I love alien transgenderism

Being an evil doppelganger has to be so fucked up like imagine meeting a better version of yourself. Some chain of events going differently that led to "you" being a better person in a way you can never achieve. Personally I'd have no other option but to try and kill them

It's always "oh no my evil clone or twin or whatever is trying to kill me" and never How is my evil clone? Says a lot about society

Me, crashing the fuck out: you think you're better than me? You think you're fucking better than me???

My good clone, dodging a glass: I mean like objectively yeah

Being an evil doppelganger has to be so fucked up like imagine meeting a better version of yourself. Some chain of events going differently that led to "you" being a better person in a way you can never achieve. Personally I'd have no other option but to try and kill them

It's always "oh no my evil clone or twin or whatever is trying to kill me" and never How is my evil clone? Says a lot about society

love when theres a character whose entire existence is spoiler tagged by default. go behind the curtain boy

hi guys, a friend of mine is trying to get the money for his top surgery + a down payment for college, i would really really appreciate if y'all could help him out and donate to his gofundme! (reblogs are also greatly appreciated if you can't afford to donate)

he’s currently only raised 40/1200 dollars in this campaign and his deadline for his downpayment is May 1st! please please help him reach his goal before that time! thank you!

it’s really frustrating to me how poisoned the well has become re: talking about issues of racism in trans communities because so many ppl just need the slightest smallest push/pretense to revert into being completely horrible to trans women and assuming the worst that you can barely even like express annoyance at someone being white in a classically annoying generically white way without risking some motherfucker with “terfs kys” in bio cropping up and being like my god I always knew something was up with her she always gave me the creeps idk she always made me uncomfy glad the truth comes out and we can take her to task. Like there is a nonzero amount of white transfems getting too comfortable with defensiveness around their whiteness and the privilege they do hold but at the same time a lot of it is direct response to transmisogynistic virtue signaling and bad faith bullshit to make acceptable targets like we keep seeing over and over so it’s like I don’t want to give them an inch especially when white transmascs and other nb ppl do the exact same racist shit but without having their gender focused in on to high heaven so it’s like great nobody wins

I.e. liquid iv, propel, whatever

Personally I say Yes because getting turbo hydrated counts as Drinking Water but I do realize that this would imply pre-mixed bottled gatorade is water which feels... inaccurate. So the jury's still out

if whatever you put in the water makes it change both color and taste, then its no longer water

I see your reasoning but following this logic a body of water that isn't clear and has a taste also wouldn't count as water but rather some sort of Pond Mix

I mean if someone offers me a glass of water and it's ocean water I'm going to be upset about the lack of distinction

That's the thing cause the ocean is water it's just not drinking water. Liquid iv is water with minerals you can drink so really it's water on both counts

Push hard and it falls apart. Tea and coffee is just infused water.

I think caffeine makes it stop counting as water because it's not hydrating anymore. So coffee isn't water but tea can go either way

I.e. liquid iv, propel, whatever

Personally I say Yes because getting turbo hydrated counts as Drinking Water but I do realize that this would imply pre-mixed bottled gatorade is water which feels... inaccurate. So the jury's still out

if whatever you put in the water makes it change both color and taste, then its no longer water

I see your reasoning but following this logic a body of water that isn't clear and has a taste also wouldn't count as water but rather some sort of Pond Mix

I mean if someone offers me a glass of water and it's ocean water I'm going to be upset about the lack of distinction

That's the thing cause the ocean is water it's just not drinking water. Liquid iv is water with minerals you can drink so really it's water on both counts

[ID: a reply from @fate-motif that reads, "but then that's Water just not Drinking Water" /end ID]

And how are we defining Drinking Water if not water you can drink? Is water with flouride in it no longer Drinking Water because of the mineral content?

