#and without spending the time to go back to Prime's ship

[lumberwoof]

been thinking about She-ra again

specifically about how saving Catra was like. a hidden sidequest to unlock the perfect ending. but not necessary to defeat the bad guy/get the default ending

[bones4thecats]

you can also do Orion pax/Optimus prime x cybertroniana reader, both were a couple before the war, and they still follow him on Earth

TFP! Optimus Having A Longtime S/O

Character: Optimus Prime (Transformers Prime) Requester: @zinnia1506 A/N: I love this trope. Just a calm and nonchalant boyfriend x his loving and slightly-feral S/O! Anyways, I hope you like this. ⚠️ Spoilers/Trigger Warnings for: The ending of the show and Predcons Rising Film ⚠️

Fun fact: I wrote this listening to Lion King/Guard songs😂

••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●••●•

»»——————————-　 Optimus Prime 　——————————-««

⚔️ Optimus doesn't have that many people left, at least people that he knows that are currently alive. He knew more friends were deceased than alive basically

⚔️ Though, he does have someone alive that he cares the most about; his adorable S/O. You.

⚔️ Meeting back when he was still Orion Pax and a young data clerk working inside of the Iacon and you were the current Grand Diplomat of Alpha Trion's rule as Cybertron's Council's head

⚔️ You had to deliver some information in pads to the place to get organized, and when the young bot smiled and allowed you inside to organize them to how Alpha Trion wished, you began to ask about his life

⚔️ As you began to speak from time-to-time whenever you visited with more classified documents, a bond was formed quick. While many solar cycles passed, the pair of young bots were ogled on by many elders, especially Orion's friend, Megatronus, and your boss, Alpha Trion

⚔️ You were there when Megatronus, now Megatron, was denied in favor of Orion. And you were right by his side when the war blasted off and you soared away with his small team to Earth in hopes of finding something to help with the war and your home planet

⚔️ And while you two would spend many of your days by one another, as the war progressed, that was becoming harder and harder. Thankfully, your teammates would get you two to spend time together by taking some work away from your servos

⚔️ Now, when it comes to missions, you guys almost always go together. Very rarely are you apart in battle. And whenever you go without him, he keeps solid contact with you, and whenever he doesn't get a decent reply, he gets worried beyond recognition

⚔️ During the time fighting against Megatron for the final time, you were help hostage with Ratchet. Being held not for assistance in finalizing the synthetic energon, but for your information on fixing Cybertron, in which you told Megatron to piss off and jump down a hole to a scrapheap

⚔️ Unlike Ratchet, you weren't given to Predaking to kill, rather, you were held in a cell surrounded by Vehicon soldiers. In a matter of minutes, you had gone from acting unconscious to wrapping your legs around on soldiers neck from behind and killing all around you. Think of that scene from The Suicide Squad (2021) when Harley broke out

(Here's a link for reference: Link) - warnings for A LOT blood and death!

⚔️ Optimus was very pleased when he saw both you and Ratchet okay, but when he saw a Vehicon attempt attacking you, he blasted him to the Well of the Allspark. Despite this, you fought brilliantly against the many soldiers against you

⚔️ You also showed a new depth of rhythmicity, from attacking Megatron from behind as Optimus took the front. And before you were knocked aside roughly and your sparkmate was hanging onto the Nemesis, everyone, including Decepticons, were shocked at how in-sync you two were. You really were sparkmates

⚔️ Bumblebee then killed Megatron, making you leap in joy and help him get your sparkmate up and onto the ship's base. You held the mech closely as you cheered with the rest of your team about the win against the Cons

⚔️ Throughout the rest of your lives together, you spent it fighting against Unicron. And while it was hard for you to say goodbye to your lover of many hundreds of years, you couldn't help but shed a tear when his red, white, and blue spark spun around you and acted as if he was pecking your forehead

⚔️ The others watched with smiles as you kissed the spark before watching it fly away. Ratchet patted your shoulder as Bee and the other, including Knockout, gathered around you in a large group hug. You were a family no matter what, thanks to the mech you called your one and only...

"I love you, Y/N..."

[phoneycam]

(brainrot 5(?))))

Soulmates experience the same nervous or involuntary tics at the same time.

It all starts as an innocent inside joke from the 212 troopers. How their high officer where the best and one of the key proves of it was how in tune they are with eachother. That thought slowly evolved with every interaction they were able to witness until it turned into a kind of game, trying to understand just how deep the synchrony went. Space bingo if you will.

1.

Ever since he decided to have a beard, he touches it. at first it was because of the new sensation, later to show it of as one should do, then to display knowledge in hopes to seem more wise and finally evolving in his "in deep thoughts" pose.

It was on the early battles when it first happened. The clones weren't comfortable enough yet to being openly without their buckets and so, the moment both officers moved to rest their chin on their hand, Cody hit his helmet causing him to make an aborted movement pretending that he was trying to adjust it when the general turns to look at him. There is a pregnant pause around the holotable before Obi-Wan turns back to the holotable and the commander has to survive the rest of the meeting with the constant snickers from his brothers inside his helmet.

2.

In times of high stress situations he tends to scratch the back of his head, particularly the place where his padawan braid was, an unconscious tick he picked first from his time in Melidaan. He got to overcome it over the years when he came back to the temple, only to pick it back up after Qui-Gon died and he became a knight.

The first time the troopers note it is in Christophsis. Anakin is being he's usual reckless self causing Obi-Wan the go grey early with his invisible ship against a hole separatist fleet, and he doesn't even realize he's hand moving up to pass it over the back of his head, nor that his commander repeated the exact same movement at the exact same time, too distracted with the fight in sight. The other troopers on the bridge however? they did notice.

3.

This one happened before they where about to land in a highly unknown planet with an astonishing lake of information. They were walking into a trap, not that they knew at the time that.. or well.. not until both General and Commander deepened their frowns and mumbled quietly "I have a bad feeling about this". This time they did notice it tho and turned to look at eachother with a surprised look while the soldiers around them are gapping with a collective thought of "Oh kark we are so doomed" and "lmao check another one for the team."

4.

A defect of using a helmet for so long, is that you start forgetting how to keep a straight face and our dear commander, starts slipping his controlled mask especially when faced with stupid decisions. This is one of the main reasons him and Anakin do not get allong well. Because one of the first times they were all reunited strategizing their next move, Anakin decided to offer his brilliant idea and almost cried when faced with the pure power of the combined disgust Obi and Cody were inadvertently showing.

Ahsoka and Rex thought it was hilarious, Obi-Wan had to apologies multiple times before his formed padawan stopped sulking and demanding Obi-Wan to spend less time with his commander and the rest of the troopers just checked another mark.

5.

Kamino has never and will never be an easy place to live in. The facility was a nightmare and no one knew this better than the clones themselfs, between the kaminioan, the trainers and the Alpha batch, life was a challenge and any little quirk can be a dead sentence if you're not careful enough. Cody knows this and learns to deal with it.

It's in the middle of a peace negotiation with the local authority when they noticed it.

It was a small group for this mission, just Cody, Obi-Wan, Boil and Waxer accompanying a Coruscant team of negotiators. The prime minister of the planet was being unpleasant during the whole meeting, with nasty comments, senseless demands and baseless accusations towards eveyone. All bark, no bite.

The jedi was leading the negotiations putting him in front of everyone with the commander by his side; Waxer and Boil standing just behind them notice a pattern pretty quickly. Everytime the minister said something bad about the jedi or the clones, both of their officers would each start drumbeating their fingers with their thumb. A small thing that no one else could notice because their hands were behind their backs, but remarkable enough for the troopers witnessing it as a checkable tic.

6.

Dex notice the next one.

Obi-Wan likes to take every clone he can to visit Dex's reastaurant at least once, but the most regular companion is always the cammander. Not that it bothers him, in fact, he is rather fond of the good commander, but he can't help but notice how everytime the principal door opens a little bit harder than needed, they both will tense up and inmediatelly look at eachother.

And yeah idk, i just think it's neat as an idea. I can imagine a lot more of little scenes like these. Maybe some time latter both realize, maybe they know, maybe they will purposely start doing some to just mess with the troops, maybe it would save the galaxy somehow... just saying..

[therightrighthand]

Delgoth - Psyker of the Imperium

𝐈 𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮…

...𝐚 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐠𝐫𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐮𝐦

A Psyker born into a life of toxicity and pollution, who's ambition and power brought her too close to the sun, and caused her to fall far from grace and into the claws of darker powers.

---

Darktide Arc.

0-7 Child: Born on the factory planet Arkwright, Delgoth was put to work at a filtration plant, helping move grime and pollution.

8-18 Worker: It took 12 long years of hand-scrubbing toxic pollution out of industrial equipment before her Psyker powers started to show. As soon as they did, she was ratted out and quickly shipped away. Unlike many others, Delgoth was fortunate to be found by an Inquisitor who saw potential in personal training rather than sending her to a Black Ship to try and outlast her kin.

19-30 Inquisition: Showing natural promise and Psyker talent, Delgoth was taken to the Inquisition to undergo intense training under the watchful of the Inquisition and to one day join them as a weapon against heresy.

31-33 Prisoner: After a mission turned sour, leading to most of her team being slaughtered by a Demonhost, Delgoth was spared and left to run, going AWOL from her duty in an act of survival. In the end, she outed herself and returned to the Inquisition to face her guilt, only to spend three years under intense interrogation and 'purification' before being sentenced to death on the golden throne of the Emperor.

34 Reject: After her transport ship was attacked by Nurgle cultists, a set of unusual circumstances led her to The Morningstar. After her valiant aid, she was offered a choice: face her execution with honour or live in shame on the Morningstar, cleaning up Atoma Prime's underbelly. She chooses shame.

35 Reinstated: After earning the trust of the ship's inquisitor, it was revealed to her that her imprisonment and time on the Morningstar had all been planned. It was a deception to push her abilities and skills further, 'tough her up', and earn her Inquisitive position on the ship—a new role ripe with fresh seeds of anger...

---

Chaos Arc.

35 Betrayal: Anger and frustration began to fester. She felt like a fool being played and toyed with by the Inquisition, but what fueled her anger most was the insight she got from her time on Atoma Prime.

She saw how citizens were demonised and threatened for simply wanting to survive in a cruel world. Her anger allowed the taint of chaos to seep into the back of her mind. This led to a sudden outburst of violence and the unprovoked murder of an inquisitor during a private meeting as it all came to a head. All Delogth could do was flee to the Underhive of Atoma Prime and hope she would not be found.

36 Metamorphosis: After her fall from grace Delogth struggled in the Underhive. Without food, shelter or safety, she withered, but it was only at her lowest that she was granted a gift... Approached in a catatonic hallucination by a mysterious figure, Delgoth was offered the opportunity to play host to a new god, The Fathomless, The Son of Nurgle and the parasite god of decay, pollution and new life. How could she refuse?

By the chaos gods' graces, Delgoth awoke the following night in the generous care of the Benevolent Hand, a cult of chaos worshipers who'd found her starving to death in the filtration tunnels. Discovered by Jeremechy, a cultist whom she'd helped not long ago Delgoth was offered a sanctuary and home out of the kindness of their hearts, asking nothing in return, the truest nobility she'd once believed to be something the Imperium once stood for.

Over time, as her Psyker powers became more apparent, Delgoth was worshipped as a religious figure due to her connections to the Warp. Esepcially as her body began to physically change and mutate beyond her control, as the parasite started to grow ... and rebuild her her body, like a moth evolving in a cacoon.

