#Cross paradise chronicles

[zroqravity]

Tizen said she would accept my offering of dead people, best day of my life <3

[catofadifferentcolor]

Terrible Fic Idea #82: The Chronicles of Narnia, but make it ASOIAF

@kyuremking recently asked me how I would go about combining Game of Thrones with The Chronicles of Narnia - and admittedly I was a bit baffled at first. Narnia has never been one of my go-to fandoms - I never liked how CS Lewis handled Susan, as if growing up was a crime worthy of exclusion from paradise, and the religious imagery feels quite heavy-handed considering the century in which they were published.

But I thought. And I mused. And I turned the idea over in my mind. And this is what I came up with: What if the Stark siblings fell into an Old Gods-analog of Narnia?

Just imagine it:

One day while exploring beneath the catacombs, young Arya Stark falls into Narnia. It is not quite the Narnia we know, with most of the heavy Christian symbolism of the books being replaced by the beliefs and mythology of the Old Gods.

As the religion of the Old Gods is not overly expanded upon in canon, let's imagine it here as something of a cross between shintoism and folk orthodoxy - polytheist and heavily animist with a notion of "pollution vs purity" and an un-codified moral code, but with localized cults of anthropomorphized saints which over the centuries have picked up certain aspects of certain of the New Gods. The details don't really matter so long as the two most important of these saints, which have taken on aspects of the Smith and the Mother, can be used to replicate the Narnian idea of son of Adam and daughter of Eve.

Arya falls into Narnia. Bran tentatively believes her, but the rest of her siblings think she's telling tales. This leads to some back and forth before Jon and Sansa are separately tasked to pull Bran and Arya out of the catacombs - and end up falling into Narnia after them.

Jon, Sansa, Bran, and Arya free Narnia from an endless winter at the hands of the Corpse Queen, who was trapped there by the Children of the Forest, which weakened the Others enough that the Last Hero was able win the Battle for the Dawn. They then rule Narina as Kings and Queens for forty years, eventually falling back into Winterfell while hunting the White Stag.

The exact details of the Narnia interlude are unimportant, as our story picks up literally the minute they find themselves all in a heap back in the catacombs, child-sized once more.

The rest of their family immediately notices the difference, but has no idea what to make of it. All of a sudden the four middle Stark children seem to have overcome all of their differences. They're not just acting like miniature adults, they're acting like proper lords and ladies - used to commanding and their orders being followed.

The difference is starkest with Arya - who seems have mellowed in the course of a day to warrior queen out of legend - and Sansa - who is no longer dreamy but dangerous in the way all Queens of Winter have always been. But it's there with Jon - who seems surer, steadier, and more comfortable in his own skin even as he looks at Ned with betrayal in his eyes - and Bran - who has gone from wanting to be a storybook knight to being the gallant knight he's always wanted to be.

Additionally, all four seem unspeakably close these days and can often be found whispering together - and slowly going silent when anyone else draws near. They're in and out of each other's chambers to the point where it's honestly strange to find one of them alone.

There's no time to ponder these changes, as the royal party is on their way North.

Ned will regret not paying closer attention for the rest of his life.

For while in Narnia, the Stark children learned two things: 1) That Jon is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and his second wife, Lyanna Stark. Though it's never outright stated, it's heavily implied that while Lyanna's abduction was willing, her imprisonment in a tower was not, and by the end of it hated her husband more than anyone. Jon will never, ever be sure where his conception fell on the spectrum; and 2) that the Long Night is coming. It may be in their generation, it may be in the next, but Westeros must be strong to ensure the Dawn will come. Everything they've learned about Robert Baratheon suggests that he will not - cannot - be the king Westeros needs. And so Jon, Arya, Bran, and Sansa plot, and scheme in preparation for Jon to take the throne himself.

They're prepared to play the long game - but don't have to after Bran spies Jamie and Cersei in the First Keep. He arranges for the pair to be discovered in a way that is utterly undeniable. The twins are tried, found guilty, and beheaded in short order. Cersei's children are declared bastards - and, after Joffrey draws a sword in protest of this, Joffrey is slain as well. Myrcella and Tommen are remanded to Ned's care until they are old enough to join the Faith, enter the Citadel, or take the Black.

And then Robert does what he does best: drinks and whores, seemingly uncaring that his rule is hanging by a thread.

And so Jon acts - or rather, Jon and Sansa go to Ned so that he can act. They sit him down, explain that they know Jon is the rightful Targaryen heir, and state that if Ned does not declare for Jon now, he is dooming Westeros to a bloody civil war. It is best to act decisively now rather than wait for Robert's vices to kill him.

This conversation takes the better part of the night, but eventually Ned is convinced. When morning comes, Ned orders his guards put the few royal guards not already under watch (the majority Lannister men-at-arms having been imprisoned for rioting after Jamie and Cersei's deaths) and takes Robert hostage.

Jon is named King Jaehaerys III.

A great host marches south to King's Landing, picking up the lords of the Riverlands while fighting off Lannister forces, and takes King's Landing quickly, despite Renly's spirited defense of the city. Forces are sent to mop up Stannis at Dragonstone in echo of the Rebellion and in short order Jon is King of Westeros in truth.

What follows is a montage of Jon doing is best to strengthen the kingdom, put down rebellions, and make Westeros ready for the Long Night.

Bran marries Shireen Baratheon, who is named Lady Paramount of the Stormlands in her own right. Their marriage is one of surprising affection - and one which seems determined to restore House Baratheon to its greatest number through their own efforts. Bran is known as The Noble Wolf, and earns a reputation equal to that of the Dragonknight or Duncan the Tall.

Arya marries Robin Arryn, but it's doubtful they ever consummate the marriage. When he dies two years later, she claims the Vale by right of widowhood, and has already been doing such a good job ruling in his stead that few protest when there are no viable alternatives. No one ever quite knows who fathers her heir, but by that point the Long Night is in full swing and few take issue with it.

Robb marries Margery Tyrell, the closest the Tyrells can get to the crown. It's a successful marriage, if not one of deep affection, and ensures the North is well-fed when the Long Night comes.

Jon marries Sansa, with whom he'd had a relationship in Narnia and who he'd been dancing around after their return to adolescence. They often wonder about the children they left behind in Narnia, which causes some angst when they start having children in Westeros, but are undeniably the happiest royal couple in 200 years.

There are other efforts beyond marriage in the background, including 1) a long sequence during which Theon Greyjoy is installed as Lord Paramount of the Iron Islands after his father rebels. He proves to be remarkably loyal to the crown, marries Lyra Mormont, and turns the Ironborn from pirates into a royal navy in one generation; 2) Rickon is sent to foster in Dorne, which he takes to in a way no one could have predicted. He ends up staying in Dorne for most his life and becomes known as The Desert Wolf - a wilder, fiercer knight than his brother Bran. He never marries, but fathers a bevy of bastards to rival Oberyn Martell - at least half of them with Oberyn's daughter Loreza; and 3) Tywin being in open rebellion for years before Tyrion, in a desperate attempt to ensure a Lannister stays Lord of the Rock after they're assuredly defeated by the combined strength of the rest of Westeros, kills his father, takes his place, and swears his fidelity - just in time for the Long Night to descend.

With their preplanning, the Long Night is not half as bad as it was in canon - but it's still war. Sansa rules in King's Landing while Jon, Arya, and Bran lead the fighting to the north.

The situation goes poorly at first, with royal forces able to hold The Others off long enough for the Free Folk to to safety - but it's still a retreat, with each loss to the living strengthening the dead. The situation is starting to seem desperate by the time the Others reach the Wall.

In the darkest moment of the Battle of the Wall, the dragon Cannibal arrives at Castle Black to aid Jon, while two of his kin go to help Arya and Bran at the Shadow Tower and Eastwatch-by-the Sea. (These dragons being ice dragon cousins of the Targaryen fire dragons of the east, and thus drawn to the Stark bloodline when they bother to take riders at all.) Together they are the three heads of the dragon...

...and they start pushing the Others back. Within two years, they have won and the Night King is destroyed.

Jon goes on to rule for several more decades, beloved and capable in a way that no Targaryen ruler before him has ever been. (His few detractors are quick to point out he's more Stark than Targaryen, but Jon takes that as a compliment.) His queen, Sansa, seems less a consort and more a co-ruler, and is possibly more beloved than her husband. Their rule is one of peace and growing prosperity throughout the Seven Kingdoms and takes up an almost Arthurian place in the later history and mythology of Westeros.

They never speak of their experiences in Narnia to anyone - save Jon and Sansa's eldest son, Robb and Margery's eldest daughter, Arya's heir, and one of Bran and Shireen's middle children, who fall into Narnia themselves while exploring the Red Keep, who help the rightful king retake his throne...

