#or like. ganymede convinced that he has so many enemies

[radiantmists]

binged both chalice of the gods and the hidden oracle in the last few days and tbh i don't care if zeus would blast me to bits, if he were real it would be on sight

[bristlybranwen]

In February, Bran’s main goal was to find out who the dead bodies were, she and Fabian had found on the Rosier Estate. For this she sought out Artem Tremblay at Ganymede’s, learning that the people had never been here, and were therefore either not magical, or not Pureblood. Then she sought out Peter Pettigrew, with whom she learnt that those people did set foot on Diagon Alley at least once, were therefore magical. The people’s energy-traces all led to the big Central Chimney. There is no mean to legally track people through a floo-chimney. She then checked Hogsmeade for more traces of their energies but found nothing, which was a major set-back and frustrated her. Arabella Fig found her in a fit of such frustration. So then, Bran went to look for Mundungus Fletcher, who she knew didn’t shy away from illegal endeavours, and asked him to trace these people through the Central Chimney. They do so but with horror realise that while yes, these people did use the Central Chimney, not one of them has a file in the Ministry of Magic… All but one. A barely 16 year old girl. Muggleborn. And it all clicks. Bran tracks their energies through the Central Chimney and finds them. Or rather, the family they’ve left behind, and her theory is proven right: The dead people in the ditch at the Rosier Estate are not Purebloods, not Muggleborns, but the innocent, uninvolved families of Muggleborns.

March 1982 was perhaps the first time Bran felt like she was actually part of the Order. The reason for this, as well as the effect, was nothing she had ever seen coming.

2nd Leading - A little while ago, Caradoc Dearborn asked Bran if she wanted to lead a Fighting Club. She mocked the idea, saying that yes she would, but who would want to be taught by her? So they made a deal: if Caradoc managed to find at least 5 members willing to learn from her, she’d do it. On the second of March, there he came to seek her out. Bran can’t quite believe he actually went through with it, feeling more noticed and appreciated than in the last ten years. But Caradoc comes with more news: she’ll teach alongside Sirius Black. To keep an eye on him. Bran doesn’t believe him, thinking he wants Sirius, the perfect rebel, to keep an eye on her. She thinks, so Caradoc doesn’t actually believe in me, and her heart breaks a little. Nevertheless, a deal is a deal.

5th - 10th Fighting Club - So the Try Outs happen. Like the Fighting Club itself they’re held on the southern hillside of Battle on which the House of Bones is built. The Inner Circle decided everyone in the Order has to try out and test their abilities -- this rule miraculously exempts the Inner Circle itself from going through Try Outs though -- and two groups are formed: the Heirs and the Disowned, as Bran calls them. 

8th Languages - She briefly crosses paths with Amelia Bones.

10th - 21st The Heirs, that is, those who can hold well in a battle, train with Sirius Black, not only to improve on their already advanced skills, but also to learn of the other members’ strengths and weaknesses to figure out battle strategy. The Disowned go with Bran, and for many her boot camp is more some form of Hel on Earth. She lets no one off the hook easily, but most realise eventually that her sadism isn’t empty; it’s driven with purpose and the actual attempt to teach.

10th Fighting Maurice - Maurice Creevey learns that anger isn’t his enemy, but that he must stop seeing himself as the victim. They meet again on the 17th, in which Bran teaches him to stop holding back.

11th Fighting Dedalus - Dedalus Diggle learns that losing his focus is his greatest enemy in a fight, and while distraction is a legitimate tactic, it cannot come at the price of your own concentration either. They meet again on the 18th, in which Bran teaches him to utilise his quick mind and speed, but without drowning the world in chaos for him to get lost in. 

15th Fighting Hestia - Hestia Jones is the first to win a fight against Bran on her first lesson -- mostly because Bran is laughing herself dumb at a spell that went wrong, but still. It teaches Hestia to never underestimate the power of surprise.

16th Fighting Dorcas - Dorcas Meadowes should’ve clearly been with Sirius Black and the Heirs, but for some reason she decided to join Bran’s teaching instead, and Bran doesn’t mind. She’s enthralled by the little Dorcas and her feistiness, clearly seeing a strong potential in her. However, while she taught the Ravenclaw boys like Maurice and Dedalus to charge ahead less hesitantly, she teaches Dorcas the opposite. Not to be less brave and direct, but to think of her surrounding, open her peripheral vision and utilises the world around her.

17th A Fool’s Paradise - After a training session, Bran finds Fabian Prewett at the House of Bones, tending to the garden. They joke around a little, being good friends, before Fabian tells Bran about what he found in the Restricted Section of Hogwarts’ Library concerning the dead bodies they found. Together they conclude that the families of Muggleborns were killed by Voldemort, probably to be used as a zombie-like machinery to fight in his war. Or to protect something?

