#✧˖° re: imperial spy.

[jedibetray]

tag drop 1

[fandomtrumpshate]

FTH 2024 Unlisted Fandom Challenge!

All right, there was a peek at the leaderboard in yesterday's numbers post. Today we're giving you the whole thing. The list below contains all 84 write-in fandoms. The majority of them have only one offer —so far. One more signup for them will jump them onto the leaderboard. Two more signups will put them in a tie for second place. Any fandom that gets an additional 4 signups will challenge for the lead ...

And we've had fandoms in years past that went from not on the list at all, to nearly the top of the leaderboard in the time between numbers updates. Will that be your fandom this year?

Signups are OPEN!

One quick request - when writing in your fandoms, please avoid using the ' | ' character. It gives google sheets (and your mods) a headache.

And now, on to the numbers! At not quite 48 hours of signups, this is the complete list of write-in fandoms -

5 YuYu Hakusho 3 Ace Attorney 3 Bungou Stray Dogs 3 Dragon Ball 3 For All Mankind 3 Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb 3 The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison 2 Ancient Greece Religion and Lore 2 Buffyverse 2 Detective Conan 2 Dune 2 Guardian/Zhen Hun 2 HBO War 2 Imperial Radch Series 2 Tortall 1 Among Us 1 BBC Ghosts 1 Blue Beetle 1 Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher Entertainment RPF 1 Cherry Magic 1 Chronicles of Narnia 1 Cobra Kai 1 Criminal Minds 1 Danny Phantom 1 Death Note 1 Dice Punks (podcast) 1 Digimon 1 Donten ni Warau / Laughing Under the Clouds 1 Dungeons and Daddies (podcast) 1 Endeavour/Morseverse/Inspector Morse (ITV/Dexter) 1 Falsettos 1 Farscape 1 Fire Emblem (4-10, 13, 14, 16) 1 Five Nights at Freddy's 1 Formula 1 RPF 1 Glee 1 Grantchester 1 Greek Mythology 1 Grey's Anatomy 1 Gundam 1 Hawaii 5.0 1 Honkai Star Rail 1 Jeff Satur - music videos 1 Law and Order 1 Legend of the Galactic Heroes 1 London Spy 1 Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic 1 Magnificent Seven 1 Mob Psycho 100 1 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury 1 Mrs. Davis 1 My Little Pony 1 Narcos (TV) 1 Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint 1 Omori 1 Orphan Black 1 Pacific Rim 1 Professional Wrestling - New Japan Pro Wrestling 1 Professional Wrestling: All Elite Wrestling 1 Re-Animator 1 Riverdale 1 Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab 1 Simon Snow Series 1 Slam Dunk 1 Slow Horses (TV Show) 1 Super Sentai 1 Sweeney Todd 1 Ted Lasso 1 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension 1 The Adventures of Tintin 1 The Bear (TV) 1 The Empyrean Series - Rebecca Yarros (Fourth Wing) 1 The Good Place 1 The Last Kingdom 1 The Lunar Chronicles 1 The Mummy (1999 franchise) 1 The Pairing (Casey McQuiston) 1 The Radiant Emperor Series 1 The Saint of Steel 1 The Stanley Parable 1 Voltron: Legendary Defender 1 Wayfarers (Becky Chambers) 1 Wolf Pack 1 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

[veneritia]

WHEN COMES THE DAWN | a wip reintroduction

↳ General Info

genre: new adult fantasy court intrigue pov: 3rd person dual pov stage: re-planning/drafting started: 9.3.2023 projected word count: ~90k Book 1 of 2

FENICE VI AETIER, a portent of ill omens and the estranged daughter of the Vasilier, ignites a dangerous succession game between her and her half-siblings, where losing means death and winning means an empire.

The end of the Hes-Aei war brings with it a chance to prove her worth to her father. The challenge is simple: bring him the head of the deposed king of Hesperia, and Fenice will be granted an Ascension, marking her as a legitimate contender for the throne. But finding the defeated king in his own lands would prove to be harder than Fenice imagined— especially when the remnants of her father’s last war starts rearing its head.

↳ The King's Game

A system decreed by the first emperor of Aetier that whoever among his children is the most skillful shall inherit his crown. But time has warped the rules of inheritance dramatically. The only way to survive is to win, and the only way to win is to be the last one standing.

↳ The Major Players

FENICE VI AETIER ◇ the contender | The worst-kept secret of the imperial family, and now an unknown factor in the politics of the Aetier court. The King's Game is her chance to stake her place in history. What she seeks is glory eternal, and she will do whatever it takes to get it.

NIKEPHOROS DEOMINOS ◇ the serpent | The prince of a conquered kingdom, now nothing more than a war prize. He muffles his anger with practiced smiles, playing the game of deception even as it tears him apart at the seams. He will lose either way, all that matters is deciding what he can bear losing.

CHARLES VI AETIER ◇ the favorite | The Vasilier's son with the world at the palm of his hand. The lonely prince with a gentle heart and a willingness to turn a blind eye to the cracks in his perfect family.

SOLA EIDOS ◇ the hound | A man of of unknown origin and a shadowed past, his real name buried beneath the soil of his homeland. He is an information broker, a spy, an assassin-- if you pay the right price. The one thing that can never be bought is his loyalty, a worthy master is hard to find.

SARTORE VITAE ◇ the enigma | An eccentric noble from Leohnthal who can charm his way to a seat at every table. Great with words and even better at half-truths, he is a man that sheds faces as easily as a snake sheds its skin.

Find more WCTD content with the series tag #series.wctd and keep an eye out for monthly progress updates with #wctd-monthly -- the first post coming soon!

Tagging: @sourrcandy @helioselene @seasteading @writinglyra @socialmediasocrates @serpentarii @asa-writes-stuff @cheshawrites @atelierwriting

[sea-changed]

Some quotes from What Soldiers Do that are not really worth their own post or that I didn't want to give their own post, but that I want to preserve for posterity/my own reference. CW for discussion of rape.

"Knowing that the GIs were souvenir hunters, the Nazis also left behind military paraphernalia rigged with explosives. When Raymond Avignon picked up a German helmet, an American soldier saved his life by making him put it down, showing him an iron thread that would trigger an explosion, then removing it with 'meticulous' care." (26)

"According to [British spy Roxanne] Pitt, on one occasion, a British airman too shy to act as a client [while hiding out at a brothel] chose instead to dress as a prostitute; the plan backfired when a French customer took a liking to him." (137) [Cites Pitt, The Courage of Fear (1957), 75-76.] Alan Bérubé are you seeing this.

"GI Robert Peters remembers how when an an older GI named Wisher got caught in a pup tent engaged in fellatio with a platoon sergeant, the commanding officer said this to his men: 'You know the penalty for putting another man's cock in your mouth? You rot in prison for life. You'll get f--ed good there." (175) [Cites Robert Peters, For You, Lili Marlene (1995), 60.] Bérubé!!

"The [US] military insisted on keeping French sexual labor invisible, not only from War Department officials, but also and even more importantly, from the American public back home. In a May 1945 memo to all commanding officers, Adj. Gen. R. B. Lovett argued that if the army was found guilty of condoning prostitution in overseas theaters, the War Department would 'be open to the charge that it is supporting conditions inimical to the health and welfare of troops. The eventual result might be public scandal with the families of military personnel charging the War Department with an unforgivable violation of trust in neglecting to care for the physical and moral well-being of its personnel.'" (186) To go along with--

"The American GI did not have to worry that his VD would go untreated, nor that his loved ones might witness 'scenes contrary to decency.' The military approach to venereal disease in Le Havre registered a growing confidence on the part of the US government to construct--whether consciously or through inaction--asymmetries of power in the transatlantic alliance: whose health was important and whose was not, whose family would be protected and whose would not." (190)

"In general, rape was probably the most widespread war crime in the European theater of war, although its violence had different meanings in various areas. On the eastern front, the German Wehrmacht committed rape with impunity as part of their aim to enslave Slavic peoples. Beginning in Hungary in 1944, the Soviet military used rape as an instrument of revenge. At the end of the war, thousands of women suffered from the crime of rape, and not only from the Red Army. According to US Judge Advocate General (JAG) statistics, at least five hundred German women were raped by American soldiers." (197-198)

"French officers frowned upon using white prostitutes for non-white troops because, in one officer's words, 'to sexually posses a white woman, a fortiori paying her like a vulgar piece of merchandise, permits [a man of color] to reverse the power relation and re-write history in his own way.' This officer's fear that sex between a black man and a white woman could erode imperial authority suggests just how vital sex was to the maintenance of white supremacy." (249) Brackets are Roberts's. The "re-write history" phrasing was enormously striking to me.

