app for lastvoyages
User Name/Nick: Gwen
User LJ: 1jobonthisship
AIM/IM: girlwonder004 @ AIM
E-mail: isthereair@gmail.com
Other Characters: batmanschmatman, inhistorybooks, result_of_war, becauseheswill, restoringhonor
Character Name: Bones Dr. Leonard McCoy.
Series: Star Trek (Reboot)
Age: Thirty one in canon, plus about two years, so Thirty three.
From When?: Post canon, approximately lining up with Kirk’s timeline.
Inmate/Warden: Dammit man, he’s a warden, not an inmate.
Item: His Starfleet Academy ring.
Abilities/Powers: Although he has no supernatural abilities (being one hundred percent, boring human, from Earth, and that’s the way he likes it), Leonard McCoy has been practicing medicine for a long time and as such, there isn’t a whole lot in the medical world he hasn’t seen or at least read about. He graduated at the top of his class at Starfleet Academy in anatomical and forensic pathology, and is an accomplished surgeon, physician, psychologist and exobiologist. He also received training at Starfleet Academy to ensure his survival on any away missions or during catastrophes, and as such knows how to defend himself and operate most standard issue weaponry, specifically, a phaser. He’s not a great hand to hand combatant, but he’s not going to go down without a fight.
Personality: To put it bluntly, on the surface, Leonard McCoy has a pretty abrasive personality. Upon first meeting him, he’s often difficult to get along with at best, and downright uninterested in playing nice or gilding the lily at worst. Easily exasperated (and/or flustered), fairly stubborn and somewhat neurotic, he doesn’t like putting up with people and their bullshit, even though he often finds himself in situations where he has to if he wants to keep his job, and is not afraid to call you out on said bullshit. It’s not that he lacks a brain to mouth filter - as he can be tactful if he wants to be - just that he’s unfailingly honest. This honesty is often laced with sarcasm eye rolling, bitter humor, and probably some profanity, and really, he almost unfailingly gives off the impression of being a cranky old man.
This is (largely) a front, and a defense mechanism. McCoy just doesn’t have a lot of active interest in getting close to other people, carrying a lot of bitterness around about his life before Starfleet. Even after he enlisted, he didn’t make a ton of effort to bond with his fellow cadets - although this might have something to do with being a fair bit older than most of his classmates - and for a long time, his only significant relationship was with Jim Kirk, who for whatever reason, was able to muscle his way past McCoy’s defenses and become the doctor’s best friend and constant irritant. Since working on Enterprise, these defenses have ebbed slightly, in that while he’s still really not interested in being best friends with everyone, he does care about his other crewmates, and has formed a bond with them as well. There are really only two exceptions to the general rule of ultimately holding everyone at arm’s length: his daughter Joanna, and Jim Kirk.
Once you have worked past the crankiness and really wormed your way into his heart, he is ridiculously loyal and will be willing to do just about anything for you, no matter how ridiculous or potentially dangerous or stupid that thing is. He is more than capable of putting up with a lot of crap for the people he cares about. While he’ll probably complain and outright bitch and moan about having to do certain things for you (or anyone really, including Starfleet, his ex-wife, and whoever else might be trying to twist his arm about something), again, it’s just how he is, and there’s very little substance to it. Even when he is being affectionate with a friend, it’s understated and still a little gruff, usually resulting in a pat on the shoulder or an offer to go get drunk rather than a hug or actually sitting around and talking about their feelings. That said, Bones is a good listener, he's just not really one for long, drawn out, mushy talks with hugging and crying.
It’s therefore probably not shocking that despite this often prickly exterior, McCoy really, really cares about people. All he’s ever wanted to be in life is a simple country doctor, someone who could help people when they were hurting, and that’s all he aspires to be. While his bedside manner is usually lacking, he is extremely good at his job and is willing to throw everything he has into helping. Some people are natural leaders, but Bones is a healer, and no matter who the injured or sick are, he wants to do his best to help them. He has a lot of passion for his work, despite the stress and frustration it causes, and he literally can’t see himself as anything else.
And he’s good at it. After practicing in Georgia for several years after finishing med school and before his divorce, McCoy graduated at the top of his class at Starfleet, which considering the Academy only takes the best and the brightest does really say a lot about his skill, and was stationed on Enterprise during the Narada incident as a senior medical officer, again speaking to his skill. He takes his job seriously, and with his gruff attitude and willingness to call people on their bullshit, he is exactly the right man to be in charge of the flagship’s Sickbay. He tossed himself right into the work after Dr. Puri was killed, and shows no hesitation in giving out orders to people working under him. He also has a healthy respect for rules and regulations, which gives him a good balance of being able to give orders and receive ones himself.
