#tsf: how to join

[shantismurf]

Author Q&A with Wolfsbane_and_Nettles, 3/29/2025

To wrap up our month of member author appreciation, @wolfsbane-and-nettles offered A Necklace of Teeth for our discussion. Here are their q&a responses:

What name would you like us to use and what are your pronouns? Nettles (they/he)

2. How long have you been in the Book Club, and how long have you been writing fanfiction? What fandoms have you written for? I joined in 2024, I think? — I have been writing fanfiction since 2003? It was first grade and wrote an LOTR friend-fiction called “4 kids in Middle Earth” about me and my friends. I found a copy of it recently and I about died of laughter. — I’ve written for (in chronological order) Lord of the Rings, Hetalia, and the Hobbit, in terms of published works online. I’ve written a few Demon Slayer and My Hero Academia fanfics that will not see the light of day. — And the Witcher! How did I forget I wrote Witcher fanfics before the hobbit? It’s what got me back into writing fanfiction!

3. What do you think of as your writing style - are you a plotter or pantster? — a little bit of both! I typically start as a pantster…I’ve got a vague idea I want to do something with, and then I might write a few paragraphs before I succumb to my plotting need, and begin the meticulous plotting. Only for me to get a couple thousand words in, realize I need to adjust the plots and begin more research and planning. Repeat the process until it’s done. — My fic “finding my way back to you” was my one rare occasion I had done absolutely no plotting. It just kinda happened. “Chosen Horizons” was plotted meticulously since day one of its conception.

4. What’s your favorite genre/trope to write? it wasn’t until recently I realized it, but definitely angst and whump. I gotta put my blorbos through hell, apparently. Bilbo can’t catch a break.

5. Is there a genre/trope you haven't written as much of yet that you're excited about for future writing? — I’m excited about an ABO fic I’ve got in the back of my mind. Not just Mpreg, but like, detailed dynamics and world building. — also a fluff/comedy fic I’ve got simmering. I don’t know if I’m more excited or nervous to write it, as I’m not used to writing soft and sweet things (unless prefaced and followed by angst. )

6. Why did you select this work for us to read? this fic is probably one of my favorite things I’ve written. It gave me hell, as I’m terrible at deadlines, and I did it for Thorin’s Spring Forge in 2024. I had had this idea for this fic for long time, as it was one of the million of ideas that spun off from the original plot for “Chosen Horizons”, and TSF gave me an excuse to finally write it. It is because I’m so proud of it (and myself) that I selected this work, and to share it with others makes me so excited! ((That, and I really just want to talk to people about parentshield, cabbage patch hobbits, and dragon sickness.))

8. Did you do any special research for the work? I did a good amount of research into the history of Rohan and (Tolkien’s) dragons—how long it takes for something very large to decompose underwater?

9. Did the story change from how you originally envisioned it? Were there scenes or plot elements you had to cut out, or unexpected additions? oh it changed SO MUCH. The very original idea didn’t even have Frodo in it. — there was going to be a lot more Shire and Bilbo scenes that I had to restrain myself from writing, because I truly wanted this to focus more on Thorin, as it was for TSF. I had started writing the scenes where Bilbo took his own quest to Mordor to destroy the ring, and scenes for after they were reunited in Erebor…

there was also an entire several thousand words I cut of the orc attack on Edoras where Thorin saves the prince and princess…I ended up cutting all of it and just having that scene start after it had already happened.

10. Do you have a favorite line or moment from the work? — the whole tirade Bilbo gives Lobelia when she insults Frodo! That was so much fun to write. I love writing Bilbo going ape shit (in his charming, witty way) at people.

“And as for your little lesson on manners, when you wish to start a conversation with someone above your status, it is polite to curtesy, call me Mister at the very least, and ask if it is alright to make a remark about the beautiful color of my son’s eyes. Because, unlike some people, my son’s eyes aren’t the same color as their shit.” He finished, leaning in to whisper the last words in her ear, but loud enough for a few others to hear. - Bilbo Baggins, chapter 10 of A Necklace of Teeth.

Join the Bagginshield Book Club Discord Server

[cyanvalour]

Update (1/12/24): updated mostly the hollows with a more accurate version of the au rn, will come back in the future to update the AvM sticks

Hi folks I'm back with another weird au, because I have no self control. What au is it this time?

A "swap" au.

It's really weird because half of them came from me rolling a d20 and praying i can make them make sense so please bare with me.

With that, let's start with -

torment (Originally The Chosen One):

- This version is basically fanon Dark who ate a Victim and Mango sundae. Trust me it'll make sense

- torment was made first, and was tormented (hah) for a long time by Alan.

- Alan made another stickman (FREEDOM MENTION) as his friend. They became close (almost canon Chodark/p close) before Alan deleted Freedom since he was trying to help torment escape.

- this was the last straw for them as torment proceeded to trick Alan into unlocking his chains and then broke the computer, allowing him to escape.

-he was still pissed and kinda depressed over Freedom's death so he continued his rampage across the web, slowly trying to find a way to take revenge against all cursors permanently

- At some point he meets this version of Dark, adopts him and set off to become the greatest terrorists the outernet has ever seen

- HE NEARLY ACCOMPLISH HIS GOAL TOO, DESPITE FIGHTING ALAN, TSF, CG+TPC+TCA. THIS CRAZY MAN-

Some fun facts about torment!:

- after everything is said and done, he decides to go by another nick of mento. SF thinks it's cute

- at some point he manages to find a way to go into Minecraft and he uses it as a stress reliever. What kind is up to you :3

- he's so chaotic I wasn't even kidding about the fanon Dark comparison. He will see a happy family chilling and will just divebomb on them

- he's well aware of the fact that Alan messed up his name when creating him, he was supposed to have an "-ed" at the end but Alan pressed enter too early

- a couple pre-escape things I mentioned in my fic but yea torment didn't think of himself as a stick for a while and stole Freedom's pronouns when he died. He also has a bad ankle for being dragged around so much.

- He's mentally ill 20 but physically 18. Freedom was like physically 1 years old before dying but he was mentally around the same age as torment back then (so like, 12?)

I haven't fully figured out how torment plans to carry out their plan but there will be a "King sees Purple as his son" moment for them, except this time it's Dark. Speaking of Dark-

The Second Fool (Originally The Dark Lord):

- TSF "swapped" with Purple but borrows a couple of traits from Victim (I'm sobbing why did the dice and I decide this)

- Alan made him next, meaning to replace torment with a more cunning but weaker version of him (so no powers rip)

- He gave TSF a mission code (still deciding on the exact one) which basically gaslights him into thinking his only purpose in life is to fight Alan

- So when Alan deletes the poor dude, he feels unworthy and shit like that

- he kinda stays in there for a good year, just floating around

- At some point, he manages to escape the Void and ends up in the outer net, where torment finds him and picks him up

- torment convinced TSF to join him, and TSF, thinking this would show Alan that he would be worthy enough again, agrees

- during their terrorism arc, TSF slowly realises that terrorising people probably isn't the right thing to do and that this wouldn't get Alan's attention back to him so he tries to stop torment. tor, the revengeful dumbass, doesn't listen.

- at some point during this au's version of showdown, TSF tried stopping tor themself, but got punted away before eventually getting blasted by tor's fire (I'm still figuring out the exact details bare with me)

- He got saved by one of the TSCs after torment found his unconscious body

Now some fun facts! Not a lot since I'm waiting till I write more of them but for now:

- being in the void really fucks you up, and SF isn't any different. He doesn't really know how to interact with people, often coming off a tinge insane and scary sometimes

- they're really blunt too. Which makes interactions with Arrival and Current kinda awkward.

- he's a sweetheart under... everything. Yea, he's really nice, especially to Arrival! Wonder if there's any reason for that?

- doesn't know what to think of torment after everything. They still believe 'ment thinks of them as a servant, and he doesn't feel like breaking his heart again

- can see the code of everyone around them, which makes bringing someone to the Void awfully easy since he still has some of his own code edited from the Void. Pretty easy to adjust someone else's to match theirs.

Now onto the 2 TSCs (why do I do this to myself), starting with-

Meet, The Chosen Arrival! (Originally The Second Coming):

- simultaneously Second, Dark and Freedom/Chosen. I'm sorry myself

- an accident (IM SO SORRY I DID NOT KNOW HOW ELSE TO PHRASE IT)

- it kinda follows canon, Alan doodled this little guy, left them alone for a while and when he came back Arrival n co. was messing around on Facebook.

