REalized I could rebagle shit without the images, and since they’re my own and I’m tired of seeing them every two days, they have been removed! AND employing some kind of fucking genius and using a REad MORe. Sorry it was not done sooner, dudes.
THIS IS THE HEADCANON POST THAT PREVIOUSLY CAME WITH THE DEEP DISH DRAWINGS.
ARE YOU READY FOR THIS TO BE ENORMOUS? ARE YOU?
Beneath this read more:
What DD9 Garak & Bashir look like; the delights of mundane bullshit; DD9 apartment decor; overniiiiiiiights~; couuuuuches~; DD9 Ziyal and DS9 Ziyal; romantic DD9 Garak; stubbly DD9 Garak; DD9 Julian and spy movies; this is starting to look like the chapters headers of a Dickens novel.
Re: dialogue – so amused that you do the macro version – I do too – my outlines read more like the DD9 “Fascination” thing, silly and goofy and occasionally full of slang, and then I go through and straighten them up. Sometimes I keep them, though, because they make me laugh.
Re: sketches – yups, totes assimilated as headcanon. That’s what they look like to me. It would probably be almost strange to see them as real? humans now. I was looking at a pic of season 1 Julian, and trying to imagine him in a t-shirt and jeans, and he still isn’t quiiiite right – DD9 Julian is not as put-together, and is perhaps just a bit skinnier (almost too skinny), and seems about twelve times lankier – he’s yours, is what I’m saying, and I like him better that way. :D And as for DD9 Garak, I just have no idea. I try to imagine him as a “real” human and I fail. Maybe Alan Rickman minus about twenty years? Kind of? But still not quite right – his skin is smoother than that – do you see the problem?
And one does plan to make more DD9 things, one does~ One doesn’t appear to have much of a choice. Even now, in my head, Julian’s turning over in bed and rubbing his eyes, and thinking, hmm, I appear to have gone to bed in my clothes, that means I had fun last night…
Re: minithemes and arcs – you are a fantastic faker, but here’s a secret – all of us are. :D I love the little bite-size stories, though. They’re all cookies, but I never know if they’ll be chocolate chip or oatmeal or oooh, gingerbread – I could sit down and eat a whole box of them, I really could – this metaphor has run away with me – but your stories are like food, so that tells you something? I guess? and it’s complimentary!
Re: intentional morals – yep, not unless I’m writing Red Riding Hood or something. But it is nice to find a theme, even if it’s just something as simple as “not all lies need to be exposed,” or “trying to keep too many secrets is going to cause a problem.” But I love your comment about a story asking a question and letting you find your own answer. Very nice, very nice. And that appears to be what we all come to tumblr for, on some level – can we all find an answer? Will it be even remotely the same? Conversation brings the worlds to life~
Your last fanfiction AU, by the way, sounds excellent. I don’t know anything about Jem and the Holograms, but it sounds fascinating to take it to a dark place. Is some of your other art from that AU?
Hee hee, don’t panic about titles! God knows I sure don’t! But it’s lovely, it’s icing on the cake.
Re: mundane bullshit – oh marvelous they do laundry. Laundry rooms - the very mention of a laundry room is so evocative to me. It’s always in the basement, and it’s either kind of dark or insanely brightly lit, and the smell of Tide and dryer sheets, and the hum of the dryers and the gwish gwish of the washers, and quarters in slots – I love laundry rooms. I used to like to read in my university laundry room while I waited for my laundry to finish, just parked in a chair by the door, enjoying how warm it was and how people came and went and I didn’t have to interact with any of them, just enjoy their being there. Hmm. Random, sorry, but yes, I like laundry rooms, so put the fellows in one by all means; I’ll enjoy it.
Re: Garak in the basement – okay, I’m sold. At first I was kind of invested in him being in a top-floor apartment, so that he has a view, because he likes to stand on his balcony and look and think about nothing much, just watch the river winding through the city and the traffic on the street… But you know, maybe he goes to the roof to do that. Or maybe he goes somewhere else altogether. And a little exile-y place for him (you’re right, he’d love that, it would be delicious) makes sense. I like the idea of him semi-accidentally listening in on laundry-room conversations. It’s a bit creepy, but he’s a bit creepy, and it’s a hard habit to break, and really, as long as it’s not hurting anyone, what does it matter~~? (I could see him and Julian having a bit of a terse conversation about this. And then Julian hears something interesting too.)
Re: Garak’s décor – perfect perfect – yes, fabric on the walls, art with matching frames. Making the best of a yicky cinderblocky apartment by warming it up as much as he can. I like the blanket over the couch and the end tables and the shelving. Dark colours, rich, warm lighting. I kind of see him as not using the overhead lights much – preferring his nice reading lamp (like in your couch sketch), or table lamps, or even candles some nights. (But he has a lovely day-bright intense halogen lamp next to his sewing machine, with a gooseneck, because some things require attention.) Warm and dark, happy reptile~ (sort of reptile?)