37 Rebirth: After a year of incubation and growth, the parasite infecting Delgoth's body had completed its work and rebuilt what was broken; she and it were now one, and the power of the warp flowed through it, and her, like water through a stream. Her body wasn't just physically stronger, but her Pysker abilities had become fearsome to behold.

Among cultist groups, she had begun to embrace the role of a messiah, protecting the weak, spreading the good word of Nurgle, and tainting the lower levels with a toxic substance known as 'Blight'. Those who embraced Chaos and the Fathomless learned to live with Blight by growing immune, whilst non-believers suffered toxic poisoning or starvation of what little organic material wasn't tainted.

41-45 The Fathomless Blight: While becoming a religious figure appeased Nurgle and their offspring, voices from distant futures beckoned Delgoth to widen her ambition and share her gifts with the stars. During this period, Delgoth's body began to produce more parasites and use them to connect the minds of willing participants in a hive mind level of control. This became the beginning of her new army, The Fathomless Blight.

Piecing together fragments of the Imperium's tech and a few rotting corpses from fallen Astartes, Delgoth used her vast power to lead an army off of Atoma, and into the wider galaxy. They did not travel through ships but rather through oceans and seas, wading into the water on one side of the galaxy and out into another where chaos was most prominent. They were small, but they were formidable.

46 Eldritch Lord: The gods had truly smiled upon Delgoth, as each victor in her crusade brought her more power and allies to her hive-mind army. They infected oceans, corrupted landscapes, and attacked from the murky depths where the Imperium could not defend itself quick enough. For every planet that drowned in blight, millions would fall under her sway and become part of her infested trawl as the Fathomless Blight rose to power. With it, so did she as her body became to the Parasite's changes, as an Alpha level Psyker and an equivalent to some sort of Edlrtich Demon Prince.

Some tell tales that her reach is endless, that she can appear behind you in the death of night, silently lurching out of the water and taking you away in your sleep.

Whilst others tell tales of a small pollution scrubber, who fell from grace.

Now Delgoth lurks on the fridge of Imperium space doing Nurgles bidding, but occasionally, she turns her sights past the walls of reality and the echoes of other worlds, other universes.

... other 'Del's...

-- Find my discord and other sites: linktr.ee/The_red_right_hand Do not use, repost or claim (rp) my art/character  Art © The-Red-Right-Hand

[xchronicles]

The more I think about Chakotay being stranded on Ysida for full 10 years, the less sense it makes in the context of the story.

To add a disclaimer, two of my favorite Trek episodes are Last Flight of the Protostar, parts 1 and 2. However, I truly believe that narratively, it would have worked just as well if Chakotay had been stranded for 'only' a year. In fact, it makes more sense from a storytelling perspective than having him be there for the full 10 years for no good reason.

Why you ask?

He is a character who has suffered greatly throughout his life and was already stranded in the Delta Quadrant for 7 years. Chakotay's portrayal as a person of color unfortunately falls into a common media trope where marginalized characters are often made to endure significant hardship or trauma to justify their character arc and presence in the story. Prodigy should have done better than subjecting him to a cruel 10 years of isolation for no good reason other than to make him, and I quote, 'grizzled'.

The Protostar was rendered completely useless on Ysida, making his role as its 'guardian' meaningless. If someone had found him, he was alone and essentially powerless, so there was little he could have done to prevent anyone from taking the ship.

I believe Chakotay would have been in a much worse state after 10 years of isolation (possibly even dead) compared to how the kids found him. Did the creators consider the severe effects of such prolonged isolation on a person, regardless of their strength? Chakotay had already shown vulnerability and a tendency to slip. His return to the prime universe doesn’t accurately reflect the trauma of a decade alone. His behavior and condition would be far more believable if he had been isolated for just a year.

If the math is correct, Chakotay is 66 years old. Despite the extended human lifespan in the Trek universe, aging still happens naturally. Janeway planned to retire at a younger age than Chakotay's current one, especially considering his 10 years of isolation. Given this context, it seems implausible that Chakotay would be assigned command of Voyager-A so soon after a decade of trauma, even if some time has passed. Someone stranded for so long might indeed be eager to avoid staying in one place and go back to work to honor his lost crew. However, his deep survivor’s guilt and unresolved trauma from those 10 years should have made such a quick return to command problematic. The reality is that Chakotay, at 66 and with a decade of emotional scars, wouldn’t realistically be ready to take on the captaincy without addressing his past experiences in a more meaningful way. Chakotay bounced back to his old self the moment the 'Cracked Mirror' episode happened, and his hardships and trauma are never addressed or mentioned again. It was a significant and intense arc for Chakotay, involving deep trauma that could not realistically be resolved within just two episodes. Yet, the story completely disregarded this development once it was no longer needed.

All of this could have been avoided if he had been stranded on Ysida for just a year.

If they needed Adreek to be a skeleton to set up that scene, it could have been attributed to anything on the planet affecting him after he died. The planet was hostile enough that no one would question how this happened. If we assume Adreek decided to look for a solution after a couple of months and then went missing, that would give Chakotay enough time to end up in the state he was found in by the kids—scruffy hair, a torn shirt, and all. Spending an additional 6 months alone, reflecting on what happened to his friend and dealing with such a sensitive topic, is a significant amount of time.

[saintsenara]

hi!! for a black family inspired ship ask, i'd love to hear what you think of lucretia/ignatius prewett and dorea/charlus potter

and to keep the silly vibes of the game, alphard/voldemort, walburga/abraxas malfoy, pollux/augusta longbottom, arcturus/horace slughorn

thank you very much for the ask, anon! and for providing me with some ships which require me to do some research!

lucretia black/ignatius prewett dorea black/charlus potter

while i understand the impulse to turn these unions between the blacks and two families who will - in the latter half of the twentieth century, at least - become the biggest blood-traitors going into sexy tales of forbidden love, i suspect that both of these were actually pretty unscandalous matches.

it's very striking in canon that even characters like the weasleys who stridently disavow the more unpleasant bits of blood- and magic-supremacy are susceptible to prejudices against those who aren't pureblood. muriel prewett's disdain for kendra dumbledore connects to her being muggleborn [and she also refers to hermione as "the muggleborn" when she first meets her - it's more polite than "the mudblood", obviously, but it's not great...]. molly weasley is instinctively uncomfortable with many non-magical things [medical treatments, modes of travel] - to an extent that means we have to assume that she doesn't venture into the muggle world without arthur. ron finds harry and hermione's lack of knowledge about the wizarding world vaguely amusing. the whole family - like most of the series' good guys - treat muggles in a way which is paternalistic at best [fudge's condescension towards the muggle prime minister - a man who, in 1996, was working to broker a peace deal in a decades-long sectarian conflict in his own country, and who might have been able to offer some helpful tips in that regard - is a case in point].

all of which is to say, the prewetts and the potters - no matter their more liberal political views - were not still pureblood in the 1930s and 1940s by accident. i'm sure that both dorea and lucretia's marriages were regarded as perfectly sensible ones, to men who came from families which were a little bit odd, but who were otherwise entirely tolerable choices.

[not least because we know the potters weren't poor, even before they earned all that sleakeazy's money, and i think we can also assume the prewetts were also well-off - muriel's entire vibe is giving aunt march sitting on her enormous pot of money while her relatives wait for her to die, and i quite like the idea of molly having gone down a lot in terms of financial security by marrying arthur.]

the other pairings, though...

alphard black/lord voldemort

yeah, i'll back this.

alphard being unmarried, while both his siblings are, is very much giving "confirmed bachelor".

and one of the rules of being a confirmed bachelor in a society with slightly... victorian morals is that you keep your mouth shut about who you meet while cruising in knockturn alley's more sinister establishments.

especially when he's a man who'd kill you if he thought you were yapping about his extracurricular activities...

walburga black/abraxas malfoy

listen, you just know walburga was a bonafide baddie in her day. i bet all the boys were lining up to enter a semi-arranged marriage couched in stifling gender conventions with her.

abraxas fumbled her, i fear, by spending more time on his hair than she did on hers. she wanted to feel the uptown girl fantasy - and he was not making the effort.

pollux black/augusta longbottom

flopping, i fear. despite being an extremely mid-tier specimen, pollux considered himself the sort of man who could attract the sort of woman who'd want to start a tradwife tiktok account and let him control her financially.

augusta, in contrast, was of the opinion that a man who wanted fresh bread baked for him every morning could do that himself.

arcturus black/horace slughorn

canon. i won't explain why.

[asimp4bee]

How Mea and Bumblebee met in TFP and moving forward onto RiD 🐝🌻 | Part One

There will be several parts for this. Mea's backstory in the TFP verse is different compared to my on-going story (my acc is asimp4bee on Ao3) for her.

The events after meeting Starscream are pre-darkness is rising episodes.

Before joining Team Prime | 📍

-Mea E. Anderson originally lived in a town in the Philippines called 'Alpas' (fictional town I made) before she moved to Springville, Utah with her mother, Clarita 'Rita' Estrella to live with her new step-father, Bruce Anderson. Mea's father annulled his marriage with her mother and is absent in her life. Growing up, Mea was alone and didn't have any friends her age. Rita and Bruce were often busy with work but unlike her mother, Bruce made an effort to spend time with Mea whenever he could. Mea didn't have much of a good relationship with Rita growing up.

-On her 7th birthday, Mea meets Voltage who's ship, The Fulmine, landed on Earth. After accidentally scaring her, the two developed a familial relationship with Mea seeing Voltage as a father/older brother figure. And on her 19th birthday, Mea unfortunately witnessed the demise of Voltage who was killed by his former friend/commander, Starscream. Mea was then rescued by Zodiac, who had just awoken from a 13 year long stasis lock and was dormant within the Fulmine. Mea and Zodiac's relationship from there was a little rocky, seeing as Zodiac had little to no knowledge of Mea and humans in general unlike Voltage. But the pair eventually bonded over their mutual relations with the late Voltage and slowly grew closer.

-After knowing the fact that Zodiac was alive and his possession of Solace Prime's Kyklos relic (non-canon relic that I made), Starscream made an effort to hunt both Mea and Zodiac down to retrieve the relic for himself. Mea had to leave Utah with Zodiac on the Fulmine without Rita and Bruce's knowledge. With the Fulmine being only a standard cargo ship and didn't have much benefits unlike most Cybertronian crafts, it made Starscream's job of tracking them down (with Soundwave's assistance) much easier.

-They were eventually attacked by Starscream and the other Seekers in Jasper, Nevada. Zodiac did his best to defend himself and Mea, but ultimately was fatally wounded. Before Starscream could forcibly take the Kyklos relic from Zodiac's chassis, a groundbridge opened up and Team Prime showed up after reports from Agent Fowler about a disturbance. Seeing as he was outnumbered, Starscream called for a retreat and he and the seekers fled back to the Nemesis. Zodiac's wounds were far too fatal to be repaired and so he took it upon himself to take off the relic and give it to Mea before he finally passed (This doesn't happen in Genesis).

-Before Team Prime (mainly Optimus) could console and talk to Mea about her loss, she ignored him and ran off back to the Fulmine with the Kyklos relic. Optimus didn't stop her, seeing as she was stricken with grief and let her go. Mea piloted the Fulmine (she was taught by Voltage before) and flew back to Springville, Utah. Upon her arrival, Mea hesitated on returning home to her mother and step-father but feeling more alone then ever, she eventually went home. When she arrived, she was immediately met by her parents who immediately hugged her and began bombarding her with questions about where she was. Overwhelmed, Mea eventually told them everything that happened. To her surprise, both Rita and Bruce believed her, they were just happy and relieved she was home once more.

