#you just KNOW neelix is the one who makes them all sit down

[catgirljaneway]

Year of Hell Family Dinner

Voy + Textposts 5

(Voy + Textposts 4) - (Voy + Textposts 6)

[bumblingbabooshka]

You want Tuvok asks?? Okay, I'll send some from time to time now lol

Can I have some uhhh Tuvok & Kes mentoring relationship analysis and maybe hcs?

Personally, I think... we all know Kes sees parts of her father in Tuvok etc right but hc that Tuvok also sees parts of Asil in Kes? Anyway, your turn. Don't worry about writing "too much", no such thing when it comes to you!!

YEAAAH TUVOK ASK!!! I hide it well so few people know this but I actually like Tuvok quite a bit so this ask was very much welcome, thank you!! <3

KES!!!! Tuvok's one true daughter (other than Asil, his actual one true daughter) in my mind!!!! I wish more of the show actually showed their mentorship. Like him and Kes on an away mission or there being a 'student becomes the teacher' moment as her powers grow. I imagine a scene where Kes teaches a patient who's in pain a breathing technique to calm him down as she bandages him up and revealing that Tuvok taught her that technique! I also like the thought of aliens mistaking them for being the same species due to their pointed ears and telepathic abilities. The Kes-Tuvok dynamic also provides more opportunities to learn about their families and upbringings and values since they both seem like fairly introspective people. I can imagine Kes earnestly wanting to learn about and engage with Vulcan culture. That's a similarity between her and Neelix, a fascination with others, but Kes is calmer and Tuvok would be more open to talking with her about it because he knows she's not gonna make a big fuss, hehehe~ I would put a scene in the Elogium episode where she talked to Tuvok about it and he mentioned (obliquely) the pon farr and tried to comfort her. (She promises to keep this a secret - it's not to be spoken about!) There'd also be some little tidbits about his kids...hate that the only thing we really know about them is that there are four, Sek studies music and they were "well behaved" as children. And that last bit might be an exaggeration on Tuvok's part. I wish Kes was just in general more part of the crew. She's really only ever seen in sickbay even though she was introduced as very adventurous and curious and wanting to "peer into every crack in the universe". I can imagine a scene where Kes is doing something dangerous and Tuvok's watching her and Janeway's like "haha it's nervewracking, sitting back and doing nothing isn't it?" and Tuvok's like "I have no nerves to 'wrack', captain but this experience is....familiar." <- Sometimes you have to watch your kids fuck around so they can find out Episode where Kes & Tuvok are able to telepathically communicate despite being in completely different areas of the ship and so are able to coordinate and fight back against some invading aliens. I'd add a continuing subplot between Harry & Kes where they are like the unofficial/official proteges of Janeway and Tuvok respectively and playfully tease each other or argue about it. Secretly competitive A+ students though they're motivated by different things. Kes by her curiosity and Harry by a desire to prove himself.

I can imagine them having a moment where they talk about the weirdness of aging differently from everyone else. <- Episode where Kes is frustrated with everyone treating her like a kid. Tuvok doesn't experience this of course but I do wonder about a Vulcan's view on aging while surrounded by people who are both significantly younger than you but also your peers? This conversation veers quickly into death and loss. Kes who will die naturally long before anyone else and Tuvok who will die naturally long after everyone else. Scene where Kes tries to get the doctor to meditate (comedy) Scene where Kes learns how to telepathically shift the air so that she can hover above the ground. (comedy, it's not very useful except if they need to scout something she can slowly 'fly' high enough to see it but it takes SO much energy.) I can imagine Tuvok seeing a lot of his own children in Kes. I imagine having to teach your children how to use their telepathic powers is a near lifelong process for a Vulcan which he relives in his formal mentorship with Kes. Kes tells Janeway that Tuvok is "devoted to" T'Pel which makes me imagine him talking to Kes about her...showing how close they are, that he trusts her with that information and feels comfortable talking about his family to her...or that Kes is observant enough to pick up on the devotion he feels even though he doesn't divulge much. Waaa. Headcanon that Tuvok keeps a candle burning for Kes even several years after her departure and thinks about her often, the same way he thinks of his family. Headcanon that very occasionally Tuvok will be able to 'feel' Kes' presence. (Usually when he's alone) He attempts at times to communicate with her if she is 'around' long enough but whatever he gets in return he is not able to parse. He wonders if he ever will be. He's grateful that she tries regardless. One time he feels it when with Neelix is able to perform a sort of double telepathic telephone where Neelix can receive the message as well: He is similarly unable to parse it but he cries tears of joy anyway. Tuvok doesn't understand why but Neelix says it's ok so fine. Tuvok is the only person besides the doctor who Kes can talk about her weird medical dead people surgery stuff with!! (He isn't particularly eager but he's not gonna turn her away). There's awkwardness between them after the Tuvix situation (Because Tuvix was attracted to her) but they clear it up (Tuvok is not attracted to her) and everything's fine again. Kes teaches Tuvok how to sew. Tuvok later uses this to mend Naomi's flotter doll and also create a parachute during some sort of death defying stunt he has to pull along with the rest of the crew. Kes has medical papers published in Voyager's database which are widely circulated upon reaching the alpha quadrant and are used frequently by Tom when he has to do a medical thing because Kes created 'Tom Notes' which are just simplifying a bunch of the medical jargon in many of Voyager's papers. She called them 'Tom Notes' bc he's the only nurse and definitely not to poke fun <3 <- She's mischievous as she is helpful! Tuvok has seen her snacking on bugs multiple times as they tend to the plants in the airponics bay and he does think it's weird but he doesn't comment on it so she thinks he hasn't seen v_v

[femmmie]

The planet with two faces

I wrote this for @haruspeks in the @startrekwintergiftexchange ! I've worked on it for the entire month lol with my partner, we had so much fun thinking of scenarios and stuff! We also invented a Delta Quadrant planet haha :) I hope you like it! <3

~

"Chakotay!" Janeway calls out for her number one.

Her head hurts - the Janurean who just hit her, lays knocked out on the ground.

"Captain," a strained voice comes from behind Janeway. "We have to retreat, there is no winning this..."

"Just stay behind me!" Janeway commands. But more and more Janureans flood into the room.

"Surrender," their leader says. "And we will spare your life."

Janeway looks the hostile alien in the eye. "No."

read on ao3

~

One day earlier

~

"Captain, Seven," the Doctor greets the two women in his sick bay.

"Is this really a good idea, Seven?" Janeway frowns at her ex-borg Astrometrics officer. But a smile tugs at the corners of her mouth. Seven looks as determined as ever. A quality Janeway appreciates, as she is a stubborn person herself. Debating Seven is never dull or easy.

"My calculations are sound. I assure you, captain, it is safe."

"I concur," the Doctor says, examining the screen with data about the procedure he's about to conduct on them. He tilts his head, looking at Janeway. "You won't feel a thing."

"That's not what I am worried about," Janeway says with one eyebrow raised.

"We will be at great tactical advantage, and will not need transponders," Seven answers.

Janeway squints and scrunches her nose. Seven will always get her way in the end anyway. "Let's just get this over with..."

~

"What's on the menu today, buddy?" Chakotay asks Neelix with a smile.

"Oh! Well, nothing special today, I'm afraid, commander. But! Tomorrow I will have the chance to collect all kinds of delicious herbs and vegetables from Janu. I can't wait to cook with those! It's almost Voyager's birthday, did you know that? I'm going to make an excellent Voyager birthday soup!"

Chakotay looks straight at him.

"Oh! Well, today, I do have a stew, famous on Earth for it's spices and... sloppy texture..."

"Right... Thank you, Neelix."

Seven walks into the mess hall.

"Seven! What a nice surprise, I don't see you often here in the mess hall."

"I'm not here to eat," Seven tells him. I'm here to discuss the tactics of the mission with the captain and commander Chakotay."

"You know, I'm also joining your expedition!"

"You are?"

"Why yes, it's so I can collect some delicious herb-"

"Captain." Seven walks up to Janeway, who just entered the room. "Is it wise to bring Neelix with us? He has insufficient combat training."

"We won't be fighting anyone, Seven," Janeway says calmly.

"How do you know this?"

"We're going there to scan for Deuterium, as we can't pierce the magnetic field of the planet. We'll be in and out, no questions asked."

Janeway and Seven sit down at Chakotay's table, and they talk while Janeway and Chakotay eat from the stew reluctantly. Seven looks at it, puzzled.

"Do you truly choose this over ration bars, Captain?" she asks.

Janeway looks at Seven, not able to hide her smile anymore. "You know what, Chakotay? Seven has a point."

~

Janeway, Neelix, Chakotay and Seven get ready to step into the Delta Flyer.

"Good luck finding that Deuterium source, team!" Tom Paris says. "And..." he looks at Chakotay. "Take care of her for me?"

Seven looks at Janeway, searching her face for answers.

"He means the Deltaflyer."

"Of course I will," Chakotay reassures Tom Paris. He pats him on the shoulder and enters the flyer. Paris looks after them, a smile on his face but his eyes revealing worry. He is the best pilot after all, not Chakotay. But the commander has more experience dealing with pre-warp civilizations. He sighs and looks after them as they fly away.

They leave Voyager and fly into space, approaching the red and green planet of Janu.

"Isn't that pretty," Neelix gushes, looking ahead. "It's like the planet has two faces, one on each side with it's own color."

"We will be 100% undetectable with the Deltaflyer's improved camouflage," Janeway says.

Chakotay nods. "And we should be able to cruise through the magnetic field with our navigational deflector and coating. The corrosive effects of the field should keep to a minimum."

Seven and Janeway raise their eyebrows.

As they get closer to the planet, they enter the magnetic field. The shuttle begins to shake and they are hit by some space rubble.

"Shields at 80 percent," the computer voice says.

"Hold on, this will be a bumpy ride!" Chakotay says. Everyone grips their armrests.

"Shields at 40 percent," the computer says in the same steady tone as always. But the crew doesn't feel so steady. They bounce around the aircraft. The only one still in place is Chakotay, a crazed look in his eyes, mirroring his past when he was still with the Maquis.

~

Janeway slowly comes to. Her vision sharpens and she sees a wooden ceiling. Her head hurts. In fact, her entire body hurts. She slowly turns to look at her surroundings and sees someone sitting in a chair beside her. It's a Janurean.

"Oh no, the prime directive," Janeway thinks. But it's too late for that now.

"How are you feeling?" The Janurean asks.

"Like I've been hit by something big. But it seems you're taking good care of me."

The Janurean blushes and smiles. It's a young woman. "I'm taking care of you and your friends. You fell out of the sky. You must be our gods."

"Oh, no, not at all," Janeway says a bit too hasty. Because waking up, she doesn't have a good cover story yet. "We, ah, we got swept up by a mighty wind, and then we fell down, it's quite remarkable."

"How could the wind sweep up a house made of metal?" the woman says.

"I have no idea either," Janeway says. She sits up, rubbing her temple. The lack of morning coffee is becoming a real problem.

Janeway hears someone groaning. She turns around and sees her crew all in beds, clothed in Janurean robes. They are also waking up. No sign of their transponders or combadges.

"Where are our clothes?" She asks.

The woman looks at her apologetically. In a hushed voice, she says, "it's not safe to wear the clothes of the gods. We're protecting you here, but there are many who also saw the falling star. And they're looking for you."

"What do they want with us?" Chakotay chimes in.

"They think the falling of the gods means the end of time. Destroying you is the only way to save our world. I know, it's foolish and I don't believe it at all. It think you're here to enlighten us. And so does my family."

A small family enters through the doorway. A young male, an elderly person and two small kids. One shy, the other waving at them. Neelix winks at her. She laughs. "You look funny," she says. Neelix smiles.

"I'm very grateful you've tended to us, but I need to know where our clothes and things are, and where our... metal house is?"

"Oh, don't worry, we have hidden your house well. Nobody can find it. It's safe."

"I appreciate that," Janeway says, getting annoyed now, "but I still would like to know where it is."

"Please," the woman says. "Tell us about the skies? Teach us?"

Janeway and Chakotay look at each other.

"How do you feel?"

"I've been better," Chakotay jokes.

Seven eyes the windows and door of the room. She gets up. Her dress is brown and wavy. Janeway thinks it suits her better than the suit the Doctor gave her. Her hair is loose and falls over her shoulders. Seven shoots her a look. Janeway quickly looks back at Chakotay.

The Janureans huddle together in the doorway. "It's not safe to go outside," they urge Seven.

"Let's try to think of a plan first," Chakotay says.

"Let me through, I can take care of myself," Seven insists. She pushes past them and is out of sight.

Chakotay looks at Janeway like he blames her. Janeway ignores it.

~

Seven walks outside. It's early morning. Three moons grace the green sky. The house of their hosts stands in a small village. There are several shrines around, all portraying the moons. She scans the inscriptions. The shrines indeed tell the tale of the gods, that 'will come down again to bring forth the final Wisdom'. Nobody is outside yet but her. She resolutely walks over the village square, in a straight line towards the small alien forest beside it...

