#Also goes for Julian and Miles’ relationship

[catboyelimgarak]

Also, since it was said that the friendship between Boimler and Mariner transcends reality, their trust in one another being powerful, which is just to say (in my opinion) that there’s a Boimler and Mariner in EVERY universe that end up being side by side…then my stupid garashir brain can believe that the same can be said of Garak and Julian and their love for one another always being a constant as well in all universes. I.E. ex-spy turned surgeon Garak and EMH Julian being together. Also being a surgeon is just being a tailor, but with bodies lol

[alexhornefan]

Tell me about your relationship with Alex. Was he helpful, at all, during the tasks? It took me a few days to work out, "Who is this person?" because he doesn’t communicate much when you’re doing tasks. He’s quite circumspect. Putting someone down is a comic device I’ve used often over the years and he was the only person there, so that’s what I ended up doing. You don’t get much from him, but he’s very scrupulous and fair. He was just always there in the corner, usually behind the camera with his clipboard. It’s a strange role he has because he’s the clever one, but he’s also the inferior one compared to Greg. It took me a while to work that out. But I did like him, and after we’d finished a task, if I said, "That was terrible," he’d say, "Oh, you’d be surprised" so you’d hope that you hadn’t done as badly as you thought, which was quite nice. But it was so relentless – task after task, day after day – so it became a way of life. He was a constant presence during these task days. I very much enjoyed your constant put-downs of Alex. Well, I’m naturally a bit dour. I was mortified sometimes when Greg said, "Oh, you look bored" because that’s just my way. I thought it was just because I was older and cynical but actually, thinking about it, I was like this as a child. It’s just the way I am. And how did you get on with Greg? It’s unusual for me to want to please someone, but I’ve been a bit puppy-dog with him. He’s very enigmatic, and everyone’s looking at him all the time. He has a very well-developed – I was going to say inner child, because he’s very giggly and childish – but he’s really an alpha male. I should imagine he’s in charge wherever he goes, whatever he does. I might be wrong but I can imagine him going into a shop and ordering a sandwich and being, "This is what I want and give it to me now." So I hated disappointing him. I hated it when he got a bit dismissive. It’s mortifying, and you feel slightly jealous if he’s praising young Sam, you know?

How do you describe the relationship between Greg and Alex?

Like a lot of marriages, it’s all different things mixed up, isn’t it? So there’s obviously affection, and there’s a very deep knowledge of each other. And it’s funny because you think Greg’s always the one in charge, but then you know that Alex is the one behind the tasks, so they subvert that. It’s complicated, just like proper relationships are. And it’s not at all like Morecambe and Wise, or any of these other partnerships. It’s a million miles away from that, which is unique, really.

-Julian Clary

[randomdragonfires]

I LOVED THE LATEST TIME CAN'T STOP ME QUITE LIKE YOU DID!!

I have to ask though. Your take on Alysmond is quite different. How did you come up with it? Like were you inspired by anything at all?

Hello anon! GOSH THANK YOU FOR ASKING ABOUT THIS!

Alys in my head is a woman who is in control of her relationships. She's not as young as Aemond or Wylde, and certainly not as emotionally charged as them. She's had all these moments, and she's on a higher trajectory and level of maturity than both of them.

Regardless, she's still a woman. This means that sometimes, there are flashes of the kind of happiness she has written off, and she hopes against hope that perhaps this will be her time. That's Aemond - and we'll see lots of their backstory in the final chapter. I'm working out the exact scene progression for it now.

As far as inspirations go:

1. If you've read The Secret History, you know that Professor Julian Morrow is an eccentric teacher who lives by the Greco-Roman values he teaches. A lot of who he is is defined by the culture, and he lives a life of culture. He also has ties to aristocracy, royalty, and the rich. Despite not having seen much of Alys in the story yet, I think you'll have to admit that she does cover all the bases.

2. I'm from the South, and we have our own cinema industry here, which is miles ahead as far as quality goes, so I don't usually find a lot of depth in Bollywood. But there is this one movie that I love called Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, where one of the subplots is of a young man meeting a much older, well-read, smart, and sexually confident woman. In their time together, he gets to know more about himself and his feelings in the process. Alys is very much inspired by Aishwarya Rai's (THE QUEEN🛐) character in the film. I've linked the trailer in the title, and you'll see her from the second half of the video. Beautiful movie, if anyone's interested!

3. Now, this isn't a direct inspiration for Alys, but it is for Alys and Aemond's relationship as a whole. Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors is a beautifully written book about a couple with more than 20 years between them. The book follows the ups and downs of a relationship like that and is an interesting study of both characters.

[bagheerita]

finally finished DS9 and decided to post some thoughts in one big blob

I was honestly about to give up on season 7 and put the rest of this show to the side for a few months, but then Ezri and Worf have a 3 episode arc sorting out their relationship, only talking to each other because they're marooned/imprisoned, and I was so charmed by them being loud and messy that I managed to bull my way through to the end. I love the two of them as friends, they are adorable. 

I actually really like Damar and his arc, and it’s pretty rare I say that about a character who killed my favorite. 

I feel like the reason Section 31 exists, and they keep forcing episodes about it upon me, is because they wrote themselves into a corner with inventing the changeling disease to kneecap an unbeatable enemy and didn’t know how else to fix it/end the war except with secret secret spies. 

Ezri has this whole speech she gives to Worf about dismantling structures of power and I feel like they needed to end the show before anyone was like, hey the Federation kind of sucks and we should definitely do that. 

Garak’s mom showed up and everything was good in the world again.

Ezri and Julian are like “can’t deny the chemistry.” lol babes that's called being a young attractive allosexual. "Chemistry" is what Worf and O'Brien have in all the scenes where they're mocking you.

I’ve never felt the truth of the phrase “I support women’s wrongs” so intensely as I do with Kai Winn. I love her and I want to give her everything. I didn't love her getting assaulted by Dukat, but when she knows everything that's happening and chooses the pah-wraiths anyway, yes fuck it up. When she poisoned Dukat I was like, hot damn if this character dies as a footnote in someone else's quest for power I will forgive everything that this show has put me through because of him. But we can't have nice things. I did like that her last act was to choose to take their victory from them, and give Sisko the clue he needed to beat them.

I do love Martok but I feel like he’s going to be about as good a chancellor as Robert Baratheon was a king. 

Odo is The Last Unicorn, but with brain-melding: he’s going to share his experience of loving a mortal with the other immortals. I still don’t “get” him and Kira as a couple, their relationship literally went from -20 to 100% after a single all night conversation locked in Jadzia's bathroom and no actual onscreen development, but at least I believe that they believe they’re in love. 

