Q

Ask me anything.

I won't guarantee that I'll answer, and I won't guarantee that your primitive minds will be able to comprehend my answers if I do so choose, but go ahead and ask. I'm bored, and it'll provide me with a small modicum of amusement.

(OOC: I write Q in multiple prompt communities and a few RPGs. This is the contact post for anyone from any of those groups who needs to get hold of Q or Q's mun. For the casual reader of this journal there will be multiple timelines in operation depending on the RPG, or if it's a prompt community; you can track posts related to specific RPGs with the tag list or by the Memories.)

OOC: crossposted from theatrical_muse from Oct 26.
Prompt 305: What have you outlived?

Everything.

Or damn near it, anyway.

( Billions of years covers a lot of outliving. )

OOC: Crossposted from realmof_themuse today.
Prompt 2009.32.A.6 - “We must not allow other people's limited perceptions to define us” - Virginia Satir (Psychologist and Educator)

Here's the reason why one shouldn't want to be a god.

( Sure it *sounds* like a great deal... but you better read the fine print. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek
Note: Not intended to be binding on any god or goddess muse; refers to the entities in the Star Trek universe who go by the names of Earth mythological figures only.

OOC: Crossposted from muse_academy today.
Muse Inquiries #4 and 5: Vice and Trust

( Vice )

( Trust )

OOC: Crossposted from theatrical_muse today.

Prompt 302: Answer a question that you're never asked.

Why, I'm doing pretty well today, thanks for asking.

I'm fine, thanks, how about you?

Oh, you know, same old, same old. But hey, I appreciate you asking!

Except no one does.

"How are you today, Q?" "How do you feel?" "How's it going?" No one ever asks me those questions. And you know, I'm getting a little miffed about it.

( Would it kill people to be just a little bit civil? )

Prompt 289: Cheer someone up.
Prompt 291: Take someone out.

Now I know what you're going to say, here. You're going to say, "But Q, you're an asshole who never does anything nice for mortals, so they don't even like you. Why would you expect them to be friendly with you?" And I'm going to say, au contraire, sometimes I am in fact perfectly nice to mortals.

( The time I dumped Picard into a historical period with scurvy, pirates, keelhauling and scrubbing the decks, and he thanked me for it. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG

Prompt 299: Madness.

(I know everything that's happening here. That makes sense, if you think about it. I used to be God, after all. Of course I know everything that's going on in the city.)

Dixon Hill is walking to his office, because the cross-town bus has square wheels today and Dix can't afford a taxi. Giant flying dogs don't come cheap. On his way, he tosses a handful of minnows at the newspaper vendor. "What's going on in the world, Will?" he asks.

The bearded newspaper vendor grins at him. "Absolutely nothing, Dix. Absolutely nothing." He takes Dix's minnows (two of which are still wiggling, fresh-caught) and hands him a sheet of newsprint with nothing whatsoever printed on it. Dix takes it, scans it, and hands it back to Will, reassured that there's no news. No news is good news, after all.

On his way, he passes Geordi LaForge. LaForge has a large, stale loaf of Italian bread in his hands. He's swinging it against the side of a building, and tiny bits of it crumble, the breadcrumbs falling to the ground where they vanish, devoured by invisible pigeons. "Hello there, Geordi! How's it hanging?" Dixon Hill shouts.

"Ah, you know, Dix. Same old, same old." The bread cracks in half. LaForge picks up a new loaf. "It's not exciting, but it keeps the fish coming in."

"That it does, Geordi, that it does."

( The Dancing Doctor meets Spot the Cat and his/her muscle; Durango the gunslinger meets Worf the landlady; and Dixon Hill meets God. I mean me. I mean I am God. )

( OOC Note )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG

Crossposted from muse_academy, today.
Muse Name: Q
Fandom: Star Trek: Voyager
Prompt Numbers:
Week 18.1.A - When have you sacrificed for something you really believe in?
18.1.C - If I had been the Virgin Mary, I would have said "No." - Margaret Smith
Title: Plan B
Warnings/Disclaimers: Up through the phrase "cease fire", all of the dialogue comes verbatim from the script for "The Q and the Grey". Everything after that is original, as is all the explanatory text around the dialogue.
This is an AU (well, obviously, but it's an AU to the version of Q I write in this journal as well), which belongs to a fanfic story arc.
Word Count: 2769 total; 2236 original

( How the plan got changed )

OOC: Crossposted from theatrical_muse today.
Prompt 294: Passing.

If you want to know the truth, it's really not my favorite thing, passing. I've done it, of course. Any Q who wants to interact with mortals does it, fairly frequently. If you can't walk among them in the form of one of them and pretend you're one of their kind, you're not going to be able to pull off any other kind of direct interaction -- your ability to impersonate their gods or simply present yourself as a powerful alien being depends at least in part on your ability to pretend to be one of them. Otherwise you're going to end up like a Thasian or a Melkotian, appearing as a shadowy form or a big ball of light or a glowing disembodied face or whatever, and honestly? That's completely lame.