I do kind of see him going a bit nuts in the bathroom, though. Julian’s got a jug of hand soap, unscented, and a purple toothbrush, and whatever toothpaste was on sale, and a disposable razor that he really should replace, and shaving cream, and a bar of whatever to wash with, and that’s pretty much it for pretty prep. (Some hair gel? I guess? For when he cares?) His criteria for selecting grooming aids probably start and end with “It’s on sale.”
But Garak, oh… Lovely pomades, little colognes, antiperspirant to match, shaving cream in a little tub that you apply with a brush and it’s fragranced with essential oils, shampoo and conditioner from a fairly high-end salon because it’s worth it, nail scissors and nail files and maybe even a Water-pik. Oh, and hand lotion next to the hand soap. And they both look kind of the same. And Julian is intimidated, and goes in to use the washroom, and wants to wash his hands, and just kind of wails, “Garaaaaak – “ and Garak has to lean in and point out what to use.
I kind of want Julian to get used to using his lovely soaps, to enjoy smelling good~ It’s a small pleasure that Julian may never have considered. Please note – I don’t see Garak as over-fragranced at all – but just a little waft of something nice is all part of being Dressed, yes?
Re: Julian’s apartment – sounds like we’re pretty much on the same page there. Student living can look an awful lot like not caring. For Julian, maybe there is some crossover there. Milk crates do the job. They always have. Why buy little tables when milk crates are already here? Posters taped to the wall, yep. (I wonder what they are? What kind of art does Julian like? I don’t see the traditional silly stuff… Although it would amuse me if he had one of those “Demotivation” posters and it cracked Garak right up.)
I like that Julian isn’t afraid to hang out at Garak’s. It’s no fun to hang out at someone’s beautiful house if you don’t feel that you can put your feet up on the furniture. Although I do think Garak would be a bit of a stickler for shoes off. (And I love that line about Garak making Julian’s house look shabby, sooo cute, sooo encapsulates how Julian sees Garak; Garak probably wouldn’t like hearing that, would he? Might be a mixture of half-proud, yes, I do look good, thanks for noticing, and half, oh, damn, of all the places I don’t want to be out of place - )
Re: overnights, overniiiiiights~ I love the idea of Garak making Julian “pay toll” by feeding him things that have vegetables on them (I think that’s from a different post, but like it matters). I also like the idea of Julian watching him cook, watching him assemble something from nothing – might be a bit of a call-back to the tailoring idea, which Julian still has a hard time with. And the sewing machine, yes, excellent. For sure he has one at the shop, too, and that’s the one with the bells and whistles, and that’s where the good serger lives and the overlocker and most of the little gadgets. But he can knock together something pretty goddamned awesome at home with his smaller model and a chopstick to turn the straps, too. /weirdly in love with Garak at his sewing machine, which you will see in another post
Re: Julian on couch – awwwwwww he just goes to the linen closet and helps himself – that is so frigging cute – and it’s also so crossing a line – when you get so comfortable in somebody else’s house that you know where the sheets are kept, that’s a thing, oh, Lady, how do you have the patieeeeence for this? (And Garak’s sheets are much softer and nicer than Julian’s sheets, and also have just a hint of scent… Life as pleasure, as much as possible.)
And the idea of Julian sitting there in the dark wondering how to ask if he can snuggle in with Garak – who is probably sitting there in the dark wondering how to ask if he can snuggle in with Julian – the two of them awake in the night in separate rooms feeling stupid – Lady, this is some dangerous shit you’re selling; it should come with a warning~~ It wants to come out of my fingers, it does; I will restrain myself. (Although when you write it, I will be in grave danger of writing out every thought they think in an immediately subsequent fic~)
ARGH I can’t get over that – “you’re always cold, right? This could be fun, right?” Now how seriously does he intend that to be taken? I’m assuming this is a slightly subtle Julian way of proposing something physical – Lady, have they even kissed at this point? Would they seriously just cuddle up together? I don’t think either of them would get any sleep! But I can’t see Julian just going, welp, okay, right off the deep end face first! I kind of see a few make-out sessions on the couch first, very teenage style, because Julian likes to feel that he knows what he’s doing, right? This would be huge step in unknown direction, and I’m not sure it would so much be fun and intriguing as very very scary. BUT I also have no idea how well they know each other at this point – if Julian gets to drink right from the carton and yell about eggs and take sheets out of the closet without asking, maybe slipping into bed with Garak would be like slipping into a warm bath, anticipation and relaxation and ahhhhhhh~
(curse you woman)
Re: Ziyal and her cultures – yep. I wrote a Kira/Dukat fic (hush, you, he’s good-looking) that kind of talked about Ziyal’s cultural issues. And I can’t see Daddy Dukat being a very good cultural teacher… I mean, yes, in some ways, but he’s also a steamroller, at least on DS9. “You want your art displayed? You should have come to meeeeee – “ and you just know that if Ziyal’s art hadn’t been up in a museum within 26 hours, somebody would have died. Yerk – did DD9 Ziyal’s mom die too? Oh, God, is that why she lives with Daddy now? Eeeeeeeek – urgh – I can’t reconcile this! But she loves her dad so much, even though everybody else thinks he is the World’s Biggest Jerkoff – does he love her too?? Oh no, DD9 Dukat, when did you turn into a person, that’s not allowed… /clutches at head
Anyway, back to learning about Cardassia – it would have been very sweet and very interesting to see Ziyal learn about Cardassia, and it would also have been fascinating to see Dukat’s reaction to Garak being her teacher. It might have been much more violent than his reaction to Garak being her friend. He would really, really not want her to learn to look at things the way Garak does… And it might have been a bit too late already; I headcanon Ziyal as very sweetly amoral, because you don’t spend most of your formative years as a slave in a mining camp without picking up a few very ugly tricks. But that’s a separate thing~
Re: Quark – Quark is hot, quite frankly, as hot as Ferengi ever get anyway. I mean, I don’t think I want to write saucy fic about him, but he’s very confident and very suave (sometimes) and he does have a way with words. I would love to see you paint Quark. God, that’s perfect. Your style would suit him to the toes. Heh, terrifying sparkly shit, yes!
