The Doctor Is In

Cornwell, Janeway, and Pike. Not necessarily in that order. N_Squared on AO3

[unwastelandunbaby]

“they’re just looking at each other” you could not begin to understand the complexities involved in looking at each other

[cornwells-couch]

[brushbanshee]

Have I slept? Have I fuck. Did I spend my day baking this fine cake? You're right I did.

Gabriel Lorca, a bourbon, and a rainy evening 🤌

You're welcome.

[cornwells-couch]

14, 15, 17, and the question of your choice for the fic writer asks for Lullaby for Suffering, please. 💔

Thank you so much for asking @curator-on-ao3!

14. Talk about the fic’s opening scene & how you approached it.

This one honestly just came to me. I thought at first that I’d be using “Hallelujah” as the Cohen song, so that’s why I wanted to start with the singing leaves, and I wanted to contrast the wonder Chris first felt when discovering them with his current despondency.

15. Talk about the characters’ struggles & how you decided on those.

This mostly came from the prompt I was working with—Chris having struggled privately with Kat’s death since it happened. After that, it was mainly a question of how that would affect him. If he’d been struggling with guilt for years, how might those feelings begin to manifest? How would that affect his relationship with Vina? Those were the questions on my mind as I fleshed out the story.

17. Talk about the fic’s ending. Why did you end it where you did?

This story is all about guilt, right? We leave Chris agreeing with his hallucination, believing himself to be a murderer, and jump to Vina not understanding just how deep his guilt runs. I wanted to leave the reader contemplating the Keeper’s words to Vina, that guilt is a primitive emotion, perhaps one even more primitive than hate or anger. I was originally going to end this story with Chris’ scene, but at some point in the writing process I got the idea for Vina’s scene and knew that was the more powerful ending because the Reader is Vina, in a sense. We know Chris is not a murderer, and perhaps we can understand how he got to the point he’s at by the end of this fic, but guilt as something primal, something just as powerful as hate and anger? That gives new meaning to Chris’ POV, and that was the whole point of the story.

One of my choosing. 30. Would you ever return to the story’s universe and write more?

I won’t say never but probably not. This story is finished in my mind, and the only reason I could see myself returning would be to to give Chris a happy ending, but a happy ending, whether by some deus ex machina plot or extensive therapy, isn’t the point of this story. I would be far too tempted to bring Kat back, or have Una rescue Chris, when in actuality, a believable happy sequel would require far more character growth on Vina’s part than I believe her capable of, so ultimately, a sequel would simply be retreading the previously covered ground of Chris’ trauma and guilt.

Thanks again! I was fun to revisit this fic!

Ask game

[museaway]

✍️ even more fic writer asks!

This one is a behind-the-scenes dive into a specific fic. Followers can send an ask with a number & the fic they’d like you to talk about ✨OR✨ you can decide what fic you’re focusing on and just ask for numbers. (Or reblog and answer everything like a Q&A)

Start to finish, how long did it take to plan and write? Did you take breaks during the process?

How did you come up with the idea?

Did the idea change at all by the time the fic was complete?

If the fic required it, what did you research in order to write it?

Did you outline the fic?

How did you decide what tense and POV(s) to use?

How did you decide what character(s) would narrate the fic?

Did you cut something out of the outline or an early draft? What was it and why did you decide to cut it?

Did you get stuck at any point? How did you get past that?

How did you approach writing the fic? (e.g. wrote it start to finish in order, started with the ending, starting with the twist)

What was the most challenging aspect of writing it?

What program(s) did you use to write and edit?

Did you write any of the fic by hand? If yes, which parts? Do you find you write differently by hand vs typing?

Talk about the fic’s opening scene & how you approached it

Talk about the characters’ struggles & how you decided on those

Talk about the fic’s biggest moment & how you came up with it

Talk about the fic’s ending. Why did you end it where you did?

