#* guest muse {ed mercer}

[starbcrn-kids]

unbrxken​:

Lucille shrugged, nodding towards Arthur. “He’ll tell you that out of everyone, the drill sergeants were the worst. I’m not afraid of any doctors.”

“You were never afraid of anything, Lucille,” Arthur said softly. He cleared his throat, glancing around. “Okay, well, she’s not going to hurt anybody.” He paused. “… but maybe pointedly keep Iris away from sickbay momentarily.”

Starla blinked, sighing. “Ah, yeah, that.”

"Ah, yeah, yep," Lily nods, holding up a hand as she hops on the comms. "This is engineering to the bridge."

"Go ahead, Ms. Scott," Ed answers.

"Sir, new arrival from the usual place. Arthur's era. Is Iris there?"

"Yep, and she's confirming she'll stay out of sickbay."

"Perfect, thanks captain. Engineering out," Lily nods and clicks off, nodding to the others. "We're good."

[starbcrn-kids]

For @unscrxpted​ - Where Monsters Walk Starring Orville assholes Guest starring CANON Orville assholes

“Captain,” Isaac remarks from his station, “It would appear that the composition of this planet is flagged as similar to one we have encountered before. Would you like me to find our match?”

“Go ahead,” Ed nods, curious.

In a brief moment, Isaac answers. “Located. The match is near-exact to a planet that held a former Federation colony, the planet being Kasaxton-4.”

“Tori’s old colony?” Ed frowns, sitting up. “Mx. Janeway--”

“It wasn’t a Federation colony, sir, and if they had the technology to put out a quarantine warning, they didn’t activate it,” Addi turns from their station, a hand at their earpiece, shaking their head.

Ed frowns a bit, looking at Kelly, who shrugs. He does as well. “Any life signs?”

“Hm, only a few, just like Kasaxton-4, but...” Addi pauses, eyebrows furrowing. “I’m picking up something else, too, sir. Not sure what, but I think I saw it last time, too. Just that last time...”

“We were focused on getting ahold of the survivors because they were Federation,” Ed nods with a sigh. “Great. What is it?”

“Not sure, sir,” they answer. “It’s reading really weird on the scans, like there’s some kind of life sign but it’s not a regular lifesign. Maybe we should ask the kids...?”

Ed sighs. “Probably. Someone’ll need to get them to my ready room here on the bridge.”

[offleetsfinest]

Closed for @unbrxken​ - Meeting Starring Hunter White Guest starring S’Chn T’Gai Grayson, potentially others

“Approaching Cardassia Prime, captain,” the navigator beside Sollem says.

A monumental breakthrough in peace with Cardassia, steps towards something more. That’s what Admiral McCoy called it, and the Union’s Admiral Halsey had agreed wholeheartedly. Cardassia’s peace with the Federation could be shaky at best, especially following the Dominion Wars.

But the Borg and Kaylon threat couldn’t be ignored or denied, and it was a threat to Cardassia they couldn’t manipulate to help them.

So it seemed that now was seen as the best time to negotiate a better peace. And both the Federation and Union elected to send a ship.

Privately, Peterson is glad it’s the Orville. They’d been selected due to their instrumental roles with the Union’s various skirmishes and peace talks, but honestly, the fact that it was the joint Union and Federation ship felt extremely important.

Especially considering one of the people aboard the Orville...

“Hail the Orville.”

“Aye, sir,” his communications officer answers, and in a moment, Ed Mercer’s face graces his screen.

“All right, Ed. Ready to introduce yourself?”

“As ready as I can be, James,” Ed answers. “Miss Bashir is standing by at our transporter already. I’ll meet you on the surface.” He pauses and looks over his shoulder at a whisper and pauses, nodding. “Right, right-- with your permission, captain, I believe some of those aboard this ship were hoping to cross to yours in the meanwhile to catch up with a couple of your more unusual members.”

“Granted,” Peterson nods. He had expected it, since Min’s arrival, he’d have to be honest. Hunter would be interesting for them, too.

Ed nods. “Orville out.”

Severing the connection, Peterson stands, looking to his first officer and nodding for the man to follow him, adding, “Commander Sollem, you have the conn.”

“Aye, sir,” the Vulcan answers and the two walk out.

In the transporter room, after seeing off the captain and first officer, Rowan switches around things with the transporter and calls to the bridge. “Let the Orville know we’re ready when they are.”

On the Orville, Lily smiles and nods. “All righ’, everybody, we’re ready t’ go on yer mark.” She looks up to Melina and all.

[ofweirdestship]

Retelling of the end of 3x07

Spoilers! (Shocking I’m sure)

Features Claire Finn, Charly Burke, Isaac, John LaMarr, Rayna Biel, & guest muse Lily Scott

“I’m... sorry,” Charly finishes. That was hard, all of that was hard for her to say.

