pongnosis

[pongnosis]

Cub's Army discord

Since several people have been looking for Alex Rider discords recently, here's an active invite for Cub's Army (all ages server): https://discord.gg/KrMSYU9t

We're a bit of a small, scattered fandom, and the server hasn't been super active recently, but this is where you can find at least some of us.

If the invite expires, poke me and I'll get a new one for you!

[pongnosis]

Part two of 'Everybody lives or by God, Hill is going to fucking murder them himself', because Yassen Gregorovich is going to single-handedly cause every single one of Hill's grey hairs.

Zhao falls into step beside him like he never left and maybe Hill deserves the incredulous look.

“Risky,” the man notes, “to argue with Mr Gregorovich.”

A year ago, Hill wouldn’t have done it, either. But then his entire world was wiped out in a second and he can’t bring himself to care what he used to do.

“We’re responsible for his security, not just when it’s convenient to him. If he makes risky decisions, it’s my job to call him out on it. He personally murdered his way through a good part of the old board and he knows the risks of internal threats. If he wants bootlickers, he can get another team.”

A year ago, he might have added a comment about Sagitta but now he doesn’t. Both because he needs to get on better terms with Orion this time around and because whatever else he might think about them, Sagitta has stood up to Gregorovich for their boss before and Hill can respect that. Even with Orion’s explicit protection, it’s a ballsy move.

… And, Hill will admit if only to himself, Sagitta was allowed to stay by Orion’s side in the future that he’s going to do his fucking best to steamroll out of existence. Dr Three approved of their presence around his hand-picked little protégé, and that’s the sort of attention that nobody wants but everyone knows speaks volumes. Sagitta had grown with Orion. They haven’t yet, they’re still the babysitters for the kid that’ll hopefully have years before he’s put in charge of anything bigger than an operation, but the potential is there.

Hill needs that sort of firepower in his corner to stop this whole disaster. Especially because he can’t appear to know anything about it. Gregorovich is a fucking bloodhound; even the ghost of a hint that Hill might’ve acted on more than training and instincts, and that deadly focus could be turned on him instead of the actual rat-fucker that Hill needs to somehow find a way to take down.

Hill hates politics. SCORPIA hired him for his skills for massive destruction and full-scale massacres, not juggling the sort of politics that comes with being in charge of the business.

Zhao makes a non-committal sound. Not quite agreement, not quite disagreement. The sort of commentary he’s perfected after years of working together.

Hill had never reached that stage with Owen. They were still finding their pace together when -

- This happened. Whatever this is. Purgatory, or a second chance, or just a hallucination from a brain that hasn’t realised it’s dead yet.

Deimos was a good team. Solid, skilled, dependable. Didn’t ask questions and followed orders. But they weren’t Danube, and the gaping wound where Danube should have been had been too raw and painful to allow Hill to get close again.

Another thing he has to keep track of. He’s a different person after everything, of course he is, but he can’t be. Not now. Gregorovich and Danube know him better than Deimos and Crux had time to, between stressed operations and damage control and clearing out the infection that had spread through SCORPIA, and that’s the person he has to be again. Somehow.

Hill needs somewhere quiet to settle on a course of action. To figure out what’s happening and how he can use what he knows.

He’s not getting that, either.

First things first, then.

“I want M’Hamid base put through every security protocol you can find. Every single fucking one of them. If you can find any of Kurst’s old ones that we don’t already include, those are good. If Orion has added some unofficial ones, those are even better.”

Another non-committal sound. The fucking sass is so familiar it hurts.

“That will significantly delay Mr Gregorovich’s departure,” Zhao points out mildly.

“Then Mr Gregorovich should consider taking his security measures more seriously.”

And not act like a fucking farm cat in a bathtub whenever Hill mentions the words ‘due caution’ or ‘risk assessment’.

Hill’s mistake had been to accept that. This time around, he’s going to make it everyone’s problem.

Zhao doesn’t argue. Maybe he agrees with that, too.

-----------

They find the IED under the helipad, exactly where Hill knows it would be, and it’s a big one.

There was not much left to examine the first time – for obvious reasons – but staring at the photos now, Hill wonders how he survived at all.

