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indigosfindings · 15 days ago

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ok here's my timeline of egyptian koopa/king tut Notable Events, mostly to sate my own desire for one

AUG 2000: paper mario is released for the n64, debuting the character tutankoopa

SEPT 2002: adrian barritt & richard horrocks found fuse games (later renamed silverball studios)--not long thereafter, they pitch mario pinball land (aka super mario ball) to nintendo and are greenlit (source)

AUG 2004: mario pinball land launches in japan, followed by an autumn release elsewhere. the boss of its desert world--a pharaoh-themed koopa (video)--goes unnamed in the game. a page (author uncredited) on the official japanese promo guide site for pinball land calls it ボスノコノコ ("boss nokonoko", i.e. "boss koopa"--this follows a similar convention to the jp names for big bully, sunshine's wiggler, petey piranha, & others)

SEPT 2004: a walkthrough on gamefaqs by user qqwref refers to that boss as "tutankoopa"--afaict this is the first time anyone has publicly referred to this character by any name in english!

OCT 2004: a japanese licensed guidebook published by shogakukan (akiharu tsuchida et al) uses the name ファラオノコノコ ("pharaoh nokonoko", thus "pharaoh koopa"). everyone say thank you mariowiki for cataloguing the image. (i verified the book's release date via the final photo on this sale listing)

NOV 2004: nintendo power issue 185 features a mario pinball land guide (author uncredited, probably one of the names on this page) which refers to the boss as "egyptian koopa". note also the "piranha pete" error on the same page & the "spikey" error on the preceding page. the same month, a gamefaqs guide calls the boss "pharoe (sic) koopa troopa"

DEC 2004: (possibly earlier?) the american & australian mario pinball land promo flash pages (author uncredited) feature a(n unpreserved) video titled "king tut", presumably in reference to this boss:

JUL 2006: tutankoopa's mariowiki.com page is updated to add the claim that he is the boss in pinball land

AUG 2006: the first version of mario pinball land's mariowiki page calls the boss "tutankoopa"

some time before MAR 2007: the mario characters guide on gamefaqs by user spacepope4u conflates tutankoopa with the pinball land boss. sadly the version history is not very robust so i can't verify when this was added. references to the "egyptian koopa" name from np are also included:

MAY 2007: the first version of the boss's mariowiki page is created under the name "king tut" (probably taking the name from the site above, albeit without citing it). a revision the following day adds the name "koop tut" as well. around the same time, conflation of "king tut" with tutankoopa is removed from both the tutankoopa page and the pinball land page. the "king tut" name begins to gain traction

FEB 2008: "koop tut" is removed from the mariowiki page

DEC 2009: on the wiki's talk page two users very briefly discuss whether this character should be considered the same as tutankoopa

2012: silverball studios is bought by barnstorm games (source). not really relevant but i thought it was interesting

APR 2015: a "citation needed" template is added to the "king tut" page

NOV 2015: a thread is created on super mario boards to discuss the "king tut" name situation. the name of the wiki page is changed to "egyptian koopa", following the nintendo power name above. that name proliferates on other platforms, such as this beautiful forum thread:

SEPT 2019: a singular japanese deviantart user uploads fanart & refers to this character in the caption as ボスカメック ("boss kamek", thus "boss magikoopa"--notably, this is the jp name for kamella) as far as i can tell, literally nobody else has ever used this name for this character

OCT 2023: i post a video on the subject. lol

NOV 2023: warioware: move it is released: a microgame in 9-volt's stage, "mario pinball land", features an appearance by "egyptian koopa" (video). it continues to go unnamed

JUN 2025: the flash site from 2004 is rediscovered by mariowiki users: the page is renamed back to king tut in accordance with this new information

to recap the names that have been used, in the order of first extant public usage:

boss koopa (ボスノコノコ): comes from the official japanese guide site in 2004. a cursory search suggests that it's the most common name used on the japanese web (ex: pixiv, nintendo wiki, niconico, wikipedia, twitter)

tutankoopa: unofficial conflation of this boss with the paper mario character. earliest known recorded use is in the 2004 gamefaqs guide above. what the boss was called on mariowiki from 2006 to 2007. a variety of other sources have (possibly independently) furthered this conflation (ex: youtube (1, 2, 3), khinsider, gamefaqs (1, 2, forum), lemmy's land)

pharaoh koopa (ファラオノコノコ): comes from the licensed japanese shogakukan guidebook in 2004. appears in some of the "boss koopa" sources above, but only as a parenthetical. used only once in english in a fan guide, probably without referent

egyptian koopa: officially printed in nintendo power in 2004, used as the primary name on mariowiki from 2015 to 2025. widely used on the english web (ex: youtube (1, 2, 3, 4), deviantart, fandom.com, spriters resource, tvtropes)

king tut: featured on the official flash promo site in 2004. the name on mariowiki from 2007 to 2015, and again as of june 2025. can be seen online in some sources from 2015 and earlier (ex. fantendo, giantbomb, blogspot, datacrystal, youtube)

koop tut: unofficial, appeared in the body of the mariowiki page from 2007 to 2008. may have been pulled from a super show episode. not used anywhere else afaict

boss magikoopa (ボスカメック): unofficial, used by a single deviantart user in 2019

#indigoing #indigo effortpost #egyptian koopa

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dayenurose · 6 days ago

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Time Travel Fic Recs Featuring Romy

Welcome to this year’s addition to my Romy Fanfic Rec Collection. I was inspired by the ‘Time Loop’ prompt, though I decided to expand it to cover 'Time Travel' in general. @angel-gidget designed the lovely banner. Thanks Gidge. <3

And now, I hope you enjoy a few of my favorite time travel fics featuring Rogue and Gambit.

For @roguegambitweek 2025 - Day 7: Free Day, Day 5: Time Loop

Betrayal by Valerie J [ff.net]

Call Back Yesterday by xenokattz ( @xenokattz ) [ao3]

The Chase by Chellerbelle ( @chellerbelles ) [ao3] [ff.net]

But Here We Are by AppleJ ( @applejacks1552 ) [ao3]

Converging by AnaExpert (Ana Xpert) ( @anaxpert-blog ) [ao3] [ff.net]

Chapter 13 - Day 12: Out of Sight, Out of Time of Fourteen Ways to Fall for You by lettersfromnowhere ( @lettersfromn0where ) [Ch 13] [ao3]

Pearls of Wisdom by chitane ( @unleash-hell-little-one ) [ao3] [ff.net]

A More Perfect World by DemonaHw ( @demonahw ) [ao3]

Thanks to all the authors for writing and sharing your stories. They are amazing fics that allow us to travel through time.

If you read any of these fics, please leave a comment and let the authors know you enjoyed them.

Happy Reading!

Fic Summaries and Notes Below the Cut:

Betrayal by Valerie J [ff.net]

Summary: [Complete] When Bishop first joined the X-Men, he warned them that they would be betrayed by one of their own. He was right, but that’s only the beginning of the story. (This story diverges from continuity just after X-Men #45.)

Notes: There is so much story potential in the relationship between Bishop and the Witness. Bring that to the present and you get a fascinating story which touches on so much more than time travel. Relationships are tested, secrets are revealed, and choices are made. This is an excellent fic is the start of a trilogy which is well worth the read.

Call Back Yesterday by xenokattz ( @xenokattz ) [ao3]

Summary: After 2005, the world went to shit. That was Logan’s summary. Global climate change. All the TVs were rectangular and thin. All the cars were purportedly powered by electricity. The music sucked. Network explained events with more detail, but the gist of it was after 2005, the world went to shit. And Remy had to fix it before he could go home to good old 1993.

Notes: This story sticks with me long after I finished reading. While there is something melancholic and bittersweet about it, the fic offers a compelling story of love, community, and saving the world. There’s a figurative ticking clock which keeps you reading right up to the last moment. And, it’s the perfect length that you might find yourself looping around and reading it again after you finish.

The Chase by Chellerbelle ( @chellerbelles ) [ao3] [ff.net]

Summary: In the Present, Gambit tries to auction off Emma Frost’s diamond hand and finds himself caught between the X-men and Sinister’s Marauders. 20 Years in the Future, Professor Xavier seeks to save his X-men from being murdered in the past by the marauders, and prevent the Age of Apocalypse from ever happening.

Notes: I love the complicated timey-wimey nature of this story. Chelle manages to not only juggle one or two times lines, but plays out a half dozen or so various timelines in over a dozen time frames. And, she makes excellent use of the time travel elements and shows what happens to the future when you use foreknowledge to change your present.

But Here We Are by AppleJ ( @applejacks1552 ) [ao3]

Summary: They never thought this would be possible, but Rogue is uneXpectedly eXpecting. Yet nothing is ever THAT simple in the life of an X-Man. What secret will Gambit discover that complicates their happily-ever-after?

Notes: This is one of those fics you find yourself asking, where's the time travel. And then, it shows up and it is such an important element of the story. It really grabs you as Rogue and Gambit are facing upcoming parenthood--and for anyone who knows the the X-Men, then you know that there are no certainities when it comes to being an X-Man and a parent.

Converging by AnaExpert (Ana Xpert) ( @anaxpert-blog ) [ao3] [ff.net]

Summary: Rogue seems happy with her new life, or is she? Gambit is finally showing signs of moving on from her. Living separate lives, but forever in each other’s hearts. An old buried secret is revealed and it completely changes everything. Expect sex, drama, angst and plot twists.

Note: What if you had the ability to change a painful incident from the past? Would you take the opportunity? This fic grapples with that question along with other complications of what happens to your present when you change the past.

Note.2: The ff.net version may be slightly easier to read. The story has multi-character POV and will change POV within the chapters. The formatting which signifies change of POV didn’t always get transferred over to ao3, so it can take a moment to note the change in POV. POVs are separated in ff.net.

Chapter 13 - Day 12: Out of Sight, Out of Time of Fourteen Ways to Fall for You by lettersfromnowhere ( @lettersfromn0where ) [Ch 13] [ao3]

Summary: Day 12: because there TOTALLY isn’t enough time travel in the X-Men universe as is! (A time travel AU)

Note: This fic is a lot of fun. There's a framing sequence not only at the beginning and end of the story, but each chapter as well. Aliens want to know if soulmates are real, so they kidnap Rogue and Gambit and put them through a myriad of fanfic tropes. And when it comes to time travel, this chapter hits all the right points you want in a across time romance in a bite size package.

Pearls of Wisdom by chitane ( @unleash-hell-little-one ) [ao3] [ff.net]

Summary: After a mishap with one of Forge’s latest science projects, Rogue somehow finds herself 12 years into the past. AU Time Travel.

Notes: I would love to see this fic continue. I want to know what happens. Rogue is in a position where she knows how things are supposed to play out, but doesn't *know* what it was actually like.

A More Perfect World by DemonaHw ( @demonahw ) [ao3]

Summary: Newly arrived with the X-men, Remy LeBeau was growing accustomed to dying. Each time he did he woke up back in his bead on the morning of April 10th. But he could deal with that: he’d seen Groundhog Day and it wasn’t as if he had any plans. But he was starting to realise that

Notes: Yay! A time loop story at last. And, another story I really want to see continue. The novelty of living forever without consequences loses its appeal after a time, and the consequences of repeatedly dying remains even when the death doesn't. The fic really gives the reader something to think about.

#rogue/gambitweek2025 #rogue/remyweek2025 #rogue #gambit #romy #anna marie lebeau #remy lebeau #day seven #day five #free day #time loop #fanfic #otp: home and harbor #otp: mon coeur

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thevoidstaredback · 9 months ago

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Tales of Conquest, Warnings of Fools:

Letters Between Brothers

Damian Wayne, Feb. 16, 2012

It’s been exactly sixteen days since I found out that father went missing. It’s been fifteen days since I last wrote to you. I’m still waiting for an answer. Just in case, however, I’ve started to keep a closer eye on things here in Illinois. Once I’ve got an information network kind-of up and running, I’ll hopefully be able to keep an eye on a much larger area than just one state.

I can’t believe it took me this long to set up a web.

You’ll notice that there’s no return address on this letter. On the off chance that father going missing involves the Shadows somehow, I’ve decided to let this line drop. When If you decide to write to me again, the return will be the same as it was before. It’ll be the best way to reach me, unless you want to use the number from my first letter.