- however, this time, when Alan deletes CG and then Arrival, Arrival went fucking ballistic and unleashed his powers on the pc, nearly destroying it in the process

- in a panic, Alan drew his last stick on accident again, this time being:

The Peaceful Current!! (Originally victim):

- Current is swapped with Second!!

- Current has this really calming effect to them for some reason. To this day no one can figure out how she manages to calm Arrival down.

- when they were created, the tab she was in had the wall between it and Arrival's broken down, and Arrival crashed in, planning to destroy everything in the computer.

- but when they saw Current, they kinda just froze. Like they were buffering. Current, for whatever reason, decided to hug Arrival. Arrival then crashed, breaking out into sobs as the two kinda just stood there.

- Alan tried deleting Arrival at that moment of vulnerability, but Current, seeing his cursor move, started speaking and pleading for Alan to hear them out. Alan, shocked to find out that the sticks were actually sentient and not just little desktop creatures he could fight against, heard them out.

- from here it continues from canon, Alan letting the gang chill on his pc, Current found out that she was a great artist, and Arrival decided to start learning how to make tools and stuff for CG to defend themselves.

Some fun facts about these two:

- Arrival fucking hates torment lmao, it's actually really funny how hard they hate him. Current on the other hand doesn't mind torment, as she can see him trying to change

- Arrival does not like going by Chosen, so they prefer to be called by their last name. Peaceful doesn't mind being called either of them, but they're mostly referred to as Current because she likes to copy her brother

- both of them actually have powers, the problem is that Current doesn't know about them, while Arrival refuses to use them. This makes Ava S3 very fun for me :3

Now you might be wondering, who could be the victim in this story. Now bare with me,

Purple.

- little shit got orphaned so hard she became spiteful and decided to start a company just to prove her dad wrong.

- company got way too successful and she let the power go to her head.

- one day she saw a video of Chosen and decided she needed him to be in her team. So she decided to kidnap Dark.

(Idk what else to add I'm still figuring stuff out)

Alright, you might reply, but if purple is busy being victim, then who's taking their place in AvM?

You see, this is where the "swap" part of this au kinda starts veering away. Because, haha,

It's Gold.

- Basically what happened was when Gold got stuck in Minecraft, he kinda became a Minecraft entity like Herobrine. So he just wandered around the world aimlessly before coming across a village.

- AvM 9&10 happened and Purple betrayal happens but this time it's Gold and he didn't go for the egg because he wanted to prove it to his dad, but because he heard rumours around the egg and wanted to test it out.

Now you're thinking, alright, if Gold's purple, then King has to be someone else, right?

To that I show you an image of President Haltmann and Susie from Planet Robobot. Iykyk. (Yes King is still King, he just has amnesia and tbh Gold doesn't really look the same after the fair.)

I'm still deciding on whether I want to swap CG and Mercs personalities but that's all I got for now!!

[communistkenobi]

i don’t know if you have seen the TOS movies so i will try to be as vague about this as possible so to not spoil them for you. i think a large portion (or at least a portion) of the issues presented in TOS are because starfleet sucks, to put it in the best words. this is not including the issues and harm it has done on real people, im talking about the in-universe starfleet and how it presents itself and its rules (example: colonization (encouraging its captains to colonize, encouraging its captains to make other planets and civilizations join their “american” federation)). a larger and more prominent explanation is how its, as described in VI, a “homosapiens-only club”. the klingon who says this also goes on to say that the federation is racist. and this is shown after both kirk and spock say they believe that the federation is peaceful. and obviously they think that because that’s what it presents itself as to it’s employees. another example is in TSFS when a higher authority from the federation tells kirk that he doesn’t believe in vulcan rituals, therefore, if kirk does this ritual, he will be fired. i know this is shown in the show as well but the more obvious examples are from the movies; to me it feels like they’re outright saying it in the films

i know this is not how it was intended to be perceived but this is what the show presents it as. i could be missing something or misunderstanding but this is how i see it, and from what i’ve heard, this is talked about in ds9

also starfleet coincidentally decides that the dark skinned aliens are enemies (this is more of a writing choice and the writers (and character designers) are at fault for this but it presents itself as an obvious issue, in universe, in V & VI)

I’ve seen the first four movies! My recall on canon and the intricacies of starfleet etc are not so precise, so I appreciate the context and some of that sounds familiar. I’m assuming you’re responding to my bitching about the politics of tos and how disconnected it is (in my view) with the fandom’s perception of tos as a progressive cultural text. 

I think those examples are good highlights of a lot of the in-universe problems with Starfleet. To go a step further, I think even absent Starfleet’s racist or discriminatory history in-universe, the show itself (at least tos, I haven’t seen the others) operates on a colonial imaginary, by which I mean, its basic narrative premises and assumptions are colonial (and therefore racist) in character.

Like okay, the premise of tos is that the Enterprise, as an ambassador of Starfleet/the Federation, is seeking out new alien life to study. The Prime Directive prohibits the Enterprise crew from interfering with the development of any alien culture or people while they do this, so the research they collect needs to be done in an unobtrusive way. I think this is the first point at which people balk at the charge that tos is colonial - the Enterprise’s mission is premised on non-interference, and I think when people hear ‘colonial’ as a descriptor they (understandably, obviously) assume it is describing active conquest, genocide, and dispossession. Even setting aside all the times where Kirk does directly interfere with the “development” of a people or culture (usually because they’ve “stagnated” culturally, because a culture without conflict cannot evolve or “develop” beyond its current presumed capacity - he is pretty explicitly imposing his own values onto another culture in order to force them to change in a particular way), or the times when the Enterprise is actually looking to extract resources from a given planet or people, I’m not exactly making this claim, or rather, that’s not the only thing I’m describing when calling tos colonial.

Its presentation of scientific discovery and inquiry is anthropological - the “object” of analysis is alien/foreign culture, meaning that when the Enterprise crew comes into contact with a new being or person, this person is always read first and foremost through the level of (the Enterprise’s understanding of) culture. Their behaviour, beliefs, dress, way of speaking, appearance, and so on are always reflective of (and represent a microcosm of) their culture as a whole, and more importantly, that their racial or phenotypic characteristics define the boundaries of their culture, ie, culture is interpreted, navigated, and bound racially. Because of this, Kirk and Co are never really interacting with individuals, they are interacting with components of a (foreign, exotic, fundamentally different) culture. And when they interact with these cultures, they very frequently measure them using a universalized scale of development - they have an evolutionary view of culture, ie, that all cultures go from savage to rational, primitive to advanced, economically marginal to economically dominant (ie, to capitalism). And the metrics they are judging these cultures by are fundamentally Western ones, always emphasising to the audience that the final destination of all cultures (that are worthy of advancing beyond their current limited/“primitive” stages) is a culture identical to the Federation, a culture that can itself engage in this anthropological mission to catalogue all life as fitting within a universal set of practices and racial similarities they call “culture.”

This is a western, colonial understanding of culture - racially and spatially homogenous people comprise the organs of a social totality, ie, a society, which can then be analysed as an “object,” as a “phenomenon,” by the scientists in order to extract information from them to produce and advance state (ie Federation) knowledge. The Enterprise crew are allowed to be individuals, are allowed to be subjects with a capacity for reason, contradiction, emotion, compassion, and even moments of savagery or violence, without those things being assigned to their “race” or “culture” as a whole, but the people they interact with are only components of a whole which are “discovered” by the Enterprise as opportunities to expand and refine the Federation’s body of knowledge.

And on the flip side you have the Klingons, which you brought up - a “race” that is uniformly savage, backward, violent, and dangerous. In the episode Day of the Dove, where Klingons board the Enterprise along with an alien cloud that makes everyone very aggressive and racist (this show is insane lol), the Enterprise crew begins acting violent and racist, but the Klingons don’t change. They aren’t more violent than before (because they already were fundamentally violent and racist), and they don’t become less violent when the cloud eventually leaves (because they are never able to emerge from their violence and savagery as a social condition or external imposition - they simply are that way). Klingons are racially, behaviourally, psychologically, and culturally homogenous, universally violent and immune to reason, and their racial characteristics are both physical manifestations of this universal violence as well as the origin of it. The writers and creators of tos are consciously invoking the orientalist idea of the “Mongolian horde,” representing both the American fear of Soviet global takeover as well as blatantly racist fears about “asiatics” (a word used in the show, particularly in The Omega Glory where a fear of racialised communist takeover is made explicit) dominating the world.

