Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
His cognitive processing speeds are excellent—his parents, after all, had gone to great lengths to ensure as much—and besides, Garak knows, by now, how his mind works, what hints to drop to reveal which conclusions. But his emotions, conversely…
Once the understanding does finally strike him, there is a part of Julian that wants to be angry. And why shouldn’t he be? Over a hundred years and the same prejudice still persists within Starfleet. And the story of this officer, this Una Chin-Riley, Pike’s First Officer, for goodness’s sake, mirrors his own so closely, except, evidently, she didn’t have anyone else to take the blame for her.
And my final piece for the weekend - the companion piece …. Garak and Julian think of each other post DS9 - Julian is reading one of Garak’s Cardassian novels and Garak is sitting in his stone garden. 1,000s of miles apart they are thinking of each other…. (Spot Julian’s teddy bear on the shelf!)
garak getting into bare knuckle boxing in post-canon cardassia’s seedier nightlife as a means of channeling his anger but also self harm. federation aid worker!julian arrives on the planet after several months of garak not even opening, let alone reading, his messages. goes out for a drink at the end of his first month with some of the cardassian workers he’s managed to tentatively befriend and gets dragged into a dive bar just in time to see garak plant a facer on the second son of a gul. shenanigans ensue
Ok, while I’m on this kick of praising early-season DS9, I would like to humbly nominate this scene for the category of Best in Series. Or at least, like, top ten. Right up there with “So I lied. I cheated…” and “It’s insidious. Like the Federation.” I mean, the Marx Brothers patter? Inspired. Nana Visitor’s delivery? Immaculate. And most importantly, the way it gives every lead but Sisko–who gets his due in the next scene–a two- or three-line spotlight that captures something essential about who they are:
Odo’s commitment to a clear, absolute morality that transcends formal laws (“You have a code.”)
Jadzia’s mix of carefully-cultivated emotional pragmatism (“This is Kira’s decision to make”) and self-protective humor (”Well that’s rather dull”)
Bashir’s determination to be In the Thick of It even when he’s struggling to keep up (“Will someone please explain this conversation to me?”)
O’Brien’s habit of expressing deep feeling through awkward diffidence (“it’s been a pleasure serving with you”)
Quark’s performative sleaze (”For you I’d have reduced my catering rates”) and pattern of trying to bond with people by baiting them
And of course the way Kira’s eyes and mouth and shoulders soften, heartbreakingly, in the little breath before she says, “These are my friends.”
It’s SO GOOD, it’s all so good, and you will never convince me otherwise.
i love you green. i love you forests. i love you smell of damp earth. i love you feeling before the storm breaks. i love you moss. i love you rivers. i love you streams. i love you thunderstorms. i love you sunlight shining through leaves.
