#Justin straal

[chillychive]

I want to see Paul have a moment where he realizes that he left Straal behind when he went to the future. His best friend is nothing more than space dust now. And then suddenly he realizes that's exactly what Justin would have wanted- to be returned to the universe. And suddenly he realizes it's kind of peaceful.

[sadnessruns]

Headcanon: Paul Stamets. -> re: Justin Straal

I think a lot about Paul's relationships, it's something about him that's always fascinated me. He's very closed off in season one, the first person we know who he has a positive connection to is his buddy Justin Straal. Straal works with him on the spore drive, but they've been split up and Straal works on the Glenn.

They fundamentally don't agree about the mushroom storage question, but they are very much seen as friends who have worked together for a long time. In the first Discovery annual we see that they are very friendly with each other but do tend to disagree on some things. Like their terraforming projects and how to go about developing the spore drive. I like to think Paul likes this in a research partner, someone who will push back and challenge him. He doesn't need people to disagree with him but he likes a good challenge.

Straal is his balance. That's what his friend has always been. Straal is open with his feelings, open with how he thinks about Paul. Paul allows himself to be honest and open with Straal, even so far as joking with him. When Paul wants to test the transporter capabilities of the spore drive on himself in the comic, Straal won't let him do it alone. He won't let Paul die alone.

In Dead Endless we see a lot more of their relationship. Straal is just as fiercely protective of Paul as Paul is of him. Straal gives Hugh the shovel talk, he hugs Paul tightly when he realizes his friend is alive. But another thing comes up, Straal is said to be just as much of an asshole and pessimistic as Paul, he just puts on a better-presenting face.

All of this to say, they're fiercely connected. They're like brothers.And that's where 1x03 makes a big stand out to me. Paul is only informed of Straal's death, given no time to grieve, just told to recover everything he can and leave. He can't even bring Straal's body home. It's devastating to him but we never see the emotional fallout of it. We never see the fallout of Paul having to leave Justin behind in the past, knowing everything they've ever done will be classified. And when Hugh dies, he doesn't have his best friend to lean on. He's lost his two most important people.

I think Paul has grieved Straal more than he knows. More than he'll ever care to admit. Straal died because of their own hubris, because of their own creation. I think Paul blames himself to some degree for it. This is their work, the work he survived testing of, even if he wasn't fully himself anymore.

The spore drive is the only thing that remains of Straal. It's being decommissioned in the future, a future where no one knows that Straal has worked on it beyond those on the Discovery's crew. Paul has no legacy now. Straal has even less, his death is redacted to high hell. I think that hurts Paul more than he realizes.

Paul thinks about Straal, wishes he could be there, wishes how his best friend could see everything. Reno is a good substitute with a similar personality, but she's no Straal. No one has been there for Paul like Justin has. Justin is the only one besides Hugh and his sister who truly understands him.

Paul has mourned him a million times in small ways, in big ways, in sobs and tears, in moments of solace, in moments of joy.

Justin Straal is his other half, a half long gone and returned to stardust. All while Paul continues to live.

And man, it fucking hurts.

[ao3feed-spirk]

To Drift, Untethered

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/43416577

by Goblinofthewords

A Star Trek Discovery Pacific Rim au…

After a cataclysmic accident during a battle devastates Paul Stamets, how can he find his way back?

(Minor pacific rim knowledge required or just read The lore dump in the a/n)

Words: 5812, Chapters: 6/11, Language: English

Series: Part 217 of Goblin’s Star Trek Discovery Fics

Fandoms: Star Trek: Discovery

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Paul Stamets, Hugh Culber, Justin Straal, Gabriel Lorca | Mirror Gabriel Lorca

Relationships: Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets, Paul Stamets & Justin Straal, Paul Stamets & Sylvia Tilly, Jett Reno & Paul Stamets, Gabriel Lorca | Mirror Gabriel Lorca & Paul Stamets, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Keyla Detmer/Joann Owosekun, James T. Kirk/Spock

Additional Tags: Angst, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Hurt/Comfort, Paul Stamets Is Bad At Feelings, Caring Hugh Culber, Paul Stamets has Chronic Pain, Grief/Mourning, Character Death, Drift Compatibility (Pacific Rim)

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/43416577

[ao3feed-culmets]