This is colonial thinking! Like, fundamentally, at its core, this is colonial white supremacist thinking. Now this is not the fault of tos as an individual show, this is a problem with western science in general, and I am not expecting a television show to navigate its way outside of this current colonial paradigm of scientific knowledge. I’m also not expecting an average person watching this to pick out all the intricacies of this and link it to the colonial history of Europe or the colonial history of western science. But this base premise of Star Trek is why the show is fundamentally colonial - even if the crew never intervened in any alien conflict, never extracted any material resources from other people, and even if the Federation did not have all these explicitly racist practices that you outlined, this would still be colonial logic and colonial thinking. The show has a fundamentally colonial imagination when it comes to exploration, discovery, and culture.

And so my problem, which is maybe where I need to adjust expectations for tumblr fandom, is when people call this show socialist or durably progressive in any way. This is not because socialist societies can’t be colonial or can’t be racist, obviously they can be those things, but because people are bundling “post-racist, post-bigotry, post-discrimination” in their labelling of tos as “socialist media.” When I hear someone call a piece of media socialist I am also bringing my own assumptions into those things, ie, I am expecting this claim to be actually reflective of the politics within the show to some degree. There can of course be debates about the exact nature and quality of those socialistic politics (see conversations about the politics of Disco Elysium, a contemporary canonical example of actual “socialist art”), but I’m at least expecting there to by a whiff of them in there! And I don’t think tos stands up to basic scrutiny in this regard. I genuinely do not even buy that it’s progressive, for reasons I’ve outlined above. Again that’s a genre problem, I think all sci-fi has to contend with this, but tos is certainly not a progressive exception to the political norms of sci-fi as a genre. 

And THIS IS OBVIOUSLY not me saying you can’t like tos or that you’re racist for doing so, I deeply enjoy the show on its own terms, and its politics (good and bad) are part of that enjoyment. I’m also someone who is in university & complicit in all of these colonial scientific assumptions and practices, I’m not positioning myself as morally superior in this discussion. But when people package their enjoyment of the show with their analysis of it as socialist, as progressive, I think that is pretty fucking stupid and leads to a lot of handwaving of its fundamentally racist narrative premises. Hence my bitching 

[razorblade180]

You had a post a little bit ago about how cool Weiss is in TSF. Do you have anything like that for the others in their respective verses?

I don’t want to make this post extremely long so I’ll only focus on Ruby for now in Rosebud

The repair woman and modifier for her friends’ weapons since RNJR. It helped take her mind off things. Eventually she made Jaune an engagement sword.

Doubled down on being proficient in weapons. Even before things got serious, Ruby wasn’t a total stranger to holding other weapons. Nothing feels completely foreign to use, especially swords. She can actually use all of her friends’ weapons.

Beat Salem at age 17. Kinda a big deal. Her favorite part about it is it gave her time to learn normal hobbies afterwards. She’s an awesome skateboarder

Her team actually defended Atlas but in the end it costed Oscar completely turning into Ozpin; kicking off a new and more aggressive drive in Ruby specifically.

Went to Vacou alone pretty upset after Atlas. She also had a pretty big argument with her team. Ultimately it became the catalyst for growth. Ruby was ahead of them for few months, learning how to take care of herself.

Rallied Vacou citizens to defend against early attacks from Salem. Ruby got really good earning the local’s respect through gritting her teeth and countless hand to hand bar fights. Gone were the days of not throwing punches, and she only got more phenomenal after reuniting with her sister.

Is responsible for low crime rate in Vacou. Especially kidnappings. The kingdom is actually considered one of the safest places in comparison to the others, despite keeping its rowdy nature.

Ruby is actually a professor at Beacon. Her classes aren’t every semester and her student count is rather small since she prefers helping talented people without focus, and struggling students who need a bit more guidance. She thinks both groups basically lack the same thing and that’s a certain level of ambition. It’s unspoken she’s most likely the next headmaster.

Actually gained more in common with Weiss after beating Salem. Ruby found the time to take more pride in her appearance and bonded over a bit of fashion. Who would’ve thought both of them would’ve won “world’s my stunning Huntress” awards. Ruby was just trying to look good for her wedding day.

Vacou authorities work closely with Ruby on a variety of projects. Especially after her daughter technically joined the forces in order to not get in trouble solving active crimes.

Organized crime fears Ruby Rose. Saving the world wasn’t the height of her achievements. She was nowhere near done growing in skill. Went around cleaning up mob bosses.

Learned to improve her semblance enough to appear in multiple spots. She’s also gotten good at intense short bursts of speed. Individual limbs are a little tricky and she sparingly does full body at max power because it could blow people away and hurt ears.

Her crowning achievement power wise is figuring out how to create a storm of petals so dense it can trap someone inside or hide in the petals.

All of Maria’s cooking and wisdom lives on with her. The old legend hated the idea of having a statue, but Ruby thought it was important for people to know there’s been amazing legends long before she beat Salem. There’s an entire town outside of Vacou dedicated to that woman with her former house on the outskirts. It has the loveliest blue flowers in the region.

As popular as she is, Ruby makes it a point to be seen often doing normal things. She’ll stand in line for concert tickets as if nobody knows who she is. You can catch her making a midnight fast food run in lounge wear. In her eyes, nothing much has changed about her so it’s up to the world how they choose to react to her presence. In most cases, she’s like the world’s coolest neighbor.

There’s a Penny built after Beacon with no memories of anything prior. Ruby chose to let her be, allowing the girl to live a relatively normal life. Every so often they cross paths and Ruby makes it point to ask if they need anything or how their life is going. She even gave the an anonymous wedding gift.

Taught her family and friends how to garden. And also like to foot the bill on hobby projects. She helped Yang and Blake build a ranch for their kid and Weiss make a school in Mantle. She also Ren and Nora establish their orphanage in Anima.

Rosebud Ruby is just a pretty cool gal and fun mom that’s fluent in violence. Idle hands are her worst enemy but turns out being a mother not only prevents that, but softened some of her rougher edges that put a strain on her relationships growing up.

[2-steps-forward]

can i ask about what arima's role is like in this AU? how what happened between he and kaneki differs? i'm yet to read the fics, i hope to soon, but i'm very intrigued!

This AU / fic is heavily a WIP and as for planned ideas I'm only up to around like... the equivalent of the Kanou Lab Raid, I guess? I'm trying to diverge from canon and change things up, so I'm still feeling my way through a lot of how I want this to go. But also, this story is much more character- and world- based than it is necessarily plot, so finding a through-plot isn't really high on my priority list. It's more slice of life, I suppose...?

There's so many Tokyo Ghoul characters and I'm kinda just adding them in and figuring them out as-needed.

And Arima is one who hasn't really popped up that often, so I have a few different ideas but nothing solid.

Right now the only “content” I have with Arima is the file TSF-V14. It technically comes at the end chronologically, but it's really just an offshoot what-if ending — there's a few minor callbacks but it could be read alone, if you want. Even then, it’s not that much; Arima gets a tiny scene at the start, and they talk about him briefly a bit later.

Since Kaneki's a full ghoul in this au, Arima really doesn't have much interest in him. He's just another ghoul like any other; there's nothing special about him to catch Arima's eye.

That said, Hide exists. And when he gets the chance to work with Arima, he'll absolutely find a way to convince Arima to not kill him, and make Kaneki's survival a requirement for cooperating with him and Eto.

On Arima's side, he looks at Hide and Kaneki's interspecies friendship and is like "Hmm. Maybe I can use this..."

Arima is just purely neutral on Kaneki, though. If he's told to kill him by the CCG, he will. If he can get away with sparing him, then he will, because he knows Eto wants to keep Hide as an ally. If he can use Kaneki for something, he will. He's kinda just playing it by ear.

And being raised as a ghoul, this Kaneki has absolutely heard of the White Reaper and he doesn't doubt the tales. But he lives in the 20th Ward, where investigators don't even carry briefcases (Tokyo Ghoul Past), so Arima’s threat is quite distant and more of a horrible nightmare scenario to think of than anything realistic.

