#steris/melaan

[gal-palanaeum]

A Change of Plans by Faithfully_Queer

Rated General, 800 words, Steris/MeLaan Steris finds her work interrupted by something unexpected.

Steris was sitting in her study, House Ladrian’s finances laid before her. While it wasn’t the most exciting thing she’d done in her life, it was just as vital and where she was most useful.

As she was tracking down the source of a small discrepancy in various reports, she heard the door open and someone walk in. She paid it no mind and continued working. Wax knew not to bother her when she was working unless it was necessary, and if it was she had created plans for dealing with almost anything important that could come up. 

Just as she was about to be able to confirm the source of the discrepancy, someone cleared their voice, someone who, based on the sound, was decidedly not her husband.

Only slightly startled, Steris turned around to look at her guest, mentally going through her list of people likely to do this and the associated appropriate response, finding someone unexpected but not unplanned for. This someone happened to be Melaan, who was leaning against one of the bookcases, nominally looking at the books on the shelves, but really examining Steris.

Melaan didn’t seem willing to start the conversation, so Steris spoke up. “Oh Melaan, I wasn’t expecting you, what brings you to my study unannounced?” A little accusatory, but acceptable, all things considered.

 “Just needed a little help with something best done in private, so I figured ‘Why not now?’” Melaan answered, still only looking at Steris out of the corner of her eye.

While Steris had an idea of what Melaan might need help with, it was always wise to confirm. “And what is this something?” 

Lackadaisically turning to face Steris, Melaan answered, “Thinking of ways to alter my true body to be less recognizable. I have ideas, but I need someone to see if they actually work.” That was an unexpected answer, one she didn’t have a plan for, but at least simple enough that she could do without. However, it did leave one question, “Why me, instead of Wayne? I feel like he would be the one you would ask first.”

There was a flash of something that briefly appeared on Melaan’s face. Though Steris couldn’t figure out exactly all the emotion in it, it was clear she’d somehow stepped on a sore spot. “Ordinarily I would, but I think for this, you would be more useful.”

She's probably referring to my attention to detail. Well, it would be a nice distraction from the tedium of finances, and probably wouldn't take too long… "Very well, if it won't take too long."

Keep reading

[cosmerelists]

Canon Cosmere Couples: Did They Have A Good First Kiss?

As requested by @cosmereplay

Now, as I said when I accepted this post, there is NO CHANCE that I will actually remember who has canon first kisses and who doesn't. So please don't get annoyed by that. Except for Painter/Yumi, who I know had a terrible first kiss! Because Cosmereplay said so when requesting this list. :)

Anyway, here's how I think the first kiss went with canon Cosmere couples.

[SPOILERS FOR CANON COUPLES THROUGH ALL PUBLICATIONS INCLUDING WAT PREVIEWS—but the WAT one is under a read more!]

1. Wax & Steris: Great First Kiss

I feel like this one might be canon. I feel like whether or not this happened in canon, their first kiss happened when they were flying, and that Steris was overcome by the Romanticism and the Danger as she is in canon, and then she and Wax shared their first kiss. And I think it was legitimately great for both of them.

2. Adolin & Shallan: Good First Kiss

I think Adolin had plenty of kissing experience (depending on how "Not Before Marriage" the Vorins are...but like Dalinar & Navani kiss so surely Adolin can too) and that Shallan had none. In my head, Adolin kissed Shallan in the Perfect Romantic Moment and then Shallan panicked afterwards and said something which most people would have found incredibly awkward but which Adolin vibed with so completely that it just made the moment better.

3. Tress & Charlie: Bad First Kiss

Think about the "pair of gloves" scene. Those kids are so sweet and so awkward. And it is based on the Princess Bride, where Buttercup & Wesley shared a truly perfect kiss, which had (in that book) only happened three times in all of history. But this is a Hoid retelling. I don't think Tress & Charlie had that magic, so I think their first kiss was more ordinary and real.

4. Raoden & Sarene: Adequate First Kiss

I think that's how Sarene described it. Raoden thought it was a bit better than "adequate," but he yielded to Sarene's judgement that they'd "definitely get better with practice, though."

5. MeLaan & Wayne: Insanely Good First Kiss

MeLaan said Wayne was the best lay she'd ever had. So somehow Wayne is good at all of that. And they were so distracted boning that they missed a whole ass train robbery. They were definitely eating each others' faces.

6. Navani & Dalinar: Great First Kiss

I think this one is canon--I think their first kiss really was in the room after one of Dalinar's visions, when Navani kissed Dalinar & then they couldn't stop kissing for a minute. This is assuming that back when they were young and Navani was deciding between Dalinar & his brother, that she and Dalinar never kissed. And I don't think they did. I think they have "never actually kissed before" energy in the flashbacks. So assuming the canon kiss was their first one, it seemed like it was good! They're older & they know what they liked, and they definitely both seemed caught up in it.

