#//started in a new thread for tracking purposes | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

wavesoutbeingtossed · 8 months

Text

Screaming from the crypt (or how the past haunts the present on Midnights)

I know it's been discussed so much since Midnights came out but just.

I love how there is such a clear narrative throughout the album (and perhaps especially on the 3am/Vault tracks). About questioning and regret and choices and coming to terms with all of it. It is one long story about how we're all a mosaic of the choices we make, each one taking something from us and leaving something else in its place.

(And now a disclaimer: I'm looking at this mostly through a narrator/subject lens, and trying not to dive too deeply into real-life events or speculation except for in a general sense. For this purpose I like to look at the body of work as art, like literature, because I find it makes it easier to see the common threads in the different songs and cohesion in the narrative.)

In looking at the 3am+ tracks in particular, it's fascinating how some turns of phrases or themes repeat themselves in different songs, in different contexts. (I'm only focusing on the non-standard tracks because there are too many songs and I'd be here all day but I bet I could do a part two lol.) I know many people have pointed out the parallels throughout her discography already and I’m not saying anything groundbreaking by writing this, but I love how these parallels run through in the same album, because it makes it seem like it's one long story, or at least, one long rumination on many different stories that are coalescing into a single narrative.

Battle (let’s go)

For instance, the one that jumped out at me when I started writing this post the other week was, "Tore your banners down, took the battle underground," in The Great War and "If clarity's in death, then why won't this die? Years of tearing down our banners, you and I," in Would've, Could've Should've. It's a story about staying stuck in the same cycle of reliving trauma and coping mechanisms and bad habits over and over again and fantasizing about how taking the “antagonist” out and gaining the upper hand for good would bring closure (WCS), but the truth is that nothing ever will. All that cycle does, though, is repeat itself in other situations, and in this case pushes someone away the narrator cares for (TGW). The difference is that the imagined battle in WCS is a two-way street in her mind (that is ultimately unwinnable because it was never a fair fight), but in TGW it's one-sided -- she's the one fighting dirty, taking shots, the way she'd been doing in her imagination (or nightmares) all these years. But the person in front of her isn't fighting back the way the person in her mind in WCS would, because their intentions are honourable instead of exploitative.

And that's paralleled in another pair of lyrics from the two songs, "And maybe it's the past talking, screaming from the crypt, telling me to punish you for things you never did," (in TGW) and "The tomb won't close, I fight with you in my sleep," (in WCS). In both cases, the funeral imagery makes it seem like this past event should be dead and buried in WCS, but it keeps rising from the dead, haunting her no matter what she does and in TGW, another (or perhaps the same?) tomb that won't close keeps unleashing new ways to hurt her and in turn the new person in her life. In other words, the trauma from the past continues to bleed into the present.

(Again from a literary point of view, I'm not saying the events of the two songs are linked IRL, but they're fascinating textual parallels on the album as a string of chapters, which is why Dear Reader is so compelling, but that's a whole other essay.)

To keep the battle motif going, there’s yet another parallel, this time between TGW’s "[You were a] soldier down on that icy ground, looked up at me with honor and truth," and You’re Losing Me’s "All I did was bleed as I tried to be the bravest soldier, fighting in only your army.” In the former, the subject is laying down his armour in the war she’s projecting onto him, waving the white flag, and she realizes that she’s about to destroy something if she doesn’t put her sword down too. By the time we get to YLM, the roles are almost reversed; at the very least they’re supposed to be on the same team, but in this case she’s doing all the heavy lifting, fighting for their relationship in contrast to his apathy killing it. It’s also pretty interesting (if not outright intentional) that one of the 3am+ editions of the albums starts with The Great War, where they find themselves in conflict (even if it’s in her head) that ends in a truce, and ends with You’re Losing Me signalling the end of the relationship, evidence that the resolution in the first song wasn’t an ending but merely a ceasefire before the last battle.

Putting the rest under a cut because this is waaaaay too long now ⤵️

(There’s also another metaphor there in The Great War with its battle imagery: World War I, aka The Great War, was supposed to be the war to end all wars, because loss on its scale was never seen before and when it ended, most thought never again would the world embroil itself in such battle, the horrors and implications were so devastating. Two decades later, the world found itself in WWII, with an even larger scope and more horrific consequences, the intervening time between the two a period of festering conflicts and resentment leading to some of the worst acts the world would see. Bringing real life into it for a second, there’s something a little poetic, though sad, about The Great War the song being about a fight that could have ended the relationship that they ultimately resolved and was meant to be evidence of the strength of their love, but so too did it end up being a period of détente, the greater battle coming for them years later. But that is not the point of this post.)

If one thing had been different

Another major theme in these editions is pondering the "what ifs?" of life, but I think it takes on even more significance in the broader context of the album in the lyrics of "I'm never gonna meet what could've been, would've been, should've been you," in Bigger than the Whole Sky and the repetition of would've/could've in Would've, Could've, Should've (I would've looked away at the first glance, I would've stayed on my knees, I would've gone along with the righteous, I could've gone on as I was, would've could've should've if I'd only played it safe, etc.) In both songs, the narrator is mourning an alternate course their life could have taken* and questioning what they could have done differently, in the aftermath of trauma and loss, and the regret that comes with that loss, and with the loss of agency in the situation because ultimately it was never in their hands. In an album full of questions, wondering about the path not taken, or the forks in the road that have led to a different version of your life, it's digging deeper into the contrast of choice vs. fate, action vs. reaction, dwelling on the past vs. moving on. When you're supposed to let go of the past, what do you do when it is holding your future hostage?

(*I know there are different interpretations/speculation about BTTWS which I am not getting into on main. I'm just saying that whatever the song is about, it's grieving something that never came to be. The literal origin of the song is less important to the album than the sense of loss it portrays. Whatever the inspiration is, it's crafted to tell part of the story of Midnights of ruminating over how, to borrow from her previous work, if one thing had been different, would everything be different?)

(Also I was today years old when I realized that the words are inverted in the two songs. Apparently I've been hearing BTTWS wrong this whole time.)

There's also an interesting tangent in the role of faith in both songs: in WCS, the events of the story cause her to lose her faith (e.g. "All I used to do was pray," "you're a crisis of my faith,") and question all the things she felt had been unquestionable until that point in her life (e.g. "I could have gone along with the righteous"), whereas in BTTWS, she questions whether that very lack of faith is to blame for the loss in that song ("did some force take you because I didn't pray? [...] It's not meant to be, so I'll say words I don't believe"). It's like pinpointing the moment her life changed and upended her beliefs (WCS), but as a result then leaving her unmoored in times of crisis because ultimately there's no explanation or comfort to be taken from what she used to hold true before that (BTTWS). The words she once relied upon to guide her have long since lost their meaning, but in times of trouble it leaves her wondering if that faith she once held then lost could have prevented this pain.

(Shoutout to WCS for being Catholic guilt personified lol.)

To keep on with the vaguely faith-y notions, an obvious parallel is the line in Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve about, “I damn sure never would've danced with the devil at nineteen,” and, "When you aim at the devil, make sure you don't miss," in Dear Reader. All of WCS is about her fighting with an antagonist who haunts her, with whom she wholly regrets ever becoming involved. DR could be seen as a reflection on that fall from grace, warning the audience that if you choose to go after the person (or thing) haunting you, make sure you do so clearheaded enough to be decisive. Again, these “devils” may not be related in real life: the IRL devil in DR could be speaking about her naysayers, or Kim*ye, or Scott & Scooter B, etc., meaning not to cross your enemies until you know you can win. But taking real life out of it and looking at it textually, I am intrigued by the link between WCS and DR, so that’s what I’m going with here. And perhaps that’s even the point in a wider sense; there will be multiple “devils” in your life, or threats to your well-being. If you’re going to commit to taking them down — whether it’s an actual person, or the demons inside you that refuse to let you go — make sure you have the right ammo so that they can no longer hurt you. (Of course, one lesson from these experiences is that sometimes you can’t win, and you have to live with the fallout.)

(Sidebar: I know that “dancing with the devil” is a turn of phrase that means being led into temptation and engaging in risky behaviour, as opposed to describing the actual person. Given the religious metaphors in the song, that could very well be/is the intention, particularly when it’s preceded by, “I would have stayed on my knees” as in she would have continued to follow her faith — in whatever sense that means — had she never met this person, which could also be a more eloquent way of saying she would have continued to be live her life in a way that was righteous (even naive) and seen the world in black and white. Either way, it’s a force she wholly rejects. Like I said, multiple devils, same fight.)

Regret comes up too: in WCS, she says, "I regret you all the time," obviously directed at the person who manipulated her and led to her perceived downfall, citing him as the one impulse she wished she'd never followed, because it won't leave her no matter how hard she’s tried. In High Infidelity, she tells the person to, "put on your records and regret me," and on the surface, it’s like she’s turning the tables, painting herself as the one now causing the regret in someone else, the one inflicting the pain this time. Yet the verse preceding it and the lines following it in the chorus depict a partner who is also emotionally manipulative and vindictive like in WCS (“you said I was freeloading, I didn’t know you were keeping count,” “put on your headphones and burn my city,”). It’s not so much that she’s intentionally harming the person (the way the person in WCS does to her), but rather that the venom in the subject’s feelings towards her seeps through; she’s imagining the way he’s going to feel about her when she leaves, hating her just for by being who she is. (There could be another tangent about how in both songs she’s there to be a “token” in a game for both of the men, who play her for their own purposes.) The regret is dripping with disdain. It’s as though she’s picturing how the person is going to hate her for doing what she’s thinking of doing the way she hates the person who first hurt her.

Sadness, unsurprisingly, shows up in a few lyrics. In BTTWS, “Everything I touch becomes sick with sadness,” sets the scene of a person so overcome with grief that it permeates everything around them; they cannot see their way out of it and feel like the fog will never lift. In Hits Different, it’s, “My sadness is contagious,” the result of a breakup where the person’s grief again touches everything and everyone around them, pushing them further in their despair and loneliness. The reason behind the grief in either case may vary, but regardless of the source, the feeling is overpowering and isolating. They may be different chapters in the story, but the devastation is hauntingly familiar. (As is a recurring theme in Midnights as a whole: there are situations and feelings that present themselves at different points in her journey and colour in the lines in different ways along the road. Like revisiting an old vice and realizing the hit isn’t quite the same as it was in the past.)

Death by a thousand cuts

She also writes about wounds on this album, which isn't surprising I suppose given that the whole conceit is that these are things that have kept her up at night over the years. WCS is perhaps the driving narrative on this never ending hurt when she sings, “The wound won't close, I keep on waiting for a sign, I regret you all the time,” suggesting that no matter what she does, the pain of this experience has permeated everything she’s done afterwards. (Not unlike the overwhelming grief in BTTWS, for instance.) Elsewhere, in High Infidelity she sings, "Lock broken, slur spoken, wound open, game token," and in Hits Different, "Make it make some sense why the wound is still bleeding.” Again I'm not suggesting they're about the same events; the line in HI is about a situation where a partner crosses a boundary, hits below the belt, picks at an insecurity (or creates a new one) and treats the relationship like it's transactional, opening the floodgates in turn. In HD, the wound seems to be more self-inflicted, where she's pushed the person away. (Over a situation real or imagined she feels she needs distance from.) But again, something has picked at her like a raw nerve, and just like in the past, she's hurting, even in a different time and place and person. Almost like the wounds of the past break open over and over again to create new scars. If one were to extrapolate further, it wouldn’t be the biggest leap to wonder if the wound open in WCS, then torn apart in HI makes the one in HD hurt even more.

