#my dad: you know him as Julian Bashir-

[youngpettyqueen]

did you know that there 8 actors who have been in all 3 members of the "sci fi trifecta" (Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who) and did you know that one of them is Siddig. in related news guess who's finally gonna listen to Doctor Who audios

[grimark]

flying perilously close to spoilerposting here but one thing that's SO fun about garashir is how they have such complementary daddy issues and yet neither of them really fully grasp what the other one's problem is

[walkingstackofbooks]

I was thinking last night about how it would have affected Julian if he'd arrived a few seconds too late to that Cargo Bay in Hard Time and Miles had died in front of him (because that's always a fun (distressing) scene to imagine 👀) and that kind of spiralled into a whole canon-divergent 'verse...

Because then I got to The Quickening, and while I don't think Kira and Dax would have let a more emotionally-vulnerable Julian actually stay on the planet by himself for that whole time, if they did (or if he refused to beam up/ threw away his badge so they couldn't find him/ idk otherwise made it so they had to leave him) (because if anything he's going to be even MORE convinced he has to save every life he possibly can) it would obviously be even more devastating.

And I can imagine that, after all that time that Julian has spent with Ekoria and looking after her, Trevean might ask if Julian's going to take her baby or leave him to be raised on Teplan. In the canon universe Julian's obviously like *nervous laughter* "no I think he'll be better off with you... I could not raise a child" but in this 'verse he's entered his Feeling-All-The-Loneliness-Feels phase early and so is like "fuck I can't raise a kid but also I Literally Cannot Leave This Child It Would Kill Me" and so he takes Ekoria's baby back to DS9.

He takes his kid to the medical conference he goes to with Jake which, valid, but then they get the distress call from Ajilon Prime* and he's like "I can't take my baby to a warzone" and Jake's like "I'll look after him, it sounds like these people need you" and Julian's pretty torn but also he does Need To Save People so they go and, uh. Like I think reactions are pretty mixed about the baby but Julian is literally a Lifesaver so no-one's gonna complain too much and some of the patients want to hold Maris (the kid's called Maris after Ekoria's husband I decided) and it's sweet, y'know, to have a moment outside of the war and pain with this tiny lil bab.

[*Umm yeah this was just me jumping to the most fun (traumatic) events to imagine as I tried to go to sleep so forgive me but...]

Obviously Jake doesn't go off to the runabout with the kid so he still gets lost and when he returns Julian's cradling the baby and idk but my heart just imagining the scene where Julian's like "I should never have brought you here, what was I thinking?" is just MORE with him having his own son there too.

And then we skip to IPS/BIL and Julian's in the prison camp not knowing if his baby is alive and then coming back to realise the changeling has been parenting his son for a month (and having to run multiple test on Maris to check if his baby is actually his or if Maris is a changeling too) and also no-one even noticed he was missing even though apparently his kid had been crying like all the time (and fuck, how fucked up is that going to leave Maris because that sort of thing affects kids when it happens that young, right? anxietyyyy)

(also Miles would have noticed I wasn't me, Julian thinks. because he needs more reasons to feel sad.)

And then DBIP in this 'verse makes me UNHINGED because IMAGINE a Julian Bashir who hit his depression point a season earlier but has been teetering along okay since Maris came along now that he has this whole little life to look after and he will do Anything for his child. (okay apart from stay away from warzones when there are people to save but you know. basically anything)

Anyway yeah so Julian's got Maris with him in Sisko's office when Jadzia turns up with his parents and he is FAR less able to cope than canon Julian is because 1. more emotional instability, but mostly 2. he is a Dad with a Kid and NOPE he cannot have his parents anywhere near his baby that is Not Happening.

He has his oh, my god moment and then hands Maris to Sisko being like "Your grandson is lovely, Commander" and Ben and Jadzia are like ??? but play along and Julian finds some quarters for his parents and by the time they've got there with all the small talk of "hah, for a second there I thought you'd be telling us we have grandkids! when are you going to settle down with a nice girl, Jules?" he's ready to burst but his kid's still with Sisko so he just excuses himself with "I've got to work" and hurries back...

Dax and Sisko totally haven't been gossiping about him and they're all like "So what was that about? Grandson??" and he's like "You saw how they kept calling me Jules, right? I haven't gone by that name since I was 15. And my dad saying he had to convince me to do medicine?? He hated the idea of me being a doctor. I had to study for Starfleet in secret because he just couldn't let go of the idea of his son being a famous tennis player. And now he's convinced himself my career was all his idea!" and is getting angrier and sadder and Maris starts crying and so he's hushing him like "it's okay, i'm sorry, i'm not angry with you, i love you, you're safe, i'm not going to hurt you" -- just idle things he's not really thinking about

Ofc Sisko and Dax are immediately on it like, "Why are you saying that? Did your parents hurt you...?"

And Julian's like a deer in the headlights, and awkwardly replying, "Not, like... My father didn't get as angry with me once I was seven and had grown up a bit, got more capable.. and I hit my growth spurt when I was 14, I got bigger than him, he didn't really do anything after that."

"That's not really an answer," Sisko tells him.

Julian's body stills for a moment. "Isn't it?" he replies quietly, looking up at the captain.

...

And then Sisko gets Kira involved to kick his parents off the station and you think the augment reveal isn't going to happen because Julian deserves a break and his parents are gone and can't fuck it up anymore ...

BUT, nah: Zimmerman - realising he's not going to get his precious interviews after all - decides to bug Julian's parents (because what's privacy when you have a job to do?). And then Rom realises that Zimmerman is cocking up a load of things on the LMH deliberately because he doesn't want to replace the EMH* and looks into Zimmerman's files and finds the report he's going to send and blackmails the guy* (there's gotta be a rule of acquisition about that right?) into not sending the report.

[*Not my idea -- this was the original plan for the episode, though with Miles, not Rom.]

Also after all this Julian really feels like he needs to punch something he goes to Quark's to viciously hurl sharp pointy objects at a board because that's the next best thing -- but also he hasn't exactly done that since Miles, and why is the fucking dartboard still up anyway it's not like anyone else ever uses it so he has another minor breakdown over that and tries to rip it down until Leeta drags him into a storeroom.

(oh yeah I totally think Leeta would have broken up with him when he turned up with a baby -- like not in a mean way, just in a "I'm sorry Julian, I love you, but I'm not ready for a kid (and also you did just leave me for a month without sending a message and you definitely didn't think about me before agreeing to adopt the kid, did you?)" kind of way, y'know? but they're still friends and she still definitely cares for him.)

(idk when rom tells Julian what he did to zimmerman but when he does he's also awkwardly like "oh and I wish you and Leeta all the best" and Julian's like ???? and Rom's like "I saw you with her in the storeroom earlier. she called you sweetheart" or something and has assumed they're back together.)

--

And that's as far as I got but I just had to write it up so far because it has haunted me all day and I just need to get it out there.

Thanks for reading my stream of thoughts 💔

[episodeoftv]

Prelims, Vote 8 of 8

The top 5 finales will move on to be included in the main bracket

Propaganda is under the cut, may include spoilers

Brooklyn Nine-Nine - 8.09 / 8.10 The Last Day

It just... season 8 had been so bad as a whole, it attempted to touch on the blm movement and did it in an okay at best way and in the wake of it all, i think a lot of people just weren't here for cop shows. The finale tried to bring the magic back with one last heist and it did pull out all the stops but I don't know, it just left me feeling really cold. And the ending being that even though the main character wasn't a cop anymore, that he would return to the station every year for the heist... it just never escapes the cop narrative even after he's left.

