Concept writing WIP: Endgame Admiral Janeway and Picard Era!Seven (except they don’t here).

By request of @thymejot

——-

Kathryn, and she is just Kathryn now that her past self and her crew passed the threshold, can feel the slow creep of nanoprobes assimilating her. It’s a pain that only a select few have felt.

It was something she thought she would never re-live. Kathryn watched and felt the Borg Queen slowly disassemble in front of her. Kathryn pulled herself up, it didn’t matter if she died, if all went according to plan Kathryn would be erased as well as her timeline.

And then there was a bright light and a voice: “Not just quite yet, Admiral.”

x

The white light receded and Kathryn blinked. A face greeted her, a vaguely familiar face. His hair had more grey at the temples, and he looked more weathered.

“Good to see you again, Admiral.”

Kathryn remembered him now, vaguely, he was the man who recruited her and Seven all those years ago. She did recall, vividly, his warning against time travel.

“I don’t know if I can say the same…”

“Captain Juel Ducane,” He provided with a smile. He offered his hand. Kathryn took it cautiously. She had hoped to avoid the Time Bureau altogether, Kathryn felt a pang. All that hardwork.

“I assume you’re arresting me.” She said, weary. Everything she sacrificed all for nothing.

“I’m press ganging you,” Ducane corrected, helping her to her feet. Kathryn felt dizzy, she remembered she was assimilated, she lifted her free hand to her forehead. The implant was still there.

Ducane noticed. “We were able to pause the assimilation process but it’s not something we can reverse.”

“Can’t? Or won’t?” Kathryn said astutely.

“We still have to return you to—“

“The moment of my death.” Kathryn narrowed her eyes, “‘Press gang’, you said.”

Ducane quirked his lips into a smile. “It turns out despite our warnings, this time travel incursion you took was… necessary.”

He moved towards a bank of panels, “We’ve monitored the other timelines where you didn’t or were prevented from bringing home Voyager earlier. Eventually, down the line, it would spell catastrophe for the galaxy.”

Kathryn raised an eyebrow at his phrasing. “You’re over blowing it, Captain.”

Ducane laughed drily. “I assure you, Admiral, when it comes to the timeline, I don’t exaggerate. I’ve been fighting this temporal cold war for decades now, and any deviations when this version of you don’t get to change your past— meant the Borg do find a way to assimilate the Alpha and Beta Quadrant. Gamma quadrant was able to withstand the longest but it’s become a war of attrition for the Dominion. A stalemate of two powers bent on destruction and subjugation.”

“Well, if you put it that way.” Kathryn played it off but her head was spinning. Frankly, she didn’t know if it was the scale, time travel or because she was pulled from the verge of death. “What do you need me for?”

“We needed someone out of time.” Ducane said, “There is an anomaly that’s sprung up and we’re frankly spread too thin to lend a hand. And since you showed you would move Heaven and Earth to achieve your goals, it’s that kind of tenacity we need.”

“Captain, I know you have all the time in the world. But my head is killing me, can you just tell me what’s going on?”

“We just want you to continue what you were doing.” Ducane pressed a few buttons.

And an image of Seven of Nine, an older Seven, but still Seven appeared.

“Save Seven of Nine.”

If we got nothing else out of the terrible finale of Killing Eve...

...gratitude is owed to Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer...

...for giving us the best improvised kiss...

...EVER in television history and I will die on this hill.

THANK YOU, Sandra and Jodie. For everything.

An exhausted Janeway attempts to retake Voyager - in her dreams.

Star Trek Voyager 4E09 - Scientific Method

The Janeway Moment for Seven of Nine. (The First of Many).

Part 1, 2

Star Trek Voyager: Scorpion Part 2 / Star Trek Picard: Broken Pieces

Star Trek: Picard I "Stardust City Rag"

One of the things I really appreciate in Picard S3 is how the season slowly gave back Voyager to Seven. I get why they didn't in season 1 of Picard and only mentioned Voyager and her Voyager family obliquely -- Seven barely knew the people in La Sirena, and there's no impetus for her to share. The subtlest of nods was a good way to kick it off.

Season 2 has willingly said Janeway's name to Raffi and the context of why she wasn't in Starfleet.

By season 3, Seven is surrounded by the spirit of her old family. The best visual indicator of it all was the silver Voyager Model Seven kept prominently on a shelf in the anteroom of her quarters.

From BTS we also see Tuvok has the same one, and from this, we can infer all Voyager crew have their own models. (I would give them real money if they would sell that Voyager model too!).

