#alanna of pirate's swoop

[randomthingsthatilike1]

honestly I think the wrong parent was sent to pick up Aly in the ending of Trickster's Choice

the entire book we see through Kyprioths visions to Aly that Alanna, above all, cares for Aly, that she really does see Aly for who she is and worries terribly for her lost, hidden daughter, angry and upset and scared. She's constantly scrying for her with the mirror Thom gave her--her daughter is missing and her husband lied to her about it.

After months and months of worrying and praying, Alanna finally knows where her daughter is. She loves George, she does, but he lied to her about her only daughter's well being. And after the 8 years of her training constantly lying to everyone Alanna is sick of it, sick of doing it and avoids it at almost all cost--but for this? For the love she has for her daughter?

She’s been worried sick, scrying every free hour, distracted and blaming herself for her daughter’s disappearance. She's not needed in Frasrland, not really, not with this stalemate at the border. The killing devices are all gone and nothing is happening there. They don't need her--but Aly does.

She’s been married to George for 20 years and she’s known him for 30--she’s picked up a few tricks on how to go around unseen, how to slip away seamlessly but first there are a few things she has to do.

Her husband with his nondescript features can roam freely.  She cannot. She’s far too distinctive nowadays, but to quote her daughter that is what razors and dyes are for. Her long hair is her pride and joy. After years of cutting it boyishly short, as well as being a good enough fighter she can have long hair--it’s her one vanity.

She loves her hair. She’d topple kingdoms for her daughter.

A short and stocky man with copper red hair isn't the ideal spy, but shes here to find her daughter--its the story she goes with. She’s looking for her daughter, a Tortallan, who was kidnapped and sold into slavery in the Copper Isles.She speaks enough Carthaki to get by and well it’s not like she can’t defend herself, even with just a knife and hand to hand.

The only dead giveaway about her are her purple eyes, but she's a mage, with a powerful Gift specializing in manipulating the human body--if there's a magical way to create an illusion or temporarily change your eye color she would know it. If not, I'm sure George has found a way and she's already used it before.

This barely scratches the surface of what she’d do for Aly. She's a mage, with a powerful Gift specializing in manipulating the human body--if there's a magical way to create an illusion or temporarily change your eye color she would know it. If not, I'm sure George has found a way. She glamors her eyes to look the same as her daughter and her husband. She lightly dyes her hair, making it a more blondish red like Aly's.

She finds a young squire stationed at the border and surreptitiously steals some of his clothes and other supplies around camp, her personal weaponry far too flashy and distinctive.

Aly isn’t the only one who was trained by the King of Thieves.

You can’t tell me she’s never done anything like this with George, not wanting to be stared at by people who recognize the famous Lioness, either getting him out of some scrapes or just relaxing and having fun.

Kyprioth is sweating bullets. There's only so much he can hide, although he has far more power in the Copper Isles than Tortall so he can't stop her but he’ll do his best to hide her from the Goddess but uhhhhhhhh there’s only So Much he can do. 

Alanna is Determined--she will find her daughter and is she maybe less subtle than George was? Sure. But all the same, she’s brought to the Balitang’s home in Rajmuat and makes her way to Lombyn.

It’s the same scene, of Alanna approaching Winnamine , introducing herself as Alan Cooper and asking to buy Aly-- Winnamine realizing “Alan” isn’t really here to buy Aly.

It takes Aly just a little longer to recognize Alanna--and she comes to a halt and is filled with shock because this is the Lioness, her mother who is persona non grata to the Copper Isles due to killing one of their princesses decades ago (and wow that might actually get Ochabu to tolerate her mother) and would probably be either killed or ransomed as a hostage p much on sight, the King’s Champion, one of the most distinctive and famous women in the continent--is here.

She’s here, her hair short and lighter and her purple eyes--they’re very similar to Aly’s now. Alanna letting out a sob at the sight of her daughter--her hair also shorter, eyebrow scar, broken nose, but alive and safe and still with that spark in her eye.