Re: Garak the tremendous romantic – dear God, there’s a very silly fic about Valentine’s Day in there somewhere. For everybody, I think, not just them. But oh, the deluge of little this and that, because he kept picking little things up because Julian would like this, oh, this would suit Julian, oh, Julian likes this author, ah, Julian likes this kind of chocolate, Julian Julian Julian – and now it’s the evening before V-Day and he’s looking at this enormous pile of crap on his coffee table and clutching at his hair. (Assuming that Julian is actively romantically interested in Garak at this point, or else this isn’t sweet, it’s just really sad and a bit creepy and Garak would probably stop going to the pizza shop for a while.)
Re: grey stubble and facial hair – yeah, I like the idea of Garak not growing much facial hair, we can go with that. I thought DD9 Garak with facial hair echoing ridges was tremendously cute, but I always see Garak as kind of dorky-looking, in a way, a plain guy with nice eyes who gets better-looking the longer he talks to you – so sexy!Garak couldn’t quite work for me. (It’s the same when I read fic where Garak is portrayed as a sex God, and every detail of his naked frame is lovingly described as if it literally radiated lusssst – it’s just not what I see.)
Re: Julian noticing grey hairs – hee, and that’s all I have to say about thaaaat~
Re: Garak the Thwomp – I like him better when his scaling is under control too. So far my favourite look for him is actually his latest look – the one in 6 x 01, where he’s very grey and very elegant and very well put together. He has a little too much scaling on his ridges, but that’s understandable; he’s stressed out and isn’t grooming as well as he usually does. He definitely can be a round-faced guy, and I think that kind of calls back to the weight changes as well – Garak by 6x01 is a freaked-out Garak who knows that things are going kind of sour, and he’s probably cut back on the chocolates because of this, both subconsciously and by choice; life is starting to feel a bit like it used to back in the good/bad old days, and he may have to do something a bit more dangerous than disagree with a bride about her fabric choices (LOVE THIS BY THE WAY YOU WILL HEAR MORE ABOUT IT).
Re: casually pretending books are not happening – yep, me too, don’t worry, we’re all mad here. /pat pat
I had to know what happened with Julian and Ezri so that my post-canon Cardassia stuff could feel right. I just have a hard time totally chucking a relationship out the window, and since they’re definitely together at the end of season 7, I needed to know if they went off and had eight million little Human/Trills or something. But instead they broke up. And apparently in a way that worked, and apparently it was Ezri’s decision (I think? Julian gets dumped a lot, but he bounces). And that was good enough for me, I can take it from here~
DD9 Julian and spy movies/novels – aww. He has a shitty apartment and tentative plans for a life and not much going on romantically that he hasn’t kind of fucked up. Poor little fella. BUT he is more free than he has ever been; the only one deciding the direction of his life these days is him. Still, it probably does get lonely, and it probably does feel good to imagine that he’s done everything right, he’s a hero, oh God, does DD9 Julian read sci-fi sometimes and pretend he’s DS9 Bashir? Brilliant, handsome young doctor, practicing frontier medicine on a reclaimed alien space station, always has the answers, saves the ambassadors and gets the girl, I’m going to cry…
Ahh ha ha, I’m laughing at Miles and how drunk he’d be to discuss desert island man sex. And I also like the idea of Julian unwinding with Miles, also by getting shit-faced, maybe at Quark’s, because I can’t see Miles hanging out at Julian’s and I can’t see Julian getting shit-faced at Miles’s.
Re: Julian drifting – I agree, it would feel very pat to have Julian say, wait, somebody else likes you? I want you then! Because it’s tropey, and it’s hokey, and it usually ends in tears IRL, I think, and Garak would also see the stupidity of it because he can’t stop observing for a second, and I think he’d be rather put out. I think Julian would have to do some serious wooing. And I don’t know if Julian would be in that space.
And the idea of Garak saying something, of that pure moment – Lady, it rings like a bell – and I love that Garak actually would say something – but damn these pronouns, when you say “fuck it, this seems to be how I feel, I should have done something with him ages ago,” who is talking and who is him?? It matters, dammit~
holy hell three thousand words I have written fic shorter than this
chequerootlurks