That said, he doesn’t always follow these orders. When helping a friend (… so basically, when helping Jim) he’s willing to bend the rules and put his own reputation/future/career/life on the line for someone else, because he thinks it’s the right thing to do. This is probably at least partially because he’s willing to do just about anything to keep one of the only positive relationships he has left, instead of watching it fall apart like he did with his marriage, but also because if he feels like something is the right thing to do? He’ll do it and to hell with the consequences. This is especially true if a superior (… so basically, Jim) tries to order him into letting them out of Sickbay or into doing something detrimental to someone else’s health. You can just sit down and shut up, because Leonard McCoy is not budging on this issue no matter how much you bitch and whine at him.
Although he might not appear to be on the surface, he’s secretly an optimist. His divorce and the other reasons he left home have just hidden this under layers of bitterness and the desire to be left alone, but ultimately, he does believe there is good in the universe and in people. He is a very emotional thinker, and reacts to things based on gut feelings and reactions more than anything else. This is undoubtedly why he clashes so badly with Spock, in that the logical, almost robot like nature of the Vulcan first officer just doesn’t compute with Bones, and leads to frequent casually racist remarks and comments on why won’t he act like he at least gives a damn. Because of this optimism and his own very firm moral beliefs, he holds people to high standards, and is often disappointed when they fail to live up to them, thus sending him back behind his walls of bitterness to protect himself from further disappointment with mankind.
He’s a bit contradictory in other ways, too. Despite being terrified of space and flying, he still ran away to Starfleet (which, as astutely pointed out by Kirk, operates in space) when his life fell apart, probably because it really was the last place he had to turn to, but that didn’t change his decision to eventually ship off instead of looking for a position on Earth or some other base on a nice, solid planet to work on. He also has a healthy distrust of technology (especially transporters), but finds medical practices from the past barbaric and will immediately swoop in with a procedure he knows is safer. While he’s not nothing without a tricorder and a dermal regenerator, because of his time period, he’s become reliant on them as a modern surgeon would rely on an MRI and stitches to put someone back together, and without them, he does feel sort of crippled.
McCoy comes off as being much older than he actually is, probably due to his crankiness and general codgery attitude, but also helped by he is actually several years older than a lot of his crewmates. He’s a father and was a professional before he joined Starfleet, so he’s been there, done that, and has an enormous sense of responsibility. This probably has a lot to do with his job, but he also just has a good sense of right and wrong, and what needs to be done for someone’s benefit, and responds accordingly. Underneath all the defensiveness, he is a classic Southern gentleman, and when in a good mood, does try to be polite and as friendly as he can manage.
That said, he does have a quick temper. He can go from relatively calm if annoyed to furious in seconds, especially when certain triggers are pressed or when he’s especially stressed out and frustrated. Under pressure McCoy is usually shouty, yelly “stay out of my way unless you need medical attention or have good news for me” McCoy, and bothering him about anything too personal or hurting someone he cares about is a fast way to get an angry bear coming after you. However, this is almost entirely all bark and no bite, as first and foremost, McCoy is a doctor, and he takes his job seriously. His first priority is do no harm, and it does actually weird him out sometimes when he has to actually sit down and think about how while on away missions, he has been forced to kill people.
As a warden on the Barge, McCoy will take his job seriously, and want to get to work right away upon arrival. He’ll try to sit down with his inmate and actually try to talk through their issues - as he has studied psychology and knows talking is useful, even if he doesn’t really enjoy it - although he’ll be gruff and more focused on getting the job done than actually befriending his inmate at first. Eventually, he can and probably will warm up to them - especially if it’s a younger inmate he can look after, someone around his own (mental) age will probably be more of a drinking buddy when they bond - but he’ll always be a little gruff and hold them at arm’s length. He’ll also want to get very hands on in the infirmary, and will probably encourage his inmate to take up some kind of Barge job to keep them busy and find some kind of purpose in life. He’ll check in regularly, and really push for answers and not take “I’m fine” for an answer after bad floods and ports.
