#but it also??? actually applies to so many of my other ships it's surreal

[yeonban]

There’s  something  so...  sacred  about  marriage  when  it  brings  none  of  the  benefits  it  usually  comes  with,  but  the  people  in  it  still  love  each  other  enough  to  go  through  the  hassle  of  it  all  anyway.

[x0401x]

Jeweler Richard Fanbook Short Story #5

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Iolite of Cloudy Skies

Iolite. Its Japanese name was “blue flower stone”. The gem was blue with a purple tint stronger than that of a sapphire and had a unique viscosity that made it seem as if it was coated with a bit of dew. The level of hardness was seven. It was called iolite when treated as a gemstone, but when treated as a type of mineral, it was also called cordierite. It was an eccentric stone, which also appeared to have a grayish brown color instead of blue depending on the angle that one looked at it. Etc., etc.

“What happened, Seigi? Your eyes are dead.”

“How can I put it...? Surfeit, I guess.”

“Haah?”

I couldn’t memorize the stones’ names. They were too many.

The client who left just now had come because they wanted to see many sorts of blue stones, so Richard’s treasure box was packed with a great variety of blues. There were sapphires, of course, and also tanzanites, lapis lazuli, blue chalcedonies and this iolite.

Half a year before I had started working part-time in Etranger, the image I had of gemstones was limited to things such as diamonds, rubies, sapphires and emeralds, I believed. Now I knew about the existence of a stone named zircon, which shone in the same way as a diamond, and also knew about the spinel, which was red like a ruby, as well as that the color of sapphires was not just blue, having a wide range from purple to yellow, and I had seen transparent jades that were impossible to tell apart from emeralds.

If I had as much knowledge of minerals as Tanimoto-san, I would’ve managed to sort stones inside my head by the differences the in chemical composition of each, but unfortunately, I was unfamiliar with such things, and I currently didn’t have enough enthusiasm or willpower to study them. If I were to explain figuratively, it felt like going out to hunt for clams at a beach, and when you innocently dove into the lake, you’d see the Mariana Trench spreading out below. It was a beautiful world, thus also too wide and too deep. And endless. To a terrifying extent.

When I told him roughly this, Richard laughed, the depths of his throat trembling with giggles. “It is not as if you are aiming to obtain a GIA or FGA qualification or anything, right? Isn’t it all right for you to observe as much as you like?”

“That might be the case, but...”

I found myself thinking that it was a waste.

After all, I’d be on my knees listening as Richard went, in earnest, through the trouble of introducing all kinds of stones to me one by one. I often heard from my senpais that “job hunting is a connection for people”, so I felt sorry that my connection with stones remained scoreless. Regardless, it wasn’t like I was suddenly going to get any smarter.

As I said this, Richard laughed again and beckoned me with a hand gesture. He then took something out of his suit’s pocket. One of those subdivision vinyl bags that I’d often see when he was handling jewels in the back room. It seemed there was an iolite inside. There was a label stuck to the bag packed with absorbent cotton, and something was written on it in horizontal letters. “Viking sunstone,” it read. Vikings? Like the ones that you’d imagine wearing horned helmets, carrying axes and coming from the sea on a ship? As I asked for confirmation, the jeweler nodded with a “precisely”.

“The words written on this label are associated with the former ‘purpose’ of the iolite. In the past, people used iolites as sun stones.”

“‘Used’ them as ‘sun stones’...?”

I didn’t understand anything from A to Z. What did that mean? For starters, why was gem of such a cold-looking color made into a stone of the sun?

Before I even had a breach to ask, the beautiful shopkeeper began talking, a smile ghosting his lips, “You might already know this, but a portion of the people residing in the current Britain are descendants of those who went through the Norman Conquest that began around the ninth century - in other words, of the Vikings. They were famous for having the skills to travel long distances, which was unusual at the time, so Seigi. If you were someone who travels the sea for long periods, how would you know your way?” Richard asked me.

A means to know the cardinal directions in the open sea. So it was a situation where there’d be no piece of land to act as a mark. The only thing I could use in such a case was a magnet. No, wait. Richard had said earlier that it was the ninth century. The compass would be invented only much later. I recalled memorizing that this was the invention that triggered the Age of Discovery back in high school for history class. If so, I recalled the words on the label. “Sunstone”. Yeah, it connected.

“They knew the directions by using the stone of the sun?”

“Good for you. Exactly. Isn’t it clear?”

“K-Kinda!”

“Then, what about under cloudy skies, when the sun is not visible, Mr. Enlightened Part-Timer?”

Speaking of which, the weather changed easily at sea. I had also heard that England was a country where the skies tended to be overcast. Bad weather must be frequent in those coastal waters. If the sky stayed cloudy for three or four days, what should I do? Was there nothing more that could be done at sea?

When I made a puzzled face, Richard smiled as though he had hit the nail on the head, his white hands displaying the iolite under a fluorescent light. “For instance, let’s try to put a mark on any of this iolite’s faceted sides with ink. Another one on a different side. On sunny days, we would record in which direction we can see the sun from one of these two points at given times, and on cloudy days, we would look for parts where the two points overlap. When doing so, since this stone can detect even the faintest light, we would be able to tell the sun’s position,” he said.

“So we can know the position of light with that stone...? Then couldn’t it be any other stone?”

“Light refracts. If it were passing through thick clouds, the human eye would find its shine in a different direction from the sun’s actual position. Iolites acted as polarized lenses, so to speak. By using this stone, the sailors could tell the correct position of the sun. Yet the most famous sunstone is not iolite, but a type of refraction stone called ‘Iceland spar’.”

A polarized lens. Now he was talking about physics? But I did remember the stuff about light refraction. Got it; so that was why it was a “stone of the sun”.

“I don’t get it very well, but I feel the gemstone romance from it. I like that kinda thing,” I said enthusiastically, Richard giving me a calm smile.

“You do get it. Just as you said, you ‘don’t understand stones very well but like them either way’. That is exactly why your eyes were open, so you thought only about how far your destination was and felt your teeth set on edge at it. You mustn’t expect to be able to understand everything overnight. Go steady, without rushing. Do not waver at the impatience stuck back-to-back to your ambitions. That is different from having no one to depend on due to not knowing where you are headed. The hardest times are probably the ones when you have no idea where you should go, but you know the exact position of the sun.”

So, in short, I knew exactly where I wanted to be?

While I remained quiet, Richard shrugged and added, “Of course, this is a metaphor. Even if little by little, the stones should definitely be leaving a trace inside you. Aren’t you supposed to be treasuring this instead of chasing after what goes away?”

Lastly, Richard threw in the trivia that, in the world of power stones, the iolite was said to be a stone that showed people the “right direction”. Taking the backbone of it into consideration, that was indeed a convincing talk. But more than that...

“It’d be great if you were by my side forever.”

“Hah?”

“You’re an expert at noticing what’s troubling other people, aren’t you? I really think you’re a handy guy, like a compass. Aah, ‘the world’s most beautiful compass’, huh?”

“Those are quite irrational words, on top of being illogical. You were born in Japan, raised in Japan and aspire to become a public servant of Japan, so why are you calling an English jeweler a ‘compass’?”

“Well, I don’t plan to ask you about how to prepare for the public servant exams, but I can rely on you when I run into bigger problems, right?”

Richard sighed with a face of thorough dismay. I could understand how he felt. This was like a child in nursery school saying, “It’d be great if my teacher could always be there to help me out.” Long story short, I was acting spoiled. Even though he was my superior at work.

“That’s right; about the custard pie that today’s costumer brought, it looks like it’s quick to expire. Wanna eat it? I’ll make some tea.”

“If you would. Aah, the sugar...”

“Holding back on it this month, right? I know.”

“Help me with half of it. The amount of sugar in it concerns me.”

“Leave it to me.”

This guy was truly good at leading the mood around, and the same applied for the not-too-straightforward way that he phrased himself when recommending gemstones to the customers. Apparently, he thought I was feeling down.

I cut the crunchy pie in half while the tea leaves boiled, then shared it with Richard in the reception room and we both ate it. Covered with powdered sugar, the pie was a dangerous white little thing, as the colorless powder could scatter around from the pie’s surface just by us breathing on it a tiny bit, so the snack time turned into a moment of silence. I felt like laughing at the much too surreal sight several times, but if I happened to cause a big damage to the beautiful shopkeeper’s high-grade suit by doing that, my pay would be reduced. In the end, I ate the pie entirely while looking at the wall.

On the way back home that day, as I looked up at the night sky, I thought about the Vikings of over a thousand years ago. It was said that they were after new lands. What about me? Where was I headed? Would there ever be a day when I would fall into a philosophical concern, like, “I have no idea where I’m trying to go”? Perhaps Richard too? I insolently prayed that the stones may help us out at least in times like those.

Stars were beginning to twinkle in the purplish-blue night sky. There was no doubt that the stars appearing in the sky had not changed ever since the Vikings’ era. Thinking about that as I walked, I mistook one of the streets I should have turned. I had the feeling that I heard Richard’s voice, telling me to mind at least my own steps. I get it, geez.

I decided to wait patiently for the benefits of the stone. It was best for something like that not to happen, but there was no guarantee that both of us wouldn’t lose our ways at the same time one day.

[idreamtofmanderleyagain]

Morality-Focused Frameworks Of Discussion As Acts of Control

This is a post in response to a larger conversation I’ve been having with @eshusplayground. I have a perspective that I think would be really relevant to the conversation but I also don’t want to derail the specific focus of the following posts she’s been making recently.

(Trigger Warning For Abuse Discussion and Brief Mentions of Rape)

---

So I’m in the Hellraiser fandom. More specifically, I’m a Pinhead/Kirsty shipper.

For those of you that don’t know, Pinhead is a demonic torturer from hell who’s design is inspired by the BDSM community. Characters who open a magical puzzle box have unknowingly given themselves away to his violent underworld community of eternal torment and depravity. Hellraiser is a film about romantic and sexual horror, and there’s quite a lot in there about abuse and trauma. Kirsty is a traumatized person, and in my personal opinion, very likely a CSA victim.

And I ship these two characters together.

So the subject matter of my particular fandom is extremely intense and niche and complicated to navigate, although YMMV (I have no trouble with this franchise, but I cannot really handle GOT or American Horror Story, for example). After I grew interested in Hellraiser and integrated into it’s fandom, my perspectives about the way we have conversations about villainous characters started to have a major shift.

I often see people have these intense conversations (and arguments) about where a particular character exists on a moral scale, with the subtext (or outright text) that if they tip too far one way or another, they can be rendered unworthy of their own subgroup of fans within their own fandom. People who love those characters or find them shippable are then subject to moral judgements.

So how does one apply such logic to a psychosexual torture demon?

The answer is you can’t.

The frameworks people online use to have these discussions do not make any sense when talking about my fandom. Hellraiser is a dark horror fairytale presenting disturbing, surreal images and behaviors in order to discuss complex and difficult experiences and perspectives. The monsters within it, like Pinhead, are more metaphor than anything.

Now, my follower count is too low and my fandom is too niche for me to really be on the receiving end of a lot of the cruelty that manifests online about the moral validity of the fiction I enjoy. That said, between the anti-kink TERFS and the younger folks involved in purity culture on this site, I can imagine exactly what it would look like. You know what they would look like.

“You’re an Abuse Apologist!”

“You’re an Abuse Fetishist!”

“You’re reinforcing sexism!”

“he’s an irredeemable torturer, you’re probably okay with literal real world rape lmao uwu”

“This is bad kink representation and you’re complicit in the abuse real men do to women because you like this!”

Now, setting aside the fact that the canon lore context of Pinhead involves him having a human soul brainwashed by a monster god to become what he is, and is also in a roundabout sense “redeemed” in canon, I think most people utilizing this kind of framework would assume that I believe Pinhead can be redeemed in the way online Discourse (tm) means it, because that’s how we talk in fandom about the villains we really like.

I do not want to redeem Pinhead. I don’t think he even needs redeeming. I don’t even see value in that conversation at all. Redemption is not a concept that makes sense for what he is, or what he could become as a character. The framework of Pinhead as a Real-World-Equivalent Human Male Abuser who Cannot Be Redeemed From His Actions would inevitably dominate all conversation, regardless of the fact that it is inherently incorrect and detrimental to real, robust literary analysis of the narrative he exists within and how brilliantly it actually interacts with male on female abuse as a subject. By nature of it’s gross oversimplification and misrepresentation, It ruins the potential for greater, more nuanced and complex conversations.

And that’s the thing: my engagement with this particular story and it’s characters has a lot to do with the potential in the narrative to examine how trauma interacts with love, desire and gender politics. Hellraiser has a very unique way of exploring that kind of subject through a storytelling aesthetic that appeals to me (horror/fairytale, gothic romance, etc).

This is about to get personal, so strap the fuck in.

I am the victim of gendered abuse, in that I had an emotionally abusive step father and sexism was absolutely a factor in why that manifested the way it did. I am also a second hand victim of gendered abuse, in that my biological father was a serial stalker and rapist, and other male abusers (or just self-centered family members) caused severe emotional destabilization in my childhood. I grew up viewing adult men as unstable, selfish children. My family endured a lot, and I came to resent the men in my mother’ life for not taking on the role of protector and nurturer when she needed them most. I had discovered the great lie of traditional masculinity: in the face of real crisis, grown men were not protectors. They did not hold together the domestic space. They abused or faltered and abandoned us. This was a repeated pattern among several men in different roles. I was often left picking up all the pieces, taking on roles as a child that these men could not. I had to have strength they did not.

My experience of desire for romantic intimacy with men and men in roles of stable, nurturing authority now inherently involves a jumbled emotional soup of fear, pain, and a deep longing that comes from a place of feminine vulnerability, a desire to be taken care of instead of being the caretaker.

The narrative of Hellraiser pushes a lot of buttons for me. It speaks to my own trauma experiences in a very specific way. In an effort to further that conversation, I’m trying to create a piece of art (a fic) inspired by the deeply personal feelings this film gives me.

For me, Pinhead represents the Jungian shadow masculine, a simultaneous mix of fear and desire, the potential for suffering and pleasure, and everything in between. These experiences are inherently intertwined for me. And Kirsty’s experiences mirror many of my own.

In other words, in order for me to get out of Hellraiser what I get out of Hellraiser, Pinhead has to be exactly what he is, and everything that he is. Which includes monstrosity. Which includes the potential for change. His place in the narrative must fully, truly embody this conversation I need to have with masculinity, which inherently involves painful, scary things.

Anybody demanding that I either denounce my interest in him as morally offensive because he’s a monster in the full sense of the word (and not just the aesthetic one like what is currently trending in Monster Boyfriend fandom), or force a traditional redemption arc upon him as if he were a real life human person who must repent for his real life sins, are essentially saying that I am not allowed to engage with this work of fiction in a way that is transformative for me. And that’s very unfortunate, because honestly, I think my perspective is so much more dynamic and has so much more to offer.

This is not just about basic catharsis. This is not even a power fantasy about emotionally transforming a powerful (white) dude, or “bad boy” fantasies, both standard arguments for villain stanning that feels like it has never truly represented me or the complexity of my experiences and interests. This is a full-on conversation and act of self expression I want to have through art about the experience of fear and trauma when dealing with men as a woman who desires men.

And I don’t think a person has to be traumatized in order to want to engage with this type of fiction. I want to be clear that my experience is not a justification for my interest (I do not need to justify myself), it is an example of a perspective that gets erased by the framework of these conversations.

To me, the framework of moral validity for enjoying fictional villains and monsters and whatever you please feels incredibly stifling to the complex, dynamic ideas and analysis that I want to engage in, because I, and many people I know, are consistently pressured to structure their thoughts with this framework as the only acceptable baseline of discussion. This is so ubiquitous that when people I’ve known have tried to engage in ways that diverge from that framework, the responses they get are outright confused or direct the conversation right back to the original framework they tried to avoid. Complex conversation gets steamrolled.

Somewhere in the conversation we were all having about acknowledging and discussing abuse and oppression, and acknowledging troubling patterns in media which reinforce the normalization of abuse and opression, some people decided that there was a very serious moral discussion to be had regarding the mere act of liking things which involve dark subject matter and complex, or even monstrous characters. They now argue that there are very clear cut, simple moral frameworks for A) telling stories and B) enjoying stories, and most importantly, that this moral framework is a valid justification for the social treatment and silencing of certain people.

A framework, by the way, which I think is actually not functionally a framework, because like the toxic American fundamentalist christian groups it’s thinking is structured from, it does not account for the vastly diverse moral landscape within it’s own space. There is no objectively consistent body of knowledge anybody is working from, because morals are derived from the human experience, which is inherently subjective.

Interestingly, no where does this have more of an impact than with marginalized people, and people like me, who want to express something deeper and more meaningful in the conversation about abuse and oppression than what this framework really offers us. To be honest, The more I see this kind of conversation making the rounds, the clearer it becomes that it’s a means of control and power game playing. It’s not about morality, but about how morality can be leveraged in order to silence truly diverse and nuanced perspectives and uphold people’s sense of self-comfort. It is a means of supplanting more convenient and easily digestible understandings of these highly complex subjects that require more intensive, thoughtful engagement, especially when it gets challenging. This kind of rhetoric absolves people of making room for complex and diverse experiences, and reinforces an (at face-value) easy to follow set of moral rules of how we are all allowed to think and feel.