~

Janeway and Chakotay try various ways to get the family to give back their gear. But nothing seems to work: they don't respond to appeals to their ego, and will not be divided in any way. They just want to learn about the sky. Chakotay tells them some basic things that wouldn't further compromise the prime directive. Janeway looks distracted. They all have breakfast together, everyone except for Seven, who's still gone. Chakotay peers out of the windows. But Janeway just chows down on the food they've been given.

"Well, this is delicious!" Neelix breaks the tension. "What is this made of?"

One of the children says, "It's my favorite too! We add herbs from our garden to make it extra tasty."

"I would love to see that garden!" Neelix says, friendly. The child quickly finishes their meals and tugs on Neelix's arm. The mother says it's okay, as the garden is fenced. Nobody will be able to spot Neelix there. They walk into the garden.

"Wow, these flowers are beautiful."

"And tasty!" The kid says.

"I really like this place, it's so pretty! And your family so nice."

"Not everyone is nice," the kid says, face clouding over.

"Oh, yes I heard the people who want to capture me and my friends?"

"They are mean about that, yes. But they are always mean. They want to go back to how things were before."

"How were things before?"

"I don't know! I'm just a kid." Neelix smiles.

"But I do know where your stuff is! Come, follow me!"

Neelix follows the kid around a corner, and through a shrub, out of the garden.

"You know kid, sometimes you gotta look back in order to move forward. But forward you must go."

They walk to a shed behind the house.

"Here it is!"

Neelix opens the door of the shed, and puts their combadges into his pocket.

"YOU THERE!" An angry Janurean calls. He has a whole bunch of fierce looking friends behind him.

"I guess these are the mean people," Neelix says to the kid and they both run around the house, back inside.

"Where did you just come from?" The mom asks the kid.

"I just showed him their stuff..."

"That's dangerous!"

"But it's theirs!"

"Please, don't blame your kid, I shouldn't have let them out of the garden in the first place."

Neelix gives the combadges back to Janeway and Chakotay.

The angry mob bursts into the room.

"Give us the tri-moon gods!" their leader commands.

The young woman who tended to the Voyager crew, hisses. "Leave the gods be! They are here to teach us!"

"They are here to destroy us!"

Janeway stands up. Her injuries are still fresh, but her wit has fully returned. "We are neither gods, teachers nor destroyers. We are simply explorers from the other side of Janu. We just want to go back home-"

The angry Janureans attack and hit the elder Janurean.

"Leave them out of it!" Chakotay calls out and jumps into the fray.

Everyone is fighting, except for Neelix who hides under a table with the two kids.

Janeway jumps in front of a big Janurean that was about to hit the young woman. In stead, the blow lands on her head. She's out of a moment. When she comes to, the fight is still ongoing.

"Chakotay!"

"Captain, we have to retreat, there is no winning this..."

"Just stay behind me!"

"Surrender," their leader says. "And we will spare your life, for now."

Janeway looks the hostile alien in the eye. "No."

And at that exact time, Neelix, Chakotay and Janeway disappear.

~

"How did you know where the Delta Flyer was?" Chakotay asks Seven, who sits smugly at the helm.

"Irrelevant," she jokes.

"Seven used her Borg-skills to locate it," Janeway says, smiling into one corner of her mouth. "That is, she saw some bushes outside of the village and used her, very human, common sense." Seven smirks.

"How do you know that?" Chakotay asks.

"The Doctor installed a temporary mind-link in our cerebrum. This way, we could communicate, not that much unlike the Borg, and work together."

"It was highly effective," Seven adds. "Although," she pauses for a moment, looking at Janeway. "It was strange as well. I thought I would be more used to a shared mind, but I think... I like a bit of mystery."

Janeway, Chakotay and Neelix look at her, dumbfounded. Then everyone laughs. Except for Seven.

"And guess what?" Neelix says. And he shows a bag full of herbs from the planet. "We will eat Voyager birthday soup tomorrow!"

Chakotay and Janeway politely smile and thank Neelix. Seven raises her eyebrow.

"Captain," she says.

"What is it, Seven?"

"Why did you give all those replicated goods to the Janurean family?"

Janeway sighed. "I know we can't interfere with their lives too much, but at least they will be able to buy off their enemies for a while so they don't get more trouble. Didn't you get that through our link?"

"Your emotions often cloud your judgement and your thoughts become hard to read."

"I'm a human being, having emotions is part of the package deal. Besides, I feel your emotions as well."

Seven looks stoic, too stoic maybe.

"It is nice to understand each other for once, though."

[jacensolodjo]

Sometimes I think about B’Elanna Torres.

No, no stay with me for a second let me gush abt my fave mixed engineer.

I think about this woman who, before the Maquis, she had nobody. Her mother was only the Klingon gods know where, her father fucked off when she was a kiddo because he was a racist prick. She was teased mercilessly by people she was, arguably, smarter than simply for the crime of being part Klingon.

And like, yeah we talk about how Star Trek timeline is ~post oppression~ but if you watch Voyager and DS9 you know that isn’t true. It comes in different forms, different species of intelligent life. But it’s there. The biggest of which of course being the Bajorans vs. Cardassians.

And here we have B’Elanna Torres. Half-Klingon, fighting against that half of her all of her life because she was told since birth it was Bad Wrong. But she joins the Maquis. She has a spirit that still hasn’t been crushed. She was ‘betrayed’ by Starfleet (read: dropped out because things were racist there too). She is a good person no matter how much she rails against the idea of being so. And she finds a family with the Maquis. She doesn’t start thinking about it until of course suddenly she’s trebuchet’d across the fucking galaxy to a totally different quadrant.

And she is once again surrounded by Starfleet, made to feel Bad Wrong. She’s smart, exceedingly so. She’s still acerbic even to Chakotay who she is arguably closest with next to Seska who turns out to surprise be one of the enemy (aka Cardassian).

She has earned her attitude. She has earned keeping people at a distance. Nothing she could say or do would make things better or worse anyway, so why not just protect yourself?

But then. Shock of all shocks. Janeway appears like an angel descending from the fucking clouds (insert harp music) and she almost immediately trusts B’Elanna’s word despite their first impressions not being too great. Janeway was there because of the Maquis. B’Elanna is Maquis. But she’s a damn fine engineer. Janeway makes this honestly almost out of left field decision to trust Chakotay’s word (perhaps with Tuvok admitting despite everything that B’Elanna is as good as Chakotay says cause he’s seen it and he knows they can’t afford to lose such a fine engineer in an unknown scenario).

B’Elanna has the total capacity to be loyal. She’ll be a pain while being such but she is loyal. And everyone learns that. Her family is no longer just Maquis. But it’s Harry Kim, it’s Kathryn Janeway, it’s even on some level Neelix of all people. And then we add Seven of Nine down the line who instantly recognizes B’Elanna’s skill and authority regardless of how mean B’Elanna is for a while there. Given her trials when she first got the job I don’t blame her being on guard with Seven especially given this is an ex-Borg we’re talking about. Seven doesn’t sit there and question B’Elanna’s orders, though, and that’s so key (she may feel she has a better solution but she accepts B’Elanna gives the orders even if she does do stuff without orders for a while there). She is maybe the third person who has so quickly accepted who B’Elanna is and what she’s capable of and that is just so uplifting. Sure, they’re antagonistic for a while but things settle. They recognize each other’s skill and expertise. It’s never explicitly them jockeying for position as the go-to engineer, they’re just made to do that by the script on a meta level. 

But the Voyager crew. They accept she is who she is. ‘Forehead and bad attitude’ and all. She is accepted without hesitance for the first time in her goddamn life and I’m not supposed to be emotional about that decades later? To say nothing of getting to see this brown woman, who is a successful engineer with a family, struggle with things like Depression. I mean, at that point non-white people weren’t allowed to show emotion like that. They weren’t allowed to be vulnerable. Still aren’t on some level now. Especially women without being accused of having some motive or whatever. She is also allowed to be angry without being accused of it being her time of the month every time you turn around. In fact I can’t remember a time she was ever accused of PMSing when she had an outburst. Though I guess it depends on how you feel abt it being blamed solely on her klingon side. 

But she gets through it not exactly through the power of love but the power of acceptance not just of the emotions she has that are negative (depression) or deemed negative (anger) but of her as a person. Bad shit happened, she can’t change it, but it’s okay to feel like shit abt it, too. They don’t ‘save’ her. They stay there while she saves herself.

Lieutenant B’Elanna fucking Torres. Chief Engineer. USS Voyager. She is the hero of her own damn story whether you like it or not. With a little help from her friends family.

[myenterpriseisparked]

Little things from Star Trek Voyager that make me soft:

- Harry inviting Captain Janeway to Tom’s holobar for games and the way Janeway seems so touched at being included

- When Tom makes a cheesy joke at the helm and Janeway rolls with it while smirking at him knowingly (ex. “What if we set up a bicycle in the mess hall and pedal our way home?” “Now why didn’t I think of that.”)

 - When the ship is traveling through the Void and Harry writes a concerto on his clarinet and Tuvok stops to listen to it because he knows Harry worked hard on it

- When Chakotay makes little jokes with Harry and chuckles to himself when Harry jokes back like a proud dad

- Tuvok and Seven bonding over how dumb they think humans are

- The way Janeway looks at Sam Wildman when Sam tells her she’s pregnant. Janeway is clearly sympathizing with her nervousness about having a baby in the Delta Quadrant but she congratulates her anyway because she knows Sam needs to feel supported in her decision.

- When Tuvok tells Neelix he isn’t completely inept during security training and Neelix treats that like the massive Vulcan compliment it is

- The achingly gentle way Janeway looks at all of her crew members when they’re going through a tough time

- How defensive Chakotay gets when any member of the crew questions the captain’s judgement

- At Janeway’s funeral in “Coda,” she manages to keep her emotions in check until Harry starts talking and then she cries

- The fact that Janeway cries like a real person. Like, her face scrunches up, her lip quivers. She’s not out here crying those fake-ass stoic tears that other fictional characters do. She’s crying for real. 

- When Tom covers for Harry’s indiscretion because he knows how important Harry’s clean Starfleet record is to him

- The way Janeway hugs Kes during Elogium and sits to talk to her about puberty while gently stroking her hair and listening to her patiently

- The fact that there’s a pot of coffee ready in Janeway’s ready room all the time and you just know that Chakotay is using his own replicator rations for her

- In the wedding between duplicate Tom and B’Elanna when Chakotay walks B’Elanna down the isle and Janeway walks Tom down the aisle and they both look like the proudest parents to ever exist

- Chakotay and Neelix’s background friendship. You have to squint for it, but they have some funny little moments together that indicate an offscreen friendship that I wish we could have seen more of

- The fact that Janeway goes to visit almost everyone who gets admitted to sickbay

- Tom telling Harry that he will never forget Harry defending him in “The Chute” simply because he is Harry’s friend. Not because he had something Harry needed, or because Harry couldn’t survive without him, just because “this man is my friend.”

- When Janeway flat-out tells Harry that she thinks of him like a son and she’s proud of how he’s grown since coming on Voyager

- The way Tuvok just really, really loves his wife

- The fact that Janeway makes baby blankets for babies born on Voyager 

- How absolutely into Captain Proton Harry and Tom get (and how into character Janeway gets when she plays Arachnia)

- Chakotay and Janeway exchanging looks when someone says something dumb, especially when it’s one of their officers and they just look amused/exasperated

- “Chakotay? Are you there?” “No, I left an hour ago!”

- Tom inviting Seven to play ping pong because he thought she might enjoy the math behind it

- The way that Janeway never writes Neelix off, even though he can be a pest sometimes. If he says he knows how to do something, she lets him take a whack at it. If he’s got a story to tell and there’s no immediate danger, she listens. When he’s clearly baiting her into a conversation where he can show off his knowledge of Earth history, she bites and encourages him to tell her more because she knows it’s important to him to know about the history of the cultures represented on the ship.

- The fact that Neelix tries to get to know the cultures represented on the ship, even when he gets it wrong sometimes. He has good intentions.

- The entirety of Neelix and Tuvok’s interactions during “Riddles.” I was a hot mess that entire episode.

- Janeway finding out Tuvok’s birthday, making him a cake, baiting him into thinking she was mad at him so she could do a dramatic reveal, and Tuvok blowing out the candle even though he thought the candle was dumb just because she’s his best friend and he loves her

- The way Chakotay turns into Hearteyes McGee every time Janeway puts her hands on her hips, cocks her brow, and tells off an enemy

- How excited the whole crew gets when they find a cool space anomaly that isn’t immediately threatening them

- The fact that Janeway does her best to allow her officers to pursue their interests. Like when Tom asks to build the Delta Flyer, she lets him because cool spaceships are his Thing. When they find that lost ship from the early Mars missions, she lets Chakotay lead the away mission because that’s his Thing. She lets B’Elanna and Harry make a ton of adjustments to the engines because it might help them get home faster, but also because that’s their Thing. She understands how frustrating it can be to be locked in a spaceship for years without a way to pursue your interests and hobbies outside of the holodeck so she does her best to let them do their Things when opportunities do arise. 

- When Tom and Harry start a street brawl because they tried to play drunk tennis with some aliens and Janeway dresses them down for unbecoming conduct but then is like “.... so did you win?”

