#otp: that quiet space like home (jim/riona; asoulofstars)

[astralanthropologists]

can you talk a bit about the dynamics of Bones, Jim, Anna, and Riona in your polycule? you sometimes talk about them as each other's sun, moon, and stars, and I'm super interested in how you conceive of those relationships and what that means to you

Oh, man. This is a whole like. Thing. XD Charlie (@aseelierose) and I always throw our OCs into any fandom, and I think that Charlie was super excited when I got into Trek, because they've always been a big fan of it (and are currently getting their partner to watch all of Trek, too). They've always paired Anna with Jim, and I absolutely fell in love with Bones (obviously). And, well. Charlie and my OCs are very bisexual. AOS McKirk is, in my opinion, not even subtext, but y'know. Ship and let ship, and I love watching other people bring other ships to life, especially in rp.

And we're gonna take that quote about dreamers and realists from Modern Family:

“There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You'd think the dreamers would find the dreamers, and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not, the opposite is true. See, the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists? Well, without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground.”

~*~

For a personal rundown: Riona—Jim is the Sun; it’s also a star, and they’re similar, and he reminds her of her home amongst the sky. Len is the Moon; it’s part of the night sky and pulls the most focus as the brightest light in the darkness. Anna is the Stars; they are her home and most natural place of being, and that’s Anna; she just feels free with Anna. Note: Riona is also a dreamer. Len—Jim is the Sun; he rebuilt his entire fucking life orbiting Jim Kirk without even realizing it. Anna is the Moon; she’s his anchor the way the Moon achors the tides. Riona is the Stars; not only can he not associate them with her, but he just feels like Riona is infinite. Note: Len is also a realist. Anna—Jim is the Sun; he’s been the brightest light since she met him. Len is the Moon; quiet in his brilliance, but no less important. Riona is the Stars; again, the association, but also because of the stars as hope. Note: Anna is also a realist. Jim—Anna is the Sun; she’s big and bold and brilliant and vibrant, and he just feels warm. Bones is the Moon; he feels like losing Bones would be catastrophic. Losing the Sun causes basically instant death. But losing the Moon causes devastation while life can still be sustained, and he doesn’t know how to lose Bones. Riona is the Stars; again, the association, but also because the Stars are constant, and Riona just feels like she’ll always be around for whatever he needs her to be. Note: Jim is also a dreamer.

~*~

So, yeah. It started with Riona/Bones and Jim/Anna, but Riona and Anna almost always end up in a friends with benefits situation, because it's easy for them to sleep together when they're not communicating their feelings to other people. And it's not that they don't have feelings for each other. Riona's love for Anna is something that is very freeing and needed in this verse in particular, as Anna's the first person Riona's fallen in love with since her faerie partner, Aidan, was killed. Aidan's death was what prompted her to join Starfleet; she just didn't feel at home in the faerie world anymore, despite having her family (Aislinn, Aleria, and Logan). It wasn't their whole family, and she just couldn't live with the fragments. Anna, being half-Betazoid, gets a lot from Riona that Riona doesn't say, and Anna is just as open and honest with Riona because of this and because of her Betazoid culture. Anna has a bad break up in Academy that makes it very convenient for her and Riona to get closer, and it's just easy for them. 

~*~

Now, McKirk is something to me that is just obvious, and I have a lot of posts about the two of them. But what it comes down to is that they were both at the lowest point of their lives when they found each other in that shuttle, and then they built these new lives together.

They don’t know how to separate themselves from the other person, and if you don’t believe me, just look at how they react in Into Darkness. When Jim thinks that Bones could die because of that torpedo? He is on the edge of breaking, even though he knows that he would still need to push forward and keep captaining the Enterprise. And Bones? Look at his reaction to opening the body bag and seeing Jim’s corpse. Everything drains right out of him. He’s broken and can’t even stand. He collapses and barely even breathes. 

The two of them have a dynamic that works for them, but it is extremely codependent.

~*~

Jim/Anna is the first couple that like. Actually gets their shit together. Granted, there is some small manipulations there. Spock would call them "calculated decisions". It's an away mission, and they have to pretend to be a couple, and Anna's half-Betazoid and their chief of security, so it makes sense for her to be undercover in this to protect Jim during what is supposed to be a diplomatic event. And playing these parts and having to pretend to be together forces them to actually confront their feelings.

But it's a wonderful slowburn, because the two of them are made of the same stuff. They hide behind big, brash personalities in order to keep their insecurities hidden and put up this wall. But they get each other. They see each other's heart, and they love the way that the other cares so fucking much. They both have so much that they want to go and explore and learn and do, and they realize that they want to do that together. And, for as much as they're similar, they're also different. Anna's more of a realist, and she helps ground Jim.

~*~

Anna/Bones is the foundation of this polycule, though. Maybe it's because they're both the realists; maybe it's because Into Darkness was particularly traumatizing for them. But they have a lot of realizations together and pretty much vow to be there, not only for each other, but for their dreamers. They bond a lot during the two weeks Jim is out before he fully wakes up from being dead, and they have an implicit understanding of each other. That time, that shared trauma, and their understanding is also why Anna is the one other person in the entire universe who is actually able to call Len Bones, but only during very specific instances. They are the ones who make the polycule possible, though.

~*~

Len/Riona is, well, one of my favorites. I'm a sucker for idiots-to-lovers; I'm a sucker for mutual pining that they think is unrequited. I'm a sucker for how they can't quite figure out their timing. They're both so scared, so hesitant. They're so in love, but they're both of the opinion that if something goes wrong, then it's over. Bones is more than content to just be Jim's friend; that relationship doesn't have to be romantic. He accepts his feelings, and he just kind of tucks them away. If Jim ever felt the same, that'd be great, but it doesn't matter.

With Riona, it's different. They are all or nothing, and that's so terrifying to both of them. Riona, especially, because barring some extreme traumatic event, Riona's outliving Len by an eternity. She knows she will lose him someday. And it's easier to pretend like it won't kill her when it happens, and it's easier to not take the risk of making their friendship more, because if it goes wrong, then she lost the person who makes her feel safe.

And all of this is also why, when they finally admit how they feel after dancing around it for the better part of four long years (though they both knew before that, so....), they don't have to date. They already know each other inside and out, know their fears and insecurities, know the way they fit together and can just breathe.

~*~

Jim/Riona is the last piece of the puzzle, and it's their similarities that finally pull them together. The way neither of them know how to give anything less than all of themselves, the way they both are constantly craving home and connections, the way that they both love the stars as if the stars flow through their blood. Sometimes, they're the only person who can get the other one to stop. They're always turned up to an 11, always at the highest setting, but they bond in the quiet moments. They figure things out in shared bad feelings, in taking a breath and looking at the stars, in getting the other out of their head. Jim is the only one who can get Riona to just sleep. And it's usually because he needs to sleep, too, and having a light sleeper makes it so that he can't just get up and go think about things. They're the dreamers, but that means that they can whisper about the bad parts of being dreamers, too.

~*~

And then putting them all together is just....they all came from places of loneliness, of loss, of trying to find who they are. And they found each other. They found themselves along the way, and they owe all of that to each other. They brought light back to each other's worlds.

[astralanthropologists]

I commissioned this from @jimbotkirk. Jim, Anna, Bones, and Riona featuring special appearance by my horse, Roy (the red one Bones is riding).

[astralanthropologists]

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