Doctor, Tailor.

I suspect that many people here so far are from the LJ version, but many of us came into the fandom at different times and for different reasons. I thought this would be a good general topic to get things started here!

I got into Garak/Bashir in 1996, if memory serves! I got onto the internet through university access, and after reading all the Kirk/Spock available at the time (very little) I started reading other Trek slash. I had only seen one or two episodes of DS9 at the time, and when I started reading the Garak/Bashir I couldn't really remember what Garak looked like. I remedied that by watching episodes my Dad taped for me.

Garak and Bashir reminded me a lot of Holmes and Watson, particularly because of Arcady's Holmes pastiches and the episode "Cardassians". I identified strongly with both men, and found Garak's distinctive voice particularly satisfying to master and see mastered by other fan writers.

I like exploring their mutual love of literature, their mentoring relationship, and the evolution of their relationship through the series. I like placing the start of a romantic relationship at different points in/after the series and seeing what happens. There are lots of things to explore. :0)

Another thing I really like about them is the range of canonically consistent characterizations -- you can get very different characterizations without going out of character, so even after 15 years of them I'm not bored yet. :0)