Dedicated to life

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/fviBV7Q

by Goblinofthewords

The first time Hugh sees how Paul is dedicated to life… Featuring a meddling Justin Straal and bioluminescence

To quote critical role: “life needs things to live”

Words: 1161, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Series: Part 61 of Goblin’s Star Trek Discovery Fics

Fandoms: Star Trek: Discovery

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Hugh Culber, Paul Stamets, Justin Straal

Relationships: Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets, Paul Stamets & Justin Straal, Hugh Culber & Justin Straal

Additional Tags: Fluff, Falling In Love, Caring Hugh Culber, Straal is meddling again…, Bioluminescence

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/fviBV7Q

[ltcmdrtardigrade]

sorry but it's XX century AU, Stamets and Straal with their lab chief

#StarTrekDiscovery

*(screens from "Beautiful mind")

[jmalkki]

Comfort 

A moment between kisses, from Dave Galanter’s novel Dead Endless, a wonderfully touching tribute to our darling couple.

This work also on twitter, and on instagram. And as always, all of the Disco/Culmets works are listed here.

I thought the novel hit all the right spots while cleverly avoiding to disrupt any major established canon, or clashing with any vulnerable headcanon either (aspects, which I - as surely anyone well invested would be - was rather apprehensive for). If anything, the story just embellishes on already presented facts and helps to solidify personal headcanon nuggets even. Major yay!

I don’t feel like repeating my whole excitement for how well I felt these two (and the people around them) were captured (though connecting passages from the book to corresponding thoughts from own previous writings would no doubt be an interesting and/or satisfying task). Instead, I’ll just link to my review and reading notes on Goodreads (which can be a bit spoilery, so if you plan on reading the book, and would like to go in completely blank, I suggest you skip this until after - or read along? *hah*).

.

[doitforstamets]

Me, watching Discovery for the 7th time or so: Can Straal not die this time?

[janjan-the-ninth]

There is something in the comics that hints towards Paul possibly having sucidal tendencies. I don’t know if others would interpret it the same way. I just wanted to have this written down and I want to see what you think about it. (Spoilers under keep reading)

Something that was only hinted at at the show, but now confirmed by the comic is, that Paul is pretty quick to just risk his life. The question is, has that happened before? For such a smart person to be ready to give up his life that easily there had to have been a lot of thinking about it. It doesn’t look like he does something that’ll probably get him killed for the first time. He is such a smart person, but seems to define himself over his research. To me it seems like he thinks his research is more important than his life. At the same time he makes it pretty obvious, that he doesn’t think the same way about Straal. Straal has someone outside of the research, someone he could go to after their research is over.

From tasting the spores, to wanting to be the first person to be transported by the network, to then actually being transported after someone who was working for him died. That all points towards suicidal tendencies, masked as something he does for science.

Hugh said in the comics that he requested the transfer to the Discovery to watch Pauls “mental and emotional health”. He knows that Paul isn’t ok, so he tries his best to support Paul and be there for him. (perfect boyfriend Hugh) (Paul looks like he could be bipolar)

This theory could also be another explanation as for why paul injected himself with the Tardigrade DNA. He was in a difficult situation, being forced to do something he didn’t want to. He also just recently lost Straal, his friend and someone who anchored him a bit. Hugh probably never had witnessed one of his tendencies, but he knows about them, if him mentioning Pauls mental and emotional health is something to go by. While Paul knows that Hugh loves him and cares about him, in a “down” episode he probably wouldn’t think about how this would affect Hugh. Instead he does, what he always had done. Risking his life for science.

Only after seeing Hugh’s reaction towards it and knowing, that should something actually happen to him Hugh wouldn’t have someone at his side, not like Staal had his wife, made him realise that this couldn’t continue. This is, why even though his research had been the most important thing in his life, he promises Hugh too resign after his last jump. He realised that Hugh is more important than his research.

[iron-bundle]

Here is a fact: Paul Stamets is a trans man and he loves his boyfriends Justin Straal and Hugh Culber very much.

[kukalakas]

What a nerd, I love him

[chillychive]

Hi there! for the character ask

I want to see your headcanons on Paul Stamets!!

Thanks for the ask!!

