#traitor spy trilogy

[lovedbee]

MY kyralian sexyman competition 2.0: sequel edition

[jamesshawgames]

Relics 3 Release Announcement!

Relics 3: Ashes for Gold has been released!

In Europe’s darkest hour, an even deeper darkness is stirring. One hero stands against the triumph of absolute evil. You.

It’s 1940, and the long-feared war has broken out in Europe. Our intrepid archaeologist is working as a spy for the British, undertaking daring operations to strike at Nazi interests across Europe. But soon a new threat emerges. The Nazis have obtained a stockpile of a devastating ancient weapon, and in order to activate it they are scouring the world in pursuit of long-lost Archives which can teach them how to use it. You must get there first, overcoming the odds to beat the forces of evil and prevent them from unlocking powers with which they can sweep aside any opposition and conquer the world. Can you beat the odds stacked so heavily against you, or will you fail and plunge the world into a thousand years of darkness?

Relics 3: Ashes for Gold is the epic final instalment in the Relics Trilogy, and the sequel to Relics of the Lost Age and Relics 2: The Crusader’s Tomb. It is an exhilarating 580,000 word interactive adventure novel by James Shaw, where your choices control the story.

Step into the weathered boots of a swashbuckling 1940s archaeologist-turned-spy and travel widely in a painstakingly-reconstructed vision of the world at war, facing overwhelming odds at every turn, armed only with your fists, your wits and your motley collective of memorable friends and allies. Do you have what it takes to save the world again, one last time?

Play as male, female, or non-binary; gay, straight, bi, poly, asexual, or aromantic.

Continue to develop your romance from Relics of the Lost Age or Relics 2: The Crusader’s Tomb, or embark on a new relationship with any of the seven ROs in the series.

Fight memorable villains in a race against time to prevent the forces of evil from conquering the world, against the terrifying backdrop of world war.

Ride out into the Nevada desert in the footsteps of a legendary Old West outlaw, scour the sands of Egypt for the secrets of the pharaohs, investigate occult mysteries and Nazi traitors amid the dreaming spires of Oxford, search for sunken pirate treasure in the Caribbean Sea, unearth Inca enigmas in the wild Andes, and go deep into enemy territory in wartime Japan.

Experience epic gunfights, visceral brawls, and wild stunts in vintage vehicles.

Make choices that will determine the future of the world as you close in on an ancient weapon of unimaginable power.

The game is FREELY AVAILABLE on Itch.io, at the following link: https://jamesshawgames.itch.io/relics-3-ashes-for-gold

If you want to play Relics 1 and 2 to get up to speed, they are currently available through Hosted Games.

[siriuslyobsessedwithfiction]

Realizing a widely popular historical fiction/modernist novel (in 20th century) had a political figure fighting for freedom of his people, more influential forces wanting him and his people to lose autonomy, a borderline fanatic head of the church interfering in political affairs, a young woman who has special connection with animals and particularly deer getting caught in-between conflicts, an old spellcaster who has lived many lives with different identities who keeps secrets, and a civil war. Why does this remind me of Shadow and Bone trilogy...🤔

Only in this book, the man who fought for freedom of his people for years is not framed as an absolute villain, even though he led a battle because he wanted to pursue a woman. But rather, the narrative acknowledges he was a brave man who served his people since he was thirteen and fought countless battles for his country. And that such responsibility is heavy, and even he was human, wanting a connection. Although, his actions aren't excused, no one says it was right of him to go to such lengths for a woman and to maim her lover. His end is still tragic. But it doesn't feel like a disservice to his character because people know the good he did and acknowledge it. He showed more mercy at first than his enemies deserved. He had friends who were good people and loved him. Even people who hated him for personal reasons said it was better for him to rule than to start a war and get someone far less competent in charge, which would leave them vulnerable to foreign enemies.

But what does the Darkling from Shadow and Bone get? His centuries of work erased, his name being more demonized than ever and eternity of suffering. LB could either make him an actual villain, or let him be a morally grey tragic character. Instead, he got tossed between both of those and then got blamed for everything that went wrong ever. While the rapist King got a nice retirement and the leader of the witchhunters who was actively committing genocide is spared because he was only the product of the system, apparently.

"Aleksander had marched south with the king’s soldiers, and when they’d faced the Shu in the field, he’d unleashed darkness upon their opponents, blinding them where they stood. Ravka’s forces had won the day. But when Yevgeni had offered Aleksander his reward, he had refused the king’s gold. “There are others like me, Grisha, living in hiding. Give me leave to offer them sanctuary here and I will build you an army the likes of which the world has never seen.”

“He … he said that Darklings are born without souls. That only something truly evil could have created the Shadow Fold.”

"Not everyone thought like Eva or the old serf, but I’d been in the First Army long enough to know that most ordinary soldiers didn’t trust Grisha and felt no allegiance to the Darkling."

"I've committed many sins, Pippa, as a king and a man. I carried almost all the virtues and all the defects of my people. I was bold and faint-hearted. I set at nought the Byzantine Emperor but was afraid of snakes. I was conceited, heartless and loathsome, but I never betrayed my people, Pippa. Our misfortune is the same now: among us, the traitors outnumbered the loyal ones. I know very well, even in my army, half of them were bought by the Byzantines, and half by the Sarkinos. When the people have so many traitors at home, even Alexander the Great cannot defeat the enemy. If the nobles had not deserted me at Basian, I would have defeated Basil Caesar there too, you know. If the whole nation doesn't want to win, Alexander Macedonian can't help either, Pippa, because cowards and emissaries have never won anywhere. I gave my childhood and my youth to Georgia, but the Kartlels called me "the Abkhazian," and by the Abkhazians I was considered to be a Kartalinian spy, I who was a Bagration, a Laz."

"I rarely saw the Darkling, and when I did it was from a distance, coming or going, deep in conversation with Ivan or the King’s military advisers. I learned from the other Grisha that he wasn’t often at the Little Palace, but spent most of his time traveling between the Fold and the northern border, or south to where Shu Han raiding parties were attacking settlements before winter set in. Hundreds of Grisha were stationed throughout Ravka, and he was responsible for all of them."

"The King is a child. But you've made him a very happy child."

"I was slowed down by the squabbling of the nobles and the commanders, Pippa. Every scoundrel in us longs for nobility, every bastard - to be a commander.

No one knew his name to curse or extol, so I spoke it softly, beneath my breath. “Aleksander,” I whispered. A boy’s name, given up. Almost forgotten.

"He took off his clothes and was surprised when he saw a body marked by wounds, some old, some newer. A completely young man's body."

"It was a gravedigger who dared to confront the truth first, once everyone had left: "Not even in death has King Giorgi had any luck."

[howtofightwrite]

Hello! I have a very particular sort of scene that I've been trying to get right for over ten years now and I can't make it work; I hope perhaps you can help.

A husband and wife duo who have Mixed Feelings about one another are trying to break out of a facility. (He was recently discovered to be a spy, she is a conscripted soldier in the facility. She was sent to escort him to execution but hesitated - I'm not sure where, in the cell, in the hall? - and - he took advantage of this hesitation? she was arrested as a traitor? - I don't know that either, yet - and they end up running through the halls together to escape)

The facility is vaguely sci-fi; think Star Wars Original Trilogy-style weapons, and there is space travel, but technology isn't... wildly advanced. Like it's not all digital and holograms and hand-wavey stuff, it's only a little more advanced than what we have available now. (Like SW OT.)

Point A is them in the cell. Point B is them on a spaceship breaking free.

I cannot get them from Point A to Point B with any kind of plausibility, or without staggering incompetence on the part of the soldiers and commanders in the facility.

They would likely be armed with only her sidearm, unless they happened to grab rifles off of further escorts sent with her?

I'm sorry this is so vague, thank you in advance for any help!

Personally, I’m of the opinion that any scene that’s been marinating in the brain for a long time (especially for years) has deeper structural/internal issues than just putting together action. Just from reading your question, I can feel the way you’ve laid this specific scenario out breaking your own suspension of disbelief. You’ve got several problems that have built up over time and, now, they’re all working against you.

Change if it’s Not Working

One of the best pieces of writing advice I ever got came from being forced to memorize my martial arts school’s Ten Steps to Mastery as part of my first test for black belt. I only remember the first five and I can’t guarantee they’re all in order.

Set a goal

Take action

Pay attention to detail

Practice, Practice, Practice

Change if it’s not working

Regardless of whether you’re practicing a front kick or writing a full length novel, flexibility is important. The more we try to force something to work, the less likely it will. Training flaws into your technique means they’ll be more difficult to correct later. So, don’t forget to stop and look at the larger picture if you feel yourself getting stuck.

Remember, change isn’t failure. Writing is a complex process and not every idea, plotline, character moment, or scene is going to work out when fit into a larger context. And that’s okay.

Outside emotional exhaustion and stress, my writer’s block kicks in when I’ve taken a wrong turn in the narrative or am avoiding a difficult emotional moment that my characters need to face before their story can progress. Something has made me/them uncomfortable and instead of facing it, I’m attempting to avoid the uncomfortable feeling by throwing some other distracting piece, usually action, in the way. I call these moments false notes. I usually hit them when I’m coming at the story from an external perspective (what have I seen other characters do in other stories/films?) rather than an internal one. (What would this character do?)

If something isn’t working, stop trying to make it work. Instead look for what you’re missing, and where the pieces aren’t connecting. It’s usually further back than the scene you’re working on.

My characters are always right. I’m either not listening or going about it the wrong way.

Food for thought.

Your Heroes are Reactively Active

We hear a lot from the writing community about the importance of Active Characters. These are characters who are doing things to move the plot forward. They make choices. They take action. Then, there are passive or, what I like to call, reactive characters. They are characters who react to things in their environment, whatever that is, but they’re not actively making choices. Passive characters get a bad rap in American storytelling tradition (more so than in the wider Western storytelling tradition.)

Passive characters really shine when working with characters who are in settings where they’re struggling to survive. In the real world, passivity is one of the best ways to survive abuse. Any victim of long term or systemic abuse can tell you that standing up and fighting back, especially in situations where you have no power or means to change your circumstances, makes the situation exponentially worse. You’ve got to gray rock it out, suppress, and survive.

Lastly, there are characters I like to call reactively active. These are characters who feel like they’re being active but are actually just reacting to actions taken by other characters. They appear a lot in YA Fantasy, but they’re everywhere. And, because these characters are always reacting to another character’s (usually the villain’s) actions and choices, they get an easy out when it comes to escaping narrative consequences for the things they do. It’s a deceptive sleight of hand used to maintain a character’s moral purity. These characters appear active on the surface, but, underneath, they’re passively reacting to the narrative events inflicted on them. They don’t take action. They respond to action with action.

Let’s get back to your scenario.

We have a husband and wife in some sort of heavily or, at least, decently fortified, military installation. The husband has been outed as a spy, put in whatever functions as a prison or holding cell within the complex, and scheduled to be executed. The wife is a loyal soldier who must now choose between her love for her husband and her love of duty.

This has the makings of some good drama.

The first obvious problem point is that these characters are trying to do too many things at once. They’re coming to terms with their deep feelings of betrayal, experiencing a last minute change of heart, making a snap decision to escape, and rapidly coming up with a plan to escape in the heat of the moment. If this feels unbelievable, it’s because it is and, even better, doubles for putting the characters in a reactive or passive state. The wife character isn’t acting, so much as she’s reacting last minute to the immediate, impending danger. That would be fine if she wasn’t also having to help carry the burden of coming up with The Plan.

There’s the surface level here, where the last minute change of heart is mimicking the kinds of behavior seen in countless other forms of media regarding escape scenes. However, this narrative decision happening in the heat of the moment is also allowing the character to skate over the emotional consequences of her own betrayal. She’s not choosing so much as she’s being forced to make a choice. And that is removing her agency.

If she makes the choice earlier, starts putting The Plan in place with the help of some friends/colleagues (even if it happens largely off page) then executes at the cell, she takes back her agency and retains her status as an active character.

The difference here is in the processing time. Characters can’t plausibly escape fortified lock up without a plan or, really, The Plan.

The Narrative Structure of Last Minute Rescues

The first problem in your scenario is that you have two characters, neither of which are doing the pre-planning legwork required to successfully execute The Plan. Rescues are like heists, they either take a village or require characters who are extremely meticulous and actively manipulating the village to fill in the gaps. (James Bond does Option 2 beautifully, but even he has a team behind him.) Usually, both happen to some degree. The burden is segregated out into different pieces for different characters. Normally, there’s at least three. The character locked up is trying to figure out a way to escape, but comes up short. The one on the outside who is putting together the pieces needed to execute the rescue/get away. And, sometimes, the one on the inside who is experiencing a change of heart, who, at the very last minute, turns heel and assists with the rescue (most often in the turn of misfortune where a piece fails and the rescue is at risk of being bungled.)