I have anything in my P.O. Box delivered to a secondary location where I can pick it up, as I told you before. I’ll check there as frequently as I can.

أتمنى أن يكون كل شيء على ما يرام

***

The letters were given to Damian by Alfred just as his Father had always been handed mail. They were set on a tray on a table near the front door and brought to the dining table just before lunch was served.

The mail had been piling up recently. Sure, they all saw the letters on the dining table, but no one had the energy to look at the names written on them. Fortunately, the ones on the top were addressed to Damian. Unfortunately, everything aside from the death of his Father had been pushed to his mind. It could all wait.

It wasn’t confirmed that Father was dead. In fact, their story for the public is that he was kidnapped, that they had hired some private investigators to look for him, and that they would pay any ransom asked as long as it was within their capabilities. It had been a long shot, but it was their final act of desperation. They were all prepared for the worst, though. Waiting for confirmation, evidence, that Father was truely dead was like waiting for the blade of a guillotine to fall. They would likely have to call it if he didn’t show up by year’s end.

Damian had only just gotten his Father, and now he was losing him. It wasn’t fair! Sent so far from home and to the house of a stranger, only to lose the man just as he’s getting attached! It was cruel. He could not bear the thought, so he ignored the letters with his father’s name. He ignored the letters with his name because he now held his father’s name.

Grayson was better at hiding his grief, trying to hold everything together, but it was obvious he, too, was falling into the same pit as the rest of them, only he was going to fall deeper. As much as it pained Damian to admit, Grayson was Father’s first chosen. He knew that what he felt at the loss of his Father, Grayson was feeling worse.

It would not do to compare grief, but he couldn’t help it. Grayson had been with Father the longest. Todd, while too angry to even fleetingly consider the idea of remaining a part of the family, was still Father’s first adopted. Drake, no matter how incompetent, had been the one to keep Father and Gotham well up until now. Damian had only been there, had only known Father, for a year.

Damian remembers the grief that had warped into anger. He remembers he and the people Father and Pennyworth insist are his brothers finding themselves and each other in the Cave, each of them intent on taking the Batman Cowl. After all, Gotham will not survive without Batman. None of them took it, though no one forgot it, either.

Todd and Drake had been the first two to fight over Father’s Cowl. Damian had net been allowed a mask, but he had helped to save Drake’s life after he fought Todd. He figures it was penance for attempting to kill him within his first month at the Manor.

Grayson had met Todd on the top of a moving train. No matter how much history the two had, being brothers and colleagues, their fight was inevitable. Grayson ended as the victor after knocking Todd off of the train.

Damian remembers the week after Grayson won. He stripped Drake of the title of Robin and gave it to Damian, while he became Batman. Drake had then left the country with the new name Red Robin.

While he knew that grief shows differently across the board, he knew it followed the same five steps. He was now at Acceptance. Grayson was stuck at Depression. Todd seemed to be stuck at Anger. But Drake was still at Denial.

However, Damian knew people who have died could still be alive. Grandfather, Danyal, and Todd. All three had died, and yet all three now walk amongst the living. Grandfather’s heart has to stop before the Pits can work to revive him. Danyal had not died and revived in the same sense, but he had been proclaimed and mourned. Todd had been killed and buried for six months before rejoining the living, as catatonic as he may have been. Why would Father be any different? Father could’ve faked his death for one reason or another, or he could’ve really died and it was only a matter of time before he came back!

Perhaps, Damian was still in Bargaining.

Death was a concept that he was intimately familiar with. There were ways to reverse its effects, and there were ways to make it more efficient. Father disappearing could mean anything.

This was all to say that Damian believed Drake. Father could be dead, but he could be alive. For as much as he hated Drake, Damian was not going to deny the points he made. He wasn’t going to help him, though. He had other duties to attend to, such as the meeting on the Watchtower he had to attend with Grayson as Batman and Robin.

“How are things going in Gotham?” Superman asked as Batman and Robin exited the Zeta Tubes.

Batman grunted as he always did, “Fine.”

Superman frowned, following Batman to the meeting room. “Are you sure? I saw the news. Are you okay?”

“Why would I not be?” Batman asked.

“Well, uh,” It was fun to watch Superman at a loss for words. “You must’ve gotten hurt pretty bad to not go out for almost two months,” he said, “And now Bruce Wayne is missing.”

The door to the meeting room opened, letting Superman, Batman, and Robin in. All conversation stopped. “Why would I be upset about Wayne going missing?”

Damian had to commend Grayson’s performance. He’d read in Father’s files that Superman could hear heartbeats, so tricking him was quite the accomplishment. He was upset, though, that the Kryptonian had yet to notice him. Actually, it seemed none of the heroes had noticed him.

“And Nightwing’s out of commission!” The Flash chimed in from his seat.

Batman turned his glare on the speedster. “Nightwing is doing some undercover work at the moment.”

“Oh.”

Superman took his seat beside Wonder Woman, leaving Batman and Robin with one chair left. Batman took it while Robin went to the dark corner to watch.

Wonder Woman stood. “Thank you all for coming,” she said as though this wasn’t a mandatory, bi-monthly meeting, “Currently, there is no situation that requires all of our focus. Washington D.C. is as it always is, as well as Gateway City.”

“And Themyscira?” Hawkgirl asked.

“They have not reached out about any problems they cannot handle on their own.” She retook her seat, prompting Superman to stand next.

And so the meeting went. Quick debriefs from everyone about their home cities, no more than five minutes each. Just as Batman designed it. When it came to the Dark Knights turn, however, he waited a full three seconds before standing. It was the only hint that something was off, but only Kal-El noticed, though he didn’t speak up about it.

“There have been no recent Arkham breakouts,” he reported, “Bruce Wayne has gone missing. The situation, however, is under control.” A bold faced lie, but no one could call him out on it. And those who could, wouldn’t dare. “Nightwing is doing undercover work and won’t be around for the foreseeable future. Red Robin is traveling for a mission of his own and won’t be around for the foreseeable future. Myself and Robin will be covering Gotham, though that does not invite any of you to operate in the city for any reason without explicit permission.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Aquaman said, “Who’s Red Robin?”

Batman blinked, the white lenses of his mask hiding it from everyone except Robin. “Red Robin.”

“Yeah,” the merman agreed, “Who is he?”

“He is Red Robin.” Batman stated.

Aquaman made to speak again, but Robin cut him off, looking at the screen on his wrist. “Batman,” he slunk from the shadows, pulling all attention to him and startling the heroes, “A message from Oracle. Conflict in Crime Alley.” Batman nodded with a grunt, sweeping out of the room. Robin followed.

“Hey, wait a second!” The Flash caught up to them quickly, stopping in front of them to cut them off. “Who is this!”

“Robin.”

“No,” The Flash shook his head, “Robin is a sickly Victorian child with a coffee addiction and a bo staff. This is not Robin.”

Robin clicked his tongue, “Tt. I am Robin.” He slowly pulled the katana at his hip from its sheath, just enough for the light to catch the blade. “Move.”

Batman held his arm out, not touching Robin, but catching his arm all the same. His head twitched to the right then the left. Robin resheathed his katana with another click of his tongue.

The Flash held up both of his hands and stepped back, “R-right. See you in two months?”

Neither vigilante responded, simply walking around him and back to the Zeta Tubes. Once the coords were set, they found themselves back in the Batcave. They still didn’t speak, opting to walk through the Cave and change into civvies in companionable silence. Finally, though, when they arrived in the Manor, Grayson spoke.

“You did well today,” his smile was gentle, “I was so nervous when I went to my first JL meeting! So were Jay and Tim. Steph never got to meet them, but I’m sure she would’ve been nervous, too.”

Dam

Damian left the room a step ahead of Grayson. “Being nervous about such a trivial meeting is unnecessary. The meeting itself was pointless. You withheld information from them, they all withheld information from each other. Why do they claim to be a team if you all do not trust each other as one? It seems a pointless waste of resources.

Grayson hummed. “I couldn’t tell you why everyone withholds information, but I can tell you that it’s not a waste of resources. Even if it was, Wayne Enterprises and Queen Consolidated fund basically everything.”

“Queen is Green Arrow, yes?” He turned into the dining room.

Grayson followed him still. “You figured it out that quickly?”

“Of course. The man is smart about his identity, but anyone who looks even a little closer than a glance at his company’s financial records would piece everything together.”

“Yeah,” Grayson chuckled, “But their tech girl is really good.”

“Better than Oracle?”

“Hey, now that’s not fair!”

“It is perfectly fair, Grayson. The children at school call it ‘home team solidarity’.” He took his pace at the table directly across from where Grayson was sitting, the head chair between them sitting empty. “So, Grayson, who is better? Felicity Smoak or Barbra Gordon?”

Pennyworth placed a plate in front of each of them, a cup following shortly after. The stack of letters in the middle of the table was three letters bigger.

Grayson huffed and stabbed his salad. “Not fair.”

Damian took the victory for what it was.

“Speaking of,” Grayson said a few moments later, “On the Watchtower, you said something about a message from Oracle? Something about Crime Alley?”

Damian swallowed his food before speaking. “Are you deaf? You were going to blow your cover, so I took the liberty of giving you a way out of the situation.”

“Aww!” Grayson cooed, “You do care!”

He huffed, moving to take another bite. “I care about not revealing our identities. Father is missing, Drake has gone off to who knows where looking for him, and you have taken the Cowl. The Justice League - a stupid name, by the way - would’ve figured out who we are if we had stayed any longer.

“‘A stupid name’ he says,” Grayson mumbled, “This coming from the kid raised by a group called the League of Assassins.” louder, he said, “You really have such little faith in my acting abilities?”

“‘League of assassins’ is the name outsiders have given it. ‘Shadows’ or ‘League of Shadow’ is the proper name.” He corrected. “And, yes. I don’t believe you could hold your cover under the scrutiny of the rest of the Justice League. You and Father have been around them enough times that they will know your tells if you do not hide them better. While you have them convinced for now, you must get better because they will know what to look for soon enough.” He took a sip of his water. “Besides, I don’t doubt that you can hide your identity as Nightwing acting as Batman from them. The line of questioning, should I have not gotten us out, would have risked our civilian identities. And, while I don’t care much for any of you, Father has taken painstaking measures to assure he is not discovered. Risking yourself risks all of us.”

Quiet permeated the room after his small speech was done. The two occupants finishing their food at a moderate pace.

The mansion was empty. In the year he’d been there, Damian had found that the Manor was always filled with noise and people. Now, however, it was just him, Grayson, and Pennyworth. Todd stayed in Crime Alley, not coming up for anything; Drake was somewhere in the world; Gordon was staying with her father for the time being; Brown had moved to Hong Kong with Cain, keeping little to no contact. Damian hated how empty it was. It reminded him of Nanda Parbat after Danyal had been pronounced dead. Barren, silent, dull.

Wayne Manor was, at its very core, a family home. Now, there was no family to fill its walls.

Reaching over, Damian picked up the letters that had been gathering for the last almost-two months. He was quick to sort through them. Father, Father, Father, Father- Damian? He set it aside. Father, Father, Damian again, Father, Damian. He set the rest down, not bothering to look through the rest of the pile. Why did he have mail? No one should be trying to-

Danyal.

How could he have forgotten? He must be so worried! Did he know what happened to Father? Was he waiting for a response? He needed to rectify this immediately.

Damian gathered his three letters and stood. “Excuse me.” He left the room, ignoring Grayson’s question of what was wrong. Quickly, he retreated to his room and sat at his desk, the envelopes glaring at him. Oddly, one of them didn’t have a return address on it, though the handwriting was the same on all of them.

He stared at the three for a little over an hour, struggling to open them. He wanted to, to see what his brother had said, but he couldn’t bring himself to add anything to his plate. Grayson and Pennyworth would not be able to handle the added stress of anything Danyal had put in his letters. He couldn’t handle whatever had been written down. Not yet, at least.

Would Danyal understand? He hoped so.

Damian tucked the three letters into the same drawer as the others, promising himself that he would read them later when he was more settled into his new role as Robin.

Three months later and Damian still hadn’t read the latters. They sat with the other, opened ones in the top left drawer of his desk, locked away from even himself. Every night, after patrol, he spent a good thirty minutes staring, trying to convince himself to open them, but he never did.

