#read through the ot3 lense however you see fit

[michaelburnhamfanclub]

Cause I’m trash for soulmark!AUs Michael believing that she doesn’t deserve a soulmate after the Shenzho then meeting your person of choice on board the Discovery

okay i recently read a soulmate-universe story where different pairs of people have different indicators for their soulmate so LETS GO WITH THAT cuz i rly like it

michael grows up in an interesting household for soulmates. she knows that sarek and amanda were colorblind before they met each other, and that the whole world burst into color the first time they locked eyes. spock gets hurt when he isn’t doing anything, and healers tell him that it’s because he can feel his soulmate’s pain. sybok has a mysterious tattoo in vulcan script that michael may have been able to read had sybok not burned most of it off before her adoption

all she knows is that she has no indication of having a soulmate. and she prefers it that way. it’s infinitely more practical than forever wanting to search the galaxy for some idea of a person

this practicality turns to something darker after her mutiny, tinged with a lot of survival’s guilt, and she’s fiercely glad that she doesn’t have a soulmate

but then she gets drafted to the discovery

she notices the first tattoo her very first day. in small, clinical handwriting, it appears on the inside of her left wrist, saying scary

competent appears shortly after beneath it. michael hates it. she doesn’t want to have a soulmate

kind appears after she gives tilly her book. she doesn’t think about it. she can’t think about it

the next word is lovely. she absolutely does not think about that

they rescue lorca from imprisonment, and on her right wrist, in a distinctly different bold blocky writing appears, interesting

then, human

michael isn’t an idiot. she can match her left wrist with her experiences with tilly and her right wrist with her experiences with ash. she knows that the only thing worse than having a soulmate is having two. amanda says she’s lucky. spock understands, his eyebrows rising in sharp sympathy across lightyears of space

ash and tilly aren’t idiots either. they know. they both do. but none of them say anything

on michael’s left wrist is the word devastating. on her right wrist is the word heartbreaking. she always wears long sleeves

years after the war, after everything, michael looks at the horrible and beautiful words crawling down her arms and thinks that maybe she’s worthy of love after all. she looks at tilly and ash and doesn’t feel complete and utter dread. she says, “i have something to tell you about.”

they look at her, gazes measured but wary, ready for her to break their hearts again, and again, and again

she takes a deep breath and says, “we call it t’hy’la.”