All of this additional weight/build up/expectation of the non-existent plan is being put on two characters and crammed into a single scene.

Think about the rescue of Princess Leia from the Death Star for a moment. How many characters are required to make that escape work?

Seven.

All of them. If a single character in the entire group is missing, the whole thing falls apart. Even Threepio is necessary, mostly because Artoo can’t talk. This off the cuff, by the seat of our pants rescue requires all seven characters and they still end up bungling it to kill their samurai master.

You need one to turn off the tractor beam so they can actually escape. (Doing the real work.)

You need one to figure out where the princess is being held, unlock the doors, and figure out where they are.

You need two to bullshit past the guards going in and one to pretend to be a prisoner.

You need one to bullshit past the guards a second time to save the one that can’t talk with the floor plan.

You need the princess to be the one to get them back out because she’s the only one with balls.

And none of it mattered because the escape was a trap all along.

While you don’t need these specific roles for everything, escaping from a heavily fortified facility is not a two man job. That’s where the feelings of implausibility and extreme incompetence are coming from. There aren’t enough characters helping to clear the way or be there as a safeguard for when things go wrong. This feeds into the next problem.

Soldiers, Spies, and Their Squads

We have another unintended scenario brewing at the same time. And that’s the exhausted retail employee going on a rampage and slaughtering their surprised colleagues. This really knifes your tension. By reacting to the immediate danger, the wife is not making an active, conscious choice with full knowledge of the consequences, and those consequences are killing people she knows, respects, is friends with, shares a camaraderie, or who are at least familiar to her. These other soldiers aren’t faceless goons. It’s a lot harder to pull the trigger on someone you know than someone you don’t, especially someone who has the same values that you do.

Soldiers aren’t characters who work alone. They have a squad. They’re part of a unit. They have a support network surrounding them that allows them to do their job to the best of their ability. Spies are the same way. They also have a support network which allows them to act to the best of their ability, even when it feels like they’re acting alone. Spies have handlers and they have assets, their job requires they build their own support networks so they have someone who can get into the places where they can’t. Those people may be witting or unwitting assets but they’re still there.

Both of these characters should have fairly extensive support networks to fall back on when in crisis. They’re in crisis. The crisis is both physical and emotional. Where are their people? Two characters who are social archetypes whose jobs and survival during wartime are reliant on building trust and skillful communication have no one willing to put their lives on the line to help them out? They only have each other? That’s staggering incompetence.

Spies aren’t assassins. They’re social animals. Soldiers aren’t lone wolves. They’re social animals. If there’s a structural failure here, it’s happening with your secondary characters.  Ignoring the importance of secondary characters is a mistake that a lot of new writers make and I can feel those early mistakes being carried forward in this scene. This is what Hemingway meant when he said, “kill your darlings.” If an idea isn’t working, if it’s holding you back, kill it. Look at the problem and your work from a new angle. One good line or one good scene, regardless of your emotional attachment to it, doesn’t outweigh the entire work.

Plans and Floor Plans

If you’re having trouble coming up with a character’s escape, step back and take a look at the facility itself. Whether it’s breaking in or breaking out, you, the author, need to have a clear visualization of the entire picture so you can find the weaknesses or fracture points.

Plans are easier to conceptualize when you know what the dangers are and what defenses have been put in place to prevent what your characters are attempting. Which parts of the fortress are better fortified than others? Where does this military expect to be attacked? What have they done to prevent it? What are the patrols? Who are the techs? How does the military support itself while fending off attempts to damage its resources? Who handles the supply lines?

The boring minutiae of your world is what makes it feel real. Action is dependent on your world building and this goes deeper than just their weapons. The social systems in place guide how your characters fight. It’s there in how they perceive their environment, and how they recognize usable tools. If you build a functional and consistent world, the action will take care of itself because violence is a natural response to environmental threats. Violence seeks to exploit established systems, to gain an advantage over them. If the violence is imagined separately from the environment, the violence won’t feel real because it’s not reactive and it’s not reacting to environmental stimuli. From there, it’s not logical.

Ask yourself, why do we use guns?

Then ask yourself, why do your characters use guns? What does it allow them to do that they wouldn’t be able to do otherwise? Or, what does the gun do better than other weapons that makes it the preferred choice?

The answer for the real world and your setting might be the same, and they might be different. Both will influence how the character uses their weapon. How they use their weapon guides how they fight. If you’re lost, ask yourself questions.

For example, let’s take a last look at the prison.

Prisons are built with the expectation of keeping multiple people contained for an extended period of time, preventing them from leaving in the event of an escape, and preventing those who are sympathetic from breaking in to rescue them. What have the characters in your setting (not your protagonists) done to facilitate that goal? What safeguards have been put in place to prevent someone from leaving and entering?

In the real world, prisons are built in a way that two people can’t just walk out. There are points of entry and exit that are designed to be remotely controlled from secure locations and cannot be operated or accessed on the ground. You’d need someone (like R2-D2) who can access the remote functions to get someone past the exits that they can’t open themselves.

-Michi

This blog is supported through Patreon. Patrons get access to new posts three days early, and direct access to us through Discord. If you're already a Patron, thank you. If you’d like to support us, please consider becoming a Patron.

[thebestoftragedy]

what are some books you liked and disliked so far this year?

So I read a lot (so far this year: 123 books finished, mostly novels), so I have a lot of books I liked and disliked. Let's call this my almost-mid-year year-in-books review. it's long. sorry (?)

5/5 star type books:

2666 by Roberto Bolaño - technically a reread (I read this for undergrad 10+ years ago). Really really good expansive weird dark book. A 'reading experience'. It's about knowledge and power and misogyny and history and academia and murder and death and what it means to have a legacy, and it's also pretty funny.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë - It's Jane Eyre! Not a reread but I was basically familiar with the plot due to basic cultural osmosis (I haven't seen any adaptations of it unless you count gifs on tumblr dot com). Good and fun. Romantic. All the haters are wrong.

4/5 stars, really good but maybe I had some reservations or it just didn't 'hit' the way I wanted:

Big Swiss by Jen Beagin - funny, weird, blah ending

The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith - good but tbh I like the movie better

Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather - good!

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick - weird! fun.

Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham - fast fun gloomy

White Tears by Hari Kunzru - some awkward setup and bad pacing but a killer ending. stealth horror novel

The White Album/Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion - it's joan didion

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers - quiet people leading lives of quiet desperation, etc.

Dungeon Meshi by Ryoko Kui - I read the whole manga series, I loved the first few volumes, hated most of the rest of the series, and then felt neutrally towards the last one or two volumes.

Looking Glass War, A Small Town in Germany, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré - slowly working through all of his books, so far they're all worth reading but I'm not sure I'd be able to 'rank' any particularly far or below the others

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett - some cringey stuff but a good fun weird sci fi/fantasy murder mystery. it's gonna be a series (maybe just a trilogy?) so I'll read the rest also.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon - killer killer first 60% and then the last 40% was like whatever.

Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace - so it took me until page, like, 250 to really get into this, which I can't really forgive. overall I think this is a very good book that mostly justifies its weird formatting/premises/characters, but I would say it does not change my vague impression of the author as someone who fundamentally lacks empathy with women. there are a few chapters of this book (where a 'chapter' can easily be novella-length) that I think are pretty unconscionable. but it's still well done, totally unique, and effective at what it sets out to do. oh also the author gets the DEFCON system wrong and that's a pet peeve of mine. so.

A lot of the Bad books I read were just mediocre romance type novels and not super worth breaking down.

Notably Disappointing/Bad Books, 2/5 stars (where I pretty much hate them or think there's almost nothing worth reading there, but I at least got Something positive out of the experience):

Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston - this is a terrible bad stupid book I would have been embarrassed to have written as a 15 year old. but it had a few individual funny scenes/lines so it wasn't totally miserable to read.

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson - almost incomprehensible sequel to The Traitor Baru Cormorant, which I liked ok/thought was interesting but underbaked. I'll try the third book, but I'm bailing if it's not immediately interesting to me because this was a total slog.

In Memoriam by Alice Winn - I think this got that second star on the merits of basically one good blowjob joke. going in I thought this was going to be more of a serious literary novel and not what it is, which is basically yaoi for twentysomething women who are really into song of achilles or whatever.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata - I got absolutely nothing out of this. Sorry Women

Murder Road by Simone St. James - wouldn't have been notable except that I used to enjoy this author a lot (when she wrote historical mysteries) and haven't liked her contemporary/more modern stuff as much, and then this was a new low. dull clumsy boring novel.

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley - this got a huuuuuuuge insane marketing push this year and I think has already been optioned for TV (this will be a recurring theme in this list). utter mess of a novel, combines secxually explicit self-insert RPF, wallowing about Being The Child Of An Immigrant, wallowing about Accidentally Doing Microaggressions Against A Coworker, wallowing in general, bad sci-fi, actually pretty good fish-out-of-water time travel comedy, and just general misery for me, personally, the reader. massive massive disappointment, actively makes me angry it was published. did I mention there's a scene of the narrator, who is very clearly the author, getting eaten out by this guy:

anyway. that happens.

A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck - a few tumblr mutuals loved this, I found the writing style distracting and inapt. it's supposed to be a cerebral type horror, but I couldn't get into it because the aw-shucks narrative voice keeps anything horrifying at a pretty far remove. also you could tell the author Really wanted to show off the Research he did, or like prove to you the reader how smart he is, and I dislike that sort of thing intensely when it's not pulled off well.

The 1 star zone, or: the abyss gazes also:

Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas - this is a super-well-known, super-well-loved, often listed as one of the best-of-all-time romance novels, and I just fucking hated every second of it. awful characters, awful plot, I wanted everyone to explode in an iron foundry accident (this happened in a different novel by the author, which also sucked).

Penance by Eliza Clarke - it's a fake true crime novel, very heavily based on a real crime, and it just did not justify its existence in any way. I got Nothing out of it and enjoyed none of it and it had no redeeming qualities for me. moderately offensive for it to exist at all, which I could more or less forgive if it were very good, but it's not.

Disfigured: On Fairytales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc - bad tumblr posts pretending to be an academic type exploration of disability in fairytales, except you can tell the author has only read like 2 essays on the subject (because she only every references 2 other writers) and then watched some disney movies (but not even all of them). really lazy, bad-faith, deeply anti-intellectual. I spent my entire time reading this sending angry messages to @ilovemymutedcalico8487 about how wrong it is and how much it sucks.

My Darling Dreadful Thing by Johanna van Veen - I broke my rule and read a book with the word 'sapphic' in the goodreads description. really inept gothic, really clumsy 2014 tumblr SJW stuff wedged into a story that takes place in midcentury the netherlands, just bad.

Margo's Got Money Trouble by Rufi Thorpe whose name I will NOT mistype as Rupi Kaur even though she might as fucking well be - absolute garbage shit idiot trash for garbage shit idiots. actively loathsome and evil book. soon to be adapted as a tv series starring (and I'm refusing to google to double check this, so I could be completely misremembering, but this this does not deserve care or accuracy) elle fanning and nicole kidman. just don't.

congrats on reading. as a reward, you should go read a book that's good.

[nyxrev]

Tsukuyomi Trilogy

Chapter II: Icarus

A boy who flew too close to the sun

………….————- *Moon Craters Highway radio,

Welcome back. Last time we left off at eugenics and esp tricks. Buckle your seatbelts folks we're about to go downhill. Full throttle ahead with an Eastward turbulence.

“From our surveillance data…” *!!!* **red flag**

…eh? we could't even grasp the battle situation (much less catch any data) on our end though?

With the sisters held hostage, our moon agent releases Demon level monsters from the floor below. Now, exactly how much he knows about the HA floor plan idk, but the extent to which he is familiar with mechanisms of what we can see should already draw concern, if earlier mention of their “data” did not already perk up our ears.

Unfortunately, though execs felt brief confusion they brush off their uneasy sentiment, and soon forget about it as the agent thanks them for the valuable “specimen” and their focus is drawn to money matters.

The fact they don't immediately feel suspicious, nor try to discreetly ask an outsider about how they acquired such extensive data on what was supposed to be so secretive an operation, even their own people could not get data, and are so gullibly unwary of the outsider with undisclosed data to proceed “trades”, not only exposes how desperate for funds they are, it also exposes their catastrophic lack of critical awareness. Smb boutta get caught for gross negligence, except them execs will prolly get let off easy.

