#female bajoran

[bumblingbabooshka]

regarding voy weed episode, it could be pertinent to the plot by like, not the entire crew being affected by it (does that Bolian crewmember get high? Do the Bajorans? The Vulcans?) which could lead into whatever the bigger problem is, and who has the sobriety to solve it. It could also potentially lead into more exploration about the crew demographics.

Everyone's on the ground unable to move from how high they are and Chell's like "This is nothing to me." Episode where the non-human non-command crew of Voyager shine (except for the Vulcans they're also knocked on their asses). Also, someone in the tags of the original post said 'it actually protects them from some psychic damage some hostile aliens are beaming at them' and that made me laugh. It's IMPERIATIVE you smoke this blunt or we're all gonna die!! Truly the worst smoke sesh ever - smoking weed under dire circumstances would be unimaginably terrible HEHEHEHE~!!!

#I am curious about how many of voyager's crew isn't human #From what I can recall they mostly have: Bajorans - Bolians and Vulcans #With Bajorans being (I would guess) the second majority after Humans. #Aside from Tuvok there are I /THINK/ two other Vulcans? Vorik and the female Maquis Vulcan #and I think Chell is the only Bolian like how B'Elanna's the only Klingon #Q&A #Bajoran ensign frantically attempting to reroute power to shields screams 'I think it's wearing off!' and another ensign #runs over to put a comedically large joint in their mouth. Puff puff pass - Or Else #turniphair

[yel-ashaya]

Chapter 12 of my DS9 fic set during the Occupation, Wonderland, is out now here on ff.net and here on AO3!

#fanfic #fanfiction #Star Trek #deep space nine #star trek deep space nine #damar #Gul Dukat #quark #odo #terok nor #Cardassian #bajorans #cardassian occupation of bajor #original female character #comfort women #fanfiction.net #archive of our own

[leohtttbriar]

Someone brought an overhated character poll to my dash about Kai Winn and im literally so sad about the responses. I knew there were people who hated her but it's really baffling to me how maybe 10 people tops acknowledge her past and the reasonings behind her choices, they just see a space Karen.

oh dude, i'm sorry that sucks. and "sad" really is a simple but fairly complete word when it comes to the character of winn adami, huh.

like. i think a lot about how she's the most normal-looking woman on the show. she is also, simply, normal. she is faithful and political and appears and acts in ways far more familiar to us than most characters. even the fact of her alien-faith hardly serves to alienate, given that she is faithful in the way we might be--without true expectation of ever meeting the divine in this life. while kira can seem more like a fictional character when she speaks of the prophets, due to her proximity to them, winn sounds like the person accosting you on a street corner to talk about the rapture.

that's the thing, though, isn't it. about the "karen" phenomenon in general. there is nothing uniquely bad about middle-aged white women--nothing that makes them uniquely ungovernable in social spheres in ways men aren't. in ways everyone isn't, in some way. (merely anecdotal evidence, but my own experience in the service industry made me far more wary of men in their 30s wearing patagonia vests over dress-shirts). winn adami is a normal sort of frustration to people. one they encounter in the day-to-day. the political conservative who stands outside of planned parenthood and tells girls not to throw away their everlasting souls. the pentecostal women speaking gibberish in church, gesturing to the heavens with their out-of-fashion french manicures, who brought a tater-tot hot dish with extra kraft cheese to the pot luck. the women with cross-walls. with like. so many crosses. the women with leathery tans on the aging skin of their arms and neck. the women who quietly walk into voting booths around the world and choose "safety" over anything else, whether or not that "safety" is real.

at least. that's who people think winn is. setting aside the fact that most people don't truly know the kinds of women listed above, that it's unlikely they've spared a single ounce of pity for women like that ever in their entire lives, winn is not exactly pitiable in this way. she is awash in power. she is intelligent. she thinks. she would stand in a voting booth and choose "safety" (whether or not it's real) but she's not the lady wearing a t-shirt that says trump could grab her pussy if he wanted. she's not one of the many blonde women on fox news. she's not even sandra day o'connor or any other female conservative intellectual. because she's a metaphor.

we don't know her real-world politics because she's a fictional character in a fictional universe leading a fictional world. we know she's a conservative because fights very very hard to maintain the status quo regarding her bajoran religion and its teachings. but we don't know how any of that can be truly allegorized to conservative policies in the real-world. the main tension being: conservatives in the real-world base a lot of truly evil policy on a made-up divine figure interpreted through thousands of made-up hermeneutics and it is materially all Not Real. in ds9, the prophets are actual beings who affect reality. winn's said and done things on the show that sound like something an annoying woman with a turquoise-cross around her neck would say at a utah city council meeting about creationism and "inappropriate books." she also says things that a woman would say at a protest against the racist and paternalistic policies of the british museum. all we know of her as a political figure is that she is conservative. and like, power-hungry and desperate, but those aren't essentially related. she wants to conserve. and that encompasses more than one thing.

which means that people, when they see her, simply aren't thinking. they react to a woman who looks as she does. who speaks like a politician. who makes decisions that are unfair. but, exactly as you said, the show grounds her. they give her a past. they richly flesh out so much about her. they have her acting too rationally sometimes for someone of her professed faith. they have her acting completely irrational as her gods reject her again and again. all while she clings to them with a faith that endured actual torture at the hands of violent imperialists who yet attack her planet and yet attack her and yet she has to speak with as the leader of bajor.

and it's hard to see (beyond the obvious) why this character receives so much vitriol when you have characters like garak and dukat and kira who all are considered charming and beloved in some way or another, while still being as complex as they are. (and i don't even think dukat is all that complex.) even sisko has some moments that, if i lived in his world, i would be somewhat repulsed by--like when jake begs him to let the prophets go and sisko embraces the cosmic over the request of his son. (again: the prophets are real though, so my "repulsion" is more a reaction against people i see as priests, who i find in the real world, as a rule, awful.)

so. it's definitely sad. because the level and kind of hate bestowed upon this character really does seem to be a symptom of a much larger issue: of course, misogyny.

also that people don't tend to think.

#i can only apologize for writing an essay #but i also just get more and more into my feelings about this as i get closer to finishing the show. #which i'm sure is very healthy #ds9 #kai winn #winn adami #star trek

[star-trek-dumb-comics]

1, 25, 47?

1. Top 3 favorite female characters

Kira, Jadzia and Seven (nothing very original here)

25. Favorite villain(s)

Dukat, I mean, who else lol. Weyoun is a close second. The Dominion in general I thought were fantastic antagonists.

47. An unpopular opinion you have

One I can think of that I never mentioned is that I never read Kira as a lesbian. I just don't see it. Is it just because she's "butch" (I don't even think she is, she is pretty feminine, she just has short hair) ? Adjacent to that I kinda like her boring boyfriends lol. I mean I find that a cute trait about her. Her life has been so chaotic, mostly not by choice. She clings to what shred or normalcy she can find. She just want to have a uneventful and vanilla romantic life. I remember a post I saw where someone was saying you could have the most wild and crazy sex with Odo but Kira would choose normal missionary and that's just so true lmao. Idk that's how I see it. I see people justifying her love interests by headcannoning her as repressed, maybe internalised homophobia, but I never saw anything in the show supporting the idea that the Bajoran faith is homophobic or Kira herself is independently of that.

So yeah for me Kira is straight, or maybe bi (because her mirror universe counterpart was).

#ask #ds9

[powerpcinside]

Sims 2: Green Skintones

I made these because I wanted to make Orions, but Orions are just green people so... I figured someone else might have a use for them, whether for orcs or something else (there's not enough yellow to do Shrek I don't think).

I did four different shades, Light, Tan, Medium, and Dark. I also made some addons for additional details, which are monolid eyeshadows based off of Lilith's Delicate eyeshadow, a set of my Bajoran nosemasks, and recolors of Vulcan ears by NixNivis.

From left to right in the preview: a teen make with the Tan tone, a toddler male with the Vulcan ears and the Light tone, an adult female with the monolid makeup and the Dark tone, and an elder female with the Bajorn nosemask (not that you can tell) and the Medium tone.

Based off of @dreadpirate's Party for One skinblend as most of my recent stuff usually is. Skin is customized and not townified.

DOWNLOAD: SimFileShare

Extras:

Monolid Makeup

Bajoran Nosemasks

Vulcan ears

#my ts2 cc #sims 2 #sims 2 custom content #ts2 #ts2cc #sims 2 skin

[theimaginatrix27]

I've been in the Star Trek fandom spaces long enough, time to talk publicly about a thing that I am injecting into every fic where it is relevant

So if you've been paying attention to my blog the last couple months, you will know I am a huge fan of @enbygesserit 's work. They write the absolute best Dominion lore and fic I have ever had the pleasure of reading/encountering, and I eat up each new piece like my favourite confectionery.