- The fact that both Harry and B’Elanna have fever dreams where they very clearly reveal that they see Janeway as a mother figure

- Seven of Nine and Naomi’s friendship and how pure it is and also how Seven always calls Naomi by her full name

- Also Neelix and Naomi’s friendship

- And the fact that Naomi is the Captain’s Assistant and Chakotay and Janeway send her back and forth between the two of them with messages because it makes her feel important

- I guess just Naomi Wildman in general

- Seven and The Doctor connecting over music

[coraclavia]

Star Trek: Choir Edition

just go with me here

Benjamin Sisko: Bass 2

great attitude

first person to welcome new singers

always brings his pencil and a closed-top waterbottle

voted choir president every year

always practices

Jean-Luc Picard: Tenor 2

always early to rehearsal

corrects the conductor’s French pronunciation

irons his choir robe

“I already sang this in my old choir”

brings his own pitchpipe

practices, and judges those who don’t

Kathryn Janeway: Alto 2

will happily sing tenor if needed

ragged choir folder held together with duct tape

wears a t-shirt and gym shorts under her choir robe

drinks coffee during rehearsal because fuck you

does not practice, but is an excellent sightreader

Beverly Crusher: Alto 1

not early to rehearsals, but not late

groans audibly when the conductor tells bad jokes

aces tricky chromatic lines at a cold sightread

has never sung a melody

writes down conductor quotes in her music

practices once or twice a year

Harry Kim and Tom Paris: Tenor 1

constantly pranking each other throughout rehearsals

officially banned from ever touching the pitchpipe

think they know the solfege hand signals

do not actually know the solfege hand signals

don’t practice, but no one calls them on it because there aren’t enough tenors

William Riker: Baritone

is pretty sure he’s actually a tenor

giggles if the conductor says anything about measure 69

can kind of read music

has been waiting all year for a song with an egg shaker

immediately volunteers to play the egg shaker

doesn’t practice, but writes his own music and shows everyone

Chakotay: Tenor 2

joined choir because the girl he likes asked him to

lip-syncs the high notes

cried manly tears the first time he heard Eriks Esenvald’s “Stars”

sways the wrong direction

goes out of his way to tell the altos they sound great

practices

Tuvok: Bass 2

pre-1500 music only, please

corrects the conductor’s Latin

can read neumes, why can’t you

it’s ‘ut,’ not ‘do’

prefers pitches given by tuning fork

has music memorized by the second rehearsal

doesn’t practice. doesn’t need to.

Deanna Troi: Soprano 1

does vocal warmups in the car on the way to rehearsal

“is there a descant?”

“can you play the descant?”

wears heels even when she’s in the third row

actually laughs at the conductor’s jokes

practices and comes to rehearsal with pertinent questions

Ezri Dax: Soprano 2

has never been in a choir before, but is excited to be here

not entirely sure how her part goes

eighteen seconds late to rehearsal

thinks the basses sound awesome

forgot to practice once and felt terrible about it

Kira Nerys: Alto 2

glares at people who walk into rehearsal late

refuses to sit anywhere but the back row

cries in verse 3 of “The Road Home” by Paulus

but will never, ever admit it

might practice 

Odo and Quark: Baritone

hate each other

refuse to address each other directly

but refuse to sit apart from each other

only practice to make the other look bad

Neelix: Tenor 2

a little too enthusiastic

drops choir folder, spills music across the floor

is not sure which piece we’re working on right now

has closed-top waterbottle but still manages to spill

“I love Eric Whitacre!”

practiced the wrong music

Q: Baritone

lost his choir folder after the first rehearsal

metal waterbottle that falls over loudly

“I learn better by ear” = never learned to read music

was hoping this was a show choir

“I was going to practice but I lost my music”

Lwaxana Troi: Soprano 1

will literally murder anyone who asks her to sing soprano 2

sits in the back row

has a pencil but never marks anything in her music

vibrato so wide you could drive a truck through it

has a standing reservation as the soloist for “O Holy Night” in her church choir

has never heard of practicing

Miles O’Brien: Baritone

can’t sing low enough for bass 2

can’t sing high enough for tenor

so I guess he’s a baritone

has to be reminded to flip every single R in every single piece

meant to practice. he really did.

Q

quit when she realized this wasn’t show choir

[reedalert]

First dance

Request: Oh pick me! Harry Kim and male s/o learning to waltz?(or regular gn s/o) They could be on a mission, holo deck, boredom, what have you. I'm soft for soon to be lovers/spouses dancing and realizing they catching feelings for each other and then they come dress in their best the other has yet to see and 👀😳😍🥰

Requested by: @youngcroissantturkeyworribler Pairing: Harry Kim x reader

Prompt: 23. “I want you, and only you.”

Word count: 857

Notes/warnings: just fluff, nothing else

As more and more time was passing on Voyager, the crew was making up new activities to pass the time and keep morale up. The newest event came after Neelix read through the databanks of the computer and finding the old Earth tradition of galas, balls and waltzes. He thought it would be a great way to bring the crew out of their comfort zones and make it a fun and unique memory for them.

The news of the activity sent everyone in a frenzy. Who will they go to the ball with? What will they wear?

"Come on, Harry! This is the perfect occasion for you to ask Y/N out!" Tom Paris encouraged his friend.

"Wha-what? No way! They probably have a date already... or at least five people lined up to ask them!" The Ensign exclaimed, but quickly switched to whispering, since he realised that they are in the mess hall.

"Well then, it's time to skip the queue! Speaking of which, here they come!" Tom said, as you walked through the door. "Good luck!"

He stood up from the table and made his way towards you, leaving Harry alone.

"Have fun!" he patted your shoulder as he exited.

Before you could ask anything, he disappeared. Confused, you saw the empty seat at Harry's table and you took it as an invitation to sit down.

"Hi!" you greeted him, trying to stay as calm as possible.

"H-hi."

A moment of silence passed. Somewhere, you could hear a group of other ensigns giggling.

It was painfully obvious to everyone - except the two of you - that you were madly in love with each other. The crew lost count of your awkward interactions basically a week after you got stranded in the Delta quadrant, so everyone was just praying for one of you act on your feelings already.

"Do you have a partner for the gala already?" Harry managed to ask.

"No." you replied bluntly. "Do you?"

"No, not yet."

Just ask them. Ask them already, Harry thought.

Please ask me. Just get it over with, you thought.

"W-while we figure that out... do you want to go practise the waltz? Say, in the holodeck, at 2000, today?" The Ensign asked.

This... was such a stupid thing to say, Harry scolded himself. Practice, but not ask her out? What am I thinking?

"Of course." your reply snapped him out of his thoughts. "I'll see you there."

You walked up and down your room, thinking about what you should wear. On your bed laid a set of casual clothes. It is just a rehearsal, after all. Next to it was your beautiful formal attire. You should test out how you can step in it, shouldn't you?

You were cracking your knuckles in front of the doors of holodeck 1. The program was already running, even though it was 5 minutes before 2000. Looking at your faint reflection in the panel, you saw that your clothes were shining, you looked better than ever before.

You stepped inside. Glancing around, you noticed that you were in an exquisite ballroom, probably from the 1800s, you weren't sure. You were never good with history. Harry was glaring at himself in one of the huge mirrors. He didn't look so bad himself, in a form fitting tuxedo.

"Hello, handsome." the words slipped out fo your mouth. You didn't know you had the confidence in you.

He turned around, wanting to say something. But the sight in front of him left him speechless.

He shook his head slightly, smiled and held out his hand.

"Shall we?"

The music started playing and you got carried away by the tunes and the movement. You had never really danced before, but with Harry, it seemed like you had been waltzing your whole life. Your bodies were in sink, your hand felt comfortable in his. You got lost in his eyes.

Everything was perfect. You closed your eyes.

You were almost disappointed when the music stopped. You stepped away from each other, back to your anxious selves. He scratched the back of his head, while you started cracking your knuckles again.

"So... do you still not know who you're taking to the ball?"

Harry turned around for a second. When he turned back towards you, he had a faint, worried smile on his face.

“I want you, and only you.”

"Really?" you asked, even though it was more of a reflex than an actual question.

"I'm madly in love with you Y/N. Can't you see that?"

You giggled.

"As a matter of fact, I can."

His eyes widened.

"And for the record, I feel the same way about you." You smirked.

His mouth curled into an even bigger smile.

"This will be one hell of a first date." He chuckled.

"Well, you waited long enough, so it better be something special. Besides, it'll be good practise for when we get married." you teased him, snaking your arm around his.

"Come on, let's get out of here. My quarters?" he offered.

"Sounds great."

[starbuck09256]

Snowy Lane of memories

MSR

Post revivial although super AU

Emily is alive and so is Maggie. Mulder and Scully have three other children as well. When Mulder and Scully are called away on a conference and leave their tribe behind how do they cope?

Tagging @today-in-fic

Day one Fictober

It’s been one week without their parents. While they originally thought it would be fun the Mulder kids really miss their parents. 

Emily the oldest at 9 sits with her three younger siblings on the steps of the farm house. They are bundled up as snow swirls around the porch steps. It’s late february as the chill has moved in. Their grandmother is inside watching from the window as she stirs the crockpot of homemade soup. It’s been a long 7 days, and while she originally was thrilled to have such uninterrupted time with the three best kids she knows, there have been lots of tears. She bites her lip. Hating to admit her daughter was right, there was a reason why they didn’t often leave the kids. After everything that has happened to their family the level of codependency is somewhat suffocating. She always knew Dana would be a wonderful mother, and god is she, and fox is such an involved and exceptional father. They dote on these kids and it's not hard to understand why. Emily’s health issues, Jacksons and Williams unique sensing. The littlest one is such a combination of her parents. Maggie sighs watches the siblings sit on the porch nervously waiting for their parents to drive up the long windy drive. 

Emily pulls the hat a little lower for her sister. Who happily looks up and smiles. Emily smiles too but turns to stare down the snowy drive. 

Her brother William fearful “What if something happens to them on the drive from the airport?” he mutters, using his boot to kick a little snow off the step. 

Emily looks over at him sadly. How horrible would it be that after everything that has happened to them their parents would be lost for something as stupid as ice and lack of snow tires. 

“Dad grew up on the vineyard and he knows how to drive in snow.” she says calmly. 

Always trying to channel her rational mother. Keep calm, think things through, don’t let your emotions dictate your actions or words. William still unsatisfied looks at his sister. Always the skeptic. Jackson nudges him with his shoulder. “

What have you missed the most this week Em?” 

She smiles and loves that Williams twin Jackson is more focused on now.

“I miss dad’s ufo pancakes.” she smiles. 

Thinking of how her dad would spread the fruit on top to look like it was flying. William nods. Em looks over at her younger brothers at 6 they are still annoying but at least now they can talk and play nerf guns with her. 

“What about you Will?” William has been ringing the life out of his mittens and chewing on his lip nervously. 

“I miss all the hugs.” he gives her a shy smile. 

Her heart breaks a little. William might have been coddled a bit as a baby, and Grandma is pretty good about hugs but nothing matches a kid sandwich, in which both parents hug them and each other with their kids in the middle. Abruptly Jackson stands up marching down the stairs stomping his feet. 

“What is taking them so long Em?? They were supposed to be here 20 minutes ago!” she watches as his anger flares and he kicks at the snow stomping out his frustration, snow starts to lift on its own and swirl around him. 

“Jackson, jackson” she states as she sees rage building up in him. 

“Hey count to 10 like mom does when you are upset.” 

He groans in anger but as Emily starts to count with him his anger comes down, the snow stops flying all around him landing in a small heap beside his boots. 

“What about you little one?” Emily asks her little sister who is just shy of 2. 

Her sister all grins pulls the hat down on her head and closes her eyes and pretends to snore super loud. 

They all giggle, their dad’s snoring a legendary sound that they have all heard when they had a bad dream or couldn’t get back to sleep. 

Emily looks at her siblings at the way their intense eyes match each others, some blue, some hazel with flecks of gold. “I miss moms fuzzy robe and her perfume.”

Jackson nods. “I miss watching them dance to Elvis and Cher.” he grins.

Emily rolls her eyes. Only because mom lets you stand on her feet so you can dance too. 

William chimes in. “right? Like dad doesn’t do that with you too Em.”

He’s got her there. 

William’s voice continues. “I miss where we all lay on top of dad and watch star trek. Voyager is finally getting really good.”

Jackson nods. “I like that we all can’t stand Neelix.”

Emily laughs. “He is the worst and so boring.”

“Right?”

The smallest Mulder nods in agreement and starts to eat at her mitten. 

Emily looks at her brother and moves closer; they all snuggle together and stare at the trees toward the giant metal gate at the end of the road. She looks to the side at the swing set and playhouse. The crumbling snow alien they built last week, and the tulips that have just popped out of the snow. She knows this trip was necessary, that being apart is sometimes good. But as she rubs her brother's arm and feels a small squeeze from the other brother she can’t help thinking that 7 days is far too long. Yes they have talked on the phone and video chatted. But it isn’t the same as you mom rubbing your back as she changes her voice to match the characters in a book. It’s not the same to have her help with your science homework when she isn’t next to you to smile in encouragement. She looks over towards the basketball hoop, how her dad will lift both her brothers up to do layups. She told them both she would be fine, she is a big girl almost double digits. She can make sure that will and jackson clean their rooms. She can make sure her sister brushes 4 tiny teeth. Then finally it happens they can see some headlights in the distance and they start to run. Even the newest little Mulder is going as fast as her little snowsuit will allow. It doesn’t matter that William lost his boot or that Emily's hat falls off half way there. 