21st Battle of Diagon Part I - Bran doesn’t hesitate to throw herself into the battle at Diagon, and with Annalise Fawley by her side, they fight for a while until they find Marlene McKinnon surrounded by three Death Eaters. One is knocked out, one flees, and the third is caught by Bran. When Marlene and Annalise run to join the center of the battle, Bran stays behind.

After their mission at the Central Chimney, Mundungus Fletcher told Bran a thing. Something he wasn’t perfectly sure of, but believed was right. Something he’d seen at the Rosier battle. Someone. Her father: a Death Eater. 

Battle of Diagon Part II - So now, Bran’s only goal is to check under every silver mask to see if Mundungus was right or mistaken, and as she does so, she sees more and more people she was once friends with, who are, in a way, family, and her blood boils. She kills Rowle with a dagger, and is about to kill Avery when Artem Tremblay finds her and holds her back, convincing her to take him back to the HQ for information. Bran says she’ll agree, but will kill him once he’s no longer of any use.

22nd The End of Alcott Avery - She keeps her promise. 

Blood - Afterwards, Mary MacDonald finds her and the two talk.

23rd Not Breaking What’s Fixed - Despite her violent choice of murder concerning Alcott Avery, Bran is still a trained nurse, and with Emmeline Vance not capable to work, she’s the first to be sent to Benjy Fenwick to help. She doesn’t mind. As long as she doesn’t have to go home to meet her dad, she’s good. Or at least she thinks so. Until Remus Lupin shows up, needing someone to check on his wounds. 

[brigdh]