[enigma-absolute]

Can I hear more about Maddox? What's his backstory like? Where does he fall on the timeline?

(if I'm sending too many asks, do forgive me!)

You’ve unleashed something in me and now I can’t shut up

To start us off, here’s my boy! This is his original character-defining spread in my sketchbook from early last year:

Here’s some more art of him, as a colour reference! And what’s this? MORE banger art of my boy????

And here’s a meme too!

Aside from this older character development challenge google doc providing a lot of his original foundations (including his original character submission sheet!), allow me. To expand on. The Lore.

I don’t think I can shut up greatly so I hope you’re ready for a big ol read under the cut!

So. Maddox is a rebel spy before and during the Rebel alliance in the Galaxy Far Far Away. Standard stuff for a 24-year-old right? WRONG

He’s actually an Australian, a Sunshine Coast local, from OUR earth in early 2023, swept up into something that took him back in time and far off into space (of course, a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away) to have adventures and stuff like that. Adventures and all are just it, right?

WRONG.

AMNESIA BLAST UPON THIS BOY. GET DUNKED ON.

Joking aside, to quote the backstory portion in his original RP submission form, and even the addition directly from the document:

Maddox genuinely has no clue how he got here.

As in, how in sweet Force he ended up a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far far away from his own. His retrograde amnesia from a recent-ish rebel spy mission (involving hijacking and detonating an Imperial ship before escaping) has receded away enough for him to remember his life on his home country of Australia on Earth (and a rough knowledge of OT canon and even rougher knowledge of PT canon from that time), but a lot of things are still fuzzy.

He’s grateful he can remember quite a lot, including: his name and age, his past life and home, muscle-memory for espionage, how to catch on to flying several starships if given enough time, and even some previous missions. But whatever his amnesia is hiding from him, he hopes that the Force can help reveal it again… and maybe help him find a way back home. In the meantime, his goals for this galaxy are to continue his sick espionage job, find a way home, make some close friends and maybe, hopefully, call the Emperor a bitch to his face before he carks it during the events of ROTJ. Not all in that order specifically, but he’ll work on that.

Maddox specifically landed in the year 9BBY, roughly before the events of Kenobi were about to happen. He was picked up by and later joined Bail Organa’s Rebel Cell, as the Alliance wouldn’t have existed yet.

His fateful mission, subsequent amnesia and initial recovery occur at the tailend of Kenobi, leading him to re-meet a young Leia Organa when recovered by Bail’s rebels. Leia sneaks in a word to her dad, and Maddox is sent away for a week or two for some ‘minding’ with help of the Force. He later recalls the word ‘therapy’ to better describe his situation and tells the therapist there (who is also initially annoyed about this whole situation happening) that ‘minding’ is a stupid term and the galaxy should really get behind ‘therapy.’

(He won’t know this till later, but his therapist Ben also gained hope and healing through it too.)

Due to Force *~shenanigans~* and the still unremembered way as to how he came to the GFFA time from 2023 on earth, Maddox doesn’t really have a way back home and is physically stuck aging at 24 years old. And despite obviously being from Earth and thus having no midichlorians of his own, he is Force-sensitive after having an encounter with it while in spy training. That being said, he has a unique relationship with it where he can feel it more ‘talking’ to him than not, and is able to use it with study, self-teaching and meditation. However, he will NOT take a kyber crystal of his own. He may be a light-sider, but he doesn’t feel he deserves the title of Jedi.

We’ll get back to that in a bit.

His amnesia is (of kriffing course) courtesy of the Empire, under a top-secret, but now defunct and destroyed experiment called Project Lethe. This experiment had been self-contained in the star destroyer Calledania, but when a Rebel spy mission to break its secrecy had gone awry, Maddox had enough time to help set charges to blow it up before his capture and subsequent retrograde memory wipe.

You can imagine the horror he’d be going through, waking up after falling out of a bacta tank and coughing it out of his lungs, knowing NOTHING about himself or what’s going on. Then only arming himself with a scalpel and maybe a doctor’s medical ID before running out onto the main bridge to see that he’s in space (he really shouldn’t be), everything is chaos and falling apart (is he in a spaceship?) and he’s certainly feeling everything falling into a nearby planet’s orbit (these stars are NOT his own).

Of course, he managed to escape and started to recover his memory with the Force, but you’d have to ask him for the fuller story. And that’s if you can convince him to tell you all the details.

In terms of timeline and character relations, aside from entering and joining the early stages of rebellion prior to Kenobi’s events in 9BBY, he’s become a cool older ‘cousin’ friend of a sort with Princess Leia, especially since she was the one who knew his later-therapist Ben (Maddox nicholasnames him ‘Benny’) first. Bail has also been a mentor figure for Maddox before and after his amnesia - in terms of the growing rebellion, high-class etiquette and manners (which mostly consist of keeping an eye on Leia at fancy guest parties and learning from her). Not to say there’s no personal platonic fondness between them, it’s just that the professionalism has been more important for Maddox to get a grasp on his new life.

He’s also grateful for meeting and befriending friendlier folks in the GFFA, such as freeman Clone Troopers Juggernaut and Jorts (OCs in the first RP server I ever entered him into), and in 7BBY, @moobrvoobl-moobmoob-oobmpoobroom’s Clone OC Strike and co-created OC Pins, a stormtrooper who ditched the Empire when the two rebels had their cell missions cross paths and escaped together after going after an asset. Maddox has quickly grown to befriend and fall in platonic love with Strike and Pins, the former particularly since she causes/caused flares in his memory of his mum.

Especially since, in his old earthen life, he was an Eshay, and a horrible person to his mother and sister.

Did I mention he’s a regretful older brother? And a regretful son?

For leaving his family behind? For not being the person he should’ve been? For being selfish and into stupid stuff when there are things in life worth more than stupid ‘friends’ and stupidity?

Good god he’s ashamed to admit it. But he has to admit it somehow.

It was the second memory recovery in the Force that he recalled how he used to be, getting so depressed he needed that therapy from Benny.

Okay here's a couple rapid-fire points about Maddox bc I don't have all the brainspace for backstories:

In the flight back to the base after his couple-weeks therapy from Benny, Maddox had a dream about talking to some fella named Anakin, infodumping to him about the fauna and flora of Australia the entire time. Anakin was in awe of earth's natural flora and flora.

Maddox didn't put two and two together on that 'Anakin' guy until after waking up. His memory got intact enough to connect those dots.

(He won't do the same for Benny for a long, long time).

His enamel pin is actually his sister's, and it's another Peter Pan reference with the star and text saying 'straight on till morning'. (I really hope I can defictionalise it into a real pin one day!)

The leather bag he carries was borrowed by his sister for some time before he took it with him to the GFFA, so he's got more of her belongings with him rather than his own.

He modded an iPod over quarantine days into having a new battery and 256GB SSD drive to fill with his own music, but of course - his sister got to it when he wasn't looking and filled it up with her own tastes before he could wipe it clear.

So now he has his sister's tastes in music, for the most part. Which is a good thing.

So as for Maddox right now in my personal timeline? Well, I just have fun tossing him in the years between 9BBY-4ABY, putting him in Situations and Events (mainly RPs) to see how he develops and how far his character goes. There's a couple alternate timelines and AUs he's in, including the Chrumblr RP in the big discord.