Finally they are there back in the arms of their parents. She looks up at her mom who has tears streaming down her face to her dad who is kissing every inch of his son's face as he squeezes the life out of the other. It doesn’t matter that they have fallen into a heap of tangled limbs wrapped around one another sitting on the cold snow. 

She hears her grandmother in the distance. Feels her dad helping her up on her feet, rubbing his hand over her hair. She sees her mother lifting her sister into her arms as she holds onto Jackson's hand. Her dad’s voice cuts through the wind and snow. “So I take it you missed us?” he says with a sad chuckle and Emily can’t help but turn back to him as they walk to the house. She sees the fine lines in his face, the deep crevices in his face he hasn’t slept in a week it looks like. She gives him a big smile. Williams' voice comes up. 

“Looks like you may have missed us more since you came home early.” 

He is trying to be tough now, play it cool. Jackson doesn’t even bother trying as he hugs their moms leg. Emily watches as his dad leans over and gives his mom a loving kiss, she realized she missed that too. The blatant affection they have between one another. Her mom smiles. 

“Yes your dad wanted to come home after 1 day but I told him you guys were fine and could sweat it out.” 

Emily meets her mother's eyes and sees the pain and truth in her reflection. Her mom wanted to come home too, how these two made it 7 days is beyond her. As they walk to the house her dad spins her sister in the air with whooshing sounds. Her mother comes up pulls her close and whispers“we tried to get a flight 2 days ago but everything was cancelled for the storm, we even tried to get a car to drive it instead but the highway was down from a tree. Was everything ok? God we missed you all so very very much.” 

Her mother's arms are tightly wrapped around her. She feels it then, the warmth, the smell of her perfume, the sound of her voice resonating in her ears. She missed her mom so much. She sees her grandmother on the steps with a dish towel in her hand. Emily nods towards her, grandparents are great but nothing beats having your whole family together again.

[ending-with-stars]

Completely Professional (Seven of Nine x Reader)

Word Count: 2.7k 

Warnings: None!!

A/N: Listen up folks! It is absolutely CRIMINAL that there are no Seven x reader fics in this fandom (or really any x reader fics come ON Star Trek fans) and that needs to STOP. So, in the spirit of being the change we want to see, here’s a fic I wrote about a year ago that I decided to post with some nudges from @osmoticeel​ and @raktajinhoe​ (thanks by the way guys love ya). Enjoy!

“I’m just saying, I think she might have a thing for you,” Tom said, much to your displeasure, as he took a drink. You were sitting in the mess hall with Tom and Harry, some of the few people awake this early in the morning. You shook your head, sighing. “How could you ever know what she’s thinking about me?” You said, taking a bite of Neelix’s “scrambled eggs”and almost shivering at their slimy yet mealy texture. “I don’t know, Y/N, I think Tom might be right on this one. For once.” Harry said, eating a slice of replicated toast. Tom raised his eyebrows as he sipped his coffee substitute again. “Harry hasn’t been called down to engineering or the astrometrics bay in almost two months. You two are always working together, eating together,” “Because if I didn’t eat with her she wouldn’t eat at all!” You interjected, stealing Harry’s toast from his plate and taking a bite of it. He snatched it back and you smirked while chewing. “Still,” Tom said, giving you a look, “you have to admit you’ve noticed that Seven always wants to be around you.”

You didn’t want to admit it to your friends, but you had noticed. At first, it seemed like nothing. Seven would call you down to engineering sometimes to help her with power conduits that had blown out and with rerouting lines to the astrometrics bay. Now, as you looked back on it, you should have noticed it then. The former Borg would have no issues with rerouting simple power lines. You supposed it was a little bit naive for you to assume anything else. Over the past couple of weeks, she had been eating dinner with you, which may have been more your doing than hers. A few nights ago, in fact, it had just been the two of you in the mess hall, talking until the later hours. The other woman always had a fascinating outlook on problems. You wished people would give her more credit than she usually got for the development of her social skills. But as you looked at Harry and Tom, who both held looks of raised eyebrows and smug smiles, you decided to ignore your previous findings.

“We are just colleagues,” You said with finality, sipping your tea. Both of them sat back with exasperated sighs, Tom rolling his eyes. You laughed under your breath and caught B’Elanna walking over to the table, tray in one hand and coffee cup in the other. 

“Morning,” you greeted as she sat down next to Tom, who smiled as he put a hand on her back. “You two seem exasperated already. What’s the breakfast conversation been today?” B’Elanna asked. “We’re discussing Y/N’s completely professional relationship with Seven of Nine,” Harry said, crossing his arms. B’Elanna raised her eyebrows as she ate a bite of eggs, before making a face and placing her fork back on the tray. “What about it?” “That it’s anything but professional,” Tom said. “Well of course it is,” “Lanna, aren’t you supposed to be on my side here?” You asked through a little laugh. She shrugged, taking the half-eaten toast from Harry’s plate, smacking his hand away as he tried to retrieve it. “I see you two working every day. It’s obvious. She actually smiled when you told her a joke the other day.” “What?” Tom almost yelled. “And you didn’t tell me!” “It’s none of your business what Y/N does when she’s under my command for the afternoon. Plus, nothing’s gonna come from it anyway.” B’Elanna said so nonchalantly that it made everyone at the table give her confused looks. “Seven doesn’t know how to handle that yet, and Y/N is too scared to act on it.” “Hey!” “Oh please, even though you’re head over heels for her, you wouldn’t want to be the first person to make a move on a former Borg, would you? She would break your arm; either from getting you off her or pushing you up against a wall to kiss you.” You shrugged. “One of those sounds sort of worth it, don’t you think?” You said, getting snickers from the two men at the table. But you knew B’Elanna was right. It was safer, physically and emotionally, to repress any attraction you felt. As if on cue, your com badge beeped. “Seven of Nine to Lieutenant Y/N.” All of your tablemates raised their eyebrows, giving you smug looks. You rolled your eyes but smiled as you responded. “Y/N here.” “Meet me in Jeffries tube 12. I require your assistance on multiple overloaded power circuits.” She answered. “Understood, I’m on my way.” You climbed into the entrance of the Jeffries tube, closing the door behind you, and tried to calm the rapid heartbeat that had begun to pound in your ears. Get a grip, you told yourself as you deliberately crawled slower than normal towards the ladder. She is your friend, your colleague, it would be inappropriate, especially since she quite literally had no experience in anything of this matter. It felt like you would be taking advantage of her if you said something about it. So, you finally decided, that you would ignore this. It would go away eventually. Attraction always did. Didn’t it? You climbed down the ladder into the tall portion of the Jeffries tube, unconsciously straightening your hair and uniform before turning around. “Morning, Seven,” You said with a smile. Seven was facing away from you, working on one of the singed power conduits, scanner in one hand and sonic resonator in the other. At your greeting, she turned and acknowledged you. “Good morning, Lieutenant Y/N.” She said flatly before turning back to her work. “Can you begin repairs on conduit 15.4C on the opposite wall?” “Yes, I can.” You said, pulling out your own tools and kneeling next to the singed conduit. It was silent for a long moment, only the beeping sound of tricorders and the hum of the ship's engine to dull it. There had never been an awkward air between the two of you before. In fact, her formal greeting had left you a bit phased. Seven hadn’t referred to you as “lieutenant” in almost a month. It made your stomach clench and pulse quicken. The scanning from the background stopped for a moment. “Lieutenant, are you ill?” Seven asked. You paused and turned to look at her, confused. “No...why?” “Your pulse has been rapid for the entirety of our work today, over 3.1 percent above the usual. And your internal core temperature is two degrees higher than what is acceptable for human parameters.” She walked up close to you, inspecting your face with scrutinizing blue eyes. In them, you saw a hint of worry. “You are also perspiring more than normal,” she took your chin in her hand, looking into your eyes. “And your pupils have dilated. I believe you are ill.” You took her hand that was holding your chin and, careful to not let it shake, removed it from your face. “I’m not sick, Seven. It’s just warmer in here than normal,” you regretted the lie the minute it left your mouth. She gave you a slightly perplexed look. “The temperature has not changed aboard Voyager for approximately three weeks, four days and twelve hours. The Jeffries tubes are regulated even more so than the habitable portions of the ship due to the sensitive technology-.” In a moment of lost judgement, you put a finger on her lips to silence her. Both you and Seven froze. You lingered, wanting to do so many things at that moment. You didn’t need Seven to tell you that your pulse quickened; you could hear it pounding in your ears. And for a moment, you saw uncertainty flash across the other woman’s face, eyebrows softening ever so slightly. But both of you blinked, and the moment of weakness disappeared. You pulled your hand away and Seven straightened herself. “Sorry. I just knew that if I didn’t stop you that you would just spiral into all these dates and numbers.” You said quietly. She inclined her head. “Thank you.” “We should...get back to work.” Again, the two of you worked in silence. Tension seemed to fill the empty space. You looked behind you, wondering if the feeling of tension was mutual. You were met by a similar look from Seven, who blinked and shuffled awkwardly before turning away. In your work, you realized that the extent of the damage on this conduit extended down another level. “Seven, this conduit is totally burned down to the next level.” You said. She walked over to you and kneeled, shoulder brushing yours. She never did have a sense of personal space. “I concur. We will move down to the next level.” You sighed as you climbed down into the next level. It was not the tall working space that was above. You crawled on your hands and knees to the conduit, which was so burned that it sparked as you came over to it. “Damn, what happened here?” You asked, looking at Seven as she crawled towards the singed wall. She sat on her knees and pulled out her sonic resonator. “I was attempting to reroute the lines towards astrometrics. I allowed my mind to wander and misaligned them. It caused a chain reaction, leading to my calling you.” You smirked. “So, you got distracted?” You said, looking at her with raised eyebrows. She turned slowly to look at you. “Voyager’s power lines have never been efficient.” You nodded, laughing in your chest. She raised her eyebrows now, a hint of a smile on her lips. “Have I said something amusing?” “No, no, I just,” you laughed again. “I didn’t know you could get distracted. You’re pretty laser-focused when it comes to working.” “I allowed my mind to wander.” “That’s one hell of a wander.” “I have often realized that when I think of you that I cannot focus on the tasks at hand.” You froze for a moment before turning your head to look at her. “Me? You were thinking of me and THAT made you distracted?” You said in disbelief. She looked at you confused. “Correct.” “Why me?” “You are a very aesthetically pleasing woman. I have been attracted to you since I joined Voyager. I thought I had made that relatively clear over the past weeks. I asked Captain Janeway for advice on how to achieve that,” she paused, scrutinizing for a moment. “It seems it was not successful.” “No no, it was. I just....didn’t believe that it was true.” Seven looked at you confused. “Why would you not comprehend? Were my advances unclear to you?” “No....well, yes.” You answered after pausing. “Explain.” “Seven....I don’t know if you know that you are...really gorgeous,” “As are you,” She responded. “No, I mean you’re really gorgeous. And you don’t really....have a lot of human experience. So I never thought that you would be...attracted to me.” You said, trying to pick the best words. Seven looked at the wall for a moment, eyes flicking over something invisible, almost like she was calculating something. “Your conclusion is based on the human insecurity of physical appeal.” She concluded. “Well, yeah.” You sighed. Seven turned fully towards you now. “Human appearance is a factor within attraction, but does not fully encompass all of it. Humans also consider personality, humor, and intelligence. While I do find you physically attractive, I also find that your personality appeals to me. You are one of the few crew members whose company I enjoy. Your intelligence level allows me to have intriguing conversations, and I find your humor to be amusing while others tend to be crude or based in reference to things I do not understand. Simply put, you are an ideal romantic partner.” She finished, the last sentence said slightly softer. You blinked and felt the blood rush into your cheeks. “Why....why didn’t you tell me about this earlier?” You asked softly. She paused again to think. “I did not know if you would...return my sentiments. And since I am, as you put, inexperienced, I wanted to wait until I found the right time. However the time never seemed to come, so I created a moment when I could inform you.” You laughed out loud at that and received a look of confusion. “Wait, wait, did you do this intentionally?” You asked. Seven thought for a moment. “Yes.” She answered plainly. You laughed again. “You could have told me any time! At the dinners we had, on the holodeck, you even could have stopped by my quarters.” “Do you not recall the first time we met?” She asked. It was your turn to give a confused look. “Four months, sixteen days and seven hours ago. Lieutenant Torres assigned me to you to help remove the Borg enhancements that had been installed. It was three days after I had my connection with the Collective severed, and I had not gained my more....human appearance. The crew was still afraid of me. However, you showed me an amount of compassion that I had never experienced. Since then I have considered you to be ideal for my first romantic partner.” You blinked, eyebrows softened in affection. “Seven,” you breathed and put a hand on her shoulder. “It was in Jeffries tube 12 that we met. Humans consider locations of their first encounter to hold a certain sentimental value, am I correct?” You nodded. “Then I have created the ideal situation to tell you that I request to initiate a romantic relationship.” The butterflies that rose in your stomach did stop you from laughing a little at the bluntness of her statement. “Do you accept?” She asked, and for a second you thought you heard a tinge of a nervous edge. “Yes,” You said through a little laugh. An uncharacteristic smile spread across Seven’s lips, which you returned, before she jolted forward suddenly and kissed you. It was forceful enough, which didn’t surprise you, that you had to throw an arm out to brace yourself from falling over. Her kiss was stiff and rigid, lips frozen in a line.  Of course, you thought, she’s never done this before. You leaned forward and cupped her face, thumbs stroking her cheekbones, and moved your lips against hers. She responded tentatively, the smile still coming through the kiss. You broke apart; Seven leaned back in and gave a light brief kiss. “That...was very spontaneous of you.” You said, smiling widely. “Romantic relationships do require a spontaneous element. When I consulted Captain Janeway on how to begin the-.” Seven started but you cut her off. “Can we please not mention the captain right now? Please?” You said, tucking a stray blonde hair back behind her ears. She nodded, and you leaned back in and kissed her again. “I was wondering if we were going to have to send a search party in there after you two,” B’Elanna said as you and Seven crawled out from the Jeffries tube into the engine room. She looked over both of you, raising an eyebrow at flushed cheeks and messy hair, and looked back down to hide a smile. You smoothed your hair down as you walked the report over to B’Elanna, with Seven trailing behind you closely. “We fixed every burned conduit and reset the lines to normal.” You said as you handed the PADD to her. You felt a cold metal fingertip run along the exposed skin on the back of your neck and repressed a shiver. You poorly held back a smile and shook your head, as if to shake out the thoughts. “Alright, everything looks good,” B’Elanna said and placed the PADD on her console. “You’re done for the day.” You looked at her surprised. “It’s just past 1300 hours, the day’s barely halfway over.” You said. “I don’t need you anymore for today, and if you’re lucky the Doctor won’t need you either.” She answered, still typing. “But I,” You started, but Seven cut you off. “Lieutenant, I require assistance in the cargo bay. If you feel the need to continue working, that is.” She said flatly. You looked over your shoulder at her; she pursed her lips and shifted her stance, and that was enough to shut you up. “Sure, I would love to. Thank you, Lieutenant Torres. Seven?” You said, starting to walk out of engineering. Both of you walked side by side, towards the cargo bay, and smiled to yourself as you felt Seven slip her hand into yours.