No follow-up letters came in, either, and that made him feel worse, somehow. Was Danyal upset with him? Was he in trouble? Was he waiting for a response? Damian didn’t know. He knew he’d have his answers if he opened the letters, but he couldn’t do it. So, they sat, tucked away, with an empty promise to read them later.

It’s not completely his fault that he hasn’t read them yet! Because it was just him and Grayson going out every night, he was working on several cases at once, while also keeping himself and Grayson alive. Pennyworth was doing what he could, but he is only one man. Brown and Cain only join them a few times a month, much more busy with their own things. Todd has stayed in Crime Alley, not even offering to branch out a few streets to help out. Gordon was still with her father, unable (or unwilling?) to act as Oracle for the time being. Not to mention that Drake was still MIA, looking for Father.

Between his duties as Robin, picking up the slack from the others, keeping himself and Grayson alive and as unharmed as they could be, and maintaining his civilian cover, could he really be blamed for not having the time to read his brother’s letters?

Yes.

There was still no news on Father. Drake was looking for him, chasing down leads that no one else had, but everyone else had given up. Grayson had taken to staying in Father’s room, crying when he thought no one was around because he wasn’t supposed to ever be Batman. Todd hadn’t bothered to contact anyone, but he hadn’t been too keen on the possibility of Father being alive from the very beginning. Pennyworth had seemed to come to the Acceptance stage and was moving on, doing as he always did. Cain, Brown, and Gordon weren’t around much, either, but it was clear they, too, had given up on Father’s life. The citizens of Gotham were much the same, offering sympathies and waiting for their declaration and a funeral date.

Damian was not prepared for any news other than his Father being around. He knew, in the back of his mind, that they were only holding off on the official announcement until Drake returned. If he didn’t return, then Damian supposed he would be the only one holding Grayson back from announcing Father’s death.

What a terrible burden to put on a child’s shoulders.

Damian found himself, once again, sitting in Father’s office. It was the one place no one ever went, not even to get to the Cave, so he was completely alone with Alfred the cat. The grandfather clock didn’t tick, but the hum of electricity from the elevator behind it was steady in the room, grounding Damian, keeping him from losing himself in his head.

The quiet was always a reprieve for him. In Nanda Parbat, there was always some noise, no matter how subtle or hidden. Footsteps only heard if you were listening for them, barely-there whispers of breath, wind against the walls and roof, murmurs of orders being relayed, the clink of weapons meeting, grunts from training, splashes from injuries, water flowing, snow melting, crops being tended to, animals. It all had a sound.

Silence, to everyone else, was foreboding; the tale tell signs of something not being right; the calm before a storm. To an assassin, silence was like coming home. Silence meant that they would be okay, that they’d live to see another day.

Damian relished in the silence of his Father’s office because it proved that he had been there. The room was empty, grieving for the man that had become lost, but it proved to Damian that his Father had been there. In some way, it brought him closer to his Father.

It was in the silence of his Father’s office that he spoke. Things he’d never been allowed to say with his Mother, things that he’d rather die than admit to anyone but himself.

“I don’t know what to do,” he whispered, his hand petting Alfred’s head, “I really don’t know what to do.”

And wasn’t that a terrifying thought? He’d been raised by Grandfather and Mother to always know exactly what was going on. If he didn’t know what was going on, he was to act like he did. Situations stayed in his control that way. Now, though, he couldn’t even pretend to know what was going on or what to do. Everyone was falling apart at the seams, overworked, stressed. No one had time for anything because they were all trying to fill the space Bruce left by pulling in every direction except in.

He felt like he was standing in the middle of a tornado. Father was gone, Pennyworth was trying to keep some form of normality, Grayson was trying to fill shoes that were never made for him to wear, Drake was trying to fix everything by looking for the epicenter of it all, and everyone else was falling away.

Everyone was pulling away from each other and blaming everyone else. He didn’t know what to do and it scared him.

In the year he’d been in the Manor before Father disappeared, they’d all been trying to teach Damian that it was okay for him to just be a kid sometimes. It went against everything he’d been raised on and taught, but he found it…fun. It was nice to not have to be looking over his shoulder all the time. He didn’t have to worry about traitors coming after him or when his next assignment would be, nor how long he’d be away from home.

He almost regretted listening to them now. Because now Father’s gone, Grayson is stretched so thin that he looks ready to keel over, Drake is gone, Todd is silent, the girls are so far away-!

Damian’s just a little kid. He doesn’t know how to deal with the situation.

So, he sits in his Father’s office with Alfred the cat and talks. Whether he talks to himself, his cat, or his Father, he doesn’t know. He just talks.

“I am not trained to handle this situation, Alfred,” he told the tuxedo cat on his lap, “I don’t think any of the others are, either.” He wanted to curl up, to pull his knees to his chest and bury his face in his arms. He wanted to cry. “I don’t know what to do.”

Danyal would know what to do.

But Danyal’s not here because Damian is a coward.

There are moments that Damian keeps close to his chest. Things that not even Mother knows. Moments when he and Danyal would sneak onto rooftops and speak of what scared them; moments when it was just him and his brother, telling stories they’d made up on their own; moments when they’d teach other what they were lacking at or in; moments curled up in the chicken coop or in the shed behind the greenhouses; moments where they could just be kids.

Damianand Danyal often found themselves alone together, shaking bodyguards or traitors - it was hard to tell who was who - off their tail and hiding in places only they could reach. They’d been praised by Grandfather for being so small, able to fit in the least likely of places, making missions take shorter amounts of time purely because they were small enough to go to their targets instead of waiting for them to come out.

One of their favorite places to be were the caves under Nanda Parbat. Not the Lazarus Pit caves! They’d never go near those. These caves were hidden from the others, too hard for adults to get to.

“We’re going to be too big to fit in here soon, ahki,” Danyal whispered, his voice carrying in the open space.

Damian clicked his tongue. “Then we will need to find somewhere else to make our own, akhi.”

Danyal frowned, “And leave Goliath all alone? No way!”

A sigh. “Unfortunately, Goliath will have to stay here in the caves. He was born here; he will be fine.”

A pout. “We could take him with us!”

“Where would we keep him?”

“In our rooms?”

“He’s down here because he got too big for us to keep in our rooms. He’s only going to get bigger.”

“Well, I’m not leaving him here.”

“Well, he can’t come with us.”

“We could keep him higher up the peak!”

“And keep him from his natural habitat? I think not.”

“How do you know that this is his natural habitat?”

“Because-” He cut himself off, Danyal doing the same.

Just in the distance, close enough to make out words, they heard voices. Some of the Shadows had followed them down and were looking for them. Quickly, they hid in the darkest corners of the cavern, the fire doused and Goliath preparing to attack.

The four Shadows came and passed, their carried conversation hinting that they were traitors in the ranks. After ten more minutes of nothing but silence, Damian and Danyal slunk from their hiding spots.

Danyal patted Goliath’s snout. “Sorry, bud, but we’ve gotta go.”

Damian nodded, also petting the dragon bat’s nose. “We will return when we can. In the meantime, Grandfather will want to know what we’ve learned.”

“When will he return?”

“Grandfather and Mother should both be here within the month. We will tell them then.”

Little moments that no one would think twice about until they’re all they have left. Memories of someone just out of their reach. Damian had a lot of those moments of Danyal and himself, all held very closely. He didn’t have nearly as many with Father, only as many as the fingers on his hand. Grayson tried his best to make up for the time Father was missing, but it wasn’t the same. He didn’t know what it felt like to have a father, but spending time with Grayson felt close to what he knew it should be.

“Any news from Drake?” Damian asked as he sat in front of Grayson at the table. He snuck a look at the shrunken pile of letters, but didn’t see another one with his name on it. He didn’t know what he expected. It had been six months.

Grayson shook his head, his long hair greasy and in his face. He was mostly focused on the paperwork in front of him. Some of it from his day job, but most of it was from case files he was working on as Batman. “Nope, still radio silence from Tim, Jason, Steph, and Cass.”

“What of Gordon?”

He sighed. “She’s not talking to me much, but I get it. Life happens. She told me she’ll get back to helping us out as soon as she can, but I don’t think that’ll be for a while.”

“I see,” Damian fell silent. “What of the WAR case?”

Grayson sighed heavier, his hands running through his hair again. “I still can’t get a hold of their leader. The guy’s slippery, and anyone working with him is just as!”

Damian hummed. “Perhaps you should let me focus on that case.”

“What? No, I can’t-”

“You’re stretching yourself too thin, Grayson, you will end up killing yourself if you do not take a step back.”

Grayson looked up for the first time since Damian had joined him with a concerned frown on his face. “Where’s this coming from, Dames?”

Damian didn’t react to the nickname. “If you die, then I will be alone.” he stated. Then, he stood, took the WAR case file from Grayson, and left the room. “Get some sleep.”

He found himself in his room, the case file in his hands, but all his attention on the locked top drawer. Danyal would know what to do. Danyal, despite being younger, always excelled with social lessons. He was always the fastest thinker, coming up with solutions to problems before they could become problems.

He opened the drawer, the key hanging around his neck at all times. Inside was every letter his brother had sent him. On the very top were the three he hadn’t brought himself to read open. If he read them now, would Danyal even want to hear from him? It’s been six months.

Damian closed the drawer, locking it, and hiding the key under his shirt again. He was quick to leave his room, taking the WAR case file with him to his Father’s office. He could focus there where the unopened letters weren’t looming over him.

Damian is a coward.

Translation 1 - Arabic: I hope everything is okay

Part 4 Part 6 Artwork

#Tales of Conquest. Warnings of Fools #Letters Between Brothers #part 5 #word count: 4.9k #my writing #ao3 #ao3 writer #fanfic #dc x dp #ghouls and gang writing event 2024 #dpxdcbang2024 #g&g24

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twig-tea · 8 months ago

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Love in the Big City Timeline in the Series

Here are the facts I've put together about the timeline in the series (which feels, unlike the book, a little more linear and so actually possible to do this with):

[indeterminate, elementary school, est. early 2000s] Yeong's mom finds out about Yeong's father's second family and divorces him

[indeterminate, high school, est. late 2000s] Yeong is caught kissing another boy on the playground and institutionalized by his mother

2012: The year that T-ara's song Sexy Love comes out (at this point I've just kept this on here for reference)

2014: As per his own narration in ep5, this is the year Yeong contracts HIV (in Feb) and is diagnosed by the military (and he only spends 1 month in the military before getting a medical discharge). He meets with the T-aras a few months later and says they're next for the military (shoutout to @impala124); he meets Nam Gyu and Mi Ae in late 2014, and Mi Ae tries to bum a cigarette from him in Dec 2014 (shout-out to @my-rose-tinted-glasses); Yeong moves in with Mi Ae in either late 2014 or early 2015, and soon after that is the T-ara karaoke sendoff after which he breaks up with Nam Gyu.

2015: Mi Ae's application to her job had 2015 on it; Mi Ae goes to the job retreat for a month, meets Jun Ho, and then several months after that, Yeong stops talking to Mi Ae for 10 months after she outs him. Some time in late 2015/early 2016, Yeong breaks things off with Nam Gyu again.

2016: We know Yeong won the contest in 2016 as per the book we see on Yeong Su's nightstand, and since Yeong called Mi Ae after that, we know they reconciled in 2016. Also, as per the last text message from him, Nam Gyu dies in 2016. After his funeral, Yeong takes over Mi Ae's apartment and Mi Ae gets married. Also, Yeong's mother gets diagnosed with cancer 3 years before she dies, which would be 3 years before Yeong tells Gyu Ho about Kylie, so that means her cancer diagnosis was also in 2016.

2017: Yeong Su tells Yeong he's moving to America [guessing based on how much time seemed to pass in their relationship]; Yeong attempts suicide

2018: Yeong Su sends Yeong the manuscript (which he throws out) [we know this was a year after Yeong Su leaves, but before Yeong's mother dies]

2019: Yeong's mother dies [I'm inferring because we know Yeong tells Gyu-Ho about Kylie in Jan 2020 after his mother's death and after they'd been seeing each other for a little while, so that puts Yeong's mother's death in 2019]

2020: We see Yeong's phone date the day he tells Gyu-Ho about Kylie as Saturday, Jan 25, which was a date in 2020 (but not 2019) [shoutout to @my-rose-tinted-glasses for pointing this out]; Yeong also has an article in his office with 2020 on it, so he was definitely dating Gyu-Ho and had moved from his job at the musical theatre to the company by 2020.

