#but garak has a tail

[deepestturtlepielover]

EVERYONE SHUT UP I FIND THIS ON TIKTOK AND AND 

 I can see them dancing to this in Vic Fontaine (?) lounge, looking into each other‘s eyes, while everybody looks at them, and all because the music is loud. It’s loud and no one‘s looking at them neither are Julian or garak because their too busy gazing into each others eyes. Garak using this opportunity to show off his smooth moves aka (dear doctor look at my tail isn’t it magnificent he is cardasssian after all wink wonk) and julian being throughly impressed like oh my. Julian and garak Breathless and pressing their hands together stop dancing they start to think oh shit We’re in love this is what love is.

Edit me again but ten times more insane

I think they should hold each other just hold especially garak I can totally see him trying to impress Julian the cardassian way of courting afterwards but not like before like straight up “im asking” and let’s be honest Julian isn’t that clueless he knows what’s happening especially when Garak allows him to touch his spiky tail of death with such care and affection

(I’m projecting I too have a Kukalaka and the best way I show love is by letting people hold them) julian letting garak hold kukalaka without hovering over him and even letting garak inspect Kukalaka and letting him near him the real him

Not doctor bashir but just Julian and garak let’s him near

[fauvester]

hc that cardassians do have tails but that they're docked or removed at birth (like circumcision tbh) and the practice sort of fell by the wayside post-Dominion. garashir adoptees with the eldest sans tail and the baby sporting a long luxurious 5th appendage

[greenflower21]

Guys do Cardassians actually have tails or is that just a fan construct?

[youngpettyqueen]

pspspsps come closer dear followers. closer. im feeling very generous tonight. enjoy this excerpt from my current WIP-

“I sympathize with your nurse, you know” Garak is saying, his tone oh-so-serious and sincere, “Of course, I can’t say I’ve been bitten by a Klingon, but I’ve certainly been bitten.” He reminds him. “By a child,” Julian counters, “And if memory serves, which you know mine does, you were very dramatic about the whole affair- you would’ve thought you were dying with all the whining you were doing.” He recalls. “It hurt!” Garak exclaims, indignant. Julian chuckles. “I’ve been bitten before, Garak,” He tells him, “By much stronger jaws than those of a Cardassian child. I would’ve thought a former operative of the Obsidian Order would have thicker skin than that.” He teases. “Ah, but you forget, my dear Doctor,” Garak also adopts the teasing tone, Julian can hear the smirk he has on his face, “I had that infernal device implanted so that pain was a non-issue.” He says smugly, like he’s just won an argument. Julian rolls his eyes, and he hopes it comes through in his tone. “Believe me, I couldn’t possibly forget that,” He replies. Then a thought strikes him, and his brow furrows, “Hold on,” He says, “Didn’t you still have that implant when that child bit you?” He asks. Garak’s bravado has never deflated so fast. “Ah, well-“  “You shouldn’t have felt the pain at all!” Julian accuses, sitting up a bit on Garak’s back, “You faked that reaction, didn’t you?” Garak’s tail lashes. Julian swears he sees a blue blush rising on his cheeks. “I had to be convincing.” He huffs. Julian is absolutely not letting him off the hook. “You acted like you’d had your hand bitten clean off, you melodramatic serpent!”  “Were you not injured, Doctor, I would drop you.” Garak grumbles moodily, and Julian only laughs at him for sulking.

[geekysteven]

I love how Star Trek fan art of Cardassian characters just really leans into the reptilian features. They have tails now. This one has a monitor lizard's snout. Now they're towering over the mammalian aliens like dinosaurs.

I want this trend to continue until Garak is Garakzilla.

[ao3feed-ds9]

[Art] I see your collarbone and wanna lose control

https://ift.tt/c75V6Ci by WTF Star Trek Universe 2024 (StarTrek_Universe) по заданию спецквеста: карта Таро “VI — Возлюбленные” Words: 4, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 1 of WTF 2024: Спецквест WTF Star Trek Universe 2024 Fandoms: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Julian Bashir, Elim Garak Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak Additional Tags: WTF | Winter Temporary Fandom Kombat 2024, Don't copy to another site, Fanart, Art, Traditional Media, Established Relationship, Fluff, Xenophilia, Cardassian Anatomy, Garak has a tail, greedy dragon and his precious, cardassian neck fetish

[hrshl-soong-laforge]

Julian falling, face first on something that will most definitely hurt, but Garak just stops him in time with his tail. Julian just grabs onto it, kinda shook that his fall was stopped and don’t move so Garak has to rise him back on his feet.

