[image id: a gif of a low-poly model of pilly from 'burner' rotating on an orange background. pilly is a red and yellow capsule pill with round eyes, sticklike legs, and an outline all done in dark brown. end id]
pilly from burner! i'm trying to practice making gradients and shadows using pixel art.
i think i'll come back to him soon to practice animations, since i love how expressive he is in the series despite just being. a pill. and want to see if i can capture that!
How To Accidentally Marry Your Captain: A Pilly fic
1.Look him in the eyes.
The first time it happened was all because of basic eye contact. Tilly didn’t know why they’d singled her out, when pretty much all the rest of the away team had looked at him at one point, but suddenly she’d been pulled aside by Chris and had agreed to play spouse for the duration of the negotiations so their hosts wouldn’t be offended.
She’d mutely nodded, eyes wide, and gone along with it. Luckily, All she had to do was sit beside him, smile, nod, and make sure not to look at anyone else. It was a struggle to keep her mouth shut, but she wasn’t about to risk ruining things with her shaky brain to mouth filter. The only drawback was that sitting so close to him was messing with her head. She didn’t need that little crush popping up again.
2. Have Red Hair.
“What did I do this time?” Tilly sighed as she was surrounded by excited aliens who were doing some sort of weird dance around her and the captain. The movements were slowly drawing Tilly closer to Pike and she was very puzzled.
“It seems your vivid hair color means you are the spouse of the highest ranked individual,” Saru informed her. “Their dance is acknowledging your status.”
Tilly looked at the Captain, who gave her a sheepish smile.
“Well, at least he’s cute,” she muttered. Tilly wouldn’t put up with this nonsense for just any captain.
3. Take A Flower From Him
“I’m never touching a flower again!” Tilly declared, sneezing violently from the massive flower crown they’d made her wear.
“Sick of being fake married to me?” Chris asked, also decked out in a flower crown, albeit a smaller one.
“I mean, you have to admit that three times in a three month span is a lot….” She sighed. “Hah-CHOOH!”
She sneezed again, eyes watering.
“It is,” he admitted. “There’s been a lot of first contacts with little to no information lately. It makes things like this more likely to happen. I’ll ask Michael to explain your allergy to them so you can get some relief.”
“Thanks, Captain,” Tilly sniffled, stifling another sneeze. She was rather disgruntled by how well he rocked his own flower crown. It wasn’t fair.
4. Touch His Hand
Tilly hoped her last away mission with the Discovery would be uneventful, given that the planet was already part of the Federation, but when she’d tripped over a rock and nearly went sprawling, the very prudish people were irate that Chris had grabbed her ungloved hand with his to steady her, resulting in forced fake marriage number four. Tilly sighed, but was consoled by the very pretty dress she got to wear that made her feel like a Jane Austen heroine.
“Very cute,” Michael complimented her. “Here comes the groom, by the way. Very dapper.”
Tilly’s eyes bugged out of her head when she saw Chris wearing a tuxedo with tails. Oh, dear Lord. It was simultaneously the most ridiculous and hottest thing she’d ever seen.
“Where’s that fainting couch when I need it?” she whispered to Michael. “I’d marry him for real looking like that!”
He dramatically kissed her hand after the conclusion of the ceremony, which very nearly did make Sylvia Tilly faint.
5. Save his life
A few years and promotions later, Tilly was a new lieutenant commander on the Enterprise, having finished the special training she’d been undergoing since leaving the Discovery. Her first away mission was a lesson in Murphy’s law with one catastrophe after another, leading to Tilly frantically trying to resuscitate her Captain.
Who knew that giving mouth to mouth was grounds for her getting thrown in jail?
Tilly was royally pissed when she was marched out in chains to face her team, including the captain, who was happily conscious and breathing on his own.
“If they think I’m going to apologize for saving his life, they’re wrong!” She said fiercely to Uhura.
Chris beckoned her over and she clanked her way to his side.
“Thank you,” he said quietly. “Our hosts don’t understand mouth to mouth and they thought I was being assaulted.”
The horror on her face must have shown.
“I know, I know,” he hastened to assure her. “That’s absolutely not what was happening, but they were very concerned. They’re very big on consent in this culture.”
“That’s refreshing,” Tilly sighed. “But I’m still a prisoner.”
She rattled her chains.
After some discussion, Tilly did manage to persuade them to remove the chains, but not before getting accidentally married again.
“I liked the green dress from the last incident a lot better,” she grumbled. “These chains just do not go with my uniform.”
Chris laughed and gave her a kiss on the cheek, which made the aliens cheer and Tilly’s heart skip several beats.
6.Use him to threaten the creeps
Tilly thought about that cheek kiss for a long time and was forced to admit that her crush on Chris Pike had not diminished in the slightest, but had only grown exponentially. Much to her relief, she had a stretch of six months go by with no fake marriage missions. It didn’t help her dilemma much, as Chris seemed to like hanging out wherever she was. Una gave her some knowing smirks, which Tilly thought was nonsense. There was no way he’d ever like her for real. He was just being his usual friendly self.