-Months after the events of Zodiac's passing, Mea and Rita's mother/daughter relationship slowly healed as she and Bruce didn't spend as much time with their work and instead made more efforts to be with Mea and made sure she was safe. However, Agent Fowler showed up on their doorstep (at the request of Optimus), and began explaining that he needed to bring Mea on over to Jasper, Nevada to ensure her safety with the Autobots as there was a possibility that the Decepticons would target her once again. Rita of course refused to let Mea go, not wanting to lose her daughter again. But Mea, being a legal adult now and wanted to do more than just being stuck in Springville, convinced her mother and Bruce to let her go.

-After a promise to return home for one week every month, Rita eventually let Mea go. Mea took the Fulmine with her and flew back to Jasper, Nevada where Fowler had given her the coordinates to Autobot Outpost Omega One.

After joining Team Prime | 2

This was longer than intended wbdhdbd just note that Mea's storyline in TFP is very different compared to my main story for her so most of what happens here, are not canon to what happens in my story.

[quizmasterfred]

Thinking about Flux and Thamsin again, so as per usual I'm dealing with it by typing a full stream-of-consciousness into the nothing :D

Enjoy! (or, more likely, don't 🤷‍♀️ it's really long and I am prone to rambling)

Let me preface this by saying this is NOT a Dan Lewis Hatepost. He's fine (and John Bishop is a darling), but I think he's a bit bland and takes up a lot of screen time that could better serve our main duo if we just... didn't have to include Dan.

In Hallowe’en Apocalypse, he’s great. He’s the hook 13 + Yaz need to get into Karvanista’s ship and kickstart the main plot.

WotS

he gets sent back to Liverpool immediately, infiltrates a sontaran ship, and Skypes 13 to shut down their Tempura Shrimp plan.

Either, you could then have 13 (at the end of the episode) make sure he’s okay and alive, Karvanista says the Lupari are taking care of earth for a bit, and Dan now stays home, because y’know this is all really fucked and he’s some normal guy who shouldn’t be whisked off to fight ancient paranormal demons when he’s barely aware of space travel.

Or K takes over his role. Towards the end of HA, 13+Y can drop Dan off before they go looking for the flux. In WotS, K can board the Sontaran ship as he does in canon anyway, except instead of looking for Dan, he’s now there on an active mission to sabotage the Sontarans, and isn’t worried as much about Dan, since the Lupai have changed tack to defending earth rather than their original 1-to-1 human taxi plan. This allows 13+K to get on each others nerves a bit as they work together to stop the Sontarans, and interrogate their (forgotten) relationship from the Division days before 13(+Y) goes AWOL for three episodes.

Either way, Dan is now out of the picture. He’s a fun celebrity cameo/comedic relief role that doesn’t outstay his welcome and is just there to get the ball rolling. In the Karv-centric version of WotS, we get more info on Division, which is the Doctor’s driving goal for this series.

O,UT

Canon!Dan spends this episode in the time storm with everyone else. Without him, you can explore the other three characters more; that simple. Yes, Dan’s face is taking Karvanista’s spot in 13’s visions, but since we never find out the identities of Y+Vinder in those visions, we can cut one face without any change to the plot.

When they’re out of the storm, Dan has a moment with Holo-Diane in the Passenger, but this could have been one of the Khans! The Ravagers clearly know enough about Yaz, and that extra strain on 13+Y’s relationship would be more interesting than with Dan. Canon!13 yells at Yaz in her post-storm delirium, and now Yaz gets to push back because her family is in danger because of her relationship to the Doctor, which isn’t something the Khans have faced up to this point.

The Khans are SO well set-up in s11/12:

Sonya is the one who saved her sister when she ran away, and now Yaz has “run away” again in a different way

Najia will not stop interrogating 13+Y’s relationship, which creates tension with Yaz not wanting to freak her family out with the knowledge of aliens etc

Hakim is a CONSPIRACIST whose daughter has now run off with an actual real time-travelling alien!!!

But they don’t get the payoff for any of it. Each one of them is primed for an incredible reaction to the Doctor/Time Travel/Aliens reveal and we never get it! If we can’t get the full family episode-2.0, then at least putting one of them in the passenger gives us payoff for that character. (And ideally LotSD gets replaced with KhanFamily-2.0, but i'll get to that later)

Point is, a known 2ndary character related to one of our leads is more compelling than a tertiary character we don’t know related to a 2ndary character we also barely know. We get some major strain between our two leads because of it, but also, after the initial shock has settled, we see Yaz’s genuine trust in 13 to save her family, AND 13's care for Yaz + family in promising to save [whichever one]. They’re almost at each other’s throats because of 13 keeping secrets, Yaz pushing her too much, big pressure cooker episode, but at the end of the day, they trust and care about each other, and 13 WILL protect her companions' families.

VotA

Canon!Dan spends this entire episode with Yaz. He doesn’t have a unique plot role at all. If he's not here, Yaz can have a taste of a solo mission, again showing 13’s trust in Yaz to perform under pressure, but of course it goes wrong because they’ve underestimated/couldn’t predict the Angels’ plan.

Script-wise, we get more reliance on Yaz’s detective skills, and unspoken context clues for the audience, rather than bouncing off Dan. She can talk to herself a little bit (picking up a habit from 13), but the point is it focuses more on Yaz alone working things out. And once she finds the kid, there's someone to dialogue with anyway, so it's not like it'll just be a silent role for half the episode or something.

SotF

Now here’s where it gets interesting. We all know this is THE doctorification-of-Yasmin-Khan episode. Jericho and canon!Dan are very much her companions, and she is the doctor in 13’s absence.

Dan’s role can be taken on entirely by Jericho. The companion role can be absorbed without any major changes - canon!J already does half of that work anyway. Dan’s main character scene here is comforting Yaz after she watches the hologram. But I think we can retool this and even make it more effective with Jericho.

A surprisingly common headcanon is that J is gay, and here we have an opportunity to make it canon (though not explicitly stated - bear with me). In the canon version, JDY have all known each other for the same amount of time, so the strength of familiarity + friendship can be directly translated from Y+D to Y+J. J is perfectly able to tell how badly Y misses 13, and while he didn’t see HA, WotS or OUT like Canon!Dan, he did get a good look at 13’s brilliance and magnetism in VotA, so he kinda gets it. This woman is a bit mad, but clearly more than the average person, and these two have clearly developed a stronger-than-average friendship, so he’s just as capable of delivering the comfort that canon!Dan does.

And if we make gay!J canon, it creates a beautiful extra layer. J knows 13+Y are extremely close, so recognises that spark of atypical attraction in Yaz that he knows from his own life, but maybe can’t be certain. Certainly Yaz hasn’t come to terms with it herself at this point, so J has to tread carefully because he doesn’t want to force Yaz into any self-revelations before she’s ready.

But more importantly! J is from the 60s! His only experience with talking about LGBT stuff is mired in the risk of rejection and ostracism - he has NO IDEA that Yaz would just be accepting because she’s grown up in a better time! So he can’t come out and say it, he HAS to tiptoe under threat of losing his only friend in a terrifying time-adrift situation. Similarly, Yaz is both not ready to acknowledge her own sexuality, and couldn’t say anything to J directly anyway because he’s from the 60s! He’s “probably deeply homophobic”, so there’s no way Yaz could risk bringing it up even if she were ready to (which she isn't)!

J has to tiptoe around the suggestion because on the one hand, he can see that spark, but can’t risk losing his friend/lifeline, and Y has to pick up on something much more subtle than she’s prepared for (but won't - yet!). All wrapped up in the simpler ground layer of Yaz just needing some comfort - any comfort - as she’s been bearing the brunt of the work since taking on the role of “the Doctor” for an extended time now leading the pair of them through this insane mission to get back to their times, and just... because she misses her best friend.

This conversation now has the dual role of canon!Dan’s pep talk AND forming a bedrock for Yaz’s coming out as she can have a hindsight-realisation about what J was hinting at (during one of the 2022 specials).

Vanquishers

Canon!Dan is again with the group the whole time, so he doesn’t have an individual plot purpose for us to replace or work around. Canon!Karvanista doesn’t even care about Dan at this point, so his role doesn’t change either. The only conversation they have is a payoff to “fetch your dog”, which can easily be one of the (multiple) 13s going to fetch him for more 13+K dynamic, rather than both 13s going to Bel.

Obviously we get the Passenger rescue in this episode too, so our chosen Khan has the appropriate freak-out moment. Pick your favourite:

Sonya yelling that “this is where you’ve been and you didn’t tell me” + a sisterly ribbing about the romantic tension between 13+Y

Najia going into full “this is my daughter you’ve taken off to god-knows-where and I expect her back in one piece” @ 13 + “are you sure you’re not seeing each other?” @ Yaz

Hakim HOLY SHIT ALIENS ARE FUCKING REAL YAZ CAN YOU BELIEVE IT

2022 Specials

Dan's biggest contribution here is the “I know what you are” talk @ Yaz in EotD and playing (failed) matchmaker in LotSD, and then he fucks off for PotD anyway, so that doesn’t even need any changing.

In my ideal world, we would actually replace one of EotD or LotSD with KhanFamilyEpisode-2.0 (KFE2), continuing on from the post-passenger-rescue revelation in Vanquishers. I LOVE EotD, so I would replace LotSD and that’s the direction my ramblings will go from now on. But it could be either way round (or in magical get-everything-we-want land, it's just an extra 4th episode)

EotD doesn’t need to have Dan pushing Yaz to come out to herself. Admittedly, this is the dodgiest consequence we get from stripping back Dan so much, but bear with me. Combining the Sarah/Nick romantic B plot and Yaz pulling on that aforementioned hindsight to her conversation with Jericho, we can get the same effect without having a straight man effectively force a closeted lesbian into coming out. (As much as canon!Dan is trying to be nice, and I respect him for that, the actual result is cornering a closeted young woman into coming out to him, and then immediately outing her to someone else, which is not… the best thing to do)

We can replace it with more reaction shots for Yaz to S/N’s relationship and bickering, sprinkle in a bit of flashback to her conversation with J with new context, maybe an almost-confession that she chickens out of in the heat of the moment during one of the later loops. Something like 13 being reckless and Y yells at her for it and goes off about how she cares about 13 a lot and can’t just lose her if shit goes wrong - a direct mirror to 13’s “I will not let you die for my mistakes” moment. They each get an admission of care now. If we’re desperate, Yaz can have a self-annoyed talking-to-herself moment berating herself for said chickening out, but this is a bit heavy-handed and shouldn’t be necessary if the rest of it is played right.

In KFE2, one of the Khans of course has appropriate characterisation from Flux. I think Sonya works best here, since she’s the most likely to accept Yaz’s inevitable plea to “don’t tell the others anything about alien bullshit” (potentially including blackmail wherein Yaz has to promise to do sonya’s chores for a month or something, classic sibling hijinks).

Obviously Doctor Who shenanigans ensue and it probably results in the whole family finding out the truth about the Doctor. But the B plot is Sonya needling at Yaz over her now-obvious crush on 13, culminating in the equivalent to LotSD’s beach talk.

ALTERNATIVELY:

Swap KFE2 and EotD. The B plot in KFE2 ends in Yaz coming out to Sonya (instead of Dan), who is on the one hand, a typical sibling response of “yeah obviously duh, and i'm gonna make fun of you for being a dumbass about it” but on the other hand is fully supportive because she knows Yaz’s mental health history (+ potentially already suspected her sexuality from school years) and is, at heart, an actually good sister.