Isaac doesn’t miss much of a beat. “Thank you, ensign,” and turns back to his work.

She accepts that. It’s the most she can expect from him, she knows, as she starts to leave engineering again.

“Perhaps--” She turns back when he speaks again, surprised, as he continues, “You could assist me with the calibration.”

She nods and quietly goes up to work with him, neither one saying anything more. It’s a stART DEAR GOD.

A sudden crashing whips her and Isaac around to see what the commotion was. Lily stands there looking anything but the usual controlled and collected Charly sees of the other. She points wildly at Isaac. “I HAVE AN IDEA!”

Everyone is staring at her. It’s Isaac who responds. “An idea, Miss Scott?”

“It’s jus' crazy enough t' work, but I need you,” she points to Charly, “you,” she points to Rayna (didn’t they hate each other?--), “you,” she points to John who’s just coming in the door, “And-- I need-- you all stay put,” and as she’s running out the door she’s already yelling, “DOCTOR VILLKA! DOCTOR VILLKA!”

John blinks, looking between everyone. “Anybody know what that was?”

He’s met by multiple headshakes and Isaac’s, “Negative.”

“Awesome,” he says to himself, shaking his head. “Guess we’ll find out.”

When Lily comes careening back in with Dr. Villka and Timmis behind her, she doubles over for a moment, resting her hands on her knees and catching her breath. John looks to Dr. Villka but she just shakes her head. He looks back to his deputy chief. “Lily, what is going on?”

Lily takes a deep breath. “Isaac. When ye deactivated yourself, we discovered tha' there was a very, very, very small portion of code ye missed tha' we didn’t know about backed up on a storage cell, aye?”

“Where are you going with this?” John looks at her.

Lily waves him off, her attention on the Kaylon entirely. “Isaac.”

“Correct, Miss Scott. What is the relevance?”

“John. How long would it take t' degrade from a fresh cell if we broke it?”

“If we kept it in a stasis field, it wouldn’t be bad, but any power surge--”

“Right, right, hours, I remember,” Lily interrupts abruptly, waving her hand as she begins talking. “Wha' if we-- wha' if, we made a new storage cell, an' allowed Isaac th' time t' copy th' programming t' it? Then he could be deactivated, th' cell moved ou' and put in stasis, we downgrade th' electro-chemical pathway physically, update th' neural network--”

“Reinstall Isaac’s programming the way we did when he deactivated, and boom, he can utilize the full emotional range but still keeps his memories and personality,” John finishes, nodding along. “Her logic checking out to you, Dr. Villka?”

“It is,” the woman laughs, “It is, that should work.”

“I want everything ready t' go before we deactivate Isaac,” Lily says. “Hell, I want it ready before we break th' cell. Dr. Villka, I’ll need yer assistance redesigning th' physical component. Rayna, you and Isaac work on th' storage cell-- maybe make a backup of tha' backup, just in case. John, le' th' cap'n know we’re about t' do something crazy an' make sure we’re ready with th' stasis field, sir,” she adds that last word almost like an afterthought. “Let’s do this.”

And do this, they did. Rayna follows Lily’s advice, making a backup of the backup and putting it, unbroken, into stasis as well on its own. By the time everything is together and ready, Ed and Kelly have joined the group.

“No one told Dr. Finn?” Lily looks around before they begin.

“Maybe it’s best we don’t tell her... just in case,” Kelly admits, and that’s all that needs to be said.

Lily takes a deep breath, looking around her. Her full engineering team, and then to this insanely assembled team.

Charly stands back, not with them but ready for when they’re down to putting Isaac’s consciousness back in place. The part they need rests on a small table beside where they have Isaac sitting and waiting, Rayna standing beside it and Dr. Villka with her. John’s at the controls to set the stasis field for the cell they’re about to break, the other one in his hand to be added once it’s broken. Captain Mercer and Commander Grayson are with Charly, watching.

“On my mark, Unk, break tha' cell, an' Isaac, it’ll be time fer tha' pulse. Everybody ready?”

Nods all around. Lily nods. “3... 2... 1... mark.”

And they’re all in motion. Lily barely registers the crunch or John working with the stasis field, because on her mark, Isaac deliberately self-administers an EMP to himself and drops stone cold deactivated back on the table. Immediately, she’s on his other side and she, Dr. Villka, and Rayna get to work. Once the new part is in, Lily steps back, watching Dr. Villka work with rapt fascination and severe anxiety in equal parts. Rayna gently sets the old piece aside. If this didn’t work, they’d reinstall him back to how he was and everything would be fine.

But Lily wasn’t planning on that. Wasn’t even thinking of it. It wasn’t a possibility, because this was going to work.

