( one life but we're not the same; we get to carry each other )

[sufferably]

( OOC INFORMATION ) name: hallie age: 21 contact: ottomans other characters: n/a ( IC INFORMATION ) name: leonard mccoy. (lieutenant commander doctor leonard horatio mccoy, cmo of the starship enterprise ; often called "bones") canon: star trek (alternate original series, aka the 2009 reboot) reference: star trek aos | leonard mccoy | character history canon point: post-into darkness. one year has passed since the enterprise and the vengeance crashed into san francisco, jim kirk has been brought back from the dead and the enterprise has been rechristened and just set off on a five-year exploratory mission. background: ❝ Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise... ❞ The planet Earth of the twenty-third century belongs to the United Federation of Planets. Following First Contact with the Vulcans in 2063, humanity has been part of a community of planets and species. The UFP is an association of these planets, of which Earth is a pivotal member. Other member species include the aforementioned Vulcans (who have superior strength compared to humans and are also touch telepaths), the Betazoids (an empathic race) and the Andorians (who have blue skin and antennae). The UFP is surrounded by two antagonistic alien empires—the Romulans and the Klingons. Both have made aggressive moves against Federation space, but at the moment there is an uneasy ceasefire between the three great powers of the Alpha Quadrant, Earth’s section of the greater universe. The UFP maintains its influence and increases its knowledge and understanding through Starfleet, an armada of starships that undertake exploratory, diplomatic, and defensive missions. Starfleet is headquartered in San Francisco, California, and has branches in Command, Science, and Operations. The most brilliant minds and most charismatic personalities make up the officers’ ranks of Starfleet; it is common for such officers to have multiple advanced degrees, various fields of expertise, and an incredible diversity of experience. Only the very best can captain a starship. What comes along with this level of exploration is a great deal of technological advancement. Starships are capable of warp speed, which allows them to travel millions of light years in reasonable amounts of time. These ships are also equipped with transporters, which can move objects and people from one spot to another instantaneously. Regenerators allow bone, tissue, and skin to be healed almost instantly. The universal translator can pick up vocal patterns of new species and allow communication with them. The list goes on, and as the Federation encounters new species, new technologies are developed and new biological phenomena are discovered. There seems to be no limit to what mysteries might be uncovered in this universe, or how far technology might go. But most, if not all, of these phenomena are ultimately explainable through science. There is nothing necessarily magical at play. This universe has bred a uniquely optimistic society, in which the wars of the past have been laid to rest and humanity has set its sights towards the stars. Leonard McCoy might have been content not to do so, however. He grew up in Georgia and might have been content to live as a country doctor (albeit a fantastically talented one) had his life not taken several turns. As it is, he ended up in Starfleet, befriended one James T. Kirk, and ended up the Chief Medical Officer of Starfleet’s flagship. McCoy holds a preeminent position, but doesn’t fancy himself overly influential or diplomatic. He is primarily a physician and scientist, and leaves the larger workings of the world to others. But perhaps his life is more significant than he’d like to believe. Because alternate universes and time travel are also at play, here—a wormhole through space created a split timeline, and through it came the grief-mad Romulan Nero and the old Ambassador Spock. Jim Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise thwarted Nero’s attempts to take out the Federation, but the Ambassador revealed to Kirk that his captaincy of the Enterprise is something of a universal constant. The key points of his command staff—First Officer Spock, Chief Engineer Scott, Lieutenants Uhura and Sulu and Ensign Chekov—are all constants as well. And McCoy as CMO is no small part of that crew, which seems to find itself together no matter what the circumstances. Ambassador Spock is the only refugee of the original timeline left in McCoy’s universe, but his presence has brought knowledge of potential futures for this timeline. He was able to warn the Enterprise about Khan, a villainous, time-displaced genetic augment who also sought revenge against the Federation. Kirk was also able to defeat him, and when the captain perished in the ensuing conflict McCoy was able to use Khan’s blood to bioengineer a cure for death. Again, there was a scientific basis for this discovery, but its result was to further stretch the laws of the universe. McCoy comes from an optimistic world that often faces unseen dangers. As a scientist, he has stood at the head of new research and developments. As a crewmember of the Enterprise, he has helped save the Earth (and perhaps the universe) on two occasions. But he fancies himself a normal man, a grounded man. And it is that marriage of talent and adventure with caution and levelheadedness than defines McCoy. personality: ❝ I don’t need a doctor, damn it, I am a doctor. ❞ Leonard McCoy is defined by a central contradiction—he’s a misanthropic