Scientific Progress goes 'Boink'

[smartass_captain]

There's a message stuck to a door, last door on the left of a certain apartment complex in a certain New York. It's replicated paper, definitely a different sort of feel to it than one would expect in 2013.

Paper isn't the preferred message delivery device in the 2250s. Replicated paper and replicated ink.

Clint

Head to my place when you get this. Bring Ver.

Bones knows you're coming, he'll get you where you need to go. Don't bring your bow, we're not leaving home.

See you soon hopefully,

Jim


((Feel free to post without me until you guys actually get through the door to the Enterprise. I'm stuck in training/meetings and won't have another solid break for 2.5/3 hours from now. Will post actively after that time.))

Comments

[aw_hawkguy]

"We both will," Clint adds. "Maybe with less drinking, this time."

[smartass_captain]

"My bed isn't that big you guys." Jim's laughing now, but he stops when Verity pulls at his arm. His quarters is slightly larger than most because rank, but it would be a pretty tight fit to get three people anywhere near comfortable on his bed. "And yeah, there's nothing in there to drink at the moment. I paid off Scotty and Chekov with the last of my liquor."

Booze well spent if it will save a world.

"Anywhere else you'd like to see before we leave?" Jim isn't quite sure why they're being stopped, but he's not arguing.

[brave_heart_verity]

"Jim, sweetie, I know you're big mister boss man around here usually, but you need to accept that I'm not going." Deal with it.

She did warn them about the bossiness.

"I know you have a relationship with your crew that I'll never really understand, and I'm not trying to compete with that. But you don't have to be the stoic, unflappable captain with me. You can accept help from me without it being anyone else's business."

[aw_hawkguy]

"Hey, you surfed my couch, I'll surf yours," Clint counters with a grin.

[smartass_captain]

What, no. No that's not how this works. They just.

Jim swallows a lump that's suddenly in his throat. He can't say no to Clint. Like, literally can't. That argument pretty much sums up their status. Jim does owe him a couch surfing. And his couch is awesome, it would be ten kinds of rude to say no.

And Verity.

Well. Verity's world is exploding like right now how is he going to be a dick and throw her out?

He isn't.

And they know it. Okay....Okay! Plan B it is then.

"Ahahaha! You got me there. Guess we're crashing at my place." Jim grins and nothing is amiss except that laugh is a total lie. What is going on here? Seriously? They turn toward a turbolift and Jim keys in to go down to his quarters. Leads them down a rather quiet hallway. Punches in his personal code and lets them into his quarters. Clint's seen it before, but it is surprisingly sparse and clean. He has a computer terminal and office in the corner, a couch with a small coffee table stacked with PADDs of paperwork he has to do, and his bed on the far side over by his closet.

"I share my bathroom with Spock; his quarters is next to mine. I can get spare toothbrushes and the like easy enough--gotta warn you though. Sonic showers aren't nearly as relaxing as ones you're used to." A spare blanket and set of pillows gets chucked onto the couch easily. "You guys argue over who's sleeping where, I"ll take the couch even, I don't mind. I'm gonna go comm Spock and let him know I'm taking off early." Jim points to his terminal and wanders over there.

[brave_heart_verity]

At this point, she'll let him think that's what's going on if it gets him to stop arguing. But someday Jim's going to have to face the fact she loves and adores him enough to fight him on these things.

The lack of biometric locks is going to make it hard to keep her out in the future. Just saying.

She has a little look around when they get to his quarters, but while he's getting a blanket and pillow for the couch she's moving to sit on the edge of the bed. "I'm sure we'll survive." The sonic showers are clean so they don't do the spinny throw of pain like in the Sims, right?

Once Jim's back is turned, Clint gets a curious look. "You're staying too?" Doesn't he have a world to save and a mafia to fight? Then the couch gets a look. He's sleeping over there.

She doesn't have much time with Jim not looking and a PADD in her hand. Future Wikipedia, tell her all about Tarsus IV.

[aw_hawkguy]

"It's gonna be a while before they get all that math back on a thumb drive, he said," Clint points out. "And I'm tryin' to help."