Chén Qíng Lìng/The Untamed - Episode 50

I nominate this final on grounds of CCP information control, censorship and homophobia. They were so scared of the power of wangxian that they ended up banning ao3 in china and in the show they have to inexplicably have them part ways just to hammer home the no-homo. Plus the show is just kind of objectively bad.... but it rewires your brain all the same

Community - 6.13 Emotional Consequences of Broadcast Television

ok i haven’t watched it in a while but it wasn’t the episode’s fault this show had been going downhill for a while. The finale put it out of its misery mostly.

Kyle XY - 3.10 Bringing Down the House

The writers knew they were getting canceled and chose to raise more questions than answers and set up cliffhangers, rather than have a satisfying end. I'm sure it was a last ditch effort to save the show, but it didn't work and now it's just a bad finale.

Northern Exposure - 6.22 Let's Dance / 6.23 Tranquility Base

No propaganda submitted

Ozark - 4.14 A Hard Way to Go

No propaganda submitted

Soul Eater - 1.51 The Word Is Bravery!

ugh god it just gave up on any attempt at character development or the ending of the story in any meaningful way. instead of a complex universe journey exploring her bond with soul, and death the kid becoming the new god of death, maka just...wins the day by 'being brave', extremely underwhelming and borderline nonsensical

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - 7.25 / 7.26 What You Leave Behind

Man so okay like it’s not the worst worst one out there but man they really just fuckikg did that. Found family all went and spread themselves across the quadrant with the head of the show the leader, Captain Benjamin Sisko who really just wanted to live on Bajor, got turned into an incorporeal being who could no longer live a linear life while his wife and unborn child had to go on without him. They didn’t even have him saying goodbye to his actual son. His literal son did not get a goodbye, they only gave that to Kasidy, and no hate to Kasidy, she’s my girl, but she’s only been there for three year while his actual son Jake sisko was still basically a kid. He was like 19, 20 and no goodbye fork his dad he’s lost time and time again. Some characters got a satisfying ending but then Julian Bashir is left to stay on deep space nine supposedly still in love with Ezri Dax and together (but let’s be honest, it was a terrible forced decision. They made no sense, and had no chemistry) and still stuck without moving forward or changing. Like what a cop out. Not to mention the terrible cgi fire caves where literally gods got thrown into a fire pit and that was the big climax

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. monday we watched ds9's "in purgatory's shadow" (ohio edition), "by inferno's light" (ohio edition), and "doctor bashir, i presume" (ohio edition), which did blow my tits clean off, and then last night we watched voy's "unity" and "darkling" (south carolina editions, sadly).

in purgatory's shadow (ds9) (ohio edition):

kira and odo's little moment at the beginning of this episode 🥺 he was soooo embarrassed to be caught attempting to try and learn how to snag a spouse but she didn't judge even a little. girl, break up with your stupid ass boyfriend. odo is right here

i really loved bashir pointing the phaser at garak when he figured garak was lying. i was like oh damn he knows him so well and i love when this twink has had enough and becomes a little evil BUT THEN IT LITERALLY WASN'T HIM! what an incredible plot twist. we literally had to pause the episode and work out the timelines to see how long we had been living with changeling bashir. it was sooo good and i wasn't expecting it at all. mwah

jadzia and worf are so good. her personality being settled into like, comic relief makes for such a good match to his whole straight man aura. obviously she taunts him with his klingon operas. please.

also lol "at the first sign of betrayal i will kill him" <3

i do NOT like whatever they are doing with garak and ziyal. first of all, he's gay. secondly, she is like at LEAST 20 years younger than him. i want to trust them but after jake dating all those older women i am so suspicious

the backpedaling they're doing on fun and friendly former facist dukat is insane. not to say i'm not enjoying it. also, i like when he threatened kira and she was like "pffft whatever" like what a blow to his fucking ego. get his ass

VERY cool to see martok again - totally unexpected

our last wonderful surprise of this ep was tain being garak's DAD- it makes so much sense and puts so much into perspective, and, hi, JULIAN WAS IN THE ROOM DURING THIS. garak could have asked him to leave and he would have. garak could have told tain he was there. but he didn't, because he wanted the moral support, and because he wanted julian to know something true about him. AUUUGHGHGH

like, we haven't had NEARLY enough garashir since s2, but this was SUCH a good moment, even though it feels like they're trying to backpedal on that too. what a series of plot twists for this ep 10/10

by inferno's light (ds9) (ohio edition):

dukat's betrayal here i like vaguely saw coming, but jesus christ lol. he is back to FULL villain status...such a change from his little fireworks show for sisko and jake

garak's claustrophobia <3 absolutely loooved this especially since julian had to go in and get him. bangs tankard on table MORE GARASHIR! there literally has NOT been enough. i would love to know more about tzenketh but i know they will never ever tell us but wow <3

i am SO tired of seeing worf lose fights this episode was fucking great. not only did he not lose any fights except under an extremely unfair circumstances he totally kicked ass even while injured. FINALLY. even that jem'hadar guy was like i can kill him but i can't defeat him so i give up. SOOOO true finally let's respect my boy worf. why don't you bitches call him a pussy NOW

anyway, the little moment worf and garak had at the end of this episode...mwah. put them on the fuck chart

extremely excited to see gowran in this episode. he and his freaky eyes are so special to me

"this station was built by cardassia" "that's funny i thought it was built by bajoran slave labor" I LOVE WHEN SISKO IS FUN AND FERAL.

also i know the circumstances were extenuating but i cannot BELIEVE julian just fucking murdered that jem'hadar <3

watching little fake julian run around was so distressing...i kept yelling when he came on screen because nobody KNEWWWW he even fooled US! what a cool twist, again

overall these two episodes were incredibly good even though the strong action-y episodes are usually not ds9's forte. absolutely baller content for everyone except ziyal. i will at least take comfort in the fact that garak looked very uncomfortable to be hugged

doctor bashir, i presume (ds9) (ohio edition):

AGAIN. THIS ONE BLEW MY TITS CLEAN OFF

i'm mad garak wasn't in it. AUGHGHGH

okay, my main beef with this one was pacing...i thought they resolved the problem extremely quickly after the cat was out of the bag, and it's because they spent so much time on the doctor and leeta and rom. which would have been a GREAT b-plot for any other episode, i LOVE leeta and rom and i was cheering for him the whole time, but even though the EMH (sorta) cameo was very welcome, i do not welcome it at the expense of time taken from one of the most pivotal episodes for julian bashir probably in this whole series, especially when i have the sneaking suspicion that it won't be brought up again

and i did LIKE the resolution of this episode, his parents paying for what they'd done, but it didn't feel like he got to sit with it for long enough, and it certainly felt like we skipped over a few pivotal moments - the scene where he found out his best friend knows could have been EXTREMELY meaty. is he afraid of judgement? is he angry? is he worried miles will be angry? etc. but we just kind of breezed right on by it. like, i loved the way miles sat and let him get it out of his system in a fun inverse of julian talking him down from suicide but we could have had SOOO much more

anyway side from that i love. I LOVE. holy shit

like, i can't even talk about the episode itself, just this entire concept. like, they did essentially kill their kid. they made him the way he is, a new kid, and then hated him for the way he is. SPOCK CORE. and then to find that out as a teenager...

like, you know he had to google "does being genetically enhanced make me a bad person" and then of course what google spits out is "did you know about khan noonien singh and would you like to?" and he was like Oh No

like, he went into MEDICINE. and i know he had other reasons and all but he went into MEDICINE because that's the most harmless you can possibly be. he's using all his ill-gotten brainpower to HEAL PEOPLE because his first reaction was to not want to be khan...2! you can enhance genetics but just like o'brien said that can't grow compassion, which is what makes julian who he is

I WISH GARAK HAD BEEN THERE.

