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sirikenobi12 · 3 years

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Dear Mr. Filoni: About Qui-Gon Jinn

Mr. Filoni, I know you are pretty much the undisputed Padawan of George Lucas, but like many students they can sometimes misunderstand their teachings or interpret things from a certain point of view. While I won’t deny you are a brilliant creator who have brought us some amazing Star Wars content you said something a little while back about Qui-Gon Jinn that I think is rather nearsighted and in my opinion incorrect.

“And with the death of Qui-Gon Jinn, Anakin loses the father figure who truly could have understood him – and maybe prevented what was to come.”

This implies several things, the first is that Anakin never had a father figure in his life. Or, rather that he lost the father figure he truly needed. In many ways this is implying that if someone grows up without a father (or a traditional father figure) then they are missing out or won’t have a stable childhood. What about all the people who are raised by single mothers or grandparents or aunts/uncles or by their older siblings?

Pixar’s Onward is a great example of finding a father figure through an older brother, it highlights that just because Ian never had a chance to meet his father didn’t mean that he lost out on a father figure in his brother Barley.

“I never had a dad, but I always had you.”

Saying that Anakin lost the father figure who truly could have understood him also just spits in the face of a young man who also lost his father figure in that moment and gave up everything to raise Anakin.

Let’s unpack that a little bit. Imagine if you will you’re twenty-five years old, you’ve worked your ENTIRE life for a particular goal which is to be a Jedi Knight, traveling the galaxy doing the most good that you can while discovering who you are on your own. Then maybe down the road when you are ready to settle down and possibly train/raise an apprentice you’ll take one on. Suddenly the only father you’ve ever known pushes you aside for a child he’s just met (without even discussing it with you first) and then uses his last words to push this child on you, making him your responsibility, thus shattering your chance at the freedom of a true Knighthood.

By all rights Obi-Wan could’ve given Anakin’s training over to the Council, the boy was in no way his responsibility. Much like an adult sibling doesn’t have to take on the responsibility of raising their minor siblings if their parents die, they could give the children over to the state and have a chance at a normal young adulthood instead of being thrust into being a parent before they are ready. But, Obi-Wan didn’t do that because he A.) Respected/loved Qui-Gon too much not to fulfill his final wishes, and B.) Knew it would be better for Anakin to take the boy under his wing.

I will say this until I am blue in the face: OBI-WAN WAS A FATHER TO ANAKIN!!

In fact, in Episode 2 Anakin refers to him as a father/father figure multiple times and it is clear their relationship while Anakin was a Padawan was that of a Father/Son. It isn’t until Anakin is knighted and they are peers that you see their relationship shift to that of brothers.

Am I saying that Obi-Wan didn’t make mistakes when raising Anakin? Absolutely not, but would I argue that Anakin was missing out on a father figure because Qui-Gon died? No, I would not.

The second part of that quote claims that Qui-Gon Jinn could’ve been someone who understood Anakin and might’ve been able to prevent what was to come. I 100% believe that would not have happened, while I think Qui-Gon Jinn is a very interesting character there is no indication in either canon or legends that he would’ve been a good influence on Anakin. In fact, quite the opposite. Here are the top ten reasons Qui-Gon would’ve been a terrible father influence for Anakin:

1. Qui-Gon Jinn thinks the rules don’t apply to him: While many fans applaud Qui-Gon (including apparently you, Mr. Filoni) for going against the Jedi Council and being a “Maverick” I would argue that more often than not it was to his or his mission’s detriment. This is not to advocate that the Council was 100% correct or that Jedi shouldn’t question things, but there is a difference between questioning authority figures and flat out being obstinate. This is something Anakin excels at even with being raised by the rule abiding Kenobi, imagine how bad it would’ve been had Jinn raised him.

2. Qui-Gon Jinn was selfish: There are several examples of Qui-Gon using the guise of “the will of the Force” in order to get his way. Are we honestly supposed to believe that somehow this one man was more in tune with the Force than any other Jedi (including 12 powerful Jedi who were on the Council)?? And, if he truly believed in following the will of the Force then why did he constantly bend the rules to make sure the “Force” went his way - an example of this is had he actually believed it was the will of the Force that he free Anakin, he wouldn’t have had to make the chance cube go the way he wanted it to go. He flat out cheated so he could get his way.

3. Qui-Gon was dangerously reckless: Many Jedi are reckless, even Obi-Wan said to Yoda in ESB “so was I if you’ll remember”. But Qui-Gon was reckless in ways that was pretty astounding. For example, EVERYONE told him that his plan to get off of Tatooine was dangerous and frankly stupid. Couldn’t they have just sold the Naboo ship and then purchased a clunker that would get them to Coruscant? Honestly, that would’ve probably hidden them better from the Trade Federation in the long run...but no, he instead decided the best course of action was to put a slave child in mortal danger, thus also placing all of their lives in the hands of a boy who had NEVER won a race before. Now, it ended up working in his favor, but even still those few days spent fixing up Anakin’s pod and then the race itself delayed the Queen from getting to Coruscant which meant more people died on Naboo all because Qui-Gon refused to see any other solutions.

4. Qui-Gon was often a bully: our Maverick had no problems throwing his weight around to get what he wanted. The Council meeting with Anakin is a perfect example, he didn’t get the answer he wanted. So he put his hands on his hips and refused to leave the room until the Council caved to his demands. Another example of this is in Claudia Grey’s Master & Apprentice where he refuses to do his duty as a Jedi and fulfill the mission simply because he had a vision. He doesn’t discuss this with the Council or with Obi-Wan beforehand, he just decides for himself this is how it’s going to be and then throws a hissy-fit when he doesn't get his way. Or how about he is the one who cheated to get his way in winning Anakin and when Watto calls him out he threatens to get the Hutts involved? He just bullies his way to getting what he wanted.

5. Qui-Gon never saw the bigger picture: Master Jinn’s whole thing is to focus on the here and the now, and while that’s great advice (especially for Obi-Wan who often looks too far a head) it also means that Qui-Gon often misses the big picture. An example of this is in the book Master & Apprentice where he wants to free the slaves on Pijal’s moon, but Yoda has to remind him that there is a bigger picture and they can only act if it’s in their mandate. He says this not because the Council doesn’t want to free slaves, but because there are incredibly complex consequences and if they were to just do whatever they wanted/could do as Jedi it would cause all kinds of issues for others and while he could maybe free a handful of slaves now it would cause countless others to suffer in the long run. But, Qui-Gon wouldn’t accept this, because he refused to see the bigger picture - he refused to look at anything except what was right in front of him.

6. Qui-Gon has a history of failing his Apprentices: Now, I know this isn’t Canon at the moment, but by the time we make it to TPM Qui-Gon has already done severe damage to 2 former Padawans, and is in danger of having history repeat itself. Xanatos was his second Apprentice right before Obi-Wan, and this Padawan was extremely powerful and Qui-Gon insisted he be trained, but the boy fell to the darkside because he had been too old to start training and had a healthy attachment to his family (sound familiar?). Qui-Gon was so devastated by his fall that he went back and reputed his first apprentice, Feemor, claiming he was such a failure of a Master that there is no way his first apprentice should’ve been knighted. He basically in his grief pushed aside an apprentice who while on paper wasn’t anything special, but was kind and dutiful and a true Jedi (sound familiar?). He then begrudgingly takes on Obi-Wan (only after 12 year old Obi-Wan offers to kill himself to save others) and then time and time again tries to basically pawn off Obi-Wan onto someone else (even as far into their relationship as the Master & Apprentice book). Then, when it finally looks like the Kenobi/Jinn team have figured out how to work well together Qui-Gon has to literally be reminded that his Obi-Wan even exists because Qui-Gon is so blinded by Anakin’s power!! How in any way does this seem like a better father figure option for the emotionally needy Anakin?

7. Qui-Gon Jinn has a history of Attachments: The specific example I have is again from Legends, but it shows how Qui-Gon allowed attachments to become dangerous. He had a childhood friend who he fell in love with, they decided that they could handle being committed to each other as well as the Order so they “pledged themselves” to one another (my guess is basically this is like a Jedi marriage so to speak). Sounds beautiful right, and it is, but...But his love interest Tahl was injured on a war torn planet where the children are so sick of their parents' civil war that they form a third army and go to war against the adults. Tahl is caught in the middle of this and is gravely injured. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are sent to rescue her, and Obi-Wan is sickened by the sight of children fighting and wants to stay and help, but Qui-Gon is so blinded by his attachment for Tahl that he for the first time EVER actually follows his mandate and tells Obi-Wan that they weren’t sent there to help the children, but to rescue Tahl. Obi-Wan who is only 13 doesn’t understand so instead of taking the time to really explain it, Qui-Gon just LEAVES his young apprentice behind on a war torn planet. Now, I’ll admit that Qui-Gon did give Obi-Wan a choice, to come back to Coruscant or to stay and fight, thus leaving the Jedi Order and Obi-Wan did make the choice to stay. But, it was Qui-Gon’s responsibility as the teacher to fully explain the situation to Obi-Wan and let him know that they could do more good if they were to go back to the Council and the Senate and try to return with supplies and reinforcements. But no, Qui-Gon just yelled at him, disregarded his feelings and told him their mission was to rescue Tahl. He didn’t bother using this as a teaching moment for Obi-Wan because he was so concerned about his attachment. And then later when Tahl actually died, Qui-Gon nearly fell to the dark side and it was Obi-Wan who saved him. And then Qui-Gon went on to decide that because of the pain that had been inflicted by losing Tahl he’d basically give Obi-Wan an ultimatum when it came to the woman he loved (and basically downplayed it as nothing but a crush). Now, say what you want about how Obi-Wan handled Anakin/Padme’s relationship - maybe pretending it wasn’t happening instead of confronting Anakin about it wasn’t a healthy/smart choice, but at least he didn’t downplay it and make it look like Anakin’s feelings weren’t real or valid.

8. Qui-Gon refused to apologize: There are several examples where Qui-Gon refuses to accept any responsibilities and won’t apologize. One such point is in TPM where he basically traded his current Padawan in for a newer/shinier model in front of the entire Council (which if this alone isn’t enough cause to prove the man wasn’t the best father figure…) he then refused to even approach Obi-Wan about it, in fact the twenty five year old Apprentice who had just been tossed aside for a supposed prophecy came and apologized to Qui-Gon!! Another example is back in the Jedi Apprentice books where Qui-Gon leaves Obi-Wan on the war torn planet (as mentioned in #7) it is up to Obi-Wan to make it up to Qui-Gon and prove his worth once again. I’m not certain given Anakin’s tendency to need constant affirmations that this would’ve been a good combination.

9. Qui-Gon was manipulative: Oftentimes we see Qui-Gon manipulating people to get his way (I’m not talking about Jedi Mind Tricks). In TPM he manipulates Watto to win Anakin’s freedom, he even manipulates Obi-Wan into taking on the burden of training Anakin by making it his dying wish. He is not above manipulation if he gets his desired result. We see Anakin does the same thing, so one could argue Qui-Gon would’ve only encouraged this behavior.

10. Qui-Gon cared more about the prophecy than the boy: I’m not saying that Qui-Gon didn’t care about people, or even Anakin, in fact he was a very compassionate character. But, all of his arguments to have Anakin be trained was that he is “the Chosen One” not once does he talk about how the boy needs training simply because it’d be dangerous to leave such raw power alone in the galaxy without training, or that it would be the right thing to do. He doesn’t ever talk about how learning to be a Jedi would actually benefit the boy. Every single time he brings up Anakin needing training is because of the prophecy. Now, as far as it looks in both canon and legends Obi-Wan tried incredibly hard to not bring up the prophecy to Anakin (except on Mustafar), Obi-Wan would bring it up to Mace/Yoda but that was about it. Obi-Wan wasn’t blinded by the prophecy because until ROTS it didn’t really appear that he even believed in it - he believed in Anakin for who he was as a person. Something we just didn’t see with Qui-Gon.

Now, Qui-Gon has a lot of great qualities, I am not denying that, but to say that he would’ve been the father figure Anakin needed is just misguided. If you believe in the idea that there is a will of the Force one could argue that Obi-Wan training Anakin was that will, otherwise Qui-Gon wouldn’t have died.

Also, Mr. Filoni, why is it that Anakin supposedly suffered because he didn’t have a father figure yet you turned around and gave Ahsoka a brother, not a father? Are you suggesting Ahsoka suffered as well because she didn’t have a father figure? Or, was Obi-Wan by this time finally “old” enough to be considered a father figure?

This idea that Qui-Gon Jinn would’ve been the fix it to Anakin’s issues is just silly and once again places the blame of the Jedi’s destruction in the hands of the Council and specifically Obi-Wan, thus not forcing Anakin to be held responsible for any of his actions.

I’m sorry, but it’s not a theory I buy due to a lack of evidence.

#star wars #rant post #obi wan appreciation #qui gon jinn #obi wan kenobi #Anakin Skywalker #jedi council appreciation #dave filoni #the phantom menace #The Clone Wars #stop blaming the jedi #sorry but this has been on my mind a lot #not qui gon bashing i promise #obi wan deserved better

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fondnesses · 3 years

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roscoe’s notebook post

A while back I said I was going to write a post about the way I use notebooks for writing projects. This is the first of several posts about Writing Process I’ve been tossing around in my drafts for a little while as a result of conversations with friends, so bear with me.

