#ask-the-iron-queen

[idk-bruh-20]

Irondad fic ideas #146

Karen is missing someone.

She's an AI, so she's not exactly supposed to have "feelings" the way a human would, but... what other way is there to explain it? Someone is supposed to be in her life, and they are not. She wants them back.

The problem is, she can't find any record of why she feels this way. There are no important people in her database who are currently missing, no gaps in her code that she can find. The only curiosity is the fact that she seems to no longer be helping Spider-Man.

That used to be her prime objective. Her entire reason for being. Maybe he's the one she's missing? She can't find any data to indicate that they were close, but perhaps that is a curiosity too. Surely, if Spider-Man wore a mask with her programming for all that time, she would know who he was, would have some record of their conversations.

With FRIDAY's (and Tony's! let my guy live!) help, Karen is untethered from the Spider-Man suit. She goes searching through every piece of tech she has access to for her missing friend.

When she finds him, she'll figure out what's wrong. And she'll help him fix it. It's what she was designed to do.

[myrxellabaratheon]

I just think we as a fandom deserve more Myrcella’s contents and I decided to make this my personal contribution to the ASOIAF/GOT community

[mothsartart]

here’s another snippet of my modern au. this is during TT and gen is really bent out of shape on why they had to take a train and couldn’t just rent a car

[lunar-years]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💜

💖 thanks for sending!!

nothing is burning here, my father would laugh: post Man City Jamie-centric, vaguely pre-ot3 episode tag. Never have I felt more compelled to write fanfic than after watching that damn hug!! Also this was my first Ted Lasso fanfiction so it is dear to me :)

Waterfalls: Jamie/Roy focused canon-divergent ot3 between s1 & s2. I'm just really proud of myself for finishing that one because it sat in my drafts half complete for over a year. And then I successfully came back to it and figured out where to take it and got it finished!! Which is big for me.

all your cracked perfection: gen Jamie-centric childhood->canon timeline coming-of-age fic. I like this a little less now that we've met Georgie, because a lot of the fic features Jamie's relationship with his mum but I wrote it before we knew her!! so it isn't totally canon-compliant, but I think most of it still works with canon nonetheless. Mostly this was just really fun to write even though the topic was heavy and I also liked playing around with different POVs in it. I wrote it mid-season in a ravenous Jamie Tartt-induced haze after the Amsterdam episode emotionally wrecked me.

Still, Sometimes,: My latest! Ot3 established relationship, post s3 future fic! This was a behemoth to write and is kind of my manifesto on future royjamiekeeley and how I imagine them maneuvering through life's hurdles together, so I feel very passionate about it!! i also challenged myself by writing the whole thing from Keeley's POV because I find her the hardest to write of the 3 :)

Whatever Our Souls Are Made Of: This is a Stranger Things Jonathan/Nancy soulmates AU! Nobody seems to read fanfic for this pairing so it has like 2 views (/s) but I adore them and had so much fun writing this!! I pretty much never write the classic, trope-y fanfiction AUs, but the opportunity with their canonical matching scars was simply too good to pass up. It was a big challenge but a fun journey.

[tenebrius-excellium]

I hear you want to talk about The Queen's Thief 👀?

YES PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEE

THE PART WHERE

Standing in the stirrups, he called again, roaring at the top of his lungs, "Erondites!" And a bolt of lightning cracked the sky. It struck a tent in the Mede camp. Canvas blossomed into black smoke and red flame. As the tent burned, Eugenides said to the stunned Mede, "That is all the parley that happens today."

THE ROAAAAAR

IT WAS RAW AND HOARSE AND LIVID AND FULL OF AUTHORITY AND SO PERSONAL I JUST KNOW IT

THE PART WHERE HE WAS KING

[blmpff]

Every time I see your tag ‘great set op thank you’ on a gifset or photoset or something, it reminds me of that one video, the one where they’re like ‘another one thank yew. Another one thank yew’ and marking off rallies on a board. Idk where I was going with this

I love how I got these in a span of just a few days from each other lol

@mineonmain it does have that repetitive vibe since I use it on all gif sets, but I don't mean it in that Be Done And Over With It way. I couldn't possibly think of a different thing to say in all of them, so I just keep it simple

@the-iron-queen it's the least I can do for our dear gif makers who grace us with their treasures. I'm genuinely grateful for each and every single one for their time and efforts 🫶💞

[habeascorpseus]

HELLO ANARCIA SHIPPER ?? omg now i need to see the internal anarcia fanart EXTERNALIZED !!

sighs ill share the art

[starlooove]

Not the stop clogging the Duke tag page getting ppl mad

[problemswithbooks]

Is it possible Xaden will be an effective ruler in the future? Personally, I don’t think he’ll ready for such a heavy burden if Violet’s involved. He seems much more invested in her than the betterment of the people (see: his whole “I’d let Aretia burn for you” moment). He only decides to stay at Bàsgiath in the end because he wants to keep Violet safe and she won’t be as scared of him. He doesn’t mention the others during this conversation and I have to wonder if he’d just be better off as a regular soldier. It’d be weird to have the Assembly (aka the only form of an oligarchy outside of the Empyrean) get kicked out in favor of a monarch.