Path to Redemption: ----------
History: Leonard Horatio McCoy was born in 2227 to David and Eleanora McCoy in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the University of Mississippi and went to med school in Georgia, eventually marrying his high school sweetheart, Jocelyn Darnell. They had a daughter, Joanna, and worked as a physician at a local but prestigious hospital. He threw himself into the work, spending long hours away from home and generally engrossing himself in it, much to the irritation of Jocelyn. At some point, Leonard’s father contracted an incurable illness, and after slowly wasting away, begging Leonard to end his suffering, he finally relented and effectively pulled the plug on his father, only for a cure to be discovered a few months later. Not long afterwards, he discovered Jocelyn was cheating on him, and he quickly had what remained of his life ripped out from underneath him. Jocelyn got everything in the divorce: the house, the money, and most importantly, custody of their daughter, and McCoy snapped.
He ended up in Iowa, and in a desperate bid to do something with his life, he enlisted in Starfleet, hopping on a shuttle leaving from the Riverside shipyard and after being told he wasn’t allowed to spend the flight hiding in the bathroom, was forced to sit next to Jim Kirk. After letting him know he was probably going to throw up on him and lecturing the younger cadet on how dangerous shuttles, space and space travel were, they introduced themselves and shared a drink.
This fateful encounter would develop into one of the most significant relationships of McCoy’s life, and after three years together in the Academy - eventually becoming roommates and generally bothering the hell out of each other - Jim undoubtedly was Leonard’s best friend. While at Starfleet, McCoy was the top of his class in anatomical and forensic and created the Academy's first astrophobia seminar, and was often Jim’s quasi reluctant wingman.
He was present for Kirk’s third attempt at the Kobayashi Maru, after telling him it was ridiculous that he was trying it for a third time, and supported him as much as he could when he was brought up on disciplinary charges for cheating. The trial was interrupted when they received a distress call from Vulcan, and as the main fleet was out in the Lorentian System, the cadets and the remaining fleet were sent out to investigate. Bones was assigned to the Enterprise, but as Jim was on academic suspension, he was expected to stay on campus while everyone else went out. McCoy smuggled him aboard by using a quasi loophole in medical code, injecting him with a vaccine and saying that because Kirk was his patient, he had to take him on board with him.
He knocked Jim out for a while with a sedative once they got on board, and when he woke up - just in time to realize the fleet and Vulcan was being attacked by Romulans - his reaction to the vaccine had gotten worse, and Bones chased him around the ship trying to control it while Jim tried to tell Pike what was going on. When the Narada began attacking Enterprise, McCoy went back to Sickbay to try and help as much as he could, becoming the CMO when Dr. Puri was killed when Deck Six suffered serious damage in the attack. He later helped organize, oversee and got involved with giving medical attention to refugees from the implosion of Vulcan and injured crew members.
He witnessed the fight between Jim and Spock which led to the former’s marooning on Delta Vega, and while he didn’t speak up in Jim’s defense initially, he did afterwards when Spock commented on how it must have been hard for him to support the Acting Captain in his decision. Jim later got back on board with the help of Spock Prime and Scotty, and McCoy once again looked on as he provoked Spock into attacking him, thus proving Spock was too emotionally compromised to be in command. McCoy immediately snarked that Jim had blown it, because now they didn’t have a captain or a First Officer to replace him. Of course, without his knowledge, Pike had promoted Kirk to First Officer, which put him in charge of the ship.
After conferencing with the bridge crew about what to do next, Chekov came up with a plan which Kirk immediately agrees to after Spock approves as well. Spock and Kirk transported over to the Narada, retrieved Pike, destroyed the black hole creating device and were rescued by Enterprise. After Kirk offered Nero clemency, which he refused, the Romulans were dragged into the black hole the device had created and were fired on by Enterprise. They were forced to eject and detonate their warpcore to escape the gravitational pull of the black hole, and were eventually able to limp back to Earth on Impulse Engines.
McCoy and his staff were able to save Captain Pike’s life, but the former captain was wheelchair bound after the torture he had endured on the Romulan ship. At some point after the events, Kirk officially relieved Pike of duty and officially became the captain of the Enterprise, and McCoy stayed on as Chief Medical Officer.
At this point, Bones has been on Enterprise for about two years, and for the most part, he’s enjoyed it. But, after a particularly bad “away mission gone wrong” resulting in one very mostly dead captain, a panicking McCoy was approached by the Admiral and offered a deal: redeem an inmate, and Jim would make a full recovery.
Needless to say, he immediately agreed.
