#babel fic

[journalofimprobablethings]

Some Babel thoughts and ruminations below, under the cut because spoilers!

(basically: what might have happened if [REDACTED] had been there, at the end?)

I can't help wondering what would have happened if Ramy had survived.

If Letty had hesitated, if Robin had gotten to her sooner, if somehow that bullet missed its mark and the world didn't break in that moment.

What might have happened then?

They still would have been caught and taken to Oxford Castle, Sterling Jones would still have tortured Robin (and would he have known to use Ramy's life as the threat to try to get Robin to talk? Would Robin have broken differently, if it was Ramy he was trying to save?). Griffin still would have rescued them from the cells, and the confrontation with Sterling would still have happened.

Would Ramy being there have made any difference? Would Ramy and Robin together have been able to carry Griffin between them, all of them hidden behind the wúxíng bar's spell? Would they have been able to save Griffin? or would his story still have ended there, in that bloody conclusion to a tale we never get to know?

And assuming they still ended up at Griffin's safehouse, would their next actions have changed? Would that fact that there were three of them now, not just two, that they were a little less bowed by grief, changed what they decided to do?

Robin would be less broken, but he would still have just lost a brother, lost a whole new community that he didn't even have time to really get to know. And Ramy--Ramy would fill the place where Robin's grief for him would have been with rage and betrayal and fire, a conviction that now, at last, something needed to be done. That Griffin was right, and now that Griffin was gone, that the others were gone, they were the only ones left who could do anything.

I think, even if Ramy were there, it was always going to end at Babel.

Ramy does the talking, when they take the tower. He's always been the best of them at public speaking, the most charming. How much difference does that make? Do more decide to stay? or does the fact that these words are coming from a brown man--someone who many of them will never see their equal--negate the effect?

(Ramy might have wanted to keep all the scholars hostage, but perhaps this less completely hopeless version of Robin sides with Victoire this time, and they decide to let those who do not wish to help them go.)

Victoire still shoots Professor Playfair. For Anthony.

Once they're in the strike, the debates over how to handle it are more complicated, with three of them. Victoire is Victoire: she wants to see Babel burn, but she also wants them to survive. All three of them. Ramy is Ramy: relieved to be able to give up the pretense, to drop the act he's had to put on for so many years. They have the power, finally, to make things happen, to make the country listen to them. When he finds out about the resonance rods, he wants to pull as many of them as they can. Victoire persuades him that they have to take it slow, to let the effects be felt, before they do more.

And Robin? Where does Robin fall, if Ramy is still alive by his side, if he is grieving Griffin and the loss of Hermes but is not so irrevocably driven to despair?

When he finds the maintenance log entry for Westminster Bridge, is he grimly delighted at the message it will send? Or does he hesitate, until Ramy persuades him that it is what needs to be done, that "this is how we make them listen, Birdie. This is how we win."

When Letty comes to give the ultimatum, does she find it harder to look them in the eyes, when the man she thought she loved is standing with the others against her, instead of a ghost floating between them?

And in the end, when it comes down to the final decision to destroy the tower--do Ramy and Robin decide to stay, or do they go?

They could decide to go back to Calcutta, where Robin can meet Ramy's parents, and they can try to rebuild Griffin's lost connections, to continue the work of Hermes from afar

But Ramy has never been one to run away. Even on that first night when the Balliol boys tried to intimidate him, he had been ready to fight. Ramy, when faced with this decision, as much as it might scare him, as much as he might wish there were a way that he and Robin could walk away from this--I think Ramy would choose to stay. And Robin--this version of him may be less ready to die, less ready to let it all end, but he still has watched parts of his world crumble in the last few days, and if Ramy is staying, there is no way that Robin will leave him behind.

Do they speak of it, then, that terrifying electricity between them?

Or do they leave it be, unspoken?

If Ramy had lived, it might not have swayed events from their course; from the outside, it might look like nothing had changed at all.

But even if the tower still came down in the end, even if they both stayed--if Ramy had lived, at least Robin's world would not have ended, not that way. At least, at the end, they wouldn't have been alone.

[blackbatofel]

I just finished my reread of JLA: Tower of Babel and frankly, I'm surprised by the lack of Superbat fics about this plotline. I mean, it's the perfect setting for all the Superbat angst you could dream of.