I. Love. Notebooks. I genuinely would have to deeply overhaul my whole Process of writing anything on the longer side if I were to go paperless; I find physical paper pretty invaluable when I’m outlining, brainstorming, and researching, and I still probably write ¼-⅓ of all my actual content on paper first. (That proportion used to be a lot higher, but I’ve gotten better at being productive on a computer in recent years, which is great.) I’m a very visual person, so notebooks really help me visualize my ideas, story structure, etc. It’s very helpful to be able to use arrows and diagrams and physically strike things through, and the tactility is really soothing to me. If I show people my notebooks or talk about them, I often get a response like “this is so organized”, which is sort of true, but I have to stress that it’s “organization for a disorganized mind”; I can’t misplace ideas or notes if it all goes into the same physical object, vs. electronic notes, which are much more, like “Did I say that in a voice memo? PM it to myself on Discord? Leave it in a desktop sticky note? Write it directly into the Google Doc? Who knows! It’s lost to time!”. It’s very much an ADHD management strategy.

It helps that I’m a very neophyte stationery hobbyist and appreciate any excuse I have to use my pens, but I also will go off at any opportunity about how helpful I find them for writing projects, which is why I decided to just make a post about it. Right now I mostly use them for (fan and original) fiction projects, but I used a notebook for a very similar purpose when I was working on my undergrad thesis, and I have a slightly different but equally necessary-to-me approach to notebooks I use at work.

My typical structure for a notebook that’s devoted to one project only looks like this:

I always leave the first couple pages blank so I can go back and retroactively index bujo-style. I don’t always actually do the index, because sometimes I get too lazy, but I like having those blank pages there to give me the option. I also usually put epigraphs/inspo quotes on the first page.

After that, there’s often (but not always, I’ll talk about it) a couple pages at the start where I’m frantically jotting down loose brainstorming ideas before they've coagulated into a story structure. Just, like, vomiting into the void.

Stemming out of that, I usually write out about like 5-10 pages of outline-style notes in chronological order, laying out all the main story beats and charting out the story trajectory. This will inevitably get revised and rewritten many times, but I find the process of writing these wide-angle synopses really useful for dislodging ideas, making connections re: thematic threads, etc. from my brain.

I’ll devote a couple pages after that to specific things like "sex scene brainstorming", "random scene ideas/minor details that don't have a clear place in the outline right now but I'll turn to for inspo later" [this is what I refer to as “bits” in one of the later photos], "page where I just outline the Motifs And Themes", "research notes", "to-do list", "stuff to check on a second pass", "things to put in the a/n and AO3 tags", etc.--the specifics vary with the story.

Then, I skip ahead to approx. halfway through the notebook and cordon off the rest of the pages to be “free writing” space, AKA writing of actual content rather than planning, with the expectation there will be no internal organization and I’ll transcribe to laptop as I go. Writing on paper feels less binding than typing something on a computer; it’s like a little secret kept with myself, and it doesn’t need to go anywhere or be seen by anyone if I decide I don’t like it. Setting aside pages in the back half of the notebook means that, as more things come up re: planning, I can go back and add those in the rest of the pages that were intentionally left blank. This is how I avoid (for the most part) having the whole thing be a jumbled mess where there’s no separation between the notes and the actual story writing; I learned this the hard way via the first notebook I’ll show you in a second. I’ve recently gotten really into using Muji sticky note tabs to label any pages/sections of particular import that don't want to have to refer back to in the index and would rather just flip to instantly.

I do use notebooks that aren’t specific to any one project, but those are much less organized and less worth sharing.

Before I look at more recent stuff, here are some selections from my notebook for the project that got me into writing longfic, my Golden Kamuy canon divergence AU (with apologies for the bad photos, my phone’s camera is trash). I worked on this from Sept 2018-July 2019. It was a learning experience in a lot of ways, and notebook utilization was one of those. I’ve always used notebooks for keeping track of writing projects, as I said earlier, but before this it was largely without much organization or structure; just total chaos. Having a physical notebook became really important for this project because it was a sprawling multichapter story with rotating POVs and a lot of historical research. I also learned a lot about what not to do with a notebook, personally, or at least things that don’t work so well (for me). This was a college ruled spiral-bound Decomposition Book, for the record.

By the time I bought a notebook for it I already had a (very basic) plot outline in mind, so I wasn’t doing that very initial ground-zero brainstorming in here; I was copying out of my phone’s notes app, basically, and then going from there.

This is one of the first pages in this notebook; I wanted to visualize the relationship web between the four central characters in the story in terms of how they feel about one another. The two colours correspond to the POV characters (Sugimoto in orange, Ogata in pink), and I used this colour-coding throughout the notebook with highlighters, etc. to keep track of information that was more relevant to one character than the other. Tsurumi and Yuusaku aren’t POV characters, but they’re prominent in the story and their presence impacts the central relationship between Sugimoto and Ogata, and it was helpful to me to map out the emotional ecosystem, as it were.

(There are coffee stains all over this, because I wrote the vast majority of the story in coffee shops because I didn’t want to be around my roommates, lol. This is part of why I never do fiction writing in notebooks that are too nice, I get neurotic about needing to keep them tidy. I can’t use ones that are too shit though, either, so it’s a bit of a narrow window. I’ll talk more about brands and paper quality etc. later.)

As you can see, this is the first page of many I set aside specifically for jotting down different pieces of historical information relevant to my story. It’s about fictional characters who are members of an army division that existed in real life, and both the canon and my fic involve a high level of attention to detail with regards to which divisions were present for which battles, etc., as well as general historical details specific to the Russo-Japanese War setting--what did people eat in the trenches? What did they do to fill time? How did they get through the winter? What did third party observers have to say about the conditions? What were the specs of their weaponry (particularly important because one of the POV characters is a sniper and gun nut)? I did a lot of reading (and watching of antique gun collector Youtube videos... the things I do for love, eh), and it came in handy so many times, because it turns out it’s much easier to write trench warfare slice of life if you have factual details to pull from when you don’t know what to do with a scene! Imagine that!

This is the first of three “grid outlines” I made; this is a way I sometimes like to visualize a story outline all on one page, with the columns representing chapters and the squares within the columns representing sections/scenes within the chapters. As you can see, early on I was hoping to get this done in five or even FOUR chapters (whatmakesyouhaha.mp3), with POV switches happening internally within the chapters. This proved to be unwieldy for many reasons, so I revised the outline:

Here I’d come to terms with the fact this story was going to have a lot more chapters than I’d planned, and I rearranged things so that it would happen in ten, with each chapter belonging to only one POV character. This also needed revising later, and in the end the story looked a bit more like this (though it did in fact end up being twelve chapters, but only because Chapter Ten was like, 12k, and needed to be split in two chunks):

I must have remembered to bring my fineliners to the coffee shop this time, lol, because as you can see it’s properly colour-coded this time. This outline was made when I was already four posted chapters into the fic, which hopefully gives you a sense of the way in which I am sort of a planner and a pantser; I can’t get into a longer project without an outline, but the outline inevitably changes many times throughout writing and I often end up with a finished product that looks pretty different from what I was intending. My creative M.O. as always is Do The Maximum! Amount! Of! Work! Possible!

This is what a “free writing” page looks like, for me. In this notebook I didn’t set aside any specific spaces for free writing so it’s strewn throughout the notebook in a really disorganized way and I was constantly flipping through looking for bits I’d written and forgotten to transcribe, and I decided to be more organized in future as a result of that. If something’s crossed through, that means I transcribed it. As you can see, they’re often small sections, sometimes just a coupled decontextualized sentences. About 3/4 of what I write in a notebook makes it into the story, I’d say; some of it never goes anywhere, and that’s OK. I have less of an issue killing my darlings if they never make it off the paper page.

A very brief, top-down chapter outline, where the goal was not to get too bogged down in details and just to visualize the beats and pin down what they’re trying to accomplish. Chapters for this fic typically ran about 6k, and five or six scenes per chapter was pretty common, so the average scene length was about 1-1.25k words/scene. IDK why I called it storyboarding when I didn’t make drawings. (Margin numbers are to keep track of word count, since I was using a daily word count tracker while writing this.)

This page was, as titled, for keeping track of the various balls in the air when I was about 2/3-3/4 of the way through the story and really feeling the pressure with regards to tying up the various loose ends. This was... a struggle. I hadn’t ever written anything longish (this fic ended up just under 70k) that had an action plot before, let alone a canon divergence scenario where I had to engage with and explain away various canon plot elements so I could maintain the audience’s suspension of disbelief.

Now, I mentioned earlier that I learned various “things not to do” with my notebooks while working on that project. One of those lessons I learned is to be more realistic when assessing how big a project is likely to get, not least because I RAN OUT OF PAGES around the chapter 9-10 mark. In my defense though, that’s because I’d never written anything even half this long! But I know better now, and try not to be in denial. Finishing the notebook early was a way bigger problem than I’d anticipated, and was part of the reason the last few chapters took several grueling months to finish. The issue was that I needed to be able to use a notebook to maintain my workflow--attempting to do it only on a computer was dismal--but it seemed silly to start a notebook of a similar size to the one I’d finished (80pg, approximately B5 dimensions) when there was no way it would need that much space, especially since the reference pages, like the historical notes, didn’t need to be transcribed over. I was also pretty broke at the time and didn’t want to spend money unnecessarily, lol. I tried to get by using a Moleskine Cahier for a month or so because I had one lying around, but it was horrid; it was too small to be used comfortably, it wasn’t spiral-bound so it wouldn’t lay flat, the ghosting is terrible and I hate the way Moleskine paper feels, etc. Eventually I caved and went to Muji and bought a 30ish page A5 with closer to lay-flat binding, and I finished the story in there. I would take a comparative pic for you of the relative notebook sizes and include some of the scene staging diagrams, etc. I put in there, but I can’t find it :(

So I learned that specs really do matter, and it’s okay to be picky if the pickiness is going to make the difference between actually using a notebook or not. Things that are important to me in my notebooks:

Ruling (gotta have ruling, I can suffer through grid but blank or dot is a no-go)

Size (I can’t use anything smaller than at least a medium-large notebook, I find it claustrophobic and get miserly about page space)

Binding (twin ring is my preference because it looks and feels better than a classic spiral but has the same comfort of use with regards to bending the pages back to suit workspace size and laying flat with ease)

Paper quality and colour (I don’t like anything too slippery/smooth or with too much visible ghosting, and I strongly prefer an off-white paper to bleached paper--part of why I don’t use Decomposition Books anymore, the paper is scratchy and it’s too damn bleached!)

Pagecount relative to size of project

Portability (in non-COVID times; anything bigger than a B5 wouldn’t fit in the satchel I used to bring to work at my old job), etc.

But everyone’s taste is different in this respect, and the only way to figure out what works for you is through trial and error, I’m afraid. I also suspect I’m more neurotic and particular about the sensory experience of using a notebook than most people are, but I yam what I yam.

Now to talk about the notebooks for my current projects, where I’ve refined my approach somewhat. I’ve included less photos for these because they’re ongoing WIPs I don’t want to spoil completely, but I’ve tried to include some outline-type stuff to give you an idea.

My big bang fic is in the very ugly twin ring notebook on the right; I got it at a dollar store by my house because I needed something to work in and didn’t want to wait for an online order, but it’s been very serviceable for my needs. The paper isn’t even bad. The bigger notebook (B5) is my Sangcheng fic.

I wanted something with a lot of pages for this, because I knew it was going to be a long story, and for some reason the fact it’s smaller than my usual preference doesn’t bug me (I think it’s an A5?); it just fits this story, somehow. I’m not sure exactly how many sheets are in here but I’d guess about 150.

Because this notebook has upwards of 100 sheets, I made a lot of use of sticky-note tabs to label high-priority pages. The colour coding of these doesn’t mean anything, it was just whichever ones I had at hand at any given moment. These are those tabs from Muji I mentioned, I’m really obsessed with them--the shape makes them so much less obtrusive and more practical than conventional squares/rectangles OR flag shapes, IME.

My big bang story is nonlinear, so, similarly to what I did with colour coding for the two POVs for my GK fic, this story has two main colours corresponding to whether a given section takes place in the “before” or the “after” portions of the timeline, with blue as “after”, yellow as “before”. This is what the most current version of the outline looks like in there:

If you squint, you can see the alphanumeric notes in the top right of each section entry; I gave them each a code like “A3″ or “B5″ corresponding to their position in the story sequence (so, it goes A1, B1, A2, B2, etc., through to B9 and then the epilogue). [Unintentional that this schema overlaps with notebook size labeling and so is kind of confusing in the context of this post.] At first I was just keeping track of the sections via the highlighted titles, but it got confusing because I’d write down “Wedding” or “Yiling” in my notes and then refer to the notes later like “but there are multiple marriages?? and multiple scenes in Yiling??”. Stuff gets struck through with a straight line if it’s been written in a more-or-less complete form and crossed out with a squiggly line if it’s been cut from the outline or made redundant.

As I said earlier, I started out all the initial brainstorming for my Sangcheng fic in its notebook, instead of brainstorming it in someone’s DMs/my notes app/a voice memo/etc. and then transcribing it into the notebook in a somewhat more organized fashion, which is how my stories usually start out. Because of this, the first five-ish pages are basically just stream of consciousness rambling where I was trying to jot down every disconnected thought I had about the story concept. I don’t have photos for that because it’s too spoilerific for later developments in the fic, but I can show you some of the stages the outlines went through, once I was able to corral those initial notes into a story structure:

All the chapters in this fic have their own highlighter colour, so when I started trying to make sense of my initial brainstorm notes I just went through and highlighted stuff in the colour of the chapter it would make the most sense for, and then transcribed things more-or-less in chronological order into the relevant chapter outline. I later ended up rewriting all the chapter outlines AGAIN to refine them and divide them internally by the individual scenes, which makes them a lot more legible and less wall-of-text-y. They look like this now, with about four sheets per chapter:

Because this fic is on the longer side, I have some pages that are just for keeping track of other story elements, like this, where I refer back to whatever the fuck the “themes” are supposed to be whenever I forget what this fic is about:

It’s all about the visionboarding... Anyway, that’s most of what I have to offer, since most of these two notebooks is Forbidden Content.

