#angsty cardassian

[sluttyquarantinetheory]

My one problem with Star Trek is that no one is ever consuming contemporary media. As in media that's contemporary for their time period. Everyone is always reading old novels and practicing classical music. They study Klingon Opera or read old Cardassian mysteries. No one is ever like really into obscure Klingon Nightcore. Nobody is reading shitty Ferengi pulp novels. There's no kids media of any kind. Where is space Sesame Street or junior novels about gaining superpowers from a warp core accident? What about comic books? Nobody is playing crappy indy holodeck games. It's always some recreation of a historical battle or just lounging in a mud pit at some alien spa. Someone give me angsty Bajoran protest music. I need some rebellious teens producing the worst most cacophonous death metal techno that they recorded in an empty cargo bay. I need contemporary pop culture in Star Trek.

[readingpast12]

One fun, angsty head cannon I always had about Odo and his place in the occupation is that Cardassians were more likely to see him as a person than Bajorans were. Bajor's first contact was the Cardassians. It's easy to see how they could come to the conclusion that some aliens just don't have souls (since some species don't have readable pagh). As such, it was easy to justify the mistreatment of Odo as a test subject. The space goo might have been smart, but from their understanding, it wasn't a person.

Cardassians, on the other hand, might have seen all non-Cardassians as lesser beings, but were used to the concept of truly alien life and were more likely to treat Odo as a person than your average Bajoran would on initial interaction.

I'm not sure I think it's true, but I do think it adds a fun layer to Odo's place in occupied Bajor. I think it adds something to Odo that in the end he supported the victims who dehumanized him (for lack of a better word) than the aggressor who first gave Odo true respect.

[ectogeo-rebubbles]

Treat + anything garashir

Thanks for the ask! You get a scene from my soulmate AU fic where Sloan has tricked Julian into thinking Sloanshir = soulmates when really garashir = soulmates (garashir will end up together in the end but they aren’t allowed by the narrative to ever know for certain they are each other’s soulmate, due to me being evil). <3 In this flashback scene, Garak and Julian are discussing Romeo and Juliet. (Plus there’s a little angsty sentence at the end about Julian’s current mental state at the present-day point in the fic 😈)

~

Julian had been in a flirty mood the day they discussed Romeo and Juliet. He had rolled up the sleeves of his uniform, giving Garak the opportunity to glimpse the soulmark on his arm each time he lifted his fork or his mug to his lips. He was a little bit disappointed, then, when Garak held his gaze so steadfastly from across their regular table in the Replimat.

“I found the soulmate propaganda a bit too thick in this one,” Garak disdained. “Most Cardassians don’t have soulmarks, and I think that’s quite sensible of us. It’s a little bit absurd, to think that for any given person there’s only one other person who could ever be romantically compatible with them.”

Julian doubted Cardassians with soulmates were as uncommon as Garak claimed, but he could only correct one of his fallacies at a time.

“Well, yes, but that’s kind of the whole point. For all the cultural impact of the play as a tragic love story about soulmates, it’s actually more of a commentary on the senseless cycles of violence and revenge involved in feuds than a true romance.”

Julian took a sip from his mug but then didn’t lower it all the way back to the table. He made sure his arm was turned to show himself off as he fiddled with the mug.

Garak finally glanced down. Just for a second, just out of curiosity perhaps, but it still felt like a little victory.

“O swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon…” Garak quoted, eyes locked on Julian’s face again. “You can’t tell me that that is not about your human soulmarks, and the preposterous way they are both ever-changing and yet also, apparently, set in stone your whole life.”

“Oh, that line is most certainly alluding to soulmarks!” And now he felt subconscious about his own, so blatantly on display. “But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s not soulmate propaganda! In fact, the whole play is so over-the-top and on the nose with its themes of fate and love at first sight that it almost comes across as a satire on the concept of soulmates.”

“Oh, please,” Garak said, rolling his eyes.

“Fine, maybe not satire,” he said, wondering how he’d ended up arguing in defense of an interpretation he didn’t even like, “but something more subversive than the surface reading as a tragic romance. Some scholars have interpreted it as implying that they were soulmates not because they were fated to love each other, but rather because they were each other’s perfect doom.”

Garak looked away from him for a moment. There was a pause before he said, “A compelling idea.”

“Very compelling… in fiction. But I don’t really buy it in reality. The preponderance of evidence doesn’t bear it out.”

“Perhaps for some, love and doom are one and the same.”

Julian hadn’t ceded ground to Garak’s melodrama, then.

Now, in his maudlin state, he thought of Sloan and wondered if there was something to it, this reframing of a soulmate as the one who would destroy you.

[fast-moon]

DS9 Season 3 Thoughts

On to Season 3! Last time, the crew made contact with members of the Dominion who told them to stay off their lawn in the Gamma Quadrant. Will Sisko comply?

Probably not, so here we go.