She scarcely notices the doctor finishing, just Charly immediately coming over to take over. John releases the stasis field and he and Rayna go to help her where needed.

To be frank, Lily doesn’t notice anything until Charly says, “Done,” and the blue lights of Isaac’s “eyes” reappear.

Everyone backs up, watching with bated breath.

Isaac moves carefully, deliberately slow, seeming to take all of them in. “Hello. Can you tell me where we are?”

Faces fall, and Lily kicks herself. Dammit. She’d been so sure...

Well, they could put him back to how he was, even if the... emotions...

Lily looks up at a sound, a muffle snort, which is weird to think about because she’s almost certain it came from...

Isaac starts laughing, suddenly reaching out and pulling her in, hugging her tightly. “I got you. I got you all there, didn’t I?”

Lily lets out a heavy breath, feeling a laugh bubbling up herself. “You me'al asshole! Don’ do tha'!”

But she’s laughing, and so are the others. Lily hugs Isaac back as the Kaylon continues, “Thank you, Lily. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“Oh, Isaac, there’s no need t' thank me,” the Scotswoman protests, pulling back gently. “Ye’re my friend, an' someone I’ve served a lo' of years with. I saw ye after th' first try, I knew how much it meant t' ya, even if ye couldn’t tell without th' emotions. I knew I had t' find a way.”

“Lily, you’ve saved me,” he insists, shaking his head at her-- she thinks she’s going to find it a bit interesting, seeing him move with more emotion like this-- and then adds, “You’ve done me a favor I can’t possibly repay you for.”

Lily sighs, rolling her eyes. “All righ', all righ'. Don’ get all sappy on me, save it fer Dr. Finn.”

“Save what for Dr. Finn?” Everyone’s heads turn to Claire. “Sorry to interrupt, I was coming to check on Chief LaMarr and see how he’s doing.”

“Better, doctor,” John answers before Lily swats his arm and they all back up, leaving a perfect path between Claire and Isaac.

“What’s going on?” Claire looks at them all.

“Claire,” Isaac says, and the way she turns to him, the way he says it, says everything.

“What did you do?”

“It’s a long story,” Lily admits with a chuckle. “But... it won’t reset again.”

Claire gasps, looking to the other woman, then back at Isaac, frozen where she is. Instead, he moves to her, gently reaching out to take her hand. She reaches up to his head, and then lets out a sob, even as she smiles, falling into him a bit. Isaac wraps his arms around her at that.

Dr. Villka smiles, turning to John and Ed. “Captain, chief, I hope you know what 3 fine young minds you have working for you.”

“We do indeed, though, I think technically speaking we have 2 of those. The United Federation of Planets gets the last one,” John jokes, ruffling Lily’s hair.

“Really? You’re in Union uniform,” she looks surprised.

“Aye, well, between th' Janisi an' th' fact I’m no' a fan of having t' work down here in th' Federation uniform, it was better fer me t' wear this,” Lily admits.

“Well, you, my dear, are brilliant,” Dr. Villka tells her sincerely, and Lily waves her off with a small shrug.

“You fla'er me,” she chuckles, looking back to Isaac and Claire, though not trying to hard to listen in.

Seeing the look on Claire’s face was enough to her.

[wexrdest-shxp-xn-the-fleet]

Closed for @ofthecontinuum​ Muse(s): Ed Mercer, Kelly Grayson, more case-by-case Guest starring: Case-by-case

“...look, whatever is going on right now,” Ed is addressing the guy who had just appeared on his bridge, rubbing his forehead slightly, “Can I just say ‘no’ and be on my way?”

Addi looks over and their eyes widen before they turn back to their station and pretend to be far more invested in looking for subspace transmissions because they don’t need nor want to go into this one, nope, no way, not a chance, they are content to just be another nameless crewman in this one.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Episode #100 Highlights!

That’s right: 100 EPISODES. That’s a lot of great questions, greater answers, questionable pronunciations of usernames, even more questionable uses of overlays, and a++++ excellent dogs. 

The entire cast is answering questions this week!

Max runs an (adorable) intro in the above puppet theater, and each cast member gets a title. Laura is The Heart, Sam is The “Funny Guy”, Travis is The Brawn, Liam is The Actor, Matt is The Brains, Marisha is The Face, Taliesin is The Pyramid, Brian is The Convict, and Ashley is The Favorite.

The cast’s entrance is majestic. There are balloons, sashes, tiaras, and champagne. Henry has a tiara too!

The Search for Grog will air this Friday, February 22 at 7 PM Pacific on twitch.tv/criticalrole. If you miss the stream, it’ll be available Saturday morning on CR’s YouTube channel!

Talks Machina and CR will air on CR’s official channels starting today! Starting next episode, TM will be available on CR’s YouTube channel on Thursday at 7 Pacific, and also in podcast form!

