#i just want costis and kamet to be happy :(

[lilaccatholic]

I'm new to the Queen's Thief fandom (I was avoiding most online content while reading the books to avoid big spoilers). I wanted to ask you how you would personally rank the books? Is any one book a particular favorite of yours, or do multiple books tie for you?

Oooh this is a good question! Buckle up, because my answer to this one is far from popular consensus lol.

King of Attolia: MY MOST BELOVED. This book is everything to me and I have to physically restrain myself from reading it more often. It's the first time we really see an outside view to Gen's machinations, but joy of all joys, Costis loves him just as we do! Everyone grows to respect him! Everything is resolved beautifully, but almost never in the way you'd think it would! AND EVERYTHING WITH GEN AND IRENE HAS ME ABSOLUTELY FERAL.

Return of the Thief: Maybe I'm just a sucker for happy endings and stories where the little guy wins, but this book and all its twists and turns is so beloved to me. I knew I'd love it so much that finishing it would break my heart, so I deliberately put off finishing it for months. This was such a perfect completion of Gen's story, and it made me want to dance on the rooftops with everyone at the end.

Queen of Attolia: So many of my friends place this one lower, and while I respect them for that, I certainly don't agree! Firstly, I love stories where a character is fundamentally altered in a dramatic way and has to fight to regain who they were, even though they'll never truly be the same again. I also love stories of someone who's closed off and cold learning to open up and let themself be loved again...you can see, then, why I rank QoA so high. That, and nothing has ever been so satisfying as reading "Diplomacy. In my own name." YEAH!!!!!!

A Conspiracy of Kings: Sophos! Going from Bunny to lion!!!! Descovering he's loved more than he ever thought he was! Smacking Gen into remembering they're friends! His adorably sweet relationship with Helen! This book would be my favorite in any other series, but this isn't just any other series, is it?

The Thief: I think my experience with this one might be skewed because it's the only one I read via audiobook instead of in print. I liked it, very much! I love the very grumpy road trip, and I love that, despite the big twist, Gen is still a whiny little brat. Speaking of, WHAT a big twist. It was the first real taste I had that this was going to be a series unlike any other I've experienced.

Thick as Thieves: Despite putting this book last, I actually really did like it, it just didn't have nearly enough Gen in it for me, personally. I like Costis and Kamet is a very fun unreliable narrator, I just really missed the characters I'd grown to care so much about!

I haven't gotten to read Moira's Pen yet, so I don't know how that will rank, but suffice to say I'm sure I'll like it because I adore this series!

Anyone else who wants to give their own ranking is welcome to!

[artino-c]

this might be controversial (?) but the other thing that really gets under my skin about news from the palace is that if we were going to find out about kamet’s future i wanted it to be in a story that was about him (and that’s what i thought the laela story was going to be). quite frankly i care more about kamet’s future happiness than i do about costis!

i actually don’t think i would have minded a story that showed us kamet’s future children being raised in attolia, at all, because so much of his story is about being cut off from family and not having a home—and he doesn’t even really have those things on the page at the end of TAT or ROTT (even though he’s clearly in a better place). it would have been nice to see some real confirmation that he got to have those things!

but post mp, not only do we know nothing about how kamet fits into the big interrelated ormentiedes family clan, we don’t even know who owns the house! did kamet just get subsumed into costis’ dream (?) of having a farm and 2.5 kids?? is he actually….happy (????) on a farm surrounded by attolian farmers and the multiple mothers of costis’ children?? my first impulse was to overthink a bunch of canon-compliant solutions about why this was fine or plausible but without doing that work, i’m not sure i can see it

[wordsgood]

not only did I make all of my subject reading challenges, I also hit my goodreads challenge by reading SEVEN BOOKS today!! I am exhausted my dudes but it was mother hecking worth it!!!

pulling the wings off angels, k.j. parker (forgot I had bought this convenient novella - it was okay but disappointing)

primer, jennifer muro et al (graphic novel I’ve had on hold on hoopla for a while, cute!)

ghost tree, bobby curnow (ditto - really pretty and interesting, very abrupt depressing ending)

the alchemist, paulo coelho (a short audiobook, never wanted to read this but I mistook it for another book on the 100 books to read before you die list, it was pretty lame but hey it was short and jeremy irons was the reader)

the bad guys, aaron blabey (I just watched the movie so it seemed appropriate - surprisingly funny! might read the rest too)

faust, johann wolfgang von goethe (also on the 100 books list, teeeechnically I just checked out the 1st part, but the translation sucked and I’ll read the whole thing in a different translation later)

and, of course, the cherry on top: moira’s pen, megan whalen turner (I have. I have some questions about Kamet and Costis and their life post-RotT but. you know it was great to hear from everyone! *eye twitching*)

and that closes the book on 2022, exactly 24 minutes before midnight!!! unfortunately I had to leave legends and lattes and heaven official’s blessing vol 5 for next year, but that’s okay. all challenges finished, 125 books under the year’s belt, ending on a high note - I’m ready to watch a ball drop, go to bed, and start fresh and new tomorrow all over again!!!

happy new year y’all!!!!! 🎊🎊🎊🎊🎊

[ao3feed-queensthief]

But At Least He's My Idiot

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/TIw9EGA by MysticBlade This is an alternate Universe where the Little Peninsula has been dropped in a highschool setting that will loosely follow the themes of 10 things I hate about you, which loosely follows the themes of The Taming of the Shrew. So really I've written a new shakespeare play. Sophos has just moved to a new school, and meets a wide variety of characters, while discovering that maybe has some character himself. Read and Enjoy hopefully! Words: 3627, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English Fandoms: The Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: F/M, Gen Characters: Moira, Pol, Eugenides, Gen - Character, Helen Eddis, Irene Attolia, Sophos Sounis, Costis Ormentiedes, The Magus (Queen's Thief), Hilarion, Sejanus, Ambiades, Relius, Kamet, Teleus, Hector (Queen's Thief) Relationships: Attolia | Irene/Eugenides, Eddis | Helen/Sophos, Eugenides & Sophos (Queen's Thief), Costis/Sophos, Magus/Gen, Helen/Everybody Loves Her, Irene/Everybody is scared of her, Pol/Sophos, Pol/Gen, Moira/Gen, More to Come but I dont want to spoil Additional Tags: Inspired by 10 Things I Hate About You (1999), Alternate Universe - 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Fusion, Alternate Universe - High School, Social Anxiety, Rom-com, Sophos is Bisexual but still wants Helen, Gen is an angsty teen, Professor Magus, Happy Ending, funny?, Costis is an ASB kid, Pol ??, Weird Deadpool Esque 4th wall Breakage by Anonymous Writer, just read it already read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/TIw9EGA

[thewynne]

Hello I just finished thick as thieves and this blog is on a queue so please expect nothing but queen's thief/kamet and costis content for a solid 10 days in about... 2 weeks or so

[kareenvorbarra]

I said, “I fell in love with my master’s favorite dancing girl.” If he was willing to admit to an embarrassing indiscretion, I could do the same.