After that Garak is just all blushy and shit because he always kept his tail hidden but the circumstances “forced” him to put it out. But Julian is really appreciative for the help and spends time admiring his tail because it turns out the scales are slightly different but also beautiful.

[i-creatied-au]

ok, I'm in the ds9 fandom not so long and didn't have time to see everything (I mean the posts), but I don't think I've seen a single idea or art with a Cardassian wagging his tail.

let me explain-

wouldn't it be cute as hell if Garak holds his tail when Julian does something incredibly stupid or incredibly cool, because the tail starts to wag quickly from side to side from an overabundance of feelings. And, according to Garak, a dear doctor does not need to know that he has any specific feelings. THIS IS INCREDIBLY CUTE

so... if you know any fics or art with this - please PLEASE send it, it's vital for me to see it

[bijoumikhawal]

Re your latest post: this is your free invitation to talk about Hebitian art vs Cardassian art! (And if either impacts the clothing we see on the show)

Would also love to hear more about your read of Garak as biracial, and any scenes on DS9 that may change with this context in mind

Hoho, I do have some thoughts

So Hebitians' deal, historically, with clothing, is that it's very drapey. The most popular piece of clothing across Hebitian cultures is a "kilt*", a long piece of fabric wrapped around the waist and gathered in the hand in the front and back for leg + tail movement. Everyone had this, even if it was quite short, or another piece of fabric that also wraps around the waist but comes up between the legs and has a slit in the back.

This is reflected in Hebitian art which I picture has having a midpoint between Amarna art and Mauryan art

Other Hebitian clothes, including more "structured" Hebitian clothes, follow this.

For example, here is Garak in some pre-Union Qåmtsu (his ethnic group within broader Hebitian culture) clothing. His "kilt", as can be seen, isn't a long pieve of fabric gathered in hand each time its worn- its made of several pieces of fabric sewn together (though it is a wraparound). Additionally his blouse here retains the simpler gathered look, and it's held closed with pins.

Qåmtsu clothing is the most similar to Cardassian clothing because they lived in a region where both groups really couldn't avoid each other pre-Union. Its still pretty distinctly Hebitian. A few clothes that I think have some Hebitian origin in Cardassian life are gathered dresses we see Bajoran comfort women wearing- the Cardassian stereotype of Hebitians is that they're sexually loose, so draped clothing thats viewed as similar to theirs is seen in a particular way. (And this is an example of how despite there not necessarily being very much direct interaction between the two, their treatment under the Cardassian Union is irrevocably interlinked).

Both groups had a strong calligraphy and ink painting tradition beforehand, with Hebitians traditionally usually using reed pens and Cardassian using brushes (something of an interesting incongruity considering their overall aesthetics).

By contrast I think Cardassian art really likes glassware, and what I call "relief painting". The glassware is because we actually see quite a bit of stained glass used in Cardassian architecture- I've mentioned this before when talking about what colors get canonically used in Cardassian contexts (the default Cardassian color is brown, btw). The fondness for colored glass really just makes sense to me, it's an easy way of dimming light for your poor little lizard eyes while looking pretty and potentially using an abundant resource. A lot of jewelry and household objects are made of glass- but what's really important are glass tiling and mosaic.

So we all know mosaic, and as you can imagine this is where the very geometric, colorblocked nature of Cardassians is reflected in art. There is of course, a great ability to depict detail in mosaic, but there are things that are easier than others. Cardassians don't really do asymmetry, they don't do wrinkles or visible closures**, and if they do small details they're still noticeable. If they need ease, they use pleats. The color blocking has morphed in recent years, as economic struggles make piecing fabric more common (basically if you're working with poor yardage, you can sew two small pieces of fabric together and cut the pattern piece out of the new bigger piece) to the point where its morphed into color blocking again really, and is a public display of patriotism and frugality.

Making the tiles themselves isn't an exception either, though glass cane can be made with more free patterns- theres still an emphasis on symmetry and regularity.

"Relief painting" isn't really painting at all. Relief paintings are typically done starting with a sheet of inflexible material, which is painted on with a thin clay, cement, or similar material to create texture. This is gradually built up to depict a landscape or scene, looking much like a carved relief in the end. Some artists use different colors of material to create an effect, but many of these are done in monotone to allow the skill of applying texture to stand on its own merit.

(* we're using kilt here because I don't know a better word to use than the very vague "Sarong" or maybe "fouta")

(** unless you're working class or rural poor)

---

And as for scenes in the show... there's a few, such as "...you must be true to yourself..." "with beliefs like that you wouldn't last 5 seconds on Cardassia" "would you?", but the one I've thought about is "I never betrayed you in my heart". But first, let's contextulize that.