Talk about your editing and revision process

While editing, did you kill any darlings? What were they?

Did you work with a beta? How did that affect the finished fic?

Did the fic end up shorter or longer than you had planned?

What is something you learned about yourself as a writer from the experience?

How did you come up with the title?

How did you celebrate finishing?

Share your favorite line

Share your favorite detail

Share a piece of lore you made up for the story

Write a new summary for the fic, but badly

If you made a playlist, talk about the songs on it and share a link

Would you ever return to the story’s universe and write more?

[gatherupthebrokenness]

Merry Month of Cohen 2026 Masterpost

May 1: new earth # 2 by @resistate / resistate (Star Trek: Voyager, Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway, Chakotay/Seven of Nine)

May 2: The Crash of the Iron Maiden by @marymoss1971/ TVgirll1971 (Star Trek: Voyager, Alynna Nechayev, Owen Paris)

May 3: Dancing Alone on a Broken Leg by @caladeniablue / Caladenia (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Number One | Una Chin-Riley/Christopher Pike)

May 4: Broken Trust by @jone-slugger / JX27 (Star Trek: Voyager, Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway)

May 5: Our Lady Of Solitude by @pc-corner / CAMIR (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Number One | Una Chin-Riley/Christopher Pike, Number One | Una Chin-Riley & Christopher Pike)

May 6: Nothing on My Tongue But Hallelujah (Fragments) by @cornwells-couch / N_Squared (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Star Trek: Discovery, Marie Batel/Christopher Pike, Katrina Cornwell & Christopher Pike, Katrina Cornwell/Christopher Pike)

May 7: There´s a crack in everything by @mame46 / MaMe45 (Star Trek: Voyager, Ayala & Adele Simmons)

May 9: sub rosa by @doctahchang / doctaaahchang (Star Trek: Voyager, Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway, Kathryn Janeway/Seven of Nine)

May 10: Little Wild Bouquet by @rocktherecorder / Ghille_Dhu (Star Trek: Voyager, Kathryn Janeway/Seven of Nine, Seven of Nine & Original Character)

May 11: If You Are The Dealer, I'm Out Of The Game by @captainjanewayandtheunicorndog (Star Trek: Voyager, Kathryn Janeway, Q)

May 12: The Lightkeepers by @curator-on-ao3 / Curator & @grissomesque / grissomesque (Star Trek: Alternate Original Series, Vulcan Worldbuilding)

May 13: Art as Medicine by @shipofpromises / shipofpromises (Star Trek: Voyager, Kathryn Janeway/Seven of Nine)

May 14: [Fic expected early June!] AdmiredDisorder [via @resistate]

May 15: by @regionalpancake / Regionalpancake (Star Trek: Alternate Original Series, Vulcan Worldbuilding, Zine)

May 15: beyond any untying  by @fatherfaster / fartherfaster (Star Trek: Voyager, Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway)

Thank you so much to everyone who took part in this year's Merry Month of Cohen!

It's been two weeks of brilliant, angst-filled Star Trek fanwork creation! 💕 Thanks to the writers and artists for their hard work, to the commenters for celebrating that effort, and thanks of course to @mia-cooper for creating this angsty tradition that we get to enjoy every year!

I've included a link to everyones fanwork, AO3, and tumblr to make it easy to find what your looking for. If I've made any mistakes please don't hesitate to give me a shout at @regionalpancake 🥞 I hope you've enjoyed this year's fest, it's been a pleasure to have a turn hosting this trekblr staple 🥳💕

If your work has new updates/chapters/fanart don't forget to tag the blog (@gatherupthebrokenness) so I can share it here!

And finally, these hard working creators deserve to have some warm fuzzy feelings after all that angst, so if you haven't had a chance yet, go read, share, comment, and leave kudos on this year's fantastic fanwork! 📚🎨🖖✨

[startrekpotluck]

Hi. If sign ups are still open I’d love to grab a date for an AOS/Discovery fic.