1-2. The Search: Sisko gets a new ship to play with that's better than those wimpy runabouts. All simulations show them losing if the Dominion attacks them, so Sisko figures they can't fare any worse if he just takes the entire senior staff with him to go face the Dominion on their own turf. They all promptly get captured, while Odo has some slime time with his own people, only to discover that they're the Dominion's founders.

3. The House of Quark: Quark kills a guy, is sentenced to marriage.

4. Equilibrium: Dax gets a song stuck in her head, but unfortunately the Shazam servers in the future take a week to return a result. Also, when did they get the Defiant back? Two episodes ago it was trashed and adrift in the Gamma Quadrant. Did the Dominion really let them go back to get it?

5. Second Skin: Kira gets gaslit like a pilot light, ends up with a Car-dad-ssian.

6. The Abandoned: Odo adopts a baby Jem'Hadar, who quickly becomes a violent, angsty teenage Jem'Hadar with an enzyme addiction who runs off to join a gang. Also, is the series trying to set up an Odo/Kira relationship? Almost every episode this season has given them a "moment", and now she's bringing him flowers. Like, it's cute, but I'm still all for Ace Odo and the ability for a female and male-identifying character to have a platonic friendship (I don't count Sisko/Dax because Sisko has made clear that Dax being Curzon is all that's keeping him from hitting on her).

7. Civil Defense: O'Brien decides he wants to try out that "killing everyone by accidentally tripping a hidden deadly security protocol" bit from "Armageddon Game" for real. Gul Dukat tries to gloat, but ends up getting stuck there with them. We still cool, guys?

8. Meridian: An extremely creepy guy pursues Kira in order to make the moderately creepy guy pursuing Dax come across as less creepy by comparison.

9. Defiant: Holy crap, it's Riker! But not that Riker, the cheap transporter accident knockoff Riker from TNG. He's still got a complex about that and thinks stealing the Defiant and blowing up some Cardassians will make everything better.

10. Fascination: This season's bout of crazypox breaks out around the station, this time making everyone fall madly in love with each other. Odo is once again immune, but they seem to be setting up a love triangle between Odo, Kira, and Bareil, which is a damn shame because love triangle stories tend to be terrible and make me hate every character involved, which is extra sucky because Odo and Kira are my two favorites (just not together).

11-12. Past Tense: Sisko, Bashir, and Dax accidentally get transported to... (checks calendar) ... three weeks ago, and are forced to participate in a homeless riot in order to maintain the timeline. Unfortunately, someone had already messed up the timeline, which resulted in there being bulky CRT monitor computers, giant bricks of flip-phones, and shotguns being the terrorist weapon of choice in 2024 (though, to be fair, if they can just keep that last change and stop the proliferation of military-grade semi-automatic rifles to civilians, that would be great).

13. Life Support: Winn wanted to be Kai for the perks, not the responsibility, and literally works a mortally wounded Bareil to death in order to get a peace treaty she can take credit for. Otherwise a fairly poignant episode about when to stop treatment and just let someone go.

14. Heart of Stone: After the death of the hypotenuse of their love triangle last episode, Odo and Kira confess their feelings for each other. But, of course, since Odo is never allowed to have nice things, Kira turns out to be a Changeling who's just here to troll him. #JusticeForOdo.

15. Destiny: Goddamn I hate "prophecy" stories that end with, "Well, if you redefine the meaning of literally every word in that word salad, it ends up vaguely resembling what happened, therefore there must be something to it." No, it was not as the prophecy foretold. Shit just happens and you just twist your vague predictions to accommodate it and then give yourself a pat on the back and demand people take you seriously. Go away.

16. Prophet Motive: The wormhole entities turn the Grand Nagus into a communist, so Quark threatens to annoy them for eternity unless they turn him back.

17. Visionary: O'Brien starts jumping through time, and they figure out every component of his time-skips to the point they can trigger them at will and see the future. And then will likely never utilize this knowledge again. Though the episode really should have ended on O'Brien going to bed, yet another O'Brien popping up, and him just lamenting, "Oh god, NOW what?"

18. Distant Voices: Deep Space Nine presents Inside Out, starring Bashir as Sadness, Dax as Joy, O'Brien as Fear, Kira as Anger, Odo as Disgust, and Garak as Bing-Bong.

19. Through the Looking Glass: Mirror!O'Brien shows up and kidnaps Sisko and takes him back to the universe where everyone is horny all the time. Really hope this doesn't become a recurring thing, since "multiverse" stories that are merely "it's the same people, but they're different!" are rarely compelling.

20. Improbable Cause: Bashir's boyfriend is in trouble again, and this time it's Odo to the rescue. They track down Garak's old boss who offers to let them join a war against the Dominion, and Garak... accepts?

21. The Die is Cast: The Cardassians and Romulans launch an attack on the Dominion, but it was all a trap thanks to a Changeling replacing the Romulan commander. Makes me wonder how many other characters have or will become replaced by Changelings, or if they're going to even bother trying to come up with a way to detect it, since even Odo can't tell and has been fooled twice now.

22. Explorers: A pleasantly low-stakes episode in which Sisko can somehow build an entire functioning spaceship by hand in only three weeks, the flies it to Cardassia just to prove that he can.