It also means wherever Seven was all through the years with the Fenris Rangers Seven carried this tiny Voyager ship around.

In Prodigy Vice-Admiral Janeway has her own Voyager model, but of course, she's not going to be satisfied with a tiny model.

Keeping Jellico in the photo for the Voyager scale.

And of course, the scene in the Fleet Museum:

Featuring the Grand Old Lady herself, USS Voyager. (Hello, Voyager!)

Ends with a proper reunion with Tuvok, the only person other than Janeway who was there for Seven since the beginning:

I missed seeing them together -- and look at both of them now, in Command Red.

Janeway was the only missing element with an unfortunate thing of production and time getting in the way of Kate Mulgrew being around, as I understand it, she splits her time living in Ireland and the US (I could be wrong!) -- it's also one of the reasons I dearly hope we get a new show with Seven as the main lead. Because I selfishly want Janeway to appear and possibly give Seven her Captain's pins.

I know Jonathan Frakes expressed his wish that Riker be the one to hand out assignments to Seven, and it would make sense if he becomes a newly minted Vice-Admiral. Since Janeway might be higher up in the Command chain at this point.

But I still want Janeway to be the one handing out crucial assignments to Seven and the Ent-G.

So, yeah I hope we get that show but also I'm really glad this season finally brought Voyager back to Seven. It was her home.

Meta on Bellatrix's loyalty

I was thinking about how Bellatrix's loyalty and demeanor towards Voldemort are so in contrast with the rest of the Death Eaters and it's such an interesting dynamic group-wise. Death Eaters are essentially a Slytherin group and we can clearly see their members displaying Slytherin qualities, especially in denying their loyalty towards Voldemort after he wasn't the biggest bully on the playground anymore as Sirius had put it, to save themselves from Azkaban.

While Voldemort repeatedly praises those Death Eaters who remained loyal to him, he doesn't really show any difference in treatment (or at least we as the readers don't see it) besides breaking them out of Azkaban and talking about how they will be "honoured beyond their dreams". The thing is though, his actions speak otherwise.

this video alone is ten times better than the entire last half of the show

Babies girl

Red alert! There's more...

Updated timeline of Henry and Elizabeth McCord’s relationship-2nd edition

There are definite inconsistencies with this timeline, starting with how long they’ve been married, what division of the Marines Henry was with, and how long Elizabeth worked at the CIA.  I’m sure there are others, but we tried to make as many of the statements from the show work as possible.  There is a link at the end of this that will take you to the full timeline, complete with our rationale for why we placed events in the order we did.  This was researched by @laineyvb131 and I, with strategic assistance by @fsulinz, who would wake up in the morning to find her Messenger chat had 800 new messages.  She dutifully read through all of our craziness and either agreed or pointed out our flaws (and always gave us accurate episode information so we could find what we were looking for).  This is definitely a labor of love.

Late fall 1964: Henry is born

Spring 1968: Elizabeth is born

1983: Elizabeth’s parents killed in a car accident when she was 15

Fall 1982: Henry enters UVA on ROTC scholarship

May 1986: Henry graduates UVA with his bachelor’s degree

Summer 1986: Henry completes basic training through ROTC

Fall 1986: Elizabeth enters UVA

Fall 1986: Henry starts masters degree at UVA

November 1986: Henry and Elizabeth start dating

December 1988: Henry completes master’s program through UVA

A date in December 1988: Henry and Elizabeth realize at 8:22 that they are meant to be together

January 1989-June 1989: Henry goes to SOI (School of Infantry) and preliminary flight training in Quantico

July 1989-September 1989: Henry is stationed at US Naval Flight Training Center in Pensacola, FL; Henry drives an unknown number of times to Danville to see Elizabeth

May 1989-August 1989: Elizabeth lives at home in Danville, VA the summer before her senior year

September 1989: Henry’s flight training ends and he is stationed in Miramar, CA with the 3rd MAW

May 1990: Elizabeth graduates UVA and moves to Miramar to be with Henry before she starts grad school

Summer 1990: (sometime while they’re living together)-Henry has freak out over their relationship, breaks up with Elizabeth and disappears for 3 days before returning, pledging his love, and asking her to marry him

August 1990: Elizabeth returns to UVA for grad school

December 1990: Henry receives orders for deployment and goes to Great Lakes in Chicago for training.

December 1990:  Elizabeth goes to Chicago for winter break.  They marry on the courthouse steps

December 1990- January 1991: Henry and Elizabeth live as newlyweds in Great Lakes; Elizabeth returns to school at the end of her winter break which coincides with Henry’s deployment.

