#``thread || andromache of scythia

[affcgato-archived]

☕ :: a cozy cafe decked out with garlands & that smell of spice while you wait for an old friend who is unusually late @leschanceux​​, from this starter call. 253 words

it’s been unusually quiet for the winter season - & it’s actually winter in this part of the world. after so many thousands of years, Andy has to admit that there’s something comforting about that even if she knows she can more than get used to just about anything. she’s adapted just just about anything but that hasn’t stopped her from feeling particularly crabby about a certain level of change. it’s a shame this will be her last winter here, but the five year rule is coming to a close & it’s time to move on. any longer & they’ll arouse suspicion. .. not that she necessarily needs to worry about that anymore. 

the cafe itself is a favorite of hers - tucked away in a dim back alley, it’s not particularly warm but it makes up for it by having the best holiday spiced drinks & pastries she’s had in a very, very long time. the recipe is old but accurate to what she remembers from the very first time she’d stumbled upon this place nearly three hundred years ago, & she thinks Joe would quite enjoy it -- the man in question is running late though, & she’s starting to feel on edge. ever since Copley had nipped onto their trail, she’s been wary of anyone following her team. they can take care of themselves, but the more she faces her imminent mortality, the more she worries about certain outcomes. 

→ [ 💬 ;; يوسف ] you’re late, that’s unlike you.

[sccharin]

     “ Honestly, I’m not even mad. “ she lowers her gun to sheath it back into its holster, kicking at the boot of the body on the floor. She had been, quite literally, a split second too late to her mark. Some other pretty assassin had beaten her to it, “ You saved me the effort so, thanks. “ she crosses her arms & leans against the door frame, grinning flirtatiously. “ In fact, I’m glad we ran into each other. I’ll help you clean up if you agree to go to dinner with me. “

@thebvsiness​ | gets a starter from Andy!

[thefvrious]

tag drop:  𝔞𝔫𝔡𝔯𝔬𝔪𝔞𝔠𝔥𝔢 𝔬𝔣 𝔰𝔠𝔶𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔞

[ao3feed-joenicky]

by dreamtiwasanarchitect

The man threads his fingers through Nicky’s, pressing their bloodied palms together. The roar of panic rushing in Nicky’s chest lessens at the touch. Through some instinct, he squeezes the man’s hand.

The melancholy look on the man’s face fades as he squeezes back.

Who are you, Nicky wonders, but in a way it seems unimportant. Just as he knows the word for the acrid smell in the air, he knows that the man is to be trusted.

After being shot in the head, Nicky loses his memories. He doesn’t remember who he is now, or who was he almost 900 years ago. Joe’s not sure which of those things is worse.

Words: 2601, Chapters: 1/5, Language: English

Fandoms: The Old Guard (Movie 2020)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani, Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Booker | Sebastien le Livre

Relationships: Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova

Additional Tags: Pre-Canon, Amnesia, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Crying, Wooing

[orphiceonian]

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Assassin’s Creed, The Old Guard (Comics), The Old Guard (Movie 2020) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Andromache of Scythia & Kassandra, Andy | Andromache of Scythia/Kassandra Characters: Kassandra (Assassin's Creed), Andy | Andromache of Scythia, Various Characters, Various Old Guard characters, Aletheia (Assassin's Creed) Additional Tags: Immortality, Crossover, Canon Divergence, Canon Typical Violence, Historical Accuracy, in most parts, I blame the isu, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, Angst, Comfort, immortality hurts what do you expect, More tags to be added, Not Beta Read, POV Shifting Summary:

'Immortals are never alien to one another.'

immortality is the heaviest burden one person to bear. Companionship can lighten the weight but destiny will be the one to test that very bond.

Kassandra, Keeper of the staff, carries the weight of atlas on her shoulders. The words of her father echoing in her mind with every choice she makes. Her destiny and heritage was the cause of her immortality. Andromache of Scythia does not know why immortality was bestowed upon her but carries the weight all the same.

When the pair meet at the banks of the blood-red Granicus, the threads of history become tangled between the two warriors and their fates.

[nokomiss]

October Fic Roundup!