With regards to brands/supplies, I really like this Kokuyo Campus Wide notebook that I’m writing Sangcheng in, it’s pretty perfect for me. I also like the B5 Muji twin rings, but those only come in 30 sheets, so I wouldn’t use it for anything above a ~20k project. The B5 Maruman Spiral Note 6.5mm ruled/80 sheet is another good one, though I wish it was twin ring instead of spiral. As you can tell, I like Japanese stationery brands because it’s easier to find decent paper quality and minimalist design without shelling out $$ than it is with American/European brands, at least IME. I like Rollbahns too. But honestly, I can usually find pretty serviceable random notebooks that aren’t brand-name from Asian dollar stores; it’s really not something where you need to shell out tons of money.

#notebooks #writing #idk how to tag this!

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snicketstrange · 4 years

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The Dark Day and The Sugar Bowl

My theory about having a radioactive stone or the powder of a radioactive stone inside the SB was criticized by very qualified judges. Their names are Dante and Hermes, and they volunteer for Dark Avenue 667.

Dante demonstrated that Esmé's sugar bowl could contain information. I will quote you here for clarity: Neither of these statements indicate that the contents of the sugar bowl pose a direct physical danger in themselves; merely that using them would have wide-ranging repercussions. If the villains can't get their hands on the sugar bowl, the risk is always that those repercussions will come to pass; consequently, if the villains can get their hands on the sugar bowl, they'll be able to act with impunity. This is a valid interpretation. Lemony's hint in TSS is as follows: I have at last learned the whereabouts of the evidence that will exonerate me, a phrase which here means "prove to the authorities that it is Count Olaf, and not me, who has started so many fires." Your suggestion, so many years ago at that picnic, that a tea set would be a handy place to hide anything important and small in the event of a dark day, has turned out to be correct. -Lemony Snicket, TSS p. 101 The evidence in question does not only prove Lemony innocent; it proves Olaf guilty - apparently unambiguously and elegantly. It is easy to see why Count Olaf would find this evidence desirable. (The exact nature of the evidence is unclear and seems narrow in scope, which is perhaps one reason why it ultimately could not be revealed.) A point: A container in which to secure something safely may indicate something dangerous, but it may also indicate something fragile. TGG p. 178 clarifies that the sugar bowl has a "tight-fitting lid"; a necessity if you want to keep anything in it while throwing it down rivers and so on, but this also implies that it's watertight, and that whatever is inside may be perishable or otherwise easy to damage. It was generally agreed back in the day that the "classic" use for sugar bowls was probably for something along the lines of privately passing information or small objects during dinner parties or other meetings; consider how easy it would be to place something small inside a sugar bowl whilst seeming to take sugar, and for the other party to then retrieve it. Listening devices have also been proposed, which would allow coded communication to be potentially overheard but would also allow suspicious conversations to be recorded; it's easy to see how such a recording might incriminate a person who had set a lot of fires, for example, or more pertinently, to exonerate somebody who had not. Something like this I think is probably what is indicated by Lemony's statement on the subject in TSS.

Hermes , however, showed the apparent contradiction in this interpretation. Speaking about the secret letter in TSS, Hermes said:

"This letter is possibly the most paradoxical thing in the whole of ASOUE. It implies that the Sugar Bowl contains the evidence that will exonerate Lemony, although this does not seem to fit what we hear of its significance anywhere else." I believe Hermes was referring to passages like the ones that Dante and I cited in a recent theory that I will write here for clarity: "Our enemies capturing the sugar bowl would be as troubling as their capture of the Medusoid Mycelium." - Dewey, chapter 8 TPP. "The sugar bowl is on its way to the hotel even as we speak, and I'd hate to think what would happen if our enemies got ahold of it. I can't imagine anything worse, except perhaps if our enemies somehow got ahold of the Medusoid Mycelium. " - Kit Snicket , TPP p. 36 I was defending the idea that the SB contained some kind of radioactive material. But even a radioactive stone would not cause a disaster similar to what Medusoid Mycelium can do. Similarly, even information that could clear Lemony and accuse Olaf would actually do similar damage to Medusoid Mycelium. Medusoid Mycelium is a weapon of mass destruction that can cause an epidemic. Medusoid Mycelium can be grown easily and could be used to cause worldwide chaos in the event of coordination of villain efforts. In addition, we have some interesting statements from Captain W regarding the SB content: "My stepfather says that if the sugar bowl falls into his hands, then all of the efforts of all the volunteers will be for naught ... "He said it was better I didn't know ... He said people had been destroyed for knowing such enormous secrets, and that he didn't want me in that sort of danger. "- Fiona, TGG Chapter 3. That's why I haven't told you why the sugar bowl is so very crucial. There are secrets in this world too terrible for young people to know, even as those secrets get closer and closer. - W., TGG, Chapter 4. "It's not the sugar bowl," Captain Widdershins said, "it's what's inside it. - W. TGG, Chapter 6 What Captain W makes it clear is that there is a terrible secret within the SB. Let me fix this. Captain W makes it clear that there are huge secrets (in the plural) within the SB. And from there everything becomes more interesting.

Let's go back to the TSS secret letter. There is a strong indication that the use of a sugar bowl to protect and hide information was Kit Snicket's idea. Kit Snikcet is more than the sister of Lemony Snicket and mother of Beatrice Jr. Kit Snicket is known as the creator of the submarine Quequeeg. This seems to indicate that in his youth, Kit was able to create highly technological mechanical devices, like a submarine in which only a captain and two crewmen are needed. (Compared to submarine C, in which a large number of humans are required using arm force to move the submarine). I just want to highlight Kit Snicket's genius. Lemony's letter to Kit reveals for what purpose Kit had the idea of using an SB. Lemony wrote: "Your suggestion, so many years ago at that picnic, that a tea set would be a handy place to hide anything important and small in the event of a dark day, has turned out to be correct." - Lemony Snicket on the secret letter in TSS. The original objective of SB was to protect something small and important in the event of a Dark Day. What is a Dark Day? In North America, something called Dark Day happened on May 19, 1780. An unusual darkening of the day sky was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. (You can search for it on Wikipedia). But what caused this Dark Day? Wikipedia says: "The primary cause of the event is believed to have been a combination of smoke from forest fires, a thick fog, and cloud cover. The darkness was so complete that candles were required from noon on. It did not disperse until the middle of the next night. " In other words, that Dark Day was caused by a big fire. So the SB's goal is likely to be to protect something small and important from a Big Fire. Although Kit was responsible for giving the idea, the implementation of the idea to protect it came from Esmé. The sugar bowl serves as a protection against fire (and apparently also against water and other weather). But why could a Dark Day be so dreaded as to need a fireproof container? And what could this container contain? One of the biggest reasons that fires are so destructive is that fires destroy libraries. Large libraries throughout the real history and throughout the fictional history of ASOUE have already been lost to major fires. What if it was possible that all crucial information in a library could be compressed to the point of being fit into a portable device? Well ... It exists in our universe! In fact, digital information is just like that. Think about how many books will fit on your SD card on your phone. When ASOUE's books were written, we were in the age of data compression. Daniel Handler spoke about various types of libraries. Did he not leave out digital libraries? After all, there were computers in Prufrock Prep. Of course, we don't necessarily have to imagine a pen drive within the SB. But we can imagine an entire library within the SB. A library that can contain the most different types of secrets, some of which are really dangerous. If Count Olaf (or other enemies) had access to these secrets, in addition to being able to eliminate important evidence against him, who knows what he would be able to do with all that information! In this case, the damage could be similar to that of the deadly fungus MM. In other words, inside Esme's SB was a big backup with the main secrets kept by VFD. It is likely that there were shameful secrets for VFD, which made Captain W hesitate just thinking about them. In the case of a Dark Day in which all physical libraries were destroyed, the information from those libraries would be saved inside the sugar bowl. And that is why Esme, despite having the SB did not make much use of it. Esme hates to read. She only discovered the value of what she had in hand when she lost it. I mean ... She already valued the SB itself. Let me be canonical so you don't think I took this theory out of thin air. TE chapter 9: The most common use of the word "library," of course, refers to a collection of books or documents, such as the libraries the Baudelaires had encountered during their travels and troubles, from the legal library of Justice Strauss to the Hotel Denouement, which was itself an enormous library–with, it turned out, another library hidden nearby. But the word "library" can also refer to a mass of knowledge or a source of learning, just as Klaus Baudelaire is something of a library with the mass of knowledge stored in his brain, or Kit Snicket, who was a source of learning for the Baudelaires as she told them about V.F.D. and its noble errands." At first glance this sentence seems to indicate that the hotel where people slept was a library and that the sub-aquatic library was the hidden library. However, that doesn't make much sense in that sentence. Lemony is defining the library as a collection of information in some kind of media that can be accessed and read. The hotel where people slept was not that kind of library, although the rooms were organized as if it were a library, the function of the hotel itself was not to store information. Thus, the Hotel Denouement that Lemony is referring to here as a library was the underwater library, which Dewey referred to as the real Hotel Denouement.

I will quote a passage for clarity:

TPP Chapter 8: "Exactly," Dewey said. "The truth has been right under everyone's noses, if anyone cared to look past the surface. Volunteers and villains alike know that the last safe place is the Hotel Denouement, but no one has ever questioned why the sign is written backward. They're staying in the TNEMEUONED LETOH, while the real last safe place-the catalog-is hidden safely at the bottom of the pond, in underwater rooms organized in a mirror image of the hotel itself. Our enemies could burn the entire building to the ground, but the most important secrets would be safe. In other words, what was destroyed was TNEMEUONED LETOH and not the Hotel Denouement. "Hotel Denouement" was the name that was written on the entrance to the underwater library.

So the library that was hidden nearby that Lemony refers in TE chpater 9 to here was something else. And I deduce that this other thing is the content of the SB.

#asoue #Sugar Bowl #sugar bowl theory #asoue theory

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officialleotolstoy · 3 years

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🔥 Helenkhov 🔥 Anatole or the Kuragins as a whole

Helenkhov (I’m assuming this is Dolokhov x Hélène)

🔥I’ve read good arguments for them actually having an affair but I’ve seen equally compelling ones for them not actually having an affair (at least not to the point where they have sex in Pierre’s house *glares at Andrew Davies*). My personal favorite interpretation kinda walks the line between the two. I think they became close fairly quickly, borne partially out of the fact that they were both a little lonely (especially Hélène). It was eventually at least somewhat romantic and probably would have turned physical if Dolokhov hadn’t gone and been obnoxious about it to Pierre, but it never actually had the chance to become something solid. It definitely wasn’t strictly platonic though, and neither of them can properly label it. I think Hélène was justifiably angry at Dolokhov too post-duel, and mostly cut contact with him. They’re not able to avoid each other entirely because of Dolokhov’s continued association with Anatole, and they develop an outwardly cordial but slightly awkward relationship. They never regain that closeness they had pre-duel. I think Dolokhov would be down to restart their affair but tbh I don’t think Hélène would be. She learned her lesson and has moved on.

🔥I’m not saying Hélène was justified in having an affair (or an affair-adjacent thing), but far more of the blame lies on Dolokhov than her. She’s young at that point, and from what we know about Dolokhov, we can be reasonably sure he was manipulating her at least a little bit. At the very least, he had ulterior motives and wasn’t acting entirely out of a real love for her. But they probably did genuinely like each other and consider each other confidantes, if we take what Hélène says about needing someone to talk to as true. I like to believe that defense was at least partially truth, because it makes me feel better lol

🔥I wish we saw more exploration of their emotional connection. Adaptations are very bad at showing them actually interacting beyond either makeout scenes or hate sex. I know it wasn’t in the book but like. If you’re gonna add a sex scene you can write some dialogue too, you clearly don’t care that much about the integrity of the story (can you tell it’s Hating On Andrew Davies hours whoops)

Anatole

🔥Anatole’s slightly more manipulative than Tolstoy’s narration gives him credit for, but far less manipulative than the fanbase thinks he is. He’s just not smart enough to be that manipulative! That’s Dolokhov’s department, something highlighted by the fact that Dolokhov writes the letters that help persuade her to elope. However, Anatole also definitely knows how to omit unpleasant truths and paint a false picture of himself to Natasha. I think he doesn’t plan it so much as go off of the vibes of a situation though.

🔥I don’t think the way he hurts Natasha stems entirely from a lack of care for her. He’s willing to go to great lengths to get with her (and of course you can argue that it’s just for sex, but I think that’s missing some of it), and I think he genuinely likes the idea of her. He doesn’t know her well enough to actually love her, I think. And this is NOT a defense of him, he’s trash. He’s just trashy in a different way than most people characterize him. I’ll explain it a little more in the next one.

🔥Anatole’s biggest flaw is that before anything else, he’s horribly selfish. He doesn’t set out intending to hurt Natasha, I think, he just doesn’t think about the fact that he would. He only cares about himself and the pleasure he’ll get from it. I’m too lazy to find it, but now that I think about it I’m pretty sure there’s a book quote on him that says pretty much that.