January 1991-January 1992: Henry deployed for Desert Storm in official “war” capacity; made 1st Lieutenant during this time.

January 1991-May 1992: Elizabeth completes her master’s program, earning an MA in Foreign Affairs from Woodrow Wilson School of Politics at UVA

May 1992: Elizabeth begins employment with CIA at Langley

February 1992-November 1992: Henry is still in the military on shore duty (unsure where, but not near Elizabeth)

December 1992: Henry finds out he’s deploying again

Late January 1993-January 1994: Henry does his second tour-theoretically in Iraq if he is still in the 3rd MAW; makes rank of Captain

January 1994-Summer 1995: Henry is on inactive duty to complete his ROTC scholarship requirements, works for NSA

January 1994: Elizabeth becomes pregnant with Stevie

Late October 1994: Stevie is born

October-December 1995: Elizabeth on maternity leave

January 1995: Henry quits NSA and starts his doctorate while remaining on inactive reserve. Henry stays at home when he can and Miss Janie nannies for them when Henry has to be at school.

June 1995: Henry retires from military.

April 1998-Elizabeth pregnant with Allison.

January 1999: Allison born, followed by maternity leave

May 2000: Henry finishes his doctorate, gets tenure track position at UVA.

September 2000: Elizabeth pregnant with Jason

May 2001: Jason is born, Elizabeth on maternity leave until August 2001

September 12, 2001: Elizabeth is present when Conrad makes his speech to the CIA in the aftermath of 9/11

Fall 2003: Elizabeth is sent to Iraq to interrogate members of Al-Qaeda that she has been gathering intelligence on. We don’t know how long she was stationed there, but the guess is  3-6 months.

March 2004: Elizabeth returns and writes report on the ineffectiveness of using torture, and coaches Stevie’s soccer team.

March 2005: Dalton offers Elizabeth Station Chief job in Baghdad. Henry throws ultimatum and Elizabeth quits.

Late Summer 2005: Elizabeth and Henry buy a horse farm and move out of DC area, closer to Charlottesville.

Fall 2005: Henry and Elizabeth are both at UVA; he is teaching and she has started her doctorate.

Spring 2006: Elizabeth starts teaching classes at either a local community college or UVA (probably as an adjunct or assistant professor since she doesn’t have her doctorate yet)

Fall 2008:  Elizabeth finishes her doctorate and becomes full professor at UVA

Spring 2014: Vincent Marsh’s plane crashes and Conrad shows up at the horse farm to offer Elizabeth SOS position.

Full timeline with rationale as to why we made the decisions we did.

H/E Timeline with Rationale

omg this made me emotional 😭

We named him after you we hope you don't mind

consider: teenagers aren’t apathetic about everything they’re just used to you shitting all over whatever they show excitement about

Teen: *gets a job*

“I GOT THE JOB!”

Parents: Well, when I was your age, I already had 5 jobs and was supporting my family

Teen: *gets all A’s*

“I worked really hard!”

Parents: Well, of course you did, this is the expectation, not a celebration.

probably why so many teens take to social media where they can enthusiastically share their interests and achievements and get positive feedback that their parents never gave

A LITTLE LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK

This hit hard

I remember once, when I was in my early 20s, I was an afternoon supervisor at my job, and I worked with mostly teenagers, and the one day this one kid, who was like 15, was bored so I suggested he could clean out the fridge. He did and when he was done I said he did a good job.

After that, this kid was cleaning out the fridge at least once a week, and I was like, “why are you always cleaning the fridge?” Like, I didn’t mind, but it seemed odd. And he said, “one time I cleaned the fridge and you said I did a good job. I wanted to make you proud of me again.”

Literally, I changed the entire way I interacted with teenagers after that. I actually got a package of glitter stars and I would stick them on their nametags when they did a good job, and they loved it.

My manager had commented on how hard these kids work and I said, “they’re starved for positive feedback. They go to school all day then come to work all evening and no one appreciates it because it’s expected of them, but they’re still kids. They need positive feedback from adults in their lives.”