anyway, i will continue to think about dr bashir for a very long time and he definitely just rose a couple of notches in my character ranking

unity (voy):

i actually liked this one a lot. i love borg eps and i'm fascinated by a post-borg life lived by these people

that said, this lady gave off SUCH evil vibes that even after the truth was revealed and she and chakotay fucked i kept waiting for her to stab him in the back. which only kind of happened i guess

also, :( that chakotay is out here running around on janeway. SAD

i did love the borg meld scene though. it was incredibly scary. and i was TWIRLING MY HAIR when he got possessed or whatever the fuck

it was also so fun that he spent half of this episode dazed and stumbling around because of his little head injury. excellent material overall

oh yeah and i KNEW that corpse was gonna wake back up. i think it's so terrifying that when you're borg, even if you die, you aren't done. you can be revived because nothing kills you, not even the vacuum of space. that is easily the most horrifying part of it all

i also really liked chakotay and janeway's moment at the end. like, she was distrustful the entire time and he was too trusting, as he tends to sometimes be, and then at the end she was like aw but they weren't so bad and he was like [thousand yard stare of guy who has fucked 2! women who later betrayed him and has now been radicalized against the borg]

like i'm not saying it wasn't 99% consensual with riley or seska but i AM saying that he was hopped up on the borg meld when he fucked riley and later riley was willing to use chakotay's body for her own means when push came to shove and i'm saying that seska knew full well the whole time it was happening that it was under completely false pretenses and she stole his dna without his consent to make a baby he also didn't consent to, even if it turned out she fucked up and got that kaxon baby instead. like, chakotay better be careful or he's gonna start fitting into captain kirk's niche

darkling (voy):

this one fucking sucked so bad

like, sure, yes, emh evil now. does he have to keep creepy-touching all the women

also, WHAT? we get ONE LINE about kes and neelix breaking up and he's not even IN this episode? why did they even break them up??? just because they wrre planning on having her leave soon????? absolutely baffling

i don't think evil emh was very compelling...i am glad he got to act or whatever, but i didn't even get the usual "battle of the selves" that we often wind up with when we do these kind of tropes. it was just...a malfunction, and eventually it was corrected

also, what a BAFFLING b-plot. if you measure each of kes's years (except the first, i suppose) as a decade in human beings, we can assume she's in her thirties now, so she just...breaks up with her boyfriend to smooch the hot alien guy she met a few days ago and then maybe wants to run off with him? in her THIRTIES?

i DID like the EMH quoting the oath at the end, but without any sort of battle of the selves or real emotional investment in what he did when he was evil, it feels kind of wasted on this episode. it's a fine concept, but the execution falls soooo flat

NEXT TIME: voy's "rise" and "favorite son."

[thebreakfastgenie]

For the character ask game:

Josh Lyman 3. Least favorite canon thing about this character? 5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them? 8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise? 12. What's a headcanon you have for this character? 21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like? 24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

I like all his flaws, they make him more interesting... I just dislike when canon leans too far into any part of him. Season 5 leaned way too hard on the Rahm Emmanuel influence and idk if it's his fault but I blame Lawrence O'Donnell for this. Sending a senator a dead fish is really fun but honestly I don't think season 1 Josh would do that, I think it's too much.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Oh, you know.

He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl And he's always at home with his back to the wall And he's proud of his scars and the battles he's lost And he struggles and bleeds as he hangs on his cross And he likes to be known as the angry young man

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

I really hate the stay at home dad Josh headcanon. I know Bradley Whitford supports it but he's wrong. And the like. He has three kids named Leo, Noah, and Joanie thing. There is such a thing as going too far with that. Going too far with the shippy stuff especially in a post Rosslyn or Noel context. He's got other stuff going on!! I'm also getting more and more irked about flanderization in general but I wouldn't say that's gotten to the despise level yet.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

He has lingering physical issues related to being shot. I think the canon basis for it is nebulous but it's fun for me.

21. If you're a fic writer and have written for this character, what's your favorite thing to do when you're writing for this character? What's something you don't like?

I like to hurt him. I like seeing him suffer but really I think I like to test him. I like to see what he'll do if I back him into a corner. I don't like letting him be saved by love. That comes back to things the fandom does that I despise, too. I like to make him save himself! I am always writing about his PTSD, I think that's my favorite topic.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Hmmm. I know my dedicated followers are expecting me to say Hawkeye Pierce but I don't think they're all that alike. Honestly the best I can think of right now is Julian Bashir, and the resemblance isn't that strong but I think they share the quality of being kind of annoying but caring so deeply you have to forgive them.

[juicezone]

🍭🦇🌸 - De 🐍

🍭 How long have you been apart of agere tumblr? This account, technically april '22! I had another agere account for a few months in 2020 but i got wicked stressed out trying to figure out like. what communities were safe so i deleted it |D I made this one bc i was reading fics on a03 and i was like I WANNA TALK TO THEMMMM (points at mayliz @/dragon-queen21 and then i met aerie @/sundrop-agere + bee @/bumbling-kiddo and i was like oh yeah. im staying hehe. its all abt findin good ppl <3 i think) (<- totally rambled)

🦇 Have you ever regressed in a dream? YEAH it was so nice im not gonna lie, i dont remember a whole lot except i was with someone and i was gettin really cranky and sleepy (lol. sleeping in a dream) so they helped me into pjs and put me to bed <3 it was so cozy,,

🌸 Who do you headcanon as a regressor or caregiver? (fictional or real) BONES IS MY DAD FR!!!! also jim kirk is just a little guy and i think both spock + bones look after him. shared custody of the littlest guy ever. I think sometimes they pretend bicker when he's small because he immediately is like "D: NO!!!! WE R FRIENDS!!!" and its cute :)

also. also bones is 1000000% actually secretly a regressor too. but he has a very hard time regressing so he just pretends he isnt and doesnt regress.

DATA!!! is a regressor too and geordi is his cg. he has a literal baby mode i know this. also julian bashir is a baby mode and miles + keiko are his cgs.

nonstar trek uhh Link + zelda LOZ are flips for each other. ESPECIALLY breath of the wild era.

tigger is a kid regressor too and rabbit is his "reluctant" cg. Owl offers to look after tigger instead and rabbit is like "WRONG."

[geekthefreakout]

I want to start writing again, but can't pick what to work on, so here is a list of WIPs I have going that I haven't done much with. What should I put effort into first? Poll under the cut. Also, you can suggest things! Please vote and reblog?

Coming Clean (At Least I'm Trying)- Fandom: Supernatural. Pairing: Destiel. Alternate ending to s15, where Castiel struggles with his new humanity and Dean struggles with his nascent sobriety. They both try to make their new relationship work. Features Jack and Sam in big supporting roles. Multi chapter, some already up on AO3 here. I lost half of the next chapter because my computer crashed, and I have been struggling to get back into it.

Blood Brothers- Fandom: MCU. Pairing: Winterfrost. The sequel to my fic Pieces of Me Fit Pieces of You. AU: Canon-divergent after Thor: Ragnorak, ignoring credit scene. Loki and Bucky adjust to life in New Asgard, the people who love them adjust to each other, and the shadow of the Mad Titan looms on the horizon. Features Einar, the best horse ever, and many Avengers in supporting roles. I don't have anything posted yet, but I've outlined a lot of it. Hyperfixation brain has not let me work on this in a while.

The Autobiography of Una Chin-Riley- Fandom: Star Trek. Pairing: Garashir. After Julian's augmentations are revealed, Garak comes to him with a most interesting book. Intended to be a one-shot where Garak and Bashir discuss eugenics and civil rights, and what effect the legacies of both Una and Khan had on Bashir's decision to join Starfleet. I have about 1300 words of this so far.