Sexuality Headcanon: Well... he's canonically gay, but I think it'd be interesting if he were Demiromantic... Or rather that he was 100% sure he was when he was younger but it was actually that social was very difficult for him, not that he didn't feel romantic attraction until he knew a person.

Gender Headcanon: Male or like he/they maybe?

A ship I have with said character: I mean, Culmets...

A BROTP I have with said character: OKAY WAIT HEAR ME OUT. Spock and Paul. They had like 3 scenes together but it was fantastic. I want them to be penpals.

A NOTP I have with said character: Paul x Straal (IDK i couldn't think of anything... are there other ships?)

A random headcanon: HAHHA I've already subjected everyone to my spore regeneration headcanon soooooo... I think he often has sensory overload moments in the lab (Esp when he's under stress... so think around Lorca time), and that's part of why his lab was so quiet when we first meet him. He ended up with this really terrible reputation because he was constantly snapping at people to be quiet and sometimes sending everyone away randomly- they thought he was just cranky, but he was just overwhelmed. He does this less post Lorca and pretty much stops in later seasons- he's under less stress so he can manage it better, plus he got rid of Lorca's spies in his lab, so it's a safe space now.

General Opinion over said character: Fantastic. I love him. I was completely obsessed the first time I watched it (Cue star eyed kid watching GAY PEOPLE be allowed to be HAPPY on screen for the first time). And Anthony Rapp is awesome, he does such a good job with Paul.

[quantumstarpaths]

rough timeline of paul’s relationships and his life

- 2211: born  - 2223/2224:  when he’s 12/13, he meets justin straal and becomes friends with him  - ~2229: goes to college, dorms with justin  - ~2233:  goes to grad school, lives in an apartment with justin still  - mid 2230s: around here he meets david, dates him for a couple years  - late 2230s early 2240s: eventually meets ania where applicable - mid 2240s: starts research with justin - meets hugh in here somewhere, according to the 2018 comic it’s about 2254, but wilson cruz has said they’ve been together a long time, so i don’t know what the truth is - 2256: start of disco

[ao3feed-spirk]

To Drift, Untethered

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/43416577

by Goblinofthewords

A Star Trek Discovery Pacific Rim au…

After a cataclysmic accident during a battle devastates Paul Stamets, how can he find his way back?

(Minor pacific rim knowledge required or just read Theodore dump in the a/n)

Words: 554, Chapters: 1/11, Language: English

Series: Part 217 of Goblin’s Star Trek Discovery Fics

Fandoms: Star Trek: Discovery

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Paul Stamets, Hugh Culber, Justin Straal, Gabriel Lorca | Mirror Gabriel Lorca

Relationships: Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets, Paul Stamets & Justin Straal, Paul Stamets & Sylvia Tilly, Jett Reno & Paul Stamets, Gabriel Lorca | Mirror Gabriel Lorca & Paul Stamets, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Keyla Detmer/Joann Owosekun, James T. Kirk/Spock

Additional Tags: Angst, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Hurt/Comfort, Paul Stamets Is Bad At Feelings, Caring Hugh Culber, Paul Stamets has Chronic Pain, Grief/Mourning, Character Death, Drift Compatibility (Pacific Rim)

read it on the AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/43416577

[galaxyraised]

    STARTER:  REQUESTED.    TILLY,  SYLVIA  ⟶  STRAAL,  JUSTIN,  @obscuresmuse​

“i uh,  i don’t know where lieutenant stamets is,”   shouldn’t she know?  sometimes it feels like she’s required to know his location at all times,   “somewhere on the ship,  presumably.  i can help you find him!  unless you’re here for something else,”

[competenceknowsnobounds]

A message appears on Pike's PADD. "I heard it was your birthday, and I thought I would take the chance to give you something you might find useful." And attached is a file, which contains...a report, by Doctors Paul Stamets and Justin Straal, on the applications and description of the displacement-activated spore hub drive.

Chris’ Birthday!

Even a peek at the first page affirms that he doesn’t understand a thing. So he just writes a quick thank you and forwards it to One. At least one of them can appreciate it.

[doitforstamets]

A fanfic..!

Edit: AO3 with more chapters!

Star Trek Discovery Hugh Culber/Paul Stamets Before Discovery General audiences / Not beta read

Paul sits in the dim hotel lobby, tapping on his thigh with one hand and mindlessly browsing a PADD with the other. There is text on the screen he doesn’t read, and pictures he glances over but doesn’t look at.

