#t[error] | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

stevejobsbuysasamsung · 10 months ago

Text

Why 'The Naked Time' says so much about Spock and Kirk's relationship

Okay y'all buckle up, because I'm 'bouta read too much into subtext and symbolism for my own good,,,

In saying that, I feel that this episode reveals so much about Spock and Kirk. It portrays their attitudes and feelings towards love, relationships, and... each other??!?!?!

The premise of this episode is that there is a disease transmitted through touch. It leads the victims the descend into a form of 'madness'. The disease's manifestation is related to the individual's inner psyche; Spock himself says it forces 'hidden personality traits ... to the surface'. This happens to Sulu, who starts to yield a fencing sword towards other crewpeople on the ship. Given his love for fencing, and that he is 'at heart a swashbuckler', the illness has responded to this. This is foreshadowed by the word 'naked' in the title: to mean bare, undisguised, as you are.

Christine Chapel soon becomes ill with this disease. She confesses her love for Spock and reaches out to touch his hands. Spock flinches at first but does not choose to resist as she continues. Significantly, she says she is in love with 'the human Mister Spock, the Vulcan Mister Spock.' Chapel finishes with, 'I do love you just as you are.'

Summarily, Spock becomes incapacitated in two ways; by the physical touch of Chapel, he has the illness; but also by the denigration of logic and surfacing of repressed emotions. I mean, why does Spock hold on to Chapel's fervourous touch and apologises to her profusely, multifold? By what logic would permit this? Surely no logic that abides by the teachings of his Vulcan upbringing.

Spock is visibly overwhelmed by the confession. That, not only is he loved, he is loved as a Vulcan and as a human - a dual identity that Spock struggles to live with.

Importantly, for Spock this disease reveals the unresolved tensions of these identities and the vigorous dedication he has to silencing his human side with Vulcan logic. Spock stumbles out, tearful, and plaintively cries that he is in control of his emotions. He grasps a computer of all things, the zenith of binary choices and answers, of perhaps Vulcan logic. Then, he assures himself that he is a science officer - a professional observer - an identity which would somehow negate the feelings he is experiencing. But even scientists, humans, and Vulcans can experience emotions, and this fact, coupled with the encumberment of this disease, causes Spock to unravel.

The height of this episode, for me, is when Kirk finds him. Through glassy windows of tears, Spock looks to Kirk and laments that he can never tell his mother that he loves her (because he is Vulcan). He then looks to Kirk and says, 'when I feel friendship for you, I'm ashamed'. The emotion that Spock is battling is not grief, anger, sadness, but, let's face it, love.

When they start slapping each other, they actually... tightly hold hands. To me, they're ferociously making out, full pash sesh, heaving petting.

And where, earlier, in a similar embrace, Spock found himself restricted by Chapel, Spock holds on to Kirk's hand for dear life.

This next bit seems like it runs unparallel to Spirk as a ship, but let me explain why it doesn't. Kirk contracts the disease from Spock, and also battles with the impossibility of love as the Ship's Captain. This love is dedicated to his yeoman. Immediately, it seems as if Spock has ... recovered? He switches off, begins to take control of the situation and the impending doom that would occur if they don't get power for something something sciency words something to do with engines. When Spock seeks Kirk in this state, it's as if he has responded to Kirk's lack of affection. The illness appears to recede.

Where this comes full circle is with the writing on the wall (literally). Spock observes, 'Love Mankind' on the wall.

This may relate to embracing his human side, and further his love for Kirk.

Kirk's writing on the wall? In the turbolift, upon finishing his comments about his love for his yeoman, is faced with:

What must Kirk repent for as a sinner? Can I be bold and say this might be about lying as a sin, perhaps?

Anyway. It is 1.30 am, I need to fight with the writers of this episode and I need to put my creative writing skills to use somewhere else, probably. I hope you enjoyed the mess that lives in my mind and my attempt to coherently collate what was a dozen voice messages sent to my best friends who are sleeping. I should probably sleep too...

#mr spock #spock #star trek tos #st tos #star trek #tos #the original series #star trek the original series #spirk #kirk #james t kirk #james kirk #jim kirk #captain kirk #kirk/spock #the naked time #what a stuoid fuckign hshow #if u find spelling errors dot talkkto me its 1.50 am

225 notes · View notes

tea-potato-gt · 3 months ago

Text

A Borrower at the End of the World Part 1

Summary: A Borrower (Briar, 40’s) taking care of two Bean children (Jace 14 and Layla 8) in a post apocalyptic world.