The implication of all of this is that if we all adhere to the One True (alleged) Moral Framework of Fandom Engagement, then we will somehow come out on the other side with all the Good People having a Great Time having Squeaky Clean Fun. And I don’t think I should have to tell you at this point how stifling and disturbing the implications of that kind of mentality really are.

 Quite frankly, I think a lot of us are very tired of constantly speaking on other people’s terms.

[looneyllama-archive]

Fixing Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure

I recently discovered this gem of a film, and I’ve fallen in love with these funky little rag dollies! Raggedy Ann and Andy: a Musical Adventure has stunning animation, incredible music, and charming characters. That said, I can certainly see the flaws in the story, characters, and musical structure of the film, so I’ve written up what I would change to make it stronger.

Under the cut, because this got looooong.

• Theme: this film is actually not far off from having a solid story, if you think of the film being about love and happiness, rather than about the literal adventure. Every character’s goal is to find happiness. The captain thinks that claiming Babette as his bride, as if she’s a pretty trophy to show off, will make him happy. The Greedy follows a similar line of thinking, as he believes finding a sweetheart to add to his collection of sweets will make him happy. Even though both are desiring people, they demonstrate the idea of finding joy in ownership, rather than in interaction. Babette and the Camel are both trying to get home, with the former wanting to go to Paris and the latter wanting to join a camel caravan. They place all of their hopes for happiness on finding a certain place, instead of trying to make the best of where they are. Sir Leonard Looney thinks that joy comes from playing pranks on others and laughing at them. Finally, Raggedy Ann and Andy know that happiness comes from being with your loved ones.

• Characters: to start, notice that I left King Koo Koo off the list of characters discussed in the theme section. This decision is due to the fact that his goal is confusing; he also tries to find joy in the misery of others, but that’s to serve another goal, making himself bigger (which just ends up being disturbing in the film). I say that this character should be scrapped entirely. In terms of theme, Sir Leonard makes him redundant, and in terms of plot, it’s not difficult to write him out (more on that later). The other major character that needs an overhaul is the Captain. I get what they were going for; he’s supposed to be desperately lonely inside his snowglobe—even though he seems to have an entire pirate crew—which is why he kidnaps Babette. At the end of the film, he’s supposed to be redeemed, but he still comes across as acting creepy toward Babette, and he never even apologizes! I would tweak this character. First of all, he should be entirely alone in the snowglobe save for Queasy; this doesn’t justify his actions, mind you, but it at least makes him a little more sympathetic. Most importantly, he needs to come to the realization on his own that what he did was wrong. Instead of having him complain to Queasy in the brig about losing his “prize,” have him admit that he messed up; he can’t cure his loneliness if he treats other people like trophies, rather than showing them respect. The Captain also needs actually apologize for his actions—it’s hardly fair to have Babette apologize for causing trouble, but then for the person who started the whole mess to get off scot-free! Additionally, to lessen the creep factor, I would also have him no longer be “in love” with Babette at the end of the film, but instead show him respecting her as a friend.

• Songs: I love most of the songs in this film, but there certainly are too many—there’s 19 songs on the soundtrack! The first fix is to eliminate all of the Twin Penny jingles. These mini-songs are unnecessary, always bringing the story to a screeching halt and interrupting the flow of dialogue. Also, the Twin Pennies get the first song of the film, which hardly makes sense! That brings us down to 16 songs. The second obvious fix is to get rid of any background songs, or any songs that aren’t actual musical numbers in the film. That scratches “A Miracle” and “the Abduction & Yo-Ho,” which are both played behind dialogue during the kidnapping scene; the latter song doesn’t even end properly! I would also include “Camel’s Mirage” among these songs, and change that to an instrumental version, since the lyrics don’t contribute much impact anyway. 13 songs now. If we apply the change I made under the characters section, the elimination of King Koo Koo, we can get rid of "Hail to Our Glorious King” and "It's Not Easy Being King,” bringing us down to 11 songs. The final fix would be to combine songs whenever there’s two back-to-back. The film already does this anyway, having the final song “Home” transition into a reprise of “Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers,” so it wouldn’t be difficult to do it for a few other songs. The first instance of this is “Rag Dolly” and “Poor Babette.” Since “Poor Babette” is a pretty weak tune anyway, let’s just make Babette’s lament into another verse of “Rag Dolly!” Just switch it to a more dismal sound and change the lyrics—I’m thinking something along these lines: “Oh, I’m just a poor dolly, stranded so far from Paris / such a miserable dolly, trapped in this strange nursery / I feel melancholy, knowing I can’t get away / so this French dolly, scared and alone, has no choice but to stay.” The other two songs I would combine would be “Hooray for Me” and “You’re My Friend.” This one is even easier, since both songs are already call-and-response; just rearrange “Hooray for Me” as follows: “Hooray for me! Hooray for she! / Babette of Paris! She’s captain, see! / What joy, what glee! What joy, what glee! / When our voyage ends / once we’ve crossed the deep blue sea / we’ll reach Paris! We’ll reach Paris!” That makes our final count 9 songs: “I Look, And What Do I See,” “I’m No Girl’s Toy,” “Rag Dolly,” "Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers,” “Blue,” “I Never Get Enough,” “I Love You,” “You’re My Friend,” and “Home/Candy Hearts and Paper Flowers reprise.”

• Setting: now, I love how surreal the settings are, but I’ll readily admit that it doesn’t make much sense. The film says that Ann and Andy just go into the woods, and yet they run into a Taffy Pit and a Looney Kingdom out there! To help with suspension of disbelief, I say that instead of going out the window to chase the Captain, they go into Marcella’s drawings.

• Plot: with all of these changes in place, let’s play out the story! The beginning goes the same until we get to the Captain’s escape. Ann still helps him get out, but instead of him already having a ship and a crew inside the snowglobe, he goes up to one of Marcella’s drawings, a pirate ship on the sea, and orders the crew to jump out and help him kidnap Babette. The pirates then escape into a drawing of a starry sky over a desert sticking out of Marcella’s backpack. Ann and Andy follow them in, and the meet the Camel. He was abandoned in the lost-and-found at the school and ended up climbing into the drawing to look for his caravan. He agrees to help Ann and Andy, but gets distracted by the camels in the sky; the three ride right off the edge of the page and into a different drawing, this one showing candies and sweets galore. The encounter with the Greedy plays out as in the original film, and the trio escapes into another drawing, this one showing a castle. They run into Sir Leonard Looney, who intends to keep them in Looneyland for his own entertainment, but they get him and the other Loonies distracted by throwing pies and escape into the sea drawing. Sir Leonard is the one who calls up Gazooks to pursue them, hoping to get the last laugh. The three use the H.M.S. Koo Koo to get onto the ship and find Babette has become Captain. Crucially, we see the Captain showing remorse for his actions while he’s in the brig. While Babette is tying up Ann, Andy, and the Camel, the Captain spots Gazooks sneaking up on the ship through a porthole; he breaks out of the brig and gets on deck to warn Babette. Babette realizes she’ll have to give up on reaching Paris to keep her new friends safe. She commands her crew to turn the ship around. Gazooks attacks, tickling all of the crew as well as Andy and the Camel. While they’re being shaken around, Andy and the Camel drop joy buzzers and gum balls that got caught up in their clothes/wrinkled knees in the Taffy Pit and the Looney Kingdom. Ann, Babette, and the Captain pick up these items, and use them to load up a cannon and fire at Gazooks. The explosion knocks the toys out of the drawing. The Captain lands on a shelf by his snowglobe, but the Camel goes out the window and lands on the ground. Ann, Andy, and Babette nearly fall as well, but manage to hang onto the curtain. Ann is terrified for Babette, who will shatter if she falls. Just as the three think Babette is going to drop, Marcella comes in. She grabs her silly dolls, scolds them for playing near an open window, and puts them back in their proper places before leaving again. (I’m writing this scene with the original stories in mind; the original Marcella always seemed fairly aware that her dolls were getting into trouble behind her back, and would just scold them and save them as necessary.) The dolls are relieved to be home, and we get the Captain’s apology, and show him respecting Babette as a friend, as well as quite an impressive pirate Captain herself! Meanwhile, the Camel is left outside. He sees the caravan once again, but unlike in the original film, it leads in the opposite direction of the house. He stares at them longingly, but forces himself to turn away, and goes for the playroom window instead. Of course, he’s welcomed into the family, and we get our happy ending at last.

If you made it this far, please let me know what you think of my fixes, and what you would change about the film!

[go-hux-yourself]

Tethercord

I saw this fanart by @ellalba​ and I just had to write something!! Many thanks for the inspiration, just *chef’s kiss* that’s good shit.

This labeled as Tethercord. Also on my ao3 here :) My masterlist archive of bullshit i write can be found linked at the top of the blog or here.

--

He should have thought this through just a bit more, but there simply wasn’t enough time.

Shoot me in the arm, he’d told him, right after refusing to go with them.

It was a wound that wouldn’t be too serious; one he could still walk away from without impeding his own ability to protect himself. One that would provide him alibi for helping the three escape.

Hux had been shot in the leg instead, the suddenness and surprise dropping him to the floor as much as the pain itself. He was outraged in the first second, then considered the next that this would surely play better in solidifying his innocence as part of his cover.

That’s when he realized the wound was bleeding. Profusely.

They’d taken him with them for that fact, a trail of blood in their wake as he could do little to defy the pilot’s arm around his waist with the pain of the wound in his thigh.

Was this technically a kidnapping? Did it even matter? If he kept bleeding the way he was, it would no longer be a problem.

He was half in Poe Dameron’s lap on the floor of the cockpit, the man putting pressure on the wound with his hands over Hux’s own. They’d made the jump to lightspeed already, but they’d taken far too long to see to Hux’s injury. The blood-loss was severe, even with the paltry supplies from the ship’s med-kit staunching the wound.

The white bandaging and trauma-kit was really only a quick-fix, but Hux needed real medical attention.

“Rey, we gotta hurry! He’s lost too much blood!”

“We’ll be there soon.”

Hux had his eyes shut against the pain, grimacing as Dameron’s hand pressed harder into his leg. It woke him up a bit, but he was dizzy; disoriented. The way he was sort of propped up sideways in the man’s lap only made him spin more, not to mention the indignity.

He leaned back hard until he could feel durasteel behind him. It didn’t help with his sense of orientation. Confusion mixed with the surreality of his situation as the world spun around him, and Hux made a noise of pain.

The pain was real at least. Solid. It jolted through his consciousness and grounded him at the point where the other man’s hand pressed into the wound. He was cold-- or at least he was shaking- and so much was going on it was becoming harder and harder to focus. He wished he could block out the sound like he could his vision.

“Are they tracking us?”

“I don’t think so. We got out of there quick enough.”

He wished they wouldn’t talk so much. If he had to die here, he wanted it to be quiet. At least the arm around his back steadying him was warm. That was some small modicum of comfort to the reality of bleeding out on an old freighter in the enemy’s arms.

Was he the enemy still, though? Hux wasn’t sure. He was a traitor, probably. He was becoming less sure with every beat of his heart. Blood loss, his brain supplied again. Kriff.

“...I didn’t mean to hit an artery.”

The wookie growled something Hux was certain was rude. He didn’t care. At least the traitor’s voice had sounded slightly regretful of his actions. It made morbid satisfaction rise in Hux; that he’d be affected by Hux’s death in some way. Maybe Hux’s actions had helped them even more than he’d assumed.

His smile came out a grimace.

“I know.” The arm at Hux’s back shifted, and the fingers on his leg adjusted. “Shit he’s pale.” He winced and hissed as more pressure was applied to his thigh. “You hang in there, Hugs.”

Hugs. Yeah, that’s who was holding him. The pilot who’d once humiliated him, but that he was fairly sure had been his contact this whole time.

Dying on the floor with Poe Dameron’s hands on him, what a fate. That was a better death than he expected from this life, if he were being entirely honest with himself. The nickname, though, he was still prickled by, and alive enough to voice his opinion on such matters.

Hux opened his eyes with a feeling of annoyance that was quickly replaced with a sudden acute awareness of the man holding him.

He couldn’t remember anyone being this close to him that wasn’t somehow threatening in nature. The care in his body language alone was loud and obvious. Striking. And he could see Dameron’s stubble; lines at the corners of his eyes from smiling; the way the man’s brows were knit together as he concentrated on keeping Hux’s hand sealed under his own, fingers flexing.

The expression on Dameron’s face was one of genuine, open concern, which was also distracting to Hux’s nearly-drunken state of mind. It was getting harder to think. He couldn’t remember what he was annoyed about. If the damn room would stop spinning, he might be able to. The longer he looked at the other man’s face, though, the longer it didn’t matter.

Poe’s eyes locked on Hux’s, the dazed look there worrying as Hux retracted one of his hands from beneath Poe’s own. Still strong enough to move his limbs. That was minorly reassuring. Maybe he wouldn’t die. Poe gave his hand a squeeze. They were both still sticky with his blood. “You still with me buddy?” BB-8 beeped a warning about Hux’s blood-pressure. He nodded to the droid before looking from Hux to the cockpit. “I know. Rey, how far are we?”

“Ten minutes out. How are you doing back there?”

Hux’s hand began to rise of its own volition as he stared up at the other man holding him. He’d never had this, had he? Someone touching him kindly with genuine concern for his well-being. A firm hand over one of his own, skin-to-skin and warm and real.

Was it real? Was he already hallucinating?

He wasn’t so far gone that his logic was, though. It was more likely that he’d been left to bleed out in the hall, and this was all some hopeful fantasy before his brain starved of oxygen and he died. He’d definitely rejected Dameron’s offer to come with them-- the way the man’s face had fallen, that had been the source of this hallucination in a cockpit, surely- and he’d been shot in the leg instead of the arm like he’d asked. Probably some petty revenge for rejecting the offer. Only it had gone wrong.

And now he was bleeding to death, left in that corridor as they made their escape, but thinking he was in the arms of a man who’d once mocked him, being spirited to safety.

That sounded much more plausible, his brain supplied. This was war. These things happened. And if he was hallucinating this badly, then he’d probably be dead before long.

It didn’t matter if this was real or not, then, his brain also reasoned.

“...Dameron?” Hux spoke softly, looking at the pilot’s face and wondering how his stubble might feel. Would it feel real for the hallucination? Like the hand on his or the thigh at his back? His vision kept getting splotchy, questioning his own coherence and grip on reality.

The pilot was looking at him now, at least. And that opened up a whole new world of things for Hux to be distracted by.

“What is it?” Poe wasn’t going to ask if he was okay-- he obviously was not- but he was encouraged that Hux still had a voice. It was breathy, but if the general was still coherent and awake-- and knew who he was- then he was still okay. His eyes were glassy and his face was pale, but he only had to hang on a bit longer. Poe had Hux’s attention, anyways. The man’s gaze was locked on his own in focus. “Speak to me, Hugs.”

Hux’s fingers made contact with his jaw first, and Poe realized as the other man’s palm bloomed on his cheek, that he was being touched. Caressed. Poe was confused only a moment before realization took him, and he felt heat enter his cheeks at the craziness of it all.

This was hardly the time to get excited over anything, let alone the delirious touches of a man dying in his arms. Yet here the general of the First Order was-- their spy; a man Poe had secretly been fantasizing about for over a year since he’d had his suspicions on that- actually caressing his cheek.

Hux dragged the pad of his thumb over Poe’s jaw to his chin, feeling it with a sort of unrepentant grin as the pilot’s brows raised. His glassy gaze was locked with Poe’s own. “...You have beautiful eyes.”

Poe’s mouth hung open just a bit. That was certainly unexpected, and this was absolutely not the time to be super flattered by that, even if he could feel his face heating with a little more than concern. From what they knew about the general, and Poe’s own interactions and guesses, this was the last thing he expected. Being called scum by the man was normal. This?

This was… exactly out of some of his dirty fantasies where he got to play the hero and save the day. Poe was trying to save his life, doing his best to that end, but-- General fucking Hux? in his lap and stroking his cheek and saying he was beautiful?

“Shit he’s dying!”

Hux let his arm drop back to his lap, dizzy for the loudness and proximity of Dameron’s alarmed voice and how the man changed his hold on him. Hux was annoyed again, and it was hard to keep track of things. He was pretty certain that he was going to black out with the way his vision kept tunneling, and he was entirely dependent upon Dameron keeping him upright at that. The only thing he was able to focus on was keeping his hand on his thigh which was still soaked in blood.

The man above him was exchanging worried tones with the others as Hux fought to keep his consciousness. The droid beeped shrilly, and Dameron’s hands both squeezed his arm as he spoke some kind encouragement that was hard for Hux to follow in this state.

He thoroughly wished they’d all be quiet and let him die in peace.

--

my kofi | ao3 main

[kendelias]

Anagapesis + Vi

Anagapesis - The feeling when one no longer loves someone they once did.