How everyone keeps pointing out that Supes is the one closest to Batman, Clark emphatically referring to what happened as "your betrayal", how Bruce's files are cold and professional about everyone EXCEPT Clark (his fear of seeing him in pain), his guilt, how everyone else is loud and angry but Clark is silent and hurt, the fact Clark gave him the kryptonite in the first place. Clark having the final say and voting Bruce out of the League. Bruce KNOWING that he would do that and leaving because he didn't want to hear it.

The confrontation on Divided We Fall with all the accusations and the obvious hurt on both sides... then the agreement to reveal their identities together.

Tell me this wouldn't be an excellent break up/getting back together fic? The hurt/comfort of all times. If someone doesn't write this soon, I might have to.

[daryj]

CAPAS DE JANEIRO DISPONÍVEIS PARA DOAÇÃO!

leia bem o post antes de pedir a sua!!

regras:

usar em até 8 dias após a entrega;

você pode pegar mais de uma capa, mas irei priorizar quem pediu primeiro;

caso goste das capas, por favor reblogue para chegar em mais pessoas;

foram capas que foram feitas em Janeiro de 2024 aqui no meu perfil.

alterações:

você pode alterar título;

adicionar frase;

colocar user;

e se a capa possui mais de uma versão você pode escolher a sua favorita!

capas:

bem me quer

Nayeon e Jeongyeon - Twice

bem-vinda a Silent Hill

Irene e Seulgi - Red Velvet

(possui 2 versões)

charisma

Jeon Somi - Solista

dangerously in love

Sakura Haruno - Naruto

heal me

Tzuyu - Twice

heaven or hell

SinB - Viviz, Gfriend

moon and me

Chaeyoung - Twice

(possui 2 versões)

my goddess

Dahyun - Twice

(possui 2 versões)

not your wife

(g)-idle em "Wife"

(possui 2 versões)

snow and me

Nayeon - Twice

(possui 2 versões)

stand by me

Mina e Chaeyoung - Twice

the heir

Rhaenyra

[trek-tracks]

@lenievi recently brought up the fact that the Intrepid was a human-manned ship docking at the starbase in Court Martial before it was all-Vulcan in Immunity Syndrome, and that it would have been a great time for Sarek to meet Bones in Court Martial while traveling on the Intrepid.

Now, I'm obsessed with the idea that the ship was manned by humans but Sarek was inspecting it for the potential transfer of Starfleet's first all-Vulcan crew to the ship, with the added wrinkle that Sarek was doing so in the hope that Spock will be part of that transfer.

Spock and Sarek run into each other on the Starbase while the trial is happening. Spock finds out what Sarek is doing, and they have a fight about it, which is why Spock both defends his human captain so passionately during the trial, but also why he retreats so hard into cold logic (playing chess with the computer to gather evidence) after he realizes how emotional his earlier defense was.

While the trial is happening, Bones meets Sarek by chance and gets along with him because of his withering assessment of the Intrepid's crew (that is, the people who were mean to Jim), and their current shared annoyance at Starfleet. He enjoys the company of the dryly sarcastic Vulcan, and their conversation is what makes him think to go find Spock engaged in the chess match.

After the events with the actually-alive Finney and the end of the trial, Bones encounters Sarek at the starbase one last time. He looks forward to one more bitchy conversation, but quickly gets concerned when he finds out about why Sarek is on the Intrepid; not because of the all-Vulcan ship Sarek is scouting, but because Sarek mentions that Spock would be an ideal choice for its first officer. Of course, Sarek has never mentioned his relationship to Spock, or even his name, to avoid the impression of impropriety.

Bones is incensed. Why would Spock transfer off the ship, just when their team is working together so well? Why would he want to leave? Sarek says, simply, that "humans do not appreciate his attributes, they mock him, just like they mock Captain Kirk. They are afraid of difference and excellence."

This gives Bones pause. He's embarrassed at his earlier anger at Spock and how he called him "cold-blooded," but he realizes for the first time that he will always appreciate Spock's unique qualities, despite their differences. He remembers defending Spock to Jim during The Menagerie, but that wasn't quite right, either. His defense was about Spock's honour, linked to Spock's Vulcan ethos, but Spock is neither honourable because he is Vulcan, or ingenious because he's part human. He's just Spock.