23. Family Business: Quark goes home to teach us that the only thing a Ferengi values more than profit is oppressing women, even if doing so causes a massive loss of profit. Also, glad they finally gave a shout-out to how many runabouts they've trashed and the need to get new ones.

24: Shakaar: Winn continues to fail upwards by becoming the presumptive next president due to having no viable opponents and the Bajoran populace getting all their information from BOX News and not realizing she's a piece of shit. So Kira nominates a popular upstart last minute to run against her and actually make her work for it, and Winn cries "coup" and "rigged election" and good fucking god this episode is too prescient. They may have gotten the state of affairs of 2024 wrong in the episode that was literally about 2024, but then accurately predicted them in pretty much all of their Winn episodes.

25. Facets: Dax asks the people closest to her to host her previous lives so that she can talk to them. Including... random girl who had two lines a couple episodes ago who's now acting like she's part of the inner circle. And Odo, who has historically been immune to psychic shenanigans. But the episode continues to exemplify that Curzon was a piece of shit, and that Dax-centric episodes still manage to have nothing to do with Dax herself, but rather her previous incarnations or Trill customs, leaving Dax with still no solid personality or motives three seasons in.

26: The Adversary: Sisko gets promoted to Captain and decides to celebrate by almost starting a war and blowing up the entire senior staff due to bad intel from a Changeling imposter.

Three seasons down, four to go! Bashir is doing a lot better this season, since his womanizing and bragging have been toned way down and he can actually focus on being a doctor. Dax is still just a cardboard cutout there to remind people of the opinions and actions of her previous incarnations, but still have no identity of her own.

And then towards the end of the season they just awkwardly brought in a couple of women simply to be love interests to our crew members who are still lacking a heterosexual partner. At least, I'm assuming what's-her-face who had two lines and hit on Bashir at the beginning of one episode and then was suddenly chummy enough with the senior staff to participate in Dax's memory roulette ritual a few episodes later is supposed to be a love interest for Bashir. Go away, random lady, he already has Garak.

The choice of crew of the Defiant also reminds me of a really, really old Star Trek joke I read as a kid about the "Kirk Maneuver", which is "Kirk knows this is the most dangerous planet in the universe so takes his entire senior staff with him when he beams down". Like, shouldn't there be a separate operations crew for the Defiant so that you don't suddenly lose your entire station leadership if something were to go wrong? But, nope, The Main Characters Do Everything.

[canniba1cl0wn]

Vulcan who dresses like a manwhore because it’s logical to be aesthetically appealing

Romulan girl who is just really into bugs

Klingon therapist who really wants to see you thrive

Angsty Betazed teen that just wants to be left alone and some peace and quiet

Cardassian that has a special interest in different alien cultures and absolutely loves them all and wants to celebrate them

[mxchineherald]

📚 6 + 4

[ask meme here.]

something angsty

ooc :: I've always wanted to roleplay out Viktor discovering his mother is alive, but severely dependent on shimmer. The emotional distress and complex emotion it would inspire in Viktor is a moment I've always wanted to explore. I'd also like to see the reactions of the other characters in the scene, and how they deal with the revelation.

an AU

ooc :: There's a Persona AU I'm working on with a friend, but that's in the very early stages. Imagine Maruki lol ANYWAY for AUs that I work on by myself -

I have a Star Trek AU where Viktor works in DS9's engineering crew! Why on DS9? Because his level of engineering expertise lends itself to Cardassian structures and machines, leading him to be selected by O'Brien himself. Also, it's my favorite (shoosh).

He's a Bajoran, who, because of the Cardassian Occupation, did not receive medical assistance for his disorder until adulthood. He was hidden away to keep him from being executed for being an "undesirable" laborer.

While hidden, he was smuggled books and discarded materials by his parents, and found himself proficient in and passionate about Cardassian mechanical engineering. He fashioned not weapons, but life-preserving inventions, like shields, protective masks, and air filtration systems for the underground tunnels. He even accompanied Kira Nerys over comms on a mission to shut down a Cardassian power plant and liberate a group of captured Bajoran Resistance fighters.

When the Bajoran Militia was increasing its numbers, he was offered a position as an engineer, but initially turned the offer down for fear of being forced into making weapons. It took the personal request of Kira Nerys for him to join, and under the strict condition that he would never be made to use or design weaponry.

With aid from the Bajoran Republic, he's undergone spinal replacement, organ replacement, and genetic therapy for his disorder, so he's in a much healthier spot now, though he requires regular treatments to keep his symptoms managed, and can't go into poor air conditions. He still requires the use of mobility aids, which makes getting around DS9 particularly difficult, but he doesn't let it slow him down.

He's close friends with Kira Nerys, having known her through her work with the resistance. He's also becoming closer to his doctor, Julian Bashir. The two have bonded through their experiences with disability, and the way it affects their relationship with their respective parents. He and Garak have a unique relationship, as well, with him having been more receptive and kind to the Cardassian than was expected.