See, the world runs on money most luxurious of which often acquired through nefarious means. Sure, money can buy you comfort and security, but comes with an equally expensive cost. Well, you could buy comfort, but you might soon find out you pay for it… For example, perhaps we are already *quite very* familiar with circumstances of compromised critical security… You see…we can't let you have both at once now, can we…

The agent prepares to make his grand exit, and as he juggles the psychic sisters he declares all smug, “nobody would question the de*th of the witch sisters anytime soon, now would they?”

Excuse me young man I wholly disagree. In fact everyone who knows them would question their de* th more than anyone else's for no one would believe they'd go down so easily to some caged monsters. You should know better by now, what with Tatsumaki as an indispensable pillar of HA, and Fubuki an influential figure.

Cosmic Mad Hatter and the Oreo Hoops Boy

…A new party emerges from the suited group…and leaves the fray. Eyelashes shouts, enraged, “so You're the bastard…” who dr—gged Fubuki. Outrageous. Traitor. I mean, can you really call him traitor when he'd always been a spy?

It'd do well for Blizzard regulars to stay together get to know each other well so they can discern who (among them & out) is trustworthy.

Furious, they attack n I realized it's the first time I've seen Eyelashes' we.*pon, I always wondered how he'd fight with a pair of eyelash curlers. Not so benign a cosmetic tool now, eh?

But they're no match for psychic retaliation…Oh and doesn't Mad Hatter look like Choze there? Eyes of eugenic superiority complex.

Fubuki cares about her subordinates and I hope she cares about them as people and not assets, as I'm sure they each can learn and grow strong enough to hold their own, to truly help her grow as a person as well.

At the critical moment, Saitama crashes out of the monster den with his usual punch, shock on every face present, but distraction is fatal for an agent on mission and Tatsumaki seizes an open defence to strike. As expected, she would never let herself be compromised for naught.

“Found it” she reclaims autonomy…and oh how the tables have turned. All while she was bound, she located the p!ll. Smart.

silent agent panic “the capsule won't react…!?” Of course not, once Tatsumaki has control, you will never be able to reclaim control over it. Behold her power and precision, amateur.

What happens next, we all know. He gets gently poked 3x by 1 lil p!ll n-—-dle.

Excellent now your brilliant plan backfired most disastrously, you*&*your cult is humiliated, and I'm stuck here with you for the next 24hr as you try to rush to a psychic hospital if it even exists.

Why did he turn two shades darker as he teeter-totters two steps away from de*th, oh pois0ned bl*-*d mb. Tbh, at first I thought mb the p!ll was just sleep, and he said it had poison to bluff, but his pitiful state now, doesn't look too well. Hope you not allergic or got antidote for whatever it is

“Look I'll have you spit out all you know about Tsukuyomi later, you hear me” Now you rly see and feel the terror of tornado, right next to you.

I, too, want to t0rment you gently, for you made the most careless mistakes and lost your prizes.

Fly next to the Sun too keen and get burnt.

As Tatsumaki, at full threat, makes our poor fool of an agent spill the beans I can't help but recall an uncanny similarity between Apollo and Amai when he got poked by Do-S. Look at him, vessels emerged, almost monstrous.

Makes you wonder what they did to them, what happened under the kn!fe to get their artificially activated psychic power and how they maintain or strengthen it, right? I wouldn't be surprised if they did contact God on the Moon to get power or try to anyway. Maybe some of them, artificial psychics, are even monsterized for their hunger for power. Just a stray thought but I do wonder.

Now Apollo's mission to the Moon is honourably jeopardized, his failure might get him fired who knows, but Tatsumaki rightly spares no pity nor mercy and not only keeps enemy compromised but gets the job done thorough and through, all the way to the last precautionary step.

The spy, he manages to slip out of house arrest, but gets no pass and is thrown on the wall most gracefully as he makes meagre attempt to run.

My humour is broken as Garou's hut but I found it funny he just went “Bu-” … if you squint extra hard his knocked out form might even look a lil bit like the shape of ぶッ bahaha

On a serious note, I didn't expect Tsukuyomi to get their prizes or even escape unscathed, but I did wish they proved trickier to defeat, not* bc I want to see Tatsumaki suffer (MA was :'|) but bc I want to see her be decently challenged, not to traumatic extent, but by what challenges her to problem solve and use her smarts as well as but more than brute strength. To see her grow from catalytic challenges or experiences, so she is no longer so stubborn to fend for herself, her sister & co. alone, but can learn to work with and trust others, like we saw with Genos.

Let's stop here for now. Next chapter will be the last. It is short, but I should like to address what will prompt more questions than answers.

…^^^vroom vroom zoomies on highway to hell*

Pardon my weird amount of text censors. It got flagged or whatever it's called last time n idk what triggers the algorithm so. I had to crop out the first two panels of the scene where he got backfired literally cuz idk if photos also trigger the system. But the first two were most obvious similarity to Amai's broken mask so ifykyk

[an-asuryampasya]

get to know me(me) (heh)

tag 9 people you want to get to know better

tagged by @wizardofgoodfortune and @themirokai. many thank for the tag! :D

three ships: ah, oof. idk what to answer this based on, so I'll go with three ships that I've read a lot of in recent history: Zoscar (Zolf/Oscar from Rusty Quill Gaming), Marvin/Whizzer from Falsettos, and Dream/Hob from Sandman. (That also quite neatly sums up the different mediums I primarily follow now, heh.)

first ever ship: okay wow this took me back! Probably Dannyl/Tayend from the Kyralia series by Trudi Canavan. It was reading them during The Traitor Spy trilogy that helped my baby ace self first see the appeal of shipping. (man, I miss those books :') )

last song: probably Epic II from Hadestown. Was listening to that on repeat while baking earlier (I canNOT get enough of "the pickaxe flashes / the hammer falls" and the music during "king of mortar / king of bricks" <3)

last movie: 18 Pages, although tbh the movie was just an excuse to meet up with some lovely folks for the first time in yearssss :)

currently reading: mostly fanfic of late, but I'm also attempting to wrestle my attention span into letting me finish What Matters In Jane Austen by John Mullan. It is a delightful read digging into how Regency society functioned in order to better appreciate just how brilliant Austen's writing is, and I am LOVING it.

currently consuming: is this about food? media? idk, but I just finished dinner so my answer's going to be uppudu pindi with avakai. (I am. very telugu in some ways, yes.) (avakai is the most basic mango pickle and I have no idea how describe the former, so take my word for it when I say it is the superior low-effort comfort meal.)

currently craving: some direction in life would be nice, but I'll settle for some piping hot chocolate slab cookies. tried baking some earlier but they turned out brittle instead of chewy since my baking soda stabbed me in the back :(

zero pressure tags: @averythepirate, @shewantsitall, and @rosettarants! [and @permanentlyspacedout >:) ]

Not sure who else I can tag that I know doesn't mind getting tagged and hasn't done this already - so this is me @ing anyone else who feels like doing this!

[utilitycaster]

I agree with you that the traitor Baru Cormorant was not quite what I hoped for. what are other political scifi books you would recommend?

I'm going to be repeating myself a bit here because I'm working on building up my reading habits after grad school+pandemic and new job shot them to hell, but:

Ada Palmer's Terra Ignota. I've read the first 3 books but my hold on the 4th came in during my work conference/moving hell period this July and I didn't finish it, but it's incredibly good. Ada Palmer is a historian herself and understands how politics work. It takes place on earth, about 500 years in the future, as war breaks out in what was never truly a utopian society.

The Vorkosigan Saga, again; truly a beloved series of mine, this has everything: interplanetary politics, military sf, a comedy of manners, spy intrigue, romance. The core family of the books is among planetary nobility so there's always a lot of politicking involved, even in the more classically military SF novels (but also military SF that doesn't suck is usually heavy on the politics).

Machineries of Empire by Yoon Ha Lee, a new favorite I picked up by chance this year. It's very much a series that throws you in the deep end and expects you to figure it out but it's truly just nonstop intrigue peppered by a cool sf system and a lot of Thoughts About Gender/The Body One Has.

Thessaly by Jo Walton is another series I've only read part of (the first two books of a trilogy) and the first two books are only vaguely SF but it is very political, based on the premise of "what if we made Plato's Republic from people across the entirety of human history". The third book, which I hope to get around to shortly, is from what I understand much more explicitly SF.

Also some honorable mentions to:

Becky Chambers' books are much more about life in space, but there are political elements, and if Baru Cormorant left you a bit cold because of the lack of investment into deep character dives, this is all character and background politics.

Technically, The Locked Tomb series is intensely political and one day I shall kneecap whoever was like 'what if we just yelled Lesbian Necromancers In Space nonstop and alienated readers who were looking for something deeper.' The politics really kick in during the second and third books, and the fourth isn't out, and there's a whole lot of other stuff going on, but the politics are intensely important and in my opinion an under-explored part of the series in fandom.

It's been a LONG time since I read Asimov's Foundation (like...15 years or something, I read it in high school) but I remember really liking it and meaning to revisit it some day. I feel like it's going to hit some of the same themes as Baru Cormorant but just...as I said, I'm interested enough to read more to know what happens, but Dickinson's writing style is a little too spare in a way I'm not sure is entirely deliberate, and Asimov is spare in a way I know is on purpose.

Also, it's technically fantasy, but I have just read the first two books of the Kushiel's Legacy Phedre trilogy and am waiting to get a copy of the third from my library, and they are very political intrigue heavy, while also having a much stronger literary style and voice. (Note: this series is 1. very sexually explicit, by design of the world and concept - basically, what if instead of Christianity a bunch of angels who were like 'you know Take Me to Church by Hozier? what if that was literally how worship worked' landed in Fantasy Medieval France and now it's the Fantasy Renaissance Era, and 2. extremely from the early 2000s, which is to say, very progressive for like 2001 but somewhat dated now.)

[karatam]

Read recently (April - Sept 2023)

A Restless Truth by Freya Marske. A sequel to A Marvellous Light, but can be read as a standalone. In a Victorian era world with magic, Maud is on a ship crossing the Atlantic when a fellow passenger is murdered. Maud will team up with a beautiful stranger that kind of turns her world upside down in order to solve the mystery. I loved this book and all the characters involved, and it was a great murder mystery too.

Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Bailey. In a wild west era where all reading material is closely controlled by those in power, Esther stows away with a troupe of travelling Librarians because she needs to escape a marriage to a man who killed the girl she was in love with. Very queer and with lots of gun-slinging and books. A fun quick read.

Godsgrave by Jay Kristoff. Sequel to Nevernight, picks up basically where the previous one ended but also jumps ahead in a parallel narrative. Now involving gladiatorial combat, the tangled politics of the world, and finding out more about the tragic Corvere family. Utterly ridiculous in a fun way, I like this book.

The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur. A queer romance with a fake dating trope. This was very cute, though the romance genre isn't usually my favourite. I wish it had been a liiiittle more slow burn, and they deserved more than just the one sex scene lmao

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty. Mallory seems to just attract murders all her life (in that they just randomly happen near her) runs away to a remote alien space station to try and make it so humans stop dying in her immediate vicinity. But when she finds out that a whole bunch of humans are incoming to the station, she realizes what's going on it much larger than just her own weird proclivity for finding herself at the scene of the crime. Sci-fi and murder mystery combo that I quite liked, though I felt like her ally Xan was weirdly unsympathetic to like....Mallory's trauma from finding a dozen dead bodies or witnessing murders. A weird book, but I liked it.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe by Emma Torzs. Sisters Joanna and Esther were raised to protect their family's secret library of magical books, but Joanna is left alone to her duty when Esther runs away from home and doesn't return. Nick is the last known person who can write these magical books, and it might be killing him. They're all thrown together when a dangerous book nearly falls into the wrong hands. A standalone novel that creates a very interesting magic system and very likeable characters who all grow and a mystery that kept my attention. Will be looking forward to more from this author.

A Good Girl's Guide To Murder by Holly Jackson. This small town was rocked 5 years ago when the most popular girl at school was murdered by her boyfriend who then killed himself, and her body was never found. Now, Pip is fairly sure he was actually innocent and the real killer was never found. And she's going to prove it as part of her senior capstone project. This is a YA murder mystery done very well. Lots of twists and turns (and lots of me wishing Pip would practice better computer security, but whatever) and I'll be looking for the other books in this series.

Blood of the Chosen by Django Wexler. Picks up a few weeks after Ashes of the Sun, with siblings Maya and Gyre still on opposite sides of the fight. Gyre tries to help another rebellion while Maya is sent off to spy on a potentially traitorous rival of her mentor. Definitely a middle book in a trilogy, but a big big plus this book has over its predecessor is that the very annoying character suddenly became wayyy less annoying and in fact became quite funny. Had some twists I didn't see coming and had me reaching for the final book right away.