“A hunch?” Gregorovich asks next to him. If he’s in any way disturbed by his brush with death, it doesn’t show.

“Mostly spite, sir,” Hill says before his brain can catch up with him, and Gregorovich honest to fucking God smiles at that.

Maybe it was a test. Maybe he just appreciates pettiness in all its forms, including his head of security being willing to inconvenience all of them to make a point.

It’s not even a lie. It’s not a hunch when he knew it was there.

Now Hill just needs to somehow unravel the rest of the conspiracy without implicating himself in the process.

[pongnosis]

The first, unedited section of a sequel to the Yassen-dies AU (... so an AU of an AU that refused to leave me alone until I put it down on paper, because that's what I need in my writing life) in which the Commander of Yassen's security team/babysitters/personal problem solvers finds himself the unwilling victim of a time travel fix-it and has to stop the whole shitshow somehow.

In which everyone fucking lives or by God, he going to fucking murder them himself.

Hill is surrounded by dead people. This is not unusual, given that he’s in command of a SCORPIA hunter-killer team, but these ones are walking, talking, breathing people that died a year ago and haven’t realised it.

Hill is pretty sure it’s a nightmare. More vivid and coherent than most he’s had about that day but still a nightmare. Trapped in a situation he knows exactly how will play out and with no way to change anything. He’s lost counts of the nightmares where he’s yelled and screamed and shot people and nothing changed. Where everyone around him carried on without seeing him, walking towards certain, inexorable doom.

Gregorovich appears from his office and Hill recites the words in his mind even as the man starts talking.

“Change of plans, Commander. Arrange for transportation to M’Hamid base. We depart within the hour.”

“That’s not enough time to arrange for security, sir.” Hill has made that objection before – not when it mattered, not when it could have changed things, but in every nightmare since. He knows it will change nothing now. He has to try, anyway. “We will need at least four hours to ensure the location is secure.”

“Speed and anonymity will compensate.”

Gregorovich sounds so sure of himself and Hill has wondered, night after night, if the man was really that confident in his risk assessment or if whatever had been in that phone call – and a year later, they still didn’t know the details – had been important enough to run the risk.

“Not if the threat is internal.” Which is a valid concern given that the rat-fucker who had been behind the assassination had been an internal threat in the first place; the first volley in a cowardly would-be coup, and Gregorovich should know this given that he took out most of the old Board himself.

“Commander,” Gregorovich begins and something in Hill snaps.

“Don’t make me call Orion. Sir.”

The only person more invested in Gregorovich’s safety than Hill is, and sure, they’ve had a rocky start after – everything but Hill knows that in this matter, Orion will back him up without hesitation.

Gregorovich pauses. It reminds Hill of a particularly vindictive viper laying in wait.

“Threats, Commander?” he asks mildly.

“Promises,” Hill responds flatly. “My job is to ensure your security and survival against all threats, sir. Yourself included.”

The silence stretches on. When is the last time someone told Gregorovich no, outside of Orion in a particular vicious mood? Based on how long it takes his Imaginary Boss’ brain to go through what has to be a mental reboot of the factory settings, the answer is a long fucking time.

Hill knows how it goes. In a moment, Gregorovich will refuse, Hill will try to stop him, stop his team, stop anyone, but no one will see him and his hand will go through anything he touches – like he’s the ghost instead of them – and he will wake up drenched in sweat and with the smell of explosives and burned concrete in his nose as the world disappears in a fireball around him.

Gregorovich nods slightly. Opens his mouth, and -

“… Very well, Commander. Alert me when arrangements have been made.”

- Hill’s brain grinds to a halt.

Because Gregorovich listens.

And Hill doesn’t wake up.

[pongnosis]

Look, you can't expect me to see deliciously long SCORPIA meta and not smash that reblog button immediately. Mmm, meta.

AR Ship Week - Scorpia Backstory in the Book and the TV Show

This is the last weekly post in the lead up to Alex Rider Ship Week. Only one week left!

This week we have a guest post by @icebluecyanide​ about the differences between Scorpia in the book and TV canons.