“Eh?” said the Attolian, as if he thought he’d misheard. I repeated myself. He said, “Surely that was—”

“—Spectacularly unwise,” I agreed.

I expected a laugh, but the Attolian asked very seriously, “Did she love you?”

I nodded. Marin had, I was sure of it. “She loved my master as well, though.” That was misleading. “She saw something to love in everyone. She was . . .” I really couldn’t explain. “She was beautiful in spirit, like Shesmegah. I wanted her to be happy. I wanted to give her the happiness she deserved, and I asked her to run away with me.”

i don’t think i’ll ever stop thinking about this scene? Kamet downplays practically every single feeling he’s ever had in his own narration, but the language he uses here is so straightforward! he just outright tells Costis, “i fell in love.” (though he does the minimizing thing IMMEDIATELY by calling it “an embarrassing indiscretion” in the narration! he almost DIED because of Marin and there’s not an ounce of resentment for her in this story!)

and then there’s the tension between “she loved my master as well, though...she saw something to love in everyone” and “i wanted her to be happy.” regardless of what her relationship with Nahuseresh was like and what kind of complicated feelings she may have had for him (and she must have had complicated feelings, because Kamet certainly does and he wasn’t having sex with Nahuseresh), Kamet knew she was unhappy. he tries to downplay how fucked-up the situation was to Costis and then undoes it two sentences later. 

and i’m never going to stop thinking about him saying that HE ASKED HER to run away. KAMET made a plan to run away with someone. it was HIS IDEA. at some point in his life he was the kind of person who would ask someone he loved to run away with him, and by “thick as thieves” it takes his best friend telling him that he needs to leave or he’ll be tortured and killed to get him to run. clearly this relationship and its aftermath had a profound effect on him, on his goals, on what he believed was possible.  

[throwaninkpot]

Notes from the Return of the Thief launch party Q&A with MWT!

• (I meant to keep a Not Telling tally but I got distracted by all the good words Megan put together.)

EDIT: A VOD of the stream has been posted here!

• It took 20 minutes into the event to get the first Not Telling, and everyone was astonished it wasn't sooner.

• She referenced the Not Telling shirt made for her by @queensandkingsofattolia ! She wasn't wearing it, but she did have her Not Telling socks, which she would put on her hands and hold up to the camera.

• She talked about how she doesn't like suspense as a reader. She always wants the stories to get to the point instead of dragging on, so in writing, she puts light scenes in to break up the suspense. She doesn't always know what those scenes will be, she just has a feel for what's needed there. One example is when Sophos and the magus are traveling to Attolia in aCoK, when they eat the chicken. "We eat the chicken now!" was a scene that made her happy while she wrote it.

• She was asked to explain the gods and how the different pantheons work with each other, and said she never wants to explain the gods. She doesn't want them to be cut-and-dry or understandable.

• Asked about writing such complex, ruthless characters and making them likeable.

Alex (mod): Do you think [the POV characters] good? Megan: *silently presents Not Telling socks*

• Said that if you're going to spend so much time in a characters head, there has to be some part of them that you and the readers will like. And there are some people whose heads she didn't want to be in. Even the ruthless ones making terrible decisions, she does like. "Nahuseresh? Not so much."

Alex: *says something about how they've never encountered books with more poker face than QT* Megan: *big ol' grin*

• Talking about how these books have so many layers and so much suspense, Megan said a lot of that is owing to the fact it's a series and she needed to be consistent, she couldn't switch the style of it or tone halfway through. When she writes the next thing, it might be a whole different kind of book. She'll have to see whether that was just sonething distinctive to QT, or that's what she naturally gravitates towards writing.

• She mentioned that she isn't fond of 1st person narrative, and the chat collective raised a single eyebrows at the irony.

• In fact, TaT was written in 3rd person at first. But she realized that wasn't working so she scrapped that and rewrote the whole thing, bc it needed to be Kamet who was telling us the story.

• She pronounced Kamet as "Kam-et".

• When talking about the details in her books and how they go into logistics, she brought a book onto camera called Alexander the Great and the Logistics of the Macedonian Army by Donald W. Engles. It heavily influenced the way she wrote about war and the politics thereof in QT.

• The Thief was partly inspire by a conversation she had with a young relative back during the Bush administration when Kuwait was invaded. The young relative didn't understand what the U.S. was doing in the middle east when we had so many problems to focus in our own country, and Megan explained that we weren't involved in that conflict out of the goodness of our hearts, but bc they had resources we wanted. (The way she phrased it, you could hear the magus talking to the boys in The Thief, and it gave me shivers.) And she realized, kids don't see that side of war in stories. Armies are always fighting Sauron and the forces of evil, and acting out if their own self-interests against people who might not be all bad.

• And thus, The Queen's Thief spiraled jnto existence.

• Why does she choose to write about disability and illness the way she does? Rosemary Sutcliff. Sutcliff was disabled for most of her life, and this reflected in the stories she told. Megan recalls Warrior Scarlet as the first book that challenged her as a kid to think about disability and illness as a natural part of life, and to question who gets to be at the center of the story. Who gets to be the hero? Who gets to be the hero of an adventure story? Why shouldn't characters dealing with illness or disability be those heros?

• TaT was a direct response to Sutcliff's novel Eagle of the Ninth, where an earnest young Roman soldier has these great plans for his life that get toppled when he is injured in his first battle and can no longer serve.

Megan: Costis checks every box for earnest young guy!

• In Eagle, there is a slave who travels with the protagonist and is freed by him at the end as part of the protagonist's journey. It was important to tell TaT from Kamet's point of view so that it was about him. "He is never an object of a quest, always a person."

• Megan has never read The Aeneid.