EotD can then have Yaz actually confessing to 13 during that aforementioned stressful late-game time loop, mirrored by moving 13's confession from LotSD to this episode as well. And then the equivalent beach talk.

Diane

Final note: I didn’t want to just delete Diane completely, because I do really like that she just exists as a disabled character who gets shit done. We definitely don’t need the will-they-won’t-they if we’re stripping back Dan’s role, so if you really want, we can just have them be an established relationship for that little bit of world building. Maybe D+D can have minor roles in Vanquishers as part of the finale if you rejig it a bit

OR we can just give Dan’s role to Diane wholesale. Diane’s actress was perfectly good, she can carry that role easily, and we get to keep a semi-prominent disabled character. I quite like what little we see of Diane, so I like the idea of keeping her over Dan, but narratively speaking it’s not important either way.

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Harry Kim

By Ames

This week’s character spotlight shines on the Voyager’s favorite forever-ensign, Harry Kim, who lord knows has done enough throughout the show to warrant enough promotions to rival Janeway and yet who wallows away with his single pip for the entirety. But your hosts here at A Star to Steer Her By know enough to appreciate all that the little clarinet dork does for us.

Harry’s another consistently solid character, like Chakotay, who really only gets a couple episodes to stand out in, but we love him anyway. He suffers nearly as much as O’Brien, he gets shot down fewer times than only Worf, and he’s lousy with women in ways La Forge could understand. So grab some good seats for this Harry Kim and the Kimtones concert as you scroll on below and/or listen in on this week’s podcast episode (toot over to 1:13:23). Your promotion time will surely come.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

We’ve got to go back, Tommy! Back to the Voyager! Harry’s got the strange opportunity in “Non Sequitur” to stay in a parallel universe in which he’s not trapped in the Delta Quadrant fighting for his life every week, but he opts to correct the timeline and go back, allowing Tom to get his chance at redemption and getting his friend Danny Byrd into the correct life. Or maybe he just wanted to get away from Libby that badly.

Weird is part of the job As Chris wrote about in his Harry Kim fanfic, the ensign also has the unusual distinction of being the only character (other than baby Naomi) to technically be from a different timeline. When his Voyager is under attack by those damn Vidiians again in “Deadlock,” Kim saves the infant from imminent danger, and gets to have an identity crisis about it for the rest of his life.

There’s nothing to fear except clowns themselves Some-freaking-how, Ensign Kim is able to keep his [remote] cool throughout “The Thaw” while that psychotic clown is torturing him and trying to literally frighten him to death. Harry spends much of the episode standing up courageously against an exemplary performance from Michael McKean and his band of Cirque du Soleil performers until he’s finally rescued.

This man is my friend. Nobody touches him! We gave some great props to Paris for how much he worked with Kim to escape from the prison ship in “The Chute,” but the real hero of the episode is Kim. When Paris has been incapacitated by a nasty stab wound, Harry fends off tons of prisoners who are vying for Paris’s belongings, and he keeps his friend alive even while being driven mad by the clamp.

Go ahead, make the call Somehow, most of these moments have been “Harry stands up to the powerful figure of the week who has captured him,” and it’s no different in “The Killing Game” when he’s covertly working against his Hirogen guards without them noticing. Right in front of them, no less. Maybe we just like when quiet, unassuming Harry proves that he’s got that Voyager chutzpah.

Somebody has got to knuckle down and change history, and that somebody is you There’s something about brooding Harry in “Timeless.” Not only is it some great acting work from Garrett Wang, but we also get to see what happens when Harry pushes himself too far. Wracked by years of guilt, he finally seizes the opportunity to save the Voyager from a past mistake and break the Temporal Prime Directive – although no more than Janeway on a given Tuesday.

Hook, line, and sinker Much of Voyager is steeped in technobabble from all of the science-conscious characters, and occasionally we get to see Harry pull some scientific knowhow out of his ass. In “Dark Frontier,” the episode opens with Harry beaming a bomb onto a Borg vessel like a badass and blowing them to smithereens before they could even say “You will be assimilated.”

Infected with a disease called love We gave Janeway some flak for treating Harry like a little baby for getting busy with an alien in “The Disease,” but ya know what: we really liked him and Derran Tal together! The whole episode long, we’re led to surmise that something shady is going down with her and the Varro, but it turns out Harry is just willing to make a go of it with someone he fancies, and that’s nice.

When taken captive by a hostile force, seek out any opportunity to engage the assailant Kirk may be the king at talking machines into killing themselves, but Kim does it with such panache in “Warhead.” He’s so willing to empathize with and communicate with the homicidal warhead that I still contend this should have been a Chakotay episode. But since it’s Harry that does it, you’ve got to give him credit for convincing the missile not to kill its enemy after all.

How do you feel about going for a little walk? When Harry eludes capture by Borg in “Collective,” he uses some smarts and strategy to communicate with the Voyager from the Delta Flyer and devise a plan. Particularly cute is his use of playing cards to mark his trail through the labyrinthine Borg vessel. Sure, Mezoti finds him out and captures him, but that’s just because Mezoti is the best.

Own the day We’ll go on in the next section about some lousy relationships Kim finds himself in, but we’ve got to hand it to him: he and Lyndsay Ballard were super sweet together in “Ashes to Ashes.” Ballard is going through a pretty substantial identity crisis after returning from the dead (something Harry knows a lot about!) and Harry is there to be supportive without pressuring her.

Big Willy Energy We really couldn’t help but include this one. We also learn in “Ashes to Ashes” that Harry has moved on from the clarinet to the saxophone. Ya know, to emulate the vibes of a certain saxophone-playing president. We get a glimpse of him practicing in “Lineage” and we’ve got to admit: Harry Kim is just so cool. He should have gotten promoted for this alone!

—

Worst moments

Didn’t they warn you about Ferengi at the Academy? It’d be too obvious to say that Harry Kim nearly got swindled by Quark during his very first scene in “Caretaker,” but the way he does it is the most Harry Kim moment of the whole show. Our sweet summer child, fresh from the Academy, first tries to avoid getting swindled but offends Quark in doing so, and basically swindles himself until Paris swoops in and rights the situation.

Something about it reminds me of being in the womb This is just an offhand remark from Harry, but it’s so strange that it’s sat with us all this time. Harry claims in “The Cloud” that he remembers being in the womb, and wearing his mask to bed at night reminds him of this. Not a womblike allegory, mind you. The literal memory of his existence pre-birth. You’re a weird guy, Harry. Good luck ever living this down.

This is my only chance to get home The leap of logic when Harry decides to get himself killed in “Emanations” and get resurrected right away on the Voyager is one only the most desperate man would take. There is so little reason for him to think this literally suicidal plan will work except that he’s got to hope for the best. In doing so, Harry becomes the first (but not the last) crewmember to die and come back.

I want to eliminate emotions, like Vulcans do So it’s not the worst moment for Harry to fall in love with a hologram in “Alter Ego.” Everyone else does it all the time. It’s that he’s managed to sink into the delusion so far that he determines to purge himself of emotions with Tuvok’s help. Overreact much, Harry? To him, Morena’s just a hologram girl, and he’s even more obsessed with her than Janeway is of Michael Sullivan!

I still say you should have kept some of those spots Even after the rest of the show unfolded, I’m left unsure what to make of “Favorite Son.” It’s yet another example of how Harry seems to have no clue what to do with himself when around pretty girls (more on that in a moment). The Taresians trick him so easily into joining their cultish society just by promising lots of sex with pretty ladies, and that’s all it takes. You poor naive thing.

Imagine having Tom for a father-in-law I’ve been outvoted by the other SSHB hosts who think it’s squicky for Harry from “Before and After” to marry Kes’s and Tom’s daughter Linnis (who seems like a catch!). I guess it can be considered some kind of uncomfortable grooming because he would have basically watched her grow up since she’s part Ocampan, but can we really put that on sweet, innocent Harry?

Then you wish to copulate? The other really hormonal behavior we get out of Harry is any time he’s in Seven’s company. In “Revulsion,” it’s downright uncomfortable to watch their interactions because he doesn’t know how to act around his crush, and then the writers have to sexually charge the B-plot by having Seven offer to bang him, merely to titillate the viewers and for no other good reason. Ugh.

They trusted me, and I killed them! While we do like Harry in “Timeless,” and the episode itself is a clever use of time travel, you’ve got to put some blame on Harry for causing the catastrophe he goes back to fix in the first place. And what’s worse, he does it again and still can’t save the Voyager from the slipstream accident even after years of trying to get the equation solved!

If we succeed, those charges will never have existed in the first place One more moment from the “Timeless” since it’s probably got the most Harry action in all of Voyager (and we just love his tortured-soul look). But frankly, sacrificing a whole timeline full of people going about their lives just to save your friends is selfish. And on this show, the only person who gets to do that is Janeway! Captain Braxton was right all along!

You’re looking at your new co-pilot Okay so this moment is mostly an excuse to show off the Delta Flyer uniforms from “Drive” that we love so much. But also, it’s another example of Harry being led around by his boner again! This man is so blinded whenever there’s a sexy lady in the room, and he jumps at the chance to join Irina’s race team even when it nearly gets him killed in a terrorist attack.

I believe you’re the one who’s been relieved Boy, does this episode do Harry dirty. If you were ever upset that Harry never gets promoted during the course of the show, “Nightingale” shows you why. This poor guy just doesn’t know how to lead. The moment he takes command of the Nightingale, he turns into a micromanaging asshole and the whole crew mutinies immediately. No wonder Kim is a Forever Ensign.

Maybe all those command subroutines are compromising your medical abilities Both Harry Kim and the Emergency Medical Hologram – excuse me, Emergency Command Hologram – are out of character throughout all of “Workforce.” The ECH is so desperate to show off his command skills and Harry is just as desperate to one-up him every time that their whole subplot becomes a dick-measuring contest that no one’s going to win. Ew.

—

And that’s it for our saxophone solo this week. Harry’s just so cool, guys. And we’ve got more cool guys to talk about in the coming weeks, so make sure you’re following along here, keeping up with our watchthrough of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you podcast, practice some scales over on Facebook and Twitter, and never think about the fact that you’re actually from a parallel universe. Oh the identity crisis of it all!

[heavensenthearty]

“I. Love. Her!”

Rating: T Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Relationships: Sokka/Suki Tags: POV Third Person, Post-War, Past Sokka/Yue (Avatar), Moon Spirit Yue (Avatar), POV Suki (Avatar), Established Sokka/Suki (Avatar), Suki-centric (Avatar), Suki Needs a Hug (Avatar), Good Friend Katara (Avatar), Sokka is a Good Significant Other (Avatar), Fluff and Angst, Grief/Mourning, Romantic Fluff, Romantic Angst, Romantic Gestures Summary: “Yue,” Sokka said, aloud. He lifted their joined hands. “This is my girlfriend, Suki. I know you are watching; I can feel it. That doesn’t sound like it will help my case now, but I do. I know you’ve been watching all along. I know you know I am in love with Suki. There is no one else I’d rather be with. I don’t have to choose between you two, because it is not fair to compare you, but Suki is everything I ever needed. It was thanks to her that I turned into the person you fell in love with. I love her and I love that I get to spend my life with her because she makes me better every day—every minute that I am with her. I. Love. Her. And if you were here, I know you would be happy for us.”

For @creativepromptfills. Prompt #1083.

Political meetings were boring at best and bothersome at worst. Suki thanked the Heavens that she only served as the Firelord’s bodyguard most of the time. Still, there were some others—like this one—when she performed as an emissary of Kyoshi Island; the situation with her island was complicated due to its history and location. It was a Water Tribe settlement that reached Earth Kingdom land, and they couldn’t be represented by other world leaders because, well, they were quite literally a no man’s land. They were in negotiations to make the island an independent state.

