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homeless but why would you want him
Are you bloody crazy? Of course you are. I've got a lot of things to do that rank higher on my list than be forced to spend quality time with all the sanctimonious pricks you've got running around up here.
[One in particular. He really, really wants to break his nose. Maybe then they'd look different.]
Kind of have a rebellion to fight, you know how it is.
[One in particular. He really, really wants to break his nose. Maybe then they'd look different.]
Kind of have a rebellion to fight, you know how it is.
it's okay not-mirror-bashir is narcissistic enough for both of them
[Only, a lot of things. Only this Bashir - Jules? Julian? he can't be sure - is a stranger to him. By what he's heard from Sisko, a reckless, arrogant, completely unreliable stranger, who's barely even recognisable as him. He's half-tempted to ask whether perhaps there had been some kind of genetic enhancement that had gone wrong - after all, there was no way even the most privileged of Terrans could have afforded treatment as good as what he'd had - but... no. It doesn't matter, and even if this is him, even if everyone 'here' seems to know all his secrets already, keeping his secrets has become a habit. He'd rather not spill any beans, not even to someone who is, ostensibly, him.]
...you could do with a haircut.
[He clears his throat, every inch the awkward young genius.]
From what I've heard, we certainly have our differences. Personal hygiene aside, I rather think your temperament could do with some work. Have you considered meditation? It's often recommended for high blood pressure, you know, if you-- if that's an issue for you.
out of the two of us who's the one that actually slept with Jadzia okay? that's what I thought.
And you could do with a black eye.
[His temperament could use a lot of work. But he's not exactly alone in that--a lot of Terrans are very angry people.]
I don't need your diagnosis, Doctor, and I definitely didn't ask for it.
shhhh okay he's getting there sorta kinda maybe (or at least he thinks he is)
[Awkward he may be, but that doesn't mean he's much less stubborn than his mirror universe counterpart. Despite appearances, he can stand up for himself ... when he needs to.]
It's not a diagnosis. It's an... observation. [And not one based on any medical concerns. He hardly thinks blood pressure is going to be an issue for a man his age, in good health, in the 24th century - let alone one who might have been specially designed.] I don't think a fuse as short as yours ever did anyone much good. Not where I'm from, not where you're from, and not here, either.
just keep telling yourself that, darling.
Where I'm from, I'm hardly exceptional. We're a very angry people. Here, I could care less.
;)
[He can't imagine himself being apathetic about-- well, about almost anything, really. Reminding himself that their mirror selves have had very different lives is one thing when it comes to everyone else, but when it's him, it's different.]
Well, Julian, there's no rebellion to fight for here. No noble cause, no oppressors to overthrow, no wars to win. You don't have to be the way you are. [He knows, as he says it, that that's not good enough. He'd like to think it'd be tempting to himself, if he'd lived in that world instead, but the fact of the matter is that this other Bashir isn't him.] It's not exactly sustainable, as a way of life, is it? Not in any of the places the other people in my person's head have been sent to, anyway. If you're planning on staying around -- if you're planning on making a difference wherever you get sent -- you're going to need to be a team player. Or... hah. Well. More of one than you are now, anyway.
gosh he is such an angry noodle I am so sorry
But he obviously has almost as much of an aversion to being called by his first name as you do by Jules, by his reaction to it.]
Bashir.
[If he wasn't talking to you, he might be slightly more tolerant of it. Maybe.
Not likely.He spreads his hands in a gesture that might have been helpless acquiescence on anyone else, but on him it just comes off as mocking. It's probably the smirk.]
And I can be nothing but what I am. You might think it a persistent flaw in my character, but it's the only thing that's kept me alive. You can stand there and preach sanctimonious nonsense at me all you like, but until you've lived the life I have, don't you judge me.
beats being a sanctimonious noodle
[He doesn't sound sorry. He mimics the gesture, though only halfway - it seems to be unintentional. It probably comes off almost as mocking, just in a less edgy, more condescending way. He almost can't help it.]
I don't mean to preach.