• She recommends Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin, which tells The Aeneid from a different POV.

• On writing process: She doesn't outline. When she has a book idea, she first tells it as a story by cornering her husband and telling him the whole thing with plenty of hand gestures. After that, she does a "sketch". She writes down the shape of the story, plotlines and characters, which is usually half the length of the finished book. Then she fleshes it out, and cuts and adds and cuts snd adds until she has pretty much a whole book, and then she edits again to cut everything that doesn't absolutely need to be there.

• She says it's important to remember you can't fix everything in one draft. You just need to focus on 20 or so things at a time, and then on the next pass you can focus on 20 other things.

• On keeping characters straight: "It's very crowded in my head." She doesn't focus so much on remembering exactly what she has written about a character before, but knowing who the character is so that she knows how they would react in whatever new situation she is writing them in.

Megan: Okay, Costis. I know this guy, I know what he's going to do. He's going to punch that guy in the face and it will be very embarrassing.

• A lot of people asked about the vampires referenced in The Thief and if they were real. She's not telling.

• Someone *cough*me*cough* Asked if she was planning a spin-off series about Eddisian vampires falling in love. "Never say never, but it's probably unlikely."

Alex: What happened to Ornon's sheep? Megan: Guys....guys......I have to put on another sock, come on, guys! *digs for her Not Telling socks and holds them up*

• On worldbuilding: You have to break with reality. It's great to research the process of how to retin pans! Adding details like that can enrich your story, but you can also add things that wouldn't have been possible in the real world. Like, pocket watches and window glass and printing presses all at the same time. The made up details also make your story richer.

Megan: Cut the research and tell a good story!

• On myths: She never writes the myths first. When she was writing The Thief, she would make a new line and type "[Myth Here]" and then go on with the rest of the story and cone back to that later.

• She recommends Ancient Near East Texts by James B. Pritchard for some good myths!

• What she likes best about DWJ: The Audacity(tm). DWJ would write about the most bizarre things very casually.

Megan: Her stories had a "hold my beer" quality.

• She told the story about hiw DWJ got her published (Alex: "She had good taste") and trying to send DWJ the advanced copy of aCoK before she died, but those stories have been retold elsewhere before so I won't bother with them now.

• Megan wore lovely, lovely earrings! And at the beseechment of the chat, she showed them to the camera and told us they were made by @freenarnian

• Finally, the winner of the trivia party was granted the honor of asking a question on camera, and Megan benevolently said she would not cry Not Telling on whatever was asked.

• Margaux, the winner, asked what the age difference was between Dite and Irene, and if they had grown up together.

• After a REAL long pause, Megan said that she didn't think they had grown up together. Irene is younger than Dite, and she was too busy, and I quote, "killing people." Her childhood ended early and she didn't have time to be a kid. Besides that, they wouldn't have been allowed to hang out in Attolian society, bc she was a girl and he was a boy. They were probably introduced to each other atvevents, but that was it.

• Also: Dite is pronounced "Die-tee".

• She has more events like this planned in the future!!!!! Keep an eye on her tumblr!!!!!

• EDIT: @whataliethatwas made a transcript of the event!

[asmywhimseytakesme]

As promised, here is a list of my favorite tropes in fiction. I may continue to refine this over time.

Note, I am not pulling these from a website, I’m writing these up myself. There may be a page on tv tropes for all or most of these, but I’m trying to articulate to myself what I like and why I like it, so I’m naming my own tropes and writing descriptions that are specific to my own taste. I’m also including a short list of examples for each.

Needless to say, if you know of a book or show that includes some of these tropes (the more the better) and it isn’t mentioned here—PLEASE TELL ME. And of course, these are just my preferences and opinions—if you disagree, that’s fine, we just don’t like the same things 😁

These are organized loosely by category—character tropes, relationship tropes, and plot tropes.

Under a cut so people who aren’t that interested in my specific tastes don’t have to scroll forever.

Character Tropes

Mastermind—

An extremely clever and competent character who reads people, pulls strings, and often has a grand scheme the other characters are unaware of. Usually a good guy (at least my favorites tend to be), but doesn’t have to be.

Eugenides (Queens Thief), Miles Vorkosigan (Vorkosigan Saga), Peaceable Sherwood (the Sherwood Ring), Lord Peter Wimsey (the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries) Sir Percy Blakeney (the Scarlet Pimpernel), Sherlock Holmes

Note: all the above examples are male characters, but I don’t consider this a gender specific trope. I would love recommendations of female characters who fit this trope.

Not Just A Soldier / Not Just A Mom

I originally had these listed as two tropes, and then realized that they were just inverses of each other. They each have to do with fulfilling gender stereotypes in some ways, while subverting or transcending them in others.

For a male character in the genres I read, Not Just A Soldier is typically a fighter of some kind, and really good at it. Basically, on the surface he appears to be a very Masculine Male Manly Man. But! It turns out he is also just a really nice guy. And not only that—he’s smart, and he’s good with kids!

On the flip side, Not Just a Mom seems at first glance to be your typical motherly feminine character. But! That isn’t her entire personality! She also has a (not particularly feminine) career and hobbies outside of parenting, and she is confident and competent doing those things—AND (this is important) those non-mothering things she is good at are essential to the plot. (This tends to be less of an issue that needs to be specified with male characters, grumblegrumble.)

So on both sides, we have a character who is fulfilling gender stereotypes on one hand, but subverting them on the other.

Not Just A Soldier examples: Costis (Queen's Thief), Din Djarin (the Mandalorian), Cazaril (the Curse of Chalion), Uncle Iroh (ATLA)

Not Just A Mom examples: Hera Syndulla (Star Wars Rebels), Cordelia Naismith Vorkosigan and Ekaterin Vorsoisson Vorkosigan (Vorkosigan Saga), Katara (ATLA)

Adventurous Parent

A parent who continues to be cool and have adventures and stay involved in the plot even after becoming a parent (a GOOD parent, of course).

Din Djarin (The Mandalorian), Dr Mensah (Murderbot Diaries), Hera Syndulla (Star Wars Rebels—-we’ll see if this holds true now that she actually has her own biological child?? Assuming she’ll show up in future Star Wars projects—I’m hoping to see her in the Ahsoka series🤞)

Reluctant Ruler

It seems like many bad guys would kill to be king—and many good guys would really, REALLY rather not be in charge, thanks. But when a good guy is forced by circumstances beyond their control into becoming a ruler, and they decide that they might as well try to do a good job at it, and then THEY ACTUALLY DO—this trip has my whole heart.