Bonuses include: 1) The relationship between Robb and Jon never quite getting back to where it was before the Narnia interlude. As a result, Robb and Theon become even closer - which may have a strong role in Theon's efforts to turn the Iron Islands away from raiding. Dealer's choice if this relationship is bromance or romance; 2) A revival of the Old Gods and their religion following in the wake of the Targaryen Restoration. They win many converts everywhere the Stark family gains a foothold and godswoods are restored throughout the Seven Kingdoms; 3) A projection of Westerosi power into the lands beyond the Wall. At first this is nominal, but as parts of Beyond The Wall start to build villages and keeps similar to those in the North, things begin to change. Within 100 years most of the area capable of being settled this way is under control of their own Lord Paramount descended from a marriage between Robb and Theon's lines. The lands further north continue their pre-War lifestyles, but are nominally part of Westeros as well; and 4) Daenerys lives a happy life with Drogo in Essos. She watches with pleasure as her son Rhaego forms the largest land empire the world of ice and fire has ever seen - and lives just long enough to see that empire collapse after his death as his heirs scrabble for power. One of her great-grandsons, however, does end up on the throne of Yi Ti. His dynasty will eventually rise to be Westeros' great eastern rivals.

And that is surprisingly more than I thought'd I'd have. @kyuremking, IDK if this is quite what you were looking for, but it's the best I could come up with. As always, feel free to adopt this bun, just link back if you do anything with it.

More Terrible Fic Ideas

[simplegenius042]

Music Monday & Ship Moodboard/WIP Wednesday & OC Smash or Pass

Tagged by @voidika and @inafieldofdaisies

Tagging @adelaidedrubman @imogenkol @shellibisshe @aceghosts @socially-awkward-skeleton @noodlecupcakes @josephseedismyfather @icecutioner @derelictheretic @shallow-gravy @direwombat @strangefable @rhettsabbott @josephslittledeputy @cloudofbutterflies92 @skoll-sun-eater @cassietrn @carlosoliveiraa @g0dspeeed @wrathfulrook @afarcryfrommymain @strafethesesinners @turbo-virgins @raresvtm @softtidesworld @starsandskies @ladyoriza @la-grosse-patate @florbelles @titiagls @minilev @yokobai @thewanderer-000 @omen-speaker @justasmolbard @alypink @thesingularityseries and @nightwingshero + anyone else who'd like to join.

Got songs for two WIPs in The UnTitledverse, a Moodboard WIP for a ship in Sonya's Push from Life, Despair & Monsters and a smash and pass for one Deputy Silva Omar from The Silver Chronicles. You can find them both below the cut:

Jurassic World: The Perfect Storm is the final Jurassic World fic before that arc ends and the next phase begins. The adaptability of a human is quite a phenomenal quality, a challenge towards the obstacles reality throws at them. Joaquin and Maisie have the strongest hold on this quality, especially while surviving BioSyn's dinosaurs and Edward Carmine's grudging disdain. Unlike Jurassic World: Dominion, the actions of these two teens (who are in way over their heads) change the globe's food chain significantly into a true Jurassic World. Also Indo is still alive... and trying to get Blue and the Indoraptor to not rip each other's throats out.

"Tap tap When you fear the chomp chomp When you hear the echo (echo!)

Take a gyrosphere and go for a drive Or wait in line for a Stegosaurus ride They made a zoo out of dinosaurs They built predators in a paradise

In the lab They added laser activation With night vision and perfect echolocation The Indoraptor shouldn't get the blame He's only learning where he fits in the food chain

Tap tap of Velociraptor's claws When you fear the chomp chomp of the Carnotaurus jaws When you hear the echo (echo), of the T-Rex roar

Life finds a way They made the Indoraptor to weaponise! Tried to keep Pteranodon from the open skies They tried to put T-Rex on display But, but

Life finds a way They can try to stuff chaos inside a cage Bring back the dinosaurs from an ancient age But it's always gonna end in a rampage 'Cause, 'cause Life finds a way

In Jurassic World Yeah, c'mon, life finds a way

Now all that power has been unleashed And you can't put it back in the box (No!) They kidnapped and locked them underneath On a ship to the mainland dock

But not for long 'Cause Stiggy broke out at the auction Throwing people and chairs in every direction The Indoraptor is facing off with Blue And Claire and Owen watch a stampede running loose

Tap tap of Velociraptor's claws When you fear the chomp chomp of the Carnotaurus jaws When you hear the echo (echo), of the T-Rex roar

Life finds a way They made the Indoraptor to weaponise! Tried to keep Pteranodon from the open skies They tried to put T-Rex on display But, but

Life finds a way They can try to stuff chaos inside a cage Bring back the dinosaurs from an ancient age But it's always gonna end in a rampage 'Cause, 'cause Life finds a way

These creatures were here before us They ruled the land, they ruled the sea Life cannot be contained Life breaks free

They can try to stuff chaos inside a cage (These creatures were here before us) Bring back the dinosaurs from an ancient age (They ruled the land, they ruled the sea) But it's always gonna end in a rampage (Life cannot be contained) 'Cause, 'cause Life finds a way!"

Another The UnTitledverse work is a Transformers Prime fic called Honour Thy Father that focuses on Arcee as she discovers that she may have been sired by a Decepticon when she isn't immediately shot dead by some Spark Recognition Turrets. She goes on a solo mission to find answers, which crosses paths with the mission of an unknown droid calling himself Timekeeper... who's looking for a McGuffin. Their first encounter doesn't start... great. The best I can describe it as is Maui's "You're Welcome" diversion from Moana.

"Well, come to think of it Kid, honestly I could go on and on I could explain every natural phenomenon The tide, the grass, the ground Oh, that was the Earth* just messing around Plant some seeds, bury the roots** Sprouted a tree, now human's have fruits and nuts*** What's the lesson? What is the takeaway? Don't mess with Time while it's on one leap year away**** And the tapestry here in my skin is a map of the victories I win Look where I've been, I make everything happen Look at that mean mini me just tippity tappin'***** Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, hey!

Well anyway, let me say, "You're welcome" ("You're welcome!") For the wonderful world you know Hey, it's okay, it's okay, you're welcome ("You're welcome!") Well, come to think of it, I gotta go ("Hey!")

Hey, it's your day to say you're welcome ("You're welcome!") 'Cause I'm gonna need that keypad****** I'm getting further away, away, you're welcome ("You're welcome!") 'Cause Time can do everything but stop

You're welcome! ("You're welcome!") You're welcome! ("You're welcome!") And thank you!"

[* <- These just mean I took some creative decisions to alter the words to better fit my story and characters these songs are not about]

Later on after that debacle, Timekeeper and Arcee work together to both find the group with the information on her heritage and the McGuffin Timekeeper misplaced. They encounter a foe by the name of E.M.I.L.Y (the Endangered Management Initiative in Learning Yields)... and it goes as great as Moana and Maui's time with Tamatoa in his serenade of "Shiny".

"Watch me dazzle like a diamond in the rough Strut my stuff, my stuff is so shiny

Send your armie, but they'll never be enough My steel's too tough, now Timekeeper*

You could try, try, try But you can't expect a demigod To beat a decapod (Look it up)

You will die, die, die Now it's time for me to take apart your aching honor**

Far from the ones who abandoned you Chasing the love of these mortals*** Who made you feel wanted You try to be tough But your armour's just not hard enough

Now allow me!**** To come kick your hiney***** Ever seen someone so shiny?

Soak it in, 'cause it's the last you'll ever see C'est la vie, mon ami, I'm so shiny

Now I'll dismember you, so prepare your final plea****** Just for me You'll never be quite as shiny You wish you were nice and shiny!"

[* <- These just mean I took some creative decisions to alter the words to better fit my story and characters these songs are not about... also I have to say this. I love the "c'est la vie, mon ami" line. It rolls off the tongue so beautifully, but I guess that's French for you. I don't think many people really appreciate this line as much as I do]

Moodboard and a WIP snippet for Sonya's Push for my favorite "I can make them worst" toxic sapphic situationship that I've made.

