#Stolen Book One

[author-a-holmes]

Okay give me the rundown on Stella because I think I'll love her

*vibrates with excitement*

Okay, okay, okay, Stella is my baby, so I'm afraid, since you asked about her, I might end up drowning you in details.

Accidentally.

Stella is my main character for Stolen. She starts off the book as, what's known in world, as a Jack-Thief. This is a freelancer thief, unaffiliated with a guild, who dabbles in all types of thievery.

(Stolen Spoilers beneath the cut...)

Through plot events, she finds herself alone and in a strange city, and is approached by someone who wants her to steal some documents. They claim the documents belong to them, and that they're just reclaiming property that's already been stolen from them. Stella doesn't quite believe them and refuses the job.

She then finds this same person has broken into her room later that night, and realises this wasn't something she actually had a choice in.

The whole starting inspiration for Stella was I wondered what would happen, how things would play out, if an amature thief successfully stole plans from a guild master, in the very heart of their own guild, and then tried to sell those same plans back to him.

And that's what Stella does. She steals the papers, because she doesn't have a choice, and then tries to trade them back to the guild master she took them from in exchange for help escaping the city.

What my poor baby doesn't know is she's just stepped into the middle of a turf war between two guilds, and escaping the city isn't in any way, shape or form, a possibility. The group she's just betrayed has a network across the land, so there's nowhere for her to run.

The guildmaster offers her protection instead, and she takes it, and that's really the foundation of the plot.

Stella's wonderful to write though, she's truly so much fun, because there's so much dichotomy to her character.

She was raised in a very particular manner that gives her an unusual outlook on the world. Some things she's very worldly about, she's not shocked by sexual advances, or open flirting, or lying, or betraying people... and other things she's been kept very sheltered from. Like genuine caring relationships. Support and positive encouragement. Trust based relationships. Murder and violence.

And while it doesn't come up in the first book, until the very, very, end, and Stella herself doesn't become aware of it until Book Two, there's a very specific reason why she was raised in the way she was.

My other MC for Stolen, Reilly Mosswolf, will spend a great deal of time undoing the damage that's been done by her isolation, and when Stella finally realises how she was manipulated, it may or may not break her, just a tiny bit *evil smile*

And have some gorgeous art I had commissioned of Stella and Reilly, just because you asked about her, and I can't stop sharing this piece. It's gorgeous, and it was done by @knuttydraws

[starrynightsxo]

cardan: jude... my sweet villain... darling god... my heart is a scabarous old thing but it is yours... marry me... become the queen of elfhame.

jude: ok.

cardan: *internally* SHE LOVES ME OMFG

[msmimundo]

Part 3 hooray!!!

I finally finished school so free time babyy ~

The beggining of angst. But worry not for it will be fleeting. Made in paint cause paint tool sai didnt answer today, hope it still looks alright

FIRST || PREV

[rabid-reads]

My August Reads Ranked

1. One Dark Window by Rachel Gillig: This was by far my favorite read this month. I love this book. I love it more than I love The Folk of the Air. More than the Dark Rise series. More than Captive Prince. Because it has EVERYTHING. The plot, the magic system, the characters, the writing, all of it is as equally good as the rest. Even though at the ending there’s a twist that’s sad, I was still EXCITED to see what happens next (more hype than sad). I root for the Nightmare too. “Long live the King.” The writing is show don’t tell and I fucking LOVE IT. I FUCKING LOVE IT. I am so tired of seeing a lot of telling in story books, and all my favs serve show.

2. Bunny by Mona Awad: This wasn’t as dark as I thought it was going to be, but it won me over with the writing. It’s clever, dark and hilarious. Samantha’s dilemma with the bunnies was relatable for me, especially the first smut salon she attends. It was a fun ride, and I enjoyed this book for reasons I wasn’t expecting to. The way Awad describes feelings is spectacular.

3. The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black: It was good to be back in Elfhame. I liked Prisoner’s Throne more than Stolen Heir because, of course, Jude and Cardan. I thought Wren and Oak’s story was cute and I had a fun time reading it, but I’m not over Jude and Cardan yet and that’s all I want.

4. The Stolen Heir by Holly Black: At first, I was a bit put off by how Jude-like Wren was, and how Cardan-like Oak was, but I had a good time. If Black wants to go back and write scenes showcasing Jude and Cardan falling in love, I’m all for that. Would love to see the two of them snuggling by a fire.

5. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King: I knew I’d like this because every time I watch King speak, he’s fun. He’s fun to listen to, he’s fun to read. He’s at his best when he’s shooting the shit. This was a good time.

6. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: I love the dialogue in this, it can be interpreted in different ways and it’s exciting to think about. I’ve never read anything as quotable as this book. I lived for every time Dorian threw himself on a couch in a fit of angst.

7. The Corsair’s Captive by Ruby Dixon: Dixon never lets me down. It’s another cozy, fun sci-fi romance with the big blue dudes. I have to read her shifter smut; it’s going to be everything.  

8. The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr: I appreciated how blunt this book was, and the information provided was interesting. If you’re looking for a book about why humans tell stories as well as scientific reasons why you should have an existential crisis. This is the one.

9. Victor by Brianna West: The most egregious offense to me was the smut. Because. How are you screwing an Angel, and it’s vanilla? No mention of where his wings are? Nothing special about his equipment? Only fucks in missionary? They could fuck in the air, but we’re going to sidestep that? Other than that the world-building wasn’t there for me, and the writing was a whole lot of telling. The adverb intense descriptions didn’t land for me, and I didn’t care about any of the characters. The fmc was annoying.

10. Haunting Adeline by H.D. Carlton: Zade is so Neil Breen coded. Like, if I found out Breen wrote this character for Carlton, it would make a lot of sense. I hate this book. I don’t know why I do this to myself.  

The books I'm most stoked to read in September are: Monstrilio by Gerardo Samano Cordova, Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett and Two Twisted Crowns by Rachel Gillig.

[clockworkbee]

give us this one night (desperately)

—Queen Suren, The Stolen Heir

—Julian Blackthorn, Lord of Shadows

—Jacks, The Ballad of Never After

—Lev Fedorov, One For My Enemy

[campbyler]

forever ago @wayward-sherlock asked suni for a sticker tour of her laptop — since we are together we wanted to show off both our laptops!! we think it is very easy to tell which laptop belongs to who 🤸

[trashpocket]

steddie sketches 💖 (mostly fluff) but here! i offer increments of what if steve and eddie were dancers from two different styles??? or what if steve was a professional basketball player and eddie, the rockstar, was his boyfriend??

[13eyond13]

Please tell me about art and media you know of that accurately captures the weirdness of dream logic and atmosphere and emotions... books and movies and video games and art and comics and YouTube stuff, whatever you want... you know, where it only makes sense on an intuitive level and falls apart when you try to explain it...

[genericpuff]

Genuinely curious as to if you asked permission to use Rachel’s characters and she said yes or if you just decided Lore Olympus is popular enough to make a fan comic of and are hoping you don’t receive a cease and desist? Can anyone create a remake comic of original content and just change what you don’t like about it and it’s considered legal if you say the characters belong to the original creator? There is plenty of disappointing media out there that could be remade. I understand you cannot use their characters for profit so is just posting it ok?

Yes, anyone can, because it's called fanfiction lmao Obviously in my case the term "fan" is being used loosely here as at this point it's more like "foe"fiction LMAO but the same principles apply. Unless I try to claim LO is my own creation or make a profit off Rekindled, I should be in the clear. If legal action was taken against me then it would set a precedent against all forms of fanfiction, rewrite, redraw, etc. content around LO which are all essentially doing the same thing Rekindled is doing. I think people tend to view Rekindled as somewhat of an "exception" that's vulnerable to legal action because it's an actual weekly comic put into practice in the same playing field as LO (though they're on massively different bases obviously LOL), but there's not much more separating it from the LO redraw accounts or even the genuine fan accounts that have learned how to draw in Rachel's style (and use it to make their own LO self-inserts and whatnot). I had the time and resources and experience to do what I do through Rekindled, but every redraw, rewrite, fanfiction, etc. account are making the exact same statement I am, whether intentionally or not - "I do/don't like the canon, but/so here's what I think it would be like if it went like this".

There is definitely plenty of media out there that could be remade, and a lot of them are by the fanfiction writers out there who are filling that niche within their respective fandoms. LO is the one I want to do because it's the one that interests me and compels me the most to rewrite.