2021: [This is a guess, but we know Yeong's been together with Gyu-Ho for a year when he complains to the T-aras about their relationship and they suggest a trip, so I'm guessing the trip to Bangkok took place in Feb 2021 (around Chinese new year)--my best attempt to date this was the reference to the construction of the Pearl Building in Bangkok but that was constructed 2015-2017]

2022: Shoutout to @my-rose-tinted-glasses for catching the label on the package of his suitcase that Gyu-Ho buys for Shanghai, which says Jan 2022. We know Gyu-Ho leaves for Shanghai soon after that because in Feb 2023 the T-aras check in with Yeong saying it's 'that time of year'.

2023: In Feb 2023 we see Yeong quits his company to be a full-time writer; he writes the date on the book he signs for his former colleague and on his phone screen we can see Feb 2023 as well. We also got some confirmations of the timeline above, since he says in his voiceovers in eps 7&8 that it's been a year since Gyu-Ho left and he's been living with Kylie 9 years. [Note: there were subs in ep7 that said 2022, but they don't align with what's actually on screen]. In March, Yeong goes to Bangkok with Q/Habibi (Habibi's phone screen says it's March 8 when Yeong looks at it in the shower).

Feel free to correct me or add any concrete dates that I missed! I've now updated this with details from the last 2 episodes on Nov 12.

#love in the big city #typed so that i can stop thinking it #updating this made me realize that the anniversary of Gyu-Ho leaving is around the anniversary of Yeong contracting HIV (both in Feb)#also did anyone else notice that in ep 5 Yeong has Gyu-Ho stored in his phone as Q~❤[hearto]?#there are so many tiny details in this show that just wreck me

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mostlysignssomeportents · 1 year ago

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An excerpt from The Bezzle

I'm on tour with my new novel The Bezzle! Catch me next in SALT LAKE CITY (Feb 21, Weller Book Works) and SAN DIEGO (Feb 22, Mysterious Galaxy). After that, it's LA, Seattle, Portland, Phoenix and more!

Today, I'm bringing you part one of an excerpt from Chapter 14 of The Bezzle, my next novel, which drops on Feb 20. It's an ice-cold revenge technothriller starring Martin Hench, a two-fisted forensic accountant specialized in high-tech fraud:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865878/thebezzle

Hench is the Zelig of high-tech fraud, a character who's spent 40 years in Silicon Valley unwinding every tortured scheme hatched by tech-bros who view the spreadsheet as a teleporter that whisks other peoples' money into their own bank-accounts. This setup is allowing me to write a whole string of these books, each of which unwinds a different scam from tech's past, present and future, starting with last year's Red Team Blues (now in paperback!), a novel that whose high-intensity thriller plotline is also a masterclass in why cryptocurrency is a scam:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865854/redteamblues

Turning financial scams into entertainment is important work. Finance's most devastating defense is the Shield Of Boringness (h/t Dana Clare) – tactically deployed complexity designed to induce the state that finance bros call "MEGO" ("my eyes glaze over"). By combining jargon and obfuscation, the most monstrous criminals of our age have been able to repeatedly bring our civilization to the brink of collapse (remember 2008?) and then spin their way out of it.

Turning these schemes into entertainment is hard, necessary work, because it incinerates the respectable suit and tie and leaves the naked dishonesty of the finance sector on display for all to see. In The Big Short, they recruited Margot Robbie to explain synthetic CDOs from a bubble-bath. And John Oliver does this every week on Last Week Tonight, coming up with endlessly imaginative stunts and gags to flense the bullshit, laying the scam economy open to the bone.

This was my inspiration for the Hench novels (I've written and sold three of these, of which The Bezzle is number two; I've got at least two more planned). Could I use the same narrative tactics I used to explain mass surveillance, cryptography and infosec in the Little Brother books to turn scams into entertainment, and entertainment into the necessary, informed outrage that might precipitate change?

The main storyline in The Bezzle concerns one of the most gruesome scams in today's America: prison-tech, which sees America's vast army of prisoners being stripped of letters, calls, in-person visits, parcels, libraries and continuing ed in favor of cheap tablets that bilk prisoners and their families of eye-watering sums for every click they make:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/14/minnesota-nice/#shitty-technology-adoption-curve

But each Hench novel has a variety of side-quests that work to expose different kinds of financial chicanery. The Bezzle also contains explainers on the workings of MLMs/Ponzis (and how Gerry Ford and Betsy DeVos's father-in-law legalized one of the most destructive forces in America) and the way that oligarchs, foreign and domestic, use Real Estate Investment Trusts to hide their money and destroy our cities.

And there's a subplot about music-royalty theft, a form of pernicious wage theft that is present up and down the music industry supply-chain. This is a subject that came up a lot when Rebecca Giblin and I were researching and writing Chokepoint Capitalism, our 2022 book about creative labor markets:

https://chokepointcapitalism.com/

Two of the standout cases from that research formed the nucleus of the subplot in The Bezzle, the case of Leonard Cohen's batshit manager who stole millions from him and then went to prison for stalking him, leaving him virtually penniless and forced to keep touring to keep himself fed:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/apr/19/leonard-cohen-former-manager-jailed

The other was George Clinton, whose manager forged his signature on a royalty assignment, then used the stolen money to defend himself against Clinton's attempts to wrestle his rights back and even to sue Clinton for defamation for writing about the caper in his memoir:

https://www.musicconnection.com/the-legal-beat-george-clinton-wins-defamation-case/

That's the tale that this excerpt – which I'll be serializing in six parts over the coming week – tells, in fictionalized form. It's not Margot Robbie in a bubble-bath, it's not a John Oliver monologue, but I think it's pretty goddamned good.

I'm leaving for a long, multi-city, multi-country, multi-continent tour with The Bezzle next Wednesday, starting with an event at Weller Bookworks in Salt Lake City on the 21st:

https://www.wellerbookworks.com/event/store-cory-doctorow-feb-21-630-pm

I'll in be in San Diego on the 22nd at Mysterious Galaxy:

https://www.mystgalaxy.com/22224Doctorow

And then it's on to LA (with Adam Conover), Seattle (with Neal Stephenson), Portland, Phoenix and beyond:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/narrative-capitalism/#bezzle-tour

I hope you'll come out for the tour (and bring your friends)!

Between 1972 and 1978, Steve Soul (a.k.a. Stefon Magner) had a string of sixteen Billboard Hot 100 singles, one of which cracked the Top 10 and won him an appearance on Soul Train. He is largely forgotten today, except by hip-hop producers who prize his tracks as a source of deep, funky grooves. They sampled the hell out of him, not least because his rights were controlled by Inglewood Jams, a clearinghouse for obscure funk tracks that charged less than half of what the Big Three labels extracted for each sample license.

Even at that lower rate, those license payments would have set Stefon up for a comfortable retirement, especially when added to his Social Security and the disability check from Dodgers Stadium, where he cleaned floors for more than a decade before he fell down a beer-slicked bleacher and cracked two of his lumbar discs. But Stefon didn’t get a dime. His former manager, Chuy Flores, forged his signature on a copyright assignment in 1976. Stefon didn’t discover this fact until 1979, because Chuy kept cutting him royalty checks, even as Stefon’s band broke up and those royalties trickled off. In Stefon’s telling, the band broke up because the rest of the act—especially the three-piece rhythm section of two percussionists and a beautiful bass player with a natural afro and a wild, infectious hip-wiggle while she played—were too coked up to make it to rehearsal, making their performances into shambling wreckages and their studio sessions into vicious bickerfests. To hear the band tell of it, Stefon had bad LSD (“Lead Singer Disease”) and decided he didn’t need the rest of them. One thing they all agreed on: there was no way Stefon would have signed over the band’s earnings to Chuy, who was little more than a glorified bookkeeper, with Stefon hustling all their bookings and even ordering taxis to his bandmates’ houses to make sure they showed up at the studio or the club on time. Stefon remembered October of ’79 well. He’d been waiting with dread for the envelope from Chuy. The previous royalty check, in July, had been under $250. The previous quarter’s had been over $1,000. This quarter’s might have zero. Stefon needed the money. His 1972 Ford Galaxie needed a new transmission. He couldn’t keep driving it in first.

The envelope arrived late, the day before Halloween, and for a brief moment, Stefon was overcome by an incredible, unbelieving elation: Chuy’s laboriously typewritten royalty statement ended with the miraculous figure of $7,421.16. Seven thousand dollars! It was more than two years’ royalties, all in one go! He could fix the Galaxie’s transmission and get the ragtop patched, and still have money left over for his back rent, his bar tab, his child support, and a fine steak dinner, and even then, he’d end the month with money in his savings account.

But there was no check in the envelope. Stefon shook the envelope, carefully unfolded the royalty statement to ensure that there was no check stapled to its back, went downstairs to the apartment building lobby and rechecked his mailbox.

Finally, he called Chuy.

“Chuy, man, you forgot to put a check in the envelope.”

“I didn’t forget, Steve. Read the paperwork again. You gotta send me a check.”

“What the fuck? That’s not funny, Chuy.”

“I ain’t joking, Steve. I been advancing you royalties for more than three years, but you haven’t earned nothing new since then—no new recordings. I can’t afford to carry you no more.”

“Say what?”

Chuy explained it to him like he was a toddler. “Remember when you signed over your royalties to me in ’76? Every dime I’ve sent you since then was an advance on your future recordings, only you haven’t had none of those, so I’m cutting you off and calling in your note. I’m sorry, Steve, but I ain’t a charity. You don’t work, you don’t earn. This is America, brother. No free lunches.”

“After I did what in ’76?”

“Steve, in 1976 you signed over all your royalties to me. We agreed, man! I can’t believe you don’t remember this! You came over to my spot and I told you how it was and you said you needed money to cover the extra horns for the studio session on Fight Fire with Water. I told you I’d cover them and you’d sign over all your royalties to me.”

Stefon was briefly speechless. Chuy had paid the sidemen on that session, but that was because Chuy owed him a thousand bucks for a string of private parties they’d played for some of Chuy’s cronies. Chuy had been stiffing him for months and Stefon had agreed to swap the session fees for the horn players in exchange for wiping out the debt, which had been getting in the way of their professional relationship.

“Chuy, you know it didn’t happen that way. What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about when you signed over all your royalties to me. And you know what? I don’t like your tone. I’ve carried your ass for years now, sent you all that money out of my own pocket, and now you gotta pay up. My generosity’s run out. When you gonna send me a check?”

Of course, it was a gambit. It put Stefon on tilt, got him to say a lot of ill-advised things over the phone, which Chuy secretly recorded. It also prompted Stefon to take a swing at Chuy, which Chuy dived on, shamming that he’d had a soft-tissue injury in his neck, bringing suit for damages and pressing an aggravated-assault charge.

He dropped all that once Stefon agreed not to keep on with any claims about the forged signature; Stefon went on to become a good husband, a good father, and a hard worker. And if cleaning floors at Dodgers Stadium wasn’t what he’d dreamed of when he was headlining on Soul Train, at least he never missed a game, and his boy came most weekends and watched with him. Stefon’s supervisor didn’t care.

But the stolen royalties ate at him, especially when he started hearing his licks every time he turned on the radio. His voice, even. Chuy Flores had a fully paid-off three-bedroom in Eagle Rock and two cars and two ex-wives and three kids he was paying child support on, and Stefon sometimes drove past Chuy Flores’s house to look at his fancy palm trees all wrapped up in strings of Christmas lights and think about who paid for them.

ETA: Here's part two!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/17/the-steve-soul-caper/#lead-singer-disease

#pluralistic #the bezzle #martin hench #marty hench #red team blues #fiction #crime fiction #crime thrillers #thrillers #technothrillers #novels #books #royalties #wage theft #creative labor

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lectern-fullcauldron · 2 years ago

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do you know your hermistory? hermitcraft debuts in order

Short ID: an infographic illustrating each current hermitcraft whitelist member's hermitcraft debut date by season. Each hermit is illustrated next to an abridged tfc quote that reads 'a great big dysfunctional family'

Long ID below cut

Image ID: a long single panelled infographic on a rainbow gradient background. Down the right hand side reads "a great big, dysfunctional family". The infographic has the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 down the left hand side, each with a corresponding colour on the gradient.

Section one: down the left hand side of this section are the following stats: 'April 2012: Hypno, Xisuma', 'May 2012: Keralis, Joe Hills' 'Jan 2013: Bdubs'. All of the above hermits are illustrated in the section. Keralis, Xisuma, and Hypno stand at the top as founding members of the server. There is an illustration of a leaf block on a two high fence next to Keralis labelled 'booshes' and an arrow points at Hypno reading 'website admin'. Below them, Joe Hills reclines in a Uno wildcard themed bubble reading a book called 'scam'. An arrow points to this bubble that reads 'the original new guy'. Bdubs' appears waving in a small white circle below Joe with the caption '2 eps in S1. Coming soon!'

Section two: a neon green arrow bridges this section to section one. It comes from Joe Hills and reads 'coup!'. Down the left of this section are the following stats: 'June 2013: Cleo, Mumbo', 'Oct 2013: TFC', 'Dec 2013: iJevin', 'June 2014: False', 'July 2014: Tango', and 'Sept 2014: xbcrafted'. Cleo and mumbo sit together with an arrow pointing at them reading 'both too shy to talk to people' - this text also has an arrow pointing at falsesymmetry. Tfc is depicted carrying a pair of binoculars and has an arrow pointing at him that reads 'branch mine advocate' of which the branch is underlined. Ijevin carries a stopwatch and False a diamond sword. Tango holds a minecraft oak door and has two bits of text pointing at him. The first reads 'early iron farm visitor' and the second reads 'redstone genius'. This second text has arrows that also descend down to impulse, doc, and etho in section three. The final hermit in section two is xb, who is lying on his stomach, kicking his legs and looking up at tango.

Section three: the stats down the left hand side of this section read 'Jan 2015: impulse', 'march 2015: etho, doc'. Impulse is depicted falling into a yellow pentagram with the caption 'summoned to help with quad witch hut'. Below this, doc and etho stand side by side (doc a head taller than etho). Doc has a pen and a clipboard and the pair are labelled 'mindcrack refugees'.

Section four: the stats down the left hand side of this section read: 'Feb 2016: Welsknight, Iskall, Scar, Ren, Cub', 'Sept 2016: Beef'. The five hermits for Feb 2016 are depicted in a line with a box grouping cub and scar with a note that reads 'do not separate'. Below them is the caption 'kingdomcraft'. Beef reclines alone below them, with a note beside him that reads 'mesa-ing around' (title of cub's first hermitcraft episode).

Section five: the stats down the left hand side of this section read: 'April 2017: Stress, Bdubs, Zed'. This section is relatively small. Stress is in a GG get gorgeous t-shirt, holding an allium. Bduds is asleep on Zed, wrapped up in his moss cloak. Above him reads 'NHO time!'

Section six: the stats down the left hand side of this section read: 'July 2018: grian'. This section depicts grian t-posing with white wings and orange goose feet. He has two captions, the first reads 'started a war' and has an arrow pointing up to stress as well. The other reads 'horrible goose t-posing to assert dominance'.

Section 8: the stats down the left hand side of this final section read: 'June 2021: Gem, Pearl'. Gem and pearl are depicted hugging with the captions 'moon big' and 'gem is great'. Pearl's face is depicted as a moon and her eyes are craters. She still has blonde hair to match her minecraft skin.

End ID

#good to reblog #hermitcraft #joe hills #zombiecleo #didn't show up with tags with the old tags so maybe redoing it will fix??#described

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manic-maniac-man · 6 months ago

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HUgE Feb 2012

HOUSE in ORDER

CHROME HEARTS

The taste and precision that can only be achieved through handmade products, and the use of carefully selected luxurious materials.

The Chrome Hearts collection exudes a unique presence thanks to meticulous craftsmanship and backed by original ideas.

The deep love and knowledge that goes into creating these products continues to live on in our shop here in Japan, across the ocean.

Aoyama, Ginza, and our new shop in Kobe.

"We got a glimpse into the essence of the store, which is painstakingly crafted by LA master craftsmen who take "Made in Hollywood" to heart.

The cross section on the side of the staircase connecting the basement and ground levels of Chrome Hearts Tokyo in Aoyama was created by pouring concrete into a mold made in LA. When the concrete hardened and was removed, even the slightest chipping meant that the craftsmen had to start over from scratch, making this a part that would cause them tears.

The handrails surrounding the atrium on the second floor of the Ginza store. The ebony pillars were carved by hand, so if you look closely, you can see that each one has a slightly different finish. This is truly a one-off piece with a rich, tasteful finish.

A scene of the master craftsmen working at the Kobe store who came from LA. The tools they use on-site are transported from LA in a huge toolbox, complete with the tools they are used to using, every time they build a new store. All the craftsmen work in black Chrome Hearts staff T-shirts and denim pants.

The reason why we insist on creating a consistent store design, with everything made by LA craftsmen.

It has been 20 years since Chrome Hearts was founded in Hollywood, LA in 1988. It has brilliantly broken the stereotypes of accessories and leather items, and has continued to release collections that are artistic, delicate, and realistic. The designer who created it, Richard Stark, has a firm will to never compromise on his creations. His commitment to "Made in Hollywood," which is now rare, is not limited to his collections. This is clear at a glance at the Only Shop. His will is beautifully reflected in every corner of the store. The foundation of the store design that Chrome Hearts is proud of is actually based on the fact that Richard was originally a carpenter.

In 1995, as the brand's popularity soared, the brand finally decided to open its first store, an only shop. It was not in LA, where the brand is based, but in the Upper East Side of New York. At the time, Chrome Hearts had corners in select shops that were said to be the best in the city, such as Maxfield in LA and Bergdorf Goodman in NY. However, for the first store opening, they tried a surprising work process. It was an unusual process in which the materials needed for the store were brought from LA, processed in the store in NY, and each and every part and fixture was made on-site. Needless to say, the work was extremely difficult, and in the end, the staff who came from LA slept in the store where the materials and tools were scattered, and worked all night. Needless to say, the New York store, which was completed after much trial and error and exuded a handmade feel, became a case study for future Chrome Hearts stores.

When creating this first store, the material carefully selected to express the brand's worldview was ebony, the black wood that is symbolized in Chrome Hearts furniture and fixtures.

Ebony is a premium material used for crafting chopsticks, Buddhist altars, guitar necks, etc.

The store is generously using this material throughout the store. Moreover, the material is dense, heavy, and extremely hard, so it cannot be cut, let alone carved, without special tools. For craftsmen without experience, it is difficult to even process it. It is the skill of the skilled craftsmen working in the LA factory who are able to handle it with amazing ease and finish the delicate fixtures and interior parts of the store.

The company has a total of a dozen craftsmen who specialize in furniture and fixtures. Whenever they open a new store, they ship the fixtures and fixtures they have pre-made at their factory in LA, along with a huge amount of materials and a set of tools they use every day, and visit the property in its bare bones and handle almost the entire process from scratch. This work can sometimes continue for several weeks.

Chrome Hearts has never made the behind-the-scenes of this work public until now, but HUGE was finally able to cover the production site at its Kobe store, which opened on December 3rd.

One day in January, I visited a walled-off shop currently under construction in a corner of the former settlement, a fierce fashion battleground in Kobe's Motomachi district. There, 10 craftsmen who came from LA to build the shop were moving around the store. Some pre-cut the ebony, others nailed the pieces to the wall, and still others fitted the accessory cases that had been finished in LA into place. The division of roles was perfectly coordinated. The relaxed atmosphere that can only come from people who know each other well, and the sight of them working non-stop and skillfully and smoothly, was a true work of art.

The brand has a strong drive to pursue its worldview and create with overwhelming priority. This is due to Richard's extraordinary efforts for quality and deep love for his products, who has built close partnerships with the artisans. And above all, it is because of the playfulness that is unique to fashion. Chrome Hearts may teach us the essence of the shop that is often forgotten in this day and age.

These are portraits of the craftsmen who came from LA, whom I photographed in between the hectic work at the Kobe store. The strength that exudes from the real thing is indescribably cool. Right page, clockwise from the top right: Christopher Lippian, Oscar Sanchez, Manuel "Manny" Solano, Francisco Cruz Escobar, left page: Doug Rogel

Most of the metal parts in the store, such as the locks on the display cases, the handles on the fixtures, and the door hinges, are made of the same silver as Chrome Hearts jewelry and are intricately engraved.

The completed "Chrome Hearts Kobe" entrance is decorated with a flare, one of the symbolic motifs of Chrome Hearts. The contrast between the dark tones and the white sofa and ceiling is very fun.

#my scans #fashion #archive fashion #2010s fashion #chrome hearts #jewlery

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 1 year ago

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By: Tamara Pietzke

Published: Feb 5, 2024

For six years I worked at a hospital that said all teenagers with gender dysphoria must be affirmed. I quit my job to blow the whistle.

I know from firsthand experience what hard times are. Though I had a happy childhood, raised as the middle child by working-class parents in Washington State, my mom died of ovarian cancer when I was 22.

After that, my family fell apart. I felt lost and alone.

I decided to become a therapist because I didn’t want anyone to go through what I had, feeling like no one on this planet cares about them. At least they can say their therapist does.

I earned my master’s in social work from the University of Washington in 2012, and I have worked as a therapist for over a decade in the Puget Sound area. Most recently, I was employed by MultiCare, one of the largest hospital systems in the state.

For the six years I was there, I worked with hundreds of clients. But in mid-January, I left my job because of what I will go on to describe.

The therapeutic relationship is a special one. We are the original “safe space,” where people are able to explore their darker feelings and painful experiences. The job of the therapist is to guide a patient to self-understanding and sound mental health. This is a process that requires careful assessment and time, not snap judgments and confirmation of a patient’s worldview.

But in the past year I noticed a concerning new trend in my field. I was getting the message from my supervisors that when a young person I was seeing expressed discomfort with their gender—the diagnostic term is gender dysphoria—I should throw out all my training. No matter the patient’s history or other mental health conditions that could be complicating the situation, I was simply to affirm that the patient was transgender, and even approve the start of a medical transition.

I believe this rise of “affirmative care” for young people with gender dysphoria challenges the very fundamentals of what therapy is supposed to provide.

I am a 36-year-old single mother of three young kids all under the age of six. I am terrified of speaking out, but that fear pales in comparison to my strong belief that we can no longer medicalize youth and cause them potentially irreversible harm. The three patients I describe below explain why I am taking the risk of coming forward.

* * *

Last spring, I started seeing a new client, who at 13 years old had one of the most extreme and heartbreaking life stories I’ve ever heard. (For the sake of clarity, I am referring to all patients by their biological sex.)

My patient’s mother has bipolar disorder and was so abusive to my patient that the mother was given a restraining order. My patient was sexually assaulted by an older cousin, by one of her mother’s boyfriends, and also once at school by a classmate. Her diagnoses include depression, PTSD, anxiety, intermittent explosive disorder, and autism. She is being raised by her mother’s ex-boyfriend (not the one who assaulted her).

The year before I started seeing her, when she was 11, she was hospitalized for talking about committing suicide. Later that year, a pediatrician diagnosed her with gender dysphoria after she started to question her gender. The pediatrician referred her to Mary Bridge Children’s Gender Health Clinic, whose clinicians recommended she take medicine to suppress her periods and that she think about starting testosterone.

Mary Bridge, MultiCare’s pediatric hospital, runs the gender clinic for minors and employs nurses, social workers, dietitians, and endocrinologists, who provide gender-affirming care, which includes prescribing hormones to young patients who question their gender. In order to get that prescription, patients first need a recommendation letter from a therapist. Because Mary Bridge is a part of MultiCare, their patients were often referred to therapists like me who were in their system.

In an April 2022 blog post, a Mary Bridge social worker wrote that the gender clinic’s referrals increased from less than five a month in 2019 to more than 35 a month in 2022. In May 2022, the clinic received a $100,000 donation from Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute “to study health care disparities” in transgender youth.

The clinic operates in Washington, one of the states with some of the most lenient legislation on gender transition for youth. In May 2023, the state legislature passed a law guaranteeing that youth seeking a medical gender transition can stay at Washington shelters—and the shelters are not required to notify their parents.

Because of my patient’s autism, it was difficult for us to engage in introspective conversations. During our first visit, she came over to my desk to show me extremely sadistic and graphic pornographic videos on her phone. She stood next to me, hunched over, hyper-fixated on the videos as she rocked back and forth. She told me during one session that she watched horror and porn movies growing up because they were the only ones available in her house.

She showed up to our therapy sessions in disheveled, loose-fitting clothes, her hair greasy, her eyes staring down at the ground, her face covered by a Covid mask almost like a protective layer. She went by a boy’s name, but she never raised gender dysphoria with me directly—though one time she told me she would get mad at the sound of her own voice because “it sounds too girly.” When I asked her how she felt about an upcoming appointment at the gender clinic, she told me she didn’t know she had one.

In between scrolling through videos on her phone, she told me how she cried every night in bed and felt “insane.” She described a time when she was eight years old and her mother nearly killed her sister. She remembered her mother being taken away. At times, she would “age-regress,” she told me, by watching Teletubbies and sucking on pacifiers.

When she started seeing me, she had recently threatened to “blow up the school,” which resulted in her expulsion.

I knew I couldn’t solve all of her problems, or make her feel better in just a few therapy sessions. My initial goal was to make her feel comfortable opening up to me, to make the therapy room a place where she was heard and felt safe. I also wanted to try to protect her from falling prey to outside influences from social media, her peers, or even the adults in her life.

With a patient like this, with so many intersecting and overwhelming problems, and with such a tragic history of abuse, it took our first three sessions to get her feeling more comfortable to even talk to me, and to understand the dimensions of her problems. But when I called her guardian last fall to schedule a fourth appointment, he asked me to write her a letter of recommendation for cross-sex hormone treatment. That is, at age 13, she was to start taking testosterone. Such a letter from me begins the process of medical transition for a patient.

In Washington State, that’s all it takes—a few visits with a therapist and a letter, often written using a template provided by one’s superiors—for minors to undergo the irreversible treatments that patients must take for a lifetime.

I was scared for this patient. She had so many overlapping problems that needed addressing it seemed like malpractice to abruptly begin her on a medical gender transition that could quickly produce permanent changes.

The MultiCare recommendation letter Tamara was given for approving the medical treatment of minors with gender dysphoria. I emailed a program manager in my department at MultiCare and outlined my concerns. She wrote back that my client’s trauma history has no bearing on whether or not she should receive hormone treatment.

“There is not valid, evidenced-based, peer-reviewed research that would indicate that gender dysphoria arises from anything other than gender (including trauma, autism, other mental health conditions, etc.),” she wrote.

She also warned that “there is the potential in causing harm to a client’s mental health when restricting access to gender-affirming care” and suggested I “examine [my] personal beliefs and biases about trans kids.”

When Tamara outlined her concerns about giving a patient testosterone to her manager at MultiCare, she was told to “examine your personal beliefs and biases about trans kids.” She then reported me to MultiCare’s risk management team, who removed my client from my care and placed her with a new therapist.

A risk manager’s job is to minimize the hospital’s liability, but in my case, they deemed that my concerns posed a greater risk to my client than giving her a life-altering procedure with no proven long-term benefit.

I shouldn’t have been surprised by this. Just a few months earlier, in September of last year, I was one of over 100 therapists and behavioral specialists at the MultiCare hospital system required to attend mandatory training on “gender-affirming care.”

As hard as it is to believe given my work, I hadn’t heard about gender-affirming care before that moment. I needed to know more. So each night in the week leading up to the training, I searched online for information about gender-affirming care. After putting my kids to bed, I sat glued to my computer screen, losing sleep, horrified at what I found.

I discovered that neither puberty blockers nor cross-sex hormones (testosterone or estrogen) were approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for gender dysphoria. In fact, prescribing these treatments to kids can have drastic side effects, including infertility, loss of sexual function, increased risk of heart attack, stroke, cardiovascular disease, cancer, bone density problems, blood clots, liver toxicity, cataracts, brain swelling, and even death.

While gender clinicians claim hormonal treatment improved their patients’ psychological health, the studies on this are few and highly disputed.

I found that those experiencing gender dysphoria are up to six times more likely to also be autistic, and they are also more likely to suffer from schizophrenia, trauma, and abuse.

The research also implies that the dramatic rise in these diagnoses across the West likely have a strong element of social contagion. In children ages 6 to 17, there was a 70 percent increase in diagnoses of gender dysphoria in the U.S. from 2020 to 2021. In Sweden there was a 1,500 percent increase in these diagnoses among girls 13–17 from 2008 to 2018.

Yet, countries that were once the pioneers of gender transition medicine are now starting to backtrack. In 2022, England announced it will close its only gender clinic after an investigation uncovered subpar medical care, including findings that some patients were rushed toward gender transitions. Sweden and Finland undertook comprehensive analyses of the state of gender medicine and recommended restrictions on transition of minors.

I decided—though it was potentially dangerous to my career and to me—to ask questions about the findings I discovered.

The training I attended laid out an affirming model of gender care—from pronouns and “social transition” to hormone treatments and surgical intervention. In order for children to be diagnosed with gender dysphoria, the training stated, patients must meet six of eight characteristics, ranging from “a strong desire/insistence of being another gender” to “strong preference for cross-gender toys and games.”

Tamara and her MultiCare colleagues were trained to diagnose gender dysphoria among their young patients when they met six of the eight above characteristics. It was made abundantly clear to all in attendance that these recommendations were “best practice” at MultiCare, and that the hospital would not tolerate anything less.

When the leader of the training brought up hormone treatments, I shakily tapped the unmute button on Zoom and asked why 70 to 80 percent of female adolescents diagnosed with gender dysphoria have prior mental health diagnoses.

She flashed a look of disgust as she warned me against spreading “misinformation on trans kids.” Soon the chat box started blowing up with comments directed at me. One colleague stated it was not “appropriate to bring politics into this” and another wrote that I was “demonstrating a hostility toward trans folks which is [a] direct violation of the Hippocratic Oath,” and recommended I “seek additional support and information so as not to harm trans clients.”

In the training, gender-affirming treatment is presented as “suicide prevention.” As soon as I closed my laptop, I burst into tears. I care so deeply about my clients that even thinking about this now makes me cry. I couldn’t understand how my colleagues, who are supposed to be my teammates, could be so quick to villainize me. I also wondered if maybe my colleagues were right, and if I had gone insane.

Later, my boss reached out to me and told me it was “inappropriate” of me to raise these questions, telling me that a training session was not the proper forum. When I tried to present the evidence that caused me concern—the lack of long-term studies, the devastating side effects—she told me she didn’t have time to read it.

“I am speaking out because nothing will change unless people like me blow the whistle,” Tamara writes. “I am desperate to help my patients.” In retrospect, this ideology had been growing in power for a long time.

I remember in 2019 seeing signs of how gender dysphoria arose among many of my most vulnerable female clients, all of whom struggled with previous psychological problems.

In 2019, I started seeing a 16-year-old client after her pediatrician referred her to me for anxiety, depression, and ADHD. When I first met her, she had long blonde hair covering her eyes, to the point you could barely see her face. It was like she was going through the world trying to be invisible.

In 2020, during the pandemic, she told me she had started reading online a lot about gender, and said she started feeling like she wasn’t a girl anymore.

Around this time, her anxiety became so debilitating she couldn’t leave her house—not even to go to school. After taking a year off school during the pandemic, she enrolled in an alternative school for kids struggling with mental health. I was relieved that she was making friends for the first time, and seemed to be feeling a lot better.

Then she started using they/he pronouns, identified as pansexual, and replaced the skirts and fishnet stockings she often wore with disheveled and baggy clothes. Her long hair became shorter and shorter. She started wearing a binder to flatten her breasts. She tried out a few different names before settling on one that’s gender neutral.

The official diagnosis I gave her was “adjustment disorder”—an umbrella term often applied to young people who are having a hard time coping with difficult and stressful circumstances. It’s the type of diagnosis that doesn’t follow a child forever—it implies that mental distress among kids is often transient.

She came out as transgender to her family in 2021. Her mother was supportive, but her dad wasn’t. Regardless, she went to her pediatrician seeking a referral to a gender clinic.

In 2022, she went to Mary Bridge Children’s Gender Health Clinic for the first time, where the clinicians informed her and her parents that if she didn’t receive hormone replacement therapy, she could be “at increased risk for anxiety, depression, and worsening of mental health/psychological trauma,” according to her patient records. Her dad refused to start his daughter on testosterone, and so all the clinic could do was prescribe birth control to stop her period due to her “menstrual dysphoria,” or distress over getting her period. Which is something I thought all teenage girls experienced.

Five months later, she swallowed a bottle of pills and her mother had to rush her to the emergency room.

By early 2023, my client logged on to our weekly session, which we started doing by Zoom, and she told me she identified as a “wounded male dog.” She explained to me that this was her “xenogender,” a concept she had discovered online, which references gender identities that go “beyond the human understanding of gender.” She said she felt she didn’t have all of the right appendages, and that she wanted to start wearing ears and a tail to truly feel like herself.

I was stunned. All I could do was silently nod along.

After the session, I emailed my colleagues looking for advice. “I want to be accepting and inclusive and all of that,” I wrote, but “I guess I just don’t understand at what point, if ever, a person’s gender identity is indicative of a bigger issue.”

I asked them: “Is there ever a time where acceptance of a person’s identity isn’t freely given?”

The consensus from my colleagues was that it wasn’t a big deal.

“It sounds like this isn’t something that’s ‘broken,’ ” one colleague wrote me back, “so let’s not try to ‘fix’ it.”

“If someone told me they use a litterbox instead of a toilet and they were happy with it and it’s part of their life that brings them fulfillment, then great!” she continued. “I might think it’s weird, but then again, not my life.”

After learning that one of Tamara’s patients identified as “a wounded male dog,” a colleague replied: “If someone told me they use a litterbox instead of a toilet and they were happy with it and it’s part of their life that brings them fulfillment, then great!” I was baffled and alarmed by her unquestioning affirmation. At what point does a change in identity represent a mental health concern, and not something to be celebrated and affirmed? Fortunately, my client never brought up her “xenogender” again. She also isn’t on testosterone due to her father’s disapproval. So I kept these thoughts to myself, and ultimately, in order to keep my job, I let it go.

Another female patient, who transitioned as a teen, serves as a warning of what happens when we passively accept the idea that gender transition will entirely resolve a patient’s mental health issues.

This client, who I started seeing in 2022, is now 23 and rarely leaves the house, spends most of the day in bed playing video games, and envisions no path to working or functioning in the outside world due to a variety of mental health problems. In 2016, this patient was diagnosed with autism, anxiety, and gender dysphoria. Later the diagnoses grew to include depression, Tourette syndrome, and a conversion disorder. In 2018, at age 17, the Mary Bridge Gender Health Clinic prescribed testosterone, despite the fact that this patient is diabetic and one of the hormone’s side effects is that it might increase insulin resistance. The patient’s mother, who has another transgender child, strongly encouraged it.

This patient now has a wispy mustache and a deepened voice, but does not pass as male. It turns out that testosterone, which will be prescribed for life, did not relieve the patient’s other mental illnesses.

My biggest fear about the gender-affirming practices my industry has blindly adopted is that they are causing irreversible damage to our clients. Especially as they are vulnerable people who come to us at their lowest moments in life, and who entrust us with their health and safety. And yet, instead of treating them as we would patients with any other mental health condition, we have been instructed—and even bullied—to abandon our professional judgment and training in favor of unquestioning affirmation.

I am speaking out because nothing will change unless people like me—who know the risks of medicalizing troubled young people—blow the whistle. I am desperate to help my patients.

And I believe, if I don’t speak out, I will have betrayed them.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/26895269.2022.2100644

Amidst the scandal, Mary Bridge Children's has deleted the above blog post by self-professed "they/them," Aytch Denaro. However, the internet doesn't forget.

#Tamara Pietzke #Jamie Reed #whistleblower #medical malpractice #medical transition #medical corruption #gender dysphoria #gender ideology #queer theory #gender affirming care #gender affirming healthcare #gender affirmation #mental health #mental health issues #mental illness #gender cult #genderwang #religion is a mental illness

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carsonian · 1 year ago

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Carsonian's 2023 SteveTony Fics [Masterpost]

In 2023, I wrote a total of 244,222 words spread across 32 fics. That's uhh a lot.

Open the envelope below for a comprehensive fics recap.

[NO FICS IN JANUARY]

FEBRUARY

"No Return, No Return" | 18,231 words | T | 5 Feb

In many ways, Tony Stark has spent his whole life waiting to meet something real enough to test himself against. He hadn't planned on it being Steve Rogers. (A re-imagining of Steve and Tony pre-/post-Avengers (2012) with a spotlight on their relationship.)

"Who's Gonna Love You, Baby?" | 1,814 words | M | 13 Feb

"It's Valentine's Day today." Steve says, hand fanning out in a stilted, explanatory gesture to a storefront decorated with bouquets of red and pink flowers. A glossy "Happy Valentine's Day" is sprawled in an elegant font across the window. "...Yeah? Didn't you—" Tony looks Steve over, "Oh. You didn't know." (Steve forgets about Valentine's Day. Tony reassures him that there's still plenty of time to celebrate.)

"A Wish Your Heart Makes" | 2,041 words | M | 22 Feb

The absolute last thing Steve's expecting is Tony Stark, and so it's fairly in character for the man to be standing on the other side of the door. "Hi." Tony looks impatient, greeting barely out before he's walking past Steve and into the apartment.

MARCH

"Fed Love From A Spoon" | 1,319 words | M | 4 Mar

Steve wakes up slowly. (Or, The accidental moments that move a relationship further, make its foundations stronger.)

"Since We've Been Together" | 1,788 words | T | 13 Mar

"Marry me." On his life, he couldn't tell how the words came out. Whether they were loving or demanding or whispered. He only knew that once they left his lips, the following breath came as easy as his first one right after receiving the serum. (Steve proposes to Tony, right after a battle.)

"Never Let You See (Baby, What You Mean To Me)" | 12,881 words | M | 15 Mar

Steve Rogers' life was the kind of romantic comedy that most people would find themselves cringing out of watching after the first twenty minutes. (A.K.A. the summer camp fic where Steve is a pining mess, Tony is an unrepentant brat, and there's a game of prison break to be won.)

"We Tell You, There's No Substitute!" | 2,911 words | T | 19 Mar

Steve pulled the door open. "I didn't know where else to go." Tony said brokenly. Steve promptly shut the door.

[NO FICS IN APRIL & MAY]

JUNE

“Ain’t It A Shame, Too Bad?” | 4,505 words | G | 8 Jun

On his twenty-fourth birthday, Tony was saved from drowning by a man he has yet to find. In other news, Tony’s fallen hard for the mute, scrawny blond that washed up on his kingdom’s shoreline two-and-a-half days ago. These two things can’t possibly be related, can they? (Spoiler(s): They’re related.)

“One Final Surprise” | 1,588 words | G | 18 Jun

Tony accidentally calls Steve from the flip-phone after his wedding gets called off.

“Take Two: It Takes Two” | 1,234 words | G | 18 Jun

Steve and Tony navigate the ups and downs of their first date. (Post-Endgame!AU)

“Forgive The Winters, Keep No Records” | 8,833 words | T | 18 Jun

Tony recovers from his twenty-three days in space. Guess who volunteers to help him through it?

“You Can Never Get Enough (Enough Of This Stuff)” | 3,554 words | G | 25 Jun

“No effing way.” Tony deadpans. “Tony!” Steve wheels around, arms thrown out in splendiferous delight, “Hey, everybody, it’s Tony!” (A.K.A. Steve gets drunk off Asgardian liquor and broadcasts his feelings towards Tony in the most ridiculous manner. This is incredibly confusing for Tony.)

JULY

“Sees You The Same As Before” | 2,886 words | T | 3 Jul

Tony’s been dating Steve for five months and thinks he’s got their relationship totally worked out when Steve starts bringing up random moments from their past. Tony has a very normal reaction to it. For the prompt fill: things you said after we fell in love

“Such A Feelin’ That My Love (I Can’t Hide)” | 2,765 words | G | 5 Jul

Steve’s birthday wish is to go on a date with Tony. He has to win him over first. For the prompt fill: AvAc Steve’s birthday

“Be Their Own Star Witness” | 9,017 words | M | 14 Jul

Leading up to their wedding, Steve and Tony make a pact not to start any arguments with each other. This is a problem. Tony finds a unique solution, and Steve reaps the benefits. For the prompt fill: things you said when you thought I was asleep.

“Transcendental Blues” | 1,177 words | G | 17 Jul

The best place to be after an argument with your partner is in the collapsed ruins of a building. Having said partner as your only company and being mortally wounded is an especial bonus. For the prompt fill: trapped together while one of them is injured

AUGUST

“I Can See Clearly Now The Blindfold’s Gone” | 3,577 Words | M | 1 Aug

“Then, without further ado, I’d like to offer my sincere congratulations to the two of you for winning the all-expenses paid date.” “What?” Steve straightens. “Pass.” Tony says at the same moment. (A.K.A. Modern, No Powers AU where Steve and Tony go on everyone’s favourite internet shitshow, “The Button”.) For the prompt fill: blind date au

“Just Wanna Feel Your Touch (When It’s Cold)” | 1,339 words | M | 16 Aug

Steve’s got a press conference to deal with but he’s more worried about Tony’s cold hands. Stony Bingo 2023 Round 2: “Rescue Me”

“'Cause It’s You and Me (and All of the People)” | 8,945 words | T | 19 Aug

Steve and Tony discover that they’re soulmates in their senior year of high school. As they wrestle with this realisation and try to build out a genuine relationship in the backdrop of high school nonsense and college admissions stress, they’re met with a ridiculous number of hurdles in the form of every friend in their circle recruiting them as “fake dates”. (A.K.A. the high school soulmates AU where they keep getting pulled into fake dating schemes for other people, told in a chatlog / texting format) Stony Bingo 2023 Round 2: “WTF”

“We Just Keep Going” | 1,829 words | M | 23 Aug

A coda to “Here I Am & Here You Are” where Steve and Tony go and visit the Chip 'n Dale duo in New Orleans. (A.K.A. Established relationship, banter-y nonsense.)

“Must Admit I’m Out of Bright” | 2,606 words | T | 25 Aug

Steve’s got a handful of bullets in his abdomen and Stark’s looking at him all funny. Stony Bingo 2023 Round 2: “Pain”

SEPTEMBER

“The Remarkable People Initiative & The Zugzwang Dilemma” | 64,297 words | E | 6 Apr-1 Sep

Steve Rogers and Tony Stark first met as promising candidates of The Remarkable People Initiative when they were children. Twenty-four years later, Tony shows up at Steve’s doorstep. (The Mysterious Benedict Society AU.)

OCTOBER

“Only Natural to Harden Up” | 33,575 | E | 19 Sep-5 Oct

As they’re settling into their new relationship, Steve opens up to Tony about a fantasy he’s long had of Tony in lingerie. This awakens some new insecurities in Tony, and he’s left weighing how to indulge Steve’s interest without ruining their hard-earned intimacy. (Post-Endgame, Everyone-Lives-AU; established but developing relationship.)

“Stupid Mouth Shut” | 16,473 words | T | 13-29 Oct

Tony invites Steve out for a coffee, and during their conversation, Steve starts to suspect that Tony’s going to confess that he has feelings for him. This freaks Steve out, seeing as he’s never even thought of Tony in that way, and is now going to have to reject him, possibly ruining their friendship forever. But when Tony confesses that he’s got feelings for Thor, Steve’s surprised to find that instead of being relieved, he’s actually kind of… disappointed? For the prompt fill: accidental love confession and jealous Steve Rogers

“In Love with a Strict Machine” | 12,809 words | M | 31 Oct

After an honourable discharge from the War, Steve is relocated to a suburban neighbourhood where he stands out as the only Monster around. Soon after, T0ny, a Cyborg he knew briefly during the War, moves in next door. Steve’s long carried a hidden flame for the man, and decides to take their paths reconnecting as a sign to finally make a move. (A.K.A. the Halloween fic where Steve is Frankenstein’s monster, Tony is a cyborg, and they are pathologically drawn to each other.)

NOVEMBER

“Got So Much Honey, the Bees Envy Me” | 1,891 words | G | 4 Nov

Tony takes a hit in a battle, and comes out of his surgery a little confused. Thankfully, his husband, Steve, is there to talk him through it.

“Just About Starving Tonight” | 3,080 words | M | 14 Nov

Tony is just trying to get through an evening of courting and dancing when Steve, the new Alpha in town, approaches him for a dance. Tony tries to turn him down, thinking the Alpha’s mistaken him for an Omega, but is taken aback when Steve assures him that Tony’s exactly who we wants to dance with. (A.K.A. a non-traditional A/B/O meet-cute.)

“The More Things Seem to Change” | 2,123 words | T | 16 Nov

The prince comes to their base in the twilight hours of the night, asking to talk to Steve. Bucky already knows where this is going to lead. (A.K.A. Medieval-cyberpunk fusion AU where Tony is a prince, Steve is a gang leader, and they used to date.) Stony Bingo 2023 Round 2: “Historical”

“The More They Stay the Same” | 1,088 words | G | 21 Nov

Bucky was meant to take Tony back to the station twenty-five minutes back. (A.K.A. Medieval-cyberpunk fusion AU where Tony is a prince, Steve is a gang leader, and they’re dating.)

“Hyperballad” | 2,339 words | T | 29 Nov

Steve’s going through something. Tony tries to talk to him about it. (A.K.A. Established relationship, Depressed!Steve Rogers, Recovering Alcoholic!Tony Stark, and a decent amount of emotional hurt/comfort)

DECEMBER

"I'm Jealous of Your Neck (It Gets to Hold Your Head)" | 5,789 words | E | 6 Dec

Steve's going through a rut fever. His vampire roommate, Tony, is very worried about him. (A.K.A. "oh my God they were roommates" ft. werewolf!Steve and vampire!Tony.) Stony Bingo 2023 Round 2: "KINK: Multiple Orgasms"

+ one more fic from the 2023 Captain America/Iron Man Holiday Exchange. Will reblog with the addition once reveals go public.

#my fics #my writing #fics masterpost #stevetony fics #stevetony #ok to reblog!

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lola-andheruniverse · 1 year ago

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ZA AU/ZA Tuesday - Caryl Fanfiction Rec

Our ZA AU Tuesday tag is the home of a variety of amazing caryl fics that challenge TWD-established canon. They go from crossovers and time travels, to new pre-series backgrounds that that are sewn into the show or post-series unexpected developments. The only rule? The fic needs to have zombies, and it doesn't really matter if they are our beloveds walkers, variations of them or completely different ones. It's a great premise, but kind of hard to achieve every week, dear fellow caryler. So from now on, our Tuesday tag will also have recommendations for multi-chapter ZA fics that explore in-depth our beloved ship within the canon timeline and events. My intention is to not only balance the recs of ZA and ZA AU fics, but also to have a day to share my love for some stories that otherwise wouldn't have any specific tag to be. Today's rec is one of them!

Staking Claim is an adorable take on how S2 Daryl becomes protective of Carol from three different point of views - the first one being a kind surprise. Written by @alamogirl80, its posted both on FF.net and AO3.

Summary: Daryl probably doesn't even know he's doing it. But he's been sending out signals for a while.

Rated: T / Teen and Up Audiences Word count: 11.195 (3 chapters) Published: Feb 23, 2012 - COMPLETE A lovely and interesting story from start to finish. I wish it had more than three chapters, so 1) we could see what every other member of TF sees and thinks when they look at Daryl, Carol and their silent and soft way of interacting with each other and 2) because our author did a great job describing their blossoming bond - it's full of warmth, awareness, yearning and easy intimacy. All POVs are compelling and true to the characters represented. Dear fellow caryler, I hope you enjoy this precious little fic and the new dynamics for our Tuesday tag. As always, please leave a review or a kudos to our author if you read it. Caryl on!