Emperor of Ruin by Django Wexler. Picks up right away once again, with Maya and Gyre, uh, running for their goddamn lives? This author writes fight and battle scenes very well and I also liked the amount of research the characters have to do. Love how plot points from the first book circled back to be relevant once again. And once again the queer romance in this series is very sweet, even as the characters are attempting to not die. I really liked this series overall.

Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh. How do I even describe this book without giving too much away? Kyr is a soldier in training, one of the last remnants of the human race in the galaxy, after humanity was basically wiped out during a war about 20 years ago. But when her twin brother is assigned a suicide mission and she's assigned to just have babies forever, she strikes out with a hostage alien and her brother's strange friend to try and help keep her brother alive. And along the way, must confront the truth of everything she's ever known. I LOVED this book. Kyr's upbringing has echoes of cults and something like north korea, and she struggles with that throughout the whole book, it's not something tossed away easily once she discovers what's going on. And in her flaws, there's such a humanity, and my heart hurt to see her in pain. Highly recommended.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. This is non-fiction, which is a bit unusual for me, but wow it's great. This tells the story of the Osage Murders, a series of killings during the 1920s where dozens of members of the Osage Nation were murdered due to their tribe's ownership of oil rights in the region, and then the investigation and cover-ups that went along with them. Leaves you feeling bereft by the sheer volume of injustices committed against the Osage nation (and still, no doubt, being committed to this day). But there are still feelings of hope and kindness and generosity and grace, as this community tries to both protect itself and heal, even as the writer discovers more and more crimes that aren't part of the official tally.

[archduke42]

Old Barriss fanfiction

For those bored on a Friday nite, I thought I would post more segments of an older story I wrote before TCW came to TV. When Barriss became my Muse, I just started giving her more adventures and liberties to be involved more in the Prequel Trilogy timeline

In this scene, Darth Tyrranus has lured Barriss into a trap when she arrives on Geonosis to attempt to rescue captured Obi-Wan Kenobi. Keep in mind, when I wrote this, Dooku and Tyrannus are two different characters, and Tyrannus has abilities where he can only be seen by Barriss as he poisons the minds of Dooku and the Separatists.  Barriss is put on trial,and sentenced to Death.  Dooku, who is slowly becoming a Dark Jedi obsessed with hunting down Darth Sidious, also reveals the big secret that has been hidden from Barriss her entire life, which will devastate her in that moment.

I know some of this reading may be a bit over the top, but I was excited to write a cliffhanger moment for her.

It may look as if I Mar Sue’d Barriss the way Filoni writes Ahsoka, but at the time I preferred to think of stories like this as “Barriss being a normal Jedi trying to do her best, gets into epic situations and faces imminent death.....but then a miracle happens and she just becomes naturally more awesome” kind of thing.  At the very least, I tried to make all her epic moments plausible when I wrote it.  Enjoy

(Barriss is brought into a large chamber blindfolded and tied up. The blindfold is removed. She finds herself facing Separatists Shu Mai, Nute Gunray, Po Nudo, Sun Fac and the shadowy Darth Tyrannus)

Tyrannus: A surprise for the Council......a Jedi spy.

Barriss: TRAITORS! Where's Dooku? Where is Senator Hadranus?

Shu: *SILENCE! You are in no position to demand anything!*

Nute: It is an unfortunate turn of events for you, my dear.

Barriss: When the Chancellor discovers your deeds here, Viceroy, you-

Nute: -Oh, be quiet. I hear that one every morning.

Sun: *Jedi Padawan Barriss Offee, it is with great regret that you are charged and found guilty of trespassing into a sacred catacomb of our honored dead. Great though your heart and deeds may be, you are unworthy to be in such a place. The penalty is Death!*

(Barriss turns to Tyrannus)

Barriss: Clever little trap for a clever little joke trial.

Tyrannus: An easy one, too. Master Unduli would never have fallen for such an obvious ruse.

(Barriss looks at him with irritation at the taunt)

Barriss: I’ll have you eating those words when Master Dooku gets here!

Nute: You can't talk to us like this! This is outrageous. You're on trial, you green skinned pest! This is for what you did on Naboo years ago!

(Barriss turns to the neutral Sun Fac with urgency)

Barriss: Sun Fac, you obviously remember that we Jedi have always been your allies. We helped end Hadiss' reign of terror. How can you let them pull off this "kangaroo court"??

Sun: *Politics......make strange bedfellows, Padawan Offee. Archduke Poggle is now a member of the Confederacy-*

Barriss: -No!-

Sun: *-of Independant Systems. Even if it were not so, you were caught in the sacred catacombs. Wether intentional or not......we must follow with Geonosian Law!*

Barriss: Joining the Sepratists makes you a traitor, Sun Fac!! Don't give in to their lies! Go get Senator Hadranus!

Tyranus: Barriss, Barriss. General Hadranus is not on this world. He is on Rhen Var, and he is about to discover his true destiny.

Barriss: Even if you kill me, the Republic will not stand for this horrible act! Palpatine will have you all on trial!

Nute: (sigh) Booring!

(Tyranus swiftly moves next to her with silent grace)

Tyranus: There is no victory you can have that I cannot take away.....

(The doors behind them burst open. Count Dooku storms into the proceedings, startling everybody. Barriss turns to him with a small feeling of relief. She turns back to Tyranus to give a witty reply, but Tyranus has vanished again)

Dooku: This is outrageous! Of all the audacious things!! I cannot allow this to turn into a circus!

Barriss: Master Dooku, I am grateful you are here! Finally you can tell these lunatics to let me go!

(A sudden uncomfortable chill sweeps over her as Dooku marches to her sternly. He looms over her like a dreaded prophet of Doom)

Dooku: On the contrary, young padawan.......I am here to stop you from ruining everything!!

Barriss: (In shock) WHAT??

Tyrannus: (whispering) She is a traitor....she must die.....she will destroy all your dreams....

(Barriss can actually HEAR Tyrannus as he sends horrible thoughts to Dooku's mind. Dooku's face is red with a held back indignant rage)

Dooku: You, of all people, Barriss......I never thought I'd see you try to stab Qui-Gon in the back as well with this treachery!

Barriss: MASTER DOOKU!! He was LIKE A FATHER TO ME!

(Dooku frowns even more)

Dooku: More's the pity!

(He walks past her)

Dooku: Barriss, the punishment for spying is death in the arena, the punishment for desecration of the sacred Nekropolis....death by immolation. The Geonosians believe it is to purify the stench of your unholy trespass. If I will it, you would die in a most horrible fashion.......but it would be an even worse fate that you should die without ever knowing what it was that has kept you alive.....

Barriss: Don't give in to the madness......this Confederacy of yours is an act of TREASON!!!

Dooku: I have cared for you like a granddaughter, and I have held secrets to protect you.....

Barriss: What are you talking about??

(At that moment, the dread Cyborg, General Grievous, enters the trial room. Barriss becomes frightfully aware of the malicious aura. She recognizes him, and he almost seems to smile under his cold metallic mask)

Grievous: Barriss.......how lovely......

(Dooku and Grievous escort Barriss Offee down to the dungeon)

Barriss: This is NOT the answer, Master Dooku! War with the Republic-

Dooku: -I did not ask for this war! I did not ask for my friends to die needlessly on Naboo.....or here....

(Dooku gets paternal as he opens a secret door among the dank dark cells)

Dooku: I have always admired your drive and initiative, your strong will. You would have made a great Jedi....

Barriss: IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY!!!! BILLIONS WILL DIE IF YOU GO DOWN THIS PATH!!! You will be lost to us....please....don't do this! Please....

(Grievous stands coldly as Dooku leads her into a small chamber with several tunnels)

Dooku: Barris, I am carrying out the best kind of death sentence for you I can. I pulled strings to get you here.

Barriss: (sarcastic) Oh, thank you. I'm soooo grateful! You put me in the dungeon! You are not a Geonosian, you don't have-

(He leans down, for a moment, caressing her head in a grandfatherly way. He is ready to sacrifice even those he would call family to fulfill his obsession in destroying the Sith)

Dooku: -You don't understand. The legal alternatives like the arena.....it would be unbearable to see you suffer that fate. I do this for you as the friend you once were. Trust me, I helped design things so Poggle would never have to worry about the same stunts that were pulled when you and Master Unduli interfered years ago....Master Kenobi is also under sentence of Death.

(Barriss looks at him, shocked and horrified. He is not the graceful, witty Jedi she had known for so long. Dooku wearily stops and slowly turns to almost glance back out the door at Grievous. He looks uncertain about everything)

Dooku: It is not your fault, Barriss. You were a tool of the Jedi and the Senate. They have killed you, We must stop the Sith. We must make it all right. THAT is why this must happen.

(Barriss gets angry)

Barriss: What would Qui-gon say? You would kill your own friends and family??

Dooku: So much you do not know....about family...

(Barriss gets more agitated, but Dooku suddenly gets very quiet)

Barriss: WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW ABOUT IT!!!??? You're Master Dooku!! Lord of all you survey!! You can kill with a word and these tin pot drones will do it!

(He looks away. Grievous gets huffy outside the room, but Barriss is no longer scared of the Cyborg)

Barriss: And you shut up, Grievous!! Nobody cares to hear your opinions!!

(She almost snarls at Dooku)

Barriss: I've grown up my whole life obeying the rules, smiling and eating and breathing according to the rules of the Order without ever knowing my family, my parents....How dare you!!?? Telling me I know nothing about it....you keep rattling on about secrets you held!!! You talk about family and yet you have calmly given me the DEATH SENTENCE???? WHAT IS GOING ON???!!!!

Dooku: IT is about your mother and father!

Barriss: What about them? I never got to meet them!

Dooku: YES, YOU DID!!!

(Barriss is stunned. Dooku composes himself)

Dooku: Qui-gon never told you about your father.....

(POV Does a CU of Barriss)

Barriss: What did Qui-gon know about my father?

(CU of Dooku as he drops the bomb on Barriss)

Dooku: Qui-gon....he WAS your father!!

(Barriss looks at Dooku in complete disbelief)

Barriss: -That can't be! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!!!!

Dooku: Search your feelings, you know it to be true!

Barriss: But who wo-

(Barriss stops and gets wide eyed as she suddenly realizes, as if putting two and two together on who "Mother" really is!! She holds back the shock as best she can, fully aware of everything around her)

Barriss: (sobbing) It can't be....IT CAN'T BE!!!

Dooku: It was time now to tell you, because time is so short! So much for you to know, but....

(Dooku looks away. He suddenly can't look her in the face)

Barriss: (tears up) All this time....

Dooku: You deserved to know before I sealed you in. You will wander these tunnels until you succumb to death. There is no way out. But at least you have a chance to die in peace, with the truth....I am truly sorry.

(Dooku, oblivious to Barriss' state of mind, turns and exits)

Barriss: (whispering) You son of a bitch.....You've condemned me to a fate worse than death.....

Dooku: You will die with dignity, and no one will ever know of what I have told you. When I establish a new galactic order.....you will be remembered as a great hero to the next generation of Jedi....A NEW Generation of Jedi under MY leadership!

(POV watches Dooku seal the door shut, Barriss' silhouette dimmed by the growing darkness)

(POV follows Dooku and Grievous back into the palace)

Dooku: Prepare the staff for our next briefing, especially concerning Poggle's latest weapons' project. Prepare the trial for Senator Amidala and her puppydog Skywalker!! They will join Master Kenobi for the arena.

Grievous: Yes, my lord.

(Dooku steps into another room quickly out of sight. He leans against a wall and closes his eyes. His world feels like it is crumbling around him for a few seconds. Tears fill his eyes for a second, but he grips himself)

Tyrannus: (VO whisper) Friends must die so that you can win against the Sith Lord. It is a necessary sacrifice....

(Dooku wants to say something, but the Darkness clouds his judgement and he steels his resolve to destroy the Sith even though he has committed one of his first terrible acts to accomplish it)

(Barriss sits in the dark, facing the tunnels, pondering what to do as she recovers from crying. The door opens behind her. CU of Grievous as he slowly enters and lights up two sabres with glee)

Barriss: YOU!!

Grievous: My child, I have waited a long stretch of time for this rematch!!

(Barriss jumps up and prepares for battle! Sabre lit, she stands in readiness as Grievous closes the door behind him)

Grievous: You are dead, one way or another. Dooku does not need to know the details!  I think about our encounters on Naboo all those years ago, and I think I owe it to you to make this as painful and prolonged as possible!!

(He lights up a total of four sabers! Barriss suddenly realizes she is out of her depth fighting him. Smartly, she leaps into the nearest tunnel. Grievous laughs)

Grievous: You cannot run far!! Every tunnel in this labyrinth is a dead end!!

How does Barriss escape??  That is a story for another time....