Killing Time and Killing Dads- Fandom: The Flash CW. Pairing: Coldflash, pre-relationship. Canon-divergent AU where after Zoom kills Henry but before Barry creates Flashpoint, Snart appears on the Flash's radar and the two discuss fathers, failures, and the things they can't change. I've been mulling this over for a while but haven't written it. It would probably be a one or two shot. If you want to know my voices for these characters, check out my other fic that also has Snart being around for Henry's death. I guess I just like the concept.

Untitled Bashir War fic- Fandom: Star Trek Pairing: none focused, but probably light Garashir because I can't help myself. I watched Band of Brothers recently, and the episode "Bastogne" prompted me to consider the toll being a battlefield medic took on Bashir, and meditate a bit on how little war has really changed through the centuries. I have 1100 words so far. I need to rewatch a few Dominion War episodes to make sure I don't have any glaring contradictions in my Star Trek medicine.

Not any particular fic, but some of my usual light stuff you might find in my "Sam Writes Stuff" tag- things like Garashir reacting to stuff, random head canons that may or may not become fics later, various fandoms. Most likely to be Arrowverse Flash, Star Trek, Dragon Ball, Supernatural, or Batfam.

Okay, so what do you think? Do any of these strike your interest? Or do you have something else you would like me to write? Vote below!

[tuttle-did-it]

@svartalfhild

I caught this as well. And I’ve always felt it’s not an OR situation, but an AND situation.

A) I always assumed that it was the futuristic equivalent to ‘my dad works on the docks but I got into Oxford through scholarship. I don’t want the lads to know I’m on scholarship, so I’m staying silent and hiring a dialect expert. Within two weeks, I’ll have a better Oxford accent than any of you, even the locals.’

And

B) it is concretely canon that Julian‘s father never thought Julian was good enough. Instead of learning to love his son for the person he really was, his father literally set out to change absolutely every single thing about him to mould Julian into the ‘perfect’ son. Like, down to his fucking atoms.

The emotional house-sized weight that this just suffocates Julian with almost made that stupid reveal worth it. That his own parents found Julian was so impossible to love, so broken, they had to turn him into a different person down to the molecular level?

Yeah, okay. I mean, that’s a special fucked up level of childhood trauma. How do you even begin to process this? How can you ever trust them— that if you do something else they don’t like, they won’t put you back in that chair to ~fix~? That is a special form of child abuse.

And Sid played that perfectly. It’s clear Sid hated the main reveal about Bashir (many of us did). But the emotional horror of knowing that the only way your parents could love you was to completely rewrite who you are? Yeah. Sid pulled that off.

But back to the accent specifically: the fact that both of these scenarios are not only possible, but equally probable? It’s a beautiful and yet subtle subtextual storytelling that leaves the audience room to fill in the conversations that must have taken place for this to happen.

Also, both scenarios are EXTREMELY British (even more specifically, ENGLISH). Upward mobility of class through education and accent is VERY common in England.

There are parents who will scold their children if they speak with a lower-class (poorer/immigrant areas) accent, even if they have that lower class accent themselves.

There are kids who will do anything to rewrite their own biography so that no one knows they’re really from the wrong side of the tracks by upgrading their accent to a more posh or less regionalised accent so they don’t sound like their parents.

I don’t know if this was the choice of the writer, the casting director, the actor who played his father’s acting choice, or even Sid saying, ‘You know what? Can we cast someone with a lower class accent?’ But it felt extremely intentional and EXTREMELY English. And bonus points of this was a combination of input from several people.

Regardless, this was a brilliant decision, and this seemingly tiny detail adds SO MUCH more to Julian and his identity.

Also, last thing I will say. I think it’s obvious that this issue between Julian and his parents has deeper ramifications considering Bashir is so strongly coded (and confirmed, depending on which writer you ask) as Autistic, and is canonically Queer (depending on the writer you ask).

These are relevant, fascinating and valid readings into the ramifications of neurodiversity and queerness needing to be ‘fixed’ for the comfort and convenience of neurotypical cis-hets before they can love their ~broken~ Autistic Queer child can hit home for a LOT of us.

I'm surprised that I haven't come across anyone else talking about how fascinating it is that Julian Bashir and his father do not have the same English accent. Like, the implications, y'all.

Julian sounds much more upper class than his father, which would seem to indicate one of two things, either:

a) Julian adopted his accent to deliberately distance himself from his father.

or

b) Julian learnt his accent at a young age at the insistence of his father to further his air of sophistication.

Either way, it certainly adds another facet to Julian's Parental Angst.

[isaacathom]

ds9 time, s2e12

well alright odo whatever tickles your fancy sir

quarks genuinely taken aback that odo seems to be seriously about a purchase.

who the fuck is mora. should i know this man

yeah id be kind of annoyed if someone came up to me, unannounced, and started critiquing my shapeshifting

i dont like dr mora

i do like that odos like 'id like a runabout' and sisko immediately goes 'yeah sure. what for'. just completely confident. has basically no reason to deny that request of any of his major crew members unless context suggests a problem (i think kiras run against that a handful of times).

dr mora is acting like a dad trying to provoke a child to speak and odo is just like. for fucks sake man. fine. yeesh

my question to mora is when he says 'work with you', does he mean working with odo as a peer, or with in the sense that you work with computers, with a field of study?

thats a familiar looking set, i love the soundstage lads. oh a beautiful background, that one, Stunning.

i love that their standin for 'odo juice' is clearly just some iron filings with a magnet being spun around it. excellent shit.

okay im attempting to recalibrate if i should give a shit about mora based on how odo reacts and because odo is shit at expressing his emotions (mood, sir) and im still struggling to figure that one out.

'he hid my clothes so i wouldnt leave' bashir buddy cmon

oh that man might be dead

"if you run into my wife don't mention i did this" obrien i love you

ugh thats so goopy

"my replicator or yours" i find that such a cute phrase. and again, the evidence persists that dax is probably the only person who enjoys julians company other than garrick lmao, if she wanted to invite it out for drinks.

okay julian my guy what does THAT mean. i thought we'd stopped being cringe heterosexual. oh thank god for drama.

"its a nickname i barely tolerate" "its an expression of affection" dr mora sir those are not mutually exclusive. my friends have expressed their affection for me by pre-emptively censoring their horniness in such a way that makes me feel like a piece of shit buzzkill despite having done nothing - affection need not be accepted at the end point. eat shit. anyway uh

i hate dr mora

dax's vibe in this scene with mora where moras all 'ah, never thought hed grow up' and whatever its very :) please stop.

you know what it is? you know what it is. its that he keeps infantilising odo, and a lot of the traits hes picking out as things odo is/was "deficient" in are like. you know. Autistic traits. is that anything. i feel like thats where im rankling

ah okay so the twist is Odo's doing this shit subconsciously

mora pol is such a cunt. i hate this guy

"what humanoid have you been able to trust except me?" "WHAT MAKES YOU THINK I TRUST YOU?" "I resent that" good! fuck off cunt!

he sucks so much. feeling hes owed odo's trust because of his effort, fuck you. odos having a breakdown and hes just charging forward with his self-centering. absolute state. oh is the twist going to be that he's causing this to try and coerce odo back into his lab?

oop hes melting oop oop oop

"its separate and independent from the odo we know" are you sure about that. are you confident. are you positively convinced. because im not. im not convinced.

if this episode is going to try and convince me mora has had any change of heart, its not gonna work, i tell you what. i honestly hope its kira that manages to get him to back down since we've established she is probably the person he trusts most on the station. just to prove mora wrong about his lack of trust in others. i want them to prove it, yknow.

oh great it is trying to convince me. "ive done it again havent i? made you a prisoner" YES. YOU SHITSTAIN. YOU WANKROD.

bleugh.

its annoying because i think its a good episode. there's good drama, you learn a lot about odo and where he's been, its good. there's good dynamics with the cast. i just dislike mora pol to such an extent that it makes it hard to buy into that specific axis of the drama, and its the primary one. thats the one im meant to care about. and i cant. because he appears and everything says no, nonono, this man is no good father. and it wasnt like he was even doing bad shit at the start, i just caught a vibe and went euuuugh.

