#AND I LOVE KAMET

[kareenvorbarra]

Summary: Kamet and Marin are nearly caught when Nahuseresh returns home early.

Characters: Marin, Kamet, Nahuseresh

Rating: E

Warnings: Rape/Non-con

Notes: The first of three fics I wrote for the Queen's Thief fandom event @weirdthetag!

I had the idea for this ages ago, but WTT 2024 gave me an excuse to actually start writing it, and I'm pretty pleased with the result. Basically, a consensual sex scene between Marin and Kamet is interrupted and immediately followed by a very, very dubiously consensual sex scene between Marin and Nahuseresh.

[micamicster]

I feel like a lot of things are flying over my head or happening behind the scenes without me clocking the clues but im just here to have a good time ya kno. Unlike most of the characters rip.

Wait posting this publicly because my sister just texted to say that the queens thief book I haven’t read yet is 6. And that 5 is one of my favorites lmao I can’t count

Anyway yes I totally feel you on that but I always think of it as books that reward the reread <3 rather than books where I’m missing things they are books where I discover new things every time! Yay!

[doylldonmagar]

I don't know where it is, but someone said Irene went out of her way to touch Gen 6 times in Queen of Attolia, which is a lot for someone who says she doesn't love him, but like. No one ever talks about kamet and costis. Every time kamet gets dizzy or injured, or they have to "pretend" to be friends, or costis gets injured, the other is so ready to physically help them. When they end up in the water, kamet clings to costis's neck. When he gets hit on the head, costis keeps his arm around him for a looooong time. And you wanna say kamet hates him? You wanna say there are any negative feelings between them? The way they both go out of their way to always be physically supporting the other.

[curly-cottage-girl]

Costis’ view of Eugenides: “this man is a god”

Kamet’s view:

[mothsartart]

i literally cannot stop thinking about this post

anyways, what is everyone else up to

[crocordile]

Art for a scene on the fourth chapter of @artino-c​‘s wonderful fic, The Young and Ancient Light 💕

[soldier-poet-king]

Smthn else that's struck me on my more recent qt rereads (i.e. the last decade's worth, as an adult) which I don't think I fully grasped as a tween & teen, was the grace and /forgiveness/ at the heart of the series

Of course it's about love. Even idiot teen me could figure that much out. About love and its repercussions and salvific power and the ripples and waves it creates and Gen giving his heart on a toothpick to those around him. (And Rott recontextualizing this explicitly, as him being saved as well).

But I don't really think the forgiveness hit me before. I'm listening to koa at work rn, got to the scenes with Relius in the prison, and then in the infirmary. And it is then that it struck me. Eugenides forgives Relius, he pardons him, not because he wants to bribe him, or demands his service, but because Relius loves and serves Irene, and so does Gen, and so for the sake of his wife he forgives Relius, not so much for his inadvertent betrayal, but for Relius' interrogations when Gen lost his hand. (There is something to be said, too, of Gen, now in a position of power, understanding WHY Relius did what he did, it is distasteful, cruel even, but he did it to protect Attolia, just as Gen now does things he hates for her, and the country).

And it's not just Relius. Gen forgives Irene, we know this by the end of qoa, but also, he loves her, there's - as atypical and strange and their relationship may have started out - an expectation of forgiveness because it's within the bonds of love. There is no such expectation with Relius. And yet Gen forgives anyway. As he does with Dite, with Teleus, with Costis, with so so many throughout the books in various ways.

And it doesn't end with Gen! Gen's love and forgiveness of Irene is what allows Helen, and to a certain extent the MoW, to in their own time forgive Irene. It's what allows Irene to forgive herself, and in turn learn to forgive Relius and Teleus for their failures. Gen forgives Costis (albiet after baiting him, but he also forgives Costis accidentally spilling Gen's secrets to Baron Susa) and Costis in tat forgives Kamet's deception, as Kamet in turn forgives his. Gen forgives Pheris' accidental betrayal. Everyone forgives Gen his schemes and deceptions, too. And maybe Gen forgives himself for some of the things he's had to do as Attolis that he would otherwise not have wanted to do as Gen (acok is next, I'll need a relisten within this new thematic framework to decide. I think it's particularly important to his attitude toward Sophos there). Smthn smthn Gen also forgives the gods

Idk where I was going with this. Perhaps it's patently obvious to everyone Except Me because I'm An Idiot, but this is my what??? Dozenth reread? Probably more? And I'm still teasing out new threads. I probably will be for the rest of my life.

