sorry bae

It sucks having memories in his head of Spock that aren't real. Or, not fake, obviously. But not his Spock. Who's not his. This Spock. Current Spock.

He put through a call that's the middle of the night for him, for a given definition of night when they're so far from Earth's sun. From any sun.

He doesn't know what time it is on New Vulcan, but it doesn't really matter. Spock always answers his call.

His Spock. Not his. Other James Kirk's Spock.

"Jim," Spock says, mouth pulled into a smile that current Spock would rather be caught dead than giving. He's always impressed with how good the guy looks for almost being two centuries old. Knowing that Spock is going to be hot forever also sucks. "Nightmare?"

"Nah," he says, pulling a leg to his chest and resting his chin on his knee. "Just. Memories."

"I am sorry," Spock says. "I did not meld with you carefully. I was did not anticipate-"

"It's okay," he interrupts. "I get it."

It had been so fast, so intense. Spock was used to melding with a different James Kirk, one who knew him equally back. Jim hadn't been ready, and Spock hadn't been able to pull back, because -

T'hyla. As close as they can get to soulmates. How well he and Spock's mind fit together would be pretty cool, except that -

It's okay. Sometimes he thinks him and current Spock are sort of friends. That's pretty good.

"Do you wish to talk about it?" Spock asks gently.

He shrugs, shifting to press his forhead to his knee so Spock can't see his face. "I just. I don't think I'm going to live up to him."

Sure, he'd saved Earth. But that was one miracle he'd pulled off. That's a lot different than the man from his memories, the one with his face and his name and who had been someone Spock had followed to hell and back without hesitation. Some days it's all he can do to keep from screaming. His counterpart had earned being captain. Most days, Jim feels like he stole it.

"Impossible," Spock says tenderly. "It is not a competition, Jim. And if it were, I wouldn't bet against you. You can't help but be extraordinary."

The paradox of it makes him laugh, shifting just enough to peer at the video screen. "That doesn't make any sense. We're the same person."

the transcript btw. It was hard to make it out on the video because of the blowhards yelling and me feeling incandescently blind and deaf with rage

This is an interesting thing. Looks like testimonies of people who left the MAGA movement- how they got into it and why.

Yes, actually.

Look, I know people want to react to the 'leopards eating faces party' with a big fat 'told you so,' but these are ex-cultists who are reaching out to people who may need an exit with a soft landing.

People who are deeply in a cult are afraid to leave it and MAGA is no exception! There's a fear that once you leave, you won't be accepted by anyone, so they stay even if they no longer believe in their rhetoric.

A very intelligent person can fall for a cult if they feel that it can offer them something they're missing. The outside world is perilous and you can be safe here. Your friends will reject you now that you've joined us, but we will accept you. Decisions are hard, we can make them for you. The secular world has broken you, we can give you new life through christ.

If you read some of the testimonies (and so many of them are young people) you'll see how much of it is 'I didn't see it, it took someone I love to show it to me, I can't unsee it now.' We've all done things we regret. Some regrets are bigger than others. I would rather forgive them and allow them to do good work than berate them for a decision they made when compromised by anxiety.

If you want to punish them, that's up to you.

Not only do we need the numbers, but they are an important part of outreach to swing ever more people to this side of things. We should be just as understanding as we would be of someone who escaped Scientology or any other cult.

We should not be calling them names and reveling in their pain. That doesn't make us the good guys.

We yelled at him and told him to at least turn off his brights and he told us to go fuck ourselves. So one night after he came rolling back in at 2 or 3 in the morning someone smashed his headlights in with a hammer and sprayed black spray paint inside the holes. The reverse lights too as they were also obnoxiously bright.

Police came by the next day after he woke up and screamed blood and vengeance for an hour. I think we were all questioned and not 1 person knew anything.

Property management had to admit that the fake security cameras were actually fake.

Guy got his system fixed exactly the same and went around loudly bragging about it. Guy went back out to set up his camera to watch the car and went to bed. The camera was smashed from behind spray painted and again the headlights and reverse lights, with the added bonus of a side view mirror smashed and spray painted.

This time the only person who said anything to the cops was a guy who could confirm it wasn't at 5 am because he went out with a gas can and a box of matches but the job had already been done. And funnily enough saying "well I was going to do it but someone beat me to it" isn't actually illegal.

Characters who’ve been told that’s why your important. Your worth something because this other person/ thing is important, and you are here solely to keep them safe.