Just. The PARALLELS of both having the explicit approval of their god to deceive and lie and how they both deceived so many people to achieve their goals. Aly seeing her mother engage in spycraft and trickery to try to find her is probably a better apology than Alanna could ever find the words for

Later after Alanna had her Own standoff with Kyprioth she tells Aly she didn’t want this life for her, not because she was a noble or a Trebond but because she’s Alanna’s daughter and she knows how hard it is to keep a secret and deceive the people she cared about, and how much it hurt when it all came out. That’s something George never had to deal with--George has never really had to deceive his loved ones. They’ve always known he’s Crooked and an inkling of what he’s been up to--but Alanna has. She did it for 8 long years and she was good at it too, but the amount of pain it brought her after meant she never wanted that for her daughter.

Alanna earned her shield through treachery, the constant fear of being found out dogging her footsteps and once she got it she made sure no other girl would have to.

For Aly just to be reminded how similar she really is to her mother and begrudgingly putting that together--for Kyprioth to tell Aly that yes George gave her the skills he needed that made Aly his ideal Spymaster and what she’s done so far in keeping the Balitangs safe is why he wants her to stay, but it was Alanna’s actions that really sold him on recruiting Aly in the first place.

(I have other feelings about Kyprioth and Alanna here because d a m n “they say he loves a good trick”--as a girl for 8 years Alanna fooled the Tortallan monarchy and nobility. That’s what his Promised Queen will have to do. And he is George’s patron--it would make sense that both of them loved aspects of Alanna.)

(also while she’s there it’d be hilarious for Sarai to spar against Alanna and have her ass handed to her--it’d be a great nod back to when Aly was observing Sarai and thinking about her own training bc it sure would make Ulasim wonder wait can Aly use a sword????)

(also if anyone wants to write this go for it)

[jeweled-weevil]

Ages ago I made a couple moodboards for Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series. One for Alanna and one for Jonathan and Thayet. Never got around to posting them, so here they are.

[goodgrammaritan]

Best Tamora Pierce villain (Tortall):

[axolotlcipher]

See the joke is that I love Tammy, but GURL these romances. All lighthearted fun from ur local lesbian.

[the-pontiac-bandit]

Neal + waiting

Neal leans on his practice sword as he sulks in the practice yards at Pirate's Swoop, thinking of the myriad of other more enjoyable ways he could spend the third bell after lunch--really, even a ride on Peachblossom sounded more enjoyable than sparring with his new knight-mistress. A knight mistress who's late to her own practice session, he adds resentfully in his mind.

He's jerked out of his reverie by the whistle of a dagger flying mere inches from his ear, followed by a cackle from the wall above and a shout, "If you won't learn vigilance from me, Queenscove, I'm happy to let Aly teach it!"

[where-our-stories-start]

[eidetictelekinetic]

So I actually haven't even got to the Trickster duology in the Yearly Reread yet (I decided to swing through Beka first) but I was thinking about the situation in the very beginning of Trickster's Choice - yet again, I think about it often because it kind of makes me want to chew glass.

And I realized: as far as we can tell, Alanna's reaction to Aly's situation is actually the closest to a helpful one Aly gets! Now, Aly rejects it because she knows what she wants, and rightly or wrongly she thinks her mother is about to make her a project and change her. (Which says a heartbreaking amount about their relationship as a whole, actually.)

Of course, some of this is derailed by the return of Alanna's noble snobbery reactions, but still, on the whole, when Aly points out that no one has complained about her assisting with the office work of spying, they just won't let her make a career of fieldwork, all while telling her she needs to find a true career, Alanna acknowledges that! She admits that she should have stepped in, and she says "we'll put our heads together" to figure out something else Aly can do that she'll care about.

Meanwhile, George's brief POV notes that while he couldn't ban Aly from the risks of military life, he can and will bar her from fieldwork, but also Aly's drifting, she really needs to grow up and find something to do. Myles' commentary is offscreen, but from what Aly said, it sounds like he basically said she should be content with the spymaster's assistant job, which is still better than how George's POV comes off but not by much. Myles at least seems as though he might be saying "you could make a career of this part" which is what he's done, of course.