Sample Journal Entry:
[The microphone clicks on before the video feed does, but after some relatively hard to hear grumbling about technology and how he doesn’t have time for this and he’s a doctor not an engineer, the video clicks on to reveal what might be a familiar face. Or, is, if you’ve ever seen Cooper around. Regardless, he’s wearing a blue Starfleet uniform, and looks a little tense as he adjusts the video and actually starts talking.
He speaks with a relatively pronounced accent - Georgian, if you’re particularly skilled at picking out American accents - which makes everything sound like a drawl, although again, there’s a certain tenseness.
He’s not exactly thrilled to be here. :|]
I’m Doctor Leonard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, and I’m a warden here.
I’ve been told assignments don’t happen until the 15th and 30th of every month, so until then, where’s the Sickbay in this place? I’d like to talk to whoever’s in charge as soon as possible.
---------------------------------
[Hello again, Barge. This time, McCoy sounds a little less clipped and frazzled and more just grouchy, because he’s had time to settle in, but he’s still very :| about the whole idea of being able to just walk around on deck in the open air with space just… hanging out there. It’s a strange thing to adjust to. He has definitely been keeping as far away from the deck railing as possible.]
Is anyone else bothered by the fact that we’re wanderin’ around on a ship whose hull’s apparently got the strength of goddamn rice paper? What’re we even crashin’ into out here? It’s not like we’re tryin’ to navigate around some asteroid field.
I’m not sure what’s worse, havin’ your eyeballs pop in a real hull breach or come back psychologically damaged from some goddamned left turn that sends us crashin’ into whatever the hell there is to bump into out here.
[Infirmary Filter]
Alright, I wanna run checks on that cold that seems to be goin’ around on Floor Five. I’ve already had two people come in for decongestants and somethin’ for their coughs, and I’d like to think I don’t have to explain to the rest of you why and how this stuff travels fast when we’re all cramped in like this.
Sample RP:
It had been a long few days.
While McCoy had grown to accept that certain things were just going to go wrong like clockwork on Enterprise - away missions would turn into bloodbaths with Sickbay being a free for all of triage trying to rescue whichever poor fools had been the ones to head down to the planet, diplomatic missions would turn into violent arguments about politics and regulation, “uninhabited” planets would inevitably have some incredibly hostile race hanging out on the surface or some horrible monster or some terrible space pollen he’d spend hours picking up after while people were in incredible pain and the hours would go by in seconds of panic and frustration and swearing and asking for more hypos while fighting to save lives - this time had been rough.
He wasn’t even sure how it had happened. The stranded “explorers” they’d taken aboard had kept up appearances of being friendly for around forty six hours. Then, they’d gone apeshit, and Sickbay was currently a mess of exhausted medical personnel and wounded crew members, including one James T. Kirk, who’d been bleeding so badly when Spock dragged him into Sickbay, it almost looked like he was wearing an engineering uniform.
Amazing that twenty refugees could cause this much damage.
After frantically making sure everyone was going to make it through the night, in the following days, it seemed like he just hadn’t found time to get sleep. Instead, McCoy had been making rounds, reassigning people to get rest, and generally refusing to sleep until he was 100% certain that everyone - but, as much as part of him kind of hated to admit it, especially Jim - was going to survive.
He was in his office, almost four days after the actual bloodbath, nursing a coffee he wished had something stronger in it while trying to file paperwork when he got the loud, terrifying alert that Jim was flatlining. Or, he'd woken up and pulled the monitor off. While that was maybe the more logical assumption - as Jim's vitals had been strong and they'd been pretty confident that he'd make a full recovery - he couldn't help the gut reaction of oh my god, my idiot best friend is dying.
He dropped everything, spilling coffee all over his desk but completely ignoring it in favor of practically leaping over his desk and racing into Sickbay.
Where he found said idiot best friend awake and alert, the heart monitor detached, and Spock looking like he was a heartbeat away from lecturing Jim himself when he spotted the doctor approaching and stopped.
"How many god damn times do I have to tell you - don't take off the monitor until I do it first?"
There was a lot more behind the words - thank God you're awake, stop scaring me like that you stupid bastard, etc. - but it was easier just to yell.
Special Notes: Bones will be coming in without memories of his previous time on the Barge, and his history has TOS canon included to flesh it out, although it has been referred to as canonical by Karl Urban in interviews. The technically not explicitly canon deal has been cleared by Mel, and added in because I honestly can’t see Bones sticking around for the long haul unless he has something concrete coming out of this arrangement, since he has a job he loves and friends back home and nothing he’d really want badly enough to stick around if things ever got too heavy.