Arima and canon!Kaneki bonding was so specific in canon and a result of so many years working closely together in a mentorship. And I just... can't really see their relationship coming anywhere close to that in this AU? My focus is on the Anteiku gang and more the OG manga’s plot than :re’s plot. So far, I can’t find myself being able to justify them interacting enough to properly bond. Or even just... interact in general for more than a few minutes or a fight.

:re splits up so many things and all-around has such a dark outlook for the ghouls by the end and that's not the direction I want this fic to go in, so I'm going to stick to the OG storyline and Anteiku's side of things, and that doesn't really leave much room for Arima? I do have A Certain CCG plotline that's been steadily coming along as I've been writing the latter half of what I already have written, so maybe there's potential to bring Arima into that? Mayhaps it results in a little coup, and Arima pops in to join them at the last second, and they're like "Holy shit we have Arima-san on our side???" and suddenly morale is high.

Arima is such a "work quietly in the shadows" kind of character that he's difficult to bring in for more than a little cameo or reference.

But! There’s always the potential for him in general “Mint Legs” fics — which is the overarching au world in which I spit out so many offshoot ideas on pure whims that don't fit into the main longfic.

So here’s some Arima-related ideas I’ve just spitballed:

Without a half-ghoul Kaneki, I think I would put Kurona as the One Eyed King instead. Mostly because she's... kinda the only half-ghoul option they would have...? But mostly because I adore the "woman as a king" trope. Kurona is such a neutral party in :re, though, so I’ve kinda struggled to make it make sense. But… maybe if Nashiro never died, and Kurona’s motives stayed on hating the CCG instead of switching to revenge on Kanou, maybe she could be convinced to take down the Washuu? And if Nashiro doesn’t die… This is starting to make me think of those old “Hide is the second one eyed king because he’s Kaneki’s other half” theories.

Eto is the easy choice to get into Kurona's head and make her want to be king, given how she immediately breaks down the twins in the Kanou Lab Raid. But the twins were both in the academy, and probably still have some respect for Arima, so he could probably equally convince them as well. I feel like he's such a beloved icon in the CCG that even disillusioned folks wouldn't be able to truly hate him.

This ask actually got me thinking about the OEK plot more, too. Originally I just automatically excluded Kaneki from Arima's OEK candidates because he's not a one-eyed half-ghoul. But then again... neither is Arima himself. But he is nearly blind in one eye. And now... I'm kind of imagining Kaneki ending up with a bad injury that doesn't heal right, making him lose an eye, and that's how he's able to “properly” claim the OEK title. Maybe Arima purposely aims a nasty hit for an eye when he's fighting Kaneki, and hoping Kaneki's strong enough to kill him. (Which he actually did in V14 in canon... Huh... Never realized that before... 🤔 Fascinating...)

[thorinsspringforge]

Hi!

I was wondering how us writers will know when/if an artist claims our summary. I've read all the info. there is on the page but I'm not sure how that would work.

Thank you!

Ps: I love TSF so much. I didn't have the chance to join before but now I'm excited!

Hi there!

You will soon be receiving an email with all the important information about Claims. But you'll be able to see what fics are claimed in real-time and once your summary is claimed, your artist will contact you directly:)

— Mod LB

[thegoldenherd]

okey dokey now to write out how The Body of Christ/Personal discernment effects my OCs!

(basically what MLP did with harmony, but with more Jesus symbolism)

Nimbus badly wants to be a village guard, but she's very small and not very strong. She's the first to go out and hunt the demons to prove herself, but learns on her journey that instead of fighting them hand to hand, she's meant to fight them with her art by putting beauty back in what they've destroyed.

Cotton is a goat who is extremely envious of sheep (with some self loathing issues on top of that), and disguises himself as a sheep to work as a spy for TSF, but after leaving TSF behind, he becomes an ambassador between the goats and sheep.

Aurea was obsessed with her beauty, and is still vulnerable to vanity post redemption. She has to give up her jewelry and a lot of other things when she joins the Golden Herd, but because she's already been in the deep end and crawled back out, she's one of the sturdiest members to TSF's manipulation, and can give valuable information on how he thinks and uses people.

My unnamed wolf character (NOT Luna, please, there are too many characters named Luna, I'll edit this out when I have a name for her) has to give up most meats (because eating sentient mammals is wrong), and provides both strength of muscle and strength of will to the herd.

And IDK what to do with Jacob yet, he sort of starts and stops in the same place as a village guard, but I'll figure something out.

[doom-dreaming]

The Sacred Flock: General Info and How To Join

I've been meaning to write this up for a while and I'm finally getting around to it. This is the definitive "about" guide for joining and writing in the Sacred Flock 'Verse, otherwise known as the Twins' Pet 'Verse or The Menagerie. It has a lot of names. So! Here are the answers to (mostly) all your questions!

1) What is the Sacred Flock 'Verse? You may have seen mentions of this around the Calypso corner of Tumblr and wondered what it was. It's a collaborative, relatively-open AU in which the Calypso Twins acquire and keep human pets as trophies and status symbols to reinforce their godhood.

If this sounds like something you might be into, click the readmore!

What this AU includes:

collars (bells and leashes optional)

branding

microchip tracking

cannibalism; Troy’s got monster mouth mods and Tyreen likes to get in on the action too, sometimes

What this AU does NOT include:

incest or pedophilia

marrying the twins

having children with the twins (both of them have had sterilization surgeries in this AU)

2) Sounds interesting, how would I join? There are two levels of involvement. The first level is simply contributing to the 'Verse! Suggest ideas, write something, interact with our posts, and you're in! Further down in this post I’ve listed some of the established canon of this ‘Verse, along with some tags you can explore to get a basic understanding of what you’d be working with.

The second level is our Discord server. To get into that, you must be:

at least 18 years of age

willing to remain active and contribute ideas to the 'Verse

at least semi-interested in the ongoing narrative

In addition, you should interact with our members (most of whom are listed below) outside of the server enough for us to get a feel for what you're like and how well you'd vibe with the rest of us. This includes submitting an RP "audition" to @clockworkrobotic (Kat) so they can meet your character. We don't have a lot of hard-set rules about characters, but the main thing we ask is that they be canon-compliant. Borderlands canon is pretty crazy, but think about the type of people the twins would want to have as pets and keep it realistic (no crazy powers, etc.)

The actual auditioning process involves a character interview and questionnaire that we set up, so if you're interested in auditioning, send a DM to me or Kat and we can provide more info about the setup of the server, aside from what’s written below.

3) The Discord server sounds cool, if I ended up in it, what could I expect? First and foremost, it is a kink server. Our focus is on pet kink and ownership and obedience. If you act up or get into a big enough argument with our twins, they will punish you accordingly. That's not to say you're not allowed to be soft and mushy and have fun, but we have lots of highly-specific channels for other flavors of twin-loving, so heed where everything should go and you'll be fine.

It is a private kink server and we ask that you be respectful of what people are choosing to share.

(Further note: our twins are played by real people and they really do their best to stick to canon characterization, which means they can be pretty villainous sometimes. Go figure. If you're very sensitive to discipline or the occasional sibling shouting match, the main RP may not be the best place for you. We want everyone to have fun and we know that tolerance levels and triggers vary from person to person. The twins will get mean because we (the mods) told them to be, given the understanding that this is a server about being owned by two fairly awful individuals.)