George seems to have expected this, but given the rest of his internal monologue he's also not satisfied with the idea of Aly helping him as enough of a career to count?

And I'm not saying George's protectiveness is wrong, necessarily. I'm also prepared to believe that Kyprioth was meddling to ensure his future chosen one wouldn't be too busy elsewhere.

But it is really interesting that Alanna is the only one who seems to have realized that, hey, we've let Aly do this for ages, if we want her to find something else that requires more than just telling her to. We need to help figure out how to redirect her passions.

Part of me finds the question of what Aly and Alanna might have come up with, if and when they got right down to it, deeply compelling. If I can ever figure out what I think their ideas would be, maybe I'll write the fic, lol.

It's telling that Alanna is the one to acknowledge that Aly has found a calling, at the end of Trickster's Queen, like she's saying "you needed it too, didn't you?"

(Which, speaking of things that make me want to chew glass, I agree that Aly eventually leaving the Isles as Tammy has said happens is right, because it's the raka's country, but I really wish she'd just... not stayed in the Isles at all instead of going back to Tortall later and ending up in a weird almost-traitor status. I get why Jon reacts that way, it fits in-verse but it feels like an unnecessarily cruel endgame narratively, even if Aly makes the best of it.)

[ladylingua]

Today I was just thinking about what a shock it was to look at pictures and videos of my childhood and see my parents who were my age now when I was young, and like to contextualize their parenting with my lived experience of being 30 years old and having no idea what I’m doing. Like as a child my parents felt like Timeless Immortal Beings who were Old and Wise and Knew All, and thus when they screwed up it was such a betrayal because they obviously ought to know exactly the right things all the time- but now I’m looking back at photos and in reality there’s just this woman, young and fresh faced and probably just as confused and fumbling as I feel today, and somehow they let her have a whole baby and raise it?? What??? I

And anyways, to return us to our regularly scheduled fandom content, do you ever think Aly as she gets older might someday also be like looking at a family portrait or something and suddenly be like “Where is my imposing Mother who Knows All, and who is this 20 year old clutching these twins looking like I feel right now trying to figure out how to parent my kids??”

[plainselfraisingflour]

I think that this was my original idea but it may not have been. If I owe you credit, let me know.

Alanna (SIR Alanna. I recently read a fanfic that called her 'Lady Alanna' and I didn't like the fact that the fanfic didn't end happily. I discounted it and something Totally Fake because they called her 'Lady Alanna' and that made me feel better) is at war against whoever and she finds out that Aly is missing, suspected to be in the Copper Isles.

She hears about the explosion of the harbour (I know I'm getting my timeline mixed up but that's okay, it's an unwritten fanfic) and Just Knows that Aly caused it.

I feel like this is where Aly is at her most Alanna-ish. She knows where the bad thing is, and she goes and kills it. Alanna trademarked.

Alanna disguises herself with her Gift (yes she is a Healer but its magic soooo yep) and travels to Rajmuat where she finds Aly.

Gets into a fight with Kyprioth. Gets the Goddess (what is her name?!) on Kyprioth's side => less bloodshed because Mithros can't fight them both.

The end. Much love everywhere abd the Lioness in the Kyprish Isles which she loves because it's so warm.

[outshinethestars]

Vorfemme (Vorkosigan Saga/Tortall fic)

When Alana was twelve, her father summoned her to his office.

“This is for you,” he said, shoving a dagger toward her, hilt first, without looking at either her or it.

“For me?” Alanna couldn’t help asking.

Her father did look at her, then, eyes narrowing, “You are the girl one, aren’t you?” He asked.

It was a more reasonable question than it might seem.  Both Alanna and Thom’s hair were vaguely chin-length, Alanna having just had her hair cut, and Thom overdue for his, and Alanna had just come back from practicing hand-to-hand, so she was wearing her brother’s trousers.

