'Cause my body is my temple / My heart is one too

#478

"Kira Meru deserved better."

RANT POST

Dukat is a terrible person.

I just watched the episode with Kira Meru and oh my god. It's terrifying, it's disgusting, and I don't know how to feel about Kira's takeaway. Like- she was ready to kill dukat and HER MOTHER. And then she keeps saying "it's not right" and of course it wasn't right, but the fault was 99% dukat. And I don't think she made the wrong decision because it kept her family alive

Kira justifiably felt abandoned and betrayed but her mother didn't have much of a choice and it was an extremely difficult situation. Kira went through a lot of trauma as a child/ young adult and didn't have the best emotional support so I understand why she doesn't have a very nuanced view of her mother’s actions.

But the narrative itself doesn't do enough to illustrate how her own life has skewed her perceptions of right and wrong. And when I say nuanced, l don't mean "oh yeah dukat was nice to her so it makes sense" because first of all, he only cares when it's self serving in some way and secondly he's the reason she's in this situation.

Meru made an impossible decision that she doubled down on likely because she recognized she wasn't going to get out of the situation and was trying to convince herself that he wasn't as bad as she knew he was

my mother was an icon painter from Dahkur Province. she died of malnutrition at the Singha Refugee Camp when I was three.

Always Darkest Before The Dawn - Kira Meru/F!Dukat!Reader

Kira Meru. You had heard of the woman when your brother, the Gul Dukat, had mentioned several of his comfort women, the woman’s gentleness had been haunted and much as he liked to pretend to be tough, he was not. Meru had flinched away, looking down when you came closer, shame curling across her face so slowly that you move to tuck hair from her cheek, noting the way Meru shudders and leans into your touch at the same time, the scarring is still there, unhealed despite Dukat wanting to fix it and you move to stroke her cheekbone, focusing on how sweetly she leans into your touch. “It’s okay, come with me.” You speak softly and hold out your hand, leading her away from both your brother and his other chosen women, your voice dipping softly. “You’ll stay with me now, little one.” She settles willingly in your lap when you pull her down, curling your arms around her waist, letting a hand rest on her thigh, noting her flush and smiling. “We’ll get on just fine.” She doesn’t need to be roughly handled, you discover, merely cared for, more than willing to trust you when you hold her, not once pushing for more, taking your time to bring her to your side, content to hold her close and wait. Later, by the end of the year, she will be yours, you will have a daughter – her daughter, and you will be proud.

@sintember Day 30. Meru and Erissa run away and find true freedom.

100 words on the prompt 'Regulation'

On Coercion: How does Kira Meru manage to make an ultimate, but never total, sacrifice of herself?

"most aren't quite so evident" she says to kira, as if she herself isn't one of kira's walking-talking scars, as if she isn't carried around by kira, while she only grows heavier and more inflamed as the episode goes on. still. kira pushes her mother's hair aside and touches her mother's face so gently--watching almost possessively when dukat removes the scar from her mother's face because her mother really was a scar she was happy to wear only now it's different. now her mother-scar is too evident. now she understands her mother but she doesn't want to. kira has been pushed into too many grey spaces in her life and she really didn't want her mother to be another. which is why she moves her mother's hair aside, to pull her mother and her mother's bravery from the grey shadow. and then the scar is "healed" and maybe kira is bitter than she herself can't be.

Kira/Odo - Celestial

Ever since I heard that song on the radio, inspiration struck and stuck!

Meru, as in the AU if the baby Changeling survived, belongs to @vermin-disciple, is used with permission and will be featured more with zer interactions with Odo and Miles in a later video. At least in the Flubber-stage because I could find no way to visualize zer adult genderfluid changeling body, yet.

It is a bit of an AU of that AU here because Odo leaves to be with the Link like in canon but returns after about half a year for visits as the Ambassador. The suggestion of Odo mourning Kira in Children of Time at the line "things don't look up when you're going down" is from Laura Schiller, as is the clip for the mask of Kira smiling. Plot:

Despite being apart in different parts of the galaxy, Kira and Odo cannot forget the ups and downs of their relationship. Both have already experienced the loss of the other and the pain that could be so much worse than this temporary seperation: Kira when Odo was sick and dying and Odo when Kira had died on Gaia in the alternate timeline. The good times keep them going on through the dark. Meru is adopted by Kira when she misses Kirayoshi after his birth. Nerys and Meru keep waiting  for Odo and Meru tries to comgort zir mother. Whe he does return from the link all three are happily reunited.

aside from his megalomaniacal machinations, Dukat's other passion in life seems to be Bajoran women

The victim blaming against Kira Meru was awful.

Can't argue with that, especially with 30 years of hindsight. But I'd also note that it's historically accurate, given how women in her position are generally treated once liberation finally arrives.

"Wrongs Darker Than Death or Night" (S06E17, Stardate Unknown) gives a long overdue look at Dukat's hinting at his connection to Kira's mother. And it presents Kira with a massive amount of grief and trauma to process at who her mother was and what she did to save her family.

I really wanted something simple so I focused on Nerys and Meru looking in different directions, with the Orb of Time bridging the space between them.

I legitimately consider Dukat's romantic feelings for Kira canon. No, I do not think in any canon capacity should these two have been together (unless we're talking about the aforementioned ex-spouse crack). I think, to Dukat, Kira was a very attainable want and desire that he thought he deserved.

Who wouldn't want him? He believes he's a good man, a good leader, and a good father/husband. He thinks he can take whatever he wants when he wants it. And I think Kira humoring him ever at all started the ball rolling on his insane desire for her.

She reminds him of Meru. She won't accept him. She loves Ziyal. She thinks he's evil. She's a strong character and soldier. She'd rather die than willingly spend time with Dukat alone for pleasure. She's something he can't have and he doesn't understand why.

It bothers him deeply.

In his head, he's the hero. Why shouldn't the hero woo the girl?

(edit: yeah I know they talk about it but you wouldn't believe conversations I've had where people try and say its not true... 🙄)

@sintember Day 27. Kira Meru knows she is a product of disgust to everyone but Erissa, she just doesn’t care.