Reading Wednesday

The Pride of Chanur by C.J. Cherryh. A space opera more concerned with ethics and friendships than battles and politics. The Pride of Chanur is a merchant ship crewed by the Hani, a lion-like species in which the females are in charge of trade and diplomacy while the males stay back home and fight one another for control of powerful households. Captain Pyanfar is on a typical trip, docked at a trading station, when a strange, naked alien that looks like nothing she's ever seen (though readers will quickly recognize it as a human) runs onto her ship. Another species, the Kif, soon demand its return, but Pyanfar refuses, as much because she dislikes the Kif and is happy to annoy them than for any deep reason. That choice lands her and her crew in escalating danger, as the Kif are determined to get the alien back and will declare war to do it and other species are drawn into the conflict. A great deal of the book is about the difficulty of translation; even with long-contacted species like the Kif, the Hani are forced to communicate in short, broken sentences and deal with deep cultural differences. With the humans, they're starting from the ground up, and matters like gestures, clothing, and food are as prone to misunderstandings as language itself. How do you even tell the difference between an sentient alien and an animal, if you have nothing in common? I loved this sociological part of the book. Unfortunately, I didn't like much of the rest of The Pride of Chanur. I didn't connect emotionally with any of the characters, I found the descriptions of space travel deeply confusing, and I have no idea at all how Hani society is supposed to function. For example, it seems like the male fights over households are supposed to be one-on-one, but then we're given a description of a whole crew invading and pillaging an enemy house. Is that illegal? Are there laws regulating these fights? What does a new male leader mean to the daughters and sisters of the former ruler – are they cast out too, or do they just have to obey a new boss? All of this is pretty important to the climax, but I just couldn't figure it out. The Pride of Chanur has its positives, but I don't think I'll be reading the sequels unless someone talks me into it. Cibola Burn by James S.A. Corey. The fourth book in The Expanse series, and so inevitably this review will contain spoilers for previous books. After the events of Abaddon's Gate , humanity suddenly has access to thousands of solar systems, most with inhabitable, Earth-like planets. And yet in a very believable, petty example of human nature, we're fighting a war over just one. The Cibola in the title is metaphorical; it's one of the mythical 'cities of gold' the Spanish conquistadors searched and killed for in their early days in the New World. The idea of being beyond the law, of pillaging fortunes from a new land, is a major theme in this book, and Cortez and his methods get name-dropped at least twice. A group of refugees, homeless after Ganymede was torn apart by war, riots, and alien monsters, settle on a planet they name Ilus. At the same time, the UN grants the Royal Charter Energy corporation the exploration and exploitation rights to the same planet, which they've named New Terra. This immediately sets up several consequential questions that no one has the answer to: since the refugees beat RCE to Ilus/New Terra by a year, do they have rights of priority? Does the UN even have the authority to give out contracts over these new planets? Where do Mars and the Outer Planet Alliance stand? Who owns the lithium ore the refugees have already mined and transported into space? And since the rest of humanity is months or even years away from Ilus/New Terra, can anyone stop RCE and the refugees from killing each other before politicians settle the matter? James Holden and the crew of the Rocinante are sent in to act as mediators, since a) Holden is, by this point, a popular celebrity, and b) as an Earth native and former OPA operative, he can be seen as neutral. Unfortunately matters quickly grow beyond his ability to control them, particularly when the defense system set up by long-dead aliens wakes up and adds a third front to the killing-everyone campaign. As always in The Expanse series, we have a set of new POVs. Unfortunately this time I didn't like any of them as much as usual. Holden repeats again, and our others are Basia Merton, Elvi Okoye, and Dimitri Havelock. Basia was formerly a minor character in Caliban's War, the father of one of the other kidnapped children. His son died, and in reaction to that Basia has become fiercely, perhaps stupidly, protective of his surviving family. They are some of the refugees, and Basia's grief leads him to make several dangerous choices when confronted by the RCE. He's a sympathetic character, but I just didn't find him as captivating as Avasarala, Bobbie, or Pastor Anna. Havelock was also a minor character before; he was Detective Miller's partner in Leviathan Wakes. Now he's second-in-command of security for the RCE. It's just too bad that his boss is Murtry, a straight-up sociopath who doesn't care how many people he has to kill to give RCE an advantage. Havelock explicitly says that he's overly influenced by the people around him, and so goes along with Murtry's plan for far too long. As a character arc, this did not work for me at all. There is some suspense in waiting to see if Havelock will grow a spine and do the right thing, but it's not nearly as intriguing than if he was genuinely convinced of Murtry's ideas and had to change his mind, or was in some sort of physical danger that prevented him from helping the heroes. Finally, we have Elvi, an exo-zoologist working as part of RCE's science exploration team. More than anyone else, she understands Ilus/New Terra and how very different it is from Earth, despite superficial similarities. She makes several important discoveries that save lives, but she's dangerously naive regarding politics and human relationships. She also falls desperately in love with Holden and begins to act like a besotted teenager; this is believable as a reaction to the stress and life-threatening circumstances she finds herself in – and the narration does make it clear that's what's happening – but it was still somewhat annoying to read. It was hard to take her seriously as a respected professor when she was blushing and stammering over her crush. Overall, I didn't like this book as much as the previous ones in the series. It just wasn't as exciting and the characters weren't as likeable. On the other hand, I did really enjoy the found-family vibes between Holden and his crew: Naomi, Amos, and Alex. (Which reminds me: I forgot to mention the AMAZING scene in Caliban's War where Holden literally proposes marriage to the whole crew. He's half-joking, suggesting it more as a way for them to easily become co-owners of their spaceship than to actually enter into a poly romance, but I still loved it.) We have Amos nearly murdering people when Naomi is taken hostage, Naomi issuing vicious threats when Alex's safety is endangered, and Holden going to new extremes to protect Amos. It's just a whole circle of love and family-of-choice and it is my very favorite trope. I'm totally giving this book an extra star just for that. In general, Cibola Burn is a step down in quality from previous books, but I'll still be reading the sequel. How Not to Kill Your Houseplant: Survival Tips for the Horticulturally Challenged by Veronica Peerless. A really excellent how-to guide for houseplants, possibly the best book on the topic I've ever seen. It's split into two halves, with "The Basics" offering general tips and "The Houseplants" giving specific guidance on 119 common species. How Not to Kill Your Houseplant is aimed towards newbies, but it also included tricks that were new to me, such as how to save an overwatered plant by wrapping its soil in newspaper. I particularly liked the troubleshooting offered in "The Houseplants"; it explains, for instance, that yellow leaves on one plant might mean it needs more water, while yellow leaves on another species might indicate that it's getting too much sunlight. It's easy to look up your specific plants and get tips on how to best care for them. How Not to Kill Your Houseplant is available as both an ebook and a physical book, but I'd highly recommend the physical book. It's beautifully laid out, with a collage-like style that mixes photographs and abstract cutouts. A great book for anyone who raises houseplants, 'horticulturally challenged' or not! I read this as an ARC via NetGalley. One Way by S.J. Morden. A sci-fi thriller set in the near future: 2048, to be exact. Mars has been visited, and it's time for humanity to build a permanent base there for the ease of future astronauts. But how to do it? Robots are expensive and prone to breaking down, whereas human labor is even more expensive and when they break down there's likely to be lawsuits from family members. Xenosystems Operations, the company who has contracted with NASA to build the base, hits on the perfect solution: convict labor. After all, it's not like they can escape; they'll be on fucking Mars, and there's not a lot of spare oxygen or rocket ships for them to steal. XO runs a private prison in California (named Panopticon; subtle, Morden), so all they have to do is select a team of seven people with life-sentences who are willing to serve the rest of their time on Mars, give them a few months of training, and send them on a one-way journey – even once the base is built, they'll be a need for maintenance and janitorial services, since astronauts have more important things to do than unclog drains or charge batteries. In exchange, the prisoners get work they can be proud of and a bit more freedom in their daily lives. Frank is our narrator and main character. Sentenced to life for murdering his son's drug dealer, Frank is a former construction worker, an obviously useful background. He and his team of six other prisoners, each with their own specialities (transportation, plumbing, electricity, computers, hydroponics, and a doctor), plus an XO employee to be their guard/boss, quickly find out that XO has cut every possible corner to save money. They have no redundant supplies in case of wear or mishap; broken or missing necessary parts; barely enough food to get them through; problems with producing their own oxygen, water, and power; and not enough training for emergencies. Unsurprisingly, this quickly starts to take its toll, and people die in easily preventable accidents. Except by the third death, Frank suspects that they're not just accidents – someone on the team is deliberately murdering the others. He has no one he trusts, help from Earth is months away, and in the harsh environment of Mars the smallest mistake can kill, so Frank is left to figure out the murderer by himself before he's the next victim. Morden is an excellent writer of tension; there's several wonderfully dramatic scenes involving characters in spacesuits running out of time on their oxygen supplies that were heart-pounding and thrilling. Unfortunately he's not a great author of mysteries. The murderer is SUPER obvious, so much so that it makes Frank look dumb for taking so long to figure it out. At the point where Frank discovers a bunch of empty oxycontin packets around the murderer's bed and still doesn't think it might be him, I had to groan out loud. (Of course, being a drug addict doesn't make one a murderer, except that this is totally the kind of book where it does.) I also had problems with Morden's science writing; I think he expects his average reader to know more about space than I, at least, do. There was a lot of techno-jargon I didn't know, and I never could manage to picture what the base Frank and the others built was supposed to look like. On the other hand, I am highly predisposed to like a book that's this critical of the use of convict labor for corporate profit, and the excerpts scattered throughout of XO's private communications really make it clear how far down the path of evil a bit of greed and pure capitalism can get you. Hooray for a nice dose of contemporary politics in my escapist reading! I do want to note – because I didn't know before reading it – One Way is not a stand-alone. A sequel is due out soon. Nonetheless, One Way ends at a good point, with almost all of the plot threads wrapped up. You won't feel like you've gotten only half of the story if you read this book alone. I read this as an ARC via NetGalley.

