Sooooo Guess Who Started Watching Deep Space Nine…

what strikes me about “Far Beyond the Stars” is how they cast Odo as the one who upholds oppression through complacency. because Odo’s been shown to be very beholden to the status quo - he prides himself on his neutrality, sees himself as only being subject to justice and truth. That was the thrust of “Things Past” - he doesn’t feel guilt over collaborating with the Cardassians, but over the fact that he failed at properly exacting justice under the premises of their rule. He tries to be benevolent from within the system, but doesn’t consider the fact that the system itself might be flawed (though he arguably starts to reconsider this at the beginning of S6). So his AU role here made a lot of sense for him, tbh.        

kira nerys is such a funny character to me. imagine if your boss was also like a religious, holy figure that you personally believe in. but he doesn’t want to be a religious figure so you try to keep it low key. also he wants to play baseball with you.

I have thoughts about that one time Kira and Odo spent hours in a closet together

Rewatching ds9 and I love how they'll refer to aliens that exist on the station that are far, far weirder than anything their budget could ever show.

Textposts from everyone’s favourite space station😽

When Data learns about a new human custom he's like "wow life is such a rich tapestry I'm so pleased to participate in this social ritual with you and deepen our friendship (◡‿◡✿)", and when Odo learns about a new human custom he's like:

imagine a bajoran teenager living on ds9 who's trying to decide what to do with her life and feels compelled to get closer to the Emissary, but gets the sense that Sisko is a little uncomfortable with being approached in that way, and she's a little young to join the bajoran military and try to get stationed under him, so she looks for another pretense to like have a conversation with him or something

and she overhears Jake talking about playing baseball with his dad, and maybe at the temple she overhears Kira talking about going to the holosuites with them for a baseball game, and she gets the sense that baseball is Important

so she gets up her courage and approaches him on the promenade some time when he doesn't seem too busy, like "excuse me Emissary, I wonder if you would allow me to ask a favor of you."

and Sisko tries not to look like he's steeling himself

"I would like to learn about Baseball."

and he gets this big grin. and tells her what day and time to show up to Quark's for the next time he and Jake are gonna play (and ngl maybe part of him is thinking she's closer to Jake's age than Mardah is...)

and like as they're doing warmups, and she's taking things Very Seriously trying to learn the ropes, Sisko makes an offhanded comment about how Cestus III would be the place to be if you really wanted to get immersed in the sport. and of course she takes this a lot more seriously than he meant it. like a direction in life given to her from the Prophets, directly from their Emissary.

so after all of one (1) time playing baseball in a holosuite she approaches Kassidy to learn more about Cestus III and works like a short internship under her to earn passage there. and shows up in like Pike City or someplace like "hi, does anyone around here hire non-federation citizens? i don't care what type of job. also when are baseball tryouts?"

and like after several years spent getting good, bc she approaches the sport with y'know religious devotion, she returns to her people. and starts a training camp on Bajor that's like basically a monastery. like teenagers who want to pursue religious studies but can't sit still long enough to have hope of becoming a ranjen, they get sent to her to learn to practice Baseball

like imagine a young adult with a really elaborate earring and also like the baseball shoes and the short pants tucked into tall socks going "you know, waiting for a sign from the Prophets is a lot like playing left field..."

started watching ds9. it’s your problem now

Picard and Odo would so vibe. Picard would call him "Mr. Odo" and Odo would love it.

Absolutely transcendent move from Star Trek to write a shapeshifter character who's kind of bad at it. You're like, "oh so he can impersonate other characters?" and they're like no he's not very good at faces :(