Funny synopsis: Stressed out Borrower father tries to keep his two dumb Bean kids (with no survival skills) alive when monster(s) finds them.

Word count: 3,300ish

(Working title, if anyone has any better ideas Let me know!)

Next chapter here / All chapters here

The abandoned grocery store they had been living in had become compromised.

Somehow, one of the creatures had slunked its way through one of the secret entrances and now crawled its way up and down the aisles.

Jace was the first one to spot it. He saw its movement in the anti-theft mirrors. Even with the reflection’s warped shape, he recognized the monster immediately. Its grotesque features, tiny eyes, gnarly teeth and terrible smell were hard to miss. But worst of all was the low moans it made as it searched for victims to feast upon.

Jace’s blood felt like ice in his veins. He forgot how to breathe as he slowly backed towards the office they converted into a bedroom. He gripped the handle with a sweaty palm, praying the door wouldn’t creak as he slowly opened it.

Quickly as he dared, Jace stepped inside and locked the door behind him.

The boy rushed to the makeshift cot he shared with his little sister, where Layla currently slept. He silently placed one hand on her shoulder and one over her mouth. Layla awoke with a start. Her eyes wide and she was about to cry out, but Jace anticipated this. Her scream died in her throat with his hand over her mouth.

Once Jace was certain she wouldn’t make noise, he released the hold on her mouth and placed a finger on his lips to indicate for her to be quiet.

“Go find Briar,” Jace said in a hushed whisper. “One of them is here.”

If Layla wasn’t awake before, she was fully alert now. She jumped up quickly and grabbed her shoes and her stuffed Teddy bear, Mr. Ursa.

Layla crawled towards Briar’s room, if you could call it that. It was really just a 12 by 12 inch hole cut into the wall that had small (Borrower sized) tunnels to various parts of the store. Briar’s room was covered by a blanket that could be easily removed, but the borrower always insisted on sleeping in the walls where ever the three of them stayed. He hated to sleep around Beans, even if they were the two kids he had been living with for years. He said it was too vulnerable.

Layla stuck her head in the hole in the wall, her chin setting atop his makeshift bedding and bumping some of his other furniture in the process. She knocked on the wall as quickly and quietly as she dared. She called out through the small dark corridor. “Briar? Briar please!”

Eventually, Lalya could see a tiny Bouncing light coming down the small tunnel towards her. She even began to hear small footsteps as a five inch man ran towards her. As he entered the room, she pulled her head out of the hole to give the Borrower some room. “What is it, Child? What’s wrong?” Briar panted, catching his breath. He turned off the lantern he fashioned from an old battery and a single Christmas light.

Tears streamed down the young Bean’s face, but she didn’t make a sound. This wasn’t anything like when she screamed for Briar to scare off a spider or the times she fought with her brother and she yelled for Briar to settle an argument. She was shaking like a leaf and silently crying. Something was terribly wrong.

In the meantime, Jace grabbed the borrowing bag Briar had him put together full of their essentials. The teen snuck toward their emergency exit to the back alley. Briar always insisted every place they stayed had to have multiple outs. Jace slightly opened the door, checking his surroundings.

There was another creature blindly digging through their trash, probably trying to eat a rat. And a second beside the first crawling on all fours, sniffing the air, getting closer to the door. Jace closed the it and muttered curses under his breath.

These things usually traveled in packs of 5 to 10. Some part of him hoped the creature in the store was alone, but he should have known better. There were probably more surrounding the building, trying to get in. These things were about the size of wolves and had a voracious appetite to boot.

Then the sound of shattering glass and broken wood echoed through the store. Layla covered her mouth to keep from screaming. Disturbed beyond words, Briar walked to her and gently stroked the young one’s arm. The closest part of her body he could reach. Briar hoped that the boy was just making a ruckus in the store, but Jace raced round the corner from the opposite direction of the clatter.

That cemented it. The fear, the noises, the silent tears of the child. The three of them had company, and most likely not the friendly kind. Their hideout had been compromised and they needed to leave immediately.