[DW link for easier commenting, if you prefer]

[achaionrp-blog]

Presenting ARNAUD LEE! Making his Achaion DEBUT, he holds the mantle of GANYMEDE, THE LOVER. Some of the fans say he looks a lot like JINYOUNG PARK. Welcome to Achaion: The Best of our Heroes. Let’s take a closer look at this hero’s performance.

Tactics: arnaud, although not physically powerful, is lithe and nimble and strong enough for most menial tasks, especially after living with his current guardian where he tasked himself with looking after the grounds and the stables. arnaud also has a survivalist’s adaptable mind, quick reflexes, and a good instinct after being on his own for so long and having enemies who only had questionable intentions surround him since birth.

Harmatia: unlike many of his fellow competitors, arnaud wasn’t born a hero and he certainly wasn’t the stereotypical, hulking warrior, and he might already be at a disadvantage because of it. he’s not naturally proficient at many weapons at all and has a soft heart - a trait that can prove to be useful or his complete undoing.

arnaud had been born in the dead of winter, in a hollow night, in white sleet. when he was found by the orphanage, spring had sprung in his cheeks, cherry-red and blossoming, his pink-petal lips blooming with happy babbling. he was light with a subtle kind of buoyancy, even then, and the orphanage sinned by trying to stifle it out of him - for lively children were disobedient in some measure, if not by behavior then by their very existence. the children had been convinced their caretakers were monsters in human skin, monsters who hated the sound of young laughter and the sight of unabated glee - in the night, arnaud and the other orphans crept under the covers and whispered tales of magical cities and fields beyond the walls of the orphanage, where children were loved and orphans found beautiful families with big, waiting homes with pleasantly burning fireplaces. too often they were caught, and were forced to stand in a bucket of cold water in courtyard, if it was winter - any other time they were forced to clean the floorboards of the entire orphanage with nothing but a rag until their knees were raw.