“Yes,” I answered. The benign mask was slipping, and I began to see the depth of his anger. “And when he does, your powerful enemy now becomes an implacable one. He won’t rest until he has destroyed every trace of you.” He was spitting his words at me. “What are you going to do?” he demanded. “I don’t know,” I admitted with tightly wound control. “You don’t know!” he repeated with a disgust I hadn’t heard since I was a boy and failed to record all the details of one of our walks. “And I’m supposed to pass my life’s work on to someone who can’t think beyond his lust?” “It’s not lust,” I argued. “Sentimentality,” he hissed. “Even worse. You jeopardize our mission, the security of our people because of pathetic sentiments. And all this while, instead of giving up your life to the work, hardening yourself into a leader who could inspire others and expand the vision, you’re playing out Hebitian fantasies with another man’s wife!” “Yes. Just like Tolan!” I exploded. “Perhaps he was my real father after all.” Tain rose like a man many years younger and grabbed my shoulder in a powerful grip. His anger was now a murderous fury and it was all I could do to hold my stance against the pain of his grip. His cold eyes told me I had betrayed him. Worse, I had failed him. He let go of my shoulder and turned away from me. My entire body trembled. When he turned back he had regained his composure.

I've talked before about how the betrayal here in ASIT is Garak threatening to view Tolan as his real father and go "full Hebitian" as it were- that's the thing in the scene where Tain tells him he's retiring that makes Tain angry enough that Garak thinks for a second he might kill him, and the other thing they're discussing is Garaks affair with Palandine which connects with him being Hebitian in two ways:

1) Palandine is an expression of Garak's "sentiment" which is both connected to him being a massive fucking queen and Hebitian and 2) my little headcanon previously mentioned and how literally every other man around Garak seems to be a cheating manwhore, but when he (lower class, mixed race, bisexual but unacceptably gender nonconforming) does it, then it's enough justification for a man who does the exact same shit if not worse (Barkan was fucking his employee/subordinate, and I wouldnt be suprised if he went for a comfort woman too given he actually was an architectural mind behind Terok Nor and Dukat’s friend, but him doing so is not explicitly mentioned) to kidnap, torture, and possibly try to kill him.

So we get to Improbable Cause, and Garak sees his piece of shit father for the first time in at least 4 years assuming he was exiled a year before that start of the show (I think ASIT implies it couldn't have been more than 2 or 3 years living on Terok Nor, but I've seen people suggest a decade-ish, which is interesting to explore).

TAIN: You blew up your own shop? You, my friend, are a true original. If you hadn't betrayed me, things would have been very different. GARAK: I never betrayed you! At least, not in my heart. Why do you think I'm here? I came because I thought the Romulans were trying to kill you. I came here to save you. TAIN: I never thought I'd hear myself say this, Garak, but I believe you. You can go.

As a refresher, Garak gets legitimately emotional and upset while saying that line (which makes it a great bookend to his outburst years ago). You can say acting but- one of the things that Garak "betrayed" Tain with was his sentiment. Garak knows this. It wouldn't benefit him to pretend to be emotional.

To me, when Tain says he believes Garak, what he means is "You're still a sentimental waste and I have no use for you", and is part of why he has Garak torture someone who, while he hasn't seen Garak give an indication he cares about, tips his hand and gives an indication he cares about Garak on some level while urging him to deny Tain's offer and leave. All three of them know, that Tain isn't really expecting information, that's not the point of this (torture doesn't get you information! Certainly not accurate information! It's about power). It's Garak proving he can be a real Cardassian. Because of sentiment it's both about the toxic machismo found in fascist societies and torture cells specifically, and Garak proving his ethnic worthiness.

As an aside, I recently read an excerpt about the actions of soldiers during the Dersim genocide that had a similar interaction to the under current here, when we recontextualize Garak as mixed race- a soldier told his superior that he couldn't do as ordered and kill children, and his superior said "you Kurd, you sympathize with them because of your race, right?" and killed him on the spot.

