Make Trek Not War

During the heavy coolness of the monsoon season, her father’s oldest friend is the only one to be trusted with his Shri-tal. His secrets and his history. He never tells her what was said, and she never asks. Men like him must keep their promises, especially to the dead.

Days later, he offers her a marriage of equals: his powerful name, his protection, his house, exchanged for her promise to give him an heir. It is a practical arrangement, honorable and cold on its surface, meant to secure her future and satisfy a duty neither of them dares explain.

something something star trek

IF BUYING ISN'T OWNING

PIRATING ISN'T STEALING

Season 8: odo returns, and he can do noses now! this is the result of contract negotiations with rene. “gotta have a nose now” said rene. they give odo a hundred noses. now hair & makeup takes four times as long. “odo forgets noses” s8e04.

To make the human feel more accepted (as it is only logical) the Vulcans try to include aspects of terran culture in the ship’s day-to-day life, failing spectacularly at it.

Bones grumbled as he fumbled for the manual override for the cargo bay lights. 

“Surprise!” 

The word was not yelled so much as chanted as soon as the lights flickered on. Only Vulcans could breath so quietly that he wouldn’t hear three dozen of them laying in wait. 

This had to be Jim’s fault. The cargo bay had been draped in black bunting and hung with “Happy 50th Birthday” and “Over the Hill” signs. Someone had replicated black balloons. Someone had sent pictures to the Vulcans. Jim. 

Bones stood in amazement as the ship’s choral group sang an old 20th earth Happy Birthday song followed by a Vulcan chant of blessings as 50 ritual flames were kindled in his honor. They’d baked a cake. Baked, not replicated. Trimmed it in black icing with “Happy Birthday Bones” written on it and a couple of icing bones underneath. 

A ritual dagger was pressed into his hands “you must cut the first piece.”

They were watching with that quiet tension that he’d learned to recognize as Vulcan anticipation. A handful of the younger crew members had managed to find spots at the front of the group and looked almost eager. It couldn’t be for the cake. Vulcans weren’t overly fond of sugary desserts. 

Then he realized. Vulcans struggled to understand human frivolity but no one had a more highly tuned sense of ritual. Most of the crew had little experience with humans and were thrilled, in a quiet Vulcan way, the be able to participate in a human birthday ritual. 

He cut the cake. No one turned down a slice. He watched as they took careful bites using their forks and contemplated the sugary sweetness. Then catching the eyes of one of the younger crew members, he picked up his slice with his fingers and bit into. The young Vulcan barely hesitated. He picked up his cake and bit it. Others saw and did the same. A group of young faces, smeared with black icing waited to see what he’d do next and he let out the first real laugh he’d managed since boarding the ship. A sigh of satisfaction ran through the crowd. 

He was presented with a bottle of very excellent bourbon as a gift. Then instead of a birthday card, the ship’s captain unrolled a ceremonial scroll. Precise Vulcan calligraphy wished him a Happy 50th Birthday and the formal house stamps and signatures of the crew attested to their agreement to the statement. “Damn thing belongs in a museum” he muttered. 

…In the fullness of time, the scroll found its way to the Space Museum on Earth as one of the few example of Vulcan ritual scrolls outside of Vulcan itself. The museum director on hearing a senior Vulcan ambassador describe his experience in the birthday ritual as a young crew member once asked why McCoy had been honored in this fashion. The ambassador had explained that only Kirk, one of the few humans to have heard about the Pon Farr ceremony (much less having participated in it) could have understood the importance of ritual to Vulcans how honored the Vulcans were to be asked to host such an important ritual for his friend McCoy as the “Over the Hill” Birthday celebration.*

My commissions are open!

another idea from @ggarashirr

if one/both of your new roommates is a child you assume responsibility of that child