In her opinion, it was crazy that she didn’t learn her own island’s history until a few years ago.

Cutting the elders some slack, with the War going on, they had other things to worry about.

The ferry broke through the water until it honked, pulling her back from memory lane. They had arrived at the North Pole. She needed to appeal for the independence of Kyoshi Island in front of Chief Arnook.

(They had to appeal their independence in front of the Water Tribe Chiefs and in front of Earth King Kuei). (She wanted to believe she had the support of the last two, but she was cautious). (Yes, she was well-guarded when it came to work).

Putting on her coat, she stepped onto the deck. The North Pole was exactly as beautiful as Sokka had described. All the buildings made of ice looked like they were made of diamonds and the snow was so pristine white that it seemed like the town was glowing with a halo of its own.

“Suki!” Both Southern Siblings were waving at her from their own ship, with matching smiles. (Sometimes she found it creepy that they weren’t twins).  

She beamed and rushed off the ship to hug them both. The two of them were at a race over the snow where Suki was the finish line-slash-prize. One second, Katara took the lead, then it was Sokka. They switched a couple more times before Sokka reached Suki and hugged her tightly. (The power of love at its prime).

“Suki!” It felt like he was about to lift her if it wasn’t because his parka and her coat made it difficult to move.

Katara simply stood aside while their hug continued. Sokka seemed unwilling to let go, so his sister looked impatient.

“Sokka, it is impolite that I haven’t greeted Katara yet.”

“Five more minutes,” he grumbled into the curve of Suki’s neck, tickling her.

Katara gagged. “Spirits, you are in public!”

“Oh, you are still here?” Sokka asked, not without his usual sarcasm.

Katara started tickling him to make him let go of Suki.

“C’mon, Katara, I’m sure you can fit in here.”

She stretched an arm to open space, Katara scooted into the hug, and then everything was right in the world.

“Look at the three of you, together again.” That was Chief Hakoda’s voice.

He was walking over to them, not sprinting like his not-so-adult children; his smile and body language were affable. Suki never imagined somebody so laidback-looking could have such command.

When the Southern Siblings allowed her, she greeted the Chief while keeping a mild distance: “Hello, Chief Hakoda.”

She bowed. Part of her wanted to hug him, but she still felt too much of an outsider to the Southern Chieftain Family to do so.

“You know you don’t have to be so formal,” he replied.

Suki only chuckled.

Katara hooked her arm around hers like when they were younger. “Enjoying the North Pole so far, Suki?”

“Yeah, it’s very pretty.”

Her eyes gravitated towards Sokka, but he was looking into the horizon. He was staring at the city like it was someone he used to know. Of course, it was; Suki was well aware that he would never forget Princess Yue, and yet she couldn’t help a stab of pain. The little she knew about the late princess was that she had ascended as the Moon Spirit, and she was the reason Sokka had been so overprotective and hesitant when the two of them reunited.

Katara, ever the perceptive, squeezed her arm in a comforting gesture. Suki felt reassured, she never met someone as understanding as Katara.

“C’mon, guys, Chief Arnook must be waiting for us.”

“Sokka!” The Chief dropped all formalities and hugged the Water Tribe Warrior as soon as he caught sight of him.

Sokka returned the hug earnestly and with a nostalgic look in his eyes.

The scene was all the more astonishing since they were at the Ice Palace, in the throne room, but Suki seemed to be the only one curious about the exchange. Not even the guards escorting the Chief spared them a second glance.

Chief Arnook was another affable-looking man who looked just like he could have children around Sokka and Katara’s age, too. The light inside the room complimented the shade of blue in his eyes. The Palace itself was as regal as all the others Suki had seen but the fact that it was all made of ice accentuated its allure. In that sense, it was like nothing she had seen before. 

“It’s been so long, Chief Arnook,” Sokka said when they separated.

“It has.” The Chief was looking at him with a peculiar glint in his eyes.

Once again, Suki thought she understood the situation, and blamed herself for not anticipating her feelings.

Chief Arnook proceeded to hug Katara next, so at least the favoritism wasn’t limited to Sokka. He only showed a semblance of conventionalism with Chief Hakoda.

“It’s been so long since our last meeting, too, Chief Hakoda.” He bowed.

“Time flies by for us, Chiefs.”

They both laughed like it was the funniest thing in the world. Suki was sure she was watching Chief Arnook licking all the Southern Chieftain Family’s boots.

“By the way, Chief Arnook.” Sokka put an arm around her shoulders. “This is the Kyoshi Island emissary we were telling you about, Zhìhuì Suki.”

Only then did the Northern Chief notice there was someone else in the room with them. He tensed and turned in her direction, and she was just sure his expression hardened when he saw Sokka’s arm around her.

She knew Sokka had talked to him and he had already clarified their relationship, she hadn’t been shortsighted enough to not ensure a transparent, smooth meeting, but she didn’t anticipate the coldness in the Chief’s eyes as they measured her every inch like he was listing things to disapprove.

She was disrupting whatever dynamic he had with the Southerners until now.

Suki felt sympathetic and insulted. “Nice to meet you, Chief Arnook.”

She bowed respectfully but he only gave her a curt nod. “Shall we get to business then?” he asked.

Fine.

The meeting was different from many others, but only because it was so awkward! Granted to Chief Arnook, he remained professional throughout Suki’s exposition of the island’s case; it was the way he kept staring at her so intently that gave away his resentment. His blue eyes were just as cold as the ice that built the Palace.  

Despite the unwanted attention, Suki had never felt so overlooked. Most people feared and respected her position as the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors. Sure, some looked down on her, but they were pretentious, random politicians who didn’t affect her people. This time, the future of her island was at risk because of a personal matter that wasn’t even her fault to begin with!

Her fist clenched at the realization.

At last, Chief Arnook agreed to support Kyoshi Island’s independence—right after Hakoda vouched for her. Of course, Suki was merely a prod for more bootlicking.

“Well, that went well.” Sokka shook his legs after spending hours sitting.

“It went better than expected but it didn’t go ‘well’.” Suki took a glass of water.

They were left alone in the conference room. After the meeting, Katara and Chief Hakoda went to visit Master Pakku while Chief Arnook continued with his appointments of the day.

“What do you mean?”

“Chief Arnook doesn’t like me,” she muttered with the glass to her lips.

“What are you talking about? He invited us to dinner.”

“He invited you to dinner,” she insisted. “I knew it wasn’t a good idea that I came for this, but I didn’t want it to look like I was allowing my personal life to interfere with political stuff. Gods and Spirits, I’m such an idiot!”

“Hey, hey, calm down.” He took the water away from her and set it down before she could spill it.

He had to physically turn her around and hold her to his chest. “Listen, you did great today. You scored the support of two world leaders for your people. And you did it all on your own. Whatever is happening between… It is all in the past, it has nothing to do with this, and you didn’t let it get to you. You took care of everything like a pro.”

Suki returned the hug feeling warmth spreading inside her, from her chest to the rest of her body. She hadn’t noticed how in need of comfort she was. 

“You are right. You are right, sorry.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for.”

They remained in each other’s arms for a long time, Sokka still acted unwilling to let go of her for the world, and Suki finally admitted she needed some comfort right now. It wasn’t like her to feel insecure about… It wasn’t like her to feel insecure, period.

She could never allow herself to feel insecure when so many people depended on her.

Thank goodness that nobody entered the conference room while they were in there. She’ll be damned if she let anyone other than Sokka see her crumbling down like that.  

By the time, her arms finally gave up a little, Sokka said: “C’mon, you’ll feel better after eating something.”

Well, the dinner was a whole new kind of awkward.

Chief Arnook only kept talking about the first time the Southern Siblings visited the Nort Pole, and how sorry he was that Yue and Sokka could never live their ‘epic love story’ to the fullest.

Katara and Hakoda just watched on. Suki barely touched the food since they sat down. (She may have felt better after eating something but she wouldn’t be eating from that table).

“I’m truly so sorry for contributing to your love’s doom, Sokka.” The Chief looked at the glass of wine he had been mixing for a few minutes. “I should have let Yue choose her partner. Let her live a happy life until her destiny came.”

“Thank you, Chief. But Yue was meant to be so much more than what any of us knew. And well, life has been kind to me, too.”

Sokka squeezed Suki’s hand. She appreciated it but still felt his wording was somewhat lacking. And from the looks of it, Chief Arnook wasn’t too pleased either. She sighed.

“I don’t doubt it,” the Chief said. “I am glad you got to meet my daughter, though. Your love was truly inspiring.”

Suki sighed again.

“Suki and Sokka’s love story is also inspiring, Chief Arnook,” Katara interrupted. It was the first time she spoke that night. “All of our mutual friends admire them.”

“You do?” Sokka asked.

His sister glared at him.

“I don’t doubt that either.” Chief Arnook took another gulp of wine. “Epic loves aren’t always meant to be admired. It takes a certain kind of bravery to love like—”  

Suki sprang to her feet and walked away.

“Suki, wait!”

Sokka took less than a second to call after her, but that only inspired her to walk faster. As background noise, she heard Chief Hakoda taking the wine away from Chief Arnook.

She exited the dining hall but it would be a few rows of stairs before she could get to her assigned bedroom. Great. Maybe she could sleep on the ferry that brought her there.

“Suki! Wait, please!” Sokka ran after her while she ran for the stairs.

“Leave me alone, Sokka,” she said, almost without inflection.

“Can we please talk? Please,” he pleaded, following her.

“Talk about what?” she replied while looking forward, jumping over the steps until she reached the second floor. Then she finally turned around to say it right in his face. “About your ‘epic love story’ with Princess Yue? I don’t want to hear about Yue! Listen, I know that you settled down for me as a second choice, and I—”

“What are you talking about?” he cut her off, which never happened before. He looked positively furious and horrified at the same time. “Settling down, what in the world? And ‘epic love story’, what even is that? This is not some predestined soulmate shit or fate or whatever. I love you all on my own. Because you're awesome and because I want to.”

“Well, couldn’t you say that to Chief Arnook down there?”

“Is that what you want? Because I will,” he said. “Heavens, I’ll tell Yue herself that I am in love with you.”

“What—”

He took her hand and dragged her to the nearest window, it had a perfect view of the full moon in the dark sky devoid of stars.

“Yue,” Sokka said, aloud. He lifted their joined hands. “This is my girlfriend, Suki. I know you are watching; I can feel it. That doesn’t sound like it will help my case now, but I do. I know you’ve been watching all along. I know you know I am in love with Suki. There is no one else I’d rather be with. I don’t have to choose between you two, because it is not fair to compare you, but Suki is literally everything I ever needed. It was thanks to her that I turned into the person you fell in love with. I love her and I love that I get to spend my life with her because she makes me better every day—every minute that I am with her. I. Love. Her. And if you were here, I know you would be happy for us.”

Suki stood there, watching and listening to him talk.

They heard an echoing giggle. When they looked down from the window to the shadowy snow, there was a girl standing under the moonlight.

She looked sixteen and she wasn’t wearing a parka or coat, her white dress revealed her shoulders and her long white hair flowed easily with the wind. She smiled.

Suki gasped, covering her mouth.

The girl waved her hand as a salute and disappeared when a cloud passed over the moon, blocking its light.

Suki looked at Sokka.

He shrugged. “Yeah, she does that sometimes.”