[sepulchritude]

On a reread, I think the King of Attolia is my favorite queen’s thief book (although admittedly I can’t wait to meet Kamet and Sophos and Pheris again)

I just love how much and for how long Costis just fucking hates Gen’s guts. And the slow, all but dragged kicking and screaming inevitability of his soft heart finding sympathy for Gen’s homesickness and loneliness. While still absolutely hating his fucking guts. And gradually coming to love and respect and fear and be exasperated by him; the inevitable hero’s journey experienced by everyone who eventually comes to love Eugenides.

I love Costis so so much. A good man, a loyal guard dog, the Attolian royal court’s most beloved punching bag (by default, since Gen can’t be included in the rankings). And still no sense of humor. Bless him.

[artino-c]

i think i wrote something about this when moira's pen first came out, and there are parts of it that i really love (not least of which, the forbidden short stories from editions i would never have tracked down otherwise!), but mwt's choice to walk back whatever was going on with her queer characters in return of the thief is still so disappointing to me because before return of the thief, the only undeniable queer rep in those books was negative subtext. no one likes legarus, whose gay lover betrays him and sells out his entire squad; no one likes artadorus, either. prior to the last book, the only point of view character in the whole series who seems aware that gay people even exist is kamet, and he thinks about this solely in the context of the threat of rape and coercion.

god forbid eddis do anything but fall in love with and marry a man. god forbid we get through a book of missing scenes without learning, in passing, and to absolutely no narrative purpose, that teleus used to sleep with women. god forbid costis not grow up to have 2.5 kids and a dog. it's either an incredibly stupid, thoughtless choice, or it's straight up bad faith, and it's kind of tiring to find myself still trying hard to like it

[kareenvorbarra]

there’s a house across the river | a Marin/Kamet fanmix

“I wanted her to be happy. I wanted to give her the happiness she deserved, and I asked her to run away with me.”

listen

Clouds | flor

Parachute | Ingrid Michaelson

Familiar | Agnes Obel

Run Away | Sarah Jarosz

Leaving the City | Joanna Newsom

Bodyache | Purity Ring

Blinding | Florence + the Machine

Your Only Doll (Dora) | Laura Marling

River from the Sky | The Weepies

Flood On the Floor | Purity Ring

Various Storms & Saints | Florence + the Machine

Lyrics:

Clouds | flor

Send some sunshine my way I could use it this rainy day Loving under clouds It slows me down But you could blow them all away

Parachute | Ingrid Michaelson

I don't tell anyone about the way you hold my hand I don't tell anyone about the things that we have planned Won't tell anybody that you turn the world around I won't tell anyone that your voice is my favorite sound

Familiar | Agnes Obel

Gonna be the death of me It's a danger Cause our love is a ghost that the others can't see

Run Away | Sarah Jarosz

Lay with me down by the riverside Stars in the sky shining in your eyes We won't make a sound, no one will be around We can run away

Leaving the City | Joanna Newsom

I believe in you Do you believe in me? What do you want to do? Are we leaving the city?

~

In that high sun After our good run When the spirit bends Beneath knowing it must end And that is all I want here To draw my gaunt spirit to bow Beneath what I am allowed

Bodyache | Purity Ring

You sweat, and you bled I couldn't look cause your body, your body would shake And you feared a lonely death Like a lake leaves you alone in her depths

~

I lied, now I'm lying awake I cried until my body ache I lied, now I'm lying awake Now I'm lying awake, now I'm lying awake

Blinding | Florence + the Machine

No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone No more calling like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love No more dreaming like a girl, so in love with the wrong world

Your Only Doll (Dora) | Laura Marling

I fell into the street, poison in my veins Clambered to my feet and into the night again Back to my home, back to my owner Who screams at my tardiness Put his hands to the sky And says, “What can I do with a girl If she refuses to be mine?”