His heart jumps at an incoming message.

“Be there in 20 minutes”, Hugh writes.

Paul is frozen staring at the message pop up until it disappears. His hand stops the nervous tapping to grab the PADD from the glass table, and to write back.

“Can’t wait.”

And he really can’t. 20 minutes, still? Paul feels like he’s been waiting for weeks – and technically he has. But he’s only sat in the hotel lobby for a while, just long enough to finish a cup of coffee and go trough his presentation one more time, sloppily. Hardly a way in which he does anything, usually. He takes pride in being very particular about his work.

But not this weekend.

After an unexpected encounter on Alpha Centauri 6 weeks ago – Paul checks in his head, yes, it really has been 6 weeks since he met Hugh – they’ve only been in contact via video calls and messages. Not that it hadn’t been nice – it’s been very nice – Paul was starting to get impatient with not being close to Hugh, physically.

For a while, he had been afraid to say anything, in case Hugh felt differently. He had tried to focus on his work, only messaging Hugh once or twice a day compared to the earlier long daily conversations and calls.

He didn’t mean to get so lost in the research, but that’s just who he was. One day, he had forgotten to message Hugh completely. He had spent his entire day calculating and testing yet another idea for harnessing the potential of the spore drive. It didn’t work.

He returned to his apartment, overlooking the research station on Deneva, defeated and annoyed. He had frustratedly kicked off his shoes, thrown his jacket on the couch, rest of his clothes leaving a messy trail to the bathroom. He didn’t pay much attention to anything while showering. He’s pretty sure he had washed himself.

Stepping out of the bathroom to be met with the warm glow of the Denevian sunset, Paul sighed.

Instantly, there was a muffled vibration coming from somewhere near the entrance to his apartment.

Oh shit, Paul realized. He had not looked at his personal PADD all day.

Quickly making his way to the entrance, he tried to grab the jacket he wore today from the coat rack. It wasn’t there. He turned around, remembering throwing the jacket on the couch, only to realize the buzzing was coming from his feet.

Paul grabbed the PADD from the case on the floor, almost instinctively answered the video call, before realizing he was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist.

Hastily, he grabbed the nearest shirt he could find, struggled while putting it on trying to simultaneously hold the PADD. He took a few steps to the couch and answered the call while flopping down on the couch.

Hugh’s face appeared on screen, his brows furrowed a bit, but his mouth turning into a faint smile at the sight of Paul.

“Hey,” Hugh greeted in a soft tone.

“Hi.”

“Where have you been?”

Paul had realized his mistake just moments before, and took a second to think of the answer, no matter how obvious it was.

“In the lab,” Paul answered sounding a little exhausted.

“Of course,” Hugh smiled. “Anything exiting?”

Paul sighed again, turning his gaze to look at the sunset taking its final breaths in the horizon.

“Not really. Another day spent with algorithms and experiments only to prove myself wrong.”

“Oh,” Hugh exhaled with an apologizing look. “That sucks.”

By now, Hugh knew better than to answer Paul’s disappointment with the previously tried encouraging facts, like “that’s part of the research. You’ll get there eventually.”

Instead, he had noticed, Paul took comfort in him just agreeing that sometimes his work was a pain in the ass.

Looking at the pale man on screen, direct sunlight hitting his face and hair, illuminating it even lighter and bouncing off his blue eyes with a beautiful glow, Hugh definitely agreed that right now, he would rather have Paul not so invested in his research. Maybe they could spend some time together, if it wasn’t for their distance and both of their demanding jobs.

Hugh sighed smiling, studying Paul’s white-appearing eyebrows, now furrowing a bit in a way that had become quite familiar to Hugh. Paul quickly turned back to face the screen.

“I don’t really want to think about it,” he huffs. “How was your day?”

“I missed you,” Hugh answers without hesitation.

Paul is taken aback by the honest statement. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to ignore you,” Paul murmurs, realizing there are at least a few notifications unread on his PADD from Hugh.

“I know. You were working.”

“Still. I could’ve at least messaged you,” Paul goes on to say, genuinely annoyed at himself for ignoring Hugh for a full day. He meant to keep his distance, but not this much.