humanist. On the surface, he’s rough, ornery, and never misses a chance to complain. Often described as “cantankerous,” Bones has decided that most of the universe exists to inconvenience him. He reacts to most things with irritation, and is constantly exasperated by other people’s actions. Of course, this attitude isn’t at all helped by the fact that his best friend is James T. Kirk. Where Kirk flouts authority and refuses to be serious, McCoy takes everything too seriously, and responds explosively to every situation. But this isn’t because he doesn’t care. Rather, McCoy cares too much. His emotions are always on the surface, and they usually happen to be negative. But underneath his grumpy surface personality is someone who cares a great deal about humanity. As a doctor, McCoy has no greater cause than to save as many lives as possible. Every decision he makes, every opinion he has, and every action he takes ultimately comes down to that. If lives can be saved, he’ll take risks. He’ll flaunt authority. He’ll do whatever needs to be done in order to save them. ❝ All I got left is my bones. ❞ When Jim—and by extension, the audience—first meets McCoy, he’s a man who’s lost basically everything. He’s coming off a bad divorce, one made out to be so debilitating that the doctor literally chooses to leave the planet rather than deal with it. McCoy’s choice to join Starfleet is something of a strange one. He hates space, fears flight, and prefers his own ethics to any greater authority’s. And yet he becomes a cadet, and then an officer, of a group that runs to rules and regulations. Not only that, but he rises through the ranks—becoming a Lieutenant Commander and then Chief Medical Officer within three years of enlisting—and takes his responsibilities very seriously. Essentially, Bones completely stepped away from his life on earth—as a country doctor, and a husband—and rebuilt it from the ground up. He established new personal loyalties—to his commitment to save lives, to Jim, to Starfleet to a lesser extent—and built his life around his new role. While he doesn’t have the best bedside manner, McCoy is a damn good doctor. Being the CMO of the Enterprise means that almost 1000 lives, the health of 1000 people, are his direct responsibility. And for the most part, he rises to that responsibility and meets it head on. ❝ And enough with the metaphors alright? That's an order. ❞ In a world that exists on the basis of interspace travel and alien cultures, Leonard McCoy is quaintly, deliberately, and defiantly down to earth. He speaks out of the side of his mouth, refuses to give up on his country slang and idioms, and has a familiar way of speaking to just about everyone. While other crewmembers often use titles or formal —Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock—McCoy addresses people by only their surname, or familiar endearments—“kid,” “sweetheart.” When he does follow protocol, it’s usually to an end or to make a point. He cites his position as a senior medical officer to get Jim onboard the Enterprise, and he addresses Sulu as “Mr.” to drive home his newfound respect for the Lieutenant. When protocol serves him, Bones uses it. When it doesn’t, he ignores it. McCoy also often finds himself in the position of advisor, solicited or not. He has no qualms with saying what he thinks about any given situation, and if he has a problem with decisions being made, he’ll let people know about it. In the new hierarchy established on the Enterprise after Jim assumes command, Bones assumes a position in which he can speak his mind to whomever he chooses, including the captain of the ship. On the other hand, he also considers it his responsibility to raise objections when things get out of hand. His advice is usually wrapped up in complicated metaphors or parsed through layman’s terms, but it’s also usually very sound and focused on keeping the crew alive and the officers’ integrity intact. ❝ I hate this! ❞ ❝ I know you do! ❞ For all of his complaints, grumbles, and tirades, McCoy actually does make the Enterprise his home. In the year-long gap between Kirk’s ascension to captaincy and Khan’s initial attacks on Starfleet, Bones firmly establishes himself as part of the tightknit crew of the ship. He even gets out of the medbay and down to M-class planets in order to help the crew blatantly disregard their prime directive (though, to be fair, they did save an entire planet). McCoy’s loyalties, already established, have only grown deeper over time. His priorities have not changed. He hates most of what he has to do. But he does it anyway. But there’s a cost, to that. McCoy’s a realist. He knows exactly what might happen at any given time. He’s had patients die on him, knows the risks of space travel and especially those of flouting the rules. He suffers from aviophobia not because he doesn’t know the object of his fear, but because he does. He can list of a dozen ways space might kill a person, in great detail. He knows how fragile life is. And it still affects him, every time. He can keep a solid front up and get through the day, but he’s a man who’s lived a lot in his thirty years. He’s known personal, mundane tragedy and great loss. And if he grumbles his way through life and tells people not to patronize him or risk their own lives stupidly, it’s because he knows what will happen if he doesn’t tell them. If he doesn’t warn them. ❝ He is a character full of compassion and pain. He has an amazing personal prime directive to help and heal others, whether friend or foe. That’s his calling in life. ❞ Leonard McCoy is a