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How can you not ship these two, they are PERFECT together

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Silver Moon - a defiance fanfic (part one)

The story of how Datak Tarr won his passage on one of the ark ships, part the first. Please excuse the liberties I've taken with the Castithan language. *** Silver Moon The tavern was unusually crowded, The tables were packed and the bar was full. The Castithans drank with a determined desperation, trying to temporarily forget their inescapable fate. Everybody knew now, about the ark ships. They knew their planet was doomed. Castithans of the higher castes had arranged passage on the ships that would soon leave the star system. Even some of the middling castes had managed to beg or steal a ticket. But here in the Silver Moon tavern, the clientele were all Castithans of the lowest castes. They knew that passage on those ships wasn't meant for the likes of them. They could never afford the ticket, and they lacked the powerful friends or personal influence to call in any favours. Many of them lived in semi-permanent structures and worked as menial labourers, taking the jobs other Castithans wouldn't lower themselves to perform. They had no valuable possessions to sell. When the Votanis star system was destroyed, they would die. The Casti from higher castes knew this too, but as far as Datak Tarr could figure out, they didn't give a shtako. The higher castes, he thought, probably considered it a bonus. All his life, Datak had been looked down on by members of the higher castes. While their children went to the finest schools, all of the children in his neighbourhood crammed into one small school with few teachers and fewer resources. While the higher castes lived in bright, airy houses to let in the little sunlight that the planet ever saw, Datak's people lived in the slums. Datak dreamed of having a house like theirs to call his own someday. He knew that that would never happen on Casti. Which is why he was at the Silver Moon tonight. Datak was looking for a particular Castithan whom, he was reliably informed, had something he wanted. He knew he had to get on one of those ships, whatever it took. Whatever the new world was like, it had to be better than this one. And Datak was damned if he was going to die here to suit the higher castes, to please those people who had always looked down on him, avoided him in the street, whose children he had been forbidden to play with growing up. Datak told himself that he was a survivor. He would survive the destruction of his planet, and someday, he would live in a bright and airy house surrounded by expensive art and sculptures. Someday other Castithans would look up to him. Someday he would be somebody important. And he swore to himself that his children would never have the kind of childhood that he had had to endure. He had to get a ticket for one of the ark ships. If necessary, he was willing to die trying. "Religwo, Datak," the landlord greeted him. "What can I get you?" "I'll have a bwekla," Datak said without hesitation. Bwekla was a Castithan delicacy, a drink made from the fermented nectar of the Bweklama flower. "Come to drown your sorrows?" Asked the landlord as he poured the drink. "This situation with the ships, it's got everybody desperate. I've never made so much money! I've had to order in extra cases of bwekla to cope with the demand. If the Indogene are wrong, and the star system doesn't blow up after all, I'll be rich!" The landlord chuckled. Although he was putting a brave face on things, Datak was willing to bet that deep down he was as scared as any of them. "Iftar, I'm looking for someone. I was wondering if you'd seen him tonight." Datak affected nonchalance as the landlord handed him his drink. "Robal Thadik." Datak looked around the crowded bar. "Is he here?" "I'm not sure, Datak. I haven't seen him. But he could be here somewhere..." Iftar peered into the crowd. "I'll have a look around," said Datak. "What did you want him for?" asked the landlord. But Datak had walked away and been swallowed up by the crowd as they swarmed towards the bar and demanded more bwekla. Datak managed to find a seat in a corner near to the door, where he could watch for Robal if he came in. As he sipped his drink, he caught snippets of the conversation around him. It was mostly about the impending disaster. An older Casti man to his right was arguing with a young man. "I still don't believe it," the older man was saying. "I mean, who'd trust an Indogene anyway? I bet they're lying. Maybe they just want to scare us. In any case, until it happens, I won't believe a word of it." Wishful thinking, Datak thought. He smiled a grim half-smile. A lot of the older Casti were taking that view. Why, his own mother and father had even bought into it. But Datak knew better. There was a long standing distrust between his people and the Indogene. But Datak had heard about the ark ships, how they were being fitted with the best technology the Indogene possessed. If the impending destruction of their world was just a myth, why would the Indogene be putting all of their considerable resources into building ships that would carry them light years from the Votanis? The Indogene were a careful people, not given to making impetuous decisions. They certainly believed the ark ships were necessary. And that was good enough for Datak. The man sitting next to him stood up, and unsteadily made his way towards the bar. A girl sat down in his vacant seat. She smiled at Datak, with warmth in her violet eyes. She raised her glass of bwekla. "A toast," said the Casti girl. Datak chuckled. "What do our people have to toast right now, shishya?" The girl smiled. "A toast to dying. And to living until we die. We are not dead yet, and while we are still here, we might as well enjoy ourselves." Datak was not at all surprised to feel her hand move sinuously along his thigh. Sex was an easy thing to find on Casti. Neither gender had the slightest shame or reluctance about it. His people were sensual by nature, and regarded the pleasures of the flesh as something to be enjoyed, whenever and however possible. Datak had had his share of flings with girls of his own caste, but Datak had always nurtured a secret longing for the girls from higher castes. They almost seemed like a different species when he passed them in the street; those haughty girls dressed in flowing robes who couldn't even glance at him without scorn in their beautiful eyes. Worse than their scorn was their pity. Datak swore that if he ever made it to the new world, no one would ever look at him with pity again. Respect, yes. Fear, perhaps. But not pity. He gently removed the girl's hand which had come to rest unabashedly in his crotch. "I'm not in the mood tonight, shishya. I have some business to attend to." The girl was not offended, and giving Datak one last smile she stood up and walked away. Datak chuckled to himself as he saw her approach another man sitting alone, and raise her glass in a toast. She was a pretty enough girl, and he had no doubt that before the night was over she would find somebody to give her what she wanted. It wasn't her fault, he told himself, that she lacked the beauty and elegance of the girls from the higher castes. It would be something, he thought, for a shanje like him to possess a woman like that. At that moment, the door swung open. A group of men entered the bar. Trailing behind them, and walking like he'd already sunk a crate of bwekla to himself, was the man Datak was looking for. To be continued...