Stats: in 100 episodes of TM, there’s been 81 episodes of Brian’s glorious beard. There have been 9 Skype/FaceTime call-ins! There were 244 guest misnomers before that well ran dry. 93 episodes of pre-show hijinks (thanks to Max James!). 95 episodes of Arsequeef. 826 days of being on the internet!

Brian: "The concept of creating a talk show about a D&D campaign has always been absurd to me, so we wanted to embrace that terribleness.”

There’s now a Steve Cam (quietly reading, meal prepping, and ignoring the show), and a Zach Cam (staring at a monitor that’s all just Liam’s chest hair and the Fjord bust), and a Max Cam (dancing in a stripper cop outfit), Lockey Cam (practicing with a sword in front of a mirror and then charging at Daniel for filming it - Brian: “Hopefully Daniel’s non-union.”), Ed Cam (drinking scotch and counting down the days until football returns, and also lint rolling his new goatee), Chris Cam (rapping in the VO booth), Brittany Cam (dancing with a unicorn blanket, huffing compressed air - Brian: “You can’t show that on Twitch!”).

Matt is asked how his DMing style has evolved with campaign 2. “Well... I’ve been forced to embrace a little more of the tragedy in the characters’ backstories.” The internal and external conflict has been really interesting for him to watch and react to. “I’ve learned to be very proud of my players for mucking up my perception of where things are going to go.”

Coming to Xhorhas, Nott’s thrilled to no longer have to worry about the mask. Sam’s excited about the City of Beasts “to see what kind of fucked-up individuals we’re going to find and seeing how Nott will react to that.”

Yasha definitely sympathizes with Nott trying to save her spouse, but “there’s a lot going on with her going back to Xhorhas. It’s definitely triggering for her, but she understands the need to want to go back. I wish I could go to Xhorhas. We’ll see what happens.” Travis: “I’m pretty sure once we go to a place we can never go back.”

Favorite item on the Talks shelves? Taliesin mentions a magnetic Percy mini, Sam likes the tiny Sams (”It looks like my bedroom!”), Ashley and Brian are partial to the Sully painting, Laura loves the Pike painting, Marisha loves all the stuff the cast bought on a hungover voyage to the flea market when they were first building the set, Matt loves a very cool dice tower. Brian likes the Vecna with Marisha’s face. Matt: “I don’t know if I like that one.”

Laura doesn’t like the party using the derogatory term for the Krynn, because she wants people to be happy even if she doesn’t know them. Sam: “I haven’t been the best for that, but if Jester wants me to... I guess I’ll change.”

There are new wipe transitions featuring the Matt pillow and the Fjord bust. It’s glorious.

Gif of the week: Sam calling Travis “studly” for catching the candy. Laura: “...I like that I’ve been cut out of it completely.”

Arsequeef gets the Lifetime Achievement Award for Gif of the Week. He wins Max’s 2006 Honda Accord.

On Caleb taking off his bandages because there’s nothing to hide anymore: “Was that terrifying for him, or a relief?” Liam: “Yes!” He’s waiting for the other shoe to drop, but it feels good. He’s got f...r...iends?” Marisha: “I love that sitcom. (weakly) F...r...iends?”

Caduceus being a source of comfort, insight, and advice was built into the character. Taliesin looked at low INT high WIS, and Matt immediately started laughing and told Taliesin he’d do well with that. Taliesin: “There’s plenty of things that will eventually flap that, but we haven’t hit them yet.”

As a player, Travis doesn’t like to weigh things carefully all the time, so a lot of Fjord’s leardership has been a bit about pressing fast-forward. Marisha: “So what you’re saying is that your Grog’s poking through.” Matt points out that if both characters have a trait, it’s probably just Travis. 

Liam: “I’ve got a little Travis poking me from behind.” Marisha, musing: “So many conflicting beards...”

Beau’s prayer to Ioun mostly came from a “couldn’t hurt” perspective. “I’ll try it out. Give it a spin.” When Travis asks, Marisha clarifies that it was Ioun specifically because of the Cobalt Soul. Travis: “Oh yeah, I totally knew the relationship there. I just wanted to make sure the audience did.”

Bugbear friend or bugbear foe? Sam: “He speaks goblin, he seems cool, his name’s Gluzo. He has a hard-to-pin-down accent, but it’s amazing.” Taliesin: “You have a hard-to-pin-down accent, too. It’s something you have in common.” Taliesin gets asked if his insight check revealed that the bugbear is secretly pretending to be someone else. “Yes, he’s just pretending to be a bugbear. He’s actually Matt Mercer.” Laura: “I like him. ‘Cause he’s cute and he let me give him a tattoo.”