At a farmer’s market in Lima, Ohio, Virginia Avery is running late to work. She told her other instructors to handle it, but because Samira is sick, they’re short-staffed, and Vi needs to be there sooner rather than later. Right now, though, she finds herself in a battle with a stack of apples and a particularly nervous friend.

Vi nudges her earpiece with one hand while fidgeting with her basket in the other. “Yes,” she’s saying, again, for the fifth time in an hour, “She’ll love it.” The apples tilt precariously, and she scrambles to apply both hands to keep the tower from falling.

“You think so?” Rory’s accent, tinged with worry, is almost garbled where it comes across the phone. She’s lucky they’ve been friends for so long, or else she wouldn’t understand a word he said.

Vi nods, even though he can’t see her, and scoops the apples into the plastic bag. “Honey, I’ve known Izzy for a long time,” she reminds him. “You’re talking to someone who helped her plan her proposal to you. I think it’s a perfect anniversary gift.”

Rory sighs, relief palpable in his voice. “Okay, good, because--”

“You already bought the tickets?” she teases.

There’s a beat of silence. “Maybe.”

She laughs, then turns sharply to turn towards the carrots. With that, though, her bag bumps the apple cart, and the tower she’d been so valiantly protecting goes tumbling to the ground. “Oh, shit,” she mutters, then bends to the ground. Someone from the next stall over rushes to help her, and she sighs thankfully.

“Are you okay?” Rory asks. His voice spikes, panicked. “Vi? Can you hear me?”

“Yeah, I’m fine, just--” The stranger across from her looks up, and the movement catches her eye, making her look up to meet their eyes. She blinks. “Uh, I’m gonna have to call you back.” Despite Rory’s hurried and affronted squawks, she reaches up and yanks her earpiece out of her ear, then raises her sunglasses to the top of her head. “Jesse.”

The stranger, it turns out, is not a stranger at all. Even after all this time, she’d recognize that face anywhere - his eyes still sparkle like he’s eighteen, and his mouth is still sloped and crooked in all the places it used to fit against hers. Jesse St. James is a few years older, but still the same. “Hey, Superstar,” he says, and the old nickname hits her square in the chest, her balance just barely keeping her from falling over. “It’s been a while.”

Vi swallows and stands, hesitantly, and Jesse follows her up. “Hi,” she says dumbly. “Jesse. I, um - sorry, I’m just a little thrown off.” He chuckles at that (it was not a joke). “It has been a few years. What’re you doing in town?”

“Doing a little work with our old alma mater.” He frowns, and scratches his chin. “Well, my alma mater, I suppose. I’m supposed to take over coaching them while I’m in between projects.”

She nods politely, still finding the whole thing a little surreal. “That’s - that’s great, Jesse. I’m sure you’ll be... great.” Great? How many times can one say “great” in a conversation before being classified as illiterate? She clears her throat. “It’s just so strange seeing you here, of all places. Lima, I mean, not the supermarket.”

Jesse shrugs. “We all come home sometimes,” he says. “I’ve actually been meaning to call you, to get lunch, catch up.” He tosses the apple in his hand, smiles, and winks - a classic move, she recognizes from when they were kids. Nervously, she reaches up and adjusts her bag on her shoulder. His eyes follow the movement, and lead to a raised brow. “You’re married,” he blurts, suddenly.

It surprises her. She glances down at her hand, where the diamond ring glints back at her. “Oh. Yes, I am.” She smiles reflexively, then looks back up at Jesse. “A few years ago now.”

“Good for you, Vi,” he says, and it sounds hallow. “So you’re here for... the holidays, or something, then.”

It’s March, she wants to say, but she doesn’t. Instead, she purses her lips and shakes her head. “No, actually, Sam and I live here. He teaches at McKinley, and I have a studio in town.”

Jesse raises his eyebrows, then he snorts. “No way. Superstar Avery stuck around in a town like this - and married to Sam Evans?” He hurries to raise his hands defensively. “No offense, of course, I just... always thought you were on your way up and out. Never pictured you as a housewife for an... ex-stripper dropout.”

Vi thinks that she should be angry. Jesse has never liked Sam; he made that pretty clear last time they saw each other, and he’s clearly not pleased with him now. She should be infuriated, or at the very least offended, and some part of her is. But she’s had a very long time to be angry. She’s also had a very long time to be flattered by his backhanded compliments, and confused about how she was manipulated, and frustrated by her lost childhood. Now, though, she finds herself simply... unbothered. As if this isn’t worth her time. She had never formally considered herself as having gotten over Jesse St. James - he was her first love, her first everything. Now, though, she knows: she doesn’t feels a thing.

She simply smiles, reaching up and sliding her sunglasses down onto her nose. “Yes, well, we’re all full of surprises. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m already late for work.” With that, she turns on her heel and heads off to pay for her items. “Oh,” she calls over her shoulder, “be a doll and pick those up for me, would you? Bye bye, Jess.”

send me a word and a ship/oc

[padfootagain]

Stranded (III)

Part 3 : Dreams And Realities

You have asked for a part three… you have been heard. Here's part three, my lovelies! And as it's May the fourth today, I had to post something SW related to celebrate. May the Force be with you all.

I'm taking liberties concerning canon architectures but… I don't care at all.

I hope you all like it :)

Fluffy fluff and angsty angst haaaaa!! Did I make myself cry with this? YEP!

Gif not mine

Word Count : 4778

You were there again. In his dream. You, your eyes shining in the dim light, the clouds left by your breath drawing surreal patterns in the cold air, the way you looked at him… Tears in your eyes and yet he could read in this gaze the truth in the words you had just spoken. He could see you meant it. You did love him…

It was just the same moment playing over again and again. You were there, before him, in that cave. Just a few seconds later, and you would be kissing his lips and…

He washed the thought away with clear, cold water, before looking back at his reflection in the mirror.

He heaved a sigh, leaning against the sink in his personal room. He hadn't put on a shirt yet, instead, he was trying to shake the dreams off his eyes. For now, it wasn't much of a success.

His room was like any other Jedi room. A few personal belongings, a simple mattress, a desk and chair, a little more room to meditate, and a window that for him faced plain East. And as dawn burnt through the sky of Coruscant, the sun shed its first rays right into his chamber. At this hour, the light fell on a part of his bed. He could have asked for curtains to avoid being bothered by the sun every morning, but he actually enjoyed being woken up with the nearest star. It was a warm way to emerge from the dark slumber of dreams.

He looked down at the bandage that still encircled his abdomen, the light of the morning giving it a golden shade. He passed his palm against the sensitive wound, and felt a little sting cross his body. For some reason, he almost wanted to press his hand harder against the cut, he didn't know why. But he didn't. Instead, he let his hand fall in the water gathered in the sink while his eyes travelled to the waking planet before him. Some light remained alit in the highest towers, he could see them glimmer a little more than the rest of the orange sky. Speeders, Jedi shuttlebuses and other civilian transportations were already flying through the sleeping city. Others seemed to be early birds like Obi-Wan, after all.

But of all this beautiful scenery he had made a habit of admiring in the morning, he now couldn't see a single thing. Even the sky that was so particularly colourful that morning, Obi-Wan could barely notice any of its beauty. His mind was too unsettled.

What was he supposed to do?

You and he had come back from Hoth a few days before. He had spent a couple of days in bed, recovering from his wound, and had been allowed to walk around the temple on his own again only the day before. You had been more than busy with your duties as a Senator for your homeworld. But now that he was able to move around again, was he supposed to go and see you? Or should he give you time and space?

You had not talked again of that kiss… and the couple more that had followed. You were both too exhausted during the trip back to Coruscant to do anything but hold hand and sleep. And then, once you had landed, you were both taken into two different medical centres: you were taken to the Republic centre, and he was taken directly to the Jedi temple. And you had been apart ever since.

He heaved a tired sigh, and put more cold water on his face, washing away exhaustion and worry. Or at least… trying to do so.

The Jedi code was clear. The Jedi Order was his life. How could he even think about doing this? How could he even see you that way?

And yet he did. It wasn't the first time his feelings made him doubt himself and his place in the Order, but this time, it was different. He was not as young as he was the last time such doubts had shaken his reality. And yet, there he was…

He pushed the thought away. He had to face one problem at a time.

First, he needed to decide if he would go and see you. He reckoned that it was what he ought to do. The matter had to be discussed. It required a conversation and more importantly, a decision on what to do next. He couldn't simply act like nothing had happened. The two of you had basically confessed your true feelings for each other. He couldn't just run away from this.

For once though, he wished he could have simply run away. It would have been much simpler, to act like nothing had happened. If he took the decision by himself to stop it all, to forget about the whole ordeal, perhaps it could be enough. Oh, how less painful it would be…

But he wasn't that man. He couldn't abandon you. He loved you too much for that.

If indeed, you and he decided to stop seeing each other, if you both decided that it was better to act like nothing had happened, then it had to be a decision taken by both of you.

What other end was there to consider, besides bidding you farewell? He didn't even know.

He felt guilty for his next thought, but he couldn't help but wish… for another way to exist.

 --------------------------------------------------------------

 Obi-Wan had not left the Temple yet. He almost went in the upper levels of the Temple to find some tranquillity and meditate, but he didn’t. Instead, he took a walk through the gardens.

It was a peaceful place, but it was also much more buzzing with life than the meditation rooms. The sun was warm on his face, sun drops caught on the hair of his beard. Some younglings and padawan were training or chatting in different corners of the area covered with grass. Several knights seemed lost in a passionate debate on one of the benches. But all in all, there wasn’t so many people around at that time in the morning. After all, dawn was barely gone.

Obi-Wan walked through the dusty paths leading him towards the large fountain in the centre of the large gardens. Sun mingling with the droplets falling from the fountain drew tiny reflects full of colours, much like little rainbows.

Around the path, he passed before the green grass and the blooming bushes. Strange-looking flowers drenched in colours exploded in their blossom, and under any other circumstances, he would have enjoyed the sight before him. But his mind was too much troubled for that.

He walked for a moment in circles around the garden, but soon felt a tension through his wound, so he went to sit on the edge of the fountain instead. The water made the air a little cooler in that area, and he welcomed the breeze with a soothing sigh.

He had to go and see you, but how could he? It could be the end of it all, and actually, it ought to be. He would have enjoyed lingering for a little longer in a dream though.

He didn't hear his former Padawan approaching behind him. He didn't sense his presence either. It wasn't in his habit to be so distracted, and before he could even see his face clearly and the worries that made him frown, Anakin knew something was bothering his master. And he was far from stupid enough to be unaware of the cause for his friend's worry.

He sat by Obi-Wan's side on the edge of the fountain. The Jedi Master faked to not be surprised, but he wasn't very good at hiding his reaction.

"How are you feeling?" Anakin asked his friend, nodding towards his torso.

"Much better. Thank you. Still sore, but I'll soon be able to fight again."

"It's good to hear."

"Well, I don't really have a choice. Who else could keep you from getting killed or destroying the Temple?"

They exchanged an amused laugh, but Anakin here again was not fooled. He knew Obi-Wan better than he knew himself. There was something off in his laughter, something forced.

"Senator Y/L/N is safely at the Senate delivering her speech," Anakin spoke in a casual tone.

"She is right where she belongs."

Anakin studied his friend's behaviour for a moment. Obi-Wan was trying to remain stern and cold, but his former Padawan had learned to see through the knight's mask a long time ago.

"I wonder though… what happened in that cave exactly?"

"I already told you and the whole council what happened," Obi-Wan faked ignorance.

"Well… the official version, yes. What about the whole truth?"

"I didn't lie to you nor to the council, Anakin," Obi-Wan replied with a proud glint in his eyes, his stature taller all of a sudden.

"That's not what I meant," Anakin soothed his mind. "But you and the Senator were quite… close when Snips and I found you."

"It was unbelievably cold, in case you didn't notice," Obi-Wan defended himself, but the tip of his ears turned crimson.

"So… you were merely applying the basics of survival…"

"Indeed."

"And I guess this was also why you and the Senator were holding hands in the ship when we left."

Obi-Wan's cheekbones turned the same shade as his ears.

"We had both been through a very difficult time, Anakin. I was merely helping her to… feel safe."

"I see…"

But Anakin soon let out a chuckle.

"Well, you're lucky I'm not Master Yoda. In the future, you should learn to better work on your alibies."

"Anakin!"

But humour left his young friend's tone as he spoke once more, resting a hand on Obi-Wan's shoulder.

"I am not judging you, Obi-Wan. She is one of a kind."

"This kind of feelings are forbidden in the Order."

"I never truly understood that rule."

"A Jedi must love all, not only one. It's the feeling of possession, the feeling of dependence that are to avoid. Your mind must be settled on all people, not only focused upon one being."

"But you said it yourself once, that these feelings are only natural."

"But the final decision must be the right one."

"So… you're going to remain sad and alone all your life, and condemn her to the same fate, just because you refuse to bend a rule?"

"I am not sad and alone. Neither is she. And the decision is not only mine to take, although I am certain that she sees things this way as well."

He was trying to defend himself, but in his heart, he lacked conviction as he spoke. The words came out but there wasn't emotion in them at all.

"If you do love her, then what difference does it make?" Anakin argued. "You speak about not focusing upon only one person… but if the situation was to present itself, and you had to choose between saving Senator Y/L/N and anyone else, wouldn't you make the choice to save her anyway? The fact that you may be with her or not… would it change anything? Wouldn't you do anything to save her anyway?"

Obi-Wan tried to find arguments to fire back, but he failed. He hated to admit it, but Anakin was right. He heaved a sigh.

"You are supposed to be the reckless one here, not the wise one," he merely replied with faked annoyance.

"What can I do? My Master taught me well."

"Too well, clearly."

"Have you talked to her yet?"

"How could I have done so? I was trapped in here. Remember the wound?"

"But now you can walk just fine."

"I was about to go see her before you arrived and kept me here, actually."

"Were you?"

"I was."

"You still didn't tell me what happened in that cave though."

The two men chuckled.

"Another time perhaps," Obi-Wan laughed as he stood, and he had a tender glance for Anakin, before turning on his heels and leaving the garden.

Anakin was right. Obi-Wan hated to admit it, but Anakin was right.

He hated it when Anakin was right like that…

 -------------------------------------------------

 You were back in your personal chambers, alone. Finally. The session of the morning had been a tensed one. Padmé had brought a lot of attention to herself in her plea to help neutral systems that suffered from Separatists embargo. You agreed with her, of course, but her direct phrasing had forced you to defend her often.

It was only the middle of the day, but you were already exhausted.

You couldn't solely blame your friend's reckless words though. Obi-Wan didn't seem willing to leave your thoughts…

You couldn't stop thinking about him. About what had happened in that cave. About the way he held you close, how his fingers felt around yours and… that kiss…

If you closed your eyes you could almost feel his lips on yours all over again.

You lifted up your eyelids again, blinded by the warm sun shining through the large window of your apartment.

Perhaps it was the feeling of his lips that lingered upon yours, or perhaps it was just the sun…

You should have gone to see him already, but you didn't dare. You were so deeply worried about him, you tried to find any piece of information about his health that you could. If news were reassuring, you still would have enjoyed to see it all by yourself. But you didn't dare.

You didn't want to compromise his status in the Order. And you didn't want to have this talk with him, the one that would have to take place whenever you would see each other face to face again. The one that would most certainly break your heart.

You already knew how he would go. He would be gentle and sad and he would mean every word of it.

He would explain how he meant it all that day, in that crevasse. How he did have feelings for you. But also that he was a Jedi, that he had responsibilities, duties, and that such feelings were forbidden. And he would always choose the Jedi Order over you, he had to. You knew it. The Order was his life, his family… it was him on so many levels. And you could never let him sacrifice such an important part of himself for you. You loved him too much for that.

You already knew perfectly how it would all go, so why suffer even more by hearing it for real? What was the point in that?

You walked onto your balcony, the sun even warmer outside. You watched the flying transports moving through the city, the sunlight glistening on the tall buildings, the lazy cumuli peacefully floating high in the sky…

And you closed your eyes just to feel him holding you again…

"Senator Y/L/N, there is a visitor to see you."

You didn't move a muscle, you didn't open your eyes, you didn't stop the memory from washing over you. Instead, you merely asked your protocol droid a very simple question.

"Who?"

But his answer had your eyes open wide.

"Master Kenobi is at the door. He asks to see you."

Your heart was suddenly pounding. Your palms were wet. Your throat tightened. You lost your gaze on the traffic again, but couldn't see anything but the blinding sun…

There was no way out though… it had to be done.

"Make him come in please, and then, leave us alone. And make sure we are not interrupted, please."

"Of course, Senator."

You heard the droid walking away. You heard the door closing. You guessed the quiet steps of the Jedi Knight too. But all the while, you kept your eyes on the city laying at your feet.

You were waiting for Obi-Wan to reach you, but it took longer than you had expected.

The reason was simple: the Jedi was standing before the glass door leading to the balcony that you had left open in your wake, and he was staring at you. His heart wore such a crazy pace, he was short of breath all of a sudden…

You were so beautiful like this, bathed in sunshine.

He took several seconds standing there, motionless, merely taking you in. Eventually, he did move onto the balcony and stood a couple of steps behind you in a respectful, chaste demeanour.

