Just A New Start

And Kirk tells them they can back out and everyone says, of course, hell no

And we get this most adorable album cover of smiles

And then Kirk with this look of utter adoration tells them to get to their stations

And everyone else goes off to a console to actually do something

But Bones just immediately walks over to stand next to the Captain’s chair and offer commentary, because he clearly considers his “station” to literally be that of Kirk’s right-hand man

… you know, I just gotta say …

Usually McCoy stands on his left and Spock on his right

McCoy stands on Kirk’s left side, and the left side of the captain’s chair, most of the time.

But there are some exceptions.

Most of them have something to do with a disruption to the natural order of things (Kirk in the middle, McCoy to his left, Spock to his right). The first kind of disruption is when Kirk isn’t captain at the moment.

When Bones is fighting with the idea of Spock as leader (the middle of The Tholian Web, The Galileo Seven) he tends to stand on his left. It seems to be a visual representation of McCoy refusing to relinquish his traditional spot on Jim’s left side, and thus refusing to accept a change in leadership.

When McCoy is supporting Spock as temporary captain while Jim is in peril (The Doomsday Machine, the end of The Tholian Web, Arena), he stands on Spock’s right side.

The clearest example of this is in Arena, where he starts in his normal spot and moves over when he fully registers what’s happened; he literally invites Spock into the chair, and then moves to Spock’s normal spot. 

At the end of The Tholian Web, he’s still to Kirk’s left, but to Spock’s right.

The second type of disruption occurs when Spock is in danger. When Spock is out of the picture, or when McCoy is extremely worried for Spock, he tends to stand on Jim’s right, where Spock should be. This happens both on the Bridge (Operation: Annihilate!) 

and elsewhere (A Private Little War).

This also happens when Spock is taken over by an alien entity, such as Kollos (Is There in Truth No Beauty?) You can see McCoy saving Spock’s rightful spot here.

When Spock has been taken over by Henoch (Return to Tomorrow) and is in the captain’s chair, McCoy is desperately trying to save his life: again, standing at his right side.

The best representation of the “Spock in Peril Switch,” though, is in The Immunity Syndrome. After Spock leaves the ship, McCoy stands at Jim’s right - both by the Captain’s chair and everywhere else.

It’s like he’s keeping Spock’s spot warm; he always has hope that Spock will return, and speaks to this perhaps more directly in this episode than any other (until, of course, his speech to Spock’s comatose body in The Search For Spock). “Spock. Is it me, Jim? Am I so sentimental that I just have to keep believing that he’s still alive in that mass of protoplasm?” Even Spock makes a joke that McCoy is out of order, calling him “Captain McCoy.”

But as soon as they find out Spock’s alive and they’re pulling him to safety? Watch McCoy move.

So, yes, upon more thought, that seems to be what Bones is doing here. He’s keeping hope (and Spock) alive, standing in his place, and keeping it safe for him.

Anyway, she really, really loves it when I tell her stories. She loves stories anyway, and at first this manifested as "stories about Tad-Cu Bryn", aka my father (her grandfather) who died before she was born. This has been a lovely way to keep his memory alive, and she adores every story - she has her favourites, which she will request.

Then it became apparent that she specifically loves me telling her stories. She'll happily ask others for them too, but from me she just wants any anecdote at all; which of course is wonderful and demonstrates that she is a child of impeccable taste and wisdom and brilliance, but also she has ADHD and the energy reserves of a seven year old and so this gets Tiring very quickly

Yesterday, in the car on the way back from the wildlife centre, she asked for one of my longer stories, and I was like hey, how about we try something different?

And she was like, no, tell me a story about Tad-Cu Bryn

And I was like, this will be a brand new story and you get to play it and help me tell it

And she was like, explain

So I gave her three characters to choose from. The first was a warrior with a sword she could name, who was nonetheless dyspraxic. The second was a gymnastic elf who could commune with trees but was afraid of heights. The third was a dyslexic witch whose spells sometimes go wrong when she spells the words wrong.

She picked the witch. I pulled up an online d20 on my phone. I went to start, and she insisted my mother had to play as the elf.

So I told them that the new queen of the kingdom had called for them, because their palace treasury had been robbed - specifically, a single enchanted coin that brings luck and wealth to a ruler's reign had been stolen. And tales of enchanted coins were suddenly emanating from across the land, so each one needed investigating until the right coin was found.

It turns out kids who like stories will absolutely lap this shit up. She was enthralled. It was the simplest story - they had to get into a bank, revive some unconscious gnomes, then enter the vault, find the coin that had been deposited into it, then get back to the queen. Enough to fill a half hour car ride, basically, but she managed to fill it with all the wacky hijinks you get from a ttrpg, particularly when she tried to smash a door down with a hammer but rolled a 1.

We finished with the queen saying it wasn't the right coin, and then my niece demanded we go again, this time with her playing as a sapient reticulated python. That time we made it all the way to the final boss fight, which was a sorcerer who created a big coin monster out of loads of coins; I asked my niece what she wanted to do, and she described graphically how she wanted to constrict and eat the sorcerer and immediately rolled a 19. So, sure! Okay. The sorcerer is now very dead. The coin monster, though, was still there, and as my niece tried to say she would do the same thing, I was like, no, you're a snake and you just ate. You're now immobile.

At this point, my sister advised her to regurgitate the sorcerer.

Great! said my niece. I'm going to do it at the coin monster.

And rolled a 20.

So she projectile vomited a dead sorcerer into the coin monster, and won the day.

Anyway, today she immediately demanded we play "the game with the story where we choose", and my brother in law is now asking me how he can do this with her ("Are you making it all up as you go along??"). But yeah, turns out, this is a fantastic way to entertain a seven year old. Vague ongoing quest, then three steps: get into (place), resolve (minor puzzle), boss fight to finish. Boom. Easy.

a close up to just... light shining through those waves, makes me feel faint with exhilaration every time

"You are my soulmate. We are forged together by battle and tears and love. Also my brother's coming along."

"Isn't it weird that your brother in law is always hanging around?"