he isn’t too angry. Instead of anger, he is surprised to find the most adoring look on Lance’s face. “But they could be, if I can fix the multi-pen 2.0 in time.”

“I hope so. I think the bubbles could come in handy.” Lance says. Then he leans in and wipes a bit of foam from Walter’s cheek with his thumb.

There’s never a dull moment with Beckling. And they wouldn’t have it any other way.

[the-a-word-2214]

╭─────────────────╮

A night at the Drive-In

James Hetfield x OC

A/N: This is based on an actual experience that Metallica and friends, minus Lars, had. I’ve changed some details to fit the story. Spoilers for the evil dead if you haven’t seen it.

667 words

Oneshot

Veruca and James’ first official date was in the summer of ‘83. Kirk, Cliff, and Scott Ian had all decided that they were finally going to see the infamous Evil Dead that had been released two years prior. They had always been so busy with band rehearsals and the production of Kill ‘Em All that they never had the opportunity to see it when it was originally released. When the trio had heard that it was being shown at their local Drive-In, they freaked. James had caught word of it and figured that it would be a good opportunity to share some quality time with this awesome babe who he’d recently met.

So there they were, Veruca and James had just pulled up to the middle row of the “theater” in James’s 1967 Barracuda Plymouth Fastback. In an attempt to calm his nerves, James has already had one and a half bottles of beer. This was enough to give him a buzz and help his confidence but not enough to intoxicate him yet. The pair crawled on top of the hood of the car, their hands barely touching.

Kirk, Cliff, and Scott were all piled into the backseat of Scott’s car that was facing the screen. As the movie started, James had already smashed his most recent beer bottle and had fetched another. The purple-haired girl gently touched the blonde’s hand in an attempt to get closer to him.

When the movie reached the part where Cheryl is attacked by the trees, Veruca’s hand flies over the singer’s eyes when her breast is exposed. He laughs as he removes her hand once the scene is over. “What is it? What happened?” The girl simply shakes her head. “It was nothing...” James shrugs off her response. The other two members of Metallica were happily watching, occasionally popping popcorn into their mouths.

Towards the climax of the movie, Shelly had just been possessed and Ash was simply standing there with an axe in his hand. James chuckled to himself and threw another bottle at the screen shouting, “pussy!” Kirk and Cliff walked over to him and hit him playfully. “Dude, shut up! We’re tryna watch the movie.” Kirk scolded him. By this point they were all a bit tipsy except for Scott who was driving his friends back to their house. Veruca had decided not to drink, knowing that she would probably have to drive James home. She’d barely known him for more than a day and a half and she could already tell that his drinking habits were out of control. That was typical of them, though.

Now nearing the end, the movie had turned out to be scarier than Veruca had expected. She gave props to the special effects guy, he did a great job. She loved horror movies but this one was freakier than she’d originally thought it was going to be. Out of fear, Veruca buried her head in James’s chest. He laughed as he put an arm around her. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. I thought you liked movies like this.” She nodded and lifted her head to look at him. “I do but this shit is scary.” He chuckled as he leaned in to kiss her nose. “Well, I’m here to protect you from the demons.” She smirked at him as they both leaned in to each other.

It was a quick kiss but it was definitive to them in the sense that they knew that the date had gone well. When they broke for air, they simply rested their foreheads together. “Well, shit, that was nice.” James laughs and he wraps an arm around her shoulders.

Before they left the theater, James and Kirk fist bumped each other. It was rare that James would get a girl because the only ones who were after him weren’t his type. This one was different. It was embarrassing for him because she had to drive him home but other than that they had a good night.

╰─��───────────────╯

[tomeandflickcorner]

Episode Review- The Real Ghostbusters: Station Identification

Awesome, we got another fun episode! And with plenty of pop culture reference/parodies to boot!

It’s once again a period of low paranormal activity in the city, as the Ghostbusters haven’t gotten any calls in three weeks.   To try to alleviate the boredom, Winston and Peter begin a game of ping pong.  But their game is quickly brought to an end when Slimer eats the ping pong ball. Which is admittedly odd, as the ping pong ball doesn’t exactly resemble any food product that I know of.  (Unless you’re Pac-Man, of course, but last I checked, Slimer wasn’t Pac-Man.)  I guess the implication is that he mistook it for a marshmallow.  In any event, Peter really starts laying into Slimer for this, yelling at him for ruining the game and his life.  Which seems like a REALLY extreme reaction.  Yeah, I understand the show’s ongoing dynamic of Peter being the least accepting of Slimer’s presence, and that he’s usually the first one to get cross with him.  But it’s a freakin’ ping pong ball!  They cost, what, 5¢ a pop?  Anyway, Slimer essentially floats off with his tail between his legs, so to speak, and Ray points out that Peter was too hard on him.  But Peter dismisses this statement, asking what Slimer ever did for him. (I guess he’s forgotten how Slimer saved their lives in the Citizen Ghost flashback.)

Anyway, that topic of discussion is put on hold when Janine enters the scene, announcing that she has just the thing to get everyone’s mind off the lack of activity.  With those words, she presents them with a miniature TV set that she apparently won from some TV show as a child.  Though she admits she’s not sure it still works.  (Then why did you even bring it to the Firehouse?)  Regardless, Egon plugs it into the wall, revealing that it does indeed still work when an image appears on the screen.  Ray instantly identifies the show as Leave It To Woodchuck, an obvious parody of the 1950s sitcom Leave It To Beaver.  Though Winston voices his amazement that picture is appearing in color when the program itself was in black and white.  The strangeness is raised another notch when Janine reveals that it’s a black and white TV set.

As this revelation is sinking in, the TV screen suddenly flickers and the titular character of Woodchuck suddenly is replaced by an anthropomorphic woodchuck which emerges from the screen a la Samara from The Ring franchise.  The Woodchuck proceeds to attack the Ghostbusters, until Egon and Winston manage to capture it in a Ghost Trap.  But it’s not quite over yet, as something else is emerging from Janine’s TV set. The Ghostbusters return to the main office area just in time to see a monster toothpaste tube escaping from the screen.  Because the TV was currently showing a toothpaste commercial.  They manage to capture this Toothpaste Tube Monster easily as well, and Egon quickly unplugs the set to prevent anything else from escaping. Winston jokingly asks Janine if she won the TV set from The Outer Limits.  That’s when Egon notices that the TV set had been tuned to channel 1, to which Ray points out that no such channel exists.

Of course, it then turns out that it’s not just a case of Janine happening to have a possessed TV set.  Calls suddenly start coming in, with people reporting that they’ve also witnessed ghosts emerging from their television sets.  So the Ghostbusters promptly head out to investigate, with Slimer deciding to tag along.  Much like the TV Ghosts they encountered at the Firehouse, the Ghostbusters have no problems in capturing the others that are now roaming about.

As they’re gathering up the loaded Ghost Traps, however, they overhear a loudspeaker announcement coming from a nearby dining establishment called Bobo’s Restaurant.  The announcement invites everyone to stop by, as the food ain’t bad, and they have the biggest TV west of the Hudson.  Which is a pretty strange tagline for a restaurant.  Like, yeah, our food’s just kinda so-so, but hey, we got a huge TV.  Do people normally go to restaurants just to watch television?  Of course, in this case it’s relevant as ghosts are coming out of TVs.  So if the giant TV at Bobo’s Restaurant is switched on, who knows what will come out?  For that reason, the Ghostbusters hurry over to the place to try and stop the owner from switching the TV on.  But they arrive too late, as Bobo has just tuned into Power Guy, a cartoon show that Ray states was based off of a toyline. Judging from the show’s intro, it’s easy to conclude that Power Guy is a parody of He-Man.  In seconds, Power Guy emerges from the giant TV set (though for some reason, the TV becomes his body), and he proceeds to attack the Ghostbusters with his giant sword.  After this goes on for a bit, Power Man creates this vortex in his TV body, which starts to suck up everything.  So the Ghostbusters have to try and grab hold of anything bolted down in an effort to keep from getting sucked up, too.  However, the wall mounted pole that Peter grabs hold of starts to become loose, putting him in danger.  Slimer, who had been lurking back in the Ecto-1 per Peter’s instructions, hears Peter’s cries, and he immediately jumps into action, entering the restaurant through the wall.  To save Peter, he manages to secure him to the wall with his ectoplasm, which seems to take up the properties of really sticky glue for this episode.  However, Slimer’s efforts in keeping Peter safe result in him getting sucked into Power Man’s vortex instead.  Curiously enough, the moment Slimer gets sucked up into the vortex, the TV is instantly replaced by Power Man’s actual body.  That’s kinda strange.  I guess it makes sense that the TV body vanishes the moment it successfully sucked up somebody, but since Power Man himself vanishes from sight mere seconds afterward, it does seem a bit pointless to even show it disappear at all.

Regardless, Peter, suddenly singing a different tune in light of how he realizes Slimer just saved his neck, vehemently vows that they’ll find Slimer and rescue him.  The episode then cuts to nighttime, with the Ghostbusters driving along in the Ecto-1, following the PKE trail.  As they continue along, the Ghostbusters surmise that perhaps the reason why all the ghosts have been so quiet lately is because they’ve been organizing together to form a pirate TV station and are using television sets as gateways, enabling them to easily travel to and from every domicile that has a TV.  Which is a rather ingenious plan, as just about everyone in the world has at least one TV set in their homes.  At least to my knowledge.  The PKE trail apparently leads them to Central Park.  Conveniently, the moment they arrive, a power surge erupts in the center of the park and a large tower emerges up from the ground.  As the Ghostbusters watch, the image of a purple-faced clown appears on a monitor affixed to the front of the tower, which is apparently supposed to be the ghostly television tower that transmits the ghosts’ pirate TV station called WBoo, the Big Boo.  The Clown, whom the Ghostbusters Wiki refers to as The Unreal Shriek Squeal, announces that at midnight, they’ll have gained enough power to transmit their ghostly broadcast to TV sets all over the world.  So now the Ghostbusters have a deadline to deal with, as they’ll have to locate and rescue Slimer AND put a stop to the Unreal Shriek Squeal’s plans before the stroke of midnight.  As such, they venture into the WBoo tower.  But the moment they do so, the Unreal Shriek Squeal apparently notices their presence, as he quickly separates them from one another.

And it’s here that the episode decides to have a bit more fun. Winston, as he’s trying to locate his teammates, runs into the ghostly manifestations of the crew of the Star Patrol, which is an unmistakable parody of the USS Enterprise, the ship predominantly featured in Star Trek.  And the crew members that appear before Winston are obviously meant to represent Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy.  (The Bones spoof even announces ‘We’re dead, Jim!’)  Meanwhile, Ray runs into Gumbo, who is clearly meant to be a combination of Gumby and Rambo, with Gumbo stating he’s looking for an orange horse (referencing Gumby’s talking horse sidekick, Pokey).  Both Winston and Ray manage to get away, and reunite with Peter and Egon.  (I admit I’m disappointed we never get to see what characters Peter and Egon encountered.)  As the Ghostbusters try to think of a better strategy than just wandering around aimlessly, they notice the unmistakable scent of food wafting through the air.  They decide to follow the smell of food, knowing that where there’s food, Slimer can’t be too far away.  Sure enough, they find Slimer in the company of a large cake that came out of a cooking show.  As one would expect, however, the cake comes to life and begins to chase after Slimer in order to eat him instead.  Peter quickly steps in and comes to Slimer’s aid, getting rid of the monster cake and other food creatures that are chasing after him.

Now that the task of locating and rescuing Slimer is out of the way, the Ghostbusters turn to the main problem of disabling the WBoo network. And time is of the essence, as it’s nearly midnight.  But because there’s so much interference from the ghostly energy permeating from the multiple programs, Egon can’t pinpoint the source of the ghostly transmission.  Fortunately, Slimer is able to help them out by directing their attention to a power cord running along the ground, with the Ghostbusters realizing that if they follow the power cord, they’re sure to find the source of the ghostly transmissions. Unfortunately, the power cords ultimately lead them to a wall, and since they’re not ghosts like Slimer, they can’t pass through it.  So Winston has to blast their way through with his Proton Pack.  (Surprisingly, the blast apparently cut through multiple walls, as the next shot shows the Ghostbusters making their way through more than one broken wall, making me wonder exactly how destructive of a setting Winston had that thing on.)

Finally, the Ghostbusters reach the room that houses the station’s dynamo.  But before they can do anything, the Unreal Shriek Squeal appears before them.  He basically forms a suit of armor of some kind by coating his body with various TV sets and other random objects and proceeds to attack the Ghostbusters.  Slimer attempts to face the enemy, but to no avail, as the Unreal Shriek Squeal effortlessly blows him backward.

At that moment, a ghostly pendulum appears on the scene to announce that midnight has arrived, so the Unreal Shriek Squeal begins to transmit the ghostly broadcast internationally.  And because he’s still covered with his protective armor, the Ghostbusters can’t hit him with their Proton Streams in order to stop him.  Fortunately, Egon gets an idea and tells the others to fire at the dynamo instead.  Because without the giant generator, the ghosts won’t have the ability to transmit their broadcasts to anyone’s TV set.  Upon seeing what they’re doing the Unreal Shriek Squeal starts to charge towards them. But for some reason, he doesn’t actually do anything to stop them.  Instead, he just drops to his knees and attempts to bargain with the Ghostbusters in an effort to convince them to stop.  Maybe the Ghostbusters taking out the dynamo was sapping him of his strength or something.  If so, it’s not very clear.  Anyway, the Ghostbusters manage to destroy the dynamo, which results in the Unreal Shriek Squeal to turn to dust, and the WBoo tower starts to crumble around them, with the Ghostbusters making it out just in time, allowing them to celebrate their victory.  And on that note, the episode fades to black and the end credits start to roll.