And that's not even getting into the stuff his sister gets into in AUs and timelines.

[kittensartswriting]

Bear Castle Chronicles - Reintroduction

11th of the 3rd month, year 495 of the Fourth Age Imperial forces took the castle. The five centuries of Mantgamia's rule is over.

BASIC INFO

STATUS | re-outlining | FORMAT | trilogy | POV | multiple 3rd person limited | TENSE | past | GENRE | high/epic fantasy, dark fantasy, horror elements, mystery elements | AUDIENCE | adult | LANGUAGE WRITTEN IN | zero draft Finnish, 1st draft English

CONTENT WARNING | graphic violence | war | child abuse mentioned | torture | psychological horror | toxic relationships | drug and alcohol abuse | mental illness | sex | suicidal ideation | tba

INTRO

In the militaristic Angusian Empire only the clergy is allowed to use magic, which is seen as dangerous and terrifying by most. Magic has it's own will and while it can be helpful, other times it can be vindictive, malicious and unpredictable. There are also some terrifying great powers, like dragons, that most think are better left untouched and undisturbed. This is one of the things that has caused friction and an endless string of wars between the Empire and it's northern neighbor Dir'ahin, where magic is freely practiced. Dir'ahin has kept it's independence from the expansionist empire with it's advanced magic, but as Angusian Empire rapidly industrializes, a new decisive war of conquest looms ahead.

The Bear, the guardian of the Bear Castle, is ancient and forgotten magic. 14 years ago it watched as it's people were massacred by Imperial forces in a bloody civil war. It followed the four heirs of the castle as they grew up scattered in distant places. One of them in the imperial court, one of them in the northern occupied border, and two of them in a southern metropolis. Now the Bear watches as it's children struggle to find their way back to it.

FAERATHOS, THE OLDEST | While Faerathos has been hostage at the court, he has not been idle. He's physicist, researching electromagnetism, and he is still trying to understand why did the Cabalusian civil war happen and unearth the mysteries of the court.

CASSIA, THE SECOND OLDEST | Cassia has committed on getting vengeance on the Imperial family and the Angusian Empire as a whole by any means necessary. To work towards her goal, she is aiding Dir'ahin by spying for them on an occupied area.

VALERI, THE SECOND YOUNGEST | Valeri joined the ranks of the Imperial army with a false identity against his will, to protect Fiolew and provide for him. He becomes quite successful as a cavalry officer, but when he is reunited with his uncle, who is allied with another enemy, Manoa, he becomes an uneasy spy for them.

FIOLEV, THE YOUNGEST | Fiolev is not the innocent younger sibling Valeri thinks he is, but rather a quite successful and infamous con artist and thief. He steals magical amulet, accidentally releases a demon upon himself and gets entangled with a dangerous gang of criminals, who are involved with the Cabalusian separatists.

LINKS

CAST | Quick intro to the main cast | Faerathos

WORLDBUILDING | Maps

ART | Main siblings

SCENE EXCERPTS | Julius x Marcus kiss scene - Prequel | Julius visits graves - Prologue | Faerathos comforts Marcus | Valeri x Agrippa fluff

TAGS | #bear castle chronicles | #bcc | #bcc art | #bcc aesthetics | #bcc excerpt | #bcc worldbuilding | #faerathos | #cassia | #valeri | #fiolew

Brief intro to the main cast and the tag list under the cut! I'll keep the tag list here updated.

CHARACTERS

Faerathos cor Mantgamia | 27 | he/him | intelligent but lacks practical skills | depressed | a little pretentious | dry humor | empathetic

Cassia cor Mantgamia | 26 | she/her | cold rage | detached | calculative | cares deeply but would not admit it | amoral

Valeri cor Mantgamia | 24 | he/him | very competent soldier | practical | stoic exterior but highly emotional interior | lacks emotional regulation | anxious

Fiolev cor Mantgamia | 18 | he/they | smart and quick thinker | compulsive liar | easy going | opportunist | attachment issues

Agrippa noé Moireau / Gal'eivil Daughter of Moon | 21 | she/her | Ahinian princess | political tool | possesses destructive magic | painter | naive

Marcus K'irhinzaham | 49 | he/him | Faerathos' bodyguard | greatest swordsman of their time | prickly | one-eyed | emotionally distant

Julie noé Moireau | 31 | she/her | Cassia's target | celebrity opera singer | lesbian casanova | hedonist | unmatched duelist

Cúén "Fechín" cor Faélci | 22 | he/him | Valeri's rival in the army | Cabalusian nobility | spy for the Cabalusian separatists | brooding | great with words and insults

Gid'alon Child of Stars | 45 | they/she/any | Agrippa's tutor | the one who Fiolew steals the amulet from | scholar of spirit realm | reserved | endless thirst for knowledge

Fianne | ??? | they/it | Cassia's talking crow | really a malicious forest demon bound to a crow | ate Cassia's twin sister | snarky | inhuman

Cateline | 19 | she/her | Fiolew's childhood friend | assassin for a criminal organization | mute | lacks empathy | protective

Vauquelin | 27 | he/him | leader of the gang Cateline's in and Fiolew get's involved with | opportunist | power hungry | controlling | soft-spoken

Verginia Emerentius | 59 | she/her | empress mother | probably behind the Cabalusian civil war | cult-like following | controlling | savior

Lucretius Emerentius | 37 | he/him | brother of late emperor | current duke of Cabalusia and the lord of Bear Castle | ruthless | ambitious | manipulative

Augustus III Emerentius | 29 | he/him | emperor | puppet ruler | Farathos' friend | not interested in being the emperor | a bit of playboy

Eirdene “Erene” Sarantachaizak | 26 | she/her | empress | unhappy marriage | toxic affair with Faerathos | manipulative | perfectionist

Alexis noé Moireau | 53 | he/him | duke and general of Virén | Agrippa's adoptive and doting father | master strategist | gambler | easy to like

Ignatus cor Mantgamia | 50 | he/him | uncle of the siblings | wife and kids died in Cabalusian civil war | severe | ambitious | vengeful

Mánoheahpi Son of Moon | 28 | he/him | Agrippa's brother | powerful priest | plots to take power | reserved | visionary

TAG LIST

@siarven @worldbuildng @emilyoracle @frvnwrites @kainablue @writingrosesonneptune @contes-de-rheio @faelanvance @outpost51 @dotr-rose-love

[imgoingtocrash]

Hello there! It's your Rebelcaptain Secret Santa :) Hope you had a wonderfull week and that you have something great planned for the weekend. I'm probably around 1/3 into writing your gift, and I was just wondering: is there anything you absolutely DON'T want to see, any tropes that give you the ick, any characters you avoid? Also, on a completely different note: if you were to choose your top 3 favourite rebelcaptain fics, what would those be?

Oh hello!!! It's been a busy work week but that means money sooo we're going with it lol.

As for anything I don't want to see, I don't think there's anything?? I feel like my prompts were pretty vanilla so I can't imagine anything particularly shocking or appalling that you could do that would make me not want to read something. (And I love angst, so anything darker there is always encouraged rather than discouraged lmaooo)

Now asking me for my favorite fics on the other hand...I'm notorious for making detailed fic rec lists. That's dangerous.

For now, I'll do 3 all time favorites of MANY more, and 3 more recent reads (though some of them are older, because I'm back in the tag rn)

Top 3 All Time Favorites:

cassian andor nonsense + assorted nonsense timestamps by theputterer

I love this series. It's Cassian centric at first, and then it's about their relationship in the context of their pasts and I am just!!! Overflowed with love for it all of the time. I binged it when I first read it, and there are some oneshots in the verse that I come back to and re-read when I'm in a mood. (Blood Brothers, where Jyn gets to meet Cassian's Imperial brother, is a weird favorite, but I think I've re-read it like 4 times. I love that sort of 3rd person POV on a ship I just DO.)

only fools rush in by andromeda3116

I re-read this fic almost every holiday season, that's how much I love it. Fake dating trope, holiday vibes, bickering but well-meaning family that learns to come together. It's catnip to me.