After the events of the night before, Suki was ready to sleep for days, but they still had to wait for the Earth King’s arrival.

“Warrior?”

She lifted her eyes from the scroll she was reading. (Passing by the Palace’s library to learn some more Water Tribe history sounded like a good idea to kill time).

Chief Arnook was the one calling her.

“Yes?”

“I…” the Chief hesitated. “I apologize for the behavior I displayed last night. I was too carried away by the informal setting and drank too much. I swear it isn’t a common habit of mine. And I don’t mean to make you uncomfortable during your stay in the North, especially not about your relationship with Sokka. I admit I haven’t coped with my daughter’s passing in the healthiest way. I do feel guilty I didn’t allow her to love freely, even when I anticipated what would happen. That was my mistake, and no one else has to carry its burden. For whatever it is worth, Sokka would do nothing but write praises for you during our correspondence.”

Suki giggled. “Thank you, Chief. Worry not, I completely understand.”

“And, please, don’t be mad at him for whatever I said last night. He already scolded me for it, and last night, in my drunken state, I had a dream of my daughter berating me for it, too.” He chuckled. “It must have been a sign.” Suki tried to cover her grin with the scroll. “Yeah, maybe.”

[negative-speedforce]

Your OCs have just been flung into whatever movie/show you've watched most recently! What happens, and how do they cope? How do they interact with the canon characters?

I just recently watched "The Neverending Story" for the zillionth time so this'll be interesting

Siv: Picks a fight with every single one of the characters, and ends up getting nuked by the sphynx gate because of her intense self-loathing

Jay: Gives the Empress a new name, the most beautiful name he knows (It's Cassandra)

Cassandra: Manages to banish the Nothing from Fantasia- she sends it straight into the shadow realm, where there's nothing for it to consume except shadows

Hailey: Antagonizes Gmork because she's dead, what is he gonna do? Kill her?

Arya: Is honestly just really happy because they actually get to interact with other fae-adjacent beings after being shut off from the Otherword for almost two thousand years

Esme: Nukes the Nothing with her light-based powers, then goes to find the nearest fantasy tavern because she is WAY too sober for this shit.

Gina: Figures everything out really fast, and since she's human and technically a minor, she counts as an Earthling Child, right? So she gives the Empress a new name and gets it over with.

Ember: Sees that they're having some kid fight The Nothing and ends up throwing hands with everyone because kids deserve better than that.

Cat: Ends up dying because she doesn't know how to live without modern technology and she ends up falling into a hole/getting eaten by wild beasts/falling off a horse/etc etc etc

Max: Decides to go pick a fight with the Empress because she's a... you know, Empress, and he isn't a big fan of monarchy.

Kyle: Probably passes out pretty quickly due to the lack of electricity in Fantasia

Eric: Transports anyone who wants to go home back to their universe, then faces up against the Nothing on his own.

Jacob: Joins his husband in facing off against the Nothing.

Khalil: "No.", then melts into the shadows and transports himself home.

Antonio: Introduces the world of Fantasia to skateboarding

Ameerah: Manipulates the Gmork into being more docile, then rides around Fantasia on a giant wolf for the singular reason that it is awesome.

Rania: Immediately starts studying all the strange fantasy creatures

Reggie: Helps Antonio introduce skateboarding to Fantasia.

Director Hawke: Tries to take over Fantasia with her dark magic and exterminate basically all the other sentient species, until someone stops her.

Meredith: Goes and bothers Morla the Ancient One to get more information on where the hell she is.

Cory: Immediately starts fangirling over the fact that he's in a real fantasy world, probably ends up scaring the crap out of Falkor because no one expects some random teen to be flying alongside them.

Kelsie: Just enjoys being in nature with all the plants and everything, since her powers are stronger when she's around them.

Onnie: Retreats to the Negative Speed Force until they can figure out how to get home.

Pippa: "OMG!!! A FAIRY!!!"

Jessi: Uses her sonic powers to blast open a hole in reality (that probably shatters everyone's eardrums) to go home because all this nature is really going to ruin her Prada heels.

Hyun-Ki: Fucks off with the Nighthob and his stupid bat and leaves Jessi to suck his dust

Marie: Is trying REALLY hard to hide any evidence that she is from space, as not to break the Prime Directive.

Qiara: Uses her powers to restore Fantasia to what it used to be, then runs off with her girlfriends to go live a cottage-core dream fantasy life.

Liah: Breaks the Prime Directive about 600 times because she keeps meeting all kinds of new friends and she tells them everything.

Soraya: Beams back up onto her ship and just spends the rest of her time there hanging out on the Tschaikovsky, which is floating above Fantasia, pretending that she is not, in fact, in a fantasy world.

Thalia: Goes and talks shit with Morla the Ancient One because she is way too tired for this crap.

Reyna: Spends the entirety of her time in Fantasia starry-eyed over all the fantastical creatures and magic and stuff

Athena: Takes over Fantasia and manages to stop The Nothing with a technicality- the Empress needs a new name, so why not replace her with an Empress with a different name? She gets overthrown in a week.

Laila: Joins Athena in ruling over Fantasia for like, a week, before they get overthrown

Samira: Her little scientist nerd ass is going crazy over all these new creatures and species all around her

Aldrich: Follows Sohelia around to make sure she doesn't get herself into danger (she does)

Sohelia: Figures out what's going on really fast, gives the Empress a new name and stops the whole crisis before it actually happens

Dolores: Tries to stay in Fantasia because it's so pretty there, is really disappointed when she has to go back to the real world

Vanessa: Finally feels like she fits in and isn't a freak anymore while surrounded by all these not-quite-human characters.

Matt: Tries and fails to learn how to ride a horse, ends up getting a luckdragon instead.

Victorie: Stays in the shadows until she understands what's going on, then she follows Atreyu around making sure that nothing eats this poor kid.

Kayla: Immediately gets to work trying to build some kind of portal home because HYDRA isn't going to take itself down.

Dori: Starts testing out their shapeshifting powers with all the strange creatures around them, just to see how far they can push themself.

Ellis: Nukes the Nothing with angelic light and the power of love and peace and justice and all those other things that angels stand for

[whumpfessional]

Never Have I Ever

Team bonding with the younger team members. When the captain (and EO and chief engineer and chief medical) are away, the mice will play.

Cw: alcohol, past minor whump, past slavery, minor whump references.

“Hey Circe, wanna join us for a drink?” 

Circe looked up from her data pad to see Lyle’s head hanging in the doorway. “Manny brought some back from shore.” She stared at him, still quiet. 

“You’ve drank before, right?” He asked after a slight pause. Circe looked away and shook her head. “Oh shit! Well you gotta come then! Come on, get up.” Lyle reached into the room, offering his hand out to Circe and pulling her up. “Let’s go.” 

Some of the crew had already gathered in the mess. It seemed like the younger members of the crew, Pilar, CJ, Emily, and Manny were already there and they were all shouting loudly when the two of them walked in. 

“It wasn’t my fault-“

“Oh really? Not your fault?”

“Look how is he supposed to remember who he fucks? Medical probably spends half its budget on STI tests for him.”

“Hey!”

“Most of Medical’s budget goes towards patching you up from your dumb fights.”

“That guy on Taren 7 had it coming-“

“And on Eden Prime?”

“Hey! He’s the one who got sucker punched by an ex today!”

“She’s not an ex! We hooked up once!”

“Lyle! You found her!” Pilar looked past CJ to see them come in. “Come sit! We are just talking about Manny’s ex from port today.” 

“Not an ex!” Manny called out with a grin on his face, moving over on the bench to make room for them. Lyle plopped down next to him and Circe slid in besides Emily. CJ took a swig from the bottle and slid it down the table to Lyle. “So how was your day watching over the ship?” 

Lyle flipped him off, “It was much better than usual without all you assholes around.” He twisted the top off the bottle. Circe examine it as he struggled slightly. It was a tall bottle filled with an translucent amber liquid. Amber was kind, actually. It was brown and had some type of sediment resting at the bottom. Lyle raised it up to his lips and swallowed deeply, making a face as he lowered the bottle and wiped the back of his mouth off on his hand. 

The bottle made its way over to Circe.

It wasn’t like she hasn’t encountered alcohol before. There was that stolen sip she barely remembered, tasting of iron and violet. She had served it too many times to count and remembered very clearly when she had had to clean up after Balak and his buddies had gotten their hands on a bottle of Ryncol. She also remembered very clearly the screams of the serving boy who had had his hand cut off for stealing a bottle of wine.

She raised the bottle to her nose to take a sniff, recoiling. It smelled like cleaning fluid and as she made a face, she realized that the conversation had died down slightly and the others were looking at her. Without a second thought, Circe brought the bottle up to her lips and took a swig. It took all of her composure to not cough at the drink. It was like medicine and bitterness and burning but she slammed the bottle back down and swallowed. 

There was a pause. 

“Ayyy! Atta’girl!”

“You took that better than Lyle did!”

“Hey! At least I don’t have to mix it with juice!”

“A lady knows what she likes,” said Pilar, who slid a glass over to Circe. “Have a sip, it’ll get the taste out of your mouth. The shit CJ buys could clean an engine.”

Circe took a sip appreciatively and the evening continued on loudly. 

Emily brought out her dice and began to try to explain the rules of a gambling game. The rules entirely went over her head so Pilar let her join her team, to which the others complained that teams weren’t allowed. They shut up a bit after Pilar reminded them that Circe had no credits of her own to bet. 

They were interesting to watch, Circe observed as they all shouted over one another, claiming that the dice had somehow been weighted. She would have never believed that a group of people could fight so much but still love each other so intensely. Lyle reached across the table to trying to grab the dice from where Pilar was holding them over her head. Circe felt the dice slip into her hands and Pilar gave her a wink as she stood up from the table, holding her hands high. 

Guessing the game was based around their shared love of mocking Lyle, she slipped them over to Emily, who grinned at her in surprise. It took Lyle a good ten minutes to eventually locate the dice, which CJ had hidden in his sock. 

“I have an idea!” Emily called out as the others settled back into their seats. She stood up and grabbed some plastic cups from the storage area, as well as a pitcher of juice from the fridge. She began to measure out glasses of the liquor and the juice, heavy on the alcohol, and passed them out to the crew. “We are going to play Never Have I Ever.”

CJ let our a groan and moved to stand up, “Come on, Em, I’m not in my twenties anymore.” 

“Neither is Manny, and with Circe and Lyle playing, they lower the average age.” Pilar pointed out, accepting her drink. 

Manny pushed back his hair, “You just like this game because you get to make fun of me for stuff you already know.” 

“It’ll be good for Circe!” Lyle interrupted, “She doesn’t know a lot about us.”

The crew paused and turned to look at Circe, who gave a slight smile. She had no clue what they were talking about but they all seemed to come to an agreement. CJ retook his seat.

“Okay, it’s really simple,” Emily started, “you started off by saying ‘Never have I ever’ and then you say something you haven’t done. If the people in the group have done it, then they have to drink. Got it? The person who drinks goes next.”

Circe gave a nod and pulled her drink closer to herself. Emily gave a grin.

“I’ll start. Never have I ever touched a Krogan’s quad.” Emily said with a smirk, looking over at Manny.

“That’s not fucking fair and you know it.” Manny grimaced and took a sip of his drink. “I didn’t tell you that so you could exploit it like this.” He looked around, examining the others. “Never have I ever killed a patient.”

“Euthanasia is not murder! Not when it’s a dog!” Pilar called out, taking a sip anyways. “Never have I ever lived on another planet than my home world.”

Circe took a sip, as well as half the others. It continued for a bit, the others laughing loudly as embarrassing stories came out. 

