claudia still gets infantilized by media surrounding iwtv despite this being core to the tragedy of her condition
i think shes always been infantilized & ppl dont see the merit of her arc bc ppl rly only care about female characters in relation with romance or if they are children [or someone’s child of sorts?] in so far as they relate to the men rearing them. [cue 5001 lestat-claudia webweaves]. claudia is both selectively infantilized & excessively adultified whenever convenient to character/s [somehow both a ‘child interfering’ and both powerful enough to ‘turn louis against lestat’] nd to a certain extent by the fandom too. speaking of the show here too - show!louis now wanting claudia as his child is never disseminated for what it is in relation to louis (how he wanted children, and how hes forcibly exiled from the public sphere & makes do with the quasi-domestic) or claudia (in her want for a companion in immortality & wanting to understand the origins of their existence. in both the book and the show its claudia who initiates the question of ‘who made lestat/vampires as a whole’) but rather ppl render show claudia inert solely as a fictional moral bludgeon to character bash louis or make stuntin like my mommy/daddy posts with lestat. i was thinking too the other day how people often talk about iwtv in the sense of outcasts but never mention claudia… which is insane bc this line in the show alone says so much
But it was 1939, and the only N* allowed in first class was the porter, and the N* passenger rode the rear. The N* vampire made do with what was left, which was fine with her.
neither second-class passenger nor porter directly serving whites: claudia is the black vampire sitting in the stowaway with the dogs and people’s luggage, earlier hiding out in university corners pretending to be the cleaner’s child, engorging herself on blood and taking body parts from her victims to put in storage all if it means she could have something for herself. shes really the ult. outcast of sorts.
daniel finds a way to make armand's shorn locks into hair jewelry like in victorian times, but he does it sort of awkwardly. but it's still prettier than jewels
Oh, Daniel would totally do all sort of wacky things with the locks Armand cuts every night (or the ones he cuts for him because he is a weirdo like that). He would do jewerly and flowers and all kinds of things and he'd proudly display them like this.
Armand would actually have to clear a room in Trinity Gate to put all of Daniel's creations and he would appear all indifferent to them right up until someone came to visit and he would proudly show them around the room of the art made with his hair, praising Daniel's craft until the guest would actually ask to leave 😂
How powerful though, if Julian is the only one who knows how to say Garak's name correctly, or bothers.
Garak is alone and far from home and hated by pretty much everyone around him so naturally no one cares if they’re saying his name correctly but then this awkward young man with a sunshine smile learns the correct pronunciation because he cares, he actually cares and he wants to be Garak’s friend and he says he enjoys Garak’s company and--
will u do me the honors of telling me the nowhere king's story because I found s1 unwatchable
u got it (also if this is not how replies are done, WHOOPS)
Under the cut are MAJOR Spoilers for Centaurworld
(*presented in chronological order and with some back-filling)
Originally Centaurworld and the Human World were linked by the Rift. This connection allowed active commerce and intermingling of both worlds to be a mundane affair.
Elktaur (a fairly normal looking centaur, who looks like this) is a Rift Worker who helps maintain the Rift.
He and Woman (the human purple haired lady already in Centaurworld in S1) interact due to her visits of Centaurworld.
She flirts with Elktaur by inviting him to the human world for a party on the pretense of celebrating his work. However the visit ends up making him more self-conscious about how he isn’t human (he cuts off his horns for this visit and lies to her about why they’re missing). This turns into more active self-loathing when he sees her potential suitors are of course all human.
Elktaur decides to use the magic of the Key of The Rift to separate his human self from his beast/taur body. He tests this on a Centuarworld rutabaga, this works (creating a human baby and vegetable). He also successfully fuses the two back with the Key with no ill consequences.
He uses this magic on himself, and to his horror he awakens as an Elk (a mundane elk that can speak), and realizes that his human half is an entirely separate entity (the General from S1). The General (presumably) runs away.
--
While the Elk roams around the Human World eating garbage to survive, the General manages to get his ranks and eventually marries Woman.
The Elk miserably witnesses this joyful wedding from afar and finally contacts the General so that they can talk.
In this meeting, the Elk explains how can’t bear to live like this and begs to fuse back together, insisting it was a mistake and pointing out they (Elktaur) never even tried to love Woman as themselves.
The General refuses since he’s built his own life. The Elk threatens to tell Woman the truth about the General.
