#subcommander dax

[zarla-s]

Three more little charms for the connecting charm idea! NO ONE'S GOING TO WANT ZEX AND DAX BUT I WANT THEM OKAY ISN'T THAT WHAT MATTERS

Maybe I'll do a Demosoldier one... I need to make a list lol

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[zarla-s]

Another batch of holiday requests! Very fun to draw some Ur-Quan again.

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[zarla-s]

winner of most embarrassing starcon2 fan since 2007

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[zarla-s]

man i don't even know where to start to explain the context behind this lol. basically a scene from an RP i'm doing with some friends where the group ran into Pyramid Head and got completely curbstomped, as one does when you run into Pyramid Head. This was just such a distinct mental image in my head, I had to get it out! and then it's so dark you can't really even make it out lol. IT WAS VERY DARK IN THE ROOM OKAY

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[zarla-s]

Well now I absolutely want to hear all about DAX!! And the AU happy ending you hopefully headcanon'd up for him because how could you not.

Alright alright, haha.

Like a lot of my characters, DAX came about because I needed someone to fit a specific niche more than just springing to mind full-formed. A long time ago I was writing a sort of multimedia fic told with fake screenshots about the Captain agreeing to have sex with ZEX for the Shofixti maidens and the two of them developing a relationship (I’d link you to it but there are some things in it I need to fix). Eventually other VUX find out about what’s going on and are SUPER upset, and demand that ZEX be arrested and tried for indecency, and ZEX waves it off as not a big deal until he gets attacked by double-agents in his own ship (I DID write a more normal fic about that). Basically what this meant was that you’d be talking to someone other than ZEX for once, and I wanted it to be very clear immediately that the VUX you’re talking to isn’t ZEX (since the talk portrait wouldn’t change). So I needed a VUX that was, in many ways, ZEX’s polar opposite in terms of demeanor and speech pattern, and so DAX was born.

To be fair, Sub-Commander DAX is mentioned in ZEX’s dialogue at one point right before he dies, so he’s not ENTIRELY my creation, but literally all we get is a name. Everything after that was me, haha. Writing dialogue for DAX was really fun and also really easy, and it didn’t take very long for a picture of who he was to become clear to me.

DAX is a bit unusual for a VUX in that he is very terse and to the point. He says as little as possible and uses his silence as a weapon against others, and often comes off as blunt or rude. Stoic, closed-off, and cynical, he trusts no one outside of Alpha Cerenkov, and strives to look at things realistically. His VUX vanity manifests in his private, never-expressed belief that he is always the smartest and most reasonable VUX in the room, that he knows everyone else better than they know themselves, and that without his work and effort, everyone else would collapse. So despite the fact that he’s ZEX’s subordinate and defers readily to his orders, he still feels “superior” to him in some ways. Unlike most VUX, DAX isn’t disgusted by humans, but unlike ZEX, he’s not attracted to them either. To DAX, humans are just another alien species, but even that lowkey tolerance made other VUX around him suspicious about his loyalties. He doesn’t have a lot of friends for a variety of reasons.

DAX is younger than ZEX by like five or ten years or so, and he’d recently graduated from a VUX military academy by the time the War broke out. He got shipped off with many other VUX, and he and ZEX ended up in the same squadron. ZEX at this point hadn’t been promoted to admiral, but his military genius was already very clear, and he shot up in ranks rapidly. ZEX liked DAX’s skills and no-nonsense attitude and ability to mind his own business, and ended up keeping him close beneath him throughout the war. This got DAX some side-eyes from other VUX, since even at that point rumors about ZEX’s proclivities were circulating, but DAX knew being near ZEX was the safest place to be in a war. DAX and ZEX became war buddies, saving each other’s lives and such, and as ZEX got promoted higher and higher, he kept DAX close by his side. DAX became one of his closest and only confidants, and eventually he trusted DAX enough to tell him about his xenophilia (wrote a fic about that too). While DAX didn’t really understand it, he didn’t condemn ZEX for it, which was more than ZEX could say for anyone else.

After the War ended, the High Council got more and more irritated by ZEX’s open xenophilia, and voted to kick him off planet to Alpha Cerenkov. DAX, in the meantime, felt purposeless and directionless without a war to fight or ZEX to follow. When ZEX asked him if he’d come with him to Cerenkov, DAX jumped at the chance. Since then, DAX has lived on Cerenkov with ZEX as his closest advisor, taking care of daily dramas and such and handling busywork, and usually serving as a voice of reason for ZEX’s stranger ideas. He doesn’t really like socializing with others, but he’ll do it if he has to. He’s completely centered his life around ZEX and is fully prepared to spend the rest of his life with him (he’s already spent 20 years with him on Cerenkov by the time the game starts), and as such, he gets a bit threatened and jealous when you come in and start messing things up for him with your human-alien shenanigans with ZEX.

ZEX and DAX have known each other for so long that while DAX never refers to ZEX as anything but “sir” or “Admiral”, DAX feels quite comfortable calling ZEX out in ways that others might see as insultingif he thinks he’s doing something stupid or dangerous, and ZEX can tease DAX and read him better than anyone else can, often serving as a bit of a translator for him. They’re very comfortable with and around each other, and they’re a lot of fun to bounce off of each other as a result, haha.

It’s implied in a lot of ways that DAX’s feelings for ZEX run a bit deeper than he’s willing to acknowledge. He knows that ZEX’s passions only lie in aliens, not his own species, so he’s never said anything to him about it and probably never will. He’s content to just stay by his side and try to keep him safe. ZEX has no idea that DAX has any such interest in him - it’s never even occurred to him. Ironically, he’d probably roll with it if DAX told him. As to whether ZEX could really love DAX the way he wants though, that’s a harder thing to answer…

It’s a hard situation, I’m not sure if there’s really an answer that’ll make everyone involved happy, haha. As long as ZEX stays alive, then DAX can live with things as they are. I’m not sure a ZEX/DAX/Captain situation would help much either, since DAX will always be jealous and resentful of the Captain just for being human and he has no attraction or interest in the Captain at all. I dunno, it’s tricky, haha. And if you want, you can read DAX’s loyalty to ZEX in an intensely platonic way as well. But in general I like to imagine that ZEX and DAX are alive somewhere, going about their daily routine as usual, and definitely not torn to bits by monsters.

As mentioned, DAX usually says things as shortly and bluntly as he possibly can. One of his favorite phrases is “so you say” which he tends to use when he either doesn’t want to continue the conversation, thinks you’re an idiot, or doesn’t believe what you just told him. ZEX has known him so long that he can usually tell what DAX really means whenever he says that and loves teasing him about it, which bugs DAX to no end.

[zarla-s]

The ol Starcontrol 2 again