Maia Drazar (The Goblin Emperor—this book is basically the perfect example of this trope and I love it SO MUCH), Eugenides (Queen’s Thief), Sophos (Queens Thief), Aral Vorkosigan (Vorkosigan Saga), And hopefully Din Djarin in Mandalorian season 3? OH PLEASE YES I NEED THIS.

Broken, but loved

The name basically says it—these are characters who believed themselves broken, heartless, and unlovable, but others chose to love them anyway. It’s important to note that they are NOT “saved by love”, but they do CHOOSE to try and be better because of love.

This trope just GETS ME EVERY TIME GUYS. It makes my heart hurt in the most joyful way.

Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries), Attolia (Queens Thief), Zuko (ATLA), Medraut (the Winter Prince)

Friend Indeed

This is a simple one—a character who befriends someone who is in the middle of a difficult situation, when it would be much easier to just keep their distance.

Ratthi (Murderbot Diaries), Csevet (The Goblin Emperor), Kuill (the Mandalorian)

Magic Schmagic

The character in a fantastical story who can’t do magic, doesn’t know about magic, and doesn’t WANT to. They just wanna carry on being their own non magical, mundane selves and we love them for it.

Sokka (ATLA), Din Djarin (the Mandalorian), Digger (Digger), Gideon (Gideon the Ninth)

Relationship tropes:

Found Family

Ok, this is a popular one so don’t think I need to explain it. Since these often involve large groups of characters, I’m just going to list a few of my favorite pieces of media where this trope features prominently.

Star Wars Rebels, the Mandalorian, Digger, Murderbot Diaries

Reluctant Friendship

Where two characters are thrown together and one or both doesn’t particularly want to be friends with the other, but as they move through the adventure together they gradually come to like each other and form a friendship.

I also love the romance side of this trope but I’m just as happy to read about a platonic relationship.

Ben and Nathaniel (This Was Our Pact), Kaidu and Rat (The Nameless City), Kamet and Costis (Queen’s Thief), Digger and Shadowchild (Digger),

Magical Animal Sidekick

A character who forms a deep personal bond with a magical creature. It doesn’t have to be an actual creature—in a sci-fi setting this could also be a sentient robot or ship.

Temeraire and Laurence (His Majesty’s Dragon), Ani and Falada (Goose Girl), Murderbot and Art (Murderbot Diaries), Ezra and the Loth Wolves (Star Wars Rebels)

Prose/plot tropes:

It’s Complicated

Related to the Mastermind character trope, the distinction here is that this is a plot that wasn’t manipulated by a single character intentionally, rather it’s a complex series of interactions and misunderstandings that are all revealed to be interconnected in the end.

The Court Jester, Howl’s Moving Castle, To Say Nothing of the Dog, Digger

Sarcastic, Witty, and/or Colloquial narration

The name says it all. I usually prefer this in 1st person, but it can be fun in 3rd person too. In 3rd person it might be the narrator who is witty, or it might just be the main character's thoughts that are witty as related by the narrator.

1st person— The Thief, Murderbot, Digger, Dragonhaven

3rd person—Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, Gideon the Ninth

Written For You

First person narratives are interesting and tricky because there is the question of WHY narrator is telling the story, and who they intend it for. I love first person stories where the narrative is specifically addressed to a person or group, which adds a level of meaning to the story. This isn’t the same as a story told in diaries or letters (though that can be fun too).

The Thief and A Conspiracy of Kings, the Winter Prince, All Systems Red, Dragonhaven

The juxtaposition of Magic and Mundane

I deeply love stories that mix magical things with mundane details of life in a deliberate way. I feel this makes real life feel a bit more magical, and helps magic feel a bit more real. This juxtaposition can be a central idea of the plot, or might simply be present in the way a narrator describes things.

This may be my favorite trope of all, come to think of it (though there are a lot of great ones listed above, so maybe I shouldn’t start naming favorites…) most of my own story ideas center on this idea to one degree or another.

Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, His Majesty’s Dragon, Digger, Hilda, Queens Thief, Dragonhaven

Tropes I would like to see less of: prophecies, hereditary magic, a Chosen One, Soul Mates, fate/destiny. Yes, many of the stories I love involve these tropes, they’re hard to get away from in the genres I prefer to read. These tropes are Iess exciting to me first off because they’re done so often, but there’s a bigger reason I’d like to see less of them, which has to do with characters agency. I’m much more interested in a story that is about a character who CHOOSES to do the right thing, not because they were Chosen, but because they CHOOSE themselves to do the right thing. In the same vein, characters who CHOOSE to build and maintain a relationship are so much more interesting and, frankly, romantic to me than people who are just meant for each other BECAUSE FATE OK. Just.... no. People making tough choices because it’s the right thing to do makes for a much better story (aim my opinion) than people who do the right thing because DESTINY. So the overall theme here is, more character agency! (And as I said above—if you disagree, that’s fine! This is just me listing my preferences and opinions.)

If you read all that—wow! To all those who made it this far, thanks, and if you have any book/show recommendations that involve these tropes, please tell me about them!!

[thecrenellations]

background roof dancers from my plans for this drawing!

a. Moira and Pheris - including various interpretations of their heights. The right image is the only sketch I liked after I colored them in ... shoutout to her shawl! I love them.

b. Kamet and Costis - There are two options here. One is that neither of them have any idea how to do Eddisian line dances, because why would they (maybe from watching others dance at court dinners?), but they still have fun. The other is that Costis does know them for unspecified or Thief reasons, and they did have lots of time together to practice... Both options are pretty cute.

c-f. The kings and queens! - Drawing the combos mentioned on the page (and subconsciously putting Gen and Helen in Gen and Irene’s pose from Emily’s sketch) just made me want to keep going with Irene and Helen / Sophos and Gen, plus all their dances with gods and other characters ... soon? The ones in the final piece are Helen and Gen / Irene and Sophos, although Gen and Helen look too small even for Gen and Helen.

g. Teleus leaning against a crenelated wall - Everyone else made me very happy to depict; this made me sad! Hang in there, my friend.

