#garashir tbh

[unholysails]

yknow i dont think ill ever recover from the implications of 'a stitch in time'.

garak sat down in the ruins of his home planet after nearly a decade of exile, finally free of the expectations and threats of punishment or death from all the people he loved. he had his freedom and his home, things he only ever dreamed of having his entire life.

he's there at last, and what does he do? he writes the most stunningly beautiful love letter to a man who seemingly already let him go years prior. you can feel the way he absolutely aches for julian. the yearning is so transparent, so brazen. every person he writes about having had affection for has at least some small resemblance to his dear doctor.

within the letter is every ugly truth, every thing he's ever tried to hide from julian. thoughts and feelings and regrets he's held onto in silence for decades just bleed onto every page, laid bare for the eyes of one man on a distant space station who may decide to not even read it. he will, of course, but a pragmatist like garak isn't about to pretend its not possible. this letter is a plea and a goodbye. it is a continuation of the never ending sacrifice. it is the story of one mans repetitive sacrifice of everything he is for the benefit of others that would knowingly harm him. the one time he refuses to sacrifice his needs, he is brutally punished and cast out to a frigid prison.

this letter was his way of letting go of julian, while still asking him for something. he gave julian everything he ever claimed to want from him. the truth, simple and brutal as it was. told him who he was, why he was. unwavering bravery and vulnerability, a cleansing to wash clean the new man now trying to grow.

all his cards on the table, surrendering everything he'd ever been, with the unspoken but shockingly clear promise of becoming better. 'i am an unfinished man, doctor'. dont give up on me just yet.

julian will either take that invitation, or he wont. either way, garak will finally have the closure, the knowledge he did all he could to fight for the only man that cared about him during the worst years of his life. he will come, or he wont. there is no room for ambiguity, and thus the ball's in bashir's court, as his doctor would probably say.

[its-kinda-snowy]

some guys and their lizards :3

[lonelymoonrambles]

I've just finished season 6 of deep space nine as a first time viewer and here are my thoughts:

- did Dukat grow out his hair

- Garak is so bitchy with Julian about his augmentation... is this foreplay

- did Garak grow out his hair

- Worf being a bad father does not surprise me AT ALL (#justice4Alexander)

- General Martok is a good daddy! I mean father!

- ziyal is being willfully ignorant...sorry ur dad sucks and you're in love with a gay guy

- as usual, Quark B plot goes hard

- y'all were right, I love Weyoun!!! What a bitch!

- now why do I kinda wanna write a damar/quark fic...

- Rom is A MAN. 🤤👍🙏🤪

- omg ziyal! sorry about what I said before, I actually liked your gentle energy :'(

- Jadzia's wedding dress :') i love her sm

- mirror!Bareil was only marginally less boring than regular Bareil

- love Julian meeting other autistic people and becoming even more powerful

- only thing harder than a quark B plot than a quark A plot! Magnificent Ferengi was so good lol

- they're really trying to make Dukat unredeemable but it won't work on me! I listen to Lana Del Rey! Bad guys forever! 😘

- Are there so many Quark episodes to cut the war stuff or am I just super into Quark.

- ps. My non-trekkie roommate said Quark has "something" and she "totally gets it" GIRL welcome to the club

- honey, i shrunk the ship

- Ok, dont love that dukat/kira's mom situation but my biggest question this ep was: can Bajorans time travel at any time???

- Sloan wants Julian carnally

- "So I lied. I cheated. I bribed men to cover the crimes of other men. I am an accessory to murder. I ate and left no crumbs in this episode."

-- Vic Fontaine...I don't understand you but I like your singing. Duet with Gaga when

- QUARK IN DRAG. FEMME QUARK. TRANS ICON QUARK.

- yay Keiko's back! But what is this episode (the feral Molly one) 🙃

- please no one speak to me about Jadzia ever again, I can't handle it, I miss her more than Worf does

Final thoughts: Quark has become my favourite character! Xoxoxo

And gimme more garashir you cowards!

[chadepitanga]

Garak, pulling up to Bashir so dizzy with attraction he can barely think: Oh! Hello, my good fellow, I am a normal tailor, who is not a cardassian spy, and I want to touch your shoulders and have lunch with you weekly :))))

Bashir, seeing a guy who has his eyes so open he could be on crack, wearing the most atrocious fucking outfit anyone ever had the courage to wear in public: ..... ah... a tailor?

[keodraws]

they make me unwell so i made them unwell in return.. girl whatever

jackie down the line - fontaines dc

[dreamerdrop]

PSA for anyone getting into DS9 for Garashir reasons who hasn’t already been spoiled on “those” two major twists about them:

Doctor Bashir, I Presume is Episode 16 of Season 5.

After that, you can read pretty much every fanfiction without worrying about too many major spoilers, at least for the episodes you’ve seen thus far anyway.

But even fics which take place in the early seasons tend to build on information conveyed in a sudden spate of three episodes in sequence in season 5, the final of which is episode 16.

Ergo: finish episode 16 of seasons 5 before even glancing at any fics.

[comic-sans-chan]

i long for the old married garashir universe where they didn't meet until they were much farther along on their own journeys and a forty to fifty-year-old divorced dr. julian bashir meets fifty to sixty-year-old forever alone garak the pretty bespectacled lizard man who collects cardassian tchotchkes and antique data rods of the worst books in the galaxy and special premium alien hard candies in his little high-fashion handbag and julian just takes one look at one of the twenty-three hand-sewn doilies scattered throughout his home and thinks "i must have him"

[helluvatrek]

I have art block…

[tinyfaust]

altering my personal tbr so I can draw garashir literary discussions?? happening as we speak (I’m trying to trick my brain into reading more than just fanfic bc I need a break)

[spocks-kaathyra]

how did you make those holy shit!!!

jfjskdk okay I'll take any excuse I get to talk abt this more

How I made my Cardassian prosthetics

Disclaimer: I'm no expert, it's my first time doing this!! All the resources I used can be found online. In fact, here's a playlist of all the youtube videos I followed, in case you don't want to read the whole post. You can pretty much make any facial prosthetics following these steps, not just Cardassian ones.