Why the ever loving fuck is Julian so obsessed with the Alamo. Every time they bring it up I want to grab him and Miles and shake them. I get that it's supposed to be some sort of metaphor for fighting a hopeless war, but really? You want to go up to the fake room where you can do/be literally anything and you're going to repeatedly reenact a battle where you die to defend your right to have slaves and practice settler colonialism??? Even in the last episode they’ve won the real war and they’re still obsessed with reenacting this old battle. They also spend that one episode trying to figure out how to win the Alamo… babes, that actually happened: it’s called the Battle of San Jacinto- learn some actual fucking history, your side won the war. This isn’t about metaphors anymore, the metaphor has failed, now Julian just has a neurosis.

The Dominion War plot line goes on for way too long and there is so little internal emotional catharsis. (Maybe because for me the things that were supposed to be cathartic just induced more rage? 🤔) The ending was fine as far as character wrap ups but felt pretty rushed considering how long it took us to get to this point, and I really think they needed more time to handle the denouement. The overall pacing of the episodes/seasons is terrible: you wasted like a season and a half puttering around, with whole episodes where you forgot to mention the war; you added in mirror-verse episodes without bothering to use them for story or character development; Quark is one of my favorite characters but there are too many episodes about Ferengi shenanigans that do not impact the actual plot; there are whole scenes and arcs dedicated to a character who does not (within the internal logic of the show) exist. And then you slammed all the development into the last half of the last season. I'm not surprised now that I forgot this entire show after watching it while airing because it’s emotionally exhausting. I've compared DS9 to SGA in the past, but the Dominion remind me of the Ori: You've killed the enjoyment I found in this show and have made it a chore to watch.

I do like that what ends the war is Julian’s determination and Odo’s compassion. You've proven the Founders wrong, but this entire plot thread was so poorly handled that I don't know that anyone remembers one mention from four seasons ago about why this war even started and, honestly, standing on a planet where you just murdered millions of children it's kind of not enough. I like that they let Garak kill the last Weyoun, and I adore the scene where he lets Kira take the phaser, but honestly he deserved more. It wouldn't solve anything, and I think there's a nice parallel in Garak's fears inspiring him into attempting genocide being incredible grounded in reality and the Founder's similar fears being negated, but he deserves it, the head Founder deserves to be torn into tiny pieces by grieving Cardassians, and I deserve to watch it. (I also desperately want Garak to find out about Section 31 and the changeling disease just so he can be like, "Oh so when I try to commit genocide I get 6 months in jail, but when the Federation wants to commit genocide that's okay?")

I don’t know who on the production team is so invested in Mark Alaimo getting a paycheck, but by the end Dukat as a character has long outlived any interesting qualities he may have had at one point. The final battle shit with the pah-wraiths was pretty underwhelming; except for the deeper exploration of Winn's motives that this season has allowed for, "The Reckoning" was such a better structured episode. (At least at this point they've let Kira go off and be awesome without being forced into episodes with Dukat. The sheer amount of abusive old men sexually attracted to much younger women in this show is frankly unnecessary; I will never be able to unhear Curzon say he flunked Jadzia from the symbiont program because he wanted to bang her, and Dukat’s relentless pursuit of Kira especially/even after we learn he sexually assaulted her mother is disgusting.) 

I have mixed feelings about Sisko, and his character having a “white savior” role with the Bajorans. Like, I guess it’s a cool twist that he’s a black white savior, maybe that's the best the 90s can do, but also can we decide to not write stories where we give foreigners positions of power over recently subjugated peoples??  I was feeling pretty yikes about it especially after the beginning of this season and learning that he was basically genetically bred by the Prophets for the position, but… I dunno, I’m probably not someone who can or should have a deep opinion about this. I do like that arc for him as a character outside of what it means for the Bajorans, but his ending feels too open. I wish we got to know more about what he learns from hanging out with the Prophets, and I wish that the great "sorrow" he suffers from disregarding the visions felt more concrete. Kassidy is really the only one sad about this, Sisko seems excited to exist outside of time. (And I feel like a lot of the "yikes" of the character could have been fixed by making the character be Bajoran? You wouldn't need to invent a reason why he was chosen by the Prophets. He could even have been raised on Earth and still have those ties, and I think it would have made the pull between his duty as an officer and his duty as the Emissary more interesting. Also can you imagine if Jake and Ziyal were both half Bajoran and hanging out with each other??? But they don't pay me to write shows.)

Why do Miles and Julian have the gayest final montage? It's literally the first of the montages and they start it up over "The Way You Look Tonight" and I was just like... wtf did I accidentally put in a fan video? Miles is the only person in a relationship who has a montage without any mention of their significant other, though I guess Worf's does jump from his first meeting with Sisko straight to season 5 clips so they didn't mention Jadzia either. I love that Miles and Julian have such a deep friendship, and I feel like this show could use more interrogation of the concept of love and the fact that platonic love/friendship is just as important as romantic love, but the production has spent so much time "no homo"ing every relationship they can think of that it just comes off as bizarre. 

All the bts things I’ve read about this show pretty much amount to the production being like “we had no idea what we were doing with this character” which, when combined with the failure to manage season structure and some of the utterly bonkers episodes this show threw out there, leads me to believe that pretty much anything I enjoyed about this show comes from the actors. This is definitely a show I feel like I’m going to be “rewatching” through fanfiction and gif sets before I ever rewatch the entire show again. 

[fumblingmusings]

I know its not gonna be a happy ending but sometimes any flavour of asakiku is everything to me 😭 would it be okay if we got some headcannons about evie and Kiku in a future we're they never separated and worked well for each other?

Who says they'll be apart forever hmmmmmmmmmmm?

But lol yes! Hummmm. Fem!England and Japan romance headcanons-modern day edition. Let's go!

He still gifts her pearls - brooches, bracelets, earrings, rings, and necklaces - the whole shebang. In 2020, she received a pearl tiara for when he came over with his Emperor and Empress for the State Visit. Japan has a tradition of gifting their princesses a necklace and tiara when they come of age. They're usually just diamonds with some pearls, which can make them seem plain (can't believe I'm saying that) in comparison to the European traditions of coloured gems (that's a lie, Belgium and Spain are in the same boat). It's a whole thing regarding rank married in versus blood princesses, etc., but typically, the lower rank and married in girls get more naturalistic and less structured designs. I'd like to imagine that she got one like the former Princess Noriko's - such a wonderful shout out to the classic Japanese artwork that everyone in the West knows:

Apologies for the dinky/blurry photo. It's hard to get a hi res shot of this thing.

On the other end of things, and this will pop up in the fic, but she gives him her literature. 1st editions and rare books to add to his library. Kiku has such an interest in writing and literature and poetry, and takes very good care of them.

Initially, she gives him her Victorian novels, but Kiku, off his own initiative, goes further back, having a go at Chaucer and such. He is very good at translating works to and forth between English and Japanese and often gifts books back to her.