(I once wrote a post about how I think as time goes on, WCS is going to turn into one of those songs that will be found to drive so much of her work, because it’s just… kind of the unsaid thesis statement of so much of her songwriting.)

Another repeated theme is that of the empty home and loneliness. In High Infidelity, she sings, "At the house lonely, good money I'd pay if you just know me, seemed like the right thing at the time," painting a picture of someone who may have everything they'd want to the outside world, but in reality feels metaphorically trapped in their home (or at least alone amidst abundance), a symbol of a relationship gone sour and a failure to build connection. She just wants someone to understand her, want her for her, but as she's written earlier in the song, she's just a pawn in the game, a trophy from the hunt. Home, in this case, is lonely, isolated, an emblem of her fears. In Dear Reader, she continues this thread, then singing, "You wouldn't take my word for it if you knew who was talking, if you knew where I was walking, to a house not a home, all alone 'cause nobody's there, where I pace in my pen and my friends found friends who care, no one sees you lose when you're playing solitaire." It's the same idea, admitting to listeners that the gilded cage she lived in kept her distanced from her loved ones and real connection, keeping her struggles close to the vest but feeling desperately lonely amidst her crowning success. She's pushed people away and it may have felt like the right thing at the time, but in the end maybe felt like she was trapped. And when you push people away, eventually they take you at your word and stop pushing back; you’re a victim of your own success at isolating yourself. What starts out of self-preservation then further perpetuates the underlying problems.

(There's another interesting link about "home" also feeling unsafe with HI's "Your picket fence is sharp as knives," which further leads into the theme of marriage/domesticity feeling dangerous, which is a whole other thing I won't get into here because it's another discussion and may derail this already gargantuan word salad.)

In a slightly similar vein, we have the metaphor of bad weather for a rocky road or unstable relationship, in High Infidelity again with, "Storm coming, good husband, bad omen, dragged my feet right down the aisle" and You’re Losing Me’s "every morning I glared at you with storms in my eyes.” They aren’t speaking of the same situation or even same kind of breakdown, but it is pretty interesting how the idea of clouds/storms/floods/etc. play such a role in Taylor’s music to signal depression, apprehension, fear, uncertainty, etc. In HI, I think the “storm” coming is the looming threat of commitment to a partner who makes the narrator uneasy (if not fearful). In this case, the idea of making a life with this person is not one that incites joy or comfort, but instead makes the narrator feel that dark times are ahead if she continues down this path. Perhaps in some way, the “storms” in YLM have made good on the threat in HI in a different way; it’s a different home, a different relationship, but the clouds have settled in regardless, and some of her fears have come to fruition in ways she did not expect. The person she once trusted no longer sees her or her struggles (or worse, doesn’t care), and the resentment and pain build with each passing day.

Coming back to heartbreak, one of the obvious "full circle" moments is the beginning of a relationship in Paris, where she says that, "I'm so in love that I might stop breathing," clearly enthralled in a new love that allows her to shut the world out and grow in private, capturing the all-encompassing nature of the relationship. This infatuation has consumed her in the most wonderful way (in contrast to the sorrow of some of the previous songs), and it feels like a life-altering (or even life-sustaining?) force that is so strong she may forget what it’s like to breathe. (Metaphorically speaking, of course.) By the end of the album, though, in You're Losing Me, that heart-stopping love has become a threat: "my heart won't start anymore for you." In the former, her racing heart is full of excitement, but by the latter, her heart has given out completely under the weight of the pain she bears. (YLM is full of death/illness imagery which I already wrote about awhile ago so I won't hear, but needless to say that song deserves its own essay for so many reasons.) She's gone from the unbridled joy of the beginnings of a relationship to the unrelenting sorrow of its end, two sides of the same coin.

Love as death appears elsewhere in the music too, for instance, in High Infidelity’s, “You know there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love, the slowest way is never loving them enough" and You’re Losing Me’s “How can you say that you love someone you can't tell is dying? […] My face was gray, but you wouldn't admit that we were sick.” Though not completely analogous situations, they both tell the tale of one partner’s apathy (or at least denial) destroying the other. In the former, the partner’s actions (or inaction) are more insidious, if not sinister; in the latter, the lack of momentum (or admission of a problem) is passive. In both cases, the end result is the narrator’s demise; it’s a drawn out affair that chips away at her morale and her health and her sense of self. (Breaking my own rule about bringing in alleged actual events into the discussion, but the idea that the relationship in High Infidelity, which was obviously fraught with unease and even fear, ended in a similarly excruciatingly slow and hurtful death by a thousand cuts as the relationship in You’re Losing Me almost did at that time must have been so painful. It almost feels like YLM is wondering why what used to be a source of light in her life was mirroring a situation that caused her such pain in the past.)

From the same little breaks in your soul

I said early on that part of what is so compelling about Midnights is that it feels like an album about ruminating — on choices, on events, on people — and the two final “bonus” tracks of the album depict that as well. In Hits Different, she sings that, “they say if it’s right, you know,” an ode to the confusion of a breakup and struggling with the aftermath of calling it quits. It’s a line that has always intrigued me, because the typical use of the phrase is in the sense of, “you’ll know when you meet the one,” but here it seems to have a double meaning, a reassurance perhaps from the friends (who later on tell her that "love is a lie") that she’ll know if she’s made the right decision in calling it off, but could also be her wondering if the relationship is right, she’ll know, and want to reconcile. In the final bonus track, You’re Losing Me, she sings, “now I just sit in the dark and wonder if it’s time,” this time leaving no doubt about the dilemma she faces, though it’s no less fraught. She’s wondering, perhaps for the last time, if now is finally the moment to end the relationship for good. They say that if it’s right she’ll know, and now she’s wondering if that feeling inside her (that once told her her partner was the one, which is why it hit differently), is telling her that it’s time to go for good. Wait Alexa play “It’s Time To Go.” These are not only the things that keep her up at night, but the things that play over in her mind like a film reel in her waking hours.

Midnights as a whole is a deeply personal album, as is most of Taylor's work, but the 3am+ edition tracks seem to dig even deeper to a lot of the issues raised on the standard album. Almost like the standard tracks are the things she wonders about on sleepless nights, but the bonus tracks are the things that haunt her in the aftermath. The regret, anger, sadness, grief, relief, even joy— they’re the price she pays for the memories she keeps reliving. Midnights might be the most cohesive narrative of all her albums, and really does feel like we’re watching someone work through her journal over time, stopping short of outright naming those giant fears and intrusive thoughts (except for when she does) but making them plain as day when you connect the songs together, and perhaps never more clearly than in the expanded album. It’s incredible how the songs stand on their own to relay a specific moment in time, but that they are also self-referential to each other (whether thematically or overtly) to weave a larger web over the entire work. We’re so lucky as fans to have these stories and to keep peeling back these layers as time passes. (And my literature-analysis-loving ass loves her even more for it.)

This is obviously by no means an exhaustive list, and I know there are more parallels and probably even stronger links (particularly when you add the standard version into the mix), but these were the ones that particularly struck me and I’m just glad I’ve had a chance to sit with this and think it through. ❤️

#writing letters addressed to the fire #me thinking too hard about taylor lyrics #taylor swift #midnights #long post #lyrics analysis #song parallels #Gabby this one is for you friend <3 #here goes nothing #Happy Friday or something idk!#(also i know i said there are things i wouldn’t discuss on main but my dms are open lol)#this is not as structured or well plotted out as I wanted it to be #and turned out to be more stream of consciousness than legit essay #but whatever at least i got my thoughts out there and it can release some plot of land in my brain for other stuff to think over lol #If anyone ever reads this thank you! And I’m sorry?#The best compliment i ever got in school #was when we were doing an analysis of a poem in English lit in college #And i brought something up casually #and my prof went ‘I’ve been teaching this class for eight years and that’s the first time anyone’s ever brought it up like that’#’and that just blew my mind’#and i was like ‘who me?’#so that’s all you need to know about me lol #Midnights: The Great War #Bigger than the whole sky #bttws #Midnights: Paris #Midnights: high infidelity #would’ve could’ve should’ve #Midnights: dear reader #midnights: bigger than the whole sky

109 notes · View notes

actualbird · 4 months

Text

Statistical Report of Marius/Luke Ao3 Literature (2024)

(aka, a pet project i've been working on behind the scenes for a while. if you'd rather read it as a PDF, you can check it out here, but i've copy pasted its entirety into this text post, beginning in 3...2...1...)

Introduction

Ahhh, Marius von Hagen and Luke Pearce…such wonderful characters from hit mobile otome game “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis.” As love interests to Miss MC Rosa Qiangwei, they each are incredibly compelling characters with incredibly nuanced backstories, personalities, and dynamics with MC.

Also, there’s a small but dedicated community of shippers that want them to kiss and make out and be in love with each other. Hell yeah!

Welcome to the Statistical Report of Marius/Luke Ao3 Literature (2024), a report that aims to capture this community’s literary contribution to the MariLuke ship by crunching the data available to the public on Ao3!

Before going into the data, there are some notes and caveats to this census that the author would like to make clear.

This report’s data was taken from the “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag on Archive of Our Own. This means that all works outside of this tag or outside of this website (ex. Twitter thread fics or Tumblr drabbles not crossposted to Ao3, fanfiction only on other sites like FanFiction.net, Wattpad, Weibo, etc.) have not been included.

This report’s data is as of May 31, 2024 as a cutoff date. This was so that I wouldn’t have to endlessly update the data and go insane.

Works that did exist but have since been deleted as of May 31, 2024 are not included, as the author does not have an encyclopedic memory of fanfics that no longer exist on the site :(

Now with all that said, let’s dive in.

---

Number Of Fics Posted and Surge Periods

Now, let’s begin with the number of fics posted. As of May 31, 2024, there are 166 fics in the “Lu Jinghe | Marius von Hagen/Xia Yan | Luke Pearce” tag on Ao3. This number (and subsequently, this report) counts fics as they are listed in AO3 as unique fics, meaning that if it takes up its own little box in the AO3 feed, that’s one fic in itself. This does unfortunately mean that fics that act as a collection (i.e. each chapter is a different story) are only counted as one fic. This number also excludes podfics, because that’s basically the same fic in a different format.

That being said, this number is still nothing to scoff at. And things get even more delightful when we track down the frequency of fics posted month by month in a timeline.

The earliest MariLuke fic posted on Ao3 was “You are King” by itshaku on August 8, 2021, a mere 10 days after ToT’s official global release. The folks who posted the very first few fics in August 2021 laid down the foundation and bedrock of the Ao3 tag, and as ToT’s existence to the global audience continued, more and more fic started to populate our hallowed halls.

However, while that’s the earliest MariLuke fic as is recorded by Ao3 now, I happen to know that there was a fic that was posted even earlier. A fic called “Don’t Let Me Go” by sakurei. Both the fic and the author’s account has since been delated, but I knew this fic existed because I originally started this report in 2022. When I had first put together the preliminary data, I noted “Don’t Let Me Go” as the first ever fic, and then was disheartened to learn that it was deleted. Like, no…the sacred texts… All hope seemed lost until my dear friend Z Lukevonhagen suggested I search the link on the Wayback Machine, and lo and behold, a copy of the True First Ever MariLuke Fanfic On Ao3 had been unearthed. Thanks, Z!

In the month of October 2021, the Marius/Luke tag experienced its first fic surge. For the purposes of this report, any month with 8 or more fics posted during their duration is counted as a surge. Why is 8 or more the qualifier? That number was picked solely off of vibes.