4) You still haven't scared me away yet! Is there any established Flock canon I need to include when I contribute? Yes! Our canon is constantly evolving, and the structure of the narrative outside of the server is quite a bit looser, but we do have established aspects for this AU. A good tag to check out (included at the end of this post) is '#flock worldbuilding.' Some main points include:

the twins' powers are a little tweaked. The leech ability is paired with a healing ability, and the twins can trade these powers back and forth at will

the twins and their pets (us) live in a large building known as the Holy Inner Compound, located near the Cathedral, so it's part of the same Dahl refinery, but the twins have renovated to make themselves some comfortable living quarters

in the center of the Holy Inner Compound is a huge garden. The twins discovered early-on that their healing was just as strong and just as reckless as their leeching, and a burst of siren energy created a beautiful tree that bears a strange fruit. The garden has grown ever since, housing all kinds of vegetables, fruits, and flowers both native and foreign. A pond of fresh water feeds small streams that meander throughout the garden. A good tag to look at is '#tsf: the oasis' (tagged below)

there is a conditioning process that new pets go through. It varies from pet to pet depending on personality and comfort level around the twins (they want you to trust them, ideally) and ends with a collaring ceremony, a public, live-streamed ritual that involves an official collaring and a reminder to the cultists that the Flock is to be treated with the same reverence as the Twin Gods

we focus heavily on the more religious potential of the COV, leaning into ritualism and ceremony; the twins are still streamers with huge personalities, we just ramp up the religious undertones the game didn’t really explore

we have a huge collection of animal pets (affectionately referred to as petpets) and if you want to see them, @glowydruglord did some adorable illustrations for us. Just check out the '#pet pets' tag on my blog to find them

I've started posting some supplementary material and will continue to do so for the next month or so. This includes:

maps of the compound (sketched floor plans and screenshots of my accurate-as-possible Sims build)

detailed information on the progression of the conditioning process

breakdowns of the different areas of the compound

overviews of the ceremonies and rituals used to induct new pets into the Flock

I think I covered the most important stuff, and you can check out the tags below (check them from inside my blog to get relevant results) to take a look at what this 'Verse has to offer. Most importantly, please interact with us if you want to be a part of this! We're all very friendly and me and @clockworkrobotic especially want to get to know the people who are contributing. We'll be happy to answer any questions or just chat!

Here are some of our most active members!

@afterthedreamer @bettersafethandicks @circiva @vialandmortar @cacklefrendly @vaulttouched @constantfantasymind

If you would like to interact with and contribute to this AU, please respect our guidelines. We have a wide range of personalities and preferences and we would ask that you be mindful of what that can entail. One person’s kink can be someone else’s trigger. If you have a question or concern, please ask us!

[ineylesian]

could u drop some of your tsf hcs for the cobra series (or in general??) also some cobra hcs if we were an oc if you want <33

of course!!

TSF 141 HCS

(with a little bit of other MW2 characters as well)

- soap and ghost are forced to sleep on the same bunk bed if they argue too much during a mission. if soap was picking at ghost (which he does, a lot), he has to take bottom bunk.

- price, gaz and laswell go out on runs together when they have time. gaz is convinced that he’ll be faster than laswell one day, but it’s not happening.

- gaz played on the varsity football (soccer) team in high school. he’s tried to give lessons to soap and alejandro but they, according to him, “just suck.”

- ghost is an expert at sewing up clothes due to the years he’s spent making masks. if you ask nicely, he’ll teach you how to thread.

- most post mission successes are spent inside cramped bars, with gaz, soap, and price bickering about who did what better. laswell is the mediator, and ghost is silently watching, making snarky comments in his head the entire time.

- price bought laswell a pack of herbal cigarettes to try after she mentioned wanting to quit. a few months later he received a letter from her wife thanking him endlessly, and demanding he joins them for dinner soon.

- both gaz and ghost are super, super sarcastic all the time. gaz is more lighthearted, however, as ghost gets more of a kick out of making people mad. both of them are still a nightmare to argue with nonetheless.

- alejandro and farah send homemade cultural dishes to the TSF whenever they can. rudy mails pictures of south america always captioned “hope everyone is well! :)”, and alex sends small souvenirs with a few cigars set aside for price.

CODENAME: FANGS HCS

(if cobra was an oc, and not a reader insert)

- cobra has a small scar on her eyelid that runs just above her eyebrow. this happened after she fell out of the window at the fuerzas hq in “no leaf clover”. the chunk of glass had to be removed surgically.

- graves has offered to take cobra out on a real date quite a handful of times. she’s said no every occasion, however, as she just won’t take that risk after al mazrah.

- (first tsf) roach loves to play charades with the tsf whenever there’s downtime. price, ghost, and cobra can never tell what he’s doing, but keegan gets it right in under a minute every time. price always does painfully obvious things, while keegan will do the most obscure, unguessable movements. ghost sits out because he thinks he’s too good for it (has yet to be proven), and cobra only likes the guessing part, but will dish out ideas.

- (first tsf) cobra and keegan have had numerous competitions over who can speak more languages. keegan wins every time, but she’s convinced he’s making some stuff up. they also argue in latin a lot, since they both took it in high school.

- (PRE “no leaf clover”) ghost has never loved a woman until cobra, so he’s a bit unsteady about a lot of things when it comes to her. the best way for him to show he cares is to take his mask off around her, but he still can’t bring himself to touch her casually. she doesn’t usually touch him either, having constant thoughts about who she’d want to spend the rest of her life with, him, or graves.

- during their time together, alejandro would shamelessly make fun of ghost and soap in spanish. he learns cobra can understand him when she can’t help but laugh when he says “hay días tontos y tontos todos los días” (there are stupid days, and people who are stupid everyday), pointed a soap for tripping over a rock.

[1shirt2shirtredshirtdeadshirt]

For Jim

“We are all hostages to what we love. The only way to truly be free is to love nothing. And how meaningless would that be?” - Q (Picard S2E05)

“There’s had been the touching of two minds which the old poets of Spock’s home planet had proclaimed as superior even to the wild physical love which affected Vulcans every seventh year during pon farr.” -- Jim Kirk (Star Trek TMP Novel)

What a joke! Vejur was everything that Spock had ever dreamed of becoming. And yet Vejur was barren! It would never feel pain. Or joy. Or challenge. 

Spock laughed again. Then he saw Kirk’s face. He reached out weakly and found Kirk’s arm, then his hand, and took a startled Kirk’s hand in his own. “Jim,” Spock said.

McCoy looked his astonishment at the visible and unashamed emotion on Spock’s face as he clutched Kirk’s hand.

Kirk returned the pressure and brought his other hand to cover Spock’s, holding it between both of his, signaling Spock that there was no shame in either giving or in answering fully.

“This simple feeling . . . “ --- Spock struggled for strength --- “. . . is so far . . . beyond Vejur’s comprehension . . .” -- (Star Trek TMP Novel)

With stunned understanding, Kirk stumbles to the door, sees Spock on his knees, hands blackened, face cracked with radiation lines and scars.

Spock shakes his head. With a feeble hand he reaches the intercom button: filtered communication.

KIRK: Spock!

SPOCK: The ship -- out of danger?

KIRK: Yes --

Spock is satisfied; he fights for breath --

SPOCK: Don't grieve, Admiral -- it's logical: the good of the many outweighs --

He almost keels over. Kirk has tears streaming down his face.

KIRK: ... the good of the few...  

SPOCK: Or the one.

He props a hand on the glass to support himself. Kirk's hand reflexively goes to match Spock's on the other side of the glass --

SPOCK: (continuing) I never took the Kobayashi Maru test -- until now. What do you think of my solution?

KIRK: Spock...!

SPOCK: I have been -- and always will be -- your friend... Live. Long. And. Prosper.

Spock falls. Bones and Scotty react.

KIRK: No...!

SAAVIK'S VOICE: (intercom) Admiral, you've got to see this! There's new life -- a whole new world, a Genesis world -- !

But Kirk is past hearing or caring. He is huddled up against the glass, destroyed. Bones looks on, helpless. -- (Star Trek: TWOK Script)

KIRK: Even if there's a chance that Spock has an eternal soul . . . then it's my responsibility. MORROW: Yours? KIRK: As surely as if it were my very own. Give me back the Enterprise! With Scotty's help I could... MORROW: Out of the question, my friend! The Council has ordered that no one but the science team goes to Genesis! Jim, your life and your career stand for rationality, not intellectual chaos. Keep up this emotional behaviour and you'll lose everything. You'll destroy yourself! Do you understand me, Jim? KIRK: I hear you . . .I had to try. MORROW: Of course. (as Kirk leaves he is joined by Sulu and Chekov) SULU: The word, sir? KIRK: The word . . . is no. I am therefore going anyway. SULU: You can count on our help, sir. KIRK: Thank you, Mister Sulu. I'll need it. -- (Star Trek: TSFS Script)

SAREK: He entrusted you with his very essence, with everything that was not of the body. He asked you to bring him to us . . . and bring that which he gave you, his katra, his living spirit. KIRK: Sir . . . your son meant more to me than you can know. I'd have given my life if it would have saved his.

