Line #47 Fanfic/Switch


1	->When it first started happening, he had almost convinced himself that he was hallucinating from too much booze, or too little sleep, or both.\
2	As time went on and it still kept happening, he'd decided that it was a sign of an incipient nervous breakdown, the rational veneer that he'd been clinging to by a freakin' thread since his father died and his life went to total shit, sliding right the fuck off under the pressure of wanting something that he was never going to get. It was sublimated desire, refracted through an oddly chaste dream, like a memory of all the good parts of monogamy, without '''the really good parts''', goddamnit.
3
4	-> But now that it'd been four nights without Jim Kirk sneaking into his bed to sleep, he was truly afraid that he '''was''' going to crack right the fuck up.
5
6	-> Because how the hell did it get to the point where he can't fuckin' sleep without Kirk, when all Kirk has ever fuckin' done was '''sleep''' with him?
7
8	-> If Leonard [=McCoy=]'s life could get any fucking weirder, it would be... Jesus, he didn't even want to think what that could possibly mean, because it'd already been too fucking weird to make any kind of rational sense. Because, really. He will not get any kind of sleep tonight '''again''', if Jim doesn't show up. And bitter experience -- does he have any other kind? -- has proven that a Leonard [=McCoy=] who hasn't slept more than an hour or two out of closing in on 96 hours is a fuckin' psychotic nightmare.
9
10	-> And he has the residency write-ups to back him the fuck up on that.
11
12	[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/168135/chapters/245158 Switch]] is a novel-length slowburn "Film/StarTrek2009" fanfic written by Ceres_Libera set in the Academy Era.
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14	----
15	!!Switch provides examples of:
16
17	* ADayInTheLimelight: The entire fic takes place from [=McCoy=]'s voice, delving deep into his backstory and inner monologues.
18	* AdoptionIsNotAnOption: When [=McCoy=] is reflecting on how the final straw on his and his ex-wife's marriage was their inability to have children together, adoption is never mentioned.
19	%%* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Kirk gets quite a bit of attention at the Academy.
20	* AmbiguouslyAbsentParent: Winona, Kirk's mother, wasn't around much in his childhood [[spoiler: and only appears at the very end]]. [=McCoy=] notes around half a year into the fic and their close friendship that Kirk never mentions his mother, nor does he even know her first name until he looks her up on the Starfleet Database.
21	%%* AsleepForDays: Both [=McCoy=] and Kirk.
22	* BaitAndSwitch: The paragraph beginning with ''If he'd thought about it all, he would have seen that the progression from friendship to lovers was inevitable between them'' leads the reader to believe it refers to [=McCoy=] and Kirk, when in fact it refers to [=McCoy=] and [[spoiler: his close friend, the OC Patty.]]
23	* BeautifulDreamer: [=McCoy=] views Kirk in this way.
24	* BirthdayHater: He hates celebrating his birthday because it reminds him of his father's death, made worse by the planetwide commemoration that occur every year. As a result, he disappears into the shadows every holiday season to hide from the paparazzi.
25	* BoldlyComing: Kirk has a lover, or "repeater" as he calls it, in the form of GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe Gaila.
26	* BondingOverMissingParents: And dead siblings, and dead grandparents, and dead great-grandparents...
27	* BrilliantButLazy: While at Starfleet Academy, Kirk shows the aptitude to excel in any number of areas, only needing to spend a little effort to understand complex subjects, but not the desire to.
28	* BrokenBird: [=McCoy=] sees Kirk as one.
29	* CastFullOfGay: Kirk and [=McCoy=], the two primary characters, as well as the majority of the side characters are almost all bisexual.
30	* CommitmentIssues: Kirk finds it difficult to believe love exists and, if it does, if it's worth it. He views it as a drug not worth taking, and refers to people he's had sex with multiple times 'repeaters', stemming from seeing his mother remarry and divorce twice during his childhood.
31	* DarkAndTroubledPast: Kirk lost his father [[BirthDeathJuxtaposition just minutes after his birth]], was frequently abused by his [[AbusiveParents stepfather]] while his mother was off-planet, [[spoiler: survived [[FinalSolution Tarsus IV]] when his brother and many, many others did not]], and was already a repeat offender long before enlisting in Starfleet. [=McCoy=], also, to a lesser extent, who [[spoiler: lost his mother and sister in an accident when he was eight, performed euthanasia on his dying father merely months before the cure was discovered, and went through a nasty divorce just before the events of the fic.]]
32	* DistractedByTheSexy: [=McCoy=] during surgery gets distracted by Kirk who is watching from the observation deck.
33	* DoctorsOrders: A card played by [=McCoy=] on a number of occasions, especially towards those who would outrank him otherwise.
34	%%* DontYouDarePityMe: Kirk towards [=McCoy=], multiple times.