The General retaliates by attempting to drown the Elk in the river they are meeting at. However as the Elk drowns, so does the General. Both realize their mortality is linked to each other.
The General calls on his hidden soldiers to capture the Elk. The Elk is then locked in a windowless, cramped prison for 10 years.
--
Woman eventually discovers the Elk and sets him free, urging him to leave and warns him not to wait for her.
Elk goes to the Rift, manages to get the Key, and starts forcibly fusing humans and beasts together for a ‘family’/army of his own.
Using and abusing this magic melts/rots Elk’s form until he is a magical horror sludge.
He unleashes his army on both worlds.
--
The General and Elk find themselves “fighting” each other in the Rift space between the worlds. Woman tries to end this by breaking the Key and sealing the Rift.
The General is flung to the Human World (along with one fragment of the Key), Woman to Centaurworld, and the Elk/Nowhere King is trapped in the void of the Rift.
--
An unknown amount of time passes.
S1 happens, the Nowhere King is released since the Key is whole once more and the worlds are reconnected. In an attempt to kill him with the Key, it is impaled in his body and he escapes with it.
--
In S2 the Nowhere King has fused new warriors for his army and rallied them for the killing to resume.
In battle, Rider tries to shoot the Nowhere King, but the General murders* her as he wants the Nowhere King alive and unharmed.
Woman witnesses the aftermath of this and the causalities of this “war”; the General realizes that Woman has been alive all this time and tries to explain he’s done all of this because he wanted to live another day to love her.
Woman has had enough of his shit and drives him to a cliff and kicks him off it. As he falls to his death, the Nowhere King rushes down to him.
*apparently you can’t kill a child in a cartoon even if there are all kinds of other bodies littered on the battlefield
--
At the bottom of the cliff, the General is dead and the Nowhere King is dying, Woman fuses them back and gets to confirm they are actually Elktaur. She laments how she would have loved him if he had simply been himself, and finishes killing them. (Good for her.)
--
Not included for brevity are various little touches that make the General’s omissions of information more insidious, as well as his casual complicity and entitlement in a forever war with himself, which I can appreciate in a ‘twist’ antagonist.
Less impressively, all of this information is delivered because Horse was able to, I shit you not, “jump into his backstory” and witness it with a manifestation of the Elk.
And, no, it is not a mistake that the Main Cast are nowhere (lol) to be seen in all this.
Fic Idea: Julian's genetic enhancements are suffering a reversion somehow (potentially a weird time orb symptom/mishap) and he is becoming something different than his fellow officers--and Garak--recognize. Julian himself is having difficulty articulating how he feels about it: or knowing. Science officer Jadzia Dax and Garak team up to find a solution; that is, a cure. And to implement it. Jadzia is conflicted. Is putting things back trying to take Julian to a "former life"? Or is it stopping him from returning to different former life? Is Garak helping to secure his meal ticket CMO or does Julian matter as Julian (and by extension, not Jules)? - @kaelio
On that beach, which Julian had found—had found for him, warm and dark and pleasantly-scented—Julian took his hand. On that beach, Julian interlaced their fingers. On that beach, Julian confessed he was in love.
Garak never imagined a scenario where he did not reciprocate. He could only imagine insistent lips seizing his. He could only imagine his back pressed into the soft sand.
“If you love me, I’ll follow you.”
scene from @kaelio ‘s fic RESTORE, REMAKE, & REBUILD chapter 76. I couldn’t get this passage out of my head so I had to draw it!!! Everyone please go read this fic its so so SO good ;_;
Teen garashir! So this actually takes place in the universe of @zaan-zaan‘s A Matter of Time which I am lowkey obsessed with the implications of. (For ref, midseries Garak and Bashir are irreversibly de-aged to about 5. Garak is adopted by Sisko. Julian is adopted by the O’Briens.)
This fic basically fills the readers in on everything that’s happened to the boys since the end of Zaan’s fic, including a custody battle with the Bashirs and how Elim deals with Sisko ascending. But it’s told through the lens of an awkward dinner-with-the-parents date in which Miles kinda knew this was coming and is much more comfortable with Garak than he might’ve once been, but also Garak is starting to look a lot like the man he once knew and is dating Miles’ son/best friend dammit. Don’t think he can’t see them sneakily holding hands under the table >:(
the one-direction traffic flow and some things being closed really discouraged lingering, I was there less than an hour. would like to go back in a few years when things are more normal, it was lovely!