A steam of hot air blew pass the clenched jaw of the mechanical Beastie, its optic shining a red hue onto her flesh. Jennifer sucked in a breath and shuddered as the heat stung her exposed shoulders. The Apex, Sonya, whatever name Malvolio's Beastie crowned itself with, hadn't immediately given her an answer. She tried to struggle against the tail's curled hold around her legs, waist, and arms. Just like last time, she only succeeded in causing the tail to coil tighter, effectively pinning her hands to her tattered and dirty golden dress. The fear of her body's circulation being cut off immediately invaded her thoughts, so she ceased the struggle, hoping to gain the Apex's favor as it inspected her from the ground, circling as the panic and fear rumbled in her stomach. Jennifer was unsure what fate awaited her. She hoped her words made an effort in appealing to whatever human desire remained in the Beastie, but if she were to die, she'd wish it to be quicker than what Dicko received. The Apex chittered, shaking its head as the plates running down the spine rattled, one of the tails whipping. She was brought down to face the lipless metal of its exterior jaws. The red optic, white pupil merely a dot surrounded by the growing crimson that glowed a darker hue. Jennifer refrained from speech. The Apex brought its ghastly face too close to her face for comfort. The exterior jaw slightly gaped open, and Jennifer felt her heart halt for a mere second. Instead of a long tongue covered in the gore of its victims or a grotesque second jaw jutting out to snap her in half, the Apex puffed out a steam of hot air again. It blew past Jennifer's blonde hair, frazzling it up even more now. "Correct me if I'm wrong," it spoke, deep feminine voice vibrating out of unknown vocal cords Malvolio had put inside it, "But from what I'm hearing... you want to partner up? Use me to monger fear into Dicko's personnel and rivals while you reign in his power?" "With the benefit of garnering enough essential resources and numbers to give you - and myself - the advantage in hunting down Malvolio," she told it, soft voice as reasonably loud as possible, and swiftly yet shakily added, "B-but that can only happen if you let me live." The Apex hummed- or maybe it groaned, it was difficult to tell, "So use you as a puppet while masquerading as your trump card? That is... tempting." Jennifer gulped as the Apex hissed, "But how can I trust you of all people? Not just twelve hours ago, you were living the dream as Dicko's personal little lapdog. Or would you be his vicious hound instead?" Jennifer kept her composure to ensure she didn't blow this opportunity to earn her freedom, "He betrayed me. He left me to die." "That's true," the Apex acknowledged, "But these feelings haven't just manifested tonight. No. This was a progression of resentment and disgust that finally hit a last straw. You had plans to kill him... you just never had the opportunity to safely execute it." Jennifer blinked at the Apex's assessment, both fuming and terrified by its thinking. "So tell me," the Apex brought its glaring optic against Jennifer's forehead; the light forcing her to shut her eyes, "Why should I give you the benefit of the doubt?"

SMASH OR PASS

RULES: pretty self explanatory. include physical descriptions or pics, and propaganda. the “other” label can be used for “sexuality misalignment” (ie: oc is femme and you’re gay, vice versa or you aren’t into smashing but a specific thing you wanna do with them like perhaps hug or study them under a microscope idc).

DEPUTY SILVA OMAR (THE SILVER CHRONICLES [FAR CRY 5 & FAR CRY NEW DAWN])

QUICK FACTS:

Height: Around 5'8 or 5'9 in Silva's Hope. (Gets a late growth spurt to be 6'1 in Old Dusk (unfortunate genetic benefits from her then dead evil bio father)).

Age: 26 (and then 27) in Silva's Hope. (44 in Old Dusk).

Gender: Female (and Intersex).

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Demiromantic Lesbian. Also opens up to being polyamorous.

PROS:

Silva is mostly physically affectionate but can be verbally reassuring and complimentary.

Silva is extremely caring and protective. Total sweetheart.

Strong woman.

Has a great sense of humor (once her walls are down).

Great with kids. Also experienced!

She's a good cook. Always experimenting and trying out new dishes.

If you have a nightmare, she's probably already awake late in the night to comfort you with whatever you need (thanks to her insomnia and night terrors).

Absolute romantic. Will give you gifts (sometimes flowers that hold complimentary meanings), spend quality time and PDA, no matter how small, is a must. Will want to get to know you.

Can't lie (pretty shit at it).

CONS:

Silva is secretive. She'll be secretive about her problems because she doesn't want to bother people with said problems.

However Silva is most secretive about her past. She'd rather not talk about that. She won't tell you about her childhood, her family (with only a simplification of who they were and her relationship with them and the fact that they're dead), what she was doing on her six month trip around the globe, etc. She even has a fake past on hand, which is short and straight to the point.

Silva may not be great at lying, but she doe use forms of deception, such as evading the question, using vague yet plausible short explanations, has mastered a very neutral stoic mask to hide her emotions, etc. Pretty much anything that helps her avoid answering a question she's either uncomfortable with or does not want to answer.

Silva doesn't want to talk about her trauma, grief nor the horrors she went through. She came to Montana to begin anew with Elsa and Persephone, and even though she no longer has the latter two anymore, she will honor that mission by trying to live a "normal" life.

Also fairly certain she doesn't know therapy is something that exists.

Survivors guilt big time makes her blame herself for any fault or disaster that happens around/to/because of her, mentally punching herself for not doing more or failing in general (even though some things were out of her control or outright not her fault).

Silva's paranoia makes her kind of overprotective, and its subtle and hard to spot considering she genuinely thinks its actually a reasonable thing to do (Thanks Kamski).

Knowing Silva means getting to know Kamski and to be honest he's not approving of anyone outside of Silva. Might sabotage relationship if he finds you too suspicious.

Knowing Silva might put a target on your back (mostly from Adam and his Congregation, Joseph and Eden's Gate, and Paul and the Apostles, but in certain AUs, there's possibly more).

[zerogate]

In a 2006 review of recent developments in the historiography of the Crusades, Norman Housley wrote:

Although there is much that is contested in the history of crusading, one advance that has been made in the course of the last half century would probably be disputed by nobody: that the crusades played a central rather than a peripheral role in the development of medieval Europe.

“There can be no doubt,” Housley adds, “that crusading was one of the features of medieval life that gave Catholic Europe its remarkable rate of growth. This established an inherent dynamism that characterized the central Middle Ages.”

One of the most remarkable aspects of this impulse is its sudden manifestation. “It was not the culmination of an evolution, but the almost spontaneous outpouring of a prodigious power of collective animation,” wrote French historian Paul Alphandéry around 1930. We can pinpoint the day (27 November 1095) when the call fell like the Holy Spirit on a crowd, before being preached by an army of missionaries.

The First Crusade (1095-97) was a success, celebrated in what can be regarded as the earliest propaganda campaign of global scale. The First Crusade became for Westerners what the Trojan War was for ancient Greeks. Christopher Tyerman writes:

The scale and rapid production of histories of the First Crusade by eyewitnesses and others eager to interpret the startling events didactically finds no parallel in medieval historiography. Within a dozen years of Jerusalem’s capture, at least four full eyewitness accounts, three major western histories and part of the great Lorraine version by Albert of Aachen were being circulated along with a bevy of other accounts, more or less derivative, imaginative or polemic. While originating in monasteries and cathedrals, these texts reflected and excited secular interests, for example in local heroes or national pride. Most of the histories sculpted stirring tales of faith, bravery, suffering, danger, tenacity and triumph. The theologians distilled the message of God’s immanence and Christian duty; the no less artful eyewitnesses provided accessible tales of miracles and butchery. One of the very earliest, the Gesta Francorum, included elaborate scenes with stereotype exotic Orientals declaiming extravagant, bombastic nonsense much in the style of the verse chanson de geste. Naturalistic representation, especially of the enemy, did not feature.

The epic stories of the First Crusade had such a lasting impact that, when a Second Crusade was preached in 1145, the response was, again, overwhelming. “I opened my mouth, I spoke, and at once the Crusaders have multiplied to infinity,” Bernard of Clairvaux wrote to the pope. “Villages and towns are now deserted. You will scarcely find one man for every seven women. Everywhere you see widows whose husbands are still alive.”

[...]

The Crusade was a new religion. Guibert de Nogent, one of the most enthusiastic chronicler of the First Crusade, remarked that before, knight could only attain salvation by giving up their way of life and become monks, but “God has instituted in our time holy wars, so that the order of knights and the crowd running in their wake … might find a new way of gaining salvation.” The Crusade, declared a fourteenth-century master of the Hospitaliers, became “the nearest route to Paradise.” Welsh priest Adam of Usk went further in his Chronicon (early fifteenth century):

Any man who will not set off at once for the land where God lived and died, any man who will not take the Holy Land’s cross will have but little chance of going to heaven.

-- Laurent Guyénot, The Crusade is Over

[wr1t3w1tm3]

This Book has no Title

Okay. So, I had to rewrite basically the last 2/3rds of this due to word being a be-ache but I think I like it more. I'm just going for old-timey enough dialogue (time period is like late 17-augths into the early 1720's), and a full of it female protagonist who is on the forefront of the day's scientific community. This is so gonna get rewritten which is why I'm sharing this online without much fear of AI scraping so...

Without further adue...

I hope you enjoy.

“Have you, Charlotte Rafferty, anything to declare?”

              Had she anything to declare? Of course! The dark, dank cell, chilled despite the blazing Caribbean heat?! The stench which permeated every crack and cranny of the place!?! It is madness!! She could declare how all of it was hell. Yet, this man, a minister of some faith, head of some local church, would take only one answer. An answer she is unwilling to give.

              “Nothing of import,” she retorts.

              The minister scowls and steps forward. His gray-white hair, curled at the shoulder, bounces against his shoulders. “Woman, do you not fear for your eternal life?”

              She smiles and crosses her arms, stepping up to the bars. She is disheveled, her teal dress dulled by dirt and her skin darkened by the same stuff. “Why should I fear something I do not believe in?”