"How is your wound?" you asked in a voice you tried to prevent from shaking.

"Much better. Still a little sore, but… nothing that time and rest will not mend," he answered in a soft voice, but a blank tone.

"I'm glad to hear it. I was worried about you… I thought my favourite bodyguard had been broken."

"It takes more than a shaky landing and a snowstorm to get rid of me."

"I can see that."

You fell silent, and for a moment, Obi-Wan didn't really know what to say. He found himself uncomfortably at a loss for words all of a sudden. Unusual fact for him, he always was so prompt for sassy remarks as well as soothing wise words. But not this time. This time his mind was working as fast as it could but remained blank all the same.

But he didn't have to speak, you broke the heavy silence first.

"I know what you're going to say. I know it all already. But before you say it all, can you do one last thing for me?"

Your voice was calm. Soft. Soothing even. There was such a grace in your tone, something almost royal in the sternness that your voice wore.

"Of course," he merely answered. "Anything."

Finally, you turned to him.

He was lost in your eyes in a second. An instant was enough for you to capture his soul and heart all over again…

It was painful, the way he loved you. It was a weight on his heart that didn't seem to slow its crazy pace. It was a punch in the stomach that left him breathless. It was a fire coursing through his veins and leaving him endlessly burning and yet he had never felt more alive. It was this piercing truth shattering his heart and yet, he knew that no matter how this conversation would end, he would never regret loving you. Even if it meant losing a part of himself with leaving you, even if it meant breaking his heart, even if it meant dying a little… loving you was the best thing that had happened to him, and no matter how badly he would be hurt in the end, he would never regret this moment with you in this cave. And he would never stop loving you. Even if he could only love you from afar, his feelings would not falter.

He realized as you spoke again that barely a second had passed since your stare had caught his.

"Can you hold me? For just a moment?"

You sounded so fragile now. Your voice was shaking, a little more high-pitched than usual. He didn't say a word, and merely nodded and opened his arms for you.

You slipped in his embrace like you had been made to rest there. It felt so natural, so right… how could this be a bad thing, if it felt so right?

You wrapped your arms around him, losing one of your hands in his short hair and burying your face in his shoulder. He was holding you tightly again him, the same way he had on Hoth: a strange balance between a delicate embrace as if he was afraid to hurt you, and a tight hold that revealed how much he wanted you there, in his arms.

Your eyes just like his were closed. You breathed deeply his soft scent of candles and sun, memorizing everything all over again, just like you had in the cave. And he did the same.

For how long did the two of you remained like this, standing motionless in the sun? You had no idea. And he didn't know either. None of you could feel time flying by, this embrace was all that remained in the whole galaxy.

Eventually, you tightened your hold on him, lifting your chin just enough to bring your lips closer to his ear.

"Alright. Go ahead. Say it. Say it all…"

He cleared his throat before being able to speak again.

"How can you know what I want to say?" he asked back.

"Because I know you."

How could he argue with that statement?

"Y/N… I…"

It was his turn to tighten his hold on you and bury his face in the crook of your neck. But he did speak anyway.

"Y/N… what happened in that cave… I meant it. I really did mean it. All of it. I…"

He almost said the words, but couldn't.

"I do feel this way," he chose to speak instead.

Slowly, you nodded.

"I know, Obi."

He heaved a sigh, and detached his face from your neck, looking at you again. He raised his hand to cup your cheek, and you leaned into his touch.

It was exactly how you knew it would happen. First, he told you he meant it all. Then…

"I'm a Jedi, and you're… you're a Senator… We… we are not supposed to fall in love and be together. These things don't happen to people like us. We are supposed to live a lonely life while being surrounded with people."

… then he told you he was a Jedi and he couldn't be with you. And finally…

…finally he broke your heart.

He took a moment to collect his thoughts though. To gather the right words in his mind before speaking them. He needed to say it all the right way.

"I'm not allowed to love but I…"

He stopped mid-sentence, his eyes leaving yours to rest on your lips and jaw instead, and he seemed to change his mind. A small smile appeared on his features.

"Anakin told me something very wise earlier this morning. And I hate to admit it, but his logic was quite convincing."

He looked up at your eyes again, and this time, his stare didn't falter.

"I'm a Jedi and my duty lies in Peace. In protecting those who can't protect themselves. In the defence of the Republic and what it represents. It has been so all my life. But I can't do only that anymore. Not since I met you. No matter if we are together or not, my heart will always be beating for you, and I will always do whatever it takes to keep you safe. And by doing so… I'm already breaking my vow, in a way."

He took a sharp intake or breath, before speaking again.

"I am not the only one who has to take a decision, of course. And if you don't want me to stay, then I won't. If you don't want me to stay, I'll…"

You could see tears shining in his eyes as his voice broke. There was something desperate in his gaze, something passionate and yet calm. As if by taking a decision, he had found peace, but the confession stirred something inside him that he had never dared to act on until now. But there was so much truth in his eyes, and his hold on your cheek was such a tender caress and… you could barely breathe at all…

"If you don't want me to stay," he went on with a voice a little lower and deeper than usual, "I'll leave. I'll walk back to the Temple and leave you alone. And I won't try to see you again unless our duties call for our paths to cross once more. I'll go back to my room and in a few weeks, I'll leave for another world to fight while you are busy in the Senate. And our lives will go on unchanged and I will act as if nothing happened in that cave. Or…"

He paused for a second, moving his fingertips to rest in your hair, his thumb brushing across your cheekbone, making your heart pounding even more. You watched as he moved his head ever so slightly to the side, the sun caught in his hair and beard in a slightly different way through this angle, and you noticed every reflect of it. You were suspended to his words in such a way that you couldn’t move or speak or even think.

Because for now, all these words he had spoken, you were expecting them. But there was this 'or' that you had not foreseen, and all your crazy hopes relied on this single word. His voice a was little more fragile as he went on, a little more uncertain and yet you could see hope glimmer with the tears in his eyes now.

"Or you can ask me to stay and… I could stay for lunch. We could have a walk this afternoon and talk about your homeworld, and how Anakin drives me crazy, and the war, and peace. And when twilight arrives, we could have dinner together, and we could part for the evening with a little more than a 'good night'. And I could come back tomorrow and we could do that all over again. And on and on until I'm sent to the front again. And for a while we'll be apart, and I'll fight as a Jedi while you fight as a Senator, different battles but for the same goal. And once this war is over, and I am not as needed as I am now as a Jedi, and your duty as a Senator is over as well, perhaps we could… leave Coruscant for a while. Or forever."

You felt the tear run down your cheek but you were too shocked to react to it and brush it away. You tried to make sense of his words, but you weren't sure of their meaning yet. You had heard them, but could you believe them?

"You… Obi… You would leave the Order…?"

"When the war is over and the danger is passed and…"

But he interrupted himself, and merely nodded instead, running his finger through your hair.

"If you ask me to stay, I will."

"But it's your life! The Order is your life, you can't abandon it all! I can't let you throw it all away!"

"But you are my heart. I can't abandon it so easily either, can I? Unless… unless you don't want me to stay. And then I'll leave. I've made my choice by giving you this offer. But you have to choose as well. And whatever your choice might be, I will respect it."

You kept on staring at each other, but no words would pass your lips. Your fingers had gone numb with all the shock, resting on his shoulders but unable to hold on the fabric of his shirt anymore.

And you remained silent. For endless seconds, that turned into minutes, you were speechless and he was going mad…

He held you against him more tightly again, moving his lips towards your ear…

He wanted to ask you to tell him to stay. Just a few words that he wanted to ask so badly. He wanted you to choose him. He shouldn't, and guilt was a feeling he knew he would have to struggle with, but he loved you too much to act any differently. He just wanted to ask you to do one thing, one simple thing, just to stay…

Tell me to stay…

How he wanted to speak the words on the tip of his tongue. But he didn't.

Instead, he gave you a few more seconds, but you didn't make a sound. So, he closed his eyes as his heart shattered. Despite the pain, he didn't regret anything. It was worth all the pain.

He moved to drop a chaste peck on your temple, taking your silence for an answer, and he slowly released his hold on you.

"Farewell then, my love."

He took a step towards the door and away from you, turning around in a slow movement. But you didn't let him take another step. You took his hand in yours before he could move away again, and he turned to you once more.

"What about Koyo Melons for lunch then?"

You exchanged a bright grin.

And the next second, you were back in his arms and when you closed your eyes again, his lips weren't on yours in a dream, but in reality.

*********************

Taglist : @ponycake27 @horsesreign @xinyourdreamsx @jbluevelvet @notkeppeki @daynigt-dreamer-stuff @fudgeflyss @stuckupstucky @snek-shit @suchatinyinfinity @i-padfootblack-things @redhairedlady @yana-versio @goldenor5 @madamrogers

[savagenewcanaan]

Savage New Canaan | What Makes a Classic Cars Safe?

Modern vehicles have a whole series of innovative digital systems which help a driver to keep control of the auto in an emergency situation and minimize the possibility of having an accident. Also, the most standard brand-new automobile will include anti-lock brakes (ABDOMINAL MUSCLE) and typically some form of Electronic Stabilization Program (ESP, or often referred to as VDC, PASM or various other acronyms relying on the producer).

    ABDOMINAL prevents the brakes securing when you jump on the pedal, so that you can still steer instead of sliding straight ahead. ESP is a really clever system which identifies where you are trying to steer and also whether or not the vehicle is in fact going in this way. If the auto's direction does not match where you are attempting to steer it, ESP can brake individual wheels on the automobile as well as also cut throttle if required to help the automobile go where you are pointing it. It is extremely handy in slippery conditions where the vehicle intends to glide directly on instead of turning (understeer) or spin around backwards (oversteer). If it is all functioning well, you do not also notice anything is happening.

Savage New Canaan

  Many modern-day automobiles have an entire host of electronic systems in addition to the two instances over which can assist make the automobile 'more secure' to drive. These systems can make the vehicle a lot more foreseeable in its behavior, slow it down somewhat to permit tires to preserve grip, also apply various degrees of braking to every wheel to keep the car well balanced. All of these points make it simpler for the chauffeur to keep control of the automobile, and also for that reason much less most likely to have a crash.

    Some very innovative innovation is available in high-end cars and trucks which takes this also further. Blind spot keeps an eye on usage video cameras to keep an eye on your dead spot and also warn you if you will move over before an additional automobile, or aids to stop the automobile drift out of its lane. Some vehicles can 'acknowledge' rate limit signs and also flash you a pointer. Night vision innovation is offered to determine pedestrians beyond your headlights' range. There are advanced cruise ship control systems which not just maintain your speed, however can speed up or decrease to comply with the vehicle in front and also even break the auto from 150mph to a total stop if needed.

    Michael Savage New Canaan

  In 2014 I drove an Audi A8 in Germany, on autobahns and also around communities as part of an Audi training program. Over a 20-ish mile drive route in a convoy of cars and trucks, I went from 60mph to 150mph (unrestricted autobahn, not via city roads) to a complete stop to 140mph and back to a total quit, surpassing various other cars and trucks, adhering to various other vehicles, obtained stuck behind a truck for some time, rotated via a town and eventually drew into a parking area and quit. At no factor for more than 20 miles did I touch either the brake or the accelerator. Yet the car had actually acted itself flawlessly, faithfully adhering to the vehicle ahead without ever before getting too close. For the first half of the journey, my foot was floating right over the brake pedal simply in case, yet the vehicle's systems were creative sufficient to 'read' the website traffic conditions as well as respond as necessary. Once I overcame the surreal feeling of a vehicle increasing to over 150mph (250km/h in the statistics globe) as well as stopping from that rate without pedal input from me, it was in fact an extremely comfortable drive as well as made the trip extra relaxing. The system utilized 2 radar units, a video camera, the parking sensors, the satnav system and also a powerful computer system to collect and also refine a big quantity of details as well as make split-second choices all along the way.

  However energetic safety isn't practically electronic devices. Any type of aspect of an auto's style or engineering which helps a driver stay clear of a mishap is an active security feature. The density as well as placement of windshield pillars, for instance, has an essential result on a vehicle driver's ability to see oncoming web traffics at roundabouts. A lighter cars and truck will certainly react a lot more nimbly to switches (say, swerving to stay clear of a canine on the road) than a hefty car. Modern tires are better at distributing water in hefty rainfall, making it much less most likely that you will certainly move off the road. More advanced suspension systems assist cars and trucks stay much better balanced when traveling, even at high speeds or when towing hefty lots.

    Inevitably, a 'proactively secure' cars and truck will be one which is easy to drive, foreseeable in its actions as well as provides the driver self-confidence when activity needs to be taken. Predictable habits are risk-free, to ensure that a driver recognizes exactly how an auto is mosting likely to react as well as will instinctively steer and/or brake when a problem occurs. A cars and truck that behaves unexpectedly leads to a driver acting hesitantly and not taking adequate action to avoid a mishap.

    When examination driving an automobile that you are looking to acquire, it is important to take into consideration how comfy you locate the cars and truck, and also exactly how easy it is to see ahead, behind and to the sides. Everyone is different, to the position of seat, columns and mirrors will affect everyone in different ways, which will influence exactly how you have the ability to react to an emergency scenario. Make sure you offer the brakes a good push (make sure there's absolutely nothing behind you which the other individuals in the cars and truck recognize what you're about to do!) so you can get a feeling for just how the pedal feels. Check your unseen areas, examine your mirrors, check exactly how well you can see web traffic - particularly bikes - at roundabouts and so on. If you are considering a utilized vehicle, examine the tires to see exactly how brand-new they are and whether they are a reliable brand or a brand you've never become aware of.

[miss-m-calling]

Yuletide 2020 letter

Requests:

The Marianne Trilogy - Sheri S. Tepper (Marianne Zahmani, Makr Avehl Zahmani)

Starred Up (Eric Love, Oliver Baumer)

킹덤 | Kingdom (Prince Lee Chang, Seo-bi)

Dear writer,

Hello and thank you for writing for me. I’m very excited to read whatever you come up with. I hope my prompts spark your creativity, and feel free to reach out through the mods if you have any questions. There are spoilers for all of my requests! Likes and DNWs are on the bottom of the letter.

Without further ado…

Requests:

The Marianne Trilogy - Sheri S. Tepper

Marianne Zahmani, Makr Avehl Zahmani

What is this canon: Low fantasy trilogy of novels from the 1980s about Marianne, a student at an American university who comes from the tiny, fictional country of Alphenlicht, wedged in between Turkey and Iran, with a native religion that vaguely resembles Zoroastrianism, a long tradition of both light and dark magic, and civil conflict with echoes of the Cold War (one part of the country seceded with Soviet help). Marianne is financially dependent on her abusive older brother Harvey but trying to assert her independence. Enter Makr Avehl, Marianne’s cousin and de facto president of Alphenlicht, who’s both a mage and a charmer. And then Marianne gets targeted by dark magic and has to become self-assertive and figure out how to save herself, even as Makr Avehl also tries to save her (and sweep her off her feet), often with more complicated results than he intended. Every book introduces a different set of magical challenges, most of which transport Marianne to a different constructed/magical realm, with disturbing parallels to the cruelties of the real world and some interesting meta commentary on gender relations. The books are long out of print, but should be available in libraries and as used copies for purchase; the books’ individual titles are: Marianne, the Magus, and the Manticore + Marianne, the Madame, and the Momentary Gods + Marianne, the Matchbox, and the Malachite Mouse.

While I have a like/get-annoyed relationship with most of Tepper’s work I’ve read, I adore this trilogy unreservedly. I love the mixture of dark fantasy, sly humor, creepiness, complex magical systems, and surreal constructed/parallel/hidden worlds described in enough detail while remaining, for lack of a better word, magical… I adore Marianne, whose lives (it makes sense in context) have made her many things: the traumatized yet defiant survivor, the semi-skillful player of the game of life and magic, the lover and wife and mover-and-shaker in her own right. Her relationship with romantic, sometimes overbearing, arrogant, yet loving and lovable Makr Avehl is so rich and wonderful -- and funny! Among the other characters, I also enjoy Aghrehond, Therat, Makr Avehl’s sister, and all the creepy and/or hilarious denizens of the magical worlds into which Marianne is thrust -- they are all welcome to appear if you want to include them. I just love all the playing with and inverting and deconstruction of tropes and cliches, the aforementioned magical/constructed/parallel worlds of whimsy and creepiness that riff on ordinary aspects of the real world while also running on their own internal logic… This canon simply begs for more worldbuilding.

Canon-specific DNWs: Harvey or Madame Delubovoska appearing in the fic (you may mention them); the fic focusing on Marianne’s pregnancy or on her and Makr Avehl’s daughter if these themes have more of a presence in the fic than they did in the events of the third novel; anything over an M rating.

On the other hand, while I have a blanket DNW for incest, Marianne and Makr Avehl are cousins in canon, know it, and become a couple anyway -- this is fine by me. Other incest is still DNW (esp. Marianne/Harvey).

Prompts:

Makr Avehl and/or Marianne visit the Cave of Light and then try to solve a problem or complete a quest (however grand, mundane, or cracky) according to its message. Or something more about life in Alphenlicht in general.