Keep reading

[pongnosis]

I was just wondering, how did you come up with the name pongnosis? I've tried looking up if it's a word, cause it sounds like it could be, but I haven't found anything

It's a good username! (and usernames are hard)

Thank you! It's part nostalgia and part pun. I have fond memories of the game Pong as a kid so I played around with different variations until I hit something I liked that wasn't taken. It also goes with a previous username of mine to make a 'beer pong' joke (holdmybeer + pongnosis), and I'll never turn down the opportunity to make an awful pun.

[pongnosis]

Alex Rider shipping stats, because there will never be enough fandom meta. Fandom meta is a glorious hoard of treasure and I am Smaug.

AR Ship Week - Fandom in 2024

Another year, another shipweek, and another State of the AR Shipping Fandom post. This is the first weekly post leading up to the Alex Rider Ship Week. Just under 4 weeks to go!

This post focuses on pre-S3 fandom, since the data was scraped before the season was released, but we might do an update for post-S3 fics. For methodology, it can be found both on the graphic analysis pages and in the notes at the bottom of this post. For those only curious about the popular pairings this year (1), feel free to read right on.

This year, we have analysed a few specific shipping stats to get a look at us as a fandom.

We have also created an interactive dashboard of all the graphs for you to explore. This is where the following data was taken from, as well as some bonus visuals!

A Timeline of AO3

For a blast from the past, we took a look at the shipping timeline - the count of fics and authors per year for the top ten most popular AR ships - and found immediate proof that as a shipping fandom, we're still small enough that a few, determined people can make a difference. AR fandom's use of AO3 as its primary fandom purveyor is fairly recent, as most of its history can be found on FFnet, but with a total of just under 3k fics as of April 20th, we're gaining on FFnet's 4.5k of AR fics at a very respectable pace.

Some particular developments were:

The number of Yalex authors was about the same in 2021 - 2023 (just around 40) but the number of Yalex fics in 2022 was almost double that of 2021 and 2023. This was not due to a sudden, imported backlog that we could see but a handful of popular events/challenges and potentially the release of S2 in December of 2021.

Tom/Alex and Yassen/Ian both had a peak of fics in 2021, most likely because of the release of S1 that gave Tom a much larger part and offered an intriguing look at Yassen and Ian's potential past.

Fiona/Sabina had a huge spike in fics in 2023 due to a Femmeslash February event (2) that sent it firmly up the ranks of popular ships.

The State of the OTP

For the top ten AR ships, we also took a look at how many of the writers that had written other AR ships (and which ones) to look for interesting patterns and to see if there was any real difference to spot. As it turns out, the answer was a resounding yes:

At one extreme, we have Alexmis (Alex Rider/Artemis Fowl) which is a fandom unto itself. Only 20 percent of the writers of the pairing have written for other pairings in AR fandom fics, and Alexmis fics as a whole tend to lean more towards adding Alex to the Artemis Fowl world rather than vice versa (3).

In the middle range, we have Yalex and Alex/Wolf - two pairings about as old as the fandom itself, and which both have an OTP percentage around 55 - as well as (mostly) newcomers Tom/Alex and Kyra/Alex, both with an OTP percentage in the 40-50 range.

At the other extreme, we have Yassen/John with an OTP percentage of just 4. Fiona/Sabina does it one better with an OTP rate of 0 (!) but the sample size here is so small it makes no meaning to compare it.

So what other pairings do these writers enjoy indulging in, then?

Yalex writers really like their Yassen pairings. Out of the combined number of non-Yalex fics the Yalex authors have written, 24 percent of them are Yassen/Ian and 22 percent are Yassen/John. This means that almost half of their non-Yalex pairings feature Yassen in some way.

70 percent of John/Helen shippers have written other pairings, too - probably because of the pairing's nature as a background part of Alex's story and not necessarily the focus of a shipfic they're in. 30 percent of the fics written by John/Helen writers outside of the ship are Yalex (and 6 percent are Yassen/John).

The case is even more extreme for Yassen/John, which is firmly entwined with the Yalex pairing. 96 percent of the writers have written other AR ships, with three quarters of those fics being Yalex.