7. Siri & Susebron: Great First Kiss

This one is canon, although not described in like a ton of detail I don't think. I mainly remember something like "Susebron didn't know what to do but Siri did" and that they were so insanely horny for each other that they hooked up despite that being the one thing that they needed to avoid doing. So, like, I think it's fair to say that they were into it.

8. Vin & Elend: Okay First Kiss

I don't mean to make this all about "prior kissing experience" like I'm looking at some sort of Kissing Resume. But Elend must have a bit of kissing trauma, since his only sexual experience prior to Vin was with a skaa woman he was forced to sleep with and who he later found out was executed for it. And Vin just generally has Trauma and was constantly on alert against sexual violence in particular. The two of them trust each other and like each other and per WOB were hooking up even before marriage (gasp!) but I think they were vaguely relieved when that First Kiss was over with.

9. Breeze & Allrianne: Bad First Kiss

I mean given that their relationship was Breeze being like "uh I don't know if I want this" and Allrianne being like "yes you do"...I dunno. I can't imagine their first kiss was good.

10. Gavilar & Navani: Bad First Kiss

Gavilar was imagining kissing himself and Navani was imagining kissing Dalinar.

11. Dalinar & Evi: Bad First Kiss

Evi was imagining kissing a Dalinar who loved her and Dalinar was imagining kissing Navani.

12. Sadeas & Ialai: Amazing First Kiss

I think Sadeas & Ialai are ridiculously sexually compatible and that they knew that from the first kiss. I dunno. That's the vibe I get from them.

13. Kelsier & Mare: Great First Kiss

I think their backstory is too tragic for them not to have had a great first kiss on top of everything else. Just to make Kelsier that much more sad, you know?

14. Kaladin & Lyn: Did Not Kiss

Not going to lie. I'm just going off of the energy from @room-temperature-orange-juice's comment on my "Is Kaladin Good in Bed" post which was, and I quote, "Bold of you to assume Kaladin would get laid. I love him, I treasure him, but he’s dense. Someone could lie naked on his bed, and he would be pacing the room, worrying about the safety of the vents."

I kinda like the idea of Lyn setting up all these romantic moments for Kissing Purposes and Kaladin never once realizing that that's what she's going for.

Bonus WAT spoiler couple under cut!

15. Jasnah and Hoid

This is a spoiler couple, but Jasnah and Hoid? Terrible first kiss. I do not think there is a world in which Jasnah and Hoid's first kiss was objectively good. This is based entirely on the WAT preview where Hoid is like kissing Jasnah's hand to get her excited and Jasnah is like "Mmm I am not Into That." Like I think they both wanted different things from that kiss and that neither of them really got it.

[lamaery]

Character scribble time!!!

[barlydoodles]

Era 2 crew 

[azure-sorceress]

I finally finished The Lost Metal! Here's some (a lot of) thoughts:

Spoilers below.

The biggest problem this book has is that the stakes are too high. Wax & Wayne books work because, unlike Era 1, they are fun low stakes steampunk detective novels with a great cast of characters.

I was really sad that MeLaan left immidiatly after the beginning of the book. I wish we had had the whole gang together like in BoM, but I guess it wasn't meant to be.

I think this might have been the most agressive foreshadowing for a character death that Sanderson has ever done. It was so obvious Wayne was going to be killed off by the end of the book. Also it made me really sad. As in, I spent the last 30 pages weeping.

The problem with having a lot of Cosmere connections and a literal god/shard as your villain is that the regular villains of this series seem weak in comparision. Yes, I'm talking about Telsin. Such wasted potential...

I'm not sure I'm too excited about Era 3 to be honest... But you know what this book made me excited for? The Elantris sequels.

Omg what do you mean you can use a seal to turn yourself into an elantrian??? This makes seals so much more OP than they already were.

Also, is Moonlight Shai? Or is it another forger that we hadn't met?

I'm really worried about Sazed. I think he's right not to trust Kelsier, but I also think that Kelsier is right about Sazed losing control of the intents of the shards. I really wanted Harmony to work and be a decent god (because we are lacking in those), but I see things are about to become dangerous again. I feel like there should be a way to completely merge Ruin and Preservation because they were already merged at some point when Adonalsium was whole...

I really don't like the Ghostbloods. Maybe it has to do with the bullshit going on with Shallan in Stormlight and all the manipulation they did with her. Maybe it has to do with the fact that they are stealing Investitude from other planets. Or maybe is just the fact that Kelsier is the leader and I don't trust him even a little bit.

But it strikes me as odd how the Ghostbloods get great people like Moonlight, TwinSoul and Kaise?? And then you have Kelsier, Mraize and that creepy guy with the mask in the epilogue (also, who the hell is his sister and what do you mean she's in Roshar???).

