James "Jim" T. Kirk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
finalfrontiersman) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
expiationlogs2024-08-01 03:31 pm
finalfrontiersman) wrote in expiationlogs2024-08-01 03:31 pm
[ Trek Crew Catch-All ] And you may ask yourself
Who: Jim Kirk, Spock, Tendi, Bones & friends.
Where: The Trek house!
What: Catch-all for the month's nonsense.
Content Warnings: Profanity. Potential for discussions of survivor's guilt and Gnosia-related trauma.Old man yaoi.
See below for closed starters! This post will serve as a catch-all for the Trek cast~
Contact for plotting:
James "Jim" Tiberius Kirk | ![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
trickster88, PM, Discord by Request/Game Discord
S'chn T'gai Spock | askefise, Game Discord
D'Vana Tendi | posolutely, Game Discord
Leonard "Bones" McCoy | PM, Game Discord, Discord: chatnoir
Where: The Trek house!
What: Catch-all for the month's nonsense.
Content Warnings: Profanity. Potential for discussions of survivor's guilt and Gnosia-related trauma.
See below for closed starters! This post will serve as a catch-all for the Trek cast~
Contact for plotting:
no subject
It's just-- [Gwen sighs. She really isn't the biggest fan of opening up like this, but.. Jim's been super understanding about everything she's shared with him before now. Even if a part of her has been uneasy seeing him again, she still trusts him. And who better to understand what it's like to find an alternate version of someone you care about?]
I think.. he thinks I only care about him because of my Peter. Which-- I don't know, maybe there's like. A part of me that does? But he's not the same person as my best friend. They don't even look alike. I don't think you can find someone that's more bubbly and kind than Peter. But my Peter? He was quiet, reserved, and...selfish, when it mattered the most.
[She doesn't have to tell Jim all of this, but once she starts talking, the words just start flowing. Whoops.]
-- Wait. You're serious? You're actually serious? [She might actually laugh now, because she really was just making a joke. Wow.]
That's--- actually really cool? You really are like the real life Jetsons or something. [They travel through space, eat fancy replicated food. What else? Flying cars? Teleporters? He's really opened a can of worms by telling her this.]
no subject
Hopefully, seeing him back in the cozy element of this little cottage by the shore, baking cookies, is far enough removed from the horror of the warehouse as to help ease the memories. Jim's not pressing the issue - well, he probably will, in terms of talking - but pressing on Gwen's comfort zone? No, he's well aware that wouldn't be helpful. He's had...some experience there, himself.
He listens, hands still working the dough for the next line of cookies on the sheet, focused on the task so Gwen doesn't have to deal with him staring at her as she explains. He does look up at the tail end, empathy clear in his expression. A far cry from the crazed, haunted-madman situation he portrayed, whilst under the influence.
It's true - he does understand. He really, really does. In fact, he was worried that Spock's experience with his own Jim was coloring his opinion too much - that Jim would never be able to match up. He understands now that it's...well, it's still a worry in some ways, but largely false. Largely a product of his own problems, and not a reflection on Spock. That Peter hasn't yet reached this conclusion - it was hard won. Jim's not necessarily surprised. ]
He is the same, in the ways that matter. [ There's no use pretending that he's not. That Gwen would have cared for Peter as immediately as she did if he weren't a version of someone she already had a connection to - it's impossible to parse, with how inextricably the two are linked. ] But...caring for one person can never replace or erase caring for another. Both can be true.
Spock doesn't look like my Spock, either. I don't look like his Jim. We're both different, in some respects. But like I said - we're the same in the ways that truly make us...us. You know what I mean? [ Jim can't imagine Peter quiet, or reserved. But then, he could never have imagined his Spock being as congenial (it's the only word that comes to mind, even if Jim is also the only person in the universe that would ever ascribe that to the Vulcan) as the one that resides here in Aldrip. His Spock back home is - angry. Persnickety, snappish. Their bickering has more bite, a product of a different universe. ] Peter will come around. He'll realize it, eventually. You just - keep showing up for each other, and it'll get through.
I'm sorry, about your Peter. [ Jim's tone gentles, the last line of cookies on the sheet completed, hands resting in the dough bowl. ] It's never easy, when someone you care about lets you down.
Would I joke about something like this? The future is awesome. [ Jim grins, eyebrows rising, before he turns to find an oven mitt - yeah, he's burned the shit out of himself more than once, forgetting that the antique appliance actually got hot. ] Uh...the what? What are 'Jetsons'?
no subject
I didn't... tell you the whole story. Peter didn't just die. He was tired of being bullied and feeling weak. He took this formula one of our teachers made and turned into a giant Lizard creature. He attacked our school, and tried to kill his bully. He said he just wanted to be special, like me. His last actions were out of jealousy and anger. [She couldn't be sure if it was the formula that made him the monster, because, clearly...other Peters could gain power that didn't corrupt them and turn them into monsters. She couldn't see her boyfriend falling like that. Even messing up the way he did now, it was because he didn't want to hurt her feelings. He was thinking about her, albeit a bit irrationally. His heart felt more pure and kind, even having lost Ben. Maybe it was because they didn't want power, but got it anyway? Maybe just the fact that he sought it out was the problem? She wasn't sure, but sometimes it hurt to think about how many Peters became this amazing hero, but hers....failed, in the worst way possible.]