With three more books to go it's hard to say. I hope that if RY wants to end the story with Xaden and Violet as King and Queen of Tyrrendor that she has them both grow as characters before the series ends.

But if we take how both Xaden and Violet are portrayed as of Iron Flame--no I wouldn't really trust them as Rulers, especially together. They fight constantly, and almost every other thought is about the other, even in situations that require considering other people. Xaden seems to have fully dropped what ever care he had for his people, pr even his friends for obsessing over Violet. Violet is upset with Xaden for something, whether it's deserved or not, half the time, and it makes her stupid.

If they manage to calm down around each other, and learn better communication, then maybe if Yarros ends the story with them as King and Queen I'll believe it won't be an absolute disaster.

As for the Assembly, I'd hope that it'd stick around in some form or other even if Xaden becomes King in Tyrrendor. I mean it's not as if monarchs don't have councils that help them rule, so it wouldn't be weird to keep the Assembly around as they are. They might all have a say in things but it's clear Xaden does out rank them because they're in his land, under his roof. Keeping that set up in the end, regardless of Xaden being King isn't unbelievable.

The one thing I could see, if the Assembly is kept, is the members changing. Either they get killed off of perhaps form a similar set up in Navarre after the war (sort of a way to try and make sure they don't try and cover shit up again in the future) so Tyrrendor has to pick new people for it's Assembly. This allows these politically powerful positions to be filled with characters the readers actually know, like Imogen, Bodhi, Rhiannon and so on, instead of the barely introduced characters that are currently part of the Assembly. The only one that stays could be Brennan, since he has a connection to Violet.

[fluffypotatey]

OK SO. the animations family.

first off i have to explain the QSMP a bit. the QSMP (nobody's really sure what the q stands for afaik) is a multilingual minecraft smp that first started in march 2023. the original server roster was 16 players, half of whom were hispanic and half who were english speakers. (this was bc quackity, the guy who came up with the server and did all the planning and stuff, is bilingual and wanted to unite his two communities). one of these original 16 was jaiden animations (this is important). on the first day of the server, these 16 members were stranded in a place called Quesadilla Island, which is controlled by a mysterious and sinister Federation (run by a weird little guy named Cucurucho)

okay, you know the trope of science projects where you get split up into pairs and have to take care of an egg together? they literally did that. All of the players were split into pairs of one spanish-speaker and one english-speaker, and tasked with taking care of an egg (actually a special NPC played by a server admin). the eggs started out with two lives each, and once those lives were out, the egg's gone for good, and your in-game child is dead. (this is a secret surprise tool that will help us later!)

one of these parenting pairs was jaiden animations and roier, and their egg's name was bobby. bobby was a rambunctious little fella- artistic, brave, very aggressive- and an absolute mama's boy. jaiden, roier, and bobby (aka the animations family) all got along very well, and tbh i need to go rewatch jaiden's vods of them bc they were so sweet together. jaiden changed her minecraft skin to match bobby's so they were both wearing overalls together.

(^ mentally i am here)

jaiden's character (or cubito, a word from the spanish speaking community that essentially means "minecraft roleplay character" that p much the whole community uses now bc its so damn cute) was aroace (just like jaiden in real life!), so she and q!roier were in a qpr co-parenting situation. and it was really sweet and i miss them. can you tell i miss them.

(drawing done by jaiden of roier, bobby, and herself) (the qsmp has an art mod btw)

now, astute readers may have noticed that i use "was" for both jaiden and bobby. on may 17th, 2023, bobby lost his second life to a vindicator and was ruled permanently dead. roier was there at the time, I believe, but was unable to save bobby in time. when jaiden found out, she SCREAMED and it was like. you know in hamilton how when phillip dies eliza screams? it sounded like that. (she also chased after the sunset while saying "wait for me" over and over again, it was really heartbreaking and im still a little bit insane about this).

the next day, the whole server went on a journey to the dungeon bobby died in, to plead with cucurucho for his revival. cucurucho refused to bring bobby back permanently, but allowed jaiden and roier ten minutes to talk with him and say their goodbyes. bobby asked them to remember him every time they saw a sunset.