Sign ups are still open and we'd be delighted to welcome you to the kitchen! 💕 It's so wonderful to see folks from the Merry Month of Cohen finishing one fest and starting another 🥳 Your fandom enthusiasm is amazing 🤩

The 5th is yours! 🖖✨

[katistry]

girl help! the popular fanon interpretation of my favorite character is stupid as fuck

[cornwells-couch]

Nothing on My Tongue But Hallelujah (Fragments)

Sometimes the past can inform the present. Sometimes the pieces of both are too fragmented to see how. These are the pieces of Chris Pike’s past and present.

A Strange New Worlds/Discovery fanfic written for the Merry Month Of Cohen 2026, @gatherupthebrokenness

Featuring: Christopher Pike, Katrina Cornwell, and Marie Batel

Additional Tags: Missing Scenes, Academy Days, Friendship, Love in its myriad forms, Resentfully Canon Compliant, Hurt/Not a lot of comfort

Enjoy 🖤

[cornwells-couch]

Re-revealing that previously taken down fic means this one is truly number 50! 🍾🎉

[defconprime]

[ceruleanheaven]

bad media will piss you off good media will heal your soul bad media that couldve been good will ruin your life forever

[curator-on-ao3]

Christopher Pike drabble: Out of the Way

Tenacious minds, dangerous, inside the Enterprise computer, creating readouts, projecting officers, a sham of a court martial, and how much deception will the Talosians inflict on this ship and crew that aren’t Chris’ anymore but he’s still responsible for the peril they’re in?

We will do what we must, Christopher, the Talosians’ telepathic answer is precise, unyielding, as should you.

So he flashes yes, yes, he’ll go to Talos IV, give his life, his freedom, to protect Starfleet and the Federation from the threat of the Talosians. After all, if a sacrifice is what’s needed, well, that’s familiar, at least.

Christopher Pike drabbles: 5, 4, 3, 2, 1/? (And the Pikeuna drabble pyramid post.)

[defconprime]

Katrina Cornwell

[xbcaptain]

This thing is gonna blow in 90 seconds. There’s an emergency level for the blast door… I can bring it down manually…  from the inside - seal off the rest of the ship. No.

[kremblor]

[tallysgreatestfan]

Just had to redraw this picture from Las Vegas Comic Con with the characters they played

Click on it for better quality

[cornwells-couch]

😍

[cornwells-couch]

Nothing on My Tongue But Hallelujah (Fragments)

Sometimes the past can inform the present. Sometimes the pieces of both are too fragmented to see how. These are the pieces of Chris Pike’s past and present.

A Strange New Worlds/Discovery fanfic written for the Merry Month Of Cohen 2026, @gatherupthebrokenness

Featuring: Christopher Pike, Katrina Cornwell, and Marie Batel

Additional Tags: Missing Scenes, Academy Days, Friendship, Love in its myriad forms, Resentfully Canon Compliant, Hurt/Not a lot of comfort

Enjoy 🖤

[gatherupthebrokenness]

When the tags are 'Christopher Pike' and 'Resentfully Canon Compliant', you KNOW you're in for some angst! Thank you to @cornwells-couch for our day 6 fic!

[cornwells-couch]

“Resentfully Canon Compliant” is my specialty 😉 🖤

[cornwells-couch]

Nothing on My Tongue But Hallelujah (Fragments)

Sometimes the past can inform the present. Sometimes the pieces of both are too fragmented to see how. These are the pieces of Chris Pike’s past and present.

A Strange New Worlds/Discovery fanfic written for the Merry Month Of Cohen 2026, @gatherupthebrokenness

Featuring: Christopher Pike, Katrina Cornwell, and Marie Batel

Additional Tags: Missing Scenes, Academy Days, Friendship, Love in its myriad forms, Resentfully Canon Compliant, Hurt/Not a lot of comfort

Enjoy 🖤