What I am about to discuss predates any exposure I had to their work by at least thirteen years.

And the ship it surrounds was my DS9 OTP for two entire decades (before I discovered the O'Brien polycule and now my DS9 otp is a "One True Polyamorous tangle", but moving on).

That ship being Kiraodo. My heart broke when Odo confessed his love to an apparently dying Kira, she said she loved him back, and that was the clue for him to realise she was not Kira at all. And then when the Female Changeling Voice of the Link told him Kira would never love him because he was a Changeling, I was a tiny sad twelve-yo who thought, "But I love him!" And then I wanted it to be a thing.

And when I found out it was a thing in canon but they had to part ways at the end of the series, I was happy and sad at the same time.

I was a teenager, I didn't know the relationship felt awkward to some (though to be fair I still hated Children of Time and what the alternate/Gaia Odo did, but I address that in another fic so it's fine). I just wanted the sad Changeling and the fiery Bajoran to prove the mean Changeling wrong.

But also, I acknowledged to myself, even in 2009-10, that it would not be fair to Odo at all to make him leave his people again so quickly. I felt sympathetic toward the Changelings/Founders even as a teenager who had not and would not see DS9 in its entirety (curse you, cable TV! You with your reruns and exorbitant prices making it so hard for us to keep you for more than a few months at a time!) Anyways, I knew even then that I didn't want to take Odo away from his people again, even for him and Kira to be together.

So what was my solution?

Here were the canon points I considered at age nineteen (I was creating the bare bones of the Galactic Warp AU at the time and also had a strict must-adhere-to-canon policy for any fanfic ideas I'd had at the time):

The Great Link turned Odo into a solid.

The baby Changeling in The Begotten turned him back, at the cost of its life (but maybe not if it hadn't already been dying).

Therefore, it is canonically possible for a solid to become a Changeling.

What if Kira had been Changelinged?

WHY IS THAT NOT CANON?

I have this as a significant plot point in any Kiraodo content I'm going to write, so if you see Kiraodo becoming a thing in any fic, expect to see Changeling Kira show up somewhere.

"But wait!" someone yells. "You just said you didn't want to take Odo from his people, and Kira's Bajoranness is a huge part of her identity! And you're gonna just take that away from her?"

No, actually. You think the Prophets give a shit whether or not Kira's corporeal form is solid? Fuck no, they're not corporeal and time is not linear for them! The Kira is always the Kira. The Kira is always of Bajor. The Kira is always beloved of the Prophets.

This holds true in every single fic in which I have inserted this. Kira doesn't always become a Changeling full time (some of my AUs have magic), but more importantly, She never stops being Bajoran in the ways that really matter.

Which, if this had been a canon episode, would have been emphasised by the Prophets themselves and I am not taking critique on this.

"But the Founders would never do this in canon!" I hear you cry. "They hate solids and the Voice doesn't like Kira especially!"

First of all, the convoluted love triangle between Odo, Kira and the Voice was stupid.

Second of all, it doesn't even have to be them who do it, we got other more powerful entities around! Q was basically banned from DS9, sure, but what if Kira and Odo weren't on DS9?

Here's my idea for how this could have happened in canon, if the writers had really wanted to sell us the ship.

Odo and Kira have been away on a mission together (doesn't matter where, they just have to be off the station). It's sometime in Season 6, post the Dominion occupation of DS9. When the runabout returns, Odo coms the station and says he needs to give them warning about something, and they're going to have to take him at his word, however hard that may be.

"What's wrong?" Sisko asks. "And where's Major Kira?"

In response, Odo holds up his bucket. There is a Changeling in goo form inside.

"There was an—incident while we were returning from our mission. It was successful, by the way."

Sisko stares at the screen intently for a moment.

"Are you saying," he asks slowly, "that Major Kira was replaced by a Changeling?"

"No, Captain," Odo responds. "I am saying this Changeling is Major Kira."

Cue opening theme!

And possibly this would be a two-parter! I feel that with the whole theme of DS9 being nuance, and with the Dominion being such a big deal, it deserves to be!

Basically the plot would first involve a flashback to Q popping in while Kira and Odo are arguing about something Changeling-related or whatever, going "You know, I've been watching you and yours for a while now—from a safe distance of course—and frankly, I've been surprised by the lack of nuance with regard to the Founders."

And Kira's all, "Oh come on, don't you start with this high-and-mighty attitude! I read all the records about you after your last visit to Deep Space 9, you don't have any room to talk!"

"And neither do you," Q fires back. "You think your terrible acts were justified, don't you? Oh, you know they were dreadful, the fact that you could be so violent distressed you so! But when it comes down to it, you can sleep at night, because you helped drive out the Cardassians and set Bajor free. But when the Dominion imposes their order on their part of the galaxy because they used to be oppressed and were traumatised, you sit there on what moral high ground you have and pass judgment on them!"

"I don't need to hear this! Especially not from you! Sisko made you stay away from the station—from us! Now get off this runabout and leave us alone."

"Oh, you do need to hear it, Nerys. But if you insist on me leaving, let me do so on my terms. Don't worry, my little firework, I'll make sure you don't need my help undoing this." And he snaps his fingers and disappears.

And Kira's form begins to melt and she barely has time to call Odo's name before she dissolves into Changeling goo.

Back on DS9, everyone's a bit frantic after seeing the runabout footage, which confirms Odo's story. He links with her and is able to help her reform after a little time, during which we get to hear panicked Kira thoughts and some cool visuals of what the link is like for her. We get a scene after she's able to shift back into herself where Jadzia quips that she's got purple hair and Cardassian neck ridges or something, which is not amusing to her at all.

Then there's a whole discussion on how they're going to fix her before the rest of the Federation finds out, because "Are they going to believe the testimony of one rogue Changeling and the footage from a runabout computer? What if they decide Kira's a threat and take her into custody?"

And the answer is pretty obvious, especially after Julian examines a sample of her matrix and discovers traces of her dna are still in it.

They have to take her to the Great Link so she can be restored to solidity. The Founders are rather good at genetic manipulation, after all. It'll be fine!

Except they're at war, and the Voice does not like Kira, which forms the majority of the conflict, as they have to convince any Dominion forces they meet that "Seriously, we are not here to fight, please don't blow us up, we just want to help our friend, yes we mean it, don't fire!"

And in the end Kira has to pretend to be a Founder just to get the various ships to leave them alone, and it's weird as fuck for her but she makes it to the Great Link and the Voice is there and doesn't believe her at first until they link and she gets proof from her memories.

Which leads to Kira finding out about the morphogenic virus early, and being incensed, because "Look, I don't like you, but that's crossing multiple lines! I'd never have signed off on that if it were up to me, and I know Sisko wouldn't either! Doctor Bashir's brilliant—he can help you, I'm sure of it."

"Even if we did not help you right away?"

"I can wait, if I have to. I'm kind of getting used to this whole thing. It's been—an interesting experience."

And after another link to confirm that yes, she means that and it's not even in a bad way, the Voice consents to help her regain her solid status and she goes into the Great Link, gets a small taste of the Founders' collective trauma and is deeply moved by it, bursting into tears when she emerges, once more humanoid. There's a whole final scene about how she wishes more people in the Federation could have experienced what she did, and then she goes to write a log entry on the whole thing or something.

But this would absolutely change the trajectory of the war because that's how DS9 works, so it wouldn't just be handwaved away. in subsequent episodes, Julian is able to find a cure—possibly with help from within the Dominion itself because the Founders would very much like to not die and Julian is being Julian at them and they're taking a real liking to him.

And the galaxy is saved because Q did a thing! But also Kira understands Odo better after this and their relationship is all the richer for it.

*Starts chanting* It should've been canon, it should've been canon, it should've been canon, IT SHOULD'VE BEEN CANON!

#Kiraodo #Dominion Tag #Changeling Kira #IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN CANON DAMN IT!

[neuroprincess]

Tequila, Whiskey & Bloodwine - Kira Nerys/Reader

Major Kira Nerys/Lieutenant Female Reader

Summary: After a drunken night with her best friend, Kira has to face her feelings for Y/N or do the easiest thing, run away.

Classification: Light angst, fluff

Warnings: Alcohol consumption

Word count: +2000

Unrevised

"One, two, three, now!" Kira shouts over another shot of aldebaran whiskey, laughing at her friend's expression as she does the same, totally unaccustomed to the taste.  

"Damn, that's really good, but strong." Y/N mutters, lips becoming numb "It probably wasn't a good idea to drink tequila earlier."  

"Maybe not at all, however, I think your alcohol tolerance is low." the brunette places the glass on the counter and watches the surroundings, there's still a big commotion at Quark's.  

"Or your tolerance is high, darling." she defends, feigning indignation at the accusation "Nerys..." then calls her by given name, something unusual.  

"Yes, sweetie?"  

