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Got permission to share this fun lil moment from Con Carolinas :

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This deserves more notes - but more than anything, I hope they let Max decide his fate at the end. They can make him suffer plenty, first, though.

If we ever get a scene with Max' uncle I hope Rune, Brand and Quinn go absolutely ballistic on him.

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HI NEW FRIEND!!

For the start of Pride, I decided to finish The Hanged Man from The Tarot Sequence with treats we bought from the fucking Farmers Market we stumbled upon after our Saturday Queer Brunch, like the bunch of queers we are. 🤣🤣🤣

*WHEEZE* Omg Brand I fucking love you so damned much.

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Sunny days in TX are for Brand’s Super Top Secret Country Playlist. It’s the only thing that makes the ridiculous heat and humidity bearable, the idea of a complete and total badass with a heart of gold secretly listening to country music and maybe, just maybe, thinking about his Arcana when a love song comes on, or a certain blonde-haired consort-to-be. Or maybe even both! We can daydream, right?

For those who don’t like country music, give this a listen. Your love for TTS will win out, guaranteed. Plus, KD himself is the one who said Brand likes country music, so you’re kind of obligated to give it a shot. Here’s some examples of great lyrics that make ME want to howl at the moon over how cute this could be in canon:

“Now til forever it’s all of me, all of you/just take my hand/and I’ll be the man your dad hoped that I’d be/and we’ll build this love from the ground up” - From The Ground Up, Dan+Shay

“In case you didn’t know/baby I’m crazy ‘bout ya/I would be lyin’ if I said that I could live this life without ya/even though, I don’t tell ya all the time/you had my heart a long, long time ago” - In Case You Didn’t Know, Brett Young

The entirety of Fall by Clay Walker

And if you don’t think Addam and Brand would dance to You Make It Easy by Jason Aldean or to Cowboy Like Me by Taylor Swift, I encourage you to listen and think again.

Look, I just can’t help it, when Dolly starts singing the chorus of And I Will Always Love You, I can only imagine Brand tracking Rune through his scope as Rune is about to do something stupid. Probably because I watched The Hitman’s Bodyguard too many times.

Enjoy!

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There's just something about the Tarot Sequence that's so fucking good. Like it's an urban fantasy - Atlantis gets discovered and there's all these magical courts that the tarot gets based off of - but its more than that. It's a survivor's story - his healing, the struggle of it, the revenge he rightfully gets against his assailants and abusers. It's a family story - about giving kids a chance to be the kid he didn't get the chance to be - about saving them from the same hurt, about growing and seeing family is who you become when the people you love come together. It's a love story - one of the most profound ones, where love is so damn deep it can alter magic and the world itself. A love where safety, self and strength come from each other and the love that is shared - it may not be the focus of the story but its so damn important to it. A love that requires friendship, understanding and growth. And yes there's also magic, chaos, queerness at every step and an ancient siberian rhino as a beloved family pet.

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Rune x Brand x Addam from The Tarot Sequence by K.D. Edwards

The Last Sun - KD Edwards/ Hold Me Like a Grudge - Fall Out Boy/ The Hourglass Throne - KD Edwards/ Everything (Live studio version) - Lifehouse/ Demons - Imagine Dragons

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Lady Death (Zurah Saint Joseph) from The Tarot Sequence.

And that’s TTS bingo for me! Thanks for putting it together @electricpurple89!

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Hi!!! Have you read the Tarot Sequence?

If yes, do you have any recs for Rune whump/fics focused on protective Brand?

If no, highly recommend! Found family on found family (I would check tw’s for sa/ptsd for sure, but from a sex repulsed perspective there was only one steamy scene in book one I skipped)

Thanks!

No I'm sorry I've not heard of the Tarot Sequence. Maybe my followers can be of help?

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Brand Saint John from @KDEdwards_NC’s Tarot Sequence series 📚 Repainting an old sketch from August. 💙🗡️

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I will never not reblog something Strumi made. If I don’t, I either haven’t seen it or have perished.

A soul that’s born in cold and rain Knows sunlight, sunlight, sunlight - Sunlight, Hozier 60 days left until The Hourlglass Throne (May 17th!) Since we’re already adding to the tarot with Hourglass, here’s one more. The Companion featuring Brand Saint John. As the first trilogy draws to a close, Rune and his court face an enemy that’s shrouded in rumor and infamy. One whose every dark act could bring the secrets he holds, to light. Filled with amazing rep, genuine love and sweetness, and no end to magic, even in times of hardship and near-impossible odds. The Hourglass Throne brings the first Trilogy of the Tarot Sequence to a conclusion. Find the series on Goodreads/Booksellers/Libraries - preorders for The Hourglass Throne are up!

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Showing up at the loving Quinn Saint Nicholas competition but your opponents are Max Saint John and Addam Saint Nicholas.