Text Analysis

Interactive dashboard with graphs and visuals

We also ran a text analysis on the shipfics to look for patterns and recurring details in the writing - first in general, then for specific ships. The amount of detail for each ship depends a lot on the sample size, which results in a detailed, varied word cloud for Yalex and somewhat less so for several of the smaller ships.

For that analysis, we recommend clicking around to explore the word clouds and get a feel for the different ships, but for the ambitious types, we have a word hunt ready as well (4):

Word Hunt, Significant Phrases edition:

Tools of the Trade:

Duct tape

Frying pan

Krav Maga

Sniper rifle

Zip ties

I Know That Reference:

Fer de Lance

Air Force

Albert Bridge

Point Blanc

Brecon Beacons

Getting Kinky:

Boxer briefs

Dimly lit

Lower lip

Pressed a kiss

Yes sir

Feel free to comment with any particularly entertaining/intriguing/otherwise just plain fun word cloud combinations you've spotted, and we will see you again next week!

______ 

Note on methodology:

The two Alex Rider sections (main + TV) were scraped over the course of two days in early March 2024, except for fics that were locked to AO3 users only (5). For the author specific statistics, we excluded orphan_account and anonymous authors. Median measures were chosen over average the majority of the time to account for outliers, especially in the case of the rarer pairings (6).

For ship-analysis, a fic counts under every pairing it has. This means that someone who writes Yassen/Alex, Yassen/John and Yassen/Ian in the same fic (7) will count as an author for all three pairings and under the Yalex OTP analysis, they will have an additional fic marked under both Yassen/John and Yassen/Ian.

(1) Yalex. It's Yalex. Look, we're not even going to bother posting the stats for that. It's still Yalex, trust us. Though we can talk again next year, considering how well Kyralex is currently doing post-S3. (2) Proving that a few, determined writers can make or break the non-Yalex ship rankings. Please use this power for good; if someone manages to get Sayle/Nadia Vole or something into the top three next year, I'm outsourcing that part of the stat post to a particularly enthusiastic raccoon with a keyboard. (3) Canonically, the wholesale kidnapping of Alex is pretty on-brand for Alex Rider supervillains so really, Artemis is in excellent company. (4) Technically two, but there is unsurprisingly a lot of overlap between the general wordcloud and the Yalex one. For those curious, here's the Word Hunt, Yalex edition:

Adam's apple

Bottle of lube

Cock

Index finger

Nerve endings

Pale skin

Scar tissue

(5) As of April 20th, 225 out of 2961 fics were locked to AO3 users. (6) Meaning anything non-Yalex, let's all be honest here. (7) Because sometimes, like a particularly persistent Pokémon player, Yassen also needs to catch them all. Traumas or Riders is dealer's choice.

[pongnosis]

I know its a long shot but do you have a linkto the Discord? if it's still active? All the links I can find are dead

I do! Cub's Army (an all-ages server) is still active but low-activity since we're a pretty small fandom. DM me here or on discord (same username as here) and I'll get an invite for you. We've had problems with spam accounts in the past, so all of the active invites got killed ages ago.

[pongnosis]

Guy Burt: absolute legend.

Q&A with Alex Rider Screenwriter, Guy Burt 🦂

I sent Guy Burt (screenwriter/adapter/executive producer of the Alex Rider tv series) a load of questions hoping he may choose a few to answer and he VERY kindly answered them all! Incredibly grateful he took the time to do so 🥲

Sharing here for those not on Twitter!

[pongnosis]

i love tom in devil but why isnt sabina in it too? was she ever suppose to be? and will you ever write a fic with her?

(Under a read-more for rambling and mild wip spoilers:)

The easy answer is that Tom wasn't supposed to be in Devil in the first place, either, beyond an outsider POV in the interludes. The original (and very vague) plot outline had Alex choose to take down SCORPIA when Yassen gave the ultimatum, so long before Tom got added. Then the plot changed and everything got personal and Tom (and Jack) got tangled up it in, too. By that point, I was juggling too many characters and plotlines to want to add more if I wanted any chance of wrapping up the fic. Plus, at the point where it might have been relevant to add her, SCORPIA had already targeted her (journalist) father and the last thing Yassen wanted was something like that to mess up his careful plans any further. Sabina would have been justifiably furious to find out who Alex was working for now.