man with a very strict personal mission. He wants to save lives, and be the best damn doctor he can be. He, for the most part, achieves this. His personal manner is rough and he honestly couldn’t care what people think about him. When people earn his trust and loyalty, they earn it absolutely. But that doesn’t mean he won’t tell them when they’re making stupid decisions. McCoy took a life that could have been over, rundown by loss and devastation, and he turned it into something else. He still manages to be good-hearted, stubborn, and altruistic. He can make pathetic attempts at flirting when the occasion calls for it, and he enjoys a good drink. Despite calling the world out on everything it does wrong, he still feels every tragedy. And yet, somehow, he can pick himself up and keep living. After grieving over his best friend’s death, he can muster the resolve to save him, beyond hope. And then he can make morbid jokes when said friend wakes up. That’s McCoy, in a nutshell—feeling everything to his core, channeling that feeling into action, and then making light of it. It’s how he keeps himself going, how he manages to be grumpy and friendly in the same breath. He’s a contrary man, but an ethically staunch and unfailingly reliable one. powers and abilities: McCoy is a baseline human; he has no preternatural abilities. He is an accomplished doctor and researcher, however. He has specialized in surgery and pediatrics, and has been trained extensively in xenobiology-- the comparative physiology of alien species. He's developed several medical techniques--including a type of brain surgery called neurografting--and is an accomplished pathologist and virologist. He also has a PhD in psychology, and wrote his thesis on the anxieties associated with space travel. In addition, he's been trained as a Starfleet officer-- he has basic combat training, command skills and experience interacting with new species. All of this knowledge, however, is taught or practiced, not inherent. ( GAME INFORMATION ) infinity gem: ✦ the soul gem. This may seem like a counter-intuitive choice, as McCoy is prone to argument and never shies away from ideological conflict. However, what Bones ultimately wants is what he finds with the crew of the Enterprise-- a means of being useful and fulfilled, a community of peers who become something of a family, and a place to call home. He has tragedies in his life, but he doesn't seek to change them-- he accepts them, and looks forward. Joining Starfleet may have been his only choice at the time he made it, but it was a choice that has led him to a greater purpose, and that is a purpose he is content with. Most importantly, Bones values life and people's autonomy-- and the best way to keep people safe is to help them find some kind of peace, be it external or internal. So while he'll never turn away from an argument, he's also always looking for peaceful solutions. In a way, he argues in order to move conflict towards peaceful resolution. power: empathy. housing: 003 | 002. inventory: 。one starfleet uniform, including black pants, black undershirt, science blue overshirt, black boots. 。one starfleet academy class ring. thread sample: tdm thread | previous game thread. log sample: It’s a problem, and he’s going to fix it. Bones has been here for, what, almost two weeks? And that’s as long as any crisis should last, in his opinion. He’s used to the fast action of peril—Nero drilling into the Earth’s surface, Harrison setting a crash-course for the Bay. Those moments were terrifying, yes, and dangerous, but ultimately they were over very quickly. The problem presented itself and was solved, before he ever even had to think about getting used to it. The same can’t really be said for this place. The problem is a floating thing, beyond his reach and yet somehow also under his skin. For two weeks he’s wondered if there’s something more he could be doing, or should be doing, to fix this. But it’s an abstraction at best and he’s come to no clear answers. So now he stands at the heart of the Cortex at military rest, the line of his back tight with tension as he takes in the scene around him. His feet are spaced evenly apart and his chin is lifted as he prepares to speak. “It’s not that I’m trying to naysay you, or anything,” he says, drawl thickening his vowels as he gains momentum, “But you’ve got a dozen people—or more, maybe—all stuck here. You say you want us to help, but you’re not telling us what to do!” That sounds wrong on his tongue almost as soon as he says it, and he winces. “I don’t need to be told what to do,” he amends, “but it ain’t hard to tell that you’re not telling us everything. And that’s not gonna help anyone.” He pauses to take a breath, brow furrowing. “You have all sorts of people from all sorts of places—hell, I know people who’ve actually traveled through space and time. You bring the rest of us over, and we’ll attack this problem head on. Figure out a real solution for these anomalies, or whatever the hell you want to call ‘em.” He can just imagine Chekov and Scotty and Carol—and, yes, Spock—going over the data and running the numbers. Jim and Sulu headed for the rifts with no small amount of courage and an equal amount of recklessness. Uhura parsing the details of the different worlds’ cultures, all coming together in ways they were never supposed to. He sighs, runs a hand through his hair and then squares his shoulders once more. “What I’m saying is this—it’s not that we don’t want to help. But we can’t damn well spin gold without even some straw. You’ve gotta give us something, here.”