I absolutely love all the parodies and spoofs that we got in this episode.  Though I do wonder how much those references will hold up today.  I’ll be surprised if kids watching the episode today aren’t able to pick up on the Star Trek spoof, as Star Trek is a rather timeless and easily recognizable franchise. And I suppose He-Man is still somewhat relevant, as Netflix is currently showing the She-Ra remake.  But do kids today know about Gumby or Rambo? And especially Leave It To Beaver?  Because that show was even before my time, and I know nothing about that show other than the fact that it existed.

That aside, I’ll say it again. The plan the ghosts concocted in this episode was very clever.  Because while there would certainly be some groups of people who wouldn’t be affected by their efforts as they don’t have access to TVs, either through personal choice or financial/cultural reasons, TVs are mostly universally owned.  So if they succeeded, the ghosts could have effortlessly traveled to virtually every single country in the world.  Though I do wonder why their leader, the Unreal Shriek Squeal, took the form of a clown.  Wouldn’t a game show host have been more appropriate?  Maybe this was a homage to something that went over my head. I suppose that’s possible.

(Click here for more Ghostbusters reviews)

[darlingnisi]

Celebration 2019 VIP Day 4

Opening Session

They had outfits set up on the a stage in the soundstage. This day was particularly interesting to me as we got to see these up close

JD Steele sing along was Boys and Girls

Screening August 14, 2007 London

1999

Musicology

Cream

U Got the Look Shh

Take Me With U

Guitar

Somewhere Here on Earth

7

Forever in My Life

Revolution Panel

Moderator : Duane Tuhdal

Did P talk about Paisley Park when you guys were together?

“Constant desire by him to find a place where everyone could go”

(Then it just wandered a bit for them sharing stories”

“If you ever said no to him he’d be like ‘next’”

If you look at your watch around him he’d be like “You got somewhere better to go?” - Wendy

I tried to have a social life. He flew me to LA and picked me up from the airport. He said “Mark I know you have a band”. ( Mazarati) Mark would go to their shows in a mask to not be discovered.

Prince didn’t have to compete with anyone...he lived and breathed music and sound it was natural

“It’s all he lived to do” - Mark

He could play what he heard all in one take...would start with the drum track first.

Inspiration Behind All My Dreams : W&L took Prince to a Kid Creole and the Coconuts show. August came out with a megaphone...All My Dreams has that same effect

“Don’t take my personal stuff and make it yours...he had to dominate whatever it was...” Lisa on Prince’s inspiration

You all were around for about 3 years...do you consider 1999 a revolution album?

“1999 not really” - Wendy but she does consider SOTT a rev album

P workshopped Time/Vanity 6/Family songs with The Revolution “We were his muse”

Brown Mark is the pancake maker

Bruno’s Barbecue and The Loon were some of Prince’s favorite places 

Funny to go out to eat. P would order the entire menu and nibble a little of each.

Doritos were def a favorite. “you’d walk in the room and it would smell like toes”

What was it like when the phone rang at 3am?

“Don’t answer!!!” - Wendy

He had something hot “I’m cutting and you’re missing out! *click”

Hucky Austin sent to retrieve Brownmark “Mark You Know good and well I can’t go back without you...”

We hardly got paid anything, but we were there.

Bobby talked about being at a party for his wedding and at 10:30pm Prince called a rehearsal...the origin of Empty Room.

“His emotions turned into music”

BrownMark did a lot of the choreography for the Revolution in Purple Rain.

“We understood his emotions..we all went through it together as a brand new thing...” - On the Purple Rain hysteria

“He had amazing bands that played rings around my abilities, but we were greater as a group than as individuals”

“Matt gave him the most extraordinary hands you can ever have on a synthesizer” - Wendy

“The stages of grief don’t count when you lose someone like Prince.” 

 That’s for people you know who die of natural causes.

“I cannot reconcile that that man is no longer on this planet anymore..we’re all trying to get some sense of who WE were when he was on the planet. That’s why we’re all here in this room today.” - Wendy

“When he died, he gave us each other” - Wendy

Funk Soldiers Panel Moderated by Andrea Swensson Kirk Johnson Chance Howard Renato Neto Sylvester Uzoma Onyejiaka II How did the Funk Soldiers shows go for you?

Kirk

“You’ve been through the Prince school. You think about how people would be affected. If it’s a Prince celebration it should be him singing his songs. Not a hologram. He told me to make sure they never did a hologram. You have to think about camera angles and how he’d want to be seen...I don’t want to take the credit for it Prince already did the work”

“He mentioned that the shows are the same because it’s like how a tour would be done...you do the same show.” - On why the show was the same as last year though there was more footage of Prince this year.

Chance

Last year he got sick and went to the hospital with gall bladder problems so he was excited to be there this year.

“To have him on that screen looking at us, it was surreal” (They had a screen down below that they could look at).

Renato

Came in a few days before, just a few rehearsals and was ready to go

He thanked Kirk for organizing everyone

Sly

He found it a little sad, memories, remembering what it was like to be on stage with this man

Kirk

Couldn’t use NPG because it’s licensed. Wanted a combo band including members of The Revolution, The Time, and different iterations of NPG, but not everyone was ready or didn’t understand what the band was.

What did you take away from working with Prince

Kirk

Prince advice always “play it how I want you to play” it’s that way for a reason.

Chance

Prince talks to you to educate you and he talks to you to bring things out of you. 

John Blackwell, Renato, Rhonda were jamming and Prince invited Chance in the early days. Chance tried to show off. P looked at him like “really”? During a break P walked Chance up the steps in the NPG music room to a room that was a barbershop at the time and they talk... P : Do you have any children? C : Yes  P : How would you feel if I slapped your sun upside the head? C : Before or after I put you in the hospital P : Laughs, Seriously. You’re slapping my children upside the head right now. These songs are my children... Renato Never seen anyone love music like Prince. He was 33/34 when he started and he respected how much time Prince put in to be the best

Sly

12 hours a day 6 days a week for rehearsals

Made him conscious of how he appeared in public. “I can’t wear sweatpants at the store?” No you’re in my band.

He took demanding more to heart.

Kirk

P told him he used to sleep with his guitar. Wake up playing and playing himself to sleep.

Renato

P allowed musicians to shine...one time P left the stage for 5-10 minutes while Renato was soloing. He was looking around like “when are you coming back” and P was offstage laughing at him

Kirk

5 fingers in the air means $500 fine.

“He wanted to get away from playing the hits...he wanted the audience to allow him to grow”

Emancipation Sessions (There’s a screen of Emancipation liner notes on the screen behind them with a kid version of Kirk)

P’d just fired everyone. 

They spent a year recording almost 100 songs

Little boy Kirk was photoshopped to be in front of a soundboard, he was originally sitting at a kitchen table

Kirk’s brother presided over Prince and Mayte’s wedding

He was also the best man.

Chance

Played on Call My Name and was just told a few minutes before the panel that the song won an Grammy.

Did you realize the whole world was hearing you play?

When performing with him you’re so in the moment of wanting to be great and not wanting to mess up. You don’t think about it everything you’ve done until way after the fact. - Kirk

Superbowl was 10 days of rehearsals - Renato

Sly  Clip of Big City

When they got there they got to work transcribing horn parts for the music, they then rehearsed as a group, and then with the band

Prince would re-arrange them by picking different bars from different songs and telling them to combine them.

The Revolution Concert

America

Computer Blue

Mountains

Erotic City

Let’s Work (With Stokley)

Let’s Go Crazy

When Doves Cry

Raspberry Beret

1999

Sometimes it Snows in April

Purple Rain (Omar Nelson came out and kissed Wendy like Prince does in the movie)

I Would Die 4 U

Baby I’m a Star

[annoyedfanfiction]

Jim Kirk x fem!reader (7)

“Morning Len,” you smiled, tiredly, as Jim led you over to a table a month later. “Commander Spock. How are you both this morning?” You’d settled easily into a routine on the ship, that often found you and Jim watching the early morning stars together before breakfast. “Better before this hobgoblin showed up,” McCoy grouched, fondly, patting the seat next to him. Spock quirked an eyebrow, but made no comment. “Quite well, Ambassador,” he said to you, “The doctor and I were just discussing the growing popularity of ‘gossip’ that has joined us along with our new recruits.” “And what, exactly, does this gossip say, Mr Spock?” Jim asked, mirthfully, as he settled into the seat beside Spock. “Many things, Captain,” Spock answered, vaguely. “As is its nature. However, I do believe the most common topic concerned the relationship of yourself and Ambassador (L/N).” “He means the media shitstorm before we left off hasn’t left off us,” McCoy translated, irritably. “Really, we’ve an entire ship to run, floating through a vacuum that would kill us in seconds, and they don’t have anything better to do than discuss the love life of the Captain.” You sighed, twisting your apple miserably between your fingers. “They'll move on, anyway.” “I think we can safely say with their track record that this gossip will not make it to the press,” Jim pointed out, easily, toying with his second piece of toast. McCoy grunted noncommittally, then gestured at you both. “Are you two going to eat or just play with your food all morning?” he inquired, raising an eyebrow. “Shift starts in fifteen minutes, and you, kid, still have to accompany me to Medbay before that.” Jim rolled his eyes and bit into the toast, leaning across the table to place a buttery kiss on McCoy’s cheek. “I’ve got rounds to do, see ya later Bones,” he announced, wandering out of the mess as Bones wiped the butter off his cheek, muttering.

“Morning (Y/N)!” Nyota greeted, happily, as you entered the bridge and took your seat beside her. She tossed you a smile, turning away to tap at the console as a beep sounded. “Captain, we have a distress signal from Betazed,” she relayed, frowning. You quickly programmed the co-ordinates into your locator. “Co-ordinates?” Jim requested, turning. “8.56N -3.2W, sir,” she answered, immediately. “Remote village in the north eastern quadrant,” you continued, sending the location to Spock’s scanner. “Maidara.” “According to our records, no contact has been made in that area,” Spock added, frowning. “Signal source, however, indicates it is emerging from some kind of personal beacon established at the village.” “Take us into orbit, Mr Sulu,” Jim commanded, thoughtfully. “Uhura, set up a link with the capital, I want as much information as I can get.” “Link established, Captain,” Uhura answered, almost instantly. “Queen Zitaxna Troi, sir.” “On the screen, Lieutenant,” Jim ordered, gesturing Spock to stay at the scanners. “Uhura, (L/N), with me.” You both stood, coming to stand either side of the Captain’s chair.

“Captain Kirk.” The woman on screen cut an imposing figure, pale blonde hair contrasting with her black eyes, but she smiled. “We were not expecting you.” “Apologies, your Majesty,” Jim replied, politely, “We were intending to pass by, but our scanners picked up a distress signal from the north eastern quadrant. As a rule, Federation starships are required to answer any distress signals within reasonable safety parameters.” Her face tightened, visibly, and her smile faded. “We have been having some...problems in the remote areas of the quadrant,” she answered, coldly. “I assure you it is nothing we can’t handle ourselves, Captain. Thank you for your concern.” “You don’t mind, then, if we beam down a landing party?” Jim continued, as Spock approached him with a PADD showing scanner results. “Just for policies’ sake.” “It would be unwise,” Zitaxna answered, firmly. “There are significant security issues in the area. We will manage our internal affairs, Captain. I will answer any questions from StarFleet.” The PADD showed a variety of disease hotspots around the beacon, encircled within the village. “As you say, your Majesty,” Jim answered, inclining his head. “Would you mind if beamed down a small party to gather supplies from Rixx?” “Of course,” she said, relaxing her tight posture. “I look forward to it.” The link closed, and Jim leant back in his chair as silence reigned. “Mr Spock, send those results to Dr McCoy,” he commanded, finally, turning to you and Uhura. “Assessment?” “She’s lying,” Uhura answered immediately. “Whatever is happening down there, she doesn’t want the Federation to know about it.” “(Y/N)?” Jim prompted, turning to you. “I agree,” you shrugged, “She visibly tensed when you mentioned the distress signal. Unfortunately, a landing party could cause a diplomatic issue. Although, since you already suggested sending people to the capital, they have no reason for suspicion about our remaining in orbit. It is unlikely they would notice a second party.” Jim smiled, wryly.  “Excellent,” he said, popping out of his seat. “Mr Sulu, you have the conn. Commander Spock, Scotty, (Y/N) with me. Uhura, you’ll manage communications onboard. I think we will need your expertise.” Uhura returned to her post, grinning at you. “Good luck, (Y/N),” she laughed, easily. “I’ll call Dr McCoy and a security team to the transporter room, Captain.” “Exemplary as always, Lieutenant,” Jim answered, as the four of you stepped into the turbo lift.

“Alright, Spock, McCoy, Riley, you’re with me,” Jim commanded, entering the transporter room. “Hendorff, Jameson, Scotty accompany Ambassador (L/N) to the capital. Scotty, come up with something you need.” Scotty rolled his eyes, but joined you and the two security officers on the transporter pad. “Does he always operate on such limited instructions?” you sighed, materialising outside the walls of the city Rixx.  “Aye,” Scotty agreed, as you began your walk into the city. “Lot of freedom on this ship lass, long as you can predict the crazy master plan.” You laughed, turning to the two security men. “Phasers to low stun,” you instructed, “The Betazoids are our allies and will be treated as such until the situation requires otherwise. Scotty, I want you to keep a line open to Jim the whole time. Hendorff, keep in touch with the ship. We can’t afford to lose contact.” They all nodded, and you twisted your own phaser to low stun, tucking it back into the holster hidden under your dress. The city could have appeared directly out of Ancient Athens, with huge marble columns and brightly painted statues lining the path to the gates. You recognised the royal purple dresses on three of the queens atop the stairs as you climbed, surrounded by black-clad security.  “Your Majesties,” you bowed, lowly. “Ambassador (Y/N) (L/N) of the Starship Enterprise. This is Chief Engineer Scott, Lieutenant Hendorff, and Officer Jameson.”  “I am Queen Zitaxna,” Zitaxna answered, stepping forward. “My colleagues Queen Deanna and Queen Lwalla. You are not accompanied by your Captain?” She frowned, and the security guards edged in a little closer. The two other queens behind her leaned together, but you could not hear their words.