A total of 9 new fics were posted in October 2021, though the I can’t find any discernible reason for this fic. After some digging, I found no relevant fan events that occurred in October 2021 that linked to any of the MariLuke fics. In terms of in-game happenings, the only thing of note here is that this is when the Symphony Of The Night event was running, but it’s not like Marius and Luke made out on screen during that event’s storyline (oh, how I wished though…)

Our next surge happened in August 2022, with a whole 12 fics posted, when the tag suddenly and beautifully got a sizeable influx of CN fics. CN fics take up 6 of the 12 fics posted during this time period, which is half of the month’s total fic yield. Thank you for your service, CN MariLukers !

Our next surge period lasted for a whopping 3 consecutive months, ushering a Golden Age for MariLuke fics, so to speak. Month by month, what happened was:

In October 2022, another surge occurred with a total of 11 fics. During this month, Twitter account Thirst of Themis had run a ToT Kinktober fan event, and a number of new Marius/Luke fics were created and posted in accordance with the Kinktober prompts.

In November 2022, a total of 9 fics were posted, and this was mostly because of two specific singular authors’ hard work, as they published several fics all on their own in rapid succession and contributed to the surge. Ao3 author Litchire posted a whopping 4 fics during this period, along with Ao3 author ynfzymokaihewo who posted 3 fics.

In December 2022, a total of 9 fics were posted, though this is the month where I couldn’t find any discernible reason once again. Maybe the holiday season just made us all fic-happy? Who knows.

After that, it’s smooth sailing for a while with average MariLuke fic yields for a couple of months.

Then, the Recession came. Followed by a Revival. Followed by another Recession.

In April, 2023, only one (1) MariLuke fic was posted. Authors recovered in the following month of May 2023, but right after in June 2023, we all died once again with a staggering zero (0) new MariLuke fics posted. I assume we all went into hibernation or something. But that’s fine, because the next month in July 2023, the crops started flowering once more and the MariLuke harvest began anew.

Our next surge happened a couple months later, in November 2023, with 8 new fics posted. The culprit here is Thirst of Themis once again, for they had run a November prompts event, and 7 out of 8 MariLuke fics posted this month were in fulfillment of the event.

Now, we arrive at our latest surge and also our biggest one. In may 2024, the MariLuke Ao3 tag saw a whopping 28 new fics posted. This is undoubtedly the result of the fan event MariLuke Week (May 2024) for 27 out of the 28 fics were posted in fulfillment of the event’s prompts. The following authors participated in MariLuke Week, with their fic counts for this event placed next to their name:

xXILoveMyFridgeXx (10 fics contributed)

wtfhoney (7 fics contributed)

quarterweeb / theobscenfraction (4 fics contributed)

reptilianraven (3 fics contributed)

lukevonhagen (2 fics contributed)

Litchire (1 fic contributed)

Congratulations and thank you to the writers who participated in the event! You all contributed to the biggest surge in MariLuke stocks THUS FAR, and you should all give yourselves a pat on the back.

That concludes the timeline of MariLuke works up til May 31, 2024! Hit the showers, everybody!

---

Full List of AO3 Users Who Have Written Marius/Luke Fanfiction

The Marius/Luke writer population is a small but mighty one, with a total of 45 unique authors who have posted a fic Marius/Luke fic on Ao3 as of May 31, 2024. Before going into the full list of authors, here are some important caveats to the list:

ON ANONYMOUS AUTHORS: As this report deals with how Ao3 lists data, all authors who have opted to post anonymously will be counted as one entity. I personally know that some anonymous authors are different users, but verifying this without making any fuckups would make my tiny pea brain cry. For this reason, anonymous authors are counted as one unique author, so if you’re one of these anonymous authors, congrats on being a part of a Marius/Luke hivemind!

ON AUTHORS WITH PSEUDS: An Ao3 user who has different posted fics within the Marius/Luke tag under different pseuds will be counted as one unique author. Despite saying in the last paragraph that the my personal knowledge will not be enacted to tweak how Ao3 lists data, I’m making one exception here because it literally only pertains to three Ao3 users in the ship tag, so this won’t make my tiny brain cry at all.

So without further ado and in alphabetical order, here our are heroes:

Authors listed under the Anonymous Label

ajing_1124

artistic_gemini

asukryo

autumnsparrxw

BlazingSunflowers

CandorArchives

chechevitsa

darkbreak

doridoripawaa

dxpiarchaive / keeyamii

Eden_of_Amour / suffering_meguca

EnnTea

floweringlight

friedchickenlord

Goryo_Wataru

i_o_u_e_a

itshaku

kombat_exe

ladyhaspran

layla_wp

Litchire

lukevonhagen

m3i_day

marcipancake

monocuri

osamurice

pvsiytemhaver

quarterweeb / theobscenefraction

reptilianraven

RikuMorimachisGirl

Rxzaliya

samandspam

snocchiato

Solaste

sondepoch

strayris

Szim

Tinowenn

ThirdLibraryOfYumenosaki

turnscote

wtfhoney

xeriacat

xXILoveMyFridgeXx

ynfzymokaihewo

---

A Brief Glimpse Into Ratings and Tags

Before I looked at the ratings, I had a hypothesis that Explicit fics would take the lead because in majority of the MariLuke fics I’ve read myself, Marius and Luke are written to have incredibly active libidos. Lo and behold, when I did chart down the fics by rating, is is revealed that…

…statistically, we are horny.

Not by a whole lot though! Fics that are rated Teen and Up comes in 2nd place by just a very small margin, so that’s a lot of fics that are accessible to those who don’t want to read Marius and Luke getting nasty.

In terms of Additional Tags, I checked out the Top 5 most frequented Additional Tags and charted them below.

The Top 5 most used Additional Tags are actually Fluff, Light Angst, Comedy, Humor, and Anal Sex. However, I reasoned that Comedy and Humor are the exact same thing, so I counted them as synonyms and added in the 6th most used Additional Tag: Established Relationship.

Anyhoo, I think it’s really sweet to see that Fluff reigns supreme! And by a large margin, too. We love to write our boys having a wholesome lovely time. Of course, we also like just a smidge of narrative spice, which is where Light Angst comes in in 2nd place. That being said, I think it’s insanely funny that Anal Sex is in this chart. It is very out of place among the rest, LMAO.

---

A Brief Segue Into The Popularity of Marius/Luke In Relation to Other ToT BL Pairings

As of May 31, 2024, Marius/Luke is the 1st most popular M/M ship in the Ao3 tag, overall clocking in with a total of 166 works.

In addition to that, I think it’s interesting to note that the 2nd most popular BL ship is Marius/Artem, with 130 fics, while the 3rd most popular BL ship is Marius/Vyn, with 66 fics. Tied for 4th place is Artem/Male or Gender Neutral Reader, and Vyn/Artem, both at 46 fics respectively.

The reason why I think the top 5 BL ships are interesting to look at is due to Marius’ participation in 3 out of the 5 most popular M/M ships in the ToT tag. Given this, we can veritably congratulate him for statistically beating the heterosexual allegations. Marius really gave off vibes that made many different shippers go “oh there’s no way in hell he’s completely straight.”

---

Accolades

Longest Fic

As of May 31, 2024, the Longest Fic in the tag is [drumroll]...Losing Sight by pvsiytemhaver! This fic is actually primarily as ArtemRosa fic with MariLuke as an additional ship, and it currently clocks in at 90,109 words, taking the 1st spot as the longest MariLuke fic and the 18th longest fic overall in the general “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag. Let’s take a look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of the longest fics in the MariLuke tag:

Losing Sight by pvsiytemhaver (90,109 words)

the lips i used to call home (it was maroon) by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (58,185 words)

Five Points of a Star by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (25,494 words)

Risk of Pain by Solaste (25,157 words)

end of a decade (start of an age) by xXILoveMyFridgeXx (20,671 words)

Special shoutout to user xXILoveMyFridgeXx who consistently pumps out fics with gargantuan word counts.

Fic With Most Kudos

Next on the list is the Fic With The Most Kudos, and this title goes to [drumroll]... “standard operating procedure (x4 speedrun) by reptilianraven” which…oh, that’s me.

This fic is not solely a MariLuke work, but an NXX Polycule work that has MariLuke within it. Weighing in with 827 kudos, it takes the spot as the 1st most kudos’d MariLuke work, while also weighing in as the 9th most kudos’d fic overall in the general “未定事件簿 | Tears of Themis (Video Game)” fandom tag. Let’s take a look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of the Top 5 Fics With Most Kudos:

standard operating procedure (x4 speedrun) by reptilianraven (827 kudos)

every breath you take, every move you make, peanut will be watching you by reptilianraven (735 kudos)

how Puppy Pierce© conquered the world by reptilianraven (705 kudos)

the existence of a top student implies the existence of a bottom student by reptilianraven (575 kudos)

making out with your bro for fun and for profit by reptilianraven (567 kudos)

(Thank you for the kudos ;^;)

Author With Most MariLuke Works Written

And now, for our last accolade… the award for the author who currently has a large chunk of the MariLuke Ao3 tag coming from their own fics wrought by their own mind.

This title goes to [drumroll]... oh goddamn it, it’s me. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for being insane about them. I don’t remember writing this much for them, I swear to god. Let’s look at the runner ups!

Here’s the list of authors with the most MariLuke works written:

reptilianraven (24 works)

quarterweeb / theobscenefraction (quarterweeb) (23 works)

Litchire (15 works) and ynfzymokaihewo (15 works) tied for 3rd place

xXILoveMyFridgeXx (13 works)

wtfhoney (11 works)

---

Conclusion

I love this ship. I love this ship so goddamn much, but if there’s one thing I love more, it’s the community of shippers who write for this ship. This pet project was started as a little love letter from me to the MariLuke writing community. So, thank you, MariLuke writers!! Thank you for putting your heart and soul into the works you create, thus fashioning a beautifully wide array of fics to enjoy and read, and thank you for showing your love for this rarepair!

Alright, this report is too damn long. I’m gonna go reread MariLuke fics now. Bye! Hope you enjoyed!

#tears of themis #mariluke #marius von hagen #luke pearce #tot luke #tot marius #lu jinghe #xia yan

33 notes · View notes

betterthanburrow · 1 year

Text

Mr. Quarterback and Ms. Songbird - Instagram AU

(LSU Quarterback! Joe Burrow x Songwriter! OC)

liked by joeyb_9, and 1,075,250 more users

yourinstagram: i know i released my debut album a few months ago, but i’ll always be writing new song ☁️

tell me what your top 3 songs are from the album!

view all 590,721 comments

yourmom: Track 1, Track 5, and Track 11.

↳ yourinstagram: good choices mom!

username1: Track 3, Track 4 and Track 7!

yoursister: Track 10, Track 11, and Track 12

↳ yourinstagram: do you only like the songs on the album that you are featured on/are about you?!

↳ yoursister: yes!

username2: i need you to release this song now… and my top 3 songs are Track 1, Track 9, and Track 13!

joeyb_9: Track 2, Track 6, and Track 8 (and this new song is so beautiful Ms. SongBird)

↳ yourinstagram: that’s a good top 3 list (and thank you for the compliment on the song Mr. Quarterback)

liked by yourinstagram and 569,001 more users

JBURROW_DAILY: LSU Quarterback Joseph Burrow revealed during his interview with Sports Center that the album he has on repeat right now to help him prepare for the National Championship Football Game against Clemson is Y/FN Y/LN’s debut album.

view all 202,895 comments

username1: i don’t know who this man is because i don’t keep updated with football stuff… but he sounded so cute and shy when he started talking bout Y/FN’s debut album, his favorite songs of hers, and how he needs more new music from her soon.

username2: i think the cutest part was when the interviewer asked if he would be attending Y/N’s sold out concert in Baton Rouge (which is happening only a few days before the football game) and all Joe could do was blush and smile 🥹

username3: i wonder if Y/N and Joe know each other because Y/N has been living in Louisiana these past few years… and obviously Joe goes to school at LSU.