              The cleric stops. For a second, he is silent. Then suddenly, he is upon her, grabbing the bars just as she had. He is seething, his hair shaking “Woman, if you do not believe in it, why do you bring yourself to mock it?”

              “For its silliness of course!” she sets her hand upon her hips. “This god you claim to know so much about is only known by things your mythos claims are his effects. Yet this god is not at all observable by any empirical means…”

              “And this proves what!?!” the reverend snaps. The bars rattle under his grasp, “Does not some invisible force hold us all upon this earth? Is this not observable only by its effects? Does that make this force any less real?!”

              “You forget that gravity has been proven through the scientific method! The effects of this god are chronicled in a book of inconsistent morals and tone that cannot…!!!”

              “Woman, listen to me!” The reverend screeches.

              For a moment, all is silent. Then, with a sudden calm, the reverend whispers “For your own good, would you not risk believing in something that would win you eternal paradise, then remain steadfast in your pride and risk being thrown into the fires of eternal torment?”

              Charolette cocks her head, slightly to the left, and rests her right thumb and index finger against her chin. Her lips purse, then flatten. Finally, she steps forward and grabs the bars. The reverend lets go, suddenly very interested in his death white knuckles.

              “The man who concocted your foolish wager was equally such. A theologian faffing about in philosopher’s robes.” The reverends face hardens as she continues, “There is nothing after this, sir. And in the condition I’m in, I think I’ll be quiet pleased to fall into that nothingness.”

          ��   For a moment, it appears that there are tears in his eyes. For a moment, his lip trembles. For a moment, he stands perfectly still, except the glint along the corner of his eye.

              Then the moment is over, and the reverend straightens his coat. “Well then, make your peace.” He takes a step, pauses, and turns back to the cell “I will be at the gallows tomorrow should your persuasions change.”

              “I doubt it.” She calls after him. The reverend rounds the corner and the hollow sounding of his shoes against the cold, stone floor fade into silence. One of the other inmates’ chuckles at the predicament, but it is otherwise quiet. Charlotte see’s herself over to the corner, where she has created what some may call a nest in the infested hay, and lowers herself into it.

[hikikomoriaesthetic]

𐔌 . ⋮ Interests .ᐟ ֹ ₊ ꒱

Anime's: JJK, KNY, MHA, Kyo Kara Maoh! Anne-Happy, Haikyuu, Nabari No Oi, Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, New Game!, I'm in Love with the Villainess, Gabriel Dropout, Ancient Magnus' Bride, Hoozuki No Reitetsu, 07-Ghost, Servamp, Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Tanaka Is Always Listless, Inu Boku SS

Mangas: The Villainess Wants To Marry A Commoner, Sleepy Princess In The Demon Castle, Orenchi No Furo Jiro

Manhwas : TOTC, The S-Classes That I Raised, Death Is Only The Beginning For The Villainess, Grand Duchess Of The North Is Secretly A Villainess, The Protection Of Lariensa Gelinus, Story Of The Hated Mule, It Was A Mistake Grand Duke, Miss Not So Sidekick, The Extras Refuse Obsession

Manhua's : Sijin, Return For Revenge, MDZS, SVSSS, TGCF

Movies : Harry Potter Series (not jk rolling), The Labyrinth 1986, Pan's Labyrinth, Silence Of The Lambs

Games : Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing, BanG Dream!, Twisted Wonderland, Baldurs Gate 3, Hogwarts Legacy, Sims 4, Hinokami Chronicles, Dreamlight Valley, Cupid Paradise, Pokémon Sword

will add more as my hyper fixation kicks in & my interests grow!

[jrwi-art-archive]

Directionary:

(dividers by @cafekitsune )

Tws will be tagged as #tw trigger or #trigger

Campaigns:

The fated: #campaign: fated

Convergence: #campaign: convergence

Riptide and Black Rose Oneshot: #campaign: riptide

Prime Defenders and Age of Heroes Oneshot: #campaign: pd

Apotheosis: #campaign: apotheosis

Blood in the Bayou: #campaign: bitb

The Suckening: #campaign: suckening

Wonderlust: #campaign: wonderlust

Judgement: #campaign: judgement

Mythborne: #campaign: mythborne

Paradise Chronicles: #oneshot: paradise chronicles

Monster Control Service: #oneshot: monster control service

The final Episode: #oneshot: the final episode

Twitch Chat Oneshot: #oneshot: twitch chat

Player Characters:

The Fated:

#Br’aad Vengolor

#Sylnan Vengolor

#Velrisa

#Taxi

#Mountain

Convergence:

#Alastyr Cross

#Flynn Gustwind

#Kasper

#Kroe Wyse

Riptide:

#Gillion Tidestrider

#Jay Ferin

#Chip

#Goobleck

#Doppelgillion (all Doppelgillion posts will be tagged as Gillion as well)

Black Rose:

#Drey Ferin

#Finn Tidestrider

#Arlin James

Prime Defenders:

#Dakota Cole

#William Wisp

#Vyncent Sol

Age of Heroes:

#Ms. G

#Harlem Shade

#Jason King

Apotheosis:

#Peter Sqloint

Rumi/any of their other forms: #Rumi

#Thanatos

Blood in the Bayou:

#Rolan Deep

#Timothy Rand

#Kian Stone

The Suckening:

#Emizel Tucker

#Shilo Bathory

#Arthur Bennett

Wonderlust:

#Blink

#Troy Lougferd

#Runt

Total Monster Kill:

#lucia

Judgement:

#Mel

#Buck Barker

#Jaguar Joe

#Paeon Pestifus

Mythborne:

#Aster Aeliana

#Ryan Selucreh

#Connor Connors

Guest Characters:

Riptide:

#Duke D. Dukem

#Clorten

#La Alma

PD:

#Ashe Winters

The Fated:

Redd Boye

NPCs

The Fated:

#Miriam Vengolor

#Alwyn Vengolor

Riptide:

#Lizzie Lafayette

#Caspian

#Ollie Teach

#Felipe

#Alphonze

#Niklaus Hendrix

#Pretzel the Frogtopus

#Jayson Ferin

#Ava Ferin

#May Ferin

#Edyn Tidestrider

#Lunadeiys

#Aster (goddess)

#Anastasia

#Rudith

#Aslana

#Old man earl

#Zamia

#Marshall John

#Kira

#Captain Widow

#Reuben Price

#Starling

#Jasmine Drake

#Lucy the goat

#Captain Rose

#Faye Ferin

Prime Defenders:

#Le Frog

#Trickster

#Mark Winters

#Mynerva

#Lightspeed

#Summer Dileo

#Doug

#Tide Lambert

#Mark Winters

#Cantrip

#Xavier

#Alan

#Alastyr Cross

#Anna Sol

#Mr. Wisp

#Janet Wisp

#Alaska Damascus

#Wordsmith

#Bookworm

#Grandma Cole

#Mato Cole

#Alexander Hamilton

#Rosemary

#Finger

#Handjob

#Flow

#Peelbert

#Unnamed Hero

#Diana Shane

#Dave

#David Bell

#Mallard Conway

#Clarence Albert

#ram

#Bobo

Apotheosis:

#Lizard the lizard

#Yuri Dawnguard

Bitb:

#Becky Jones

#Rachel Rand

#Officer Dudes

#Rat Sanders

#Sarah Thompson

#Jesse

#Barcode the dog

The Suckening:

#Theo Collins //(soda)

#Void the cat

#Pepper the cat

#Pickles the pheasant

#Grefgore

#Uncle Lazarus

#Deacan Keller

#Queen Bathory (stand-in tag)

#Edward Twilight

#Viv Weylin

#Vex Weylin

#Mary Davis

Wonderlust:

#uncle threestrings

#aeon

#overseer

#ripley

#pinch

Ships

(all ship-art will be tagged with #jrwi shipping!)

(i will tag ships if op also tagged a ship)

Riptide:

Gillion x Chip: #Fish and Chips

Gillion x Jay: #Navyseal

Jay x Chip: #Mockingjay

Caspian x Gillion: #Swordfish

Ava x Lizzie: #Waning Crescent

Jay x Lizzie: #Pistolwhip

Jay x Anastasia: #Bloodshot

Jay x Edyn: #Sheshells

Jay x Chip x Gillion: #Poly Pirates

Chip x Niklaus: #Fools Gold

Chip x Queen: #Chiptune

Niklaus x Caspian: #Wishingpool

Chip x Jazz: #Scarlet Captains

Caspian x Lizzie: #Rosewater

Goobleck x Felipe: #Gummyfrog

PD:

Dakota x William: #ghostkicks

Dakota x Ashe: #demonkicks

Vyncent x William: #ghostknife

Summer x Cantrip: #suntrip

Apotheosis:

Rumi x Peter: #Angelstone

Bitb:

Rand x Rolan: #Keeperschampion

Rand x Rolan x Kian: #Nbr

Becky x Kian: #heartstrings

The Suckening:

Emizel x Soda: #fizzfangs

Shilo x Grefgore: #armored pheasant

Arthur x Deacon: #gothgun

Crossover:

William x Chip: #Flying Dutchman

Types of media

digital art: #digital

traditional art: #traditional

#webweave

#fanfic

#collage

#crochet

#video (animations, animatics etc. I don’t really want to judge what counts as animation/animatic so I will tag everything with #video, including gifs)

#stimboard (I know that stimboards aren’t usually considered art, but i like them so I’m gonna include them on this blog. for consistency’s sake i’ll tag stimboard makers artist:*insert name*)

Misc

#crossover (includes crossovers between campaigns and between jrwi and other media)

#official art

#jrwi au

#jrwi freak week

AUs/Crossovers

#pokemon

#ponies

#cats

#vampires

#fnaf

#marvel

#tma (the magnus archives)

#trolls

#spiderverse (will also be tagged as marvel)

#marvel

#superheroes

#undertale

#mermaids

(wip)

[thunders-warcats-stuff]

AU MASTERLIST (OFFICIAL)

Here's a list of pretty much every scrap of story I've put to paper for the Warriors universe. Most of these are AU. Some of them are finished, most aren't.