SAREK: Forgive me. It is not here. I had assumed he mind-melded with you. It is the Vulcan way . . . when the body's end is near. KIRK: We were separated! He couldn't touch me. SAREK: I see. . . Then everything that he was . . . Everything that he knew . . . is lost. KIRK: Please wait! . . . He would have found a way! If there was that much at stake . . . Spock would have found a way! -- (Star Trek: TSFS Script)

Picard: You’ve brought him home, then?

Spock: Yes. I know it is illogical, and yet . . . he did the same for me. And at such a terrible cost. How could I not be equal to his sacrifice? . . . I have no regrets. -- (Spock Reflections: IDW Comics)

For Jim - Spock

Theirs is my favourite love story of all time. 

(Source: Spock Dedicates his autobiography to Jim -- Star Trek: Picard)

---

Spock Reflections Scans Part 1: Spock Remembering Jim | Spock Reflections Scans Part 2: Picard's Message For Spock |  Part 3: Spock Carries Jim Home to Iowa | Bonus: The Kirk Family Farm + Spock's Visit   | Bonus II: T’Pring Confronts Spock Circa TMP  

Source: Star Trek: Spock Reflections Comic Series by IDW (personal scans)

[oceanic-recollection]

so you know that sideways Slungecat I told you about

yeah.. its definitely not being allowed into the colony now. Eating the children of the group you want to join is not how to do it, an someone should tell it such

<TSF> it what

<TSF> if you have any mobile containment, or anything at all that can remove it, i suggest you, uh, do,

<TSF> what's going on, absolutely can't end well for either party,

[oceanremnants]

[LIVE BROADCAST]

Public - Ocean Group [gen-of-all]

----

<TSF> my dudes, dudettes and otherwise

<TSF> are you guys ready for the entire lightbulb of glass me and dew are bringing home

<APIS> That's super easy to handle and also boring

<APIS> Are YOU ready for the NEW GROUP MEMBER WE HAVE????

<TSF> we have a waht

<APIS> While you left to go help out BG and UI, we got a new dude!!! And he's super sweet

<BVQT> He will require immediate medical assistance.

<WTINK> Pardon the interruption, but I'm going to need some of your finest fabrics, Winter.

<WM> Ink. Of Coyrse. Anything for a Fellowe Seamsteres as I Aem.

<TSF> still kinda stuck on how everyone wants to join our group but uh, just send him to me I'll patch him up I guess

[amberwild420]

OSB, TSF (pt. 57)

masterlist

Mutual respect

 What do you know about the heroes?

 Damian was quick to ask the question bluntly. Jon awkwardly looked at his best friend, feeling as if he was too obvious in his interrogation. But the group of five wasn’t that affected.

 Well, in the beginning it was only Ladybug and Chat Noir. Than they would call in some temporary heroes if they need help with a particularly strong akuma and a senti-monster.

 They are retired Mari-bear. Ladybug permanently benched them. They were simply ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.

 Chloe……  Marinette glared at her but the blond simply flipped her hair and looked away. Kaylan leaned against the blond who gladly took her in her arms.

  …as I was saying, ladybug has the ladybug miraculous and she has a yo-yo as her weapon, she calls for an item to help in the battle and then she purifies the akuma and cast her cure that fixes every damage in the battle.

 Every damage?

 …..every damage including destroyed building, injuries and…..death.

 A weird glint passed through their eyes. Damian was certain he had seen that in the eyes of his father and brother. It was a mix of emotion like sadness, furry and determination. Something only he knows.

 A moment of stillness and then Luka strung her guitar; a relaxing tone filled the air before Marinette started telling them again.

 So Chat Noir has the cat miraculous and he is Ladybug’s partner……

  You mean was.

 Marinette ignored the comment.      He uses cataclysm and turns anything he touches into dust. So he is opposite of ladybug.

 Then we had temporary heroes but now they are all replaced, something about them being compromised and not good enough outside the mask. Ladybug said something like that.

 Does she still have other heroes?

 Damian was persistent. He wanted as much information as possible. This group of five is a good source and he was content even if he didn’t get everything he wanted to know.

 He tried to use local news and blog and he certainly wanted to destroy a liar blog but he forced down his intention. This was an emotionally hostage city, he can’t get compromised.

 She does. She has Python, Ryu, Luna and Honeybee. I think she said that they were permanent heroes.

 They are. She said that in Nadja’s interview, when she introduced Luna.

 Kaylan said casually before looking at her watch.

 We better get to school. If that liar did some trick, I need some time to get rid of that.

 The two American’s raised their eyebrows but was ignored and were just pulled towards the school.

 Kaylan was the first one to enter the class with an umbrella. (Damian and Jon were completely baffled when she pulled the umbrella out of her bag and went in like she was on an undercover mission.)

 It happened too fast. Kaylan opened the umbrella with a snap and whole bucket of dirty water fell on her. The four outside the room were shocked, two more than the others. Luckily, Kaylan was under the umbrella and thus was safe.

 She closed the umbrella before hitting the incoming chalk duster. Jon was sure that he had never seen something like this.

 Sure he heard about bullying in his school here and there but for most parts the teachers had a good control over them. But here……

  If not for Kaylan’s quick response, she would be drowning in dirty paint water and would have been slapped with a chalk duster.

 Damian looked at the two girls who stood outside. Instead of shock, they looked rather concerned. It was clear that they were rather used to such treatment and knew how to handle.

 Kaylan spins the umbrella and stood like she was on a runway. The smile she gave was not reaching her eyes at all.

 It seems like you had thrown my warning out of the window. That’s fine, let’s walk on my threat.

 Kaylan stepped towards them dangerously while smiling.

 Hmm. What should I do first?     The shy and nervous one looked like they were so close to tears.

 I can cut off the hands which put the bucket and threw the duster.

 Kim and Ivan paled and grabbed their hands as if trying to protect them.

  I can tear off the mouths that said words and enabled them.

Alya, Lila and Alix paled and shivered.

 Or I can just tear off the brain and spine of those who had the idea.

Max and Markov shrunk in the background.

 Or…..  She grinned with a bloodthirsty look.     …I can simply strip all of you off your skin while I hear those lovely screams that would come out of your mouth.

 The whole class shivered under her gaze. Damian looked at the bluenette who was rubbing her forehead. With a sigh she looked up and opened her mouth.

 Kaylan, your dark side is showing.

 Oops!

 Suddenly the suffocating air disappeared from the class and Kaylan smiled at the blunette and hugged her acting coy.

 But M we need to teach them a lesson. They are all bullying me. Did you not see the water and the chalk? Let me get rid of them permanently. Pretty please!

 She looked at her with puppy dog eyes. Marinette cursed in the back of her mind. Despite being a cold person, Kaylan knew how to pull those eyes and she was certain she could see the wagging tail and dog ears flopped against her head.

 But Marinette was persistent making her whine. Chloe cackled and pulled her against her and got to her seat.

 On the other hand, both Damian and Jon looked baffled, one more than other. But they had to admit that it was pretty badass. By the end of the day, the pair was able to get a general understanding of the whole class dynamic and were inclined to join the trio.

 After all there was a slight sense of mutual respect between them.

previous

next

[zodiac-rave]

Speaking of Murderbot, it’s the end of the year so I get to round up whatever I finished into a screenshot of a google doc. I picked a couple random things to say shit about (no spoilers):

13 Sentinels: I love games where you can’t say anything about them without feeling like you’ve got a foot in a spoiler but I CAN say that after I beat this I drove an hour to a Japanese market to get a yakisoba pan only to find out they haven’t sold them in a year.

Halo: [confetti cheer noise]

Metroid All Of Them: I got Zero Mission on an impulse after seeing the announcement trailer for Dread and that was a great choice, thanks past me. Dread was one of my favorite games this year and I was RIDICULOUSLY proud of myself for actually finishing it, considering at a certain point my hands wanted to saw themselves off and flee into the wilderness.

AI TSF: holy shit squirtle. I am STICKING to no spoilers but in general I love stories that feel like they could only work in a video game format and this felt like a prime example.

Endwalker: I was depressed out of my skull going into EW and also overly attached to ShB in general, so my expectations were completely flatline. Apparently this was perfect because overall I loved it in a way I had forgotten how to do, maybe. 