When Garak says "not in my heart" he's saying he still views Tain as his father, but Tain can never just be Garak's father. Tain is/was one of the most important officials in the Cardassian government. Tain is not just Tain- he is Cardassia (or part of it, anyway). Garak threatening to view Tolan as his father wasn't just about their relationship, and Garak threatening to fight Tain's power over him. Its a threat from Garak to refuse Cardassia's power over him. Its a threat to stop being part of that power, violence, and oppression, and to stop serving it. Some of this is due to broader social trends, and some if it is because Tain created a specific environment to raise Garak in. At the end of that scene in ASIT, we get this

As I watched him leave, I felt completely empty and wondered how I could feel such emptiness. This sudden, wrenching reversal of fortune... everything changed beyond recognition. ...And yet ... there was no anger, no self-pity ... no fear. Only release. Release from the secrets. Release from the limbo where, ever since I was a boy, I had been trapped between imposed obligations and feelings of mysterious longing mixed with shame. I felt empty ... and free.

I think I've also talked before about the line I italicized again, being about Hebitian identity. Of course, this freedom from secrecy, obligations, and shameful longing doesn't and could never last- even if Garak quit the order, he'd have to live in secrecy because of persecution, and if he continued going deeper into Hebitian religion he'd have to reckon with the fact that after the first time he attended a meeting he considered reporting everyone there to the authorities and has been part of the system that enslaved and genocided Hebitians, and at this point was still doing that to Bajorans.

And by telling Tain he recognizes him as his father- it's a plea that doesn't work because it's very existence betrays what he is, always has been, and always will be. If Garak had walked out, maybe he'd have lived, maybe he'd have died. But Tain would still view him as a traitor. Though, hilariously- if Garak was less sentimental, he'd have been less beholden to Tain in the first place. He certainly wouldnt have come in In Purgatory's Shadow. Maybe he'd have even killed him at some point for being a piece of shit father. And Tain himself was sentimental with Garak and Mila, and he knows it. He's allowed to be. They aren't.

[funnywormz]

everyone likes to imagine that garak gets around a lot and has a lot of experience with sex/relationships but i feel like it could easily be the opposite situation, honestly. he spent most of his life closely monitored by tain not allowing himself to be authentic with anyone and then spent the next bit of it exiled among people who hate him. not as many opportunities for getting tail as you might imagine........ esp if you headcanon cardassian society as being homophobic and garak as gay

ik that asit counters this but it's not technically canon so........... what if he's a 50 year old virgin. what then.

[the-golden-oath]

Connective Tissue

AO3 Link Here ┊ Moodboard Source

Summary: Julian can barely tell what he’s looking at. All he knows it that Garak needs him.

Words: 4,157

Chapters: 1/1

Part 2 of Mother, Father, Open Wound

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Category: Gen

Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Relationships: Julian Bashir & Elim Garak, Julian Bashir/Elim Garak

Characters: Julian Bashir, Elim Garak, Enabran Tain (Corpse), Martok (Star Trek), Worf (Star Trek:TNG/DS9)

Additional Tags: Episode: s05e14 In Purgatory's Shadow, POV Julian Bashir, Aftermath of Cannibalism, Graphic descriptions of a corpse, Elim Garak has Psychosis, Worried Julian Bashir, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Cardassians Have Tails (Star Trek), References to Past Child Abuse, References to Past Amputation, no beta i edited this four times

[sabraeal]

Remedial Lessons

[Read on AO3]

Written for @kaedix‘s birthday! Kimber has a gift for picking niche AUs, and this one she gave me a little unexpected challenge along with it: writing Obi as the meister and Shirayuki as his weapon. Not my natural inclination on a Soul Eater AU...but then it worked out SO much better than it could have the other way.

Blue flame licks up her fingers, pinched like a clothespin right on the tip of its comet tail. It struggles, a squiggling pendulum attempting one last heave toward freedom, but it’s no use; the thing might be all fire, but it’ll never burn that kid’s small hands.

“All right.” A real flame might dance that close to her sigh, like a birthday candle thinking about if it’d give up its wish, but this one doesn’t even flicker. Obi’ll never get used to that, no matter how many of these souls he sees. “Down the hatch, I guess.”

The kid’s jaw opens-- practically unhinges, really, like something you’d see on National Geographic, or maybe something drawn by Junji Ito-- and she wraps her mouth around it whole, slurping the thing up easy as soba. It’s weird to see, honestly; kid’s usually got silverware and napkin perfectly applied to every meal, as neat an eater as she is a note-taker, so when blue wisps out from the side of her mouth, caught by her tongue--

Ah, well, it does something for him. A little. Not because he’s got a thing about food or whatever; he doesn’t just watch videos of cute girls eating like that stupid monkey does, it’s just...her. He’s got a thing for her and, yeah, it’s starting to get real inconvenient. “Do those taste good?”

Shirayuki blinks up at him, everything about her completely normal in size, and swallows. “Excuse me?”