With this sudden thought, he finds himself giving Sarek a piece of his mind, telling him that Vulcans had historically appreciated Spock even less. After Spock's last-minute saving of them all at the trial, Bones is more sure than ever that Spock's the best first officer in the fleet and that the Enterprise is the ship that truly appreciates what he's worth.

Either Spock manages to secretly overhear this or Spock never finds out, but it doesn't matter anyway, because Bones lets his opinion be heard for real in Operation: Annihilate! Where he's feeling guilty as hell, because he may have ended Spock's career, not only by blinding him but by insisting he stay on the Enterprise in the first place, when he could have been safe on the Intrepid.

This is why Sarek likes Bones enough in Journey to Babel to excuse his teasing and trust him with the unusual surgery and procedures, why Spock and his father are still in a standoff when that episode begins, and why Bones glares at Sarek when he shows up. We don't see Bones' reaction when he realizes the man he had passionately defended Spock to the previous year was...Spock's father.

Then, the Immunity Syndrome happens. And when Bones finds out that the Vulcan-only ship Sarek helped to plan has been destroyed, losing all aboard, because they couldn't think outside the box, like the Enterprise does, like Spock...

He's devastated, thinking about what they could have lost, Spock gone for good, had he followed his father's advice.

And when Spock offers to sacrifice himself for the Enterprise anyway? That's why Bones really can't accept it. After all this, to choose "Vulcan dignity..."

"Shut up, Spock! We're rescuing you!"

"...Why, thank you, Captain McCoy."

[cyanidesouffle]

Wouldn't it have been so cool if, instead of going to the tailor, Professor Lovell would have kept Griffin's old clothes up in the attic or something, and Robin would have been wearing his hand-me-downs?

And Robin would have been like, where are all these clothes coming from? Who was the boy who was here before me?? omg what if he died and now there's a ghost?! 😨 (Lovell: Boy, ghosts aren't real, go back to bed.)

But then also I wouldn't be surprised if Griffin was such a rambunctious child that there were no clothes to spare. Like, that boy definitely climbed trees based on how he was able to scale the tower wall with a rope. (And he probably got into fights with London street kids when the professor was off to Oxford.)

[werewolfenthusiast]

My April Reads

(‼️IF YOU WANT ME TO REMOVE YOUR FIC FROM HERE FOR ANY REASON PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I REVIEW BOOKS BUT ONLY PRAISE FICS.‼️)

————————————————————————

Books:

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

I was hesitant about this book because I know it was relatively popular on booktok and that alone is enough to scare me off most times. I am also not a big fantasy person, but after reading it I think magical realism would be a more accurate classification - the magic fits in with the real world perfectly, serving as a stand in and allegory for other scientific and technological advancements. I am very glad I did read it because I truly am just absolutely floored by this book. It builds such a sense of friendship among the characters, it makes you love them, and it forces you to see things through their eyes. The anticipation is incredible, and the stakes are so high, I genuinely had to take breaks because I was getting overwhelmed (this is not a flaw I am just autistic, excitable, and easily overwhelmed). R. F. Kuang is a genius. Highly, highly recommend for historical fiction lovers, linguistics lovers, and for a story of empire from a non-white view. 5/5 Stars.

————————————————————————

Misc Lit:

I read through all of the submissions featured for the March prompt (Runaway) on Dakota Warren’s literary arts journal Nowhere Girl Collective

My favourites are:

Essay: Kudzu Kids by Megan

Essay: A Letter to These Kids That Ain’t Mine by Elio

Poem: Views of a Civil War From The Other Side of The World by Minerva

Poem: Amber - Crackling by Alice D.

Fiction: To Unbecome God by Mercy Grey

————————————————————————

One Shots:

Paper Birds

This was very cute. I love Sirius in this so so much and Remus is adorable.

safe with you by @hiddenmoonbeam

They’re actually the sweetest little guys ever, I love this so much.

————————————————————————

[hypertic]

once again at that point of the month where no media I consume is satisfying enough and I’m not sure what I’m looking for exactly but it’s not in the two shows, two games, seven fanfics or book that I have going on rn

[the-darklings]

the last word of the fic is stardust are you kiddingggggggg

The last line I always had in mind, hence the mirror to first line in the fic, but “stardust” was an addition later on when the pet name became a thing (which I think was about part 4/5).

