seikilos

Title: Connections
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Romance
Rating & Warnings: G
Words: 4622 this part; 8707 overall.
Disclaimer: I don't own the above media.
Summary: To repair the damage done by its interference with its colonists in the Demilitarised Zone, the Cardassian government has proposed a marriage-enjoinment between one of its citizens and one of the Federation's to symbolise the renewed relations between the two governments. Julian had gladly agreed to marry Garak, Central Command's "volunteer," but now he's learning all over again that nothing to do with Cardassians in general and Garak in particular is as simple as it appears on the surface. This chapter: The wedding-enjoinment ceremony.
Author's Notes: Holy shit, y'all. I had not been expecting this level of response. I'm very glad to see that this has been well received, and I can only hope the concluding chapter is a satisfying one.

Anyone who's curious about the song Garak sings in this, click here once you've finished the chapter.

Thanks for reading!

( Whoever had come up with the tradition of not seeing your partner before the wedding, Julian decided, had been a sadist. )

Title: 30-Day Cheesy Tropes Challenge - 12. Arranged Marriage AU
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Pre-slash
Rating & Warnings: G
Words: This part 2415, ?? overall
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Summary: After the business with the Maquis, Cardassia's Central Command suggests a grand gesture to demonstrate the renewed commitment to peace between the governments of the Federation and the Union. They also know exactly who will be making that gesture.
Author's Notes: So from about this point on, things started getting away from me. :D;; My fics started getting longer and longer, and a few of them spawned their own AUs for me to follow up on later.

This would be one of them. Normally, "arranged marriage" is a trope I'm rather tired of--before learning how to find good romance novels as a teenager, I read anything I could get my hands on and that rather burned me out. But this, however, is another of my very favourite pieces in the entire series. I've even written a follow-up, with one more planned (although when I'll get to it is anyone's guess). So, uh, there you go.

( 'I can't see many people lining up to marry a stranger!' )

Title: Like I Have Nothing To Hide
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Action
Rating & Warnings: PG-13 (slight dubcon, hairpulling)
Betas: tinsnip and Yosie
Words: This part 4090, appr. 15k overall
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Summary: When Miles returns from a wartime engineering course, Keiko is glad to have him safe at home again--but soon she realises that all is not well. Now she must gather evidence while protecting her family and without letting on that she knows something is wrong. This chapter: Strategic meetings.
Author's Notes: So, the other thing I had spent a great deal of time thinking about, in addition to how Keiko might be able to realistically deal with a threat on her own, was how to detect Changelings more effectively than using blood samples. I probably spent the better part of a month mulling this over on my various walks, because as intimidating as DS9 made the Founders, once I saw them introduced, I thought there had to be a loophole or two to exploit--otherwise, well, the Federation was doomed.

I didn't write all the ideas I came up with into the fic, though I did cover a good number of them. It was fun to get the chance to put them to use, so yup!

( There they were, side by side, two enemies lying in the same bed and feigning sleep. )

Title: By the Book
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space 9
Genre: Humour
Rating & Warnings: PG (sexual references--many, many sexual references)
Words: 4712
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
Summary: All Starfleet personnel must obtain authorisation from their C.O. as well as clearance from their medical officer before initiating an intimate relationship with an alien species. - VOY 5x17 "The Disease." Enforcing this particular Starfleet regulation is all well and good on a starship, but on an active space station maintained by two separate governments, matters are a little more...challenging.
Author's Notes: The moment I learned of this particular regulation, I knew I had to write a DS9 fic about it. While on one hand it does make sense that people would want to know whether there would be any unpleasant side effects to getting it on with a member of another species, on the other, when it comes to a place like DS9, the regulation strikes me as horrendously impractical. Thus: this fic. I took a few liberties with the relationships in this, for purposes of fun and shipping bias, but the majority of pairings in this are canon compliant.

On a side note, I came this close to titling the fic "Alien Banging Regulations," and it's all Ereka's fault.