I mentioned it in a previous post, but Kiku particularly attaches to the poem Pearl, and England also shows him like the works of Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe, who were two writers and friends in the 14th century. Julian's is considered the oldest piece definitively written by a woman in English, and Margery's is the oldest autobiography in English, let alone one by a woman.

She likes to go on hikes with him, they can walk and walk and walk for miles. She has taken him to the Peak and Lake Districts more times than they can count, not to mention Dartmoor, Exmoor, the South Downs, and the Yorkshire Dales. They both love their gardens, both going to great pains to look after them. They spend a great deal of their time together outside.

And when they get home, like the old married couple they are, she tidies up around the house, he cooks dinner, then they settle down for the night. She knits or crochets whilst watching something like Only Connect or University Challenge, Kiku is absently listening in the background as he plays a video game, and get more questions right then Evie. He is congratulated with a knitted jumper by the end of the night.

They don't have sex that often. Really. Both are kind of lazy partners and are old fogies, they'd rather go to bed and sleep than anything. Eva in particular is clingy, and is prone to biting. It was a fight to get her to remember to not do it above the collar line.

As they both learn post WWII how and when to get involved with governments and politicians and armies and such, they are slowly given more and more freedoms to just be, with no strings attached. It's then, when she's able to let go of a heavy and poisonous burden, and he's free from such a destructive ideology, that they're able to meet in the middle once again, not as England and Japan, but as two very old immortals.

Alfred is able to plug the gap, rather than be dividing force this time. He's not happy about his mom being in a relationship with his best mate (the day he saw those teeth marks it was somehow a larger betrayal than anything Eva or Kiku had done prior), but it's purely in a dude that's my mom territory, rather than a political gripe.

[gutsfics]

what are your headcanons for the hss prime characters after high school? who goes to college? what do they major in? for any that don't go to college, what do they do instead? any post-high school romance hcs? anything else you want to share?

ok so first of all, my prime world takes place begining in 2014, with Simon being a sophmore when he becomes a student at Berry High so he & most of the other main characters graduate in 2016, with choices hss taking place the year after in 2017, so the only prime students still attending Berry High during the events of choices hss are Mia and Katherine (also pb was wrong for breaking them up and never putting Katherine in choices 💞)

as for majors/the futures of these characters (in no particular order) (also not all of these r as thought out as others) (also also im not doing every a-lister or whatever the fuck hss prime calls them. thats too much man. if u wanna know about em ask about em seperately):

Ezra would take a few courses at a community college so he has at least a little college experience before he signs back on with.... whatever record label the band had signed on w in the story i forgor. he plays guitar for Lisa Valentine and also has his own solo career, but every now and then Kingslayer will put out an album together when they all have the time to. he marries Wes in Vegas while on tour to give Wes an alibi for something, but they've had feelings for each other for a while. Eventually Simon joins their relationship & the three of them raise a kid together

Payton would get a degree in communications and become an events coordinator. every time a friend (from high school or otherwise) says they want to have some kind of event, she always tries to plan it for free or discounted but they convince her to take the money lol also she and her partner are foster parents!!!

for Koh, i love how in choices she decides to do premed in community college!! i think she eventually does her residancy at Edenbrook, where the only attending she respects is one Dr Baxter Lucafont, for the time they stole from a big pharma company to help a paitent that wasn't even their's (also all the doctors that helped them pull it off, but in a different way). also Zaid and Esme. i can see them being friends lol

Kallie gets a degree in library science and becomes a capital L Librarian in Boston, where she and Koh reconnect & start dating <3

also like in choices canon (but this was mentioned in prime a few times as well) Wes' intention is to go to law school and study criminal justice, but it kind of... takes a while for him to do it. while he's in community college for undergrad, he just kind of gets an antsy feeling that he could be doing things to help people now instead of waiting around to get a degree, so he drops out for a bit to do what he can, even if it isnt technically """legal""". he starts looking back into it after he and Ezra get married, but he pauses again when they (+ Simon) have their kid bc he doesn't want to be the kind of dad that his own father was. he does go back to community college during this time, but he does as much of it as he can online so he can be a sahd until their son is old enough to not need him around so much. then he fucking kills it in law school (he doesnt go to one of those fancy schmancy ivy leauges though, just a state university) and becomes an associate at Ricci, Lee, Tanaka

Julian gets a scholarship to do football in college, and while he is good enough to be scouted for professional teams, he isn't sure if its what he wants to do beyond school. he's always been Macho Football Boy, but he's not sure if that's all he wants to be forever, yknow? like he's smart. not Nishan, straight a's, 4.0 gpa smart but he's never at risk to lose his scholarship bc his acedemics are too low. i might change my mind on it later, but i think he might get a degree in physical education (& he's good at it. none of that "run the mile. no i wont tell you how to stretch or keep yourself from hurting yourself. just go as fast as you can" bs, he actually teaches his students how to work out safely and correctly, bc working out can be fun if you know what you're doing)

Autumn would go at Hollywood U, bc while it is mostly a film school, it does have some very good classes in the classical arts and photography. i don't have much of an idea of what she'd do beyond that though. its Autumn! what else is there to say. (also my version of Autumn isnt whitewashed to hell and back like she is by the time she's in choices ill forever be mad about that)

Mia would become a manager. Ezra's manager! i think she'd get her degree at HWU as well. she and Katherine would take a breif break from dating each other but ultimately they'd get married. no kids, but they are the Cool Aunts to their friends kids

Katherine would double major in English and Music and become a playwrite professionally. Mia is her manager as well <3 sometimes she and Ezra will collab on a musical together

Nishan will get as many STEM degrees as fast as he can. dude has like 5 phds and hasnt slept since high school. he eventually gets an author husband who he met online bc said author husband was curious about how some science thing worked so he could write it correctly for a science fiction novel. i literally just invented his author husband so i know nothing about him yet. but i did misspell the word "him" so i think his name will be Jim

Sakura gets a degree in computer science and starts her own indie video game company. its very successful

Ace gets into an ivy league college and gets a degree in political science, then works his way up from local politics to national politics. he's still trying to get Simon to run for president.