“The Captain is indisposed at the moment,” you assured her, stepping up closer, and lowering your voice. “With so many new recruits, there has been some trouble, the Captain took the opportunity of brief pause in orbit to attend to those matters. He sends his apologies.” She smiled once again, catching sight of the Ambassadorial rings on your uniform. “That is no matter, Ambassador,” she assured you, eyes still cold. “You must be the new graduate. I hear you beat the Kobayashi Maru simulation, Ambassador? You must inform us. Atrixa!” One of the guards stepped forward, obediently. “Attend to the needs of the Chief Engineer. Would you prefer to be accompanied by one of your officers, Ambassador?” You glanced over at Scotty, thoughtfully. “No, I believe Mr Scott will benefit better from their service,” you said, looking back to her. “The ship needs some intel hardware.” “Of course,” Zitaxna conceded, happily. Scotty opened his mouth to protest, but you shook your head slightly. “It was the comms console that needed intel refits, right Mr Scott?” you insisted, firmly, willing him to understand. He glared at you, but stepped back, nodding reluctantly. You could see the confusion in his face, but you could only hope that his genius extended to word play.

[per-ineptia-ad-astra]

starhearth: episode four

Second Month of Spring, Days 3-4

The snow stops falling in the night, and the next day dawns clear, but still cold. A few people sit together by the berry bushes as they eat what’s currently passing for breakfast. Thanks to the berries and the jerky from Uhura’s trapping the crew is in no danger of starvation, but no one’s exactly real happy about the quality of food they’re getting either.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy, Chapel and Rand sitting among the berry bushes, eating from plates of square purple berries.]

As everyone sets to their morning work, a new villager arrives. This one has 5 Mind, 5 Body and 5 Spirit, and the Courageous trait (they get a happiness boost after defending the town from enemies). That naturally makes them best suited to being a combat unit. This does raise the minor problem of what to name them; we’ve got most of the main crew here by now, and while there are any number of characters in Star Trek whose job it is to fight things, most of them don’t tend to stick around long enough to leave much of an impression. In the end, he gets named after one of the show’s more frequently recurring redshirts, Leslie. Leslie doesn’t ever have a first name mentioned onscreen, so I named him after his actor, Eddie Paskey.

[ID: A screenshot of Leslie, a villager with short light brown hair, fair skin and blue eyes. His character page is open, showing that his mood is Content, he has the Pioneering Spirit happiness buff, and he has a trait called Courageous, as shown with the icon of a little cartoon sword and the caption, “Courageous: Ed Leslie loves to save others, and puts the safety of the town as paramount.”]

In other news, Uhura has made it to Level 2, which means she’ll no doubt soon be bringing a lot of pets home.

[ID: A screenshot of a notification box titled Nyota Uhura has Leveled Up! The text in the box reads, “Nyota Uhura has achieved Trapper Level 2!” Below are three icons: a pink square with a cartoon rabbit with hearts for eyes, with a caption reading, “Charm Pet: The trapper will occasionally choose to turn a particularly fine animal into a pet!” a blue square with a red and white bullseye above a cartoon animal trap with the caption, “Job Opportunities: The trapper now qualifies for advanced jobs. Click the promote command for details,” and a red cartoon heart with the caption, “Max Health +10.”]

By the next day it’s warmed up again, but now it’s raining, which isn’t improving anyone’s mood much. McCoy sets out to go gather some more berry bushes and move them into the camp, but winds up falling asleep on the ground before he makes it all the way back.

[ID: A screenshot of McCoy sleeping on the shore of the lake with a berry plant in a pot at his feet. The info box at the bottom of the screen reads “Leonard McCoy—sleeping on the ground.”]

mood

We don’t have enough food and net worth to attract a new villager today, but never mind that right now, we’ve got another problem: water. We’ve run out of all the drinks that came with our starting rations, and with no other source of drinks, everyone’s getting pretty thirsty. (In my defense, this wasn’t even an existing gameplay mechanic the last time I played, so I completely forgot about it until the negative mood modifiers started piling up.) At the moment we don’t have the ability to brew up anything fancy, but we can at least dig a well for water.

The well is set to be placed next to the tavern, near the kitchen door. Only problem is, digging the well counts as a building project, and since the tavern was placed first, everyone’s prioritizing that. It takes pausing the construction of the tavern entirely before anyone—Leslie, specifically—will address the well.

[ID: A screenshot of Leslie digging a well outside the partially completed tavern walls. The unfinished well, a simple post with a bucket attached to a rope, hanging above a hole in the ground, is visible but transparent to show that it has been placed but is not yet built.]

Once (finally) started, the well doesn’t take long to complete. Soon, everyone’s stopping by for a nice cool drink of water.

[ID: 1. A screenshot of Chekov sitting on the ground next to the well and drinking from a simple cup. 2. A similar screenshot of Kirk sitting on the ground and drinking from a simple cup.]

But Kirk’s break is rudely interrupted by another attack. This time it’s a group of Entlings, who are much like the Stonelings except they’re little tree dudes instead of little rock dudes.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk holding his sword ready as he fends off four Entlings, which resemble blocks of wood with arms and legs, about half Kirk’s height.]

For some reason, Chapel decides this would be a great time to strike up a conversation.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk fighting the last Entling, with a red heart over his head that is three-quarters full, showing his depleted health. Chapel is standing behind him, while the info box at the bottom of the screen reads, “Christine Chapel—talking to James Kirk, Log-Splinter.”]

No, go on, I’m not busy or anything.

Apparently this distraction isn’t enough to deter Kirk from handily wiping out the Entlings. The achievement even earns a title for both him and his sword. Not sure who hands out these titles, but hey.

[ID: A screenshot of two message boxes overlaid together, titled James Kirk has achieved a new Title! And Practice Sword has achieved a new Title! The first box reads, “James Kirk...is now James Kirk, Log-Splinter! They killed 5 minions of the Wilds! Doesn’t that title have a nice ring to it? You can select which title one of your citizens is using by right-clicking their name in their character sheet or the selected unit window. The second box reads, “Practice Sword...is now Practice Sword of the Forester! It killed 5 minions of the Wilds! Doesn’t that title have a nice ring to it? You can select which title this item is using by right-clicking its name in the selected unit window. You might also consider giving Practice Sword a fancier name to go along with their new title by left-clicking its name in the selected unit window.”]

But the newly acquired accolades aren’t enough to make up for the rest of Kirk’s morning. He told a joke that didn’t go over well, his drink was interrupted so he’s still thirsty, and now he’s all scratched up too. What a lousy day! Now he’s glum too. So are McCoy and Chekov, but that’s probably just them being themselves.

[ID: A screenshot of Kirk’s character information window pulled up over the villager information window. Kirk’s mood is shown as Glum, with one positive mood modifier (“It’s raining...+3”) and five negative mood modifiers: “Very thirsty -8”, “Pain (Scratched) -6” “Tough crowd -5” “My meal was raw -5” and “Slept in a shared bed -2.”]

Apparently, the joke was told to Sulu.

[ID: A screenshot of Sulu’s character information page, showing that his mood is glum and he has several negative mood modifiers. One of them, “Had an unpleasant talk -3” is highlighted, showing the caption, “I can’t believe James Kirk said that!”]

The bad moods don’t last too long, though. Once everyone’s gotten a drink, they start to feel better. By evening, they’re all back up to content. Meanwhile, work on the tavern is progressing nicely; by now the walls are up and work has started on the roof.

Also, as predicted, Uhura has already brought home a pet: a rabbit, named Thumpy.

[ID: A screenshot of a small brown and white cartoon voxel rabbit sitting on the ground, with the crafting stations and stockpile behind it. The information box at the bottom of the screen reads, “Thumpy—befriended by Nyota Uhura.”]

Not really the choice of name I would’ve gone for, personally, but you do you.

[hangeladavis]

A Gift For You On My 30th Birthday

IT’S MY 30TH BIRTHDAY!!!!!!

This is an accurate portrayal of how I felt this morning when I woke up! 30!!!! WOOOOOOOOOWWWWWW!!!!! I have lots of feels so I made a playlist. Naturally. So here are 30 songs (+1 for good luck) that I love and a little bit about them.

Knockin on Heaven’s Door by Bob Dylan - My mom says that this is the first song that came on the radio when we left the hospital. Imagining that it’s the first song I heard is nice.

I Love Your Smile by Shanice - When I was a baby child, this was my song! Every night when my dad got home from work and walked into our apartment in Queens I would run to him and ask him to play my song and I would sing it. HARD! Mind you I was like 2 or 3 but it didn’t matter.

Fly Like An Eagle by Seal - Can we talk about the Space Jam soundtrack!? It was vibe to my 6 or 7 year old self and it still goes! I feel like this album was the first time I really heard music. And felt it.

I Wanna Be Down by Brandy - Ok so my dad got those Columbia House cds for 1c or whatever and the first one he gave me was Brandy’s self titled album. You couldn’t tell me nothing!!! Hairbrush karaoke on a million!

Bills, Bills, Bills by Destiny’s Child - When “Writings on the Wall” came out, I really tried to convince my friends to do a backyard performance with choreography and everything. They said no but it was then at 9 that I knew I wanted to be an artist, a director specifically.

We Can’t Be Friends by Deborah Cox - Another in the Columbia House cd collection, I played this album out and knew every word. I played it last summer after not listening to it for at least 15 years and still knew every word and every riff.

My All by Mariah Carey - “I’d give my all/ To have/ Just one more night with you” I had no real context for what I was singing but I used to sing this song so hard! I miss classic Mariah.

Kick Your Game by TLC - That Crazy, Sexy, Cool album was so classic and it was hard to pick one song but this was my jam!

I’ll Be There by The Jackson 5 - Now that I am older I question if I really want someone to be there with that much fervor after a breakup but when baby MJ sings “just look over your shoulders honey, oooh!” I feel it in my soul!

Dirty Diana by Michael Jackson - This song sends me. From the very beginning, to the beat drop. And when she grabs the phone from him and tells his baby “He’s not coming back/because he’s sleeping with me!” thats a moment. No one wants to be on the receiving end of that call but Diana gets what she wants.

That’s The Way Love Goes - JANET! Queen of the Whisper Sing! Duchess of Tight Choreo! I was way too young to be singing this song but I blame my dad. It’s a sexy jam and I don’t regret it.

Are You That Somebody by Aaliyah - When I was 10, some friends and I danced to this song at our elementary school. My mom choreographed it, we got matching outfits and we performed it. Another group of girls (who were admittedly more popular) danced to “Maria, Maria” and they wore matching cowboy hats. Naturally, there was a showdown on the playground over who was better. Naturally.

Just a Friend 2002 by Mario - Westbury Middle School! It was the best of times and the worst of times. Mainly the worst of times cuz middle school is hellish and there is nothing you could do to make me want to relive those years. But one of the sweet moments was getting a mixed cd from this boy that had a crush on me and this was the first song. Swoon It worked. We dated for a while. It was cute.

My Life, My Love, My All by Kirk Franklin - This is the first song I ever choreographed and it changed my life. I was 10 years old. I showed my mother the choreo and she said teach me. It was in that moment that she validated my artistry. That’s why can’t nobody tell me nothing. I have been doing this for 20 years!

Healing by Richard Smallwood - My mother choreographed this piece for the church dance ministry, Choresis, at Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt, NY. It was one of their most popular pieces and it gave my mother the outlet she needed to dive headfirst into her artistry. I learned how to lead, facilitate and hold healing arts-centered space from my mother and the women she danced with. Their labor made me possible.

Air Force Ones by Nelly - Back to Westbury Middle School, this song is to honor the Air Force 1s wearing preteen I was. Ooh girl…

Ready For Love by India.Arie - When this song came out I thought I knew what it meant and sang it as such. Girl. Girl Girl Girl Girl Girl Girl… 15+ years later and the only thing I know is that I don’t know very much at all. Also this song is very hetero and I am indeed very queer. lol

I’ll Write A Song For You by Earth, Wind & Fire - Family road trips were not complete without this song. We still sing this song like it’s our job. I knew we were getting older when my brother Jordan couldn't hit the high notes.

As by Stevie Wonder - This song. Whew. When I was 10, my mother and I were asked to dance to this song at the funeral of a baby that died. We did and afterwards I was tore up. I kept thinking about my baby brother, Aaron, who has just been born and how I would feel if he died. I didn’t listen to this song for years. Until I really listened to the words and thought about a love that transcends space and time. This song inspired me to write a musical based on Stevie Wonder’s music. And it is my favorite song by my favorite singer.

Breathe from In The Heights Musical - Fast forward, my senior year of college my parents gave me tickets for In The Heights for Christmas. My best friend Lana and I sat in the second to last row in this Broadway house and when this song started I wept. I mean completely lost it. Because she was singing my story. I was flunking out of college my senior year and hadn’t told my parents. I had been a top student in high school and graduated #5 in my class. But I didn’t have words to name my anxiety, depression and fear that I had no idea what to do with my life after school. “And what will my parent say?/Can I go in there and say/"I know that I'm letting you down” This song still makes me cry.

I’m Here from The Color Purple Musical - I’ll let the song speak for itself. “I believe I have inside of me /Everything that I need to live a bountiful life/And all the love alive in me/I'll stand as tall as the tallest tree/And I'm thankful for every day that I'm given/Both the easy and hard ones I'm livin'/But most of all, I'm thankful for/Lovin' who I really am

Back That Azz Up - Ha! This is my favorite transition. This song is for my undergrad club days at A&T and the Blu&White fam.

Boogie Oogie Oogie by A Taste of Honey - But I don’t actually club for real because I am a grandma that missed my era. I could dance to disco all night actually.