They beamed down to a rather sketchy planet that was in some political turmoil. Tilly stayed close to the group, not liking the vibes of the place. She noted how very few women they encountered and wondered if this was one of those dystopian, misogynist societies. A few guys leered at her, but kept on about their business. They stopped for a chat with a somewhat friendly local in a rundown shop and Tilly noticed a scruffy man looking at her too intently for her liking.
“Hey, miss. What’s a pretty thing like you doing in a place like this?” he leered. Tilly stiffened, shooting him an icy glare.
“Ooh, A feisty one? I’d pay a lot for some time with you, gorgeous.”
Tilly leveled him with a “child, please” look.
“You couldn’t afford me, honey,” she said smoothly. “Also my husband really doesn’t like to share. He’s the tall one up front with the special phaser. Why don’t you ask him what he did to the last guy who tried to buy me? Hint: it wasn’t pretty.”
Tilly’s voice had risen and she could see Chris watching her now. Hopefully, he’d roll with her little white lie. They were experts at marriage faking by now.
The man was looking between both of them suspiciously and Tilly decided to up her game. Sauntering over to Chris, she tucked her hand in his arm and went up on tiptoes to whisper in his ear.
“Man thinks he can buy me. I told him you don’t like to share.”
She grinned her most naughty grin at him and Chris slowly grinned back with a nod. Oh, he was on board all right.
Wrapping an arm around her, he turned to face the creep.
“Leave my wife alone if you know what’s good for you.”
Tilly felt a flush of arousal at his coldly menacing and slightly possessive tone, as well as the glare he shot at the guy, who skittered away like a frightened bug.
She knew she’d have to give up any pretense of not being in love with Chris soon.
7. Talk about It
Tilly had certain dreams about that moment for quite some time. She was kept busy in the labs for a few weeks and not assigned an away mission, which she didn’t mind too much, but she very much missed Chris. He was in the middle of some long meetings and diplomatic stuff, so she didn’t see him for nearly four weeks. Then, after the gossip from another away mission reached her, she decided she’d had enough and marched down to see him in Sickbay.
“Tilly!” Chris perked up when he saw her and she was relieved to see he didn’t look to be in bad shape other than the regenerator working on his arm.
“I heard you got fake married without me. Not cool, Chris,” she scolded him, hands on her hips.
“Yeah, I did,” he admitted. “But I thought you’d be thrilled to not be the fake spouse this time.”
She shook her head.
“No. I realized I don’t want anybody else to fake marry you, because I…….” she gulped nervously.
“Because what, Tilly?” he asked more gently.
“I kinda went and fell in love for real,” she admitted. “The way you terrified that guy who was trying to hit on me was the last straw. I was a goner and I knew it.”
“Come here,” he ordered gently.
She moved closer to the biobed, heart in her throat.
“Sylvia, I didn’t have to do much acting ever since the infamous Hand Grab. It didn’t take very long to actually fall for you. I’ve never enjoyed the Fake marriage missions except with you. You’re a complete delight in addition to being a great person and officer.”
“Wow!” she breathed. “Guess I wasn’t imagining things after all.”
“You were not,” he confirmed, holding out his non- injured hand to her.
She took it in hers slowly, and a smile grew on her face, remembering the last time she’d held his hand.
“We’re so scandalous!” she whispered, making them both crack up laughing.
8. Marry Him For Real
“So, Tilly, was this your long term plan to snag the Captain? Fake marry him enough so he got used to the idea?”
Una’s sly question made the bride laugh heartily.
“It wasn’t at first, but then I just kept falling harder for him and realized I didn’t have to fake it,” Tilly said, eyes following her new husband, who was joking with the Kirk brothers. They’d had a quiet ceremony followed by a giant party in the biggest rec room on the ship. The crew had made a large sign saying Congratulations! (For Real this time!) which was the first thing the happy couple spotted when they’d entered the room. They were greatly tickled with it and touched when they saw it was signed by every single member of the crew.
“I’ll have you know that in all the time I’ve served with Chris, we only had to fake marry twice,” Una informed her. “I think the universe was sending you two a very strong message.”
“It was,” Tilly agreed happily, beaming as Chris ambled back toward her, looking fine as hell in a grey suit.
“Hey, handsome,” she greeted, arms slipping around him. “Enjoying yourself?”
He kissed the top of her head.
“Very much. You absolutely light up the room,” sweetheart.”
Tilly felt herself blushing. She’d known Chris was sweet long ago, but being on the receiving end of his compliments was something she was still getting used to.
“It’s the dress. It makes me feel extra stunning,” she said proudly, swishing her skirt with one hand. She’d found a pretty pale green one shoulder gown that made her look like a grecian goddess, according to Christine Chapel. The look on Chris’s face when she’d met him in the ready room for the ceremony was one she’d never forget.
“It is very lovely,” he agreed. “But you’d still light up the room no matter what. I love you, Sylvia Tilly-Pike.”
“I love you, Christopher Pike,” she replied. “Husband For Real.”