I haven't thought about this too much what are you talking about get out of my house.

[littlewalken]

DS9 Garak Tain angst challenge

Real simple- what is the most angsty way you can think of for Enabran Tain to work his way in to Garak's life onboard DS9?

My contribution you are free to use is after the picture.

A young adult Cardassian male is found via reasonable circumstances and must be medically quarantined for something that makes sense and will be resolved soon enough. Due to the Prime Directive the Cardassian's DNA can't be scanned to identify him unless he gives them permission.

For reasons Gul Dukat arrives and inserts himself in to things to use the young Cardassian for political reasons. The young Cardassian is so charming many people are taken with him. The story he gives about his creation, something about being a Dominion engineered clone, seems possible.

It will become agreed upon the young Cardassian is half human, rumors etc say it's Dr Bashir, Dukat's hubris causes him to face a potential embarrassment.

When the young Cardassian is released from quarantine he plays every side and along with every rumor to stir trouble, becomes extremely friendly with Dr Bashir, plays mind games with Garak, plot complications ensue.

Finally someone works out the young Cardassian is Enabran Tain's mind in an engineered clone body. I haven't worked out if he was going to do a strait clone of himself, a clone of Garak to take over his life, or collaborated with Dominion scientists.

But I do know he mixed in some Bashir because after The Wire and the doctor's "meddling" Tain realized that someone cared about Garak and that just wouldn't do. Being together in a Dominion prison camp would only complicate matters.

[babischlong-six]

20 Questions Writer Meme.

tagged by @the-marron <3 Thank you darling <3

How many works do you have on Ao3? Officially? 93. Unofficially, over 120.

What's your total Ao3 word count? 358,732

What fandoms do you write for? Currently Babylon 5, Star Trek (TOS, DS9, ENT), WeiLan Derivs. But there are always more things I get into.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? Sorry about the blood in your mouth, I wish it was mine. (The Merciless: canon-compliant alternating POV of Jaeho/Hyunsoo's relationship, angst and romance) "Is not general incivility the very essence of love?" (Star Trek DS9: Garak and Bashir discuss Jane Austen and Cardassian flirting, humor) The Admiral (Star Trek TOS: Post-TSFS, Spock grapples with the memories he is regaining, introspective) Desperate Times (Star Trek DS9: Set during "Doctor Bashir, I Presume," Garak and Bashir's relationship develops, romance and angst with a happy ending) hold me tight and never let go (Star Trek ENT: Archer and Shran get it on, but alien biology proves to be an unexpected hurdle in the relationship, sexual humor)

Do you respond to comments? Why/why not? Yes, absolutely. If someone liked my fic enough to tell me about it, I appreciate it! Also a lot of people say interesting or insightful things that I hadn't thought of, or HAD thought of but didn't include, and I'm always down to talk about things I'm interested. It's a great way to make fandom friends!

What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Oh that's a hard one. I'm an angsty writer tbh. There are a lot of fics I've written where one or more characters die. I think one of them would be the Detecive L/The Rebel crossover - We Both Know How This Ends: where two former spies, who had once placed their hopes in a new, better era, have to live with the truth of what bitter end they have achieved. It's also heavily implied that Lin Nansheng will not be allowed to survive long by the very system he sacrificed everything to help instate.

What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? This is also a hard one. Most of my longer fics are angsty. I guess there's Da-ge's Midlife Crisis Boyfriend: a Mo Sanmei/Qiao Yicheng slice-of-life romcom where nothing particularly bad ever happens, and everyone ends up happy together in the end.

Do you get hate on fics? Oh yeah I used to, for sure. Cray-cray shit. But that was more of a fandom issue. I tend to leave fandoms that get toxic, and I'm happy to report that nowadays I no longer do. (niche retro sci fi fandoms my beloved <3)

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Occasionally. Usually it's either humorous or some kind of character development. Smut is like fight scenes, there's a lot of movement going on, it's hard to keep track of who's doing what with which body part, so I tend to avoid it, but now and then I dabble. I've found that it's easier to write smut when one or both characters is not Human, for whatever reason.

Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written? WeiLan Derivs babeyyy! Yeah, I've written a ton. The craziest one would probably have to be the little one-shot prompt collections I've written about two characters from different fandoms shipped together, but they're played by the same guy.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? I've had concepts and plots stolen, bits of dialogue stolen, and way back in the day, someone re-uploaded my shitty InuYasha fanfic from ff.net to WattPad, but it's been deleted since.

Have you ever had a fic translated? Yeah! A few different ones.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? No. Sometimes I bounce ideas around with someone, or ask for help when I'm stuck. But I'd be curious to try it, if only it wasn't so involving - IRL is a bitch.

What's your all-time favorite ship? Just ONE?? You're kidding, right??? I'm currently obsessed with G'Kar/Londo Mollari from B5, but then there's also Garak/Bashir from DS9, and I can't ever forget Lan Qiren/Wen Ruohan from MDZS, but also ENT's Shran/Archer have a special place in my heart---- [gets shot]

What's a WIP you want to finish, but doubt you ever will? Oh fuck dude... So many. There are so, so many.