[walkingstackofbooks]

DS9 5x04 Nor The Battle To the Strong thoughts (I’m re-watching, so beware spoilers for future episodes!) [9 Sept ‘23]

"Aren't you going to take notes?" Oh, Julian. 🤣 I mean, to be fair, Jake is the one who asked to write a report on him, so it's not outrageous for Julian to think Jake might want to listen to him.

Jake's internal monologue is great

"These people need you." That is the way to get Julian to do a thing, how does Jake know how to manipulate Julian so well? (I guess tbf it's a solid shout for manipulating any of these Starfleet types...)

Although, looking at Julian, I don't really think that he is listening to Jake, it seems more as though he's just trying to calculate what the right call here is.

"You're being ridiculous. Why does pregnancy always make men hysterical." "Excuse me. This is not the first baby I've had." "Excuse me. Keiko had Molly." "It's not up to you to tell Kira what she can and cannot do." You tell him, ladies!

When Quark is agreeing with you, you know you're on the wrong side, Miles XD

"That means they'll be home by Thursday. Doesn't give you much time to snoop through Jake's things." Dax is just sometimes so good. Poor Sisko, though, that cannot have been an easy decision.

I love the way this field hospital scene is shot, allowing Bashir to blend straight into the background of the confusion, and leaving the focus on Jake just standing there, completely out of place.

"I was planning to change form midair and become a Tarkalean condor." "Ah, that would have been impressive." You get the impression Sisko is clinging onto any distraction he can in this conversation.

"Humanoid bodies are so fragile." "Yes they are." OHHH, Sisko says that so softly. 😭😭 Bless him. He's so aware Jake may not be okay. 💔💔

"But Jake is 18 years old. Does your father still worry about you?" Awww, Odo <3 my heart that you don't realise parental worry is normal.

Julian, you idiot, how did you think "I'll start with a lateral incision across the thigh joint" was going to make Jake feel?! ... I guess he has been around field medics who have probably been making those sort of dark jokes all day.

oH, he chases after Jake so gently <3 :3

"There are many situations in life that test a person's character. Thankfully, most of them don't involve death and destruction." :3 I love him

"Medical personnel are fair game as far as Klingons are concerned. They'll even kill wounded right in their beds." Every time this sort of thing comes up I can't help but think of the outrage manufactured over Worf "killing civilians" back in his trial episode.

Oh, Jake. This was not the exciting experience you thought you were going to find, is it...

"And now you think bringing me back is going to make everything all right." Oh Jake. *You are not a soldier.* You're an untrained kid. This guy is dying and knows nothing about you. Of course he's judging you more harshly. But it's really not true that your actions were "wrong", you're not meant to be in this situation in the first place.

"If this story has an unhappy ending I would never have forgiven you." <3 Dax and Sisko friendship is always so important to me

"I'm so sorry." "It's alright." "No it's not. I should never have brought you here." Ohhhh these two ❤️❤️❤️ I wish we saw more of them interacting, there's barely any Jake & Julian fanfic 😭 [yes, I could write one, but shhh, I have a long to-do list, okay? 😅]

"I'm a coward." Oh noooooo. Jake. Baby boy. It's okay to be scared.

"Something's eating at you, I can see it." Julian is SO gentle and I cannot, I love him for this just so much 😭

"Leave me alone." "Okay, if that's what you want. But if you want to talk, you know where to find me." Ohhh. Julian looks so stressed -- he doesn't know what he should do to look after Jake, and I'm sure he's not feeling like he's doing the best job.

Oh, Jake. If your dad was here he would have ignored you telling him to leave you alone, wouldn't he? But Julian's not your dad, he's not going to force his way in.

The way Julian is stroking Jake's head as he comes to :333

"I'm proud of you, son." Ahhh, yes, Jake FINALLY gets that hug he's been needing all episode, and is able to accept that praise and smile about it. Ohhh, my heart <3

(Now can Julian get a hug from Sisko, please?)

(Please?)

[lorenzobane]

hello please tell me your thoughts

Oh god I have so many! I’ll drop a few random ones down here, but if someone wants something more specific/ fic ideas feel free to ask!

- Garak actually takes a lot of genuine joy and pleasure in doing household chores, and enjoys packing Julian lunch every day. He’s just a big “acts of service” guy, and his primal lizard brain gets off on making sure his partner is fed and safe

- Contrary to popular opinion, Garak is by far the one who prefers to be submissive in bed. I mean we see through the whole show that anyone who tries to flex their authority on Julian just pisses him off… meanwhile, garak’s reaction to Odo yelling at him and Sisko extorting him is….. different.

- Julian “first in his class in pediatrics” Bashir is an absolute goofball with his kids, and also just cannot shut the fuck up about them. All of his nurses know literally everything about them because he talks about their accomplishments during surgery. Every time his kids visit the hospital, the staff is like “wow! Heard about your science fair project” and they’re like “UGH DAD!”

- Julian has an absolutely ludicrous 27 step skin routine that Garak makes fun of but still watches him complete all 27 steps every night. He claims it’s for “research on the vanity of human males” but it’s really because he enjoys watching Julian do normal domestic things because he never really imagined himself sharing a life with anyone.

- Garak has a lot of nightmares of people doing to Julian what he did to people when he was in the Obsidian Order, and knows losing something this important is what he deserves for his crimes. But absolutely ISN’T what Julian deserves so he has like 15 trackers on Julian at any given moment.

- I also think it took like 10 years of marriage for garak to actually get even somewhat used to the fact that someone loves him (my poor sad lizard). He never takes a single second for granted.

Anyway here are some cutesy ones off the top of my head because I’m insane! What do you guys think?

[theimaginatrix27]

@cloud-frost said:

My friend was a teenager living in a super white rural area of the UK so I don’t really blame him. I doubt he had ever met someone called Bashir. But also you ought to gain enough general knowledge at a certain point in your life to realise that someone with that name probably is Arab.

Okay, for clarification's sake, because I do feel this does need it.

I live in Australia, and I had met children from non-white families who had emigrated to my country in School. I did not grock this, I was blind. My brain would go "Oh, that's a pretty name, that's a nice accent, oh they're a nice person, friend!" I didn't think about skin colour of people I met, I wasn't taught that was a thing to be thought about when talking to a person. Imagine if I had, and I'd just randomly asked someone I'd just met, "Hey, is your skin brown? Because you have this name I've never heard before and I wanna know." I dunno about you, but that sounds rude AF to me.

I think I did grasp that Bashir was an Arabic name early on. But, and here's the thing, because I didn't think about this as often as a sighted person would, I didn't associate Arabic with brown skin. I associated it with particular accents. I hope this isn't making me sound worse, but I'm explaining it as best I can.

So I'd hear an accent. I'd go, "Okay, this person is English. That person is American, that one is French, that one is Indian," based on accents. Unless some context clues were given telling me "Oh, this person is the kid of that one and they have this accent 'cause they grew up in X location."

I'm a lot better about this than I was as a teenager, but before I came online, I didn't have many people to discuss shows I liked with, and when I was watching things, I'd just. Pay more attention to the story. With Julian I was not thinking "His surname is Bashir, which means he's Arab, which means he's brown," I was thinking "Oh, I like his name, it is pretty. Oh, he has a nice voice, I will just listen to that. Ah, plot is happening! Gotta pay attention to that! Wow, he's really clever! And he annoys people sometimes but I like him! Oh no, he has a tragic past! Now I'm invested!"