35	* DrJerk: [=McCoy=] is cantankerous and stubborn and it's very clear most of the interns are afraid of him.
36	* DrowningMySorrows: Kirk and [=McCoy=] spend most of the first few months at the Academy doing just this.
37	* EatingtheEyeCandy: There's not a scene that goes by featuring Kirk in various states of undress or featuring Gaila at all in which [=McCoy=] does not show appreciation for their bodies.
38	* ExtremeOmnisexual:[=McCoy=] describes Kirk early on in the fic as "fucking anything he took a liking to" and " bound by neither gender nor species".
39	* FamedInStory: Kirk is very famous in-story for being the son of a famous Starfleet Captain.
40	%%* FascinatingEyebrow: Referenced by Kirk frequently.
41	* FightMagnet: Kirk gets into frequent fights.
42	%%* FirstNameBasis: [=McCoy=] becomes this with Uhura.
43	%%* FriendsWithBenefits: [=McCoy=] and the OC Patty.
44	* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Gaila, a full-on version of this trope, is expanded from a few lines in the movie to a major side character in the fic.
45	* HairOfGoldHeartOfGold: Kirk is a blond JerkWithAHeartofGold.
46	* HasAType: [=McCoy=] often goes for people who are a few years older than him or have names beginning with 'J'.
47	* HeadTurningBeauty: Gaila - a curvy, lush GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe - has this effect on most due to her [[LivingAphrodisiac powerful pheromones]] and general allure.
48	* HeartbrokenBadass: [=McCoy=] has a broken heart over Kirk for a lot of the fic yet still kicks ass, both verbally and physically, when need be.
49	%%* HiddenHeartOfGold: Kirk, big time.
50	* HomophobicHateCrime: Third-year students prank Kirk's class with t-shirts stamped with 'KFF', standing for 'Kirk's Fucking Faggots'.
51	%%* HospitalHottie: [=McCoy=], to his embarrassment.
52	* {{Hypocrite}}: Kirk accuses [=McCoy=] of this with regards to him spending his summer curing a deadly disease when he had chewed Kirk out for spending his summer doing a deadly Starfleet course.
53	* IAmNotMyFather: Kirk being born a minute before his father died to save his life made it hard for him to create his own identity due to the inevitable comparisons.
54	-> ''George Kirk had sacrificed his life to save his wife and son, but in so doing, had made himself the measure against which that son would always be judged.''
55	* IDontWantToRuinOurFriendship: Discussed in-universe.
56	* IHaveNoSon: I Have No Grandson: [=McCoy=]'s paternal grandfather rejects him after he [[spoiler: performs euthanasia on his dying father prior to the events of the fic.]]
57	* ImADoctorNotAPlaceholder: Said or thought by [[TropeNamer [=McCoy=]]], verbatim, on multiple occasions.
58	-> ''He was a doctor, not an idiot'' when thinking about the physical requirements of Starfleet Academy.\
59	''I'm a doctor, not a fighter, Jim'' when discussing the hand-to-hand class he is failing.
60	-> ''He was a doctor, not a playwright'' when thinking about the gruesome worst-case scenarios his brain produces.
61	-> ''He was a doctor, not a statistician'', when pondering the suicide rates among [[spoiler: Tarsus survivors.]]
62	* InsufferableGenius: Kirk and, to a lesser extent, [=McCoy=].
63	** ''Kirk wasn’t just a jackass, he was a certified genius jackass, which seriously, so was Leo, although their aptitudes were different.''
64	* InterspeciesRomance: Both main characters have relations with aliens.
65	* IntimateHealing: Kirk attempts this when [[spoiler: [=McCoy=] is hospitalized due to a deadly disease he had been trying to find the cure for, kissing him to try wake him up.]]
66	* IntimatePsychotherapy: [=McCoy=] attempts this, both with Kirk and with the OC Patty.
67	* ItRunsInTheFamily: [=McCoy=] stubbornness and Kirk heroicness.
68	* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Kirk. [=McCoy=], who frequently snarks but cares very deeply for the welfare of his friends and family.
69	* JustForFun/KinseyScaleOfTropes: Discussed directly InUniverse with regards to several characters.[=McCoy=] is a 3, Kirk is a 2, and Patty, an OC close friend of [=McCoy=], is a 4.
70	* KnightInSourArmor: [=McCoy=] wants to make the world a better place but, damn, if he isn't going to be bitter about it.
71	* LastKiss: [=McCoy=] refuses to kiss Kirk goodbye during the Attack on Vulcan.
72	* LastMinuteBabyNaming: Discussed InUniverse. Kirk's parents are named him for his maternal grandfather, and his middle name is his paternal grandfather's. His parental grandfather hated his name. [=McCoy=] gets his middle name from his great-grandfather, Horatio Ellison [=McCoy=].
73	* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: Kirk and [=McCoy=] spend a lot of time bickering like this.
