Fun level: 3/5. Lots of potential and a really good plot in theory. Stand alone, It's entertaining. That's about it.
in character?: 1/5. No. Sisko is written as a dark and brooding all powerful force. He doesn't have his normal level of Whimsy. Dax and kira are shells of themselves. Garak and odo written well enough.
This story focuses on sisko, garak, dax, kira, Odo, bashir, O'Brian, 'The high Gul' and his crew.
visuals: 4/5. Setting was explored well, lots of visuals. Character expressions and actions were decent.
can they write women?: 0/5 no. Nooooo. One line in this book, mid battle mind you, reads "dax paused, as if waiting for her nails to dry" what are we talking about. They said Kira felt bad about looking 'boyish' compared to dax. Bad.
sci-fi innovation: 3/5. Decent amount of medical and mechanical talk, plot is pretty classic star trek stuff. Exploring unknown parts of the station and discovering space mummies.
This book had potential, and I really wanted to like it, but I wouldn't recommend it really. The characters didn't feel real, the plot was fun but the vibes are weird. Least favorite ds9 book as of now.
(for those not following the braywashed saga) the two guys in the middle are (real, entirely human) wrestlers Elton Prince & Kit Wilson of Pretty Deadly, introduced to the silm fandom by @kitwilsonsass, and known for their uncanny resemblance to C&C in both appearance and demeanor.
As Arda is Earth, the Dagorath has not yet happened, and PD are human people who exist, it is entirely canon compliant for them to join C&C in the dagorath. Hence, CCPD alliance.
design notes:
CC
Celegorm's tattoos represent a symbol of devotion to Orome/the Hunt by imitating Orome's vala markings. Given that bows aren't the best weapon for melee fights, his primary weapon here is based on a boar spear, because I imagine similar tactics would be helpful against some of Morgoth's larger creatures. He wears the Feanorian star once on his armband and once painted on his shield (not shown).
Curufin's helm is based off the Silm description of the red-plumed helms of the Host of Feanor. His armor features one Feanorian star and the Trees (telperion not shown), and his shield bears one other star. He wears a dwarven knife (not Angrist since beren broke it) on his belt.
PD
Based on braywashed's assortment of PD outfit posts, they seem to have a light/dark color scheme, reflected here in their armor colors. Their hairstyles are based on what seems like their irl/interview-hair (aka practical hairstyle, because as unnaturally elven as they are they sadly do not have magical hair) (x). Elto's pink arrow fletchings and Kitto's blue mesh cape refer to the pink/blue matching outfit (x), while Elto's bow/quiver harness and both of their shirt colors reference the harness outfit.
Their weapons follow the opposite color scheme as their armor for contrast purposes, and weapon types (double rapiers + bow, double daggers) are based on braywashed's post here.
Both of PD's armor designs draw influence from c. 15th century English armor, seeing as they are British people, and feature a unique half-breastplate evocative of the extremely cropped sleeve shirt things they normally wear when wrestling.
edit: uploaded the wrong version (no tattoos) at first oops
realized that, when standing next to Actual C&C, kitto & elto look sort of beorian/hadorian respectively (it's probably the slight beard and the lack of glowiness?)
-wait they're british right. canonically they could actually be hadorian & beorian descendants. anyways i'm adding them into the maglorath immediately