And I never talked to anyone about his nationality because for the most part, it was not plot-relevant. He was Julian Bashir and I loved him and I wouldn't have cared what he looked like at the time if I'd been told, but I wasn't told, because I didn't ask, because if I was watching the show with anyone, it was because I was at my dad's and it was important to not talk much during his shows. And I was too interested to talk much anyway. And the rest of the time I just watched the show alone!

This isn't the only fandom I did this in, I did it in Yu-Gi-Oh, with the Ishtars. Then came up with a story idea that required many cast members to be siblings for story reasons, and was gonna add the Ishtars to the big family, but one of my friends, who I then had only just met, gently explained, "Honey, no, they're Egyptian, they're brown, you can't just make them related to lighter characters even in an AU." (Paraphrasing.)

I must reiterate that I never intended to erase someone's race by thinking this way. It just wasn't a question I asked. It wasn't something I actively thought about. I got to know characters, and people, as people first, without ever seeing their faces.

Of course, now I'm extremely very mindful to keep track of the race/ethnicity of any character I'm going to write about, because I have entered the online fanfiction community, and have many stories planned, and am scrupulous about details because if I'm writing about something, I want to do it right. And I do care, deeply, about the possibility of fucking something like Julian Bashir's race up, because I am working on myself all the time to make sure I don't hurt someone else in any way. I am as anti-racist as my mother, who raised me, but I am also a flawed human being and I can, and have, fucked up. I would like to do it as little as possible, especially in online spaces.

@saturnsexual and @cloud-frost

I want you both to know I saw your replies on the post about character descriptions in wikis! I also wished to respond to a couple points without derailing the post in question. :D

I freaked out when I first started realising everyone was all "Cardassians are totes lizards!" because I have an OC in one of my Trek AU ideas who is a quarter Cardassian and I was like "So when do the scales stop being scales with mixed-race descendants?" (The answer is probably "Egg-laying lizard aliens breeding with mammalian humanoids is already biologically weird, you are over-thinking this, dear.") Thanks for the clarification about the make-up though! I knew there was make-up involved, just not how much detail was provided with it. Appreciate clarity regardless!

*shifts awkwardly* So, real talk, and please don't judge, I was a baby (teenager really), but I, too, once believed Julian Bashir to be white. I blame the accent. It's not a good excuse, there are people of colour in the UK, but I'm pretty sure that was my reasoning for the assumption. Of course the surname is obviously very not-white, and Julian is a lovely shade of brown, and his eyes are pretty, and I know this thanks to fanfics and helpful friends, and I love him so very much. TLDR, sometimes (a lot of the time) us blind folks can make stupid assumptions, and if we're trying, that can get better with age. It certainly has for me.

[thegeminisage]

star trek update time. i'm WAY behind. friday we watched voy's "tattoo," saturday i finally womaned up and agreed to watch ds9's "the visitor" and then we also bravely soldiered on to "hippocratic oath," and last night we did ds9's "indiscretion" and "rejoined."

tattoo (voy):

it's a real shame about (waves vaguely at racefaking "expert" on voy's writing staff) because, due to my own lack of education, i never know which stuff is based in fact and which is just wholesale bullshit. i remember one time i googled something about chakotay's culture because it seemed so obviously fake, and it turned out to be Kind Of True But Not Like That. it sucks because not ONLY was it a huge missed opportunity for Representation And Education (tm) but chakotay is a really interesting guy and i'd like to know more about him and see him get to do more stuff without him getting buried in the like. mysticism and racism of it all. it's no good for him and it's no good to sit through either

bc like. at this episode's core. if you could somehow remove the racist panflute and the whole thing where we portray people from THE SPACE TRAVELING FUTUREEE as primitive savages, you could have had a good story. chakotay struggles with not feeling at home where he lives/in his own culture, goes to space about it, then has an emotional crisis when his dad dies while the two of them are on bad terms. i know that's a good story and i know star trek can make that a good story because do you know who else has that story? SPOCK.

LIKE. IT COULD HAVE BEEN SO EASY. WHAT WERE YOU DOING!

anyway, chakotay naked. i know he was naked for the wrong reasons but that man had his whole ass out. bold moves heretofore only taken by sir patrick stewart himself. GOOD FOR HIM!

oh yeah the b plot of this episode sucked. we have to give the doctor a cold because of his lack of compassion? since When has he ever complained about sick or whiny people? been gruff with them, sure, tough-love kind of guy definitely, but no one would program a doctor who hated serving patients?? i did like that kes gave him an extra hour to be evil though. i love her so much

the visitor (ds9):

i don't want to talk about it.

or, no, i actually already talked about it, and i don't have anything to add, except that 1. christopher nolan can still suck it 2. every episode of ds9's 4th season so far has made me feel like i need to give it a "must see" on the spreadsheet. i almost can't believe i'm watching star trek. i have to start grading the damn things on a curve

hippocratic oath:

THIS IS WHAT I MEAN. stuck with the jem'hadar and julian is like "i can fix them" and o'brien is like "i have been racist my whole life and i'm not about to stop now and also you cannot fix them so i am going to condemn them to a horrible death in order to save your life" because he did at the beginning of the episode say out loud with his mouth that he wished his wife was more like julian bashir and then promptly refused to examine that thought even a little bit

like this had EVERYTHING. gay people. ethical dilemmas. twink with a spine of steel. worf forgetting he's no longer in tng. my best friend odo disguising as an inanimate object. and i'm supposed to just give it a WATCH?

like, i was right there with julian. fix them fix them fix them it's so easy they CAN be weaned off of it this could change everything i was so livid with o'brien for condemning those guys to a painful and undignified ending and for repeatedly ruining julian's attempts to help with all his attempts to escape and then he was like. yeah. i did all that to save YOUR LIFE because i saw that YOU were in danger.

and it obviously doesn't excuse anything and you get the feeling julian COULD have helped them with enough time and the right tools and and and...but he didn't have all that, and obrien KNEW he didn't have all that, and he wasn't willing to risk his friend's life on a gamble when it came to helping enemy soldiers

like, it's his fucking cardassian ptsd. note how he didn't speak when they were captured but bashir did because the gun was on his friend. note how he had to explain why the commander couldn't escape with them. IT MKAES SO MUCH SENSE FOR HIS CHARACTER. who hasn't done horrible things for the people they love? if his wife doesn't get back soon he's going to be asking for julian's hand in marriage by season 5

indiscretion (ds9):

KIRA PULLING THE THORN OUT OF DUKAT'S ASS. sorry i'm good i'm normal

something about dukat...at first he was very boring and flat, and then he was funny but still pretty 2-dimensional, and then he was funny AND gay with sisko but still 2-dimensional, and now he's got all kinds of depth. i completely wrote him off as generic cardassian villain at first but i am genuinely thrilled to see him every time he shows up

like, the bajoran lover and the daughter is such an amazing plot twist, but also, sorry to say this, he and kira have q and picard energy. as in, q wants picard to fuck him so so so bad, and picard has zero interest in doing this, and somehow that interest gets even lower the more q wants it, and the lower his interest gets, the more rabid q is for him, and it's probably the only thing i really enjoyed about either character, a few of sir patrick stewart's better speeches aside. dukat is exactly like that with kira. he is GAGGING for her strap and she finds him vile and rephrensible and the closest they got to fucking was when she pulled the spine out of his ass cheek and laughed at him and he probably is going to put that in the spank bank for the rest of his life. and she will still never fuck him

really fun when she told him to shut up and he shut up <3

i just love episodes that deal with the fallout of the war...it's always such incredible character work. i was worried that with the dominion threat these kinds of episodes would go away and i'm glad that's not the case

also, hi, sisko fumbling things with his gf for the b-plot. dax and julian giving him romantic advice and then mocking him when he leaves. jake being the only one who can talk sense into him. incredible. 10/10