"Have you ever tried a Kiss On The Lips?" she asks, approaching slowly, the woman blushes and just nods negatively "Do you want to try mine?"  

And everything after that becomes a blur, a fog in the memory.  

If there was a sunny morning with rays and heat beating against their faces through the window, it would certainly bother them. The bajoran moans and tries to move her arm without success, a weight limiting any movement, it's warm, soft and smells incredible, intoxicating all her senses. She smiles holding onto it and hugging the body, feeling every part and curve against her. Strands sweep across her face, the scent intensifies and without even realizing it she inhales, searching for more, lips ajar brushing across soft skin, closing to plant a kiss on the place.  

"That tickles." a familiar voice whispers and she jumps out of bed recognizing who it is.  

"Y/N?! What the hell are you doing here?" Kira rubs her eyes and analyzes the situation "And half naked?"  

"Good morning to you too." she gets up, putting a hand to the temple feeling a twinge, surely just the beginnings of an annoying headache "And we're not much different."  

Nerys gasps as she looks down and finds that they're in the same position, wearing only panties and bra, immediately trying to cover herself with both hands. They stare at each other for a millisecond before she runs to the bathroom, anticipating the shame consuming and her cheeks starting to blush. Finally alone, starts freaking out, a dozen scenarios running through her head, no matter how hard she tries to search in the back of mind for some memory or what happened, how the two of them ended up in this situation, nothing comes up except shots of different drinks and a short talk until everything goes dark. A talk that makes her blush even more, a heat rising up her neck and making sweat out of nervousness. It was the lieutenant who started with a double meaning, she doesn't remember if they continued or what it led to, her body is strangely sore and there's a bruise between neck and collarbone.  

"Rys!" the younger calls from the other room, the nickname making her blood run cold "I can't find my clothes, can I borrow some of yours?"  

"Sure, sure, I'll... I'll take a shower, you can go ahead and meet me for breakfast."  

A few minutes later, she heard the bedroom door close and let out the breath that she didn't even know was holding, the nausea hitting hard, the rest of the drink still in mouth and an imminent headache, announced by a familiar pressure. Despite her age, she had been deprived of a few luxuries as a refugee and later as a resistance combatant. There were few opportunities for her to sit down and just enjoy a social occasion, to indulge a little in alcohol, to experience the normality she had been denied. Even so, it doesn't seem right. Then questions arise, the fear of having done something while out of her mind and someone from the militia or starfleet having witnessed it, or, the biggest question, having slept with her best friend and, worst of all, not remembering it, any of the details or the circumstances. The possibilities consume her as she walks to Quark's and instantly regrets having arranged to meet Y/N for the meal, frightened by the mere sight of her. Wearing her clothes. Earthy tones in loose fabrics contrasting with skin, slightly messy hair and a very cute sleepy face that makes the heart melt as she watches her sip a raktajino, soft lips catching her eyes more than she would admit. She knows she should join her friend, ignore all fears and spend a pleasant morning off, but she can't, it seems impossible. Thinking, hoping, that hasn't been seen, she turns around and runs back to her quarters, unable to face the girl. And, like an embarrassed teenager, runs away from her for the rest of the day with a dozen lame excuses, forgetting that they will have to work together the next day. 

"Y/L/N, go with Major Kira to the docking bays, a klingon ship has been rescued near the station, leaving from here, and needs immediate repairs." O'Brien orders, stepping up onto his platform, and smiles at his pupil's sudden animation, he'd noticed how downcast she'd been since the start of the shift "Is that okay for you, Kira?"  

"Why wouldn't I be?" the Bajoran retorts immediately, a little rougher than expected, without turning in their direction "Let's go before we get some impatient big guys."  

The path is tortuously silent, unlike the way the pair are in everyday life, always cheerful with casual chats and sneaking around the station corridors when they're not sharing a meal. Y/N opens her mouth a few times, trying to start a conversation, but is always interrupted by some guidance, finally giving up when she realizes the indifference of her usually warm friend.   

"Kira?" she calls, a door behind access to the docking bay "Why are you avoiding me?"  

"I'm not avoiding you, Lieutenant."  

"Well, you didn't even say good morning to me and seem to be purposely distancing yourself." her words are almost painful, the weight of the day finally affecting "I saw you leave yesterday and, after that, you avoided me at all costs. Did I offend you in any way? If it's the clothes or that night..."  

"It's nothing, Y/N."  

"So what is it?"  

About to answer, she is interrupted by the passage being opened and Odo appears accompanied by three klingons, well-known merchant brothers from the House of Ral'kur, specializing in the trade of exotic and rare materials, who were passing through the station. The tallest and eldest of them, Jarnok, takes two steps forward, bowing slightly as a sign of respect to the major, who is confused and doesn't know why or how to react, she looks at both friends for answers and they giggle.   

"Qapla, it's good to see you again, Kira Nerys. You've proved yourself to be a formidable woman and worthy of my respect and admiration." he compliments, standing up straight again.  

"Do we know each other?" the brunette asked, squinting her eyes, scanning back through memories in search of something, they had never even spoken.  

"She's humorous." Draxan, another Klingon, laughs and slaps his brother on the shoulder "No need to be modest, it's not every day that someone manages to defeat Jarnok in a hand-to-hand duel."  

"I think we better start repairs so you can get back on route as soon as possible." Odo intervenes and directs them to the other side to check the outside of the ship.  

Taking a minute to assimilate what she's just heard, Kira can't believe she's got it right.  

"Did he really say that or is my brain playing tricks?" she asks when they are finally alone, inside the ship's facilities, and begins to get nervous, a little irritated, sounds like a joke "How did I duel with a fucking Klingon?"  

"Well, it was kind of my fault." Y/N tries to explain, without knowing exactly how "I lost a lot playing strip poker, some of them stared at me, you got angry and thought it was clever to duel with one of them to defend my honor."  

"You? Me? Wait, you were half naked at Quark's?" jealousy burns in the pit of her stomach and she's livid just imagining such a scene, that others have had the privilege of seeing the same thing she saw the morning before "That's crazy, not in a good way. We'll never go there again, those Ferengi..."  

"What about my breakfast?"  

"I'll make it for you, we're just not there anytime soon." she replies quickly "Now, how did I win the duel? It's fucking impossible."  

"It was probably the effect of the bloodwine. That was kind of my fault too." the lieutenant mutters embarrassed "We bet."  

"That I would drink?"  

"That we would both drink, but you were right, I'm weak on alcohol." the younger concludes, ashamed, the memories of that night popping into head and making her blush "I have to say, you looked really hot knocking Jarnok to the ground with just one blow." 

"With just one blow?"  

"Quick and accurate."  

"It explains my sore body. And the bruise on my neck." 

"That was me too." Kira freezes and swallows dry with fear at this affirmation "We fell on the turbolift and I accidentally elbowed you."  

"Oh, for a moment I thought..."  

"That we had slept together.. Is that why you've been avoiding me?" everything starts to click into place and she gasps, feeling the tears choking, the behavior being a clear response to how she feels about this and them "Nothing happened, don't worry, even drunk I know and respect boundarie and limits." she spits, feeling the bitterness of each word like a poison on the tip of tongue "I'll check the control panels, Major."  

She barely manages to take two steps only to be held by defined arms and whirled around so that they continue face to face, the brown eyes staring at her with intensity, there is sweetness which she recognizes, but sweetness mixed with pure fervor, unspoken passion, red lips tingle with proximity and the two stare at each other without words, just keeping the small details of seconds that feel like eternity. Y/N focuses on the firm grip, fingers caressing her over the fabric of the uniform, always amazed at the tenderness to be found behind the wall of hardness that Nerys builds around herself. Her heart beats faster, almost leaping out of the chest, and she can barely control her breathing, air being stolen from lungs as they are inches apart.  

"Rys..." the name pronounced in a whisper breaks the comfortable silence.  

The bajoran smiles at hearing her name and wanders a hand up to the other woman's neck, with a gentle touch pulls her to herself and, without warning, their lips meet. It's exploratory, gentle and passionate, leaving a trail of repressed desire and hidden emotions. Suddenly time is suspended, just for them, so surrendered that everything disappears for a single moment. The drunken night, the worries, the momentary pain of being away, the uncertainties and insecurities that haunted them, all dissolve the moment the kiss intensifies. In human terms, everything is thrown out of the window, nothing else matters.   

Kira reaches for the girl's waist and pulls her even closer, deepening the kiss, intensifying the touch and shouting how much she wants, no, desperately needs this. She feels in paradise, until her brain demands oxygen and realizes she's very alive.  

"So... you're not mad at me?" is the first thing running through Y/N's mind as soon as they separate, mouths brushing lightly "I..."  

