#Harriet Steel

[jolieeason]

November 2024 Wrap-Up

Personal Highlights from this month: Mr. Z turned 17 on November 20th. Our town’s annual Christmas parade is on November 22nd. It is fun to attend, and Miss R ends up with a lot of candy. Miss B turned 19 on November 24th. Miss B also registered for the next semester at college. Although she couldn’t register for the classes she wanted, she is taking German, English 101, Psychology 101,…

[didanagy]

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995)

dir. ang lee

[weirdlookindog]

Lo spettro (1963)

AKA The Ghost; The Spectre

[bethanydelleman]

Writing Villains (Advice from Jane Austen)

One of the reasons that I find Jane Austen's novels so wonderful is that they have amazingly realistic villains, some that are fully fleshed out characters. Austen's biggest strength is that she gives her villains clear, logical motives. In fact, for many of her villainous characters you can turn the entire story around and see a rational story from the other side.

For example, Lucy Steele. She doesn't attack Elinor out of mindless evil, but because Edward Ferrars is her golden ticket to wealth and she knows that Edward loves Elinor. Lucy might twist the knife a little on Elinor out of sadism, but generally she attacks Elinor in an attempt to secure Edward. When it comes to other characters, Lucy is overly sweet if she wants something from them, otherwise she acts normally. As an example, she leaves Marianne alone because Marianne is not competing for Edward and also can't do anything for Lucy. Anne, Lucy's sister, likes her. Lucy has friends and family she stays with, she's a fairly well-rounded person.

You can put yourself in Lucy's shoes, you can turn the entire narrative on it's head and play it out from her perspective and it would make complete sense. You could even make Lucy sympathetic! She probably sees herself as a hardworking underdog, trying to wrest her one chance at prosperity away from the conniving Elinor Dashwood. I'm sure she thinks the pain she causes Elinor is justified.

If you can't do that with your villains, then there is a good chance they are just evil for evil's sake. I picked Lucy Steele on purpose because I hate when the entire motivation for a antagonist female character is "bitches be crazy". Bitches may be mean, but almost always for a good reason.

Even Mrs. Norris, who is probably the most cruel of Austen's female villains, can be perspective switched. Her life is about being useful to the Bertram family so she can feel important because her married status/wealth is lower than she wished. As she must always be deferential towards the Bertrams, she takes out her negative emotions on those below her, the servants and Fanny, while also showing off how good she is at "managing" those people. (And yes, she is your childhood bully)

We often hear her perspective and she clearly sees herself as a useful part of the family and a defender of Sir Thomas's wealth. She thinks she's a good person! Which is also an important point: most people doing wrong do not believe that they are doing wrong. That is what really makes a villain scary. Mrs. Norris thinks she's helping Fanny in a very twisted way by teaching Fanny her station in life. If you asked her, she'd give you a self-justified answer and she'd probably actually believe it.

Another way to do a good villain is to just make a person very selfish. Henry Crawford doesn't sit around all day laughing about how much pain he causes women, he doesn't think about it. He only thinks about the fun of flirting for himself, not the harm to others. The glimpses we get into his perspective are not cruel at all. It's the same with Willougby, he thinks only of his own pleasure and tries very hard to ignore that he has crushed Marianne and destroyed Eliza Williams. When he is forced to accept that people were hurt, he blames everyone but himself.

Wickham thinks that he's a victim, Caroline Bingley is ambitious and doesn't care who she steps on to get to the top, Mr. Elton is insulted that Emma could even dream he's a match with Harriet but he can't touch Emma so he punches down at Harriet. They all make sense, they all probably believe that their actions are justified.

Also, imagine taking the heroine/hero right out of the story, would the villain still act the same way? If Anne didn't exist, Mr. Elliot would still try to bring himself into the Elliot family because he was afraid of losing the title. If Elizabeth didn't exist, Wickham would have had another favourite in Meryton. If Fanny didn't exist, Mrs. Norris would have found some other puppy to kick. The villains don't just appear for the plot of the main characters, they have their own reasons for moving around and messing shit up.

Lastly, explaining but not excusing (though unfortunately some people will excuse anyway but that's not your fault). Mary Crawford is mercenary and doesn't seem to believe that love is even a real thing. It's pointed out several times in the novel that her defects have to do with being raised in an immoral environment and a broken home. She was taught by her aunt to marry for wealth and disregard love. Austen doesn't excuse Mary, she doesn't give her a happy ending, but she does explain how she came to be. She's not just greedy, she has been taught that wealth is the best recipe for happiness. As an adult now, it is her responsibility to question that maxim or remain a villain.

