enough abt the song of achilles, what about his dance?

Leeta: I think this could be fun but knowing the show it would quickly land in Elvira territory.

Quark: As a rule, I think it's more interesting to consider if characters were vampires the whole time than getting turned mid-show (because getting turned has been played out so many times and there's not much new to do with it). However, Quark is the exception, because if he were a vampire from the beginning it would just be a very obvious metaphor for capitalism, but if he were turned mid-show the comedic potential would be gold. Vampirism is so violent and Quark really hates being up close and personal with violence. Would have a real problem with it until he figured out a way to monetize it. Once he learns some people have a fetish and will pay to be bitten he'll be devastated when Dr. Bashir invents the cure.

Worf: Worf already has deep angst about his capacity for violence that makes him hate fun (according to Let He Who Is Without Sin) and this is just more of that in a fairly boring way. Why he scores higher than Quark is because I'm imagining Worf's human parents adopting a child and finding out he's a vampire and deciding to love and raise him anyway, and I think that's funny. (Vampires aren't stuck at one age here for the purposes of comedy.) And he thinks everything about him is that way because he's a vampire until he meets the others, much like in canon.

Rom: Even funnier than Quark, because of Rom's general affability and dopiness. Unlike Quark, I think he would remain a vampire until the end of the series and it's just kind of a running joke in the background. Quark finds Rom drinking blood less disgusting than Rom drinking root beer.

Jadzia: Vampirism works pretty well with her arc of being a joined Trill- she was recently turned and is still figuring out the rules of engagement and how to balance vampirism and Starfleet. Julian is infatuated with her about it and she isn't interested. Curzon is her sire and still running around and that provides fodder for an interesting dynamic. Is Ezri someone she turns by accident? I'm unclear on that part but I think there's interesting potential, particularly for it to give early seasons Jadzia more to work with. (Later seasons Jadzia doesn't need it as much.)

Garak: Garak was my initial number one because I always want to hit him with more angst. Tain was his sire, but not his biodad, which adds a whole other layer to "admit you're my father," especially if Tain killed his real father. How long has Garak been alive and doing this? When was he turned and what memories does he have of life before? In The Wire, he runs out of his secret source of blood and has to come clean to Bashir about it, who has been trying for a year to figure out if he is a vampire or not without success. Works extremely well with his whole oh-ho-I'm-just-a-simple-tailor whoops actually-I'm-very-dangerous-in-the-dark-don't-mind-the-sharpness-of-my-smile thing. I'm ranking it lower than initially thought though because at the end of the day it's interesting but doesn't change much; works out pretty much the same as in canon.

Kira: Kira has that thing with Kai Opaka about how she worries the Prophets won't forgive her for all the blood she's spilled and just imagine how hard core that scene would be if she drank the blood instead, and violence is a part of her she cannot excise. The Resistance feeding on the Cardassian soldiers they kill is fucking metal. But then what happens when you don't have Cardassians as acceptable targets anymore? What if that's part of what splinter sects like the Kohn Ma were radical about, was who or how they drank from after the withdrawal? Did Cardassians bring vampirism with them or is it a Bajoran thing? What if Starfleet can offer a cure and Kira et al have to decide if they want it? Endless room here. Also offers further fuel to why she is so unable to face her father's death.

So the Maquis are sort of selfish, belligerent assholes to begin with. Their entire deal is "we expected the Federation to prosecute a war with Cardassia to complete victory no matter the cost; FUCK your peace treaty and FUCK your border clarification. We're going to deliberately attempt to reignite hostilities in order to get our stolen land back."

It's not a very sympathetic movement except in one respect; "we don't want to live under the fascist boot of the Cardassian Union" is an understandable motivation, something you can easily see men killing, and dying, for. You understand why they're doing what they're doing and to an extent you can root for them a little bit, because who the hell likes the Cardassians?

But then you get Eddington, and with Eddington you get a portrait of a man who hasn't found a reason; he's found an excuse.

Because Eddington is himself a product of the decadence he claims to decry.

Eddington needs the validation of being a righteous, hunted fugitive, persecuted for his ideology by the corrupt, decadent Federation. Because Eddington is dissatisfied with peace, with plenty, with the basic functioning of the Federation as the utopian future it is presented as. The slow boring of hard diplomatic boards seems feckless and weak to him, what people without a strong moral compass do. Eddington wants the galaxy to be on fire so he can hurl himself into that conflagration with reckless abandon, proving he's right.

This is only a mindset that can grow up among people who have never known the turmoil of actually unsettled times, the sort of man who thinks "hard times make strong men, strong men make good times, good times make weak men, weak men make hard times" is a trenchant political insight. Of someone who wishes they had been born to fight in WWII or Vietnam because they haven't had a chance to "prove" themselves like the generations that fought those wars did.

I absolutely guarantee you that "core" Maquis, people who didn't defect after a long Starfleet career but the actual colonists who are having to deal with Cardassia, do not have well-developed dorm-room bullshit philosophy about how the Federation is a weak, decadent state that has lost its way because of replicators, and isn't it so much better and nobler and purer to eat food you've grown yourself instead of re-sequenced protein molecules. Those guys are going to be concentrating on things like getting weapons to blow up Cardassians with. They are going to regard the position that the food they're scavenging is somehow better than replicated food as weird; they would love to have some replicators.

Eddington also gives off a strong whiff of not liking Starfleet because its overly cosmopolitan. It's the part of the Federation where all its different member species have to come together and get along, and so their unique differences do end up sort of sandblasted off at the edges in order for there to be a common Starfleet culture.

Eddington's career was stalled out at mid-rank. He was never going to get a command, never going to be put in charge of anything too special or exciting. Even on DS9 he's playing second fiddle to Odo, for all that they're nominally on the same level. His future options were to retire and do something else, or accept that he's going to spend the rest of his life being the guy who puts other people's plans into effect. Some Starfleet officers take incredible pride in being those guys - that's the essence of O'Brien, for example. For Eddington it's a burning insult, and I truly believe that all his criticism of the Federation only came into existence once he started looking for a reason why they, not he, are the ones who suck.

What is a Hear Me Out?

They can be considered attractive in some way to you (but often not conventionally

They are someone/thing that you would not expect to be found attractive

up until that point, during the day lily continued to dress in masculine clothing and even attended galleries showing gottlieb’s paintings of her. which was kind of iconic. she got to stand in a room full of people who were marveling her beauty, not knowing she was right next to them. it must have been such a cute little secret for them as a couple.

here’s gerda and lilly together

not to mention that for most people there is no real “after” to a transition. especially for these trans historical figures who had to balance identity and safety at all times.

i think having a wife paint these portraits must have felt really amazing for lily. to be able to see herself through the eyes of someone who loved her. i’m very much seconding op on the getting teary eyed.

here are some of my favorite gottleib lily paintings