What are your writing strengths? Beyond a shadow of a doubt, dialogue. I just like writing people talking. Everything else is so hard...

What are your writing weaknesses? Run-on sentences. Repeating stuff I already said, even in the same words. Scene blocking. Scene description: I tend to just offer up a paragraph of "where this is happening" and then completely forget where everyone is standing or sitting and what room they're in. I keep having to go back and add characters interacting with their environments between dialogue tags smh...

Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? If it's a language you know? Go for it! If it's a language you don't know, ask someone who speaks the language whether the dialogue sounds insane. You have no idea how many times I stumble across someone having decided to slip in some Russian or Chinese into a character's speech, and it sounds ridiculous, and I have to immediately stop reading because of the cringe (even if it was a good fic up until then!)

First fandom you wrote for? I'm pretty sure it was InuYasha? Maybe Bleach or Naruto? I was 14 and a weeb, for sure tho.

Favorite fic you've written? That's another hard question! Most of the time, I'm pretty neutral on the stuff I've written, unless I actively despise it. For me it's about hearing the characters in my head as I write, rather than even the finished result. I think that's what I tend to mean when I say I'm writing for myself - I'm trying to recapture the feeling of watching or reading that media for the first time, by creating some extension of it in my head, and then bringing it out on "paper." That aside, I've been getting quite a lot of enjoyment out of my Babylon 5 ficlets lately.

'whoever wants to do it, please feel tagged' is a fantastic concept <3 I'll add in: @elemental-queen-writes @hingabee @polkadotcravat @spaceoperajay just for funsies, no pressure <3

[ofhouseadama]

Came here after reading your Star Trek fic and was delighted to find that you have an entire breeding kink tag. There is an excellent amount of Garashir content in there and I am so excited to dig through it.

Do you still write any smutty drabbles or snippets for them?

I am a firm believer in the Cardassian Cultural Breeding Kink!!!

I'm working on mostly original fiction these days, but never say never. There are some WIPs currently collecting dust on my hard drive, and a rewatch might catch me at the right moment to spark something to finish them.

Overall, I don't love to force things to write them -- I have a tendency to emerge every few years with 50-60k worth of something to say and then disappear again.

I am recovering from an early pregnancy loss atm so unfortunately I suspect if something did catch my fancy it would likely be dark and angsty ❤️

[elephant-in-the-pride-parade]

Fic asks, the sequel: 😈 💭 🍰

😈 Is there anything you enjoy doing that you think your readers hate?

Cliffhangers! 😈😈😈

I have started to vary how I end a chapter but nothing tops cliffhangers for excitement!

💭 What is a headcanon you have about your own work?

See this is a very dangerous question because a headcanon about your own work has a high risk of becoming a Sequel Plot Bunny. and I am constantly trying not to entertain any headcanons too long, to dodge the sequel spawn rate as long as possible.

But I guess I can mention one of the Sequel Plot Bunnies that I've already collected.

Related to Unbroken

I think a lot about Tom Paris in the aftermath of that fic. He doesn't play a big role in the story. He's an outsider to the trauma that the rest of the crew suffers. I headcanon that this reminds him of being a kid and having his father come home after the commanding the Al Batani, with all sorts of new trauma from being tortured by the Cardassians.

I dont know if theres a canonical age Tom could have been at that time, but I headcanon that he was a teenager the expectations put on him and some misplaced frustration and anger - from Owen and Julia - would have been ALOT when his dad came home suffering from the trauma of that mission. I headcanon that that's the root of their relationship breakdown... So when he's faced with working with his friends and crewmates and the other senior staff who have just experienced a shitton of trauma in Unbroken, I headcanon that it brings up all of those painful family memories, and he starts exhibiting tons of maladaptive coping mechanisms to handle the situation. I'd love to do a bit of a sequel to unpack that.

🍰 Name one of your fave comfort fics (doesn’t have to be your all time fave).

Chakwayalltheway's Immortal Longings is probably a little angsty to be a comfort fic. But it is sweet, has a happy ending, and it is so whimsical (Think of the Whale Movie - the plot it puts forth for returning to the Alpha Quadrant is ridiculous enough to be quite implausible but it is are also, just like the whale movie, delightful and so youre very willing to go a long with it). and it's Voyager performi g Shakespeare. which are all some of my favorite things

[respocked]

question 11 👀

Thank you for the question!

11. Do you have any songs that you associate with Star Trek characters? 💿

Yes! I have ones I imagine edits/animatics to. I actually like editing but I never done a song edit - maybe I'll get into it, but I don't know what apps to use/where to take clips from, etc. Maybe someone can give me some tips (but meanwhile my ideas are up for grabs!)

Half-jack by Dresden Dolls is so Spock coded it's insane. It's a song about being torn between a male/father version of yourself and female/mother version. It's also deliciously angsty. "I see my mother in my face but only when I travel"? Come on. It's Spock.