( There was, in fact, only one new task he did not relish: giving the Starfleet personnel on his station permission to initiate intimate interspecies relationships. )

Title: Working Out The Kinks
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Fluff/Humour
Rating & Warnings: PG (extremely light references to sex)
Words: This part 1905, ?? overall
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Summary: When it comes to dealing with muscle pain, Julian and Garak find that there's really nothing like physical touch. Featuring a trope played straight, subverted, and then resolved in three acts. This chapter: Turnabout is fair play.
Author's Notes: This is the chapter where I took a close look at what I'd written, as well as some common fandom tropes, and decided to turn everything on its head. I also took my experience as the daughter of a medical professional and put it to good use. I was very fortunate to be taught a large number of scientific names for the various parts of my body at a young age, although this probably weirded out some of the people around me. I am pretty sure I was the only kid in my Grade 1 class who would complain about being itchy by her scapula (shoulder blade), for example.

Just as a heads-up, but after this I'll be taking a bit of a posting hiatus to get caught up on all my proofreading. I'm getting seriously bogged down, so this is the last thing you'll see from me for a little while. I may get something posted next week, but if I do, it won't be for this fandom. So yeah, I hope you enjoy this and I'll be back with something else in a couple of weeks. <3

( 'Garak? Are you all right?' )

Title: Held
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Action/Pre-slash
Rating & Warnings: PG (references to torture; panic attack; innuendo)
Betas: tinsnip and Yosie
Words: This part 4500, approximately 16 000 overall
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Summary: "...[T]he dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot one, and there’ll be another one along in a minute." - Terry Pratchett. Approximately six weeks after The Circle's fall from power, a fragment of the organisation returns to lash out against the only Cardassian living on Deep Space Nine. What they didn't anticipate, however, was being interrupted mid-abduction. This chapter: The senior staff on DS9 continue attempts to rescue Julian and Garak, and Garak's condition worsens.
Author's Notes: I don't have a whole lot to say about this chapter, actually. Mostly it's a continuation of the things I've played with in earlier chapters--and, of course, me insisting on making things worse.

On a side note, though, anyone who catches the tiny little Vienna Teng reference in this gets a whole batch of cookies.

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3

( 'It's been one hour, Commander.' The leader's voice was familiar, at least—it was the same woman as before. 'Have you made your decision?' )

Title: Held
Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Action/Pre-slash
Rating & Warnings: PG (references to torture; panic attack; innuendo)
Betas: tinsnip and Yosie
Words: This part 1406, approximately 16 000 overall
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Summary: "...[T]he dictator is merely the tip of the whole festering boil of social pus from which dictators emerge; shoot one, and there’ll be another one along in a minute." - Terry Pratchett. Approximately six weeks after The Circle's fall from power, a fragment of the organisation returns to lash out against the only Cardassian living on Deep Space Nine. What the terrorists didn't anticipate, however, was being interrupted mid-abduction.
Author's Notes: This fic is what I've mentally termed my Bajoran baby. I've been working on it for approximately half a year now--so actually, I suppose it counts as a long Bajoran pregnancy.

I had several goals in writing this fic, some of which won't become clear until later on. The primary one was to challenge myself to write an episode of DS9, using its format, plot structure, and some of its tropes. (Some of said tropes, however, I played around with a little.) It was a fun exercise that took me well outside my usual style, and someday, I may very well try it again.

Another reason for writing this was to tie up a few loose ends from the three-part Season 2 opening: "The Homecoming," "The Circle," and "The Siege." There were several things about those episodes that make sense from a series production point of view, such as why The Circle was never heard from again even if it's very difficult to completely wipe out a terrorist cell all in one go--especially one with that level of support. And, well, why they attacked Quark as opposed to Garak, since, you know, budgets and hiring actors, and so forth. But these weren't very satisfying to me from a storytelling point of view, and so I decided to play around with the situation.

A huge thank you goes to tinsnip, who gave me an extremely thorough beta involving just about everything and who suggested the title for the story (you don't want to know what it would have been called if I were left my own devices), and to Yosie, who's been reading my writing for thirteen years now (!) and knows where I make my mistakes. This is a hell of a lot better story thanks to them. <3

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy my Bajoran baby, haha.

( And directly in front of him were three masked humanoids in burgundy robes. )