How did you start shipping Spones (brotp or otp, either is fine!)
Why did you ship them?
What are the some of the reasons you like Spock as a character? And McCoy?
Some of your fave things about liking Spones: tropes, fics, headcanons, etc?
1. I think I’ve always seen something between them in TOS, but I was blinded by the Spirk destiny stuff for a long time. The smoke cleared a little when they spent so much time alone together in Beyond. It was like “Oh, that’s cute, they secretly like each other more than either of them wants to admit. Oh wait that’s totally the dynamic in TOS too isn’t it” but it probably wasn’t until I fell head-first back into Trek fandom this past September that I went looking for Spones fic just to see what was out there and went “…oh. Oh, this is compelling. Oh, I LOVE THEM.” 2. Listen, I relate to both of these guys hard for different reasons, so their banter and mutual care makes a deep amount of sense to me. Honestly it started as a jokey “haha that’s kinda cute” thing but a few key excellent fics turned this into my primary ship. AND CAN WE TALK ABOUT THE WAY DE KELLEY ABSOLUTELY AND UNQUESTIONABLY SHIPPED THEM???? Look at how smitten McCoy is in The Search for Spock and especially in The One With the Whales. If that’s not compelling, idk what is. 3. Oh, Spock, my love. He’s so precise! He’s so careful! He speaks the neurodivergent language of my people. And even as he familiarizes himself with human conventions, they still don’t make a lot of intuitive sense to him and he enjoys pretending not to approve. All of these things are at once so, so familiar to me, and they push my “ohhhh, protect him!!!” buttons *hard*. Not that he needs much protecting. But I adore him. Leonard H. McCoy, love of my life! Short answer, I’m just such a sucker for the grumpy-with-a-heart-of-gold types. AOS McCoy’s bitterness and deep tiredness is so recocgnizable. I adore and relate to his long-suffering exasperation as love language. TOS McCoy’s hyperempathy and the way he covers it up with his gruff exterior just endears him to me to no end, and then seeing him smile just makes my entire soul light up with fondness. It’s a very superficial thing to like, but I’m very fond of the little bounce he does on the balls of his feet, it’s adorable. And he’s wicked smart. What’s not to love? 4. Gosh, this ship lends itself to so much denial and I’m not sure why but I’m a sucker for it. “Him? No way. That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard. He infuriates me!” It’s enemies-to-lovers-adjacent without them actually being enemies to begin with. Something I can’t get enough of is Vulcans being super into hands, and Bones’ hands are, of course, legendary…. I’m a big fan of the thing where everyone knows they’re into each other but them. Losers. I tend to headcanon them both as more or less demisexual, which really lends itself to the “there’s no way he’s interested in me back” thing. My absolute favorite, let-me-keep-these-on-my-kindle-to-reread-and-have-feelings-about-forever Spones fics I’ve discovered so far have got to be This Must Be the Place by therev and A Matter of Trust by PrairieDawn.
Honestly, that was also me, I was like “huh these two are something, I’m curious if people ship them because they seem like a pair people would ship” and then I googled and found a ship manifesto and then I decided to read some fic and the rest is history lmao and I agree “this is compelling???” I just did not go into expecting to ship them, so that’s a big mood.
And talking about De shipping them, it always drives me nuts in a good way how Nimoy also was like “You know, the Spock and Bones dynamic reminds me of George & Gracie (a famous TV couple at the time) and that’s how I’m going to act when my character interacts with his” and then LATER names the whales George and Gracie??? HMMMMMMM???? These two really really shipped them.
Also, your post about him just staring and smirking and how much it’s so flirty…have this one of De from Where Love Has Gone :3 (My screencap) That moment in the one with the whales is SO compelling so I feel you RIGHT THERE.
There is so much I agree with your reasons of liking Spock and McCoy (and some of my faves too especially the wicked smart thing and ahhhh, this response would get long if I got into it) but that is such a good point about their dynamic being adjacent to that kind of trope without being ‘enemies’ (even though people like to think they genuinely hated each other...which...they don’t??) and the hands.
I have a few fic wips where Spock and/or Bones are demisexual and/or demiromantic (especially in a very lengthy one I have) and it’s really a fun perspective to write them as tbh. Fic is great in that you can ‘try’ out different portrayals for the characters while in some way trying to stay true with who they are at the same time and that makes for some fascinating stories.
For anyone who wants to read the fics mentioned (both WONDERFUL and AMAZING stories -- Therev’s fic made me cry and PrairieDawn’s work always leaves me in awe with the attention to detail and characterization on top of everything else) here is This Must Be The Place and Matter of Trust.
[ We’re doing a Spock & McCoy appreciation weekend, so send your answers to these questions or anything related you’d like to send! ]