Color My Cheeks by Copper_Nails (Her_Madjesty)

Another older but beloved favorite that I've re-read multiple times. One of the first fics I ever read in the fandom, and I think one of the first sex pollen fics I'd ever read. It's not just trope-y sexy fun, but the fact that it goes into the AFTER of a sex pollen event and what that means for them emotionally feels so unique and interesting. Now I'm thinking about re-reading it again. Sigh.

Definitely could give you more all-time favorite recs, but here are some more recent fics I've read:

Lost and Found by mosylu

As of today, just completed, and WOW what a journey! I left rambling, crazy comments on this fic almost every week for good reason. It was sweet, it was angsty, it was just!!!! Amazing. I'm probably going to come back to this one again down the road for sure.

Delivery Week by SleepyKalena

I've read quite a few Film/Production based fanfics over the years, but this one is for us post girlies!!! An edit bay meet-cute, bitching about color correcting/matching--truly this fic has it all and feels tailor-made to me as an editor, even if it's at an animation studio rather than live action.

spy games by skitzofreak

I'm basically reading through all of their star wars fics right now, so highly highly recommend this author as a whole. (The fact that I've apparently left kudos on some of them before and don't remember it at all is...funny.) This one is just a great, cute starter where Cassian and Jyn have an entire silent conversation in front of a bunch of recruits. So good.

Your asks remind me to send asks to MY giftee, so I'm so happy to hear from you each week! Have a wonderful week and good vibes to your writing progress! 💖

[meowww-ffxiv]

I think I'll free Yukinko up from Gridania and pick up rogue/ninja for his leveling to 50, then pick up samurai [kind of an Again for him; he started as samurai] just to enjoy the stories.

But now I need to think about what he's been doing for like 10 years and why he's in Eorzea at all.

After getting freed from Garlemald, Yukinko was taken by his benefactor to Ala Mhigo where he saw how awfully shit life was. Unfortunately, he didn't do well there due to the heat and the terrain, so she arranged to have him "repatriated" to Yanxia within 2 years.

Never made it that far. Someone took a liking to Yukinko in a port town in Hingashi and set him up in Kugane, where he found himself right back in the profession he had while a conscript. Indentured hitman jobs.

But his "handler" this time was a smiling old woman who ran three teahouses she used to spy on the Garlean empire and intercept imperial missives coming in and out of the area, as well as arranging the deaths of any Garlean officials who got too big for their breeches re: ambitions to grow in Kugane.

She told Yukinko, bluntly, that his beauty was wasted on soon-to-be-dead men. So she had him trained to gather information with her girls, and only very rarely risked him as a hitman.

It was a comfortable existence, and a much needed reprieve from the horrible decade he'd spent before as a prisoner and a living tool for Garlemald. The Proprietess and her kindness were mostly to thank for Yukinko being well-adjusted by the time he received a summons from his original benefactor to go to Eorzea, where the next big push by Garlean forces was happening.

And then, Dalamud.

And now, everything else.

Yukinko was aware he could probably just...go home. Clearly nothing worked out. Dalamud fell, shit was bad. Baelsar's Wall stood impregnable, as before. He'd even lost contact with the person whose email sent him here.

But (a) dude broke as fuck, can't afford to sail back to Kugane and (b) it didn't feel right to just leave. So Yukinko is currently mucking around in the Black Shrouds watching Eorzeans tussle with their internal strife like. Yikes. 😬

[the-dog-watch]

The Thirteen-Gun Salute

me: i am fundamentally opposed to the british empire and all forms of colonialism and imperialism. history is a record of their atrocities.

my therapist: that's fair

me: but i love it when god's chosen captain jack aubrey is restored to the navy list and reclaims his sword so ere long he may draw it once more in the honorable defense of his country.

my therapist: who doesn't?

(once again, apologies to the OP)

Patrick O'Brian loves to repeat character-types throughout the Aubrey/Maturin series. For example, the  beautiful, fashionable lady spies who end up embroiled in Stephen’s intelligence work, characters  like Mrs. Wogan in Desolation Island or Mrs. Fielding in Treason's Harbour. Enjoyable in their way (personally I have a lot of fondness for Mrs. Fielding’s failed seduction in The Ionian Mission) but I never find myself that interested in them on their own, or at least not as interested in them as I am in the original; they’re all pale shades of Diana. They might be fancy and beautiful and high class but they lack her ineffable quality of being a messy bitch.

If Diana is the red-blooded progenitor of the Beautiful Lady Spy archetype, then Stephen is the progenitor of another recurring character type: the Bisexual Man with Mental Health problems, another iteration of which is Lord Clonfert from The Mauritius Command, who was the most interesting part of what I personally find to be the weakest, most insubstantial of the books. In Jo Walton’s reading guide, which I’ve been using a little bit, one of the commenters pointed out that the dipsomaniac doctor McAdams and Lord Clonfert are "dark reflections" of Stephen and Jack, an idea I find fascinating. Mirror universe Aubrey and Maturin...spooky!

But anyway, I bring this up because Andrew Wray is yet another iteration of the Bisexual Man with Mental Health Problems, certainly a more destructive and a much more functional antagonist than Clonfert ever was. I really liked the dissection scene; in her review Jo Walton said she found it so gruesome she almost "didn't want to know Stephen anymore;" no disrespect to her but some of us are built different. This is one of my favorite Stephen Maturin crazy ass moments of all time, up there with self-surgery in HMS Surprise and that time he stocked up on too many stimulants in Sweden and accidentally turned all the ship's rats into coke fiends.

But, sadly, overall the messy gay drama with Wray and Ledward (WHO THE FUCK EVEN WAS LEDWARD did we ever even see him speak????) was a little too understated, even for me. Obviously I didn't expect Stephen or Jack to get revenge on them in the traditional way, but something a little more definite than Jack getting pissy at a dinner after the fact could have done the trick, I think.

The dissatisfaction I feel with it is what brings me back to Clonfert; the actual plot of The Mauritius Command feels very remote and inert to me, and Clonfert is the most vivid part. Jack is so basically above him in all ways (or so Stephen describes it) that Clonfert completely destroys himself out of his neuroses and Jack is shielded by Stephen from ever even knowing about or being hurt by it. It was similarly anticlimactic but there was an element of tragedy and pathos to it, and Stephen’s shielding Jack from the disturbing truth has an echo in Stephen’s own inability to fully open up to Jack about Diana, Stephen's inability to open up about pretty much everything.

Thankfully, this book has way more going for it than The Mauritius Command. I like the rhythm and episodic nature of these latter books much more than TMC's rigid retelling of a historical naval campaign. Stephen re-living some of his revolutionary past with the United Irishmen, and re-living some of the divided loyalties poor James Dillon (may he rest in pieces) felt in the first novel was a welcome call back, the Kumai trip was generally wonderful, I was pretty happy about Jack's ultimate ambivalence about being reinstated in the Navy again, and I LOVE the Stephen Maturin Strikes It Rich storyline (more on that next time I think; I do think it's very funny that when it comes to money, neither Stephen nor Jack is 'the smart one.')

I got to really love the Diane, and this is the first time we’ve had a genuine shipwreck; as exciting as that was, it was genuinely heartbreaking to lose her. RIP Diane but I’m already well into the next book and in love with my new girl (Nutmeg of Consolation, you will always be famous. 😭)

Personal Ranking

The Far Side of the World (10) > HMS Surprise (3) > Desolation Island (5) > The Reverse of the Medal (11) > The Ionian Mission (8) > The Fortune of War (6) > Master & Commander (1) > The Surgeon’s Mate (7) > Treason's Harbour (9) > The Letter of Marque (12) > The Thirteen-Gun Salute (13) > Post Captain (2) > The Mauritius Command (4)

[bookgeekgrrl]

My media this week (28 Apr - 4 May 2024)

📚 STUFF I READ 📚

😍 Bound by Contract (BootsnBlossoms & Kryptaria) - 135K, 00Q00 - pt 2 of The Marketplace AU with Bond & Q figuring out how their relationship works for them and how Alec fits all while doing semi-canonical spy shit. Such a huge fan of this series.

