#data x troi

[bulletbonehead]

Something about that episode where data has dreams and data and Troi literally eating cakes of each other got me feeling some kind of horny only an asexual can accomplish.

[datzadi]

It’s wild sometimes to remember that Deanna was six years old when Data joined Starfleet. She outranks him, but in Redemption part II he says he’s been in Starfleet for twenty-six years. Like, you really have to wonder how much he was held back. Was it his his social problems, people’s prejudice against him, or a bit of both?

[skullywullypully]

I regret nothing.....

[thedupshadove]

One of the perils of Bisexuality is the tendency to ship your biggest male crush and your biggest female crush in any given property.

And that's how you wind up with ish like Data/Troi, which I know is kinda bonkers and has little canon support, but I Can't. Stop. Loving. It.

[datzadi]

Headcanon: One of the best parts of being in a relationship with Data? Deanna can finally turn down suitors sent from her mother.

YES.

I mean, being real, there are a lot of positives to being with Data, but this is a HUGE benefit that should not be overlooked.

Lwaxana probably has a lot of opinions about Data (and she probably never forgave him for boring her to death in Manhunt). So Deanna would probably have to deal with a lot of complaining from her mother (though this is business as usual).

However, Lwaxana likes to exploit other people's sense of politeness in order to get what she wants, making things uncomfortable until people give in. What I mean is, she purposely does impolite things, relying on the fact that others will step in to try to mend the situation. This usually works out in her favour.

But, she just couldn't play Data that way. Not only does he absolutely lack the ability to read the social cues she's trying to play into, but even if he does pick up on what she wants, he would be firm and imperturbable.

He would be the worst thing you could ever be to Lwaxana Troi: immovable.

And what's worse?

Unreadable.

So not only does Deanna not have to deal with all those suitors (though I am sure Lwaxana has tried to deter her with other offers), but she can also take some joy in finally being with someone who really can handle her mother.

And what's more, Data being Data, he probably likes Lwaxana Troi.

[datzadi]

Headcanon: Deanna likes to listen to Data when he is info dumping. And will get huffy and upset when someone rudely interrupts him or make fun of him. (Then Troi will straight up chop them in the throat)

HAHAHA!

The visual of Deanna Troi just straight up karate chopping someone in the throat is amazing!

I can't recall if she's ever been impatient with him over it in the show, if anything I think she has often found it amusing?

My personal take is that Deanna, being a counsellor, would easily recognize that Data's info dumping is a healthy activity for him and something she wouldn't attempt to stifle. She might try to help him with understanding the appropriate times and places to engage in it, but she wouldn't try to get him to stop it entirely.

When Data info dumps we see a side of him that is rare and that he usually denies- he's enthusiastic. And I think that in itself feels to her like a good thing to encourage.

While I wouldn't call it his 'love language' per se, I think the fact that she is comfortable with it and never asks him to stop, while other people usually do, would make it into an intimate language between them. She is a safe person he can be that way with which would strengthen their bonds both as friends and as lovers.

There may be days where she needs to ask him to stop, but they both know it's rare and it would probably help clue him in to her emotional state and what she might need in that moment.

Because Data would be attentive. Maybe overly attentive sometimes, but it all comes from a good place.

As for someone making fun of him or being rude about it- I think that person would quickly lose estimation in her eyes. Like, I know Picard is famous for doing it on the bridge, but that's sort of because it's not the time or place, but if someone in a casual setting were to do it I think she would turn very cold towards them and probably ask Data if he wanted to take a walk with her in the arboretum or to cetacean ops. She would make her displeasure with their current company VERY clear.

I also imagine this is an ongoing issue Deanna has with her mother.

Thank you again for the headcanon! I'm sorry it took me some time to get back to you on this one.

[datzadi]

Headcanon: Data is fascinated by Deanna's hair and like to analyze how curly and wavy it is.