Murderbot Diaries: Short books! No romance! A bunch of identities are just there and nobody makes it weird! The main character just wants to be left alone to watch TV! 

Six of Crows A Second Time: I reread it in conjunction with watching the netflix S&B series and Inej is still the best part of both stories thank you for your time have a nice day

Devil in the White City: I went in to learn about HH Holmes and came out understanding that the Chicago World’s Fair is who I have to fight for causing the pledge of allegiance

Certain Dark Things: I read this for Baby’s First Book Club Meeting. The meeting was on zoom, I was the only person who showed up besides the store employee running it, and we actually managed to have a nice conversation but good LORD Zoom please you need that MS Teams feature that tells you how many people are in a meeting before you join. Please. Please. Also this is the only book about vampires I like.

Sisters of the Vast Black: Apparently my book niche is “nuns in places they shouldn’t be”

[spectraspecs-writes]

Revanasi Fic 2

Adding on to the fic from last time.

Fandom: Star Wars, Knights of the Old Republic

Universe: Kotor fic, New Canon, fem!Revan

Ships: Revanasi

Word Count unknown, I’m on mobile

Death mention tw. Possible dissociation tw

I have good days and bad days. I always remember being Revan now. The memories sometimes sort themselves out and things make sense. And some days I can cope with it and function. help with the Telosian restoration efforts like I do most days. I feel more like Rena than Revan. And I can understand that what I was then doesn’t have to affect who I am now. That Revan did those things, killed those people. Not Rena.

On bad days I can’t do that. On bad days, I can see the faces of the people Revan killed, hear them pleading for mercy, begging for their lives. Sometimes begging for death. I can feel myself holding the lightsabers that pierce the skin of my victims. And then some days all of it blends with the lives that Rena took, even in self defense. All those people on Taris and Dantooine, dead, because of me. And I remember Alek… Malak… Alek being my friend. And I killed him. As much evil as he did, I can’t forget that he was my friend.

Some days are better than others. But today is not a good day. Better than the worst days. But still a bad day.

Usually Carth sits with me on bad days, tries to distract me. Once he took me down to the surface to do some scouting for the Ithorians. (They almost definitely already knew the surface, but Carth managed to pull some strings and get us down there anyway, just so I could do what I love.) But today he can’t. Today is a busy day for the Republic outpost. They’re expecting a fuel shipment from Peragus, and those days are hectic. They’re also expecting another shipment of droids, because there have been problems with so many shipments before, and I’m supposed to work with these new droids, people have been floating back and forth from Nar Shadaa and causing problems for the TSF, plus the Republic wants updates on the restoration and Chodo Habat has put in for a shipment of boma from Onderon and no one has any idea what happened to it, and how can you just lose a freighter full of boma? Answer, you can’t. So, much as Carth would like to spend the whole day with me, we both know he can’t.

He’s rushing all around the apartment, I’m pretty sure he’s just counting things off in his head, but he’s pretty good at blocking me when he wants to. When he doesn’t want to stress me out. I’m not sure he does it on purpose, but the gesture is sweet. And I’m just sitting, following him with my eyes, just trying to keep my mind off of everything I am, everything I’ve done. And Carth wandering provides enough of a distraction to keep me from breaking down. “Thank you, Lieutenant,” Carth says into his comm, “I should be there shortly.” And he turns it off and stops in front of me. “Are you sure you’re fine with me not staying?” he asks me for the third time today, “Because I can hand things off to someone.”

“No you can’t and you know it,” I say, holding a pillow, my voice soft. Like it is on bad days.

“No, but I wish I could,” he says, and he leans in close and kissing me. “If this were any other day…”

“I know.”

“Okay, last thing,” he says, back in frantic mode, “Dustil said he would come by today, but I can tell him to do it another day if you — “

“Carth Onasi, don’t you dare blow your son off for me,” I stop him, “I’ll be fine, really. Go.”

“If you’re sure,” he says, giving me another unnecessary chance to pull him back even though he knows I’m not going to. But again, the gesture is sweet and I appreciate it. So he heads for the door. I lay down. Trying not to think.

“Dustil!” He exclaims, and I pick my head back up.

“Why do you sound surprised?” Dustil says, “I told you I’d be coming.”

“No, it’s not that, I just thought you’d — I thought you’d be here later,” Carth stammers a little. “Damn it,” he swears, “I really have to go. There’s —“

“Should I come back later, or...?”

“No!” Carth says quickly, and I can read him now, he doesn’t want Dustil to feel like his father is abandoning him for the Republic again. Even though it would be better for everyone if Dustil came back later, but Carth doesn’t want to say that because he doesn’t want to do that to his son again.“It’s...” he says hesitantly.

“Why don’t you come in, Dustil?” I say, saving Carth, “Your father’s busy right now but he’ll be back.”

“Yes! Yes, exactly,” Carth says, and he doesn’t even wait for Dustil to respond before leaving in the direction of the Entertainment Module. “I’ll try to be back in a few hours, tops!” he says as Dustil comes in. And then he closes the door and he’s gone.

Dustil seems a little uncomfortable, it’s radiating off him. Trust me, even if I wasn’t skilled in the Force I could feel it. Like he’s trying to place me beyond just “Dad’s girlfriend.” “You were on Korriban, weren’t you?” He asks. I nod, and he sits down. Trying to feel more comfortable. That was a different time, for both of us. We were different people, almost. “How’s, uh,” he starts to ask, “how’s Master Uthar?”

I give a little nod. “Dead,” I say. Dustil sort of looks in shock and repositions himself. “Died in the tomb of Naga Sadow.”

“You’re sure?” He asks. Almost reflexively, I guess.

“I should be, I hit him with my lightsaber and he didn’t get up.” Yet another of my victims. Granted, it was him or me, but still. I killed him. Not Yuthura. No, if I’d died, she would have fought him but she wasn’t fighting with full effort. She wanted me to weaken him so that if I died she could take him. And if I lived, I’d be tired enough for her to take out, and weakened by Uthar enough for her to handle. She wasn’t anticipated me to defeat him, or to spare her. That’s one of the few saving graces from that trip.

“Oh,” Dustil says, “So you...”

“Ran him through.”

“You made it to the final,” he finishes, “What happened to the others? Mekel, Lashowe...”

“Kel Algwinn returned to the light side. So did Mekel. Lashowe tried to fight me for a holocron we easily could have shared credit for, and Shaardan tried to steal the Sword of Ajuunta Pall from me but was too stupid to make sure he had the right one.”

Dustil gives a little nod. “Yeah, that sounds like him,” he says, “He always was too... stubborn and foolish for his own good. I could see that.”

“Yeah, but you’d already made it to the final test and passed,” I say, “You didn’t have to deal with him as a ‘rival,’” I say, using air quotes around “rival” - even if I wasn’t... Revan... he wouldn’t have been much of a match for me. Certainly not me, Jolee, and Carth. His saber technique was lacking, both literally and euphemistically speaking.

“Well, from what I hear he wouldn’t have been much of a match for you, either,” Dustil says. Oh, shit, what did he hear? What did Carth tell him? How much did Carth tell him? Because if he mentioned my past to Dustil, at this stage in the relationship, that’s a line he shouldn’t have crossed. That’s for me to tell people. Especially given the bad day I’m having today about all this. This would be an absolutely horrible time for Dustil to mention Revan. He and his mother were just two more victims of her. Cancerous said Malak was behind the destruction of Telos, and so was Saul Karath, but at the end of the day, who was responsible for Saul Karath? Who was responsible for Malak? Revan. Me.

“I mean, after all,” Dustil says, and I tense up a little in anticipation, “you pretty much single-handedly stopped the Sith, right?” ... okay, how far is he going with this? “Sure, you had Father’s help to find those Star Maps, but you lead the way, you used them to find the hub of the Sith fleet. And you killed Malak.” Not one mention of Revan. Either he’s being very polite or he has no idea. Even though if it wasn’t for Revan, I wouldnt have been able to access the Star Maps. I wouldn’t have been able to get into the Ruins on Dantooine, or access the Star Map on Kashyyyk at all. I wouldn’t have been able to talk to the Rakata, or get the force field down at the Temple of the Ancients. Or around the planet, for that matter. If I wasn’t Revan, I don’t know if I would have been able to do any of that. And I hate that — I don’t even know what my own capabilities are! If anything I can do is because of me or because of Revan! Or if there even isa me! “How are you feeling about all that?” Dustil asks.