"Sweetie, I was never mad at you, in fact I was mad at myself, the idea of having loved you in my arms and not even remembering it was too much for me. Shame, anger, maybe sadness." the brunette confesses, letting a bundle of vulnerability shine through "And fear. Fear that you don't reciprocate my deepest feelings or are just looking for fun."  

"Sometimes you can be really blind, Rys. Everyone knows that I'm hopelessly and madly in love with you."  

This leaves Nerys speechless, stunned, ecstatic, joy crossing every neuron and fiber of her being at the revelation. She can't find the words, doesn't need to. In the next second, their lips are together again in an eloquent kiss full of everything they can't say, the kind that are enough when there are no beautiful words to explain the most intense things. However, this lasts less than the one before, because they separate when the klingons heavy footsteps are heard walking towards them.  

"Well, Lieutenant, in my quarters after shift?"  

"First date?"  

"Of course!" 

Yes, I'm back… with new obsessions.

#kira nerys x reader #kira nerys #star trek #star trek deep space nine #ds9 #fanfiction #imagine #one shot #star trek x reader

[antiqua-lugar]

DS9 should have had more female cardassians. Like, at least in the show we are told that in cardassian society men are considered dumber and more emotional but at the same time most cardassians we see are men and they are out there committing war crimes and ruling empires.

like, is the idea (in-universe) that women do all the important work of studying the mysteries of the universe and men are just running the world for them to live in? does enabran tain get patronised like "there there, here is a good spy, have fun torturing these dissidents mommy has some black matter to do experiments with". like we are always shown those actively committing the atrocities but never all the people who were like "yeah, that's fine as long as you let me study my plants in peace". We even got all that ww2 subtext but not even one single cardassians scientist being like "I thought it was worth enslaving bajorans because that means more people to experiment on. I regret it deeply now that I have realised bajorans too are people (maybe she doesn't, idk)".

Like you can't be like "Men were allowed to make a xenophobic fascist Empire because women couldn't be bothered to rein them in" and then not elaborate.

#ds9 #i hope this gets explored more in the cardassian novels

[leohtttbriar]

🍦🎨 for the ask game !

hii! <33

🍦 ⇢ name three good things about a character you hate

i think we all tend to hate badly-written characters more than characters we wouldn't like if we were in the story, so this question is kind of hard (!) because like. i don't want to find the silver-lining of bad writing? but also i guess by the end of ds9 i did sort of hate dukat for a combination of writing choices and for who that character is in the story, so...

(this is mostly about early seasons dukat)

i like that, in the story, dukat didn't become some sort of anti-hero like garak. i like that there was that comparison with garak, where neither is "reformed" but one is reflective and dynamic and accepts, and even welcomes in certain ways, the shift of power around bajor. i like that dukat was written to be genuinely concerned with power and that said power was something specific and fascistic and he took the chance to snatch at it when it was presented to him.

i like the cloying falsity dukat had with sisko and kira--always looking for an In, a way to be some sort of manipulating yes-man. like he was always operating in a sort of iannucci-death-of-stalin struggle for influence and never quite realizing that he was being laughed at and, despite his scheming, sisko and kira remain utterly unmoved. also it was very funny to witness.

i like that he was written to be the face of the backstory of the cardassian occupation--whether just as the small reminder through his presence or as a vehicle for certain plots (like the story of kira's mother). he wasn't the """charming""" nazi christoph waltz--garak was closer to that, if anyone--though he certainly tried to be charming (see point 2). it was more like: the writers knew they had to have a character there to represent the history they had written for the show's setting and dukat was, for the most part, a good character for that. like, you could see why kira didn't trust him, why she wanted to and did deck him, why she was so angry, why all the bajoran characters were so angry, and you didn't have to see any scenes directly portraying the occupation because the reality of it all was evident in dukat's disdain, insincerity, condescension, and deep lack of single grain of reflective remorse. the simple contrast of kira and dukat does a lot of work for the world-building and the fleshing out of these specific aliens and their political positioning of one another. it's interesting.

those are all sort of related but distinct enough choices for the character that warrant attention. i feel on the whole ds9 wasn't perfect at consistently giving voice to the anti-fascist themes of the story--showing and not telling doesn't always work best--but, with all the power-struggles going on within the world of the show, certain arguments solidified in the form of characters. and dukat for the most part exemplified everything a leader of people shouldn't be. he was a great foil for sisko and kira and even winn. and he felt like a person, which some fans i think have misinterpreted as "very complex," but that just means he felt lived in. familiar. not like an alien at all.

🎨 ⇢ link your favourite piece of fanart and explain why you like it

my favorite piece of fanart might be a bit selfish since this is one i asked for but i think that @matrose sort of went above and beyond on a simple ask-game drawing bc the below art is just sooo perfect to me?

i love the character arien in the silmarillion (or just, like, the tolkien legendarium, i guess, i'm not sure where else she appears) because a) female characters who invariably choose an independent life have always appealed and b) the very brief description tolkien provides of the character is genuinely stunning while also being relevant and thematic for story he builds on top of his made-up lore in the hobbit and the lord of the rings.

like: "The maiden whom the valar chose...to guide the vessel of the Sun was named Arien...[who] tended the golden flowers in the garden of Vana, and watered them with the bright dews of Laurelin [the tree that shed golden light before the Sun]... Arien the maiden was mightier than he, and she was chosen because she had not feared the heats of Laurelin, and was unhurt by them, being from the beginning a spirit of fire...not deceived [...] Too bright were the eyes of Arien... she was a naked flame, terrible in the fullness of her splendour."

not to get too into the sort of literary analysis here, the character tolkien chose for the sun was the kind that could've been corrupted, but wasn't, and who steered the Sun-ship unwavering and without fail while the world was reeling from a deeply-felt loss--a character unharmed by true heat and serving all.

and i think @matrose really captured several things about the above while reinterpreting brilliantly the symbol of this character:

the straight-backed posture, displayed in profile

the unaffected expression on the face

the way she's holding the sun behind her, as if she really is the true guide here

(though the above could be her holding the light of Laurelin before the sun was born, but either way--she is the one who can guide where that very powerful light goes)

the way there's a day and night (dawn/dusk?) version--another expression of arien's unwavering and uncorruputed character

the way the day-light is white, showing how perfectly bright and hot the sun is

the drapery! the jewelry! the way she is dressed with a specific style in the properties of sunlight

the colors of her clothes---my favorite part probably--the fact of a multicolored raiment speaks to the the depth of the character's power, the depth of the power in her charge, and the beauty that, one could say, is the driving force of like the entirety of all of tolkien's books. And she wears it like drapery!

(her raiment could be an interpretation of her pre-Sun-Ship, but again that doesn't undercut the thematics of the above detail)

her hair looks like embers

the Profile position again! because she is facing away from the viewer, so we don't have to look into her terrible eyes

it's just a really beautiful piece in my opinion and a lovely demonstration of how the artist interprets tolkien and the world <3

(i got so crazy about this fanart that i wrote a whole Extremely Weird fic about it)

anyway, i didn't want to repost matrose's art here, but everyone should please click on the link to go look at It.

#ds9 #dukat #tolkien #arien #star trek

[aurora-nova-fic]

You know when you're sort of mentally lounging in a fic idea with no intention to actually write it? That's where I am right now.

It's another post-canon Garak's exile continues fic, because I am still not tired of those. The idea for this one is that Cardassian men up to a certain age, maybe 50-ish, have an evolutionary adaptation which means that if they don't get exposed to female Cardassian pheromones every eighteen months or so, their biology thinks there's been some kind of terrible crisis, and since no women = no babies, the men will undergo a kind of hermaphroditic process so they can get pregnant. Insert xeno speculative handwaving stuff here. Anyway, moving on, during the seven years Garak was previously the only Cardassian on the station he made do. There was Lang, obviously, those Cardassian scientists, and Ziyal... he made it work.

Post-canon he hasn't been able to make it work, so he confesses to Julian, which is regrettably necessary because they're together so Julian would definitely notice some changes, and anyway Garak doesn't know about the likelihood of conceiving a half-human child but it sure happened a lot with Bajorans so, you know, better to do his homework.

After asking approximately eight hundred medical questions, Julian goes off to confirm his theory that they wouldn't likely conceive a child because human biology is less compatible with Cardassians for some vaguely plausible-sounding reason. But he agrees to, one, make very sure, and two, try to work out a medical treatment to prevent the hermaphroditic process in the first place. There aren't female Cardassians Garak could easily access for some sort of reasons, I don't know what they are.

Anyway, both Julian and Garak have a few misgivings about their plans to prevent all of this, which they tell themselves are foolish but naturally, being the two of them, fail to actually discuss with their partner. (Side note: Ezri has entirely given up at this point and just accepted that the two of them manage to have a more or less healthy relationship despite breaking literally every piece of conventional wisdom on what is required for a healthy relationship.)