Road trips (maybe with Aghrehond as driver) -- exploring Alphenlicht and/or magical realms.

Marianne says at the end of the last book that Therat may be surprised – I’d love to see what might surprise Therat, in addition to Marianne and Makr Avehl’s firstborn sharing her name. Or give me Makr Avehl having to work closely with Therat due to some magical/mystical/political issue, given that he’s always dropping unsubtle hints about her scary eyes.

Marianne and/or Makr Avehl end up visiting fields on the board-game from book 3 which the book didn’t describe – what kind of place do they encounter? What (probably dangerous, troubling, and/or creepy) adventures do they have?

Marianne promises to meet Queen Buttercup for a meal at Frab Junction’s Marveling Galosh before she escapes the board game in the third book. Magical promises are serious things, so what happens when Marianne has to make the date and Makr Avehl comes to save her and possibly gets in his own way more than he helps?

I love how canon gently sends up Makr Avehl’s image of himself as Marianne’s protector/lover/white knight in the first and third books’ magical worlds. Actually, Makr Avehl as the Freudian chimera in book 1 and as the hapless hero in book 3 are my favorite things about this canon, beside the general worldbuilding and Marianne’s character development. So I’d love to see more variations on that theme -- Makr Avehl as Marianne’s hero, both swoony and ridiculous, gentle yet lecherous, intense and funny with it -- either in the real world or in some new (and sinister) magical realm.

As a general note, I ship Marianne/Makr Avehl, but I would prefer any shippiness to remain at the books’ level, so nothing too explicit and nothing that completely overtakes the non-shippy plot or the worldbuilding, please. 

If your fic ends up focusing mostly on Marianne or Makr Avehl, with the other one having more of a supporting role, or having the protag think a lot about the other one but they only appear for a bit, that’s fine! The books are structured in a similar way, so that could totally work.

Starred Up

Oliver Baumer, Eric Love

What is this canon: Gritty British prison drama about Eric (Jack O’Connell), a violent young offender who gets “starred up” (sent to an adult prison before he is legally an adult) and quickly gets into conflict with several other prisoners as well as guards and staff. He also gets roped into participating in a therapy group run by Oliver (Rupert Friend), a well-meaning if sometimes out-of-his-depth “posh boy” who sees Eric as something more than just an incorrigible thug. Not helping matters is the entire prison system, as well as the fact that Eric’s own father is serving a life sentence in the same prison and has very narrow views on how Eric should be behaving – and talking about his feelings is not a part of it. The free-flowing conversations in the group therapy scenes are easily the film’s highlight, for me, as is the complicated dynamic between Eric and Oliver. The movie’s available on DVD and can be streamed on a bunch of different platforms.

Yes I do ship it, I do, I do!

Ahem. Don’t get me wrong, I liked what the movie did with the father-son relationship and its influence on both men’s character development – but I really wish they hadn’t got Oliver out of the action before the story’s climax (not like that!). The final denouement with Love father and Love son was great, as was the hint at the end that Eric learned something in anger-management group and has a support network that will help him a lot. But. I would have wanted to see more of the intriguing dynamic between Eric the intelligent, semi-feral, yet not-incorrigible, young thug and Oliver the educated, dedicated, kind yet aware of his own potential for violence (what was he on about with “I need to be here”?), slightly older counselor. They had me at Oliver’s “I want him” and Eric later telling his father that Oliver’s a better man than Love Sr. Also the not-flirting and the push-pull in the scene when Oliver picks up Eric from his cell -- yowza!

For this canon, any rating is very welcome, and my dubcon DNW does not apply! If you decide to go there, my preferred flavors of dubcon for this canon are: power differential makes it a bad idea but they do it anyway; “I know you want this”; “if the answer’s no/you’re only doing this for a dare or to prove a point, then why are you enjoying this so much [as am I]?”; no no yes a.k.a. starts as dubcon (or one of them thinks they’re dubconning the other), becomes enthusiastic consent. 

Also, if this is relevant or makes you nervous about writing for me, Eric would be 18-19, and Oliver is maybe 10-12 years older -- and I like it!!! (The actors were 22 and 31 when the movie was made, FWIW.)

Prompts:

-I would love to see Oliver return to holding his group in prison, so the two of them can interact more, either in the movie’s immediate aftermath or years down the line, as it’s implied that Eric will be serving a long sentence. Give me more scenes from anger management or the ribald, honest, free-flowing conversations in group, either with the other men present (I liked Hassan and Tyrone especially, among the group members) or a one-on-one session.

-An oblique or open-but-undramatic admission/declaration that they both know there’s something there, even if they don’t know what to do with it. Or, one or both of them knows exactly what to do with it, and the push-pull that would result from that.

-Dirty talk: used for arousal, as a defense mechanism, as a form of flirtation. Eric using slurs to assert dominance, and Oliver not letting him hide behind profanity, when he can use colorful language to express emotion and/or sexual interest. There could definitely be some verbal taunting/flirting about who wants/is eager to do what or is good at doing something. There may be some sniping comments about logistics and (lack of) condoms and barebacking and what men get up to in prison. There probably wouldn’t be deep discussions about sexual identity.

-An emergency in the prison requires a lock-down, so Oliver gets temporarily stuck in Eric’s cell or another room with only Eric for company. Things get porny and/or emotional.

-Eric is eventually released (you can handwave this so it happens soon after the movie or have it happen years later) and crashes with Oliver while he adjusts to the outside world. You guessed it: things get porny and/or emotional.

-How do they get to the point where both can cross that line from friends/whatever the hell they are and become, to lovers? (There’s Eric’s personal history and general discomfort with vulnerability, plus all the ways prison sex can be or make things complicated, and if it helps, I headcanon Oliver as either gay or bi and at least somewhat closeted, at work especially.) Who initiates and “directs traffic”? How does their always-contentious dynamic shift during and after sex? Is the sex an isolated (series of) occasion(s), or a progression/escalation over multiple encounters (how would I love especially an escalating series of encounters, let me count the ways)? Eric might seem like the logical initiator and/or dominant partner as well as using the possibility of sex to manipulate and exert control, but then Oliver might (or might not!) surprise him and is definitely the one more in touch with himself as well as aware of his custodial duty toward the men in the group.

-At some point in their intimate relationship (probably not right at the start, and probably not in prison, though if you can make it happen in prison, more power to you!), Oliver decides he’s going to take his sweet time and make Eric fall absolutely apart with pleasure, while using dirty talk to both arouse and empower Eric to own his desires – by that point, Eric is in a place where he can let that happen and enjoy it, even if he still talks tough.

-Or how about this: Eric gets out, relationship happens or is in the process of being negotiated, and while physical intimacy is a whooooole neeeeeew woooorld, you know what else would be cool? Phone sex. Yep. Or even, Eric gets himself one of those secret prison burner phones (preferably hidden somewhere that’s not someone’s arse), and... phone sex after lights-out and lock-down. Maybe nothing (much) has happened physically (yet), so phone sex can be a building block to that or one facet of that deepening intimacy.

킹덤 | Kingdom (TV 2019)

Prince Lee Chang, Seo-bi

What is this canon: In a nutshell: zombie invasion of Joseon-era Korea. Longer version: Lee Chang (Ju Ji-hoon) is the emperor’s only child and heir apparent, but his mother was a concubine, and the emperor has a young, pregnant wife whose father is the emperor’s chancellor and the head of the hugely powerful and ambitious Haewon Cho clan. If the young queen gives birth to a son, Lee Chang may find himself expendable, so he attempts a palace coup to remove his father and the Cho clan from power. This goes belly-up when Lee Chang suspects something terrible is happening to his father (the old man hasn’t been seen in days, and a monster seems to be wandering the emperor’s quarters at night, dun dun dun!), while disturbing reports start arriving from the south of the country about a plague that turns people into flesh-eating monsters. Fleeing the capital, Lee Chang makes his way south and encounters several characters from social milieus with which he usually has little or no contact, including a brave, kind, no-nonsense female physician named Seo-bi (Bae Doona), who’s already experienced an early outbreak of the zombie plague first-hand. Adventures political, emotional, military, and zombie-slaying ensue. This is a Netflix-produced Korean-language show, two seasons of six hour-long episodes each.

I fell so hard for this show. So hard! The beautiful production values, the wonderful cast, how the characters develop, how the show slowly but surely unfolds one reveal after another and packs so much into two short seasons, all the period detail, the genuinely tense action scenes, the moments of humor and intense emotion, the intertwining of political intrigue and zomg! really scary zombies, how the zombie outbreak works on multiple levels both literal and metaphorical…

I love the brave, kind-hearted, but sheltered prince, whose whole life has been so privileged yet shadowed by the possibility of death if he loses his position as heir, learning what it means to actually rule and lead people, to protect them and be protected by them in turn. And I love Seo-bi the fearless, dedicated, selfless physician, who notices things and figures things out regardless of whether this annoys the people in power. I ship them, but I also love their platonic interactions, how instantly and fiercely loyal she is to him (not just because he’s the crown prince, but because she’s seen how brave and altruistic he can be) and how he immediately takes her advice and experience seriously despite her being a woman and a commoner in this super-hierarchical setting. So I’m good with either / or & for this pairing. In a / fic, I’d even be good with a totally sublimated, “they both must kinda know what’s going on between them but for reasons of both their personalities and their respective genders and social positions, nothing overt ever gets said or done” scenario. So don’t stress too much over which flavor of dynamic you write for them.

Also, I love most of the cast (not a huge fan of Chancellor Cho, but he is an effective antagonist), and would be delighted to see any of them in fic too. Especially the loyal and funny and badass Mu-yeong (he was loyal, despite the Haewon Cho clan’s blackmail, and if you want to diverge from canon so he lives, I would not mind that at all), the even more badass and wounded and snarky Yeong-sin (or whatever his real name is), Chang’s sparky, exiled uncle several times removed, and the terrifying and frankly unhinged young queen are my favorites. I even have a soft spot for that gentle but mostly-useless coward Cho Beom-pal, but really, they’re all great and I would love reading about them too, or just about the prince and the lady physician – whatever works!

Finally, before I get to prompts, I know a bit about the Joseon period, but we’re talking the bits and pieces I remember from a college class and what I’ve read on Wikipedia and picked up from this and other Korean movies and shows. I know a bit more about some of the cultural background, like the Confucian values, the social stratification and feudal system, the gender segregation among the aristocracy, the wars with Japan, but again – my knowledge is limited. So if you want to teach me stuff about Joseon, go for it! If you want to invent or handwave stuff, as long as it fits the canon’s mood and broad cultural parameters, go for it! And if you want to treat me to some worldbuilding, period detail of any kind, and/or costume porn, definitely go for it.

Canon-specific DNW: anything above M rating for sex (violence is fine, and you may write about blood and gore as well as zombies eating people, blanket DNWs for lotsa gore and cannibalism notwithstanding).

Prompts:

Zombie fighting anything! Learning to survive in a society that’s rapidly breaking down, having to transcend their habitual social roles and challenging each other. Maybe one of them teaches the other to hunt, or to make herbal medicines, or to fight with a sword, or heck, to cook or to clean dirty clothes. (FYI I wrote most of these prompts before I was quite done with S2, and the time-skip took me totally by surprise. So while my prompts ignore Chang renouncing the throne, I’d also be down for the untold adventures of the former prince and his traveling companions, as Chang learns how to be just regular folks and they pursue clues about the resurrection flower, or for your take on what happens in S3, in which case you may ignore my kidfic DNW and include Lee Chang’s little “brother” if the plot needs him. Use whatever works for you in my prompts in any way you want!)

Figuring out how the zombie infection continues to evolve and/or working together to find a cure beyond dunking the infected in water – whether that means to destroy large numbers of the undead, or to develop an antidote, or to cure and bring back those afflicted. One plot detail that really struck me: more experimenting with zombies, like Chancellor Cho started to do, might also hold the key to a cure?

Political intrigue anything! Having to fight zombies and/or factions at court with both friends and unexpected allies (not gonna lie, I would have loved to have seen the young queen unleashed on some zombies, even if that did not make her the prince and Seo-bi’s ally).

More road trip/survival/battle goodness – maybe Seo-bi offers Lee Chang some advice while they’re navigating their new situation, or she witnesses him developing his leadership muscles, and it brings them closer together than before. Or maybe a moment of humor, relaxation, or quiet affection on the road or in between zombie-slaying, especially if it catches them both a bit by surprise. Or one of them gets a non-zombifying injury (nothing too gruesome or life-threatening, please) and the other one has to care for them – extra points if Seo-bi is injured and the prince doesn’t know what to do so she has to talk him through her own treatment. Or nightmares/being triggered by something, like we saw both Chang and Seo-bi react at the sounds of zombies growling and people screaming in S2E5.

We have seen Seo-bi insist on staying loyal to the prince, and Lee Chang rely on her repeatedly to the exclusion of all his other people – give me a situation in which he has to make clear his own loyalty to her, as a part of both his becoming a better leader and as a step in advancing their relationship. Or, there comes a time when Seo-bi really pushes against the rules of what someone like she can and cannot say or do to/around a crown prince – we’ve seen Lee Chang refuse to stand on his dignity when in the normal course of events so many of his interactions with commoners would end in the commoners’ death, but I imagine even he has his limits, and that kind of clash can only drive this dynamic forward!

Canon divergence in which Seo-bi gets sent to the capital and assigned to be the personal physician to the petulant, frustrated prince we meet at the start of the show (handwave the gender segregation and impropriety). She knows her place, but she also does not suffer fools or male nonsense. Sparks fly, social conventions get tested, zombies may or may not happen, and a new mutual understanding is born.

Canon divergence from the scene in S2E2 when Seo-bi finagles her way to being allowed to see the prince and he instructs her to resurrect Ahn Hyeon – what if instead of that, they came up with another plan of escape? Or maybe Lee Chang sending Seo-bi to spy on the queen goes a different way than in canon? And really, anything that requires those two to pass secret messages while grabbing each other’s hands and staring intently into each other’s eyes is A+ with me!

One theme which emerges gradually, and I really loved, is people having to compromise their principles to survive and ensure the safety of those they feel loyal and/or obliged to: Ahn Hyeon agreeing to turn the sick villagers into zombies, dear Mu-yeong having been a spy but also protecting the prince all along, Seo-bi resurrecting Ahn Hyeon, Lee Chang instructing her to do it as well as his thousand-yard-stare after having to finish off what’s left of his father… I’d love to see more such compromises, how their consequences ripple out, and the emotional fallout.

In addition to zombies, other magical and/or supernatural events and creatures start to appear in Joseon. If you want to bring in something from Buddhist mythology or Korean folklore, please do, and any and all worldbuilding would be awesome. 

Post-canon something in which Lee Chang is king, possibly of only a part of the country (maybe a zombie-free enclave, or a part he won in a civil war against the Cho clan or a cadet branch of his family), and Seo-bi is there as his advisor, physician, and unofficial chancellor. Gimme policymaking to deal with the lingering zombie issue, assassination plots, servants/guards/ladies in waiting gossiping like it’s their real job, all the palace intrigue!

Kind of related to the previous: even as a “spare” prince, Lee Chang can’t marry a commoner. Would he ever think to offer Seo-bi to become his concubine? I don’t think she’d go for it, and he might realize it, but maybe I’m wrong! Or maybe being intensely platonic at each other is as good as it gets for them, and they’re kind of okay with that. Or they get married in secret and have to be very careful not to let slip anything by word on gesture in public, or not to let Seo-bi get pregnant. Or, y’know, one day or night on the road or in a fortified town, in between scavenging for supplies and fighting zombies, they decide to bone down just because their lives are weird enough now to forget about propriety and all that jazz for an hour.

I’d also be down for poly fic for this canon: Lee Chang/Seo-bi/Yeong-sin either during the period we see in the show (or a divergence therefrom) or during the seven-year time skip at the end of S2 (for this threesome, I want a full triangle, not a V-shaped triad, please). Or a sedoretu formed for either political or survival reasons between Lee Chang, Seo-bi, Yeong-sin, and Queen Consort Cho. Oh the drama, the class differences, the conflicting loyalties and (dis)trust, the intrigue, the barely hidden desires, all those strong personalities rubbing up against each other...

I realize that some of these prompts could work as well (better?) as a no-zombies AU, and that’s fine if you want to take it in that direction. :-)

Likes:

I love pre-canon, canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, and missing-scene stories. I love character-driven and plot-driven stories equally, and I love fics which mix humor and angst/serious business when appropriate for the canon.

I love stories about characters at work and play, group dynamics, family dynamics (including constructed families), professional partnerships, friendships, alliances, rivalries, intimate couples (new lovers/first times as well as long-term/established couples), UST-ridden couples who are not just UST-ridden but connected in other ways too, etc.

I love irony, snark, humor as well as angst arising from the characters rather than the plot crowbaring it in, linear, non-linear, and 5+1 stories, hopeful endings, happy endings, bittersweet endings, worldbuilding, spiky characters who keep their jagged edges and spikiness in adversity as well as when their lives are going well, square-peg-in-round-hole characters, characters who are their own worst enemies as well as those who can get over themselves when the occasion calls for it, characters with conflicting values which may or may not be reconciled/resolved, characters who treat each other with respect and as equals even if they hate/annoy/can’t stand/love to dislike each other.