🔥I don’t think there’s a whole bunch of evidence for book Anatole being bi. I’m happy to be proved wrong, but he was one of the ones that seemed straightest to me. Is that gonna stop me from thinking about Danatole though. No. I wish it would djsjksksnsnsn

🔥Comet Anatole being canonically bi is...a little questionable to me. Maybe I’m just not seeing the big picture but having the cheating whores be the only canon bi characters is uhhh. A little weird! I get that it’s also a bit of a plot thing, the part he chose to adapt just had a lot of gay vibes with Hélène and Natasha. But why Anatole? There are two wolves inside me. One says Danatole fun and more LGBTQ+ rep good. The other one says Anatole terrible bi rep. (Again, I’m open to being corrected on this one, or to hear bi people’s thoughts. I might just be overthinking it)

Kuragins in general

🔥Ippolit wasn’t having an affair with Lise he’s just a weirdo. No way is he straight. (This isn’t a hot take with good canon evidence I just feel it in my soul)

🔥I’m vehemently anti-Kuragincest and I don’t care what Tolstoy’s intentions were. He didn’t tell it to us in canon in the version I read, therefore it doesn’t exist. My explanation for the rumors is that Hélène and Anatole were very close as kids (and probably still are), physically and emotionally. People just. Misinterpreted it. I know it’s a bit of a weak defense but let’s be real 1) Pierre has a tendency to believe outlandish things without question and 2) i just. Hate incest. Its super uncomfy so i am deleting it from my mental canon

🔥Doesn’t it says somewhere Aline treats Hélène coldly because she’s jealous of her beauty? I might be making that up but if it’s true I hate you Aline </3

#war and peace #asks #anons #my post #vassily kuragin #helene kuragina #anatole kuragin #ippolit kuragin #i dont have an aline tag rip

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jawnkeets · 4 years

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How are you so clever??? I’m new to your blog and I’ve been looking at your posts (not in a stalkery way but because they’re so cool) and you seem super intelligent! Like you always reference things I’ve never heard of and use fancy words and it’s just really awesome. How did you get so clever? Do you read a lot or are you just naturally clever? If it’s from reading then what books would you recommend to someone who’s interested in literature and also broadening their general knowledge? Thanks

awwww. well thanks for the lovely ask!! this is way too much detail bc i’m procrastinating work but

i read a ton as a kid, mostly horror books - i was obsessed with the supernatural, and especially vampires, and the idea of things changing into other things (in a magical way, but also stories where characters develop and end up very different, tales of betrayal etc). my favourite series when i was little was the spiderwick chronicles, followed a little later by the saga of darren shan. i didn’t read any classic literature at all though, as i’d decided i hated it for some reason. as a kid i always prided myself on my creativity/ imagination rather than my intelligence (it’s a distinction i’d always drawn and still do after a fashion), but i was and have always been obsessive, and also used to sit and play memory games for hours, too; i remember one where i’d have a list of cards and i’d put one down, say what it was, turn it over, add another one, say what the previous one and this one was, turn them over, and continue until i couldn’t remember every single card in order, and then i’d start again. i wrote a lot, especially poetry, and used a thesaurus often because i loved words. i had a very very vivid imagination and refused to live in the real world until the age of about 11 or 12. then from 14 onwards i read almost nothing (apart from like idk two of the hunger games books) until i was 17, when i finally started reading classic literature, triggered by the great gatsby, which changed my attitude to learning completely. until then i’d despised secondary school partly because of the way learning was presented (i got good grades at gcse but went through the syllabus and exams mechanically with little genuine love) and partly for… other reasons, and had almost given up on taking academics seriously. but i got very lucky and had an incredible english teacher throughout sixth form, who encouraged me to take risks and break from methodical, formulaic writing. at the end of the first essay i had to do for him i still remember that he wrote ‘literature is for you. now and always. carry on.’ at the bottom, and that changed my life. he also introduced me to philip larkin and romantic poetry outside of class. after that, i was gripped by the desire to read and discover as much about the humanities as i could, make links between works, discover new ones, recover the feeling that i was possessed by after finishing gatsby. tumblr genuinely helped with art, literature quotes, and making it all seem accessible, e.g. seeing text posts making jokes about shakespeare, keats, etc helped to demystify a bit. yes, dark academia, i’m also looking at you for making learning seem exciting, but tentatively and with narrowed eyes. general knowledge-wise, it helped me to begin to break down the barriers between ‘subjects’ at school (even if you’ve left school, it’s pretty branded into our brains); they’re sometimes very fuzzy and even arbitrary, and to separate into strictly-defined categories like this is not the only way learning can or should happen.

a work that i thoroughly recommend to everyone who asks where to start is letters to a young poet by rainer maria rilke. he relates so perfectly this idea that the first step is to let yourself be filled with how amazing and vast the world is, and how much there is to read, listen to, and see. that’s not something you can learn from reading, and it’s not something you can be taught by anyone (unless being inspired by someone counts). it’s instrumentally important because it will drive you, but i also think it’s inseparable from understanding (and to me, it is understanding, just understanding without the right words yet). this is the highlight, and it was the mantra stuck up on my wall at 17 when i decided i wanted to learn, and learn seriously:

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.

i was relatively articulate before i started reading the classics/ reading widely, but not exceptionally articulate. here’s an example of two essay openings - one i wrote when i was 16, and one i wrote during my first term at university (2 years apart):

i’d say that since then my essays have probably improved by a similar proportion, as i’m as embarrassed to read the second as i was the first when i wrote the second, and the typos r annoying me (am too embarrassed to post recent writing :’( - doesn’t count if over a year and a half ago, hence posting the second :p). obviously, then, this isn’t natural intelligence (everyone has to get knowledge, big words, etc from somewhere, right?), this is natural receptivity and willingness to learn, which i genuinely believe anyone can gain at any point, coupled with A LOT of reading the opinions of others (i.e. literary criticism and theory), and reading literature from many different periods to discover how language is moulded by individual poets and by ‘eras’ more widely. but this is also synthesising everything i absorb into a personal vision (this is the hill i will die on soz i don’t think theory should be ‘objective’ like what does that even mean). you can and should put yourself into it!

in terms of what to read - if you like the rilke (really hope you do!!) then depending on what you like about it, you can search from there. try some of rilke’s poetry. or if you like that ineffable feeling it brings, try the romantics (keats’ ‘ode to a nightingale’ and blake’s songs of innocence and experience are good to start with!), or larkin’s ‘high windows’ and ‘the mower’. also try shakespeare’s hamlet, because that is INCREDIBLE (watching it is always easier, and the more shakespeare you watch/ read the easier it gets! andrew scott’s hamlet is the best imo). from there it’s a question of asking what you liked about what you just read (time period/ vibe/ themes/ subject/ style of writing) and finding things similar - often google works and i made use of it a lot to start with, tumblr too, otherwise ask people who you know (on the internet/ teachers/ friends etc). this is a personal journey, especially to begin with, i think (you have to jump in somewhere), and there’s no one who can give you a list of books to read in the order best for you, because - annoyingly, i know - that’s something it’s best if each individual works out through trial and error, and part of the fun in truth. there are western canon lists out there, e.g., which contain some fabulous works, but have very obvious problems.

a really really rough chronological development of english lit: beowulf, any of the canterbury tales, hamlet, paradise lost, pope’s satire, romantic poetry, victorian novels (e.g. david copperfield, jane eyre), the waste land, waiting for godot (it would also help to read the iliad, the aeneid, and metamorphoses too, and as much of the bible as you can, especially genesis, exodus, isaiah, job, and the gospels, but genesis and the gospels first if ur stuck/ overwhelmed). this is the lightest of pencil sketches, but if they’re works that go some way towards defining each ‘era’ or ‘period’, then it becomes a little easier to search for works branching off from these that are influenced by or chafe against them. you can always come back to me if you’re struggling with what to look for next :+) also, i have a list of my poetry favs, if you want to check that out (it includes the stuff mentioned in the previous paragraph, as well as others).

hope this helps (?!) ❤️

#asks

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randomfatechidna · 4 years

Text

musings at 25%

summary of my notes/highlights in harrow the ninth up to the end of the first act ordered in a handy list

canon text in “quotes”, notes in my library copy in italics, notes i am making now, at the time of writing, in (parenthesis)

“THE NIGHT BEFORE THE EMPERORS MURDER” - audible gasp.

“Your” - oh! second person! i love that for me (now that i’ve read a bit further, i can understand two things, that the changing of narrative person is excellent for dividing past and present, but also can be VERY interesting if you look at it as harrow lacking self identity due to *vague hand gesture* whatever she did to herself)

“Please don’t be in such a hurry to die...Do not underestimate me, Teacher, I have always lived.” oh! (this confused the hell out of me because i always saw harrow as not really caring whether she lived or died, which is clearly wrong! she lives because of the 201 dead children inside her, even though it makes her want to die :(

“I could protect you, if you’d only ask me to.” GIVE me weird harrow and ianthe dynamics PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE (i’m so delighted with EVERYTHING to do with their arcs so far. pre-htn harrow was probably incensed at having to trust her. this is hilarious to me.)

“Unless there’s something in those letters I don’t know about, you’re out of tricks.” what letters!! (of course, i eventually found out, but i’m proud of myself for picking up on this.)

“Looking deep into the eyes of the cavalier she murdered, you realised, not for the first time, and not unwillingly, that Ianthe Tridentarius was beautiful.”

“Well, I tried, and therefore no one should criticise me.” that’s a CURSED daniel radcliffe meme (i literally hate muir SO much i hate this!! i hate that it made it into the book!! i hate that i recognised it!!)

“Beloved dead, hear your handmaiden. I loved you with my whole rotten, contemptible heart—I loved you to the exclusion of aught else—let me live long enough to die at your feet.” (HARROW 😭😭)

“You were only half a Lyctor, and half a Lyctor was worse than not a Lyctor at all.” how is she only half a lyctor, does she mean without gideon? (i’m so glad i get to look back on this. i was so damn confused lmao)

“You prepared to die with the Locked Tomb on your lips. But your idiot dying mouth rounded out three totally different syllables, and they were three syllables you did not even understand.” gideon? ianthe? alecto? emperor? SO many choices (i love reading these because i didn’t expect to know so many answers as i did when writing them. it’s gideon! poor harrow!)

“I need you to hide my infirmity,” Harrow said. “You see, I am insane.” (my biggest question with this book is, how much of the flashbacks are real and how much aren’t? we know harrow regularly hallucinates the body now but was that true for the events of gtn? i feel so gaslit reading this book it’s incredible.)

“Ortus Nigenad did not die for nothing.” WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON

“Harrow, who had been born for the sole privilege of worshipping this corpse, loved it wildly from sight.” (harrow’s such a weirdo i love her SO much)

“Harrowhark Nonagesimus has always so badly wanted to live. She had cost too much to die.” (compare this with the point above where the emperor tells her not to be in a hurry to die.)

“There had been another girl who grew up alongside Harrow—but she had died before Harrow was born.” this means the body right? this can’t mean gideon. is she just so shocked that she can’t handle thinking of gideon? or is the emperor shitting her? (at this point i thought the emperor had altered her memory, which would be the MUCH less painful route.)

“You yourself never had power over anyone but you misused it violently.” (harrow. do you. need. a hug? perhaps?)

“You leant down and—holy shit—kissed her squarely on the mouth.” LITERALLY HAD TO PAUSE READING AND JUST GAPE FOR THREE MINUTES.

“To open in the event of the Emperor’s death. To open in the event of Ianthe’s death. To open if the Ninth House is in mortal danger. Some of them were opaque to the point of madness. To open if your eyes change. If met, to be given to Camilla Hect.” (saved this in case it becomes relevant. also, i miss cam!! where is she!!)

“Harrow,” said Ianthe gently, “don’t fuck with me. I’m not here for your amusement either.” ianthe is so wild i love her

“Perhaps there would have been something in rocking up to the First House with an octogenarian in tow: a sort of wild and confident fuck-you—Oh, your cavaliers are young? And they fight? How classic! So jejeune!” (harrow’s mind is a BLESSING to be inside. also, aglaimene an octogenarian? i knew she was old but DAMN good for her!!)

“It’s blank, my lady.” “Fuck.” AHHH WHAT IS GOING ON!!! I DEMAND TO KNOW!!! was she actually seeing things in gtn or is this her remembering incorrectly??

“She looked at you with her heavy-lidded, yellow-gold eyes” the body has gideon’s eyes??????

“A rubber-bodied toddler with a painted face and very red hair lay dead beside your knee and for some reasons it was this that destroyed you...you howled in a purity of fright.” :((

“Everyone alive swung around in a hurry, and in walked the next terrible part of your life.” (is ortus the first the next terrible part? or the fact that they are being chased by Literal Ghost Monsters?)

“Harrowhark had forgotten that he was Abigail’s husband, and found the concept of making eyes at one’s cavalier too revolting to bear.” (SAYS YOU, MISS NONAGESIMUS. SAYS YOU.)

“THE EGGS YOU GAVE ME ALL DIED AND YOU LIED TO ME SO I DID THE IMPLANTATION MYSELF YOU SELF-SERVING ZOMBIE AND YOU STILL SENT HIM AFTER ME AND I WOULD HAVE HAD HIM IF I HADN’T BEEN COMPROMISED AND HE TOOK PITY ON ME! HE TOOK PITY ON ME! HE SAW ME AND HE TOOK PITY ON ME! AND FOR THAT I’LL MAKE YOU BOTH SUFFER UNTIL YOU NO LONGER UNDERSTAND THE MEANING OF THAT GODDAMNED WORD” (harrow uses the word “compromised” to describe herself in the letter to herself in chapter 4? what does it mean what does it all mean)

i didn’t highlight this but i have a distinct feeling that the longsword isn’t just the longsword. something’s definitely been done to it...

anyway see you guys when i’ve finished act II

#rose #htn #harrow the ninth spoilers #once again all htn spoilers are being tagged htn #anything locked tomb related remains being tagged gtn #eta: it is SO HARD not to read this book in one day #but i learn from my mistakes and i am going to spread it out #because it is all the joy i have right now

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angrycowboy · 4 years

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A couple weeks ago, I decided that for my birthday, I was going to attempt to put together some of my favorite things this fandom has created. I say *some* because this is an incomplete list. There are so many wonderful and talented creators in this fandom that this list would go on forever otherwise. If I have I ever reblogged something of yours, flailed in the tags, reached out to via DM or sent you a message, talked on discord or even Twitter, know that I love and adore not only the things you’ve created, but you yourself as part of this fandom.

