Garak/Bashir resurfaces in my life.

[bironic]

While not doing my work last night (kind of like right now), I found some Garak/Bashir vids on YouTube. Wow. Seeing DS9 transformed into fanvids was a weird experience. I've said this before, but I was a huge Star Trek fan without seeing or participating at all in any organized fandom for it, so going back now with a corrupted fannish mind or even with slash awareness is like encountering entirely new shows. And mostly it's been okay.

Here's an example that isn't half bad: Flawed Design, by diftorhehsmusma. Actually, it's growing on me with repeated viewings. The music is perfect for Garak, the clips fit the lyrics even if they don't always cut away soon enough or match the beat the way I'd like them to, and the footage is astonishingly suggestive. It shouldn't be, I suppose, when at least one of the actors (Robinson/Garak) was deliberately playing his character to be attracted to the other. Silencing the dialogue, which is usually snappy and requires concentration, might make the difference.

This, by contrast, is just wrong. And I liked Bashir/Sarina. It's the song that does it. I can't bring myself to watch more than the first five seconds.

Obsidian Order Man makes it all better, though. (Garak gen, humor, set to "Secret Agent Man.")

Funny how I want to scrub my brain thinking about slash or any kind of graphic sex with most ST characters, but Cardassians are a-okay.* Probably because they've always been synonymous with sex to me, even before I realized it consciously. They're very sexy, aren't they? Maybe you have to be a Trekkie to go with the makeup, but besides that, they're also silky-sly, and ruthless and powerful, and have low-pitched voices, and tend to have chemistry with anyone else in the room, and wear black and gray, and torture people naked, and...

*cough* Where were we?


* So's Odo/Kira, actually, but that took a while to get used to, and Odo has the benefit of having a very alien body; he's like a sexless being who happens to be able to grow a phallus if he wants to or if someone else wants him to. Picard/Q is another obvious one, but I haven't yet worked up the courage to go read any. And I've found that I'm okay noticing and making jokes about Kirk/Spock or Kirk/Spock/McCoy, but I draw the line at anything actually sexual.

Comments

[euclase.livejournal.com]

Dude. Garak is SO HOT. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks so.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes. The gazes, the sense of humor, the mystery!

Dukat (the voice!) and Damar (the pathos!) too. Yes.

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

They're very sexy, aren't they? Maybe you have to be a Trekkie to go with the makeup, but besides that, they're also silky-sly, and ruthless and powerful, and have low-pitched voices, and tend to have chemistry with anyone else in the room, and wear black and gray, and torture people naked, and...

YOU, OUT OF MY BRAIN.

:D

I'm completely, COMPLETELY with you on this, and you put it beautifully. I also think the Cardassian political system, with all the double-crossing and the emphasis on personal relationships and rivalries (despite all the rhetoric about how personalities don't matter and only the state is important) just feeds it. Cardassians are forced to be able to read people very well and very intimately to survive. And that's hot.

Also, the body armour.

Personally, I'm fond of Spock/McCoy, but it took a while before it stopped feeling like reading about parental sex. (This is no reflection on the stories I was reading; I think it was just a function of how I felt about Star Trek, which was something of a fuzzy blanket when I was growing up.) Many other Star Trek pairings still make me uncomfortable. (Oddly, the first slash story I ever read was a Star Trek piece.)

Ooooh, I know the "Flawed Design" vid! That's the way I first discovered that song (which I really love, and which has ended up being a great help in writing the original fiction I'm working on at the moment).

[bironic.livejournal.com]

I also think the Cardassian political system ... just feeds it.

You would, wouldn't you. :D I'm with you 100% on the sexiness of reading people so deeply and so well. Garak and Dukat had it in spades. Garak just happened to apply it to Bashir, whom you know I loved, while Dukat usually went for Sisko and Kira.

Also, the body armour.

Mm. Yes. So HARD, but inside so SOFT.

You wouldn't happen to have the song, would you? I like it a lot too.

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

Sadly, no, I haven't got the song, and am reduced to just playing the video over and over in the background while I write. :( If I finally cave and get it, though, I'll make sure you get a copy.

Garak and Dukat had it in spades. Garak just happened to apply it to Bashir, whom you know I loved, while Dukat usually went for Sisko and Kira.

Mmmmmm-HMMMMM. You know, I think the idea of Dukat/Sisko is underrated.

I just watched "Obsidian Order Man" as well - it's really cleverly done. I love the snippets of dialogue they've worked in.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Ya, it was a clever move, to do that over the instrumental bits.

I think the idea of Dukat/Sisko is underrated.

If I'd been a slasher when I watched DS9, I might've been all over that. Well, if I'd liked Sisko more. His histrionics breathy rants tended to turn me off, as you know. But, ooh, what about one of those "Dukat can't have Sisko (and maybe won't even admit to himself that he wants him) so he takes it out on X" stories? *g*

am reduced to just playing the video over and over in the background while I write.

Ah, me too. And now I keep waking in the middle of the night with it running through my head.

[jdr1184.livejournal.com]

All the Cardassians on DS9 were so very sexy. I love Odo, but I never liked him with Kira. Garak and Bashir are the only pairing--a little precrazy Dukat too--I read in the Trekverse. I didn't think I'd ever write my own Garak epic until a friend started poking me. He was such a fun character to play with. I've been debating whether to play with my other plot bunnies, but it's harder with an older and less active fandom.

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Have I read your Garak story? I don't think I have. I should put that on my list.

I love Odo, but I never liked him with Kira.

Sadly, that was one of the cases where the characters had more spark and interest together before they started actually having a relationship on the show. They were a little too squishy-romantic for me once they were dating. But the few O/K fanfics I tried were pretty good.

[jdr1184.livejournal.com]

I don't think you have read it. If you're interested, you can find the links to all three parts here. (http://jdr1184.livejournal.com/33205.html) It's long, like 15,000 words long. I'd love to hear what you think of my version of Garak.

Canon Odo/Kira was too squishy for me too and because I felt like Kira was never going to love Odo as much as he loved her. She cared, but I never bought the romance part. I should give fan fic another try since there's not enough G/B going around. :)

[ender24]

They're very sexy, aren't they? Maybe you have to be a Trekkie to go with the makeup, but besides that, they're also silky-sly, and ruthless and powerful, and have low-pitched voices, and tend to have chemistry with anyone else in the room, and wear black and gray, and torture people naked, and...


found this via the vid recs newsletter, and thanks for that garak vid link!
ahhh good old times, when I was a wee teenager, and was enjoying DS9 very much!

and yep , totally on what you said, I was always deeplyyyyyyyyy, fascinated with cardassians, especially Gul Dukat...... Their ruthlessness had something totally ... Like a dark attraction........ magnetic!!!!!!