😍 Out of the Dead Lands (orphan_account) - "Someone is building machines that look and act like people. Meanwhile, the Winter Soldier tries to be Bucky Barnes." - 62K, stucky, very angsty with a happy ending, robots, identity porn (of a sort) - SO GOOD! (thank you, unknown author, for orphaning your work instead of deleting it.)

💖💖 +207K of shorter fic so shout out to these I really loved 💖💖

February (xoxobuckybarnes) - MCU: stucky, 5K - Steve and Bucky celebrate Valentine's Day in Wakanda

if the bad times are coming let 'em come (suzukiblu) - MCU: shrinkyclinks, 9K - accidental interdimensional swap puts still recovering WS into 1940s with pre-serum Steve

Maybe Our Kind Don't Fit Round Here (Rainne) - MCU: shrunkyclunks, 5K - companion fic to above - 1940s pre-war Bucky with modern Steve

📺 STUFF I WATCHED 📺

Um, Actually - s1, e21-32

Royal Pains - s8, e1-8

Ghosts (US) - s3, e10

The Brokenwood Mysteries - s10, e1

D20: Fantasy High: Junior Year - "The Name" (s21, e17)

D20: Adventuring Party - "Five Years in the Making" (s16, e17)

Dead Boy Detectives - s1, e4-8

🎧 PODCASTS 🎧

⭐ Lost Notes - S1 Ep. 1: Louie Louie: The Strange Journey of the Dirtiest Song Never Written

Dinner’s on Me - Niecy Nash-Betts

Under the Influence - Ham on Wry: Sandwich Board Advertising

Under the Influence - Cars Are The Stars: Automobile Brands in Hollywood

⭐ Lost Notes - The True Story of ‘Tainted Love’

Worlds Beyond Number: Fireside - [One Shot] SPACE CRAM: Reasonable Hoop Dreams - "The Menlo County Summer League 3X3"

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Dead Boy Detectives

Homophilia - LOL LOL OMG LOL with Steve Yockey

WikiHole - Virginia (with Lauren Lapkus, Naomi Ekperigin and Mary Holland)

Switched on Pop - Best of 2024 so far: hip hop feuds, Hozier’s pop surprise and espresso shots

Pop Culture Happy Hour - Summer Guide

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Old Cahawba

Wild Card - Jenny Slate turns fear inside out

It's Been a Minute - How Chicago's Black press shaped America

Consider This - Judi Dench reflects on a career built around Shakespeare

Shedunnit - The Murder on the Links

Vibe Check - Every Girl Has A Good Gay

⭐ 99% Invisible #580 - Mr Yuk

Today, Explained - One Flu Over The Cowcow’s Nest

The Atlas Obscura Podcast - Checking Into Hotel Imperial with Deborah Cohen

Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Idea Of You

Throughline - The 4th Amendment: Search and Seizure

⭐ If Books Could Kill - "Going Infinite": Michael Lewis Takes On Sam Bankman-Fried

⭐ You Are Good - My Own Private Idaho w. Cecil Baldwin

Dear Prudence - My Brother Is a Budding Alex Jones. Help!

⭐ Endless Thread - Episodes We Love: Doom Jelly

Pop Culture Happy Hour - The Fall Guy And What's Making Us Happy

Re: Dracula - May 3: Your Friend, Dracula

It's Been a Minute - An inside look at the campus protests; plus, Israel at Eurovision

Armchair Expert - Chris Pine

Re: Dracula - May 4: The Eve of St. George's Day

Today, Explained - The tourist tax

Welcome to Night Vale #247 - Rerun

🎶 MUSIC 🎶

The Who

Dua Lipa

Back to the Yacht

Endless R&B Throwbacks

Hozier

[richincolor]

Crystal’s 2022 Favorites 

This year I had a lot going on in my life and I read fewer books than usual. Fortunately, the quality was fabulous even if the quantity fell short. I don't think this has happened to me in the past, but all of my favorites are from the same imprint.  Feiwel & Friends is doing some great work.

Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix [Crystal's review] Feiwel & Friends

Jerusalem, 1192. The Third Crusade rages on. Rahma al-Hud loyally followed her elder sister Zeena into the war over the Holy Land, but now that the Faranji invaders have gotten reinforcements from Richard the Lionheart, all she wants to do is get herself and her sister home alive.

But Zeena, a soldier of honor at heart, refuses to give up the fight while Jerusalem remains in danger of falling back into the hands of the false Queen Isabella. And so, Rahma has no choice but to take on one final mission with her sister.

On their journey to Jerusalem, Rahma and Zeena come across a motley collection of fellow travelers―including a softspoken Mongolian warrior, an eccentric Andalusian scientist, a frustratingly handsome spy with a connection to Rahma’s childhood, and an unfortunate English chaplain abandoned behind enemy lines. The teens all find solace, purpose and camaraderie―as well as a healthy bit of mischief―in each other’s company.

But their travels soon bring them into the orbit of Queen Isabella herself, whose plans to re-seize power in Jerusalem would only guarantee further war and strife in the Holy Land for years to come. And so it falls to the merry band of misfits to use every scrap of cunning and wit (and not a small amount of thievery) to foil the usurper queen and perhaps finally restore peace to the land.

The Girl Who Fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh [Crystal's Review] Feiwel & Friends

Deadly storms have ravaged Mina’s homeland for generations. Floods sweep away entire villages, while bloody wars are waged over the few remaining resources. Her people believe the Sea God, once their protector, now curses them with death and despair. In an attempt to appease him, each year a beautiful maiden is thrown into the sea to serve as the Sea God’s bride, in the hopes that one day the “true bride” will be chosen and end the suffering.

Many believe that Shim Cheong, the most beautiful girl in the village—and the beloved of Mina’s older brother Joon—may be the legendary true bride. But on the night Cheong is to be sacrificed, Joon follows Cheong out to sea, even knowing that to interfere is a death sentence. To save her brother, Mina throws herself into the water in Cheong’s stead.

Swept away to the Spirit Realm, a magical city of lesser gods and mythical beasts, Mina seeks out the Sea God, only to find him caught in an enchanted sleep. With the help of a mysterious young man named Shin—as well as a motley crew of demons, gods and spirits—Mina sets out to wake the Sea God and bring an end to the killer storms once and for all.

But she doesn’t have much time: A human cannot live long in the land of the spirits. And there are those who would do anything to keep the Sea God from waking…

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin [Group Discussion] along with the second book A Venom Dark and Sweet Feiwel & Friends

I used to look at my hands with pride. Now all I can think is, “These are the hands that buried my mother.”

For Ning, the only thing worse than losing her mother is knowing that it’s her own fault. She was the one who unknowingly brewed the poison tea that killed her—the poison tea that now threatens to also take her sister, Shu.

When Ning hears of a competition to find the kingdom’s greatest shennong-shi—masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making—she travels to the imperial city to compete. The winner will receive a favor from the princess, which may be Ning’s only chance to save her sister’s life. But between the backstabbing competitors, bloody court politics, and a mysterious (and handsome) boy with a shocking secret, Ning might actually be the one in more danger.

A Venom Dark and Sweet (The Book of Tea #2)

A great evil has come to the kingdom of Dàxi. The Banished Prince has returned to seize power, his rise to the dragon throne aided by the mass poisonings that have kept the people bound in fear and distrust.

Ning, a young but powerful shénnóng-shi—a wielder of magic using the ancient and delicate art of tea-making—has escorted Princess Zhen into exile. Joining them is the princess’ loyal bodyguard, Ruyi, and Ning’s newly healed sister, Shu. Together the four young women travel throughout the kingdom in search of allies to help oust the invaders and take back Zhen’s rightful throne.