And now, without further ado…

FIC

memento by @nielrian

I was obsessed with the idea of coming up with the backstory to the photo we see Michael look at in 1x02. When was it taken? Does Alex have a copy? Did Alex bring his with him to the other side of the world? How often do you think Michael looked at his own copy? And Nicki took a little prompt of mine, and wrote an achingly gorgeous piece about one photograph, and it’s significance to Malex in less than 700 words.

a little something to make me sweeter by @partsofthesamecosmicbeing

Camluca + D.E.B.S. is like a recipe for the perfect fic. I freaking love the movie, and when I saw this fic pop up on tumblr one day? I couldn’t even contain my excitement (seriously, the tags on my reblog were just me flailing wildly because it felt like Ly had reached into my brain and written something I wanted to read before I even knew it myself). Casting Alex as Scud and including Malex in the mix just made me love this fic even more.

And the Sun Rose Red by @michaels-blackhat

A Miluca Kissing Kate Barlow AU? SIGN. ME. UP. I adore Christi, and I adore her writing. One day she was like, “miluca kissing kate barlow au?” and the only appropriate answer to that is HECK YES. Michael/Maria is also a dynamic that just works for this AU, given their canon relationship, and Michael’s penchant for fixing things and Maria’s desire to have someone just be there for her. *runs off to re-read fic*

something broken in this town by @irolltwenties

Okay so, Meagn is one of my favorite people in this fandom. We kinda ramble at each other, and one day this happened where she started talking about the parents. About the relationship Jesse, Jim, and Mimi had as kids, as teenagers, as young adults. How they got sucked into aliens and government conspiracies. How they became the people we see and hear about in S1. If you’ve ever had the privilege of talking with Meagn, you know how amazing her mind is, how she takes these characters and the mere scraps we’ve been given in canon with some of them, and creates entire lives for them, and it’s beautiful.

open up my eager eyes by @haloud

It took me a while to get into Mylex, but apparently it was just because I hadn’t read Hal’s series yet. I’m usually terrible about multi-shipping, but once I find a writer that nails the characters down, I could probably read anything they write. And Hal writes all three of them perfectly. (I mean, Hal is just a phenomenal writer in general, but I digress.)

META

Michael’s bisexuality by @chasingshhadows

There’s been a lot said in the fandom about Michael’s bisexuality and how it’s been portrayed. While the show was airing, I was having trouble finding people who felt the same way I did about how it was being shown - that it wasn’t problematic, but that it was good and accurate. Not to mention that it made me feel seen. I tried writing out what I was feeling but nothing sounded right - until Chasing wrote this piece. It was everything I’d been trying to find the words to express, and it remains one of my absolutely favorite pieces of her writing.

Semiotics of Roswell by @hannah-writes

Hannah did this amazing thing where she took the camera work of RNM and analyzed the shit out of it. And in some moments of doubt, where I was still worried about Malex because of the direction the show had been taking, Hannah’s semiotics (or better known as “Why Malex is Endgame”) pointed out how the camerawork for Malex and Echo is very similar, not to mention deliberate as fuck.

Maria Can’t Catch a Break by @ober-affen-geil

I adore Maria Deluca. She has gotten such a bad rap in the fandom because of the “love triangle” business. But fandom in general has done her dirty in that without removing the shipper goggles it is very hard to see that the show has established Maria as a character in her own right, just as much as it has with Kyle and Alex. And that’s why I love Riley’s meta about everything that Maria is dealing with, what she’s going through, and what it’s been like for her to be the one left behind 10 years ago.

GIFSETS/EDITS

i would know him in death, at the end of the world by @vlamito

I don’t even remember now who told me I had to read The Song of Achilles - it was pre-RNM hyperfixation, but I absolutely loved it (I definitely cried while reading it). And then I saw this gifset, oh mah gawd. Mich just has this ability to find quotes from other media and fit them seemlessly into Malex. And the moments she chooses for her gifsets are utter perfection. I think everyone has probably seen this now, but it’s a gifset I just keep going back to over and over again.

Are you okay? by @maxortecho

So I adore Echo. There is something about their softness, the way they look at each other, the way they act around each other that is just beautiful. Mo made this set, and pointed out in the tags that Liz pushes her arms underneath Max like she’s going to hug him, and it broke me. Like, I thought that scene in the finale was heartbreaking enough, but pointing that out? It hurts and I loved it.

Leading Ladies Appreciation by @lsobelevans

Lucie does some amazing things with color that truly make her edits stand out, and stick out in your mind. And it’s one of the things I love about her gif sets especially - it makes them uniquely hers, her own signature if you will. And this edit is no different - the splashes of color, the texture used for the background, the highlighting of the leading ladies is stunning work.

Same page/Different book by @bisexualalienblast

Let’s just say that picking ONE gifset of Amanda’s is an impossibility for me, okay? Amanda’s sets are the reason I wanted to learn how to gif - her gifs are beautifully colored, they’re crisp, she always picks the best fonts, they’re smooth, and her ideas are stellar. Anyway, she more recently made this set, which just so perfectly illustrates Malex’s issue IN TWO GIFS. That’s it. Their entire problem in S1, right there. Beautiful.

VIDEO

Juice | Women of Roswell by @isakvaltersnake

Katie is a wizard with the video editing. She’s going to be a force when we’ve got more than one season of footage to play around with. And this video is fun and hot and LOOK AT THE WOMEN. They are smart, they are kind, they are flirty, they have agency, and they’re all hella sexy.

Weird Science | Liz & Michael - Science Bros by @soberqueerinthewild

Hands down, this is one of my favorite videos from the fandom, and definitely one of my favorite things Christina has made (though I basically love everything she does). It’s silly and ridiculous and 100% fun. She found every bit of footage in S1 and matched it to the song perfectly. It’s impossible to watch this video and not smile and laugh - it will instantly brighten your day.

MISC

RNM Texts From Last Night by @audreyblanche

I am slightly biased here, because while Irena came up with the idea, I encouraged her to actually go through with it, promising her that the fandom would enjoy it. So because of that it’s next to impossible for me to pick a favorite out of all the ones she’s done for this series (though the one where we settled on the Camluca ship name, as well as one I specifically requested for Malex come close), and I’m hoping that with the new season (and when she returns from hiatus), she can pick this up again.

#roswell new mexico #roswell nm rec list #also every single person here is a joy to talk to and follow #notso celebrates a birthday #fandom love

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aroseyetbloomedwrites · 4 years

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CHARACTER SURVEY I GUESS

Character survey as tagged for from Ameme!

BASICS:

FULL NAME: Mu

NICKNAME: Mumu

AGE: 30+ at this point probably

BIRTHDAY: Whatever March 27 would be >:D

ETHNIC GROUP: Duskwight

NATIONALITY: ??? No one knows.

LANGUAGE/S: Common

SEXUAL ORIENTATION : Yes.

ROMANTIC ORIENTATION : Does not matter to him.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: Single.

HOME TOWN / AREA: Does not remember.

CURRENT HOME: Ishgard.

PROFESSION: Canonical it’s Paladin and White mage. (Dragoon proficiency for my own convenience.)

Personality at a Glance (Mu)

· Does not like to talk. (Prefers letting whoever comes with him to do the talking for him.)

· No particularly likes and dislikes. Just bright lights and loud noises annoy him—it’s more on a physically level, however.

- He also isn’t stupid, but he also isn’t particularly ‘book smart’. Mu is simpler, and often takes a while to read the atmosphere around him.

PHYSICAL:

HAIR: Long, lilac-ish hair that is lighter than his skin. Silver highlights are naturally occurring.

EYES: Eyes are a silvery gold, much like white-gold.

FACE: I don’t understand this one? His facial features are sharp I guess. High cheekbones like elves--

LIPS: Uuuh… Thinner?

COMPLEXION: his skin tone is a dark-ish lavender and grey.

BLEMISHES: His skin is blissfully clear.

SCARS: He doesn’t have any particular scars of note—but he is littered with smaller ones; from sword blows, explosions and shrapnel, or the recoil of his armor under pressure into his skin.

TATTOOS: None.

HEIGHT: Inching up to 8ft ” (when I first made him it was with Tolkien elves in mind, the tallest elf in recorded history being 9” tall. That is to say, I haven’t really decided on his height to the fullest.)

WEIGHT: Probably over 250lbs + on account of his height.

BUILD: Very well muscled. Well fit.

FEATURES: Little nubbin Padjal-like horns are growing from his head. They are still pretty round and coated with velvet. (They’ve grown from the tempering of the elements and his absurd amount of usage of white magic over time.) Nails grow like claws, another side effect of the white magic over-usage. Must be pre-cut right before battles if wearing gauntlets lest they grow back again within a day or two...

ALLERGIES: None.

USUAL HAIR STYLE: Down until someone puts his hair up for him-then it’s a bun.

USUAL FACE LOOK : His default expression is usually a blank one.

USUAL CLOTHING: 90% of the time it’s armor. No sense of fashion. If he’s wearing actual clothes, someone picked them out for him and then forced him to wear it.

PSYCHOLOGY:

FEAR/S: This would have been a solid ‘none’, but over time it’s become a ‘being too late.’

ASPIRATION/S: Whatever the Scions want him to do.

POSITIVE TRAITS: Unquestioning loyalty. His sheer strength. Probably.

NEGATIVE TRAITS: Unquestioning loyalty.

TEMPERAMENT: Fairly stoic, reserved and serious about what he does.

SOUL TYPE/S: Paladin, and White mage.

ANIMALS: He does not care.

VICE HABIT/S: Wandering. (??? Can that count? When there is nothing left to do, he will wandering from one end of the world to the other until someone needs to use him.)

FAITH: Not really.

GHOSTS?: They exist.

AFTERLIFE?: Not concerned with it.

REINCARNATION?: Not concerned with it.

POLITICAL ALIGNMENT: The Scions’ alignment is his alignment.

EDUCATION LEVEL: haha

FAMILY.

FATHER : Does not remember.

MOTHER : Does not remember.

SIBLINGS : Does not remember.

EXTENDED FAMILY: Probably not.

NAME MEANING/S: Mu is Mu.

HISTORICAL CONNECTION?: What?

FAVORITES:

BOOK: He can’t read.

DEITY: Does not care.

HOLIDAY: Does not care.

MONTH: Does not care.

SEASON: Does not care.

PLACE: Literally has no preference.

WEATHER: Does not care.

SOUND / S: Dislikes loud sounds more as a physical annoyance due to Duskwights superb hearing.

SCENT / S: He has never taken the time to smell things and consider them.

TASTE / S: Same thing as above.

FEEL / S: Same thing as above.

ANIMAL / S: They’re necessary in this world, and inherently good and innocent.

NUMBER: What?

COLORS: Not important.

EXTRA:

TALENTS: Killing things.

BAD AT: Making things.

TURN ONS: Scratching around his baby horns.

TURN OFFS: Do not know yet.

HOBBIES: Indirectly; traveling.

TROPES: The Loyal Dog. Or something.

QUOTES : “...”

MUN QUESTIONS:

Q1 : If you could write your character your way in their own movie, what would it be called, what style would it be filmed in, and what would it be about?

A1 : I dunno like “The Cost of Apathy” And it would probably apocalyptic, and Mu would only save the world because someone who knows how to command told him to.

Q2 : What would their soundtrack/score sound like?

A2 : Probably like a lot of… “Predator” by crispy or something. Lots of wild sounds and dubsteppy to explosions and blood flying--

Q3 : Why did you start writing this character?

A3 : Because it’s just me over-compensating w/ a few extra/different traits.

Q4 : What first attracted you to this character?

A4 : He’s really hot. Kinda my top. But Also a cross between my favorite anime character from Saint Seiya and Tolkien-esque elves which are also my thing.

Q5 : Describe the biggest thing you dislike about your muse.

A5 : No I like him just the way he is. Wait… I wish… I hate that he doesn’t look right in normal civilian clothes… Does that count? Probably because he’s only ever worn armor...

Q6 : What do you have in common with your muse?

A6 : We were born to follow, and prefer it because leading is troublesome (I personally hate troublesome things), but we can and will lead if necessary.

Q7 : How does your muse feel about you?

A7 : He would be indifferent,.

Q8 : What characters does your muse have interesting interactions with ?

A8 : WEll--any interaction with him will likely start out awkward and interesting… gonna be a lot of staring while he thinks.

Q9 : What gives you inspiration to write your muse ?

A9 : haha

Q10 : How long did this take you to complete ?

A10 : I’m going to estimate about half a year.

@amememightywarrior

#Are you proud of me?#I finally did it...#Ffxiv #Final Fantasy XIV #Character sheet #Basic info #Mu #OC #Warrior of light

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fortunatelylori · 5 years

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Do you think that Benjen knew the truth about Jon? In s6 i was annoyed that he left just b4 bran found out so we'll never know

Hey, nonnie!

This is a very interesting question and while I do not have a definitive answer, I am inclined to say that Benjen did in fact know the truth about Jon. There are two theories about how he found out. One is frankly quite boring and not all that interesting, while the other is much more emotional and meaningful. So I’ll kind of lay out both and you can make up your mind on it yourself.

The first scenario is that he found out once the children of the forest found him and healed him from the wounds inflicted by the White Walker in season 1. What we know about this incident is that the way Benjen was healed by the COF was similar to the creation of the Night King. Since all of this is just show canon at this point, things might be different in the books so keep that in mind.