Also by Amanda Palmer from Dresden Dolls - Astronaut, I would do a K/S edit with it.

And lastly, I get a strong Garak vibe from some Mindless Self Indulgence songs! Slit my writs or Ala mode would be amazing for a joint Cardassians edit, or a joint Star Trek villains edit!

(Yes, I realize I have the music taste of an edgy midleschooler. That's because I emotionally never moved on past 2016.)

[ur-friendly-nbhd-cardassian]

🛒🎶🦅 for the writer asks :)

🛒 What are some common things you incorporate in your fics? Themes, feels, scenes, imagery, etc.

Angst :). I'm impossible, I just can't let my characters enjoy life. Things just don't make sense to me without it. And I need things to make sense, otherwise I can't write them. I often brainstorm for long hours before I write a particularly difficult scene, just to figure out what makes sense. And it's usually angsty, because that's life for ya.

I tend to put stuff from my own life in them, too, things I'm trying to process. Writing lets me explore them safely, figure out what to do irl. That includes uneasy parenthood, narcissistic partners and friends, inability to fit anywhere and so on. Recently, though, I try to use it consciously to increase my irl satisfaction by writing how I would like my life to go. Mainly the relationships, romantic and otherwise. Instead of having fun writing about assholes (Dukat, Gortash), I try to help my OCs grow and stop being drawn to such figures and instead appreciate a good guy in their life (Damar, Halsin). I feel like it works, because in the past any project that started with an asshole didn't get far - probably part of my "must-make-sense" approach, because deep down I knew the people I made my OCs into wouldn't be happy with those guys.

Despite being bi, I can't help but write hetero pairings. I want to break this habit at some point, but the thing is I'm not sure if I have the necessary... knowledge xD. It's all very fresh to me (and kinda scary). Everything in due time, I guess :).

🎶 Do you listen to music while you write? What song have you been playing on loop lately?

I love listening to music while writing, it sets the mood. I tend to create new playlists for each project now, as I've realized how tied to the music the story becomes - and how easy it is to get back into that groove whenever I listen to that specific list. I pick a song or two and let Spotify help me find new music to write to, so I can have a completely fresh feeling :)

My most recent Spotify list for writing the sequel to my DS9 novel 'The Casualty' is here (playing on a loop right now, lol):

(Just to be perfectly clear, being on this site, if there is anything at all un-kosher with the songs or the artists, I have no idea and very little interest, I need the music and that's that.)

🦅 Do you outline fics or fly by the seat of your pants?

I always thought I was best in chaos and uncertainty, unrestricted, but I hardly ever finished a story. Ever since I wrote TC - which I outlined at least partially (outlined and re-outlined as my direction changed) and collected an insane amount of notes for - and actually finished it, I realized you need both to actually complete a quality project :D.

You engage your creativity while pantsing, coming up with wild stuff that makes the story worth reading, and you utilize your logical skills when you outline, so you know what you're doing, where you're going - if you happen to get lost during pantsing, you can easily find the lost thread thanks to your outline. So now I try to outline what's needed and pant the rest.

I still often get caught in the editing circle, though, where I come back to a story after a while, re-read it and edit it (and get excited about it), but by the time I get to the end of what I have, I lose all will to write xD. My AO3 has a few things I still struggle to finish and probably shouldn't have published them - but hey, even unfinished things have their value.

Thanks, anon, that was very sweet of you <3 I had fun answering these questions. I have so much to say about my writing it's kinda choking me when I can't xD - but I never quite know how to just spill that stuff into the void... so, thanks again <3

Asks based on » https://www.tumblr.com/ur-friendly-nbhd-cardassian/754236014551252992?source=share

[vanishingmoments]

i had to rewatch this episode again solely because angsty 14 year old 90s kid cardassian still makes me lose it whenever he's on screen

[ectogeo-rebubbles]

ok i know about several of these fics already but post-second-skin and also (carl anderson voice from the movie version of jcs) damned for alllllll tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiime

Thanks for the ask!

(for this WIP ask game)

Damned for all time is a Kira/Winn ficlet set during the scene in Strange Bedfellows (I think?) where Kai Winn goes to Kira for advice bc she's just learned she's been hearing from the Pah-Wraiths not the Prophets! It was inspired by a prompt (your prompt lol) for the Sapphic Summer event. But maybe they also fuck or at least kiss a little? I'm currently struggling with this one bc of the word limit for the event being only 100-250 words lol, and I keep going over that when I try to write it, so I need to really refine the idea down to like the Essentials. No snippet right now bc it's so in flux, sorry

Post-Second Skin first time is a Garashir getting together fic in which Garak has big, big exile angst. <3 Garak also maaaaaybe (definitely) has some unhealthy ideas about sex because he's never really been with anyone except as part of a mission. There's also a mismatch in their mindsets because Garak does not let on at first how very angsty he is and at first Julian only sees the flirty front he's putting up. So Julian's just internally like wheeeee we're finally fucking yaaaay ^_^ <3, and Garak is internally like oh no I am a horrible person, I am clearly somehow deceiving him into wanting to be with me and I can't do that to the man I love (oh no, oh fuck, I love him so much) T_T, and that angst all reaches a breaking point, after which Julian comforts Garak. <3

Post-Second Skin first time snippet below the cut:

He’d been invited over to make up for the late snack they’d had to postpone last week when he’d brought Julian the news of Major Kira’s kidnapping by the Obsidian Order. He’d been to Cardassia and back since then and he felt… Well, he wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that. 