[summahsunlight]

This Way Became My Journey, Ch. 24

When Neelix opened his eyes for the second time that day, just Counselor Barrett was standing over him, one of her small hands was resting behind his ear and she was smiling at him. She had such a pretty smile, he concluded, and if he were in better spirits he might actually feel warmed by her presence. Instead he felt conflicted. She was here obviously to calm him down from before when he had his first anxiety attack, but he couldn't stand the sight of her standing up right and breathing on own her with her little shy grin. She could not possibly understand what was going on with him. How could she? She had never been forced to live like this. She had never been intentionally paralyzed.

"How are you feeling Neelix?" Her voice was soft, using gentle tones like a mother would use with their sick child.

What a stupid question. I'm feeling miserable. I may never get out of this device and be forced to spend the rest of my life in here. "I'm…feeling alright."

She patted his shoulder. "It's alright to tell me otherwise, Neelix. I understand."

Do you really? Do you really know what it's like to be lying here unable to move? Neelix averted his eyes. He didn't want to speak with her. He didn't want to listen to her tell him some therapeutic babble that she was undoubtedly going to give to him. It was not going to help, it was not going to get him out of this device. When he had first opened his eyes earlier that day he had been skeptical, but happy to be alive. Now, now he wished that the Commander and Ensign Kim had just left him to die on that planetoid. It would have been much better than lying here, staring up at the ceiling, which Kes' had decorated rather nicely, for the rest of his life.

"How about we talk about something other than yourself? How about Kes? How did you meet her?"

Thinking of Kes brought about another bout of melancholy. She had been standing there when he first had a woken when Lieutenant Barrett had told him what the Doctor and Lieutenant Paris had done to keep him alive. Kes had been so naïve, she was after all only one year old, confident that the Doctor was going to find a better solution. He had tried to get her to go on with her life, even if he knew that meant she'd be with Tom Paris. The man was already making the moves on her and Neelix wasn't even dead yet. "I don't want to talk about Kes."

"There must be something we can talk about to pass the time by."

"NO!" Neelix yelled, angry eyes flashing at her. "I don't want to talk! Just leave me alone!"

He saw her sapphire eyes flicker off to the side; she must have been looking at the holo doctor. And then he was surprised to see them snap back to him, with just as much anger. This wasn't the type of person he had read about in the ship's database that studied to become a counselor. For a moment, the glare almost reminded him of Captain Janeway. This girl could have command of a ship someday. I can see her going toe to toe with the Kazon just like Captain Janeway.

"You're going to listen to me and you're going to listen to me real good, understood Mister Neelix?"

She even sounds like Janeway. All he could do was nod his head; she had rendered him speechless for once.

"Good," she said, sternly. "Now I won't begin to try to even understand how you must be feeling, because I've never been lying in your situation. But, if this is going to work, you're going to have to get off of the woe is me bandwagon and start facing facts. You're alive and that's better than anyone could hope for if they've lost their lungs."

"My lungs weren't lost! They were stolen!"

"You're also lucky," she went on to say, ignoring him, "That you have a captain who is completely devoted to finding who did this to you. I've spent a few years in Starfleet and I'll tell you right now, I've yet to see a captain as loyal to her crew as Kathryn Janeway. Now, I would think you'd want to show her a little respect and gratitude for what she's doing for you and sitting here whining about everything is NOT the way to go about it."

Neelix instantly felt sheepish. How could such a small woman make me feel so…inferior?

Her eyes softened a bit. "I can only do so much for you Neelix. You have to be able to help yourself along the way. Now, let's try this again, what would you like to talk about?"

He bit his lip. "What's happens to Kes if Captain Janeway doesn't find my lungs?"

Lieutenant Barrett looked confused. "She would stay on Voyager."

"But what happens to her? Does she go on with her life?"

"That decision is entirely up to Kes what she does if Captain Janeway is unsuccessful in finding your lungs."

Neelix didn't hear her, he kept rambling. "Does she end up with…Tom Paris?"

She blinked. "What does Tom Paris have to with any of this?"

He didn't miss what she had said that time for her voice caught a little. He turned his eyes to meet hers. "You're trained to make observations, haven't you seen the way he looks at her?"

"He looks at every woman that way Mister Neelix. I've noticed no difference in his behavior."

"Even you?"

Her face flushed a little. "Even…me."

"You could do better than Tom Paris," Neelix pointed out to her. "Like…Ensign Kim."

Her eyebrow shot up. "Harry?"

"I see you two eating in the mess hall together all the time," Neelix replied, with a smile. It felt good to smile he realized. "Sitting and chatting; you always look so relaxed and happy when you're with him. And he did bring you those flowers while you were recovering from your injuries."

"How do you know about those flowers?"

"Ensign Brooks saw him bring them to you. Word gets around fast on a little ship, Lieutenant. Everyone knows. I guess… I just assumed that there could be more there. I think you'd make a very cute couple."

Again her cheeks got a little pink but this time she glared at him. "We're supposed to be talking about you."

If he could shrug his shoulders he would have. "Talking about other people makes me feel better."

She rolled her eyes. She has very pretty eyes, they remind me of the ocean on Talax. "Really Neelix, gossip is not what I had in mind when I came down here. The Doctor wanted me to offer you my professional services, not my friendship."

"I'd rather have your friendship."

She smiled warmly. "I'd rather be your friend."

He could hear the doors to sickbay swish open. Barrett looked up to see who had entered the room and straightened her form. "Kes is here, I'll leave you in her capable hands while I go help Captain Janeway make first contact with a species that, well let's face it, doesn't want to make first contact with us. However, if you need me don't be afraid to contact me, alright?"

"Alright." As she turned to go, he called out, "Thank you Lieutenant, I really do feel better now."

Ship Counselor's log, stardate 48532.4; Mister Neelix still exhibits emotions and behaviors that are disturbing me greatly during his recovery, he goes from being extremely depressed to being extremely happy in a matter of moments. If were home in Alpha Quadrant I would request a trauma specialist, but for now I'm going to have to make do. I can only hope that the aliens we have followed into the asteroid have Neelix's lungs, or we're in for one long and rough ride.

Tom Paris happened to glance up to see Sarah Barrett come out of the turbo lift onto the bridge. She could not have been gone more than twenty minutes. Either Neelix had had a fast recovery or he was not awake yet and the lieutenant saw it pointless to wait around for him to wake up while she could be more useful on the bridge.

Janeway looked surprised to see her as well. "Everything alright?" the Captain asked, softly.

Sara made her way down the steps towards the command station. "For the moment yes, Kes is with him. But, if we're not successful in getting his lungs back, I'm afraid he's in for an emotional roller coaster ride. If we were home I'd request the services of a trauma specialist."

The Captain frowned. "Unfortunately we don't have that luxury. You're just going to have to do your best, Sarah."

Sarah's eyes sparkled, Tom loved it when she got that look, it made her look endearing. "Don't worry Captain Janeway, I'm confident we'll get his lungs back."

I wonder if she really means those words, Tom thought, turning back towards his control panel. And then he remembered that not more than twenty five minutes before she had known that Michael Janeway had taken the alien device and was about to enter the ready room. No one else on that bridge had seen the child move, not even B'Elanna Torres who had been right next to the boy when he did it. Perhaps she does know we're going to get his lungs back.

How she had known was another question. He didn't think she was part betazoid, after all, there had to have been some empathic or telepathic forces working there for her to know. And if she was part betazoid, she had never mentioned it before. Of course there had been a lot of things that she had not mentioned to him. Like the fact that Harry Kim had given her flowers while she had been recovering, or that he had stopped by every day to check on her. Glancing over his other shoulder he caught a glimpse of Harry working at his console intensely.

Tom had wanted Harry to find a new girlfriend, just not one he was thinking about dating. He admitted that he had tried to gage Harry's feelings for her when they had been talking about her in the mess hall while she had been missing. Although his attitude had been that he was happy for Harry, on the inside he was downright jealous and B'Elanna Torres of all people had picked up on it today.

Which meant by tomorrow it would be all over the ship. Damn little ship.

"You're doing just fine, Mister Paris," Janeway said, firmly from behind him. "Just fine."

Her little vote of confidence took his thoughts away from his jealousy of his best friend. It also made him aware that he was not paying attention to his flying. Perhaps that had been Janeway's intention of complimenting him. Either way he should acknowledge her faith in him. "Thanks Captain."

"Sensors detect a large chamber up a head, Captain," Tuvok reported.

The Vulcan was correct, Tom soon found out, because Voyager was flying into a large cavern where they appeared to be thousands of Voyagers and the alien ship. Oh just fabulous, this day keeps getting better and better.

Chakotay was the one to voice the opinion that they all were thinking. "What the hell is it?"

"We appear to be seeing Voyager and the alien ship reflecting off the walls of the chamber," Harry informed the bridge crew.

"Can you determine which ship is the real one?" Janeway said, suddenly appearing to his left.

"No Captain. The walls are emanating severe electromagnetic interference. I cannot scan them directly," Tuvok replied.

"It's like trying to navigate through a hall of mirrors," Janeway said. "You never know when you're going to walk into the glass."

Tom peered up at her. "I'm still picking up the alien's ion trail; maybe we should still follow that?"

"They might have left a fake ion trail to lure us in here," Chakotay replied. "It may lead us straight into one of those walls."

"That's a chance we're going to have to take," Janeway said, turning about to Tuvok. "Commander, extend the deflectors to maximum range. If we do run into something it will give us an extra margin of error. Follow the ion trail Mister Paris, slowly. Mister Kim, continuous scans."

"Aye Captain."

Captain Janeway's assessment of the chamber, like it was a hall of mirrors, was pretty accurate Tom concluded after starting to follow the ion trail again. He tried his best to navigate the maze as it were, but he wasn't sure when or if he was going to crash the ship into a wall at any moment. Just what Janeway needs today, me wrecking Starfleet's most advanced ship.

He felt something brush against his arm and could see out of the corner of eye Michael squeeze his way in between the conn and his mother so he could stand with Janeway. Even though the captain had told him before to stay in her chair, she gently weaved her hand through his hair in a gesture that Tom had received from his mother when he needed comforting as a child. Right now his deep blue eyes were watching the viewscreen intensely but anyone could see the nervous strain on his little face. As frightening as it was for the rest of them, they were trained officers, they knew how to deal with a situation like this. Michael was a child, a very bright child, but still a child. The thought that they were hunting down an alien that had stolen Neelix's lungs must have been a terrifying concept for him.

Janeway must have realized this as well. "Michael, why don't you go into the ready room and check on Ava."

"Yeah that sounds like a good idea," he answered. "I don't want her to get scared and all."

With a hint of smile Tom watched as the boy moved past him and disappeared into the ready room. He had to admit that even though he had not been thrilled when he had first learned of the kids being on board, the boy was starting to grow on him and who could resist Ava's big blue eyes? They were a nice little moral boaster to have around even if at times Michael went tinkering into conduits and consoles that he really shouldn't be tinkering with.