it wasn’t until he’d grown from a promising bud to a fair lily, his limbs no longer gangly but long and slender, his build lean but broad, his baby fat gone and supplanted by a strong but delicate jawline, that he considered making good on a promise they’d all made to themselves - he would leave. a part of him that was loyal to the other orphans and their shared misery, the part of him that shook and trembled at the thought of leaving what he’d always known and venturing into uncharted territory and finding means of survival froze with terror. but the other orphans reminded him that uncertain happiness and risky dreams were still far, far better than absolute despair. they distracted the caretakers by throwing balls of dirt at each other and cheered arnaud on as he scaled the the crumbling courtyard walls. why it was him to escape they day, he did not know - perhaps they thought he fared a better chance than they would. he still thinks of the orphans every chance he gets.

he doesn’t remember much of the night he left, only remembers stumbling upon empty roads and fields until coming across a stable full of sleeping horses. he’d fallen upon the hay in exhaustion, waking the next morning to a kindly looking gentleman who was, at once, bemused and confused. the old man was the owner of the stable and the ground beneath it - and the grand mansion a horse’s trot away. he’d taken arnaud to his home, fed him, clothed home, stoked a fire for him and chuckled when arnaud gazed, starstruck, at the grand old ceilings, the priceless heirlooms and artifacts, the windows overlooking miles of forests and fog and hills,  the marble pillars and paintings of illustrious socialites and scholars and magnates of days old. he’d stumbled upon the fairy tale of which he and his ragtag group of orphans dreamed of in their desperate, hollow nights.

the old man, who called himself simply ‘arnold’, was the founder of a fairly large entertainment company and had inherited his wealth early, watching it grow with some wise investments. he was unwed and without an heir. ‘it was fate that we met.’ arnaud can’t remember who had said it, but it was true all the same. the fairytale needed its prince, the street urchin needed a home.

the next few years were some of his happiest, filled to the brim with everything he’d ever been robbed of at the orphanage. when he told arnold he’d only ever eaten cold oatmeal for breakfast at the orphanage, he was given freshly baked pastries filled with fruits so sweet he’d nearly retched from eating too much of them at once. he drank orange juice for the first time. he cried when day turned into night and snow piled on outside and the mansion remained toasty and warm - every winter the orphans had huddled together in the center of the room with their pillows and sheets and slept curled around each other for warmth. he was given tutors and etiquette coaches, he learned literature and geography and how to talk like a prince, how to conduct himself like an heir. he was paraded around the nearby town whenever arnold needed something tailored or went to say hello to his associates. but what he loved most was tending to the stable and the horses and riding them around the countryside and into the nearby village - he didn’t know what they’d gone through to get there and neither did they know of him. in a strange way, he felt equal to animal - for as properly arnold could dress him and however much the tutors could teach him, in many ways he felt as if he’d always be an odd one out no matter where he went - the orphan, the black sheep.

it was during a ride to the village that arnaud learned about achaion when several of its recruiting scouts approached him as soon as he dismounted. apparently he was a minor anomaly within the town, one of the scouts had explained - as they had it explained to them by locals, emerging from the fog each morning on his horseback, his beauty divine in the early daylight, a prince seemingly materialized out of stardust and a desire for something new, something otherworldly. ‘you’re beloved, but you’ll be exalted if you sign up for achaion. the viewers will see an underdog, their own romeo or hyacinth, they will see an orphan who came from nothing and has the chance to have divinity bestowed upon him. they will see themselves in you. they will desire you. they will desire to become you.” perhaps they saw potential for viewership in him, a sob story, a pretty thing to charge wealthy fans to admire him in private. arnaud was frightened. he tried to scramble back up on his horse, but their words stopped him cold in his tracks.

“you’re fond of that old man, aren’t you? he’s as good as a father to you, isn’t he? you care about him.” arnaud had paused, stared at the men with wide, quaking eyes. “sign, and we’ll make sure he won’t come to any harm. he’ll have all the horses to fill three of his stables and perhaps his company’s stocks will have tripled in value over night. that’s if you sign.”

the threat was implicit, but it was enough. there was no questioning he would protect the man to whom he owed his freedom and future - he might have come from nothing, might have never known family, but he was loyal, and if his miserable boyhood was all a build up towards a heroic arc in some grand play, he wouldn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself to the narrative. but the fact was, there was no greek poem, only fate and unfortunate circumstances, and the only thing as powerful as a god was the man threatening him and arnold.

a prince fashioned out of a pauper, emerging from dirt and ash and rising as a thing beautiful and exalted to become divine - to bring glory to the only family he’s ever known. to join the gods in name and feat. this was ganymede’s story, this is what would be written in the stars, in poems and press. this is the fate to which he’s learned to resign himself.