#betazoids

[vulcanlovetriangles]

I feel deprived that we never saw these two meet, though they likely crossed paths at some point in their careers.

[starfleetintelligence]

[respocked]

based on lwaxana in tng interacting with deanna, i think it's safe to infer that betazoids when talking to each other use only their telepathy and that this is more standard practice. which makes sense but it does begs the question of: why can betazoids even speak with their mouths?

like. it seems that telepathy is better and preferred, so verbal language should not be developing at the same speeds as the not telepathic species. humans have a complicated and vast language because it's all we have - but if you could just drop the idea if something into soneone's head, why bother naming it?

and obviously when we see telepathy communication on screen, it's shown as people hearing verbal language without the use of their ears. but if you really think abt it, then verbal language would be secondary to an all-telepathic society. thinking phonetics at each other makes little sense, most probably the process is more like sending each other ideas or impressions. it's also possible that BML (betazoid mind language) is being translated by the UT into sounds and this what we see.

anyway, here are some of my headcanons/theories:

1. betazoids don't have a native verbal language, at all. lwaxana speaks federation standard to deanna, or deanna's UT picks up the mind language.

since lwaxana is an ambassador it would make more sense for her to know several languages. but an average betazoid that doesn't come in contact with other cultures doesn't know how to speak with their mouths. it would be interesting to theorize if they would still sing, since the development of music is so closely tied to language. similarly, it would be interesting in this case to see what their writing system looks like.

2. there is a subset of betazoids that can't read minds, like deanna, and has always historically been present, and they use BVL (betazoid verbal language) like Deaf people on earth use various sign languages. (but by following star trek logic all planets have united into one state, so there is only one BVL). perhaps this language was taught in schools before first contact to accomodate that minority, or that minority is big enough that every family had at least BVL speaker. after first contact this language was adapted into use with other civilizations

3.1 betazoids do have speech and use it commonly, maybe for cultural or ceremonial reasons. maybe speech is older than the telepathic sense evolving somehow and was kept in use for tradition or communication in certain conditions (like over big distances).

3.2 betazoids had their first contact a very long time ago, or they're not the only species living on betazed. so the BVL did evolve to communicate with non-betazoids, but it didn't have to be adapted in recent history, it just naturally is a part of every betazoid's toolbox by now.

either way, i think it would be interesting to see a betazoid character that only communicated with telepathy come into contant with a species they cannot speak to (maybe for politeness reasons, or that species is all completely immune to mind reading and mind-speaking) and struggle to adapt to verbal communication. they would probably struggle to choose words and express thought in this form.

if they only used BVL/Federarion Standard/Any Speaking very sparingly before and started in adulthood then their muscles would probably be not well developed enough and they would have a speech impediment. actually it's interesting to think abt how the UT would translate someone who isn't speaking their language "correctly"...

technically, could you put your specific impeded speech as a "language" and have it come out as the "standard" version? it could be an accesibility tool then. on the other hand, if the UT couldn't handle your own non-standard input and wouldn't translate you, that'd suck - this is a common problem (also with certain accents) with modern speech to text & voice command technology, but it seems like it's not a problem in trek that we see.

[parallelfallout]

VULCAN DRESS UP GAME- CLICK TO PLAY!

(Happy birthday Sopek, sorry I made you cry!)

[allstarnotrek]

You know, as cool as it is to see telepaths who are able to use that ability to expertly navigate social situations, I wish we saw more socially awkward telepaths. Give me telepaths who get confused when someone's words don't match the thoughts and emotions they sense from them. Give me telepaths who accidentally startle non-telepaths by responding to things they never said out loud. Give me telepaths who are so used to just sensing someone else's emotions that they don't know how to control their own tone and other nonverbal cues because those just... don't really exist in their society. Give me telepaths that overcompensate for this by over-acting what they think these emotions are supposed to look like to non-telepaths. Give me telepaths that accidentally kill the vibe by casually mentioning some deep-seated emotion a non-telepath thought they were doing a good job of hiding. GIVE ME AWKWARD TELEPATHS PLEASE AND THANK YOU

[red-cicada]

HANNIBAL STARTREK AU

HANNIBAL STAR TREK AU

I went with betazoid will cause I felt like it made the most sense, and I just also wanted to see him with extra huge big beautiful eyes

I didn't really think to much into hannibal being cardassian other than 1 - I thought Mads would look good with the cardassian makeup and that 2- that garak kinda reminded me of hannibal

-side note, I decied that in mizumono hannibal would use his claws instead of that knife he had.

[jean-luc-thiccard]

Two feathered gals

[agent-troi]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Star Trek: The Next Generation Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: William Riker/Deanna Troi, Thomas Riker/Deanna Troi Characters: Deanna Troi, William Riker, Thomas Riker Additional Tags: Alien Biology, Alien Culture, Fake Science, Telepathy, Friendship/Love, Imzadi (Star Trek), Episode: s06e24 Second Chances (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Telepathic Bond Series: Part 2 of Zine O'Biology articles Summary:

Most humanoid beings are, at their core, social creatures. Even the most misanthropic among us crave connection with and understanding from their fellow sapients. However, few are able to achieve a depth of love as profound as that experienced in an imzadi bond. This review will aim to describe what is currently known about the imzadi bond: cultural references throughout Betazoid history, comparisons to other types of telepathic and empathic bonds found in other species, and the conditions required for its formation. Several case studies will be explored, including firsthand accounts and a particularly unique case which sheds a great deal of light on the nature of this most transcendent of humanoid relationships.

------------

Check out my new article for the @zineobiology which came out today!