Like, everyone likes feeling appreciated. Everyone likes being complimented and having their efforts be noticed. Another coworker (who was a mother of teenage children), hated that I did this, and said they were too old to be rewarded with stickers, but like… it wasn’t about the stickers. The stickers were just a symbol that their effort was noticed and appreciated. I was just lucky that I learned this at a time when I was still young enough to remember what it was like to be a teenager. I was only 2 years out of highschool at that point and highschool is fucking hard. People forget this as they get older, but ask anyone and almost no one would ever want to go back and do it again, but they expect kids to suck it up because they’re young so they should be able to do school full time, plus homework, and work, and maintain a healthy social life, and sleep, and spend time with family, and do chores and help out at home, and worry about college and relationships and everything else, and then just get shit on all the time and treated like they’re lazy and entitled. And then they wonder why teenagers are apathetic.

For a german exam I had to argue against an article that was essentially „kids these days, they don’t care about anything and are constantly on their phones“ and really it was the easiest essay I‘ve ever written.

Teens don’t talk to adults bc adults only ask „so, how‘s school“ to then interrupt them two sentences in. And because they can’t engage in a conversation about buying houses and working in a bank. I would’ve loved to talk about philosophy and politics and history with family the way I did with friends and in class but because I was young no one took what I had to say seriously.

And no, teens aren’t always on their phone. They’re on their phone when they’re bored. You think I‘m on social media when I‘m with my friends? When I‘m talking about something I‘m interested in?

Maybe the reason kids are so distant and always on their phone during family parties and the like is because you‘re failing to engage and include them.

Whoop there it is

When you respect kids, they really respond and learn from you. But if you treat kids like “theyre just a kid, what do they know??” then you’ll never find out.

As a Disneyland Cast Member, I’ll add my own experience onto this –

Very frequently, when I first speak to a child while I’m at work, they’ll kind of withdraw and act uncomfortable and shy. Their parents will then rather frequently tell them to not be shy and try to coax them to talk to me – whenever that happens, I always, without fail, politely dissuade the parents from pressuring them.

“I’m a stranger,” I’ll tell the kid’s parents. “I don’t blame them for not talking to me – if they were anywhere else, they’d have the right idea, to not immediately trust me.”

I cannot tell you how many times I’ve seen that same kid – simply after hearing their initial reaction being validated, instead of reproached – immediately open up to me after that. I also cannot tell you how many times that child and I would go on to start a friggin’ marathon conversation, and I got to hear all about how great their day was or what their favorite Disney movies were or what rides they liked and didn’t like or how much they like a certain Disney character or song…all from me validating that initial feeling and showing genuine interest in what they had to say.

This isn’t just young children, either. I will always remember being positioned outside the Animation Academy one day and starting up a conversation with a young lady, perhaps 12 or 13, who joined the line with her father a full 25 minutes before the class was supposed to start. Now keep in mind, we do a drawing class every 30 minutes: there was no one else in line at that point, and no one else joined the girl and her father in line for a full fifteen minutes. So I could tell pretty quickly that this girl was very emotionally invested in getting a good spot for the drawing class: a conclusion all the more bolstered by the fact that she had a notebook under her arm. I asked her if she was an artist – she said yes, but seemed uncomfortable at the question, so I skipped even asking her if I could see her work, instead admitting that I myself wasn’t very good at art, but that I’m trying to get better and that I love the history of Disney animation. On the screens around us was video footage of different Disney concept art and animation reels, so I pointed one of them out (for Snow White) and asked if she knew the story behind the making of the movie. Upon confirming that she didn’t, I proceeded to get down on the floor so I could sit next to her and her father and dramatically tell the whole story of how “Uncle Walt” created the first full-length animated motion picture, even though everyone and their mother thought he was an idiot for even trying, and how the film ended up becoming the first Hollywood blockbuster. After the story was over, the girl’s father said that his daughter really wanted to be an animator when she grew up, and she finally felt comfortable enough to open her notebook and show me some of her artwork. It was wonderful! Every sketch had such character and you could tell how much work she put into it! And I could tell how much telling her that – and sharing that moment with her, where we got to connect over something we both really enjoyed – had meant. And after the class was over, she sought me out to show me what she and her father had drawn – and sure enough, hers was great! (Her father’s was too, really. XD)

People, kids and teens included, love sharing what they love and how they feel with others. You just have to give them the chance to show it.

A LITTLE LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!

-~-

I feel like I am obliged to add one more thing: don’t ever think that the kids won’t feel your unspoken judgements cause they do!

I felt always like a ‘problem’ in my family, until I was about sixteen, I got this teacher who was litterally the first to tell I was worthy. He changed my life up till this day.

Also how do grown ups imagine how ‘we’ will ever learn to engage in conversations with adults properly if you don’t teach us?