[smartass_captain]

You know, Verity, between how you open his magic space radiation door and your Wikipedia search, there's gonna be an awful lot of squicky information in your hands in a moment there. The only way this could be more of a depressing internet search was if Jim's childhood in Iowa was on that PADD. Which it isn't. That's something only Pike knew about, and he's dead too.

Jim is unaware of Verity's search as he settles into his station. There aren't biometric locks; his captain's override is usually enough to get him security. And no one knows what that is.

"Spock? Yeah...we've finished. Hey listen I--" Beat. A chuckle. "I was just going to ask that, actually. You don't mind? Sure. Yeah. Comm me the second anything happens." Everything seems okay from the bridge. Jim gets up and heaves a sigh, wanders into the bathroom. Takes care of his hygiene needs and grabs a sonic shower.

Conveniently offscreen for whatever Verity is about to learn.

[brave_heart_verity]

Yeah, but how often does he use it when he's not in his quarters? Because he might be coming back from his shifts to surprise cake or something, you never know with a troublemaker like Verity. (She's pretty sure she can bribe Keenser to not tell anyone he saw her.)

That's good because her poker face is pretty much nonexistent. She's half listening to the conversation while she takes off her shoes, and then he's out of the room and she's reading.

Hey Clint, feel free to come get in on this horrible horrible discovery.

[aw_hawkguy]

Clint's seen faces like that before. Quietly, gently, he asks, "Verity? What is it?"

We're all Trekkies we already know.

[brave_heart_verity]

She glances toward the door Jim left through before turning the PADD to Clint.

"Remember when he freaked out so bad about the food he might have eaten at your place? He begged me not to make him talk about this." He can read for himself what happened. "You cannot bring this up with him. Clint. Seriously. We have to be careful with this."

[aw_hawkguy]

Clint reads, expression growing grim as he puts it together. "...yeah. Yeah, okay. Reed's gettin' a smack, though, so if I'm banged up next time you see me, Susan Richards kicked my ass."

Nobody knows except everybody knows.

[smartass_captain]

How in the hell was he going to deal with this? He wasn't hopped up on pain meds, and he sure as hell isn't drunk. Jim groans with a sigh as he pulls his briefs and regulation pants back on. Not gonna put a shirt on, but pants are definitely happening if he's sharing a bed.

He can either not go to sleep, or hope everything is okay. He'd managed to keep his night terrors to himself while at Clint's place, startling awake and shaking quietly in the chair by the window or on the couch. Barney gave him an odd look once or twice, but Jim refused to talk about it.

He'd been up for over two days. He should totally be able to sleep. But if they found out....the shame is a snake uncoiling in his guts, coursing through him like poison. Jim just got a family again. He doesn't want them to see how broken he really is.

Jim kicks the door open with a foot and scrubs a hand through his hair as he wanders back in. He's just going to have to deal with it and make sure he doesn't wake up screaming. Luckily he's noisy enough for concerned people to not be huddled together making worried faces when he gets out.

"You guys figure out who's crashin' where yet? Bathroom's free t'clean up with."

The First Rule about Cuddle Club is: you don't talk about Cuddle Club

[brave_heart_verity]

Verity turns the PADD off when Jim comes in and gives him a faint smile. "Clint's sleeping on the couch. Last thing he needs is to be sharing a bed with another woman while he's trying to fix things with his girlfriend. Or anyone, really." He could be an equal-opportunity girlfriend-offender, she doesn't know.

"I'm going to brush my teeth. No plotting while I'm gone." If she comes back to some kind of sexy guy pillow fight...

...she's just going to be really confused.

The Second Rule of Cuddle Club is: you don't wear anything sharp or chafing.

[aw_hawkguy]

"Yeah, the couch is definitely me. Besides, I wanna know what space-future couches are like!" He flashes a grin.

Once Verity's gone, Clint observes, "you look pretty wiped, man."

Jim's idea of a pillow fight is to put a pillow on someone and then punching them

[smartass_captain]

Jim is wiped.

He seems to brighten even more once Verity is off into the bathroom. It's like he knows that no one can tell him he's full of shit now. If only Jim knew how wrong he was.