It all comes to a head when a Cardassian woman comes to DS9, or wherever they are now, and Garak keeps putting off going near her. Julian finally buys a clue and decides they need to have a Serious Conversation, immediately. Garak is forced to confess that he would like a child, and he also figures that if he is exposure to the woman's pheromones he won't have another chance because he will be too old. And eventually, after a lot of dogged persistence on Julian's part, Garak also drops enough clues that Julian can piece together Garak's reluctance to have a child out of wedlock, because even though it doesn't matter in the Federation it matters to him. He was raised a bastard child and has some baggage, okay?

So they both want a child but aren't sure they're fit to be parents and it's all very emotional and messy and ultimately happily ever after.

(And Ezri just goes ahead and signs them up for classes on parental communication without asking first.)

#ds9 #post canon ds9 #julian bashir #elim garak #garak/bashir #garashir #fic i doubt i will actually write

[singlecrow]

I'm going to treat myself and do that thing where you write about your five favourite stories of your own (of the moment). why the hell not.

everything we do is sewn with this colour [DS9] A late-seasons DS9 Julian/Garak story with a very simple premise: Garak teaches Julian to sew. It takes time for Julian to learn, and during that time, the two of them go from being awkward and unhappy friends with benefits to being in a functional romantic partnership. The idea, of course, is that Garak can sew - he's a tailor, he runs a tailoring business, people get married in the dresses he makes - and in a way, this is the only way Julian can be sure Garak isn't lying to him. If Garak teaches him to sew, then it's because Garak really knows how to teach him. It's my only real Julian/Garak, and honestly I don't think I need any more: this is how I see it going. It's also got Miles, Keiko and Kira as a functional triad in the background, because I know what I like. My one grief about this story is that I don't think Phoebe, purplefringe, my beloved Julian Bashir superfan, ever read it.

some things you just can't speak about (wherever they come from, they'll never run out) [DS9/MASH] This is the most fun I've ever had writing anything, ever. Like, somehow I'd never done a MASH Star Trek AU (I have Star Trek AUs for nearly every non-SFF fandom I've ever done, including Sports Night and Master and Commander), but it didn't click until I realised it was a story about the Dominion War, and then suddenly it's a DS9 AU and it's my two favourite things mashed (lol) together. So this! Hawkeye, though not the protagonist, is very much the main character: they're a nonbinary half-Betazoid, still bipolar, still brilliant, still a walking fuck-you to authority. I made no changes at all to the canon version to make them nonbinary, or an actually-psychic empath. (The screaming! I think some ppl thought I had made up the scene where Hawkeye screams in their sleep enough to wake up everyone in the habitat. Nope, the tv one does that, and he isn't psychic.) The only real change to this Hawkeye is that they're ship's CMO - so they do, sometimes, have to give orders. They don't like it, but they do, and in so doing have to betray their competence (love ppl being competent). And also, they wear the Starfleet uniform dresses, because I could not with how cute that would be. I never said in the story that they were afab, but I assume they were just so they'd be shorter than Margaret.

The other thing here is, the tension between Hawk and Margaret in the show is gender. Margaret would thrive, if she could do what Hawkeye can do - if she could be a soft-edged man who gets respect from nearly everyone for his ability and competence, who sleeps around nd never has it damage his reputation. But he can do that, and she, a woman in the 1950s, can't. Instead, she gets harassed and socially punished every time she steps out of line, though fundamentally she's nothing different from him. But Star Trek doesn't have that gender tension, so instead we have Margaret as Bajoran, who doesn't have Hawkeye's privileges as a Federation citizen. And it's the one rift in their otherwise extremely loving best-friends-with-benefits relationship. (my fave! their canon relationship, my favourite in fiction, probably).

BJ, bless him, is exactly unchanged: his role in the story is to observe the others. Even Potter, a female half-Vulcan who tolerates no crap who I enjoyed enormously. Anyway this story is 40k! longer than any other fanfic of mine and probably always will be because I can't imagine anything else being as fun.

a girl wild and unwished for [MASH] Ah. So, it's 1957 and it's not fun. Hawkeye is in his mid-thirties, and he's fine, except one night he's not: following an intense depression, he tries to commit suicide and is stopped barely in time.

Which is a hell of a beginning to a story, and honestly I feel a bit conflicted about it; I've been unhappy for years about how (some bits of) fandom went from to "you should content-note this content" to "you shouldn't make this content". When this sort of thing is so often my subject matter, it often does feel like fandom doesn't want my fiction and it legit was part of the reason I shifted towards pro. But that's by the bye, and I'm trying to write what I want to again. So in this story, Sidney is so worried about Hawkeye's mental state that he persuades him to try psychoactive medication for the first time. And the story becomes, in its way, a retelling of The Bell Jar with Hawkeye in place of Esther Greenwood: so about life and friendship, about New York in summer, about Hawkeye's work and place in the world, all muted and sharpened and modulated by the effect of the drug. Of course it's about Hawkeye's manic depression, but it's also about who he is; about what he can concede of his mind and personality, and what he can't. I was really pleased with this one. Despite the description, it does have jokes in it.

who were captured, who would not yield [Good Omens] A Good Omens story written just after s1, in the summer of 2019. That feral Good Omens summer! That summer where everything was still perfect and beautiful! I remember writing this by hand on the train to Cardiff to Vidukon, to P's endless amusement. The story isn't a romance - Aziraphale and Crowley have sex in it, for purely pragmatic reasons - but a story about what they do now they're not on opposite sides or on sides at all. Like in all my GO stories, they go to Waitrose, as follows:

Everything is fine. Crowley is definitely not having a breakdown in Waitrose.

“Crowley,” Aziraphale says, by the self-service checkouts. “You were supposed to get an avocado pear.”

“Damn your avocado, angel,” Crowley says, trying not be actively diabolical in all directions. The next customer is buying strawberries, whipped cream and WD-40 – it’s a Friday night – and Crowley can make out the scent of unhappy dairy. Everything’s fine. He’s definitely not having a breakdown. Much more of this and there’s going to be an unexpected fire in the bagging area.

in the chillest land on the sea [the Magnus Archives] Until recently this was my longest story on the AO3, because it was co-written with dearthoughthenightisgone (imperfectcircle on the AO3 because of their godawful brand management). It's a very complex Magnus Archives story, where the basic premise is that all the while Jon is accumulating the statements belonging to the fears to go into the Archive, there is one additional power that we don't see: hope, at the bottom of Pandora's box. So every so often he gets a hopeful, happy statement, and eventually - the day in the Scottish cabin where it all goes wrong - the assistance of the hope power makes things go a little differently. I love this story. We had to write the statements! There are five of them and each one is a little standalone work of original fiction. And the two of us are pretty good at jamming together our disparate styles and themes and doing something good with them, but this one was hard - they wanted a happy ending, I wanted a bleak ending, we had to thread that needle. But I think we did it well, because this is the story where I get the most consistently overwhelming and sweet comments, people who read the story while a beloved family member was ill, or when locked down with covid, and took a little comfort from it. There was fanart! It was something special.

meditations ex post facto [Guardian] This is allegedly a Guardian AU. (Guardian is a fantasy cdrama about a guy called Zhao Yunlan who runs a paranormal investigatory agency, and his lovely boyfriend, who is both a local academic and, uh, a mysterious ancient ghost king.) What this is actually is a romantic comedy with lawyers. It's all I want in life. I wrote the entire first half of it in the Apple store in Covent Garden waiting for my updates to install. This is the best bit in it.

Zhao Yunlan can’t actually blame her, because he’s never been any good at hiding his feelings and he’s kind of composing an email to Shen Wei in another window. Deaaaaar Professsssor Sssshen, he writes. The spilled latte from the other day has made itself at home in his keyboard. Zhao Yunlan painstakingly scrolls back and deletes all the extra letters. I reaaaaally want to see you again pleaaaaaaassse come to dinner with me.

Not at all weird. 

Shen Wei, I was planning to go for noodles tonight. Perhaps you’d like to accompany me.

Weirdly formal, but better. He presses send before he realises that “planning” still has two extra As and a stray Z.

#mash #deep space nine #good omens #guardian #the magnus archives

[bracketsoffear]

Odo (Star Trek: Deep Space 9) "Odo is a kind of shapeshifting alien known as a Changeling. Although he spends a majority of the show appearing as a humanoid, in reality a Changeling’s natural state is liquid, not solid. His uncanny appearance comes from his inability to replicate humanoid (in this case Bajoran) facial features. In his pursuit of justice, Odo often shapeshifts into inanimate objects in order to spy on people and gather information, leading people aware of this to constantly be wary of everything around them when doing something wrong on the station — anything could be Odo. Notably Quark, who is the most common victim of this.