[lovedbee]

I think these deserve their own post

[elliepassmore]

The Stolen Heir review

5/5 stars Recommended if you like: fantasy, magic, quests, road trips, morally gray characters, The Cruel Prince, Holly Black This book takes place in the same world as the Cruel Prince trilogy and features some of the same characters. I don't think you need to read that trilogy for this book to make sense since it's from a different POV anyway and thus there's new information and the main character fills in the relevant details from that series. That being said, it is spoilery for the CP trilogy, so if you haven't read that and are planning to, keep in mind there are major spoilers. The plot of this book centers around a quest that involves going back to the Court of Teeth (which technically doesn't exist). We get the plot in bits and pieces since Oak is keeping things fairly close to his chest. I suspect that the main plot of this book will have little bearing on the main plot of the next book. Rather, one of the side plots bubbled up at the end of this book and that is what I think will be the overarching plot for the duology. We get to see Queen Annet's court in this one along with Wren's old court. The Court of Moths is one of the Unseelie courts but it actually doesn't seem as bad as it could be. I really liked the seamstress, she added some flavor to things. The Court of Teeth was just as frozen and terrible as you might imagine. I actually kind of liked some of the imagery there for a villain's lair, it was definitely unique. The palace there also introduces some interesting ideas that I'm curious to see if they play a role in the next book. Here we follow Suren, Wren, another stolen child. Wren has had a difficult life but still yearns for things to be just. She's one of the Fair Folk, but instead of using going around tricking mortals and being a general nuisance, which is what most solitary folk do, Wren instead goes around and undoes the tricks and chaos of the other Folk. She's an interesting character because she is both vicious and kind, suspicious and soft, and that reflects in her actions and thoughts. I liked following Wren as the POV character because she brings some unique experiences and perspectives to the table and is in an interesting spot of being new to the world while also very much being a part of it. She also undergoes an interesting development over the course of the book and while she certainly goes stronger and more confident, there's also a bit of a...corruption arc, we'll say, that occurs as well. I'm very, very curious to see where Wren is in the next book because I don't think the place she's in at the end of this book is static in the least. Oak doesn't get his own POV in this one, but I've heard he gets one in the next one, which should be interesting. He's a very different character from the kid in the CP trilogy. For one, he's a major flirt and seems to be open to flirting with anything that so much as glances at him. He does seem to be very self-aware of his ability to charm people though, and he has some funny commentary about this ability and his late half-brother. He's also turned into a rather formidable opponent, which is quite the contrast from when he was a child. You can definitely see the influences of the people who raised him, particularly in his fighting, because...um...Jude and Madoc have no chill. Interestingly, he's a fairly slippery character to get a read on. He obviously loves his family very, very much and is willing to do anything for them, even if it puts himself in danger. Oak also doesn't seem to want to hurt other people unnecessarily. But at the same time he was raised by his father, a traitorous ex-general; his sister Jude, who was a spy and is now a queen; his BIL Cardan, the king and someone who can weasel his way in (and out) of anything; his other sister Taryn, who is queen of manipulation; his mother, an ex-courtier who is also very good at manipulating people; and a literal band of spies (poor Vivi never had the slightest chance at making him even semi-normal)...all of which I'm using to say that Oak learned how to hide his intentions from the very best and it's hard to get a read on him without being in his head. Tiernan is a guard/spy and is Oak's friend. He's along on the quest and is a bit of a prickly character. He's not a huge fan of Wren because he thinks she'll stab Oak in the back, and probably for other reasons that are sort of implied. Despite his relatively dour attitude toward Wren, he has genuine comradeship with Oak and cares when his friend throws himself into danger. He also has a complicated relationship with their other traveling companion, Hyacinthe. Tiernan does warm up to Wren over the course of the book and they're more friendly, if not friends, by the end of the book. I liked Tiernan's character, despite his prickliness, and thought he provided a good balance to Oak's sunniness. Hyacinthe is the last side character and is also a bit difficult to read at first. He's one of the falcons, though his curse removal has gone a bit haywire and he's now mostly human...or Folk, whatever. He's a reluctant helper on the journey, though he's more than willing to throw warnings Wren's way about various things, largely because it hinders Oak and Tiernan's plans. Hyacinthe actually ends up doing the right thing and he seems like a friend to Wren by the end. I have a feeling he'll play a bigger role in the next book and I'm curious to see what kind of influence, if any, he'll have on Wren. For fans of the CP trilogy, we do get numerous mentions of Jude and Cardan, though we don't see them in this book. It sounds like they've been doing alright in the intervening years between the end of How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories and the opening of this book. Jude still sounds ruthless as ever and Carden is very much still a malewife, to the point where side characters and villains alike comment on it. We even get some mentions of Taryn, Vivi, and Heather, and I'll be tentative in saying Taryn sounds like she's gotten herself straightened out and isn't so terrible anymore (but who knows). I'm super excited to see more of everyone in the next book! Overall it's a good book. The romance is a lot more subtle in my opinion than with CP, but I also think that better fits who Wren is. Both Wren and Oak are complicated characters and I'm interesting to see how they develop in the next book. I also liked how Tiernan and Hyacinthe both built a friendship with Wren, and I'm curious about how things play out with that in the next book. Plus how things play out on a more personal level with Tiernan and Hyacinthe.

[nesiacha]

The end of the Goddess of Reason

Warning: this is a mini fiction featuring Sophie Momoro, her thoughts and her life after the execution of Antoine -François Momoro. There is therefore a mix of fiction ( plus in the absence of certain information it leaves room for at least a little imagination) and truth. So no need to (too much) point out my historiographical errors. I take all criticism, just know that I have problems with the English translation on long texts so be indulgent (or try to be) :D In any case it's not bad to start at worst we fail and we listen to the criticisms :)

The story is based on Laboureau's diary Grace Phelan's works (so the petition and the fact that she took up the formulas of her real husband, ditto the fact that she lived with her mother). I also based myself on the information given by Jean Pierre Duquesne that I invite you to go see but it is a French pdf https://www.sh6e.com/images/publications/Lettre_d_information/2023_05_Lettre_info_Sh6.pdf)

This concludes the Momoro couple trilogy (I know it sounds classier than historical fiction ^^)

The previous parts of the fiction, which highlight Antoine François Momoro more, are here: the first part herehttps://www.tumblr.com//nesia/761812686008893/the-last-hours-of-the-first-printer-of-national?source=share and thehttps://www.tumblr.com//nesiacha/762176646439649280/the-last-hours-of-the-first-printer-of-national?source=share

"Your husband has just been executed, Citizen Goddess of Reason," sneered the wretched Laboureau.

And that’s how she learned of Antoine-François’ death. She wept bitterly upon hearing the news, ignoring the crude remarks about her appearance that he shouted openly. She would never see again that excellent patriot, such a good father to their son, and her beloved husband.

Grief had drowned her fear of soon meeting the same fate as her husband. When he was arrested, there had been a search during which everything was turned upside down. They took everything, but what hurt Sophie the most was that they took the papers her husband had been so proud to have printed. But she could do nothing. Then, the next day, they came for her, just as she was preparing to take steps toward her husband's release, starting with a visit to Marie Françoise Hébert, hoping they could convince the patriots to demand their husbands’ release, perhaps through a petition.

She was imprisoned in Port-Libre prison, which, ironically for the former Catholic that she was, had once served as a convent. Later, she learned that Hébert’s wife had also been arrested, but was in a different prison. Initially, Sophie allowed herself to hope. Momoro had done so much for the Parisian patriots that winter, surely they would cry out for his release. The Convention would have no choice but to let them go. It was remarkable to see how, even in a state of utter distress, the heart allowed itself false hopes. It felt good for a while, but then worsened her condition when she realized there would be no happy ending this time. Worse still, she was completely powerless to warn her husband that Laboureau was a despicable traitor and spy, unworthy of his trust. Why had he sometimes been such a poor judge of character? He had once admired Danton, though he quickly saw through his treachery. He had opposed Desmoulins' expulsion from the Jacobins, even though it was deserved, although he had the good sense to fight him. Hébert sometimes let him take more risks by retreating from certain important battles, unlike him, while the journalist often took the most credit, which was clearly unjust. He had also trusted Carrier, who had initially supported the insurrection but retracted when he realized the victories would be few. No, Antoine-François could sometimes be naïve, and that said a lot about his character.

Though communication between prisoners was forbidden, she almost burst into laughter at the absurdity of the accusations when she heard them. Then she was furious, knowing that those who made such claims sought to irreversibly tarnish their reputations, ensuring the Parisian people would not come to their aid, even though some of the accused had been quite popular among the lower classes. Anxiety set in: she wondered if she would be executed like Roland's wife. And with what charge? That of attempting to free the tyrant Capet so he could escape rightful judgment? Given the way things were going, that was entirely possible. Some of the prisoners mocked her appearance because she had played the role of the Goddess of Reason, but she tried to show them that it didn’t affect her.

Sophie didn’t want to give them any satisfaction, but she couldn’t help but show her concern for the father of her son, for the man she loved so deeply, even though he always modestly kept his feelings for her in check. But when that spy gleefully informed her of her husband’s death, it was too much: the young woman with brown hair wept all day. In fact, the only thing keeping her going was her son. And the widow Momoro needed that strength, for the bad news kept coming. She learned of her mother-in-law’s death, likely from grief. She died at night, at least spared from dealing with the commissioners who came to claim a meager haul: some linen, 26 livres, 17 sols in cash, and 400 livres in assignats, a crucifix that had caused slight disagreements between Sophie and her mother-in-law because the couple had been active in the de-Christianization movement, although their disputes were short and always ended in reconciliation, an old armchair, a small mirror, and a gold ring. She was sure none of it would ever be publicly displayed, especially after those awful slanders that claimed Momoro had amassed 190,000 livres in cash. Despite his growing importance as a printer and his increasing political responsibilities, he had always believed the only wealth worth increasing was his printing press, and his true treasure was his workshop. She also learned that Marie Angélique had been arrested two or three days before her husband Ronsin was executed. The young woman was imprisoned in the Maison d'Arrêt des Anglaises.

The trials were far from over. Sophie constantly wondered if her turn was coming, to the point that it became psychological torture. The only comfort she had was knowing that her mother had taken care of Jean-Antoine, although she worried about their future since their assets had been seized. They had managed to live well thanks to Antoine-François' printing work, despite refusing to enrich themselves. Still, she wished she could have kept the few financial assets they had left, if only to give her mother a chance to recover.

It was strange, though. No matter how much one prepares for catastrophe, when it comes, it changes almost nothing in the person facing it.

Later she learned of the execution of Danton and his clique . But what saddened and worried her was learning that Marie Françoise Hébert had been executed soon after. That good woman left behind a little girl barely two years old. Chaumette followed her, despite having opposed the insurrection. Their ally Grammont, his son, and former priest Gobel, who had greatly helped in the fight against Christianity by renouncing his priesthood, also met the same fate. Even more troubling, Lucile Desmoulins and Dillon had followed them to the scaffold. They were executed for a so-called "prison conspiracy" that didn’t exist. Now, it was certain: she would be next. Desmoulins' wife and Marie-Françoise Hébert had supported their husbands’ ideas and helped them, but not as publicly as Sophie, who had played the role of the Goddess of Reason and presided over ceremonies.

That’s why, when they told her on the 8th of Prairial that she was free, Sophie couldn’t believe it. It might have been to give her false hope. But when she realized it was true, she wept again, both from relief and immense sorrow for all those she knew who would never taste freedom again.

She was given the letter her husband had written before going to the scaffold. But the widow didn’t want to read it in public, as her emotions would overwhelm her again. She hurried back to her modest new home, where her mother and son were waiting. But the Parisian people were still struggling as fiercely as they had when she was imprisoned. Indeed, as Antoine-François had feared, the Ventôse laws had still not been implemented, which was not surprising with men like Barère in power or deputies like that rogue Boissy d’Anglas, who was destined to be a political weathercock, doing whatever it took to preserve the bourgeoisie's gains and leaving the people with crumbs.

As soon as she saw her daughter, Marie-Elisabeth embraced her, thanking fate for sparing her child. Jean-Antoine, however, wanted the opposite: he wanted his mother to hold him.

It wasn’t until late at night, when Sophie was sure everyone was asleep, that she read the last words Antoine-François had written to her. And the silent tears flowed. To the very end, he had been a man deeply in love with her, yet so modest in expressing his feelings, always placing the duties of the revolution first, even though he loved his family and offered her advice on how to get by with Jean-Antoine. That’s why she loved him.

Following her mother’s advice and because she had a son to raise, Sophie kept a low profile. But she couldn’t help wondering if Marie Angélique, still imprisoned, was holding up. Sophie still didn’t understand these arrests, nor why she had been freed while Ronsin’s widow remained imprisoned. Unfortunately, she had other concerns. She found herself without resources, with only a small amount of money from her dowry.

