#Also I'm SO sorry for length but oh boy I didn't think about the implications of god existing before I started writing

[amischiefofmuses]

There's a sense of familiarity in the way the stranger smiles, something Morior mentally likens to someone greeting an old dear friend they have not seen in eons and it makes his own expression soften a touch. Perhaps he'd considered them truly gone given how they hide, glamoured in the world of Humans or naught but ghost stories in their own woods - all but tales for men to tell eachother and scare their children to behave lest they be spirited away. A double-edged sword, clearly, given that the very same protection could be keeping those like Emmanuel oblivious to their presences. A good-natured laugh rumbles in his chest at the small quip about his greeting, he's thankful it hasn't been taken as an insult at the very least. Although he is a little caught off-guard by the praise for his work and there's a falter there in his expression as he does so, barely perceptible but present nonetheless. A lot of awful things had to happen for this to be the place of peace it is now, certainly not anything worthy of honoring. It's duty, he has the ability to protect them and he shall - as the Fae were the only ones to welcome him as he is. Not one of them, not truly, but familiar enough to live among their kind. There are but tales to explain his existence - a god, a monster, merely a particularly powerful Fae, even death himself. He himself knows not which is true and has long since abandoned trying to seek out answers. -- ❝There is no need for that at all. All those that may not be welcome or understood by Humanity are welcome here. Yourself included. I merely keep watch these days, it takes little to scare off a stray Human poking their nose in where they shouldn't.❞ Though despite his words, there's no hiding the way his body stills in surprise at the answer he receives to his inquiries. An angel? In his long existence he has never met such a being and that is a novelty in itself, even more so when considering the implications of his existence. It's a turbulent thing, realising some 'higher power' may have presided over all the events he has witnessed in his long life. For a moment he's silent, gaze fixed on Emmanuel like he's shot him before he catches himself. It is not this Angel's doing, he cannot blame him. His jaw tenses as though working around his words before he speaks, his smile a little tighter. He can't afford to let his emotions get the best of him. -- ❝Apologies for my reaction, Emmanuel. I hadn't realised such a thing could exist, it's quite the surprise that in all my years I'm still faced with something entirely unfamiliar. It has been a while. That doesn't make my actions acceptable, however. Please forgive me.❞ Despite the luring warmth, it's discomforting and he feels guilt for such a reaction. Afterall, has he not had the same reaction from others? -- ❝Come, I will show you to where the festivities shall be taking place. I'm sure many of the circle would indeed appreciate your kindness and warmth, if you are intending on staying for the night, that is.❞

Oh. Fae. He lets go of the other’s hand, yet still allows himself to recall the touch. There is something precious in it. Fae. His smile blossoms wider at the thought; for it’s been quite a while since he was in their company – a part of him had at times worried they’d gone from Earth entirely, leaving place for merely the stories. But perhaps, as ever, he’d allowed himself to blend with the humans too closely, and disregard that which the earth itself hummed below everything. He’s embarrassed now, if only ever so slightly, for ever giving ear to even the consideration that this land could be anything but a sanctuary of life. Aren’t all forests, no matter if they bow to a devil or a god? If anything, this moment is but another reminder that he too does need the exercise in humility once in a while, and the way he looks down, bows his head, the way his cheeks burn, they all show he has been humbled quite enough.

„It is a true and welcome pleasure to be so wrong, my friend,“ he speaks and his voice barely seems to cut through the air, as if his lips themselves were learning to take the environment in, in its truth. „No wonder you’ve come to greet me,“ the way his eyes glint it is clear enough that he is well aware greeting may have not been the other’s intention at the start, „– you do well, for those seeking shelter here, I can tell. Thank you. For… that and for believing me worthy, for allowing me this passage, Morior.“ There is effortless honor to the way he speaks the name. No pedestals, no expectations, no reputation. A living entity acknowledging the liveliness of another.

Deep brown eyes, kind and old, do travel from the other and over the trees, from their tips reaching for the sky to the striped horizon they make of the world. „Most call me Emmanuel,“ he says and the tinge of amusement suggests that the name, as potent as it is, hardly feels like it really contains the universal truth of himself. Perhaps there is pride to it, and pride is a sin – but of all angels, his name feels like an open palm more than anything. A gesture, nothing more. A gesture that can be performed, voicelessly.

He hesitates to speak quite so bluntly, but he decides that his host deserves honesty since he made it a point to ask. „All is but glamour when ones not of this world wish to walk it, one way or another. – I am an angel of the Lord, an extended hand of the divine, though – currently I mostly make my own way, doing good. Trying to bring some light and tenderness to those that may have been forgotten or – fell on some low times. Perhaps some of that could be appreciated, even in your circle. Humans are not the only creatures of this world, after all.“

[thegeminisage]

oh boy IT'S tng update time. last night* we watched "imaginary friend" and "i, borg."

*tonight. it's 1am. whatever. it's posting tomorrow when i'll be awake but busy. anyway im gonna have to start splitting these up so tumblr will stop FUCKING me re my character count

imaginary friend:

what i like about this episode and indeed tng as a whole is that the little girl was fucking adorable. tng fans, your show has at least one point of validity. whenever there was a child on tos i wanted to throw them out of the airlock because they acted possessed. all the children on tng inspire within me motherly concern.