But I don't like pretending to be mortal. There are things I feel very, very comfortable about lying about, and there are things that I don't, and my status as an unimaginably powerful being of pure thought is one of the ones I'd rather be honest about. I really would rather interact with mortals in a way where they'll know what I am... which, since I'd also rather interact with mortals in a way that doesn't result in them *worshipping* me like besotted idiots, often results in me getting myself declared a demon, or at the least a very untrustworthy god. (They call me the God of Lies on Brax, which pleases me. If I'm going to be a god, let me be known as a trickster god, at least, not some sort of benevolent deity.)

( Going a little too far with the passing thing. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG/VOY

Crossposted from theatrical_muse today.
Prompt 292: Show and tell.

Hello, boys and girls! Ready for a lesson with Mr. Q? Oh, I'm sure you're all just dying to hear what I have for you today.

You see this? This is an Omega molecule. Pretty, isn't it? Yes, I can see your primitive minds lighting up inside like magpies noticing a shiny bit of string. And what a shiny string this is. The Omega molecule, you see, is the most powerful substance natural to your universe. Oh, you could punch a hole through space-time to the quasar source and make a quasar and then harvest *it* for energy, but technically that involves energy from outside your dimension. Whereas an Omega molecule was one of the building blocks of your universe -- the substrate of proto-universes, as it were. One such molecule could power your entire civilization for the next ten thousand years. But then, you know that already, don't you? That's why you're trying to build one.

Why, with such power you could be like gods. After all, with the building blocks of a proto-universe in your hands, you could build your own universe, manufacture pocket dimensions at will and reshape reality to your liking. I can tell you've put some serious thought into what you'd do with such power. Travel in time? Manufacture your very own planets? Annihilate your enemies with a thought? Store transport patterns in static offline storage so no one need ever die? Oh, lots of ideas there. Come on, let's hear some more. There are no stupid ideas here. Only stupid people.

( Because, you see, trying to be like gods isn't a good idea at all when you're *not* gods. Didn't you see the warning that said 'Don't try this at home, kids?' )

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

OOC: Crossposted from realmof_themuse, today.

Prompt 2009.23.1.C,D,E,M (starter phrases):

Once upon a time, the Q bleeding energy and helpless before him had been a friend, a lover, a sibling, like every other Q in the Continuum. Q stared at the fallen entity, and if the weapon he'd wielded had literally been a gun and he'd had a physical hand to hold it in, both would be trembling. This would have been so much easier if he could have killed the other with the first shot. Then it would have been war, kill or be killed. Now he could murder a helpless, injured fellow Q in cold blood... or he could walk away, leaving the other to die slowly and in agony, or else be healed and return to the battlefield looking for revenge.

As he hesitated, unable to bring himself to do what logic and perhaps even mercy said he should do, the other Q lifted her head (metaphorically, anyway). "Are you proud of yourself?" she snarled, her mind-voice harsh with pain.

"That I shot you? Not particularly," he said. ( read more... )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek Voyager
Note: The quote in the subject line comes from the song by the Cure, "Killing An Arab".

OOC: Crossposted from muse_academy, today.
Prompt Number: Week 11.1a - Quote - Mignon McLaughlin: "Your children vividly remember every unkind thing you ever did to them, plus a few you really didn't."
Warnings/Disclaimers: In the universe this journal is written in, Q's son from Voyager "Q2" is also Trelane from TOS "Squire of Gothos". Some of this will make no sense without that knowledge. Also it might help to have seen TOS: "By Any Other Name".


( An argument. )

OOC: Crossposted from theatrical_muse, today.

Prompt 288: Is redemption truly possible?

Sure. Just have your coupon ready when you go through the checkout counter. Make sure you cut off those cereal box tops; collect five and redeem them for fabulous prizes!

Oh? That's not the kind of redemption you mean? Silly me.

( Because the kind you're talking about makes no sense. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG

Crossposted from muse_academy today. OOC post.

( Muse Tuneup )

OOC: Crossposted from theatrical_muse today.
Prompt 287: Prison

It may shock you to know that a fine, upstanding citizen of the Q Continuum such as myself has any acquaintance with anything resembling a prison... okay, okay, I can't keep a straight face through that one either.

Actually, I've been in prison, or something like it, multiple times. The incident I've talked about most often would be the time I was human, and Picard threw me in the brig. I have to admit, that was deeply unpleasant. But the fact is, it's not the worst prison I've ever been in.

( Other prisons I've been in )

Prompt 286: Under what circumstances, if any, is it acceptable to break the law?

I can't imagine why you might think that I would think it's ever acceptable to break the law. I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you!... Of course maybe it might have something to do with my having been in prison multiple times?...

( The law is frequently idiotic. )
Muse: Q
Fandom: Star Trek TNG and VOY

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 muse_academy today.

Week 10: 1.A - Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Lord Acton

This, of course, is absolutely true... but depends entirely on your definition of power. And corruption.

( What is power? Or corruption, for that matter? )

( You are about to view content that may only be appropriate for adults. )

Crossposted from muse_academy, originally posted May. 29. OOC post.
Prompt Number: Prompt Week 7
Title: Muse Inquiries - Awe and Wonder

( Muse Inquiries - Awe and Wonder )

Crossposted from muse_academy, originally posted Mar. 30. OOC post.
Prompt Number: Week 2 and 3
Title: Muse Inquiries

( Work. )

( Conflict. )