Jace rushed over, “Boss, There’s two of the monsters in the alley, blocking the back door. We can’t get out that way.” From the hole in the wall, Briar was about knee height on the boy, but it was still daunting to look straight up at a Bean. Jace knelt down to the level of his sister and the borrower.

“What about the front door?” Layla finally spoke in a frantic whisper.

“That door is sealed shut and still barricaded.” Jace ran his hand down his face, he was stressed and seeing his sister’s fear didn’t help. “It must have come in through the side entrance and another might get in the same way. We can’t get out that way either.”

“The only way out is through the roof.” Briar said stone faced.

A daunting task. The only way to get onto the roof was to take the ladder behind the register in the Store. They would have to leave the back office, get past the creature, to the register, up the ladder, open the hatch, crawl outside and run like hell to the next rooftop.

It’s not that simple when you have a 40 year old man the size of a hand, an 8 year old girl who can’t run far or fast and a teenager who doesn’t yet have the strength nor will to fight. But the three didn’t have a choice. They either leave now or risk having their flesh ripped from their bones and devoured.

“We have to go now.” Briar commanded the children.

Jace stood up and gathered a few things from the bedside table and shoved them in his backpack, including the only exhisting picture of Jace and Layla’s bean family. He quickly looked around the room to make sure he wouldn’t forget anything else important.

Meanwhile, Layla set both her hands before the Borrower, as they had done so many times before. Briar stepped on without hesitation, but he quickly felt the vibrations from her shaking. She couldn’t keep her hand steady, Briar fell to his knees almost immediately. He grunted in frustration.

“I’m sorry,” Layla said as tears fell onto her hands and almost drenched the older borrower.

“It’s alright, child.” Briar tried to calm her down. He did not like the idea of being in the hands of an unstable Bean. It took him months of building up trust before he ever let Layla hold him for the first time.

“Give him here.” Jace stoically held out his hand in front of his sister.

Normally, Briar didn’t like to be passed between the giant siblings, but given their dire situation, he leapt onto the boy’s palm. Jace quickly placed the borrower onto his shoulder. Briar in turn held onto a tuft of the boy’s red hair at the base of his neck. Layla quickly grabbed her brother’s unoccupied hand and clutched her stuffed bear close as they made their way towards the door that led into the store.

Jace unlocked and opened the door, he and Briar silently looked out into the large room on the other side.

They could hear the creature somewhere in the store blindly rifling through the shards of glass and eating anything it could find that was remotely like food. These creatures had a ravenous appetite, always hungry, and never satisfied. They relied on their hearing and especially their sense of smell to find their prey. The issue was the creature was somewhere between them and the ladder to the roof.

Carefully, Jace stepped out of the room. So far his presence undetected. He pulled his sister close behind him as they began to make their way down the aisles that could lead them in the direction of their exit.

They weaved through aisle after aisle, then Jace suddenly stopped. He held his breath as he pulled his sister closer, Briar braced himself on the teen’s shoulder.

There, before them was the creature gorging itself on rotten food from the shattered jars.

Briar silently pointed in a new direction for the trio to take. Jace nodded and started walking, pulling his sister along.

Poor little Layla had yet to be given the gift of coordination that is granted as one ages. She was too occupied watching the monster that she walked right into her brother and tripped on his feet. She fell to the ground and let out a yelp of pain. The three froze. Layla covered her mouth. Jace watched the creature with wide eyes. Briar prepared himself for a fight.

The monster perked up. Listening. It sniffed the air.

It blindly charged at the place Layla previously laid on the ground, it crashed head first into a shelf, knocking it over, shattering more wood and glass.

Meanwhile, Jace ran to the next aisle over with Layla in his arms. She was getting too heavy to carry, but her big brother was desperate to get them all away.

The sudden increase in weight on Jace’s other side led to a very uneven and bumpy ride for the poor borrower, who gripped Jace’s shirt for dear life as the boy ran around the corner.

It was a dead end. Briar muttered curses under his breath. Layla whimpered. And Jace looked around for another way out.

The creature growled. It was so close. Briar could feel the air move with its ragged, rancid breath. Jace quickly carried Layla into the far corner of the aisle and put her closer to the wall. Determined to keep his little sister safe till the last moment.

