What Is Julian Texting Our Favourite Simple Tailor?

just a plain simple tailor

(Edited to add headshots because tumblr hates detail) I've etched away at this is a lovely few weeks, so click for full res and all the little details, okay? It's my love letter to the journey I've found myself on

This is long-ish, so its under the cut (but worth reading...)

I had been thinking a lot recently about that double feature episode, you know the one? I half remembered it then, when they chased a bunch of alien spies so fast through the solar system they all got thrown back in time. Half the crew went on a little undercover adventure in Toronto in 2024. It was great because they got completely cut off from the Enterprise, so half of them, well mostly Uhura and Spock if I recall correctly, spent their time collecting as many radios as possible and worked on building their own communications. Uhura and Spock were basically taking turns constantly tweaking radios by the window with wires everywhere. Oh yeah, their base of operations was the whole top floor of a worn out old building looking over a big square. They ended up in the really arty/queer part of town full of art galleries and thrift stores.....??

Chapel and Chekov were sent out to those shops to find disguises for everyone. I loved the joke that Chekov was puzzled and slightly alarmed that Christine just knew everyone's clothes sizes and measurements with no explanation. Later on, they ended up getting separated from the rest of the group and getting held up by B story shenanigans, mostly getting lost and running into culture shocks. It was fun to see them having their own adventures and made for a pretty interesting combo. Spock and Uhura spent most of their time with the tech, accidentally listening to the times most popular music while changing frequencies. Jim and Sulu paired off to search for clues, and getting supplies and spent a lot of time talking to the locals setting up for a Pride parade. McCoy, feeling paranoid and irritable that he had practically no equipment, wandered around with Dr Alfred Nahdi, the Botanist, who kept picking random weeds and talking about how extraordinary the little dandelions were. Oh and together they stole a whole medical bag out of an ambulance?? It was pretty funny.  Anyway, the main issue was they couldn’t risk leaving the area because all these alien spies had assimilated into the population and they had to track them all down and bring them back with them so as not to disrupt the timeline or something. They had to track down the aliens while making sure the aliens didn't pick up on who they were or that they were also out of place. They ended up being there for around two whole ass months, I think. The spies were spread out all over and there were about 30 of them, but it ended up being the Botanist, Alfred (Alfie) Nahdi who found the enemy base of operations by complete accident. Alfred, who had spent most of the time studying all the common flowers and weeds that were so ordinary at that time but were extinct in their time, figured out where the aliens' base of operations was because the big plant shop at the end of the square had a few succulents that could not have existed in 2024. It was a big "woah" moment. And there was this whole thing where he had to act like he hadn’t just figured it out because the florist, who was almost certainly a spy, was watching him and McCoy. But soon after, it all went to hell anyway when a fight broke out and Sulu was straight up shot with the aliens' weapon that had bullets made from alien metal. So then Bones had to perform old school surgery on him in their HQ, with only 2024 equipment. Jim, Spock, and Uhura were out fighting and ran into Chapel and Chekov and were able to finish them off, but it got really crazy because there was a Pride parade in the square at the same time so they had to make sure no one noticed them. While Bones was pulling bullets out of Sulu, with the botanist assisting him until Chapel (who had been sent by Jim) appeared and took over. McCoy said something like, “Christine, I’ve never been so glad to see you in my life,” and they sewed him up all old school. And it worked out! But Bones was a mess because he had to do messy surgery with none of his kit, and so much pressure, and more blood than he was used to... Chapel stayed with Sulu, and Bones and Nahdi went to sit on the fire escape stairwell and had a sweet scene of Bones just full of adrenaline, his hands couldn't stop shaking. They sat hand in hand for a while listening to all the people on the streets below. Then Spock, Jim, Uhura, and Chekov appeared at the stairwell and they all had a happy, albeit exhausted reunion. After a day of everyone recovering from all the excitement, Uhura and Spock used some extra tech they got from the aliens and finally made contact with poor Scotty who was up on the Enterprise losing the will to live. Anyway, their outfits were iconic tbh.

I invented this whole thing to draw Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy in a sweater. I lost control of the situation. I spent a lovely two weeks etching away at this with the support of my lovely ST server, I love you guys. This ones for you.

one of the things I think about a lot with dukat is the way he pronounces the word "bajoran"

pretty much every other character on the show (including the overwhelming majority of actual bajorans) pronounce it with a hard j sound. but marc alaimo nearly every time says it with a much softer consonant, closer to bazhoran or even bashoren.

it's such immaculate flavor that dukat of all people doesn't just mispronounce the name of the people and planet he's subjugating out of like laziness to use vowels/consonants that are closer to his dialect, but that he instead opts for a pronunciation that makes it feel like he's overcompensating. using the zh consonant over the j consonant is honestly less congruous with common patterns in american english of voiced vs unvoiced consonants. he makes the word 'bajoran' feel more exotic and foreign, not less. it gives dukat the flavor of someone who tries sooo hard to pronounce something ~authentically~ that they end up completely missing the mark and sounding totally detached from reality. but of course in his case it's purposeful.

this is why dukat goes so hard as a villain, because yes his text is hyper un-subtle about how much he's the living embodiment of colonialism and racism, but marc alaimo is regularly serving us these acting choices that just take it to the next level. that man and his neck really found his calling huh.

on my (scarse) free time I’ve been watching a lot of DS9 and of course he is my favorite

ds9 visionary is such a strange episode

ipad broken so you already know I'm drawing garak traditionally and taking a picture of it in the dark with an android camera 🔥🔥

happy tuck him in tuesday

finishing my first ever watch through of ds9 tonight (on the last three episodes) and I just... I don’t want it to end. I want more ;;

the only good news is after tonight I can dive all the way into the fandom without spoiler dodging o7

hey– who are your favorite garashir/ds9 authors, or favorite fics currently updating? this is a fic rec solicitation post !!

I've got a few saved in my tumblr likes, but always looking to broaden my horizons. i'm still new here so feel free to rec me stuff that's established or niche or anything in between

Interests: cool worldbuilding, weird cardassian anatomy, slow burn, mutual pining. any rating welcome but primarily interested in E ngl, open to multishipping, open to darkfic / dead dove with tags, open to AUs. i'm still acquiring tastes for the ship/fandom, so any wordcount is welcome!

mainly i'm just trying to get a sense for who is regularly putting out cool/interesting work these days so I can jump into the present tense fandom