Cardassia was the same as it had always been. The air tasted the same, the heat pressed against his scales like always. It was a little bit devastating that it was the same; his absence hadn’t mattered to anyone but him. 

And yet, it was also completely different. He was different now, exile having changed him in ways he hadn’t realized until confronted with his home again, and now everything that should have been familiar suddenly looked so strange to him. The difference had manifested in more obvious ways too, in that he had been, for the moment, working against the Obsidian Order to rescue a Bajoran soldier for a Federation commander. 

But all of that could have been forgiven, perhaps: he had been coerced after all. What was much less forgivable was how disconnected he’d felt, like there wasn’t a place for him here anymore. Like he could never go back. 

This station wasn’t home either. He knew that he was only allowed to stay because he’d made it a priority to make himself useful to the station’s new owners. It had been his idea in the first place to prove his value by helping out in the Tahna Los business, so he couldn’t begrudge the commander for putting him to use. He’d invited it. He’d auditioned for the role. A favor or two a year was usually an easy price to pay. 

But it had rattled him, to nearly be evicted just because he didn’t want to risk his life by breaking the terms of his exile. There was nowhere else for him to go that was far enough away from his enemies yet close enough that he could stay involved in Cardassian affairs. If he had to leave the station, he would never be able to prove himself to Tain or whoever else might be convinced to rescind his exile. 

And so as he sat here in Julian’s quarters, he wanted Julian to curl his arm around his waist and claim him as his own. He wanted this kind of thing often—and he was nearly certain that Julian wanted something more than friendship with him too—but he hadn’t dared get involved with him. Now, the usual longing was laced with something else, a desire for stability, a way to keep some measure of control on his life. If he were in a relationship with a Federation member—a senior officer on the station, no less—then he couldn’t be forced to leave so readily.

Garak swallowed. He could start something so easily. Julian would take him to bed if he asked, he was sure of it. And Garak would figure out how to please his alien body as quickly as he always had with his targets. He’d fill him or surround him or slide against him, do whatever he wanted, until Julian needed him, desperately. He’d make himself completely available to him, to use at his discretion. He’d give him so much pleasure and so selflessly that soon Julian wouldn’t be able to live without him, and would feel drawn to help him. 

Maybe Julian could even some day fall in love with him.

[gplusbfics]

The entire time this was being posted and worse, all last year, after the story was left hanging (just one more promised chapter!) I was totally OBSESSED with it. I reread this so many time if it were on paper I’d need a few more copies because I would’ve worn it out from carrying it around, folding it over, sticking it in my back pocket, sleeping with it. I think it started because I was waiting until that last chapter arrived but when it didn’t I just starting going over it again and again. It’s REALLY good,  though! Still, because it’s not “finished,” I held off on recommending it, but no more!

This story is a tremendous accomplishment, merging together the details of A Stitch in Time, with Parmak helping Garak through some horrific times on post-war Cardassia, along with a story of how Parmak is suffering from the rampant homophobia that, in this take, existed on Cardassia and still lingers. He is deathly afraid of giving himself away, especially when he begins to spend more and more time around Garak, to whom he is desperately attracted. It’s a great study in psychology and later, in relationship-building and negotiation. The moments in this story, both pre- and post-relationship, are so well played out, with a great deal of subtlety both in description and dialog. As for the details in the relationship, the sex is smoking, smoking hot -- not going to lie, another reason for all my re-reads. 

Excerpt

They shared tea, and Garak told Parmak of his effort to write his dear friend, the Starfleet doctor, Julian Bashir. Parmak, to his credit, did his level best not to let his sadness show on his face as the other man reminisced about his so-called shenanigans with the younger doctor. He found himself carried away by the tales Garak wove, cradling his warm tea under his chin, letting the sound of the other's voice waft over him at his place by the door.

The sound of the sudden rain made Parmak gasp. He turned to look out the door and frowned. His shoulders rose a bit, along with his heckles, when he felt a presence at his side. Garak hadn't touched him yet, being so close, and it struck him as odd, struck him with the need to say something.

"I didn't mean to interrupt," Parmak said.

"No, it's alright. I was about at a stopping point, anyway. Really, I think you'd get along well with Doctor Bashir."

"From the sound of things, I think I would, too." Parmak took a sip of his tea and tried to gauge how long the rain would last. He sighed quietly. "It looks like I'll be washing my clothes tomorrow, since I'll be going home in the rain. If you've enough to wash, we could go together."

"Stay," Garak said, cocking his head slightly. "Wait it out. If you get tired, I can make the bed for you."