“I am,” Alanna said, looking to the dagger doubtfully.  It was, she thought, the most beautiful object she had ever seen, small jewels winking in its hilt, its long blade tapering gracefully, and beautifully deadly.

“Then this is yours.  All vor girls receive them when they turn twelve, for defending their honor.  This was your mother’s.”

Alanna processed that.  It was a lot.  Father never mentioned her mother at all, and this had been hers.  This beautiful knife had been Alanna’s mothers and now it was hers.   Perhaps it had been her grandmother’s before that.

It wasn’t Alanna’s birthday, that was a little over a week ago.  If she asked, Alanna knew her father would have claimed to have forgotten.  She knew that would be a lie.  Her birthday was the anniversary of her mother’s death, and her father would never forget that.   This was the first birthday of hers and her brother’s that her father had ever acknowledged.  She knew that her father would kick her out of his office immediately if she asked.

“My honor?” Alanna asked instead.

“Oh, you know,” her father said.

She does, sort of. Though her father certainly never explained it to her.  It’s a bit of a let-down, that even this is about sex, like girls aren’t good for anything else.  Delicate flowers, existing to be deflowered.

But still she, it’s an odd sort of reassuring, an odd sort of exciting.  This was hers, hers to use, meant for her to use. She’s allowed to fight back, she’s supposed to fight.

Alanna took the dagger.  It felt surprisingly heavy, but right in her hands. For all its beauty, this was a real weapon, not a toy or bobble, as deadly as a plasma arc if given the right opportunity.

“Thank you, Father,” Alanna said.

“Hmph,” was her father’s only reply.  She knew full well that he would not have given it to her, had tradition not demanded it.  But that was alright.  It was not truly her father that Alanna was grateful to.   She held the knife in her hand with all its deadly strength and stubborn defiance, held it as her mother had held it, her grandmother before her.  Thank you, Mother, she thought, and all the women of Barrayar.

[randomthingsthatilike1]

ideas that I hurt myself with:

in tricksters queen, kyprioth's plan that he might have had in his back pocket, like everything is going to hell in a handbasket, there is v little hope left for the rebellion, they can't figure a way out?

would probably let Aly die.

because if Aly dies, George and Alanna "One Woman Army" the Lioness would absolutely get involved and a cascade of people would then also get involved and anyone else Jon could order to heel, but Alanna and George and Daine and Numair and Alan and Raol (that's his squire and his friend--of course he's going) and Neal (thats his knight mistress, of course he would follow) and Kel? Wouldn't really work.

Kyprioth's hail Mary plan has always been Aly.

Just. He's a god--using a mortal doesn't always mean they have to be alive for their plans to work.

[theroguequeenaniki]

So, Beka will always be number one favorite for me, b/c she’s so important to me from the time I was like, 13, at least. And I’ve not finished Lady Knight yet. 

BUT. 

My list AFTER Beka goes Daine, Alanna, Kel. And that’s not to say I don’t love Kel. I adore her. My favorites lists are never ranked. I’m hung up on Daine, as you know, it’s been a while since a book series & character have, like, impacted me so deeply, and imprinted on me this way. The Immortals have literally shot up to be among my top favorite books. Not just favorite series. Alanna holds a special place b/c she’s Alanna. And Kel is fantastic. 

It’s also silly, but Kel’s family coat of arms is an owl, and I LOVE owls. Lol. Like, I have owls all over my room. I have a ton of owl jewelry and I’m currently wearing owl pajamas lol

And, as I was just telling my mom, I don’t rank favorites, unless absolutely necessary. So, Kel isn’t “last”, but none of them will surpass Beka for a multitude of reasons, I’ve basically imprinted on Daine, and Alanna is Alanna. I’ve also yet to meet Aly. And, though I’ve met Numair, I’ve yet to read his book (and the 2 to follow eventually), so I can’t place him yet (though he’s already a favorite...I do love mages lol). And I include him, b/c he’s a protagonist. 