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HOURGLASS THRONE SURVIVORS KNOW

"are you okay?" no I got way too attached to a fictional character and now they're dead

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Playlist Adventures #5 - Quinn Saint Nicholas

Bad brain days always call for my Quinn playlist. First, because I can always use the reminder that one of the coolest characters I’ve ever read is a little weird, too, and second because a lot of these songs are enough of a bop that they clear out some of the the static. And if they don’t? Well, at least I have a cool soundtrack.

When making this list I wanted to try to capture what it might feel like from Quinn’s perspective, and like his prophecies, you may have to ignore some things like gender or overt romanticism (looking at you, second verse of Mastermind). But some songs like Next to Normal by Lucius, Mind Over Matter by Young The Giant, and Immortals by Fall Out Boy are perfect right out the gate.

My favorite track is a mashup of several verses of different songs, but honestly, gun to my head I would probably pick Eidolon by Signal Void, which has no words at all, and is pure vibes. It makes me wonder what it felt like as Quinn to realize it’s time to leave the motor running.

Plus the not-so-secret EIDOLON reference ;)

Enjoy!

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SO CUTE I LOVE IT

Rune and Brandon from The Tarot Sequence series by KD Edwards because its all I think about right now!! Just a sketch but maybe I can work some more on it later and make it more interesting!

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Part Two - Half House and The Tower

✨From here on out, there will be spoilers ✨

Half House:

This chapter is foundational knowledge, in my opinion, on how to build a lovable character and then let them do disagreeable things. Honestly, THE LAST SUN is a masterclass in character building, already, but this chapter is the cornerstone of getting the reader sucked in, and the next chapter (which I'll get to, pinky promise) is the string that tugs the stick out from under the edge of the box, effectively trapping the reader in complete and total love for these stories. I don't make the rules, that's just how it happens.

The key, I think, is how relatable Rune is. From his claim that the stories about the worst night of his life "Just. Won't. Fucking. Die," to the pause he has for the unsettling feeling of did I just fuck up? that he feels after the encounter with Max in the bathroom, Rune is just a regular guy. I mean, yeah, he's technically a fallen prince with the capability to incinerate everything in an as-yet-undetermined radius, but he's a normal dude with a shitty day job, spooky boss, and bills to pay! He worries about his weight and wears laundry of questionable cleanliness! Just me? Listen, once you start having a chair pile, you never go back. But I digress.

I will die on the hill that these books - while fantastic to read - are even better when listened to. Josh Hurley, the narrator, is my dream narrator for my OWN book (if I get lucky enough to be published one day - I hope he can do a British accent). I hated audiobooks, legitimately hated them, until these stories, because the narration just feels like listening to a friend tell you about what's going on in their life, until all of a sudden it doesn't and you're in an epic battle with a lich, or struggling not to cry as your worst fears and biggest hopes are confirmed one right after the other (but that's HOURGLASS THRONE talk). So, if you're a hands-on reader who hates audiobooks, just trust me. I've listened to these books so many times I don't hear my own brain voice when I read them anymore. It's just the incredible talents of Mr. Hurley that have been engraved on my memory like grooves in a vinyl record.

It's the narration, too, that enhances that relatable factor, especially where Brand is concerned. He's definitely doing a violence on Max that would get American CPS called, but the narration makes it funny, the way I think it was intended to be. And again, they all clearly grow from this point over the series, and moreover, no one is perfect, and if you haven't wanted to stick someone's head in a toilet and flush, you're probably a liar.

Speaking of liars - Queenie. Settle in and grab some tinfoil for your hat, because I Have A Theory:

I think Brand went fucking nuts on Max - and granted, this is mild considering what he, a literal sharpshooter mercenary, is capable of - because he was programmed to do so. I have the benefit of having read all the way through the 3rd book and the EIDOLON, so I know that evidence supporting my theory exists, but that's an essay for a different day. What matters now, dear reader, is that I think that Queenie fucked up, and she's realizing it in the background of this scene when she tries to stop Brand, only to have him steamroll the conversation right over her. He goes oddly (and humorously) formal in his recount of what he did and why, and the ferocity of his protectiveness coupled with his recount of events just never sat well with me. It was disproportionate; there's no doubting that. I've always been suspicious of this sequence of events, specifically because this happened on the heels of Rune mentioning that the Empress, in her "unhinged grief" (such a mood) vanished into thin air and obtained Cryptid Status. From the first time I read these books, I thought (and continue to think) this bitch is the Empress, isn't she? Every time.

But! More on that theory soon.

Queenie's gentle manipulation, asking Rune how it was for him, after he lost everything, was masterfully done, Empress or not. It speaks to someone who has been a parent, or at least has been responsible for giving guidance (which, ahem, the Empress is the Mother archetype in the Tarot soooo...I am, as the kids say, standing on business) and knows that a delicate hand is needed. Where she couldn't stop Brand's irate retelling, she is able to successfully pull one of Rune's heartstrings and get him thinking about what she wants him to think about.