“Never have I ever eaten a frog”

“Never have I ever jumped out of an air shuttle”

“Never have I ever been mugged by a Volos”

“Never have I ever poisoned a target”

“Never have I ever mind melded with an Asari”

“Never have I ever been to Earth”

“Never have I ever gotten kicked out of a bar”

“Yeah? Well never have I ever been whipped,” said CJ, pointing at Manny.

“Wrong! I was flogged! There’s a difference.” called out Manny with a smirk.

Until this point, Circe had just been trying to keep up, listening for something she had done. Without thinking, quickly she took a sip, happy to be able to participate. When she put down her glass though, the table was quiet. And looking at her. Oh no, they were looking at her. 

“I... ah” her voice came out quiet and still scratchy from disuse. She began to look around the room, trying to figure out which exit was closest when she felt a hand rest of her arm. She jerked back, before looking up at Pilar, who had withdrawn her hand and looked at her with sympathy. 

“It’s your turn, Circe.” She said with a smile.

“I.. ah..” Circe started again, looking around at their faces. They were all so kind and for a second she wanted to scream. Instead, she reached for her glass and drained it, pushing it back toward Emily, who dutifully grabbed the bottle from the table. “Never have I ever drank Ryncol.”

CJ took a sip and the table began to loudly clammer and demand to hear about his experience, the loudness taking over from the silence and Circe found herself relaxing again into the space, laughing when Manny told the story of how he had had to escape naked from the governors house on New Canton. The statements came quicker than ever. 

“Never have I ever had Captain call me a kiss ass”

“Never have I ever had a crush on film stars from the 20th century”

“Never have I ever watched all the episodes of that dumb Hanar detective show”

“Fuck you! That’s a masterpiece and you know it! Never have I ever been stabbed.”

Circe took a sip at this point, feeling a phantom ache in her thigh. But CJ drank too so the question went to him. It was easier this time, only Pilar’s gaze lingered on her slightly as they continued. Lyle took a sip as well.

“Being stabbed with a pencil doesn’t count!”

“Well it still fucking hurt! And there was blood.”

“Whatever, Lyle. Get back to me when you’ve actually been stabbed.”

“Stop gatekeeping being stabbed!”

“Why do you even want to have been stabbed? I’ve been poked with an pencil before and it didn’t even hurt.”

“That’s not all you’ve been poked with.”

“Ayy ohh!”

“Fuck you too!”

“You wish!”

“Never have I ever kissed an alien”

“Is that racist?”

“I don’t think so. Is it?”

“Fuck if I know.”

“Do you not kiss them because you don’t like them?”

“Nah I’m just not attracted to them.”

“I don’t think that’s racist then.”

“Never have I ever been handcuffed”

Sip. Gasps from around the table as Pilar takes a sip before she reminds them of the con they tried to pull on Erinie involving handcuffs and five barrels of fuel. 

“Never have I ever missed calling my parents at Christmas”

Everyone took a sip at that except for the asker, Pilar. 

“Does it really count if my dad’s dead?” called out Lyle from the end of the table.

“Did you call him?” 

“No”

“Then it counts.”

The game dissolved from there, turning to ouija boards and mystics that they had encountered on their travels. Emily was extolling the values of the fortune tellers on Freedom’s Progress when CJ pushed up, stretching his arms above his head.

“I’m gonna go hit the sack. We got shit to do tomorrow.” He held up a hand in a wave as he walked out of the room, the others yelling after him about being a lightweight. Pilar stood up as well.

“I’m going to turn in too. Circe? You coming?” Pilar asked. Circe looked down at her drink and realized that it was empty again. Probably a sign. The world spun slightly as she got to her feet and Pilar offered an arm to her, which she ignored. That was, until she stumbled and smashed her knee into the bench. Manny and Emily at least had the decency that Lyle lacked to try to cover their laughs. Her ears burned Pilar helped her up and out of the room. 

Circe leaned on Pilar as they walked down the hallway. They were about the same height. Circe realized as they reached the door to their quarters that Pilar had been leaning just as much back on Circe. Circe shot her a puzzled look, to which Pilar began to snicker. “I didn’t want them to notice,” Pilar snorted, plopping herself down on her bunk. “Thanks for the assist.”

Circe mirrored her, laying back onto her own bed. She kicked off her boots and let them fall of the bed. The world spun slightly when she closed her eyes so instead she stared at the ceiling above her, listening to Pilar rummaging through the cupboard in their bathroom area. 

“Here.” A hand appeared over her face, holding a white pill. Circe reached up to grab it, rolling over to face Pilar. “It will help you feel better when you wake up. Nothing worse than working in the engines when hungover.” 

Circe looked down at the pill for a moment. It was smaller but blood began to rush in her ears. She felt hot and cold and her back began to ache.

Ghorek. Dead. Her heart ached in his chest.

She swallowed down the pill as fast as possible, chasing it with some water. It was cold and centred her, taking her time enjoying the clean taste. Not metallic. She was in a soft bed. Her name was Circe. 

She tried to hand Pilar back the bottle but it was pushed into Circe’s hands. “Trust me, you are going to want to drink all of that.” 

Finishing up the bottle of water, Circe curled back up in her bed, her eyes heavy. She lay in the darkness, listening to Pilar’s breath deepen. The girl clenched and unclenched her fists, trying to breathe. 

She was here. She was on the Aspida. She was safe. Her name was Circe. She was free.

“Pilar?” The word spilled out of her before she could keep it locked inside. 

There was a grunt from across the room. 

“I...I had fun tonight.” Circe sat in the silence for a moment, “Thank you.”

She heard the rustle of blankets as Pilar turned over. “You’re a part of our crew now, Circe. You’re one of us.”

The room was silent for a while longer, until soft snores told Circe that Pilar had fallen asleep. And Circe slept too. And that night, she didn’t dream.

Circe tag: @annablogsposts

[iviarellereads]

System Collapse, Chapter 11

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which family means no one's secrets get revealed.

Murderbot spends the trip recharging a bit. The hopper is faster than the ground vehicle, which is good for travel time but bad for its nerves about human safety. MB hopes B-E don't know about the construction access, and if they do, won't be able to find where the HSUs moved the tunnel vehicle.

Iris grabs a med kit and says MB's leakage is worrying her. MB says it should stop soon, and thinks its power drain is a worse problem. It kind of just wants to watch Sanctuary Moon with Art-drone, only Art-drone is even worse off, so it puts on some World Hoppers instead.

Leonide asks if MB is really a SecUnit. Iris tells her to mind her own business. Leonide calls her oversensitive, goes silent for 5.3 seconds, then bursts out to ask if someone is really watching media right now. Tarik deadpans her about distracting himself while flying, and she says fuck all of them in response.

They arrive at the terraforming end of the tunnel to find an obstruction in the hangar, but it's just the shuttle, with a hat! Ratthi deployed the survival tent to keep the dust out. His voice makes MB's performance spike upward with relief.(1)

Ratthi pushes the button for the tent to pack itself up, and they all load into the shuttle. Leonide boards first, but only to make room for Iris and MB to get Art-drone in safely. MB can feel Art watching in the feed for any funny business or betrayal, but MB thinks she just knows the fastest way to escape is to help.

With Art-drone failing, the pathfinders need a little assistance. MB steps in to do what it can, though they're far from the drones it's used to.

Unfortunately, just as everyone's starting to relax, they pull out of a dust cloud and find an armed B-E shuttle following. Iris offers "to authorize deadly force" which MB doesn't need but appreciates. MB positions the pathfinders so that one takes a blow and explodes into a cloud of sensor-scattering debris, allowing the other to swing around and bop the B-E ship on the nose.(2)

The shuttle fell away, still intact but probably dealing with damage, a disoriented bot pilot, and a terrified human crew. Our shuttle powered upward, back on course and widening the distance between us.

As they come out of the comm blackout zone some time later, they see another ship, but quickly determine it's one of their own, a University ship finally come to help.

They pick up a B-E transmission and, having decoded their encryption in just two days, play back the whole argument about whether to engage. Leonide asks for comms, and when given, stands with her team in telling the others to stand down.

The channel got so quiet, Tarik tapped it to make sure it hadn’t gone dead.

Art-prime takes over the pathfinders, redirecting them now that they're not needed for defence. Art-prime starts integrating Art-drone, and Art-drone asks which ship came to help. Art tells it to guess. Art-drone pessimistically declares it must be Holism. They finish the handoff, and as Art-drone goes dead, Iris makes a sobbing noise that startles MB. In a private connection, she asks if there was time for a full transfer, and MB confirms it. Iris adds that she always gets emotional at the thought of losing any part of her Peri and its experiences.

I know, I said. And I did know, and now I was having an emotion. Like a big overwhelming emotion. It felt bad but good, a weird combination of happy and sad and relieved, like something had been stuck and it wasn’t stuck anymore. Cathartic, okay. This fits the definition of cathartic. It was like the way I’d felt when I killed the Target who threatened Amena and laughed at me because I was upset when I thought ART was dead. Except without the violence, and that only lasted a minute or so, and this seemed like it would go on a while.(3) Nobody was dead and I hadn’t had a relapse of my stupid memory thing. And if I did have a relapse, at least I knew what it was now. Don’t just sit there, ART said to me and Iris as it brought the shuttle into its docking module. Console each other. I said, You fuck off at the same time as Iris said, Oh, shut it, Peri, and that felt even better.(4)

=====

(1) I just bet! (2) Insert a skeletor NYEHEHEH giggle from me here. Nonfatal, but completely effective. Love to see it. (3) I just need to take a minute to have my own emotion at this. Like, I keep saying on main and anywhere people will listen that engaging with anger will give you a short-term good feeling and a long-term bad habit that becomes more and more deeply patterned on your daily life and harder to break. And, I just love seeing allusions to that in this sort of fiction. Like, it was a necessary violence, and there's no denying that the feeling was justified afterwards. But, violence and anger are not pathways to fulfillment and joy. The more you give in to the rage bait, the more that anger takes over your life and affects everything you do and everyone you interact with. It's important to be aware of those choices. And I love that Murderbot's commitment is to trying to save life, even when it's life that's threatening itself or its humans. It doesn't always work, but it does make it easier to live with yourself. (4) Yep, it's definitely a love language for Art.

[episodicnostalgia]

Star Trek: The Next Generation, 122 (Apr. 25, 1988) - “Skin of Evil”

Teleplay by: Joseph Stefano & Hanna Louise Shearer Story by: Joseph Stefano Directed by: Joseph L. Scanlan

The Breakdown

Deanna Troi’s shuttle craft suddenly loses power on it’s way back to the Enterprise and she (along with her pilot) end up crash landing on a barren planet.  Fortunately, Enterprise was in communications range when the shuttle went down, so the gang zips off to help.  UNfortunately the planet is controlled by a quasi-omnipotent puddle of crude oil named Armus, who has a developed penchant for inflicting pain, and emotional turmoil in others; and he senses a prime opportunity to do just that.

As it happens, one of Armus’ vaguely defined abilities is to emit a forcefield around Deanna’s shuttle to stop her from being beamed to safety. Not yet aware of what-or-who he’s engaged with, Picard sends an away team comprised of Will Riker, Tasha Yar, Dr. Crusher, & Data, where they first encounter Armus as a black puddle that keeps blocking them from reaching Troi’s shuttle (it/he slithers in front of wherever the away team attempts to go). Eventually Armus re-forms as anthropomorphic garbage bag covered in tar, and threatens to kill anyone who attempts to save Troi. Since Tasha isn’t one to take shit from a villain-of-the-week, she bravely pushes forward… and is immediately killed.