During the time that Changelings were the primary antagonists in the show, it was revealed that they had infiltrated many worlds in the Alpha Quadrant, taking on the identities of many high ranking people. I have a whole idea about how the whole ‘anyone could be a Changeling’ actually parallels Odo’s previously mentioned method of subterfuge but I won’t go into it. Although this did cause suspicion and fear towards Odo, it also made me consider that the Dominion (the empire lead by the Changelings) or just the Female Changeling would be better to submit here? Other Changelings are a lot better at impersonating people than Odo is because of his trouble with facial features. But I like Odo so. Anyway, text wall over sorry for rambling!"

Pavi Largo (Repo! The Genetic Opera) "He peels and steals women’s faces while getting ludicrously good head, speaks in a silly accent because his actual body is so deformed and because he’s just a little guy, and is awash with insecurity."

#Stranger Poll #the magnus archives #star trek #deep space nine #repo! the genetic opera #poll

[ao3feed-spirk]

nothing according to plan (all according to fate).

read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/51059242 by ur_local_aang_kinnie AU; Pirates & Royalty. Prince S'chn T'gai Spock, Heir to the throne of Vulcan, Beholder of the Stones of Logic, Divinely Appointed Child of Surak, Paragon of The Desert, Caesar of Piety, is scheduled to be wed in one week's time to a girl he barely knows and loves even less. After the disappearance of his elder brother, Spock was now the heir to his father's crown. He was-- is-- dismayed at the idea of such power, of such responsibility, but he had long since accepted the course his life would take... Or, so he thought. Meanwhile, James T. Kirk, a wanted criminal by the Federation, noted smuggler and occasional gun for hire-- along with his band of misfit outlaws in their tin can of a spacecraft-- are on the run from a Starfleet vessel currently tailing them with intents to put them on trial for the recent theft of some rather important Bajoran artifacts to be sold on the Black Market. After they've presumed the cops to be gone, they take a quick stop on Vulcan to kidnap their crown prince in hopes of a ransom payment, a payment they desperately need to get the parts necessary to fix their damaged ship-- but soon it's quite evident that they got more than they bargained for. Words: 2355, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: Star Trek, Star Trek: The Original Series Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: Gen, M/M Characters: James T. Kirk, Spock (Star Trek), Sarek (Star Trek), Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, Nyota Uhura, Pavel Chekov, Hikaru Sulu, Original Male Character(s), Original Female Character(s), T'Pring (Star Trek) Relationships: James T. Kirk/Spock Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Kidnapping, Illegal Activities, United Federation of Planets (Star Trek), Starfleet (Star Trek), Chronic Pain, Vulcan, Vulcan Culture read it on AO3 at https://archiveofourown.org/works/51059242

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #spock/kirk #kirk/spock #spirk #spockxkirk #kirkxspock

[nebulouscoffee]

bashir garak or ezri

Oooh great picks! I shall answer for all three😊

Julian

one aspect about them i love

That whole backstory with Kukalaka is SO endearing honestly; it really just gets to the heart of who he is, even by itself- but when paired with the whole 'Jules' reveal, it takes on a whole new poignancy

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I've seen Julian described as naive a lot, usually because he "assumes the best of people"- and I'm not saying that isn't a valid read, but it just feels very incomplete to me! Yes he's childish sometimes, but he's not a baby lol- he's just strongly, strongly driven by the belief that people can always become better. We see him get VERY angry and snarky and (fearlessly) combative with people he believes are in the wrong; people who don't show any flexibility in their perspectives. But the moment a person shows any sort of inclination towards growth or evolution? He puts everything aside and believes in them. To me, this is not naivety- this is courage; even if (especially if!) he may get it wrong sometimes. DS9 (like the real world) is full of people who'll insist that wrongdoers will never change and only deserve to be punished for their mistakes- and imo, Julian makes a fascinating, refreshing, and essential foil to this. (On a more specific note- he does NOT hang out with Garak because he doesn't fully understand the atrocities Garak committed!! Not beyond 'The Wire', anyway. He literally heard (and at the time, fully believed) multiple stories involving Garak being 1. a Gul during the Occupation, 2. a mass murderer (with victims both Cardassian and Bajoran), and 3. an interrogator of literal children. If not the exact details, he certainly knows the magnitude of Garak's crimes- he just chooses to go to great lengths to save his life anyway. This says something way more interesting about him, I think- about his inclination to believe in anyone he thinks would grow better if given the chance, and his willingness to be the one giving them that chance. Which, incidentally, is also why I struggle to see him cutting off his parents, though I do understand why people find value in reading & writing stories like that)

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

He is a polyglot, but this is one skill he very much keeps to himself. The reasons why are complicated, and linked with how his ideas of home and family and lineage and history and Earth and connection and talking and talkative-ness and "skill" are all somewhat tainted by the discovery of what his parents did to him

one character i love seeing them interact with

SO many options, but let's talk about Jadzia- I love how they moved past the initial awkwardness of Julian's crush on her into this deep, supportive, fun (!!!) and extremely loving bond. There's a lot they have in common (Extreme Imposter Syndrome Buddies :D) which means they always know when the other needs a good pep talk, and it's adorable. I love how they have no boundaries sometimes (Jadzia buying him porn will always be funny), I love that they're in cahoots, I love that they make each other laugh- they care about each other so much!! I honestly think it was one of the best-written friendship arcs between a male and female character on Trek, which is why I'm always so *sighs deeply* about Julian's feelings for Jadzia being dredged up again in- ///cuts myself off because you've heard this rant before from everyone and their moogie haven't you///

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Fascinating conversations Julian Bashir and Kira Nerys could've had (my beloved): long-term health issues in Bajoran mining victims & Resistance fighters; nature vs nurture and their "dangerous" Augment/Mirror selves; Sisko as Commanding Officer vs Sisko as Emissary; nerding out over Bajoran music; why must Jadzia Dax be so beautiful; complicated connections with cultural roots; Kirayoshi & postnatal care; the concept of "forgiveness"; revisiting that "frontier medicine" scene to highlight how much they've both changed; Kira offering a kinder approach to "Jules Bashir died in that hospital" through the concept of a pagh

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

He never, ever let the whole Jem'Hadar thing go. In fact, he actually set up this secret rehabilitation centre in Goran'Agar's name after the war, which now provides intensive care for all the Jem'Hadar and Vorta left behind in the AQ. He told me himself :)

Garak

one aspect about them i love

It's been years since my first watch, but I'll never forget how excited I got every single time I saw "Special Guest Star Andrew Robinson" in the credits lol. You just know you're in for a great one; he's such a fantastic and scene-stealing character!

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I just feel like, for a character whose most famous line is "They're all true, [especially the lies]", there is WAYYY too much discourse about him that approaches him from extremes? And it always misses the point imo. Garak was a spy, assassin, interrogator and torturer for the Cardassian government, who participated in (or at the very least, aided) a colonial and genocidal occupation, and expresses supremacist, xenophobic and fascist beliefs for the majority of the series. Erasing any of this is would be erasing not just who he was, but who he is. But the lack of imagination re how to move forward with him if we are engaging with such themes is equally, if not more, frustrating to me. Sure, a lot of the cutesy art and fanfics can have him behaving overly sincere and out of character- but the counter response is always "how dare you woobify this racist war criminal he's violent and dangerous and bigoted and therefore he would NOT do or say or feel any of that!!!", and- okay, so is the idea of him designing and sewing dresses out of character, then...? Is the image of him debating books over lunch with a bib tucked in too woobified? Is the notion of him trying to set up a fellow (Bajoran!!) business owner on a date too fanfic-ey? Because guess what- that's literally how he behaves on the show! Garak is a self-aware self-woobifier, that's literally the whole point, he's "just a plain simple tailor" wink, wink- and without at least some element of that comical mundanity, that sort of absurdist domesticity, the character just isn't recognisable imo. Garak is the con artist who fell for his own con; he's spent so long playing various roles that he now over-performs everything and has no idea where the performance ends and the genuine begins, literally what makes his character work is that you're looking at this war criminal just doing benign stuff like sampling drinks or watching a tennis match or gifting his friend chocolates and wondering just WHAT is going on inside his head- and, "he did horrible things and therefore must be incapable of any form of sincerity or affection or regret and the perception of any of those things is woobification" is such a reductive (and boring!) approach to him imo. I don't mean any of this as apologia; there are many, many ways in which a person can be bigoted and cruel, and Garak is those things- I just feel like people often misrepresent the manner in which he is those things (usually by making him unfunny and weirdly macho, which I just cannot understand at all😂)

TL;DR- Garak the poor sad misunderstood baby who never enjoyed any of the bad things he did and only thinks about Julian Bashir 24/7 is out of character, sure- but Garak the violent emotionless villain who treats all Bajorans abusively 24/7 and will never ever grow or change is... just as divorced from canon imo (imo!! Emphasis on "o"!!)

