Q

(OOC: crossposted from theatrical_muse today.)

Ah, April Fool's Day. My favorite holiday... except in years when I lose a bet with my son and have to wear a hideous sweater. Oh, well, I suppose it could be worse. The last time I lost a bet to him, I had to go to school. For a year. Pretending to be a mortal human teenager. ...I much prefer the sweater, honestly.

Anyway. Advice.

Prompt #380: What is the best advice you've ever received? (Or, if you prefer, what was the worst?)

The worst advice I ever received was to go talk to a Listener about my problems. I mean, I went there, in good faith, to talk to her about some... personal issues I was having, and she locked me out of the universe. I'm pretty sure that most codes of ethical conduct frown on counselors doing that to their patients, or for that matter bartenders doing that to their customers.

And then, of course, there's the general "Q, grow up", "Q, do what the Continuum tells you to," "Q, become completely boring just like the rest of us", and all the other nonsense various members of the Continuum have advised me to do throughout the aeons, but I never took that advice, so I don't even count it. The advice to talk to a Listener, however... I actually took that advice, more fool me.

The best advice I ever got came from my old friend Q, shortly before I gave him the poison he used to kill himself. I'd... reformed, sort of, more or less, after the Continuum took away my powers. Toed the line, followed the rules, obeyed my instructions, you know the drill. And he told me that he missed the old me. That I was certainly a fine, upstanding Q now... but that he wished I was still the irrepressible rebel I'd been. And he challenged me to find a way to defy the Continuum that didn't result in my having my powers taken away.

I'm pretty sure he didn't mean for me to start a civil war, but it turned out to be the best possible thing for me and for the Continuum (well, being the best possible thing for the Continuum is a matter of opinion, but it's my opinion. You wanna hear another opinion, go ask a different Q.)

Muse: Q
Fandom: ST:TNG and VOY
Note: The references to Q losing a bet with his son and having to spend a year as a mortal student are a nod to the fic A Year With Q, a Harry Potter crossover by Morena Evensong.

OOC: Contains spoilers for Star Trek XI, the new movie, beneath the cut. Third person ficlet, set in an AU based on the movie.

Prompt 2009.18.B.1: You need something from someone that you really can't stand. How do you approach that?

She was standing in her garden, obsessing over the care of her silly plants. Honestly, how a sentient being could possibly lavish so much attention on something so mindless was incomprehensible to him. For all the intellectual and emotional capacity of a plant, she could be keeping a rock garden. Just as attractive and a lot less work.

Her head came up, her face tight and her eyes searching. So she knew he was here. He came very, very close to simply turning around and going home. Surely there was nothing he really needed from her. He could figure this out on his own. He didn't need the help of a mortal, and certainly not help from her. And what were the odds that she would help him anyway?

But the shard of his own future corpse burned in his mind with the recorded memory of a conflagration, explosion, death. 129 years. He'd expected to be around for billions more. 129 years was nothing. He had to know everything he could, to make sure that what had become of him in one timeline would never happen here.

So he materialized in front of her, in his default male humanoid form. "Hi, Teyande," he said, with a cheer he didn't feel in his voice. "Miss me?"

( ...he didn't want to die. He'd do favors for whoever he had to if it meant he wasn't going to die in an explosion in a mere 129 years. )

OOC: crossposted from theatrical_muse today.
Prompt 240: Discuss an individual who has scared you.

No.

( Fine, fine. I won't be a coward about it, after all. )

Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG