weirdlet

[weirdlet]

you need to understand that i have two sets of headcanons. there's the set of realistic headcanons based on my genuine reading of the show, and then there's me playing pretend with my dolls.

[weirdlet]

AND AS THE TOWN IS BUILDING UP-

As the inhabitants are concerned about are we going to be rolled over by the next warlord who wants to claim this area, and how do we protect what is both our new home and our promised retirement, they’re starting to see hints and envoys over the next couple years. And Glory is advising, as they start seeing troops and the like coming to test the borders, ‘invite them in, throw a party, get them liquored up before we start talking negotiations,’ and someone suggests this be part of his expanded role. And him at least initially being no I did not sign up to be Master of Ceremonies I signed up to be Master of the Harbor. That was literally what I picked. You can’t take the free sea air from me. I will give you the benefit of my background as a whore, but I will not be making nice like a diplomat. Have you seen me? I am literally a tattooed criminal and what I lack in dignity I make up in bad reputation.

And then of course he helps get the diplomacy done despite his best efforts.

Okay, so the mercenary company is getting really big for their britches, enough to start being able to rival certain kingdoms in power. Their lead scrip coin is starting to be accepted in places just like coin of the realm.

That’s why they have to die.

Or at least, that’s why they have top brass have to be bought out and the rest of the troops let go. Leaving Glory and his crew and their burgeoning port town wondering if their charter/writs will be respected, if everything they’ve built will be taken from them.

So throwing in with the orcs and building themselves up as an independent port with super secret Ancient Sorcerous Empire portal (being repaired and powered by said orcs and extending their new empire) becomes key.

[weirdlet]

Nothing slapped my shit back into place like someone pointing out that the "genius gifted child with so much potential who got burnout and mental illness" is just the nerd equivalent to the jock "could have been a pro at sportsball if it wasn't for the injury".

[weirdlet]

can someone please be proud of me like fuck I’m trying

[weirdlet]

Okay, so the mercenary company is getting really big for their britches, enough to start being able to rival certain kingdoms in power. Their lead scrip coin is starting to be accepted in places just like coin of the realm.

That’s why they have to die.

Or at least, that’s why they have top brass have to be bought out and the rest of the troops let go. Leaving Glory and his crew and their burgeoning port town wondering if their charter/writs will be respected, if everything they’ve built will be taken from them.

So throwing in with the orcs and building themselves up as an independent port with super secret Ancient Sorcerous Empire portal (being repaired and powered by said orcs and extending their new empire) becomes key.

[weirdlet]

-there was a bit written by one of the fandom folks I followed and I'm desperately trying to remember which one, that had Lu-Ten basically commit seppuku to convey to his father that he found the war unworthy of them and that they needed to stop. And that one haunts me to this day- not as the only possible headcanon I'll abide with, but as a distinct and vivid trouser-leg of time that is so very, very emotionally and politically juicy.

"It looks like a little flower.'

which is to say, there is SO MUCH to explore with Lu Ten.

Now that we're getting novels set during the span of the original ATLA show, there are two stories I want to see told.

Firstly: I want a novel from Lu Ten's perspective. I want to know about his life, about his parents, about what happened to HIS mother, about his relationship with Zuko and Azula, about how he died at Ba Sing Se. There is SO MUCH potential there.

Secondly: I want a novel about Gran Gran's journey from the North to the South. A young woman, a non-bender, flees the only home she's ever known, a home that is deeply isolated and culturally strict, then crosses the entire planet in the middle of a world wide war. And she didn't have an air bison. What was that journey like for her? Who did she meet along the way? What sort of adventures did she go on? What horrors did she witness? How long did it take her? Did she get to the South before or after the raids stopped?

[weirdlet]

oh no my pornography is turning into an angst-filled character study

[weirdlet]

u can always give a character fangs and sharp teeth. for no reason

[weirdlet]

My toxic trait is that I am far more interested in the socio-economic and geopolitical implications of ABO settings than the smut.

For example: I can't read any ABO AUs set in England or France because while I can suspend my disbelief far enough for a gender trinary set up, I can't suspend it enough to believe those two countries would still be distinct entities in a alternate history where Richard the Lionheart could have impregnated Philip II.

If there was a viable dynastic future with Richard, Philip would have climbed him like an oak and dragged him to the altar if he had to. It's a match that makes perfect sense from both their points of view: Philip gets Aquitaine back under French rule, the best general in Europe on his council, and a powerful check on the Angevins... then unexpectedly (after Henry the Young bites it) the entire Kingdom of England for his Capetian dynasty. Richard meanwhile gets to stick it to his father, secure Aquitaine's prosperity, and gets the leverage to start pushing for his mother's release. Then when Henry kicks the bucket Richard doesn't actually have to be King of England in anything but name: Philip can run the countries and unify the Crowns and what not while Richard runs off to go Crusading.

Plus they also like, loved each other and stuff and being able to get to be together long term instead of being torn apart by politics would have been cool. But I'm mainly obsessed with the historical and dynastic implications.

All this to say any ABO au set in England or France that doesn't have them united as a singular Anglo-Frank empire is doing it wrong.

[weirdlet]

Time is both infinite and slippery, and very real. The dog days are over, at least in the sense of the godawful heat and humidity- which means fall is coming up. Then surviving the long dark of the winter. And then it’s spring again, and with that comes birthday.

I’m an adult. My last protector is dead, and it’s all on me. I’m telling myself this so I have a hope in hell of achieving it.

I’m going to be in a better job, with higher pay, better work-life balance, and less nitpicking of my soul by the time I’m forty. It will NOT be the end of youth, but the beginning of my successful and happy adulthood. Goddamnit.

[weirdlet]

Well hello there, little lady.

[weirdlet]

[weirdlet]

[weirdlet]

I’ve been watching clips of Apothecary Diaries and thinking about my orc nonsense and going- okay the imperial concubines in the orc empire have duties that include being dangerous as fuck, not just being decorative or reproductive. They maintain their fighting nails and bracer-like bangles, and the main four consort slots correspond to like, the traditional positions of captain, quartermistress, healer and the like, only it’s general, logistics, surgeon general etc.

And they all have battlemaids.

[weirdlet]

So there’s been this mini-discourse on my dash about queernorm aristocracy/monarchy in fiction, and how trying to find an “unproblematic” version of it just leads to creating scenarios that have DIFFERENT problems than the obvious ones. (The big example right now is adoption as continuance of royal bloodline—where exactly do the babies come from? Isn’t that in itself a problem?) And I think this discourse is interesting because it illustrates something a very smart friend of mine has been talking about for a while.

The idea of a queernorm monarchic system is one that has the hallmarks of from what the author St John Starling refers to as “pulp”—“fiction that prioritizes the pleasure and enjoyment of the reader above all else.” It’s a pleasurable fantasy—people want to marinate for a while in an imaginary world where queer people are at the highest echelons of society and have big dramatic fairytale romances that take place in ancient castles.

Pulp is an old and venerable genre but, as St. John points out, people have some anxieties about it now and are trying to write work that is both pulp and not-pulp at the same time. This is the source of fretting about creating a queernorm monarchy that’s “unproblematic”—people feel like they have to solve every possible point of queasiness in the worldbuilding before they’re able to indulge in the fantasy. The solution to this, of course, is not even to try. The pulp queer monarchy will contain latent problems, but those aren’t the focus of the story, and a reader in it for the fantasy—as any pulp reader is—will just ignore them.

[weirdlet]

Glory and Carver during their time in prison together

Getting used to sharing the same tiny cell, cheek by jowl in the same space

Carver showing him how to turn inward, to maximize the use of a space that, with their mats rolled up and put away, isn’t a galley‘s worth of clear space. How he uses it to (distilled down, basically the one-inch punch from Kill Bill) concentrate economy of movement and strength to maintain readiness for the day that there is no brick wall in the way of every swing.

“Here- surely you’ve had to dance in close quarters on the deck. Show me how you do the hornpipe- but you cannot leave this box.”

[weirdlet]

Old stuff