Anonymous asked:

Alright, so I'm still wondering how Ziyal's skin would work? Like, how the Cardassian 'scales' (I guess that's the word?) would mix with regular skin.

ladyyatexel answered:

I have let this sit for several stays and I still really don’t know.  This is one of those things that I have thought about because of my little orphan adventures and one of them being a hybrid, this is something I think about with regard to Ziyal ALL THE TIME.

There’s some weird conflict going on here, because I’d always considered that Cardassian skin, in order to make any kind of sense, was just covered in microscales rather than being skin like we have, but - and this is just coming to me - maybe they’re like chickens.  

or, you know, other birds, but the idea of Cardassian chickens really amuses me

But I guess since chickens have both skin and scaling, perhaps the Cardassian scales are more like the scaly legs of birds than like the straight up ridging of a croc or a gator or something.   

Which gives them at least ~mostly~ skin, which thanks to chickens we know can sort of live harmoniously with scales, so then the Cardassians still make internal sense and then Ziyal’s skin is all just sort of grown over and weird because she has genes that are 75% all, “Skin, yes,” and a really loud 25% saying ‘SCALES MOTHERFUCKER’.   Maybe she always looks so pink and fetal because she has to put a lot of ointments on or something. She might actually have some chronic ailments from being a hybrid from two species who are on the veeerry edges of the sexually compatible scale. It’s possible that she looks even wonkier to Cardassians and Bajorans than she does even to us.  Perhaps they both look at her and sort of flinch or tell their kids not to stare at the poor lady with the skin condition. 

My little hybrid guy tried saying he had a skin condition rather than say he was a hybrid for a while.  Buuut he’s really sort of obviously adopted, so he stopped with ‘skin condition’ and now just hides a lot and doesn’t say anything either way.  But skin a skin condition could actually be a thing! I gave my little dude a few health problems as a result of being a hybrid with a species that is not A+ compatible with Cardassians. 

I also think there’s a pretty large likelihood that all these Cardassian/non-scaly people hybrids are infertile.  Like they’re all little mule people.   

Little fetal chicken-y mule people.