#I admit I also love this ship cuz I can project so much nonwestern cultural musings onto them & their fractured little identities hehehe

[nebulouscoffee]

Any favorite garashir tropes?

Omg, so many! I'll try to limit it to five :)

That thing they do where they start talking about something (often something Very Important) by using an allegory- because that's the only way they can be honest about it (or at least, more honest)- and then get increasingly frustrated by the vagueness of the verbal dance they're doing but neither of them wants to come out and Say It because they're stupid and competitive idiots so they proceed to stretch the metaphor further and further until they're twisting themselves into pretzels trying to stick to it and then at last it snaps. Usually by this point they have begun making out furiously (I love this trope SO much, and my humble contribution was 'Pretenders' chapter 8 lmaoo)

Post-canon letter-writing. I just feel like these two were made for the epistolary format, like they both choose their words (and Lines) so deliberately, they're both always willing to commit to a bit, and also they're both long-winded and witty and cringe (I can't believe it's canon that Julian describes his whole coma dream to Garak over lunch and Garak is actually so interested to hear it? It's just sweet okay!!) More than that, I think what draws me to this ship is the way that they're both storytellers; who've both lived with secrets and lies so long they see themselves more as "characters"/archetypes/roles than people, who both carefully tell truths about the people they are (and were) by spinning self-mythologising narratives (aka, "the lies"). I find this so beautiful because like in some ways their narratives were forcibly spun for them when they were children; so I love how in each other, they find someone that's really willing to listen (regardless of whether they "deserve" it), someone who'll give them the space to maybe learn to spin a new narrative. The idea of them continuing to do so by crafting long letters to each other is very in-character imo, and also romantic in a way that's very them (looking for hidden meanings between the words! Subtext! Wordplay, obfuscation, backtracking, who-will-crack-first, the waitinggggg between responses, all great stuff👌)

Julian's forgiveness of Garak's past being tested- like, personally I think it's OOC for Julian to suddenly start lecturing him about his past, I think it's far more interesting for them to have conflicts over Garak's (often atrocious) present behaviour and opinions- but every now and then, especially if he's living on Cardassia, Julian is going to see stuff that brings home to him in a very real way what Garak used to do for a living. It's such good angst, I love it! Especially when Julian is forced to acknowledge the parallels to Sloan, or that Garak might not actually have moved on from some things

One of them casually does something small that happens to be a Big Deal in the others' culture, but the other can't call them out on it because that would be Acknowledging The Game- and ofc, there's always the possibility that it wasn't deliberate, and isn't it just so much nicer to pretend? Either way, they refuse to directly talk about it, leading to much confusion and hilarity as they try and call the others' bluff by increasingly escalating the stakes and aggressively talking about books till they just end up looking like idiots

They never actually got together during the show. Don't get me wrong, I like reading stories where they get together at the wrong time and mess each other up lol, genuinely I love this pairing for The Range (it is entirely possible that their conversation in the finale ends up being their last!) But I am, at heart, a big sap, so my favourite version of the garashir get-together is them finally figuring it out post-canon. Also, it's genuinely so interesting, like- what do you do when your exiles and secrets and wars are all over & you're finally the person you need to be to make something you always wanted work? (What do you mean, you can just go after it? For real? Like you can actually just ask? Outrageous! Lol) Also, it lends itself so well to other entertaining tropes, like 1. absolutely unhinged levels of UST & long-distance pining, 2. Garak having a funny freakout over some small domestic thing which drives home to him how much ds9 domesticated him, 3. them just like. trying to figure out how to exist as regular people & relaxing into a sort of intimacy and authenticity they've never experienced before, 4. them being huge workaholics who barely see each other during the day but still give each other something nice to come home to, 5. them learning each other's languages & customs, 6. Garak angsting that this is all temporary and Julian is definitely going to leave him, 7. war orphans (I'm not much for kidfic generally but there is something touching about these two characters redefining parenthood and "legitimacy" for themselves; even if not as parents just by helping "unwanted" children in different ways, especially considering what happened with Ziyal), 8. Julian leaving Starfleet & practising more culturally sensitive and less exploitative medicine on a ravaged alien planet which shows how far he's come, and I'm sure there's many more but wow that's already so many! Post-canon garashir endgame my beloved