And here is more voice testing: one, two
User LJ: 1jobonthisship
AIM/IM: girlwonder004 @ AIM
E-mail: isthereair@gmail.com
Other Characters: batmanschmatman, inhistorybooks, result_of_war, becauseheswill, restoringhonor
Character Name: Bones Dr. Leonard McCoy.
Series: Star Trek (Reboot)
Age: Thirty one in canon, plus about two years, so Thirty three.
From When?: Post canon, approximately lining up with Kirk’s timeline.
Inmate/Warden: Dammit man, he’s a warden, not an inmate.
Item: His Starfleet Academy ring.
Abilities/Powers: Although he has no supernatural abilities (being one hundred percent, boring human, from Earth, and that’s the way he likes it), Leonard McCoy has been practicing medicine for a long time and as such, there isn’t a whole lot in the medical world he hasn’t seen or at least read about. He graduated at the top of his class at Starfleet Academy in anatomical and forensic pathology, and is an accomplished surgeon, physician, psychologist and exobiologist. He also received training at Starfleet Academy to ensure his survival on any away missions or during catastrophes, and as such knows how to defend himself and operate most standard issue weaponry, specifically, a phaser. He’s not a great hand to hand combatant, but he’s not going to go down without a fight.
Personality: To put it bluntly, on the surface, Leonard McCoy has a pretty abrasive personality. Upon first meeting him, he’s often difficult to get along with at best, and downright uninterested in playing nice or gilding the lily at worst. Easily exasperated (and/or flustered), fairly stubborn and somewhat neurotic, he doesn’t like putting up with people and their bullshit, even though he often finds himself in situations where he has to if he wants to keep his job, and is not afraid to call you out on said bullshit. It’s not that he lacks a brain to mouth filter - as he can be tactful if he wants to be - just that he’s unfailingly honest. This honesty is often laced with sarcasm eye rolling, bitter humor, and probably some profanity, and really, he almost unfailingly gives off the impression of being a cranky old man.
This is (largely) a front, and a defense mechanism. McCoy just doesn’t have a lot of active interest in getting close to other people, carrying a lot of bitterness around about his life before Starfleet. Even after he enlisted, he didn’t make a ton of effort to bond with his fellow cadets - although this might have something to do with being a fair bit older than most of his classmates - and for a long time, his only significant relationship was with Jim Kirk, who for whatever reason, was able to muscle his way past McCoy’s defenses and become the doctor’s best friend and constant irritant. Since working on Enterprise, these defenses have ebbed slightly, in that while he’s still really not interested in being best friends with everyone, he does care about his other crewmates, and has formed a bond with them as well. There are really only two exceptions to the general rule of ultimately holding everyone at arm’s length: his daughter Joanna, and Jim Kirk.
Once you have worked past the crankiness and really wormed your way into his heart, he is ridiculously loyal and will be willing to do just about anything for you, no matter how ridiculous or potentially dangerous or stupid that thing is. He is more than capable of putting up with a lot of crap for the people he cares about. While he’ll probably complain and outright bitch and moan about having to do certain things for you (or anyone really, including Starfleet, his ex-wife, and whoever else might be trying to twist his arm about something), again, it’s just how he is, and there’s very little substance to it. Even when he is being affectionate with a friend, it’s understated and still a little gruff, usually resulting in a pat on the shoulder or an offer to go get drunk rather than a hug or actually sitting around and talking about their feelings. That said, Bones is a good listener, he's just not really one for long, drawn out, mushy talks with hugging and crying.
It’s therefore probably not shocking that despite this often prickly exterior, McCoy really, really cares about people. All he’s ever wanted to be in life is a simple country doctor, someone who could help people when they were hurting, and that’s all he aspires to be. While his bedside manner is usually lacking, he is extremely good at his job and is willing to throw everything he has into helping. Some people are natural leaders, but Bones is a healer, and no matter who the injured or sick are, he wants to do his best to help them. He has a lot of passion for his work, despite the stress and frustration it causes, and he literally can’t see himself as anything else.
And he’s good at it. After practicing in Georgia for several years after finishing med school and before his divorce, McCoy graduated at the top of his class at Starfleet, which considering the Academy only takes the best and the brightest does really say a lot about his skill, and was stationed on Enterprise during the Narada incident as a senior medical officer, again speaking to his skill. He takes his job seriously, and with his gruff attitude and willingness to call people on their bullshit, he is exactly the right man to be in charge of the flagship’s Sickbay. He tossed himself right into the work after Dr. Puri was killed, and shows no hesitation in giving out orders to people working under him. He also has a healthy respect for rules and regulations, which gives him a good balance of being able to give orders and receive ones himself.