What you'll need:

Plaster bandages, plaster of Paris (a lot more than is pictured here), modeling clay, and liquid latex. You'll also need some things you probably already have around the house, like vaseline (or cooking oil), plastic wrap, wood glue, rubbing alcohol, q-tips, cotton balls, and setting powder (or baby powder).

Step 1: Face cast

The goal here is to make a plaster copy of your face that you can sculpt your prosthetics on, by covering your face with plaster bandages and then casting that in plaster of Paris. This is the video tutorial I followed for this step. There are many methods, and you'll find tutorials for all of them on youtube, but this is the easiest way if you're doing it by yourself, and it results in a perfectly useable face cast for our purposes. And, if you're cosplaying Garak like me, it's a great way to get into character by experiencing claustrophobia for the first time in your life!! (Jk it's not actually that bad. I lived.)

The video explains the process better than I could, but here's some tips I learned from doing it! Wear a shirt that you don't mind ruining. Go a bit closer to your eyes than I did here. When you're propping up your mask in a bowl, make sure you're not squishing any parts of it or tilting it! I ended up with a dent in the chin of my face cast because I accidentally dented the mask while I was casting it. And make sure you have enough plaster of Paris! I probably used 2-3 pounds for this part. Here's what I ended up with, before sanding or sealing it with wood glue:

Step 2: Sculpting

This is pretty self explanatory, but also probably the hardest part. Just use lots and lots of reference photos. I've got a pretty good stash for Garak, if anyone's interested hdjkfhk. I found that gifs made better references than still photos, since they give you a better sense of the 3D shape. You want to make sure you're using modeling clay that doesn't dry. You don't need any fancy sculpting tools! I used my trusty palette knife to get the small details, but you could probably accomplish the same thing with, like, a spoon and a toothpick. It depends on what kind of clay you're using, but you can dip your finger in a solvent to smooth out the surface of the clay and blend the edges into the face cast. I used rubbing alcohol, but I also heard people recommend acetone. Once you're happy with your sculpt, you can move onto the next step!

Step 3: Casting negatives

This step is technically optional. The video I followed also outlines an easier way that skips this step, by simply building your prosthetics directly on the sculpt. But casting negatives allows you to get a lot more fine detail, and a smoother finish on the final prosthetics, so that's what I chose to do. Basically, you pour plaster of Paris over your sculpt, and it hardens into a mold you can use to build your prosthetics on.

Again, the video explains it better, but some tips! If it's possible with your sculpt, do it in small pieces instead of the whole face at once. I did the chin, nose, and forehead separately. If you try to do the whole face, there's a greater chance of it getting stuck or breaking. Of course, if you were doing, say, Odo, then it might not be possible to do it in multiple pieces. Another thing to watch out for:

If your underlying face cast has any "undercuts," or places where it's, like, concave, then if plaster gets into those areas and hardens, your face cast and your negatives will lock together, and you won't be able to use either of them. For me I was worried about the sides of my nose and under my bottom lip. As long as those parts are filled in with clay, then you should be fine. It's okay if your clay sculpt has undercuts! You can see in the (shamelessly stolen) diagram that their sculpt has a lot of undercuts, but that's okay because the clay is soft and won't lock with the plaster, it'll just come off. The video I got the diagram from was also pretty helpful, even if it's meant for casting with different materials than I used. Here are the completed negatives:

Step 4: Making the prosthetics!

Now you have negatives! Your sculpt may or may not be intact, but if your negatives turned out okay then that's fine. This step is also covered in the video for step 3. Using a stippling sponge, foam brush, or q-tip, stipple thin layers of liquid latex onto your negatives. I found that a q-tip worked best, even if it took longer to cover larger areas. Make sure the edges are very thin, so you can blend them into your skin when you apply the prosthetics. Wait for a layer to dry before adding more latex on top of it, or you'll end up with fucked up results like I had:

(Left: first draft, where I didn't let it dry enough before layering more. Right: second draft. Much better!)

Build up bulky areas with pieces of cotton balls, then cover the cotton with a thin layer of latex. Emphasis on thin! It'll take forever to dry if you saturate your cotton with too much latex. This step mostly involves a LOT of waiting. When the latex is fully dry, brush everything with a liberal amount of setting powder or baby powder to prevent the latex from sticking to itself as you peel it out of the mold.

And now you have your prosthetics! You can tear away some of the excess latex at the edges to make it fit your face better. I ended up tearing away almost all of the edges around the eye ridges, so it would blend better and I wouldn't have to get adhesive so close to my eyes. Tear, don't cut! It'll result in a more natural edge that's easier to blend. This video shows how to apply prosthetics. Use whatever prosthetic adhesive you want! I used spirit gum because it's what I had on hand.

Now you can go forth and live out your lizard alien dreams!!

[yardistard]

[lanativite]

Garak and Bashir resting (traced from a drawing by Mikhail Larionov)

[charlesemersonwinchesteriii]

YOU ARE SO WRONG YOU STUPID TWINK. GET FORESHADOWED IDIOT.

[asgardian--angels]

....

[liebelesbe]

oh fuck the new Lower Decks episode was so good... how come I've only seen stuff about the Garashir stuff in it? The plot!! Way to set up the last episode, I'm so excited!!

[keodraws]

im so so normal about julian bashir so so normal dont look at my ds9 art im so so sonormal.

i love inflicting both physical and psychic damage with my artworks