↳ username4: i just checked… and they do follow each other on instagram, so maybe they’re friends and he’s just supporting her album by giving it promotion?!

liked by joeyb_9, yourmom and 955,240 more users

yoursister: good things come in threes!

view all 557,290 comments

yourmom: my beautiful daughters 🖤

username1: i can’t believe i got to see Y/N and her little sister perform their collaboration song LIVE!

↳ username2: i need Y/N’s sister to release her own album soon and not just song covers!

↳ yoursister: one day it will happen!

yourinstagram: 🤍🤍🤍

liked by 585,107 users

Y/FN_WORLD: THIS WAS POSTED AND IMMEDIATELY DELETED BY Y/N’S LITTLE SISTER?!

view all 337,980 comments

username1: WAIT… IS THIS REAL OR A PRANK?!

↳ username2: IT’S REAL… THIS IS MY SCREENSHOT!

username3: EVERYONE ON TWITTER IS SAYING ITS JOE BUTROW AND I THINK THEY’RE RIGHT!

username4: DID Y’ALL SEE THE THREAD ON TWITTER THAT GOING VIRAL OF THE “PROOF” OF Y/FN AND JOE DATING?!

↳ username5: WAIT I DON’T HAVE TWITTER… WHATS THE “PROOF”?!

↳ username4: someone made a thread explaining how Joe and Y/N have been interacting publicly on social media lately + how they have nicknames for each other (Mr. Quarterback and Ms. Songbird) and how Joe acted in the Sports Center interview when talking about Y/N, her music, and when talking about going to the concert (a lot of people on Twitter that attended the concert are saying that he was at the concert but there aren’t any pictures or videos of him yet.)

username3: i wonder if Y/N and Joe were planning on making their relationship public soon since they had started interacting with each other on social media?!

username6: i know that everyone is surprised but since Y/N’s little sister deleted the story i think it’s clear that understand that it was possibly for Y/N little sister’s close insta-story and not for the public to see… we know that Y/N’s little sister would never purposely expose Y/N’s privacy so i hope she’s doing alright and doesn’t blame herself for this mistake.

username7: if it really is an honest mistake that Y/N’s little sister made… let’s hope Y/N isn’t mad at her because the last time someone close to Y/N exposed information about Y/N’s quiet life, she was very mad.

liked by joeyb_9, and 1,785,009 more users

yourinstagram: after-concert vibes 🦋🎤

view all 495,242 comments

yourmom: you’re a gorgeous angel!

username1: if the rumors are true… Joe is a lucky man.

yoursister: tonight was a fun night! (i’m also letting you know now that i will be borrowing the dress)

↳ yourinstagram: last time you borrowed one of my dresses… i never saw the dress again so no!

username2: so… we’re not going address the elephant in the room 👀

joeyb_9: it was a fun concert Ms. Songbird!

↳ yourinstagram: i’m glad you enjoyed it Mr. Quarterback

liked by yourinstagram and 609,745 more users

joeyb_9: Lots of setbacks, disappointments, and failures along my journey. Injuries, position battles, transfer, through all of it I just kept my head down, worked, and tried to get better every day. Now.... I am a Champion.

view all 130,769 comments

lahjay10_: 🔥🔥🔥

LSU: #9 on the football field, #1 in our hearts 💜

mamaburrow: i’m so proud of you and the team!

yourinstagram: congratulations on the victory, you deserve all the success in the world Mr. Quarterback!

↳ joeyb_9: thank you for the kind words Ms. Songbird.

liked by yoursister and 2,001,909 more users

yourinstagram: Mr. Quarterback and Ms. SongBird.

view all 899,245 comments

joeyb_9: i love you Ms. Songbird 🤍

↳ yourinstagram: i love you too Mr. Quarterback 🤍

Author’s Note:

this is the first official “LSU! Joe Burrow” Instagram AU! i’ve had this Instagram AU in the queue for so many months and im glad that the IG AU finally being published!

if you want to request an Instagram AU, send the IG AU request to my Inbox and i will try to get the Instagram AU request published as soon as i can.

thank you all for the love and support! 🤍

#Joe Burrow #NFL #CFB #LSU Tigers #Cincinnati Bengals #Joe Burrow Fanfiction #Joe Burrow Fanfic #Joe Burrow Fic #Joe Burrow x Reader #Joe Burrow x OC #Joe Burrow x Y/N #Joe Burrow Instagram #Joe Burrow Instagram AU #Instagram #Instagram AU

174 notes · View notes

journeyintofiction · 2 years

Text

Promise?

Anon request: Shuri x teacher reader where the reader and Shuri were close as children and years later, Shuri is touring schools in Wakanda and sees her again and realizes she still has feelings for her.

Word count: 1.5k

Happy reading :)

12 years ago

“Come on Shuri, get your butt up here!” I yell from one of the highest branches of the tree.

“I’m coming, I’m coming jeez”, Shuri mumbled in response while trying to climb as quickly, but safely as possible.

Upon finally getting up into the tree Shuri plopped down next to me and we sat there watching the sun set. Neither of us spoke and just enjoyed each other's company while leaning on one another. It's always been this way between us since we were little, we just always clicked with one another and now as teens, the relationship we have has blossomed more than either of us could have imagined.

“Are you worried about leaving?” Shuri asked softly while staring off into the distance, watching the ocean waves crash on the sand far below.

I turn my head to look at her and regard her carefully, she seems worried and genuinely sad about me leaving for school. I shake my head and give her a wobbly smile, “I’m not worried, if anything I’m just sad about leaving home.”

She finally turned to look at me and looked like she was going to cry but she just nodded, threaded our fingers together and leaned her head on my shoulder. “Promise that we won’t lose contact.” she whispered.

I feel a tear fall from my eye, “I promise.”

Current Time

I re-read the email sent from the principal unsure that I read it correctly. Apparently Shuri was visiting various schools in Wakanda and just so happened to choose my school and my classroom to observe. Not that I find it to be a problem, but we haven’t seen each other in years and it just seems odd. We didn’t purposely lose touch, but when I was in college and then going through Grad school things got hectic. I got involved in international programs, outreach centers, and got heavily involved in Wakanadan foreign affairs.

Life was going so fast and before I knew it I was 28 with more accolades than I could count, more money than I could have ever needed, and desperately missing home. So I decided to move back to Wakanda and start teaching high school students in the advanced track program geared towards international affairs and diplomacy.

My thoughts were brought back to Shuri, who has gone through a lot in the last year. During my time away initially we kept in touch regularly, but after five years of being away from Wakanda, we barely spoke to one another. No hard feelings… just two friends getting pulled in two different directions by life. In truth I haven’t had the heart to see her in person since being back, but I sent a rather large and elaborate flower arrangement after her brother's death and another one after her mothers death. I get pulled from my thoughts by a knock on the door and I look at my watch realizing it's time for my next class period.

I open the door and smile at my students, “Come on in guys.”

I look down the hall and see the principal greeting some of the Dora Milaje and before the principal could see me looking I quickly redirected my attention to my students before closing the door.

“Alright settle down everyone, today we are going to do a socratic seminar and discuss which diplomatic theories were utilized …”

Shuri’s POV

I walked further down the hallway with the Principal as we got a tour of the school before observing Y/N’s class. I haven't seen or heard from Y/N in years but from what I have seen and heard on the news and from mutual friends, she is the same kid I grew up with and had a crush on before she left Wakanda. Throughout the years despite the contact naturally dwindling, I always checked in on her every once in a blue moon just to see what she was doing. Then after everything of the last year she sent flower arrangements in honor of my brother and mother despite the loss of contact.

To see her achievements made me happy as an old friend yet sad because she slipped further away from me each year and her life was on the fast track with no sign of slowing down. Granted, I always knew her brilliance would take her far, but I never thought she would… stay away for so long. Which is why I pounced on the opportunity to visit her classroom to see the work she was doing that everyone was talking about so positively. I tuned back into the conversation and truly began to pay attention.

The principal animatedly discussed Y/N’s impact, “Ms.Y/N is a truly brilliant young woman who has transformed the international affairs and diplomacy program with her ideas. The students and teachers love to work with her and we have seen a sharp increase in grades relating to those subject matters.”

I gave an appreciative hum and smiled at the principal as we arrived outside of the classroom. I glance at Aneka, Ayo, and Okoye who all look impressed and proud. Y/N was always well liked by the Doras and my family in general due to her cleverness, diplomacy, and deep knowledge of history and government. Plus, she was a natural with her fighting skills and always enjoyed a good sparring session before she left.

We open the door quietly and file into the classroom where the students are engaged in a debate about diplomatic resolutions. Everyone is so engrossed in the topic at hand they don't even notice who entered the room. We don’t say anything and choose to remain silent and watch the events unfold naturally to get a true sense of the class. I find myself looking at Y/N and begin to truly listen.

Y/N POV

As my students get deeper into their debate I take notes and put a pause to the discussion, “ Alright guys we have to wrap up, the bell rings in 15 minutes, so what have we decided would be the most effective policy to implement?”

One of my students, Jelani, shoots her hand up, “ a quid pro quo would have worked out the best given that both sides have information to share but don't want to give up too much.”

I smile a nod, “excellent, make sure you all write that down it will be on the next test and-” I pause when I notice the principal and our honored guests in the back of the classroom observing.

The kids turn around at my pause and scramble to properly greet the Queen and the Dora Milaje that are with her. Shuri waves them off smiling and says “please continue, we just wanted to observe the flow of class.”

My students turn back to me and I sigh with a tired smile, “I see the way you all are looking at me… fine class is dismissed. Make sure you look at your online notifications for the announcement about homework and materials for next class.”

All of my students quickly packed up, said hello to the queen and took their leave seeing as she was going to speak with me. The principal stepped out too, smirking and throwing me a wink before shutting the door.

I stand up and walk over to Shuri and smile, cocking my head to the side slightly before asking “ if you wanted to see me, couldn’t you have just summoned me?”

She busted out laughing and for a moment it was like we were teenagers sitting up in our favorite tree again. I turned to Aneka, Ayo, and Okoye and smiled sheepishly before asking, “how have you guys been?”

They shake their heads trying to conceal their smiles but they answer warmly, “We have been good, still waiting on a training session with you.”

I damn near choke on my spit at that and squeak out “uh, ya sure.”

With that they step away giving Shuri and I some privacy, and I look at Shuri while she seems to be watching me with some unplaced emotion. I open my mouth to speak but she beats me to it.

“Would you like to go out?” she blurts with a nervous smile.

I raised an eyebrow because I always thought she had a bit of a crush on me but I didn’t think it would stick around. I pretend to think about it and she looks increasingly nervous as I pretend to contemplate. “Yes.”

She looks surprised and then pulls me into a hug and says “ You are staying in Wakanda this time around right?”

I pull back from the hug and nod, grinning “yeah.”

She pauses before saying “Do you promise?”

I catch the reference to our last conversation before I left Wakanda and get a little teary eyed before responding.

“I promise.”