That said, he doesn’t always follow these orders. When helping a friend (… so basically, when helping Jim) he’s willing to bend the rules and put his own reputation/future/career/life on the line for someone else, because he thinks it’s the right thing to do. This is probably at least partially because he’s willing to do just about anything to keep one of the only positive relationships he has left, instead of watching it fall apart like he did with his marriage, but also because if he feels like something is the right thing to do? He’ll do it and to hell with the consequences. This is especially true if a superior (… so basically, Jim) tries to order him into letting them out of Sickbay or into doing something detrimental to someone else’s health. You can just sit down and shut up, because Leonard McCoy is not budging on this issue no matter how much you bitch and whine at him.
Although he might not appear to be on the surface, he’s secretly an optimist. His divorce and the other reasons he left home have just hidden this under layers of bitterness and the desire to be left alone, but ultimately, he does believe there is good in the universe and in people. He is a very emotional thinker, and reacts to things based on gut feelings and reactions more than anything else. This is undoubtedly why he clashes so badly with Spock, in that the logical, almost robot like nature of the Vulcan first officer just doesn’t compute with Bones, and leads to frequent casually racist remarks and comments on why won’t he act like he at least gives a damn. Because of this optimism and his own very firm moral beliefs, he holds people to high standards, and is often disappointed when they fail to live up to them, thus sending him back behind his walls of bitterness to protect himself from further disappointment with mankind.
He’s a bit contradictory in other ways, too. Despite being terrified of space and flying, he still ran away to Starfleet (which, as astutely pointed out by Kirk, operates in space) when his life fell apart, probably because it really was the last place he had to turn to, but that didn’t change his decision to eventually ship off instead of looking for a position on Earth or some other base on a nice, solid planet to work on. He also has a healthy distrust of technology (especially transporters), but finds medical practices from the past barbaric and will immediately swoop in with a procedure he knows is safer. While he’s not nothing without a tricorder and a dermal regenerator, because of his time period, he’s become reliant on them as a modern surgeon would rely on an MRI and stitches to put someone back together, and without them, he does feel sort of crippled.
McCoy comes off as being much older than he actually is, probably due to his crankiness and general codgery attitude, but also helped by he is actually several years older than a lot of his crewmates. He’s a father and was a professional before he joined Starfleet, so he’s been there, done that, and has an enormous sense of responsibility. This probably has a lot to do with his job, but he also just has a good sense of right and wrong, and what needs to be done for someone’s benefit, and responds accordingly. Underneath all the defensiveness, he is a classic Southern gentleman, and when in a good mood, does try to be polite and as friendly as he can manage.
That said, he does have a quick temper. He can go from relatively calm if annoyed to furious in seconds, especially when certain triggers are pressed or when he’s especially stressed out and frustrated. Under pressure McCoy is usually shouty, yelly “stay out of my way unless you need medical attention or have good news for me” McCoy, and bothering him about anything too personal or hurting someone he cares about is a fast way to get an angry bear coming after you. However, this is almost entirely all bark and no bite, as first and foremost, McCoy is a doctor, and he takes his job seriously. His first priority is do no harm, and it does actually weird him out sometimes when he has to actually sit down and think about how while on away missions, he has been forced to kill people.
As a warden on the Barge, McCoy will take his job seriously, and want to get to work right away upon arrival. He’ll try to sit down with his inmate and actually try to talk through their issues - as he has studied psychology and knows talking is useful, even if he doesn’t really enjoy it - although he’ll be gruff and more focused on getting the job done than actually befriending his inmate at first. Eventually, he can and probably will warm up to them - especially if it’s a younger inmate he can look after, someone around his own (mental) age will probably be more of a drinking buddy when they bond - but he’ll always be a little gruff and hold them at arm’s length. He’ll also want to get very hands on in the infirmary, and will probably encourage his inmate to take up some kind of Barge job to keep them busy and find some kind of purpose in life. He’ll check in regularly, and really push for answers and not take “I’m fine” for an answer after bad floods and ports.