The monster got closer and closer as it sniffed them out.

Briar sat between the two kids on Jace’s shoulder. Jace stopped breathing, but the borrower felt the thunder of the young boy’s heart from his neck. He watched Layla shake, tears dripping from her eyes, she was beyond terrified.

This was too much. Briar never wanted to see the kids like this. He became determined to get them out, no matter how small he was compared to the Beans he traveled with, he would get them out.

Briar knew what he had to do to give these kids a chance. He looked down at young Layla, she clung to her brother’s arm, her eyes closed, willing for this to be over. She had just turned eight a month ago. Briar wanted nothing more than to see her smile that could light up a room and make the world not seem so bad one last time.

Then looked at the boy, from where the borrower stood, he could only see the underside of his face. A jaw line that had become more defined over the years they spent together.

What a fine young man he will become, Briar thought with a smile.

Briar stepped off Jace’s shoulder to the shelf that was behind him. He climbed down on the other side and ran to the creature as it was about to turn the corner towards the children.

“Hey! Ugly!” Briar yelled at the monster as he ran behind it. “Over here!”

It wasn’t until Jace heard the voice of Briar in the distance that he realized the Borrower wasn’t on his shoulder anymore. Both kids started locked eyes in a panic.

The creature turned towards the sound and swiftly followed the small voice, but ran head first into a shelf as Briar easily slipped between two old cereal boxes.

Being small has its advantages, Briar thought triumphantly.

The loud cracking and snapping of wood indicated the shelf that he ran through began to fall due to the impact of the massive creature.

Being small also has its disadvantages, Briar thought bitterly as he had to dodge falling wood, boxes and jars. A jar of exspired pickles shattered right in front of Briar and juice came out in a wave knocking the five inch tall man over. He sputtered and spat up old vinegar and almost tripped on a loose pickle as he attempted to stand up.

The creature finally got its head unstuck from the shelf and sniffed out the old borrower. It was about to find him when a shrill cry rang out across the store.

It definitely wasn’t the monster, because it seemed just as surprised by the sound as the borrower was.

Briar whipped around and to his horror saw Layla standing near the aisle, hands over her mouth to stifle another cry from coming out. Jace stood nearby like a deer in the headlights, eyes wild and frantic trying to think of what to do next.

Those brats are still here?! They didn’t take the opportunity to get to the ladder and escape while I was keeping the monster distracted?! Briar was livid. If they weren’t in a life or death situation, he would have given both kids an earful for having the survival instincts of a brain-dead lemming.

The monster was the first to recover from its surprise, it blindly charged at the source of the scream. Jace was next to react, he grabbed his sister by the arm and pulled her away just in time before the creature bit a chunk out of her.

“No! You left Briar behind!” Layla cried as her brother dragged her towards the ladder. “We need to go back!” She fought against Jace and he struggled to get a good grip around his squirming sister.

Briar chased after the creature who was chasing the two Beans, he ran through the small shelf spaces instead of trying to go around the aisles.

The children made it around the counter that the ladder resided behind, they were so close, till Jace saw the creature had caught up with them too. It was snarling, readying to pounce at the kids. Jace wielded a knife, but he knew that wouldn’t do much against the razor sharp teeth on this monster.

Briar finally caught up with the giants. To his horror, the children were cornered.

Without regard for his own safety, Briar whipped out his needle and stabbed the creature in the tail. It actually broke through the skin. The creature screeched a horrible sound of pain.

“Go now!” Briar shouted over the roar of the creature.

“But–” Layla began to protest.

“DO AS I SAY!” Briar hollered as he pushed with all his might on the pin, “CLIMB! GET OUT!” With one last ounce of pure adrenaline and strength, Briar pushed the pin in further so that it stabbed out the other side of the monster’s tail.

The creature began to swerve and swing its tail. Briar tried to hold on as long as possible, but its movements were erratic and desperate for the pain to stop. Briar was flung into another shelf with a loud cry as his head made impact with a metal can of food.

Once again, the monster blindly charged towards the borrower’s scream, and crashed into the shelf. It shook violently as the structure lost integrity and tumbled down.

As Briar fell, the last he saw of his children was Jace’s shoes as he trailed behind his sister up the ladder. Finally, he thought with a smile, I did something right for them in the end.