~

There's a house across the river but alas, I cannot swim And a garden of such beauty that the flowers seem to grin There's a house across the river, but alas, I cannot swim I'll live my life regretting that I never jumped in There's a boy across the river with short black curly hair He wants to be my lover and I want to be his peer There's a boy across the river but alas, I cannot swim And I never will get to put my arms around him

River from the Sky | The Weepies

Friends I had from younger days Mostly have been washed away Time's a river, so they say And then you drown

Flood On the Floor | Purity Ring

I’ll miss keeping you I hope you’re sleeping, too I hope you’re

Various Storms & Saints | Florence + the Machine

But still you stumble, your feet give way Outside the world seems a violent place But you had to have him, and so you did Some things you let go in order to live While all around you, the buildings sway Sing it out loud, "Who made us this way?" I know you're bleeding, but you'll be okay Hold on to your heart, you'll keep it safe

[cartograffiti]

Why Does the Merch Say That? A cheat sheet to the Queen's Thief OwlCrate collection

If you don't know what I'm talking about, here was the Instagram announcement: linkety link. If it's noon April 19th 2023 (Pacific Coast) or later, you can look at OwlCrate and see whether the general sale has gone live yet.

Moving on to the post, which will contain spoilers for all six Queen's Thief novels and the short story collection.

Why Does the Merch Say That?

The Queen of Attolia shirt: Atté Atté is the battle cry of the Attolians (RotT) and something Gen says to Irene in bed (RotT). This shirt also features a bee. This is a motif used throughout the series, notably as Irene's favored bee earrings (QoA, maybe as early as TT?), and a favorite creature of Pheris's (RotT).

The River Shirt: "The river knows its time" is the title and first line of a Mede poem Kamet shares with Irene at Eugenides's request (TaT). It is about nature and time, and it comforted Irene after she miscarried. The graphic shows a tree, a river, and mountains, all of which we spend a lot of time with.

Attolian Tumbler: "Do not offend the gods" is a warning/blessing used throughout the series, notably with regard to the behanding and Sophos's claim to his throne. The sword is none in particular, but lilies are a symbol of Attolia, used on their flag and coins.

Eugenides's Journal: "You will have your heart's desire, little thief" is dialogue from Moira to Gen in "Alyta's Missing Earring." The cover is a riff on the MP special edition and includes Greco-Roman elements, Gen's hook, and Hamiathes's Gift.

Irene's Journal: "Who am I, that you should love me?" is dialogue from Irene to Gen at the end of QoA. I see crowns, lilies again, and laurel.

The Little Peninsula Tote Bag: This is the crest of the united peninsula (RotT), later called Ephestalia (MP). Lilies for Attolia again, the Lion of Sounis, and a griffon for Eddis. I think these leaves are olive. (Every book.)

Atté Atté Candle: Interestingly, this label mixes Atté Atté (see shirt) and the national symbols (see tote bag). The scent is orange trees, for the orange grove where Gen watched Irene dance, (QoA) honey (bees again), and tamarisk flower, for the bush he was in, spying on Irene and Dite, when he realized he loved her. (KoA)

[hondagirll]

a get to know you game!

tagged by @queenofattolia, thanks friend!

Favourite Colour: *looks at closet* green. pink. multiple shades of blue

Last Movie: men in black part ii (don't judge. it was on max and we were like, "why not?")

Last song: no songs but the last podcast i listened to on my walk today was the latest jill on money episode

Sweet/savory/spicy: sweet. i love all the candy!

Relationship status: single

Last thing I googled: vlc player so i could watch a download of Much Ado About Nothing that's in .avi format I have on my laptop

Current obsession: re-reading the queen's thief series. I am up to book 5 and its so good. Kamet and Costis! Also, we just finished our Firefly re-watch last night and it led me to want to look up fanfics recs for the show. I am actually braving ff.net site since most of the good stuff is there or at lj since the show is 22 years old at this point which is weird because i am so used to the simplicity of a03 (my eyeballs are now old!!!). And I'm trying to find a good (easy) bread recipe that i can make in a small apartment kitchen without a stand mixer. 2024 is the year i will make homemade bread!

tagging some mutuals with recent activity: @shutterbug-12 @chainofclovers @thebreakfastgenie @clintbeifong @dollsome-does-tumblr @bethanyactually and anyone else who wants to do this just say you are tagged!