WHO ELSE IS THERE???? I vaguely intended the two faces between Aulus and Boagus to be the mysterious Lavia and Celia, but honestly they can be whoever you like. I also would’ve liked to explicitly sneak in Gen’s sisters, Temenus, Thalia, and ... Philonikes?!? But also everyone. I am still not over this scene.

[whocalledhimannux]

because I need to talk about Costis/Kamet with someone before I completely go insane: when do you think they realized they were in love? I want to say Kamet realized on some level when he went back to the well and found Costis ("touched his warm living hand") but I think Costis might not have realized until they got locked in the Attolian dungeon. but I am fully convinced they both Knew by the time they met on the ship

YES LET’S TALK ABOUT COST/KAMET. And this is verrrry interesting because I would have guessed Costis realizes before Kamet, actually, given that he seems to have fewer personal hangups around things like Caring About People and Having Friends. I think he realizes his feelings in stages, and I always think of it starting around the time they leave the caravan--when he calms Kamet down after the Namreen attack and when they’re in the lion’s cave. His actions in those scenes always strike me as definitely warmer than before, and to me that’s like his “oh yeah, I’d do anything to protect this person as a person” moment rather than because it’s his duty.

I think he has the “oh and I would do that because I’ve got a crush” realization... hm. Somewhere between the journey to Traba and fleeing Koadester, when he’s gotten more comfortable joking with Kamet (and when Kamet sometimes jokes back!!) and appreciates more of what it means when Kamet tells him the Immakuk and Ennikar stories. “I thought we were Immakuk and Ennikar” strikes me as somewhat--fanciful, for a character like Costis? For Sophos and Eugenides, it fits with their established character to think of themselves in terms of literary/mythical comparisons, but in KoA Costis straight-up is like “why is the king so bothered by this story?” when Phresine tells the Relevant Myth of the moment, so I think for him to make that connection, and for it to mean so much to him that he feels betrayed about it, I think it needs to be very intimately woven with his feelings for Kamet, if that makes sense, like they’re talking about Immakuk and Ennikar or Kamet is telling a story when Costis realizes he’s falling.

And then I think Costis realizes that he is well and truly in love after he and Kamet escape from the slavers, when they make that pretty long walk without talking, and then the next day the conversation opens with Costis saying “Kamet, I am sorry. I hope you will forgive me.” That conversation that follows is just so genuine, and a couple of times Costis makes statements basically pointing out that he knows Kamet, and is also the one where he asks “Is there nothing you like about Attolia?” which always strikes me as a little wistful, like he’s concerned that Kamet won’t be happy and he wants Kamet to be happy in his homeland (regardless of whether or not they’re together). I feel like Costis spends that time between escaping and talking thinking more about the overall conditions of slaves in the Mede empire, what Kamet has gone through, the kind of danger Costis almost got him into, and that’s such heavy shit that he has to admit how deep his feelings go.

Re: Kamet, totally agree the well was a turning point. I think around then (and continuing through the Godekker scenes) he’s got sort of a subconscious “if circumstances were different... I’d never actually go for it, of course, but I do wish him well... the one that got away...” vibe going on. Like, he realizes he has feelings for Costis without ever entertaining the notion that Costis is a serious option. I think he has THAT realization post-“oh my Costis, my friend” and especially when he starts to write down his narrative, when he has to reflect on all they’ve been through together. The introspection on Anet’s Dream (“what I failed to realize was that in his eyes I was a free man,” “I should have had more respect for his quick thinking” etc) always slays me, and I think that’s around the time when he’s like wow yes, we really could have had something.

And yeah, they are 100% in synch by the time Costis gets on that ship. They’re sailing off into the sunset to begin a new life together because they are in LOVE.

[fuckyeahqueensthief]

It seems like you tend to tag all posts mentioning two characters as “ship: character x character” and while I get that that’s probably a way to cover your bases for ships where people both do and don’t ship them (like Eugenides/Costis for example), I think you should reconsider that as a system. Sometimes it’s pretty clear the OP doesn’t intend it to be romantic (a recent “Phresine/Irene” post) and sometimes it’s actually a bit creepy, like that post tagged Pheris/Eugenides even though the post describes their relationship as FATHERLY and Pheris’s age has been estimated as young as 9 by some readers.

Okay tbh I was debating making a post about this exact issue bc of Pheris’ age but decided against it bc I thought I was being over dramatic but since someone else brought it up, clearly it’s something I should address.

The thing is, there’s really exactly zero way to fix this problem in a way that doesn’t cause other problems. If I start tagging things meant platonically as something besides character x character, it gets really into policing people’s reading of the text and I’m not about to do that. I mean think about it - I personally read Costis/Gen as romantic so I tag it as such but the person who posted doesn’t like that. So do I retag it as a platonic ship despite the fact that I and several others have even written meta going into how romantic the relationship is or do I go by the poster’s also valid feelings? Do I disregard the clear romantic connotations in Costis/Kamet and the ways in which gay characters are often forced to be subtext only in children’s media just because they don’t kiss on page?

There’s also the issue of making the tagging system much more complex. If I start adding in secondary tags for platonic, it turns the Gen/Costis tag into two different tags. It means someone looks at irene x helen and goes “hey I want more irene and other people” and then finds there’s nothing in “irene x relius” and “phresine x irene” and assumes there’s no content. And I have a hard enough time keeping up with the sheer number of tags on the posts already because typing is very difficult for me bc I am disabled. Adding one more tag on top of that is a lot.

And then, there’s the fact that while the “x” and “ship” does seem to indicate romance, the x on this blog has not signified that for a very long time. Like you said, I have phresine x irene stuff on here. I’ve got the magus x Sophos, another relationship with a very big age gap and a fatherly relationship in the same vein as Gen and Pheris. I’ve got MoW x Gen, which is an actual father/son relationship. I’ve got Gen x Helen, who are cousins. And on and on.

I definitely get why people are uncomfortable if I tag something “Eugenides x Pheris” or as a ship but there’s plenty of “ship: magus x sophos” on here and it’s the same idea. It just means “this post is about the relationship between these two” and that’s it. I’m perfectly happy putting that in the pinned post so people know it’s not meant to be read as solely romantic. But I don’t want to change it bc it’s going to cause a lot of problems for me as the person who tags stuff, and potentially drama around why I tag certain things.

TLDR I get the pushback against it but there’s not a real solution and typing is very hard for me most of the time, adding another tag would just not be feasible.

