“‘I may preach a sermon to the ship’s company next Sunday.’
‘You? Preach a sermon?’
‘Certainly. Captains often do, when no chaplain is carried. I always made do with the Articles of War in the Sophie, but now I think I shall give them a clear, well-reasoned - come, what’s the matter? What is so very entertaining about my preaching a sermon? Damn your eyes, Stephen.’
Stephen was doubled in his chair, rocking to and fro, uttering harsh spasmodic squeaks: tears ran down his face. ‘What a spectacle you are, to be sure. Now I come to think of it, I do not believe I have ever heard you laugh before. It is a damned illiberal row, I can tell you - it don’t suit you at all. Squeak, squeak. Very well: you shall laugh your bellyful.’ He turned away with something about ‘pragmatical apes - simpering, tittering’ and affected to look into the Bible without the least concern; but there are not many who can find themselves the object of open, whole-hearted, sincere, prostrating laughter without being put out of countenance, and Jack was not one of these few. However, Stephen’s mirth died away in time - a few last crowing whoops and it was over. He got to his feet, and dabbing his face with a handkerchief he took Jack by the hand.
‘I am so sorry,’ he said. ‘I beg your pardon. I would not have vexed you for the world. But there is something so essentially ludicrous, so fundamentally comic… that is to say, I had so droll an association of ideas - pray do not take it personally at all. Of course you shall preach to the men; I am persuaded it will have a most striking effect.’
‘Well,’ said Jack, with a suspicious glance, ‘I am glad it afforded you so much innocent merriment in all events. Though what you find…’
‘What is your text, pray?’
‘Are you making game of me, Stephen?’
‘Never, upon my word: would scorn it.’”
smoking hot take but that season 4 ep ‘In Theory’ where Data dates a random lieutenant for an experiment is dumb and unbearable and ignores how much progress he’s made interpersonally and as an individual. Data choosing to explore romance (a complex and undeniably emotional concept) needed to be more rooted in his ongoing personal and social development, not a throwaway one-shot for comedy.
for example!
Data realizes that somebody he’s spending a lot of time with is displaying behaviors he associates with romantic relationships.
He confides in Deanna, who agrees with his assessment, and she asks if Data sees himself finding a partner in the future.
This is something Data has never considered, but he decides he wants to try, and Deanna helps him do his favorite thing AKA enthusiastic research.
In the following weeks, Data consciously reciprocates gestures he interprets as romantic, and gives lots of small gifts and compliments.
After this goes well theres a fun comedic scene where Data invites his companion on a date but is misinterpreted because its something they already do together, theres only so much to do on a ship
Eventually Deanna tips Geordi off and he takes the initiative to ask Data on a second date
If I finish this book, and manage to review it without shouting about “females,” I can write the Garak and Troi spyfic with bonus side Odo/Quark and Kira/Jadzia.
(It will be a dead ripoff of either a Leverage episode or that “how to write a thriller” checklist I have floating around somewhere.)
In the Philippines, “terno” refers to a woman’s ensemble that consists of matching colors/patterns. … By the late 1940s, the terno’s meaning and silhouette evolved into any Western dress with butterfly sleeves attached to it.