Max also gets a football scholarship at the same college as Julian, but he stays with football professionally though. i think he'd be at risk to losing the scholarship due to grades bc he was able to coast through high school thanks to Dad Principal so he enlists Julian to help him. Julian eventually begrudgingly agrees and they tolerate each other until graduation. at some between starting college and graduating, he and Simon will end up back in Cedar Cove together and become.... well friends with benefits isnt the right term because theyre not friends. i think he'd fall for Simon but Simon would be like "ummm.no" and cut the relationship off there

Kara goes to HWU and becomes an actress. at first she and Autumn mostly just ignore each other bc while she stopped bullying her they're not exactly friends. until they get paired up for a project they both have a class in & gradually become friends. and then girlfriends.

and now Simon. my guy. my boy. Si-guy. Slimeon. my son. he graduates high school a little early so he can focus on his gymnastics career and go to the Olympics. he does really good. good enough to place bronze his first year. but also his first year compeating, he breaks his foot real bad about half way through his routine. he doesnt realize until someone points it out to him though, he thinks he just landed a little funny and pulled a muscle. during the time his foot is healing is when he and Max have their weird little gay thing and also he decides that he doesn't want to keep doing gymnastics professionally. it was fun, but he's ready for something else now. he kind of just does whatever he wants, from working in haunted houses, to acting, to joining Ezra on tour and playing the violin during some concerts. mostly though he's Wes and Ezra's trophy boyfriend and dad #3 to their son

and i think thats everyone? lol lmao

[nervoustragedyluminary]

Keiko pairing /shipping ideas

Keiko / Grilka

they meet because Grilka requires her botany expertise treating a new outbreak of crop blight that is effecting her clan's lands they have a passionate fling but neither of them are interested in anything committed or long term with each other and when the issue is solved (it ends up being a genetically engineered bio weapon by Grilka's brother to try to force her off her lands but it's thwarted) she leaves on good terms with an invitation to come back any time

Keiko/ Leeta & or Keiko /Rom

they meet at Quark's and hit it off. Rom is cool with it; they have an open relationship and he likes how Keiko makes Leeta happy the cute flowers she brings and is always asking Leeta about what kind of earth flowers her gf has brought her this time and he ends up getting a crush but doesn't want to make things awkward for Leeta and Keiko or seem like he's trying to cut in so he tries his best to not seem like he has a crush but it's obvious and Keiko figures it out and finds it charming because he's a lovely guy , Miles is a bit confused at first but then he actually hangs out with Rom and realises how much they have in common as mechanical geniuses and heart of gold fathers who want their spouse's happiness above all else

Keiko / Kira

I mean she seemed to be hinting to miles that she'd be fine with him going on holiday with her and all but pushed them together maybe because she had a thing for Kira too but she gets tired of Miles being oblivious and sits him and her down and goes "hey uh open triad y/n and they're both like" wait you could tell we had chemistry.... And you're okay with that and you also like Kira ? And Keiko is just face-palming like "why do I fall for oblivious people"

Keiko /Daxx

Daxx would show her a good time they'd be talking about botany for hours Daxx would regale her with tales of Kurzons experiences with various medicinal and psychotropic plants

Keiko/Julian

I think he'd be sweet to her they could work together on a paper on medicinal plants from the Gamma quadrant and she'd unleash his submissive side much to his surprise at first. I can imagine him and Obrien having a bit of a faux rivalry where they "compete" for her attention but in a fun playful way then both shower her in adoration

Keiko /Sisko

I think they'd go on hikes together and enjoy camping and she'd not understand his obsession with baseball it'd maybe be either really low key like others apart form Miles don't realise that they're dating as they don't want gossip and by the time people realise they've kinda drifted apart and decided to be Queerplatonic

(in all of these she's still married to Miles and they have an open marriage in my headcannon)

[miscmeanderings]

I actually think this articulation of Julian is wholly compatible with an UST Garashir!

There's definitely a side of Julian that also craves the romance! and adventure! in a relationship (man dates a dabo girl because she's a dabo girl and frankly I think that's a relationship that fails because Leeta is looking for something deeper and more stable which I LOVE that she finds with Rom and look I have a lot of feelings for that pairing okay sorry segue.)

And Garak is that in double handfuls. Repressed closeted longing with an ex-spy (question mark on "ex" lol). Danger and intrigue and forbidden-ness all in one scaly package. And it goes far. It goes possibly as far as possible without anything so gauche as flushing things into the open with an explicit confession and culminates in - I think - a metaphorical confession from Garak when he lets Julian witness Tain's death. (This is me, just plain Garak talking to my dying father. I never give a straight answer about my past, I'm never earnest and here you may watch my try to have my only open unveiled conversation with my maker and the last one we'll ever have. What are you that I would show this. What are you that I would bare my back and trust you with the truth.)

And then what happens? Shortly after, Julian has his world rocked by having it revealed he's a genetically enhanced human. I think that scares him. Or maybe exhausts him. He's had one cornerstone of his world rocked, one giant secret out of the bag. Maybe he's not ready to jump off another cliff just now. Maybe he's still looking to redeem his ability to be normal. So maybe, suddenly, wild romance and shadowy liaisons aren't so attractive anymore. (Not is confronting his closet lol)

And maybe Garak, who just bared his past to Julian, maybe Garak notices Julian didn't extend the same courtesy and reads the writing on the wall and let's it go. They stay friends but their closeness never builds up to the same ante again (if I'm remembering sequencing correctly).

And Julian's slow-building friendship with Miles (which was perhaps already blossoming into something else) starts to take on (more) new dimensions.

I do think Julian and Garak maintain a flirtation/friendship all the way to the end, but it does seem to sort of twist in part because of the war and in part because they walked up to the edge of transforming it into something more... And then turned around.

And yes Julian is an idiot and what the hell is Jezri. Love OP's read of closeted, confused Julian it explains SO MUCH.

I was going to write an essay about jiles but no one cares. All i want to say is that my reading of their relationship is that Julian is just like puppydog sickly in love with Miles. And like Julian is incredibly lonely and Miles is like an embodiment of the family man and homey comfort and all that good stuff that Julian doesn't have and never had. AND ALSO very importantly Miles is untouchable because he's married and straight so being in love with him is perfect for Julian because he knows there is nothing he can ever do about it and therefore never has to face the reality of getting what he wants. Cuz Julian is like so insanely repressed like even if he's out of the closet he's still got one foot stuck in there forever and always. ENTER Ezri hetcomp. You cannot look me in the eyes and tell me that "I love Ezri passionately... but I like you a bit more" scene wasn't him trying one last time to shoot his shot with Miles before he committed to the whole Jezri bit. Jezri was honestly so bad but also it makes some sense when you consider they are like the two most confused people in the world. Literally classic textbook doomed relationship of two people who are going through a life crisis. Ezri got like 400 years worth of new quirky personality traits that she didn't ask for. And Julian is still Julian who is insanely lonely PLUS for the first time in like forever Kieko was living on the station consistently again... and then.. Miles says he's going to earth. You think something like that wouldn't make him freak out so hard he starts dating a woman? THE MOST TELLING THING IN THE WORLD.. is our last Jezri scene of the whole show, Ezri is like "Julian can we play The Alimo together?" and like literally deathly seriously Julian is like "No. not that one" cuz you know thats his and Miles special thing forever that he's never going to get over. But then he's like "However we can play an extremely similar game in the holosuits together" Julian uses his new girlfriend as a replacement for Miles like the second he leaves explicitly in the show. My theory for post-canon Jiles? Well, I think they don't talk to each other much if at all but they both miss each other every single day of their lives.

