#actually for someone whos broke like me i already have been blessed but yeah 😔

[collecting--stardust]

Literally grieving because the website that has all the MotoGP videos (the one I have been downloading old races with commentaries in Czech or Russian) change the policy of the site due to the new European DSA legislation or whatever it is and acts like a private Google drive where you can only view your own stuff and cannot publicly share it. Now I'm left stranded and need to start searching all over again 😕

[celestialholz]

Celestial Live-Reacts: STP 2.7, 'Monsters'

... If this isn't Tapestry 2, I'm fucking writing Tapestry 2.

Off we go!

"The true sovereign of nature..." quite the enigmatic speech from someone I have never seen and looks rather like Julian Bashir

... God, I miss Bashir 😔

Sorry, "you WERE a human?" Excuse me????

He's claustrophobic! Bless him ❤

"The man who hates enclosed spaces spends his life in the infinite cosmos" - yeah, sounds about right. Heaven forbid we get this man some therapy and he actually DEALS with shit, can you imagine 😂

"You're not very interesting." 😆 "I'm really quite dull", anyone?

"Even your closest friends call you 'captain'"... wow. English psychologist Q is a dick.

... You know when you're so repressed that even your own BRAIN gives you an innate therapist who sounds far too much like that one god you really like? 🙃

He's so uncomfortable 😭

... Thank you, CBS, for that image of Picard holding a sun. I have exactly the fanfic to put that in. 😍

"Once upon a time, there was a queen with fiery red hair... and she was female." 😂😂 Fucking hell. Reason #383048 why Jean-Luc shouldn't have kids

This is why he likes reading, bless 😍

"There is no better teacher than one's enemy" - true, if you're ridiculous enough to consider him your enemy 🙄

"... To lift them up with inspiring speeches." "I'll never be able to do that." Oh, you of little faith 😍

... The monsters are real? Spidey sense? 🤔

His mother is also a speechmaker! Of course she is ❤

... Oh fuck 🙃

Titles! More lady writers!

Ah, hello my dears ❤

"If that whole thing starts up again, I'm quitting the gang" 😂

"Everyone loves us", "we're the main event"... fourth wall whom 🤣

... This isn't Tapestry 2, is it 😒

Admiral = done

"There's a thousand ways to die out there", mmm... "It's not safe out here", anyone?

Estonia is playing 80s kids' show Knightmare, for anyone who likes a niche reference ✊

What IS this monster thing? Am I in a Doctor Who episode that stars Patrick Stewart? 🤔

"You may terminate your session now"? "Something else is happening here?" Whaaaaaat

"We're all here for you, Picard..." 🤔 I get it, they are, but they're self-aware. His brain's screaming at him. Never mind Q, this guy's Vic Fontaine 😂

"Perpetually untethered in ways of the heart"... oh fuck, this IS Tapestry 2 isn't it, just more allegorical... and without Q 😒

"A secret shame... something you're afraid others will see..." ... Oh, wow. They really went there, huh. 😂

"STOP!" And that is what gets him. Damn, that is telling...

"... And you don't know how it ends..." What's behind the white door, huh? Because shit, a girl could speculate for days...

Can't help but notice that of all the costumes they could have given Babycard, he's got a suspiciously familiar white, ribbed tunic on... 🙃

Oh shit, bye Estonia 😂

She shuts her son's helmet against the swearing 😂 Theresa's great ❤

... This is some serious Doctor Who shit. Doctor Who has a vibe, and this episode has it in spades

Poor Theresa 😂

Try something new, kid ❤

"I just WORK in outer space" 😆

... Just realised that Estonia's more a concerned mum/aunt here, and I quite like it? She suits this sort of thing much more. She's seemed cold and strictly business outside Renee, but this offers her a sweet little niche, and therefore already more personality than her counterpart.

Soft Lesbian Intermission 😍

Seven is a coffee fan - wonder who she got that from 🙃😂

... "My ready room"? Really?

IT'S HIS DAD. Dear lord... and I thought he was quite Q-like... 👀 Wrong sort of daddy 😂

"You ruined her, you broke her" - another mirror of Tapestry, where we found out his father makes him distinctly uncomfortable 👀

Tunnels... thousands of ways to die down there...

