This first moment between Ash and Gabriel I just posted makes me screeeeam so y'all have to see it too even if you don't read Three Years and Counting:
Ash Tyler wasn’t Voq.
He was, but he wasn’t. The camaraderie Gabriel had with the Klingon wasn’t transferable on this side of the fence. It was unfortunate. Gabriel never thought he’d ever in his life think it, but he actually missed that Klingon son of a bitch.
He knew him by the eyes. It took an hour, but then Gabriel realized why Ash seemed familiar. Here was this tall, young man with a thick beard. Not an even taller seven-foot Klingon. Ash Tyler had brown skin and not a pearly opalescence.
Voq was a human man now. How was it even possible? But Gabriel knew those eyes.
It probably didn’t help his case that as soon as it clicked, Gabriel called him Voq, my brother in Klingon.
Which earned him a sore jaw.
“Hey, your Doctors just patched me up. No need to give ‘em more work.” Gabriel tongued one of his teeth. It would need to be regrown again if that wiggle wasn’t his imagination.
Then he switched back to Klingon. "Nice to see you too, Voq, son of none. Or have you found a worthier title to bear?"
His Klingon was even more guttural with his jaw aching, but it did the trick.
Even in cuffs, Gabriel blocked the anticipated swing and got Ash right in his lower ribs. The buzz of phasers charging thrummed in the air louder than Ash’s cough. Voq always left his right side too open and so did Ash.
Ash raised a hand, stopping the other Section 31 agents from advancing either to pull Ash off of Gabriel or to help Ash beat him senseless.
The young man lowered his arm and fixed his shirt before speaking in perfect Standard. "I go by Ash. Officially, I don't have a title."
"Unofficially?"
"Director of Section 31."
Gabriel nodded. Of course, he would be.
WIP Wednesday (Except it's Tuesday, so Teaser Tuesday?)
Here is a snippet from Part 3: Three Years and Counting because I can't help myself (and mirror!Mila Garak's introduction):
Years ago, during a drunken night over very disgusting blood wine, Voq started getting into the storytelling spirit.
Since Voq was reclaiming his stolen language, he kept going in and out from Standard and Klingon. During one of his stories about finding something called a cob'lat, Voq paused. Then started laughing and looking right at Gabriel.
"HIja'! Your codename, I have decided, yes." Voq pointed right at him now. "yIHchoH ponglIj'e'. Tribble! They multiply! So hard to catch and kill, just like you.”
"My name should be pongly? What?"
Voq ignored his questions, instead continuing his tale of the fearsome creatures that terrified Qo'noS before the Terrans.
Gabriel ran his tongue over his teeth and got another taste of the wine. What he wouldn’t do for a good glass of bourbon. If he was stuck here for any longer, he might have to start finally using Nolokov’s distillery techniques. The thought of the dead lieutenant buried somewhere on Tarsus IV made his mood sour more than the damn wine.
“What the hell is a tribble?” He asked again, louder, throwing back the rest of his goblet with a grunt.
Mila gave him one of her creepy little enigmatic smiles as she peered up from her PADD. The eerie light of it made the ridges and scales on her face even more pronounced.
“I believe it is like a…Earth rabbit,” said Mila then, her blue eyes widened. “Yes, yes! He is the Rabbit.”
“Yes! The White Rabbit!” Voq took another gulp of the wine and released a long, hearty belch. “Like the fairytale! All he needs is a clock on a chain to swing at his enemies!”
Then the Klingon started mocking his desire to get home and get home fast with a silly scurrying motion that looked dumb on the seven foot warrior.
Even shy, sweet Phil with his bad fingernail habit was giggling so hard his antennae were doing a little dance.
Gabriel took the rest of the blood wine and chucked it into the ocean.
By the time I get to posting part 3, this will probably change a bit, but I had to share it. I love my Prime!Lorca so much. Actually, I love them all soooo much, it's giving me LIFE.
((Yes, that is Garak's mom, Mila. Just roll with it. I had to have a piece of my old man lizard here somehow.))