Sam: “Nott trusts her friends to be as strong as they can be, and at this point, I don’t know if she’s as concerned with one of them dying as just getting to her husband in time before he dies. If we lose one along the way, Nott will probably cry a little, but will move on.” What if it were Fjord? “Fjord’s expjendable.”

Matt: “I’ve reached a point where Travis controls Yasha in combat, but I don’t consider any of his roleplay canon.” Ashley: “I trust Travis. Barbarian respect.” Laura: “Don’t give him that.” Ashley: “Travis himself is like a Deck of Many things. This is risky, but it’s kind of fun!”

Sam: “That dunamancy shit is lit.” Liam: “And it’s tied up in everything that Caleb wants, so if he can get on the entropy shit and the gravity shit, you know he’s going to go back in time, motherfucker.” Sam is so excited to have these mystery spells because they’re so new, and they’re inherently something they don’t know how to counter or prepare for. Travis: “It’s almost like every time we play D&D.”

Fanart of the Week: a spectacular group shot.

Everyone freaks out over how good Travis looks with glasses. He takes them off and puts them back on sexily for a while. I was too slow grabbing a screencap, but don’t worry, the gifs will be everywhere.

Laura: “Jester hasn’t experienced a lot of emotions. She hasn’t experienced a lot of anything, really. She’s definitely dealt with sadness in her life, but I don’t think it’s been so in-your-face constantly, just the trauma of it all.” Liam: “Yeah, she’s with some very terrible people.” Laura: “While it is traumatic, it’s also been a great adventure, and she’s enjoying being out and doing things. Even if it might hurt her, it’s so much better than reading about it, drawing it, just imagining how it would be.”

Caleb’s still feeling out the shift in his relationship with Nott, but there’s no question that everything they’ve gone through can’t be forgotten or overlooked. “He sees her as an absolute ally no matter what, and will do anything for her. In a weird way, he feels like they’re even more alike than he thought they were, and he loves her and wants her to succeed in what she’s doing, and hopes that the things that he wants don’t fuck it up entirely.” Sam: “Are you talking about Liam and Sam right now?”

Caduceus’ thoughts on Xhorhas? “A new environment, certainly, and a new aspect of nature that he’s unfamiliar with. This is just more terrain to him at this point. He’s also very unaware of the political realities. He’s vaguely aware there is war. He’s still not sure why we can’t just go up and ask for directions from everyone.”

Brian: “That tiara is the most blessed image.”

Travis on the Captain Tusktooth tattoo: “Brand recognition is huge in Xhorhas.” Taliesin: “Viral marketing.” Laura confirms that it’s not likely to change apart from some small differences from tattoo to tattoo. “Each person gets a special google.”

Laura on fans actually getting this tattoo: “I am ALL ABOUT IT.”

Marisha: “Guys! How about instead of M9 tattoos...” Sam: “We let Laura tattoo us? I would legitimately be down with that!” Ashley: “I’m kind of into it.” Liam: “This is what splits us apart.” Laura: “Everybody gets a dick.” Travis: “How would we explain that to our kid? ‘What’s that?’ ‘Your mom did that.’”

Beau is holding back a bit since her impulsiveness started having negative repercussions. “I think it’s about accountability. She’s started to learn--- especially when she first joined M9, she didn’t have friends, really. I think you had to learn, oh, my actions do affect others around me. I think that’s something you can learn and you can grow in, but yeah, she is trying to not be a total fuckwad anymore. Trying. But old habits...”

Favorite TM moments? Travis: “Do you remember that episode where Brian wasn’t the host?” Brian remembers Travis throwing the card that almost took him out. Ashley fondly remembers PullOutKing. Laura remembers Taliesin saying the phrase “I love teenage assholes” (referring to Percy acting immature), and Taliesin is super glad someone brought that up again just when the tweets were finally starting to die down. 

Ashley talks about how proud she is about how far Brian’s come, and how great he’s doing at this. Everyone has an uncharacteristically sincere moment of applause for Brian. Liam: “Everyone take 30 seconds to drop the bit that we think you’re a total fucking weirdo. You’re so good at this, and you’re such a good friend, and we’re so glad you’re part of this family.”

Marisha pitches the idea of trying to sell TM syndicated on LifeTime now that they have 100 episodes.

Brian remembers having food poisoning that led to him running off-screen, throwing up in the middle of the show, and then having to come back. Marisha remembers Travis texting everyone that night with “lol, did Brian just yarf on TV?”

Matt talks about how proud he is of Brian for going from zero tabletop experience to co-running his own game.

Talks Machina After Dog ft. Sleepy Boi Henry

“This is the best dog-petting show ever.”