Note:

Hi everyone, I am so sorry this came out so late, I got super sick with a cold and have been dying between that and finals. But I have finished finals so I will have more time to write now so send any requests you would like to see! Please forgive any grammatical errors :)

Tags: @louderfortheback

#shuri udaku #shuri x reader #shuri x y/n #shuri fanfiction #black panther

341 notes · View notes

ginjones · 2 years

Text

Dreamling for the Holidays! Happy whatever you celebrate Everyone!

Christmas shopping, for Hob at least, is now a relaxed affair. It starts on the first Saturday of September, when damp leaves flutter in their burnished hues, and finishes in the zephyrs grey gales of November. This year, gift buying is punctuated with a stroll through Hyde Park, then coffee with Sarah and Marlow the dog; a brief scoot to the New Inn to fix rotas, then back to the flat for dinner and scotch and Byron’s Hebrew Melodies- ‘She walks in beauty, like the night. Of cloudless climes and starry skies’.

Christmas shopping is categorically not the cataclysmic disaster it was two years ago when, only a month into his fledgling power as Hope of the endless, he had naively sauntered down Oxford Street in December and was immediately bombarded with the hopes and wishes of several thousand people. From a cursory glance at their aura-space, it became clear that the majority were hellbent on receiving the most expensive version of whatever had piqued their Pavlovian response. It was all a bit sad really. A hopeful celebration reduced to consumer fodder.

In the thrum of the crowded street, Hob had found himself omitting a quiet, internal light which searched vacantly for direction. It found none. Pulled between his function to obey the will of the people and disinclined to offer his gift to the undeserving, he had panicked, abandoned his shopping, and ran to the marginal safety of the nearest pub.

It was an experience not worth repeating.

He had seen Dream in these recent months. Usually on gilded evenings where they would walk the hillocks of Hamstead Heath, their pathway illuminated in the jewelling light of early autumn. They would talk about Hope and how Hob was feeling and Dream, in his somnolent tones would tell him stories about the heavy burden of purpose; the arduous confines of duty. Then, when Hob would place an arm around his shoulder and sigh warmly, when he would send a little of his hope out into the world around them, Dream would smile at the change in the air and talk about presence and creation and magic. And everything, once more, would seem like a gift.

It was on one of these walks that he got the idea, and the signature white box was the easiest to find.

He had found it on Ebay of all places. It wasn’t as expensive as he had imagined but expense, of course, had not been the point. The gift itself, had been harder to track down. He had found it at last in a rundown antique shop near Columbia Road. A tiny little thing, mottled with the faint impressions of distant fingerprints, its paintwork faded, its silver motif browning with age. He held it up to the light and every one of its stories solidified and sang out. It was perfect. In pencil drawn font, the price read £12.

The shop owner, Sebastian Rossi, had not been home to visit his sister in 8 years. She grew tomatoes in her garden and played backgammon on Sundays and called Sebastian ‘piccolo leone’ even after all these years. Hob smiled at Sebastian and gave him £50.

He had hidden the gift in his flat for weeks on the off-chance Dream might make a surprise visit. He did in fact, several times, and Hob had been mindful to divert his attentions away from the little white box and the gift it contained. Hob had found, much to his chagrin, that his daydreams were still very much on display despite his ascension to endless. It was however, much easier now to simply hope them away, when Hob could physically see the threads of thought forming. Pass a hand over the opalescent swirl and sweep it gently from the air, fold it up and tuck the remnants away in his pocket.

Gift giving was not a tradition when he was growing up. Gifts, or any items not made for the sheer purpose of living and surviving, were few and far between. Instead, gifts came in the form of the first blush of springtime, when winter frost melted, and wild garlic bloomed. Or in the first mouthfuls of summer fruits and plentiful game, that made children plumper and bellies full.

Between 1851 and 1858 Hob, fresh off a successful investment in Singer sewing machines, had rented a house in Regent’s Park and employed the services of two maids. He had enjoyed treating them to the fancier linens when Boxing Day came around and would dutifully send out for orders of pink lace and taffeta.

And now here it was finally. Christmas Eve 2022 and Dream was sitting in the warm light of his living room, the only entity in existence who could make a battered couch look like a regal throne. They had spent the last few hours curled up together, reading silently. Dream, a copy of Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations. Hob, The Black Tudors by Miranda Kaufmann. It was a pastime they had both come to enjoy, especially as Hob’s power blossomed and their thoughts could interlink in a stream of words, allusion and metaphor. It was like reading two books at once although at first, the whole concept had been baffling. As the last page was turned, Hob placed the book down and went to fetch the gift from the cupboard in the kitchen. Returning back, he placed the little white box in Dream’s hands and curled up next to him.

“That’s for you.” Hob said, draping an arm over Dream’s shoulders and pulling him in closer. “It’s just a little thing. I know you don’t celebrate Christmas or Yule or whatever, but I just thought you deserved something. So…”

“A gift for me?” Dream answered, in a soft tone that sounded like the ebb of the sea on a clear, crisp day. His finger traced over the golden embossment on the top of the box. “Pandora” he continued; confusion etched on his features for the briefest of seconds before Dream’s face lit up from within at the story beginning to form. He looked back to Hob and then, in a display of feigned dramatics, opened the box tentatively and peered inside. With careful movements, as if what lay inside was as precious as hope itself, Dream picked up the little dove ornament with its decorative band of silver stars and laid it gently in the palm of his hand.

“Got it in an antique shop.” Hob said “Like I said, it’s just a silly little thing but it’s supposed to represent…”

“You,” replied Dream in wonderment. “The only thing that remained in Pandora’s box…”

“Was Hope.” Hob finished, smiling. “The silver stars are you though. I wouldn’t be the man I am today, the…being I’m becoming without your guidance.”

They were quiet for several moments. Dream had closed the box carefully, almost reverently, and held it along with the ornament tight to his chest. The world outside would tell its own stories in the pale moonlight of Winter. December skies are often clear and somewhere, in the unfathomable stretch of night, mortal men would glimpse the celestial journey of a shooting star.

“It is perfect.” Said Dream.

I am too busy now to write much so I just wanted to go out with a bang and dedicate this to @moorishflower and @landwriter who are leagues above me in ability and storytelling. Thank you for all the amazing content that has inspired me to work harder and write better! x

#dreamling fic #the sandman fic #hope!hob #Hope of the endless #Dream of the endless #the sandman #teeth rotting fluff #dream x hob #dreamling #why do I love Hope Hob so much?#holiday fic

345 notes · View notes

morningstargirl666 · 9 months

Text

WIP WEDNESDAY

How's everyone's holidays going? Here's an excerpt from my new edit of tbbw's chapter 5:

“How’s the makeover going? Finn clawed your eyes out yet?” she called out to Elijah in greeting, striding into the room with her manicurist in tow.

The brothers all turned at their sisters voice, all in different states of dress - Finn had only just finished buttoning his shirt, while Kol was currently fumbling with his bow tie, Elijah quickly moving over to bat away his hands and tie the fabric for him. Finn’s gaze met Rebekah’s first.

She stopped in her tracks, pressing her lips together, clearly trying to smother a laugh as her eyes raked up and down Finn’s new appearance. “Well, you look…”

“Don’t say a word,” Finn ground out, glaring down at the dress shoes he had just been handed with particular vehemence.

Rebekah pressed her lips harder together, ducking her head down to quickly hide the smile she couldn’t smother as she moved away. “I was going to say dashing.”

Finn glared at the back of her head as she sat down on one of the sofas, turning her back on them as her manicurist dropped her kit box to the floor, starting to set up in preparation for her manicure.

Not waiting for Elijah to finish straightening his bow tie, Kol weaselled his way out of his grip and jogged over to Rebekah, coming around the back of the sofa and leaping over it, landing on the cushions beside her.

“Ah, sweet, sweet sister… Finally joining us, I see,” he began in greeting, one arm thrown over the back while the other poked her shoulder. “Where’s your seamstress?”

“I already had my deep dive into 21st century fashion weeks ago, Kol. My seamstress already knows all my measurements.” Rebekah sniffed delicately, laying her hand flat on the arm of the sofa as her manicurist knelt down in front of her, raising a file to her nails. “So I thought, wouldn’t it be fun, if I had my manicure while watching you two in crisis instead?”

She turned in Kol’s direction with a saccharine smile, ponytail flying behind her. Kol leaned away, grin dropping into a scowl.

“I was daggered in 1919, not the dark ages. From what I can tell, not much has changed for men’s formal attire.”

“And yet, your shirt has been sticking out of your zipper for the past five minutes.”

“Bollocks,” Kol hissed, hurriedly standing to his feet to tuck his shirt away and zip his pants up, struggling with the more modern mechanism, too used to simple buttons and ties. Rebekah’s smile settled into a smirk, admiring her manicurist’s work while her brother cursed under his breath.

Meanwhile, Finn, having not seen Elijah help Kol with his bow tie, was currently attempting to thread his own through the belt loops on his trousers.

“Sir!” one of the tailors cried out in alarm, “Might I ask what on earth you plan on doing with that?”

Everyone froze, including Finn, who stared at the strip of fabric in his hands that was the exact width to snugly fit between the belt loops.

“It is not a belt? To hold these breeches in place?”

“Yes,” Kol proclaimed gleefully, grin widening, “Yes, it most certainly is.”

“Ignore him,” Elijah snapped immediately, striding over to help Finn. He grabbed the black bow tie out of his hands before Finn could attempt to use it as anything else. “It is most certainly not a belt.”

Finn blinked, utterly lost. “Then what is used for?”

“It’s called a tie, brother,” Elijah explained, throwing the fabric around Finn’s neck, already beginning to weave it into a bow, the process flawlessly refined from years of muscle memory. “You tie it around the neck, like this:”

Finn pushed his chin down, craning his head trying to see the emerging bow tie decorating his neck. “Why? What purpose does that pose?”

“It keeps your shirt closed and adds a splash of colour. When they first came into fashion in the french court, slightly different back then of course, they were a sign of wealth and stature.”

Elijah finished straightening the bow, stepping back to take Finn’s appearance in. His older brother shifted uncomfortably, pulling at the fabric now secured around his neck.

“I feel like I’m about to be hanged,” he announced, not impressed.

“I dread to think how you would have fared in a corset,” Rebekah remarked dryly, watching as her manicurist filed down her nails. Turning around to face a full length mirror, Kol snickered.

Finn frowned. “Why, what is a corset?”

Elijah’s brows furrowed, stepping forward to adjust Finn’s tie again, finding some imperfection the others couldn’t see. “Unless you plan on cross-dressing for the other gender, brother, you need not know.” “Of course,” Kol called out from in front of the mirror, “if that is your desire, I’m sure Rebekah has plenty of dresses for you to adjust to your size in storage.”

#klaroline #klaroline fanfiction #the big bad wolf #tbbw #klaus x caroline #fanfiction #morningstar writes #the siblings are getting more screen time and I love it #also the show really didn't show enough of the siblings being baffled by modern culture #especially Finn considering he was in a box for nine hundred years #had to rectify that wrong you understand #the mikaelsons #elijah mikaelson #rebekah mikaelson #finn mikaelson #kol mikaelson #klaroline wip wed

43 notes · View notes

griefabyss69 · 6 months

Note

05 scarification reclaimation for wip weekend?? (title alone has me like, hello? 👀)

Thank you for asking!!! So this one is like, an idea I've had for about a year, but didn't start writing until a few months ago (and didn't get much written on it). It's one of those things I wanted to just let rest for ages before attempting and then even now it's like, it needs time! And care! The gist of this fic is that Eddie needs to do something to take his body back for himself and is struggling with the aftermath of the UD This snippet is earlier than the stuff I just wrote (like twenty lines lmao) but I think it's a better introduction: ---

It's not until he's taking a weekend trip into the city that would make both his doctor and Steve go all tight in the mouth that he learns about what would really help.