#caryl #caryl fic reecs #ZA AU/ZA tuesday #caryl fanfiction #caryl fandom #caryl positivity

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fanfictionfaberrycentral · 1 year ago

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Hi!! I know I’m going to get so much hate for this haha, but I’m forgetting the name of a Faberry fanfic I read forever ago….

Quinn has Aspergers I think? And she was studying to be a vet. She and Rachel also adopt like a million pets, and there’s lots of Winne the Pooh references.

I think the author changed her name or something, but it was something that started with an E? Elly something maybe. I’m sorry, don’t hate me 😅

Just off the Key of Reason

by Elly-Bells

summary:

Faberry AU. Future fic. Rachel Berry is a successful Broadway star with a new roommate, the very odd, naive Quinn Fabray. It starts with a note on the fridge and a childishly scrawled doodle of an elephant. Everybody has a little crazy in them.Rated: Fiction T - English - Rachel B., Quinn F. - Chapters: 30 - Words: 128,921 - Reviews: 2,301 - Favs: 3,296 - Follows: 1,461 - Updated: Feb 11, 2012 - Published: Nov 21, 2011 - Status: Complete - id: 7570489

Still off the Key of Reason

by Elly-Bells

summary:

JOTKOR sequel. Quinn is thundering her way through vet school. Rachel is enlightening the west coast with her talent. The story continues with a wedding, dogs in tuxedos, and Pooh Bear vows. Crazy never fades.

Glee - Rated: M - English - Chapters: 37 - Words: 185,462 - Reviews: 2103 - Favs: 1,650 - Follows: 1,315 - Updated: Oct 5, 2013 - Published: Mar 28, 2012 - Rachel B., Quinn F. - Complete

#this fanfic is pure gold #dont worry anon #love ya #ask faberry

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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 year ago

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Michael de Adder

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 23, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 24, 2024

Two years ago today, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky made a passionate plea to the people of Russia, begging them to avoid war. He gave the speech in Russian, his own primary language, and, reminding Russians of their shared border and history, told them to “listen to the voice of reason”: Ukrainians want peace.

“You’ve been told I'm going to bomb Donbass,” he said. “Bomb what? The Donetsk stadium where the locals and I cheered for our team at Euro 2012? The bar where we drank when they lost? Luhansk, where my best friend's mom lives?” Zelensky tried to make the human cost of this conflict clear. Observers lauded the speech and contrasted its statesmanship with the ramblings in which Putin had recently engaged.

And yet Zelensky’s speech stood only as a marker. Early the next day, Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a “special military operation” involving dozens of missile strikes on Ukrainian cities before dawn. He claimed in a statement that was transparently false that he needed to defend the people in the “new republics” within Ukraine that he had recognized two days before from “persecution and genocide by the Kyiv regime.” He called for “demilitarization” of Ukraine, demanding that soldiers lay down their weapons and saying that any bloodshed would be on their hands.

Putin called for the murder of Ukrainian leaders in the executive branch and parliament and intended to seize or kill those involved in the 2014 Maidan Revolution, which sought to turn the country away from Russia and toward a democratic government within Europe, and which itself prompted a Russian invasion. He planned for his troops to seize Ukraine’s electric, heating, and financial systems so the people would have to do as he wished. The operation was intended to be lightning fast.

But rather than collapsing, Ukrainians held firm. The day after Russia invaded, Zelensky and his cabinet recorded a video in Kyiv. “We are all here,” he said. “Our soldiers are here. The citizens are here, and we are here. We will defend our independence…. Glory to Ukraine!” When the United States offered the next day to transport Zelensky outside the country, where he could lead a government in exile, he responded:

“The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.”

That statement echoes powerfully two years later as Ukraine continues to stand against Russia’s invasion but now quite literally needs ammunition, as MAGA Republicans in Congress are refusing to take up a $95 billion national security supplemental measure that would provide aid to Ukraine.

Instead, Republicans spent the day insisting that they do not oppose in vitro fertilization, the popular reproductive healthcare measure that the Alabama Supreme Court last Friday endangered by deciding that a fertilized human egg was a child—what they called an “extrauterine” child—and that people can be held legally responsible for destroying them. Since the decision, Alabama healthcare centers have halted their IVF programs out of fear of prosecution for their handling of embryos.

Republicans who oppose abortion have embraced the idea that life begins at conception, an argument that leads naturally to the definition of IVF embryos as children. But this presents an enormous problem for Republicans, whose antiabortion stance is already creating warning signs for 2024. Today a memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) noted that 86% of the people they polled support increased, not reduced, access to IVF procedures.

The good news for the Republicans is that their frantic defense of IVF means that the media has largely stopped talking about the news of just two days ago, the fact that the man whose testimony congressional Republicans relied on to launch an impeachment process against President Joe Biden turned out to be working with Russian operatives. House leaders have quietly deleted from their House Impeachment website the Russian disinformation that previously was central to their case against Biden.

But today, as Republican House members remain on vacation, President Biden announced new sanctions against Russia, and Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) was in Ukraine, where he challenged House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to pass the national security supplemental bill. “The weight of history is on his shoulders,” Schumer told reporters in Lviv. “If he turns his back on history, he will regret it in future years.”

“Two years,” Ukraine president Zelensky wrote today. “We are all here…. Together with representatives of Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Egypt, Estonia, the EU, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, the Holy See, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Thailand, Türkiye, the UAE, the United Kingdom, the USA, Viet Nam, as well as international organisations….”

Slava Ukraini.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#history #war in Ukraine #useful idiots #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #Zelensky #IVF #US House of Representative Theocrats #Putin's war

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buffynha · 8 months ago

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My Heart Speaks The Words I Never Could

By Taylor-EL

Brittany hasn't spoken since she was six years old and she has a fear of being touched. What happens when she meets Santana Lopez? Will she finally be able to open up about her past? Rated T but might change. Brittana Minor Faberry

Rated: Fiction T

Genre: Romance

Pairing: [Brittany P., Santana L.]

Status: Complete

Chapters: 29

Words: 129,024

Published: Dec 17, 2012

Updated: Aug 30, 2016

Events

By Taylor-EL

Missing scenes from between My Heart Speaks The Words I Never Could and it's sequel.

Rated: Fiction M

Genre: Romance

Pairing: [Brittany P., Santana L.]

Chapters: 3

Words: 19,626

Published: Feb 6, 2017

Updated: Apr 12, 2017

#My Heart Speaks The Words I Never Could #By Taylor-EL #Taylor-EL #Events #santana lopez #brittana #brittany s pierce #brittana fanfic #brittany s. pierce #fanfic #brittany pierce

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ilovebellatrixandseverus · 2 years ago

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HP longfic rec collection

With reddit closing down, and a lot of rec lists being lost to the public that way, I made a post on here asking for recommendations, and now that there were some in the notes - thank you all! - I thought I'd share them here! Feel free to reblog add to it, more the better! Starting and ending this beginning list with one of my own favs each to give you all some recs back:

Wizards in space by esama on Ao3, almost 50k

The Dumbledore's Army use the Room of the Requirement to get themselves a spaceship.

Harry Potter & Stargate fusion, No Warnings, Gen, Complete Work 27 Feb 2015, HP LJ GW FW HG RW LL GW CC ME, AU - Canon Divergence, Dumbledore's Army IN SPACE!, Science Fiction, Chapters: 10/10 Comments: 456 Kudos: 4807, (Knowledge about Stargate is not necessary to read this story)

Reccing this because I adore it so much it always makes me feel things!

Secrets by Vorabiza on ao3, almost 400k words.

Beginning with Draco's unexpected arrival at the Dursleys, Harry's summer after sixth year becomes filled with activity and many secrets. As his summer progresses, Harry generates several unexpected allies as he finds himself actively becoming the leader of the Light side. H/D post-HBP ~~Complete~~

Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter, Drama, Romance, Explicit Language, Sexual Content

Recced by @niccolo-machiavelli07 with the note 'contains good Snape and Malfoy's. I do need to warn you that it's Drarry and Draco has a literal kid...'

Harry Crow by Robst on FfNet - 700+k

What will happen when a goblin-raised Harry arrives at Hogwarts. A Harry who has received training, already knows the prophecy and has no scar. With the backing of the goblin nation and Hogwarts herself. Complete.

Harry Potter, T, English, chapters: 106, favs: 31k+, follows: 19k+, updated: Jun 8, 2014 published: Jun 5, 2012, [Harry P., Hermione G.]

Recced by @elizabethgoudge with the note 'Harry Crow is quite hetero, but has a super interesting premise about goblins and is very long. He has another one with interesting elves, as well.' and I have read the fic before and can second the recommendation! It's an amazing longfic.

Delenda Est on FFnet (Reboot & Original) 100+k

Dying, Bellatrix uses her heirloom to send Harry to the past. There, he can try stopping Voldemort while making the acquaintance of a young and impressionable Bellatrix Black, who may opt to serve Lord Black instead of Voldemort. H/B. Rewrite of DE with different plot, some new characters. No need to read original. Backwards compatible with PB.

Harry Potter, T, English, Adventure & Romance, chapters: 12, favs: 1k+, follows: 2k+, updated: May 8 published: May 2, 2022, Harry P., Bellatrix L.

Recced by @str82theheartpls with the note 'my all-time fave is being rebooted and the original is amazing too'. Description of the original version is 'Harry is a prisoner, and Bellatrix has fallen from grace. The accidental activation of Bella's treasured heirloom results in another chance for Harry. It also gives him the opportunity to make the acquaintance of the young and enigmatic Bellatrix Black as they change the course of history.'

Oh God Not Again! By Sarah1281 on Ao3 & ffnet, 150+k

So maybe everything didn't work out perfectly for Harry. Still, most of his friends survived, he'd gotten married, and was about to become a father. If only he'd have stayed away from the Veil, he wouldn't have had to go back and do everything AGAIN.

Gen - Hermione Granger & Harry Potter & Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy & Harry Potter, Neville Longbottom & Harry Potter, Sirius Black & Remus Lupin & Harry Potter, Luna Lovegood & Harry Potter - Old Fic, Humor, Time Travel, like literally, originally posted september13 2008 on ff.net, story completed as of december 2009

Recced by @polyvirnl with the note '"Oh God Not This Again" is very good', and I can second that, I read and rearead the fic many times, it's crazy awesome!

The Andromeda Program on Ao3 120+k

Hermione Granger is one of the select few to join the prestigious Andromeda Program to explore space for all of humanity. She thinks it will be an excellent opportunity to prove her worth and show her mettle, but perhaps living on a spaceship and spending her time with the same group of people is not all it's cracked up to be. Or maybe one person in particular is making it especially difficult.

Hermione Granger/Severus Snape, Alternate Universe - Space, Alternate Universe - Muggle, Healer Severus, Adult Hermione, Medical Inaccuracies, Minor Injuries, Slow Burn, Swearing, Angst, Power Imbalance, Alcohol

Recced by @echoofawind with the note 'I love The Andromeda Program. It's a Severus x Hermione muggle Sci-fi AU that has Ender's Game vibes'

Pride of Time by Anubis Ankh on Ao3

Hermione quite literally crashes her way back through time by roughly twenty years. There is no going back; the only way is to go forward. And when one unwittingly interferes with time, what one expects may not be what time finds...

Mature, Violence, F/M, HG/SS, Time-Turner, Time Travel,bChapters: 51/51 COMPLETE Jun 2012, Comments: 438 Kudos: 3133 COMPLETE

Reccing this because once you start reading you can't stop! I don't usually read Snamione and I have no idea how I ended up here first, but I've reread it twice since! Hermione as a death eater spy's wife is amazing.

If you have any other fic recs, feel free to reblog and add them to the post!

Note that reblogs are better than replies (or likes) because reblogs help share the post around - so more people get the recs, and more people see the post and might add their own recs as well!

If you rec more than three please use a readmore under the first or so, so not to spam everyone's dash!

#hp #harry potter #hp ficrec #hp reddit #harry potter reddit #harry potter fic recs #ficrec #fic rec #fic recs #ficrecs #drarry #snamione #Dumbledore's army #bellatrix lestrange #severus snape #hermione granger #ilovebellatrixandseverus #harry potter fanfiction

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