Prophecies Begin AUs

Apprentice to Leader

SkyClan happens right after Into the Wild. Firepaw gets strange dreams after the battle for ShadowClan and goes on an adventure. Things unravel back home

Fireheart’s Exile

One-shot, Fireheart gets exiled after he prevents the battle with WindClan and has to deal with the dogs himself

Firefang’s Rise

Female Rusty AU where Tigerclaw mentored Firepaw but is still a traitor

Fireheart’s Sacrifice

One-shot, Fireheart gets hit by the car instead of Cinderpaw

Finding Jake (Jake Gets Involved)

Rusty’s looking for WindClan but finds ThunderClan instead

Growing Up Wild (Jake Gets Involved)

Jake takes Rusty, Princess, and Blackie (scourge) to live with WindClan but ends up in ThunderClan

Just a Dream

After the events of The Last Hope. Firestar wakes up a housecat in his old Twoleg bed. Or so it seems. If he's going to do it all over again, he's going to get some things right. Up to A Dangerous Path

Louder Than Words

Instead of going to StarClan, Redtail and many others walk among the living as ghosts that only Rusty can see. After things go terribly wrong, the aspiring forest cat will have more than just the new surroundings to adjust to.

Potential Side Story: When Whitewing's kits were born, they were blessed by their ancestors. The question is: Which ancestors, and what are their intentions?

Ravenpaw’s Stand

Redtail survives because Ravenpaw lunges for his mentor and distracts him long enough for both cats to run for the river

Reflection (one-shots)

TBA

Regrets of a Would-Be StarClan Cat

Swiftpaw and Brightpaw survive by the shortest furs on their pelts and the interference of desperate ancestors. But there’s a long way to go before anything resembling peace.

RiverClan Chronicles (one-shots)

TBA

Rusty’s Family

A more developed moral code leads to some changes for Into the Wild. Among them: Longtail mentors Rusty.

ShadowClan Chronicles (one-shots)

TBA

Tigerclaw AUs (one-shots)

TBA

New Prophecy

Brambleclaw’s Ascendancy (one-shots)

Stories around how Brambleclaw handles his father's legacy and the events of his life. Prompted by a brief obsession with the Hamilton soundtrack.

Brambleclaw’s Worst Fear (one-shot)

A Dark Forest dream leaves Brambleclaw particularly rattled after his father says the unthinkable.

Journey (Blackstar AU)

Wanderers with ties to ShadowClan cross paths with the Clans as they prepare to leave their forest home forever. OR: AU where Blackstar was born a rogue and nobody knows or cares. Until his outsider family tracks him down when they see the humans starting to destroy the forest.

Next In Line

Different customs and cats being all up in each others’ business makes for a very different New Prophecy arc

Rescue Mission Gone Wrong

Missing cats get TNR'd. Leads to at least one broken prophecy and a bunch of different decisions

Secret Hopes (Trans Squilf)

Squirrelpaw finds that he doesn't really feel like Leafpaw says she does. So when his sister says he should go to StarClan about it, he does. Very reluctantly. Meanwhile, Brambleclaw is dragging his paws about the strange dreams he's been having. He has enough issues trying to figure out his dead father and how he feels about Squirrelpaw (and possibly Ashfur), he doesn't need this!

The Other Side of Paradise

Leaf and Crow do not run into Midnight. Their kits retrace their steps to join a very different ThunderClan. The aftermath of the First Dark Forest Battle is written out

Power of Three/Omen of the Stars

Any Other Way

Warrior Jayfeather

As Long as I’m Here

Brambleclaw keeps an eye on the DF trainees

Denounced

Squilf and Bramble react differently to The Gathering ™ and things don't end quite as tragically as a result

Fortune

A kitten who’s escaped from a group that every housecat and traveler knows to fear joins ThunderClan. Firestar and Brightheart do their best to help her adjust. Her presence challenges how various ThunderClan cats see themselves and the way they live.

Ghosts of Jealousy

When Whitewing's kits were born, they were blessed by their ancestors. The question is: Which ancestors, and what are their intentions?

Hidden

Nightcloud is sick of feeling ignored. Breezekit was supposed to bring her and Crowfeather closer together but the deputy's son takes every chance to avoid his mate. Then Breezekit uncovers trouble in WindClan. Crowfeather must decide whether he can let go of his past in favor of his future. Nightcloud discovers that what she thought she knew of love and loyalty is put to the test.

Hurt Lionblaze

Dangerous When Pushed

Birchfall warns Lionpaw of their shared mentor’s rocky past. AU elements.

Painful Healing

Lionblaze discovers the extent of his powers: they depend on his feelings. Scratches left by a thorn will heal instantly. Scratches from an angry former flame? Not so much.

Keeping the Secret- semi-genetics

Gathering Ramble

Alder uses this to get Twig and Violet to stop calling him their father.

Quest For Knowledge

Jayfeather stops his siblings’ search for answers in its tracks.

Lessons Learned

Warrior-Psychiatrist Jaypaw learns from Half Moon.

Long Shadows Fire Remix

Squilf goes off

The Moons Without Stars

Leafpool finds the Moonpool after The Last Hope, leading to a very different series from NP onward.

Runaways

Bramble knows The Three are adopted, namely because Squilf is actually barren. This leads to calmer-ish reactions and the small family does their best to cope on the run

Secret Life of a ThunderClan Medic

Cinderpaw meets a city cat named Storm. They keep meeting through everything that happens. He even goes with her when she reincarnates… but so does everyone else.

Shadows of StarClan

Omen of the Stars AU written before the last half of OotS came out. The Clan Founders and their allies get reincarnated to fight DF.

The Outca(s)ts

Ashfur is haunted by a Dark Forest cat. This may or may not change anything about the Fire Scene, but it definitely changes everything after it. Even death can’t save him from the consequences of his actions. ft Detective Hollyleaf and the Dark Forest mystery.

A Vision of Shadows

Adoption

Alderpaw protests Twig + Violet being separated. One-shot

Starting Again

The warrior code and life as everyone knows it is uprooted after the Dark Forest Battle

FanClan and Mishmash

A Twist in Our Story

Two best friends go through life together and figure out their love lives eventually

Afterlife

Various cats’ first experiences in StarClan

Back to the Future

My favorite characters end up waaaaay in the future

Devastated

When the Clan's healer starts acting erratic, the cats around them suspect a forbidden relationship. The truth is Much Worse, and leads to a reckoning about how the Clans treat their healers.

Futility, Valued

A Clan full of misfits struggles through the day. One, in particular, wants to be more than she is.

How to Save A Life

(edgy, tw for rape and suicide)

A bullied apprentice with one friend goes looking for StarClan and finds it. Everyone else has to deal with their part in his death

History Lessons

Cats read their series’

StarClan Shifters (Neko Warriors)

During New Prophecy, a higher power hears the desperate prayers of the Clans and their ancestors. To escape the destruction of the forest, the Clans gain the ability to turn into humans and back at will. They must remake their homes and traditions

Legacy

A shy cat makes friends with the leader and they get philosophical

Rants

mostly on framing vs context w/ certain characters

Stand Up

cats reacting might throw off canon

Reject the Deputy (Stand Up)

Fireheart didn’t want to be deputy and is feeling the strain. He snaps at the Clan and runs off for a break. Some bits of his past resurface

Warriors In All But Name (Stand Up)

Fireheart begs for Swiftpaw and the rest to become warriors. Bluestar refuses. A nasty argument ensues.

Shattering of Darkness

Drugs. Drugs in Warrior Cats. What the hell was I thinking? Ironically enough, this is not a crackfic.

Strange Choices

A new leader’s unpopular choice for deputy is more than he seems

Sweetfur’s Legacy

edgy story undergoing a rewrite, original has a trigger warning for rape. One cat’s actions come back to haunt him and kits born of a legacy rarely turn out well, or so Swallowstar is finding out the hard way.