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Garak himself doesn't always fully remember the details of his past; he has this very Cardassian ability to specifically delete anything he wants to from his memory, and he's better at it than most (though, still not always successful). Only thing Garak regularly tops is the List Of People Garak Lies To basically

one character i love seeing them interact with

Well, apart from the obvious- I think every scene between him and Odo in IC/TDIC is incredibly immersive and top tier! The actors are SO good together, and the only reason Odo isn't in the next category is I actually think it's perfectly in character for both of them to just never bring up the whole torture thing ever again

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

KIRAAAAA but tbh, I'm more interested in their post-canon dynamic than anything, so instead I'll go with Sisko! Every time these two are on screen together, amazing. The effortless back and forth. The intellectual battling. The subtly flirty line deliveries(!!!) The palpable shifts in the power dynamic. The oddly respectful snarking. Again, the way these two actors are SO GOOD

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

Some may claim that Garak hates the more outlandish civilian outfits that Jake and Julian wear. I say he made them

Ezri

one aspect about them i love

The sheer impact of actually getting to spend a whole season with the next Dax (after years of only hearing about Curzon) just cannot be overstated imo. Like, we the audience got to experience firsthand what it was like for Benjamin to first see Jadzia walk out of that shuttle; for Jadzia to wake up one day and find herself the newest link in a long-revered chain- we actually saw the new host struggling to adjust, reconciling all those lifetimes of memories all over again, rekindling and redefining Dax's old relationships (the relationship with the audience very much included!)- and then on top of that, the new host wasn't even trained to take on the symbiont?? What an incredible character premise! I was obsessed from the moment she said "Hello Benjamin it's me Dax"

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

Ezri is Jadzia's successor; not Jadzia's replacement. She cannot replace Jadzia- that's literally the entire point of her arc, that she should stop trying! She's a fascinating character in her own right, and also extremely interesting to think about and discuss independent of whom she will end up/should've ended up with

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Ezri Tigan was not "anxious" in a rambly nervous way like Ezri Dax, but more hyper-competent and "I'm always unhappy because everything I do HAS to be perfect so I'm never satisfied and I hate myself" (which was definitely how she was trained to think by her mother). For this reason, joining with Dax actually ends up being good for her in the long run! Nothing drives an oppressive voice out of your head quite like suddenly having eight other voices in there lol

one character i love seeing them interact with

I know some people don't like her and Worf mistakenly thinking they're in love and hooking up and then realising they work better as friends, but I actually think it's very understandable for both of them, and the friendship they form afterwards is so wholesome. That scene where he asks for her advice and she just calls out corruption in the Klingon empire is one of my favourite Ezri scenes ever :D

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

It is my firm belief that Sisko and Ezri's S7 arcs should have revolved around each other. Ben's journey at this point is so tied up in his ever-growing disconnect from linear time and corporeality, and imo nothing grounds this better than his three-lifetime bond with Dax! He should have talked about the Prophets and Benny Russell and the whole concept of destiny with his favourite old worm. It also would've been revelatory for Ezri, who herself is trying to adjust to the non-linearity (300 years of memories she can't easily get in order) and non-corporeality (whose body IS this anyway???) of being Dax

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

I know we all have our theories as to why and how and when exactly she and Julian break up, and while I do enjoy the drama sometimes, I still fundamentally feel like it would be short and amicable and they'd remain close friends for life. Or maybe I'm just a big sap hehe

#ask game #cw torture mention #thank you so much for this opportunity to ramble! :) #just wanna clarify- I wasn't saying g@rak's former career & (lack of) morals CAN'T be a point of contention between him and bash1r #I just don't think jul1an would hold his /past/ deeds over him #but if he speaks in *defense* of those past deeds? that could definitely raise some issues (esp if they're together in this scenario) #also there's plenty of messed up things g@rak does in the show's PRESENT to choose from! torturing 0do/trying to murder the founders/or #even that one bajoran conference- jul1an would find these actions indefensible imo (and I have read some good fics exploring this) #ITPM is... interesting because I actually don't think late s6 bash!r would condemn him for it very much #I mean even s!sko seemed more pissed about the fact that he'd been tricked into murdering the guy than the fact that the guy was murdered #(and his anger quickly dissipated once he realised he hadn't been AS tricked as he was telling himself he was) #bottom line is g@rak as War Criminal & Cardassian Oppressor IS interesting to explore! I just don't think it would (or should) negate #the possibility of growth or change (which he does undergo on the show) and definitely not a relationship with jul1an #who in canon doesn't really seem to consider g@rak's past (or even present) a deal breaker #(not attacking anyone PLEASE don't start Discourse about this thank you!!!)

[deafmangoes]

Another set of DS9 thoughts! Less cheery ones, mind.

S6E23, "Profit and Lace" is... a bit uncomfortable to say the least. For those unfamiliar with DS9, the lady in the purple dress up there is Quark, the Ferengi bartender, who several hours ago was a cis male and has been forced to become female for shenanigans.

Back in the nineties/early 00's I suspect this was peak humour but now it's a bit... oof. I hesitate to say it's transphobic, but it's not exactly positive either. It's also pretty misogynistic, in a guise of trying to be progressive.

So, brief context: Ferengi are a hyper-capitalistic race (capitalism is quite literally their major religion) and deeply, institutionally misogynist. Ferengi women (always referred to in a derogatory tone as 'females') are forbidden from wearing clothing in public, of participating in public life, property ownership or even of holding profit at all. This is mostly played off as "look how backward they are", but also forms the spine for a few episodes - this one included.

In this episode the Grand Nagus, Zek (the elected head of state for the Ferengi Alliance) has changed the law, permitting women to wear and own clothes. This caused such a riot that he was immediately deposed in a coup, and flees to DS9 with Quark's mother Ishka (the true brains behind everything he does) to enlist Quark and Rom's help to put him back in power.

Initially the plan was simply to have a meeting with all the major Ferengi leaders and Ishka explain, quite simply, that ignoring a staggering 53% of the Ferengi population for the sake of misogynistic tradition was ridiculous - think of all the profit to be made! They would then reinstate Zek, hooray.

But... a fierce argument between her and her very traditional son, Quark, causes her to suffer cardiac arrest (Bashir mentions off-hand that she needed a new heart - so actually she pretty much straight-up died). To go ahead with the plan and thwart the machinations of Jeffrey Combs other DS9 persona, Liquidator Brunt, Quark is... pretty forcefully transitioned into a woman. It is strongly implied later in the episode that this was a complete surgical transition, genitals and all. That itself suggest some interesting things about the status of transgender people in the Federation, but that might be for another post.

The whole thing is played up for humour as Quark gets all 'emotional' from his new hormones, and his brother Rom gives him surprisingly insightful tips on how to act a woman (drawing stares from everyone else, including his Bajoran wife. Headcanon is Rom's genderqueer but that's maybe also for another post!)

Quark (under the pseudonym 'Lumba') meets with the sole Ferengi businessman who turned up and convinces him of Zek's (really, Ishka's) proposed reforms. Then... the businessman suggests they take dessert in his quarters and in a genuinely deeply uncomfortable scene, attempts to sexually assault Quark.

Again, the whole thing is played for humour. Haha, look at how uncomfortable Quark is about this genuine rape threat. Haha. Hahaha.

It's even worse that Quark is forced to turn around and save face when Brunt arrives by kissing the businessman, and stripping for him.

But the day is saved, Quark is transitioned back and gets an awkward hug from Odo (who seems to have not done too well in the makeup department that day, but I digress).

What is there to really say about this episode? Quark is nearly raped, his dysphoria (and yes, he does get dysphoria) is brushed off, and the whole thing is treated like a funny haha joke. Oh, and to give us bookends, the episode opens with Quark extorting one of his employees for sex, and ends with him apologising for it (because his experience has taught him that women deserve better)... and then immediately changes his mind and chases after her as the credits roll.

I don't really know what was going on in the writing room that week, but... hell, guys. Chalk another notch on the "Rick Berman's a misogynistic asshole" board.

#deep space nine #star trek deep space nine #star trek ds9 #ds9 #ds9 quark #quark #cw: assault #cw: transphobia

[novakspector]

With the evolution of the Cardassian look and their military uniforms, we can see them revising and refining their appearance on the shows.

The Cardassian prosthetics were designed around the appearance of actor Marc Alaimo. He had appeared on an early TNG episode as a member of a doglike/Chewbacca-esque alien species, and for that role they had to create a full face cast of him to create the prosthetics. They already had a mold of his head, and he's a fantastic actor, so why not bring him back as Gul Macet?

Alaimo has an extremely long neck, so makeup and prosthetics designer Michael Westmore created the neck/shoulder pieces to accentuate that. Alaimo has a strong brow and the Cardassians also have that feature accentuated.