Liam was skeptical about TM initially, because he was worried it would take away from what would be shared in-game. Marisha: “I was stoked for it, not gonna lie. I was very misunderstood and people hated my character, so I was kind of stoked to just get to explain it.” Travis was sold once they picked the name.

Marisha: “It also set the precedent for really dumb, punny names.” Brian points out that, as a channel, they now can’t stick with serious names as their final choice.

Laura’s sister has been watching the show, and she texted Laura after the show to ask what the whisper was, so Laura’s going to tell her and no one else. Liam: “You’re gonna tell your real sibling?”

There’s a horrified discussion about giraffe fighting. Some segues happened in there.

What’s something their characters have done that’s made them proud? Liam: Caleb using the Wall of Fire. Marisha: the Plank King execution episode as a whole (everyone agrees). Travis: “I was proud of hooking up with an NPC when my wife wasn’t here to threaten me with death.” (he immediately turns to Taliesin: “Help.” Taliesin: “No god can help you now.”) Taliesin: “I sunk a boat.” Laura: Proud of not getting caught with Nott in the Platinum Dragon sanctuary. Sam: Taking the blow for Jester so she could escape. Liam: “Molly showing his dick covered in eggs.”

Matt: “I’m proud of you guys not entirely descending into evil madness. I’m proud of the character arcs of being broken, terrible people, and finding out that it’s okay to be broken; you’re not necessarily terrible.” Liam: “The entire cast went, ‘He’s talking about everyone but me’.” Matt thought it was going to be very hard to keep the group together, but the party turned it into character growth moments. “I’m proud of you.” Laura: “Thanks, Dad.”

Yasha loved the arm wrestling. “Oh man, it’s so fun to be the tank.”

Laura: “I’m really proud of us for saving Kiri!”

Everyone has Liam’s chest hair:

Wishes for the next 100 episodes? More Ashley. 

Brian: “I hate this coffee table more than anything in the whole, entire world.”

What’s something that should never change about the show? How ridiculous it is, the barrel, Dani. Also always have a dog. They fundamentally do the show for themselves, still, and that’s made it a really good environment for them to open up about the show and their characters.

Liam: “There’s a lot of beauty to what we do, but it’s also inherently silly. And to deny that is silly.”

Matt likes that it’s unpolished and imperfect. “Things are going to go wrong regardless, and you can either get angry and frustrated about the lack of control, or you can embrace it.” Sam: “None of this is real anyway.” 

Brian points out that this is not an excuse to stop paying him.

And that’s a wrap! This is the last After Dark for a while, but there are some big ideas in the works for the coming weeks!

[deepspacedammitnxtagain]

Closed for: @changingthelegacy​ (Eira) Muse(s): Julian Bashir, Kira Nerys Guest Starring: Lara Bashir, Kira Maelona, Ed Mercer

“Welcome to Deep Space Nine,” Nerys says as she shakes Ed’s hand. “We’re really glad to have you.”

“We’re glad to be here, but, uh, is there a reason we’re being greeted by the station’s captain?” Ed looks nervous, and Nerys laughs.

“Oh, nothing too special. I just though that with some of your crew, I might as well join some of my core team in welcoming you aboard. May I introduce, Dr. Julian Bashir, my chief medical officer, I believe his last name might be familiar to you.”

“Ah, of course,” Ed says with a laugh, shaking Julian’s hand politely.

While Lara and Aziz do get a chance to greet their father, they’re quickly intercepted by Maelona, squealing with excitement about her friends being back, and are led off. Julian stays where he is, watching the blonde watching Aziz leave and nodding to himself before approaching. “You must be Eira.”

[ofweirdestship]

"Okay, whoa, take it easy," Ed holds up his hands. This was. Not where they'd meant to go. God, he misses using shuttles to get places most of all when he's doing Federation work. Especially with everything Lily had done to their transporter.

"My name is Ed Mercer, and this is Gordon Malloy, Hannah McCoy, Mackenzie, and Talla Keyali," as he motions to each one in kind, trying desperately to ignore... everything about Talla in the hopes it'll cause them to do the same. "How we got here is a bit of an accident that we don't completely have all the answers to. But we don't mean you any harm."

Talla raises her head slightly, looking over the man with the gun and appraising the situation they'd gotten themselves into, but makes no move to raise her hands or any of the like. Gordon, on the other hand, most certainly has his hands in the air, stress on his face.

Hannah also holds up her hands, taking deep breaths and grounding herself.

for: @ofweirdestship

main muse: Rhea Malloy (Doe)

featuring: uh, Pet Human Ken(tm)

"As I was saying," Rhea said between bites of fish stick, "Wilson's too stupid to realize anything. You've got nothing to worry about. The idiot couldn't realize if someone burnt his grilled cheese."

"Rhea, you know I have reason to worry." Ken paced around the kitchenette. "Out of all of us, I'm the one with the most risk of getting caught. For Christ's sake, I'm visiting you in your damn house."

