I've been in the mood for some suffering McCoy recently, so naturally I wandered over to this series. In rereading, it hit me that, as far as I can tell, this fic is chronologically the last in the series. When I read it the first time I was all over Kirk and what was going on with him, with a side of perverted interest in the porny interlude, but now I'm thinking much more closely about what's happening with Leah here.
Leah ultimately sees this episode as something "familiar," part of a pattern in her life, which implies it's something she's adjusted to in some capacity. But we also see that this episode, like everything else in Leah's life, is wearing her down. Leah is a tough cookie and Jim may often have genuinely good intentions, but the fact of this fic -- to me, at least -- was that Jim is slowly and inevitably destroying more and more of Leah.
Every time this happens more of her will to resist goes quiet, and we know from moments like the one in "In the Gleam of Eyes" that the trauma of these episodes stays with her and scars her. What kind of scars will this episode leave? I know that Leah's characterization is based on the idea that there are certain essential parts of her that can't be changed, but prolonged tentacle rape's got to change something, right? How long before Bones "goes quiet," as Jim described it, and doesn't bounce back?
Thinking about what's happening to Leah brings me back, as ever, to Jim. He's incapable of recognizing how deeply he's hurting Leah on a day-to-day basis, and he seems to have absolute faith that no matter how "infinitely fragile" Leah seems, she'll "never break." This fic left me wondering what it would take for Leah to be in real danger of breaking, and whether Kirk would recognize that or not.
Lastly, I just wanted to apologize for this odd comment, since you posted this fic a while ago and I already commented on it. But once I realized this fic was the current endpoint I had Thoughts and as usual blathered them all over your comments section.
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Date: 2010-12-07 07:37 am (UTC)Leah ultimately sees this episode as something "familiar," part of a pattern in her life, which implies it's something she's adjusted to in some capacity. But we also see that this episode, like everything else in Leah's life, is wearing her down. Leah is a tough cookie and Jim may often have genuinely good intentions, but the fact of this fic -- to me, at least -- was that Jim is slowly and inevitably destroying more and more of Leah.
Every time this happens more of her will to resist goes quiet, and we know from moments like the one in "In the Gleam of Eyes" that the trauma of these episodes stays with her and scars her. What kind of scars will this episode leave? I know that Leah's characterization is based on the idea that there are certain essential parts of her that can't be changed, but prolonged tentacle rape's got to change something, right? How long before Bones "goes quiet," as Jim described it, and doesn't bounce back?
Thinking about what's happening to Leah brings me back, as ever, to Jim. He's incapable of recognizing how deeply he's hurting Leah on a day-to-day basis, and he seems to have absolute faith that no matter how "infinitely fragile" Leah seems, she'll "never break." This fic left me wondering what it would take for Leah to be in real danger of breaking, and whether Kirk would recognize that or not.
Lastly, I just wanted to apologize for this odd comment, since you posted this fic a while ago and I already commented on it. But once I realized this fic was the current endpoint I had Thoughts and as usual blathered them all over your comments section.