October was a busy month for me irl, but I still managed four fics totaling 12k words! I also pretty much stuck with the Halloween theme, lol.

in this town of halloween - (gen, Stephanie Brown, Edward Nygma, G, 3800 words)  The Riddler takes ten-year-old Steph trick-or-treating, and Steph honestly has the best time ever.

spun with the thread of destiny - (DCU/Old Guard crossover; Selina Kyle/Andromache of Scythia, T, 2800 words)  Haunt enough museums and you’re bound to catch the eye of a thief.

but hold me fast (Stephanie Brown/Jason Todd, T, 4400 words, Tam Lin fusion/AU) The rules are simple: if she lets go of him before dawn, she joins the Wild Hunt herself. If she holds on, then he’s free.

thank you for being a friend (Stephanie Brown, Tim Drake, Jason Todd; G, 1700 words)   In which deciding what costume to wear to a Halloween party mission takes more time than the actual bust, aka Steph, Tim and Jason argue about group costumes, go to a party, and somehow manage to fit in a little crimefighting.

[astyle-alex]

[the Old Guard] the Thing about Technology... | Fanfic by PrettyMissKitty

Fandom: the Old Guard Pairing / Character Focus: Andy | Andromache of Scythia & Technology Warnings: None Word Count: 1380 Summary: Booker might be the Guard's official Tech Guy, but I don't think google would be Andy's handicap, because the thing about technology is that it's not about how old you are, it's about how closely you've been paying attention. Tech is only scary if you look away and miss something in its development (and you don't have the luxury of time to learn what you missed).Here's a short over-view of Andy's history with technology, because when she was young, Zero hadn't been invented yet! *Includes Historical Notes!

The Thing About Technology...

           The thing about technology and old folks is that the old folks usually missed something, some critically important step in leaning, not how to use a piece of tech, but the context of why it was created and therefore how to manipulate its variables.

           Old folks can’t use a cell phone because they’re focused on the end result of making the photo-thing take pictures rather than on the process of finding a way to access the camera. They usually missed the developmental stage in tech when the camera was a physical button-press being grafted onto basic coding. And most old folks today certainly weren’t around for when ‘coding’ meant shoving paper punchout card by hand into a mechanical maw the size of god damn building and physically pulling levers to manipulate it.

           Old folks generally can’t use tech because they weren’t there to see the layers of it get invented— and they can’t keep up with learning the how-to’s when they never learned the why’s. They look away for a second, distracted with Life, a job, or having kids, and suddenly the world is different and they can't sit down and backtrack until the figure out what they missed.

           When one is an immortal, no part of that problem is really relevant.

           Andy knows how tech works.

           She even likes most of it.

           Well over 6000 years of technological developments and her ancient ass is still up on all the latest shiny things. It kills her with hysteric giggles how people younger than her age by over 40 fold think they can’t call her ‘kid’ with such disdain, and call her a ‘millennial’ with dismissive rancor even when begging for her help because ‘their gps is broken’ (the function is not usually broken, but it’s rarely been enabled).

           Over 6000 years and Andy still remembers the first big new thing to make its mark upon the world. She’s old as sin itself at this point, but written Language was still fairly new when she was born… phonetics and syllable symbols were becoming more common [1] , but alphabetical written language? Woo, well that had still been mostly an experiment [2] .

           Likewise, the concept of zero was a pretty cool thing.

           Zero popped up about 2000 years into Andy’s time on earth, though it wasn’t given it’s own symbol in the writing system until about a thousand years later [3] .

           Around that same time, saddle girths came into being [4] . And blink a few hundred years away ‘till when stirrups came along [5] . As far as Andy was concerned, that was the moment when real warfare was invented. Elegant and noble warfare, at least, the kind with a grand strategy and careful deliberation in the use of armies.

           Technically, war had been around for thousands of years before Andromache first drew breath, but only in the far east (as she would only learn after several millennia of fighting) had war become something other than foot soldiers and a few mounted units or those in chariots just randomly bashing up against each other.

           A thousand years before Andromache became the scourge and savoir of Scythia, East Asia had made war into an Art, and by the time she was halfway through her 4th millennia, they'd even wrote a book abut it [6] .

           Bows and arrows had been around forever [7] , but the deign for a recurved composite bow came around as an exhilarating shock— appearing a little after girths and a bit before stirrups [8] .