(^ the last time the whole animations family was together. this was 9.5 months ago).

neither q!jaiden nor q!roier ever really fully recovered from bobby's death (although id say jaiden was hit way harder due to not having a support system outside of roier and cucurucho, who took advantage of her grief to manipulate her). there are some other things that happened here, such as q!roier getting married to a cellbit, a brazilian player working as a double agent of sorts within the federation, and purgatory (all the players were teleported to an island, separated into three groups, and forced to fight one another. in the end the island got blown up by a nuke).

on sunday, cc!jaiden talked about her qsmp character, ultimately stating that she was taking a long break from the server, that she had given the admins permission to do whatever they want with her character's absence, and essentially announced that unless the admins stated otherwise, q!jaiden had died in the nuke explosion in purgatory, firmly destroying the animations family.

(to me, the saddest part is that, recently, new eggs were assigned to groups of childless players, and both jaiden and roier got the chance to raise new eggs, with jaiden being assigned to empanada and roier currently being pepito's sole active parent. and all q!jaiden wanted was to be a mom. she died never knowing she had a second chance to rebuild her family. i am no okay.)

in conclusion:

THE LOVE WAS THERE AND THERE WAS NOTHING THEY CAN DO. I AM CRYING IN REAL LIFE I MISS HER SO BAD. SHE'S WITH BOBBY NOW.

oh

[yanderelmk]

Which of the royal yanderes (Redson, anyone with king/queen in their name, etc.) would most likely pick out their darling's outfits like their darling's their dress-up doll? Btw, the darling is gender-neutral and usually wears suits or business-casual outfits, but wears dresses once in a while

Definitely Princess Iron Fan and Spider Queen Iron Fan always has the slay on point. What with Demon Bull King being too thicc to make fancy outfits for and Red Son insisting on his signature red coat, she has no chance to pull out some of her finer wear to let another try. The idea of dressing someone up in attire befitting someone of equal or higher position than her is a particularly exciting one, she's always admired the fancier fabrics and ornate detailing. After all, a darling of the great Princess Iron Fan can't walk around looking like a common mortal. Spider Queen is a woman who loves to be spoiled, but spoiling someone else makes her happy too. When she was an Empress she had an empire's worth of finery at her fingertips, something she desperately wishes to get back to when she takes over the mortal realm. Until then, she's absolutely content to grab as many fancy outfits she can get her clawed hands on, dressing you up and doing your makeup. Normally she's only good at feminine makeup, but for you she began learning how to do more masculine techniques.

[littlesmartart]

Oh yesssss drawtober!!!!! One of my most favorite times of the year and it is because of you.

You always have the best recommendations and your illustrations for them are brilliant 💕💕💕

[stormxpadme]

STAYING THE NIGHT PROMPTS

❝ it’s late, you might as well just stay here. ❞ (Emma/Tony)

❝ i’d rather fuck than stare at the ceiling counting sheep to be honest. ❞ (Scott/Logan)

Second part of this ask

STAYING THE NIGHT PROMPTS "It’s late, you might as well just stay here." | Emma/Tony

Posted the story for this prompt right on AO3 as an independent chapter 2 of last year's Halloween oneshot.

[please-picturemeintheweeds]

Soo my partner’s bluegrass band is playing as a country band (one and only time) earlier in the day at a festival next week, and they’re doing a bunch of 80s, 90s, and 2000s country songs, including picture to burn(!!!!!!!) and they are trying to decide whether to sing the homophobic version or not. Context- this is a group of 5 men and non binary people in their 30s and 40s, some of whom will be doing drag, 3/5 of them are bi, they regularly perform themed shows in full costumes (goth night, aerobics night, etc), they use their platform to promote social justice causes, they have a rabid fan base, and they all love Taylor.

[the-monkey-ruler]

Hope this isn’t too odd of a question but is there like, a minor theme of the villains being like evil versions of certain gods/allies? Like, the most obvious is the Six Eared Macaque, who impersonated Sun Wukong, but there’s also Red Boy, who’s compared to Nezha in appearance and also uses a spear and fire, Lady Earth Flow, who called herself the Half Guanyin, and I heard that Princess Iron Fan had an origin of being a goddess before becoming a demon, and I heard that the Queen Mother of (1)

Well like I said before when it comes to the antagonists in Xiyouji... there can be many different types of interpretations that can be drawn from. But I don't think that there is a real 'evil versions' of deities going on from there.

Red Boy being a good example as he has a history in Buddhism before Xiyouji was made.

I think something that people forget or don't know is that Wu Cheng'en's version of Journey to the West, wasn't really the 'first' or rather is wasn't something that he created all from his own imagination. The story of Xuanzang's pilgrimage has been told many times at this point and there were many stray stories with different demons or challenges that were either for pure entertainment value or did have great allegorical meanings.

What gave Wu Cheng'en that edge that made 'his' version of the story was not only did he drawn from many of the most popular stories, interpretations, and took the most charming (or humane) aspects of the characters and was able to make a large, long decently cohesive story that people in either lower class or higher class can draw enjoyment from.