His console beeped. Tom glanced down at his controls to see what the issue was. "Captain," he said. "I'm reading a minor fluctuation in the warp core. I don't think it's anything to worry about."

But even as he said those words the power started to drain all over the ship.

Janeway tapped her combadge. "Janeway to Torres, what's going on down there?"

"Some kind of power drain," B'Elanna Torres answered. "I can't localize it but we're losing power at a rate of seven percent per minute."

"The power drain is coming from somewhere in this chamber, Captain," Harry told her. " Some kind of dampening field. It's bleeding energy directly from the warp nacelles."

"B'Elanna shut down the warp core and go to emergency power," Janeway ordered Torres.

"No effect Captain."

"Keep me informed, bridge out," Janeway said, turning towards Harry. "Ensign Kim can you pin point the source of the dampening field?"

"It appears to be coming from two one seven mark zero one five, distance five hundred and forty seven meters."

"Tuvok, what would happen if we locked phasers and fired at the source?"

"The walls of the chamber reflect directed energy. The phaser beam would ricochet along an unpredictable path, possibly impacting with our ship in the process."

"Alright, we won't try that."

Tom grinned at conn. Janeway's dry sense of humor was unlike anything he had seen in a Starfleet captain. She's in a class all her own.

"Maybe we should," Chakotay spoke up. "What would happen if we the phaser power to a minimum setting and sent out a continuous beam?"

"The phaser would continue to reflect off of the bulkheads until it encountered a non reflective material," Tuvok answered.

"Like the real alien ship," Chakotay replied.

Tom was intrigued. On paper it sounded like a good idea, and he realized it was the only one they had at this point.

"We'd be using the phaser's like a search light, scan the interior of the station until we find the alien ship," Janeway conversed.

"Exactly."

"Do it."

The phaser beam shot forth from the bow of the ship and soon created a tangled web of orange throughout the chamber bouncing off each of the reflected ships. Tuvok adjusted the phaser's so they wouldn't be harmful to Voyager if they managed to find their ship before the alien one.

"Wait a minute," Harry called out, "I think I've found the real ship."

"On screen."

The image on the viewscreen changed before him and Tom was looking at the alien ship with a phaser beam not reflecting off of it. The idea had actually worked. That was easy.

"Mister Paris bring us within transporter range of that ship."

"Yes ma'am."

"I'm picking up two life signs," Harry said.

Tuvok gave a brief report next. "The alien ship is powering up engines."

"Bridge to transporter room three, lock onto those two life signs and beam them aboard."

Tom saw Janeway move swiftly across the bridge and enter the turbo lift with Sarah and Tuvok. He almost pitied them, having to make first contact under situations like this, of course Sarah had dealt with the Borg, and certainly this was a walk in the park compared to that.

Well, maybe. Janeway was not going to be happy that these aliens had led them on a chase and attacked one of her crewmen. He had only been on this ship a month and already he had seen her temper. Sarah was not only going to have the job of first contact she was going to have the job of calming Janeway down to make a good first contact. Good first contact? How can it be good when they've already hurt one our crewmen? It's already gotten off on a bad foot.

"Tom, where's Mama?"

He looked up to see that Michael had now rejoined them on the bridge and with a rather cranky looking Ava. Guess who just woke up. "She went to the transporter room to get Neelix's lungs back. We beamed the aliens who took them on board."

"We found the alien's ship? And brought the aliens on board?"

"We did."

The boy looked worried. "Tom, they aren't going to hurt Mama are they? What if they want her lungs too?"

Tom blinked, noticing the glare that Chakotay gave him. Right, the kid is five, too much information. "Uh, well she took Commander Tuvok with her, and some security. They had phasers. I'm sure she'll be fine—,"

"But Neelix had a phaser too! It's standard procedure to bring a phaser on an away mission! And that didn't stop them from taking his lungs!" Michael gasped, fretful tears streaming down his cheeks.

What the hell have I done? He looked towards Chakotay for help, but the first officer shook his head, as if to tell him he had to get himself out of this mess. "Michael, listen, stop crying. Everything will be fine, promise."

This only seemed to make the boy cry harder, which made Ava start to cry and garner looks from the whole bridge crew his way. Tom felt like crawling into a hole and hiding for hours. Even more so when Michael wailed, "That's what Mama said when we hadn't heard from Daddy in three days! And he didn't come home!"

Tom felt his heart drop. He couldn't imagine what it had been like for the boy, who had been only three at the time, to lose his father. It must have been harder on Janeway trying to comfort him. But Janeway didn't have the option that Tom had now, glancing at Chakotay briefly, he called out, "Computer locate Captain Janeway."

[annakie]

Am I once again posting about the Voyager Relaunch Novels?  Yes.  Yes I am.

I am re-reading the Post-Endgame Voyager Relaunch novels and marathoned reading The Eternal Tide over the last two nights and all I have to say is Janeway and Chakotay love each other so much, I was literally sobbing through about six sections of the second half of that book.  

The Kirsten Beyer books are SO GOOD.  And as I’m re-reading them I love how she handles every single one of the Voyager characters but especially Chakotay.  I feel like she understands Chakotay and gives him everything the writers of Voyager never quite grasped about his character in seven seasons.  Full Circle is such a powerful story of his love and his grief, and the rest of the crew’s love for him (especially Tom, B’lanna, Harry and Sev-- wow his friendship with Seven is so awesome throughout the Beyer books, everything it should have been in the show and not what we got in Endgame.  The support they have for each other without forcing a cringey relationship back onto them adds so much to BOTH of their characters.  Hey this paragraph went way off the rails but I don’t care.)

Anyway I really love the plots of each of these books, I love how they handle EVERY character (well, I miss Tuvok -- at some point I’m gonna get to the Titan novels) and the new characters are pretty great (oh man Cambridge is a fave, and so much better than the new consular that was introduced in the Spirit Walk books.  Loved Eden, love Farkas.)

I made a post a few days ago about how Chakotay is the whole “upstanding, solid, good guy” archetype that some people dare to call “boring” I’ve previously talked at length in a post about Mass Effect about how that’s just... my favorite kind of character.  And Chakotay is just... so that.  It also made me realize that the Janeway / Chakotay dynamic is also very similar to a Shepard / Kaidan dynamic (powerful commanding officer of her own ship woman character, solid, good, honorable mature right-hand man first officer (or close to it) male character and maybe that’s why they’re both two of my favorite ships.

Anwyay here’s some spoilery thoughts about The Eternal Tide.

Chakotay telling Seven about his relationship with Janeway evolving before she died, and how he doesn’t think he’ll ever love any other woman!

Confirmation that Chakotay was thinking about proposing when they were supposed to met in Venice!??!  What!?

Janeway thinking about Chakotay right after her resurrection and how deeply she feels for him and wondering about how her death affected him!  Also I kind of love that Chakotay DIDN’T come to her mind when deciding whether to return to life or not?  This was her decision and making it about A Man I think would have made it feel less about her and how she knew she would be taking responsibility for The Multiverse, which is what it absolutely should have been about.  Realizing what her death would have done to him basically the second she was alive again... that part was so well written.  I loved it.  Her relationship shouldn’t become the basis of who she is -- but it adds to her.

Their... reunion... scene... almost being ruined by Q... Chakotay’s utter shock and disbelief and the description of him slowly beginning to have his heart open up to the possibility, him inching closer to her as she’s thinking that maybe she’s made a mistake and understands just how deeply her death hurt him... that.... entire... SCENE.  (Actually about once a year I dig that book and Full Circle out just to read their getting together / reunion scenes.)

Getting Seven’s reaction to Janeway was also very, very good.  I wish they hadn’t cut past the scene where the rest of the Voyager staff sees her for the first time but we did get a little taste of it.

Um okay and then Janeway tells Chakotay she loves him for the first time and he says it back, naturally but like, this is as Chakotay was preparing to go on a suicide mission?  SOBBING.  They didn’t even get a day together, but at least they got to say goodbye this time.

Janeway forcing herself not to think about Chakotay’s death because things just got so much more dire.

Yes they won, but Janeway all alone on the battle bridge and she can’t even bring herself to contact Voyager yet because she just needs time to mourn Chakotay for a few seconds and takes a few seconds, a few breaths, a few moments... and then... OMG.... Chakotay is returned by Godson Q just before his death and they’re so happy... I CANNOT.

THE EPILOGUE where they’re in bed and had spent every possible moment together and so casual and free and happy together... it’s everything we ever wanted for seven seasons and seven more books.

--

Oh I started this post now almost a week ago and now I’m a few books forward and hey am I now going to talk about Protectors?  Yes, yes I am.

J/C don’t get to spend a lot of time together in this book.  Janeway gets sent back to the Alpha Quadrant to undergo counseling and evaluation which, tbh, is totally valid considering she DIED A VIOLENT HORRIBLE DEATH and then WAS DEAD FOR FOURTEEN MONTHS and then you know RESURRECTED AND IMMEDIATELY HAD TO SAVE THE MULTIVERSE oh yeah not to mention WAS REUNITED WITH THEN HAD TO TELL CHAKOTAY GOODBYE FOREVER A FEW HOURS LATER then oh wait THE MAN SHE LOVES WAS ALSO BROUGHT BACK FROM THE DEAD (or the brink of death, whatever.)

There’s a short and sweet goodbye scene then for the bulk of the book Janeway is back on Earth going to counseling (which, that second counseling scene was so great, and seeing her slow down and enjoy life with her mother was so great, and um also that scene with her and Picard?  Wow.  Just Wow.  Also I can’t wait to go back and read some TNG books because I need to see JL/B actually get together.)  And the entire time she’s just like... not even doubting her relationship with Chakotay even a little.  She thinks of him and is excited to be reunited but every time it’s like “the man I love” “The person I plan on spending the rest of my life with” and even “the love of my life.”  WOW.  Just Wow.  Chakotay worries a bit but never doubts.

Oh and then she basically tells her commanding officer “yeah um, thanks but I absolutely have no plans on curbing my relationship with Chakotay to make you feel more comfortable.  Also JL/B and Riker/Troi are all married so fuck you?”  She does agree to keep separate quarters on another ship which is like.. fine... whatever.  But also her going “Yes he’s my subordinate but we’re not going to let that affect our working relationship, we’re adults.” Fuck. Yeah.  Montgomery asks if they’re gonna get married and Janeway is all “IDK, probably? We’ll let you know.”

And B’Elanna asks Chakotay the same thing and his answer is also basically “Yeah at some point, we haven’t talked about it yet but yeah we’re spending the rest of our lives together now stop prodding me.”

Their reunion when she returns doesn’t go as planned and it’s a teensy bit worrisome at the end but with notes of positivity.

--

OK I’m only about 1/3rd into Acts of Contrition but I got to a part last night that made me put the book down for a minute and thank Kirsten Beyer out loud.

J/C finally get to spend some time alone several days after she makes it back to the fleet in the Delta Quadrant.  They have a brief discussion about The Plot, then Chakotay is like “Know what?  We’ll talk about The Plot Stuff tomorrow in the briefing.  Let’s instead talk about us.”  And then he stands up for what he wants!  And Janeway listens, and they talk, and agree!  And then Chakotay is like “Okay, now I really want to hear about what happened to you back on Earth for all those weeks!”  So... literally they just... sit and talk for several hours like, I don’t know, real people would?  There’s no drama!  And they both affirm their commitment to each other and their relationship!

It’s just... it’s... so good?  Their relationship is so solid!  They LOVE EACH OTHER and it’s based on their solid friendship (something else they actually say out loud!) and they talk to each other and there’s no like drama for drama’s sake about their relationship so far and it’s like, better than even any fanfic I’ve ever read (and there’s some great fic out there for these two) because nearly every other character is also getting their screentime and character development (minus Tuvok -- who’s off with Riker and Troi on the Titan and Neelix isn’t around much -- though he’s spoken of and we see him a bit when they visit New Talax).  Also it’s... beta canon.  No matter what, this is real and accepted beta canon.

I have been going back and listening to all the episodes of the Literary Trek podcast episodes about these books, and for Eternal Tide and Protectors Beyer herself was on the podcast and listening to her talk about Chakotay and Janeway both individually and as a couple her love for them both is clear, she loves the show and knows what she’s doing and is allowed to do it, and her writing is so damn good.  One of the hosts of the podcast has said in several episodes that he used to really dislike Chakotay as he was in the show and now book Chakotay is one of his favorite characters.  And honestly? I do love show Chakotay but book Chakotay is... everything show Chakotay should have been.  But he’s also been through hell and back and I love how Beyer used that experience -- and now Janeway’s resurrection experience -- to advance them BOTH individually and how that’s affected them as a couple now that they actually get to be that.

There’s so much other good in these books.  Tom and B’Elanna’s storyline and the way she writes them and their marriage... I could write so much about it.  Harry gets better characterization!  A plotline!  A promotion!  A love interest that may actually work out?!!? We’ll see.  And SEVEN. Wow. So much happens with Seven and it’s so great, I love her so much and Book Seven is again, even better.