The kiss was a last second addition altogether. Originally I wasn’t going to add it in because it didn’t feel necessary (for them or for us to know how they feel) but it was earned, so I decided to be nice since it has been a thousand year slowburn lmao. Had I had more time tibyim would have been longer and I really would have milked the thousand year concept to its fullest. Here you got the key moments. There were so many in-between.

[moondal514]

Yuletide 2023 Fic Rec List

*edit 01/01/2024*: added the writers now that reveals have happened

What it says on the tin. Below is a fic rec list of some fics from @yuletidetreasure’s 2023 collection that I’ve enjoyed, though first I must rec the 2 wonderful fics I’ve received as gifts:

Your Kindness Would Be My Release by Inhammer

Last night, or maybe tonight, Agamemnon tells me we should arrive in Argos the next day. His kingdom. The place of my final visions, where I finally meet her. Clytemnestra.

Wonderful Cassandra pov

Palímpsēstos by DachOsmin/ @dachosmin

I am standing on the walls. The wind blowing off the sea is salt-bitter in between my teeth, like the tears I will cry on the day that I meet you. There are ships in the harbor.

Beautifully written Cassandra-centric prose poem that I’m still picking up my jaw from the floor after reading

Fandom: The Oresteia

Turn Thy Wrath Aside by Moondal (yours truly)

Mortals wants mattered little in the face of the desires of the gods. How could a single woman wield such power?

-

Clytemnestra and Helen as mirrors.

Tragic character study of these 2 sisters

Fandom: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

saint sebastian, filled with arrows by narqueen

Coriolanus stares at it. Then he stares at her. She can see his imprecision again, the flicker of something untrustworthy beneath all the gold hair and famous lineage. “What should I do with it?” he asks, pliant, one last bid for direction.

Lucy Gray kisses him again. “Come back to me,” she orders. “Do whatever you have to do to come back to me, Coriolanus Snow.”

-

(Coriolanus Snow wins the 10th annual Hunger Games with the help of his mentor, Lucy Gray Baird.)

Role-swap with wonderfully consistent characterization

The Preference for Survival by samalander/ @intosnarkness

It may have been a kindness, but it doesn't change the fact that Lysistrata was the only one of her classmates who had to draw blood.

Fantastic Lysistrata Vickers character study

Fandom: Goncharov

Guess Who's Coming to Naples by DreamerInSilico/ @dreamerinsilico

The Muppet family would like to have a word.

The Goncharov fandom would like to have several squees.

Some fandom Discord reactions to the announcement of the very real Muppet remake of the best movie of all time, Goncharov (1973)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Goncharov by berlincorpography/ @berlincorpography

i don’t know, writing a paper with her could be… fun?

i mean, what’s the worst that can happen?

* * *

From: leldiwany@uea.edu

To: mwright21@kcl.edu

Subject: Re: Re: Re: Fuck you

M–

If you think we’re citing fucking Samuel Kline[...]

[three paragraphs snipped – click to expand]

A hilarious tale of academic rivalry

Fandom: Tosca

recondita armonia by Ladybug_21

They should not be growing so close, Floria thinks. Famous though she has become, she and Mario are from different worlds and irreconcilable backgrounds. And yet somehow she feels they complement each other, balance each other out through some subtle harmony.

Floria and Mario, before.

Fantastic backstory for Tosca and Mario

Fandom: Babel

Homophony in Oriental Silver-Work and Applications for Non-Logographic Scripts: A Case Study in English, Using Kreyòl, French, Gaelige, and Scots Gaelic by mercuryandglass/ @mercuryandglass

Abstract:

Based on the techniques described by Dejima (1836, 1845, and 1848) regarding collaborative manifestation using homophonous links (homophony chains) occasionally seen in the Oriental tradition of silver-work, this paper describes the adaptation and combination of two existing match-pairs, one from Haitian Creole (Kreyòl) to English through French (Desgraves 1846), and one from Scottish Gaelic (Scots Gaelic) to Irish Gaelic (Gaeilge) (O’Nell 1839 and 1843), in order to demonstrate the efficacy of the Oriental technique for homophony chains when used with languages that do not make use of logographies, such as English.

Super cool in-universe academic paper

[waitafrikk]

"its an emu"

"how can you tell?" "

"it has 3 toes, an ostrich only has 2"

"how in the world would you know that?"