"And the cameras are still looped from the last time you were here, and the time before that, and the time before that, and the time- Oh that's new, hello."

Rhea cocked her head at the lights dancing in the living room, then cocked it the opposite direction as people appeared in the lights. "Gotta say, even for me this is a first. And I'm a fish god."

"For the love of all that is holy you can't keep saying that to strangers," Ken sighed, drawing his gun. "Who are you, and how did you get here?"

[starbcrn-kids]

For @unbrxken​ - Falling Starring Chad Dax-Rozhenko, Genevieve Dax-Rozhenko, Sabrine Dax-Rozhenko, Ben Dax-Rozhenko, Stephanie of House Martok, Taylor of House Martok, and potentially any Orville muses Guest starring Claire Finn, Ed Mercer, and potentially any other Orville canons/Sylvia Malloy

“The Orville will rendezvous with the Rotarran near Klingon space so we can get to Qo’noS,” Genevieve explains of the itinerary. “So in the meantime...”

“Family reunion?” Ben asks, smiling.

“Family reunion,” Genevieve confirms, chuckling. “I’m hoping Uncle Martok will send Layla to pick us up when we meet with them. But first...”

“Welcome to the USS Orville,” Gordon interrupts, “Er, sorry, ambassador...”

“No, no, you’re fine,” Genevieve laughs as the man docks them on the ship’s shuttlebay. In a moment, he opens the shuttle doors and the young woman happily leads her pack off of the shuttle, where Ed, Kelly, and a couple security officers are waiting to greet the group. “Captain Mercer. Good to see you again.”

“Ambassador,” he greets, shaking her hand enthusiastically. “That it is. I’m glad it’s under such better circumstances than last time.”

Genevieve laughs. “And, may I introduce my little entourage here. My twin brother Chad, my cousins and bodyguards Stephanie and Taylor, my older brother and bodyguard Alexander, and my children, Benjamin and Sabrine.”

“My first officer Kelly Grayson,” Ed introduces in kind, “Chief of Security Alara Kitan, and... I think you might know the security officer she had join us.”

Genevieve giggles, finally addressing her sister. “Hi, Audrey.”

[starbcrn-kids]

For @unscrxpted​ Starring S’Chn T’Gai Grayson and Iris Kirk, guest starring potentially any other Orville muses

Business as usual on the Orville, the ship was getting ready for a major supply run for the Planetary Union and as such, most of the crew had shifted into wearing Union uniforms.

For Ed, it was a welcome, familiar sight he’d definitely missed. A crew in the same uniforms of home, for a small stint, is somewhat of a comfort. Then again, he’s dedicated his life to the fleet, he supposes it comes as no surprise.

Thunk!

Ed blinks out of his thoughts and looks around the bridge at the sound. “...was that James?”

“Actually, Ed, I think it might be the teenager on our window,” Kelly says, and he blinks and looks over in front of him, staring in shock.

“...what?”

“That’s not the weird part,” Iris says at the helm. “That teenager is decisively not dead.”

“...did Rebecca lose one?” The captain glances to the two girls at the helm. Angie and Iris both shrug and look back at him uselessly. “Great. Well, alert engineering to bring him aboard, we’ll... figure it out from there.”

“Aye, sir,” John says from his station and sending the alert to Engineering, informing them of the situation and giving his exact positioning so they can get him with the transporter.

So, like Ed had initially thought, business as usual on the Orville. “Bortus, you have the conn, Kel, with me. Alara, alert security to have a team meet us at the transporter.”

[starbcrn-kids]

For @riseofthemuses​ Starring Victoria Mercer, Bethany Bashir, Wynn Scott, and other assorted Orville muses. Guest starring canon Orville muses.

“My god,” Ed mutters under his breath.

It’s certainly befitting of the situation, seeing the planet from orbit. There was allegedly a Federation colony down there. Or, well, the remains of one. “Any lifesigns?” Ed glances to Addi at their station.

“Captain...” They frown. “I’m picking up an automated signal.”

“Play it,” he orders.

“--tine. Please be advised, do not approach. This colony has signs of an unknown virus that has proven extremely hazardous and has been placed under quarantine. Please be advised, do not approach.”

Addi clicks it off after a moment, frowning at their screen and gasping. “Definitely life signs, captain, but... not very many.”

“Hail the surface,” he orders. “Let’s see if we can establish contact.”

Addi nods and reaches up to respond. “This is the Federation starship Orville seeking contact with Federation colony Kasaxton-4. Please respond.”

Victoria looks up from where she’s dabbing a cloth at Bethany’s forehead at the signal on the computer. Her fever hadn’t broken yet, and hope for her looked bleak. She looks at the boys, chewing her lip a moment and then nodding for them to respond.