HOWEVER. THERE SHOULD NOT BE. CHILDREN ON A STARSHIP.

we've gone over this at length. we don't need to do it again. i am sick to death of hearing myself talk about it. i want to stop. and yet. every. and i mean EVERY. SINGLE. PROBLEM. in this episode. happened because there were children on a starship.

problem #1: child is making up a fake imaginary friend instead of making real ones = it's because her dad hops from starship to starship

problem #2 her imaginary friend is real now and wants to drown her in the pool like in that one episode of s*pernatural = this is because an alien, from space, read her mind, which it could not have done if she wasn't in space on a starship

problem #3: the alien HATES the grownups and thinks they should die = because she is seeing the ship from a child's pov, because there are children on this starship

and on and on and on.

aside from this huge and ongoing point of contention it was solidly watchable. i liked the little girl. i like guinan. i like worf being a big old softie when he found them out of bounds. i like people not undermining deanna's counseling work. i liked the horrifically unsettling imaginary friend with laser eyes who definitely absolutely inspired 2.11 playthings.

can anyone tell me if the other star trek shows just let them have kids on the ships? ds9 i get because that's a space station but are there kids on the ship in enterprise? voyager? discovery? genuinely please write in i can't take living like this

i, borg:

ooooooh. ooh i am twirling my hair and kicking my feet and giggling about it. OHHH finally we get a good tng episode. and not just a good episode a GREAT episode. the liz community has forgiven tng. oh baby where do i even begin

okay, firstly, beverly. she so instantly sees someone injured and HAS to help, i mean HAS to, it's so good. it's very bonescore in a way that doesn't feel like they're trying to make her a cheap bones knockoff but rather a spiritual successor. he would have also helped his enemy rather than watching him die. hell, he DID do that and got quite literally mind-raped for his trouble, and he'd probably do it again. i was really really lukewarm on poor bev at first but she's come into her own so well and i'm proud of her

the borg himself - third of five, aw, just like seven of nine - but no, hugh - the name is dumb but whatever i'm glad he has one - was well-cast. it would have been easy to make him uncanny and an unpleasant presence onscreen (this was my biggest issue with data's daughter even though the ep DID make me cry, deeply sorry to data whomst i love the most). his "you will be assimilated resistance is futile" song and dance was actually really funny when played off of geordi's wry indifference. "ok, but before we get assimilated, can we please finish x test?" so true king

geordi's a natural choice to pair with this guy because when he's not being the creepiest person on earth to holodeck girls he's sociable, outgoing, and patient. PLUS he has experience befriending machines because of data. hugh actually reminded me of data in some ways because of his general lack of understanding re: humanity but - and this is critical to me - HE IS HUMAN

like, i feel like the episode didn't quite nail the point home hard enough possibly because they were afraid of the implications but the cold hard truth of the matter is that each and every person on the borg cube IS A PERSON. they have been assimilated, but we've twice now seen that it's possible to unassimilate them with only a few days of effort. picard (and guinan!) consider the entire collective their enemy but the collective is comprised of brainwashed prisoners. those fucked up little borg babies they found in the cube were assimilated as INFANTS - i assume they weren't born on the cube bc if the borg could reproduce on its own it wouldn't need to assimilate - but even if they were born on the cube, they had no choice but to be this. you know.

which is whyyyy it's so fucked picard was like yeah give hugh some digital poison let him carry it back to his cube and we'll kill them like ants <3 like, oh my god his lingering borg trauma or whatever. MWAH. when he told deanna he didn't wanna talk. when he and guinan had to trauma-bond while fencing. when he told geordi that he needed to unattach himself because it was nothing more than animal experimentation. STONE FUCKING COLD BY THE WAY. he is fighting in the war on animal experimentation on the side of animal experimentation. he was going to let his cre heal and feed that kid and then send him back laced with poison. diabolical <3

and, of course, when he didn't want to speak or associate that borg kid at all because that's who he used to be AND WHO HE STILL IS in some corner of his brain (!!!)

LIKE. WHEN HE WAS FINALLY CONVINCED TO INTERROGATE THIS KID. and IMMEDIATELY broke out the locutus voice. he still remembered all the protocol! the way of speaking! everything! i was so shocked and thrilled.

i love also how everyone who spoke to hugh came away extremely unsettled but also totally convinced of his humanity. even guinan, which was so fun, because she was even more anti-borg than picard at first and they were bonding over trauma and fantasy racism. that bit where hugh, who had only known about the concept of loneliness for like an hour, immediately pegged her as lonely after like three lines of dialogue. oh my GOD???

i was decently satisfied with the ending - obviously they couldn't send him back with poison nor could they protect him from the borg, but i wish they had informed him of the inevitable memory wipe before he made his choice. (a selfless choice! he loves geordi!!) still i think he mostly walked into it with eyes open. very sad but very proud of him.

my one tiny nitpick with this episode is that for all beverly's genuine and justified concern about hugh, i don't think theyre ever gonna address the fact that she shot and possibly killed some of the borg in the episode where picard got assimilated. i feel like after realizing they are all people, like hugh, she should also realize she's broken the hippocratic oath, and have a little crisis about it. i have no idea why we had the DOCTOR shooting and killing anybody but let alone if we aren't gonna get into that. i don't think anyone cares/cared except me though.

but tbh, for me this is one of the main draws of the borg. they're ALL brainwashed cyber-assassins and they're ALL prisoners and in theory ALL of them could be saved if only they would stop attacking first. sure, yeah, in fights you gotta do what you gotta do because your own life has gotta come first, but the unique scifi horror aspect of all of those guys being perfectly innocent people fucks and they should utilize it a little more!!!

NEXT TIME: "the next phase" and "the inner light."