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed this passage not only for the breadcrumb trail beginning in front of us as readers, but also for the dynamic emerging between the characters. Especially knowing how much trauma exists between the three of them now, and being a parent of a child with trauma (she's bootleg, don't worry, I didn't give it to her) and being a parental figure with my OWN trauma, I could really relate to the feeling of fucking up because of a trigger being set off when I was unprepared.

The last thing I loved about this chapter is how Brand and Rune work a case. It's incredibly smooth, subtle world-building that SHOULD, by rights, feel like an info-dump, but it doesn't, because of how expertly this is written. The personality embedded in Rune and Brand saturates the page and obfuscates any sense of things being spelled out for the reader. Plus, the way Rune and Brand riff off of one another is fun, and funny, and 100% the reason why my wife ships them romantically, because they DO bicker like an old married couple. It feels more than anything to me, like conversations I would have with my wife (if we were magic-case-solving-mercenaries, obviously). It's impossible not to love Rune and Brand. They're iconic.

Favorite Quote:

Not so much a quote, but the way Josh Hurley narrates Rune proudly theorizing "Maybe he wants to give me a big fat check" is stuck permanently in my vernacular, cadence, tone, everything. I have quoted it while opening the mail several times. There is never a big fat check.

The Tower:

This, as I said before, is where the string gets pulled, and we, the readers, get trapped. It's not the hook - that was buried back in the sparkly lure of the Heart Throne chapter - this is us being reeled in so swiftly we can't even struggle on the line. The continued world-building is seamless, concise, and vivid. I love the line where Rune says the rest of the world thought New Atlantis pulled their Gotham out of a cereal box, and the way he follows it up with "not a bad rep to have". This sentence does so many things at once: it establishes how New Atlantis came to be, it establishes what other people thought of it happening, and it establishes that it was costly on multiple levels, AND it establishes that it is incredibly unlikely to happen again. This makes New Atlantis feel more real, to me, because it's the difference between living somewhere and just visiting, or seeing photos online. Y'all might see a picture of bluebonnets in a meadow and think "Wow, so pretty," and I would see it and definitely think "God, it was probably 102 degrees when this was taken."

Speaking of differences in perspectives! When Rune said that Lord Tower and Brand "didn't get along" my first instinct is best described as uh huh...sure, Jan. HOURGLASS THRONE survivors know what I'm talking about.

I also loved the stealth-worldbuilding of wandering the streets of New Atlantis with Rune and Max on their way to the Pac Bell. And did you notice the seamless way Rune interrogates Max? I literally didn't notice that that was what it was, an interrogation, until THIS REREAD, so like...yesterday. And then Rune effortlessly provokes Max to reveal his true feelings about the situation? Slow clap goes here.

Another thing I just realized this reread is that IF QUEENIE IS THE EMPRESS, IS SHE THE ONE WHO TOLD LORD TOWER MAX WAS THERE????? Because who was holding New Atlantis together in her wake? Oh, just good ol' L.T. That takes LOYALTY, a deep kind of loyalty that most political figures don't deserve, and I'm curious to see if I'm right, if the loyalty was reciprocal, or if Queenie/The Empress was still trying to call the shots from behind the scenes instead of stepping back. Also, calling it now: I don't think it was just grief that sent Queenie to ground. I think she had something to be legitimately scared of coming for her, and she bolted for her own survival. I feel this way because New Atlantis, according to Rune, treats grief differently than we might. He refers to himself as a cautionary tale, even - why would a society designed to not support victims have space for grief? So my next question is - did she participate in the raid? Or does she know something about it?

Going back to Lord Tower - this is a weird experience, this reread, because of the loss of my own Dad, but it's even weirder to realize that I can see how Rune identifies L.T. as a father figure, now. It's right there on the page, but in THT, the recognition of that role in his life was a sucker punch for me. So that's interesting. I look forward to seeing what else this reread elicits for me.

Also, what happened to that AI, KD? It's been a while...I'm just saying. Is this Chekov's AI?

Another 'love it' moment for this chapter, to close out my TEDx talk, is yet more casework, this time in the form of Rune getting info from L.T. It initially felt like a mysterious-benefactor-and-protege situation before, but like I said, this reread, I can feel the difference, and like a paperback that's gone soft as fabric from too many rereads, I hear the soft affection in Lord Tower's sigh and "Must you make me so terrifying?" quote. I also hear that paternal vibe in "Addam is special, and I worry." You even hear it in the OBVIOUS (except to Rune) matchmaking energy from Lord Tower calling Addam a "confirmed bachelor, much like you." Which I love, every time.

Favorite Quote:

"His walkabouts?" (Emphasis to try to capture Josh Hurley's narration). Honestly, Rune's entire snarky commentary is just so funny, especially now that I know what happens, and it's obvious just how not like what he expected Addam turned out to be. But that's another topic for another day.

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This captures the vibes PERFECTLY 🖤🖤🖤

ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ«admit it. you were peeking around the corner, ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤwaiting for the last possible second to make your ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤentrance. you arcana are such drama queens.» ㅤㅤㅤ ㅤㅤ