“The soul things.” He waves his fingers, trying to make them flicker the same way as her last meal. “I always thought they’d be spicy or something. Burn on the way down. But you can’t even handle a Red Hot Cheeto, so...”

Her mouth pulls thin. “That’s because they’re unpleasant. The, um, cheetos, I mean. Not the souls. Those are--” her head tilts, eyes drifting up like they might find the answer somewhere past her eyebrows-- “sweet. Or, well, not really. I’m not sure they really have a taste, but it’s like...eating your favorite meal until you’re full. Satisfying, I guess.”

“Oh.” He clears his throat, one hand creeping up to his shoulder just so he’ll have something to do. “Sounds...nice.”

“Mostly.” She grimaces. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the way they...squiggle when they go down.”

Obi’s eaten something like that; last time Zen took him overseas he’d paid a handful of yen to some guy with a bucket to try a tiny octopus on a stick. Its little suckers clung to his throat as he swallowed it down, and well--

Probably not the time to tell her he’d thought it was fun. “We should get headed back,” he says instead. “What was that? Eighty-eight? Ninety-one? Shidan’s gonna have something to say about it.”

Shirayuki hums, that face of her taking a worried bent. “I’m sure...”

“Ninety-seven.” There’s a pen between the professor’s fingers, the kind that usually has a little boat or a ski-lift inside, moving to and fro. This one’s got a small soul, traveling down the length of it to Death and his scythe before scurrying back across. “You’re at ninety-seven souls, Shirayuki.”

The guilty twist of her mouth says the kid knew the count too. Better than he did at least. “You’ve given us some very good opportunities over the last year.”

It’s a diplomatic answer, and by the way Shidan slumps behind his desk, it’s not the one he wants to hear. “Garak wanted you back at Shibusen at ninety. If you were so close, you should have said--”

“I don’t want to go yet.” It’s just like her to let the truth fly right out, landing with all the subtlety of a bomb. One that catches her in its blast by the way she pinks up, just a few shades lighter than her hair. “I mean, we’re not done here. We’ve only just scratched the surface of what the Olin Maris is, let alone what it means for our system of weapon classification, or whether there’s other mythic weapons we haven’t even considered because--”

“Shirayuki.” Obi’d thought Shidan was a bit of a scrub when they first met him, a scraggly excuse for a professor with even scragglier facial hair, but nothing makes a guy grim up faster than having a team of kids thrust upon him and told to keep them alive. Especially when one of those kids is Shirayuki. “I appreciate that this project has...meaning for you. I do. But I also know that if you guys fumble your last soul on my watch, Garak will wring my neck and serve me for dinner.”

That hauls the kid up short, all her passion careening into a pile-up. “Ah...”

Those big eyes roll his way, looking at him like he’s the one with all the experience of talking them into trouble and right back out again. “I dunno, kid. Master’s going to string me up too if we blow this smash and grab a second time.”

Her mouth bows into a frown cute enough to send a little thrill up his spine. “He doesn’t like it when you call him that.”

“And he can scold me about it straight to my face,” Obi says, grinning down into hers. “When we get shipped back to Death City.”

The determined jut of her jaw would like to argue, but before the kid can work herself up past, “No,” Shidan swings in with a weary, “You’re not ready to catch a witch soul.”

“That’s not true.” Shirayuki’s half out of her seat already, tiny hands braced on its arms, ready to spring. “Umihebi--”

“Umihebi is what you can expect from an experienced witch.” Shidan’s not the kind of guy who does resolution, let alone conflict, but he stands his ground, albeit with all the enthusiasm of a cliff face in a storm. “But not a powerful one. Garak hasn’t seen fit to furnish me with the details of that little excursion, but I doubt you’d manage much better if she took you on today.”

Technically, Obi agrees. Hell, that’s the meat of the argument he’d been trying to have only a few days ago, back when the kid had gone off and signed them up for this last glut of souls.

There’s going to be a witch to wipe the floor with us whether we get all our souls today or two years from now, he’d told her, flicking the end of her tiny ponytail. Not because it made his chest squeeze to see how long it had gotten since that raggedy boy cut, of course, but because it was there. No need to rush things. After all, who’s the meister here?

But he watches her face crinkle up, freckles disappearing into the peaks and valleys of her discontent, and-- and it’s stupid, but he can’t just stand around watching it happen.

“We’re stronger than we were then.” Big eyes turn toward him, shining and surprised and hopeful, and he can’t keep this up but he can’t look away either. “Better.”