To Love Without Acknowledgement

A romance between a clumsy warrior and his clan’s healer goes unremarked

Will be updated as needed

[kingsmakers]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you for tagging me @emilykaldwen <3

01. how many works do you have on ao3? 17

02. what's your total ao3 word count? 470,271

03. what fandoms do you write for? A fair few but at the moment my inspiration has been for House of the Dragon mostly

04. top five fics by kudos? Gardens of Misery, Paradise Lost, A Dangerous Game, Decadence, Shades of War

05. do you respond to comments? Yes! Sometimes I can feel a bit burned out and it takes me a while but I really do try to reply to everyone.

06. what is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Decadence. I think everyone remembers how that ended for poor Phoenix. It was so bittersweet.

07. what's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Look I haven't completed too many fics lately but probably the end of Paradise Lost

08. do you get hate on fic? Not on the fics themselves, but I regularly get people in my inbox telling me what they think.

09. do you write smut? Yes! It depends on the fic though. I feel it has to fit the story and characters, because some of them I do write smut and some of them I'm like, this doesn't really serve the story.

10. craziest cross over? I haven't really had any fandom crossovers.

11. have you ever had a fic stolen? Paradise Lost was stolen multiple times (since it started on Fanfic.net in 2012), mostly by people who literally just replaced Mella's name with something else, but other than that, no.

12. have you ever had a fic translated? I don't think so.

13. have you ever co-written a fic before? I have and still do continue to co-write! Haven't really posted anything co-written in a while tbh because like *life* but it's still fun to plan and discuss things.

14. all time favorite ship? Nothing honestly comes to the top of my head.

15. what's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I really wanted to finish my Peaky Blinders fic but I honestly don't think I ever will, especially now I've written an original novel set in the same time period, it just feels like something I won't go back to.

16. what are your writing strengths? Angst and treating canon characters with nuance. Even if I don't like a character or support their actions, I try not to let that feed into my writing, and instead focus on how my oc would realistically feel about the person.

17. what are your writing weaknesses? Action scenes.

18. thoughts on dialogue in another language? I try to avoid it because I get worried I'll fuck it up.

19. first fandom you wrote in? Chronicles of Narnia

20. favorite fic you've written? Probably Decadence. It makes me sad that I haven't written too much recently for its spinoff, Afterlife, or its sequel, Turbulence. I just haven't been into Harry Potter with everything going on with Rowling, but I still consider Decadence and Phoenix's story to be some of my best work.

Tagging: @juliaswickcrs @darkwolf76 @starcrossedjedis @thatmagickjuju

[karkkidoeswriting]

Character Song Tag

Thank you for tagging me @dotr-rose-love! I'll tag @calicojackofficial, @andromeda-grace, @mariahwritesstuff and @aohendo.

Game Rules: Choose one of your characters and list songs that fit them.

I will be braking the rules a bit lol. I don't have many songs in my playlist that fit really well specific characters, and because I don't want to choose between the main cast, I decided I would choose two songs for every MC. I added a little quotes from the lyrics (I saw @dotr-rose-love do it, and I thought it was very nice because I immediately got an idea what the song was about even when I didn't know a song and they were in a language I didn't understand). There's couple of Finnish songs (both from CMX), which I have translated, or at least attempted to translate. (It was surprisingly hard since CMX has very poetic lyrics. I am also again reminded that you can't put the words in just any order in English. I had to do a lot restructuring for the sentences.)

So here's songs for the main siblings of Bear Castle Chronicles:

Faerathos | The oldest sibling held hostage in the imperial court

The Worlds Forgotten, The Words Forbidden - Sonata Arctica

Save me Take me away Away from this time Back where lies my home

Blood Brothers - Iron Maiden

There are times when I feel I'm afraid for the world There are times I'm ashamed of us all

Cassia | The second oldest sibling spying for the enemy of the empire

Fysiikka ei kestä (eng. Physics won't endure) - CMX

I want to see the world burn in a fire See the favorite children of the creator fall under the yoke I want pain, I want toil, an army of ailments So for even a moment I could forget my own misery

Tale of Revenge - Ensiferum

Wait for me in the mountains, haunt for me in the winds Wait for me in the land where nothing lives Until the day I have found revenge, I will feed my sword Until my heart is cold, every breath of mine is yours

Valeri | The second youngest sibling forced to fight imperial wars

10th Man Down - Nightwish

Deliver me from this war It's not for me it's because of you Devil seems; my eternity Obey to kill to save yourself

Kuoleman risteyksestä kolme virstaa pohjoiseen (eng. Three miles* north from the crossing of death) - CMX

*Translation note: Virsta is an old Russian length measurement (was also used in Finland) that's not exactly a mile, more like a little over a km, but I think mile better communicates the idea.

Who demands to know what rages under the chest When in the twisted world of the heart rages Million snakes in a knot

Fiolew | The youngest sibling meddling in the underworld for survival

Remember - Disturbed

Cut your pride and watch it bleed You can't deny it Pain you know you can't ignore I don't remember

Escapist - Nightwish

This is who I am Escapist, paradise seeker Farewell, time to fly Out of sight, out of time, away from my life

[frozen-fountain]

Summer reading-writing-creation tag game

Tagged by @vcaudley.

describe one creative WIP project you want to work on this summer: The big one, that I'm closing in on the end of the first act of the first draft of, concerns Cloud and Tifa FFVII trying to repair both their relationship and their world after the events of the game, over-compensating for their lost youth with a lot of ill-advised sex and substance use, to decidedly mixed results. It's about doing human connection the hard way, shaking a rigidly constructed identity in favour of fluidity, and the non-linear process of peaks and troughs that is recovering from life in the world as it is. I figured the sticky, sweaty, and uncomfortable season would be more bearable if I could essentially frame it as method writing. In this one I get to delve into the day-to-day workings of the proto-anarchist village that's been the main setting of the series this fic belongs to, since previous stories were smaller in scope or contred on characters who aren't as central to its running; I'm also going to bring in some elements of the wider worldbuilding I'm excited for soon. If anyone thinks the whole thing is too rose-tinted, they won't for long.

I also like to cross shorter fics off my list between drafts of bigger ones. It gives me more space to reflect on what I've written and what it needs, and also lets me get a fix of the heady rush of finishing and posting something while plugging away at a longfic. Next on that docket, I think, is a weird thing about Shadow from FFVI. It's been well over a decade since I attempted second person POV, but some characters are crying out for it and I think his fractured headspace is one. I also want to use it to try to make something resembling sense of the train that takes you to the afterlife. Nothing too concrete for this one yet, but I tend to find my oneshots during the writing process anyway.

recommend a book: If not cultivating despair is the theme for today, then I think everyone, everyone, should read Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Kimmerer and A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit. The former is the chronicle of an Anishinaabe botanist's journey in reconciling her studies with her cultural heritage surrounding the natural world and our place in it; the latter concerns the co-operation, community-building, and mutual aid that the author observes emerging in the aftermath of horrific disasters. Both are highly readable with Braiding Sweetgrass especially flowing like poetry, and if you're looking for antidotes to doomerism or inroads into reading more non-fiction, you could do a lot worse.

recommend a fic: I'll do what I usually do and recommend this series again. Not just because the author is a dear friend (though that's true), or because anyone can jump in even without prior fandom knowledge (as is that), but because it deserves so much more readership than it's gotten. If you enjoy dark fantasy, lush atmospheric prose, slow-building tragedy, and/or bittersweet and complicated bonds between bittersweet and complicated characters that drive their narrative, you'll find a lot to love here.

recommend music: Potentially my favourite album of the year so far is Katie Gately's Fawn/Brute, so here's one of the title tracks from it. She's been making gripping and unique bangers for about ten years, but for as much as I enjoyed her previous albums I found them pretty inconsistent overall; on this one, though, she really pulled it all together.

share some advice: If you feel discouraged from expressing yourself creatively due to the reception (or lack thereof) work that you poured yourself into is meeting, well, that's understandable. But I think it's really worth sitting with that disappointment and demoralisation and asking yourself; what would be enough? What would have to happen, what would need to be said to and about you, and how high would the numbers have to climb for you to feel the effort was worth it?

That's not an easy question to answer, at least in my experience. And while it's of course natural that we want these pieces of ourselves to resonate somewhere, it's too easy to get caught up in the numbers and the ratios and the need for some impossible concrete proof that we haven't failed. And when that starts to obscure our pride in our work and the connections we have made through it, that's tragic. It's an impossible standard to hold your beloved work to, that it'll fix what's missing in your life that's got you feeling so down on it. And I'm speaking about myself here - and to myself - and would not want to assume this is universal. But it's something to think about.

Stop looking for reasons to discredit yourself, basically. God knows this capitalist hellworld will give you enough of them simply by merit of having to exist in it.