           Combined, stirrups and girths and recurve bows made war into and elegant dance of skill and strategy— a contest in which there were clear victors and few civilians caught in the crossfire. What armies did outside of battle was another story, one that had such heinous chapters that Andromache wet her blade far more often in the chests of men dying off the battlefield rather than on it.

           And the gunpowder came along [9] .

           Things got messy with gunpowder. War became less a contest of skill and planning, and more a contest ruthlessness and willingness to utterly destroy the object of one’s aim to conquer... no matter who got in the way.

           Still, gunpowder meant the delights of fireworks and noise crackers and smoke-bombs for dramatic exits.

           Even with the higher casualty count and increase brutality and suffering in battle, Andy counted gunpowder a solid boon.

           And outside of warfare? Well, windmills were pretty cool [10] .

           Efficient mills made bread cheaper and made it taste much better than before— good, highly efficient mills made everything easier which lowered the risk of having a baker cheat you with most of the flour used to bake really being sand.

           The magnetic compass was neat [11] , but what really drew Andy’s attention was the development of mechanical clocks and celestial calendars [12] — the metallurgy skills of her Scythian heritage could feel the hum of craftsmanship in the work behind their making.

           Books were always pretty much magical, even when they’d been written down by hand. But once the printing press had been developed [13] , Andy started reading everything available.

           She perhaps wasn’t there for the invention of the oil lamp [14] , but the cleaner burn of kerosene [15] changed how Andy spent her nights, spending longer and longer into the evening enjoying time out on the town— at least until things got out of hand with air pollution and roughing it like the good old days before lamps and plumbing seemed infinitely preferable to staying in a city.

           Skipping all the big-but-little developments, like railways / cars / planes and the telegraph (all of which Andy needed to utilize with capital effort to be effective in her self-appointed role as a from-the-shadows world-improver), Andy was there when electric lighting came to be [16] .

           1901 saw radios becoming legitimately useful in Andy’s line of work, which made a lot of things far easier. Conversely, 1935’s development of radar made many things much harder.

           Room-sized calculators in the 1920’s and 30’s and 40’s gave way to legitimate computers by the 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s… with the niche interest of computer programming and networking going from mostly military or home-grown super geek to entirely mainstream in a single blink once 1985’s release of an ATARI graphic interface hit. That was when tech really took off, in Andy’s mind, at least.

           The pace of its development certainly exploded.

           But the advantage of being an immortal is that she never had to look backwards to learn tech’s history. When something new came along, she could learn it with the benefit of having the full depth of its context there behind her to bolster her way passed any minor blips of confusion.

           So, now, when Andy’s bored to death with waiting for the noise to start, she can listen to an audio book while playing CandyCrush or MarioKart Tour or PokemonGO and run up annoying threads of banal conversation in the group chat for her little Family.

           Poor Nile’s caught between treating Andy and the others like people from her own tech-savvy generation and staring incredulously at a text message from Joe or Booker that reads more like the Constitution than like a plan for supper.

           Sometimes the long-windedness is meant to be a joke to confuse her, and sometimes they forget she doesn’t really know how to take that kind of thing very seriously anyway.

           It still turns out funny without any effort.

           All in all, the only thing Andy cares about is the safety of her Family. She’ll exploit whatever tech she can to ensure their happiness and security.

           The endless entertainment of YouTube is certainly a boon, but instantaneous wire transfers and multinational credit accounts are better.

           Andy may be an old lady who cannot be arsed to care what TikTok vid is trending, but she’s also a kick-ass pioneer whose VPN can keep the CIA and such from getting at all handsy with her nearly bottomless cash accounts.

           The thing about technology is that is less about how old you are than it is how consistently you’ve kept up with paying attention to the new developments— and with 6000 years of active learning under her belt, Andy’s got the patience to ensure that she always keeps herself perfectly up to date.