But the golden serpent still haunts Ning’s nightmares with visions of war and bloodshed. An evil far more ancient than the petty conflicts of men has awoken, and all the magic in the land may not be enough to stop it from consuming the world…

What books pulled you in this year? 

[jedibetray]

** IMPORTANT INFO RE: BODE AKUNA

a study in. being the hero of your own story, fatherhood above all else, mercenary gunslinger, how far can the hero fall, the force, watching the world burn, survival above all else, quiet strength, determination, order and control cover a seething inner world, sensuality and self control, the mystery of the material world 

full name. bode akuna also known as. jetpack date of birth. 52 BBY age. 43 at time of Jedi: Survivor canon zodiac. scorpio sun / taurus moon / scorpio rising gender. male pronouns. he / him romantic orientation. panromantic sexual orientation. pansexual occupation. jedi knight (former) imperial spy (current) species. human current home. the stinger mantis / the isb post in the nova garon system language(s). completely fluent in galactic basic standard, but part of his training included a basic understanding of most languages he would encounter. while he says in the game he doesn't speak binary, he actually does. significant others. tayala akuna (wife, deceased), cal kestis (partner - @jedilone) children.  kata akuna (daughter) faceclaim.  hair. black + short eyes. brown height. 6 ft 5 in build. basically a wall of muscle dominant hand. right scars. a prominent scar on his left upper arm from a lightsaber, two gunshot wounds on his stomach, another lightsaber wound above those gunshot wounds, various scars on his back from entry into the republic intelligence core tattoo.  "T.A. + K.A." on the front of his left thigh (more to come) piercings. none. positive traits. resourceful, powerful, brave, passionate, a true friend, problem solving, cautious, focused negative traits. distrusting, jealous, manipulative, violent, withdrawn likes. truth, facts, being right, talents, teasing, passion dislike. dishonesty, revealing secrets, superficiality, small talk fears & phobias. losing stability, losing kata wishes & dreams.  mbti. ISTJ - The Logistician moral alignment. neutral evil enneagram type. type 6w5 - the guardian

biography.

nothing much matters in bode akuna's story until shortly after his 20th birthday, because jedi padawan simply don't matter much. the day he became a jedi knight; that's the day his story began.

it began in the room of the high council, kneeling before his master as he was knighted before any who matter. he'd been training in hopes to find himself in combat somewhere: after all, that is what he's expected to do. fight. protect. what could possibly be the point of anything else?

infiltration. he'd heard the word then, still kneeling before the council. a shudder ran up along his spine that forced his head up. you'll report to the republic intelligence troops beginning tomorrow. few jedi were ever asked to report to republic intelligence. he should have felt honored, but all he felt at the time was a looming sense of dread.

as a spy for the republic, he reported directly to lank denvik. his work ranged from easy intelligence missions, to covert secret operations that existed on a need to know basis. because of this, his status as a jedi was kept mostly a secret among the halls of the greater community. it also meant that long before the purge, bode knew that order 66 was going to be the death of them all.

when the order for the purge went through, bode used every skill he'd ever learned to run as far and as fast as he could. he ditched his lightsaber for a pair of blasters and hid himself away in hopes that he could simply begin to blend into the crowd. two years after the purge, he found himself of birren -- the home planet of his soon to be wife tayala. the pair have a daughter, kata, and for a couple of years life is good. simple, and good.

kata is three when the inquisitors come. tayala knew his past; she knew that one day he may have to run fast and run hard. they'd promised each other they'd run together, but that never came to pass. rather than letting her husband face a brutal death, tayala sacrificed herself so bode could escape with kata in tow. the pair run fast and run hard with bode offering himself as a mercenary for hire in the deep recesses of the galaxy.

it could stay that way. not for kata's sake. she deserved better. even if that meant making a deal with a devil. you know what they say about the devil you know...

lank denvik had found himself a role as an officer in the imperial security bureau, which bode had found out through a close source. he offered himself to denvik, showing up with kata and looking for sanctuary. the job is his and kata is safe as long as he stays useful. she has toys, she has food, she has shelter. (tayala would furious with him, but he tells himself he's doing what's best for their little girl.) it seems he could do this for now: and then the stinger mantis crew and specifically jedi cal kestis reach the isb radar.

infiltrate the crew. find out what kestis is doing. (fall in love? certainly not in the plan.) locate anything else of interest. and when that thing of interest became a way to get kata to safety far away from the reach of imperial forces? well -- there's nothing more dangerous than a man who stop at nothing to protect his daughter.

NOTES:

the canon of jedi survivor fits in here to a certain extent. bode DOES relay information to denvik as he gets it because of the threat to kata's life, and he DOES lead the imperial forces and vader to jedha after locating the compass.

however, bode does NOT kill cordova. he doesn't stop cordova's death from happening, but he is not the one to actively do it. the only lives he takes in the fight at jedha are the ones in his way from getting the hell out of the base and getting back to nova garon.

when cal offers bode mercy on tanalorr, he takes it. he knows this is the only option where he's still alive to care for kata, but even more importantly, he knows that he's pushed cal too far into the darkside. he knows that taking his life would eventually destroy cal kestis. he never wanted to fall in love with him, but life had other plans. while earning back trust and forgiveness from cal, merrin, and honestly kata, bode stays on tanalorr or joins merrin looking for other force sensitives to bring them to tanalorr.

my main canon will take place either during the events of survivor, or in this time frame on tanalorr.

[fandomtrumpshate]

Unlisted Fandom Challenge

Two days ago, at our last Unlisted Fandom Challenge update, we had a 3-way tie for first. Today? One of those fandoms has taken the lead AND a new fandom that hadn't had even a single signup before has jumped all the way into a 4-way tie for second. Your fandom could do the same, in the hours still left before signups close!

At present, our leaderboard looks like this:

7 Danny Phantom

5 Carmen Sandiego (2019) 5 For All Mankind 5 Tortall 5 Yu Yu Hakusho

4 Ace Attorney 4 Alan Wake/Remedyverse 4 Formula 1 RPF 4 Ted Lasso 4 The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison 4 The Stanley Parable

3 Greek Mythology/Religion 3 Buffyverse 3 Bungo Stray Dogs 3 Call of Duty 3 Detective Conan 3 Dragon Ball 3 HBO War 3 Kingdom Hearts 3 Persona Series: 3-5 3 Professional Wrestling 3 Realm of the Elderlings - Robin Hobb 3 Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab 3 The Mummy films 1999-2008 3 Undertale

Given the way Carmen Sandiego came from *nowhere* to tie for 2nd place, a single signup really can shake things up! And for the next few hours, signups are STILL OPEN! Do the thing!