[buckee]

yuletide 2023 letter

Dear Yuletide writer,

Happy Yuletide! This is my very first Yuletide, so I'm excited to be here--thanks for being my writer this year! <3 More under the cut:

GENERAL INFO

Likes:

Dead dove/darkfic/"Hydra Trash Party": Pretty much anything goes! Torture, horror, incest, kidnapping--you name it. I'm a particular fan of dubcon. Non-con is fine--but, tasteful, please.

Unhealthy (romantic) relationships: Anything that would be criminal in the real world, I'm game. Terrible, awful, unhealthy codependency. The dissolution of a marriage. Age gaps. Power imbalance. "It's not love, but it's all we have." Shared trauma. Divorce. Domestic abuse--I prefer verbal and emotional over physical, but I'm open to anything if it fits the characters. Overall, relationships between the story's villain and the story's protagonist--but there isn't a happy end, necessarily.

Miscellaneous: Being isolated in each other. Character studies. AUs where the villain wins. AUs where everyone in the world is gone but them. Hostage situations. Childhood best friends. Best friends breaking up. Ambiguous endings. "The love was there. It didn't save us. But it was there." Dating horror stories a la Fresh. Isolated settings (e.g. being stranded on a mountain, or trapped in a house with no one around for miles). Canon divergence. Enemies to lovers who are still enemies, but, more accurately, generalized relationships with someone you both love and despise. Stories set after canon. Stories set before canon. Stories that fill in the cracks of what happened in the narrative.

DNWs: Underage under 7. A/B/O dynamics. Gratuitously happy endings. Coffee shop AUs. FWB AU's. Stories about weddings (per the above, marriage is fine). Any focus on happy mother/daughter stories in general is a HARD DNW; unhappy ones are fine. Cutting as self-harm (any other self-harm is fine). Stories focused on family or friendship and not about intimate, romantic, or adversarial relationships. BDSM as a focus &/or practice of whatever sexual --I think it's boring.

...

THE HUNTSMAN FILMS

Characters: Ravenna, Snow White

I'd really like to see them in a psychosexual, if not fully sexual, relationship. I think Ravenna hates Snow too much for it to ever be normal (and I wouldn't want it to be!), but Ravenna is fixated on Snow White per the original fairy tale, and that kiss where she's disguised as Sam Clafflin is so intriguing. I wouldn't mind a character study; I wouldn't mind canon divergence. I don't mind sex in fic--I think the only thing I wouldn't want to see in this particular story is their relationship presented as healthy in any way. They're two women in competition, in beauty, etc. I also like the character of the Huntsman and the mirror (the first movie is my favorite) so seeing them would be great too!

Potential prompts:

Character study of Ravenna's (queer) sexuality, it's complications as someone whose power depends on the male gaze, and how she transmutes these feelings onto her stepdaughter.

AU where Ravenna takes care of Snow as she grows up, pretending to care for her. Perhaps some real feelings fall into the mix.

THE FORBIDDEN GAME

Characters: Jenny, Julian

I read these books at a crucial age and it remains one of my favorite series of the YA paranormal romance era. I'm forever sad we won't get to see Julian come back to Jenny in college, but I do love their story a ton as is. I think a lot of what I enjoy about their dynamic is spelled out in canon, so any approximation of that would be so lovely.

Potential prompts:

The "Julian comes back during Jenny's college years" story we never got!

Pre-canon divergence: Julian interacts with Jenny as a child, and has a relationship with her as she grows older.

An AU where Jenny surrendered to Julian in the first book--what would eternity look like with him? How would his appearance change over time? What does living in that horror-world do to Jenny?

POSSESSION

Characters: Jess, Roman

I adore the alternative ending where Jess and Roman have a sort of...understanding? I also love the one we get in canon! I love this relationship that's built on this weird, obsessive lie. Hence, I'm open to pretty much anything!

Potential prompts:

Roman survives, Jess has the baby, and they're a family. And it is tense, and it's terrible, and they're married for the rest of their lives.

I think the biggest thing I appreciate in a dark story is that the elements involved are not gratuitous--there's a sliding scale of horrific things, and I prefer to read things where these elements are present as features of a story, not the domineering force. That being said--I completely trust you, Yuletide writer! <3

I'm on twitter at @/villainkiss , if for whatever reason you'd like to take a peek into whatever I'm saying on socials (more dead dove stuff, typically). And treats are welcome as well!

Thanks again! Happy Yuletide. I'm really excited. :)

**NOTE: Updated on 10/22/23, as some text did not save in my post the first time.

[biblicallyaccurateandrogynoussex]

now allow me to fill you in on our cast of characters, all with a healthy dose of found family. (note that if i say a sexuality or anything of that sort its likely a headcanon, this show was made in like the 80s or 90s)

Captain Benjamin Sisko: human. he's like. the only one on this show who isn't some flavor of queer. he's the supportive ally and also very dadcoded (but also has like. an actual son. his name is jake and someone compared me to him once). sisko is in charge of the station! he calls all the shots and is also apparently part bajoran god? he also really likes baseball! one time (in the middle of space war) he taught all his senior officers how to play baseball so he could be petty and win against some dude he didnt like.

Colonel Kira Nerys: bajoran! she's definitely lesbian. she also used to be a terrorist, but now she's second in command! shes got a very queer relationship with the science officer, jadzia dax. her character is really fun. she's technically not a part of starfleet, since she still works for bajor, and that means she gets to bend the rules a little bit. she's stubborn, and her temper can run a bit high, which provides for a contrast with sisko. canonically, shes with odo, and their relationship is the most boring EVER except for when they got together that was so fucking funny

Doctor Julian Bashir: MY SKRUNKLY!!!! he's just a human guy but he's genetically modified because his parents are ableist! he's definitely autistic, transgender, AND bisexual. and when he was a kid, he was special needs, and learned very slowly, and his parents HATED that so they illegally turned him into a super human intelligence wise (and BECAUSE it's illegal, he hides this for most of the series). he aslo CANNOT stop committing medical malpractice and flirting with his patients its awful. hes got a Very Very Homoeroitc relationship with one Elim Garak, who refers to him consistently as "my dear doctor" (they're clearly fucking).

Chief Miles O'Brien: human, literally just some guy, goes through The Horrors regularly. i wish i could remember some of the shit the writers put him through because they do him SO dirty every time there is an episode centered around him. he's the maintenance guy and he technically isnt even an official officer. he was also on a previous show, star trek: the next generation. he's got a wife and kids and a Weird relationship with bashir. theyve at least explored each others bodies.