Then Thermidor came. The Robespierre brothers, Couthon, Le Bas, and Saint-Just were arrested for reasons that were utterly incomprehensible, especially in the cases of Le Bas and the younger Robespierre, who were taken simply because they wanted to share the fate of the other three. From what she understood, after their release, there had been an attempted insurrection, but they hesitated out of legal scruples. Fortunately, thought Sophie, as most of them had been supporters of repressing the Cordeliers’ attempted insurrection. Hanriot, who had become incredibly loyal to Robespierre after having protected him, joined them, despite having previously supported the parody of justice that had led her Cordelier friends to death, including Mazuel, with whom he had been close and for whom he had vainly asked for clemency. In any case, he joined them in a state just as dreadful as many of them at the scaffold, including Mayor Fleuriot Lescot, who had replaced Pache, deemed too close to what they called the "exaggerated revolutionaries." When she heard the news, she should have felt joyful. But instead, she felt the same as when she learned of the fate of Danton, Camille Desmoulins, Philippeaux, and the others who must have approved the execution of Antoine-François, Ronsin, Vincent, Hébert, and the other Cordeliers. She did not disapprove, but there was no feeling of vengeful joy, though she wished she could feel it. Their reputations had been tarnished, just as some of the Thermidorian executed had done with the Cordeliers on the 4th of Germinal, accusing them of royalism and sabotaging food supplies. She would never forgive that, nor would she feel compassion for most of them. But she wasn’t ignorant either; many were now accusing Robespierre, Couthon, and Saint-Just, who were dead and could no longer defend themselves, of things they themselves had participated in or done without them, for which they were not responsible.

They were guilty too, so the best thing would have been to admit it rather than try to rebuild their image as if they had nothing to be ashamed of. Besides, they continued their habit of arresting the wives of revolutionaries, or even their relatives, without reason: for instance, the widow of Fleuriot-Lescot and the Duplay family were arrested, including the wife of Le Bas and Charlotte Robespierre. Apparently, they had forgotten to arrest Éléonore Duplay, rumored to be the fiancée of Maximilien Robespierre, who had voluntarily imprisoned herself with her sister Elisabeth. But her arrest warrant was surely coming. Unless she was one of the lucky ones who escaped arrest on criteria Sophie could not understand: after all, Danton’s second wife, Louise Gély, celebrated by a refractory priest, was not imprisoned, and it seemed Couthon’s widow wasn’t either.

Nevertheless, as a sign of "good faith," some Thermidorians applied themselves to freeing certain people, or rather, sometimes their accomplices. Sophie had no problem with a woman like Pauline Léon being released, although she didn’t like her, as long as she proved that, as a former Enragée, she was no longer a danger to the Republic. But Theresia Cabarrus, that schemer and liar, who had lived very richly off corruption in Bordeaux while aiding dangerous counter-revolutionaries? She imagined Tallien must have been eager to get his accomplice released. He had long since deserted the cause. He had become worse than a royalist, in addition to being a fool who took himself too seriously. He was one of the worst.

But Marie-Élisabeth had urged her daughter to try to ask the Thermidorians for financial aid, given they were attempting to present themselves as humanitarians. This led to a heated argument between them:

"I don’t know if they’ll agree," Sophie said. "There are still honest deputies in the Convention, but the request has little chance of success. Many are still bitter toward Antoine-François, and it will pain me greatly to beg for help from his assassins, who continue to tarnish his memory."

"If you’re having scruples about your husband," her mother replied, "forget them. Do you see where he’s left you? You were almost killed. Did he think of you and your son when he embarked on this idea of insurrection? And now we are in great financial difficulty thanks to him."

"He did it for his convictions, for our beliefs!" Sophie shouted, exasperated at hearing someone once again, this time in her own home, speak ill of Antoine-François. "He fought sincerely and to the end against poverty, superstition, for equality, for the Revolution, and he gave his life for it. To think that when I confided in you the night before my wedding, you said he might not seem like the ideal man at first glance, but that I wouldn’t regret it—that he was serious and responsible. Have you changed your mind?"

Mother and daughter did not speak for a few days after that argument. But it made Sophie reflect on their financial situation. It could not continue, especially for Jean-Antoine. So, she did something she would never forgive herself for. She asked the Convention for help. But she found a compromise that would not completely betray her husband’s revolutionary memory.

As Antoine-François would have done, she decided to write a petition with the literary style of the "First Printer of National Liberty" that she so admired. She took up her pen, imitating his style, though she meant every word: "You proclaimed that the French Republic respected the unfortunate; Republicans applauded this generous sentiment. It is in this spirit that I address you..." Yes, that would work. She would remind them of their duty to the poor. She described the situation she was living in with her son and mother, without resources, relying on the last of her dowry. To remedy this, she requested financial assistance and the return of her husband's printing presses, which had been confiscated by the state. She ended her petition with these words: "The Republic has entrusted you with the paternal task of caring for poor widows and orphans, so I address you with faith that you will hear my misfortune with compassion and make an effort to dry my tears and support my financial needs."

But the Convention rejected her request, of course. That was no surprise. She was certain that it was the same people who grew fat off the backs of the people, just like the aristocrats. To think that some profiteers in their good graces were receiving more aid because they had the right connections. Those were difficult months, for since Antoine-François had not been rehabilitated, she received no financial support. It was so unjust that he wasn’t, especially since his two enemies, Desmoulins and Philippeaux, had been rehabilitated—so why not him? Once again, it was clear that it was purely political calculation. Otherwise, at least Marie-Françoise Hébert would have been rehabilitated. This supposed clemency hadn’t extended to Marat’s widow or Albertine Marat either as they were arrested. Like Antoine-François, she had admired them but was deeply disappointed when they turned against them just like Jean Paul Marat did . Still, their imprisonment was unacceptable, though they were eventually freed.

One of her few joys outside of her son was learning of Marie-Angélique’s release after six months in prison. She remained as kind, curious, and simple as ever, always wearing a smile that was now forever dimmed for those who had the pleasure of knowing her.

One day, around the start of Year IV, while preparing to convene a family council to ensure her guardianship over Jean-Antoine, Sophie met a man named Jacques Marie Botot, who went by the name Du Mesnil—a military man about seven years older than her. They began talking during the administrative proceedings because she recognized him from when she was in prison.

For him, it was more that he recognized her, having seen her play the role of the Goddess of Reason during the de-Christianization ceremonies. But he mentioned it without mockery, a rare change after months of ridicule. The young mother agreed to continue the conversation with him because he seemed like a genuinely pleasant person.

Then he admitted to her that, as commander of the 1st Gendarmerie Company tasked with escorting prisoners to the guillotine, he had escorted her husband, which enraged Sophie.

"In that case, I have nothing more to say to you," she replied coldly. He watched her walk away, feeling both ashamed and disappointed.

Fate brought them together a second time. This time, he approached her again to offer an apology.

"I’ve come to offer my sincere apologies, madam," he said, ashamed. "When I told you, I thought it was better to be honest."

"Thank you for your honesty," Sophie replied, "but that doesn’t mean I must tolerate your company."

"I understand," the commander said. "Unfortunately, it’s part of my job, though I dislike that aspect of it. But believe me when I say that your husband displayed great courage until the very end. He didn’t deserve that. Even though I don’t share all his views, he was a true revolutionary."Finally, she accepted his invitation to go to the café. He explained that his father had been a cupbearer officer in the house of the tyrant Capet. He himself had embraced a military career at the age of 16, and ironically, had escorted the widow Capet to the guillotine. His brother had studied law, becoming a justice of the peace in 1790, and after the fall of the monarchy, he became a juror to examine those who had committed crimes on August 10. Some felt he was too lenient, which caused him some trouble, although nothing severe or long-lasting. He was now Barras' secretary, which elicited a grimace from Sophie and a more understanding, sympathetic look from her companion, as if to show he fully understood her feelings.

He inquired about her financial difficulties and asked if she would mind if he attended the family council to offer his help.

“Why would you do that?” Sophie asked skeptically.

“To do a good deed. I won't ask anything of you, I promise,” he assured her.

And so he entered her life. He came regularly to her home, began getting along well with Marie-Elisabeth, and especially with Jean-Antoine. But most of all, he often conversed with Sophie and regularly helped her. Then one day, a year later, he asked her to marry him.

“A widow of a man who was never rehabilitated, despised by the entire right and some on the left?” Sophie responded, astonished. “What will people say about you? Your brother is Barras' secretary, won’t he face trouble?”

“Any trouble that might come upon my family is my concern,” he reassured her. “I only await your answer. Take all the time you need.”

“How long have you been thinking about this?” Sophie asked, smiling, though she didn’t know why.

Jacques Marie, very serious, took a deep breath.

“To be honest, I admired you from the start, when you presented yourself during the de-Christianization campaigns,” he said. “I also admired your strength of character when you broke your arm and kept going. I thought your husband was fortunate to have you by his side. When I got to know you better, I only admired you more, even if some of your political views differ from mine.

“Now, I truly want us to marry because I love you, and I will do everything I can to make us happy together. I will treat your son as if he were my own and teach him to be as honorable as his father, with your permission. But if you don’t want my proposal, I’ll understand.”

She informed her mother that evening, who was not surprised at all.

“My daughter,” she said joyfully, “it was obvious he’s in love with you.”

Sophie wasn’t surprised either, but she had thought a second marriage would be impossible, both psychologically and because she was known as the widow Momoro. But Jacques-Marie was a good man, a bit bourgeois in some ways, like Antoine-François, as she might have said in the past, but a righteous man nonetheless. It was strange, though, to think that the man who had escorted her first husband to the execution cart as part of his duties was now asking her to marry him. But she was sure Antoine-François would have understood. After all, Jacques Marie remained an honest patriot.

The next day, when he came by, she told him, with a radiant expression:

“I’m ready to accept, on one condition.”

“Anything you want,” Jacques Marie replied.

“Make sure I never have to lay eyes on Barras.”

And that was that. The marriage took place, with Jean-Antoine cheering, excited at the idea of living with someone who resembled the father he had lost. Marie-Elisabeth also came to live with them. Unlike her first husband, who showed his love but sometimes struggled to express it, Jacques Marie didn’t hide his affection. He was also more present for his wife. It was temporarily the end of their financial troubles, and Jean-Antoine began studying and discovered a passion for reading plays. Jacques-Marie was also very fond of the boy. Financial worries were temporarily over, especially as Jacques-Marie was promoted from brigade chief to deputy commander at the “Maison Nationale des Invalides.”

But shadows loomed on the horizon. The first was the revolutionary Gracchus Babeuf, who had started working on detailed plans that Antoine-François had developed in his own version of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, concerning a potential redistribution of property rights in certain areas. Babeuf went further than him, particularly regarding agricultural property, and Sophie wished so much that Antoine-François were there, just so he could see that she had been right in telling him that true patriots knew that plan was good. It would have meant so much to him . Sadly, Babeuf was caught in the Conspiracy of Equals along with several others, including, ironically, people who had been enemies of her first husband, like Lindet. Babeuf and another revolutionary, Darthé, were taken to the scaffold, dying after a failed suicide attempt, unlike the last Montagnards such as Charles-Gilbert Romme or Goujon. At that moment, as the political right gained strength, she decided, with a heavy heart, that Jean-Antoine would take the last name of Fournier.

“Later,” she told him, “you can take back your father’s name, but right now it’s not safe for you, believe me.”

Her son threw a tantrum over it, and she felt ashamed of herself, but she didn’t want anything to happen to him.

The other problem was personal. Marie-Angélique could no longer visit her due to the abusive behavior of her new husband, Turreau. The widow Ronsin had met him when she appeared, dressed as an Amazon, at the head of a Jacobin column to congratulate the Directory on a victory. This man had hidden his true nature, charming her at first, but now that they were married and she thought she was finally entitled to happiness, he had begun to beat her, though less violently when she was pregnant. When Sophie visited, Marie-Angélique tried to downplay it, explaining that it was nothing. “And where would I go now?” she asked. At least Turreau had lifted her out of poverty, and she was expecting his child. It would be cruel to have this child live in hardship, she said when Sophie advised her to divorce him. If only Ronsin were here, he would have beaten Turreau himself on the spot. Sophie wanted to do it herself, but Marie-Angélique wouldn’t let her. It broke Sophie’s heart to see that Marie-Angélique no longer smiled except when talking about the child she was expecting. Moreover, Turreau now dictated who she could see and which political clubs she could frequent, telling her it had to align with his ambitions and that she had better not cause him any trouble, even though, in truth, he was the problem. Sophie was powerless to do anything except advise Marie-Angélique to flee.