The path to the answer is like a thread. It starts with a billboard advertisement about plastic surgery, moves onto a well timed news segment about scar reduction technology as he passes by a TV display, and almost it ends there, two simple steps to figuring out how to get himself back.

But he's dropping in to say hi to his tattoo artist even though he's not getting anything done, zoning out while he waits for their appointment to be done, a list of piercing prices going all blurry in front of him as someone drops into a seat near him in the waiting area.

"Hey, that looks pretty gnarly," greets a voice that sounds too much like Jonathan's neon friend Argyle to be coming out of a guy with a bull ring in his nose.

He just smiles, his confusion coloring it as he tries to think of what he's referring to, clearly something about Eddie with how it's just the two of them there.

"The scar," the guy clarifies, tapping at his own cheek, reflecting where Eddie's got the aftermath of a demobat's whip-like tail curled up around his jaw. "You get that done here?"

The confusion gets worse, and he squints at him, trying to puzzle it out, knowing he gets a slow brain sometimes but he's been feeling good today.

"Maybe not," the guy mumbles, before saving face with the barreling grace someone who doesn't let putting his foot in his mouth get in his way. "Just looked intentional, sorry man."

"People do that on purpose?" He asks, and he must sound interested enough because the guy lights up.

"Yeah dude," Heavy Metal Argyle says. "You ever hear about scarification?"

Eddie's mouth twists as his brain works over his memories, finding them all pretty inaccessible at the moment. He just shrugs, shakes his head, and indicates for him to go on.

He ends up digging through the stack of magazines on the waiting room table, an alternate dimension mirror to a hospital lounge, except all of the mags are of body modifications and alternative lifestyles, instead of recipes from ten years ago that will let housewives all across America throw the best Sunday Dinner or whatever.

Eddie watches him work, his one-track focus leaving Eddie sitting in an ignored silence, but he doesn't care, this guy is working hard just to find an example of something he wants Eddie to know about. It's kind of touching, makes him really miss just meeting strangers and caring way too much about them for like five hours before they part ways and never see each other again.

"Here we go! I knew it was in here," the guy eventually says, holding out a magazine he's folded open. "Read over that shit, and tell me yours doesn't look as cool as the photos there."

Eddie's flattered before he's even got his eyes on the page, used to any compliments about his body these days coming from praise for like, doing two pushups without giving up, or relief about how well the scar cream worked on his face - though given how obvious the injury is, it could be working a lot better.

It feels good, and so he gives the guy a smile, and yeah, maybe it's flirtatious, fucking sue him. It'll just look friendly anyway.

"Thanks man, I really appreciate that," he says, and starts to skim the page, looking for the gist of what he's been talking about.

He's still re-reading over every word when the guy's appointment comes up, and he nudges his foot against Eddie's, shooting him a grin.

"That's me, gonna punch another hole in my face," he says, winking as he stands. "Good luck."

"Thanks," he says, giving him a casual wave as he watches him walk away.

He realizes when it's too late that he never got the guy's name.

Maybe he knows he's just changed Eddie's fucking life.

#griefabyss69 writing #chats from the abyss #scarification reclamation

14 notes · View notes

hexmorehq · 4 months

Text

Event Name: Moonlight Masquerade Gala

Event Description: The Moonlight Masquerade Gala is an enchanting evening hosted by the Caruso Casino. This exclusive event aims to raise funds and rally support for the search and rescue mission of Hazel Mora, a beloved witch who mysteriously vanished almost a year ago.

Event Details:

Date and Time: Saturday, June 1st, 7:00 PM - Midnight

Location: Caruso Casino Grand Ballroom

Dress Code: Masquerade attire encouraged; elegant and mystical.

Tickets: $50 per person, includes entry, dinner, and entertainment. (but just because you can't afford a ticket doesn't mean your muse can't attend..... ;) )

Event Highlights:

Masquerade Ball:

Guests will dance the night away under the moonlit sky (projected on the ballroom ceiling), with live music performed by a magical symphony orchestra.

Charity Raffle:

A raffle featuring unique items and experiences, including:

Exclusive dinners.

Magical artifacts and enchanted items donated by local witches and wizards.

A weekend getaway at the local inn.

Custom potions and spell books from renowned magical practitioners.

Casino Games:

A portion of the casino's proceeds for the night will be dedicated to the cause. Guests can try their luck at various tables and slot machines, knowing their gambling habits will contribute to a good cause.

Mystical Performances:

Throughout the evening, guests will be entertained by captivating performances, including:

Aerial silk dancers performing under the moonlight.

A magic show featuring illusionists and spellcasters.

Gourmet Dinner and Themed Cocktails:

A lavish dinner with a menu featuring both traditional and supernatural delicacies.

Specialty cocktails such as "Moonlit Elixir" and "Enchanted Brew" crafted by the casino's mixologists.

Midnight Unveiling:

As the clock strikes midnight, the supreme and werewolf elders will address the guests.

Purpose:

All proceeds from the Moonlight Masquerade Gala will go directly towards the search efforts for Hazel Mora, funding magical tracking spells, search parties, and other resources needed to bring her home safely. The event also aims to raise awareness about her disappearance and rally the supernatural community together in solidarity.

OOC info under the read more

Gala Event Information:

You can start gala threads any time from May 27th. Please remember that the event is set to take place next Saturday. Threads may continue naturally after the event, but keep in mind that the admins might introduce a new plot element afterward, which your muse may want to react to.

Raffle Details:

The raffle will occur on Saturday evening in-game (likely early afternoon in real life). To make this work, we need a few things from you:

Submitting Raffle Items:

Up until Friday afternoon, we are accepting items, experiences, and anything else to be included in the raffle. You can submit your items by messaging a mod, posting in the Discord plotting channel, or messaging the main account. Submissions can be anonymous, but please keep a record of what you've submitted in case it needs to be referenced later.

Entering the Raffle:

If you wish to participate in the raffle to win a prize, please indicate your interest by sending a message to the main account with "raffle" or by posting in the raffle channel on Discord. Admins will assign each participant a random code, and raffle winners will be drawn on Saturday afternoon and announced on the main/inspo blog. You can choose to share what your muse won or keep it a secret, but we hope this will be a fun way to involve muses in new plots. Please consider participating!

Outfits:

We all love planning an outfit. So please feel free to post your masquerade outfits. I can't wait to see them. Please tag @hexinspo blog in these posts and we will reblog.

#hexmoreevent

5 notes · View notes

contreparry · 8 months

Note

Happy Friday!! I'd love to see what you think about: The Executors. Those across the sea. “Remember that, for the moment, we are not your enemy.” from the DA lore prompts!

Absolutely! Here's some Leliana for @dadrunkwriting!

It was a pleasure to dig into a good mystery.

Leliana splayed her hands out over the map of Thedas and placed markers on every outpost on her list. When she ran out of wooden tokens she used bits and baubles around her to finish the job: coins from her pocket, a weighted die she snatched from a game when no one was looking, a spool of sturdy linen thread from her miniature sewing kit. Before long every Inquisition outpost that was marked with a symbol of The Executors was displayed on her map. Leliana stepped back to observe the whole picture.

What she saw before her was... troubling.

"How can one organization maintain an eye on so many places and not manage to be seen?" Leliana asked. The potential answers were alarming, to say the least. Either The Executors had spies that were better trained than any Leliana had ever encountered, or they had people on the inside already watching, covering up their tracks, always one step ahead-

No. No, if that were the case, Leliana would have already found them out. There were some lessons that, once learned, were never forgotten. Leliana began to pace around the Rookery, pondering new possibilities with every step. Magic was a possibility of course. Spycraft and magic could work hand in glove in a system outside of The Circle, Tevinter was proof enough of that. And combined with excellent spies and funding (they must be well organized and well paid, these Executors)... Leliana swiftly returned to her map to chart every piece of the puzzle.

This new player in the game had only deigned to play the observer, as far as they knew. This was enough for Cullen to dismiss them- no point in wasting our resources on someone who won't interfere, especially when we have more pressing matters to attend to. Leliana saw the sense in that, of course she did, but she was used to looking in all directions to find all potentialities.

"Which brings us back to you," Leliana informed the tokens on her map. "An observer is neither ally nor enemy, but I am not fond of an uninvited guest." And it was up to her to unmask these newcomers and uncover their purpose, starting with their cryptic symbol and their infuriating ability to seemingly be everywhere.

#my writing #da drunk writing circle

6 notes · View notes

taughtdefense · 2 months

Text

your fingers are shakingshakingSHAKING as they clutch desperately at the colored news article you'd printed out in a blind panic a few minutes ago. the paper displays kreese's & silver's mugshot from a few weeks back, which triggered something to SNAP in you. your brown eyes are blown as wide as saucers as you quickly scan through the over-highlighted text, highlighted in various colors, color-coded. you completely ignore your best friend's presence for a moment. it's almost you're expecting the words to change, or for silver to leap out at you, so he can finish the job. but the text never changes, the bruises YOU gave him never fade from his face. your chest heaves rapidly, & you're clearly on the verge of a panic attack that's been brewing all goddamn day. maybe for months.

your current location is a warehouse, which you'd bought-outright... specifically & only for the purpose of tracking kreese's & silver's movements. the room spins dangerously in your vision as the buzzing in your ears grows louder. the space around you is a goddamn chaotic, unorganized mess, the blackout curtains drawn over the windows, refusing to let any natural light in. the only lights that are on right now are super fucking bright, & are angled towards the wall that shows a pretty extensive evidence board covering a portion of the warehouse walls. it details everything that you deem necessary regarding everything that's happened in the valley; kreese's undermining of johnny for one, the flagship cobra kai dojo, for another, to silver's other locations he'd opened across the valley, for another. flight paths around the world, for another. but everything has a place to be here.

WHAT IF JOHN KREESE REALLY ISN'T DEAD?

TERRY SILVER IS FREE. HE HAS TO BE.

silver's picture is smack-dab in the middle of the evidence board. red strings point at his picture from various evidences you've collected over the past few weeks. a picture of the bloodstained katana he used to KILL YOU is slotted next to his picture, which is connected by a red string.

the room doesn't stop spinning, & your breathing goes from strained to panicked, & you start gasping for air you can't get. the room feels boiling hot like you'd just submerged yourself into an active volcano, your shaking hands are hot & clammy with sweat. you kind of want to let gravity do it's thing—by that, you want your legs to crumble underneath you so you can crack your head open & bleed everywhere onto the table that's next to you, full of other items & ramblings & balls of red fucking strings you haven't put up yet. maybe passing out would grant you a few hours of peace. ( IT WON'T. ) but no hospitals. you've already been to the hospital more times than you've ever really thought you'd be in this lifetime. three times in the hospital bed, a handful of times stuck in the waiting room, waiting for news about your friends' conditions. sam's, demetri's, emma's, calla's. the list goes on & on. your friends have gotten hurt so many fucking times because of the karate war.

& your best friend miguel—

@recurrere / miguel stares at you.

something small in you frays further, is tugged apart like a thin thread, & you make no move to repair it. you can't tell what frayed, just that something did at his expression. the look on his face makes you want to throw up.

it makes you want to take a running start towards the top floor of the warehouse. you'll take a swan dive out the window & fall onto the pavement below, so you never have to see that look on your best friend's face ever again.