74	* LonelyTogether: [=McCoy=] and Patty, referenced in-universe, who comfort each other when they're not able to be with the objections of their affections.
75	* LoveHurts: [=McCoy=] spends most of the fic trying to prevent his heart from being broken by Kirk.
76	* MarriedToTheJob: [=McCoy=], especially during his first marriage which led to its downfall.
77	* MasterOfTheMixedMessage: Kirk.[=McCoy=] spends most of the first two-thirds of the fic trying to figure out how he feels.
78	* MyGreatestFailure: How [=McCoy=] feels about euthanizing his father mere months before the cure to his disease is found.
79	* MissingMom: As in the movie, Kirk's mother spends very little of his childhood on-world and [[spoiler: [=McCoy=]'s mother dies in an accident when he is eight years old.]]
80	* MultigenerationalHousehold: Throughout the second half of his childhood, [[=McCoy=] lived in a household with his father, his father's parents, and his father's paternal grandfather.
81	* NearDeathExperience: [[spoiler: [=McCoy=] almost dies from a deadly disease for which he is trying to find the cure and Kirk survived a genocide on the planet Tarsus IV when he is thirteen]]
82	* PseudocanonicalFic: Part I and most of Part 2 occurs in the ''Three Years Later'' time-jump in the movie, with Part III and the remainder of Part II occurs during and after the events of the remainder of the movie.
83	* OneHourWorkWeek: Averted. The fic goes into great detail just how hectic life is for [=McCoy=] and Kirk at Starfleet.
84	* OutlivingOnesOffspring: Ted and Gram, [=McCoy=]'s paternal grandparents, outlive both their sons.
85	* PosthumousCharacter: [=McCoy=]'s father, and Kirk's father and [[spoiler: brother.]]
86	* PurpleProse: Prone to this on occasion, especially with regards to [=McCoy=]'s internal monologue on the beauty of space.
87	* RomanticFalseLead: Patty, [=McCoy=]'s close friend, who he has a brief fling with.
88	* SadisticTeacher: Cupcake with his hand-to-hand class.
89	* Sarcastic Devotee / Sour Supporter: He will follow Kirk into the pits of Hell and back, but he'll grumble about it first.
90	* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: [=McCoy=] as the Savvy Guy, Kirk as the Energetic Girl.
91	* ShipperOnDeck: Pretty much every single one of [=McCoy=]'s friends and relatives is trying to push him and Kirk together.
92	* ShutUpKiss: [=McCoy=] and Kirk's first kiss counts as this.
93	* SleepCute: From the very first line.
94	* SleepsWithEveryoneButYou: [=McCoy=] takes Kirk's willingness to shag everyone under the sun but him as a cue that Kirk doesn't like him that way.
95	* SourSupporter: [=McCoy=] stands by Kirk through all his crazy shenanigans, even when he can't quite see how Kirk's antics are helping anyone. When Kirk actually manages to gain the captain's chair, [=McCoy=] is incredulous.
96	* SouthernFriedGenius: [=McCoy=] is an incredibly smart surgeon and physician, and was born and raised in Georgia.
97	* SpaceCadetAcademy: Starfleet Academy features prominently in the fic as Kirk and [=McCoy=] both study there.
98	* StrongFamilyResemblance: Kirk looks a lot like his dead father.
99	* StargazingScene: A slightly darker and more theoretical version occurs when, in the Planetarium, Kirk and [=McCoy=] watch the simulation Kirk made [[spoiler: reenacting his father's last moments alive.]]
100	* TemporaryLoveInterest: [=McCoy=] and his close friend, the OC Patty.
101	* ThatCloudLooksLike: On runs with the KFF, Kirk and [=McCoy=] engage in this.
102	* ToAbsentFriends: [=McCoy=] and Kirk make several toasts to dead friends and family throughout the fic.
103	* ThereIsOnlyOneBed: To the point that [=McCoy=] struggles to sleep if Kirk doesn't sneak into his bed every four nights.
104	* UnresolvedSexualTension: From the very first page.
105	* VitriolicBestBuds: [=McCoy=] spends a lot of the fic bitching and Kirk spends a lot of the fic giving him reasons to, but they are very close.
106	* WeWillHaveEuthanasiaInTheFuture: A major source of angsty for [=McCoy=], who [[spoiler: performed euthanasia on his dying father less than a year before the beginning of the fic.]]
107	* WhamLine: During the Battle of Vulcan, when the planet Vulcan has been destroyed,
108	->''"Evidently it is, Dr. [=McCoy=]," Uhura said blankly.''
109	->''And in the instant, as his mind tried to assimilate what he'd heard -- that a planet of billions of people, and hundreds of millennia of history and culture, was simply gone -- all he could think was that Nyota Uhura had sounded just like Spock.''
110	* WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes: [=McCoy=] is terrified of transporters.

Context Fanfic / Switch