Path to Redemption: ----------
History: Leonard Horatio McCoy was born in 2227 to David and Eleanora McCoy in Atlanta, Georgia. He attended the University of Mississippi and went to med school in Georgia, eventually marrying his high school sweetheart, Jocelyn Darnell. They had a daughter, Joanna, and worked as a physician at a local but prestigious hospital. He threw himself into the work, spending long hours away from home and generally engrossing himself in it, much to the irritation of Jocelyn. At some point, Leonard’s father contracted an incurable illness, and after slowly wasting away, begging Leonard to end his suffering, he finally relented and effectively pulled the plug on his father, only for a cure to be discovered a few months later. Not long afterwards, he discovered Jocelyn was cheating on him, and he quickly had what remained of his life ripped out from underneath him. Jocelyn got everything in the divorce: the house, the money, and most importantly, custody of their daughter, and McCoy snapped.
He ended up in Iowa, and in a desperate bid to do something with his life, he enlisted in Starfleet, hopping on a shuttle leaving from the Riverside shipyard and after being told he wasn’t allowed to spend the flight hiding in the bathroom, was forced to sit next to Jim Kirk. After letting him know he was probably going to throw up on him and lecturing the younger cadet on how dangerous shuttles, space and space travel were, they introduced themselves and shared a drink.
This fateful encounter would develop into one of the most significant relationships of McCoy’s life, and after three years together in the Academy - eventually becoming roommates and generally bothering the hell out of each other - Jim undoubtedly was Leonard’s best friend. While at Starfleet, McCoy was the top of his class in anatomical and forensic and created the Academy's first astrophobia seminar, and was often Jim’s quasi reluctant wingman.
He was present for Kirk’s third attempt at the Kobayashi Maru, after telling him it was ridiculous that he was trying it for a third time, and supported him as much as he could when he was brought up on disciplinary charges for cheating. The trial was interrupted when they received a distress call from Vulcan, and as the main fleet was out in the Lorentian System, the cadets and the remaining fleet were sent out to investigate. Bones was assigned to the Enterprise, but as Jim was on academic suspension, he was expected to stay on campus while everyone else went out. McCoy smuggled him aboard by using a quasi loophole in medical code, injecting him with a vaccine and saying that because Kirk was his patient, he had to take him on board with him.
He knocked Jim out for a while with a sedative once they got on board, and when he woke up - just in time to realize the fleet and Vulcan was being attacked by Romulans - his reaction to the vaccine had gotten worse, and Bones chased him around the ship trying to control it while Jim tried to tell Pike what was going on. When the Narada began attacking Enterprise, McCoy went back to Sickbay to try and help as much as he could, becoming the CMO when Dr. Puri was killed when Deck Six suffered serious damage in the attack. He later helped organize, oversee and got involved with giving medical attention to refugees from the implosion of Vulcan and injured crew members.
He witnessed the fight between Jim and Spock which led to the former’s marooning on Delta Vega, and while he didn’t speak up in Jim’s defense initially, he did afterwards when Spock commented on how it must have been hard for him to support the Acting Captain in his decision. Jim later got back on board with the help of Spock Prime and Scotty, and McCoy once again looked on as he provoked Spock into attacking him, thus proving Spock was too emotionally compromised to be in command. McCoy immediately snarked that Jim had blown it, because now they didn’t have a captain or a First Officer to replace him. Of course, without his knowledge, Pike had promoted Kirk to First Officer, which put him in charge of the ship.
After conferencing with the bridge crew about what to do next, Chekov came up with a plan which Kirk immediately agrees to after Spock approves as well. Spock and Kirk transported over to the Narada, retrieved Pike, destroyed the black hole creating device and were rescued by Enterprise. After Kirk offered Nero clemency, which he refused, the Romulans were dragged into the black hole the device had created and were fired on by Enterprise. They were forced to eject and detonate their warpcore to escape the gravitational pull of the black hole, and were eventually able to limp back to Earth on Impulse Engines.
McCoy and his staff were able to save Captain Pike’s life, but the former captain was wheelchair bound after the torture he had endured on the Romulan ship. At some point after the events, Kirk officially relieved Pike of duty and officially became the captain of the Enterprise, and McCoy stayed on as Chief Medical Officer.
At this point, Bones has been on Enterprise for about two years, and for the most part, he’s enjoyed it. But, after a particularly bad “away mission gone wrong” resulting in one very mostly dead captain, a panicking McCoy was approached by the Admiral and offered a deal: redeem an inmate, and Jim would make a full recovery.
Needless to say, he immediately agreed.
Sample Journal Entry:
[The microphone clicks on before the video feed does, but after some relatively hard to hear grumbling about technology and how he doesn’t have time for this and he’s a doctor not an engineer, the video clicks on to reveal what might be a familiar face. Or, is, if you’ve ever seen Cooper around. Regardless, he’s wearing a blue Starfleet uniform, and looks a little tense as he adjusts the video and actually starts talking.