I have no plans to add her to Nautilus for the moment - or Tom, since I've got enough characters to juggle already. The original plan, before Nautilus grew an actual plot, was actually to add Tom to the general chaos, but with the current developments with Chase, Alex has every incentive to keep his friends well away from things.

I've got no solid plans for a fic with her, but since I read Nightshade Revenge, I've really wanted to write her and Alex as adults in the middle of their respective careers. Sabina as a war correspondent or similar, something that will let her help keep the world of power accountable, Alex with a nebulous job as a 'problem solver' and just - coming in and out of each others' lives as their schedules line up. They love each other but neither are the type to settle down and they both respect that sometimes the job comes first. Maybe they only see each other a few weeks every couple of months, maybe more and maybe less, but they understand each other, they have shared traumas and a vicious distrust of people of wealth and power, and - they make it work. A stable home base in otherwise busy, unpredictable lives. Run it parallel with flashbacks to John and Helen's lives, both the similarities and the huge differences, and give Alex and Sabina the happy ending that Alex's parents didn't get. That's the Sabina and Alex fic I really want to write.

[pongnosis]

this is a rather personal question, so obviously no obligation to answer – but I have been following your writing since I was a kid in school (am now in the process of finishing up a masters degree 😅), and have just always wondered what field you work in?

the amount of insight into business, politics, psychology – even logistics – in your fics feels so Real in a way that is rare even in published literature (if you got all of that through just research i don't even know what to say)

and I guess I've just always been interested to know to what degree you have been able to draw on personal experience when writing your fics?

thank you again so much for writing such absolute masterpieces in the AR fandom! 💕

Thank you so much, and I'm glad it feels at least a little realistic, despite the batshit terrorist supervillain disaster that's canon-SCORPIA post-Alex! ❤︎ I work in economics which (much to my delight) continues to provide a lot of useful background stuff for SCORPIA-related fics. I'd be absolutely screwed if I had to write Alex settling into life in America with Sabina or a classic Brookland at Brecon Beacons fic, but I've had enough different economics-related jobs that writing SCORPIA board politics and terrorist logistics is downright therapeutic. So the basis for the sort of stuff I like to write is there. I don't think that's what my logistics teacher had in mind for practical uses for his class, but here we are. The rest is covered by research, because I will take any excuse to dive into a rabbit hole of obscure research.

(And it's probably obvious by this point but Brendan Chase: Terrorist Accountant in Nautilus is complete self-indulgence on my part, and I regret nothing)

[pongnosis]

ponggggggg bestie do you think yassen names his guns. DO YOU THINK ROSS NAMES HIS KNIVES. i think yassen would be a little averse to the whole naming thing considering hunter told him not to refer to his victims by names because it made them human. i feel like he would internalize that and think of his guns as mere weapons, as convenience, as tools and nothing more but still i'm sort of curious because some part of me also thinks he could name them. idk. he was petty enough to become an assassin just to spite him and the fact that he has a fav gun??? [it was a beretta right?] but this is also somewhat a useful tip. idkkkk im sleepy and feeling rambly and im making it your problem. also i bet gordon gives them the goofiest or the most poetic names. no in between. man's got a sense of humour but also has that shitton of history ping-ponging [heh] around in his head. anyways i think i'll go & try to catch some sleep. byeee <3

I think the only sentimental thing Yassen might have is the Fer de Lance, and that's one hundred percent headcanon, given that she might as well be a charter (or SCORPIA-owned) based on the information we got on her in Eagle Strike (look, I like ships, don't ship-shame!). I just really like the idea of Yassen having one thing that is his, and the unwelcoming looks of her, the tinted glass in the windows, and the name all seem like something he'd like. Everything else, especially his weapons, I think he has a very pragmatic approach to. They're something to be used and discarded if necessary, chosen based on the needs of the operation, and little else.

… except the Grach. I HAVE OPINIONS ON THIS ONE.