Armus allows the away team to return to their ship (although still without Troi), where Dr. Crusher tries her best to revive Tasha, but to no avail; Lt. Yar is very dead.  To make matters worse, the crew is also no closer to saving Troi.  Indeed, at barely 15 minutes, the bulk of the episode has yet to play out, which effectively remains in a stalemate, as Armus psychologically and physically torments the next away team (but mostly Riker).

While Armus spares no opportunity to remind everyone of how evil he is, Troi slowly manages to pump him for information back in the shuttle wreckage, with the aid of her empathic abilities.  Meanwhile, Worf notices that Armus’ anti-transporter forcefield seems to weaken slightly whenever he’s busy taunting Troi.  The meaning of this isn’t initially made clear, but since the episode is starting to run out of time, Picard figures it’s safe to start wrap things up, and heads down to the planet for this week’s big philosophical showdown!

Upon beaming down, Picard offers himself to Armus in exchange for his crew’s safe release, but only after he’s been allowed to have a private conversation with Troi.  For reasons that aren’t entirely clear, Armus agrees to these terms, giving Picard the opportunity he needs to figure out a solution.  Troi explains that the Armus is a living manifestation of all the hate and rage (akin to a “skin of evil”, if you will) from some race that somehow had those traits removed from themselves, and then presumably discarded on this planet in the form of a sentient waste byproduct.  It turns out his one weakness is receiving emotional validation over being abandoned, which is remarkably convenient.  Armed with that knowledge, Picard unleashes an unrelenting barrage of sympathy in the manner that only a grumpy French dude (with an English accent) could deliver; using pretentious soliloquy, and verbose sentiment. 

And it works!  Armus feels so seen by Picard’s observations (namely that he’s just a sad and empty shell of a tar-monster), that he lowers his guard just enough for Worf to beam the survivors and Piccard back to the Enterprise.  With everyone safe and sound (except for Tasha), the crew of the enterprise leave their exasperated foe behind, along with a warning buoy for future explorers to avoid the goopy incel stranded on the desert planet. 

All-in-all, a close call, but another happy endin-

...oh wait, that’s right.  You see, since the crew member who died also has a star billing in the opening credits, we actually have to spend some time showing the bridge crew in a state of grief (whereas if Deanna’s barely-mentioned pilot had croaked instead, we’d be halfway through the credits already).  Picard holds a funeral wherein he plays a pre-recorded holo-message of Lt. Yar herself, which I guess must be a normal thing to do in the future.  Her hologram proceeds to give a VERY long, personalized thorough message for each person in attendance.  Data wonders aloud if he’s missed the point of this gathering, since he keeps thinking mostly “about himself and how empty life will be without Tasha”, and Picard is like “Nah, you’re pretty much dead on.” [No pun intended]

So… another happy ending, I suppose.

The Verdict

Honestly though, I’m with Data.  ‘Empty’ is basically the only word to describe how I feel about this episode, and that’s a shame.  It’s widely known that Tasha was only killed off because Denise Crosby asked to be released from her contract, but the writers could have chosen a more interesting episode to feature this story beat.  The thing is, I actually appreciate that Tasha’s death wasn’t built up beforehand; I tend to fall in the school of thought that character deaths are often better served when they aren’t heavily projected or drawn out.  The problem is everything else about ‘Skin of evil’ effectively amounts a nothing-episode, with very little to say, and even less to show for it.

Armus as a villain is… certainly a villain I guess, but his motivations and what drives him would leave me with more questions than answers, if only what little we did learn about him wasn’t so dull.  Too much of the episode is spent on the incessant back-and-forth of Picard and Co. insisting they be allowed to save Troi, to be met with Armus regurgitating one insufferable tangent after another about how he won’t because it pleases him not to.  Pretty much the only character who moves the story forward is Troi during her verbal sparring sessions with Armus, while everyone else effectively spins their wheels (I’ll give a few points to Worf though).

I don’t blame the cast for any of this though, as all my criticisms fall to the writing.  In fact, most of the cast have some really solid moments whenever they’re given something to work with.  Worf resisting his warrior impulses in order to take up Tasha’s mantle is well executed by Michael Dorn, as is Data’s confusion over grief (courtesy of Brent Spiner).  Also, despite the fact that I didn’t find Troi’s scenes particularly compelling in-and-of-themselves, Marina Sirtis gives a strong performance, if only because she’s given something to do beyond serving as Picard’s personal lie detector.

The whole episode is such a squandered opportunity to tell a story that could have been one of this season’s (very few) highlights.  Bearing in mind, this episode marks the first time in Star Trek history that a series regular dies without being brought back to life (not counting alternate realities or time travel).  From the stories I’ve heard about the working conditions on the show, especially for the women cast members, I can’t say I blame Denise Crosby for wanting to leave.  Still, there’s a selfish part of me that wishes she stayed until the later seasons when the show began to improve; there was just so much untapped potential for Tasha’s character.

1.5 stars (out of 5)

Additional Observations

So exactly how long ago had Tasha prepared that “in the event of my untimely death” holo message?  She’s presumably known most of the crew for slightly less than a year, but had a full speech for each main character, as if she’d known them for considerably longer.  I’m not saying she couldn’t have made close friends with the crew in that time, but that still means her recording must have been made fairly recently.  Timing is everything, I guess.

Given Picard’s rigid adherence to following rules, and borderline obsessive code of honour, I would have half-expected him to stay on the planet with Armus.  I wouldn’t even be all that surprised if there was an episode in season 2 where a corrupt Admiral calls out Picard’s actions from this episode, by reminding him that a “Starfleet Captain’s word is his bond”, and that he must return to Armus and be tortured for eternity, or give up his rank as captain.  Of course, Picard would accept his fate because his devotion to Starfleet is absolute, but then Data would probably find a loophole in the rules somewhere, which the Admiral would have to begrudgingly accept.  But seriously, you can’t tell me that premise is any less preposterous than a good chunk of season one.

Troi-SPIRACY: In an earlier post, I put forth a scenario that Troi has actually been faking her empathic abilities in order to get her lousy mom off her back, and now she’s in too deep to admit the truth. This episode would seem to refute that theory outright as evidenced by the use of her abilities on Armus, but she’s not fooling me!  We mustn’t forget that Troi is a professional counsellor, who attended one of the most prestigious, and well funded academies in the galaxy.  Clearly, she just used her training and experience to make some astute observations about Armus, and later attributed it to her ‘abilities’ in order to keep up the ruse.  And I know what you’re thinking, “But Troi’s counsel has always seemed hiliarously antiquated in the past, almost as if it was a caricature 80’s pop psychology”; but I maintain that even that was all part of her deception.  Think about it.  Really THINK about it.  What better way to trick everyone into believing you have superpowers than to draw attention away from them with questionable guidance?  Then, having thrown everyone off the scent, all you need to do is to utilize your intellect and sharp deductive reasoning in moments of great need, and pass it off as an ‘empathic ability.’  NICE TRY Deanna! You may have everyone else fooled, but I see you for what your really are.  A keenly proficient student of the human experience, and a valuable ally!  Consider yourself exposed, you fraud!

Worf and Tasha were clearly flirting, right? That can’t just be me.  If she hadn’t died, those two would have done the warrior tango for sure. Poor Worf. Oh well, I’m sure his future romances will all end less tragically.

[transingthoseformers]

Hmmm, the most miserable possible villain decay arc for Sentinel Prime in IDW1 is being found too early due to the Tailgate explosion and being dragged back to the Lost Light unconscious in his Infinitus form only to discover he, notorious anti-romance, has joined the love boat.

Yet he somehow gets dragged into nonsense after nonsense and is personally offended that Rodimus is his successor's successor and tries his damndest to make him something only to be corrupted in turn.

He ends up drunk making out with Getaway after spending two years absolutely loathing Rodimus together, helping cover up crimes the other commits, and discovering they complain and hate the same things. He refuses to ever acknowledge this has happened and blames the ship. Clearly, he can not stay here much longer.

And then Getaway has the audacity to not include him in planning his mutiny. He is furious, offended, and murderous. His fury only gets worse when he finds Getaway has been taken up with Tailgate.

Cheating on him.

Planning a mutiny and assassination without him. And has been in contact with the Galactic Counsel.

He's finally able to finish his make up body in time for Getaway to get caught in a slightly different way and then drags Getaway out, kicking and screaming to avoid him getting super murdered into the Rod Pod, which he steals.

Rodimus and Megatron and everyone kind of sit down and go over the fact that Sentinel was alive, a Minibot piloting a bigger bot (Megatron gets some suspicious side eye duebto the two penny scenario), and apparently pissed Getaway cheated on him with Tailgate.

Though it does explain Sentinel’s very personal hatred for Megatron.

GetSent are meanwhile on the way to the moon and going through several pissy revelations about the other and petty arguments. Both agree they need some place to plan their next move and someone useful.

Getaway calls his boss (spy dad), Prowl.

They show up like a stray dog, leading Prowl + the Moon Husbands to deal with Prowl's spy kid and said spy kid's boyfriend (?)/Prowl's ex-boss both of whose plans got trashed due to the love boat.

Red Alert does feel a little vindicated about his dislike of "poor innocent Infinitus" though.

Sentinel and Getaway going from legitimate threats to Prowl's half-feral problems who live on his couch because they both messed up and came to him licking their wounds since they both have weird almost respect for him.

Fortress Maximus at least enjoys Prowl's suffering.

Hgghjj YES.

Welcome to the Lost Light, Sentinel. Where you are statistically more likely to have a relationship and Riot swears there are pheromones in the walls

You say miserable, i say funny

Rodimus officially proving he's the stronger prime via managing to drag Sentinel under the chaos waves

Sdfhjkk. Yes. GetSent bitchhhh.

You know imagine one of Getaway's theme songs in this scenario being "Toxic" by Britney Spears.

Ah yes. Blame the ship (we know i do)

Sent babygirl are you jealous??

So very jealous???

Ah yes the best kind of murdered: super murdered

Als ohhhhh not the poor RodPod again

Lmao yeahhh

Mmmn yes our "are we frenemies or we we lovehaters?" calling Getaway's dad to take them in

Delightful

Prowl must have so many opinions about GetSent.

Red is right for that

Yepppp yes yes

Max is right on that lol. Moooood.

[megalomaniatron]

He may be the only bot on this entire ship that Soundwave respects, a history going back centuries, paved in shared spilled energon. Nothing escapes the communications officer, Megatron's weariness included. Such is why the warlord will find his schedule cleared on his return to the bridge, a multitude of completed files and menial daily requirements all checked off on his console. A single warm cup of energon awaiting at his seat.

Megatron does not believe in gods or in the divine right of Primes. He barely believes that actions have consequences, most of the time.

But he would put every last piece of ordinance on the Nemesis and a sizable vial of his own innermost energon down on Soundwave’s name, should it come to that. No one was a finer blade, a more clever disguise, a sharper combatant. Truly, the Decepticon Cause would have never left the incubation crèche without Soundwave’s silent direction.

The warm fuel is welcome. The discovery of the more arduous aspects of inventory management already being completed (approvals were getting harder and harder to sign off on, and denials had to be cited and justified), as well as a neatly compiled list of credible reports and patrol briefs that would only need his stamp before being completed…

Megatron shunts the necessary files to a datapad and takes the energon with him, making his way over to Soundwave’s currently favored access console to sit beside him in companionable silence, content to spend this late evening working in parallel until his spymaster decides to sign out for the night shift.