I'm so glad Marasi didn't accept to be part of them, I didn't think she would, but you never know. In fact, she actual puts it very well when she turns them down: "I won't keep secrets when the truth could save lifes". Kelsier "there's always another secret" Survivor could never.

I wish we had seen more of Marsh. This feeling is for the entire series, in fact. He was one of my favorite characters in Era 1 and I would have liked to see him be Death a little bit more.

Overall a good Cosmere book, but a weak Wax & Wayne book. If I ever reread Era 2 I think I'll stop at BoM because I don't think I can ever reread Wayne's death.

[l3st1b0urn3s-707]

I think this is going to be my last Les-has-finished-mistborn post for the moment, as usual SPOILER ALERT for The lost metal.

The last few things I wanted to focuse on are Steris' character and the ghostbloods, kinda unrelated, i know, but i don't have much to say about those so I'll just do it in the same post.

Steris is my favourite era 2 character, at first I didn't really like her but since the second book I started to love more and more. Her lists were amazing, she's always prepared for everything, and I know she usually sees that as a defect, and I'm so happy that she ended up feeling helpfull during the Elendel crisis, because she very much deserved that, and I think that her new job was perfect for her. I relate to her character a lot, her akwardness in social intersctions and the way she was always thinking about the worst case scenarios really reminded me of myself. I think her dynamics with Wax were amazing, they made such a perfect couple, and she was the loveliest mother ever. She's definitely one of my favourite cosmere characters.

About the ghostbloods/ cosmere related stuff, I would really like to know where Shai went (I'm thinking Elantris or at least somewhere in Sel, maybe?) and I think it'd lovely to see more about Kaise's adult era. I'm a bit concerned about Sazed and the whole Discord thing, it just seems pretty scary. And another scary thing was Kelsier's conversation with him, specially when he asked Saze if he'd have to protect Scadrians from him. I really don't want to see them fighting against esch other. Aaaand, I really want to know more about what MeLaan was doing in Shadesmar.

Overall, I think mistborn era 2 was really good. It was so fun to read these books, specially The bands of mournig, the characters were all so great and the era 1/cosmere references were so interesting. I'm really excited to see how Scadrial will have changed in era 3, and hopefully reading about some of this characters again!

[cosmereplay]

Top mistborn ship?

This is a tough one because Vin and Elend are right there. I am such a sucker for romantic partners who choose to do the work to understand and support each other, and they do that, and it's so sweet.

That being said, I desperately want to know more about whatever toxic yaoi Ati and Leras had going on 👀

[wyndlerunner]

MeLaan wearing a dog’s body to play fetch with Wax and Steris’s son is 🥺🥺

[nerd-in-distress]

I need to vent about the lost metal but none of my friends read it yet please I'm dying over here

[lostandbackagain]

the only thing wax really has going for him is that he acts more like a teenager than kaladin and he's like 45

[lordmistborne]

IT IS HERE. IM SO EXCITED TO READ/LISTEN TO IT!!!!! EEEEEKKJK

[cosmerelists]

Cosmere Characters Versus A Printer

[Previously: Cosmere Characters Versus A Toaster]

Once again, Cosmere characters are up against modern technology. In a world where they encountered printers, how would these characters handle it?

Kaladin: Knows that the printer can sense fear. Knows that it will exploit weaknesses. Maintains eye contact with the printer throughout the printing process, sweating nervously. It jams.

Adolin: Chats with his printer every day, of course, but has an in-depth conversation before each and every printing job. It always works slightly faster for him than for anyone else. 

Shallan: Innately senses the printer's passion--and pain. Draws an idealized version of the printer, where it heroically prints sharp images with smooth efficiency. It works much better after that--but only for her.

Yumi: Performs an elaborate ritual before each printing job in order to gain the printer's trust and cooperation. It works...amazingly well.

Painter: Swears that the wrinkled, ink-stained pages he dragged out of the jam are his artistic vision. (It kinda works.)

Elhokar: Is sure that the printer has it out for him, specifically. 

Tress: Must use one of those giant, jam-prone combination printers/copiers/faxes you find in offices. It's large and frightening. Tress is the only person who can consistently diagnose and fix the jams.

Dalinar: Was not aware that printers could jam.

Jasnah: Has an innate understanding of printers due to her Inkspren. I think that's how that works.

Sibling: Is pretty sure that is a spren trapped in that printer and does NOT approve.

Stump: Always claims the printer is faking when it says it's "out of ink."  You just have to shake the cartridges!

Lord Ruler: Was late for a meeting ten thousand years ago when a printer had to do maintenance and has been working to suppress printer technology ever since.

Vasher: Percussive maintenance. 