The story Benjen tells Bran and Meera is that the COF inserted a shard of dragonglass into his heart to stop the process of him dying and turning into a wight. Why the COF would have done that for him and not the rest of the party he was with, remains a mystery but we do know that the NK is imbued with greenseer abilities because he was able to spot Bran while he was warging and actually interact with him by touching him (which lead to the magic of BR’s cave to be destroyed and them being attacked). It’s not outside the realm of possibility that Benjen, in his new hybrid state, has now gained access to the weirwood net and is able to have visions of the past, present and future just like Bran. In addition, Benjen is a Stark and we know that most of the Starks are magical in one way or another (although not as powerful as Bran, of course). These 2 things would go a long way in explaining how Benjen was able to pop up at the exact time when Bran and Jon needed rescuing when they were beyond the wall. So it Benjen does in fact have greenseer abilities, he would probably be able to see just how Ned came to find Jon and what lead him to bring him home from the Tower of Joy.

The other theory, and the one I’m most partial too, is that Benjen knew all along that Jon was Lyanna’s son. Some people speculate that Ned told him after bringing Jon home as, unlike Cat, Benjen had a vested interest in protecting his sister’s son. But I don’t think Ned needed to tell Benjen for him to figure it out all on his own.

One of the most interesting aspects about Benjen, and one the books highlight far more than the show, is his extremely close relationship with Lyanna. They were closer in age and Benjen was Lyanna’s wingman, so to speak, all through their childhood and adolescence.

I always found it fascinating that one of the visions Bran has the first time he accesses the weirwood net is of Lyanna and Benjen playing in the godswood. While there might be other narrative reasons for this vision that are, as of yet, unrevealed it does highlight just how close these two were.

Also Benjen was present at the tournament where Rhaegar crowned Lyanna as the Queen of Love and Beauty and since he also helped Howland Reed after he was attacked, it’s very possible that he was the only person to know that Lyanna was the Knight of the Laughing Tree and he helped her in this endeavor. Which would also make it possible that he was there the first time Rhaegar and Lyanna interacted when he tracked them down and revealed their shenanigans.

All of this is speculation at this point, of course, but if everything above happened, it’s also likely that Benjen knew Rhaegar kept in touch with Lyanna and chose to keep his sister’s secret. Unlike his brothers, he might very well have known that Lyanna was not actually kidnapped and that she went with Rhaegar willingly. I doubt either Benjen or Lyanna realized just what a terrible mistake they made in engaging with Rahegar to that level or the consequences of what they might have seen as a innocent, romantic tryst would have.

During the rebellion, Benjen was stuck being the Stark in Winterfell and was cut off from communicating with Ned which is why he probably never managed to tell Ned that Lyanna had ran off with Rhaegar of her own accord. Not that this would have stopped the rebellion per se but I imagine Benjen would have been riddled with guilt over his part in all of it, not to mention carry a trauma for aiding Lyanna in what would essentially be a huge tragedy for their family and also lead to her death. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a few months after Ned returned home, Benjen went to the Wall. I think him joining the NW was his way of atoning for what he saw as his failure to protect his sister and their family. So, knowing all that he knew about Lyanna and Rhaegar, knowing Ned as he did and also seeing how stubborn he was in refusing to ever talk about the mother of his bastard son and seeing just how much Jon looked like Lyanna, I think Benjen figured out fairly quickly just who Jon was. Perhaps he confronted Ned with this and Ned confirmed it. Perhaps he kept it to himself and it was an unspoken thing between the two brothers but I think there’s a very good chance that Benjen knew.

I have to stop here and remark on the double standard that the fandom applies to characters in this series. Sansa is often dragged through the mud as a bully and an idiot for having a difficult relationship with Arya and because of her naivete when it comes to Cersei and Jofferey. Lyanna, however, is always spared such criticism. Although we know that by virtue of being the older sister, she did in fact dominate Benjen and made fun of him: in the vision that Bran has, Lyanna roughs him up and then scolds him for screaming because she’s afraid someone will find out and at the tourney she pours a glass of wine over his head when he makes fun of her crying over Rhaegar playing the harp. And that’s just the canon aspect of their relationship. If the theory above turns out to be true, Lyanna effectively made her little brother complicit in the event that shattered their family. Also, just for the record, while the brunt of the Rhaegar/Lyanna relationship must rest on Rhaegar’s adult shoulders, it’s also worth noting that Lyanna chose to run away with a married man and entertain his advances for months prior. She was most likely groomed and coerced into this but, at the same time, she had ample time to inform her father or older siblings of what Rhaegar was doing and she chose not to, probably because she saw it as a way of getting out of her betrothal to Robert. All of this doesn’t make her an evil person or a monster but the responsibility of what happened is greater in her case then whatever role Sansa is supposed to have played in Ned’s downfall (which is minimal if not, downright inexistent) or the tragedy that she falls victim to after her father’s death. But because Lyanna is known to have swung a sword at some point, she’s Jon’s mother and also reminds fans of Arya, she get’s a free pass. Sansa, on the other hand, must suffer for the rest of her life because she was an innocent little girl who was taught to trust the adults around her and did just that.

Coming back to the topic at hand … It’s also interesting that Benjen is at once willing to let Jon join the NW but at the same time tries to talk him out of it. He’s conflicted about Jon’s decision. He tells Jon this:

Benjen: You don’t understand what you might be giving up. None of us will ever father sons.

Jon: I don’t care about that.

Benjen: You might. If you knew what it meant.

Now, on the surface this feels like Benjen finding Jon’s inexperience in matters of sex endearing. But … I always got the feeling that Benjen was referring to more than that. After all, why say none of them will have children and not point out that Jon might at least try to have sex before joining a celibate order for life? I think he was in fact unsure whether to take Jon to the Wall because by joining the NW Jon would be making a life altering decision without being in possession of all the facts concerning who he was and what his actual place in the world could be.

This theory is supported, in my mind, by Ned and Jon’s last conversation:

Jon: Is my mother alive? Does she know about me? Where I am, where I’m going? Does she care?

Ned: The next time we see each other, we’ll talk about your mother. I promise.

Firstly, please allow me to retreat in a dark corner and cry. Poor Jon! I get very defensive of him when people label him entitled or a bully because of his inability to understand the plight of Pyp and Grenn when he gets to the wall, because even though Pyp and Grenn go through hardships, Jon’s life has not been a walk in the park. Living in a castle and having access to a sword master shouldn’t blind people from the very real and painful traumas that have plagued Jon since the moment he was born.

Now, going back to the quote … Ned is a man of his word. I truly believe that he had every intention of telling Jon about Lyanna and his true parentage once they “saw each other” again. The question is why now? Why keep a secret for so long and promise to tell Jon the truth? What changes?

The only answer I can come up with is that by the time Ned and Jon would see each other again, Jon would have taken his NW oath which would not only mean that Jon was out of the reach of Robert but also that he would be now stuck there, unable to do anything with this new information. So Ned is biding his time until that happens so that Jon would have no choice but continue to be the Bastard of Winterfell. And Benjen is aiding him in this.

This feels like the kind of thing GRRM would come up with since it adds to the bittersweet aspect of the Jon/Ned/Benjen relationship. Both these men protect and love Jon but they also fail him by keeping him in the dark about who he is and standing by while Jon condemns himself to a life of celibacy, in a place that will most likely kill him because he sees no other road open to him in life.

Thanks for the ask!

#house stark #benjen stark #jon snow #lyanna stark

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ofrosesandash · 5 years

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100+!

Holy crap, I've broken a hundred followers. And this reboot of Margaery has been kind of fantastic for me, so thank you to everyone following me, and everyone who has talked to or written with me. In honor of this milestone, I am giving a nod and a shout out to some great blogs and their writers. Due to my ass being terrible with noticing these details, I'm using the pronouns "They" because I'm not positive who is a she or a he or in between.

To begin with, my first shout-out to those I feel are constantly under appreciated: MultiMuse Blogs. I mean, there can be rare and wonderful Muses in their rosters. Running one of these Bad Boys is a HUGE commitment to multiple characters you believe you'll use frequently. These peeps are the lifeblood of RP Communities.

@astormofagirl

Cori is amazing and we go way back to when I first started writing Margaery, I wanna say in 2015. We've both bounced between in different URLs and Blogs. While I've only written with their Sansa at this time, they have a lovely selection of ladies they write quite well!

@openxstrings

They've got a selection of top notice rare muses, and at least one nifty OC. It's been a bit since I checked out the roster. The ones I've written with are Edward Covenant from "The Order", Herc Hansen from "Pacific Rim", their Pacific Rim original, and Riddick-aka the badass Scifi Anti-Hero portrayed by Vin Diesal. Not only are all of these characters available, they write them damn well. Talking with them has been a true delight; and though there is a time zone difference, it's worth waiting for them to respond. Not to mention, they're honestly just great to talk to about antics planned or occurred.

@fallesto

This lovely person reblogs a roster of their active muses. They've got some of the tougher ones in the fandom-Cleganes, Joffrey, Qyburn, Selmy, and others. The roster also currently includes all of Margaery's husband. You should, honestly, already be following them.

@asoiafundone

A multi Muse by Lady Grey. A fantastic Mun and a dynamite writer. We haven't written quite as much as I'd like yet-but we have spoken a bit. Lovely person, brilliant writer.

@orionknytechildofzeus‌

Don't let the URL fool you, they’ve got more then one muse. They've got a cool selection of OC's and Canon characters, and they're a lot of fun to write with!

@sarcasmasadefense

I haven't written with them yet (my bad), but they seem very nice, and on their roster includes the lost Tyrell brothers, Willas and Garlan!

@mcssagcinabottlc

A lovely person I spoke to and wrote with a little; their roster contains Margaery's sister in law, Leonette Fossoway.

The Squad

These are two who've had the most OOC and partial crack interactions which. These discussions have been pretty much perfect, so, I identify them as Margaery's squad.

@bastardslayer

I mean, look at that URL. There are many talented Sansa's on this site, but that URL definitely stands out to me. We've been plotting and talking out of character almost fairly regularly, and they've got a great grasp of their muse.

@chevalier-de-la-fleurs

Similarly there are a number of great Loras's out there. That said, this particular Loras writer has always been the easiest for me to talk to. I don't know them well, but they're friendly, and a great writer, and I've really enjoyed writing with them.

Precious Ones

These are people I love writing with. Maybe they aren't in Margaery's squad (at least yet), but she definitely enjoys her time with them, and is prepared to fight for them.

@outlawerofbeets

NORA IS THE MOST BEAUTIFUL SUNSHINE SPOT IN THE FANDOM. We mostly scream head canons about Margaery and her smol King Husband back and forth at each other, but we have threaded. It's always a treat, and it usually tugs at my heart strings. For instance, once upon a time, Margaery found herself romantic with a Tywin. And she started to apologize to Tommen and explain she didn't think it was wise if they married, because she'd fallen in love with another. When she revealed who, Nora's Tommen's response was the most precious, purest things ever. "But he's old!" Also they've got an older Tommen/Arya ship that's to die for.

@agirlofwinterfell

This is the first time Margaery has really connected to an Arya. And, like most of the older people Arya meets, she would kill for this murder inclined child. We've already got one AU for my Olen verse, where both Arya and Margaery are at the wall pretending to be boys.

@a-maimed-man-and-bitter

So far we've got one thread; but ya know, it's been great watching Margaery and Jaime interact. This is furthered by the fact that their grasp of Jaime hurts my heart.

@mombeavty

Margaery is so happy to finally connect to her twice sister by law. And honestly, I've never quite grokked full book or show canon, as I personally favor blended-so I really like what the mun has done with their muse.

The Greatest Ladies GRRM Inspired

I have a mad love for original characters. While writing a pre-established character takes talent, original characters express one's love and passion for a fandom. That fandom has inspired a whole character. Side note, I honestly love original character relations to canon characters. (If you couldn't tell). I don't see role play as needing to follow canon, as long as everyone acts in character. So, the more the merrier.

@thelittlestrcse

Margaery didn't know how much she wanted a real sister until Trysta appeared. I'm a bit slow to respond to my threads with them, but this isn't commentary on my appreciation for mun or muse.

@lilliyxn

A newer lovely muse, one can never have enough Blackwaters. Where GRRM stopped with Bronn, they decided he needed a sister.

@meryllfrey

Honestly this is an original character that's managed to stick around, and that's saying something. Writing an OC can be extremely discouraging, with minimal interaction, almost no chance at shipping. But Lady Grey's Meryll Frey is a testament of creativity and determination.

Shout Outs

These are people I've talked to but for whatever reason haven't written with yet. For some of them, this is strictly on the standard of Margaery wouldn't interact with them, or I haven't cooked up anything yet.

@truetargaryen

This is a super sweet muse running a book based Danaerys Targaryean. While I favor blended canon myself, book canon is nuanced, so pulling it off is an impressive ability. And pull it off, they do.

@exilekniight

I first ran into them on one of my OC blogs, and honestly, I love them. Other then a previous absence of Jorah Mormonts in the fandom, well, let me quote them "Jorah Mormont FUCKS". This highlights their delightful attitude.

@longmayshereignxcersei

For obvious reasons, Margaery and Cersei will never be best buddies. That said, this is still my personal favorite Cersei-and not just because they put up with my originals. They're lovely as a person, and a very talented writer with some brilliant insight about their muse.

@foreignaccent

This is another monument of the fandom. I've been dabbling between different muses since Season 3, and I can usually find that URL around. A fandom treasure, and a nice person

@potterstillstinks

In talks with them, I fleshed out Margaery's wizarding world verse. They also put up with me because we were in the middle of discussion when I found myself in the ER due to a negative medication reaction. Even checked in. So, if you've got an HP verse, I strongly suggest following this Draco Malfoy.