The prosthetics would be refined over the years, but the basic form remained the same. The neck ridges, brow bones, the nose piece, the appendages from the ears to the jaw, the chin ridges, and of course the forehead spoon. It's one of the more involved prosthetics sets in terms of number of parts. So it initially took them 4 hours to do the prosthetics and makeup for each Cardassian. Eventually, they got the routine down to 1.5 hours on DS9, which is probably just by necessity since there's a lot more of them on that show.

Female Cardassians have slightly more delicate features, because realistically a look that was designed around Marc Alaimo's face isn't going to be flattering on a woman. So they tone down the heaviness of the features. The first female Cardassian we see is Gul Madred's young daughter. As for adult female Cardassians, on TNG we see only 2: a random unnamed female soldier played by background actress Cameron, and Gul Ocett played by Linda Thorson.

The brow of the female Cardassians is less pronounced and the forehead is smoother than the males. They also have a blue makeup on their spoon and neck scales to make them stand out. They wear red lipstick and nail polish, which seems like it must be a custom they got from Bajorans or other humanoid aliens.

As for the evolution of the uniforms, first of all was the look from the TNG episode The Wounded which introduced the species to us. They wore the 1.0 uniforms that looked a bit like brown American football padding + the weird helmet thing. The spoon protector. Why did they wear helmets? Who knows.

We only ever saw Gul Macet + the crewmen of the CDS Trager and Gul Dolan in the episode "Ensign Ro" wearing the brown football padding outfits. This uniform variant appeared in 2 episodes of TNG and was dropped after that.

Now of course compared to the later and more familiar iconic look we see from them, it's a bit silly. But it's not really a terrible design, certainly looks very "alien" and laid the groundwork for their overall look. The Cardassian ship designers were inspired by Egyptian forms, like the Ankh, and so we can feel a sort of desert cobras vibe in their appearance from the very beginning. Their whole backstory is that of desert cobras trying to survive in harsh conditions in the only way they can- by being predators. So the design of the characters in look and story is very cohesive. The center of the chest piece has an Ankh-like shape, sort of mirroring the teardrop/spoon on their foreheads.

Do you notice how many aliens in Star Trek tend to wear gloves? The Jem'Hadar in DS9 also originally wore grey gloves. It's just easier than painting everyone's hands and nails to match their alien faces.

The Cardassians in The Wounded also had much pinker skin than the Cardassians who would be shown after them. Pink, tan, olive, and brown tones are really common among the Star Trek aliens because these are much easier to blend with human skin tones. To get a blue Andorian or a green Orion looking like their skin is natural and not just paint is a more involved process, so most aliens have human skin colors.

On the next time we see the Cardassians, their appearance has changed dramatically. The uniforms are the 2.0 version. They're still recognizable as a species, but their look is more refined.

Gul Lemec was such a striking looking man. Handsome and frightening, charming and sinister, which is what you want for an antagonist of this kind. Aside from Marc Alaimo who is of course the O.G. Cardassian and the blueprint for the species, I think Lemec actor John Durbin really embodied the Cardassian look the best.

The prosthetics have been refined and look more detailed compared to ones seen in The Wounded. The brow bones look more defined, like bones rather than pinched blobs of skin. The wigs are now jet black. The neck scales went through several variations, becoming more defined and 3-dimensional over time. Their skin is greyer, and their uniforms have become the now much more familiar 2.0 style which stayed generally consistent in form throughout the 1990's Trek shows (with some variations I'll detail below).

The main shell of the uniform is a bodysuit made from neoprene- very insulating wetsuit material! It's uncomfortable! Hot! Sweaty! Not meant for land use. Not designed to wear under studio lights. Just think about how they had to film in the California desert wearing a wetsuit + the wig, the prosthetics, the foam rubber armor- it must have been like hell. I'm getting heat stroke just imagining it.

The uniform now had some piping and ribbed flourishes along the sides giving it dimension so it looked like alien clothes and not just wetsuit for surfing. Those little details make all the difference.

There's a round foam rubber "corset" shaped like a lozenge around the ribs and matching smaller ones guarding the elbows. Originally these were black/dark grey, the one above is from later on.

The football padding is gone, and has become a foam rubber cuirass with a diamond shape pointed outward on the chest, giving the chest a "barrel chested" look, which drives home the idea that these are lizard-like people.

They wear textured "boots," with patterns that match the cuirass, which are actually leg gaiters worn over platform shoes/ankle boots if you look close. Same thing was done with the Bajoran boots. Gaiters are easier and cheaper than having so many pairs of custom boots made. The shoes look like they give the already quite tall actors an extra 1.5-2 inches in height. This was common on Star Trek, actors wearing these Robert DeNiro elevator shoes. Captain Picard had them, too. Nobody is gonna notice for another 30 years when everything becomes HD.

The first variants of this new uniform we see on TNG look uniformly black or very dark grey on screen, but there are color variants later on. They wear a wrist communicator on the left wrist. The mold of the wrist communicator was also re-used on the doorbells on DS9 and Cardassian ships:

Originally the Cardassian actors were tall and slender guys built like Marc Alaimo, and that's how they wanted the species to look like, so they could all wear 1-piece bodysuits without any issue since that looks good on tall and slender people. If they're all shaped the same way that makes the tailor's job a lot easier as well. In the TNG days they probably thought they would have 5 at most of them on screen at any one time. But then came DS9 with dozens upon dozens of Cardassians.

But really, there's only so many actors who are not only 6 feet tall and 0% body fat but also right for the roles they wanted, so eventually they wanted to branch out and hire different actors- including older actors, heavy set actors, actors who had different body types, so the Cardassians would no longer just be all tall and very slender lizard men. They introduced a 2-piece costume that would be more comfortable and flattering on different body types. This is first seen on Legate Parn, who was the first chunky military Cardassian we see.

The Legate variant of the uniform also has sliver detailing on the cuirass, along with the gold Legate badge.

As for color variants, the earliest new style Cardassian uniforms seen on Gul Lemec & co. are black and dark grey on screen. But the uniforms in DS9 tend to be in dark blue, the cuirass and accessories have dark green colors. There are even some 2 piece uniforms with a pinstriped Dark Mauve color.

You can see above the different styles of one piece uniform and 2 piece uniform. The 2 piece uniform has overalls-design with attached suspenders worn under the top. So it was still pretty inconvenient to wear in terms of, like, needing a bathroom break. The only time I recall Dukat wearing the 2 piece uniform is when he was briefly promoted to Legate in the episode Indiscretion.

I for one don't understand why Star Trek costume designers think everyone in the future will be wearing 1-piece bodysuits. Even if everyone is hot and skinny in the future thanks to replicators rationing out our calories, a bodysuit still makes bathroom breaks a pain in the ass. But I digress.

The armor cuirass is made from cast latex, in a dark greyish green color. The cast latex would have made them lighter to wear than actual rubber, but as you can see it has a lot of wear and tear on it, it's less durable than rubber.

It has a strip on the side with writing and symbols in the Cardassian script, possibly denoting rank or division. These are velcroed on.

The construction of the back of the cuirass is slightly different from the front, and if you look closely you can see how it closes in the back, most likely with velcro or a hidden zipper?

There's an all-black and unique variant of the uniform worn by the unnamed sleazy Legate who talks with Major Kira in the episode where she goes back in time to see if Dukat banged her mom. His uniform is made with a shinier black spandex material which you can see below. Not as warm to wear as the neoprene. These pictures from the auction show all the detailing which is never really seen because it's covered by the cuirass and "corset." I'm not sure if these details are present in all the uniforms, because we don't really see it. The ribbed and piping details extend to the upper bicep and are also seen on the chest. The uniform is black yet the belt and holster are the usual dark green color. I can't find a shot of his boots/leg gaiters to see what color they were.

Of course these slight color variations didn't really register on 1990's televisions. The show has moody dim lighting and was broadcast in standard 480pixels definition, on cathode ray televisions. Only until seeing auction photos I've included here, and seeing HD AI-Upscaled version of the shows did I even notice all these color differences. I always assumed their uniforms were always black and dark grey the whole time.

The only time I can recall seeing a Cardassian with his rubber cuirass off was when Tekeny Ghemor took his off in his home. I mean, it makes sense why would you wear that around the house on your time off? Ghemor's legate uniform looks similar to the sleazy Legate's uniform, but Ghemor's is made of the standard wetsuit material.

And finally the holster for the Cardassian phase disruptor is made of the same foam rubber materials as the cuirass. The belt is made from the same materials and raised diamond-style rubber as Major Kira's uniform belt. The leg belt is held together with velcro, while the waist belt has snaps. I found these images from an e-bay auction and saved them for costume research purposes.

This is no means a definitive guide, but just showing that if you're gonna make a Cardassian military cosplay there's enough variations in color and style to choose from that you can improvise and still look like a legit Legate.

#costume research