So. SO. Eagle Strike, page 49 in my version (Walker Books 2015 edition, from the box set, so who knows what the line originally said, but I've only ever seen the Grach referenced in fandom): "The gun was a Grach MP-443, black, with a short muzzle and a ribbed stock. It was Russian, of course, new army issue."

This is yet another enty in "Why Timelines Are, Like, Vibes Man", the ongoing saga by Ahorz.

The Grach MP-443 (wiki link) was developed in the nineties but didn't enter service until 2003, and while it was adopted as the standard sidearm, this did by no means happen immediately. It took YEARS for mass production to really start. For years after, there were - and still are - other Russian guns that were in far more common use and much easier to get a hold of for Yassen, who would presumably want to replace his gun fairly regularly to avoid inconvenient evidence.

Ignoring the timeline issue of exactly what year the books are set in (and whether the Grach was even in actual production by then), it seems like a very deliberate choice by Yassen. The Grach is not the best gun out there. It's not the most reliable, not the easiest one to find, not the most common (and more anonymous). It was, however, the new standard sidearm for the Russian military - the country that took everything from Yassen - and going out of his way to choose a weapon that most of the Russian military still hadn't been issued, one after the other to discard of when they became evidence, seems just like the sort of deliberately petty move he would like. A subtle 'fuck you' to his former home.

ALSO. I agree, Ross absolutely names his favourite knives. He'll rant about the bad ones if you get him going, but his favourite, most perfect knives, those get the adoring names. He's so the type to have an original V-42 stiletto in beautiful condition that he's named Rose.

[pongnosis]

there's a scene in Devil where yassen says if alex still wanted to tear down scorpia in 10 or 15 years he would be in a position to do so. did you ever consider that option, or what it would have looked like to do that?

It was never a serious consideration but there's a part of me that thinks Yassen was incredibly optimistic in his assumption that there would be a SCORPIA to take down ten or fifteen years down the line, given Yassen's own promotion. Without a clear goal and escape route (train Orion into a suitable successor, yeet the whole mess at him, flush his phones down the nearest toilet, and then retire to the most remote piece of wilderness available), I wouldn't be surprised if Yassen had torched the whole organisation within two years of dealing with his esteemed colleagues on the executive board. He never wanted the promotion in the first place, and he seems suspiciously comfortable with the idea of murdering SCORPIA's clients for annoying him in the books. He might extend that same approach to the rest of the board and spare Alex the work.

[pongnosis]

I know u said ur Alex probably never settles down, which I super get. can I ask if you have sexuality headcanons for him though? I always pictured orion as bi but like too busy to deal with it

(Like, two months late and with massive apologies for the delay but - uh. Yeah.)

Oh, absolutely too busy to deal with it. Especially the early years, in his teens and twenties, when he's always two steps behind, always struggling with something or another - and then, once he takes over, having to prove he earned his position as the Head of SCORPIA and dealing with various power-struggles, would-be coups, and assassination attempts. Alex, older and more settled, would probably value trust above all else. He's been trained to a point where he knows beauty for the weapon that it is, sexual preferences and prejudices as something to target, but someone he could absolutely, genuinely trust, someone that could offer the give-and-take of a real partnership (rather than the ultimate authority that is Orion), someone he could build something lasting with - against that, nothing else would matter.

[pongnosis]

How does Alex view Sagitta and how does Sagitta view Alex? I kind of get loose older brother/younger brother vibes from them. How would their relationship evolve as Alex gets older and takes over Scorpia?

(under a read-more for rambling)

To Alex, Sagitta provides a bit of humanity in his life that he finds himself increasingly missing as he grows into his future role. They're not good people, but they're good to him, and that matters a lot. To younger Alex, they definitely fill a role of sort-of older brothers. He doesn't have to worry about politics from them and they're protective in a way that no one else around him is. Yassen is focused on Alex's future survival (which is rarely a kind place to be), Jack doesn't have the influence to shield him, and Dr Three is ... well. Dr Three.