I especially love workplace stories (this can mean anything from an actual workplace/casefic/procedural setting to anything that revolves around the canon world in which the characters live) in which the characters are competent and dedicated to the job, and while they may not be exactly friends and they may well irritate one another, they still manage to rub along to get the job done and maybe even grow to care about one another (much to their surprise and sometimes reluctance/discomfort). Or, if they can’t get along, show me why not and what’s preventing them from finding common ground.

In terms of ship dynamics, I love (where it fits the characters) banter, competitiveness or antagonism shading into attraction (this tension need not be resolved), oh-god-why-did-it-have-to-be-you-what-did-I-do-to-deserve-this, bickering yet loving couples, characters who are serious about their romantic interests, characters who think they are much better at flirtation than they actually are, characters forced to work together only to prove much more compatible than they initially assumed, fics which mix an exploration of characters’ professional and everyday lives with shipping. A dynamic I cannot resist is shipping a couple who are incompatible in some important way (they are ideological enemies, cop and criminal, spies from opposite sides, one betrayed the other or they betrayed each other), and while they love and want each other they’re also not willing to change sides or surrender/compromise their identity for the other’s benefit, and how they might (or not) make their relationship work anyway.

I don’t have any very specific likes for smut, other than smut fitting the characters – show me how their canon dynamics spill over into the bedroom (or other place of congress). I also like sexual scenarios that subvert expectations a little and surprise the characters themselves (e.g., the person who’s usually quiet or more passive taking charge, the more aggressive person goes with it possibly snarking or commenting on it as long as they can). And I like sexual scenarios that contain an element of competition, antagonism, oh-god-this-is-a-bad-idea-but-we’re-going-for-it-hammer-and-tongs, not wanting to admit feelings or show vulnerability except oops it happens anyway, whether the characters acknowledge it or not, or just people getting way more into it or being more affected by it than they thought they would. Quick and intense sex, slow and intense sex are both great; rough yet willing sex (when it fits the characters) is great; masturbation while thinking of the other half of the ship (or not wanting to think about them but oops there they are in the fantasy!) is great. First times are great, and so is established-relationship, we-know-each-other-so-well sex. When it fits the characters and their canon dynamic, you also can’t go wrong with we-both-wanted-this-for-forever-and-now-we-both-know-it-so-here-we-go-diving-in-headfirst. For het and/or slash, oral, vaginal, anal incl. pegging, manual (ifyouknowwhatImean) – it’s all good. You can go as veiled or as explicit as you like, but please avoid excessive medical jargon – I don’t find a lot of mention of “penis” or “clit” sexy.

Ship/smut DNWs:

MPREG, A/B/O, knotting D/s, formalized BDSM, painful sex, hard kinks (holding someone down playfully, hair pulling and such like, the odd spank are a-OK) scat, watersports knife/gun/blood play incest deaging/infantilization, mommy/daddy kink under-16yos in sexual situations humiliation body distortion/horror (feeding/weight kink, come inflation, vore, etc.) unrequested ships/pairings soulmates and soul marks pregnancy and children (can be mentioned if canon, just don’t make the whole fic about them) wedding setting/theme secondary characters shipping the main pair like it’s their job xeno, tentacles, bestiality noncon/dubcon

Other DNWs:

torture and abuse (this and noncon/dubcon can be mentioned, but please don’t dwell on it in loving detail or subject any of my requested characters to it) descriptions of vomit, shit, and piss (”He pissed up against a tree” and the like is fine), toilet humor lots of gore/blood (mention it, yes; lovingly describe it, no), cannibalism, serious illness or injury character bashing genderswap/genderbent characters, characters as kids/young teens issuefic, gender/sexuality/race/ethnicity/religion/ability/identity headcanons death of requested characters hopeless, unrelenting gloom/angst/horror RL holiday setting/theme, RL religions as a major theme (invented fictional holidays and rituals are fine) reference to RL current events 1st and 2nd person POV unrequested crossovers or fusions AUs which have nothing to do with canon (e.g., mod AU for Kingdom)

[veronicaprototypesdigitaly]

Exam Essay: Digital prototyping practice and speculative approaches in relation to ethical concerns

Digital prototyping in relation to ethical concerns can be used as a tool to draw speculations upon existing ethical scenarios that are common and known, but to which the general public has become insensitive as if the problems humanity faces weren’t big enough to deserve urgent attention. By casting a speculative perspective upon ethical issues, designers are able to expose a problem in a more impactful way than imagery, disclaimers or infographics are able to.

Familiarity leads to ignorance Every once in a while, ethical concerns are brought up on social media, for instance labor exploitation in fashion industry is one of the loudest topics in the media: there are articles, documentaries, vlogs, podcasts, books about it. Paradoxically however, the familiarity of the problem has desensitized our feelings towards it, close to the dark humor remark of “starving children in Africa”: barely any consumer is raising an eyebrow when buying another bargain garment with a label that reads “Made in Bangladesh”. This tendency of decoupling the end consumer and garment producer can be challenged by applying critical design practice through a speculative approach that “facilitates a way of […] exploring, projecting and understanding the relationship between users, objects and the systems that they exist in” (Malpass, 2016, p. 478).

Measuring existing values for future realities How technology could affect real-world ethical norms in the Digital Age? Without perceiving the bigger picture behind a future scenario, technology might solve one problem but cause a hundred new issue. Since human behavior tends to twist the initial implications of designers, “the futures we are getting hardly seem like the ones we explicitly decide on” (Tonkinwise, 2014, p. 170). To give an example, just a decade ago online dating seemed risky and was considered as an almost extreme approach for finding a partner, but with the Tinder app it’s now as common as posting a brunch plate on Instagram. Therefore, it is likely that what seems provoking now, will become more than acceptable in the future. Designers unconsciously create new social norms without envisioning that they would change our moral codex before we got to ask ourselves whether this is what we desire. In other words – is that desire really desirable, as Tonkinwise puts it – “what is likely, and within that, what must be resisted as unlikable” (2014, p. 171).

Predicting the unpredictable through digital prototyping One of the issues Tonkinwise (2014) points out when criticizing Dunne and Raby’s “Speculative Everything” is the excessive use of “we” that is common in the broader design world when designers talk about design. It seems like the “we” are actually designers alone that make a minority of the population, though they decide upon the futures which result in long-lasting ethical implications for the rest of the humanity. Speculative approaches have the ability to simulate complicated connections between distant players in a system thus raising questions about the whole rather than focusing on a particular pragmatic function, such discourses allow for a certain way of seeing, understanding” (Malpass, 2016, p. 475) of the things that we already seem to know. The issue with designing for the future lies in calibrating the moral compass right without having released a new product or design, because human understanding about the world will change, though we design from our current perspectives. Therefore, digital prototyping can through speculative approaches contribute to a “culture of design that is more considered and reflective” (Malpass, 2016, p. 477).

Prototyping as a means for explaining the obvious Digital prototyping allows us to build intricate systems and thus speculate on a level that physical prototypes barely could, especially when high fidelity is a virtue for a particular prototyping situation. Schrage defines prototypes as hypotheses and sets against the conventional perception of prototypes as models – “prototype is a proposition explicitly designed to explain an observable phenomenon” (Schrage, 2013, p. 22). Meaning, a prototype does not necessarily need to invent something, it can be used as a tool to shed a new perspective to a known problem and thus inspire to make a change on that problem.

Framework for conscious design Ethics in design is slowly emerging as a crucial part of design education. An example of raising the voice on its importance is the Ethics Lab founded by Georgetown University. It is an initiative that leads projects on – amongst others – ethics for the digital age, they take a look at “real-world problems in order to develop new insights” as well as current ethical tensions “as an opportunity to inform and imagine” new ways of tackling global challenges. Ethics Lab create tools for mapping the moral landscape that are supposed to put emphasis on value-based terms in relationships as opposed to the “typical cost-benefit metrics”.

Experiencing digital prototyping An example of speculative approach in relation to a known ethical concern could be the UN Sustainability Goals project for Interaction Design program at Malmö University. My group focused on sustainable production and consumption patterns. The main question for us was how digital prototyping could allow us to speculate about a problem that now is considered to be trivial, namely the fashion industry labor exploitation in third world countries. How do we use speculative approaches through digital prototyping to raise awareness on ethical concerns without providing explicit information about an issue that is known? After several iterations we decided to digitally prototype a system that follows the gig economy model in order to change the perception of the existing ethical problem by “stimulating user’s imagination through interaction” (Malpass, 2016). We used rhetorical strategies, like flashy e-commerce banners, to simulate a familiar online shopping environment thus making the user to “shop” for labor by selecting people according to their price and rating. In addition to that, the customer gets an order summary that not only shows the total of the items and shipping, but also highlights how much the contractor will get for their work. With this, the connection is closed and the customer is directly responsible. The problem is there as it was before, but it’s not showed under the shadow of the middle-men chain.

Speculating on the known In the project an alternative value system was introduced through speculative design, though one could argue that it’s not actually alternative or surreal as such, it’s actually existing, but closing the connection sparks controversy and an eerie experience of having to treat people as commodities. The familiarity of the problem conditions a certain level of ambiguity (Malpass, 2016) in the idea that we present: the concept seems somewhat controversial, even though users knew about the existence on the labor exploitation. Several users that tested the platform experienced uneasiness in selecting the contractor and an urge to avoid this step while shopping on the webstore. Therefore, even though the ethical issue is known, it is difficult to relate to, because it is hidden from the consumer both through many middle hands as well as geographical distance that separates the buyer and the producer.

“Trying on” a reality Speculation on the realities and futures for ethical concerns is challenging in the sense that one is addressing biased views on morals while those views are socially accepted because people feel powerless to solve those problems. The project has made obvious that attempting to raise awareness through providing more information is the intuitive way to go, but to create a truly impactful discourse is challenging, simply because people are receiving information about multiple global problems on a daily basis and have naturally become indifferent to the facts. Through prototyping and iterating on the highlighting methods, it became obvious that a speculative approach for an ethical concern has to be somewhat fierce and thus erase the disconnection between the world as it is and the world as it is perceived from a place of comfort. Testing digital prototype on users revealed flaws in them mostly by users asking “So what? I think I would be content with such reality”. Prototyping a digital platform based on gig economy model allowed us to test how online shopping would be accepted when applied to choosing garment labor.

Concluding thoughts Ethical issues seem distant and overwhelming, especially when there is a lack of direct connection between the consumer and someone that suffers the consequences of consumerism. Digital prototyping practices can raise both current and future ethical scenarios to the surface and expose their presence, as well as facilitate testing such alternative realities for us to be able to answer whether something that is desirable is also something that is likeable. Speculative approaches in digital prototyping offer a new perspective on comfortably forgotten ethical concerns, they might help raise awareness about concepts that appear to be provoking in the present and might become the norm in the future. Mapping the moral landscape might become an essential part of design process meanwhile as speculative design might be perceived as less conceptual and more applicable since it allows a special ability of prototyping where what the prototype prototypes is not a demonstration of an invention but rather a new perspective on an existing ethical issue. And thus, speculative approaches might lead us to an empathic look on current concerns and encourage us to act on them as well as design consciously for the future. ____________________________

References

Georgetown University’s project Ethics Lab: https://ethicslab.georgetown.edu/

Malpass, M. (2016). Critical Design Practice: Theoretical perspectives and methods of engagement. Design Journal, 19(3), 473–489.

Schrage, M. (2013). Crafting Interactions: The Purpose & Practice of Serious Play. In: Prototype: Design and Craft in the 21st Century, p.19–28.

Tonkinwise, C. (2014). How We Intend to Future: Review of Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction and Social Dreaming, Design Philosophy Papers, 12:2, p.169–187. Routeledge.

[one-more-miracle-gatsby]

I just finished Impyrium by Henry H Neff and I’m gonna talk about it because I have a lot of feelings so spoiler warning

-I completely forgot the demon’s conditions for the Red Winter Treaty so I saw the Prusian Sea on the map and I was like “huh I wonder what the crafty bastard did to get an ocean named after him” and then I got to the line about underwater demon kingdoms and I was like THAT’S RIGHT THEY BANISHED HIM TO THE SEA and of course he still managed to go make himself a successful kingdom like ffs Prusias just enjoy retirement.

-Sigga Fenn is my new favorite character. What a bro. I mean yeah she played Hob like a panther stalking a rabbit and absolutely would have killed him in an instant and we don’t still know what her exact orders are but there are times when she does seem to be as sincere and friendly as she can professionally be and like honestly it’s nice to have such a chill agent. Disguising herself as the old lady was hilarious like that was so unnecessary Sigga you didn’t have to steal her dessert

-I love the dynamics between the triplets. Isabel is great.

-homunculus breeding is fascinating oh my god

-”Hazel saw that Harkün had also drawn a dagger with a wavy black blade” TFW you’re such a die-hard Cooper fan you can recognize his weapon 3000 years later

-speaking of the devil, I hope that Mystic with mismatched eyes was a descendant of who I think she was because please imagine Hazel Cooper’s reaction to finding her greatx3k granddaughter gambling with a domovoi

-Like. I know Prime is not going to turn out to be Cooper but there’s a tiny part of my sappy fangirl heart going, “if anyone were to volunteer themselves to be turned into a statue for all eternity to protect Rowan it would probably be him”

-Hob’s sass is beautiful can he give me lessons

-THERE WILL ALWAYS BE SHROPES COOKING AT ROWAN

-I love the quotes at the start of the chapters, not only did they bring more meaning to the chapters but they also provided some context and backstory, like how old David lived to be.

-Honestly Hazel’s mentality was so unapologetically realistic like she was so innocent and oblivious but then she started learning things and I love her revelations that she can take control of her own life. But like she was still allowed to be delicate and cry and sleep with a stuffed giraffe and it wasn’t depicted as weakness.

-I will be forever be impressed at the all the political webs Henry weaves

-Montague’s character development

-I wonder what Ember really did with Mina like did he really eat her or is she chillin in his mouth under the sea

-The two perspectives were so great and it was awesome because you can’t trust the Fellowship and you can’t trust the royals, you can only trust that the main characters themselves will see the faults of their respective sides and make the right decisions. I love how they opened each other’s eyes to new things.

-It’s so cool because The Tapestry was so heavily based in Irish mythology and now Impyrium is based in Tapestry mythology like the original series became the mythology of the new series, which means that our world is part of that mythology. I remember Henry saying something about how The Tapestry was partially a story about human perseverance and that really spoke to me in some parts of this book too. That ancient, scratched-up, barely-working Disney film was so unsettling but so wonderful. Burke’s line about “would you believe we lowly little humans once walked on the moon?” The part where the Fellowship is explaining about how humans once built flying ships and split matter to its smallest components without any magic, just with the sheer power of their minds. It’s inspiring. And it was interesting seeing that different perspective of the destruction of the Book of Thoth, like we were just starting to explore the heavens themselves and then that technology was taken away from us. But like it said, at least we’re still walking on the Earth. It’s surreal reading this and realizing that in this book we are the ancient civilizations. Much of our history is either not known at all or considered a nonsensical fairy tale. But Disney films and the Brothers Grimm tales still exist. Stories persevere, no matter how rare or expensive or illegal they may become. Getting even more meta, it’s just like the stories of the original series becoming the mythology of this one. Stories stick around, no matter how much they may change, and apparently the same applies to humanity.

-I would love to talk to someone who read Impyrium without reading The Tapestry first and find out what that realization was like, when it suddenly dawned on them that this had once been our world.

-It’s also really interesting and kind of funny seeing the empress and the princesses have the whole week-long pilgrimage and put themselves through such physical and mental duress to go worship this mysterious scary god-king from another world when those of us who have read The Tapestry know that this all-powerful warrior is the same guy who got repeatedly bossed around by a talking goose and once used magic to leap 20 feet in the air because he got startled by a robot centipede. The Hound of Rowan, everybody. One thing I always admired about Max’s character was that no matter how much he grew and changed the core of his personality, his kindness and his humor, stayed the same (and even when he went full supernova god in the Workshop he was still able to keep from destroying everybody because of the love he felt for his friends). And I’m glad that even just from that little glimpse we got of him we can see that he still holds that same personality, that he was so eager to help this teenage girl that he forgot about the FATAL WOUND that would literally kill him if he went through the gate like Max never change

-I was not expecting this story to give me so many Max feels like I thought I was over the end of The Red Winter but apparently not. I actually laughed when they brought out the lyrmrills as offerings because it was so beautifully nostalgic and sentimental but also like, what else would it be? The man loves his lymrills.