Almost forgot! I nominate @bowiesinspace, @ourspecial, @keioschaos, @hrh-spinach, @visualheresy, and @danceswithdarkspawn if you're so inclined!

[zroqravity]

Me bringing my lovely wife her daily dose of human sacrifices so that she doesn't kill me🥰🥰

[lucascecil]

Seventh Doctor - Project: Blue Box

TV Stories

◆ Time and the Rani

◆ Paradise Towers

◆ Delta and the Bannerman

◆  Dragonfire

◆ Remembrance of the Daleks

◆ The Hapiness Patrol

◆ Silver Nemesis

◆ The Greatest Show in the Galaxy

◆ Battlefield

◆ Ghost Light

◆ The Curse of Fenric

◆ Survival

Audio Adventures

- 7th Doctor Adventures

◆ Last of the Titans

◆ Return of the Daleks

◆ Dominion

◆ The Trial of a Time Machine

◆ Vanguard

◆ The Jabari Countdown

◆ The Dread of Night

◆ Bad Day in Tinseltown

◆ The Ribos Inheritance

◆ London Orbital

◆ Scream of the Daleks

◆ Operation Dusk

◆ Naomi’s Ark

- Main Range

◆ Unregenerate!

◆ Bang-Bang-a-Boom

◆ Flip-Flop

◆ The Fires of Vulcan

◆ Red

◆ We Are the Daleks

◆ The Warehouse

◆ Terror of the Sontarans

◆ 1963: The Assassination Games

◆ The Defectors

◆ The Sirens of Time

◆ The Genocide Machine

◆ The Grey Man of the Mountain - ★★★☆☆

◆ The Fearmonger - ★★★★☆

The Fearmonger is a story with a lot of say about the social politic scenario it was made and that uses of its themes to work perfectly with the regulars and their relationship - that brings them closer by putting the trust Ace and Seven have in each on check. A good start for their ternure in audio.

Complete review: here.

◆ Dust Breeding

◆ Colditz - ★★★☆☆

◆ The Rapture

◆ The Shadow of the Scourge

◆ The Dark Flame

◆ The Harvest

◆ Dreamtime

◆ LIVE 34

◆ Night Thoughts

◆ No Man’s Land

◆ Nocturne

◆ The Dark Husband

◆ Forty-Five

◆ Shadow Planet/World Apart

◆ Muse of Fire

◆ The Flying Dutchman/Displaced

◆ The Magic Mousetrap

◆ Enemy of the World

◆ The Angel of Scutari

◆ Project: Destiny

◆ A Death in the Family

◆ Lurkers at Sunlight’s Edge

◆ Protect and Survive

◆ Robophobia

◆ The Doomsday Quatrain

◆ House of Blue Fire

◆ Black and White

◆ Gods and Monsters

◆ Afterlife

◆ Revenge of the Swarm

◆ Mask of Tragedy

◆ Signs and Wonders

◆ You Are the Doctor and Other Stories

◆ A Life of Crime

◆ Fiesta of the Damned

◆ Maker of Demons

◆ The High Price of Parking

◆ The Blood Furnace

◆ The Silurian Candidate

◆ Red Planets

◆ The Dispossessed

◆ The Quantum Possibility Engine

◆ Project: Lazarus

◆ Master

◆ Valhalla

◆ Frozen Time

◆ The Death Collectors/Spider’s Shadow

◆ Kingdom of Silver/Keepsake

◆ A Thousand Tiny Wings

◆ Klein’s Story/Survival of the Fittest

◆ The Architects of History

◆ The Shadow Heart

◆ The Psychic Circus

◆ The Monsters of Gokroth

◆ The Moons of Vulpana

◆ An Alien Werewolf in London

◆ Persuasion

◆ Starlight Robbery

◆ Daleks Among Us

◆ The Two Masters

◆ Warlock’s Cross

◆ Subterfuge

◆ The End of the Beginning

◆ Dark Universe

- The Companion Chronicles

◆ Bernice Summerfield and the Criminal Code

◆ The Prisoner’s Dilemma

◆ Project: Nirvana

- The Lost Stories

◆ Thin Ice

◆ Crime of the Century

◆ Animal

◆ Earth Aid

- Classic Doctor, New Mosnters

◆ Harvest of the Sycorax

- Short Trips

◆ The Devil’s Footprints

◆ Dark Convoy

◆ Doctors and Dragons

◆ The Riparian Ripper

◆ Inside Story

◆ The Shadow Trader

◆ Crystal Ball

◆ The Shrine of Sorrows

◆ Dead Woman Walking

◆ Critical Mass

◆ Washington Burns

◆ Forever Fallen

◆ Police and Shreeves

◆ The Hesitation Deviation

◆ Twilight’s End

◆ The Night Before Christmas

Books

◆ Timewyrm: Genesis

◆ Timewyrm: Exodus

◆ Timewyrm: Apocalypse

◆ Timewyrm: Revelation

◆ Cat’s Cradle: Time’s Crucible

◆ Cat’s Cradle: Warhead

◆ Cat’s Cradle: Witch Mark

◆ Nightshade

◆ Love and War

◆ Transit

◆ The Highest Science

◆ The Pit

◆ Deceit

◆ Lucifer Rising

◆ White Darkness

◆ Shadowmind

◆ Birthright

◆ Iceberg

◆ Blood Heat

◆ The Dimension Riders

◆ The Left-Handed Hummingbird

◆ Conundrum

◆ No Future

◆ Tragedy Day

◆ Legacy

◆ Theatre of War

◆ All-Consuming Fire

◆ Blood Harvest

◆ Strange England

◆ First Frontier

◆ St Anthony’s Fire

◆ Falls the Shadow

◆ Parasite

◆ Warlock

◆ Set Piece

◆ Infinite Requiem

◆ Sanctuary

◆ Human Nature

◆ Original Sin

◆ Sky Pirates!

◆ Zamper

◆ Toy Soldiers

◆ Head Games

◆ The Also People

◆ Shakedown

◆ Just War

◆ Warchild

◆ SLEEPY

◆ Death and Diplomacy

◆ Happy Endings

◆ GodEngine

◆ Christmas on a Rational Planet

◆ Return of the Living Dad

◆ The Death of Art

◆ Damaged Goods

◆ So Vile a Sin

◆ Bad Therapy

◆ Eternity Weeps

◆ The Room With no Doors

◆ Lungbarrow

◆ The Dying Days

◆ Illegal Alien

◆ The Hollow Men

◆ Matrix

◆ Storm Harvest

◆ Prime Time

◆ Independence Day

◆ Bullet Time

◆ Relative Time

◆ Heritage

◆ Loving the Alien

◆ The Algebra of Ice

◆ Atom Bomb Blues

[redowlkitchen]

Cross out what you’ve already read. Six is the average.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte Harry Potter series - JK Rowling To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee The Bible - Council of Nicea (Not the whole thing, but a lot at church and all of Genesis for my Bible as Literature class) Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman Great Expectations - Charles Dickens Little Women - Louisa M Alcott Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy Catch 22 - Joseph Heller Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien Birdsong - Sebastian Faulk Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger The Time Traveler’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger Middlemarch - George Eliot Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald Bleak House - Charles Dickens War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy David Copperfield - Charles Dickens Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis Emma - Jane Austen Persuasion - Jane Austen (currently reading!) The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne Animal Farm - George Orwell The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood Lord of the Flies - William Golding Atonement - Ian McEwan Life of Pi - Yann Martel Dune - Frank Herbert Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens Brave New World - Aldous Huxley The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov The Secret History - Donna Tartt The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas On The Road - Jack Kerouac Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie Moby Dick - Herman Melville Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens Dracula - Bram Stoker The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson Ulysses - James Joyce The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome Germinal - Emile Zola Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray Possession - AS Byatt A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell The Color Purple - Alice Walker The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry Charlotte’s Web - EB White The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks Watership Down - Richard Adams A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas Hamlet - William Shakespeare Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl Frankenstein - Mary Shelley The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer Paradise Lost - John Milton The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain White Fang - Jack London The Portrait of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde Queen of the Damned - Anne Rice Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson The Call of the Wild - Jack London The Importance of Being Earnest - Oscar Wilde The Wonderful Wizard of Oz — L. Frank Baum Don Quixote — Miguel De Cervantes Where the Wild Things Are — Maurice Sendak The Cat in the Hat — Dr Seuss The Giver — Lois Lowry Inkheart — Cornelia Funke Divine Comedy — Dante Alighieri Macbeth — William Shakespeare Romeo and Juliet — William Shakespeare The Child Called ‘It’ — Dave Pelzer The Hunger Games — Suzanne Collins The Diary of a Young Girl — Anne Frank Night — Elie Wiesel Les Misérables — Victor Hugo The Odyssey — Homer The Scarlet Letter — Nathaniel Hawthorne The Brothers Karamasov — Fyodor Dostoyevsky Eragon — Christopher Paolini

[primalvessel]

@confluxium because he didn't think I would. Cut for length because this one went looooong (by my standards anyway). Inspired by (but not directly chronicling) the pics from here.