Jadzia Dax: i forgot her rank. actually. but she;s trill! the trill are weird because there are the PEOPLE and then there are the worms (symbiotes or however its spelled) and you can choose to get joined with a worm or not. jadzia is joined so shes got a shit ton of memories of like 7 other people (kinda systemcore /projecting) and she's best friends with sisko. she's the science officer and canonically gets with worf. they get married, their relationship is... interesting? she's very fun tho, shes got tons of skills from her worms knowledge and she regularly wins at gambling.

(THERE ARE MORE IM SENDING ANOTHER ASK AND PRAYING THIS ONE DOESNT GET EATEN)

I love the comments on how some of these guys have explored each other's bodies. Also we love queer coded guys and system coded guys. Obsessed with their names they're like so normal but to the left

[subbyfoxelf]

[tv review] ds9 3x10 "fascination" (1994)

sorry to be a simp, but i'm fascinated by THOSE SPOTS, OMG. (hi sorry i love trills.)

no one: absolutely no one: seriously, NO ONE: every star trek show: oh, hey, it’s time to do our “the naked time” clone episode!

in fairness this one at least had a unique approach (though not as unique as strange new worlds’ take on this), and i have been pretty consistently on the side of star trek being silly, but idk just seeing a bunch of random characters make out really didn’t do much for me? on the other hand i think it’s pretty hilarious that despite her not having as obvious of a reason for being there as she did on tng, lwaxana episodes on ds9 are just drastically better than the average lwaxana episode on tng?

again, though, “a bunch of main characters make out with each other for no reason” is just not really a super interesting episode concept for me? though, once you kind of get used to the episode’s entire deal, every now and then the episode would do a like PLOT TWIST MAKEOUT and it was fun to see it coming when the characters on the receiving end of said PLOT TWIST MAKEOUT clearly didn’t. (english major note: that’s called dramatic irony! … i am in so much debt for no reason.)

the bajoran gratitude festival that’s going on throughout the episode is kind of the main thing i actually enjoyed about this episode, though. just having chill diegetic music going on in the background & everyone walking around in civilian clothes was pretty cool imo. also towards the beginning of the episode, major kira & chief o’brien are both waiting for a transport from bajor to disembark and they have a cute little moment of ldr camaraderie.

speaking of chief o’brien, though, the fight he has with keiko (which was apparently NOT inspired by the weird telepathy shit going on with lwaxana, like the episode goes out of its way at the end to let you know he was unaffected) was just… yeesh. i’m sorry, the writing of their relationship is just so uncomfortable.

relatedly, though, the continued slow burn of miles & julian’s bromance has finally reached the point where they’re hanging out together all the time. nice to see that coming along.

i know i harshed on it a bit, but this isn’t a bad episode, and it’s a fun bit of disposable entertainment, it’s mostly just not a plotline i was super interested in seeing explored and when you add the genuinely uncomfortable miles/keiko stuff on top of it, it just leaves me with an overall negative impression.

c-rank

[walkingstackofbooks]

Okay, yeah, no... in my head this is now the set-up for an awful (awful) fic where:

Sloan is appointed his guardian

Julian has a crush (having an affectionate, loving adult in your life for the first time?? all the complicated feelings...)

It gets dodgy after he turns 18 (but it's *fine*, right? 😅 because Sloan waited until he was an adult to pursue a relationship... 🤢)

Julian gets recruited to s31, but after a couple of years transfers to Starfleet Medical - "on loan" from s31, really, though

So he owes his career to Sloan and is inordinately grateful

At some point he and Sloan break up - amicably, though. (Sloan's upset, but being able to control Julian through a continued friendship is more important than taking his anger out on the boy)

Sloan continues to be someone Julian regularly goes to for advice etc, all the way up to when he's on DS9.

I mean, start of DS9 there probably calling at least every other day because Julian's kind of lonely.

Also there's the odd thing Julian has to do for s31 every once in a while.

Then there's Armageddon Game, and Sloan is Julian's "Not quite. Close." person he talks about to Miles. But mentioning something about "Luther got me into Starfleet, actually" starts ringing alarm bells for Miles

Miles knows he's not the man for tact, but does mention his concern to idk, probably Keiko actually? So someone else can follow up.

And Julian's gently prodded into re-evaluating the entire last decade of his life - and his closest friendship and sole parental figure all in one - and how the fuck you cut off someone like that who's been so good to you?

How the fuck do you start being able to consider that actually they might have been really, really bad this whole time?

Julian calling Sloan like “I fucked up and now people are telling me you're a bad person and I don't know what to do. I know you're not but they're not listening to me and everything I say is making it worse and I'm kind of scared they're right but I'm trying so hard to block that out because they can't be, right?"

AU where Julian discovers records of what his parents did to him and doesn't confront them. Instead, still in shock and not really knowing what to do (honestly, he's barely been able to take in half the information, if he looks at it too long he starts dissociating) he teaches the information to school the next day to share with his English teacher. She's not his very favourite, but she's strict and firm and fair, and he just wants to hand it all over to someone who will be able to take control of the situation for him, no matter what the outcome ends up being.

I really don't know what the consequences would be of his secret coming out when he's still a kid, with him having played no part in his cover-up... Would he be given some leeway to follow the career he wants? Would he be institutionalised? Would Section 31 get their hands on him as soon as he turned 18?

[section-69]

DS9 Finale Music Analysis

So this is the music that plays through Ben's goodbye to Kasidy, and continues through the sepia montage into Jake putting the roof on his father's model house. It's got some really interesting musical references I'm gonna rant about.

NB: This isn't exactly how the music played in the show - Rick Berman was... weird, about soundtrack music, found it distracting, so some of the brass solo bits were toned down, but this is how the composer intended it (and the mandated changes were minor enough to be irrelevant here).

Throughout the piece, there's a mix of strings, brass, and woodwind - basically what makes up the vast majority of DS9's soundtrack, theme tune included. Mix of big orchestral moments (unity) and solo instruments (individuality) with the odd jazzy element (improv, certain chords) thrown in, nicely captures the tone of the show through music. But there's also specific moments that do that Really well.

About 45 seconds in, Jake's theme starts up:

I think we first hear this tune in The Visitor, but it comes up several other times through the show, always representing Jake - and especially his relationship with his father. What's interesting here is that when it plays during the finale, on screen we're looking at Ben say goodbye to Kasidy. By calling back to The Visitor, it's like the soundtrack is making sure we keep the father-son relationship in mind. Maybe it's saying "remember the last time Ben existed outside regular time? This time he's not putting his son through the constant visits". Or it could be saying "this time Kasidy's in that situation of not knowing how to handle things alone", or "really it's Jake who this conversation is about." I think it could be all at once. Regardless, the show's always been about Ben and Jake, and even though we don't see their goodbye in the finale, it's there musically.

