wanderings

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine originally aired 1993-1999 and it took me something like twenty years to discover Bashir/Garak and the show. I started watching DS9 during the height of the pandemic for Bashir/Garak, having been lured in through fic, and it's one of those ships where- look, it was the nineties, I was expecting the flirting to be less overt, and it is not, and it is a delight.

Dr. Bashir is brash and idealistic, and Garak is something out of his fantasies - a Cardassian spy - who he wants to unravel, and Garak is more than happy to play with him to pass the time. That Man by ellipsiss (G | 2:20) is a vid that does an excellent job of highlighting the foundations of their dynamic, including bits of dialogue and the thing where Garak makes Bashir *light up*. Also how Garak pursues their relationship, playing on Bashir's expectations and curiosity, showing his puzzle box self off to Bashir, and ultimately letting him inside.

They're both a combination of incredibly straight forward and made of twisty secrets, and it's delicious. the gift we cannot destroy by susiecarter (PG-13 | 5,793 words) is a fic that's a good example of that twisty-ness at play. In a universe where soulmarks are a thing, Garak recognises Julian as his soulmate, something to be approached cautiously. Because of expectations that Julian has, rooted in the secret that he keeps, he fails to recognise their bonding or to parse Garak's hints to him, which results in a delightful layering in their conversations.

Garak is incredibly flirty and Bashir is oblivious. There's this whole thing where arguments are flirtation for Cardassians that gets addressed in, so many fic, really, including ellethinthewoods's Red tulips (and their correct application) (PG-13 | 4,903 words) - where Keiko and Miles' somewhat inebriated takeaway from Miles' run-in with a flirtatious Cardassian is that they really, really need to fix Julian's love life.

The cultural differences between the two men lend themselves to some pretty excellent scenarios. Letters from the Northern Continent by thehoyden (NC-17 | 7,966 words) has Julian taking on Garak's culture, going to Cardassia, and picking up a few things he was oblivious of before. It's a post-war story that spins out all of that tension between them and neatly tidies it up, a wonderful UST-laden thing resolved.

The tension is strong in this ship. Undisclosed Desires by purplefringe (G | 3:57) is a vid that's- it's set to Muse, alright, it's all intense longing with a strong sexual component. There's care-taking, and interest, and acceptance of and a desire to see all of the other's bits- Garak's frustration and Julian's past. Just how much they clearly enjoy each other is great and the look that Julian gives Garak at the end - it's godsgrief's art, wait until the bit about how he really… wRANGLED with those weeds…… just, fuckin obliterated em… (PG), where Julian is literally *chinhandsing* and everything is soft around the edges and they are so much themselves. It's adorable.

The Rose of Terok Nor by cicak is another work that fills me with warm fuzzies, basically. It's tagged "screwball", which is what I want out of my fic, like, a significant chunk of the time, and a thing that Garak and Bashir are really great for. This fic also asks the question of: what if Garak wrote an epic pulp romance about himself and Bashir under a false name and it got really popular.

There's this wonderful sense of absurdity in a lot of the fanwork, like Mostly Tame, Track 3 of Blame It on the Stardust: A Star Trek Vid Album by BeatriceEagle. It's set to Kesha's Godzilla. (What do you get when you take Godzilla to meet your mom Starfleet captain?) ...and I think I forgot to mention that the alien bits of Cardassian physiology are modelled off of reptiles.

Garak is a giant lizard and he and the wunderkind are in love, they just- make each other so happy and I am here for it.

They argue about literature.

I just- ♥.

(This post was written for snowflake_challenge - details about the second challenge are here - and for fannish50, a 2023 posting challenge.)

I bring Star Trek Reboot recs. (Yay!)

You Spin Me Round by ImaginarySanity
Despite the emotionally compromise him line in the film and an awareness of years of fan history, I did not see the Kirk/Spock thing when I saw the film, not really. (Possibly this is because I was distracted by an overwhelming Kirk/Bones thing.) This vid, though, is wonderfully slashy. It's also bouncy, colourful and a lot of fun to boot.
(Song: You Spin Me Round by Jessica Simpson)

cut and fucking paste and its sequel, edit, by crimsonclad
Rating: PG-13
Wonderful, charming, and bloody hilarious. I have a lot of love for the characters in this. It deals with the effects of Kirk and Spock Prime's mind meld on Kirk. It is a most excellent fic. Some day I hope to have it's babies. *nods*

i'm just a jealous guy by londondrowning
Rating: PG-13
Kirk/Bones! It deals with the mind meld and the crew's growing relationships with each other. The author's summary is pretty fantastic: "Leonard McCoy is thirty-one and he’s too fucking old to be anybody’s jealous boyfriend."

6 icons 11 wallpapers by swagga
These are amazing. They're very simple and pretty, part old Trek, part new. The wallpapers are incredibly amusing, each version with different text. They're a bit curse heavy - which I'm totally okay with but others might not be - you've been warned. I really like version 1 of the Uhuras -actually, pretty much all of them make me kind of ridiculously happy.