They had to try and get help, right?

[starbcrn-kids]

unbrxken​:

Emala giggled. “Yeah. Yeah that’s gonna be fun.” She nodded to Hale, who nodded once and took hold of Rebecca’s arm before teleporting them back to the Orville.

Andromeda nodded, looking to Eve. “Let’s do this, shall we?”

The angels stood and made their way out of the room, heading back towards their meeting place. Andromeda smirked to herself. Finally. After all this time.

He was going to pay for what He did to her.

Rebecca looks only vaguely ruffled, smiling and chuckling a bit. “Definitely efficient. Somehow almost more disconcerting than a classic transporter.”

Sapphire glances up, standing quickly to greet the arrivals, hesitating as she looks to Emala before holding up her hands silently. Her only method of a peace offering right now. Rebecca raises an eyebrow.

Ed and Kelly share a look before Ed sighs and gets up. “We’d better get back to the bridge.”

“I guess,” Kelly nods with a shrug.

[starbcrn-kids]

For @unscrxpted​ - Shipwrecked! [Team Well We’re Fucked] Starring all Orville muses who haven’t been mentioned in previous Shipwrecked threads except Angie McCoy

Dakota wrenches her arm away from the strange being holding it and runs to join the rest of her crew. After their pods were captured, they’d been escorted into a pen together. This was all sounding somewhat familiar...

But there’s no time for that now. She looks around her crew, trying to see who was here. She relaxes only slightly when she sees Ed. “Captain!”

He’s making a headcount, too. He notices her and nods.

Dakota nods back and continues looking around at the others.

[starbcrn-kids]

For @unscrxpted​ Starring Hannah McCoy, S’Chn T’Gai James, frankly any Orville stationed muses, and guest starring specifically Ed Mercer but again, any Orville muses are on the table You ever just give up on your muses entirely because of the threads they’re demanding? Yeah. Sinful content warning, reader be advised that NSFW content is expected ahead.

Of course, good news travels fast and on a ship like this, good news means only one thing:

James kisses Mackenzie’s forehead. “Hey, if at any point you’re not feeling up to this, we’re fully capable of skipping our own engagement and baby party. Okay? We’ve gotta take care of you, so if you wanna duck out at any point, I’ll bring you back here myself.”

[starbcrn-kids]

For @unscrxpted​ Starring Emma Mitchell, S’Chn T’Gai James, S’Chn T’Gai Grayson, Hannah McCoy, Jared McCoy, etc. and guest starring Isaac, Ed Mercer, Kelly Grayson, etc. Likely sinful content warning because I don’t trust my muses at all, but hopefully it’s nothing like some other threads I could mention...

Emma hums softly, waiting by the transporter. The landing party said they were sending back some samples for her. She sighs, trying not to rush things but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t excited.

She loves getting new plants. The landing party had scanned the samples and didn’t find any noticeable threats, so they were coming straight to her instead of her having to go to them, which was always a good sign.

Frowning, she lights up as the lights appear, smiling at Hannah as she steps off the pad and motions to the various additions that had come up with her. “This is all you, honey, need help carrying it to your part of the lab?”

“Ooh, maybe,” Emma admits, picking up an orange flower curiously. “This is larger than I expected when I heard I was getting samples.”

“Well, it seems completely harmless,” Hannah explains as she starts gently gathering the other, smaller samples. “I honestly think no one would have noticed it, it was just... there, no smell, no nothing. We scanned it, didn’t show any odd properties to any of us.”

“Yeah, I noticed there was no smell,” Emma remarks. “That’s very interesting. I’m gonna to bring this one straight to the lab, forget the arboretum.”

“Sounds good to me,” Hannah smiles. “Lead the way.”

[starbcrn-kids]

unscrxpted​:

Sam nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” He flinched a little, shaking his head at himself. “We can handle this.”

Starla nodded, going over to Sam and gently putting her hand on his shoulder, looking over at Lily and smiling shakily. “We’ve got this. You go. I’m sure we’ll find out a lot more later.”

Lily nods. "Take a breather if y'need to, Sam. It'll be okay."

And she heads off to sickbay with that comment in mind. Feeling slightly ridiculous and suddenly realizing no one's informed the captain yet, she flicks open her communicator as she walks. "Scott to bridge."

"Go ahead, Lily," Ed says.

"Cap'n, keepin' ya appraised, we had a new guest unexpectedly appear on th' transporter bleeding out from a wound. I'm now carrying his sword down to sickbay where they apparently took care of his injuries. Thought ya'd wanna be aware, sir."

"...I have so many questions that had better be answered in the incident report."

"Aye, sir," Lily nods. "Scott out."

Flicking her communicator closed, she continues on.