"i had a student ask me once what the difference was, and so i went home and read everything i could find on emu and ostrich anatomy"

[swimmingwolf59]

Can I give you more than one so you can choose in case none of them would be inspiring? But also if none of them are that's also fine

Spock&Sarek + vacation

McCoy&Sarek + tea

spones + Amanda

Ahhhh all of these prompts are so fun, thank you!! I may do all of them eventually lol, though it's probably not surprising which one I picked to do first ;) I already failed to just write 100 words lol but at least it's still short!

--

Sarek startles awake as Doctor McCoy suddenly appears next to his biobed. He watches with mild confusion as the doctor places a teapot and two cups down on the table next to his bed. It’s the first time he’s woken up since the surgery, and based on the lack of pain he’s currently feeling, it must have been a success.

McCoy glances at him, and upon realizing he’s awake says, “Forgive me, Ambassador – I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“It is no matter.” He stares as McCoy pours the tea. “May I ask what you are doing?”

“I thought you might like some tea. Spock programmed a recipe for Vulcan spice tea into the replicator, and it’s pretty damn good in my opinion.” McCoy offers one of the cups, and Sarek takes it. “The Captain says I need to work on my bedside manner, so. Here I am.”

“I see.” Sarek looks into the cup, and then glances at his son lying in the biobed at the far end of the room. He’s still unconscious, and something in his chest tightens. “My son—?”

“He’s fine, despite his best efforts,” McCoy grumbles, and then checks himself. “Ah, sorry. His blood production rate is back to normal. And your heart is back to normal, too.”

“Then I must compliment you on your surgical skill, Doctor,” Sarek says. McCoy seems surprised by this, and Sarek reflects on their interactions thus far. He supposes he had been less than polite to the doctor when he had asked him why he had retired so early. While it had been because he did not want Amanda to learn about his heart condition, it was still inexcusable behavior. “As you probably already guessed, my heart condition is why I retired so early. Forgive me for not answering your question before.”

“Oh, it’s alright.” McCoy leaves briefly to place a cup of tea by Spock’s bed, and then returns to Sarek’s side. “It was probably insensitive of me to ask.”

“And yet that did not stop you from asking anyway,” Sarek says drily, realizing only after he’s said it that he should not tease McCoy as he would his wife.

But, to his surprise, McCoy grins. “You know, a lot of things make more sense now that I know you’re Spock’s father.”

Sarek blinks at him, unsure of his meaning. He glances over at his son again, who is starting to stir. McCoy also notices this and leaves Sarek’s side, fussing around Spock as he checks his biomonitor and hands him the teacup. He’s complaining about Spock taking unnecessary risks and giving McCoy an ulcer on purpose, which seems strange coming from a medical professional. But seeing the playfulness in Spock’s expression as he responds to McCoy in kind, Sarek realizes that he misinterpreted McCoy’s teasing from earlier.

He is gratified to see that Spock has such a close and valued friend.

Sarek takes a sip of tea. It’s good, and tastes just like the kind he makes from scratch at home. To think that his son programmed the replicator to produce an exact copy…

He feels warm, and tells himself it is merely because of the tea.

[dearreader]

*depending on my adhd i may not listen to the results (gotta follow the serotonin)

[vioislit]

okay so we'll see if this series continues but: i made a robin moodboard! poor poor boy

[daryj]

Olá! Tudo bem com vocês? Espero que sim!

Eu estou realizando a última doação de capas das capas que eu fiz entre dezembro e fevereiro e caso no fim de abril não haja mais nenhuma resposta, infelizmente meu trabalho vai ser perdido ;(

Porém, não temam! Se vocês me ajudarem na divulgação e irem encontrando pessoas para cada capa, sinto que meu trabalho será cumprido! Sei que algumas capas não estão 100%, ou tão bonitas quanto as capas que eu faço agora, porém eu sei que cada uma delas pode se encaixar na sua próxima história!

LINK DO FORMULÁRIO

Leia as regras atentamente!

Me ajude na divulgação, vocês vão estar dando mais força de vontade para a capista que eu sei que eu sou!

[koiwynn]

you can never have too many aus of your fav media.

[radios-arcade]

A Papa and her Babel (this is from the amazing fic series created by @aenor-llelo) The Author's Charity The Series