#cyrelia-j

[cyrelia-j]

Took long enough, but once I got this idea I had to see it through. So who wants to see this as the next DS9 comic? 😉

[patheticwhimsy]

For the ask game. I live for asking absolutely WTF garbage on these haha. Choose between "Garak but he can only speak in rhyme" or "Silent Data who just staaares at you".

i choose garak but he can only speak in rhyme because i think that would be fucking hilarious?????? does he do it on purpose?? does he come in contact with an alien or plant that makes him speak in rhyme??? garak trying to explain whats happening but he can’t stop rhyming and he just keeps getting more and more annoyed???? that’s comedy 

make me choose between ___ and ____

[boldlygowherenodoghasgonebefore]

Random prompt: Julian is sick of losing to Garak at kotra, so he proposes they play Mastermind instead.  He knows the algorithm that can solve the pattern in five moves or less, so there's no way he could possibly lose 😉

Garak turned the pegs over in his hand.

“Where’s the rest of it?”

Julian spread out the board and checked his code.

“It’s all there. You just need to guess the order of the pegs.”

“That’s all?” Garak asked, “it seems so simple. Is this a child’s game?”

Julian’s lips thinned. How like Garak to assume any game without complex rules would be easy. 

I mean, true enough. Mastermind was a children’s game. He’d loved it as a kid, until his treatments took all the challenge out of it. 

But all games were games of strategy and Julian’s memory and enhanced reasoning would make winning this one an easy bet.

Julian sighed and gestured for Garak to start.

“Go ahead. Best two out of three.”

A few minutes later, Garak cracked the first code. Sooner than Julian predicted, but it hardly mattered. He has an algorithm that can crack any code in less than five moves.

Julian placed his pegs carefully, and just as swiftly, Garak provided feedback to him about location and color. In 3 moves, he was certain he knew the pattern.

He placed the winning combination on the next row with a proud smile.

Garak put two white pegs and two colored pegs on the right-hand side.

Wait, what? That wasn’t right. He was sure he had the correct code. He tried again, puzzled, and Garak removed one of the colored pegs This guess was worse than the first.

Suspicious, Julian demanded to see the code Garak chose. Maybe he just didn’t know how to play correctly. Garak was reluctant to stop game play, muttering about cheating and proper gaming etiquette, but he eventually acquiesced.

Julian looked at his code in disbelief. It was indeed wrong. There was no way Garak provided him accurate feedback. Looking at the previous turns, he realized he’d misread the pegs on the second line. 

How? He had a perfect memory. He knew that wasn’t what was there the first time.

Garak looked at him blandly, saying, “can we continue now?”

Julian thought about refusing, but he looked foolish enough already.

Embarrassed at his outburst, he motioned for Garak to compose a new pattern.

It took Julian 8 or 9 turns to find the correct pattern; far more than the 6 it had taken Garak at the start of the game. Again, it seemed like he’d incorrectly remembered the initial feedback. 

How was that possible?

“Garak,” he asked suspiciously, “I feel like I’m losing my mind. It seems like the pegs are moving halfway through the game. They’re not actually moving, are they?”

Garak tried his hardest to look innocent, and then Julian remembered.

He’d loaned Garak his book of terran magic tricks the other week. Another treasured memory from his early childhood. He was pretty sure there was some sleight of hand that Garak would take to very easily.

He sighed and said sarcastically, “Well, now that we know you won’t let me win at any game, I don’t suppose you’d be willing to at least pull a rabbit out of my hat?“

Garak smiled winningly.

“That, my dear doctor, I can do.”

And he did.

[ladyvean]

What are you known for? Well if this was a psychological test, the first two words that come to mind wheb I hear "Lady Vean" arw "Daddy Casey" 🤔

Free association taken into account, I mean...

Am I wrong?  I think not.

[savorybreakfasts]

Saw some really ornately carved pumpkins today, and was talking about how people go all out, and the pumpkin portrait carvings people will do with depth and shading and everything, and how there are always good fan-art pumpkin posts this time of year, and I realized--@cyrelia-j really needs to make a Jack-o-lantern.

[gplusbfics]

DS9 Fanfic Rec: “Brain” and “Heathen” by Cyrelia_J

I normally don’t review fics that have been posted very recently, but why not? These two stories by @cyrelia-j constitute a two-parter, possibly leading to a third, concerning a unique take on Bashir’s genetic enhancements and how he might have dealt with them. I’m omitting spoilers, but I will say that the author was aiming to provide an explanation (besides the real one) for why Bashir’s enhancements didn’t show in Seasons 1-4, and damn if they didn’t come up with a good one. I was very impressed with the lead story “Brain,” and a comment I made on it led to the second one, “Heathen,” posted this morning, actually being “gifted” to me. That’s a first! 

Excerpt (from “Heathen”)

Julian's hearing was too sensitive now. He could hear every breath, every whisper around him until he thought he would go mad. In desperation he asked Quark how he handled it. The Ferengi had told him with some dark envy that if he was Julian he'd be able to use his position, his gifts to net himself a fortune in secrets. Julian's vision was too sharp, so precise that it gave him headaches. Nurse Jabara had said it must be nice now during surgery to have eyes so good. Julian smiled as he tried to focus on her and every minuscule motion of her face almost gave him a migraine. Julian agreed affably. He didn't look at her when he said it. He stopped looking at people in the eyes if it could be helped. Their movements were too painful. He stopped looking at them at all, instead finding every fixed safe point of the station to keep himself sane. The whispers of his "changing" grew louder.

"It's okay Julian, you don't have to pretend. I appreciate your doing everything you can for Tekeny."

"I don't understand..."

"They told me your enhancements make it hard to feel things like... like other people. So it's okay if you can't."

Julian throws one of the dining room chairs in the holosuite into the wall breaking it.

Julian's strength returned and he almost couldn't control it. He was terrified to touch anyone. He jerked back almost violently when anyone tried. He had to relearn his grasp, relearn the tensile strength of everything he touched, reteach himself how to eat in the confines of his own quarters. He stopped taking lunches with Garak because his hands shook too much when they were all watching him. And then Garak met Ziyal and stopped asking him. Garak said that he understood... that it must be so difficult to be around them, that he was changed and perhaps might want a different beginning. They had toasted that final lunch to "new beginnings". Garak went to join Ziyal in the holosuite. Julian went back to his quarters and vomited up everything that he'd ate.

Metadata

Title: Brain Author: Cyrelia_J Year Posted: 2018 Approx. Word Count: 2,000 Chapters: 1 GB - Slash or Platonic: preslash/pining My Rating (1-5): 5 Keywords: genetic engineering, self-hate, father-son issues, isolation, anxiety

Title: Heathen Author: Cyrelia_J Year Posted: 2018 Approx. Word Count: 3,900 Chapters: 1 GB - Slash or Platonic: preslash/pining My Rating (1-5): 5 Keywords: genetic engineering, more self-hate, father-son issues, isolation, anxiety, paranoia, depression, anger, thoughts of self-harm, unreliable narrator, asexuality, mental breakdown

[cyrelia-j]

Something super quick, fun, and and little sexy for @ladyvean​

[cyrelia-j]

Keeping on the old school video game love, today's piece "Alien Synthvasion" is inspired by all the top scrolling wave shooters I loved so much. I totally want to do more fun sky bgs like this too. All this and more can be found HERE