It’s the truth, it is, but also: it’s a low bar to clear. He wasn’t a stranger to this whole weapon business, even wielded a few a time or two when the job called for it, but this kid was something else entirely. Not his style, for one, and for another, well--

Shirayuki wasn’t for the faint of heart, that’s for sure. He’d nearly passed out that first time she fell into his hands, and staring down Umihebi’s goon squad with her in them had his knees and heart weak.

“He’s right.” The kid quivers with conviction, the way dogs do at the end of their leash. “We’d hardly been partners more than a few weeks at that point, and now--”

“Right.” Shidan’s chair squeaks as he shifts, just as uncomfortable as its occupant. “But can you resonate?”

“ He’s right,” Ryuu says with his signature bluntness. “You can’t.”

“Well, sure. But...” It’s just like the Shirayuki to search for the silver lining in every cloud, but this one even makes her come back empty-handed. “Just because we haven’t managed it doesn’t mean we can’t be good collectors! I’m sure there’s plenty of weapons and meisters who can’t, they’re just--”

“Not Death Scythes?” Suzu offers.

“Thanks, Suzu,” Obi drawls. “Real helpful.”

“What? I’m not saying you’re not skilled.” Bony shoulders shrug, poking up through his jacket like a wire coat hanger. “Clearly you’re better than me and Yuzuri. But you can’t get into the upper ranks without having a Death Scythe, and you can’t get a Death Scythe without fighting a witch, and you can’t fight a witch without some serious firepower, and you can’t get serious firepower without--”

Obi waves his hand. “Soul Resonance, we get it. Trust me, we’ve gotten this talk before.”

“Then what’s the hold up?” Suzu finally looks up from his little science project, face all consternated, like it’s any of his business. “You guys are totally simpatico here. What’s going on in the field?”

Baggage, he doesn’t say, at the same time Ryuu observes, “I think it’s complicated.”

“Complicated?” It’s just his luck that Yuzuri’s halfway through sticking her neck in, drawn to gossip like a moth to a flame. If moths came naturally flame-retardant, that is. “Is there something going on between you two?”

“Ah, no!”  It’s unthinkable that there could be something, he knows, but it stings a little, how quick that scythe of his is to jump in. “It’s just-- there’s someone else who’s supposed to be my meister. But that’s...”

“Complicated,” Ryuu reminds them again.

She’s got the grace to flush. “There’s other duties he has to see to, important ones, and since I’m so new at this...”

“Oh.” Yuzuri snorts, unimpressed. “I see. The kind of guy who can only give you the time of day if you’re a Death Scythe.”

“No! Well, yes.” Her hands wave, as much of a jumble as this whole situation. “It’s not his fault. But Obi has experience with weapons, and he’s able to wield me, so we thought...”

One extremely judgemental eyebrow hikes up to Yuzuri’s hairline. “He might not be Mr. Right, but he’s Mr. Right Now?”

Hands clap to her cheeks, like it does anything to hide what’s going on underneath them. “Well, it sounds terrible when you put it like that! It’s not like-- we’re not-- plenty of weapons train with different meisters!”

“Right,” Suzu sniffs. “But they’re not making them do all the work.”

Obi holds up a hand. “It’d make more sense if you knew who it is. Trust me.”

That catches Yuzuri’s attention, quick. “Why? Is he important? Is it someone I’d know? You’d tell me if it was someone--”

“In any case,” Shirayuki says, pitching her voice to be heard over this mess. “Shidan told us there was someone who could help. A colleague of a colleague, I guess.”

Ryuu glances up. “Really? Who?”

“Some guy,” Obi grunts, right as the she replies, “Rata Forzeno.”

“Why is it that all these genius types always live out in the middle of nowhere?” His complaints mist into the air, blunted by the cold. “If they were so smart, wouldn’t they live somewhere with central heating? A grocery store within a twenty minute drive? Wifi?”

“Some people really enjoy their privacy,” the kid says, like that’s any sort of explanation at all for why they have to hike through this stupid forest.

“Most people just delete Twitter.” The snow’s high enough he’s got to lift his legs to clear the next step, and each time he puts his foot down, twigs crunch. Like a special surprise at the bottom of a shit sundae. “Wasn’t he supposed to be some important scholar? Don’t they all live in Death City, or something? Or at least keep a PO box?”

“He did once. Live in Death City, I mean.” Shirayuki grimaces as he helps her over a rocky outcropping hidden beneath the drifts. “There was some accident? Yuzuri didn’t know the details, but she thought it might have to do with some assistant of his.”