❛ you're a dumbass. you should have known he was tailing us. this is your fuck-up, not mine. ❜ your Younger Self snarls viciously at you, his tone venomous, & you nod jerkily in agreement, breathing hard. you don't defend yourself. he's totally fucking right, of course. ❛ he's going to tattle on you/me/us to sam, tory, & our miguel. johnny, daniel, sanji, olen, lucienne, our friends & our parents... everyone will fucking know! HE'S GONG TO TELL ROBBY, & we'll fucking lose him forever. it's all BECAUSE OF YOU! ❜ he screams at you, his/your voice warping as he loses his/your human-ness, reverting back towards something much more INHUMAN. his panic certainly isn't helping yours—goddamn vicious emotions-feedback loop.

❝ i know, i know. ❞ you breathe, sounding downright miserable, but acceptive of whatever wrath he feels. ( but miguel hadn't said anything, he hadn't even opened his mouth. you're talking to your Younger Self, & that... that definitely doesn't look good— FUCK! ) ❝ i-i'm sorry. i-i didn't... i just... ❞ the next words die somewhere on the way out of your throat. your fingers almost ball up into fists, but your Younger Self immediately screams, warning you about ruining the evidence, so you throw silver's mugshot onto the table like you're expecting the paper to suddenly explode. it doesn't.

without warning or any indication, you turn FAR too sharply towards miguel suddenly, a smidge too fast to be human. ❝ no, no. no. just stop. don't look at me like that. i'm not... i'm not losing my mind. i'm... not. ❞ then, louder, before he can even get a fucking word in: ❝ i knew this w-was a mistake, letting you step past the fucking d-door. ❞ you bark out a laugh, but it sounds more like a broken sob.

WELL, THIRD, WHICH ONE IS IT? ARE YOU FUCKING LAUGHING OR CRYING? DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE RIGHT NOW? DO YOU KNOW WHICH FORM YOU'RE WALKING AROUND AS RIGHT NOW?

ARE YOU SURE TERRY SILVER DIDN'T SUCCESSFULLY KILL YOU?

the words just keep tumbling from your mouth, & you sound hysterical. ❝ god, i'm s-so fucking stupid. i... should've know that none of you would fucking understand. mr. larusso probably e-even wouldn't. i'm the o-only one who does, because i've been the only one who's been MURDERED before. YOU DON'T FUCKING GET IT! ❞ you're ranting, screaming in general, all of the emotions you'd shoved down of the past half-year starting to broil over.

breathing hard, your hands reach out to grab miguel by the front of his shirt, yanking your friend closer to you abruptly, your knuckles an alarming shade of white. you don't move to punch him. your crazed, hysteria-filled eyes burn into his, but your voice drops down to a whisper.

the Silver Voice was right—

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF YOU HAD FUCKING DIED—

❝ why did you follow m-me, miguel? why... why? ❞

#recurrere #:)#main verse.: miyagi fang. — ❝ i ached for warmth & peace. the universe laughed at me. ❞#in character. / season 6.#// suicidal thoughts #ethan & his cassandra complex

2 notes · View notes

unovasrose · 10 months

Text

On INTERPOL’s Involvement*

While in-game it’s not until the BW protag had already beaten Plasma that Looker even showed up to arrest the sages, my personal headcanon is that it was the battle with N at the Plasma Castle that had them rushing in. The uproar that was raised with even the gym leaders storming the castle was too much for them to ignore so they sent a task force in to arrest as many Plasma members as possible while everything was going to shit.

Rosa and her mother were some of the lucky ones to flee and not get caught, though that also led to the two of them having to rebuild their lives and start over. Thankfully her mother’s position, while important, always took place behind the scenes so the risk of anyone identifying them as they pretended to be ordinary citizens carrying on with their lives was minimal. Rosa’s only worry was always that the BW protag briefly caught a glance of her as she spied on them from behind a pillar… but even then, the view of her face would have been mostly obscured by her hood and the BW protag had more pressing thoughts in their mind anyway.

Of course, the whole ordeal at the end of BW means that INTERPOL was far more involved in the events of B2W2, which was unfortunate for Rosa and her mother. As expected, INTERPOL was able to connect some loose threads of information gathered from captured grunts and sages alike, which revealed that the daughter of the head of the Nursery had been given the blueprints for a device that could counter the Colress machine ; the blueprints were saved in a data chip hidden inside a pendant Sage Rood had entrusted her with before they ran, so Rosa was completely unaware.

INTERPOL tracked Amara to her new home in Aspertia and kept her under house arrest until they were able to trace her most recent communications with Rosa to Castelia. That’s when they deployed Hale Foster to intercept her, somehow get close to her, and then get his hands on the blueprints. Unfortunately for Hale, by the time he got close enough to Rosa to be able to look for the blueprints, she had already handed them over to Sage Rood in Driftveil. Frustrated and angry at being thwarted, Hale slips and reveals his true identity and the fact that his relationship with Rosa was utterly fake and only for the purpose of his investigation. The revelation rocked Rosa to the core, especially when Hale made it very clear that he felt absolutely nothing during their entire time together. After calling her a naive and trusting girl, he left her devastated in Opelucid, right before Neo Plasma launched their attack on the city.

#🌹 headcanon ( major ).#fuck interpol all my homies hate interpol #but most importantly fuck hale foster grjkefhdjs #rosa has thoughts and opinions and none of them are good

8 notes · View notes

butterflydm · 2 years

Text

wot reread: a personal evaluation of The Slog (tm)

This does have spoilers through A Memory of Light, because part of how I evaluated The Slog was which scenes & plotlines didn’t end up mattering in the final books (to the best of my memory).

There are many complaints about The Slog in the middle-late books of the WoT series, as well as arguments about when The Slog starts and what it means. How I personally defined The Slog:

Books begin to run together in my head because they no longer contain discrete plotlines, as the major plot-threads spill from book to book. There is excessive padding in the form of storylines that either end up not serving enough of a purpose or are simply bloated and repetitive.

By my definition, The Slog begins during Lord of Chaos and runs all the way to the end of the Jordan books. It starts slow but really explodes in Winter’s Heart and beyond.

In the first five books, every single main plot was completed in that same book where it was introduced.

In this second set of books (comprising of 6 books), we have:

Egwene: Spends SIX books on getting to the White Tower, confronting Elaida, and becoming Amrylin and still has not completed it by the end of Knife of Dreams. She has one job and will do it as slowly as possible lol. But there’s enough variety and new stuff in her plotlines that she doesn’t feel too sloggy.

Nynaeve: Shares plots with Elayne and Rand but doesn’t have any solo plotlines. Almost drops off the page entirely in CoT & KoD.

Rand: defeats Sammael in two books. Fails to repel the Seanchan invasion in The Path of Daggers. Successfully cleanses saidin in Winter’s Heart. Final task (make truce with Seanchan) left incomplete in Knife of Dreams, as the baton is handed over to Sanderson, because Rand is barely on-page in CoT & KoD. Two successes, one failure, one left incomplete (and is on two books atm). Of the successes, one took two books to complete. He’s still mostly on track and not terribly sloggy when it comes to his plotlines.

Perrin: After saving Rand in Lord of Chaos, a quick one-book success, he spends the next FIVE books on his task to fetch Masema and bring him and his Dragonsworn back to Rand. And it is still left incomplete as of Knife of Dreams (and not looking great, as Masema has betrayed him and is in the wind again). So much slog.

Mat: fails at all the major plot-threads in this entire six-book section, being prevented from going to Caemlyn with Elayne by the Seanchan invasion, and then never returning to Rand’s armies by the time we end Knife of Dreams, also delayed due to the Seanchan, though he does finally reunite with the Band of the Red Hand. But he mostly just spends a lot of time failing in this set of books and dithering around.

Elayne: She manages to complete the Bowl of the Winds plotline in the first three books and the Queen plotline in second three books. Not as quick as Rand’s track record, but better than everyone else and she doesn’t notch up any failures.

Book by book, the rankings are:

LoC: One completed storyline; two incomplete storylines

ACoS: One completed; one failed; three incomplete

TPoD: One completed; one failed; two incomplete (no Mat)

WH: One completed; four incomplete

CoT: Five incomplete (none completed)

KoD: One completed; four incomplete

These six books could have easily been three books. Two if you aren’t precious about keeping all the major plotlines (I would have been willing to cut out the Shaido and Tylin-Tuon storylines entirely; instead have Perrin actually just deal with Masema and have Mat be part of Elayne’s plotline in Caemlyn; this would have saved tons of story space; since Rand is the one who is forced to do the Seanchan deal anyway and Mat brings nothing to the table there, just do that plotline without Mat).

Or, three books and keeping all major plotlines would give us: Elayne, Nynaeve, & Mat go to Ebou Dar in book one; use the Bowl in book two and Elayne and Nynaeve escape to Caemlyn; and Elayne completes her queen arc in book three. Perrin helps Rand in book one; goes after Masema in book two; saves Faile in book three. Mat works with Rand and then Elayne in book one; gets trapped in Ebou Dar in book two and escapes it, meeting DotNM; we endure Mat & Tuon in book three and he reunites with tBotRH (but maybe Mat actually is productive and worked out a tentative treaty/truce with Tuon). Egwene gets to Salidar and establishes herself in book one; gets to the White Tower in book two; puts the White Tower under siege and gets captured in book three. Rand gets kidnapped & defeats Sammael in book one (& I guess sleeps with Min); fails against the Seanchan & takes care of the traitors in book two; cleanses saidin with Nynaeve’s help (& does the group bonding) in book three. Every one of the books would have its own identity and not spill into the other books.

However, one of the profoundly disappointing things for me in this run of books was the number that it did on Mat as a character and, in general, how Jordan flips from showing us how horrible the Seanchan are, with touchstones of hope that they can potentially change (like Egeanin) to both Mat and Perrin basically deciding Slavery Is Too Hard To Fight, Better Make (genuine!) Friends/Lovers With The Slavers. It really did feel, as I did my reread, that the story was saying one thing about Seanchan and slavery in books 2-9, and then flipped to saying something completely different (nearly the opposite) about slavery in books 10 & 11.

My speculation on this (which I’ve mentioned a bit in my reread posts) is thinking that it was between writing Winter’s Heart and writing Crossroads of Twilight that Jordan came up with the idea of the Seanchan outriggers.

Because all the way up through the end of Winter’s Heart, it feels like the story of the Seanchan is going to be told in this story. We are given so much set-up in WH to the idea that Tuon will struggle with being a potential marath’damane in this story. Then, in CoT & KoD, it’s suddenly Someone Else’s Problem In The Future and Maybe Slavery Is Okay Sometimes and basically made me want to spit rocks every time we went into a Mat or Perrin section of the story. When I was doing my first read of the books, I absolutely did NOT expect Mat or Perrin to become Seanchan/slaver sympathizers, yet that happens for both of them by the end of KoD, with Perrin thinking his slaver friend is a good egg while she’s enslaving the Shaido and Mat thinking that Tuon, future head slaver of them all, is worth defending and protecting even when she is actively attempting to enslave and torture his allies that he already rescued from slavery once.

These two books are also where we get the horrific “both sides are wrong” rhetoric where the people who DON’T WANT TO BE SLAVES are treated as if they were just as ‘petty’ and ‘wrong’ as the person who WANTS TO ENSLAVE THEM and it’s horrifically out of character for Mat, who was vehemently anti-slavery in Winter’s Heart, which only takes place a week before his storyline in CoT starts.