... There's no monster. "Couldn't save her either... not from her own mind." 😭 I'm a massive fan of this. This gives his father dimension he's never been credited with, and another reason for Picard to be traumatised - not only does he have to get over the fact that the mother he loved dearly wasn't quite sane, but the fact that he's had no way to turn to his father and try and work through that, because he didn't know how to process it either. And Babycard didn't get that, has placed the blame on him all his life. ❤ Maurice still seems harsh and strict, but clearly, he cared. ❤

Lovely piano version of the series one theme here 😍

"You'll do so much, one day. You'll save worlds." Aunt Estonia is a new take and I'm here for it 😍

They're back... BUT WHAT IS THAT DOOR? 🤔 That's so Picard. We see such great insights, but never the true him. The 'secret shame'. 👀 It can't be so simple as sexuality, surely, or that sense of rebellion that permeated through the original Tapestry... can it? That door's going to be key...

... Rios is staying here isn't he ❤

"Picard feels like a father to me... even though I'm not a son to him." Much like Maurice feels like Jean-Luc's father, yeah? *holds up mirror once again*

These two are lovely 😍

'Hey babe, son, check out Daddy's cool spaceship' 😂 Okay, maybe they're going with him

"Jurati, with a side of Borg Queen" - yes my good waiter, I'll take ten 😂

... Wow. More hot women who sing well. 👁👄👁

What did that bloody window ever do to you 😆

"You saved her" - did you, though?

She IS Romulan!

"All of that was part of Q's plan, that you experience those memories." ... Whoa whoa whoa, he meant for this? Meant him to get run over and everything? 👀 Q is a master of engineering, my god 😍

... Also, yeah - Tapestry without Q, but not really. He's behind that white door isn't he 😆

"I've been letting him control... what if the lesson I take is: know HIM?" Imagine that Jean-Luc, bothering to work out Q's motivations early. Could not be you 😂

... No, but really. Finally, he's making some form of connection; finally, he's starting to work out that Q's doing this for him. Thought we'd never fucking get here 😂

"I always take Q as unknowable... but here he is, so late in my life, STILL fixated on me!" Yes...

"He needs this trial to happen, but... he's saying it's about me, but it's deeply personal and urgent to him..." YES...

"And if we understand why that is, then we can go on offence!" ... NO 😒 Fuck's sake Picard... never have I been more frustrated with a character I love so dearly. You were so close! 😭

Also, shall we have a fucking quick think on why, Jean-Luc? Just for a moment? Because jesus christ, is it not PAINFULLY OBVIOUS 🙃

... This is so indolent it's almost out of character. Picard is not a man driven by emotion, but at this point, it's the just the logical conclusion. *soft Celestial scream*

"Sounds like you want to summon Q... flattered, but that's beyond my capabilities." "Yours, maybe, but..."

Guinan, ladies, gentlemen and lovelies: for all your omnipotence-summoning needs 😂

... He didn't even ask. Dear god. 😂

El-Aurians and the Continuum had a truce????

'Denizen'??? Do the Q live with others? Whaaaat? That's lore chaps 👁👄👁

"I'm not going to call them gods, that's for damn sure" 😂 And she'd know, apparently...

Food and drink unites El-Aurians, hence the bars! Beautiful 😍

... Wow. Q drinking Earl Grey when meeting Adam hits different now 😆❤

Also, my thanks to CBS again - every time I've had Q drinking ludicrous cocktails in my fics is now officially validated 😂

"Every action vibrates, every word has resonance... metal and liquid can capture the half-life of a moment, so when I say the truce was made over a bottle..." Okay, a. prose is delightful 😍 and b. this is why she hates Q isn't it, because he ignores that shit and does what he likes 😂

Does that make this... the Treaty of Alcoholeron? 😏 Yeah, don't mind me... I'll just be going over here... to laugh 😂

"El-Aurians hear the world like music" 😍

Hurricane in a bottle, oh god 😆

... And he's... not here. 👀

"It didn't... work." Ohhh. Ohhh no.

So he's either ignoring it... or he's cut off from the Continuum. Can't be good, can it? 😭

... Not to be that guy, but Picard is too slow, and Q's in too deep... and even this hasn't made him get it. This thing that has been engineered specifically for him to get it. This is going to be Picard's cartharsis; Q dying for him is going to be what it takes for him to WAKE UP. I swear to all that's fucking holy, I hope I'm wrong... and I hope they fucking fix that shit in series three when I'm not... 😡

"An El-Aurian summons a Q, a Q appears." ... Who the fuck's this guy, then? Wrong Q? 🤔

Go on...

... Ah, shit. Not a Q, then. 😂

He's dropped his badge...

... Okaaaaay, and breathe...

Celestial Rating: 6.5/10.

This episode is a fucking trip. Beautifully imagined and realised, but I do not enjoy where this is going... and I do not enjoy Picard being this ignorant. 🙄