Renarin: Experimented with printing out ominous, red-ink signs that said things like IT'S COMING. 10 DAYS. But scrawling on the walls was just better somehow.

Nomad: Is constantly living on the edge (prints when he only has exactly the number of sheets of paper required)

Autonomy: Always has two printers facing each other printing at the same time. Whichever one prints slower she smashes with a hammer. She swears this makes them faster. 

Steris: Has actually mastered double-sided printing--knows how to re-feed the pages into the printer so that everything comes out facing the right way up. Even writing this I am filled with intense awe.

Nale: Has one of those printers with proprietary ink where it, like, automatically stops working if you try to use another company's ink. He thinks this is fine. I feel sick writing this. 

Elend: Once said aloud, "Yum yum printer is hungry feed it paper" and now Vin will NOT let him live it down.

Wax: Honestly misses those old dot matrix printers whose pages had sprocket holes on the side and you had to, like, tear them off along the perforated edges

MeLaan: Doesn't use printers. Can eat a stapled, collated report and produce 15 identical copies from her butt. Nobody likes this.

(Well, except for Wayne.)

[cosmermaid]

Brandon Sanderson coming to the correct conclusion that Mistborn had too many male characters in it, and fixing his error by giving us Shallan, Siri, Vivenna, Steris, Marasi, Jasnah, Venli, Navani, Tress, Yumi, Akane, Eshonai, Sylphrena, Lift, Cord, Rysn, accidentally writing Navaniel, and correctly having MeLaan dump Wayne and Jasnah dump Hoid.

Now put more husbands in the fridge besides Gavilar and all will be right in the Cosmere.

[thestormlightnetwork]

I LOVE MISTBORN

I LOVE MISTBORN. I love how the hero of ages is hidden underneath our nose just until their reveal. I love how Wax would absolutely be on the lord ruler's side if he was alive 300 years before. I love how Sazed fought so hard to liberate the Skaa then went on to do the exact same thing as the lord ruler did, only with more illusion of choice. I love Vin's arc with womanhood throughout the original trilogy. I love seeing how time twisted her narrative to the point that when Marasi looks at her statues an era later, she doubts that the Ascendant Warrior ever experienced fear and self-doubt. I love Steris's journey in embracing her highly functional mind. I love how Wayne and Melaan were doomed from the start, knowing he is a mortal and she is a Kandra, yet they chose to love each other for a brief period anyway. I love how Sazed's arc in hero of ages paralelled Wax's arc in bands of mourning, both a biblical reference to the book of Job. I love how kelsier is an immoral and hypocritic man yet he still puts the safety of Scadrial on the top of his list.

[gal-palanaeum]

Cosmere Femslash Fest Fic List

Here’s a list of all the fics submitted to Cosmere Femslash Fest 2023, organized by rating. Check out all the ones that interest you, and please do comment and give kudos if you like it–it means everything to a fic writer, and we want to encourage as much femslash as possible!

General and Teen

Hypnotic, takin over me by Hazekiller16. Venli/Leshwi, General. Bonus fic!

Steel Lovers by Stingythefish. Mistborn OC/`OC, General

Different As Can Be by LuxViolet. t4t Vin/Shan, Teen

Trillium by Truthwatcher_Vez. Ann/Tress/Salay, Teen. Bonus fic!

Harmony of Scholarly Concerns by TrishHankins. Rushu/Venli, Teen

Never Had by BlindRadiant. Kalami/Navani, Teen

Sweetness by Milk. Navani/Ialai, General

Thinking, Overthinking, and a Pile of Letters by bridgeboy. Khriss/Design and Cord/Rysn, General

Sick of crying for blue eyes by Zvarrklingreputation. Navani/Evi, General

Metamorphosis by Truthwatcher_Vez. Masaka/Izzy, Teen

Voice by aluminumoxynitride. Leshwi/Venli, General

Warmth by Thirstspren. Yumi/Akane, General 

You'd be stars by SapphicSpren. Shallan/transfem!Adolin, Teen

All's Fair in Games of Love and War by Macro_Scenery. Lyn/Laran, Teen

A Change of Plans by Faithfully_Queer. MeLaan/Steris, General

Mature and Explicit

Learning Curves by sir_not_appearing_in_this_archive. Akane/Yumi, Explicit

Of Me by cosmere_play. Evi/Sja-anat, Mature

A Study in Worship by Naaru. Jasnah/Shallan, Mature

This Is How You Grieve Your Lover by LunaEarnshaw. Shallan/Tyn, Mature

stay on the phone (just to hear me breathe) by gabrial. Yumi/Akane, Mature

Questions for Later by BlindRadiant. Navani/MeLaan, Mature

Not the quitting kind by catharsisnt. Shallan/Tyn, Mature

A Breath of Understanding by cosmereplay. Azure/Jasnah, Mature. Bonus fic!