This would not be his end. No. Fate was always cruel to borrowers. Now was no different.

Instead of hitting the floor, Briar tumbled head over ass down the body of the creature. Slowing his fall. By the time he landed on the ground, he was completely disoriented and dizzy and he probably had a mild concussion as his vision became splotchy.

Briar looked up, his head clearing enough to register the creature standing over him. He was trapped. It sniffed him. Some part of Briar hoped he would be too small to entice such a large creature to be eaten. But of course, a Borrower could never be so lucky.

The creature pulled back its lips to reveal several rows of crooked, razor sharp teeth. All serrated. One bite, and he’d be dead.

It was like staring down the barrel of a gun. Briar knew this would be the end. He would take it like a proper Borrower. He lived a good life. No qualms. No hesitation. No complaints. At least, that’s how he wanted to go out.

But his last thoughts remained on the two Bean kids he had been living with for three years. Would they be alright after he was gone? Surely they would, he had taught them the ways of the borrower. That is everything one needs to know how to survive in a world turned against them.

They will be fine.

Right?

***

Briar never intended to take care of children several dozen times his size. He never had kids or a family of his own. He never had the intention to settle down or to raise children. He never liked kids, especially Bean children, and after living with two of them he can confirm, he still doesn’t like kids.

But life is funny sometimes.

Three years earlier...

Briar was originally planning to steal food from them. (Or if you asked him, 'borrow food,' with the caveat that he would not return the food that he took.) He came across the pair of kids in an abandoned house.

At first, he thought he hit the jackpot of Beans to borrow from. Bean children were messy, they wouldn't notice if small things went missing. But within the first two hours he spent observing them, he realized those kids were slowly starving to death.

Against his better judgment, Briar found a large (to him) can of what he believed to be a soup of some kind or at least that’s what he hoped. The picture was faded and he never really bothered to learn the written language of the Beans.

He began to roll it to the house where the two children slept. And pushed it through one of the larger holes in the wall it could fit through. Briar questioned his own sanity, pushing this heavy thing into a place where giants slept.

“I must be insane,” Briar muttered.

This can is too big to open anyway, so why waste food? Briar’s mind said back.

As he got closer, he could see the kids sleeping on an old, moldy mattress in the corner of the room. They clung to each other for warmth as the chill took over when the sun set.

Rattling of the tin can startled the young girl awake. “What was that?” She whispered into the darkness.

The boy beside her woke and was immediately irritated. The only thing that stopped the cold and the pain in his stomach was sleep, an activity his annoying five year old sister had just taken from him.

Then the boy heard it too. He sat up and the pair watched in astonishment as a can rolled out from the darkness. They looked at eachother. The boy was the first to move. He grabbed the can, eyes wide.

“Food? It’s food!” The boy cried out. His sister grasped for the can excitedly.

The boy made quick work of the lid with a can opener and a spoon. They shared the contents within, the boy split the food equally into two bowls and let his sister pick which to eat from.

Briar watched the pair from the shadows. Seeing the joy in their eyes was enough for him to feel good about risking his neck to bring them food. He did a good deed, saved a life, and now he could continue with his own lonely existence.

Before he knew it, Briar was going out of his way to find cans of food every night. In the darkness he would roll it towards the kids while he stayed hiding in the shadows.

In the darkness he was safe. Even though they were children, they were still huge compared to him, and therefore dangerous.

He couldn’t be seen or touched or discovered by these children, no matter what.

***

I hope you enjoyed! This is just the first part, several more are on their way!

Next chapter / All chapters here

***

Got this idea from this post:

@kxttsstuff @only-surviving-drfan

https://www.tumblr.com/only-surviving-drfan/748292298600841216/i-love-the-idea-of-a-middle-aged-borrower-who-had

“I actually rlly like this concept. Imagine moving this to a post-apocalyptique setting where the human parents aren't there and the middle-aged borrower is far more knowledgeable in survival stuff and teaches the kid the "borrower way" of doing stuff”

#g/t #giant/tiny #gianttiny #g/t fluff #g/t community #parental g/t #parental gt #OC Briar #OC Jace #OC Layla #g/t borrower #borrower #Borrower at the end of the world #I’m seeing so many errors in my first posted draft 😭😭😭 I’m trying to fix them rn

57 notes · View notes