[isnt-it-pretty]

Fandom: Tortall, Tamora Pierce, Song of the Lioness

Rating: General

Catagory: Gen

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Relationships: Thom of Trebond & Alanna of Pirates Swoop and Olau (of Trebond in the fic though)

Characters: Thom, Master Si-cham, The Black God

Additional Tags: Alternate universe canon divergence, temporary character death, Champion of the Black God Thom, Tusaine War

Summary:

Alanna dies; Thom isn't about to let that stand.

[cricketnationrise]

8.24pm, Alexia Tarabotti and Alanna of Pirate’s Swoop and Olau, outside on the terrace. Song lyric: “and I resent you just a little if I’m honest, one of us has gotta try to keep a promise”.

this prompt made me realize how long its been since i read Parasol Protectorate, so that series is back on the list and moving up -- i miss them! all that to say, I went with Alanna for your ficlet because I just reread Song of the Lioness in December so it's a lot fresher. hope you like it!

want your own ficlet? submit your prompt using these guidelines through January 31, 2024.

⚔️⚔️⚔️⚔️

past the eighth bell, terrace

Alanna is not cut out for this kind of sneaking around.

She may have won the duel against Kel, may have faked good humor, may have joked around with the New Hope soldiers and commanders all afternoon, but she can’t pretend anymore tonight.

Dinner’s barely over, but she excuses herself to her quarters, waving off offers of just one more round with a forced smile. As soon as she clears the mess hall, she lets her face drop with a sigh and makes her way across the compound to the guest quarters with a purposeful stride.

Thankfully, no one stops her.

Alanna isn’t tired, per se, she just can’t handle being around people any longer—the only people she wants to see right now are miles, possibly oceans away.

Her rooms are too small to contain her frustration, so Alanna slips out onto the terrace attached to her suite—perks of being the Lioness. She leans heavily on the railing and looks up at the sky. The Cat constellation seems to wave at her somehow, and a reluctant grin tugs at the side of her lips. She can hear echoes of Faithful’s reproaches in her mind. He’d certainly have an earful for her if he could see her now.

Are you really sulking because someone else gets to be the hero this time around?

As she gazes up at the stars, Alanna lets her vision blur, trying to center herself before she retires for the night. It would be a lot easier if George had come with her. Or if he’d already found their wayward daughter and brought her back to the Swoop, safe and sound.

But they’d agreed: Alanna would go about her business as normal—saying nothing about Aly’s disappearance, so as not to draw attention from the wrong sort of people—and George would search for Aly.

Alanna wasn’t built for this, for maintaining a placid face, for lying about her family, for doing nothing. She had never been one for downtime. Gods, even during the Tusaine War as a squire she’d been helping out in the healer’s tents every chance she could. She’d never come up against something like this, a problem that some action on her part couldn’t solve.

It’s maddening, actually.

And she knows—she knows, okay?—that she can’t be the one to search for her daughter, to rescue her, to bring her back home. Alanna knows she’s too inconspicuous, too famous—that any hint of Aly being the Lioness’ daughter would put her in even more danger.

But damn it all, she resents the fact that she has to maintain a front, that she has to pretend, to friends and enemies alike, that all is well.

In her pettier moments, she even resents George.

Alanna scrubs a hand over her face in frustration. Dwelling on the impossibility of her situation won’t help her sleep tonight, won’t bring Aly back any sooner.

All she can do is hope. And put her faith in her husband, and the gods, to bring her daughter home.

[tansyuduri]

Do you mind if I ask your top 10 favorite characters (can be male or female) from all of the media that you loved (can be anime/manga, books, movies or tv series)? And why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks...

Sure! Let me think! Merlin (BBC Merlin)

Aang (Avatar the last airbender) Arthur (BBC Merlin)

Keladry of Mindelan (Tortall Universe) Alanna of Trebond (Tortall Universe)

Allianne of Pirates Swoop (Tortall Universe)

(After this I am unsure there are so many great characters I like. I also would have a hard time explaining why I like these people so much! For most of them it's great development perhaps?, For a few its that they remind me of me in a way I don't often see. I can relate to them? But there are for sure other reasons.)