Yet the story acts like this is just a petty dispute between characters and even falls on the side of supporting Tuon because Mat has decided ~her eyes are pretty~ and whatever other nonsense. We also get Seanchan PoVs that glorify Tuon and the Seanchan more in these two books, whereas pretty much every Seanchan PoV in earlier books pointed out the downsides of their society (not usually intentionally from the PoV of the character, but clear to the readers) by mentioning the constant unrest in the homeland, etc.

Here, when we get news of civil wars in Seanchan, it’s implied to be because the Imperial family is dead, but there were ALREADY constant conflicts in Seanchan -- we learned that in TPoD and WH. It’s more likely that now that the Imperial family is dead, it’s easier for news of the unrest to spread because the Empress isn’t able to immediately jump in to crush the rebellions and suppress the news of the unhappiness of her people.

An alternate plotline I floated with markantonys to make Perrin and Mat’s plotlines better (imo of course):

No Shaido. The Shaido are played out by LoC. But Faile & co could still get captured by the Seanchan. This would make sense, because Morgase can (just barely) channel, so if a sul’dam/damane patrol gets close enough to them, they would sense her ability and snag her up to collar -- likely sweeping up her companions as well for testing. We still get to see Faile being clever in a time of great stress but without the nonsense of the Shaido still being a threat and without Perrin buddying up with slavers and thinking they’re just swell at the end of it. If you want to deal with the remnants of the Shaido, have them also be captured by the Seanchan. Faile can even meet most of the same characters that way.

Meanwhile, in Mat’s plotline, he doesn’t just give Tuon an infinite number of free passes to be an asshole. Setalle Anan acts like a real person and doesn’t bizarrely side with the head of the invasion force against one of the people who helped her escape Ebou Dar. Let Mat actually stand up against Tuon and have conversations with her about slavery. Let the secret of the sul’dam actually MATTER in Tuon’s storyline (like if you have the horrific moment of Tuon collaring the Aes Sedai, the tables should then be turned on her and she should get collared in response, making her realize that she can be affected by the a’dam - this could actually be a moment of growth for one of the former sul’dam characters, having one of them, probably Bethamin, chose to collar Tuon to show her that she’s ‘just’ a marath’damane too, just like them). Let Tuon actually grow as a person. Selucia should not be here and should never have left Ebou Dar with Tuon. Tuon should NOT have her brainwashed slave BFF on tap to remind her that Slavery Is Great Actually.

Mat and Tuon could still get (politically) married to cement a genuine alliance between the Seanchan and Rand’s forces but then he has to send her back to Ebou Dar so that she can actually enforce said alliance. There is zero reason to have Mat soften his stance on slavery at any point in this storyline. All that does is trash the ‘great and good’ man that we knew in books 1-9.

How much more interesting the Mat & Tuon storyline would be if it were about two intelligent people on opposite sides trying to work out a compromise and coming to a treaty agreement. But as it is, the M&T storyline is so... pointless. Mat should have been the one to make a treaty with the Seanchan; it’s literally the only thing that would have made Mat & Tuon’s marriage worth the page time spent on it (and worth being a prophecy). And yet... instead it’s treated as a (toxic) romance. Absolute waste of time. (ah, also just thought! If Mat is the one to make a deal with the Seanchan, this frees Rand up to deal with the Black Tower, like he SHOULD have done; just scrap everything that Rand does that relates to the Seanchan in CoT & KoD and have him do a plotline about the Black Tower instead).

And the Rand & Mat reunion would have been so much more interesting if Mat had walked in with a complicated and messy alliance with the Seanchan that Rand has to make work. THAT reunion would have been more likely to have all the depth and complexity that I am used to getting from Rand & Mat in the earlier books.

And in this new dual storyline, we have contrasting elements in Perrin and Mat’s storylines -- in Perrin’s storyline, we are seeing The Institution of The Seanchan Invasion, while in Mat’s storyline, we are seeing individuals cut off from their system of government, figuring out who they are when they’re not being told who they have to be. Instead of both Perrin and Mat deciding Actually I Like Slavers Sometimes, have Perrin rescue the Shaido in addition to his own people and then show us a variety of responses to the idea of living out from under Seanchan rule over in Mat’s plotline.

...and while I’m thinking about it... in Rand’s plotline... I’ve already proposed that the Rand x Min storyline should be adjusted so that she doesn’t Change Herself For A Man. (I think the show will probably do this and we won’t see Min painting herself into skin-tight breeches and growing and curling her hair because she thinks it’ll appeal to him more). I would say that Nynaeve should be given more to do in Rand’s plotline rather than dropping off the face of the earth after she helps him with the cleansing.

My way of fixing the whole ‘Rand just drops the topic of Mat after Nynaeve doesn’t give him an answer’ would be to shift timelines slightly. Have Tuon arrive directly with the initial invasion of Ebou Dar and shift that whole timeline up a month, so that by the time Rand hears about Mat being in Ebou Dar from Nynaeve, Mat has already escaped the city itself (and maybe Rand is able to see this through the color swirl bond, that Mat is with a circus instead of surrounded by Seanchan, so he feels like it’s safe not to worry about him for now while he focuses on the cleansing).

I would say that Rand & Nynaeve’s post-cleansing plotline SHOULD have been the Black Tower and dealing with that issue rather than Rand having Yet Another Allying With The Seanchan Plot just like the other two ta’veren boys. Nynaeve has already been deeply involved with helping men who can channel - she Healed gentling and she helped cleanse saidin - so being one of the people who investigates the Black Tower would have been a perfect fit for her character arc.

Elayne and Egwene are perfect and don’t need to change. 😘😘 Haha, on a more serious note, I would make some slight adjustments: Elayne’s pregnancy should be a non-issue for her in these books; she is BARELY pregnant when we open up in CoT (it’s been less than a week since her sex marathon with Rand). I genuinely do not believe that Jordan had a single conversation with a person capable of being pregnant when he wrote Elayne’s storyline. But her actual storyline is solid and I wouldn’t change anything.

In Egwene’s storyline, I would say that instead of Talmanes hunting her down so that she can try to talk him out of rescuing Mat, actually have HER go to TALMANES and tell him that Mat is in trouble and let him know he should head south with tBotRH (with the timeline being shortened by a month in Mat’s plotline, this would work out). Everything in her own storyline is fine; just needs to be tightened up a bit. Otherwise, they are both perfect. 😘😘

IF Rand and Nynaeve have already dealt with the Black Tower AND Mat has already made a deal with the Seanchan, then you probably COULD have finished the series in one more book after KoD rather than needing three more -- Perrin would already be in place to be a better leader by choosing to save the Shaido alongside his own people; Mat would first have a plot of saving Moiraine and then take the reins on the Last Battle; Egwene could actually do her planned ‘hearts and minds’ plot from within the White Tower (or have Semirhage be the one to launch a Seanchan assault on the WT, before Tuon is back in charge), etc. Maybe two books.

But, yeah, the slog was pretty sloggy. In terms of plotlines dragging on, CoT was definitely the worst offender, as absolutely no one completed any major plotlines in the entire book.

Another way to evaluate The Slog is how much character growth occurs:

Egwene: grows into her role as genuine Amrylin over the course of six books and is confident at the end, even in the face of being captive in the White Tower.

Rand: spirals downward book by book. After the triumph of TFoH, LoC, ACoS, and TPoD all end on darker notes. Brief triumph at the end of WH, then back to spiraling down in Cot & KoD, though he doesn’t get that much screentime in those books.

Mat: mostly just gets traumatized over and over; is abused by someone in a position of power, is horribly injured; resigns himself fatalistically to his fate and just does his best to make it as palatable as possible by trying to get Tuon to fall in love with him. Decides that slavery is acceptable under some conditions. Ugly stuff.

Perrin: obsesses over his wife, buddies up with slavers.

Nynaeve: uses BotW! breaks her block! gets married! embraces being a queen! helps cleanse saidin!

Elayne: uses BotW! bonds Rand! wins over the nobles! gains a first-sister!

Rand, Mat, and Perrin all basically go through negative character arcs of depression, failure, and obsession while Egwene, Nynaeve, and Elayne all experience positive character arcs of growing into themselves as people (though Nynaeve does mostly disappear after the cleansing, which sucks). Which leaves Rand, Mat, and Perrin all needing to go through MAJOR character growth in the last three books because they have regressed so much from their mutual character high point of roughly the middle of Lord of Chaos.

On the... plus side? I did find in my reread that Mat’s character is destroyed so abruptly and with so little narrative justification in CoT & KoD that it’s relatively easy to sever that characterization away from his books 1-9 character. His character has been so blatantly warped to fit the ‘fall in love with a slaver’ storyline that he doesn’t even feel that much like Mat from the very first pages of his PoV (where he’s suddenly not insightful enough to retain an insight about the Seanchan invasion that he’d had back in Winter’s Heart). Jordan had to kill Mat’s compassion, his intelligence, and his stubbornness (THE Two Rivers’ character trait) in order to make him fall in love with Tuon, so merely adding those things back in fixes his character and his storyline, because books 1-9!Mat would make profoundly different choices in CoT & KoD than CoT!Mat did.

In terms of unnecessary scenes...

Obviously, which scenes are and aren’t necessary is going to always be a somewhat soft category that changes based on individual priorities. The things I judged on:

Does this actually Matter in the end? i.e. does this affect our endgame choices in the Last Battle, since this is a reread and I Know What Matters, lol (this is why I chucked a lot of the romantic subplots into here, because a. they ended up having no purpose and b. Jordan is not good at romance so there isn’t even good character development going on)

Is this just the repetition of an earlier plot? (Rand’s Can’t Hurt A Woman thing fits into here)

Are we just expanding on incredibly annoying characters who are not going to appreciably impact the endgame? (aka a bunch of Atha’an Miere scenes)

So these were scenes that, to me, felt unneeded in the end and could have been trimmed out in order to leave us with fewer books that had less padding. Mostly, this involved unnecessary subplots, side quests, or badly-written romances. I’ve been keeping track of them as I’ve gone through The Slog (though I didn’t start until ACoS but LoC still has a mostly good pace, so it probably wouldn’t be so bad), so this is just the sum-up of those percentages.

Unnecessary scenes totals:

ACoS: 91 pages (13.7% of the book)

TPoD: 79 pages (11.7% of the book)

WH: 332 pages (43.3% of the book)

CoT : 427 pages (51.9% of the book)

KoD: 338 pages (44.4% of the book)

Note that this does not include scenes that were simply too long and could have been trimmed down, which there were tons of in this six-book set.

But that does align fairly well with how much of each book felt like wasted space to me, honestly. LoC-ACoS-TPoD each had some minor bad/bloated plotlines that could be cut but WH-CoT-KoD were just... overstuffed with bad plots. And it was left in a bad place, too, with all the characters separated from each other. It was ridiculous, imo, for Jordan to think that he ever could have finished it all up in one more book, given how widely he’d spread everyone out and how much time he’d wasted.

Well, next up is my reread of New Spring, which will probably end up being two posts and will probably be... a lot more positive than most of my posts during The Slog (tm). And then I will be on to Sanderson’s books! I’m actually very interested to see what my opinion of them will be. The first time around, I liked his prose here enough that it got me into reading his own books, but I’ve definitely had harsher critiques for a lot of the plotlines in Jordan’s books than I remembered from earlier reads, so I’m interested to see if my feelings on the Sanderson entries change as well.

68 notes · View notes