[mytardisnowspacetravel]

10/30

I cannot believe I stopped right before the most Dramatic moment of the book last time. More rott reactions to follow up to chapter 3 of book 2

Chapter 5 is a complete cinematic masterpiece she REALLY did THAT

Just Everything about the end of it

The Pent trying to flirt and Attolia casually shifting the conversation “I thought he called her a cow” 

And then thisi Dude has thee AUDacity to kiss her and Right as Gen is walking in I was SHOOk the whole thiing was !!!!!!! Peak Drama

Jumping over furniture

“It hurts” AAAAAHHHHHHHHH

and...the comeedy of the attendance walking in on them at midnight.... and the king and queen are like "why are you here" and chloe comes at them with the "plans for the aqueduct" and just IMAGINING the attendant’s faces looking at each other like "what is HeApPening"

Like I can’t think of a single plot reason to include this - other than the tensions with the Pent later on I guess,  but I am wowww thank you

Ok that was just the last pages of chapter 5, currently - reactions up to chapter 3 of book 2

Gen riding a horse and being Dramatic and Attolia just laughing at him, my HEART

No but honestly the next seen with Attolia was so painful like we know how it ends, thank goodness but still very sad and upsetting. 

“Of course,’ she said, ‘Your Majesty,’ I admired the way she could make the words sound so much like ‘You Idiot’” Phresine holds no punches with Gen I love it

In general, I am very Sad that Irene had to be saved by Ula, because 1) I want her too be strong enough to survive on her own, and 2) the more the god's give the more they are entitled to take later . I’m scared!

Melheret takes 2 days to prepare his speech, the DRAMA. 

OK suddenly MWT is talking about Relius’s parade of lovers and mentioning that he is handsome and i’m like, is she trolling us because of that one post mentioning how in a an alternate hypothetical TV fandom, Relius would become a sex symbol?? Like that posts haunts me, I feel like she is messing with us.

Also though “he or she was quite the anomaly” - that’s some bisexual existence confirmation right there. 

Kamet being the first person pheris writes too. I love it.

Overall book 1 is just a Fun Time. Today, as exams are over, I finished two more chapters and

Costis being the first word in book 2 caused me to freak out and close the book because i couldn’t handle the excitement

Gen. In a Sleeveless top. That is LEATHER. I CANNOT. This is HILARIOUS. AND HILARIOUS that MWT would give us this.

Also it gets Intense Real Quick. Bc war :( 

“I cannot lose Irene. I cannot lose you and I cannot lose Sophos. Rid yourself of this notion that I alone am indispensable.” - GEN YOU MAKE ME SAD. Will everyone survive ackkkk

Gen being like “I quit” also had me frEaKing Out. Like I love him and he deserves to be happy but they NEED him

But when Attolia followed suit, I was 😮😮😮

What a power move. 

I can’t believe that on their wedding night Gen was like “let’s just ….. Run away” like wow that’s A Lot

TELEUSxRELIUS HAD ME. Their names RHYME. They RHYME. How do you even have a ship name? You Can’t??

MWT really said “let’s do another KoA but make it more Dramatic, more Sad, and more Gay”. I’m shook

This book will be the death of me I am sure. 

[hamburgergod]

return of the thief specs!!!

GODS OKAY I really wanted to finish my reread before I made this post so I have as clear memories of these books as I possibly could, but that is sadly not happening before tmrw happens SO 

here are some of my Return of the Thief (!!!!!!!!!!) specs/predictions

(disclaimer: I haven’t read the preview so I’m going into this wildly blind to the whole thing)

1) Eugenides will NOT die physically

he will, however, “die” by “falling” from a “high place”

aka he’ll become Annux, and that status/identity will be forfeited later on after the potential invasion and/or eruption

forfeiting this position will most likely be Eugenides’ choice when it’s safe for him to step down

OR, he stages a removal where the next Thief who inherited the title removes him from the position of Annux so Eugenides doesn’t have to bear the responsibility of being Annux 

OR it happens in some other ways, I’m honestly *hand waves* about the how

but I’m firmly in belief that Eugenides will fall from being Annux

2) The return of the Thief does NOT mean Eugenides

it WILL mean that there will be a person/persons whose title is officially deemed the Thief

aka I think the Thief in the title is talking about the Costis/Kamet duo as per my meta here

I don’t even think the “return” of the title means they’re physically returning back from where they were at the end of Thick as Thieves, just that we officially haven’t seen a Thief since Queen of Attolia

but also MWT is Clever™ so it COULD be wordplay to mean both things

3) A Baby

this one is just because I Want This For Them

but also because I’ve been rereading The Thief and the story about the woodcutter and his wife receiving a child from the Great Goddess....... 

anyway please just let the Attolians have baby...... have a Family together........... be happy and thrive in a country/continent that they build together............ 

even better if Eddis and Sophos show up with their Child(ren) at some point to play with their neighbour Attolian cousins.............................

give them the daycare AU they deserve

4) explicit canon Costis x Kamet

honestly another “I Just Want This To Happen”

mind you, I’m already pretty sure they’re implicitly canon by the end of Thick as Thieves, but *queer voice* I just want this for them

“explicit canon” could mean any range of the following (not a complete list): Romantic handholding that’s obviously not stemmed from platonic feelings like maybe it’s paralleled with one of the other canon couples from a previous scene, face holding (!!), Romantic kiss on the mouth (!!!!!!), walking into the scene after offscreen married, 

((I’m honestly putting this point on here as a “haha get it bcuz i love them” sort of way bcuz we got an entire book about them so truthfully I don’t think we’ll get as much content about them? there will be SO much happening in this book so))

but anyway I’m not picky on how it happens MWT.... just saying........... hit me up

*MWT proceeds to hit me up by sending me a copy of Thick as Thieves*

5) the Gods will go missing during a crucial moment

there will come a point where the characters have to make a dire Choice and the gods will just. not be there

OR, a Tragedy happens and the characters’ faiths will be tested

I think that’s all I have for now??? augh I wish I could reread all of them before this launch happens because I’m SURE I’m missing a ton of specs that I’ve made while rereading last year ;-; if I think of any other ones before tmrw, I’ll add them as I go!! 