Two more books have come out since the last time I read the series and the final book comes out next month, I can’t wait to see all the great moments Beyer has coming up for them.  It also makes me twice as happy that Beyer is so involved with Picard. It’s so clear the love she has for these two and I can’t imagine J/C not still being Alpha canon with her involved.

[unspectacularmarvels]

Star Trek: Voyager - the missing episodes: series one, volume two

With spirits aboard Voyager at an all-time low, Chakotay decides to boost morale by playing the panpipes up and down the corridors - along with peddling some rudimentary dream catchers he gets Harry and Kes to make with glitter glue. All of Harry’s uniforms shrink in the wash, so the young ensign has to go on shift in his vest and boxer shorts. The rest of the crew - including Janeway - find every excuse to send him on errands around the ship, just so they can all chase him and flick him with wet towels.

B’elanna has a very Klingon time-of-the-month, so…Neelix is probably gonna die.

When Tuvok learns that his collection of souvenir spoons has been traded away accidentally, he goes bat-s**t crazy.  

Janeway alone is caught in a temporal loop which, unbeknownst to her, doesn’t affect the amount of coffee she drinks. Wired like a thirteen-amp plug after only the fourth time round, she decides to pilot Voyager straight into a nearby supernova – because that’s where the cream lives!

Neelix starts incorporating a wondrous new vegetable into pretty-much every dish he rustles-up. Unfortunately, excessive consumption of this particular marrow results in a prolonged laxative effect followed by an agonising death.

The Doctor’s programme experiences a yet another glitch when someone changes a light bulb, causing his holo-matrix to render him in good old-fashioned 8-bit resolution.

Voyager rescues another alien life-form who turns-out to be even more annoying than Neelix. Harry is told to clean-out ‘the cupboard’ – y’know: the one in the abandoned, creepy, dark corner of deck 13. Armed with his bucket and broom, out of sight of the rest of the crew, the young ensign soon starts to feel that he isn’t alone down there…Guest stars Rob Schneider. ‘Bingo Tuesdays’ in the mess hall aren’t quite the crowd-puller Janeway and Neelix had hoped they’d be. Also, some generic alien dude menaces Voyager with a big laser or something. Harry accidentally acknowledges Janeway’s order with ‘Yes, Mom’. Embarrassed beyond belief, he spends the rest of his shift hiding under the console before contemplating blowing himself out of the airlock. As ship’s morale officer, it’s time for Neelix to offer some friendly advice…whether he’s been asked to or not. The senior staff debate the merits of sticking a cuddly Garfield in the window to show alien races they’re a friendly bunch after all. Voyager rescues a muscle-bound alien swimsuit model, who then requests asylum on the ship. ALL the female crew members start vying for his attention like love-sick teenage schoolgirls, but Tom will be DAMNED if anybody new is coming aboard and he’s not first in line to screw them. Guest stars Fabio Lanzoni. After four months aboard Voyager, Kes asks Janeway if she can stop wearing a bib and sitting in a highchair in the mess hall. ‘Cause she’s, like, two years old…still. Having had enough of Paris’s cocky attitude, the Doctor pumps him full of Prozac during his next physical. He then informs him that he has only twenty-four hours to live. What follows will haunt all concerned for a long, long, l-o-n-g time. It’s three days before the bridge crew realises they’ve left Neelix behind on that moon they stopped at. The general consensus is that they keep quiet about it and keep on truckin’, hoping that Kes will be sufficiently distracted by that big lollipop they gave her (because she’s, like, two or-oh, you know all that by now). Tuvok then discovers that they’ve also left Larry behind - who does all those funny voices - so…guess they’re going back after all. Chakotay experiments with a stick-on goatee, earning himself the nickname ‘Chakgoatee McFuzzyface’ (Janeway). Harry’s clarinet goes walkabouts, and Voyager is attacked by a ship full of cyborg badger space-pirates. The crew decide to jazz-up the bridge by getting a potted plant. Tuvok has his reservations – and not without reason, as we’ll soon see... B’elanna and Seska compete to see who can run from the doors, round the warp core and back ten times the fastest. Let’s just hope that Ensign Klutzman watches where he’s going with that box of stem bolts.

[starfleetimagines]

Tom Paris - Old Flames

Requested? Yes, by user kate_the_dork on wattpad Word count? 643

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You pushed your food around your plate with your fork as you sat in the messhall alone. Neelix had only been on board for a few days but he had already taken over the kitchen and made several interesting meals for the crew. Today was a pasta with a thick creamy sauce made from some root he had. It was decent, though you didn’t have much of an appetite. Getting thrown seventy-thousand lightyears from home would do that to anyone.

A figure appeared in front of your table. You lifted your head and your eyes widened when they were met with a familiar face from your past.

“Hi Y/N,” Tom said. The Tom Paris that you had dated a few years back during your time in the academy. You two were together for a while but broke things off when you realized you were just at two different points in your lives and wanted different things.

“Tom?” you asked incredulously. “What are you doing here? I heard you left Starfleet.”

“That’s right. Did you hear the whole story?” he asked as he took a seat across from you.

“Bits and pieces,” you replied, still shocked that he was sitting across from you. What were the odds that you two would end up on the same ship that got taken into the Delta Quadrant? “You joined the Maquis after, right?”

Tom nodded, keeping his emotions steeled. “Janeway asked me to join this mission to help track them down. I guess I got more than I bargained for.”

You huffed out a laugh, though it wasn’t filled with any humour. “We all did.”

You were both silent for a few moments.

“How have you been?” Tom asked finally.

“Good, until a few days ago,” you admitted. “What about you? I guess you’ve had a rough few years.”

He nodded. “They could have been better. But I brought it on myself. I’m hoping to prove myself here. Show that I’m more than my past.”

You smiled slightly. “If anyone can do that, it’s you, Tom. You’re an incredible pilot, and you’re a hard worker when you put your mind to something.”

“You always did believe in me,” he said, sounding nostalgic.

“I’m glad to know someone on board,” you said. “I mean, there’s some people I know from the academy, but not well.”

Tom smiled. “Seeing a friendly face around here will definitely make this mission a lot easier, that’s for sure. If you ever want to grab a meal or go to the holodeck, just ask. Or if you just need someone to talk to.”

“I’d love to catch up more and spend time with you, but…”

“But you don’t feel the same about me as you used to,” he finished for you, not sounding upset or disappointed. In fact, he sounded understanding. “Y/N, I get it. It’s been years, and we’re both different people. I’m not looking to restart what we had, but I do think that we need each other. Being so far from home is going to be hard on all of us. We need support from one another. I won’t force you to be my friend. Just know that I’m here for you.”

You smiled and reached your hand across the table. When he took it, you said, “You’re right. Just because we used to date doesn’t mean we can’t be friends now. I still care about you, Tom. I never stopped.”

“Well, that’s a relief.”

You laughed softly. “Just talking to you now has made me feel better. I’m glad you’re going to be here with me.”

Tom smiled. “I am too. And who knows? Maybe our feelings for each other will change back to what they used to be some day.”

You smiled and shrugged. “Let’s just focus on being there for each other and see where things go.”

[halfblood-fiend]

Fictober 2019 - Day 5 and 6

From The Fictober 2019 event

Prompt 5 : “I might just kiss you.”

Prompt 6 : “Yes, I’m aware. Your point?.”

Fandom : Star Trek: Voyager

Words : 1,574

Warnings : mild swearing and alcohol consumption

“I might just kiss you” and “Yes, I’m aware. Your point?” - Vorik x Modern OC

As it turned out, I was having way more fun at the Rec Room Party than I thought I was going to. Back home, big parties had never been my Thing™ because there were usually too many strangers, but when you’re all stuck together in the ass-end of space, even a hundred or so people didn’t feel like a bunch of strangers anymore.

Especially when you still only hang out with the same five people, chilling at a table while the music blares the bass, with your bestie on your left talking about reverse polarity bolt specifications or whatever, and the girl you “kinda sorta came with” mysteriously disappearing partway through.

Eh. C'est la vie.

I took a long drink from my violently colored glass of alcoholic alien something (I already forgot what the heck Neelix gave me) and smiled fondly at Vorik. I wondered if he even realized he scared away my date with his tech talk. I wondered if I really cared. Despite people beginning to split off for the night, I was definitely having more fun sitting here sipping down my cocktail and listening to my favorite person talk about his favorite subject.

Until.

“Hey!” A hand clapped my shoulder and I looked around to find Tom grinning down at me.

Oh no.

“Wanna be our next victim at beer pong?” he asked with an air of innocence.

“Beer pong still exists?” I laughed.

“Hell yeah! It’s teams. B’Elanna and I against whoever you pick, so choose wisely.”

Choose wisely, indeed. The last thing I wanted to do was lose to Tom. Glancing around at all my friends’ wide smiles, I took mental stock of everyone’s level of soberness. All night I’d watched these folks pounding back glass after glass with me—all except one.

“Vorik!” I leaned into his shoulder so I could be closer to his ear. Belatedly, I realized that his hearing was probably fine even with the music. “Wanna be my partner?”

He blinked. “Excuse me?”

Blushing, I realized what I said and amended, “I mean to play beer pong. Tom’s just challenged me and I’d like to wipe the floor with him.”

We glanced over to the side of the room where Tom and B’Elanna were setting up rows of cups at a long rectangular table. Tom paused long enough to stick his tongue out at me.

“A worthy goal,” Vorik said.

“So, you’ll be my number two?”

“Yes,” he replied with a nod. “However, I must point out that as you have already been drinking, our likelihood of success is—”

“Eh,” I said, waving him away. “Don’t worry about that. Tom looks like he’s already drunk and what he doesn’t know is that I get better at beer pong as I drink more. It’s a great inverse relationship!”

* * *

It started out a little rocky when Tom found out who I picked and tried to set up new rules (“Well Vorik won’t get shitfaced on this, bring out the Klingon stuff like B’Elanna has to drink. It’s only fair!”) but once we got to really playing, the game went about how I should have expected:

I was awful, just as Vorik had predicted, and Tom was sloppy because he was sloshed from the get-go, just like I had predicted. Vorik turned out to be a player of precision and finesse, probably calculating the geometry and delicate force necessary to land in a glass every single time it was his turn, meanwhile, B’Elanna was ruthlessly competitive and kept landing glasses by sheer force of will despite how many Vorik made her drink. Unfortunately, that made it all in all pretty even, but that didn’t stop us from amassing a whole crowd of too-invested onlookers in the meantime.

Ping, thwoop!

“YEAH!” Tom whooped the loudest from the other end of the table as B’Elanna’s ball made it into one of our last four glasses.

“Drink up,” B’Elanna slurred gleefully as I reached for the cup to pull out the little white ball and hand it to Vorik.

“You were supposed to protect me,” I pouted at him. “This wasn’t supposed to happen.”

Chants of, “Drink. Drink. Drink. Drink,” went up around the table and, shrugging, I tipped my head back to drain the entire contents all at once to a new chorus of cheers— “See, Paris?” someone jeered, “That’s how you’re supposed to play!”. My whole body teetered back after my head, but Vorik’s warm hand on my back caught me and kept me upright before I fell on my butt.

“It’s hardly my fault that you have missed 66.667 percent of your shots,” he told me. His voice was much thicker than it had been when we started, but at least he wasn’t swaying on his feet like I was.

“What’s wrong, Giana?” Tom called, waving his own half-finished drink from the last turn. “Had too much to drink already? Lookin’ a li’l unsteady over there.”

I patted Vorik’s chest and taunted back, “Laugh it up while you can, Tom! My boy is about to come for your life!”

The crowed “oooh”ed.

And he would. And then Tom would miss. Then I would miss. Then B’Elanna would make it. Then Vorik would make it again, and we’d just stay neck in neck for the rest of eternity.

“Giana,” Vorik said quietly. He grabbed my arm; his lips close to my ear. Heat that had nothing to do with all the alcohol blossomed over my skin. “I believe there is a rule that would allow me to win the game for us now if I make it into the cup in Tom’s hand.” That sounded right, but I honestly couldn’t think straight with the Vulcan so close to me. “I will attempt it for you, but the probability of my making it in his current condition would be approximately 1 in 78. At best. If I do not, because of the timing of our turns, we will lose the game.”

“‘Will lose’? But I could make it on my turn and make up for you missing.”

He gave me a dubious look. “You have consumed two glasses of Terran red wine, an Andorian Pale Rock cocktail, three shots of Terran whiskey and approximately 33.8 ounces of beer. Your blood alcohol content must be somewhere on the order of—”

“Yes, yes. I’m aware I’m drunk. Your point?”

“It is unlikely you would make your shot on your turn so it is likely we will lose the game. Highly likely.”

“Jerk.” I smacked him on the shoulder with a little giggle and felt immediately disgusted with myself. What the fuck had just possessed me to do that? I tried to frown and go on as if I hadn’t just been momentarily possessed by my teenage self. “I think it’s worth the risk. Do it. And I’ll try to distract him or something, so he stops moving so much. That’ll help the odds, right?”

Vorik nodded.

B’Elanna cupped her hands to her mouth and called, “Hey, are you lovebirds done? Get on with it!”

The way the crowd giggled made me flush worse.

“Yeah, take your turn and accept defeat already,” Tom laughed.

I gave Vorik an encouraging smile before turning to our opponents. “If you’re so ready to lose, you could just give up and save us the trouble of destroying you.”