-Speaking of Max getting bossed around by Hannah I seem to remember her saying she was immortal at the end of The Red Winter so are she and her goslings still wandering around the Direwoods oh god

-Again it must be such a different experience reading this without the context of the first series because that whole Direwoods field trip was kind of a punch in the gut. I remember in The Hound of Rowan reading about the abandoned charges wandering the Sanctuary and forgetting that humans ever cared for them and I thought that was so sad and now the entire Sanctuary is like that. The Sanctuary was such a beacon of hope and peace and now it’s just a creepy haunted forest where little rich kids are afraid to get their feet dirty. Who knows how long selkies live, that could have been Frigga or Helga in the lagoon being so glad to have some humans to play with again. And the ruins of the Warming Lodge and the dvergar brother’s forge. Dude that one classroom had Nile Croakers and domovoi and stuff in cages and the selkies were described as “water beasts” like that was so sad it feels so wrong and it’s such a good representation of how the culture has changed

-Like honestly it’s just such a message about the nature of history. It reminds me of Church’s monologue from the end of season 13 of Red vs Blue, where he talked about the hero never getting to know if his sacrifice was worth it. Max didn’t know what became of his friends or the world he left behind presumably until David’s death (and don’t think I don’t have a fanfic idea about that), and then Max and David and everyone presumably don’t really know what became of their world 3000 years later, like they know the gate and the dragon exist and they know about the Faeregines coming on pilgrimage every few years, but I guess they probably don’t know much beyond that. They never get to see the long-lasting effects of their efforts, and they don’t get to know the perspectives with which people view them and the legends they’ve become. They didn’t want Rowan to become a place for snobby elites, and they didn’t want nonmagical people to be discriminated against, but they can’t do anything about it. Because we can act to change our history, but in the long run we never know how our stories will end up being told. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take action to better our world for the present and the foreseeable future.

-I love all the subtle parallels, intentional or not, between this story and The Tapestry. Kids sneaking out at night for a sleepover on a ship, kids sneaking out for a duel. A man losing his face. Workshop specimens getting stolen. Being betrayed by a friend (honestly, I didn’t suspect Viktor at all until he suggested that they collect firewood and then my mind immediately went to Rolf and Connor for some reason even though there was no real connection). The illustration of Hob outside Hazel’s tent with the House Blade next to the fire reminded me so much of Cooper sneaking into Max’s tent with the poisoned Atropos blade, and it was Scathach the shadow who saved Max and Sigga the shadow who saved Hazel and Hob. History repeats itself. No matter how much some things change, some things still repeat.

-Olly was such a great character, like he had flaws but he acknowledged and apologized for them and he was so great. Sniff.

-Seriously Sigga is that teacher who’s like “I know you’re going though a lot so I’m going to conveniently forget to close the submission box until a while after the due date so I won’t know if you turned the homework in late but if I do catch you turning it in late I gotta fail you sorry”

-Also can we talk about the fact that Ember apparently fell in love with Astaroth’s hell dragon that he conjured from dead people like oh my god Ember plz you guys almost killed each other

-I feel like remember Henry saying something about us eventually getting to hear more about the grymholch from Prusias’s arena and the world it was from and I hope that happens

[floraexplorer]

Pyramiden, Svalbard: Exploring the Arctic’s Soviet Ghost Town

Welcome to Pyramiden, Svalbard: population 7

High up in the north of Norway in the Svalbard archipelago is a town called Longyearbyen. It’s generally known as the northernmost town in the world: about a thousand people live and work here, despite its remote location above the Arctic Circle.

But there’s actually another place which deserves the ‘northernmost-everything’ accolade – except it’s virtually uninhabited.

This is Pyramiden, a Russian coal-mining settlement which was hastily abandoned by its residents in 1998. Ever since, the streets, buildings and once-loved possessions have been left to the Arctic elements.

And today, I’m paying Pyramiden a visit.

Arriving in Pyramiden, Svalbard

From the deck of our boat, my first glimpse of Pyramiden is like something out of a spy film. Two Russian men in long dark trench coats stand waiting silently on the dock, with rifles slung across their chests. Their stoicism is completely at odds with the pent-up energy of my fellow boat passengers, all itching to explore Pyramiden.

Our boat drops anchor and I watch as the hordes of tourists jump eagerly onto the rickety boardwalk before we’ve even properly docked; cameras out immediately, as soon as their feet touch the creaking wood. I choose to hang back, watching the way they behave while warming my hands, red-raw with the Arctic cold, on the back of my neck.

I’ve long harboured a desire to visit Pyramiden.

Like many would-be urban explorers, the idea of exploring an entire town abandoned to the elements – and one that’s isolated at the very top of the world, no less – gave me goosebumps of the best variety.

So when I realised that my Arctic expedition from Scotland to Svalbard would actually lead me straight to this surreal place, I could barely contain myself.

People seem fascinated by the fact that Pyramiden is a ghost town. I’m more amazed by the handful of men who choose to keep living there still. Amongst the ghosts.

A map of Pyramiden, Svalbard

Meeting Sasha, our Pyramiden tour guide

We stand on the pier as our boat group is split into two. I’m in the second half, watching as the first group sets off towards the Pyramiden settlement in a little minibus with a polar bear crest on its side.

Looking at the Russian cyrillic it’s my first realisation that, although we’re still on Norwegian landmass and I’ve never visited Russia before, we’re very much back in the USSR.

A guide walks over to us and introduces himself as Sasha. He may look slight, but he pulls no punches: as he approaches, a Polish tourist is joking about the safety messages we’d heard on the boat, saying that the danger of polar bears is totally overrated and we could easily walk to Pyramiden instead of waiting for the bus.

Sasha pointedly re-adjusts his rifle and says, “We are not playing around here. This is the Arctic, a wild terrain, and polar bears are a significant danger.”

The same rule applies throughout Svalbard: polar bears can and do attack people, and it’s a legal requirement to carry a rifle at all times.

Our first stop is at the sign which welcomes visitors to Pyramiden in both Russian Cyrillic and English.

As Sasha begins to speak in a soft voice about Pyramiden’s history, I look behind him to the triangular mountain which gives the settlement its name – and which caused the Russians to be here in the first place.

The story behind why Pyramiden was abandoned

This patch of land was first established by Sweden in 1910, but Russia quickly bought it in 1926 in order to mine the pyramid-shaped mountain for its coal deposits. For a period of seventy years, working as a coal miner in Pyramiden was a sought after opportunity: at the height of Soviet Union rule, their sole settlement in the West was a perfect platform to show off their country’s wealth to the rest of the world.

At least 10,000 CVs were submitted each year, and only the best coal miners were eligible to work in Pyramiden. After arriving with their families, they lived at the settlement for a two-year shift and enjoyed a pretty pleasant life: the town had a cinema, sports hall, school, nursery, music hall, library and hospital, and all these services were free of cost to everyone living here.

Unfortunately when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 it meant the coal industry was much less profitable, and Pyramiden quickly became redundant. In 1998 the coal mine closed down and everyone was told to leave – which they did in a hurry, thanks to a Russian boat docking at the harbour along with the announcement that it would leave in just three hours time.

Suddenly this town’s population crashed from 1000 to less than 60, and in just a few months the Russian Arctic settlement quickly became a ghost town.

It’s a sobering story: the idea that a close-knit community had to drop their possessions and leave immediately, cutting their Pyramiden life short.

But the fact that there are still a handful of residents living amongst those abandoned possessions? That’s what gives me chills.

What is life like in Pyramiden now?

As Sasha leads our group up the main street towards the settlement, I ask him questions about how he came to be here.

Sasha is from St Petersburg, but he’s lived in Pyramiden since 2012 along with five other guides who live on this desolate bit of the Svalbard archipelago. They’re all Russian, albeit far away from Russia, and seem staunchly patriotic (a friend on my Quark ship suggested I shouldn’t bring up politics when visiting Pyramiden!)

Yet when he spots my bright yellow Quark-branded jacket, Sasha’s eyes brighten. “I would love to work for Quark!” he says. “Do you know if they need any guides?” He has a PhD in geography and is interested in guiding trips around Antarctica, as an alternative to the Arctic. We chat about travel writing and social media, and Sasha looks contemplative.

Social media isn’t something he uses. There is no internet signal in Pyramiden; no radio and no TV either. They do have a satellite phone for hotel bookings, but there’s only one little patch of signal along the bay which can be picked up thanks to the mountains and the snow reflecting it. Sasha has to be patient, heading up there each day to wait for a text message to see if there are hotel guests coming.

Outside Hotel Tulip in Pyramiden, Svalbard

We’re passing Pyramiden’s Tulip (or Tulpan) Hotel at this point – the only habitable accommodation in the entire town. Sasha explains that this is where he and his fellow guides live, as do the few visitors who decide to spend the night in Pyramiden.

A sleepover in the rural Arctic is not without its dangers, though: only a few months before our visit, a polar bear broke in through the first floor window, beating his way through the beer cans in the bar under the managers desk and promptly licking up the spilled beer.

“I was supposed to be eaten first because I sleep on the second floor and the others sleep on the fourth floor,” Sasha tells us. There’s now a red sheet of dull metal over the window as a rudimentary fix.

Apparently the bear wasn’t shot or killed as punishment for the break-in, which seems to make Sasha happy. I imagine he’s keen to maintain as many lives as possible around here, whether man or beast.

Both sides of the street are lined with brick and wooden houses dating back to 1947 and earlier. With every step, I see further clues to the lifestyles of Pyramiden’s previous inhabitants.

Every building is set on stilts driven deep into the ground. If they weren’t, the interior heating would melt into the ground’s permafrost and force the buildings to sink because of the permafrost. However, that same Arctic climate also means most of the buildings are impervious to rot and decay – or, at least, that decaying happens very slowly.

Although most citizens used to eat in the town canteen, there are iron fridges still hanging from the outsides of windows – although for five months of year they turn into freezers instead as temperatures fall below zero.

There used to be a very good hospital when Pyramiden was ‘alive’, Sasha says. Now, unfortunately, there’s no doctor – which means hitching a ride to the nearby settlement of Barentsberg on a tourist boat whenever there’s a medical issue.

When we pass a single memorial cross standing amongst the stones, Sasha explains that nobody is buried here in Pyramiden – or anywhere else on the Svalbard archipelago. Corpses don’t decompose in a land of permafrost, so the body of anyone who dies on Svalbard has to be shipped back to the Norwegian mainland for burial.

We arrive into Pyramiden’s main square and walk towards a bust of Vladimir Lenin – ‘the grandfather’, as Sasha calls him. His stone profile gazes out towards the Nordenskiöld glacier far off in the distance.

Behind him is Pyramiden’s cultural centre, the hub of all the settlement’s activity.

Exploring Pyramiden’s abandoned buildings

As soon as we step inside the cultural centre it’s all cameras, all action. Everywhere I look, my fellow explorers are busily capturing every detail they can find of the weirdest, most ‘abandoned’ looking scenes.

I stand at the entrance waiting for them to disappear so I can try imagining what this place really feels like without a single soul around.

There are rows of empty coat hooks, with broken light fittings hanging from the ceiling tiles. Photo montages are pinned to a communal notice board: old sports teams, performers on stage, and scenes from a raucous-looking party.

Along the empty corridors, doors are flung wide open for me to peek inside. I see plant pots with dried out stalks; a leather chair facing a wall of windows; framed postcards and a set of neat little drawers overflowing with index cards written in a neat script.

In the empty sports hall, half-deflated basketballs lie beside score cards, maps, and a half-empty bottle of nondescript soda. Hidden at the back is a storage room with broken nets, pommel horses, and weightlifting benches with ripped seats.

My imagination is filling these spaces with the shadowy figures of intrepid Russians from a bygone age. It’s an urban explorer’s paradise, and I love it.

Yet strangely, my impressions start to shift as I explore further.

Some of the scenes which greet me seem almost too ‘abandoned’ and ‘destroyed’ – like the broken floor tiles which look like someone’s taken a large hammer to them, or the musical instruments laid out neatly on a windowsill.

In one room, I see a single chair placed poignantly in front of a wall mural depicting the same glacier outside. There’s a red velvet jacket laid artfully over the back, and I can’t reconcile myself to the idea that this happened accidentally while in a rush to leave Pyramiden twenty years ago.

Surely somebody’s placed this here on purpose?

I want to keep looking for more evidence of abandonment, but I hear Sasha shouting downstairs that we have to leave.

His voice rings out commandingly as I race back down the stairs, dragging at the zip of my jacket to be ready for the chill outside.

We cross the main square on the way to the canteen, our next stop, while taking care not to step on the grass. It was imported by plane from Siberia and still grows pretty well – although the neighbourhood reindeer are like cows, and only graze on the local grass!

Sasha leads us past the school house building, telling us that the younger kids used to study on the second floor because it was a bit warmer for them. The painted fairytale scenes which surround the school are still bright, as is the peeling green fence they’re attached to.

Inside Pyramiden’s canteen

The canteen is a pale lilac colour with reindeer antlers strewn on the straw-dry grass outside. Sasha stands on a concrete plinth just beside the door and explains that the canteen’s ground floor is just a lot of dark, dirty corridors.

“Go up to the second floor,” he advises as we prepare ourselves to enter. “There’s a beautiful dining hall up there, plus some really large kitchens.” He’s clearly aware of the time restraints we have to abide by on this tour.

The canteen in Pyramiden, Svalbard

We flood through the doors and inside the canteen; up the grand staircase on both sides, hands skimming the blue bannister and feet pounding the bright red tiles.

Above our heads is a huge mosaic in blues, whites and pale terracotta. Polar bears look upward towards the blazing round sun, accompanied by large huskies and what looks like a Norse god with white flowing hair and beard and eyebrows, a bear-clawed cloak around his shoulders.

Sudden the rush starts again — and this time I’m part of it!

There’s a sense of urgency as I shove my head around splintered doorways to catch glimpses of big cavernous rooms. I try to move quicker than everyone else so I can take photos without people getting in the way.

The canteen presents its details in fits and starts: mosaic tiling on the pillars; sickly yellow wallpaper peeling from the ceiling; old work benches scattered with debris; rusting taps above huge metal sinks.

Whenever I spot the mountains through the long narrow windows I stop in surprise. It’s a surreal view which keeps reminding me just how isolated this place really is.

The tourists are busy investigating everything they can lay their eager eyes and camera lenses on: the tiling of the columns, inside the giant vents above the ovens, behind the air ducts. It’s a frenzy of photography with little thought behind it.

I find myself snapping without thinking, inadvertently capturing blurred legs of people behind me in rusted mirror reflections. As I head towards a stairwell covered in peeling paint I stop, amazed at the variation of colours on the walls. This little patch of Pyramiden has been redecorated so many times – and suddenly I’m firmly back in the past, when an old metallic bell clanged for dinner time, and dozens of unseen hands glided over this bannister on their way to eat.

I wanted to stop and absorb these thoughts for longer, but there’s no time.

In fact, my entire experience at Pyramiden feels timeless – just not in the way I’d expected.

Meeting the other citizens of Pyramiden

Our third and final stop is at Hotel Tulip. It’s just next door to ‘the crazy house’ – the building where families used to live, which has been overtaken by seagulls. They are absolutely everywhere, sitting like sentries in rows along the top and nesting in the window ledges. There is guano caked as thick as icing all over the walls, and the shrill sound they make is haunting.

Hotel Tulip is the first place which actually shows signs of real life, from the shoe rack at the bottom of the stairs (complete with a few pairs of slippers and boots) to the discernible warmth coming from pipes and radiators.

Upstairs is a small corner bar, manned by an impassive-looking Russian lady. In the fridge behind her are rows of vodka bottles and shelves of cigarette cartons with Russian labels.

While the other tourists are sidling towards the bar for shots of vodka, I head for the rudimentary museum. Its centrepiece is a stuffed polar bear and various sad-looking stuffed Arctic birds, as well as cabinets and cupboards filled with souvenir trinkets: Pyramiden-branded keyrings, china plates and matchboxes.

And just like that, our time in Pyramiden is over. We’re ushered back onto the waiting bus, driven to the dock and placed back on our boat, leaving Sasha and his fellow guide behind.

Maybe the hordes of snap-happy tourists racing through the site for two hours before vanishing again have made Pyramiden feel somewhat less mysterious. But as our boat pulls away from the harbour and I watch Sasha and his friend striding purposefully away from the dock, I can’t shake the feeling that my initial hopes for Pyramiden were different to what I’ve seen.

What had I actually expected from Pyramiden?

The idea of visiting an abandoned town in the middle of the Arctic was immediately mysterious and intriguing to me. I’d wanted it to feel abandoned. I wanted some sense of drama; to see evidence that people had left in a hurry against their will. We want places like Pyramiden to be abandoned – haunted, even – because that makes us question what impact humans have on a landscape. It’s surreal to explore a place which has begun to decay. Which nature has begun to reclaim.

But Pyramiden didn’t used to be an asylum or a prison or the site of multiple murders, like hundreds of the most popular urban exploration sites. Pyramiden doesn’t need to draw on a gory past history because it’s fascinating purely for what it was and still is: an isolated part of the Arctic wilderness which people made into their home.

And yet it makes sense that Pyramiden’s ‘abandonment’ might have been orchestrated to be more photogenic. There’s probably been a group of Russians setting up the site for tourists, rearranging the abandoned elements at the same time as renovating the Tulip Hotel’s rooms, museum and bar in readiness for future guests.