Yes, I agree entirely! I like to think he's particularly interested in trying to capture the look of it on canvas when he paints. On one level I think he's fascinated by the effort it takes to maintain it. That she must place a great deal of significance on it to put so much effort into keeping it healthy and styling it. I think he would be interested in the sense of identity and expression that humanoid life forms feel from their hair.

On quite another level, I believe he would be fascinated by the way it curls around his hands, soft between his fingers. And how he finds it clinging to his sofa, or the sheets of his bed, when she is gone. It's a reminder of how their relationship has changed- the areas of his life she now occupies both physically and personally.

Maybe he understands more about the former from his experience with the latter. Identity is not just about what we project, but about interpretation from the outside. If Deanna wishes the person who touches her hair to find it soft, if she wishes to be identified so strongly by it that even a strand could bring her presence to him even when she's absent...

...then he is probably beginning to understand why humanoids place so much value on it.

Thank you so much for sending me an ask! I love hearing about headcanons!

[datzadi]

I’m living for all the tags on my earlier post, but I wanted to respond to some specific ones.

starry-bite:

‘to belong to a place and know you cannot belong in a place’ perfectly sums up my feelings about Deanna’s experiences as a child on Betazed. Tam even says to her ‘it looks like you finally found a place to fit in’ in the episode Tin Man. I think Tam, more than anyone, understood how isolating and difficult it was to be different on their home planet.

I always imagine that Will was another spot of difference, another mark of something other to score against Deanna. Not that Betazoid’s are incredibly prejudiced, but I do think there is a cultural undercurrent of having opinions about non-telepathic species, and that this bias hasn’t been addressed by their wider society.

I also believe that Will knows Deanna has a speech impediment, but he is one of the only people she has ever told. I have imagined it as a secret she keeps, not because anyone would look down on her for it, but for the fear that she has that someone will. Deanna, understandably, does not like how people treat people they perceive as disabled as I am very certain she has often been on the receiving end of that attitude on her home planet more than once.

This otherness also fits into my own shippy ideas of Data and Deanna having more in common than what anyone might assume. They are both misfits who found their place on the Enterprise. Two people who have been dismissed by many. I like to believe she would someday be able to be vulnerable with him. I know he would understand.

I am glad to hear different perspectives on my headcanons because I never want to put something out there that hurts anyone. I want to know that where I am coming from is from a solid place and not based in my own ignorance. Having people who have a speech impediment, know about linguistics, or are simply enthusiastic in the topic sending positive feedback gives me some confidence.

Also, thank you for the follow!

USS-party-bus:

I hadn’t thought of it in terms like this, where it’s not so much an impediment as a lack of practice/learning language very deliberately.

It’s an interesting note about your co-worker. I hadn’t considered the idea despite the fact that I have recently had a coworker comment on my French in a similar way saying that everyone likes my accent because I speak Quebecois French very delicately. They like the sound, but it is markedly different than a native speaker.

More food for thought!

ripscratch:

YES YES YES. I really think there is a reason that Deanna became a counsellor and it wasn’t just because she’s empathic. Deanna had a difficult childhood- the early and sudden death of her father, the otherness of her life on Betazed, and an overbearing mother who seems to never really listen to anything she has to say.

Deanna understands the importance of talking, of being able to sit with someone and have them listen. And I think she knows that from the absence of it in her own life.

hemipta: This absolutely made me smile!

side note:

I don’t like to think of the Federation as being comprised of groups of people who claim to have reached utopia when they have not. I like to believe, much as the original series puts forward, that all of these things (ableism, misogyny, racism, poverty, disease, war etc) really have been solved- at least on Earth. Because I would like to believe that Star Trek, at it’s heart, is about how the human race made it. We went through all this blood and war and horribleness and we managed to get to the other side of it and do better. I really believe in that.

But, unlike Gene Roddenberry... I really like interpersonal conflict, especially when it is something that really resonates with people. I’m not into drama for the sake of drama, but meaningful stories about people coming together and finding their paths along side each other is really lovely.