#( ❛ ᴇᴠᴇʀyᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴍᴀᴛᴛᴇʀꜱ — VERSE / MAIN. )

[lifegained]

           she  doesn’t  visit  the  science  department  often,  but  she  had  a  free schedule,  and  she  was  so  bored,  so  she  figured  she’d  snoop  around  a  little.      she’s  sat  on  the  floor,  tinkering,  when  she  hears  the  door  open,  glancing  over  and  offering  a  simple  explanation.      ❛   this  tech  needs  an  upgrade,  it’s  at  least  six  months  outdated.   ❜

          ✨      @hydrocentric​   /   STARTER CALL      !

[lifegained]

            she  hasn’t  seen  him  in  far  too  long.      rest,  doctors  orders,  while  he  was  off  with  the  crew,  she’d  been,  finally,  taking  care  of  herself.      but  now,  she  was  cleared  to  re-enter  service,  and  so  here  she  was,  meeting  them  as  they  came  ashore  for  shore  leave,  to  leave  with  them  again.      no  more  stuck  to  phone  calls,  padd  messages,  whatever  they  could  manage  with  what  time  he  had  free,  and  her  face  lights  up  when  she  sees  his.      suddenly,  it’s  a  lot  harder  than  she  thought  it  would  be  to  not  cry.      ❛   hey,  did  ya  miss  me?   ❜

           ✨      @russianonzebridge​   /   STARTER CALL      !

[lifegained]

         she's  a  mean  person.      a  horrible,  horrible  person.      but  she’s  still  gonna  try  her  luck  anyway.      ❛   he  never  told  you  his  full  name  is  jimothy?      i’m  surprised  by  that.      but  no,  it’s  jimothy  tiberius  kirk.   ❜

        ✨      @seengalaxies       /      spock.​​   /   STARTER CALL      !

[lifegained]

          she  takes  a  moment  to  chew  her  words  over  in  her  head,  she  always  worries  about  how  other  crew  members  see  her,  whether  they  see  her  as  an  engineer  in  her  own  right,  or  the  captain’s  sister,  even  though  she  knows  he  is  more  likely  to  look  at  it  logically,  to  see  she’s  a  valuable  members  of  the  engineering  team,  he’s  still  her  brothers  friend.      ❛   you  know...      i  don’t  think  i  ever  thanked  you.      during  altamid,  all  of  that  -  we  wouldn’t  have  survived  without  everything  all  of  you  did.      i  might’ve  lost  jim  again  without  you.      so  i’m  glad  you’re  assigned  to  the  enterprise,  i  dunno  what  we’d  do  without  you.   ❜

         ✨      @fasciinating​   /   STARTER CALL      !

[lifegained]

   ❛   ...      yeah that sounds about right to me.     this is why i’m the family favourite jim.   ❜       ✨      @recklessheroism   /  CONT.      !

[lifegained]

      ❛   i’m gonna throw myself out an airlock.   ❜       ✨      @aviophobic   /  STARTER CALL      !

[lifegained]

     ❛   you’re too tall.      it’s unfair.   ❜       ✨      @russianonzebridge   /  STARTER CALL      !

[lifegained]

      she’s  never  seen  such  a  horrific  pair  of  eyebrows  in  her  life.      so  she  has  to  help,  obviously.      so  she  sits  him  down  in  a  chair  wordlessly,  and  starts  searching  in  her  back  for  an  eyebrow  pencil,  brandishing  it  triumphantly.

      ❛   now,  don’t  move.      i’m  going  to  fix  your  eyebrows   ❜       ✨     @eleventhy      !

[lifegained]

      ❛   i  brought ya some flowers back from the away mission!   ❜       ✨     @cailicah      !

[lifegained]

      they’ll never admit it, the way it hangs in the air between them, unspoken yet suffocatingly obviously.      she knows that.      she doesn’t know if it’s better or worse than the alternative, to pretend like they’re not still reeling from the times they’ve lost each other, to pretend like she doesn’t feel like she’s drowning from the thoughts swirling round her head, to pretend some nights she doesn’t wake up gasping for air because all she dreams about is how it felt to die.      and she wonders, quietly, in the back of her mind, if he does the same about being in the warp core those few years ago.

      it should have been her.     it should have been her that went in there, he had so much still to do, she knows he's going to make unforgettable marks on the world, he was going to tear everything down and rebuild it to be better than ever.     but it hadn’t been her, so she’d made sure it was the next time, she couldn’t lose him, but she’d spent her whole life preparing him to lose her.

      it still wasn’t enough.     she didn’t know if they’d ever be ready to let go.      all she could do was hope that when he had too, he would.      but for now, she’ll just pretend all is fine, until he wants to talk about it, this is his playing field, not hers, she won’t burden him further, he already carries so much on his shoulders, and she wishes she could shield him from it all, make it easier.      but in the end, she wonders if she’s just another burden, a ticking time bomb primed to leave a crater of loss in her wake.

      ❛   ok but if the teenaxi could kick your ass, i bet i could too, if i tried hard enough.   ❜       ✨      @recklessheroism   /  PLOTTED STARTER      !

[lifegained]

      willow  kirk  had  never  been  one  for  subtlety.      perhaps  that  was  why,  without  missing  a  beat,  she  swallowed  air  like  it  was  water  and  she  was  in  a  desert,  and  leaned  forwards,  her  lips  pressing  to  the  other  woman's  gently.      she  may  not  have  had  subtlety,  but  she  sure  had  respect.       ✨     @perankotekru  /  SPACE GAYS

[lifegained]

   ❛   look at that view, almost makes getting covered in mud completely worth it.     but only almost.   ❜

     she chuckles as she turns to look at her friend, blinking in the sunlight.     it’s been a while since she was on an away mission, but she’s having the time of her life already, especially since nyota had joined them, she couldn’t think of anyone better to help soothe the headache that would inevitably come from jim teasing her for struggling to contain her excitement at the foreign machinery.       ✨      @khrashyel   /  STARTER CALL      !

[lifegained]

      ❛   didn’t  scotty  lose  your  dog  that  one  time?   ❜       ✨     @warpborn​​   /   starter call      !

[lifegained]

      ❛   who’s  more  annoying?     me  or  keenser?   ❜       ✨     @redshirtm​   /   starter call      !

[lifegained]

      ❛   i’m  not  a  snack.      i’m  the  whole  damn  meal.   ❜       ✨     @thedramatics      !

[lifegained]

     ❛   you’re   my   favourite   russian   ,   and   that’s   including   valentina   tereshkova.   ❜       ✨      @russianonzebridge   /   STARTER CALL      !