Or perhaps the final residents back in 1998 were responsible. Perhaps they strode between familiar buildings as the boat sat waiting in the dock, knowing even then that Pyramiden was special and bizarre enough to attract others. That one day, their home might be an Arctic tourist attraction.

Is Pyramiden really an abandoned ghost town? 

Seven people live in Pyramiden to carefully maintain its appearance, so it’s not really abandoned; more ‘utterly isolated’. It’s not really left to the elements to reclaim (apart from grazing reindeer and the occasional prowling polar bear). It actually makes sense that the settlement’s Russian caretakers would want it to feel somewhat lived in. For the majority of each year, it’s the place they call home. Regardless of enjoying one’s solitude, this is somewhere where every bit of homeliness helps.

Besides, I think it’s more fascinating that a stalwart group of Russians are living in an abandoned town at the end of the world to guide occasional tourists around the last vestiges of Soviet Russia.

It may be twenty years after that era ended, but Pyramiden will stay frozen in time for decades to come.

Have you ever visited Pyramiden? Would you take a trip to Svalbard or is it too remote for you? 

How to organise a Pyramiden tour:

When to visit: There are daily departures from Longyearbyen to Pyramiden between May and September (the summer season). These departures are dependent on weather and are NOT guaranteed. Check with the company a few days before your booked trip. In the winter season it’s possible to visit Pyramiden on a snowmobile safari.

Which boat company: There are a few different companies operating tours to Pyramiden with differing trip lengths, stops and food. I went with Aurora Explorer, which offers a direct service to the settlement via the Nordenskiöld glacier but only had tea/coffee and snacks on board. Be aware that your visit around Pyramiden will be led by a guide who lives on site, who you’ll only meet on your arrival at the settlement.

Trip length: The direct service takes 6 hours, departing at 12.45pm and returning to Longyearbyen by approx 7pm.

Trip costs: NOK 1800 per adult (£164 or $210) or NOK 850 for those under 13 years (£77.50 or $99.50) This includes pick-up from your guesthouse or hotel, a boat ride to/from Pyramiden, and life jacket. You can also combine the Pyramiden trip in the afternoon with a visit to Barentsberg in the morning, usually on the same boat.

Accommodation: As of 2014, there are two possibilities to stay overnight in Pyramiden: at the Hotel Tulip (from 800 NOK per person) and at the Pier Hostel (300 NOK per person). Both options allow you to dine at Hotel Tulip, where you can eat breakfast (150 NOK) lunch (250 NOK) and dinner (200 NOK). The hotel bar is open until 2am.

Solo travel in Pyramiden: Please be aware that attempting to travel to Pyramiden by yourself is hugely ill-advised and extremely dangerous. The closest inhabited place is Longyearbyen, 31 miles away, and there are stories of people trying and failing to hike to the site. However, if you do choose to travel to Pyramiden on your own, you need to arrange a firearm and necessary equipment for polar bear protection.

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Sell Your Travel Photography

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Our Star Wars: The Last Jedi Trailer Mega-Reactions.

New Post has been published on https://www.starwarspost.com/star-wars-last-jedi-trailer-mega-reactions/

Our Star Wars: The Last Jedi Trailer Mega-Reactions.

It’s not often when a big event arises that you feel compelled to walk away from the keyboard. With the theatrical trailer release of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and the heaviness that ensued soon after, walking away felt like a flight response. After watching the trailer several times, it felt as if a mortar shell had gone off, leaving my brain soaked with a sort of ringing in the ears you get from a concussive wave. Like Tom Hanks character on Omaha beach during the film “Saving Private Ryan.” – my mind stumbling, everything slighted muted, confusing and surreal.

Extraction of those feelings was by design of course. The cunning and brilliant machinations of Director Rian Johnson in this fabulous trailer for the next chapter of our saga. The theme for this trailer was conveyed loud and clear; the Resistance is in serious trouble. The second act of this trilogy will see the antagonists rise and strike back in a way to remove all hope. Events will get bad – then worse, and just when you think the tide will begin to turn, it will get disastrous still. Last nights trailer conveyed that with a fast-paced score with little to no high platitudes. There will be no fuzzy Star Wars Christmas feels in this trailer, and that’s the point.

There were surprises in this marketing wonder that even caught this spoiler hound out. Like Luke climbing out of the rubble of his old Academy to Rey facing Snoke at the end. We expected excellent cinematography, and we got it in spades, with one or two shots that left us breathless. The scene of Finn and Phasma facing off in the monstrous hangers of Snoke’s capital ship, my eyes still raw, like staring too long at an eclipse.

What I did miss, however, was the supporting cast of this endeavor. Rose, Vice Admiral Holdo, DJ and exotic places like Cantonica were absent. Perhaps we will see them in the International trailer that is bound to drop in the coming days. There will also be plenty to talk about in the coming days about what we just saw, from theories to screen capture breakdowns.

This was a phenomenal trailer that served its purpose for marketing this film. It was a momentous event while engaging the nervous tick to rewatch it over and over again. It was fear laid to score, and the feeling it left us with is nothing but pure dread. Like Luke said – this will not turn out the way we think it will.

I am also delighted to share this space with these remarkable individuals and their reactions to the trailer. The comments below were taken from some of the smartest minds in the Star Wars fandom, and it’s our pleasure here at the Star Wars Post to share them with you.

  Ben Rowley (Staff Writer – The Star Wars Post)

I had the same feeling watching the trailer for The Last Jedi as I did for The Force Awakens, there so much going on that its impossible to absorb everything after the first viewing, or even the fifth. Needless to say, after 50 viewings (give or take) I’ve finally gathered my thoughts. What immediately struck me is how plot-heavy the trailer is. At first glance, it seemed like Lucasfilm was giving away the farm. So many different story beats unfolding over the course of a single trailer? That’s not the Lucasfilm way. But there’s more to this trailer than first meets the eye. The trailer opens with an ominous Snoke voiceover juxtaposed with a brooding Kylo Ren, but is Snoke talking about Kylo, or is he referring to someone else? Luke Skywalker is talking about Kylo Ren when he says “I’ve seen this raw strength only once before. It didn’t scare me enough then.” Perhaps it’s a hint at the trauma that forced him to retreat to his Ahch-to hideaway. If the Force awakened in Episode VII, it’s been wholly unleashed in the trailer for Episode VIII. Between Rey causing the ground to shake and split, to Snoke levitating Rey in his throne room, Rian Johnson is adding new wrinkles to what we thought we knew about the force.

Of course, the moment everyone will be talking about is the very last scene, when Rey seemingly asks Kylo to “show me my place in all this.” However, I’m of the opinion that this is something she says to Luke early in the movie, while the shot of Kylo Ren holding out his hand comes much later. Misdirection is Lucasfilm’s calling card, and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of the scenes portrayed in the trailer play out differently on screen.

  Drew Walden (Staff Writer – The Star Wars Post)

The Last Jedi already has an enormous success on its hands. My three-year-old daughter stayed up late to watch the trailer with my wife while I went to secure tickets at my local theater. She stayed mesmerized until one moment where a grin created across her face. “That’s a porg! Did you see the porg?” Yes, she recognized Rey and Kylo Ren, but her favorite part of the trailer: the porg. The film’s not even out yet, but already an iconic creature, and what I hope is to be a regular guest on the Millennium Falcon.

I think that this trailer has a lot of misdirection. While it’s possible that the last shot of Kylo Ren extending his hand may actual follow Rey seeking to find her place in the universe, it could also be a cleverly crafted ruse. This editing trick could also be applied to the sequence where it looks like Kylo Ren is conflicted about shooting the ship that shelters his mother, Leia. If these are indeed cut out of sequential moments in the final film, this will be an episode of extreme consequence. Regardless, come December we will still be treated to a conflicted Rey, Kylo Ren the ace pilot, the Finn versus Phasma fight (that should have been in TFA), menacing Snoke, a bristling Luke full of warnings, and most importantly, a Porg co-pilot.

Finally, for those score aficionados out there, I would like to congratulate whoever produced the trailer for managing to fit in Jedi Steps, Rey’s Theme, Kylo’s Theme, and the Force Theme into about two minutes. Most impressive.

  Elizabeth Larsen (Staff Writer – Star Wars Post)

Congratulations to Rian Johnson, Lucasfilm, Disney, the marvelous trailer editors, marketing team– you’ve done it again. All the anticipation and suspense led to 2 minutes and 24 seconds of pure, beautiful cinematic bliss and hopefully reminded the world that Star Wars is back… again. There are a million things to dissect in this trailer, a hobby I will thoroughly relish over the next two months, but pure and without speculation, I want to acknowledge a few of my favorite TLJ trailer elements.

To me, music is always the emotional backbone of a trailer. The perfect soundtrack or score can maximize the minimal time and amplify the intensity of a scene. Like many star wars trailers before, this one perfectly captured the nostalgia of the great Star Wars hits while providing exciting new edits of Rey and Kylo’s theme. I would encourage anyone to just listen to the trailer– it’s a whole new experience.

However, without a doubt, the most exciting part of this trailer for me was seeing (and hearing) the most of Luke since Return of the Jedi. Luke was always my favorite, and I didn’t realize how much I missed him until this very moment. This isn’t the Luke from 30 years ago. It’s clear he isn’t imitating Yoda or Obi-Wan, Luke is a new Jedi– the Last Jedi. Even in this brief trailer, we see him burdened by guilt, regret, and fear. Luke says, “It didn’t scare me enough then… it does now,” and the audience understands there has been a character evolution, now hardened by loss and pain. This is an emotional range Mark Hamill hasn’t had the chance to play as Luke in any other film, and he looks exceptional.

My biggest takeaway from this trailer is that Rian Johnson’s emphasis on character. He took the shiny surface of The Force Awakens and shattered it. In the cracks and breaks, he is pushing these characters to their limits. Rey, Kylo, Luke, Poe, Leia– they are each presented at a crossroads, on the verge of a next step that could change the course of their life and the galaxy. I would argue at its core this trailer emphasized the emotional battles over the physical ones.

That’s it– I’m ready for December 14th and porgs now.

  Pete Morrison (Editor RebelsReport.com)

“This is not going to go the way you think.” Those are the words of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, spoken to an unknown figure in the new trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Since the trailer debuted, I have watched it a few dozen times and while talking it out with folks have changed my mind as to what the story is repeatedly based on the cuts and misdirection it contains. So instead of focusing on speculation, I want to focus on appreciation.

In the trailer, we get loads of reaction shots, lots of action, and a some rather ominous dialogue. It is clear why we have heard so little rumblings of complaints from Lucasfilm because it appears that Rian Johnson has delivered a wonderfully crafted film. The sequence that captured me is the hanger duel between Finn and Captain Phasma and the moment that Finn’s reflection along with the Z6 riot control baton he is wielding appears in Phasma’s helmet is breathtaking, one of my favorite shots in the entire Saga. December 14th can’t get here soon enough.

  Magnus Anton Lekaj (Author, Blogger, Lover geekfurious.blogspot.com)

Based on Rian Johnson’s previous work, it is no surprise the trailer to “The Last Jedi” looks –brace yourselves- like a Rian Johnson movie. Have you been clamoring for something “different” in Star Wars? Did you think “The Force Awakens” was too “safe” and “Rogue One” felt fragmented, with poorly developed characters, and leaned too heavily on nostalgic beats in the third act? Well, you’re about to get the movie you claimed to want. Two-minutes of footage makes it clear Johnson has no intention of playing it safe with his opportunity to tell a story in the Star Wars saga. This is going to be an exciting, weird, dark, dramatic, fun, mind-blowing, action ride with long noir-like beats, and camera-movement & editing choices heretofore not seen in Star Wars. Dammit, I’m excited! Anyone busy hammering away at the keyboard about how Kathleen Kennedy isn’t allowing directors their vision can take a break for a few months –at least until she fires another of your favorite egotistical privileged white hetero males with maybe one mediocre (and/or insanely overrated) movie under their belt. And yet, the visuals displayed in the trailer are still very much Star Wars: lightsabers, space battles, laser blasts, melee combat, and Luke Skywalker! Plus the surviving characters from “The Force Awakens” are back to struggle and suffer for decisions made in the previous episode. Not to mention back-story! From my point of view… the trailer is gorgeous, thrilling, emotional, and I’m beyond excited to see this movie. Also, the theatrical poster looks fantastic. I have only seen things to give me total confidence in “The Last Jedi.” May the Rian Johnson be with us… always.

  Jeremy Conrad (Editor at ManaByte.com)

I wasn’t one of those who had issues with the first teaser for The Last Jedi. It served its purpose well and gave you just enough new footage to make you want to see more and ask questions as to where the movie would be going. The final trailer opens up, even more, questions, and some of them are unexpected. That last shot of the trailer is going to send one segment of Star Wars fandom into convulsions, but imagine if that’s how the movie ends? Rey and Kylo going off leaving Luke and the Resistance to fend for themselves? Or perhaps it’s the first step towards Ben Solo’s redemption? See, there are lots of questions to ponder.

I loved the look of the movie from the trailer; it looks different. And that’s what you want in a Star Wars movie. You want new ships, you want new worlds, and you want it to feel different than the film before it. The Empire Strikes Back accomplished that, and doing so doesn’t make The Last Jedi an Empire clone; it makes it a Star Wars movie that knows that each installment has to introduce new stuff.

We get the first dialog from Luke, actual lines that give hints to the story. We get to see Porgs, the new Walkers, new ships, new planets. It’s a great Star Wars trailer. We only have two months to go, and this is going to see regular plays until December.

  Julia Silver (writer @sithglitter and @vaapadthinktank, occasional podcast guest)

For this reaction, I am going to take the trailer at face value. I’m going to assume that this trailer represents what we are meant to see overall in The Last Jedi. That is, even though I know that scenes are spliced and then edited together, they are selected together to make a point. When we see Rey speaking, or Luke, or Kylo Ren, or Snoke, they may be talking about who we see on screen or someone else entirely. This mild deception is a given. However, first trailers are meant to convey broad themes of a movie, and introduce us to central problems our heroes will face.]

The theme of The Last Jedi is: Destiny is a lie. That seems to be the tone of Luke Skywalker’s life. The story of Luke Skywalker and his lessons learned are going to loom large thematically in this Star Wars installment. Indeed, his figure looms over the new TLJ poster massively and ominously. Now, if we’re going to zoom out and go philosophically broad with this, “Destiny is a lie” is a tone or lesson of almost everyone’s life at some point. The concept of a personal “destiny” is a social construct meant to fill the gaps in one’s ego, to make one feel part of a larger whole, and to help one justify their decisions. It is helpful to feel as if you’re fulfilling some duty you are “supposed to” to get along, but in a heroic journey, Luke, and Anakin before him, already know: “This is not going to go… the way you think!”

[see also: every Greek tragedy]

It is through use of the concept of “destiny” that Sheev Palpatine can manipulate Anakin Skywalker and his fragile, hurting ego. It is through “destiny” that the Jedi are blinded, and destroyed through their attachment to a prophesied “Chosen One.” It is because of “destiny” that Yoda and Obi-Wan believe that training Luke Skywalker is a good idea, despite all of the signs against that. It is because of “destiny” that Luke faces Darth Vader, a machine running on only his mutated “destiny” by then, and realizes that destiny shatters someone who chooses to shoulder it.

The Last Jedi will depict how Rey and her foil, Kylo Ren, like so many of them, are each obsessed with their destinies as supernaturally powerful beings. The movie will also be about how their mentors, Luke Skywalker and Supreme Leader Snoke respectively, choose how to care for and shape these powerful people according to their perspectives on destiny.

It appears to me that Luke rejects the concept of destiny, and actively runs from it because he knows it is a tool of manipulation. He would rather a powerful being find their way than play god with their “raw” emotions and egos. Snoke, on the other hand, continues to spout “destiny” rhetoric throughout the trailer as he did in The Force Awakens… and likely for no good cause. As for Rey and Kylo Ren? Both believe they have unique destinies, but Kylo Ren has been carving out what he considers to be his own. His past literally and figuratively as part of the process, while Rey is desperate, almost in a panic (“I need help…”, “I need someone…”), searching for clarity on the concept. Both of our two lead characters here are ripe for an authentic rude “awakening” in The Last Jedi. And as the events of the movie progress, perhaps in being truly awakened to the nature of destiny and self-determination, Ben Solo and Rey may turn to each other for partnership and guidance on how to become whole, fulfilled powerful beings, destiny be damned!

  Kevin Olsen (Writer Contributor Star Wars Post)

What an absolutely splendid trailer. The footage conveys a feeling that anything can happen to these characters. It’s dark and brooding with a sense of actual stakes. People could die, alliances may be formed or dissolved. The color Red is all the place, and I believe it holds a special significance. The action is intense and epic. I like that it doesn’t come across to spoilerly but yet sets the table for an adventure that you don’t want to miss. It was emotional to see Carrie Fischer, but I’m so glad that we have her for one more episode. The battle between Finn and Phasma looks like it could steal the show as everyone wants to take down an evil boss at one point in life. Are they teasing a Rey to the dark side turn? Or a Kylo and Rey relationship? We don’t know, and that’s just the way I want it as we slowly approach December 15th 2017…until then we only have to breathe.