The rest of our unlisted write-in fandoms under the cut for length -

2 Ghosts (TV) 2 Black Sails 2 Cosmere 2 CSI 2 Cyberpunk 2077 2 Dead Friend Forever 2 Death Stranding 2 Dice Punks (podcast) 2 Dimension 20 2 Donten ni Warau / Laughing Under the Clouds 2 Dracula 2 Dune 2 Firefly 2 Glee 2 Guardian/Zhen Hun 2 Hermitcraft/The Life Series SMP 2 Imperial Radch Series 2 Inception 2 JoJo's Bizarre Adventure 2 Mob Psycho 100 2 Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch From Mercury 2 Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint 2 Ordem Paranormal Quarentena 2 QSMP / Quackity SMP 2 Riverdale 2 Saw 2 Slow Horses (TV Show) 2 South Park 2 Stormlight Archive 2 The Bear (TV) 2 The Empyrean - Rebecca Yarros 2 The Folk of the Air (Holly Black) 2 The Radiant Emperor Series 2 Venture Bros 2 Voltron 2 Wolf Pack 1 1670 1 A Court of Fey & Flowers 1 a league of their own (TV series) 1 A Plague Tale (Videogame Series) 1 American Gods 1 Among Us 1 Bandom RPF (Bad Omens) 1 Bandom RPF (Lorna Shore) 1 Bandom RPF (Motionless In White) 1 Beastars 1 Bendy (and The Ink Machine/Dark Revival) 1 Horror 1 Bioshock 1&2 1 Blue Beetle 1 Blue Eye Samurai 1 Books of the Raksura 1 Boondock Saints 1 Breakfast With Scot 1 Bunny - Mona Awad 1 Buzzfeed Unsolved/Watcher Entertainment RPF 1 Cabin Pressure 1 Cats the musical 1 Charlie's Angels (2019) 1 Cherry Magic 1 Chronicles of Narnia 1 Cobra Kai 1 Coffee Talk (Video Game) 1 Criminal Minds 1 Death Note 1 Devil May Cry 1 Dexter 1 Digimon 1 Discworld - Terry Pratchett 1 Disney Theatrical Animated Universe 1 Divergent 1 DMBJ (Grave Robber's Chronicles) - Xu Lei 1 Dream SMP 1 Dungeons and Daddies (podcast) 1 Endeavour/Morseverse/Inspector Morse (ITV/Dexter) 1 Ensemble Stars!! 1 Fallout Video Game (Bethesda) 1 Falsettos 1 Fargo FX 1 Farscape 1 Fire Emblem (4-10, 13, 14, 16) 1 Five Nights at Freddy's 1 Friends at the Table 1 Game Changers Series - Rachel Reid 1 Grantchester 1 Green Creek 1 Grey's Anatomy 1 Grimm 1 Gundam (see below for details) 1 Hatchetfield 1 Hawaii 5.0 1 Hello From The Hallowoods 1 High School Musical 1 Higurashi no Naku Koro ni 1 Hollow Knight 1 Honkai Star Rail 1 Horizon Zero Dawn 1 Infinity Train 1 IT (Movies - Muschietti) 1 Jeff Satur - music videos 1 Julie and the Phantoms 1 Kushiel's Legacy 1 Law and Order 1 Legend of the Galactic Heroes 1 Live Free or Die Hard (Die Hard 4) 1 London Spy 1 Lovecraft Mythos 1 Magi: The Labyrinth of Magic 1 Magnificent Seven 1 Mary Grant Bruce's Billabong series 1 Mrs. Davis 1 My Little Pony 1 Nancy Drew (CW Series) 1 Narcos (TV) 1 Nine Worlds Series - Victoria Goddard 1 NU: Carnival 1 Omori 1 One Direction 1 Orphan Black 1 Outlast 1 Paranatural 1 Phantomarine 1 Re-Animator 1 Resident Evil/Biohazard 1 Sex Education (TV) 1 She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 1 Simon Snow Series 1 Skins (UK) 1 Slam Dunk 1 Starry Musical 1 Succession 1 Sunless Sea 1 Super Sentai 1 Sweeney Todd 1 Team Starkid 1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 The Adventure Zone: Balance 1 The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across The 8th Dimension 1 The Adventures of Tintin 1 The Artful Dodger 1 The Good Place 1 The Greenhollow Series - Emily Tesh 1 The Hollows - Kim Harrison 1 The Last Kingdom 1 The Left-Handed Booksellers of London - Garth Nix 1 The Lunar Chronicles 1 The Mechanisms 1 The Pairing (Casey McQuiston) 1 The Saint of Steel 1 The Shadow Campaigns - Django Wexler 1 The Terror (TV 2018) 1 Three of Hearts 1 Tin Can Bros 1 Tower of God 1 True Detective 1 Twilight 1 Vorkosigan Saga - Lois McMaster Bujold 1 Wayfarers (Becky Chambers) 1 Weak Hero Class 1 1 Westworld (TV) 1 Yellowjackets 1 Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters

[myrfing]

gourd's retainers under pseudonyms are:

"Kabocha" -> yulie's niece (secret). duskwight with a cute face and is built like a long plank of wood. she is very let's get down to business and straight to the point. kind of rude sometimes as a result. she was born to her imprisoned mother and raised in a gridanian orphanage. honestly meant she kind of had to raise herself. yulie didn't want to involve her with her highly illegal drk activities so she visited only for her birthday and all saint's wake every year to give her presents. secretly paid for her tuition and living costs too as an "unnamed benefactor". honestly this scared kabocha at the same time it made her intensely curious and also sad. she is passionate about geology and works on her studies with miners and a lot of this is tied into said curiosity about her lineage & as a result, gelmorra. she took on work as a retainer specifically because gourd was her strongest lead as to finding out what happened to her mysterious unnamed benefactor.

"Kareli" -> sharlayan hellsguard guy who looked up to Sun a lot as a kid. People find him intimidating sometimes because he has an intense gaze and multiple facial scars (from being clumsy) but he's like, debilitatingly anxious and shy, masking it hastily with over-formal speech. He studies alchemy & has a strong faith in the Twelve and is in particular interested in the saints; he came to Eorzea to make pilgrimage on his coming of age and also to investigate what happened to Sun after he was exiled from Sharlayan. following the same leads lead him to Kabocha who convinced him to take the retainer job with Gourd together with her. they're best friends & help each other with their studies and their secret investigation. she also is trying to help him break out of his shell but is ostensibly making it worse sometimes.

"Calabash" -> xaela girl from a fishing village in othard. wiry, strong as hell for her size, very chill, speaks little, unsqueamish, and doesn't show much of a reaction to anything. her and gourd are -_- -_- <- 2 of them exchanging retainer business. her parents died fleeing south of the steppe from imperial violence so she was raised by the doman villagers who took her in. she's friends (re: the only friend) of the blind kuganese(?) noblewoman's son; she and the other fishermen used to ferry him and his mom across the ruby sea to visit gourd's mom. the songuy begged her to take a retainer job under gourd to spy on him (he thinks he is nefarious). She said yes but she doesn't really. she took it because it was a good job and literally just fishes all day. every time he asks her for a status report on the target (gourd) she's like He's ok. & it pisses him the hell off

[mitsuki91]

WIP Wednesday

Thank for the tag @giosnape 🥰🥰🥰

I am not writing much, I am extra busy this days, but I am translating my fic, so... I post some "spoiler" 👀👀

The hunter

I updated today, but here are some quotes for the next chapter:

James nodded, still with his face covered, trying to compose himself. He had to think of something else. He had to think...

He heard Harry walk away, heading for the kitchen, and then concentrated on the first thing that passed through his mind - on Rose, on her body under his imperious and gentle hands, on her moans in his ears, on the way she gave herself to him so passionately...

Shit. He wanted to see her.

The saying that for anything a healthy fuck was the only possible cure, even for his first attempt at blackmail, always held true.

James inhaled, trying to calm the erection that was suddenly tensing in his trousers. Would Rose have been available if he had sent her a Patronus later...?

James fervently hoped so. After all, he'd only been fucking her all summer now - she was the only one allowed into Grimmauld Place - and, he had to start admitting, he didn't mind it that much. He could almost see Molly's mischievous smile at this consideration and, upset, he decided to get up and go to the kitchen, to help his father and to put an end to all those troublesome thoughts.

Story with no name yet - a Snily 😏

I write only the first chapter and I posted something but I suppose no one see 😂

Soooo now I copy-paste all the letter Lily wrote to Severus - context: after she was informed about the prophecy and that a Death Eather was a spy for the Order:

Sev,

how are you? I think not well these days. Dumbledore has just summoned us to the school telling us about a Prophecy concerning Harry and a Death Eater who has become a spy... It's you, isn't it? It has to be you.

It has to be, or this letter would be useless. I literally ran out of the headmaster's office to go down and write to you, secretly from everyone; I didn't know how but I think this is the only way. I heard you got the Potions class and I'll eat my hands if the two things are not connected, I... I hope you find this letter. After all, I'm hiding it in our last happy memory and if, as I think, you're the spy, then that means that somewhere in you never stopped thinking about me, at least a little.

God, I'm not good with words.

Shall I tell you about me first? Some superficial small talk just to make up for lost time? Ahah... I mean. Apart from the war, and this Prophecy thing that's got me scared shitless, I'm fine. Relatively fine. I'm a new mum so it's stressful, but I adore Harry with all my heart, as you can imagine. James treats me well and he's a great dad. Good. Update finished.