LESS THAN 24 HOURS LEFT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CANNOT BELIEVE my favourite book series in the whole world that’s been in my life for the past 13? 14? years is finally coming to an end. WOW. I am vibrating. i am so excited. 

and most of all I am SO excited to come back to this post after coming back as a new person who’s read the last book (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and to happily eat all of my words for anything that I got wrong

[kiraziwrites]

Yuletide 2020 Letter

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Thank you in advance! The below is meant as as fodder for inspiration, not as a strict template. I hope there’s something in here that sparks your interest, but feel free to ignore the specific prompts entirely as long you avoid the DNWs. Note: for my Queen’s Thief and Locked Tomb requests, I listed four characters on the official signup, but it’s totally okay if you don’t include all four (some of these prompts focus on 2 out of 4; the others could be secondary, just mentioned, or not appear at all).

These are a few of my favorite things: missing scenes, reflective moments, romantic interludes, epilogues and aftermaths, porn with feelings. I love found families, thoughtful exploration of power dynamics (smutty or otherwise) between characters, battle couples, intrigue and adventure, extensions of canon worldbuilding, strong platonic relationships in addition to the main ships, and stories that explore queerness and gender nonconformity. I strongly prefer canon-consistent or canon-adjacent stories. Any rating from gen to E is welcome, and mild-to-moderate kink is fine. Angst is great as long as there’s a happy ending, hurt/comfort is more than okay as long as the hurt isn’t on the DNW list, and soft moments, fluff, and humor are also welcome. Crackfic and kidfic are not usually my jam, but kidfic is okay as long as it’s canon-appropriate. 

Do-not-wants: noncon/sexual assault, torture or extreme violence beyond a canon-typical degree*, A/B/O, magical creature (ie vampire, werewolf etc) AUs, dom/sub universes where those are innate/fixed/biological roles, and major character deaths that aren’t present in canon. I’d also like to avoid AUs in wildly different settings (modern, coffeeshop, highschool etc), although canon-divergence AUs are fine.

*obviously, if you’re writing for Locked Tomb, that’s a pretty high degree, so violence and gore in keeping with the books is fine!

Queen’s Thief:

Characters: pretty much every main/POV character throughout the whole series—I just want to spend more time with all of them and in this world. I’d particularly love stories that build on or add to all the revelations in Return of the Thief, so post-canon narratives or stories that revisit earlier events that now appear in a new light, etc. I’d love shippy fic for basically any canon pairings—Gen/Irene, Helen/Sophos, Costis/Kamet (as lovers or homoromantic bros), even the secondary pairing we found out about in RoTT. 

Specific prompts: I’m keen on further glimpses into Gen and Irene’s marriage at any point (including wedding night fics, or a more detailed version of the Atté Atté scene!) I’d also love a look at the four monarchs navigating the emotional aftermath of RoTT and the changes to their families. But I’d also be delighted with a story about Sophos and Helen navigating their dual sovereignties, or Costis and Kamet’s perspectives on events in RoTT, or Pheris continuing to grow up and pursue his profession and observe the court. (I’m being a little coy with details because some people who follow me here are still reading the final book and I don’t want to spoil them, but hopefully you get my vibe.) Pick whatever about this series makes your heart sing. 

The Locked Tomb: 

The characters I prompted are Gideon, Harrow, Camilla, and Palamedes, and I am happy to read just about anything you want to write about them. I would love missing scenes from both books, pre-canon flashbacks, further glimpses at the Sixth House and Camilla and Palamedes’s history (as in the short story “The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex”), speculative glimpses into what happens right after the end of Harrow the Ninth, and all kinds of Gideon/Harrow content, the gayer the better. I have a soft spot for Gideon POV because I love her character voice, but I’d also love Harrow’s perspective on Gideon’s re-emergence.

Some specific prompts: Gideon is awake in Harrow’s head at some point while Harrow is also aware, and they have their first time (sort of) while sharing a body. A bodyswap scenario in the aftermath of Harrow the Ninth, where Gideon’s still in Harrow’s body, but Harrow somehow ends up in Gideon’s resurrected one, and hijinks (or smut) ensue. Camilla manages to extract Palamedes from the skull fragment and all four of them meet up in a River bubble to talk strategy about how to attack and dethrone God (and have messy feelings all over one another). A look at Camilla and Palamedes’s perspective on Gideon and Harrow during the events in Canaan House.

Wimseyfic:

Give me stories about Harriet and Peter navigating their relationship. Casefics are welcome, but it’s the relationship dynamic I’m really here for, and I’m particularly interested in seeing them at any stage from when they finally get together in Gaudy Night through the engagement and their first year of marriage. Bonus: I’d also love it if Harriet’s relationships with other women, particularly her London friendships, come into play (if you want to explicitly make Sylvia/Eiluned a couple, that would be awesome—they weren’t on the list of requestable characters, but I’d be happy to see them make a cameo here if that appeals to you!) Also, I’m agnostic on the subject of whether or not you treat Thrones, Dominations as canon.

Some specific prompts: the immediate aftermath of the end of Busman’s Honeymoon—how they regroup and take care of each other after that moment of intense catharsis. The first time Harriet meets up with Sylvia and Eiluned as a married woman, and the conversations about relationships and gender that might ensue. Epistolary fic during the engagement, in which they work out the terms of the marriage. Whatever happened during that night of kissing in a punt. The “'interesting revelations of the marriage-bed.”

Swordspoint:

Richard and Alec, please, in just about any time period or setting—from their early days in Riverside to Richard’s exile in the country to their later years on the island with the bees and thyme and sunshine. If it’s earlier, I’d love to see some hints of their Riverside social world, and if it’s later, cameos from Diane, Katherine, and other characters are fine, but not necessary. I particularly love explorations of how Alec and Richard complement and take care of each another. I’m also very open to kinky content for this pairing.

Specific prompts: Alec encounters his former friends and students from the university some time shortly after the events of Swordspoint, and Richard deals with the fallout. Alec and Richard being gay and doing crimes (or solving crimes, or both) during the Riverside years. One of Alec’s visits to see Richard after he leaves the city. Their voyage to the island after The Privilege of the Sword. Alec and Richard have a threesome with any age-appropriate consenting partner of your choice. Alec watches Richard train or fight and gets predictably horny about it, with the obvious results.  