ALSO, not only did capt yates make him work at that apology she did NOT kiss his ass goodbye. and he deserved it.

even quark was funny in this episode, despite the misogyny. he was nice to jake in "the visitor" so i think i've forgiven him because i've made at least two quodo jokes since then. my first love will always be kiraodo (kodo?) though

rejoined (ds9):

LESBIANS IN STAR TREK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

as previously stated about 600 times on this blog i DID NOT KNOW there would be a gay kiss happening. i thought btvs held the honors for the first gay kiss and that this was going to be like an allegory or a metaphor like in tng. and i did like the tng ep for what it was! but holy shit this blows that out of the water.

i think it's so important that this would have been absolutely NO different whatsoever if either half of the couple had been a man. for the time period especially it's very much like. Queers Are Just Like Us which i think is an important step 1 to reel in potential bigots who are still on the fence. i cannot believe my mother is going to watch this episode someday

also, hi, the allies in this episode...? julian sitting through that WHOLE dinner without the first word of complaint. sisko telling dax it's a bad idea but he'll back her tf up. kira bewildered that any of it is any problem at all. sisko's moment was especially nice bc at first you think he's being a dick which is out of character for him and then you realize 1. he's scared for her 2. he loves her 3. he would probably fight the homophobic (recursionphobic...?) trills with his bare hands if he had a good excuse

it's also nice that zero people in this episode were weird about the idea of two women together. it was SO NORMAL. god i can't believe andor let those two women touch hands for a single shot and called it progressive between that and spn my standards are through the FLOOR!!

TONIGHT: ds9's "starship down" and "little green men," and then we're finally back to voyager.

[supervillain-smut]

Star Trek: DS9 and How They Hug

Yes, this is my first post in a long while, yes I’m aware it’s probably not what anyone was expecting, yes I am sorry to anyone with asks in my inbox, and yes I will be getting back to them.

Miles O'Brien Miles has a very excited and friendly hug, the kind where he just gives you a big squeeze before he lets you go, and lets his hands linger on your shoulders just for a bit.

Elim Garak Garak doesn't hug. He doesn't trust anyone enough, the only reason Tora Ziyal got to was because she surprised him. He prefers a kind head bow, or even possibly a hand shake.

Skrain Dukat Dukat is a creep in almost everything he does, including hugs. He's the sort of Cardassian that abuses his power to no end, and so he lets his hands wander just that little bit too close to your rear; if you try to call him out on it, he plays like he doesn't know what you're talking about. "I meant nothing by it!", "It was an accident, you are much smaller!", "You're being too sensitive!" Are the most common phrases he runs to.

Benjamin Sisko Sisko gives those little-bit-too-tight dad hugs, the kind where you almost can't breathe, almost. He's joyous and caring, and makes no effort to hide it from those he cares about.

Jadzia Dax Jadzia is no stranger to warm embraces, and freely gives hugs to whoever she trusts or thinks could use one. If you're against this sort of affection, however, she won't take it personally and adjust accordingly. Her hugs are very calming, warm, and friendly, but just a smidge too long. She won't let you go until she feels like it.

Quark Quark will only hug someone if he can get something out of it; whether it's picking your pocket, gaining your trust, or copping a feel, these are some of the many exploiting reasons he will hug someone.

Julian Bashir Julian loves hugs, even better if they don't interfere with his work. Meaning he doesn't really make a conscious effort to hug anyone, but he likes being hugged. However, they do feel very nice and genuine when he does return the favor, or remembers to offer it.

Odo Odo goes stiff as a log when he's hugged. He doesn't like hugs, and he doesn't like being hugged (unless it's by Kira, which he will never admit) he just grumbles once you let go of him and tries to go back to business as usual.

Kira Nerys Kira hugs anyone close to her, other than that forget it. If you're not one of her best friends or Odo, good luck! Also, she hugs in private, so general population thinks she never hugs, ever.

Corat Damar Damar will allow a hug if you really need one, and when drunk is not afraid to get a little more cuddly than usual, but he'd rather be seen as the intimidating Glinn/Legate he thinks he looks like.

BONUS: DOMINION

Female Founder Hahahaha! How do you like being vaporized? Because that's what's going to happen.

Jem'Hadar (Ikat'Ika, Remata'Klan, Omet'iklan) For the Jem'Hadar, it is completely pointless, and a weakness. No, they do not hug. Although they do wish to know what it feels like, secretly. It's also not very practical; very pointy. However, it's rumored Omet'iklan will give you a hug if you're really upset. But that's just rumors, right?

Borath He will allow it, but not for long. Make sure no one sees, and don't tell anyone! He has a reputation to uphold.

Deyos Deyos is the second least affectionate of the Vorta, and that's saying a lot considering none of them are that affectionate unless they're absolutely enthralled with you. His hugs are brief, uncomfortable, and short. He's only doing it to either make you stop crying, or to make you leave him alone.

Eris Eris doesn't mind hugs, she's just very confused at first. She tries to figure it out all too quickly. Are you trying to attack her? Pick her up? Guide her? Is this normal? How does she respond? Once you actually have your arms around her, she gets the message and returns the favor very confusedly. She doesn't get it, but you seem to like it, so it's not that bad.

Gelnon Gelnon is a very proud Vorta, but prides himself on knowing others' weaknesses, he only hugs you for tactical purposes; until he realizes far too late he actually likes the affection. The epitome of "what was that?" "affection" "weird. Do it again."

Keevan Keevan? Hugs? Not likely. In the open. In private, however? You're not likely to be released until he says so. You say anything, and he will kill you. Everything and anything he enjoys is kept a secret.

Kilana Kilana doesn't understand hugs and she doesn't want to; the second she sees you going in for one, she dodges you and moves elsewhere well away from your grasp.

Luaran Do you want to get stabbed? Because this is how you get stabbed. A big, resounding, NO. For your own safety. Now, that doesn't mean she means it maliciously, nor is it meant to be lethal; it startles her, and her fear response is fight.

Weyoun (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, summarized) In regards to all the Weyouns: YES. He loves hugs almost as much as he loves games of any kind. He personally loves this form of human interaction. On an individual level, the further along this line you go, the more weary he becomes until you get downright untrusting at 7.

Yelgrun Yeah, no. The most unaffectionate Vorta of them all, he doesn't care for this at ALL. Stabbing you will be intentional, but not without warning. He will give you three seconds to remove yourself.

[celestialholz]

Celestial Live-Reacts: STP 2.7, 'Monsters'

... If this isn't Tapestry 2, I'm fucking writing Tapestry 2.

Off we go!

"The true sovereign of nature..." quite the enigmatic speech from someone I have never seen and looks rather like Julian Bashir

... God, I miss Bashir 😔

Sorry, "you WERE a human?" Excuse me????

He's claustrophobic! Bless him ❤

"The man who hates enclosed spaces spends his life in the infinite cosmos" - yeah, sounds about right. Heaven forbid we get this man some therapy and he actually DEALS with shit, can you imagine 😂

"You're not very interesting." 😆 "I'm really quite dull", anyone?

"Even your closest friends call you 'captain'"... wow. English psychologist Q is a dick.