So that being said... taking EVERY allegorical possibility of each antagonist, with each demon having a tie to either Buddism, Daoism, or Chinese folklore, or even a mix of two or all three... is RESEARCH PAPER level kind of study and I am not qualified to answer in a tumble post ;_;

But that being I said I don't think Red Boy is just evil Nezha (who has his own lore and history) as when he turns into the Child of Wealth he becomes Shancai which has a rich history all on its own.

Red Boy takes greater inspiration from the Buddhist history of this disciple than of Li Nezha.

Lady Earth Flow another example only calls herself 'Half Gaunyin' because she stole precious Candles from vulture peak. There are a lot of demons in Xiyouji that show their power or clout rather by having a connection to Buddisht lore, like the Scorpion Queen claiming she was able to injure Tathāgata and that the Golden Wing Peng is his uncle because his mother the Peacock ate him and he escaped giving 'birth' to him and was promoted to his godmother hence the connection.

These connections are more about giving credibility to the antagonists' power and even giving more insight into perhaps where these stories or such are connected.

Princes Iron Fan being a Taoist Goddess is a thing but that happens moreso in the Yaun Dynasty in which is before Xiyouji was written and in zaju she is presented as a sister of Lishan Laomu (who funny is enough is ALSO the sister of Sun Xingzhe in Zaju Xiyou ji so that is interesting) but left heaven due to a dispute with the Queen Mother at a banquet. However, it looks like in Wu Cheng'en's Xiyouji I have seen her being described as a Rakshasa which is connected to Hindu lore. I do now know if the intended meaning was to erase the Taoist backstory she has but perhaps making this a lot like Red Boy in giving the character a new background for the sake of the narrative. Or perhaps it is to show how multiple different inspirations can be used to create a single character and that while it is not really a 'canon' it would have been realizing known who the character is at that point and would not cause much confusion.

As for the Queen Mother being a demon, I personally do not think that the version seen in Wu Cheng'en would have that connection due to the fact that the image of the Queen Mother was greatly changed by that point. Her interpretation in the Zhou dynasty where they give her the title of a goddess of death and later she is influenced by Taoism and is given further elements such as immorality and longevity. But even in that interpretation, she is an immortal, not a demon, and perhaps the re-writings of her lore make it so that when he was more integrated with Taoism she was given a different backstory as well. I cannot say for certain as this is more of a case of a change of legends that she had ties showing of being connected to being a feline/tiger demon that was later changed within her own legend.

However when it comes to a lot of antagonists in Xiyouji having heavenly backgrounds I think there is more discussion there, than trying to compare them to any other existing deities as the doppelganger trope isn't played that much.

There are about 4 fallen Celetials if we are not including Princess Iron Fan being Yellow Robed Demon, Golden Horned King, Silver Horned King, and Yellow Brows King and about 12 heavenly animals (I will not name them all) that have escaped heaven and each one gives their own varies of reasons from being personal gain or that they were ordered to just to be trails specifically for the pilgrims to overcome. Some wanted revenge, love, glory, or just for their own sake.

Personally, I think that having so many heavenly creatures fall from heaven to be demons was to show that both heaven and earth are not perfect and that even in the highest authority there are still cracks in the system that must be held accounted for. Bajie and Wujing being two big examples as they themselves were fallen celestial soldiers on earth as a punishment while other celestials saw it as a way of freedom and escaping their responsibilities. It makes an interesting argument of how the heaven's view of Yaoguai and their origin influence their judgment, Wukong being the only Yaogaui without a background tied to the heaven beyond being made of Yin and Yang but his fellow disciples once had stood there.

I think there is a lot to be said on how the treatment of Yaoguai changes when the antagonist is from a heavenly origin as they are rarely if never killed, rather being subdued and sent back to heaven for trial or just punishment. As much as Wukong does kill a lot of demons, he also sends a lot of them to court for their crimes which I do find to be an interesting take, especially with yaoguai that Wukong wishes to personally punish.

The relationship between heaven and yaoguai is something I think could really be delved into with how there almost seems to be double standards when it comes to how yaoguai are to be treated when they cultivate on their own verse if they eat humans to cultivate verse if 'cheat' by skipping their reincarnation cycle and going straight from animal to humanoid using heavenly objects. From there that almost distracts whether they are able to go back to their original forms to cultivate for their next life to be a human or if they are to be killed and try again in the next life.

But no matter what the case is, yaoguai is seen as both a punishment by the heavens but also seen as a chance for individuals to escape their current status and strive for their own goals, as selfish as they are.

Long story short.

It is that deep.

https://so03.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/jletters/article/download/251848/171700/942171

[violetqueenofwands]

i love that you made a poll to let the people vote on Lysanders death. He would absolutely hate it (democracy)

The funniest part of all of this is Darrow hasn’t actually received a single vote