Eventually, Sophie became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter they named Stéphanie Joséphine Adèle. Jean-Antoine was happy, as it was his first time becoming a big brother. But the troubles were about to begin again. A certain Bonaparte staged a coup. That coward Barras had only thought of his own interests, and instead of doing his duty and stopping his former protégé, he had let Bonaparte, that horrible man, do as he pleased. One day, not long after, Jacques Marie came home furious:

“That jean-foutre Bonaparte!” he yelled, waking the baby, who began to cry. “He’s good for nothing but fleeing Egypt, and he should have been court-martialed, yet now he’s just revoked my position!”

Marie-Elisabeth went to the baby’s room to calm her. Sophie wanted to hold her husband, but he pushed her away, still cursing the First Consul.

“Explain yourself,” she said sharply, unable to tolerate his tone toward her, “instead of shouting incessantly. You frightened the baby.”

“You want to know what’s going on?” he asked, approaching her, still enraged. “He’s promoted me to brigadier general, just to force me into retirement. Supposedly because my rise happened away from the battlefield. If it’s so easy, why didn’t he do the job instead of running away from Egypt? Maybe the fact that my brother worked as a secretary for that useless Barras worsened my case. Years of hard work, all wasted. This is what I get. It’s unfair.”

His wife sat down, equally angry at Bonaparte, and thought of a solution.

“I have an idea,” Sophie suggested. “I still have correspondence from my revolutionary years with Antoine-François. How about we draft a petition in your favor, send it to our friends, and present it to the Senate?”

“What a brilliant idea,” he said sarcastically. “Send a request to people under the thumb of a man who thinks he’s Cromwell. I’m sure that will help us a lot.”

This time, Sophie had enough. She told him that if he continued speaking to her in that tone, she would dine alone. Jacques Marie's mood worsened, and he became increasingly bitter. His work had been his whole life, and sometimes, when he thought he was alone, he cried in frustration over his unjust downfall. She too felt sorrow and anger towards those responsible for this. But he shouldn't be taking it out on her. When Antoine-François faced major challenges, he had never spoken to her in such a manner. On the contrary, in his anger, he fought fiercely against those he had political grievances with.

Jacques Marie did nothing but express his bitterness toward her. The consequences of the attack on Rue de Nicaise made everything worse. Bonaparte didn’t care who the real culprits were; he used the opportunity to clean house, targeting the left-wing opposition. He executed a dozen Jacobins after sham trials, and Simone Evrard and Albertine Marat were once again briefly arrested, along with Babeuf’s widow. He deported or exiled an alarming number of Jacobins. Among them was a great friend of Antoine-François and a true patriot, General Rossignol. Sophie wanted to help him in any small way, even just by sending provisions, but Jacques Marie convinced her that doing so would only bring more trouble. When she heard of his death, the former revolutionary burst into tears.

Where was the country heading? All the rights they had fought for were being stripped away. Sophie was enraged to see this happening. Marie-Angélique left for America with that awful Turreau, who had become a diplomat under Bonaparte, using his opportunism to rise. She couldn’t leave him, thanks to the new divorce laws in the Civil Code. Meanwhile, the physical abuse had worsened when Turreau found out about the laws. The woman who had once shown so much energy for revolutionary activities alongside her first husband no longer had the strength to fight.

Their lives were utterly miserable, both due to the oppressive political situation against patriots and the poor, and at home with Jacques Marie, who no longer looked at her unless it was to reproach her when she tried to speak to him. So when a young Versailles-born architect named Lelouche appeared in her life, she took him as a lover because he made her forget her problems, even though she knew she was taking a huge risk as an adulteress. She could face months in prison. Deep down, Sophie knew it was selfish, and decency would have demanded that she ask for a divorce rather than commit adultery. Her husband likely wouldn’t have opposed such a measure. But Lelouche was so funny, polite, and caring, bringing a little warmth into her existence.

One day, she finally decided to tell the truth to Jacques Marie, who, naturally, took it very badly.

"How could you betray me like this?" he shouted.

"You know well that you’re no longer the same man I once knew," she replied, tears in her eyes. "We could have fought together against your unjust disgrace, but you’ve become so bitter toward me. We’re not even a couple anymore."

"And of all people, you had to cheat on me with a friend?" he yelled. "Did you even think about that?"

"Yes, I accept my share of responsibility, and you have every right to be angry," she replied. "But you refuse to see that you are also responsible for this."

He stormed out, furious. She only hoped he wouldn’t report her to the police. When he returned, they both agreed that divorce was the best option. Sophie had been considering it for some time and would have asked for it even without the affair.

"My daughter," she asked, "what will I do without her?"

"You can see her from time to time," he replied. "But I will have custody."

"At least let Jean-Antoine visit her as often as he wishes, as long as he gives you notice," the heartbroken mother said, knowing she couldn’t ask for more. "You know how much they’re attached to each other."

Jacques Marie nodded. He asked if she had a place to live and if Jean-Antoine’s studies were taken care of. She answered that Lelouche had made arrangements, which made the already cold atmosphere even icier. But Sophie felt she had to be honest. She said her goodbyes to her daughter, who didn’t understand and cried. It was the last time she saw Jacques Marie. They exchanged a final look, filled with what seemed like remorse, before parting ways. Love was no longer possible between them.

When she moved in with her lover, she was surprised to become pregnant at 40. Worried about dying in childbirth, she managed to secure Lelouche’s promise to take care of the child. In the end, she survived and gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Joséphine-Clotilde-Sophie. She loved her just as much as she loved her other two children. Lelouche acknowledged the child, but he soon began to waver on his promise of marriage, which he never truly intended to keep. When Sophie realized this, she packed her things as soon as she could, taking Jean-Antoine and her daughter, and they moved elsewhere.

Wherever they went, people whispered about her, mocking her for having three children by different fathers. She was the widow of an extremist, the divorcee of a disgraced man, and then the mistress of a third man. These people had nothing better to do than spy on the misfortunes of others. Sophie continued to visit her second daughter as often as possible, though the child was torn between the love she had for her mother and her disapproval of her affair. Jacques Marie always made sure to be absent during these visits, and it was the same for Sophie. It reminded her too much of the painful past and great shame, and she assumed it was the same for him. Jean-Antoine, who worked as an employee and secretly wrote plays, explained to his mother that Jacques Marie had refused to mention their divorce, partly to protect her from royalists who might want to harm the widow of Momoro and partly to minimize damage to his already tarnished reputation.

Despite this new, austere life, Sophie began to feel her strength fading. She knew she was nearing the end but hesitated to tell her son. One day, he came home from work looking troubled.

"What’s wrong, my son?" she asked, sitting in a chair. "Nothing serious has happened to you, I hope?"

Jean-Antoine hesitated before answering.

"I’ve been seeing someone regularly," he said. "A girl my age. We met at work."

"Is that all?" Sophie smiled. "I’m happy you’ve found someone you love, and who loves you. If you like, you can introduce her to me."

Jean-Antoine shook his head. It was time to tell her what had been bothering him.

"I’m not sure if that will be possible," he replied. "We want to be sure before we commit. And I don’t want it to lead to conflict if she meets you. It’s not because of your personal life. I will always defend you against those who judge you."

Sophie didn’t understand where he was going. She gestured for him to continue.

"She’s from Nantes," he said. "Her name is Séraphine, and she told me what Carrier did during the Revolution."

"Ah," his mother said with disdain at the mention of that man.

That coward Carrier, who had supported the Cordeliers' uprising for his own interests, only to abandon them to save himself. He was part of the Thermidorian turncoats, but all his efforts to avoid the guillotine were in vain; he was betrayed by the same accomplices who sought to rebuild their reputations. His death was well deserved.

"I only knew the version you told me," Jean-Antoine continued, "that he was an opportunist. But Séraphine explained how atrocious he was, drowning so many innocent people. And when he was recalled to Paris, my father supported him and his lies instead of condemning him."

There was a long silence. This revelation made Sophie reflect deeply on all her memories from the Revolution.

Not necessarily the right ones, considering what Jean-Antoine had said. "I always thought my father was a righteous, just man, a true revolutionary fighter," he said, disappointed. "So you can understand how I felt when I found out about this. You never told me. Did you support this man? And what other wrongdoings did my father commit? I only remember a certain atmosphere in Vendée, but I didn’t understand much back then."

Sophie felt ashamed. It was the first time she had to confront all the mistakes Antoine-François had made, mistakes she might have supported. "I’m willing to answer, but it will be long," she replied. "But please, don't judge your father too harshly. It was a terrible time. At first, Antoine-François was a cautious man. Did you know that he hesitated when Camille Desmoulins presented him with his pamphlet in 1789? I wasn’t any better, as I was a devout Catholic who believed we should all follow the Pope, whether he was right or wrong," she laughed.

Jean-Antoine joined in, incredulous, finding it hard to believe that his mother had any ties to religion or that his father had been so cautious in his revolutionary struggles. Then, he listened as she recounted the attempted escape of the tyrant Capet, how his father tirelessly published numerous pamphlets, was arrested after the Champ de Mars massacre, and gradually became more involved in the fight against Capet and his clique, who wanted to turn back time. She also mentioned those who didn’t want the revolution to go further, preferring to keep it deeply conservative at all costs, like La Fayette and Mirabeau. She told of how Momoro was one of the many revolutionaries who helped prepare the insurrection that toppled the monarchy, the roles he played, including his contact with the Marseille fédérés, his tributes to those who had fallen so such a moment could be possible, and the various missions he undertook for the revolution, both in Paris and elsewhere, his Declaration of the Rights of Man, and the troubles he faced during his assignments. She then moved to the most difficult part, beginning with Vendée. She explained how, after months of nerve-wracking persuasion attempts, he had proposed the terrible measure of burning all the forests to neutralize the rebels.

"He should never have done that," said Jean-Antoine, horrified yet captivated by his mother's story.

"It's very easy to judge in hindsight," Sophie said, "but if we had lost to Vendée, England would have come. Our Republic was always in danger from the moment it was established. It was a civil war, both internal and external. And the revolutionaries, including your father, managed to save the revolution by giving their all. The fatigue, the stress—it must have taken its toll, but those on the other side were committing atrocities too. And we knew what would happen if someone like Artois came back to power."

"We don’t answer atrocious violence by mimicking it," Jean-Antoine replied. "I believe in the right to fight and to rebel, but not at such disproportionate levels. That kind of method only made the Vendée situation worse. Moreover, fervent republicans were against the violence in Vendée, and I’m not talking about people trying to redeem their reputation, like you said. You were in Vendée too. Did you share my father’s views?"

"Of course," Sophie replied without hesitation. "It would be hypocritical and cowardly of me to say otherwise. There’s even a letter from Antoine-François that shows I agreed with his opinions. Yes, mistakes were made, but I maintain that you have the benefit of hindsight that we didn’t have. It’s easy to condemn us years later, when everything’s over. But please, let me finish my story before you give your opinion."

She resumed, talking about Antoine-François’s return to Paris, sharing her views on his allies like Ronsin, Vincent, Hébert, Hanriot, Pache, and Chaumette. The former revolutionary also explained his fight against the "Enragés," against poverty, superstition, and the harsher demands he supported against profiteers and enemies of the revolution, the various factions’ struggles, and the failed insurrection attempt that had Carrier as an ally for political reasons, before describing the parody of trial that led to Antoine-François’s death, and her own imprisonment for a time.

Jean-Antoine sat in silence for a while. It was the first time he had heard the full account of his parents' revolutionary journey. Then, he began to speak: "This is the first time I’ve heard everything," he said. "But the dechristianization caused quite a few problems for the revolution. I mean, I understand your fight, but there were revolutionary Christians whose consciences were hurt, and it stirred people up elsewhere. But that’s not the issue," he continued, signaling his mother to let him finish. "I understand the context and that it was the force of events that led you to those actions, not the other way around. But I also understand those who will never forgive what you did."

"As I said, with everything we know now, maybe we would have done things differently," Sophie replied. "But again, we didn’t have the luxury of knowing the future."

"I won’t rehash the same arguments," Jean-Antoine said. "If I’m being harsh, it’s because such things can be done by the most sincere of patriots, which is why we must be uncompromising and never tolerate people like Carrier or suggest horrible proposals. You yourself said my father knew the gravity of what he was proposing in Vendée."

There was an awkward silence, broken only by the child. Once she was asleep, Sophie resumed the conversation with Jean-Antoine, who now wanted to know all the places where his father had been active in Paris, which she gladly provided. He wanted to visit each one.

"I have to tell you," Jean-Antoine said softly, "that despite all the reproaches I may have for you and my father, I’m very proud of both of you and the fight you led.Moreover, when I sign on all the documents I put my two last names, Momoro and Fournier. But I’ve always felt inferior to you."