“Not on your life,” B’Elanna growled.

Tom pointed. “What she said.”

Vorik took his time to line up his shot. So that was mu cue to get Tom to keep steady.

“You ready for this?” I asked, sauntering a bit towards the corner of the table. I watched Tom mirror my movements as he grinned. Maybe if he would keep him copying me, I could keep him still. “You’re gonna drink this one too. You ready?” I leaned forward onto the table.

Tom leaned forward too and—yes! —put his glass on the table to stare at me right in the eye. “Doesn’t matter,” he said. “You’re still going to lose.”

Ping—

I held my breath; my heart drummed erratically in my throat.

—ker-plunk.

­The entire crowd burst into raucous applause and deafening screams. Tom and B’Elanna stared, dumbfounded, at the offending cup on the corner of the table with the white ball bobbing on the last bit of Tom’s drink.

“HA! YOU LOSE!” I shouted at them and then grabbed Vorik and squeezed him as tight as I could. “Oh, I might just kiss you! We make such a good team, my dude!”

A pause, too long for a Vulcan. “Indeed.”

I looked up at him, still beaming and found his dark eyes searching my face. A moment later, what I said and what I was still doing crashed into me at once and I released him.

“I-I…” I swallowed hard. I felt like I was about to die of heat stroke. If the Voyager would crash very suddenly into something—anything—I’d be very grateful.

Then our friend Lyssa burst between the two of us, an arm wrapped around each of our necks and roared, “Take that, Paris! Way to win one for us Ensigns, you guys!”

“Vorik d-did all the work,” I mumbled, torn between feeling grateful to her and continuing to be horrified at myself.

“It was a team effort,” Vorik said smoothly, nodding at me.

“I guess. I did have a few good ones, didn’t I?”

“A few.”

[wildishmazz]

k I don’t usually do this for Voyager

But I don't think I'd actually seen "Pathfinder" before and it gave me Emotions.

Oh my god Barclay is adorable and autistic and wasn't that Harry Kim's apartment when he got thrown into an alternate timeline? Troi's accent has become so much less alien. Not polite for a cat to eat the guest's food, and not healthy either, when it's chocolate. Neelix may be an unusual name, but I'd say it's close enough to Felix that it's less unusual to give to a cat The awkwardness is so accurate and so is the hyperfixation. I am almost certain that I haven't seen this one before. And the inability to gauge the level of another person's knowledge of one's special interest. Poor grasp of time… how is he so accurate? It's kinda hard to believe that they did it knowingly and deliberately. We know what happens when tv writers try to write an autistic character. Terror in the face of a high-risk social situation with little warning. Oh, honey, reverting to his bad holodeck habit from the first time we met him… says a lot about how hard a time he's having, how isolated he still feels, and the fact that he is autistic so of course he would rather live in a fantasy world where the other people are predictable and safe and if he gets something wrong with them, he can delete the mistake and no harm done. Cunning that he's got some of the details wrong, it's a constant reminder that it's not real. Bit ADHD too, because comorbid. Can't keep his thoughts to himself, then when given the spotlight, second guesses every word that comes out of his mouth and ends up incoherent from the pressure. "Did you talk to him afterwards?" of course he fucking didn't, are you insane? Why would you even ask that? Oh right, because you may be half Betazoid but you're still neurotypical. It's not intuitive to you that the absolute last fucking thing he's going to want to do after being emotionally shredded by a superior while knowing he was right to rebuke him is voluntarily face him again. Is that Sisko's baseball? "What I need is for you to pay attention to my ideas!" Truth in outburst. "Do you have any idea how lonely that must be?" because Reg does. Loneliness is his life. I don't know if I've ever seen that establishing shot of Starfleet HQ before, but it seems weird that two of the extras in it are wearing TNG S3 uniforms. The other two are in dress uniform, so that's different, but who was wearing black shoulders on coloured torsos at that point otherwise? Why was that picture of Tom Paris mirrored? And is it actually a still of Nick Locarno, from when he was on trial in "First Duty"? No neck opening makes that costume look like a cadet uniform, and it's the right style of combadge for either of them. You can practically see Reg smacking himself for forgetting to sit down because that's what people are supposed to know to do automatically and he got it wrong. Am I projecting? How much am I projecting? Someone realised NickTom's combadge was on the wrong side in time for the closeup. Aw, bless you, Deanna. How long have you been there? Was anyone else just as obsessed with the missing Equinox? Actually welling up at Reg describing why Voyager is all he has. Um, yeah, Counsellor? Do you remember how he started making friends on the Enterprise? Other people were verbally smacked upside the head and ordered, against their will, to stop bullying and dismissing him for being weird. They were shamed into giving him a chance, and yes, then he was able to prove himself and be accepted, quirks and all. He does not have the power to make people give him a chance when they don't want to. Good luck overriding Barclay's interactions with the holodeck, no-one knows it like he does. Or is as fiercely protective of it. Safety protocols are on. He's going to be saved by a reply, isn't he? Establishing shot of Voyager… I'll know which one it is when I see B'elanna in uniform. Yay, they got through! This one's making me all emotional. Ooh that's subtle, Janeway blinking tears out of her eyes. Like, proper subtle, like they didn't even realise she was doing it. "Anyone know this Barclay?" Don't you remember that time the Doctor went doolally and you looked up the team who designed him, and had to convince him that that's who the man saying he was his assistant and that he had to destroy the ship had taken his appearance from? Or did that somehow happen in a different timeline that got rebooted? That last bit doesn't quite ring true. Or am I just a crab in a bucket, refusing to believe that a high-risk social interaction could have gone so well for someone like me?

[suburbantimewaster]

Most Hated Characters

This is a list of characters I hate because they’re poorly written, not because they’re written to be hated.  So Joffrey from Game of Thrones is safe.

Ross Gellar (Friends): Where to begin with this guy.  He obsessed over a girl since high school and, when he gets together with her, acts like a possessive douchebag to the point that he doesn’t like Rachel going to a work lecture with a colleague.  Then complains about her actually having a life outside of him when she gets a career in fashion.  Even though, earlier, he didn’t like that Rachel was just a waitress.  Not to mention his misogyny, where he refuses to hire a male nanny who was qualified in every aspect expect for being a man.  Then makes a huge deal about Ben playing with a Barbie doll.  Not to mention that he whines and whines about every small thing that goes wrong in his life, even though a lot of them are his own fault.  People who complain about the live-action Jafar being too whiny seriously need to take a look at Ross Gellar, the king of whine.

Dawn Summers (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): While I absolutely love this show, and Buffy Summers is my hero, there is one thing I would desperately change about this show and that is Dawn Summers.  Don’t get me wrong, I loved her whole key arc in season 5 but, in season 6, I just wanted to strangle her.  She complains constantly about how Buffy doesn’t spend enough time with her because she has to work at a crappy job to support her.  Which, if Dawn hadn’t purposely flunked her classes, Buffy wouldn’t have had to quit college and get anyway.  Dawn regularly does stupid stuff, such as accidentally inviting a vampire in the house, and we’re supposed to side with her because “she’s just a kid.”  Other than being the Key, this girl contributes nothing to the show.  They should have just killed her off in season 5 instead of introducing that stupid plot hole just to keep her.

Every Single Character in the Big Bang Theory: That’s right, I hate them all.  Sheldon for being a whiny spoiled brat, Leonard for being an entitled “nice guy,” Howard for being a perverted manchild (the latter staying even when he married Bernadette), Raj for being a whiny douchebag, Penny for acting like an entitled alpha bitch who mocks the guys’ interests even though they’re scientists and she’s a waitress, Bernadette for being an evil bitch to the point of making Howard give up his Tardis (I’m never forgiving her for that), and Amy for being every bit as evil and manipulative as Sheldon, even though she’s supposed to be the one that suffers.  That’s right, everyone in this show has done something that makes me want to throw my shoe at the TV and my mom and I continued watching it just for the sake of completing it.  Don’t get me wrong, I watch many sitcoms where the characters are insufferable douchebags, such as Seinfeld, but the difference is that the writers embraced the douchebags and rolled with it.  Not try to make us sympathize and say that they’re good people deep down, which they’re not.

Ahmed (Thief of Baghdad): Okay, I did like his storyline in the beginning about how he learned not to trust his Grand Vizier Jaffar (the one Jafar was based off of) and how he went out into the world but, after that, everything interesting about him goes out the window.  Throughout the movie, all he does is whine about his nameless princess and how he can’t live without this girl he knew for all of five minutes and who he met by breaking into her garden.  The first time I watched the movie, my thoughts were “My God, shut up about your stupid princess already.”  Is it any wonder that, when the movie was out, so many women wrote to Conrad Veidt saying that they would’ve chosen Jaffar over Ahmed any day?

Jack and Kate (Lost): That’s right, I gave Jack and Kate an equal spot.  I’ll admit, Jack got cool at the end when he was all about the island but it doesn’t make up for seasons of bad writing we had to sit through about how everything on the island doesn’t make sense.  Jack, you live on an island with a giant smoke monster and you saw your father’s ghost.  The laws of reality are being severely challenged for you.  Also, you had no proof that not pushing the button wasn’t going to blow up the island and you were willing to risk everyone on said island just to prove that you were right.  Not to mention all the pointless flashbacks I had to endure starring you, such as that stupid flashback about the tattoos.  It couldn’t have been something he did in medical school when he was drunk, it has to have some super special significance.  Kate, on the other hand, started out cool but quickly became disappointing.  You had a hardcore criminal on the show and her major plot was her stupid love triangle between Jack and Sawyer.  Her reason for killing her stepfather (actually her real father) wasn’t because he was abusing her but because he was part of her.  Seriously, what the fuck?  She forces herself into the final climax by shooting the smoke monster, even though she had no personal conflict with him, and she wanted to get off the island, despite being a wanted criminal.  I know some people have to want to leave the island, but you have to give them a legitimate reason.  Wouldn’t it be more interesting if Jack wanted to leave and Kate wanted to stay, giving them a conflict that didn’t have to do with the love triangle?

Wesley Crusher (Star Trek: The Next Generation): The very character who started the trope Creator’s Pet, which used to be called The Wesley.  He was the irritating boy genius that was smarter than everyone, even the super smart robot.  Wesley played around in Engineering on duty, seeing how he could boost the sensors.  When Data asked how I was asking why.  He’s forced into the plot just to prove how smart he is, one time being given command of an entire project filled with older and far more experienced officers.  He’s the only one who figured out that Data was Lore, even though it was super obvious to the point that a 5 year old could’ve figured it out, but everyone else was taking their stupid pills so that Wesley can look smart by comparison.  Even Will Wheaton himself admitted to hating the character of Wesley Crusher.  This is how NOT to write a boy genius while Peter Parker from the MCU is a great example of how to do Wesley Crusher right.

Neelix (Star Trek: Voyager): Words cannot describe how much I hate this stupid alien.  He was supposed to be the breakout character of Voyager, a combination of Odo and Quark, and he came off more like Michael Scott on a starship.  When he wasn’t incessantly bugging Tuvok, who made it very clear that he wants to be left alone, he was making adjustments to recipes no one asked him to make adjustments to.  Neelix also forces himself into situations where he’s not wanted or needed, such as insisting that he be part of the security team.  Not to mention his possessive jealousy over Kes makes Ross Geller look like a supportive boyfriend.

Connor (Angel): Meet the son of Angel and Darla that nobody wanted.  He’s an unlikable bigot who tried to kill Angel and, even though he was misled, wouldn’t even consider that he was wrong.  Then there was that whole Jasmine arc where he knew all along that Jasmine was evil, but went along with it anyway.  At no point does he try to help Fred, who’s been there for him and cared for him, and he screws over not only the Angel crew, but everyone on Earth because he went along with a lie.  Supposedly it was because it was “the best lie he’s ever heard,” but if that’s supposed to make me feel sympathy for him, you’re barking up the wrong tree.  He got less annoying once Angel rewrote his memory.

Lana Lang (Smallville): I have saved the best, or worst, for last.  Meet Lana Lang, Clark’s love interest who’s so amazing and strong, even though we never see evidence of either of that.  All she does is get captured, have various stalkers declare their undying love for her, mope about her dead parents, who died before she could even remember them and was raised by a loving aunt and makes Clark mope about how he can’t be with her.  She’s supposedly running the Talon (the coffee shop), even though she’s in high school and has no business training whatsoever.  So many men declared their undying love for Lana Lang, it was ridiculous.  This small town nobody had more stalkers than Lex Luthor, and he was the heir of a wealthy entrepreneur.  Later on, she gets tougher by learning martial arts in the span of one day and ends the show by getting navy seal training.  Then we have to have this whole sad scene about how she and Clark can’t be together because she sucked up kryptonite inside of her.  Though, when they were together, she wasn’t really a great girlfriend considering that, when Bizarro replaced Clark, she had to be told by Chloe that her boyfriend’s an imposter.  When Lana leaves the show for good, you’d think we’d get a break from it but no, we have to hear over and over about how amazing Lana is and how no one can ever dream of matching up to her perfection.  Every time people talk about what an unbelievable Mary Sue Michael Burnham from Star Trek: Discovery is, I want to show them Lana Lang.