Next, at about 3:20, on screen Miles picks up the model soldier he'd earlier blamed Julian for the loss of as we hear notes from the Irish song The Minstrel Boy, which Miles sang back in the TNG episode 'The Wounded' (the first appearance of the Cardassians). It's instrumental here, a solo flute plays the melody, but the lyrics to the first couple lines are:

The minstrel boy to the war is gone,

In the ranks of death you will find him.

Thing is, the flute cuts off after in the ranks of... and goes straight into a solo brass instrument (trumpet?) playing The Way You Look Tonight. Since we earlier had the end of the war party at Vic's, this song represents the crew and their friendships, which is solidified as on screen we get the sepia montage. Essentially, the minstrel boy (Miles) went off to war, but instead of being found in the ranks of death (which anyone would have assumed), he's with his friends. The toy soldier isn't lost. And even if he's leaving, and won't be in the ranks of friends much longer, he's alive, time isn't linear, and we'll always have our (sepia toned) memories.

The Way You Look Tonight is slowed, played with the show's characteristic slightly jazzy brass, merging between orchestral and solo moments. It's interspersed with the theme tune - the show ending where it always begins - and fades off with brass improvising, like it doesn't quite want to finish. On screen, the montage ends, and Jake closes the Bajor house model. There's another couple scenes before the show's technically over - the theme tune plays again through the final one of Kira and Jake - but this piece finishes with everyone ready to move on, having established how they're gonna hold onto their memories.

[adamsvanrhijn]

Reasons Why A Bleeding Oscar Van Rhijn Might Collapse In His Mother's House

aka my very first speculative S2 post based on Real Official Content!!!! wow!!!!!!!!!

in the 2023 hbo teaser, we get an extremely brief scene of oscar doing exactly what i just said he does. acknowledgements to anon for alerting me of this. 😌 they also asked why i think this could happen so here is a whole list of possibilities courtesy of my brain operating at 95 million miles per hour

acknowledgements also to tumblr user @whartonists who pointed out that they are wearing their easter sunday clothes in this scene as well. current easter episode estimate is the first episode, in which case if true oscar stans are really starting off with a bang. we also can assume based on unofficial footage that oscar goes to church and leaves it Just Fine so we are probably on a Sunday afternoon

domestic abuse. i hate this one so i'm not going to dwell on it.

Hatecrimed. by whomst? i don't know!

Hatecrimed by an unknown actor who doesn't matter

Hatecrimed by a Known actor who Does matter 👀

freak accident like he fell out of a carriage or something

Betha Russell via George Russell resorts to drastic measures to scare him off his pursuit of Gladys

Fight for a random reason that ultimately doesn't matter at all

Defending the honor of a lady or ladies, e.g. Gladys, Maud, or Turner

Larry Oscar relationship rupture?

Random mugging

Intentional, targeted mugging

I feel like a lot of people who aren't me think there are good reasons to beat up Oscar but those people are all mean, and wrong

Mean joke in the presence of a mean and wrong person who thinks beating him up is a proportional reaction

Fallen in2 debts that he cannot settle. Harsh to go after him on Easter sunday if so

Mistaken identity, he was not supposed to be beat up at all

A riot of some kind, presumably an invention of Julian Fellowes

Omnibus crash (see freak accident)

Falls off a horse ("")

Fight over a girl (see also: defending a lady's honor, but this is not quite the same)

Fight over....... a boy....................

Just a handful of spaghetti thrown at a stationary wall at high speed. I welcome additional suggestions and shots in the dark!!!

Edit: He is in shirtsleeves ie sans suitjacket and I can't see it anywhere (doesn't necessarily mean anything); it wouldn't have been taken like a coat so that indicates either he took it off or was stripped of it. Edit edit: He is also not wearing his hat, or his gloves.... Wow!!!!!!

[sigynpenniman]

Armageddon Game is fascinating because I genuinely think it’s the first time Miles realizes he maybe doesn’t mind Julian so much after all. I don’t really ship them but I find their relationship super interesting because of how often they end up in a situation where Julian has to care for Miles and Miles sort of pretends he doesn’t need it or generally doesn’t want to acknowledge it but you can also tell he needs it really bad. Before that episode, he definitely finds Julian to mostly just be aggravating - Julian’s driving him up a wall playing racquetball in the IMMEDIATE PREVIOUS EPISODE. But the stakes here are so completely different. This time the chips are actually down and Miles has to let himself be cared for. And I think this is the moment where he realizes that Julian will. There’s so much going on with their relationship. I don’t think it’s perfect. I take issue with the way that parts of it are presented. But there’s something really interesting going on with it a lot of time because of the inherent gender norms in it and the way Miles Just Is™️ and the incredible tenderness Julian treats him with even before he’s decided maybe Julian isn’t annoying after all. Like by the time they end up huddling together in Armageddon Game, almost every interaction they’ve had has been of Miles telling Julian he’s aggravating or generally being annoyed with him, but when Miles begins to get ill, Julian immediately starts treating him with so much tenderness because that’s just how Julian is with everyone all of the time and I think it’s the first time that Miles really realizes that this man will do this for him. When he’s recovering in the infirmary afterwards he tries plenty hard to get rid of Julian because he’s aggravated with him. “What was it like being stuck with him?” “It was hell.” But he doesn’t really mean it. You can tell. Yes, Julian talked his ear off, and aggravated him. But Julian also helped him to his feet and rubbed his shoulders and sat watch over him with a gun while he slept. And then as the show goes on the two of them manage to end up in situations like this several times, like Visionary and Hard Time. Miles clearly starts to actually enjoy Julian’s company and vice versa but when you look at the pattern of their relationship and read between the lines you see that Julian becomes the only person other than his wife that Miles becomes comfortable revealing his pain and vulnerability to. Even at the end of Hard Time after he’s been snipping at Julian for an entire episode because of his Unresolved Guilt, Julian is STILL there for him, completely undeterred, and it’s still Julian who ends up talking him down. He cages over it by continuing to joke that Julian’s annoying when anyone’s in earshot and making SO SURE that Julian is NEVER going to hear the nice things he says when Zimmerman is interviewing him. But when Julian offers that tenderness he just accepts it, over and over again. It’s alright Chief, you’re safe, you’re going to be alright, I’m going to get you out of here alive, just breathe. No one else ever tries to talk to him like that but you get the feeling that he wouldn’t know what to do with it if they did. Miles’s slightly toxic masculinity just tends to decide to let go just a little bit when it’s Julian. And my god is that sweet.