[bloody-wonder]

Until now, have you found any couple (canon or non canon) from any media (books, tv series, movies, anime/manga, etc) that the dynamics remind you of Neil/Andrew and Damen/Laurent?

if you're looking for dynamics specifically (as opposed to a full romance arc) the lymond chronicles, the queen's thief and empire of the vampire will scratch that damen/laurent itch.

it's common knowledge, at least in my niche circles, that cs pacat is a big fan of dorothy dunnett's work, that laurent is based on lymond and that his relationship with damen (down to specific scenes) was inspired by lymond's numerous boytoys. so reading the lymond chronicles after captive prince is constantly going aha! *leonardo dicaprio pointing meme*. what these books however don't have is a full romance arc with any of those men which is why you could say capri is, in a sense, a slash fic of the lymond chronicles. it's my favorite series of all time and i can't recommend it enough but it's also rather inaccessible in the beginning and has a steep learning curve - quite a commintment of your time and brain energy but so SO worth it!

the queen's thief is another series heavily inspired by the lymond chronicles and it has multiple ships that reminded me of damen/laurent: gen's love interest is very much a cast iron bitch and they do engage in an intense enemies to lovers romance, with some casualties. costis and kamet's story in thick as thieves is basically if the side quests laurent and damen went on were a whole separate book. and while not a canon romance like the previous two, whatever gen and costis have going on in the king of attolia is very reminiscent of the laurent/damen dynamic in book one (minus the slavery). two things to keep in mind if you decide to pick up the queen's thief: it's sort of ya (??) so the brutality and sexiness, while present, will not be on the same level as capri. and book one doesn't feature any of the above ships so, again, you gotta commit to the whole thing :)

now, while these two recs seem like no-brainers to me, i'm very excited to take this opportunity to yell about empire of the vampire from the rooftops AGAIN!! eotv is basically a story about epic quests and valiant deeds told by a jaded captive vampire hunter to his cunty vampire captor (who is blonde bc yes). jean françois is definitely inspired by anne rice's lestat (as the narrative format as a whole is inspired by interview with the vampire) but his dynamic with gabriel is just Peak Laurent/Damen Banter. "i speak your language better than you speak mine, sweetheart" and "hello, lover" galore! in fact, after i found out that pacat and jay kristoff know each other personally i became convinced that he had either read capri and borrowed the vibe OR *starts rambling about her conspiracy theory about how all australian fantasy authors drink secret australian magic juice that makes them write fun depraved sff, gets smacked on the head, passes out* where was i... ah yes, nasty gay vampires. eotv is very fun and very tropey, also very queer and sexy (esp book two) and it had my toxic yaoi needs covered however comma. jean françois/gabriel is basically them sitting in a room in the frame narrative and exchanging homoerotic barbs, while the story itself is about gabriel's past adventures (also very interesting but less homoerotic). it's unlikely that they're gonna have any sort of romance arc - unless someone reads the books and writes a fic of them. please.

alas, i still can't rec anything that comes close to what nora achieved with andreil. to me, the defining characteristics of their dynamic are two feral cats circling and sniffing each other, intricate rituals, overdramatic dialogue, aspec attraction (on neil's part). while one can attempt to find some of these elements in other stories, you cannot find all of them at once (aspec pov on relationships being particularly rare in fiction). there's just no other couple that manages to strike a perfect balance between the anime levels of drama and chaos on the one hand and the serious themes of trauma, acceptance, consent etc on the other hand. sorry, anon, ig we'll have to keep re-reading aftg until one of the aspiring authors i bet this fandom has a lot of writes their own book inspired by andreil🤷‍♀️

[thecrenellations]

Top five moments from the QT books. :3

ASKING THE DIFFICULT QUESTIONS! (Yay, thank you.)

I’m going to do this without thinking too hard and inevitably remember one million more that I love just as much, and I’m going to exclude roof scenes for a change of pace, but …

QoA ch. 9 storytelling scene with Gen, Helen, and the magus, specifically Gen saying, “She wants the commander to have a good shot at you.”