"Why?" asked his mother. "You should be proud of yourself. You don’t hesitate to stand up to me, even though you love me dearly, for what you believe is right."

"I’m not a revolutionary," he said shamefully, "just an employee passionate about theater."

"It doesn’t matter," she reassured him. "If your father had been alive, he would have been proud of you, and so am I. You’ve been an honest and virtuous citizen as we wished , and that’s all that matters. You can introduce Séraphine to me, I promise I won’t bring up anything unpleasant."

Finally, she gave him the letter that Antoine-François had written to her before his death. For the first time in a long while, they wept together, which brought them some comfort. The next day, after he left for work, she began to feel unwell. She rested and let herself go, knowing the eternal rest was near. For a few seconds, maybe minutes—Sophie would never know—she thought back on her life, which had been anything but peaceful. The saddest moments came to mind, but she pushed them away to focus on her greatest achievements: the revolution, her victories in the fight, her revolutionary friends, her parents, her mother-in-law, and her three greatest prides—her children, Jacques-Marie, and Antoine-François.

And thus ended the Goddess of Reason.

Author's Note: This is the end. Thank you all for reading. I want to clarify that the dialogue between Jean-Antoine and Sophie is entirely fictional. I just found it interesting. As a child who did not participate in the French Revolution (just as we didn’t), we can identify with him as someone looking back with the benefit of hindsight, in contrast to Sophie Fournier Momoro, who was right in the middle of the revolution's action. However, it is true that Jean-Antoine married a woman from Nantes, according to Duquesne, and her name was Séraphine Émilie Nicolas. I also interpreted what Sophie might have thought during Thermidor, as I couldn't find anything specific on that. In any case, the petition was real, as were the two failed relationships she experienced, living in poverty at the end of her life (it's not hard to imagine that she must have had a bad reputation as the widow of a man who was never rehabilitated, a woman who cheated on her husband and had three children with different fathers which was unfair but society was very sexist).

Now, I’ll defend one point. Yes, you all know how little I appreciate Bonaparte, but if there are such strong words about him in this post, it's because I also tried to interpret Sophie's thoughts as much as possible. After all, Rossignol had died far from France shortly after his deportation order, and he was a good friend of Momoro. Knowing that there were strong indications she supported her husband's ideas and accompanied him to Vendée, it's possible she liked this man and was likely devastated by his loss, just as she was when she saw the revolution falling apart. Moreover, Napoleon disgraced her second husband, which marked the beginning of the end for that couple (in my opinion, the blame is shared for the divorce—neither Jacques Marie nor Sophie were the "villains" here, if you want my opinion). So it seems logical to me that Jacques Marie and Sophie hate Bonaparte. I have always been surprised that Jacques Marie Botot’s death certificate never mentioned the divorce from Sophie. The document stated he was her widower. So, in this fiction, I assumed the reasons I mentioned above. It’s ironic that despite escorting Marie Antoinette to the scaffold , Jacques Marie ended up becoming a knight of the Order of Saint-Louis during the Restoration.

As for Lelouche, since he acknowledged the daughter he had with Sophie, I found it surprising that he lived separately from Sophie after they had moved in together for a time, and that he wasn’t the one to declare Sophie’s death. So once again, I assumed the reasons I mentioned in the fiction.

[alexilulu]

Books I Read in 2024 #10: A Legacy of Spies (John le Carré, Viking Press, 2017)

Long after the end of the Cold War, the favored protegé of Circus spy-bureaucrat George Smiley is forced to reckon with the death of his close friend when the modern British spy estate looks backwards at his death on the Berlin Wall (the full events of which are the subject of The Spy Who Came In From the Cold).

I love John le Carré. A former British intelligence agent turned author after the smash success of his third novel, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold (though he also was forced out by the high profile British traitor Kim Philby, who later inspired the character of Bill Haydon in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy), le Carré has a simple, biting grasp of human nature and interiority. His protagonists live full lives and loves in their own heads, and some of his best work brings a tragicomic angle to the tense drama of simple spying.

Not to belabor the point, but his spy novels are low-action, high stress. You find yourself pacing alongside his protagonists, working through the facts as they stand to you and trying to divine the way things will fall with fallible information and clever opposite numbers. The novels frequently question the utility of spying as a national endeavor, the equivalence of humanity on both sides of the Cold War despite the harsh rhetoric around Communist repression and capitalist exploitation that was standard at the time. Hell, George Smiley, the protagonist of many of his most popular novels, is an overweight bureaucrat who had long ago given up the game after the war, drawn back only by old ghosts of his failures.

What makes A Legacy of Spies so interesting as a novel is that it is a very pointed retrospective on the George Smiley 'trilogy' (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, followed by The Honest Schoolboy and Smiley's People) from the point of view of a key secondary character from these novels, who is in effect working alongside George for all of it and is now being called to account in his absence.

Peter Guillam is a character who is almost a shadow in the previous novels; a lamplighter and functionary who stepped into becoming George Smiley's right hand protegé during Tinker Tailor and had been long before his original departure from the British spying establishment. He's integral to the events, but he's not really all there, if you follow my meaning. A character who exists, but whose life is scarcely known by George or the reader.

Here, he is given full voice, a sardonic, caustic wit that was much more subdued by his secondary role before now. Here, he's funny, uproarious even, with asides to himself (rarely voiced, of course) about all manner of things. He's a product of two worlds, an English-raised Frenchman from Brittany (literally Little Britain once upon a time, it must be pointed out), fighting for the English in the Cold War after his father lost his life in World War II, also as a spy. Raised in the climate of the time, he is a man of the needs of the time more than anything else, and felt results mattered above all. And yet, despite this, he remains as haunted as Britain itself is by its past here, living as a landlord in France but looking backwards at his life all the while.

The novel itself is retrospective, as well! Set in the unnamed present day, MI5 is calling Peter in from his ancestral home to demand a full accounting of his role in the death of his friend Alec Leamas and Communist sympathizer Elizabeth Gold during a failed escape from East Berlin that ended with both of them shot dead on the Berlin Wall, feet from George Smiley and safety. The government is not keen on the Circus standards of the time, nor the role that George Smiley (and Peter) played in preventing Alec from knowing that his mission in Berlin was intended to fail to pull off an assassination on one of their own deep-cover moles in the German Stasi, thus securing his place in the hierarchy and increasing his access to sensitive intelligence for years to come.

The mess we made of the past is a significant focus of the novel. And it's clear that le Carré, on some level, wants us to face the past and recognize how wrong it can have been, to account for wrongdoing and recognize sin not as a necessary consequence of realpolitik, but simply what it is. The novel ends with Peter escaping from England on his French passport after it becomes clear that things will land on him if he remains much longer. He resorts to seeking out his old mentor Smiley in Germany; I feel compelled to note here Germany's role as a central pillar of the EU government.

The story ends with Peter asking if it was worth it, and George finding it hard to answer. Did they do it for queen and country? Ostensibly, yes, but as the Britain that existed as part of Europe. The novel was published in 2017, shortly after the Brexit vote of 2016 that badly split English politics for the next half-decade. Following the passing of Brexit, le Carre chose to invoke his Irish citizenship and moved there in the aftermath, where he remained until he died. It's pretty obvious how he felt about the whole thing.

In the end, it feels like a strong coda to the whole thing, both Smiley and le Carré's career. One last look back with a more modern eye, a wish that things could have gone another way, a cleaner future than the one we face.

[blogger360ncislarules]

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light, based on the final novel in the late Hilary Mantel’s award-winning trilogy, will begin filming shortly, MASTERPIECE PBS and the BBC announced on Monday morning.

Mark Rylance will reprise his role as Thomas Cromwell, whom he played in Wolf Hall‘s first season nearly nine years ago. Damian Lewis, Jonathan Pryce, Kate Phillips and Lilit Lesser are also confirmed to return, respectively playing King Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, Henry VIII’s third wife Jane Seymour, and Princess Mary (daughter of Henry and first wife Catherine of Aragon).

Additional returning and new cast members will be announced at a later date.

Wolf Hall: The Mirror and the Light will be directed by seven-time BAFTA award winner Peter Kosminsky (The Undeclared War, The State), adapted for television by Peter Straughan (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy).

Novelist Hilary Mantel had been serving as a consultant on this concluding season at the time of her passing in September 2022.

“The Mirror and the Light picks up exactly where Wolf Hall ended, with the execution of Henry VIII’s second wife, Anne Boleyn,” the director shared. “I’m overjoyed to be able to reunite the extraordinary cast we were lucky enough to assemble for Wolf Hall, led by the brilliant Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis, with the original creative team of Gavin Finney (DOP), Pat Campbell (Designer) and Joanna Eatwell (Costume Designer).”

The Mirror and the Light opens in May 1536, with Anne Boleyn (previously played by Claire Foy) dead. Cromwell in turn “emerges from the bloodbath to continue his climb to power and wealth, while his formidable master, Henry, settles to short-lived happiness with his third queen, Jane Seymour,” the synopsis reads.

“Cromwell, a man with only his wits to rely on, has no great family to back him, and no private army. Navigating the moral complexities that accompany the exercise of power in this brutal and bloody time, he is caught between his desire to do what is right and his instinct to survive. But in the wake of Henry VIII having executed his queen, no one is safe.

“Despite rebellion at home, traitors plotting abroad and the threat of invasion testing Henry’s regime to breaking point, Cromwell’s robust imagination sees a new country in the mirror of the future,” the synopsis says. “All of England lies at his feet, ripe for innovation and religious reform. But as fortune’s wheel turns, Cromwell’s enemies are gathering in the shadows. The inevitable question remains: how long can anyone survive under Henry’s cruel and capricious gaze?”

[listening-to-free-audiobooks]

The Darcy Cousins Series by Jennifer Joy

Book 1: Darcy's Ultimatum (The Darcy Cousins)

The date’s set. Now, all he needs is a bride…

When Fitzwilliam Darcy’s arranged life falls to pieces, his father, Mr. George Darcy, gives him an ultimatum: Marry by the end of the London Season or risk disinheritance. Can Darcy cast aside society’s frigid attitude toward marriage and find true love?

Elizabeth Bennet faces the greatest challenge of her life: Find a husband by the end of the London Season or be forced to marry the heir apparent of her family home, Mr. Collins. A romantic at heart, will Elizabeth find a gentleman to meet her high expectations?

After a disastrous meeting, Darcy and Elizabeth determine not to like each other.

But, the London Season has only begun…

Darcy's Ultimatum is a clean, sweet Regency romance and the first book in Jennifer Joy’s trilogy, The Darcy Cousins.

Make sure to listen all the way to the end for the story behind the story! You'll only find it here.

Happy Listening!

Book 2: Anne's Adversity (The Darcy Cousins)

Lady Catherine has a secret…

When Anne de Bourgh discovers a family secret in an old letter, she is given two choices: Burn the letter and forget about it or leave Rosings and face disinheritance. How can a sickly lady past the bloom of youth, with no prospects and few friends, hope to stand on her own two feet? How can she learn more about her family’s past without causing a scandal which would forever cast a shadow over the de Bourghs?

Luc Mauvier has led a life of freedom and success as a small theater owner in town. His tragic past has taught him to enjoy life and its pleasures to the fullest. When he meets Anne de Bourgh, she is opposite to everything he has ever known and he is soon reminded of how a gentleman should behave with a real lady. Can a tradesman win the heart of a lady? Even more important: How can he win Lady Catherine’s approval?

What Anne reveals about her past gives her courage, but will it be enough?

Anne's Adversity is a clean, sweet Regency romance and the second book in Jennifer Joy’s trilogy, The Darcy Cousins.

Make sure to listen all the way to the end for a sneak behind the scenes in the making of this story! You'll only find it here.

Happy Listening!

Book 3: Colonel Fitzwilliam's Challenge (The Darcy Cousins)

He was given a special assignment. He didn't count on falling for her.

Colonel Richard Fitzwilliam, a hopeful romantic, cannot afford to marry for love. When he is offered a new assignment with the promise of a promotion, he eagerly accepts— only to find himself immersed in a world of intrigue and lies.

Adélaïde Mauvier is a successful dressmaker on the verge of attaining everything she thought she wanted. When she is thrown into Colonel Fitzwilliam’s company, she begins to think there might be more to life than her ambitions.

As the colonel gets closer to the truth, he finds out that people are not always what you believe them to be. Will he fall in love while catching a traitor? Or worse … will he fall in love with a spy?

Colonel Fitzwilliam's Challenge is a clean, sweet Regency romance and the third/final book in Jennifer Joy’s trilogy, The Darcy Cousins.

Make sure to listen all the way for the answers to some frequently asked questions about this story! You'll only find it here.

Happy Listening!