Seasons of Love from RENT Musical - What can I say? I’m a theatre kid. This is for A&T’s theatre department that taught me so much and made me so much of who and how I am as an artist. And Rest in Peace to the mother of our theatre department, Frankie Day.

Screens by Zoocrü featuring Al Strong - In 2016, I met a woman named Margaret A. Brunson who changed my life. (She has that effect on everyone) The first time we hung out she took me to an Kickstarter kickoff party for a band named Zoocrü. I had never heard of them before but as soon as they started playing I was like Who are these boys? I offered my administrative assistance for their campaign and it turned into more than I ever imagined. That offer is what pushed me into consulting and it’s been a joy to work with artists and creatives. I am grateful that our paths crossed.

Sunday Candy by Donnie Trumpet - My grandmother, my Nanny, Evelyne Marie Laisure Marshall passed away on September 29, 2017. Her living made me possible and her passing changed my life. I talk about grandmas so much because I dont know who I would be without her love. I miss her so much but I find her everywhere; in my red fingernail polish, in my card shuffling, in my baking, in my political analysis, in my care. And yes, in the candy dish in my living room.

F.U.B.U. by Solange - Last year I created a show called “Buy My Soul And Call It Art”. I had no idea what I was doing but my Nanny had passed and my cousin Michael had passed and the Universe was telling me to “do it scared”. This song was featured in the piece because I never wanted anyone to forget who this is for, who this is centering. “All my niggas in the whole wide world…”

I Want You by Erykah Badu - The second show in the trilogy is “Buy My Body And Call It A Ticket” and that show almost killed me. I had to go somewhere deep inside myself and that place is dark and scary and I wasn’t sure that I was gonna make it out. But I did. And what brought me back was this. “I want you.” I want my body. I want my life. I want my love. I want myself.

I Need You To Survive by Hezekiah Walker - Show number 3 (which will be rebooted) is “Buy My Art And Call It Holy”. Though I don’t consider myself a Christian, I cannot separate myself from my Christian upbringing and this is one of my favorite songs. When I sing it I am singing it out to my people. I am singing to you. “I need you/ You need me/We’re all apart of one body”

Never Would Have Made It by Marvin Sapp - Yall there have been times when I wasnt sure if I was gonna make it to 30. Seriously. Depression and anxiety is real. Sometimes it zaps the desire to be right out of me. But I am here. And I am so grateful. Here’s to another day, another week, month, year, decade!

Crazy, Classic, Life by Janelle Monae - Did ya’ll think there wouldnt be some Janelle Monae on here!?! This is my theme song! Let’s ride this thing til the wheels fall off!

[megamanxfanfics]

S.V - Ep. 3: The Earth Crisis Begins

-----------------------------------------------------------------

EXT. OUTER SPACE – The Affected Earth - DAY

-----------------------------------------------------------------

From Outer Space, the Earth is quickly coated in the purple Sigma Virus, spreading from North America to Canada. Spreading down to South America and across to Africa and Europe.  Soon the entire world is draped in purple, smothered with Sigma’s Virus.  The Space Colony, Eurasia seems to be in bad shape as well, with a visible explosion at it’s main entrance.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered, interference) Th…s… Hunter…ase… This is Hunter Base. Do you read me? Are you all right? Any damage?

SIGNAS: (o.s, filtered) Are you all right? X! Zero! The entire Earth has been thrown into a panic because of the Sigma Virus. It’s dangerous to stay there. Report back to the Base!

ZERO: (o.s, filtered) Damn it! Sigma! You will pay for this!

X: (o.s, filtered) Even if we fight, what good will it do? A battle won’t solve the problem.

- cut to -

[Insert Title Card - The Earth Crisis Begins]

-----------------------------------------------------------------

EXT.  HEXAGON CITY – Streets –DAY

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: 3:30 PM

Tau, Venzo and Takuma arise from the wreckage. Venzo and Takuma look around worried, while Tau stares at his blade in awe with a purple, wicked glare in his eyes.

He holds up his large blade, which now bears a dark aura and displays a Sigma logo.

TAU: Whoa guys. Check out this power up!

VENZO: (gasping) Tau’s blade has been infected!!

Takuma shakes his head.

TAKUMA: Not just his blade. Tau, too!

Tau looks at them with an evil grin.

TAU: Sorry, guys. But I just realized that you’ve both been holding me back all this time.

VENZO: What the- No! Tau!!!

Tau swings his blade right into Venzo’s stomach without hesitation.

VENZO: Auu-uu-ughhh…

Venzo falls and twitches on the ground as blood quickly leaks out onto the floor.

Takuma takes out his T-Hammer and stares at Tau with an unforgiving face.

TAKUMA: AAAAAAAGH! TAAAU!  HOW COULD YOU????

- pan to -

----------------------------------------------------------------- EXT. HEXAGON BAY – Waterfront Area – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

Recon Raccoon and his whole team of Special Ops look at the sky in fear.  What was once a simple celebration amongst their ranks had now become a confusing stir of panic.

FRENZY FOX: What the Hell is going on, guys?

TURIAN: It’s the Sigma Virus…  It’s… spreading everywhere.

RECON RACCOON: Holy shit. We gotta get out there, guys.  People need us.

BARYON: If I were you…  I’d worry about myself.

RECON RACCOON: Hm???

Without warning, Baryon blasts Recon Raccoon as hard as he can.

RECON RACCOON: HEY! What the Hell was that for??

FREEZE ALOPEX: He’s a Maverick!!!  Watch out.

SCORCHE: Shut up, Alopex!

He pulls out his flame whip and strikes her with it, hard.

FREEZE ALOPEX: Aaaaiiii!!!!

She gets knocked down, struck hard from the blast.

FRENZY FOX: HEY!!

He stands by her and helps her up.

Tethlon looks at the group and nudges Blizzard and Blaze to help out, but they do not budge.  They simply look at him with evil eyes and shake their head.

BLAZE: Stay out of this, Teth.

BLIZZARD: This has been a long time and coming… Hasn’t it, sis?

She just nods and pounds her fist.

BLAZE: Let’s settle this, right now.  Who is the strongest…  You?  Or me…

TETHLON: GUYS, are you kidding me!!?  DON’T DO THIS! Hold it together, will ya??

Turian pats Tethlon on the shoulder and shakes his head.

TURIAN: It’s no use. The Maverick Virus isn’t something you can just snap out of.

TETHLON: …Zero, did.

TURIAN: That’s a mystery that still keeps me up at night. Come on!

- cut to –

----------------------------------------------------------------- EXT. HEXAGON CITY – Streets – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

Takuma and Tau clash blade against hammer, pretty evenly matched.

TAKUMA: Hrrrh. Huhh. Haaah!!!  Damn you, Tau. I thought you were BETTER than that!!!

He strikes Takuma hard at the side, which causes him to fall down.

TAU: (hurt) AGH. I am better than this. I’m better than ALL OF YOU!!!!

TAKUMA: NOO!!!

He raises his arms to plant a finishing blow on Tau.  As he does so, Tau thrusts his blade directly through Takuma’s chestplate.  Takuma’s hammer smashes through Tau’s skull and bashes his body in half, as Takuma feels the blade rupture his core.

TAKUMA: GAAAAAAAAHHHHH…. N-n.. noooooo!

His body erupts, onto Tau’s broken corpse.

Just a little farther away, X and Zero run over to witness this horrible massacre.

X: Oh my God!

ZERO: They killed each other!!!  Our Elite Shinobis are gone!

X looks at his partner, sad and annoyed.

X: We’re on our own…

- cut to –

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. NEW MHHQ – Control Room – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

Signas looks at his screens, shocked to his core. His whole operation is falling apart. Just when things were starting to pick up again.

SIGNAS: I can’t believe this…  (v.o, thinking) Is Sigma really this powerful??

He turns to his dispatchers.

SIGNAS: Lucas, David.  Seal the doors to every room.  Hector, Kirk be ready to teleport all survivors on my command.

LUCAS & DAVID: Yes, sir!

Hector gasps and Kirk nods.

SIGNAS: I’m afraid we have no choice but to wait this out.  Some of us have been infected by the Maverick Virus, while the rest of us are forced to weed out the bad ones…

He looks at one of his screens and can see that Green Noir has been infected by the virus.

-pan to –

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. NEW MHHQ – Break Room – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

GREEN NOIR: (manic, evil) Hahahahahah.

He holds out a blaster to a nervous Oliver and Sierra.

OLIVER: Commander, please… Put the gun down.

GREEN NOIR: I’m in Command here!  And you’re either with me, or against me!!!!

He shoots Oliver and Sierra down, which immediately sets off Rho, whose attention was on the quarreling pups.

RHO: God DAMN IT, Noir!  That’s enoooouuuugh!!!!

He fires a drill from his buster, which pierces right through Green Noir’s heart.

RHO: Hmph…

Having quickly settled their dispute, he turns back towards the pups and witnesses Snowflake get killed by her brother Snowball.

Frostbite growls at Snowball and immediately attacks him.  With a flurry of tackles, bites and ice blasts, Frostbite eventually gets the better of his brother and looks up at Rho with bloody lips.

RHO: Stop right there, Frostbite.  Are you friend or foe…?

Frostbite twitches and looks at him with a dogged glare.

FROSTBITE: Don’t test me, Rho…  I just watched the last of my family die.

Rho immediately drops his guard and crouches down.

RHO: Then it’s just us…  I’m sorry, kid.

He pats his chest, welcoming Frostbite to come in for a hug.

Frostbite grimaces and slowly walks over to Rho. The two share a mournful embrace.

- cut to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- EXT. HEXAGON BAY – Waterfront – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

Recon Raccoon struggles with Baryon, who powers up with a dark new aura.

RECON RACCOON: BARYON! What’s gotten into you!!???

??????????: I am not Baryon…  I am ANTI-BARYON!!!!

He unleashes a dark new wave of power, which completely overloads Recon Raccoon’s circuits.

RECON RACCOON: Gaaaaahhhh!!!!  Damn it…

He tosses a pack of plastique at the overpowered Maverick.

RECON RACCOON: This should do the trick, you fucking asshole!!!!!

ANTI-BARYON: What the-

The Plastique sticks to his chest.

RECON RACCOON: Hit it, boys!!!

Turian and Tethlon look alert and they immediately fire at him with their standard blasters.

The plastique erupts into a giant explosion which overtakes Anti-Baryon, Recon Raccoon, Turian and Tethlon completely.

ALL: GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

From very nearby, Scorche and Frenzy Fox lock whips as the explosion erupts beside them. Fire and Electricity ignite as they take crack after crack at each other.

FRENZY FOX: What the Hell, Scorche!?  I thought we were friends.

SCORCHE: It’s not personal, man.  I just don’t like your sister.

FRENZY FOX: That’s no excuse to hurt her, you Maverick.

SCORCHE: I’m not a Maverick..!  I just don’t like any of you.  I never have.  And it’s about time I acted on it.

FRENZY FOX: (livid) …Screw this.

He unleashes his Frenzy Mode, which loads his entire body with a nova aura.

At a sonic speed, he dashes into Scorche and claws him with his burning sharp nails, right at the scar in Scorche’s armor.

SCORCHE: Aghh!!!

His torso separates.

FRENZY FOX: Singe and Scourge were cool.  But together, Scorche was an asshole.

Scorche furrows his brow at Frenzy Fox, helpless.

Frenzy Fox strikes Scorche with a final electric flash from his spark whip, which destroys his opponent.

He turns around to see that Blizzard and Blaze have cancelled each other out with their powers, and his sister is in bad shape.

FRENZY FOX: Is this really it???  …What’s become of us…?

He walks over to his sister, who hopelessly reaches out to him, in pain.

FREEZE ALOPEX: B-brother…

FRENZY FOX: Shh… It’s gonna be okay, sis.

He quickly com-links to HQ.

FRENZY FOX: Hunter Base, this is Frenzy!  We need Medical assistance. Stat!

- cut to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. NEW MHHQ – Med Bay – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

PSI: (dark, evil) Suuuuure. Come right on down… We’d love to heeelp.

Nurse Cassandra stares at her boss, afraid as he towers over her, holding her down against a hospital bed.

CASSANDRA: Psi, no!  What are you doing!!??

PSI: Oh, come on, dear sweet Cassandra. You can feel it too, can’t you? That electricity in the air???

She shakes her head with the utmost concern.

CASSANDRA: Something’s come over you, sir. Please, let me look at it.

PSI: (creepy) Mmm, no. I have something else for you to look at.  Come here, dear…!

????: eeeeYAAAAH!!!!!

Completely blind-sided, a Lifesaver comes to Cassandra’s aid, punching Psi square in the head.

PSI: (annoyed, irate) Huurhh..  How dare you!!?

He powers up and grabs his cane.

LIFESAVER: I’ll protect you, Cassandra.

She nods, quietly as she attempts to get her bearings.

The Lifesaver covers Cassandra, but Psi is too quick for him in his newly powered state.

Psi bashes the Lifesaver in the neck, which takes him down. Then,he whacks her with his cane three times until she is on the ground again.

PSI: Damn you, Cassie!!  I’ve always had feelings for you, and I’ve kept them repressed until now.  But now none of that matters, don’t you see!?  The World has gone Mad and everything is going to end. So why stop now!?

She shakes her head, in pain. If she could make tears, she would.

CASSANDRA: (struggling) N-no. We can’t..We can save it! I-I..don’t Feel that way for you! I never have!!  Now leave me Alooooone!!!!!

She struggles with the idea that the world is ending, let alone the idea that her superior wants to take advantage of her. She digs her nails in his chest and /slaps him hard in the face.

PSI: (struck) /Aaaah!!! If I can’t have you, no one wiiilll!!!!!

He deals a finishing blow with his cane, which causes her to power down completely.

At that moment, the Lifesaver is back up. He puts Psi in a full-nelson lock from behind and slams him down to the ground.

LIFESAVER: Damn it, Doctor!!!  You’re done!!