They were alone.

Well, technically they'd been alone since they'd rowed over from the mainland, but standing there on the beach with no-one else in sight, the only sounds being the cry of gulls wheeling above them and the gentle rush of the waves as they lapped at the shore... The peace of it was surreal.

It took only a moment for Safiri to notice that his was the only crunch of feet across the sand and he crossed the short distance back to the Miqo'te's side to stand close, intimately so, as the feline looked out over the calm waters before them.

"I never dared dream that we'd be allowed such a thing," Maru murmured, leaning into his lover's side and finally tearing his gaze from one beautiful sight to another. The Hyur looked relaxed and at ease in the simple attire in a way Maru rarely saw and he was determined to commit the sight to memory, bathed in warm light as he was.

They remained there for a long moment, just basking in the quiet and the company until Maru felt Firi's arm go around him and give him the smallest squeeze. It prompted him to look up and press a small kiss to the Hyur's jaw before he was gently guided into turning away from the sea spread before them.

"Come on. There's more to the island than just this."

There was still some reluctance in the feline even as he allowed Firi to guide him, as if he was afraid that looking away from the wonderful sight would reveal it to have never been there in the first place. Nevertheless, he finally turned away and together they climbed the path that led up away from the beach and up to their little tropical paradise proper.

Not before the handsy feline slipped a hand into the open front of his love's shirt though, to press his palm against the cool skin there.

Maru had to stop once more as the little collection of huts came into sight and he swatted his lover when Safiri chuckled softly at him. "Stop!" he protested, a smile of his own on his lips, "I'm allowed to be shocked. This is yours. This whole island is yours."

"Ours," Firi corrected, and dropped a kiss into soft white hair that left the taste of sea spray on his lips. He took one of Maru's hands to coax him closer that he might better see the facilities on offer, beginning with the open-sided main structure and ending with the hot spring with everything in between.

The sun was setting by the time they settled, naked, into the hot waters after a long day of walking, climbing and sightseeing. There was so much more to look forward to on the morrow also, with Maru having insisted that they take some time to go fishing, sunbathe and get frisky, not necessarily in that order.

The eve saw them sat around a small campfire though, with Maru showcasing his skill cooking over it while he made idle conversation, talking enough for the both of them, probably.

"... and then the spear snapped in two and I ended up having to bite it," he explained, sounding very serious about the whole affair, though a grin curled the corners of his lips when he spared a glance for his lover reclined nearby and saw the smile there.

"At least you're honest about where your mouth has been," Safiri replied with an undercurrent of amusement.

"Now how about you be honest about where you want my mouth," the feline taunted in reply with a pointed look (that was completely unnecessary) at the Hyur's groin.

"Don't know what you mean," Safiri replied airily, and crossed his leg over his knee. "Especially after that tale."

Laughing gently, the Miqo'te turned the meat over to finish cooking it through and gave the little pot of popotoes a stir. A little of the island's own butter to soften and flavour it and the simple meal was almost complete (with Maru customarily avoiding his greens).

"I promise I brushed my teeth afterwards," Maru defended lightly and began serving the little meal into the two quaint wooden bowls he'd set nearby for just such a purpose. "Anyway, I came out on top and that was all that mattered," he continued as he handed off one of the filled bowls to Firi and sat beside him so that their knees knocked for a moment.

"Well, I suppose there does have to be a time or two where you're on top," Safiri remarked, hiding his smirk behind a spoonful of freshly roasted fare. He nearly lost it into his lap when the feline gave him a playfully affronted nudge.

"Hey! You take that back, asshole!"

Safiri scoffed, firelight and amusement both dancing in his eyes. "No."

The Miqo'te made a noise that could generously be called a squawk of indignation before he abandoned his own bowl of food and tackled the Hyur into the sand.

Maru topped that night.

x - x - x - x - x - x - x - x

The flower crowns may have been Tataru's idea but when he woke the following morning to be gifted one (very insistently) by one of the mammets as soon as he meandered out into the warming light of the day, it didn't take him long to see that Safiri had obviously been coerced into wearing one too.

How long the Hyur had been there, Maru didn't know. He'd slept deep and peacefully and while he might have stirred when his lover rose, evidently it hadn't been enough to wake him fully. His Firi looked refreshed though, at least somewhat, so Maru didn't ask how long he'd been seated as he was. Instead, he moved closer, trailed his hand along a bare thigh and settled into the space between his lover's legs.

Framed on both sides by quiet strength and having said not a word since approaching, the Miqo'te sighed softly and closed his eyes to feel the sun on his face and enjoy the tranquility of the morning. He rested his cheek against a firm thigh and just basked in the mix of warm and gentle feelings, unable to help the purr that began as a low rumble when Safiri's fingers slid into his hair and scritched lightly at his scalp. It made a little shiver ripple down his spine and he mewled quietly.

In no hurry to start the day, they stayed like that a bell, more than a bell, just existing. With no obligations, no interruptions.

When eventually the Miqo'te stood, stretching his legs and rubbing some feeling back into his ass, he laughed lightly as Firi helped him out with a firm grope before he settled back in against the Hyur's chest and let strong arms coil around him.

"Well I know where your mind has gone this morning," he teased gently, as Firi's hand played over his abs and began to dip beneath the waistband of his pants.

"I'm almost certain that it's your fault," Safiri replied in a low rumble, his free hand splayed across the Miqo'te's throat and collarbones, hinting at what he could do, the control he could have over the feline should he choose to flex his strength. It would never cease to warm his heart that Maru felt safe in the face of that strength, and that feline was strong enough in turn that he need worry less about hurting him accidentally.

"Well then I guess I know which order our plans today are going to unfold," he taunted, turning in Firi's arms so that the hand that had been tracing his happy trail instead rested warmly on the swell of his ass. "At least if we're just fishing later, I don't have to worry about getting around with a limp..."

He stole one more kiss for himself, making it linger as he wrapped his arms around the back of his lover's neck and pressed in against the Hyur's steady warmth, before he pulled away just enough to take Safiri's hand and coax him forward in much the same way Firi had with him the day prior. Always touching, as if not doing so was anathema to him.

Calloused hand clasped firmly in one of Safiri's, Maru let his lover lead the way to somewhere a little more comfortable to work up their appetites...

[booketry]

My Fandoms

Fandoms I have written in:

55 Degrees North/The Night Detective Age Sensible Aliens 2 Almost Human Alphas American Dreams Angel Farm At the Faber Being Human Brokeback Mountain Bron/Broen Brothers In Arms/L’Union Sacrée Brottet/Forbrydelsen Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel

The Cape The Chronicle Cold Case Commander In Chief Conviction Crossing Jordan/Silent Witness Cutthroat Island Death in Paradise Defense Desperate Romantics Dharma & Greg Downton Abbey Dr Quinn The Eagle – A Crime Odyssey Extremely Dangerous

Father’s Day/La fête des pères First Wave Forsyte Saga The Fugitive Gattaca Gilda Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes Grimm Hair Haven Heartbeat Hercules/Xena Heroes High Tide Homicide – Life on the street Hornblower House M.D. House of Angels (Angel Farm) The House of Eliott Inspector Lynley Mysteries Jack & Jill Judging Amy KDD Kriminaldauerdienst Lewis The Long Kiss Goodnight The Lord of the Rings Love Boat: The Next Wave Miami Vice Midsomer Murders MillenniuM

My Beautiful Laundrette My Own Private Idaho The Chronicles of Narnia Poldark The Pretender Prey Rastignac ou les ambitieux The Raven Rex, a Cop’s Best Friend Robin of Sherwood Roswell Sanctuary The Scarlet Pimpernel Second Sight Sherlock Holmes Silent Witness/Crossing Jordan Sleepers Sliders Spellbound Spooks Spy Game Stargate SG1 Starsky & Hutch Star Trek State of Play Stephanie Plum Three Torchwood A Touch of Frost Touching Evil Trinity Unit One Velvet Goldmine

Vera Veronica Mars Waking the Dead Wallander Will & Grace Wire In the Blood Without a Trace X files Young Lions Your Mother Too

Some of my other fandoms

The Sarah Jane Adventures Lord of the Rings Murder Rooms Endeavour Space: 1999 All Creatures Great and Small 21 Jump Street (the old tv series

Grantchester Call the Midwife Bletchley Circle Mr Selfridge Sherlock Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries Dark Matter

All Jane Austen’s books, also as tv and movies Jane Eyre (so far the movie, looking forward to reading the book) Diana Wynne Jones’ books Garth Nix’s Sabriel books Charles De Lint (Dreams Underfoot, The Blue Girl)

Gregory Frost (Shadowbridge, Lord Tophet) Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea series Jean-François Parot’s historic mysteries about Nicholas LeFloch Eliot Pattison’s mysteries, set in Tibet Barbara Nadels mysteries, set in Turkey

and many more, too many to mention here.