Shameless Self Promo For Other Blogs of Mine You Should Check Out:

Did you know the Hightower's - Margaery's Mother's Family - are actually really interesting? They have a Valyrian blade called Vigilance. Their house is one of the oldest, they man a Lighthouse, and their words are "We Light the Way". OH and more notably, they're rumored to dabble in alchemy, necromancy, and other magic. So Margaery has two side Blogs: One for her mother, and one for one of her Aunts.

@vigilantalerie

Alerie Hightower is probably the mother of your favorite Tyrell. Olenna was born a Redwyne, she doesn't count. That's right-this is Mace Tyrell's wife, mother of Willas, Garlan, Loras, Margaery-and Trysta too!

@madmaidmalora

First of all, consider that that's not just a clever url. That's literally what she's called-the Mad Maid, rumored to dabble in spells, last seen locked away with her father looking for a method to stop the Greyjoy Incursion.

Next up I have a pair of OC Families. The Wildcrows, completely Original Content, and House Ferren-mostly original content.

@thewildcrows

Technically Alyssa and Baelor Wildcrow had different names when I first conceptualized them. But those original concepts were AU's for characters whose face claims already existed in Game of Thrones-and characters I'm actually plugging in original works. As I result, I created these two. Lys and Bael Wildcrow are Sellswords born of a Night's watch Deserter and a Wildling. Their father may have been a Blackfyre, but they have no idea what that means-nor would either of them care. If I'm not bothering with giving them a claim, why bother making them Blackfyres? One: I wanted to give them purple eyes. Two: Fire invulnerability neither of them realizes they have, as they grew up isolated. I find this could make for excellent hijinks.

@ladyferren

See, I love ferrets. Probably my favorite animal. So when a canon house was revealed called Ferren with two silver ferrets on its banner, I was desperate to know more. Except there wasn't much. They existed. Banner House of House Lannister. So I got a little carried away creating a history of a House and occupants to inhabit it. While the primary character is Seiran-the sudden Lady of her house after her father's sudden death-I also have the whole damn house hold available for interactions.

Finally, just a pair of fandomless girls I think you might just like:

@trixboomblast

Beatrix is a favorite creation of mine. She's a fandomless original character with explosive tendencies, behaviors, and habits.

@wikipediawoman

This is a side blog of Beatrix. Deia was inspired by Deadpool-what with the ability to poke the Fourth Wall and know way more then she should about pre-established character. I'm winging her as well somewhere between a Time Agent from Doctor Who and a member of the Temps Commision from Netflix's Umbrella Academy Adapttion.

#Falling Petals || PSA #((HOLY SHIT YOU GUYS))#((THANK YOU!!!))

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clairen45 · 6 years

Note

Did you read Lost Stars?

Yes, I did. I read it last spring and I liked it a lot. I really wanted to do a review on that and got side-tracked (and lost my notes in the process, sigh), as happens a lot. I do remember taking lots of notes about the parallels between this story and the ST. Why was it written anyhow? To bridge between the end of ROTJ and FA? We didn’t need that book for that. The battle of Jakku and stuff was pretty much the idea between the Aftermath book series. So what does this story bring to us? What do we learn?

There’s the whole propaganda thing and how nice decent people could let themselves become part of an evil regime. And how difficult it is to break free once the scales in your eyes are fallen about how wrong it is. Where the ST is concerned, this can trace all the way to Finn, and by extension other stormtroopers or FO officials that might dissent and rebel eventually.

There is the kamikaze sacrifice. A sacrifce that is thwarted in Lost Stars when Thane saves Ciena. A sacrifice that is both achieved and thwarted in the ST through Holdo and Finn’s examples.

The fact that Thane also remains critical of the Resistance. This criticism is something that we never got before in the OT or PT. In the ST and path to the ST material we get the idea that even if there is a better side, this good vs evil, us vs them thingy is probably not the best solution. It is far more complicated than it seems.

But mostly, it is the love story. This IS a love story. Star crossed lovers, to boot. And all the parallels with our Reylo couple. Ok, sure, this one pairing starts as childhood friends and begin as partners on the same side, not something we have with Reylo. But, the way their relationship is described and the way they end up on either side of the fight is obviously echoing what we get in the ST. Like:

The Force shipping a couple, bringing them together again and again. The Force as having, quote, “a sick sense of humor”. // “Why is the Force connecting us, you and I?”

secret trysts… and since lovemaking is in this story, something to look forward to in ix?

“Sometimes she felt that they were two parts of the same person”/ “ We work together. Neither of us owes the other anything, and he remembers that as well as I do”/ “they mirrored each other”

The “saving what you love” gospel

And even if Thane saves Cena from death, the two lovers are tragically forever separated. So we are graced with yet another tragic story that was originally shipped by the Force, it seems, but never managed to get it right. Because the ST is supposed to wrap everything up and learn the lessons of its previous failures, the point is also to remind us that Reylo is supposed to achieve what previous couples have not. So there are some very important lines in there. I found two. First the last line about the couple, as Thane visits Ciena one last time in her prison cell:

Slowly she raised her hand, flattening her palm against the edge of the energy field. Thane did the same. They mirrored each other, almost touching but forever apart.

If this, my dear friends, is not a direct call to TLJ’s mirror scene in Ahch-To,I don’t know what it is.

And sure, we only get a subliminal image of Kylo in the shape of the shadow that comes to meet Rey, and sure the lovers are separated -seemingly forever- at the end of 8. But because it is the end of the second installment, it is not the end of the story, so the seemingly is what it is: it seems like they are separated forever. But they won’t. And the hand that could not touch the other has already been a fulfilled promise in 8, since Kylo and Rey have managed to reach across the stars once. So what happened once for these two can happen again.

The other line in chapter 7, I find even more important:

But occasionally -at the least inconvenient moments- the enduring connection between them would make itself known. Ashes would become embers.

Well, first, the way Thane and Ciena’s relationship obviously fits our Force bond connections to a T in TLJ. The least inconvenient moments indeed. But also, I highlighted the last part, because I think it is a crucial theme, maybe THE crucial theme of the ST. There is that wonderful meta by @fluffycakeistainted called Don’t Do this, Mustafar vs the Supremacy, that compares Anakin and Padmé’s last scene together in ROTS and Rey and Kylo’s post throne room scene. It has this wonderful analysis of sparks vs ashes. And indeed, that is what is at play here. Look at the thematic that pervades TLJ: spark, fire, burn down, songs about fire in the Spotify official playlists… “We are the spark that will light the fire” … Poe doesn’t get it right in the end. He thinks about fire as a destructive force. But the way Holdo was bringing it up was fire as bringing forth life, the creative spark, and even better, restoring life again. The Phoenix, fire out of the ashes. What Rey also says during her first lesson with Luke: “Death and decay, that feeds new life”. Not turning everything to ashes. Rather bringing life out of the ashes. Take Luke’s reaction to the burning tree. He wants to destroy it, but is unable to. Interestingly this mirrors exactly his worst moment with Kylo: I will bring you down … Nope… Can’t…Tragic story of Luke’s life and also the reason why he was our hero in the first place. Luke was never about destruction. He was a savior. Which enabled him to save Vador but ironically lost him his nephew, just because for once he contemplated destruction instead of salvation. Of course, when Yoda sets the tree on fire, he is appalled at the destruction. That’s the only thing he sees: oh, burning the sacred Jedi tree and sacred Jedi texts means it is the end of the Jedi. But look at Yoda’s reaction. He doesn’t see the burning of the tree as something tragic. Even if he knows that Rey has saved the texts anyways because she took them away, it is not the point. What matters is not the tree, the texts, but what is out there, the girl, life, love. Something interesting there. Yoda was never one to preach about love and attachment. He failed tragically with Anakin in the first place. Almost failed with Luke by wanting him to kill Vader. So he must have indeed learn out of his previous failures.

There are important ashes to contemplate in our saga. These are the iconic ones, for sure.

Vader’s pyre.

And see how Vader’s ashes are brought back nicely into the ST?

Vader’s pyre was about his redemption. Burning Vader’s costume was supposed to free Anakin, the Jedi, the good one, out of his evil persona. It was the end of the curse. And sure enough right after burning him, here he is, with the other benevolent Force ghosts. So by having Vader’s ashes (also, remember the ashes in Kylo’s interrogation room?), we are reminded of the embers. Redemption. Except that this time, we need life out of decay to complete the story.

Anidala’s tragic ending. Let’s get this right, this time. Should I say more? Check the meta I already mentioned. The parallels between these two couples are practically canon by now…

Qui Gon’s pyre.

Ah, that one is interesting. This is chronologically speaking the first pyre? Our first ashes and embers. What does Qui Gon stand for? His belief in midichlorians. Nah, just kidding. His belief in the Chosen One, and finally having balance in the Force…. Well… I rest my case.

#star wars meta #star wars parallels #reylo meta #reylo parallels #lost stars #reylo fandom #reylo #ashes and embers in star wars #star wars symbolism

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crispychrissy · 7 years

Text

The Trouble With Witches

Summary: A witch hunt with the Winchesters has some nerdy twists along with an interesting spell. Pairing: Dean Winchester x Reader, Sam Winchester Word Count: 3868 Warnings: Extreme nerdy stuff, canon SPN violence, a bit of naughty flirty talk, and bunnies (they need a warning, you’ll see why). A/N: This is for @percywinchester27‘s PJO Quotes Challenge! My quote was “We'll have to work on your bunny phobia later.” and it’s highlighted in bold in the fic. Honestly, this is pretty much a borderline crack fic and had me laughing pretty hard. It has some Star Trek references in it, so if you don’t understand, please Google them. This was beta’d by the lovely and now very giggly @queen-of-deans-booty. Any feedback would be appreciated! Enjoy!

“Come on, we need to get moving, Thumper,” Dean grumbled from down the hall in the bunker.

You didn’t particularly like the nickname he gave you, but you were just naturally jumpy like a rabbit, so it stuck. Well, it mostly stuck after the first time he scared you and you punched him square in the nose before jumping around while you panicked. He always told you that the moment you punched him was the moment he fell in love with you. Such a romantic, that Dean Winchester.

Life hadn’t always been this peachy. The brothers took you in after your family was killed in a car accident. It turns out that your dad’s business partner had made a deal with a demon to have your father killed so he could take over the company. When his partner found out that the company was left to you in the will, the demon came after you next. Luckily, Sam and Dean were there and saved you before the demon was able to kill you.

So here you were, almost a year later and you were happy. You had Dean as your amazing boyfriend and Sam as your best friend, and you wouldn’t trade it for the world. You fell hard and fast for the green-eyed freckled Winchester, and who could blame you? He was basically pure sex appeal on bowlegs, but he was also the kindest man you’d ever met.

You hauled your overstuffed duffel bag over your shoulder and trotted out of your shared room with Dean down the hallway to the garage. Dean let out a quick breath of air when you climbed up the stairs into the garage and took your bag from you.

“You do realize it’s just going to be a simple witch kill,” he shook your bag, “you didn’t have to pack your entire wardrobe.”

“That’s not my entire wardrobe, Hedgehog. I doubt we could fit even half of it in Baby,” you said, laughing at Dean’s eye roll at your nickname for him. Ever since you came into your bedroom and saw Dean, who was fresh out of the shower and eating a whole cherry pie that was sitting on his stomach, you started calling him Hedgehog. The wet spiked hair and him enjoying fruit while lying on his back… it fit him too perfectly.

Dean slammed the trunk closed and you and the Winchesters all climbed into the Impala, heading straight to this witch case that Sam had found only a state over in Colorado. The article Sam had found said that several people had died in this town due to choking. On hairballs. Sam had already had it narrowed down to a few people in town that had a connection to all the victims, so it should be a relatively easy case.

The five-hour drive passed pretty quickly thanks to the epic trivia battles you had with Sam. You downloaded a trivia app, similar to Jeopardy, and went head to head with him. You pretty much dominated him in the science, technology, and biology fields, but he was pretty quick with his knowledge of history and math. You ended up winning overall but Sam had already challenged you to a rematch on the way back right as you pulled into the motel.

“Come on, Sam. How can anyone remember the quadratic formula? I only know it begins with negative B, but I can’t remember anything from high school. How do you remember that? Weren’t you studying to be a lawyer?” You playfully bumped his shoulder as you walked to the trunk and pulled your bag out, waiting for Dean to get the room key from the front office.

“I was pre-law, but those damn songs they used to make you learn the formula…it just stuck with me,” he said, shrugging and smiling. “You’re gonna go down on the way back, though.”

“Bring it, Sam! I’ll just school you in anatomy again,” you smiled, putting your hands on your hips.

“The only anatomy you need to study is mine, baby,” Dean purred in your ear as he came up behind you and linked his arm through yours, walking toward the motel room.

You jumped when he linked his arm, but quickly turned around and pressed a quick kiss to Dean’s lips. You pulled away, only to have his grip on your arm tighten and pull you back to him so he could kiss you properly.

“Guys, come on,” Sam groaned from behind you.

Dean smiled against your lips and pulled away, shooting you a wink before walking ahead of you to room number nine. He unlocked the door and you all piled in, ready to research the case. You didn’t mind having to share a room with the boys, but another room occasionally didn’t seem too bad when you wanted to have alone time with Dean. For as loud as he snored, Sam was a very light sleeper, so you and Dean had to behave when you were all in the same motel room.

Sam already had his laptop open and was pulling up more information about the cases from the medical examiners reports. Dean pulled three beers out from the cooler and popped the tops off before handing them out to you and Sam. You saw the telltale furrowing of Sam’s brow and you knew he found something.

“So, get this…” you began, right before Sam was going to speak.

He glared at you and sighed in disapproval, causing you and Dean to giggle.

“So,” he paused, narrowing his eyes at you, “the hair in the victim’s throats was all rabbit fur.”