[kareenvorbarra]

Kamet says out loud with his mouth to another person that he was in love with Marin. he says in his narration that he is sure she loved him as well. this is a guy who spends almost an entire book downplaying his own feelings about everyone and everything, but when he tells this story he makes it about his own feelings! he didn’t need to say “i fell in love” - if he really wanted to frame it as some kind of shallow infatuation he could have worded it differently, he could have said that they “had an affair” or something along those lines, but he didn’t! 

i know that tqt is basically unreliable narrators: the series, but i think this scene is about Kamet wanting to tell Costis something very personal and genuine! he’s having a moment of real emotional vulnerability! there’s no external reason why he would need to tell Costis any of this; it’s completely irrelevant to their journey and is clearly still difficult for him to talk about: 

I almost wished I hadn’t spoken of her, but it was both bitter and sweet to say her name again.

i also think that this scene is about Kamet starting to process something that he clearly hasn’t had a chance to process yet. he’s been telling himself that Marin is happy and that what Nahuseresh did was ultimately for the best, because that was what he had to tell himself to cope with what happened. but he tells Costis all of this, and Costis is clearly doubtful, and Kamet is finally in a place where he can actually start coming to terms with some of the things he’s had to repress for years. and it’s not like he tells Costis about Marin and then completely forgets about her, because he thinks about her again in the throne room when he’s afraid the king of Attolia is going to do something horrible to him!

i just...i believe him when he says he was in love with her. i really, really do. 

[throwaninkpot]

I just read your excellent post on the "I can do anything I want" scene, and wondered if you also had any insight into the unease Eugenides displays at Phresine's story when he's recovering in KOA? I love how subtly Megan writes but that ones was over my head and I'm dying to understand it. Thank you! :)

Look, ma, it didn't take me a year to answer this one.

I'll be honest, I remember this alluding me on my first read, and I've only picked up bits of the subtext during each subsequent rereads. But there's a few things I want to talk about in answering this.

First, I don't know about genre savvy, but Eugenides is certainly gods savvy, insofar as anyone can be. (The will of the gods, man. It's ineffable.) The gods have a vested interest in his life, and he's realized by now that it's not always impossible hands catching him mid-fall and a flash of divine light telling him he needs a nap. Sometimes its a fireside story or a legend retold over a picnic or a bedtime tale from the mouth of a knowing attendant. When someone starts repeating a myth in his presence, I feel like Eugenides has learned to pay attention.

At this point, it goes beyond "hey, this person is giving me a story with a pointed moral to teach me a lesson."

"Tell me a story, then," said the king. "Keep me occupied [...] As long as it isn't instructive."

"How do you mean, my lord?" Phresine was prim again.

"I mean I'm not appearing in this drama. I don't want to hear the story about the wayward, self-indulgent boy who learns the error of his ways and grows up to be a modelof decorum and never cuts anybody's head off for spite."

But he ends up getting exactly that. Phresine tells him the story of Klimun and Gerosthenes. Klimun is a king (prince, but, pre-archaic semantics), Gerosthenes is a former-slave.

Immediately, there are similarities between Klimun and Eugenides.

Klimun makes an offering to the moon goddess that he will make her an orchard of olive trees if she will make him a good leader who brings his country peace. Likewise, Eugenides vows in QoA to build a temple to the great goddess if she makes him king of Attolia to unite Eddis and Attolia in peace.

But see, alongside the olive trees, the goddess also asks that Klimun offer himself; he must not lie when the moon shines. And how many times has Gen offered himself up for peace? He went to Sounis and got himself arrested so that he would be picked for the quest to retrieve Hamiathes's Gift so that Eddis could be independent; he went to Attolia and married the queen so that the war would end. (I'm simplifying, but.)

And so, Klimun must live out his promise to never lie in order to keep his peaceful rule. And so, Eugenides must live out his promise to be king of Attolia in order to keep peace in the Little Penninsula.

Klimun finds Gerosthenes, a slave, and saves him from death, granting him his freedom. Gerosthenes stays by his side anyway, and the two become friends.

(What I love is that Klimun and Gerosthenes's relationship can be read both as an allegory for Gen and Costis as well as for Costis and Kamet, but that's another topic.)

It's all great! Klimun doesn't lie and he becomes a great prince, and there is peace across all of the countries. Gen is teasing Phresine as she tells the story, and it's all good fun.

But the gods make their bargains for a reason, and they do not forget. Not in ten years, not in twenty, not in a lifetime. Every night the moon shone her light on the earth, it bathed Klimun especially bright. She watched him, waiting for him to break his word.

The king, lying on his bed, listening to Phresine, looked uncomfortable, but he didn't speak.

Notice that Eugenides only starts to get nervous when the threat of offending the gods is reintroduced.

In the story, Klimun decides to visit a new prince in another city. He goes in disguise, lying about his identity. And one thing leads to another, and he kept out after dark and ready to lie, unaware that the moon has risen.

Eugenides looks "genuinely unhappy" at this turn in the story, and Costis is confused, but that is because he hasn't had his conversation with him on the roof yet. Let's peek ahead to that.

[Eugenides] said over his shoulder, "Do you know it's the first time I've been caught in something I can't get out of? [...] Because I don't want out of it, Costis. I'm terrified that if they know how much I hate [being king], they might take it away."

You see, there are a few things Eugenides is terrified of more than anything:

Having his gods turn against him (he had a taste of that in QoA, and he is Not a Fan)

Losing his kingship, not for the loss of the crown itself, but for the peace and the queen that he might lose with it

And here, in this story, Klimun stands in danger of both of these things.

Suddenly, Eugenides's unease at the turn in this story makes so much sense. This is the story of a man making a deal with the gods--or at least one goddess in particular--in order to become king. Agreeing to certain terms, knowing that the gods will revoke their favor if he breaks those terms. And the man comes very close to breaking those terms.

It's the story of a man pretending not to be a king and having that come back to bite him.

It's a story of a king's lies being his undoing.

Heck, if I was Eugenides, I'd be gettimg nervous, too! This is all extremely targeted. Of course, the story has a happy ending--Gerosthenes stops Klimun before he can lie and break his oath to the goddess, albeit with a little blunt force trauma, but we've all been there--and Eugenides is visibly relieved. But the message is clear: the gods made him king of Attolia, and they could just as easily unmake him; be careful, do not offend the gods.

And it's probably with this thought in his mind that he turns to getting drunk on the roof in an attempt to forget how much he hates being king, and there he has a lovely a heart-to-heart with Costis and the two share in a near-god experience.