I.e. liquid iv, propel, whatever

Personally I say Yes because getting turbo hydrated counts as Drinking Water but I do realize that this would imply pre-mixed bottled gatorade is water which feels... inaccurate. So the jury's still out

if whatever you put in the water makes it change both color and taste, then its no longer water

I see your reasoning but following this logic a body of water that isn't clear and has a taste also wouldn't count as water but rather some sort of Pond Mix

I mean if someone offers me a glass of water and it's ocean water I'm going to be upset about the lack of distinction

That's the thing cause the ocean is water it's just not drinking water. Liquid iv is water with minerals you can drink so really it's water on both counts

“lol why are you following the boobs and ass artist” why do you think I’m following the boobs and ass artist. do you think I go to the grocery store ironically too

I.e. liquid iv, propel, whatever

Personally I say Yes because getting turbo hydrated counts as Drinking Water but I do realize that this would imply pre-mixed bottled gatorade is water which feels... inaccurate. So the jury's still out

if whatever you put in the water makes it change both color and taste, then its no longer water

I see your reasoning but following this logic a body of water that isn't clear and has a taste also wouldn't count as water but rather some sort of Pond Mix

I.e. liquid iv, propel, whatever

Personally I say Yes because getting turbo hydrated counts as Drinking Water but I do realize that this would imply pre-mixed bottled gatorade is water which feels... inaccurate. So the jury's still out

Sisko and Garak’s dynamic is delicious in In the Pale Moonlight, and there are also interesting questions it raises as to Garak and Bashir’s dynamic (personally I headcanon that they’re somewhat estranged at this point, in part because the war and later Section 31 stuff has brought the mystery and intrigue that Garak once represented to Bashir a little too close to home, but it is at least another angle to get at their ideological differences).

But the other piece of this weird little triangle is Sisko and Bashir’s dynamic. Because Bashir is part of the chain of moral compromises that Sisko has to make to see Garak’s scheme through, as Sisko twists his arm to get the biomemetic gel. And Bashir is angry about it! But it’s not followed through on at all - the next time he appears it’s just when he and Jadzia are pleasantly surprised at how few casualties there have been this week.

It’s especially interesting to see that moment of tension between them given that this episode comes not all that long after Statistical Probabilities, another significant ideological break between Sisko and Bashir. And in that case, it’s Bashir arguing for surrender to the Dominion out of a pragmatic motive to prevent loss of life (even if it’s a pragmatism stemming from far-reaching speculation); and Sisko’s rejection is one based in ideals, the notion that it’s better to go down fighting in service of one’s values than to compromise them (something also reflected in his behaviour in Sacrifice of Angels, when he’s ready to go down with the Defiant in the face of a full-scale invasion).

Those ideals are what are challenged in In the Pale Moonlight, when honest fighting and diplomacy aren’t sufficient, and it is necessary to resort to deceit and do collateral damage in order to prevent further loss of life. How exactly that turnaround would affect his dynamic with Bashir - especially given that earlier in the show, Bashir was more of an idealist, and Sisko was the one who had more of an understanding of the costs required to uphold those ideals - is a really rich question. (Especially given what Bashir explicitly brings up - that the releasing the biomemetic gel has the potential to do even more collateral damage than Garak prompts Sisko to accept.)

There’s also another angle to this, which is the fact that the episode comes on the heels of “Inquisition”, i.e. Bashir’s first introduction to shadowy behind-the scenes workings of Starfleet/the Federation. Lots of people have pointed out the foreshadowing of Bashir’s “are we willing to sacrifice our principles in order to survive?” at the end of that episode, but there’s something else as well. Bashir, in response to the request for biomemetic gel, says he’s going to file a complaint with Starfleet Medical - but it’s implied through Sisko and Garak’s conversation that Starfleet would, if not officially sanction, then at least tacitly condone it as a necessary tactic to tip their odds in the conflict. And that kind of situation in which Bashir tries to register a moral protest and it falls on deaf ears with Starfleet plays out more explicitly later in Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges.

Anyway! In the Pale Moonlight is about as perfect an episode as you can get, but the dynamic with Sisko and Bashir is one thread I wish had been followed through on a bit more.