Not to mention, it's already a bold statement in and of itself to say that I'm "using Rachel's characters", a statement that likely wouldn't hold up in court LMAO Her "characters" are literally just stylized self-insert versions of public domain figures. She did not write The Hymn to Demeter. She did not create Hades, or Persephone, or Hecate, or any of the other characters she writes about. She does not own an entire religion or its deities. The only thing that she really "owns" is the licensing rights to the name "Lore Olympus", and while the style of LO is very unique and identifiable, you can't trademark/copyright a style because that uproots the entire foundation of what art is (ironically no one has had an original idea SINCE the Greeks, we all just learn and adapt our styles based on other artists that we get inspired by and learn from).

Shit, there are series completely unrelated to LO that get harassed or otherwise warned that they could cross into "legal territory" with LO just because they're Greek myth comics. Punderworld, Theia Mania, H x P Ficlets, all of these are comics that also tackle the H x P myth, and while they aren't attempting to do the same thing as Rekindled (as they exist on their own terms) it's really disappointing when I see people talk about these comics purely through the scope of Lore Olympus as if LO invented Greek myth. If WT/Rachel tried to pull rank over the story's "characters", they'd be picking a fight with every other Greek myth comic, book, movie, etc. and they oughta know that's not a fight they're gonna win lol

So everything beyond LO's branding is, in and of itself, fanfiction. Rekindled is just another level deeper by being fanfiction of a fanfiction. As long as I'm not profiting off Lore Olympus' namesake or distributing my work with the misconception that I created LO, it's legally fine. Morally, I'm sure it doesn't exactly make me a saint to do it, it definitely took a lot of hubris for me to say "yeah I don't like how you wrote your story enough that I felt the need to rewrite it completely" and I wouldn't blame anyone for thinking doing so is icky. There are certain lines I won't cross - I don't use the general LO hashtags because my content is very critical and my work isn't really for the fans, I don't encourage anyone to "show Rachel" what I do here because none of what I do here is obligated to be seen by her (and I know it wouldn't be in her best interest to see it anyways, she's literally said that she doesn't like criticism so why tf would I wanna show her a comic that exists to criticize her work lol), and I'm not planning on posting it to Webtoons because that's Rachel's territory. I don't want to overstep both in the legal sense and in the moral one. I think it's more than enough for me to just post my stuff here for the people who are seeking it, and not profit off it or directly affiliate it with LO/Rachel beyond crediting.

All that said, in a moral and legal sense, what I'm doing is literally the basis of fanfiction, and I wouldn't be going to such lengths and spending this much time every week putting out episodes every week if I never cared about LO and how it made us all feel, even if some of us don't love it as much as we used to.

[thejudeduarte]

The stolen heir duology memes:

(spoilers)

Happy 1 month of the prisoners throne!!🎉

[accuratelotfquotes]

Roger: You can’t walk into a room and expect everyone to like you, you’re not Simon.

Jack: Not everyone likes Simon.

Roger: …Who doesn’t?

Jack: What?

Roger: Give me names. Now.

[starrynightsxo]

DRESSES FOR JUDE DUARTE: METALLIC GREEN EDITION

[linseymiller]

tumblr, want to be the first to know something?

I have a new YA fantasy book coming out in the next few years, and it contains my favorite three characters. I cannot wait for you all to meet Fabian (insufferable), Credence (perfect), and Euphemia (uncouth).

[maingh0st]

thoughts on wren using the bridle on oak? i love wren, but i wonder if it was necessary bc of the horrible experiences she had w the bridle that she had to have known abt when she put it on oak

hi! I actually haven't read Wren & Oak's books (don't feel bad; I haven't tried to avoid spoilers so this isn't a big deal). because of that, I really don't know their characters and can't speak much to this, even though I'm familiar-ish with the circumstances around it

my stab in the dark answer: it does seem like a fairly terrible thing to do, but I could also see it being some kind of commentary on suffering and power (when you've been hurt in a very specific way, it might feel empowering to be the one inflicting that same hurt on someone else—but in doing so, you become the monster you fear). but that's all from an outside perspective. others who've read the book are welcome to share their thoughts here if they want!

[fatehbaz]

.

[judesidepiece]

Idk what is going to happen in the Prisoner's Throne between Jurdan and Suren, but if they don't end up accepting her into their cute growing Duarte/Greenbriar found family, I think that would really be a shame because all things considered, Wren has so much to relate with both Jude ad Cardan on a personal level. Like they would vibe together, i just know it. They just need to give each other a chance :(