"I worked two alpha shifts in between the work I had Scotty and Chekov helping me with on that drive. That's a hell of a lot of coffee. None of it good." Jim snorts and flops down onto his bed, throwing an arm over his eyes.

"Lights, 25%." And the lights dim. Shiny. Ohhhh man. Not-sleeping may not be an option. His bed is really nice, you have no idea. So is the couch, Clint. Starfleet knows its crews tend to run long loooong shifts. "I know it's two years out, but...I wanted to give you as much time as possible." Pause.

"And I was hoping I'd be able to magically save verity's world, too."

That's 50% less fun and 72% less sexy.

[brave_heart_verity]

She's only brushing her teeth. She left the door open. She heard all of that.

If he didn't want her around to call him out on this stuff he shouldn't have adopted her.

Wait, so smothering and punches still has some room on the fun and sexy scales?

[aw_hawkguy]

Having done his share of long shifts, Clint can guess at which ballpark Jim is on the brink of passing out in. He's been there, has a season pass even.

"Yeah," Clint admits with a sigh, "yeah, so was I. Thanks for tryin', man, and I'm not gonna give up 'til it's over, but... yeah."

Everything is sexy if you do it right.

[smartass_captain]

They should make forever passes for people like them. People that haven't had a good night sleep since they were kids unless they were drugged out or knocked out.

"Thought I was gonna be sick when it dawned on me there was just no way." Jim's voice has gone quiet, a murmur of guilt he knows isn't his fault. He still feels that way though.

"FYI, if you hear an annoying sort of whistle from my terminal, I'm getting a comm and you should wake me the fuck up right away. I usually catch it pretty quick, but.."

People have some weird kinks.

[brave_heart_verity]

"That's why I didn't want to tell you." Look who's back, back again. She's leaning in the doorway, watching the two of them and rubbing her thumb hard into her palm. "That's why I freaked out when you were pushing. I didn't want to burden either of you with this."

She is so tiny to try and carry such a burden. "You two are big damn heroes. You feel like you have to fix things or die trying."

Fair enough. Who am I to judge?

[aw_hawkguy]

"Hey." Clint greets her return with a wave. "I'm glad you did. An' I don't mean for me. Anything's harder, doin' it alone. You got no idea how strong you are, Verity."

[smartass_captain]

"...Well, We pushed because we worry about ya. And care." It's the truth. Jim makes no remark on the hero comment. He can't deny she's right because she'd know.

Sometimes that power of hers throws Jim off. Not being able to lie to the people he cares about most because he cares about them makes dealing with things hard.

"...An I got mad because you're right." Mumble mumble, he smiles as Clint takes his turn in the bathroom. "Want one of my non-reg shirts for pajamas?"

[brave_heart_verity]

She steps aside so Clint can go in, giving him a little head shake. She's not strong. Strong wouldn't have ended up freaking out in the middle of the forum. Strong wouldn't have walked away from her bae when he needed her.

"Your answer would probably let me sleep at night," she admits. "Yeah, something to change into would be nice. Thanks." Nooobody's going to get the wrong idea about this, not at all. Although it's probably not the strangest way Spock's ever found Jim. "If we're doing this on the regular I'll bring some of my jammies next time."

[aw_hawkguy]

Is future toothpaste awesome? Clint's gonna find out. And he'd love to have the whether-Verity's-strong-or-not argument, but it seems to be all happening in narrative, so there's not much to say.

[smartass_captain]

She's doing it in narrative because her newly adopted brothers would tackle her to the bed and tickle her until she admitted she was strong. Or punched them. either or.

Future toothpaste is disappointingly recognizable. Everything tingles a little more though. It's better at its job. Verity gets tossed one of Jim's civvy long sleeve shirts. If anybody does walk in it WILL be the strangest thing Spock/Bones has ever seen. Jim's clothed, there's a girl--clothed. And another guy--clothed--on the couch. They'll think he's gone crazy.

Luckily people just don't walk into the Captain's quarters. Usually. Spock knows his captain's override code though. how the pointy eared bastard found out Jim will never know. If Bones gets it too he's switching numbers. Nattering hens.