I can feel my voice trying to choke. But I swallow it down. “I’m, uh...” I star to say, “I’m coping.”

Dustil looks confused. “H- what do you mean, you’re coping?” He asks gently. I think he knows he’’s treading on thin ice, but he’s trying to learn more about me. I mean, I guess we’re family now, right?

“It’s, uh,” and I can’t swallow the tears in my voice, “... it’s hard to talk about.”

We’re both silent for a moment. Then, “Okay,” he says, “Don’t talk about it. Show me.”

“Show you?” I repeat, “What do you mean? How?”

“The Force,” he says, “It was something Master Uthar talked about, using the Force to pull your enemy’s weakness from their mind. But it can be done less... invasively, mutually, to share information, emotions. Like meditation.” He shifts again. “Come on, a Jedi as strong as you, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

It’s not that I’m worried it would be difficult. I mean, I get the feeling it was something Revan did a lot. Not from memories, per say, it’s just his sense I have about people, their minds, their thoughts, their feelings. I’ve had that since before I remembered being Revan, so it must have been something she had, too. It’s probably how she was able to convince so many people to betray the Republic after the Mandalorian Wars, how she was able to convince Jedi to join her even before the Mandalorian Wars. And how I’ve been able to persuade people over the course of the journey for the Star Forge. Just a sense about people. an uncanny sense. It’s not difficultly I’m worried about. I don’t want to alienate the son that Carth wanted so badly to be back in his life by telling him that I was more or less responsible for his mother’s death, his father leaving him, at least by proxy. That I was responsible for the Sith he joined, and I was responsible for why he joined them.

But i also don’t want things to be uncomfortable for either of us. I need to confront who I am. Who I was. It’s probably the only way I’ll be able to become what I can be. And there’s a part of me - not Revan, me - that’s telling me that I can trust Dustil. We’ve both been through some shit. And if his father can accept me, so can he. “I take a deep breath and get into my meditation position. “Okay.” I close my eyes, and Dustil closes his. I can feel his mind open, ready to receive whatever I give. And I open my mind. “Let’s start at the beginning,” I send, “This may take a while.” And I start with the Endar Spire. Because he doesn’t just need to know who I am. He needs to know why everything I’ve done is affecting me. That I hesitate around every corner because something might be there that makes Revan come back. Especially on days like today, when I can feel her more than ever. And Dustil listens, receives, patiently, not asking any questions of me. Not yet.

And when we get to the resurfacing memory of the mask, the turn, the destruction of Telos, I can feel anger rising inside him, and I’m afraid he’s going to shut me out, but suddenly the memory softens. It turns blue and becomes silent. And all I can hear is Dustil’s voice across the chasm of our minds — “I forgive you.”

And I almost cry. That feels good. To be forgiven.

It must be a couple hours before everything is over. Because when I open my eyes, I see Carth’s hand resting on mine. Looking very concerned. “Hey,” he says softly, “You were pretty deep in there. Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I say, wiping my eyes, “I’m fine. Dustil had asked about...” I let it drop away before continuing, “... and I showed him.” Dustil opens his eyes now, too. And he’s quiet. He just sort of nods at me.

“Dustil?” Carth asks, looking at his son, “Are you okay?”

Dustil nods. “Yeah,” he says softly, “We’re okay.”

Carth looks a little confused, but Dustil gives me a little smile and I smile back. We’re okay. And Carth lets it drop for now.

He insists on trying to cook. (The synthesizer has been busted for a little bit, and I keep trying to fix it, but I need a special part before I can completely fix it. So Carth and I flip flop on cooking. I’m okay at it - I have memories of cooking as a scout that real or not provide enough experience to know what I’m doing - but Carth is god awful. Thankfully I managed to outfit T3 with a carbonate projector so he doubles as a fire-suppressant droid. Not making that mistake again. It’s technically my turn, but Carth insisted on doing it today, because it’s a bad day for me. He’s so sweet, my soft bunny man.) T3 spends a lot of time beeping anxiously as Carth tries to figure out what he’s doing. I take a moment to reconnect with Dustil through the Force, and he lets me in. “Has he always been like this?” I ask.

“Like what?”

“Well-meaning, but useless.”

Dustil gives a little chuckle. “This isn’t even the worst of it. You should have seen the time he tried to help Mother with the laundry.”

I raise my eyebrows. “What turned pink?”

“His uniform.”

I can’t — I cannot rein in a laugh at that. Probably too loud.

“What?” Carth asks from the other room, “What are you laughing at?”

“Oh,” I start to say, and I trade a glance with Dustil, “nothing important.”

[jordanianroyals]

10 March 2019: Queen Rania attended the main session of the fifth annual Teacher Skills Forum (TSF), where she met with a number of international professionals working in education.

Held under the patronage of Her Majesty under the theme “Agile Minds, Turning Tides,” the forum spanned three full days, starting on Friday and concluding on Sunday, at the King Hussein bin Talal Convention Center at the Dead Sea. The Queen Rania Teacher Academy organizes TSF yearly in partnership with the International Baccalaureate.

Her Majesty attended a panel discussion on how to equip upcoming generations with the agility they need to be resilient. (Source: Petra)

Participants in the panel included Lecturer and Director of Learning and Outreach at Harvard School of Education’s (HGSE) Project Zero, Dr. Tina Blythe, Chair of the IB Examining Board, Dr. David Homer, Head of Innovation at Luminus Education, Loay Malahmeh, and CEO of the Education Development Trust, Patrick Brazier.

During the panel, Dr. Blythe who possesses over three decades of experience in the field of education explained that for students to have agile minds their teachers must have developed agile minds through training, explaining that agility is crucial for keeping up with changing needs.

Dr. Homer for his part showcased the stages of education development and the transition from teaching to learning, as well as the integration of both concepts to achieve agility. He also highlighted how to make learning reflect students’ daily experiences. Homer added that novel learning does not imply forcing knowledge onto students, but rather requires involving students in the learning process.

Joining in the discussion, Brazier noted that current times require focusing on the quality of education and the extent to which it addresses 21st century skills and employment requirements, stressing the role that societies have to play in achieving this end.

At the session, Tadros explained how TSF “stands out as a platform where teachers and educators meet to find practical solutions that elevate the teaching process, especially this year’s forum, which focuses on agile minds and skills.” She also highlighted that “QRTA is currently celebrating 10 years of hard work and dedication to achieve its vision of contributing to the improvement of education in Jordan.”

This year’s forum focused on several themes, including the holistic development of learners, teaching for learning, learning in early years, pedagogical leadership, and digital literacy in the classroom. Each theme also posited innovative approaches to teaching and the use of technology to enhance learning outcomes.

On the sidelines of the forum, Her Majesty met with a group of international professionals in the field of education, including members of HGSE and IB.

The meeting with HGSE covered joint projects between HGSE’s Middle East Professional Learning Initiative (MEPLI) and Jordan, the Case Study Development Project for Educators in Jordan to support research and practice related to professional development, and MEPLI’s contribution to TSF.

In a second meeting with members of the IB, Her Majesty received an update on the partnership between IB and QRTA, and the performance of Jordanian students in IB examinations. The meeting also discussed IB’s support of Jordan’s examinations and curricula reform agenda.

Launched in 2014, TSF was designed to provide teachers from Jordan and the Arab world with modern and creative strategies and innovative teaching techniques. Since its inception, the forum has gained regional and international recognition for its approach and focus on teacher and classroom needs in order to enhance teaching.

TSF aims to empower teachers and educators to transform their experiences in the classroom by helping upgrade their knowledge on emerging trends and best practices in education, connect and network with peers and experts, and discover innovative ways to address learner needs.

The largest to date, this year’s forum boasted 139 workshops, and 11 pre-conference workshops led by expert educators and keynote speakers from globally renowned universities and organizations. The forum was also attended by participants from countries around the world, including Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, the U.S.A., Sri Lanka, India, Egypt, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Nigeria, Tanzania, the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, Bahrain, Lebanon, Kuwait, Pakistan, and Jordan. Educators from IB schools in the region were also present.