He/smashes him in the face with his/fists as he talks.

LIFESAVER: As /new /Head /Medic, I /hereby /relieve you of /duty!

He completely smashes his face into oblivion, as the soul that once was Psi,forever dies.

SIGNAS: (o.s) Good Lord. That’s it.

- cut to –

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. NEW MHHQ – Control Room – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: 4:00 PM

Signas turns to his command staff with a defeated look on his face.

SIGNAS: Unlock the doors. Send all the survivors, here.

Without a sound, Lucas, David, Hector and Kirk remorsefully comply.

In an instant X, Zero, Frenzy Fox, Freeze Alopex, Rho, Frostbite, Douglas, Alia and the Lifesaver are teleported to the room.They all look at each other with grief-stricken faces.  Frenzy holds his sister up who has been badly wounded.  Zero appears to have self-repaired as he still favors his arm, folding it tightly behind his good arm.

Their Base Commander lets out a deep sigh and begins to brief them.

SIGNAS: (regretful) I can’t believe what just happened.

RHO: Sir, what’s going on???

He pulls up a map of the World, which shows that the Virus has now scattered to South America and the other continents.  Zero, X, Alia and Douglas step forward to view this information at their Commander’s side.

SIGNAS: The situation is far worse than expected. Sigma’s explosion has spread the Virus all over the Earth. It’s affecting both people and Reploids.  

Video images are pulled up of the Police Forces amidst Newport, Salem and all of Hexagon.Various Officers are struggling to move and breathe as their armored suits become self-aware and seem to mechanize them in a horrific way.

X: (gasping) This is horrible…

SIGNAS: What’s worse, the Space Colony, Eurasia, is heading straight toward us.

He pulls up a satellite image of Eurasia, which has been mysteriously damaged from the inside. With an explosion at it’s main doors, the colony appears to be off balance, not in it’s usual point of orbit.

SIGNAS: At this rate, it’s going to crash into the Earth… in 16 hours.

The whole group looks shocked and afraid.

SIGNAS: Everything… Including Reploids and the entire human race, will be…… annihilated…

Freeze Alopex passes out in Frenzy Fox’s arms.

LIFESAVER: She’s hurt. I’d better look after her.

FRENZY FOX: Good idea.

They both walk for the door.

Rho and Frostbite look at their cohorts, then back to the awful report.

ALIA: We have no choice… For the sake of the world, we must destroy the Colony!

Rho and Frostbite look at the door again.

RHO: Hey, wait for me!

Rho runs after them and Frostbite quickly follows.

On Signas’ Monitor, an image of a large cannon is pulled up.

ALIA: …But the only weapon we have in the Hunter Base that still works is……the Enigma… And it’s very old.  

X: (surprised) You call 3 years, old???

She raises two fingers and turns to him.

ALIA: (snobby, matter-of-fact) It takes 2 years for technology to become obsolete.

X: What do you call me, then?

ALIA: …An ancient anomaly.

ZERO: (bothered) Can we get back to it?

ALIA: Certainly. We also have a Space Shuttle, but it’s been affected by the Virus, and the Auto-Pilot function doesn’t work…  

ZERO: Damn it!

ALIA: So we need someone to fly it to the Colony and let it collide…  It’s almost certain death, but we have no other choice.

Zero nods with a firm look in his eyes. X is concerned by this.

SIGNAS: How’s the condition of the Enigma?

Douglas uploads his data onto the Halogen Monitor, as this is his department.

DOUGLAS: Far from perfect…  In order to use the Enigma, we need to build it up with some devices. The Enigma doesn’t work as is.

SIGNAS: Under the influence of the Sigma Virus, a lot of Maverick Hunters have become Mavericks, and only a few Hunters remain normal. Let’s join forces with the rest of our brothers and complete the Enigma!

He walks around the monitor and puts a comforting hand on Hector’s shoulder.

Hector looks up at his Commander with a brief smile and then focuses back on his monitor as he pulls up information for the team.

SIGNAS: We only have 16 hours left before the collision! We have to upgrade the Enigma before then.  There are 4 Reploids that have the devices required to enhance the Enigma.  Hector?

Hector nods and pulls up a familiar mugshot of a gruff bear with a scar over his right eye. It is displayed at the top of the Halogen screen for all to see

SIGNAS: Grizzly Slash – a weapons broker.  He has a Crystal Ball.

ZERO: Hmph… I remember him.

A mugshot of Tidal Whale from the Repliforce is pulled up.

SIGNAS: Duff McWhalen – he lives in the ocean.  We will have access to Hydrogen if we can secure the ocean.

X nods, feeling hopeful for a moment. Then, an image of Volt Kraken is displayed on the screen, which causes him to actually quiver.

SIGNAS: Squid Adler – an Ex-Maverick Hunter.  He has an Energy Cart.

Finally, an unfamiliar image of a Firefly with a distinguished moustache is displayed.

SIGNAS: And this is Izzy Glow – a Doctor of Engineering.  He has a Laser Device that would benefit the cannon entirely.

SIGNAS: There are 4 other potential Mavericks from our list of Suspicious Reploids, but right now, these 4 are Priority! They are the only ones who have the devices to upgrade the Enigma.

They both nod in understanding.

The other 4 are displayed on the other side of the screen.  The only two recognizable suspects are Spiral Pegasus and Burn Dino-Rex of the Repliforce.  There is also a Rose-based Reploid and a Humanoid Bat that they have never seen before.

SIGNAS: X, Zero…  You are the only Maverick Hunters that can match these Reploids,should they fail to cooperate. Split up so you can gather the devices!

X & ZERO: Yes sir!!

X turns to his partner with a curious look.

X: Where are you gonna go?

ZERO: I think I’ll pay good old Grizzle a visit…  We have an old grudge to settle.

X: (smiling) Don’t have too much fun with this.

ZERO: (smiling) Hm.

He lets out a light chuckle as he chooses his mission.

X: Alright.  In that case, I’ll visit McWhalen.  He’s closest in vicinity and is probably the most willing to cooperate.

SIGNAS: (hopeful, proud) Good luck, men!  Remember that you can always check back on the devices you have acquired here on our Main Computer.  Douglas is quite the handyman and he might be able to equip power-up parts out of any materials you recover from your missions. Prepare your equipment and fulfill your mission!

ZERO: I don’t need any power ups…

DOUGLAS: You sure about that?  Your arm looks pretty banged up.

Zero smirks and walks over to Douglas.

ZERO: Hmph…  you think you’d be able to fix my Z-Buster?

He admittedly shows Douglas his defunct buster.

Douglas takes a good look at his arm, and inspects it carefully.  The cracks within his buster are corroded and completely rusted out.

DOUGLAS: Hm…  Maybe if we build it up with some new parts, but right now, I’m just not sure. Sorry, man.

ZERO: Figures… Thanks anyway.

He turns away and looks at David.

ZERO: Alright, I’m ready.  Send me to Grizzly Slash.

David nods and punches in the coordinates.  Within seconds, Zero’s body teleports away.

- cut to-

-----------------------------------------------------------------

EXT. KHETA XETA – Russian Truck Route –NIGHT

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: 2:15 AM – Russian Time

10 hours ahead of Hexagon time, it is well into the dead of night as Zero descends upon the back of an open trailer of a large armored truck. It is hitched to a series of other trailers by an array of light beams, but something isn’t right.  This truck seems more weaponized than it should; even for a Weapons Dealer. Zero must shut this operation down before reaching his target.

ZERO: (muttering) Grizzly Slash, what have you been up to…

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Destroy the Maverick trucks! Then you'll be able to reach the security warehouse.

ZERO: You mean, his whole truck went Maverick???

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Looks like it!

ZERO: (nodding) Right!

He dashes and jumps to the next trailer, where he climbs over to see a wheel-based rollin’ gear mechaniloid hop around.  Zero drops down to impale it with his Z-Saber. Then he moves on to the next trailer with another dash-jump.  Once there, two spikys bounce in his path, as a laser is shot at him from the truck itself.

Zero’s eyes widen, as he destroys the spikys and narrowly dodges the laser with a side-dash.  Then, he rushes over to destroy the laser gun, only to find that missiles have fired upon him, also from the truck.

ZERO: Jeez! What is with this thing??

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Sigma’s virus is awful…  I can’t believe what it’s done to everyone and everything on Earth, living and non-living alike.

Zero jumps to the front of the truck as more missiles fire upon him. He quickly dashes to the front of the vehicle, where he can see a giant blue mechanical core, which almost resembles that of an eye.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) The blue core you can see below you is the weak point. If you destroy it, the truck will begin to explode. But you'd better jump to the next truck before this one blows! Then, head to the end of the line.

ZERO: Right!

He carefully drops down to the front of the truck, where he rests his feet on the front bumper and proceeds to slash away at the core. The eye quickly retaliates with a large laser blast of energy.

ZERO: (hurt) Augh!!

He crouches and carefully slashes up at the core until he destroys it.  Just as Alia said, the whole truck explodes before Zero.  He turns around and jumps on to the next truck along the route, where a Mad Taxi is waiting for him.  

ZERO: Hmph…

This mad taxi unleashes missiles upon Zero as well as it’s unrelenting buzz saw arms.

Zero fearlessly runs into the missiles and slashes them, while attempting to dodge the buzz saw arms.  He bats them away and slashes the main cab of the tank with a swift three-hit combo.

Upon exploding, Zero can see the cannons of the truck fire lasers and missiles upon him again.

ZERO: Damn, this is gonna be a long night.

-cut to-

-----------------------------------------------------------------

INT. PACIFIC OCEAN – Surface Caves – DAY

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Caption: 4:20 PM – Hexagon Time

X teleports down to the surface of the Pacific Ocean near Hexagon Bay with hopes that he can find Duff McWhalen and convince him to allow them to siphon the ocean’s hydrogen into their Enigma Cannon.

He intakes a lot of water as he inhales deeply and exhales slowly, trying to keep his thoughts together. Then, suddenly a giant submarine creeps behind him, which catches X off guard.

X: Huh??

He runs away from the Sub-marine, unsure if it is friend or foe, as Alia com-links in to his ear-piece.

ALIA: Wow! It looks like the giant ship "U-555" is coming right at you! I don't believe it. It belonged to a marine museum. What an incredible influence the Sigma Virus has!

X turns around and notices that the U-555 appears to have developed a mouth with sharp teeth and four scaly cannons from the Sigma virus.

X: ...it's horrible

ALIA: I know, but so be it... To secure the sea, we have no choice but to fight against the U-555. Be careful not to get stuck on the complicated terrain.

X: (sarcastic) Great…

X clenches a fist and calls upon the power of the Force Armor.  With a flash of light his white gloves turn blue, and his blue armor transforms into a shiny white armor with blue, red and gold designs amidst his arms, chest, legs and helmet.

X: Okay… Let’s go.

He continues to run away from the machinated Submarine, which proceeds to shoot lasers at X from it’s scales and four dejira mechinolids from it’s mouth.

X: Hmph!

He charges up and destroys the four dejiras with one plasma shot. The residual plasma takes care of the rest, while the U-555 inches closer.

X notices that the plasma residue affects the top and bottom of the U-555 before they dissipate, so he charges up once again.

X: Take this!

He fires a plasma shot at the bottom jaw of the submarine, which overtakes the scaly cannons completely.

X: Alright!!

The top scales fire at X, while the bottom two re-generate, almost holographic.

X: What the-? Oh no!

X proceeds to dash further away, along the winding terrain. He charges up again once he reaches the bottom of a short tunnel.  Then he turns around and fires at the bottom lip of the U-555 once again. This time the plasma shot fully corrodes the scales to the point where two holes are blown off the ship completely.  Clearly showing signs of damage, the bottom scale cannons will not regenerate again.

X gasps.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Nice shot, X! Keep it up.

X smiles and charges up once again as he dashes away from the U-555   It spits out more dejiras, which chase after X.  He blasts them down, then finds himself at a short wall, which he must climb.

Upon climbing the wall, he finds himself at the perfect vantage point to blast away the top scales, which he does so with another Charge Shot.

Affected, but not fully destroyed, the scales regenerate, while X jumps away and moves on to higher terrain.  He has to contend with narrow corners, but he gets even higher than before, which is perfect.  He charges up once again and turns around.  With a confident blast from his X-Buster, he destroys the top of the U-555 at last.  Now the scaly cannons are completely destroyed, however the U-555 continues to pursue him.

X: (surprised) Damn, this thing won’t let up.

-cut to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- EXT. KHETA XETA – Russian Truck Route – NIGHT -----------------------------------------------------------------

Zero jumps from an exploding truck and air-dashes onto an extra large trailer from the truck. This one provides rigging, which holds up a ceiling to the construct, which makes Zero suspicious.

ZERO: What the Hell is he doing; transporting a lair??

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) I don’t know, but you have to stop him soon!

ZERO: Agreed.

He runs and takes a ladder down, inside the trailer. He destroys a rollin’ gear, then kick-jumps up to the next part of the trailer where a hover gunner and mad taxi await him.

ZERO: Hmph. I’ve had just about enough of these guys.

He destroys the mad taxi as the hover gunner fires at him. Zero ignores it and moves on to the next trailer.  After climbing a ladder, he notices a rope amidst the rigging above a set of spikes, which forces him to use his wire hook.

ZERO: Damn him.

Zero uses the wirehook and gets shot at from behind from the hover gunner he ignored, as well as a new one ahead of him.

ZERO: Agh. Damn it!!

He swats at both of them with his saber and moves on once they’re destroyed.  Making it to the other side of the rope, he is able to dash-jump over to the end of the trailer, which is more ordinary once again.  The front-end of the truck still fires lasers and missiles at him, however as a rollin’ gear mechaniloid turns around.

With a persistent glare, Zero dashes over to the rollin’ gear and destroys it with a few slashes.  Then, he takes out the laser cannon once again. Missiles rain down upon him, which affect him, but he perseveres to the front of the truck again and destroys the core.