This post is

Everything

I told one of my new coworkers (who is 26) that he was doing really well and that I was proud of him and his progress. I thought he was going to start crying for how quietly he said “really?”. 

Positive feedback makes the biggest difference to everything.

I used to have a coworker who only spoke Burmese. She knew a few words in English, but literally it was like “hey Susu, can you clean the cooler for me?” “Yes yes, I clean, I clean.” She’d moved to the US in her late 30s and never really got the hang of English. (I don’t say this to make fun of her. She was a refugee fleeing a brutal and bloody war in Myanmar and her broken English was a sign of deep determination and tragedy. I say it because the language barrier, and the extent of it, is important to what happened next.)

She was shy, and kind of withdrawn, and extremely slow—it took this woman an hour to do a sink of dishes that took me 30 minutes and I was considered not particularly fast—but she was absolutely dogged. She would do her job and get it done.

So this one day I realized we had all kinds of “hey, great job!” cards on our little recognition board thing for almost the whole crew, but none for Susu, because “she won’t understand anyway.” So I threw a couple of simple sentences into a translation app and spent like half an hour very painstakingly drawing these sentences in Burmese characters (and drawing is really what it was—I felt like I was four years old and holding a pencil for the first time again) and gave her the card. She kind of glanced and it and went “oh thank you” and then did this massive double-take and raised it in front of her face and read it, and read it again, and then just about hollered “OH THANK YOU THANK YOU” and I showed her where she could pin it on the recognition board if she wanted. She chose to take it home instead, which, totally fair.

All it said was “thank you for your hard work, you’re very reliable.”

Everything changed after that. She started using her limited English more, picking up new words here and there (rather amusingly, ours was a multilingual kitchen but she didn’t know which words belonged to which language, and you really haven’t lived until you’ve seen a tiny Burmese woman slap a fryer and say “Oy vay this thing, yeah! Pendejo!” I mean yes, completely valid emotion about that fucking fryer, but when this is how you’re discovering she’s picked up both Spanish and Yiddish and thinks both of them are English, lemme tell you, that sure is an Emotion), enthusiastically participating in things.

She was in her forties.

Nobody but her children had spoken a word to her in Burmese since she left home.

People just want to be known. Sometimes that’s all it takes.

ok!!! :]

This is one of my favourite posts. I use these strategies a lot with my students, and by the second week, I can usually get half the class to engage in the discussion, even online.

The most important part is that just saying that you appreciate them Diane work for all kids and teenagers. Sometimes you have to be willing to actually show that.

So this is not my story, but my mother’s.

She is a high school science teacher, and her special focus for a while was speciality students - so high achievers and assisted learning students. For several years running she had the ‘top’ high achiever class, and the ‘bottom’ class.

The ‘bottom’ tiered class was generally students who may have had behavioural issues, or learning difficulties or who simply weren’t academic. These are students who will go into ‘life skills’ classes in more senior years. I say this not to be mean or rude, but just so you get an idea- these are students who will not meet the minimum bar to pass classes.

Because they aren’t going to meet the minimum bar, my mum got to (essentially) throw the syllabus requirements for ‘passing’ out the window and design her own curriculum for them. She tailored this for the learning level of the class, meaning this was content and concepts they would understand, be able to recall, and could apply. These students all knew the score- that they were going into life skill type courses- and they knew the curriculum had been changed.

Thus she got to mark assignments based on this curriculum.

These students, who received very low marks in many of their classes- below 50%, below 30%, D and E grades? They got marks in the 70’s and 80’s. For the first time EVER for some of them, they answered questions correctly in class when called upon.

My mum never treated them like they were stupid. Even with a wrong answer- ‘I can see you worked hard on that, however what if you thought about X like this?’

During student teacher interviews, almost every parent of a child in this class said ‘my child comes home excited to tell me about their marks.’ Or ‘when I ask how their day went they talk about how much they enjoy your class. It’s the only class they talk about. They are so excited to go to science class’.

Several parents cried and said ‘this is the first time my child has felt like they are smart. That they understand what they’re learning. That they got a good mark! They want to keep going to school’

One specific parent apparently sat down, burst into tears and said ‘thank you. Thank you so much. My daughter can explain what she learned in class. She got a 90% on the assignment. She has never gotten more than a 50% before. She believes in herself.’

These kids got to sit in that class and know someone believed in them. That they could achieve things. That they weren’t stupid, and that a teacher! an authority figure! Knew that they were doing their best and said ‘great job, I knew you could do it’.

Blondie - Heart Of Glass