- - - - -

Historical Notes: 

[1] Mesopotamian cuneiform was developed circa 3200-3500 BC, an ‘alphabet’ of syllabic phenoms. [2] Semitic peoples in regions of Egypt and Phoenicia developed a truer form of alphabetic script, ca 2000~2500 BC [3] Zero popped up in Mesopotamia around 3000 BC, but it was recorded as a blank space. It got a symbol in accounting archives in approx. 2000 BC. [4] Girths appeared on the Kazakh Steppes around 700 BC. [5] Stirrups appeared, also on the Kazakh Steppes around 300 BC [6] Sun Tzu’s ‘Art of War’, published in the 5th century BC. [7] Something ~71,000 BC shows artistic representations of bows being made and used in dozens of cultures. [8] Recurved bows, the Scythian version in particular, began appearing regularly in ~500 BC. [9] ~850 CE, gunpowder was invented in China. [10] Windmills appeared in Persia around 950 CE, to both move water for irrigation and to grind down grains for flour. [11] Magnetic compasses appeared in China around 1044 CE. [12] The golden age of precious metalwork as a function high-art came in the 14~1500’s CE. [13] Gutenberg invented his moveable type press in 1436, but China and Korea had woodblock printing in 800 CE and had a thriving industry of fiction being published before the western world invented the concept of a fiction novel narrator (‘Tom Jones’, by Henry Fielding, published 1749 is the one of the earliest western examples). [14] Oil lamps appeared in the Middle East in 9000 BC. [15] Kerosene was derived in the 1840’s~50’s, it burns cleaner than natural oils, but is cheap enough to be used at obscenely excessive volume. So an individual dwelling wouldn’t be coated in black residue, but whole cities would be—and with the other kinds of air pollution… yeah. Country living looked real nice. [16] Edison’s light bulb was released in 1879 and Edison Electric had a working power plant established by 1882.

Author’s Notes: This fic is cross-posted on my Ao3 Account (PrettyMissKitty) and on my Patreon (Astyle_Alex). It’s the first of at least 3 (but probably many more) fics that I plan to post in this amazing fandom, written in a single sitting because I just could NOT contain myself after watching the awesomeness that is the Old Guard.

(And if you're curious as to what ELSE I am / should be working on, check out my schedule and project lists!): October 2020 Schedule: https://www.patreon.com/posts/current-project-42144611 Project Masterlist: https://www.patreon.com/posts/current-projects-30172736

[affcgato-archived]

@seesgood ( moved for beta )

she supposes it’s a fair enough assumption to make that a couple thousand years would give someone enough perspective to know when to let things slide. but still --- they were almost turned into lab rats because of copley’s research. research that she, in part, contributed to.  ❝ you have fail safes for each other? ❞  in the versions of the stories her father always told to her, they were family. tighter than family, actually. although, given booker’s recent decisions, she supposes it’s probably wise to think in worst case scenarios. but something about the statement makes her sad. caroline’s mouth pulls into a frown, eyebrows pinching together in that way she does when she’s trying not to say something she shouldn’t.  ❝ so you really just can’t trust anyone, can you? ❞  it sounds lonely. which is saying something, because she’s always thought that andy’s story sounded the loneliness. nicky and joe have one another, they always have. booker has the rest of them. nile now too, she supposes. but andy was alone for centuries.  ❝ that sucks. ❞

' trust but verify, ' Andy concedes. ' a lot can happen over a few hundred years, and sometimes we make decisions we think are for the best... but they're not. and sometimes we need the reality check to remind each other of that. ' when you live as long as she had, nothing was black or white but more an all encompassing gray that shifted with each & every interaction. they had failsafes & systems & processes but they all depended on a very human element to work. ' it works because we trust each other to hold ourselves accountable, ' she finally admits. ' I don't think I could have made it this long with any amount of a moral compass intact without them. but that's getting away from the point I guess - what's on your mind? '

[affcgato-archived]

@bastxrds​ ( joe ): [text]: According to google history I spent most of last night trying to buy an elephant.

→ [ 💬 ;; يوسف ] but were you successful? → [ 💬 ;; يوسف ] don’t leave me on read, sir → [ 💬 ;; يوسف ] I have to know, do I need to make an elephant disappear? → [ 💬 ;; يوسف ] and yes I know you better than to assume you weren’t successful → [ 💬 ;; يوسف ] by the way, Clary is back.

[affcgato-archived]

@darcywho​: [text]: A surplus of mistakes were made and I don’t know what 89% of them were. 

     → [ 💬 ;; Lewis ] Do I need to drop in & make someone behave?      → [ 💬 ;; Lewis ] despite SWORD’s best efforts, *strange things* are making the news even out here.      → [ 💬 ;; Lewis ] so it has even me a bit curious.