-cut to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. PACIFIC OCEAN – Surface Caverns – DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

X continues to run away from the giant U-555 ship as it peaks out a large cannon from it’s mouth.

X: Huh?

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Look out!

The U-555 fires a long orange blast of power, which threatens to take X out, but he thinks fast and jumps towards a hanging rock from the ceiling. He does his best to kick-jump against the rock and stay afloat until the power beam lets up.  Once it does, X drops to the ground and dashes away from it again.

The U-555 blasts X again as he air-dashes over some spiky terrain and again evades the blast by remaining afloat near the ceiling with the aid of his thrusters. Once he finds the clearing, he moves on to the end of the cavern.  The U-555 has him cornered now.

X: This is it. There’s only one thing left to do, now.

He opens up his X-Buster and charges up.

The U-555 comes after him with another heavy blast.

X crouches down and fires his Plasma Shot right at the cannon, interrupting the blast.

-cut to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- EXT. KHETA XETA – Russian Truck Route – NIGHT -----------------------------------------------------------------

Once the truck explodes, Zero notices that the rest of the trucks in the line seem to be exploding this time.

ZERO: What the-?

He jumps over and lands onto the back of the exploding truck.

ALIA: This truck has already begun to explode! Hurry and move to the next!

Zero does a mad-dash upon the trailer and ignores the mad-taxi ahead of him.  With a far jump ahead of him, he barely makes it to the back of the next truck as he kick-jumps up and climbs inside.  This truck is exploding as well and hosts a series of drills, which threaten to impale Zero as they expand and retract into their bases at the walls.

ZERO: (gasping) This is wild! This can’t be Slasher’s work. He’s not smart enough for that.  It’s gotta be the Sigma Virus doing this.

He quickly dash-jumps and kick-jumps over to each corresponding wall, treading carefully amongst the trailers.

Then, he notices a sub-tank at the front of the truck, so he grabs it.

ZERO: Maybe this was a trap, after all…  Not a very good one though!

He jumps over to a new truck, which is not currently in danger of exploding.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Hmm, I don’t know…

Zero runs on and takes out two hover gunners with a grin on his face.  Then he makes it to the top of the truck.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) ZERO LOOK OUUUT!!!!

Before he knows it, the truck collides into a parked truck, head on.  

ZERO: WHOAAAA!!!!!!

He high-jumps as the trucks collide with a massive explosion.  

-      fade to white -

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. PACIFIC OCEAN – Surface Caverns - DAY -----------------------------------------------------------------

The white screen turns into a final blast from X’s charged buster cannon. The charge shot zooms over to the front cannon and destroys the mouth of the U-555.

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Yes!! You did it!

The U-555 explodes as it slowly retreats away from X, moving ahead, mysteriously through the cavern walls.

X: Man… this Sigma Virus is becoming.. strange.

He shakes his head and proceeds to hop down the descending caverns when suddenly, the back-end of the ship seems to mysteriously reappear through the walls and attack him again.

X: What the Hell??

ALIA: (o.s, filtered) Those are its fins!  Be careful. They’re loaded with missiles.

X: (nodding) I will!!

Four orange barrels are strewn about the back fins of the ship. A large thruster is centered between the barrels.

X does his best to blast the top two away from the top fin, but they simply reappear, while the bottom barrels fire homing missiles upon X.

X: (affected) Agh!!

-cut to-

----------------------------------------------------------------- INT. KHETA XETA – Secret Warehouse - NIGHT -----------------------------------------------------------------

From high above, Zero lands and winds up inside a cave that has been built up.

ALIA: Is this the secret warehouse?  I can't tell... but there ARE strong energy readings...  We're getting even stronger energy readings from deep inside! It must be him! Stay on guard!

ZERO: (grinning) Hmph… Hold on, Grizzly Slash. I’m coming!

- Freeze frame. Grainy effect-

[lrosenerds]

[Image description: A GIF set of seven Star Trek scenes overlayed with a quote from Nichelle Nichols. The full quote reads: “Star Trek did not promise that people would magically become inherently better, but that they would progress always reaching for their highest potential and noblest goals even if it took centuries of taking two steps forward and one step back.” Image 1: From “Star Trek: The Original Series.” Captain Kirk stands in the center of the main cast, Scotty and Spock on his left and Bones, Uhura, and Chekov on his right. They stand in front of a colorful doorway with a skewed square border. Everyone is grinning except for Spock. Kirk waves jauntily at someone off-screen. His lips read “Have fun.” He moves to walk away, Bones stepping back for him. Uhura repeats his wave. The overlayed text reads: “Star Trek did not promise.” Image 2: From “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” The command crew sits in purple office chairs around a shiny black conference table. They all look toward something off-screen of the front-left foreground. On the left side of the table, from the foreground to the background, sit Captain Picard, Riker, Dr. Crusher, and Worf. On the right side of the table, from foreground to background, sit Geordi, Data, and Troi. Picard swivels slightly in his chair to look more directly at the off-screen focus of the crew’s attention. The crew all have serious expressions on their faces. The overlayed text reads: “that people would magically become inherently better.”

Image 3: From “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.” The camera pans right past a corner, where the main cast walks toward the camera, in a line, dramatically. From left to right, the characters are O’Brien, Dr. Bashir, Kasidy Yates, Captain Sisko, Kira, Odo, Ezri Dax, and Nog. They wear Earth-style black suits and formal dresses from the 1960s, with the exception of Dax, who wears a leotard, tutu, and tights, and Nog, who wears a loose gray jumpsuit. They walk with confidence and determination, their expressions serious. The overlayed text reads: “but that they would progress.”

Image 4: From “Star Trek: Voyager.” The camera sits at a vantage point slightly above the crew. In the foreground, a raised platform stands a few steps higher than the rest of the room. In the center-back of the frame, below the platform, is a semicircular work station. Chakotay and Captain Janeway are on the left side of the raised platform. They each take a few steps away from the camera and then turn back toward the camera, looking toward something off-screen. Inside the work station are Kim, Seven, and Neelix. Behind and to the left of the work station, B’elanna and Paris take a few steps forward as they turn to face the camera. Behind and to the right of the work station stand Tuvok and The Doctor, also facing the camera. The mood of the scene is formal, but pleasant. The overlayed text reads: “always reaching for their highest potential.”

Image 5: From “Star Trek: Enterprise.” The main cast stands on a straight staircase facing the camera, looking at something off-screen to the front right, and applauding. On their left is a blue curtain. On the right, the staircase bends up and right and continues off-screen. From foreground to background along the left rail of the staircase are Captain Archer, Phlox, Reed, and T’Pol. From foreground to background along the right rail of the staircase are Mayweather, Trip, and Sato. The casts’ expressions are solemn. The overlayed text reads: “and noblest goals.”

Image 6: From “Star Trek Beyond.” The crew stands on a darkened bridge, their mood disbelieving. Captain Kirk stands farthest in the foreground, center-right of the captain’s chair. He drops his head slowly toward his right shoulder in a gesture of long-suffering disappointment. On Kirk’s left, from left to right stand Jaylah, Sulu, Chekov, McCoy, and Uhura. To his right are Spock and Scotty. The overlayed text reads: “even if it took centuries.”

Image 7: From “Star Trek: Discovery.” The camera pans slowly right as two figures cross in front of the camera in the foreground, one going right and one going left, their heads outside of the image. The image centers on Captain Georgiou. She sits confidently in the command chair and turns her head toward her left shoulder as she prepares to speak. Burnham stands just behind Georgiou’s left shoulder, her attention focused downward to her work station. A man with short black hair sits in the front right foreground, his attention similarly on his work station. (Sorry y’all, I haven’t seen Discovery, and here my character IDing skills have failed me.) Saru is standing at a work station in the back left. The overlayed text reads: “of taking two steps forward and one step back.”]

- Nichelle Nichols

[bearsinpotatosacks]

Academy Era- Day 28- Trektober 2021

Wrote the start of this in June and I'm glad I kept it! Let that be a note not to delete writing things because they may be useful

Still feeling sick from the shuttle, Leonard lifted his bags onto his shoulders and followed the swarm of red uniforms that flowed on as far as the eye could see. 

That must be the admissions office, he thought.

He found his way to the back of the line and all at once felt a wave of insecurities flood over him. Everyone around him was in a uniform. Students clad in red, lecturers in black and official Starfleet personnel in white and grey.

Conversation bubbled down the line as people's attention was drawn to either side of them. Leonard joined the crowds and peaked out to see what the fuss was about.

"What in tarnation?" He mumbled to himself as groups of three foot tall robots walked down the lines.

"Hello!"

Leonard jumped as a robot arrived next to him. It was holding coffee and had what appeared to be a smile on its mouthless face. Maybe its eyes were conveying the emotion? There was a certain sparkle in them, despite only being projections on a blank screen.

"Would you like coffee?" 

He was still processing. Being from a small town in Georgia, the technology he'd encountered had never been as advanced as a free roaming robot.

"Erm, yes please," He said.

"Would you like milk or sugar?" 

"No thank you, just the coffee,"

After a few whirring sounds, a hot cup of coffee was shoved into his hand. He gave the robot a thank you and sighed. The line wasn't going down any time soon.

He took a gulp of the coffee and grimaced. He hoped this wasn't all the coffee they had here.

At least it was hot, he thought as the line shifted a little.

~~~

With the sun setting below the skyscrapers and its oranges, pinks and purples reflecting off the glass windows all around him. The air was colder and pathways more empty. He guessed there were perks to applying when applications were actually open, not a few months before the year started, the main one being majorly more prepared than he was.

But that was out of his control, and he was at the dorm office now. All he had to do was get his dorm assignment, unpack his travel bag and relax. Just three things. It wasn't too hard.

He entered the office. It's doors were on the curved wall covered with floor to ceiling glass, the desk was a curve, touching both walls with shelves and plants behind.

"Hi, I'm Dr Leonard McCoy and I'm here to get my dorm assignment?"

The receptionist nodded as the computer scanned for him.

As he waited, he saw someone else, that Kirk kid from the shuttle, talking to the other receptionist. He lent over the desk, with a dumb smile on his face despite the blood drip crusted on his upper lip. All he could think was, What a sleaze. He better not be his roommate, he had applied for a single apartment.

"Your room is in the honeycomb building, number is 456 and the automatic code is the same, when you first enter the code you will be required to change it, the code can be from 3 to 6 human digits," she said. "You will have to tell your roommate the same."

"Wait,  roommate?"

He looked the Kirk kid to his left and connected the dots. Not him. Please not him.

Although, it did make sense. They were the two latest applicants, perhaps they'd already given out the single apartments by the time he'd applied?

"Yes, it's the young man to your left,"

Leonard gulped and turned to him. The other guy did the same. His sleazy smile lessened as he waved. 

"Hey, you're the aviophobic from the shuttle! McCoy, right?"

Leonard nodded as he tried to loosen his jaw. 

"You're Kirk,"

The kid nodded and threw an arm around him, he led him out as the receptionist shouted that their moving boxes would be delivered in the next few days.

"Well, McCoy, only got my Bones, can't believe we're going to be roomies,"

Leonard tried to shrug off his arm as he walked off to the area of the dorms. "Neither can I,"

The buildings changed from cold and formal to fun and quirky. Some buildings had circular windows of all different colours, some had balconies with multicoloured glass that came out to different lengths. He directed them to the one with hexagonal windows and sighed as Kirk went into another rant.

"By the way, what's your major? I'm guessing you're here for xenomedicine but I didn't want to assume. I'm here for command, a surprise, I know, a Kirk wanting to lead a starship-"

"Do you have an off switch?"

Kirk smiled as they reached the entrance to their block, he raced up the stairs as Leonard tried to lose him. He just wanted a second of peace. And judging by this kid's ability to speak, he wasn't getting that for the entirety of his time at the Academy. He didn't know what was worse, Georgia or here?

No. That wasn't a question. Definitely Georgia.

~~~

They made it to their dorm, Leonard had changed the passcode to Joanna's birthday, now they were standing in their new home for the next three to four years. If Leonard could last that long with this kid, that was.

Leonard scanned the room and felt a zing inside himself. To his right was a small kitchen, the cupboards were a mint green and white. A replicator sat between the top and bottom cabinets.

To his left was a white circular dining table, it looked pretty plain, Leonard preferred wooden tables to those ones. In front of him was an l-shaped couch, white again, the projector for a holoscreen was built into the floor.

Opposite the sofa was the bathroom, he'd seen the pictures, that was plain too. Was everything in this damn dorm boring and white?

Jim was spinning around behind him. Leonard stormed into the bedroom before he could jabber some more.

This room was plain too. Both sides were a mirror image of each other. A bed against the back wall, on a platform with drawers underneath. To the left side of the bed, the right was against the hexagonal window, had a wall to ceiling screen made of wood with platforms and holes. A desk rested against the screen making the end of the bed the only entrance. To his left and right were closets. 

He sighed. At least there was a lot of storage, although he didn't have a lot of stuff to fill it with. This place was so plain, it made him miss the humble warmth of his home in Georgia- Jocelyn's home now. 

"Hey!  Nice place, right?" Jim bombarded into the room, he jumped onto the bed on the right hand side. "Shotgun on this side,"

Leonard sighed and dumped his bags onto the desk and started to unpack. He wanted his stuff, wanted to put his touch and photos around this blank void of personality. Maybe he could knit some throws to make the place more homely?

"Hey, do you want Chinese food?" 

Jim was suddenly next to him, poking his cheek.

"Yes."

"Cool, I'll find a menu from somewhere, you carry on unpacking,"

Leonard stopped as he lifted another shirt. He followed the kid into the kitchen.

"Make sure they have lemon chicken," he went to turn back. "And thanks,"

Jim smiled and carried on scrolling on his starfleet assigned PADD. 

Maybe this wouldn't be too bad after all?