[The sad part is, that's true. He's sanctimonious by accident - the usual Federation attitude, the smug superiority of those who haven't had to fight for everything they have. He's cultivated that attitude very carefully... probably too much so, since at times it seems almost to cross over into the parodic, and at almost all times crosses over into the extremely obnoxious.
The other him has a point, though. He sympathises with this other Bashir's situation... not as much as he would if he were anyone else's Mirror self, though. Judging himself is a lot easier than judging someone else, and it doesn't feel like being a massive cock when it's to someone who's ostensibly, well, him. But it is, and this isn't him, so he stops. A deep breath, a sigh (more long-suffering than he means it to sound, but you can't win them all), and a conscious effort to play nice.]
All I mean is that - to use a rather tired old cliché, I admit - one does catch more flies with honey than with a disruptor rifle. It might do you some good to be a little less... well, look, don't take this the wrong way, but you're not very likeable, are you? I'm sure this whole independent rebel thing you have going on has served you very well in the past, but now that you're here, in a more civilised sort of setting, I must say you'd be better off acting less abrasive and more like the rest of us reasonable human beings.
[Well, no one said the effort was going to be successful.]
they are a pasta salad of rage and preachiness
I've played that game--keep your head down, don't antagonize, don't speak. For a lot of Terrans, that's the only way to stay alive. I've had enough of it. Now that I'm free, I can be as bloody abrasive as I like--no one's going to kill me for it.
I'm not here to make friends, Doctor. To be honest, I'd rather not be at all--all this saccharine nonsense is making me sick.
with a delicious tomato and bitterness sauce and a side of infuriating
[But - well, yes. Infuriating or not, this man has been through hell. Just because O'Brien hadn't been very different and Sisko had been good underneath it, that doesn't mean he has any right to blame this Bashir for the way he's turned out. And it doesn't mean he needs to feel personally insecure about it. It isn't him, after all - not really.]
Not be here or not be friends? I do hope you don't mean the latter - we're getting along so well, after all. [This time it's not an accusation: this grin is wry, not smug. He ought to be being the bigger man, and all... in a totally non-superior, non-elitist, non-assholey way.] Though I must say if you mean the former, I can't imagine this is any worse a place than where you're from. From what I saw of it, I don't see how it could be-- how anything much could be. It's a wonder you, uh, you 'Terrans' managed to form any kind of organised resistance at all.
[A slightly awkward little cough.]
And I mean that in, um, a way that isn't quite so patronising as I suspect it sounded.
and all you can eat breadsticks my god I love this so much
He at least laughs a little at that. He doesn't have a very nice laugh.]
Yeah, it's a wonder all right. We're constantly at each other's throats. The only one of us that consistently speaks sense is the goddamn Vulcan.
[Tuvok is a badass, no matter the universe.]
Make no mistake, though, I'm a good part of the problem. It's our nature.
yummy
[Perhaps this conversation would have gone better had it taken place a little later in his timeline. Once he was more capable of talking to people like a normal human being instead of like a teenager stumbling through a conversation with his crush, for example. But hey. Social skills are overrated. At least he hasn't gotten overexcited yet.]
I'll take your word for it. [It doesn't sound as if he will, but at least he's not preaching again.] At the very least, you're doing well enough to get by. What more could one reasonably ask?
no subject
Probably not.
[And, well, he isn't. But hey.
Seriously, he doesn't even know what do right now, these are the most words people have said at him without profanity or threats involved in...forever. Quite possibly his entire life. What does he do with this?]
I could think of a few things.
no subject
Well. Yes. I... yes.
[Which is about all he can say to either of those. He has two modes, really - reassuring medical professional and massive dork. Occasionally he manages indignant or outraged as well before it peters out into one of the first two categories. None of them really apply here, though. Now that he's determined not to be a complete dick he's almost tempted to go for medical professional, but somehow he doesn't think this Bashir would be very happy about being patronised. He settles for very obviously changing tack, instead.]
So - your, ah, your 'mun' isn't thinking about putting you anywhere in particular, then?
no subject
Why would she, when she has you to torment instead? And I'm completely okay with that.
no subject
Glad I could be of help.