He speaks with a relatively pronounced accent - Georgian, if you’re particularly skilled at picking out American accents - which makes everything sound like a drawl, although again, there’s a certain tenseness.
He’s not exactly thrilled to be here. :|]
I’m Doctor Leonard McCoy, Chief Medical Officer on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, and I’m a warden here.
I’ve been told assignments don’t happen until the 15th and 30th of every month, so until then, where’s the Sickbay in this place? I’d like to talk to whoever’s in charge as soon as possible.
---------------------------------
[Hello again, Barge. This time, McCoy sounds a little less clipped and frazzled and more just grouchy, because he’s had time to settle in, but he’s still very :| about the whole idea of being able to just walk around on deck in the open air with space just… hanging out there. It’s a strange thing to adjust to. He has definitely been keeping as far away from the deck railing as possible.]
Is anyone else bothered by the fact that we’re wanderin’ around on a ship whose hull’s apparently got the strength of goddamn rice paper? What’re we even crashin’ into out here? It’s not like we’re tryin’ to navigate around some asteroid field.
I’m not sure what’s worse, havin’ your eyeballs pop in a real hull breach or come back psychologically damaged from some goddamned left turn that sends us crashin’ into whatever the hell there is to bump into out here.
[Infirmary Filter]
Alright, I wanna run checks on that cold that seems to be goin’ around on Floor Five. I’ve already had two people come in for decongestants and somethin’ for their coughs, and I’d like to think I don’t have to explain to the rest of you why and how this stuff travels fast when we’re all cramped in like this.
Sample RP:
It had been a long few days.
While McCoy had grown to accept that certain things were just going to go wrong like clockwork on Enterprise - away missions would turn into bloodbaths with Sickbay being a free for all of triage trying to rescue whichever poor fools had been the ones to head down to the planet, diplomatic missions would turn into violent arguments about politics and regulation, “uninhabited” planets would inevitably have some incredibly hostile race hanging out on the surface or some horrible monster or some terrible space pollen he’d spend hours picking up after while people were in incredible pain and the hours would go by in seconds of panic and frustration and swearing and asking for more hypos while fighting to save lives - this time had been rough.
He wasn’t even sure how it had happened. The stranded “explorers” they’d taken aboard had kept up appearances of being friendly for around forty six hours. Then, they’d gone apeshit, and Sickbay was currently a mess of exhausted medical personnel and wounded crew members, including one James T. Kirk, who’d been bleeding so badly when Spock dragged him into Sickbay, it almost looked like he was wearing an engineering uniform.
Amazing that twenty refugees could cause this much damage.
After frantically making sure everyone was going to make it through the night, in the following days, it seemed like he just hadn’t found time to get sleep. Instead, McCoy had been making rounds, reassigning people to get rest, and generally refusing to sleep until he was 100% certain that everyone - but, as much as part of him kind of hated to admit it, especially Jim - was going to survive.
He was in his office, almost four days after the actual bloodbath, nursing a coffee he wished had something stronger in it while trying to file paperwork when he got the loud, terrifying alert that Jim was flatlining. Or, he'd woken up and pulled the monitor off. While that was maybe the more logical assumption - as Jim's vitals had been strong and they'd been pretty confident that he'd make a full recovery - he couldn't help the gut reaction of oh my god, my idiot best friend is dying.
He dropped everything, spilling coffee all over his desk but completely ignoring it in favor of practically leaping over his desk and racing into Sickbay.
Where he found said idiot best friend awake and alert, the heart monitor detached, and Spock looking like he was a heartbeat away from lecturing Jim himself when he spotted the doctor approaching and stopped.
"How many god damn times do I have to tell you - don't take off the monitor until I do it first?"
There was a lot more behind the words - thank God you're awake, stop scaring me like that you stupid bastard, etc. - but it was easier just to yell.
Special Notes: Bones will be coming in without memories of his previous time on the Barge, and his history has TOS canon included to flesh it out, although it has been referred to as canonical by Karl Urban in interviews. The technically not explicitly canon deal has been cleared by Mel, and added in because I honestly can’t see Bones sticking around for the long haul unless he has something concrete coming out of this arrangement, since he has a job he loves and friends back home and nothing he’d really want badly enough to stick around if things ever got too heavy.
And here is more voice testing: one, two