To Sagitta, Alex is a part of the team and often a younger brother more than a commanding officer. Less experienced than the rest of them, with some holes in his training to patch up, but fundamentally one of them. They trust him, know he has their back, and that's priceless for someone in their world. Sure, he's technically their superior - and all the more so as he grows up - but Alex listens to them, and he's learned more from them than he has from a lot of his official instructors.

It's a dynamic that changes with Alex's promotion to Head of SCORPIA, but never to the extent that Alex stops having a soft spot for them. Alex at twenty-five gives orders and can expect to have them obeyed, but the original members of Sagitta are some of the few people who can tell Orion no and actually have him stop and listen (he might still go through with whatever they disagree with, but he will listen and consider their opinion, because he also trusts that they have his best interests in mind). Sagitta respects Alex as the Head, but they also remember the fifteen-year-old kid they originally met and that makes him human to them in a way he isn't to just about anyone else. In a very real way, they grew up together. Sagitta grew with their new position and responsibilities, and Alex with his training. They were there when he struggled with his orders, when he was furious with Yassen, through nightmares and awful choices and everything he had to give up to have a chance to keep control of SCORPIA. They've killed for him so he wouldn't have to, fudged reports to give him a breather when he needed it, and handled potentially-disastrous situations in his name when he had too much to juggle already. They're ultimately responsible for his security and continued survival, and Alex trusts them absolutely. That's a rare thing for someone in his position, and while the trust carries over to the security teams that eventually take over after Sagitta, there will never be the same foundation of humanity and growing up together.

[pongnosis]

dr. three headcanons?

He genuinely enjoys teaching. Well, he enjoys teaching bright students who share his interests, anyway. More so as he gets older, and the acute awareness of how few years he has left sets in. He would like to know that there are other bright minds out there to carry on his research.

He publishes some of his research results (in a very sanitised version) and has a decade-long academic rivalry with an American university professor somewhere who absolutely does not agree with his, ah, pragmatic worldview and the necessity of the 'theoretical exercises' he authors. Any paper of Three's will be followed swiftly (in academic terms) by a response from his arch-nemesis there. Three quite delights in it all! (the CIA, who is well aware of just who's hiding behind the pseudonym on those papers, is less than thrilled with that little academic war).

Every member of SCORPIA's board has their own survival strategy, and Dr Three's is to carefully cultivate the image of the sharp, lethal academic who is generally affable unless crossed. It's a careful balance between dangerous enough to not be worth the risk of targeting while still not dangerous nor ambitious enough to get him caught up in the lethal power struggles among the most powerful on SCORPIA's board. It makes people likely to ignore him in favour of easier or more urgent targets, and gives him the freedom to work as needed behind the scenes.

[pongnosis]

I low key a fan of the Dr. three you wrote into "DDBS" verse. Do you have any thoughts on his sexual orientation and under what circumstances scorpia's scariest may have done the deed?

I'm so sorry about the slow response! Tumblr never gave me a notification, so it wasn't until a new notification popped up that I realised there were two messages in there.

To answer the question … to me, his sexual orientation always seemed 'too busy for that sort of thing'. There is research to be done, and necessary SCORPIA business to handle (because all that wonderful research doesn't fund itself, alas), and he's not getting any younger. There is a lot of science to explore and increasingly few years left to do it in (as Scorpia Rising notes, "He had recently completed a two-thousand-page encyclopedia on the subject of torture. The writing had exhausted him, although he had enjoyed the research."). He was a young man once, too, but that drive seems like a core part of him - even before SCORPIA was a thing, he was probably pushing himself to reach a point where he was not beholden to others burdened with things like morals and ethics, nor held back by what classes and professors deigned to teach him. There were always a dozen things more important than social obligations or relationships of any sort.

[pongnosis]

One month to go until Fluff Week 2022 arrives! A whole week of warm, fuzzy feelings for our favourite teenage spy (and whoever else gets caught up in the fluff). Check out AO3 for more info - there were some amazing fics last year!

Fluff Week is back for a second year! Now's the time to let your inner fluffy bunny out to play! The banner is by the wonderfully talented rosasolar. You can find full details here on AO3. All ratings welcome, and all characters and/or pairings. Have fun! https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Alex_Rider_All_Things_Nice_Week_2022/profile#rules