I kinda like the idea that Bones and Jim weren't best buds immediately. Maybe it was over a few months or living together, getting to know each other and seeing each vulnerable made them inseparable. Hope you enjoyed this!

[revisionaryhistory]

Three Days ~ 42

~*~Sebastian~*~

 Today has not been ideal.

Sure, my day started well enough. Emma laid out on the bar while I went down her was a very good way to begin. The sexy texts during her planning period was fun. Ed didn't threaten to kill me while we were texting. I got a text from Chace letting me know he'd be in town the week Emma was in Georgia. And I’m pretty confident talking to Emma tonight will be good. However, since the rest of my day has been shit, I'm a little worried.

 My train back into the city got stopped for who knows what reason. I was late getting to the gym. I wasn't the last to arrive and was in a good mood compared to others. The grocery didn't have the yogurt I wanted. Someone had either shit or vomited in the garbage can outside my building. I got stopped by a couple of fans, which isn't bad, but it was too close to my home. I don't care for that. Kirk didn't answer his phone and I remembered Will was out of town until tomorrow. I texted him asking if he could help me find something.

 All of this was trivial, but it was making me whiny.

 I think I miss her.

 Maybe not miss her, but like the letdown, after you've done something fun. Like the day you get back from vacation or post-concert depression. That's probably more accurate.

 No, I miss her.

 I said yes when the blonde drunk asked if she was my girlfriend. Probably should have checked with her first. I Googled "When is she your girlfriend" mostly because I was bored and whiny. This turned out to be like when you check your symptoms and hours later you still have cancer. There were lists. Thirty-two signs she's your girlfriend and seven she isn’t. You've met her friends. She cooks for you. You do activities together. She's met your family. You look forward to seeing her. All your time isn’t spent in bed. You enjoy talking to her. You can ask anything.

 Emma doesn’t know my friends, but I’m working on it. Also, found an incredible article that said you should have an idea by the seventh or eighth date. I started doing math. If every day is a date then were had eight dates. The next paragraph said, "But really it’s up to the couple."

 I realize this is me overthinking.

 I like the whole logical Google curated list of how to tell, but I think the best idea would be to have the relationship talk. Honestly, I don't have a problem having the relationship conversation. It’s just negotiating parts and deciding on a plot. Stalkers and people with relationship disorders have ruined "the talk" by inserting all sorts of shit into it. Bottom line: don't date other people and I get to call you my girlfriend. I know why I haven't brought up "the relationship." Because I've been too busy enjoying having one. Emma doesn't come across as someone who needs to define and label. It's not as if either of us hasn't been clear. I said it's not a long weekend thing. She said she was falling in love with me. Ok, not exactly those words. I may have added one. Doesn't change the facts or that it’s not just her.

Will texted back and I was going over to his place after the gym tomorrow. He sent something to the group chat with the guys and I laid on the couch going back and forth with them for a long time. Most of us were online, which happened more often than you might think. Anyone who wasn't would catch up later. This worked for us to keep up with each other's lives and tonight it was a fun distraction from my whiny assed mood.

 Group chat got a hasty "gotta run" when FaceTime lit up my screen. I hit connect and smiled. She looked fresh from a shower with wet hair and a clean face. She had on a purple tank top. "Your eyes look very green with that purple tank. Beautiful."

 "Thank you. You look tired."

I huffed out a breath, "Just a blah day. I’m kinda whiny. Seeing your pretty face is helping."

"Happy to help. What happened?" She shifted around and I could tell she was stretching out on her couch.

 I told her the multitude of little things that had gone on today, leaving out my frustration with no one being in town. "Nothing major. As I said, I’m being whiny. Plus, I think I miss you."

"I've noticed a distinct lack of you today as well."

 I laughed, "I like that. How was your day?"

Except for rambunctious children, she’d had a good day. I was glad. She had a good work out, her talk with Ed had been less inquisition and more fun, and volleyball practice had been short and turned into dinner with friends. They had a game Wednesday night and that was it.

 We laid on the couch talking about everything and nothing until I saw her yawn.

 ~*~*~

 I was in a much better mood in the morning. I got to the gym early and had run close to an hour before the others arrived. It was a heavy weight day and I felt strong throughout. When we were done, I was tired but felt good. I called Will on my way over and picked up some food. It was a little early for lunch, but we had some shit to do first. When Will answered the door I started laughing, "I'm so happy to see you."

"You too."

We hugged and I walked inside. Seeing him made me excited to talk about Emma. I'd talked to the guys at the gym, but a different level of friend. Very different. I wanted to tell someone important to me about how important I think she is. Being here is making me feel like I might explode. Why didn't I do this last week? I grabbed him for another hug, "So happy."

He laughed, "What the hell is going on?"

 "Do you have pictures from Kirk’s wedding?"

He scratched his head, "Some." We headed toward his desk where his computer was set up. I grabbed a chair from the dining table, pulling it over. "What are you looking for?"

"Not a what. A who." Will’s laugh confirmed I had a big smile on my face.

Will moved the mouse to wake the screen. "Kirk put everything on a web site. That might be better. I saved the link. My girl looked hot."

I was thinking I bet mine did too. I reached over Will for control of the mouse and clicked through the gallery. I was looking for Emma, but also Eli's long hair. First time I thought I saw her was standing next to Eli. The shot was from behind. If it was her, she had her hair pulled up with the loose ends hanging in ringlets. Her dress was dark green. Another dozen clicks and I found her. The front of her. She held a glass of champagne talking with Kirk and Boone. I took my hand from the mouse and pointed, "Her."

 Will pointed at her and looked at me, "Emma."

I mumbled, "Son of a bitch." I looked at my phone and saw she had about ten minutes left of her planning. I hit FaceTime and put the phone in front of both of us. Will looked confused. "Wait."

 Emma's face popped up and she said, "Hey, Sebastian." She saw it wasn't only me. She looked a little surprised then said, "Will?"

I fell onto the floor and yelled, "Mother fucker."

They were both laughing and I heard Emma's voice, "I haven't heard that from him before."

Will said, "It's a favorite. How did this..."

He was cut off by Alissa coming into the room and standing over me, "What's going on?" I watched her look at the screen, "Oh hey, Emma. Sorry I missed girl’s night last time. Will, are you introducing them?"

"No, I think they took care of it themselves."

They both knew her. I yelled, "Shit", and flopped onto my stomach.

 I heard Emma's voice again, "Is he having a temper tantrum?"

Will said, "No."

Alissa said, "Yes. Look." I was face down, but I assume she was showing Emma me. "Complete temper tantrum." Alissa’s phone rang, "I'll leave you to them. Next girl's night I'm there."

"Absolutely. Bye, Alissa."

 I was never going to get off this floor.

"My kids are due back. Sebastian, I'll talk to you later. Will, good luck with him."

I yelled, "Bye, Em."

Will kicked me, "Get up, dumbass."

 I crawled over to the couch, "How do you know her?"

"Oh no, no." Will joined me on the couch, "How do you know her?"

 I wasn’t arguing. It would be faster this way. "She lives up where mom moved. I got lost looking for chocolate chips at the grocery. She helped me find shit. I asked her out to dinner."

"Of course, you did. The lost in the grocery part." He was chuckling. "I'm surprised you asked out a complete stranger. Did she know you were you?"

 I shook my head, "Not until I introduced myself. Then she laughed."  Will did too. "She'd just come from the gym. Maybe some mascara, hair in a ponytail, and gym clothes. She was beautiful and so kind to this lost crazy guy. Then went spent like nine hours sitting in a restaurant talking."

 "Nine hours?" He shook his head, "Long time."

I glared at him, "Now, how do you know her?"

"I don't remember when I met her. It's been a long time. I'm sure it was a party or maybe one of Boone's gigs. She had a boyfriend. Then she didn't. She moved and hasn't been around as much. She always with Eli and his wife. I can't say I know her. She's always been nice and fun. Never heard anybody bitch about her. I think her boyfriend cheated."

I nodded as Alissa came back into the room. She spoke, "He cheated for months before she found out. Emma lived with Eli and Angie until she moved." She looked at me. "I've been out with her a bunch of times. She's a lot of fun. She’s kind, like you. I can see you two getting along."

"Why didn't either of you introduce us?"

 Alissa looked at Will then me, "She had a boyfriend and then she moved."

 Will added, "Several of us thought she was in a throuple with Eli and Angie."

I rolled my eyes and Alissa smacked the back of his head. "You did not."

"Yes, we did."

"You were wishing is more like it." She turned her attention back to me. "She wasn't."

"I know she wasn't."

 Alissa came to me and kissed my cheek, "I'm excited for both of you."

 Will stood and gave his wife a proper kiss, "I'II see you later, love you."

She smiled at him, "Love you too." She headed for the door, calling back, "Love you too, Seb."

"I love you." I watched the door close before looking back at Will. "I was going to be pissed if I'd done something stupid like saying no to being set up."

"I didn't. Maybe Kirk." I glared at him and he laughed. "Too bad you weren't at the wedding. She looked beautiful."

"Always does."

 "Oh, you've got it bad." I nodded. "Tell me all about her." He held his hand up waved in.

 I felt my smile forming, "I fucking adore her. She... ah..." I couldn't figure out where to start. "She has these green eyes and when she smiles she gets a dimple in her left cheek, just the one. Her hair is halfway down her back and feels like silk. The way she touches is delicate but strong. Sunday for over an hour she stroked my beard, just touching me. I would have let her do that forever, her fingers on my face." I tried to imitate on Will’s arm how she touches: the slow approach that becomes firm then eases away. "Something like that. We went to dinner, a walk by the river, she cooked dinner and we ate on her deck. We made Barbeque chicken sandwiches and this weekend she made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We went to an art fair and got mom stained glass. I won a fish for her room. Did a haunted house and line dancing. Went to the gym, she helped mom moving stuff, and we had a Romanian dinner. This weekend was a volleyball tournament where her team kicked ass. The best part was she ignored me the whole game. I had to give her a good luck kiss between sets, but that’s it. She was all in the game. I loved that she ignored me."

 Will added, "So maybe she won't take it personally when you ignore her."

"Yes.” Exactly why I loved her ignoring me. “And we've stretched out on the couch reading or watching TV showing each other our favorites. Even danced to some ABBA."

 I’d just done some kind of core dump and I could see Will's head was swimming, "You're been busy. That’s a lot of shit. Why are you just telling me, this has been going on for weeks?"

"No, it hasn’t. I met her last Friday."

 “You’ve spent all your time the last two weekends getting to know her.” He was looking at me funny. “Wow.”

 “Wow?”

 "Yeah, wow.” He made faces moving his lips back and forth "I mean... I want to tell you you've known her eleven days, you need to be careful." He laughed and grabbed my arm. “But I don’t know what you need to be careful of. I don’t think Emma gives a shit who you are. I think she's connected to music somehow. I don't know who, but I remember Kirk talking about some concert and Emma being the one to hook you up if you needed tickets.”

 I knew exactly who the hookup was. I liked he was telling me to be careful. I let out a little laugh, "She doesn't care. She's curious about my job, but not in a weird voyeuristic way. I'm not even sure what movies she's seen."

 Will smiled, "What a weird conversation. How do you start it, even? Hey baby, I was wondering which of my movies you've seen? Maybe rank them in order."

 I cringed, "Might say more about her than me. I needed experience and money. What's her excuse for watching?" We shared a smile and I went on, "I get what you're saying. I appreciate it. I have only known her for eleven days. I’m ok. Hell, I'm a lot better than ok. It's really good. The talking, the sex, the feelings. It's all really good."

 Recognition flared on his face. "I want to tell you to be careful because you're jumping in headfirst and I don't want you, my friend, to get hurt."

 I don't get over relationships easy. Takes me awhile and with the help of friends. I hate seeing my friends hurting too. I put a hand on his shoulder, “Thank you." I shrugged, "At least I’m jumping in the deep end."

 "Right in the deep end."

 We moved to the table to eat and continue talking. I checked his schedule because he and Alissa joining in this weekend sounded fun. I'd told Emma I wanted her to meet my friends and since she, Alissa, and Angie knew each other this seemed natural.

 Emma didn't have practice tonight so we were on FaceTime earlier. She was walking away from the kitchen when she answered, "Done with your tantrum?"

 I held my thumb and forefinger an inch apart, "Just a little one."

 "I can't believe the Will in your stories is Alissa's husband Will. I replayed the memories while I was on the treadmill. Did he give me a good character reference?"

 Her giving me back my words made me warm, "Yeah, said you were kind, fun, and didn't give a shit who I was. Oh, and thinks you're connected to a musician because you got Kirk tickets to something. I didn't tell him who." I didn’t want her to think I would tell her secrets.

 "Thank you, but you can. Not worried about privacy issues around your friends. Pretty sure your address on eBay would make more money than Ed's. Everyone knows where his house is."

 I was startled, "How?"

 "Some guy put the GPS coordinates on Reddit complete with Google satellite pics. Google has since blurred out the images and the realtor scrubbed the listing.”

 "Nope," I was shaking my head, "no, no, no, no, no. What's somebody going to do, ring the bell and say, dude, wanna have a beer? How would anybody think that level of invasion of privacy is acceptable. Right up there with fans commenting hateful shit to my friends. Drives me fucking crazy. Used to. I called them out and now we keep a list and rank them. Still gets to me sometimes."

 Her eyes got big, "I'm going to start a list of the wildly inappropriate sexual comments when you post a picture on Instagram."

 I held up my hands and laughed, "You'll never be able to keep up. We both know I'm down for some dirty talk, but wow, they can make me blush. I barely skim comments anymore. I used to respond to some. I miss that, but the other got out of hand."

 "What do you mean?"

 "Whoever I responded to became a target like my friends."

 "That's crazy."

 "Exactly."

 "We used to celebrate when someone got a follow or response. I'm sure there was jealousy, just not so public. I think the more time with social media the more people have taken advantage of the anonymity to say things they'd never say to someone's face."