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Thank you to whoever made this gif set. Datak and his sunglasses...so awesome!

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These are tumblrs that are entirely based around Defiance.

Info/Fanblogs:

http://defiancewomen.tumblr.com/

http://nolansdefiance.tumblr.com/

http://castithientogenes.tumblr.com/ (this blog)

http://needwantdefiance.tumblr.com/

http://defianceworld.tumblr.com/

...

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Musings on Defiance, part one

So I've started watching Defiance, and I'm hooked! I'm an absolute sucker for alien languages, customers and cultures. The races on Defiance each seem to have a rich and complex culture, which I'm hoping we will learn more about as the show continues. I'm also chomping at the bit to get more backstory on the characters. So far we've had various mysterious allusions to events in the characters' pasts, and I'm sure more will be revealed as time goes on. But if you're like me, you can't help making up canon in your head, or at least wondering what might have happened. For instance, Irisa says of Nolan; "He did something for me I couldn't do for myself. He killed my parents." Several episodes later, when witnessing the Castithan cleansing ritual, Irisa tells Tommy "I have seen worse," and reveals that she "doesn't like chains." We also see some nasty scarring around Irisa's wrists, which seems to indicate that she was kept in chains at some point in her life. So this naturally leads one to assume that Irisa's parents were abusive. Did Nolan kill them because he witnessed the abuse? We've already established that Nolan, despite being a character with somewhat complex and maybe at times even shady motives has a strong sense of morality. We've seen him repeatedly try to do the right thing, even working against his own personal best interests to do the right thing, such as taking the terra sphere back to Defiance in the first episode despite Irisa urging him to flee with the sphere and leave Defiance to its fate. Or was Nolan tasked with killing Irisa's parents for some other reason? I mean, I wouldn't put it past Nolan to have been a paid assassin. We've already established that he is a "tracker by trade." I mean, maybe Irisa's parents had done something really bad, and when he was given the job, Nolan decided that these people deserved to die, which justified taking the contract in his mind? Maybe only once they were dead did Nolan enter the structure they were living in (who knows whether that was a house, shack or tent of some kind) perhaps looking for bounty, and then found Irisa...in chains, badly malnourished, frightened but trying not to show it to this rough-looking stranger...and perhaps Nolan weighed up his options. Perhaps he even left, thinking the child was not his problem...but he didn't get far, maybe to his roller, before his conscience got the better of him and he went back to get her? By the depth of the marks on Irisa's wrists, she was not a baby or even a toddler at this time...she'd have been a bit older, maybe five or six. Those chains would have had to have been in place for a number of years to make such deep impressions. What do you guys think? I'd be interested to know if anyone else has similar thoughts, or even different thoughts...? What do you guys think happened to Irisa, how did she end up with Nolan? I suppose we will find out eventually but in the meantime it's fun to speculate. And now we come to my favourite character, Datak Tarr. Oh my god, I love this guy. An arrogant risk-taker for whom family and respect is everything. Pale and rather sexy. A sort of Castithan Lucius Malfoy (there, I've said it). I've seen some posts describing Datak's character as two-dimensional. I have to disagree. Ask yourself; why is Datak so driven? Why is he so determined to ensure that his son has the best life possible...why does Datak scheme and cheat, steal, lie, harm and kill people so that his son doesn't have to? I can't help wondering what Datak's parents were like, what his upbringing was like on his home planet. As a member of one of the lowest castes, I would assume that Datak was raised in poverty, with no power or influence, perhaps shunned by the higher castes...perhaps subject to humiliation and ridicule because of his lower social status. We don't know an awful lot about social mobility among the Casti. We don't know whether it would have been possible, back on the home world, for Datak to ever elevate his social status. Would he have been condemned to a life of menial work, would he have always been treated as scum by the higher castes? Could a Casti ever really transcend the liro of their birth? That's why I think Datak did everything he could to get onto one of the ark ships. We learn that his ticket on the ark ship was obtained by gambling (anyone else think of Jack Dawson in Titanic? No, just me?) Datak did everything in his power to grab a place on one of those ships because he knew that in the new world, everything would be different. On earth, he has schemed his way to the top of the pecking order, something he perhaps could never have done back home. That's why power and respect mean so much to him...because he perhaps never thought he would be able to obtain either. He is clearly determined that his son Alak should never suffer the indignity that he suffered...should never have to do the kind of dirty work Datak himself has had to do tirelessly to ensure some kind of elevated status for his family. I think perhaps if we understood a little more of Datak's backstory, people would stop viewing him as simply a two dimensional crook and come to understand the lengths he has had to go to, the crimes he has been willing to commit, to help his family. This is a man that would do anything for his family, including stealing, including killing. He has sacrificed his own integrity, in a way, for his son. He's had to make difficult and often immoral choices so that his son can have a chance of a better life. In a way, isn't that almost admirable?