[notsanguineatall]

N - Nothing Changes. Everything Changes. by boundbyspells (How I Met Your Mother, Barney/Robin) They don't want to fall in love; it's against the rules. A wonderful exploration of why Robin and Barney work better than what canon gave us.

O - On this ground by @praycambrian (Ted Lasso, Trent/Ted, locked on AO3) I've never read a better portrait of all that family reunions encompass -- love and anger, delight and sadness, private jokes and secrets.

T - Taken by the Kraken by @squidsquadlove (NHL Seattle Kraken, locked on AO3) Turbo sees ghosts, but a cryptid? A hilarious and kind of creepy glimpse into the inner workings of the team.

S - Sleeping Arrangements by @1derspark (The Old Guard, Yusuf/Nicolo) Joe and Nicky have history together. History together. Beautifully evocative of decades, of centuries coming together.

A - all the words that i know by abvj (Leverage, Sophie/Nate) Yes, I have a thing about couples with history. abvj does such a good job of showing how their relationship has evolved, and how Sophie changed over the years. They were never easy, but they were always fun.

N - Need You (When I Do) by @navaan (DC, John Constantine/Zatanna) The author captures everything I love about Zee and John together. Magically. (I know, I had to make the obvious joke. But this is one of my favorite pieces about one of my favorite pairings.)

G - Get Up by TheGaroStudios (Multifandom) I don't think anyone writes crossovers better than vidders.

U - (Un)Mending by elfladyarwen (Band of Brothers, Johnny/Bull) Johnny is not nice, not soft, not sweet. A wonderful portrait of the incongruities of waging war and being human.

I - I Want You To Be There For Me by @soinspiredbyyou (Argylle, Rachel/Aidan) A fix-it fic for Rachel and Aiden, because waiting is so damned hard. I love the Aiden voice -- smart, practical, and utterly infatuated.

N - Notes on a Nondescript Vegetable by @adnirod (Master and Commander, Jack/Stephen) "Something made them do it" is a wonderful trope for prising long hidden desires out of characters who might not otherwise acknowledge them. The Stephen voice is magnificent. I've read this multiple times.

E - everything we do is stitched with this colour by @singlecrow (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Bashir/Garak, Kira/Keiko/Miles) Julian and Garak and everyone else on DS9 are on the edge of war, but in that liminal space life goes on. And Julian learns many things from Garak, not the least of which is how to sew. A perpetual re-read.

A - The Art of Adjustment by @changingthingslikeleaves (Star Trek: Strange New Worlds) I love that Chris bonds with his crew through food. Maybe it is just too human of Chris to try to do the same with T'Pring, but attempting to show her why he thinks Spock is exceptional seems so very Chris. Perfect characterizations all around!

T - Trial Run by jessebee (Supernatural, Castiel/Gabriel, Gabriel/Sam) Yes, one of my all-time favorite Gabriel/Sam pieces is nominally Cas/Gabriel. It is Cas/Gabriel and it's beautiful. It is also very much Gabriel/Sam and it breaks my heart every time. Oh Gabriel.

A - and all the lovers are the song (The Bear, Sydney/Carmy) A 5 Things fic with mutual pining? Yes please! Sydney learns a lot from Carmen, but she's strong and sweet on her own and maybe just what he needs to learn how to be a person again. Awwww.

L - Leader of the Pack by @astolat (Supernatural, Dean/Sam) Probably my favorite Dean/Sam fic (it hurts so good, baby) plus Sam trying to manage a pack of hellhounds will never not be funny, and also very, very Sam.

L - The Long Dark Bath-Time of the Soul by @andthepeople (Knives Out, Benoit/Phillip) I don't really know how an author manages to get the voice of a character we see on screen for a minute so utterly right, but such is the magic of a talented writer. Of course Blanc, brilliant idiot that he is, fell in love with this man. They are perfect.

Whew! I need a shorter username. And probably ought to organize my bookmarks by Title rather than Author-Title. Heh.

Are you reading this? Tag, you're it.

Username Fic Game

Tagged by @shadowmaat. Take each letter of your username and rec a fic whose title starts with that same letter! Then feel free to pass it on to your friends.

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S - Slings and Olive Branches by Gibraltar - The first tale of the Starship Reykjavik. If you love awesome characters with many layers and also some supremely badass moments, Sam's the author you wanna read. Every bit as skilled at character, world and plot building as any professional, Gibraltar's stories of the Reykjavik are funny, heartfelt and Nandi Trujillo will just win you over literally in this first, short story.

L - Land of Song by @b-radley66 - Generally, you know that when B writes anything, it's going to be plot-heavy, dense and guaranteed to require at least one spreadsheet. But the ability to keep all of that not only in-line but also moving forward is a skill not many authors can claim, and B is an expert at it. Plus, his OCs are so good that you'll be hunting various wikis going, "But wait, they're not canon??"

W - When the Lights Come On by @btwxsixesandsevens - A beautiful little original tale set in the Star Wars universe. I love the atmosphere of this one; the way that it correlates so much to memories of my own childhood. Some things are pan universal, I think. And the author is a master worldbuilder who did stunningly cool things with zabrak culture that I still think about regularly.

A - A Higher Power When You Look (Also on Ad Astra) by @daraoakwise - An absolutely, mind-blowingly epic retelling of a lot of the Original Series cast's tales for the AOS. Dara takes a lot of the sillier premises in the AOS line and makes it all make sense. Her character work and world building and plotting are out of this world.

L - Lost… and Found by @shadowmaat - SURGE SQUAD!! Shadowmaat's OC clones (and jedi!) are incredibly charming and this is where the tale begins. Guaranteed if you read it, you'll knock out the whole series and want more. (And I am still excited for the Blackbirds crossover that will one day happen!)

K - Kaminoan Copyright by independent_variables - Awesome world-building, which seems to be a thing for me. LOL! But it's a short, punchy tale about what the chips entailed for the clones and how things change when Anakin -- of all people, but it makes perfect sense! -- finds out about them and word spreads. Sweet ending, too.

E - Every Moment a Step Forward by alyyks - Bail/Bre/Maul is one of the ships/tags I pioneered, so it's an outright thrill everytime someone writes it. And alyyks is an awesome author in general, so not only do you have an awesome author writing my own faves, but the story's excellent. It touches on a Maul who is very much living with his damage, and how important the steady love and support of a family is to his quality of life. Just a psychologically excellent tale.

R - Rest and Ruckus (archive locked) by @sharpest_asp - A gift that made me beam, this one is Corry and Scotty going camping up in the woods of Maine, with all the inherent chaos that usually accompanies those two. Sweet, funny, in-character and atmospheric, it's a quick and lovely jaunt with a bunch of excellent mental images.

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Tagging: Everyone who sees this. Because spreading love of your favorite fics and authors is important!