... You know when you're so repressed that even your own BRAIN gives you an innate therapist who sounds far too much like that one god you really like? 🙃

He's so uncomfortable 😭

... Thank you, CBS, for that image of Picard holding a sun. I have exactly the fanfic to put that in. 😍

"Once upon a time, there was a queen with fiery red hair... and she was female." 😂😂 Fucking hell. Reason #383048 why Jean-Luc shouldn't have kids

This is why he likes reading, bless 😍

"There is no better teacher than one's enemy" - true, if you're ridiculous enough to consider him your enemy 🙄

"... To lift them up with inspiring speeches." "I'll never be able to do that." Oh, you of little faith 😍

... The monsters are real? Spidey sense? 🤔

His mother is also a speechmaker! Of course she is ❤

... Oh fuck 🙃

Titles! More lady writers!

Ah, hello my dears ❤

"If that whole thing starts up again, I'm quitting the gang" 😂

"Everyone loves us", "we're the main event"... fourth wall whom 🤣

... This isn't Tapestry 2, is it 😒

Admiral = done

"There's a thousand ways to die out there", mmm... "It's not safe out here", anyone?

Estonia is playing 80s kids' show Knightmare, for anyone who likes a niche reference ✊

What IS this monster thing? Am I in a Doctor Who episode that stars Patrick Stewart? 🤔

"You may terminate your session now"? "Something else is happening here?" Whaaaaaat

"We're all here for you, Picard..." 🤔 I get it, they are, but they're self-aware. His brain's screaming at him. Never mind Q, this guy's Vic Fontaine 😂

"Perpetually untethered in ways of the heart"... oh fuck, this IS Tapestry 2 isn't it, just more allegorical... and without Q 😒

"A secret shame... something you're afraid others will see..." ... Oh, wow. They really went there, huh. 😂

"STOP!" And that is what gets him. Damn, that is telling...

"... And you don't know how it ends..." What's behind the white door, huh? Because shit, a girl could speculate for days...

Can't help but notice that of all the costumes they could have given Babycard, he's got a suspiciously familiar white, ribbed tunic on... 🙃

Oh shit, bye Estonia 😂

She shuts her son's helmet against the swearing 😂 Theresa's great ❤

... This is some serious Doctor Who shit. Doctor Who has a vibe, and this episode has it in spades

Poor Theresa 😂

Try something new, kid ❤

"I just WORK in outer space" 😆

... Just realised that Estonia's more a concerned mum/aunt here, and I quite like it? She suits this sort of thing much more. She's seemed cold and strictly business outside Renee, but this offers her a sweet little niche, and therefore already more personality than her counterpart.

Soft Lesbian Intermission 😍

Seven is a coffee fan - wonder who she got that from 🙃😂

... "My ready room"? Really?

IT'S HIS DAD. Dear lord... and I thought he was quite Q-like... 👀 Wrong sort of daddy 😂

"You ruined her, you broke her" - another mirror of Tapestry, where we found out his father makes him distinctly uncomfortable 👀

Tunnels... thousands of ways to die down there...

... There's no monster. "Couldn't save her either... not from her own mind." 😭 I'm a massive fan of this. This gives his father dimension he's never been credited with, and another reason for Picard to be traumatised - not only does he have to get over the fact that the mother he loved dearly wasn't quite sane, but the fact that he's had no way to turn to his father and try and work through that, because he didn't know how to process it either. And Babycard didn't get that, has placed the blame on him all his life. ❤ Maurice still seems harsh and strict, but clearly, he cared. ❤

Lovely piano version of the series one theme here 😍

"You'll do so much, one day. You'll save worlds." Aunt Estonia is a new take and I'm here for it 😍

They're back... BUT WHAT IS THAT DOOR? 🤔 That's so Picard. We see such great insights, but never the true him. The 'secret shame'. 👀 It can't be so simple as sexuality, surely, or that sense of rebellion that permeated through the original Tapestry... can it? That door's going to be key...

... Rios is staying here isn't he ❤

"Picard feels like a father to me... even though I'm not a son to him." Much like Maurice feels like Jean-Luc's father, yeah? *holds up mirror once again*

These two are lovely 😍

'Hey babe, son, check out Daddy's cool spaceship' 😂 Okay, maybe they're going with him

"Jurati, with a side of Borg Queen" - yes my good waiter, I'll take ten 😂

... Wow. More hot women who sing well. 👁👄👁

What did that bloody window ever do to you 😆

"You saved her" - did you, though?

She IS Romulan!

"All of that was part of Q's plan, that you experience those memories." ... Whoa whoa whoa, he meant for this? Meant him to get run over and everything? 👀 Q is a master of engineering, my god 😍

... Also, yeah - Tapestry without Q, but not really. He's behind that white door isn't he 😆

"I've been letting him control... what if the lesson I take is: know HIM?" Imagine that Jean-Luc, bothering to work out Q's motivations early. Could not be you 😂

... No, but really. Finally, he's making some form of connection; finally, he's starting to work out that Q's doing this for him. Thought we'd never fucking get here 😂

"I always take Q as unknowable... but here he is, so late in my life, STILL fixated on me!" Yes...

"He needs this trial to happen, but... he's saying it's about me, but it's deeply personal and urgent to him..." YES...

"And if we understand why that is, then we can go on offence!" ... NO 😒 Fuck's sake Picard... never have I been more frustrated with a character I love so dearly. You were so close! 😭

Also, shall we have a fucking quick think on why, Jean-Luc? Just for a moment? Because jesus christ, is it not PAINFULLY OBVIOUS 🙃

... This is so indolent it's almost out of character. Picard is not a man driven by emotion, but at this point, it's the just the logical conclusion. *soft Celestial scream*

"Sounds like you want to summon Q... flattered, but that's beyond my capabilities." "Yours, maybe, but..."

Guinan, ladies, gentlemen and lovelies: for all your omnipotence-summoning needs 😂

... He didn't even ask. Dear god. 😂

El-Aurians and the Continuum had a truce????

'Denizen'??? Do the Q live with others? Whaaaat? That's lore chaps 👁👄👁

"I'm not going to call them gods, that's for damn sure" 😂 And she'd know, apparently...

Food and drink unites El-Aurians, hence the bars! Beautiful 😍

... Wow. Q drinking Earl Grey when meeting Adam hits different now 😆❤

Also, my thanks to CBS again - every time I've had Q drinking ludicrous cocktails in my fics is now officially validated 😂

"Every action vibrates, every word has resonance... metal and liquid can capture the half-life of a moment, so when I say the truce was made over a bottle..." Okay, a. prose is delightful 😍 and b. this is why she hates Q isn't it, because he ignores that shit and does what he likes 😂

Does that make this... the Treaty of Alcoholeron? 😏 Yeah, don't mind me... I'll just be going over here... to laugh 😂

"El-Aurians hear the world like music" 😍

Hurricane in a bottle, oh god 😆

... And he's... not here. 👀

"It didn't... work." Ohhh. Ohhh no.

So he's either ignoring it... or he's cut off from the Continuum. Can't be good, can it? 😭

... Not to be that guy, but Picard is too slow, and Q's in too deep... and even this hasn't made him get it. This thing that has been engineered specifically for him to get it. This is going to be Picard's cartharsis; Q dying for him is going to be what it takes for him to WAKE UP. I swear to all that's fucking holy, I hope I'm wrong... and I hope they fucking fix that shit in series three when I'm not... 😡

"An El-Aurian summons a Q, a Q appears." ... Who the fuck's this guy, then? Wrong Q? 🤔

Go on...

... Ah, shit. Not a Q, then. 😂

He's dropped his badge...

... Okaaaaay, and breathe...

Celestial Rating: 6.5/10.

This episode is a fucking trip. Beautifully imagined and realised, but I do not enjoy where this is going... and I do not enjoy Picard being this ignorant. 🙄