Gen and Helen as he leaves to steal Attolia: “My queen?” “Only for that.” (I have to, it’s my blog title, which I remembered after adding it to this list)

Kamet making a face in the library because he picks up a dusty scroll and Pheris including this in his history book (as Kamet does NOT in TaT)

Costis vividly imagining himself sinking into the collapsing floor during “I love your eyes, I love your ears, and I love every single one of your ridiculous lies” (which is pretty great, too)

Ion ineffectually leaping in front of Gen to save him from Sejanus’s arrow, which wasn’t even aimed at him (or however that precisely goes down), before the battle at the Naupent

[tanoraqui]

things I especially love about Return of the Thief, as I reread:

From literally the first one we meet, and the first scene we meet more often them, Pheris names every single royal attendant every time they do anything worth mentioning in the narration. The non-royal people matter so much!!

The way as children, Gen killed and Pheris badly injured a terrible cousin who was tormenting them. Parallels!

The scene where Sophos, Irene, Helen and Gen are all just fucking around over breakfast, god BLESS

And then they all STOP the instant they realize the play-fighting is distressing Pheris! (Though actually he’s mostly just guilty about betraying the king.) Gods BLESS!

Eugenides: Just keep Kamet and Costis safe

Teleus, every cell in his body screaming bc he can’t swordfight a miscarriage: I WILL PUBLICLY ARREST THEM AND KEEP THEM IN MY SIGHT WHILE SURROUNDING THEM BY GUARDS

The way Pheris and Kamet INSTANTLY understand one another as people accustomed to deliberately going safely unnoticed

Pheris learns about zero and basic PEMDAS and immediately goes into a feral, number-scribbling math fugue, coming out of it hours later to find Relius and Teleus eating olives and watching him like a sports game

Again, this book just has BANTER like none of the others. And it’s funny! Attolia in particular is very funny actually! And the irony that this is the one novel in the series specifically framed as a historical account… I die. It kills me, I tell you.

[the-forest-library]

Mid-Year Book Freakout 2023

I was tagged by @logarithmicpanda and @theinquisitxor - thanks! This is a post I look forward to each year. 

1. Best book you’ve read so far this year

The Queen’s Thief series. I devoured these books. They are sublime. 

2. Best sequel you’ve read so far this year

See above. Also, Mysteries of Thorn Manor. I was delighted to have more adventures with Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas. 

3. New release you haven’t read yet

I am still waiting on library holds for Going Bicoastal, Business or Pleasure, and Will They or Won’t They.

4. Most anticipated release for the second half of the year

I’m sure there’s something I’m forgetting, but nothing comes to mind. The books I was really looking forward to came out in the first half of the year.

5. Biggest disappointment

Live Wire by Kelly Ripa. I was looking for some tales of Dance Party USA, but they were sadly lacking. 

6. Biggest surprise

How many books I’d read about podcasts about missing girls, lol. That seemed to be a big publishing trend in the last six-eight months. 

7. Favorite new author (debut or new to you)

Well, Megan Whalen Turner. Also, Elissa Sussman and K.L. Walther.

8. Newest fictional crush/newest favorite character

I was going to say the main quartet from the Queen’s Thief, but my love extends to Costis, and Kamet, and Pheris, too. But really, Eugenides is at the top of the list.

9. Book that made you cry

Moira’s Pen - those last two stories killed me. Oh, and Happy Place. Absolutely destroyed me. 

10. Book that made you happy

America the Beautiful? by Blythe Roberson and Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus. I love a good road trip travelogue, but the addition of the national parks and food made me love these books even more. 

11. Favorite Adaptation

Bryony and Roses by T. Kingfisher is a lovely beauty and the beast retelling. 

12. Prettiest Cover

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries. The American and British versions are both pretty.

13. A book you need to read before the end of the year

I have a few books left of my 23 in 2023 list, including Persuasion and two TBD Discworld books. 

Tagging (no pressure, just fun!): @leer-reading-lire, @readingrobin, @godzilla-reads, @lizziethereader, @accidentalspaceexplorer, @aliteraryprincess, and anyone else that would like to do this!