And now I'm supposed to get to the hard stuff. God, I have too many thoughts in my head. What to say? How to say it?

I've been agonising over the same issues for years, Sev. Until I was sure you were a Death Eater, though, I had to swallow everything and move on, because I had no other fucking choice left.

Do you have any idea how I felt?

But maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

The news is still so fresh in my mind and I... Sigh.

Sev, the reality is that a lot of what I want to tell you also depends on why you decided to switch sides in this war. Is it because my life is in danger? It would mean something, indeed a lot, but at the same time it would still be pointless, because it means you never understood the extent of your mistakes, and there's a part of me that couldn't forgive you anyway. Maybe I'll never be able to. But, on the other hand... If you have seen and experienced the horror of being on the wrong side of this conflict and have decided to act out of conscience, or out of remorse, that also means that this letter is just pathetic in your eyes, and that I have disappeared from your heart. I don't know, Sev. I don't know what to think.

I only know that if you are the spy, the only thing I want to do is to find you after this war is over. Talk, really talk. I want to hear everything from your lips, Sev, even the things we never said to each other.

Because that's how it is, isn't it, Sev? We've each kept our own secrets and look where that got us. Preoccupied with the outside world and deaf to ourselves.

You must have wondered, I know you must have wondered, if you cared at all, why James Potter of all people. Why torture you like this, with your biggest bully, with your nemesis? Why, after what he had done; after he was the one who had, even indirectly, put an end to our friendship?

I told you that he treats me well, that he takes care of me and Harry. This is true. And as much as Harry has been a surprise that has brought more thought than joy - a son in my twenties during a war! I am not stupid to this extent, Sev - the truth is that none of this would have happened if not for you.

Because, in the pain of my seventeen years, in the wreckage of my broken heart for you, Sev - and it is a suffering that never, never goes away - James was the only one who could make you suffer as you had made me suffer. The only sentence I could make you serve, the only revenge I could take.

The only way to seek a reaction from you. Which there wasn't.

You were always distant, Sev. Almost indifferent. And you broke my heart twice with the knowledge that not even being with your most bitter enemy would bring you back to me.

The truth is that I let myself go, Sev. The truth is that I fight because the Death Eaters want to kill me, that I will go on and fight for my son, that I will still try to build a just world for him. The truth is that I love Harry far more than James, than myself… Than you. Because it's the only way I can survive, to make sense of my life.

The truth is that I was in love with you and you destroyed everything, including myself, and now I am just a fool to cling to the hope that you have changed… Even for me.

I write this letter to you so that my heart will not be lost in this war. Because Prophecy is a serious thing and I am scared and see everything in negative, Sev.

Because I am afraid of dying.

But I want you to know that I would like to live... Also to find you, once again.

Yours,

Lily

Bruises

The Tom Riddle/Eileen Prince you have ask me to translate. I have not done it yet, so I copy-past only the summary:

He is different.

The aura of power he exudes is cracked. Tom smiles at her and it is terrible and, for the first time, his face conveys something so wrong that it alarms her: she doesn't understand it, she doesn't see it, but looking at him is like listening to the screeching of fingernails on a blackboard.

Unbearable.

"You are different," she tells him, as he enters their usual classroom, striding towards her with all the grace in the world.

Tom stops, stares at her; he tilts his head and widens his smile.

"Oh, Ely, Ely. My dear girl. Always so clever."

Well, enjoy! 🥰

I tag @postmariannizm and then I ask you to reply me of you are a fan writter! Because I can not place your name so I have no-one to tag in this games è.é Please link me one of your story!

[modernwizard]

Why I love the Spymaster #103: He's in The Hay Wain!

Find my full series under the HELP I WUVS HIM tag.

I talk about the Spymaster's use of classic paintings of modern Western art in The Power of the Doctor elsewhere in my list. #61: Playing even more with gender! notes that he substitutes himself in three paintings into the position of women. #79: The Scream! 💔 points out that his use of the painting illustrates his struggles with mental health. #100: His art collection! examines why he turns to famous paintings that are considered classics. #101: He's the Mona Lisa! talks about the reasons for his self-insertion in that painting. #102: He's the girl with a pearl earring! discusses his use of that Vermeer portrait.

The mini essay addresses The Hay Wain: Landscape at Noon, an 1821 landscape painting by English painter John Constable. It shows a person driving a wooden wain [or wagon] pulled by three horses across the Stour River between Suffolk and Essex counties. The massive work is considered the artist's most recognizable image and one of the best and most popular English paintings. The site in Suffolk depicted in the painting is now a tourist attraction.

Here is a reproduction:

Of all the paintings that the Spymaster inserts himself into, The Hay Wain stands out for two reasons. First, it's much more familiar to English viewers in particular than the other paintings, which are internationally popular. Second, all the other paintings are closeups of recognizable individuals whose replacement with the Spymaster as Ra-Ra-Rasputin can be easily identified. In contrast, The Hay Wain depicts a large landscape in which the wagon driver is a very small part, not even facing the camera. The driver is an important piece of the painting, but not the focus.

Why might the Spymaster co-opt The Hay Wain, then, especially since, unlike the other paintings he puts himself in, the picture does not showcase his beautiful, attention-getting visage? I think the answer lies in the painting as a peculiarly English [that is, from England] icon. The painting illustrates an English scene--a picturesque, tranquil scene of an idealized, preindustrial, agricultural past. The painting is familiar to English viewers and considered a significant piece of early modern English culture. While The Hay Wain is not as old a picture as the Mona Lisa or Girl with a Pearl Earring, it's specifically English in a way that the other paintings are not.

Doctor Who is a British show created in an era [the late 1960s] when English colonial, economic, and cultural dominance was on the decline. In response to this perceived loss of power, new English cultural heroes developed for the post-WWII, post-imperial period. One such was Ian Fleming's James Bond [inspired by Jon Pertwee's miltary shenanigans, apparently!], an MI6 agent, who showcased British superiority by being the best spy in his fictional universe, owning and deploying the most innovative gadgets, and possessing heterosexuality so irresistible that it could even win over lesbians like Pussy Galore. [No, seriously, go read the novels. They're fascinating.] James Bond re-established British empire, one hot heterosexual encounter at a time.

Another new hero for England's post-imperial age was the Doctor. Though nominally an extraterrestrial from another planet, the Doctor is a very English alien. They belong to a caste-ridden society of great intellectual and scientific achievement that mirror's England's past as a great source of scientific and technological influence. Their status as Time Lord marks them as part of England's noble class, also termed lords. Their role as quasi-scientific explorer and inventor, bringing hope, goodness, and moral insight to the universe, reflects the way in which imperial Britons envisioned themselves as intrepid bearers of enlightenment to the ignorant masses around the world. The Doctor reinterprets English imperialism for a post-imperial age by focusing less on all those objectionable aspects of colonialism [intertwined racism, sexism, and classism] and more on the [supposed] positives: the excitement of space exploration, the intellectual possibilities offered by new nuclear and computing technology, the ways in which a representative of a "more developed" society [i.e., the Time Dorks] could help and improve those of a "less developed" society [i.e., humans].

Anyway, the Doctor is a peculiarly English alien, and The Hay Wain is a quintessentially English painting that talks about English identity: a rural, agrarian, self-sufficient, specifically masculine identity that was formed in an idealized past. The Hay Wain's nostalgic and idealized masculinity, independent and powerful, appeals to the Spymaster, who dislikes his dependence on the Doctor and who's always hearkening back to the "classics." Additionally, the painting's Englishness confers Englishness upon the Spymaster when he puts himself in it; he thus represents himself as just as English, just as legitimate, and just as important, as the Doctor. It's another attempt for him to assert his equality with the Doctor when he's feeling inferior.

@natalunasans @sclfmastery @whovianuncle @timeladyjamie @rowanthestrange