Tags via @dreamerdrop:

I've been thinking about this commentary for awhile, because I hadn't thought to link the lack of development for Sisko and Bashir's dynamic to the way Garak and Bashir's dynamic gets shortchanged, but it does make a lot of sense. I don't think the unexplored potential with Sisko and Bashir is all to do with Garak - the lack of reaction to the augmentation thing from Sisko is also a big gap, imo - but Garak does feature in a lot of it, especially wrt In the Pale Moonlight and the Section 31 arc.

I think for me Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges is the biggest offender in terms of shortchanging all those relationships. The scene with Garak and Bashir having lunch just pisses me off, to be frank, because it feels like a shout-out to the fans - look, they're still buddies! - but in a way that feels completely divorced from the actual character development both characters have been through. They're just bantering about optimism versus pessimism as if they're back in the early seasons, and it feels completely artificial. (As is probably apparent in the fics I've published, I much prefer late seasons Garashir to be about smoldering resentment than fond witty bantering, and I do think that's justified by what happens individually with both characters!)

And then with Sisko, there's the scene near the beginning of that episode where he's on board with bringing down Section 31 and wants Bashir to pretend to play along with Sloan to further that goal, and then there's never any resolution to that at the end of the episode. Bashir discovers that Ross is in cahoots with Section 31, and then a few episodes later Ross is officiating Sisko's wedding with no indication that Sisko knows or cares about that involvement. (Bashir is also present at the wedding and doesn't seem to harbor any ill feelings towards Ross either, which... the fuck?)

And that's an unfortunate loss on both counts, because there's a lot that could have been explored there re: what Bashir and Garak represent to Sisko, and the different ways they initially respond to Garak.

Sisko sees Garak as a potential valuable ally and someone whose skills and connections are an asset, but he doesn't necessarily like or trust him, and that informs pretty much all of their interactions. Bashir gets to have his earnest burbling over Garak being a spy, and in The Wire, he's shocked when Garak confronts him with the harsh reality of what that occupation actually entailed. But because he's a doctor and driven by compassion and a belief that all life is valuable and no suffering is deserved, he's able to offer Garak forgiveness.

The distinction in how they both respond to Garak is driven not just by a difference in temperament and experience, but in their respective roles. Sisko is tasked with diplomacy and politicking and making difficult tactical decisions, but as a doctor, Bashir is allowed to be "apolitical" in a way that Sisko can't be. And that comes into play in his judgment (or lack thereof) of Garak, they way he gets to tell off both Winn and Dukat, and the way he plays a role in helping the enemy with both the Jem'hadar in Hippocratic Oath and the arc involving the Founders' disease near the end.

And so Bashir's optimism and compassion imo represent the best of the Federation to Sisko, the ideals he's fighting to protect. Because Sisko is very idealistic, but he's forced to engage in realpolitik and compromise those ideals in painful ways (most obviously so in In the Pale Moonlight, but even in smaller ways like encouraging Bajor to sign the non-aggression pact with the Dominion). Bashir, as a doctor, is free of that, and his commitment to his morals reflects Sisko's best self. Garak, on the other hand, represents the parts of Sisko that he doesn't like to confront - again, especially in In the Pale Moonlight, but also with stuff like his abuse of his power over Garak in Second Skin.

But the thing about that is that Bashir's ideals also get challenged over the course of the show, most directly with Section 31. And with the augmentation reveal, we learn that some of that disillusionment is latent. There are plenty of ways that seeing Bashir go through that might compound Sisko's guilt and pessimism. Not to mention the ways that it might affect Garak, as Bashir's moral integrity is also what he finds so alluring and admirable about him. And the show really only scratches the surface of that stuff, sadly.

(A lot of this stuff was percolating around in my head when I wrote Vanishing or Vanished, which I know you've read, but I'm going to plug again here because I'm proud of it.)

I.e. liquid iv, propel, whatever

Personally I say Yes because getting turbo hydrated counts as Drinking Water but I do realize that this would imply pre-mixed bottled gatorade is water which feels... inaccurate. So the jury's still out