“Accident.” Just what he needs, another professor who thinks safety regulations are guidelines rather than prosecutable laws. “And this is the guy who’s gonna figure out what’s wrong with us.”

“There’s nothing wrong with us!” It’s cute how heated she gets, gripping him through their thick layers, all flushed. “Everyone has trouble resonating at some point!”

“Right, well, most of them are at Shibusen,” he grumbles, tugging her close enough to dodge the snow the tree beside them dumps. “And the ones that aren’t don’t go around collecting all those kishin souls, only to bungle the last one because of it.”

“We hadn’t been working together that long.” Her elbow pushes into his side, luring his gaze right down into the trap of her smile. “Did you tell Shidan we were stronger now? Better?”

“Yeah, well, I didn’t realize he was going to send us out to bumfuck to see some crazy hermit--”

“He’s not crazy.” It’s insane how calmly she can say that when her knees are soaked through with snow. He’s got to lift her up every other step to keep from losing her in it. If he thought she’d tolerate it, he would have called her weapon shape and carried her already. She’d be a hell of a lot lighter that way. “He’s just-- oof!”

It comes out of nowhere; one minute it’s snowy forest and then next the kid’s tripping over tumbled-down stone, a whole ruin jutting out of the snow like teeth in a kishin’s maw.

“Where did this all come from?” Shirayuki cranes her neck, like somehow an answer might pop out of the drifts if she looks hard enough. “A soul barrier, maybe? But to make this look like a forest instead of...?”

“Welp.” He pops the ‘p,’ plucking her attention away from the mystery. “I think we can say for sure that this guy is off his rocker.”

“Obi.”

“I appreciate how fair you’re being, kid, I really do, but normal people don’t just go around living in busted down temple stuff, throwing up barriers and--”

Snow splatters him, just the way solid things shouldn’t, cresting over him like a wave on a breakwater. It takes him a minute to blink, to clear the snow off his eyelashes enough to see a rock’s sitting between them, carving a crater out of the snow.

He leans closer, catching the way grooves are worn into it, images. No, not a rock. It’s a whole hunk of marble, with one sightless eye staring up at them, half a grimace stretched beneath it.

“Is that a statue?”

“No,” the kid murmurs, pale. “It’s a...a bas relief. That means they carved it straight into a block of stone, not--”

“Sure.” His lips are numb where he licks them. “But it got thrown at us, right?”

Her mouth rounds. “Ah--”

“You know.” A voice echoes through the ruins, coming from everywhere and nowhere at once. “It’s not polite to wander into someone’s home and call them a crazy old hermit.”

Another hunk lands inches from Obi’s boots, and he stumbles back, hand outstretched. It’s enough to brush her, and that’s all the signal the kid needs, the metal heft of her shaft fitting into his hands like it was made for him. “You’re supposed to call ahead first, at least.”

“Call ahead?” Obi squawks, spinning Shirayuki to deflect the next chunk. “Like you get service out here?”

A man leaps down from a boulder-- no, another one of those frescoes or whatever, looking just as stressed as the face at their feet. It’s an older guy, slender enough that he shouldn’t be leaving the crater he does in that snow, a worn lab coat whipping around him.

“You’d be surprised.” Another hunk of marble breaks itself off; a screaming face, by the looks of it. “Now get off my ruin.”

Obi crouches, ready to deflect the next throw, but with a shout as sharp as her blade, the kid cries out, “Wait! Shidan sent us!”

“Shidan?” The man-- Forzeno blinks, not dropping the marble, but losing his menace. “Why would that idiot send you out here? Not on one of his hopeless quests, is he? That man is made for fool’s errands...”

“You used to be a teacher, didn’t you?” Shirayuki’s not a Death Scythe, not yet, so her transformation is all or nothing, scythe or girl, and for this, she finally decides on girl. “At Shibusen?”

“Yes.” The marble churns overhead as Rata adds, begrudgingly, “I had to be in order to use their facilities.”

“Right.” If Obi were her real meister, he’d be able to tell if that kid was really as confident as her words, but he can’t, so he’s stuck here, having to believe she can brazen it out, just like always. Just like she couldn’t with Umihebi. “Shiden told us that if we were looking to resonate, you were the one to ask.”

The jerk frowns. “That’s not under the purview of my research.”

“But you used to do it,” she presses. “Shidan said you used to be the best.”

“I was,” Rata agrees, like it’s fact. “But I wrote that paper.”

It’s too much. “Are you kidding me?” He can’t take these nerds and their stupid papers anymore. “We came all the way down here to talk to you, and you won’t even--?”

