Headcanon first, of course! (Courtesy of this post on tumblr.)

Pike was a notorious chess player and taught Jim how to play during mandatory student/adviser meetings at the Academy. At first Jim was like, “wow, why do you play this game, it’s boring”, but inevitably he became frustrated that Pike kept winning, and so he started paying attention and then he started using his smarts and the rest is history. This is how Pike taught him more about tactics – on a chessboard – more than any of the command classes Jim took. This is how they bonded. And Jim really only ever played chess with Pike.

Then Pike died. It was a long time before Jim could think about the game, watch others play it, and want to play it again. But wounds scar over enough that we can keep on living, and so one day Jim found himself, without thinking about it, challenging his First Officer to a round of chess. That’s when he realized by continuing to play the game, he was actually honoring Pike’s kindness to him, Pike’s belief in him and Pike’s memory – and above all keeping his mentor with him in that very small way.

—

Now for the news.

I’ve been super-quiet on the fandom front for a couple of weeks, which is mainly due to travel and a subsequent cold from traveling. Luckily, I think my city-hopping is over for the summer. My company may try to send me up to Canada in a few weeks but I’ll decline, mainly because of changes at work that make leaving the home office a not-so-good idea right now. It’s precisely those changes that have, in addition to my sickness, kept me from a fandom mood. I may literally be the Last Auditor Standing in my department by the end of September, and that terrifies me. We’ve been busy for sure during the summer but all of that culminates to an insane period of work from October to February. Suffice to say, with colleagues jumping ship and/or retiring right before the craziest time of the year, I have been experiencing minor panic attacks for several days. While I have been assured we will be acquiring more resources as quickly as possible, that will only alleviate some of the crisis. I guess I’m going to be one busy employee – you know, by trying to handle at least three times my already heavy workload plus training. If I drop off the face of the earth for some time, that will be why. My apologies, friends! :/

Related Posts:

• The Fic Analysis – from September 17, 2014
• Dear readers – from June 10, 2014
• Just An Update on Life: KLMeri – from June 7, 2014
• Update for the Holidays – from December 28, 2013
• No, Brain! – from July 20, 2013