“Rabbits?” You asked again, raising an eyebrow.

“Rabbits,” he confirmed. “The report says that there was no evidence of irritation or scratches on the esophagus of any of the victims, so the hairballs weren’t forced down manually.”

“Death by rabbit,” Dean snorted and took a sip of his beer, “that’s pretty unlucky.”

You and Sam both rolled your eyes and shook your heads in unison.

“We can split up and each take a crime scene. There has to be hex bags if we’re dealing with a witch. I don’t see any strange bags logged into evidence for any of the cases, so they’re probably still at the crime scenes. Three of us, three crime scenes. Let’s go,” Sam stood up from his chair and pulled on his suit jacket. You were all already dressed in your Fed threads, so all Dean would need to do is drop you off at your respective crime scenes so you could search.

For the next four hours, that is exactly what you did. Sam found his hex bag first, shoved into the corner of the sofa in the living room. Dean was next, finding it in the night stand next to the victim’s bed, and you were last to find yours. Yours was shoved into the entertainment center behind a stack of DVD’s. This witch was getting better at hiding the hex bags, and you were thankful you decided to search behind them.

Dean came by with Sam already riding shotgun and picked you up so you could head back to the motel and research the type of magic. You had witch killing bullets all ready, but it was always nice to know if you were going to be walking into something, or rather someone, more powerful than a normal witch. After quick pit stop for burgers, you were all back in the motel and buried in books and laptops.

“Hey guys?” You had noticed something at your crime scene and wanted to see if the boys saw it, too. They both grunted in acknowledgement.

“Did either of your victim’s own pets?” you asked, pulling out a small card from the inside pocket of your blazer.

“Mine had a cat named Kirk,” Sam responded, looking up at you and arching a brow.

“I’m glad you took that house, then. Mine had a dog, don’t remember its name though.” Dean added.

“Huh. Mine had a cage for something, not sure if it was a bird or rabbit…but I did find a business card for a local pet store on their fridge. The symbol on the card looks so familiar.” You handed the card to Sam, watching his expression change from confusion to recognition as he looked it over.

“This…this symbol is a Witch’s Knot. It was used in the middle ages to identify witchcraft. Nice find, Y/N.” Sam passed the card to Dean. “I think we found our witch.”

Dean studied the card and nodded. “She’s got a connection to all three victims because they all had pets. How many pet stores could there be in this tiny ass town?”

“Not to mention it would give her access to the ingredients she would need to perform this kind of magic. And the furballs of course,” you added, standing from your chair and stretching your back while you yawned.

It was already after nine at night, and you knew the boys wouldn’t want to wait until morning to take on the witch. The risk to another innocent life is too high. The killings were spread weeks apart, but all three of you noticed that they were getting closer and closer together.

“Let’s head out. I pulled up the address on Google and it looks like she lives in the apartment over the shop,” Sam said, standing up from his chair and undoing the buttons to his dress shirt. He grabbed a flannel and pair of jeans before stepping inside the bathroom and closing the door.

“Would you like some assistance undressing, Mr. Winchester?” You purred, stalking closer to where Dean was sitting on the bed.

“Mmm. Why yes I would, Ms. Y/L/N,” he purred right back at you as you reached for his belt.

“You guys do know I can hear you, right? I’m coming out in sixty seconds, so you two better be changed and ready to go,” Sam spoke from inside the bathroom.

“I’m so glad you are finally coming out, Sam. I think we all knew for a while because of the hair, but I’m so proud of you Sammy.” Dean could barely hold in his laugh as you two quietly giggled and stripped out of your Fed threads.

“I’m not gay, Dean. But from what Y/N has drunkenly let slip about your sex life, I think tha-”

“WHOA. Okay, stop right there.” Dean glared at you and you just shrugged in response, shooting him a playful wink.

You could hear Sam’s booming, yet muffled laughter coming from inside the bathroom as you slipped your flannel on. You loved the two of them so much. Sam was like a brother to you and knew you could play around with him like you were his sister. You could mess around with him just as much as he could with you.

Sam slowly opened the door to the bathroom and peaked his head out right as Dean finished buckling his belt. He smiled that you were all fully clothed and stepped out into the room to grab his phone. He tapped a few times, putting in the address of the pet store, and pulled on his jacket

‘Let’s head out,” Sam said, popping the clip out of his pistol to check which bullets he had inside. You and Dean mirrored his actions, satisfied that all three of you had enough firepower to take out several covens.

The drive to the pet store only took ten minutes, but you were nervously chewing at your lower lip the entire drive. Something didn’t feel right about this witch and the odd way she was killing people. You swallowed your reservations right as Dean pulled up to the curb outside the pet shop. The lights were on in the upstairs apartment, so someone was home.

Once all three of you had gotten out of the car and stowed your pistols in your respective waistbands, there was a bright flash of red that came from a window upstairs in the apartment. You all exchanged looks for a moment before running toward the front door of the store. Sam already had his lockpick unzipped and began picking the lock.

“Come on, Sam. She’s doing a spell right now,” you whispered as Sam fumbled with the lock.

“Not helping, Y/N,” Sam grunted a few seconds before the lock disengaged with a muffled click.

Dean brushed past you both and pushed the door open, cautiously sweeping left and right with his pistol raised. You and Sam followed shortly after him, pulling your pistols out as well. Dean pointed toward the far back corner of the storefront to a set of stairs that led up. Nodding, you followed behind Sam and headed back toward the stairs.

Dean stopped when he reached the top of the stairs, waiting for you and Sam to catch up. He nodded toward the door at the end of the hall that was already slightly open. Dean led the way and pushed the door open. All the lights were on inside the apartment and Dean stopped in his tracks a few feet inside. You and Sam were right behind him and almost bumped into Dean when he stopped. You were about to ask him why he stopped when you looked around the living room of this apartment.

“Holy Star Trek,” you whispered, mouth still agape. The entire apartment was covered in Star Trek posters, models, and various props. There were autographed posters of the original Star Trek with William Shatner, small models and figurines of the cast from The Next Generation, and several props from other Star Trek spin offs.

“Are you in nerd heaven, Sam?” Dean asked, nudging his brother with his elbow.

“No, Dean. This is a little too obsessive for my taste. Jeeze, everything in here is Star Trek themed,” Sam said, carefully making his way into the middle of the living room.

He wasn’t kidding. There were several shelves covered in large pieces of Star Trek memorabilia, including a cardboard cutout of Riker sitting in the corner. Even the pillows on the couch and the remote for the television was Star Trek themed.

“Spread out, we need to kill her before she kills someone again,” Dean said, pointing you toward the bedroom and pointing Sam toward the kitchen.

The bedroom also matched the Star Trek theme of the living room, including a Star Trek bedspread and a Bat'leth on a shelf in the corner. Pretty much the only thing in the room that was not Star Trek themed was the altar covered in various spell ingredients at the foot of the bed. There was still smoke rising from the metal bowl, meaning a spell was just completed.

You made your way over to the closet as you finished out your sweep of the bedroom. The moment you opened the door, you were immediately stumbled backwards, tackled by approximately thirty small and fluffy rabbits pouring out of the closet and into the bedroom. You couldn’t help the shriek that came out of your mouth as the furry sea of bunnies quickly overtook you.

Dean and Sam ran into the room, guns raised, sweeping back and forth to help you with whatever threat caused you to scream. The moment they saw the plethora of rabbits that were surrounding you, both Dean and Sam began to chuckle.

“It’s not funny, guys! They scared the crap out of me,” you grumbled back, which only made Sam laugh harder.

“We'll have to work on your bunny phobia later,” Dean said between giggles, “but at least we know where she got all the rabbit fur from.”

You shook your head at the two brothers and gently nudged a rabbit away from your leg with your foot. You could hear a few of them were eating something in the closet and it seemed like more and more rabbits were pouring out onto the floor. You were a pretty big Star Trek fan yourself, and it only took you a moment to recognize what was happening.

“Tribbles!” You yelled, earning confused looks from both the boys. Sam glanced at the closet, then back to you, and his eyes widened.

“Come again?” Dean asked, glancing at you and then to his brother.

“They’re this little furball things from the original series of Star Trek. They reproduce in a very short time when they’re fed. I think this witch did a spell that made the rabbits have the same reproduction behavior as Tribbles from the show,” you explained to Dean.

“Yeah, I remember that episode. They started with like ten of them and by the time a day passed there was thousands,” Sam added, making his way over to you.

You nodded and gestured toward the altar. “The spell was still smoking when I got here, so we may be able to reverse it if we can find her spell book. Help me look before we’re drowning in rabbits.”

The next five minutes, all three of you frantically pulled apart the bedroom trying to find the spell book. Finally, Dean pulled the spell book out from under the mattress and tossed it over to you. You loved research, and the extensive studying you did on spell reversal and neutralizations in the Men of Letters library was definitely going to come in handy for this.

Luckily it was a simple duplication spell and not some crazy reproduction curse. Reproduction spells were much more complicated and required a lot more ingredients than what the witch had laid out on the altar. You quickly found the spell she used in the book and began tossing ingredients into the bowl. The amount of rabbits had continued to grow, and it was starting to be difficult to walk.

“Dean, go to the kitchen and see if she has any cinnamon. There’s none left in this dish,” you said as you handed Dean the empty bowl. He disappeared from the room and you glanced down at Sam, who was now sitting on the floor with four rabbits in his arms and several more in his lap.

“Really, Sam?”

He looked up at you with a dopey grin on his face, “What? They’re cute. It’s not like there’s anything I can do to help you. Might as well enjoy it before they disappear.”

You rolled your eyes at him right when Dean came back into the room with some cinnamon in the dish.

He waded through the swamp of rabbits to reach over and hand you the bowl. “Got it. Do you need anything…” Dean glanced around the room at eye level and furrowed his brow. “Wait, where’s Sam?”

You looked down at Sam who was now practically swimming in rabbits. The amount of rabbits that had spawned had to be in the high hundreds and the ones that didn’t spill out into the hallway were still inside the bedroom. Even Sam, as tall as he was, had rabbits up to his mid-chest, while you were surrounded by a sea that reached a little above your knee. It was only a matter of time before the rabbit level reached critical and overtook the altar, so you had to move quickly.

You added a few pinches of cinnamon to the mixture in the bowl and chanted in Latin. “Vicissim amoris, mutationem fortunae. Eaque omnia redire consistere rectum.”

The room was immediately filled with the same bright red glow that you saw from outside, forcing you close your eyes. It felt like something whooshed past you and you could feel no more resistance or fur on pressing on your legs. You slowly opened one eye and looked around. There was only one rabbit remaining, and it was currently curled into a ball in Sam’s lap

“Everyone okay?” You asked, opening your eyes completely and looking around.

“Yeah.” Both Sam and Dean said at the same time.

You exhaled sharply and put your hands on your hips. “Well then. I think I can check ‘be swarmed by hundreds of rabbits’ off my bucket list.”

Dean ran over and scooped you up in his arms, pulling you into a quick kiss. “I’m so proud of you. I think you’re a bigger nerd than Sammy.”

“Possibly. But at least I’m not on the nerd level of this witch.” You smiled and pecked him on the lips again.

“Speaking of the witch, where did she go?” Sam said as he stood up, still with the rabbit in his arms.

As if on cue, the witch walked into the apartment whistling. You recognized the song immediately as from the episode ‘The Inner Light’ from The Next Generation, one of your favorites of all time. All three of you grabbed your pistols and darted out to the living room.

She looked up in shock. “How are you still alive?! You should have suffocated by now!”

“We have someone nerdier than you,” Dean said before he shot the witch square in the chest. She shrieked and slumped to the ground.

“Grab her body and let’s get out of here,” Sam said as he walked over to her body and scooped it up, bridal style, in his arms.

Dean began walking over to his brother and stopped when you didn’t follow right away. He turned and cocked his head. “You okay, sweetheart?”

You smiled and nodded. “Yeah, give me a second, I’ll be right down.”

A few minutes later you arrived at the car with your hand behind your back. Dean opened the trunk to swap out his witch killing bullets and, the second he opened the bottom to reveal the various weapons, you plopped the Bat'leth from the witch’s apartment on top of the set of machetes.

“What the hell is that? Is that from her apartment?” Dean asked.

“It’s a Bat'leth. And yes. Not like she’s going to be using it anymore.” You grinned.

Dean smiled and kissed your temple. “My adorable nerdy Thumper.”

You giggled and patted Dean lightly on the ass before hopping into the back of the Impala. After burying the body, you all returned to the motel room to pack. Having been with the boys for so long, you were all packed and on your way back to the bunker within ten minutes. You kicked Sam’s ass again in trivia, much to his displeasure, and you arrived back to the bunker just as the sun was coming up.

You threw your duffle bag on the bed in your shared bedroom with Dean and began to unpack. Your stomach grumbled and you ceased unpacking in favor of a snack. Walking into the kitchen, you smiled at Dean who was already making you both a sandwich.

“My hero Hedgehog,” you said, ruffling his hair before stacking your sandwich on top of his on his plate. You started walking back toward your room when Dean spoke up.

“Hey! My sandwich!”

You walked back over to him and grabbed his hand. “Come on.”

“Where are we going?”

“To boldly go where no man has gone before.” You winked at him and turned, leaving the kitchen.

“Is that a kinky thing?” Dean yelled before running through the kitchen to follow you.

Tagging some friends! @katymacsupernatural @sofreddie @just-another-busy-fangirl @kittenofdoomage

#dean x reader #Ana’s PJO quotes Challenge #sam winchester #reader insert #star trek #crack fic #bunnies #killer bunnies #witch #curse #funny #latin #fluff #spnfanfic #supernatural #supernaturalfanfic #research

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