It sounds awesome. [She wants to ask more, but will he tell her more?] The Jetsons was the old TV show, something my dad watched when he was a kid. It was about a family in the future, only it was like...maybe thirty years in the future now? So not nearly as far as you and Spock. But it had flying cars, smart homes, zoom calls-- a bunch of stuff we have now, but also the whole printed food thing. Oh, and instead of elevators they had these tubes that shot you from place to place.
no subject
Jim takes the new information in stride - that is, with only a minute furrow appearing in his brow. Reconciling Gwen's words with the picture of Peter that he has - the only one he can have, this bubbly, other-universe version of him - is no easy task. Still, as he said, people are complicated. They can make the wrong decision for the right reason just as easily as anything else. ]
People aren't defined by any one moment. Or...they shouldn't be. [ At last, Jim says something, slowly, choosing his words carefully after the beat of silence that follows Gwen's admission. Blue eyes turn to her, vibrant and full of empathy. He's not judging her Peter, even knowing this, and maybe that's part of what's eating her inside - the idea that other people will think poorly of his memory. ] And it doesn't make one better or worse than the other. We're all just...people. Everyone does the best with what they've got.
[ Jim moves to rinse his hands, dipping into thought for a moment. How easily it parallels his journey versus his counterpart in another life - Jim doesn't have to like the dots he's connecting. He turns, reaching out to squeeze Gwen's shoulder gently as he levels with her. ] I'm sorry that your Peter didn't get to find out what his best truly was.
Not bad. And always getting better. [ Aw hell, why not? Shit. How much more could they break the universe anyway? And no, that's not a challenge. ] Optimistic, putting that only thirty years ahead of the present. What's a smart home supposed to be?
No tubes. Well, turbolifts - which are essentially elevators, on a starship, but they operate both vertically and horizontally because of the gravity shift - I'm getting off track. We have Jeffries tubes, but they're not pressurized. And transporter pads, which I think I've mentioned, right?
no subject
It's just-- every other Peter I've met, they've been this amazing person. A hero. Not perfect, but so good. And in my world... he messed up, and never got a second chance.
[That's life, for you. Not fair. It rarely seems to be, especially for spiders like her and Peter.]
Oh, so it's like-- a digital assistant that controls the house? They're connected to the phones and computers and what-not, and all you have to do is be like "Hey Siri" or "Hey Alexa", and it'd turn on your lights, or adjust the thermostat, or play music. Whatever you wanted, as long as it was connected to that system. My house isn't that fancy, but it's a pretty standard thing on everyone's cellphone these days.
[As Jim rambles about his turbo lifts and Jeffries tubes, Gwen can't help but laugh.]
No, that's sounds exactly like what I was saying. Just more elevator like. What are transporter pads, though?
no subject
Sometimes our mistakes have consequences that we can't recover from. It's not his fault, Gwen it's - just his circumstances. [ No, it's not fair. Spock Prime's mistake cost Jim's entire timeline so much but - there was nothing anybody could do about it. ] And ours. Yours. You wouldn't be you without him, too.
Oh, like the computer? [ Yeah, he's got no concept of Siri or Alexa. Antiquated to the point of a head tilt and quizzical gaze. Which is evident by his next question: ] Or are they androids?
[ Yeah, they've got androids. But the computer is what controls the ship's climate controls and things of that nature. ] We have that. Aboard ship, everything is run by the computer. Androids have a more advanced intelligence.
It's a dematerialization system. We use it to transport matter - people, cargo - from one point to another by converting them into an energy pattern and reassembling them.
no subject
She just wished it could have happened differently, and didn't have to lose her best friend.]
Yeah, I guess. [He's not wrong, at least, that his influence is what made her want to be a better Spider-Woman. That losing him had pushed her to do even more good in her community. But still.]
Um. Yeah. A computer. More like an AI on a computer, I guess? Not like a take-over-the-world kind of AI. It's only capable of simple things, but they're pretty cool. [She can only imagine what the scope of it on his ship would be, though. Especially that far into the future. It probably made Siri look like a child's play thing. ]
Wait, wait-- dematerialization? Isn't that-- but that's basically just killing you, and recreating you in another point in space, right?? [It's a scientific theory, but... just a theory, in her time. And even if it was possible, is it ethical?? Jim seems comfortable with it, though, and she tends to trust his judgement, but...still.]
no subject
Gotcha. We have something similar running the main systems on the Enterprise. [ That is, essentially, what the computer system is for. It doesn't have full control over everything, isn't encouraged to a certain level of cognition - since the debate over classified lifeforms still rages on. He'd akin it to the debates on bodily autonomy in Gwen's time - when does life begin, and what, precisely, constitutes it?
He chuckles and dries his hands on the towel, shrugging slightly. ] Some people believe so. The thing is, it's the same atoms? The transporter converts you into an energy pattern, transits you through the system to your target location, and reassembles you - but it's still you. It's not taking your consciousness and destroying your body so you have nowhere to go. Even if something happened in transit, you can be emergency-beamed to a secondary location, and the effect would be the same.
We actually just recently discovered the equation to beam aboard a ship while it's at warp - that's a step above light speed. [ Jim tacks on the end, realizing belatedly he might not have mentioned that before. ]