[affcgato-archived]

@wcrstarter​: ❝ if i hear pumpkin spice one more time i’m gonna scream. ❞

      ‘ on the bright side, it’s almost PEPPERMINT MOCHA season? ’ Andy offers with a quirk of her lips even as she tips the contents of the flask into her coffee. it doesn’t bother her like it does the other, but there are other flavors, & maybe she’s just too JADED to be annoyed by it. or maybe she’s just been out of touch a shade too long. ' give it a week, I just might agree with you, ’ she finally offers begrudgingly. ‘ but coffee orders aside... how’ve you been otherwise? ’

[affcgato-archived]

Hippolyta ( @fortisfeminae​ )

"and what was that for?"

      ‘ what, I’m not allowed to appreciate all that you do for me? ’

[affcgato-archived]

@ducavalentinois​: “Who did this?” || call my muse out for a black eye & a busted lip ( accepting! )

      she had deliberately left the bulk of the candles scattered throughout her chambers unlit, & the curtains were still pulled tight & fashioned closed. it’s been a long day every day of this week & she’s unwilling to dwell on any of it longer than she already has. her body is already healing - not that he should notice. she’d kept the lights dim for a reason. her mind is far from healed, & her heart is still heavy with grief for the woman lost to her under the waves. being here, a world away from everything that had become familiar to her over the centuries is refreshing, & her charge is simple - she’d sworn her loyalty to this mortal, & she’s sworn to protect him in the way she should have protected Noriko. it’s her penance, one she’s done well with so far. 

      ‘ there was a situation in the market. no one of consequence. ’ the words roll off her tongue like so many languages before it. she’s spoken so many languages that sometimes they run together in her head, but this one is perhaps one of her favorites. it reminds her of Nicolo, & that at least brings happy memories. this century has seen a rise in Greek & Latin again in this region of the world, & that too has given her reasons to not quite forget how to smile in spite of her immense loss. so many changes as the world marches forward without stop. unrelenting, unceasing.  ‘ I’ll be fine by morning, my liege. don’t trouble yourself. ’

[affcgato-archived]

@viciousgrace​ ( Lyanna ): “i made you some soup, and i’m going to sit here until you eat it. i can wait.”

      ‘ that’s unusually sweet. someone might think you’re up to something, ’ the older woman muses, cradling the mug of soup in both hands for a long moment. it’s warm in her hands, & that warmth is welcome. very, very welcome really, & yet she still makes no moves to eat it just yet. she’s still hurting, even if her body has already physically healed. sometimes the pain is more of an anchor than the calm. exhaling slowly, she finally lifts the mug & drinks the broth straight out of the mug before even thinking to reach for a spoon. ‘ thanks, ’ the Scythian says finally, her voice far more subdued as she sets the half-empty mug down. ‘ I appreciate it. ’

[affcgato-archived]

@bastxrds​ ( yusuf ): ❛ what they don’t understand, they fear. and what they fear… ❜

      ‘ they hunt. ’ it’s the same in every lifetime, with a handful of variations on the core notes. cycles of deification & condemnation, depending on the tone of the century before them. she has a lot more experience than this than Joe, or Nicky. worlds more than Booker. she doesn’t even want to think about what Nile will have to get used to. there’s so few of them, it can be a lonely & isolating existence for sure. ‘ I try not to think about it too much. I find introspection leads to a very painful place. you should try it sometime. might help. ’

[sccharin]

@tornsurvivors | a starter for isabel!

     “ if you’re here for the booze, i’ve already drank it all. “ she’s lounging among a dusty stack of crates and other random junk they’ve got collecting in the abandoned warehouse-turned-bunker. she’s milking the last of a bottle, glazed eyes shifting up isabel’s form to lock hazily on her face. despite the copious amount of alcohol in her system, her mind has not dulled. “ if you’re here for an apology, “ another sip, replaying the events of the night prior, the argument they’d gotten into that ultimately ended in andy trashing isabel’s place, “ then go fuck yourself. “ 

     frustrated the last of the whiskey is gone, she tosses the bottle away, satisfied with the crash it makes at it shatters. standing, albeit unsteady at first, she shoulders past the taller woman. “ or i could. “ there’s that lecherous smirk & keen glint of an eye. does she mean it? probably. “ so? what is it? what do you want? “