"I wouldn't want to put you out," Parmak said, trying to force his shoulders away from his aural ridges.

"Nonsense," Garak said with a wave of his hand, "the place is warmer with you in it. Why don't you come away from the door and the draft?"

"I like the rare clean air," Parmak said through the lump in his throat.

"Aren't you cold? We could have another cup of tea by the st-"

"I'm fine," Parmak interrupted. He glanced at the other man, taking in his surprise at being interrupted. For a moment, Parmak thought of running, fleeing out into the rain. Garak hummed a quiet sigh and sat his cup aside on the nearest surface. "Sorry," Parmak muttered.

"No," Garak said, sliding up behind Parmak. "I'm the one who should be sorry," he said as he wrapped his arms around the doctor, "but I'm just cold."

There were always double meanings to Garak's words that weren't simple instructions or requests, and Parmak thought he might drown in the subtext of the ones he'd just uttered. The arms tightened around him at a harsh gust of wind that splattered drops of rust colored mud on Parmak's trousers, and Garak buried his face in Parmak's hair, humming as if he was considering something.

After a few minutes, Parmak relented to the contact, bringing one hand up to place it over the back of one of Garak's. He practiced the breathing Reya had taught him, trying to absorb as much of the cool, clean air that he could as if he could store it in a hidden organ.

"Keep me warm?" Garak asked solemnly.

Parmak shivered.

Metadata

Title: Of Blood and Bleach Author: JulianObviouslyLovesToad Year Posted: 2016 Approx. Word Count: 35,000 Chapters: 20  GB - Slash or Platonic: N/A -- it’s Garak & Parmak My Rating (1-5): 5 Keywords: Garak-Parmak, Post-Canon Cardassia, Hurt/Comfort, Homophobia, Wet Dreams, Explicit Sex, ASIT

P.S. Do me and everyone a favor and leave comments on Ch. 20 begging for a Ch. 21?  

[cazort]

So my fiance and I had recently finished watching Star Trek: Voyager (after completing watching TNG, DS9, Enterprise, and TOS, in that order) and we decided to give Star Trek: Discovery a try.

Two episodes in, we both agree that, so far, it’s trash, and we don’t want to watch any further. I don’t think it even really qualifies as Star Trek.

Am I being unfair or wrongly jumping to conclusions? Here’s what I dislike about it:

The writing of the dialogue feels unnatural, with the exception of the character Saru who I liked. The dialogue between Captain Georgiou and Michael Burnham feels particularly unnatural. The show also seems to omit a lot of “normal” dialogue, only showing isolated bits of dialogue focused around action/plot scenes, which seems really acharacteristic of Star Trek and also makes it hard for me to get to know the characters as normal people.

There are very few regular characters introduced. Whereas nearly all prior Star Treks introduce most of the main crew in the first episode, at least in passing, Discovery goes two episodes in and really focuses only on a small handful of characters (Burnham, Georgiou, Sarek, Saru, T'Kuvma, Vok) and kills off two of those characters in the second episode. I’m not against characters dying in the opening episode: DS9 shows Jennifer Sisko’s death and how it affects Commander Cisko, and Voyager’s opening episode features the death of many characters, but it didn’t pour energy into developing them only to kill them off.

The cinematography is low-quality and trite, which seems absolutely inexcusable given the modern tools available nowadays, I would expect it to be better, not worse, than prior shows. It is WAAAY too dark, even to the point of being completely unrealistic (why is a Federation court of law so dark at the end of episode 2? why is the ship’s bridge so dark? It’s darker even than Ops on DS9 and that was designed by Cardassians, which live in a lower-light environment. It doesn’t make sense) and to the point of making the episode hard to watch because I can’t see what is going on, even turning the brightness up fully on my monitor. Overall the cinematography looks like that of a bad action movie, or at best, some of the worst episodes of Enterprise’s season 3, not like most Star Trek.

There is too much angst and graphic violence and the overall vibe is too negative, and negative issues are not resolved. Both of us said we felt bad, emotionally, after watching each episode. This is very different from the sort of thought-provoking-but comforting effect that nearly all other Star Treks have. Other Star Treks did not shy away from tough subjects: war, genocide, torture even, but they framed it within a bright, optimistic view of the future in which there were mentally-healthy, mature characters who set a good example even when placed in tough situations. That’s the whole point of Star Trek.

So for people who have watched more of this, is my analysis spot-on? Does it get better after these episodes or does it stay this way? Is it really trash the way we think it is?

TBH the vibe I got from watching the first two episodes is that I felt frustrated at all the money and resources and time put into creating something that seemed to be damaging the franchise by taking something negative and angsty like any bad Hollywood action movie, and calling it “Star Trek”. I found it offensive. But I don’t know if I’ve judged it too early.

I didn’t initially like Voyager when I started watching it, but I ended up watching the whole thing and loving it, especially when I rewatched some episodes. And TNG’s first two seasons were pretty rough, and it has a few abysmal episodes in those seasons, but I still consider it one of the best series of all times, in part because from season 3 onward, they figured it out.