Date: 30 Jun 2013 06:17 Title: Chapter 1
Poor thing doesn't really understand himself any better than anyone else does. He only thinks he does.
Good background info in this piece that keeps the overall arc going, but the snow outside and his palpable exhaustion and the waitress's concern really grounds it in the now. I feel for him ... it's hard to do what you want when the things you want are at odds. He wants engineering and Starfleet ... and he wants to please his Mom. He can't really do both. Tough moment that a lot of people have to face, and you've captured it well.
Author's Response: No, he has not worked it out yet. All instinct. And your insightfulness and clever realization of the theme? Totally amazing. Thank you.
Date: 23 Oct 2012 04:52 Title: Chapter 1
I'm glad he's sticking to his plan to go into Starfleet--although obviously we knew he would! I hate seeing him unhappy, but it kind of explains why we only see him happy when he's tinkering with his engines, and why his "bairns" have become the only family he has. A beautiful and poignant story.
Author's Response: Thanks! He does eventually reconcile some with his birth family, and he does sort of build his own eventually, but right now, he's just a kid from the not-quite-wrong-side of the tracks trying to figure it all out.
Date: 05 Aug 2009 15:07 Title: Chapter 1
Aw! Poor Scotty. It's awful when things are just not working out at home. For Scotty it's the limitations being put on his dreams and the objections to chasing them. Life can be cruel and horrible. Scotty certainly is getting things rough at this stage. Yes he'd come to face maybe worse things in his future career, and yes others suffered more so - like Kirk seeing those things on Tarsus [?] - but at that particular moment and time, things are not going too good for Scotty. But the one guiding light in all of this was that a strager offered kindness and words of empathy and sympathy and some advice. And we also know that in the end things do come good and Scotty gets to fulfill his dreams and wishes. He gets to the stars and gets to crawl in among engines. So I'm going to take heart from that today.
Author's Response: I dunno; I don't think you can really compare suffering. For instance, Jim Kirk had Tarsus and it definitely changed him. And it was horribly traumatic. But all other accounts were that (in TOS) he had a loving family, which gives you a different foundation. Scotty was more... left to mostly raise himself, and paid the price for his mother's indiscretion almost from birth, both in being mostly shoved to the side or even outright attacked for a crime he didn't even know about let alone commit himself. He has a different foundation, then; that of something that knows everything comes at a cost, and you can't trust anything. Maybe not even yourself.
They're really different people. Is one horrific incident better or worse than years of more quiet suffering? There's no way to measure such things. It's impossible to quantify or qualify, only feel for the facts as they stand.
Thanks for the review! And yeah, one moment of empathy. And one kid who can't understand the kindness. But, we all know that yeah, he makes it.
[Report This]Date: 19 Feb 2009 16:56 Title: Chapter 1
Love these "Early Scotty" stories of yours. The delicacy with which you trace his development is amazing.The imagery, like when he jerks back from the waitress's touch, is so real you can see it. Keep them coming!
Author's Response: Thank you! It's been... enlightening, seeing where he came from.