“Shidan told me that too,” the kid says, which is news to him. “You’re interested in mythic weapons now, aren’t you? In...Legendary Resonance?”

If anything, this makes the guy less comfortable. “Yes. Though I don’t see why he would waste his time telling that to a weapon that isn’t even--”

Shirayuki lets out a hiss through her teeth, loosening her jaw just enough to say, “My mother was Carnwennan.”

The marble drops. Just tips right over, inched from that guy’s heels. “Carnwennan? The dagger wielded by Arther himself? The sister to--?”

“Excalibur.” She grimaces. “Yes.”

He hesitates.

“Fine.” Forzeno turns his back to them, heading deeper into the ruins. “Come into my office.”

[spacefinch]

Star Trek characters as Octonauts characters AU: an update:

TOS crew:

Kirk: Golden retriever.

Spock: Black cat.

Bones: North American River Otter. An old friend of Ranger Marsh, with whom he shares similar opinions about technology.

Uhura: African Grass Owl.

Scotty: Scottish Wildcat.

Sulu: White-tailed Deer.

Chekov: Eurasian pine marten. I originally had him be a Siberian Lynx (since he’s from Russia) but it didn’t quite work. Chekov needs to be a small lanky boy and that is not what lynxes are. Pine martens, however…

Chapel: Tawny Owl.

TNG crew:

Picard: European River Otter

Riker: Alaskan Malamute dog

Data: Still an android, but in this version, he’s modeled after a short-eared owl. His brother Lore is modeled after a long-eared owl.

Tasha: Black-tailed jackrabbit

Geordi: Serval cat. Born blind, but uses a high-tech visor to see. Best friends with Data.

Beverly and Wesley Crusher: Red foxes. Wes has darker, almost brown fur.

Worf: Fisher. (A type of mustelid.)

Deanna: Spotted Owl

DS9 crew:

Ben and Jake Sisko: Swamp rabbits— same species as Tweak and Marsh. The Siskos have dark brown fur, rather than green.

Jadzia: Red Salamander

Garak: Lizard (doesn’t matter what species)

Major Kira: Gray Fox

Odo: Still a Changeling in this AU. Usually assumes the form of a beige-colored cat.

Ezri: Spotted Salamander.

Bashir: Sea Otter

O’Brien: European Hare

Quark (and all other Ferengi characters): Fruit bats. With gigantic ears.

Voyager Crew:

Janeway: Red Fox

Chakotay: Canada Lynx

Tom Paris: Dog.

Harry Kim: Sea Otter

Neelix: Fishing Cat

Kes: Brush Rabbit

Seven of Nine: Cat, with cybernetic implants.

B’Elanna: Badger.

Tuvok: Spectacled Owl

The Doctor: Hologram, takes the appearance of a penguin. (Which looks a lot like Peso’s species.)

Connections to the Octonauts and Octo Agents:

Scotty is an old friend of Shellington, and even recommended him for the position of the Octopod’s head scientist. Barnacles invited Scotty to be Chief Engineer, but Scotty declined the offer. After all, he’d seen Tweak’s work firsthand. The Octonauts would be in good care with her as its engineer.

Similar to Barnacles, Chekov was an old student of Professor Natquik. He’s always boasting about how everything great was invented in Russia.

Voyager’s Doctor was modeled after one of Peso’s many cousins. Despite being a program of a social species, he does have trouble actually socializing.

Jadzia is one of Dashi’s friends from school.

Ben Sisko and Ranger Marsh have been friends for a long time. And their kids get along quite well! Tweak is older than Jake by quite a bit.

Bashir is one of Shellington’s old classmates. The two of them bonded over their love of science and their sea otter heritage.

[hello-god-its-me-sara]

Garak has a tail is my favorite tag and I’m never disappointed

[ao3feed-ds9]

[Art] I'll know the price of paradise

https://ift.tt/weM8BG0 by fandom Star Trek Universe 2024 (StarTrek_Universe) Words: 4, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 8 of FK 2024: Визуал низкого рейтинга fandom Star Trek Universe 2024 Fandoms: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Julian Bashir, Elim Garak Relationships: Julian Bashir/Elim Garak Additional Tags: Fanart, Art, Traditional Media, Established Relationship, Xenophilia, Cardassian Anatomy, Garak has a tail, cardassians are space lizards with tails and snouts, Foot Fetish, I like big butts and I cannot lie ©, a dragon seeking warmth, Fandom Kombat 2024, Don't copy to another site

[starbashir]

whenever i see drawings of garak and he has a tail it boosts my serotonin through the roof