“Yeah, you could’ve,” Hugh admits, flashing a grin that almost melts Paul.

Hugh is still in his white Starfleet uniform, although the jacket is open, revealing an undershirt with a far more giving neckline. Paul tries not to stare.

“But I had a busy day too,” Hugh continues. “I have time now.”

“Good,” Paul smiles, although he’s a tiny bit uncomfortable remembering that he isn’t wearing any pants.

“You’re home?” Paul asks an obvious question. He’s seen enough glimpses of Hugh’s quarters to recognize it.

“Well,” Hugh looks a little surprised. “I guess.”

Paul raises an eyebrow as in asking Hugh to elaborate.

“It still doesn’t feel very... homey.”

Hugh had lived in these quarters on this starbase for about six months now. He’d gotten used to it, and felt physically comfortable where he was, but he had never referenced to it as “home”. Maybe because he spent so much time on duty outside the starbase.

“I get that,” Paul answered. He in turn had lived in this apartment for almost 6 years. It was a place to sleep, eat and shower, above anything else. If there was a place he’d consider home, it would be the garden in the lab.

Both men startle slightly, as Paul’s PADD receives a message. Paul furrows his brows and purses his lips, opening the message. Hugh recognises the look from previous calls, often followed with an apologetic Paul having to head back to the lab.

Paul groans at the message in frustration. He places the PADD on the coffee table, disappearing from the screen.

“What is it?” Hugh asks while grabbing something off the screen himself. Might as well fill some reports if Paul must head back to work.

“Umm,” Paul huffs from outside the screen. “It’s Straal.” He reappears wearing grey collage pants and scuffing his damp blonde hair with a towel.

“Back to work?” Hugh asks with a tender smile.

“No... Well, not right now,” Paul answers, reading the message again. He scoffs. “He’s bailing on me for a conference next weekend.”

There’s an annoyed look on the man’s face, as he dismisses the message and leans back on the couch, defeated.

“Fucking Straal,” he hisses, just audibly for Hugh to hear. He chuckles to himself, trying to hide a smile.

“Where is it?” Hugh asks, apparently while writing some notes on another device in front of him.

“Betazed.” Ugh. That’s far.

“Really?” Hugh raises his brows and opens a new tap on his PADD with a swift touch. Betazed is closer than Deneva, that’s for sure.

“I’m so tired of having to act like an idiot at these things,” Paul starts ranting. Hugh nods, but is still flicking trough tabs on his device to look at something else.

“I don’t know anyone, or even if I did, I don’t care enough to remember them. Most people don’t actually care about the research and are there just for the show and... gossip,” Paul huffs. “Who goes to a science conference for gossip?”

Hugh glances at Paul and gives a small chuckle. He’s reminded of what often goes on during Starfleet Medical personnel seminars, after and in between the lectures...

“I know some people,” Hugh laughs. He’s dug up a file listing his work shifts, displayed in thick boxes of multiple colors for multiple sites and types of shifts. He scrolls down to next week.

“It’s obnoxious. Would be fine if it was just the presentations, but there’s always some afterparty you’re expected to attend if you’re to actually make connections and get sponsors. Escapes me how my social presence has anything to do with the research...” Paul rants on.

They’ve had this conversation before, a few weeks ago, when Paul was getting ready for another one of his trips across the galaxy to present his genius research to much less interested audiences. It was clear Paul wasn’t much of a people’s person. He was a convincing speaker, though. Hugh had been intrigued from the first moment he saw Paul give his presentation. Intense, captivating and so excited about his own work, it was hard not to be. Or so Hugh had thought. Apparently, he was in the minority.

“Why does Justin just get to inform me he’s not coming. I better be in a hospital if I were to skip one of these things."

Hugh looks at Paul on the screen, his face now more frustrated than annoyed.

“Please don’t hurt yourself for that,” Hugh kids. Although there’s a slight chance Paul actually might be that stupid, he admits.

Paul smiles back at him softly. A moment passes in silence, before Hugh continues.

“You know... I have vacation days saved up. I’ve always wanted to visit Betazed.”

________

GAHH. I have not written fanfiction in years..! Please be gentle, I know I also change the tense halfway trough, sorryyy. But also, this needs a name I guess?