 I smirked, "Some say it in person." I’d fielded some pretty filthy propositions over the years.

 "You gotta shoot your shot. I’ve seen it work at festivals. Hell, even a sign in the first rows. I don't think some of them understood what they were getting themselves into. The hotel bar isn't where you get a date."

 "That's a grocery store!” I held my hands up like I’d scored a touchdown. Because I had. “Everyone knows the best place to pick up women is the grocery store baking aisle." At least it was for me.

 "I'd heard, but didn't believe until a couple of weekends ago." We took a few seconds to just took at each other before Emma spoke again, "I talked to Angie today. They're free Saturday. What do you think about inviting Alissa and Will?"

 "I was going to ask you about that. I know they're free."

 "I do too!"

 "Exactly how well do you two know each other?" I gave her a worried look and Emma responded as I wanted, with a smile that grew into a little laugh.

 "Not well at all. We've been out together several times, but we've never talked outside of them. Angie and I thought we could order in, hang out at their place."

 "Sounds good." I didn’t care what we did or where we did it. "Tell me about your day."

[mybullshitsensesaretingling]

Doughnuts

Request: Can I get a Star Trek imagine? Reader works in engineering and is close friend with Scotty. When Chekov starts shadowing Scotty he meets the reader and a friendship quickly forms because they are both chipper balls of sunshine. notices that their friendship could become something more with a nudge in the right direction. Soon the Scotsman has get the two together. Just something super silly and fluffy. - @peacebuglove 

A/N: I don’t have anything to say about this story, but I feel it’s important that you all know that the kazoo was not invented in Russia, but in fact was invented in Georgia by a man named Alabama. 

You pressed down on the receiver on the wall to silence the beeping.

“Live from the Alpha Quadrant, it’s the extraordinary Ensign (Y/L/N). Tactical, you’re our first and favorite caller. Talk to me,” you said, in an your best  impression of a talk radio host.

“Hi. This is Ensign Melnick. Long time listener. First time caller. One of our terminals is glitching,” the officer on the other end played along.

“Well, Melnick, that certainly is quite the pickle. Have you considered turning it off and back on again?”

“I have.”

“I’ll talk to the all powerful Lieutenant Commander, see if we can’t get someone up there to help you out,” you told him.

“Thank you. Tactical out.”

“Ye do know yer crazy, right?” Scotty asked from the panel he was working on beside you.

You smiled but otherwise ignored the question. “You want me to go take care of that?”

He shook his head.

“Are you sure? I could fix it and be back before you can ‘(Y/N), you deserve a promotion’. I could even grab lunch on the way back.”

“Yer in the middle of a diagnostic,” he reminded you.

“Ok, but after I finish, I’m going to get us some lunch.”

“Ye’ll get no arguments from me.”

You started to walk back to the computer you had been at before the call, but stopped when a bright yellow shirt caught your attention. You had seen the boy in it around the engine room more and more over the past few months, usually talking to Scotty when you weren’t.

“Scotty, did you get a sidekick without telling me?” you asked.

“I haven’t gotten a new sidekick since you.”

“I like to think of myself as the protagonist of our story, thank you very much.” You looked back up to the curly haired boy who looked like he belonged on the bridge. “Do you have a stalker then?”

“What are ye goin’ on about.” He looked up and followed your gaze. “Oh. That’s just Chekov.”

“But why is he here? Not that I don’t think he should be here. He can be wherever he wants. But he’s dressed in gold, which usually implies a certain amount of not being here,” you babbled.

“Chekov!” Scotty called out getting the boy’s attention. “Come down here, lad.”

The navigator jogged down from the catwalk.

“Yes, Mister Scott?”

“Please tell (Y/N) that you are not a stalker.”

Chekov gave him a puzzled look, but did as he asked anyway, followed by, “I thought you vould be shorter.”

“Why?” you asked, suddenly very aware of your exact height.

“He always calls you ‘vee’,” Chekov told you.

“He talks about me?” You turned to Scotty. “You talk about me?”

He shrugged.

“That’s so sweet!” you grinned.

“I’d tell ye not to let it go to yer head, but it’s a tad late for that, extraordinary ensign.” He started to move past the pair of you to a computer terminal. “Why don’t you walk ‘im through yer diagnostic.”

“Vat are you running a diagnostic on?” Chekov asked.

“The graviton field generator,” you told him.

“I have not vorked vith ze graviton field generator.”

“Well, come on!” You practically bounced back to your station. Being an ensign, you rarely got to show others the ropes. “We’re still getting some residual charge readings from yesterday’s incident, so I’m running a level three diagnostic.”

“Level three? Is zat necessary?” he asked.

“If this was just a maintenance check it wouldn't be.” You tapped at the screen. “Level threes really aren't as bad as people make them out to be. I think they're fun.”

“Me too,” he admitted.

You smiled at him over your shoulder, before starting to go over the read outs. You pointed out the readings that you wouldn't get with a level one diagnostic.

-

“Zat one.” Chekov pointed to a dial on the wall.

“This one?” you asked pointing at a different one.

He shook his head and pointed at the first dial again. “Zat one.”

“This one?” you asked, reaching for a levor.

Scotty had you help teach Chekov one of the systems while he went to a meeting. A choice he was sure he would soon regret. You had spent most of that time messing with him or going on long tangents that only had a 50% chance of looping back to your original statement.

“No, zat-” he stopped himself. “You know vat dial I am talking about.”

“Yeah,” you smiled. “I think you know this system well enough. In fact I think you know the whole ship forwards and backwards. Which means it’s time for a snack break. I’m in the mood for doughnuts”

“But Mr. Scott,” he said warily.

“He’ll be fine with it if we bring him one.” Now that you had mentioned doughnuts, you were determined to get one. Taking Chekov’s hand in yours, you towed him along behind you as you headed for the lift. “You seem like a jelly filled kinda guy to me.”

He stared at your joined hands, but didn't let his shock at the act of affection show in his voice. “I love jelly filled doughnuts! Especially ze purple ones!”

Almost every engineer on duty knew when you got back. Your collective laughter came close to drowning out the sounds of the engines completely. Scotty waited at the main console for you to tell him some excuse for leaving your post. The truth of the matter was that he didn’t really care. As long as everything was in working order, he was a lot looser with his command. All he asked was that when the time came, everyone was ready to work with no questions asked.

“The kazoo was not invented in Russia,” your tone was somewhere between irritation and amusement, “Don’t take this from me, goldie.”

“And where have ye been?” Scotty asked.

“We went to get doughnuts.” You held out a plate for him, smiling brightly. “We brought you some!”

“Zis one’s creme filled.” Chekov pointed at the one on the left.

“And this one’s apple cinnamon,” you added.

“Ohh.” His fingers danced over to the plate. “Thank you.” He picked up a doughnut and stuck the edge of it in his mouth, waving you off. “Go do something.”

“We’re gonna go to the jefferies tube where the gravity's flipped to uh,” you searched your mind for a good reason for the two of you to go there.

“Run tests,” Chekov finished. Laughter still clung to the edges of his words, despite the two of you trying to seem professional.

“Yep. Uh huh. Gotta get that fixed,” you nodded.

“Aye, sure that’s what yer doin’.” He shook his head in amusement at the sight of the two of you scurrying off, giggling and joking the whole way.

-

“I vant to see ze mooooon,” Chekov recited, proudly.

“That was terrible,” you laughed despite yourself.

“That’s the point,” he said, waving his screwdriver at you. “That and making you smile.”

“That was almost cheesier than your jokes.” You shoved his shoulder with yours, but you couldn’t help your smile widening a bit at his comment.

He chuckled, handing you the decoupler before you had to ask for it. Over the last couple weeks, the two of you had gotten in a groove while working together. You worked in perfect harmony, laughing and joking without ever letting your work slip.

“So this is what Chekov does with his time of?” Kirk asked Scotty, who was pretending not to be watching to two of you. “Flirt with your engineers?”

“Aye, but just the one as of late,” Scotty answered.

“Really?”

The two men shared a knowing look that was interrupted by you shouting out a “Captain!” and moving to stand at attention. Chekov followed your lead, stumbling in his haste to get to his feet.

“At ease, ensigns,” Kirk ordered. “Just stopping by to see how things are going down here.”

“Zey are good, Keptain,” Chekov said.

“Better than good,” you said. “Great!”

“Yes, yes,” Chekov agreed enthusiastically. “Ze things are great!”

“That’s what I like to hear. As you were.” He nodded at you as you went back to work. “How long do you give it?”

“They'll be together before we reach Starbase 65, sir.”

“You're going to meddle, aren't you?” Kirk asked, amusement dancing in his eyes.

“Aye, sir, I'm going to meddle.”

-

Sliding down to the floor, you let your head loll back against the pipe behind you. You took a deep breath and waited for the panic and chaos from the battle you had just scraped through to leave you. The absence of shouts and alarms was deafening, making the ambient sound of the engines sound twice as loud. Frantic footfalls echoed through the room, but you kept your eyes on the ceiling, wanting a few more seconds of peace.

“Are you alright?”

The familiar accent took the dread over dealing with how everything was running right out of you. You couldn’t help the smile that spread across your face when a head full of curly hair came into your line of sight. It was the first time in almost a month that you hadn’t worked at his side. Without you noticing, your shift had been moved around to you were only on duty when he wasn’t, leaving him free to be in engineering.

“Did you run here all the way from the bridge?” Part of you wasn’t even surprised. He always seemed to be where he was needed.

“Yes. I vas,” he rubbed awkwardly at the back of his neck, “vorried about you.”

You tried to form a response but all you could do was beam at him. Luckily, that seemed to be enough for him and he sat down next to you on the floor and let out a long sigh.

“That was eventful,” you stated, still staring at the maze of tubes, pipes, and cat walks above you.

Out of your peripherals you saw Chekov nodding in agreement.

“Vant to get some doughnuts?” he asked.

“A dozen each.”

“Make it a baker's dozen.”

“With extra sprinkles!”

Scotty walked up to you, placed his hands on his hips, and looked down at the two of you. After a couple seconds he nodded. “Come on then.”

You pointed up at him, your finger following him as he started to walk away. “He’s got scotch and whiskey.”

“Much better plan,” Chekov said.

Getting up, the two of you followed him to his office. By the time the two of you were in the room, Scotty was already pouring a second glass. When finished pouring out a third, he handed you each one and lifted his up.

“To a ship that can wrassle with the worst of ‘em!”

The room filled with echoes of the sentiment and praises of the ship.

The second you had emptied your glass, you filled it back up, clinked it against Chekov’s, and yelled, “To navigators who get us out of Romulan space!”

“To not being dead!” Chekov said when he moved on to the next glass.

Scotty and you cheered and brought your drinks back to your lips. Chekov swallowed, but then something occurred to him and he got to his feet, setting his glass on the desk.

“Where ya goin’, goldie?” you asked.

“Ve need snacks. I vill be back,” he told you, walking from the office. “Do not drink too much vithout me, red.”

With a snort, Scotty took a sip. His expression told you he knew something you didn’t. He never kept secrets from you - mostly because he was terrible at lying and had a habit of blurting whatever it was out before you had the chance to ask- so whatever this was had to involve you.

“What?” you asked.

“Nothing.” His wry tone only served to make you want to push him more.

“What?” you asked again this time drawing the word out until it was almost unrecognizable.

“Just you two.”

You quirked a brow. “Us two?”

“Yer always together, laughin’, jokin’. Ye’ve got nicknames. It’s all just a little,” he moved his glass around like it would hit the word he was looking for, but it didn’t.

“A little what, Scotty?”

“Och, ye know what.”

You pursed your lips and shook your head.

“Quit actin’ like ye dinnae ken what I’m talkin’ ‘bout.”  

You let out a puff of air. “You’re talking about us in a,” you held up a finger on either hand and moved them next to each other, “sorta way, aren’t you?”

“Aye!”

You bit your lower lip and stared into the golden liquid in your hand. “I don’t think that’s gonna happen.”

“And why not?” From his tone, you could tell he had put some thought into your relationship with Chekov.

“Because he so smart and his hair’s so curly.” You took a long drink. “Besides he doesn’t feel that way about me.”

Scotty shook his head in dismay. “The boy runs the length of the ship in five minutes for ye and ye don’t think he feels that way.”

“Well, that’s just… a really good point actually,” a small smile slowly started to spread across your face. “You really think he might?”

“Och, I more than think. I’m damn sure.”

“Huh. What’da know?” you tried to keep the giddiness from your tone, but failed.

-

“Ok, give it back now,” you whined as Chekov picked your report apart. All you wanted was for him to read over it, before you turned it in, but instead you were transported to an eleventh grade AP English class peer review. And he was practically cackling as you got more and more upset.

“No,” he said holding your PADD at arms length, “you asked me to read it, so let me read it.”

“I changed my mind.” You reached out for it, but he pulled it further out of reach.

“You can have it back when I have finished.” He held it up above his head, reading it at an angle that could not have been comfortable.

You stepped forward, crowding his space and reaching for your PADD again. Chekov tilted his face down to you, in doing so brushed his nose against yours. In that moment of closeness, all doubts about how he felt melted away. In fact all thoughts at all melted away, and you were left with nothing but impulse and instinct.

Dropping one of your hands to his chest, you bunched the gold fabric of his uniform up in your fist and tugged him impossibly closer. With your other arm, wrapping itself around his shoulders, you tipped your chin up and pressed you lips to his. In an instant, Chekov had a hand on your waist, keeping you as close to him as he could.

Far too soon, pulled back, sliding your hand down his arm until it reached his. You smiled at his change in expression. All traces of smugness gone.

“Can I have my PADD back now?” you asked in a softer voice than you had been using.

“Uh uh.” He dropped it on your desk and pulled you back into him. “Ve can vork on zat later.”

“Is Pavel Chekov, textbook workaholic, suggesting we procrastinate?” you teased.

“I have other priorities now.”