Austen wrote amazing morally grey characters and "villains" (a term I used a little liberally here, some of them probably only count as antagonists, not full blown villains). I love how real and human she made her characters, it's something I aspire to myself!

Linking my Caroline rant because it's related, people remove her motives so often and flatten her into a "bitches be crazy".

[aunt-bridget]

It was going too well wasn’t it? Harry got to dress up in the tight skirt, sweater and slutty heels. The glasses added that touch of class as he preened in front of the mirror. But his companion for the night wasn’t done…..shit loads of tape binding the pretty sissy had been swiftly applied and the wrap gag kept Harry quiet as he writhed around on the hotel bed. He couldn’t do too much when the skirt was hitched up and his little cock was put in its new home. The tiny, steel cage locked snugly in place. Happy ‘Harriet’ is one sorry little bitch.

[francesderwent]

the parallels and repetitions we find across Jane Austen novels…Harriet Smith is living the plot of Persuasion but without Anne’s wisdom and steadiness to guide her…Jane Fairfax is an echo of Lucy Steele, if Lucy had been more worthy…

[danpuff-ao3]

@hprecfest Day 31: most recent fic you've loved

The Never-Ending Road

by laventadorn (@laventadorn). Harriet/Severus. Rated: M. Words: 557,818.

AU. When Lily died, Snape removed his heart and replaced it with a steel trap. But rescuing her daughter from the Dursleys in the summer of ’92 is the first step on a long road to discovering this is less true than he’d thought. A girl!Harry story, starting in Chamber of Secrets and continuing through Goblet of Fire. Future Snape/Harriet. (OotP - DH will continue in a separate story.)

I've not yet finished this fic, I'm afraid. I'm still new to the world of Snarriet--as of this year, in fact! 20+ years of loving Snarry, but Snarriet? Brand new love of mine. I knew once I started I'd have to get to this fic, as I've heard so much good about it over the years. For good reason! It's taking me so long, not only because I rarely have the spoons for longer fics, but because I find myself going slow to savor this one. It's gorgeous. It gives me much to think about, and feel. I can already tell I'm going to enjoy the whole journey. And for now, I just want to bask in it. I love it so much already and I'm thrilled to see where it will take me.

[princessofmissouri]

zenobia

why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects (abject) (for harriet jacobs), 2023

steel

[othernaut]

Character Creation Challenge 2025, Day 6: Lancer

"Hey, Temp, can you get that fucking Everest out of the launch bay? We've got the pattern saved if you really need to -"

"Hey, Shred. Hey. Back off, she's drunk. Not okay kind of drunk."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. You remember that data bundle we pulled? The dropship?"

"Oh."

"Wound up with a full profile on Serapis, including what happened to the Cause after she went offworld."

"... Oh. Oh, shit. Do you need me to -"

"Nah, it's all right. Just give it time. She's a tough old girl. She'll pull through."

"Okay. Yeah, sure. Hey, do you want to... get a... thing? That isn't here?"

"Sure, Shred. Let's go do that."

And then the doors hissed closed, the low light faded, and Harriet was left alone with her misery and nostalgia.

//ailure of the Unified Body of Serapis to come to a resolution on the issue of Central Nations independence, a stalling action was performed in UB caucus. During that time, several failed assassination attempts at Central leading figures escalated the internal violence to an all-out war that swiftly spilled across the borders. The Dominion of Regis, for purposes of professed morality, pulled out of the discussions, and no further resol//

Fuckheads. The UB lasted five years, enough time for everyone to get comfortable with the idea of a moderated world government - enough time for it to sting when the rug was pulled. People are going to act like people, no matter how noble or responsible they profess to be. They fall to infighting for no reason and then it's the communities, the little people, her, her friends - they're the ones with their water cut off, with no medical supplies inbound, with nothing but the bare matter of the world and themselves.

Idiots. Everyone. Her especially. She scrolled quickly past the political lead-up; the memories it evoked weren't ones she wanted to relive. Another pull of clear brandy. It didn't burn anymore. Probably a good thing.

There we are. Port Harrow. Dockside steel ramping into the black bay. Old stone-brick buildings encased in scaffolds of exostructure. Orange sodium lights in long lines in the sky, making every season into autumn. Kids chasing fluffy gulls along the Char River outlet. Four bad bars within a two-block walking distance of each other along the Hyde Park strip, so if you got kicked out of one you could stumble to another before your buzz even dreamt of wearing off. A stiff bed and a paycheck and a night full of people arguing outside.

//racturing of communities in Regis as the supply shortages continued, leading to tacitly independent, anarchist city-states as it became clear the people had no one to rely on but each other. In Port Harrow, the history of heavy industry in the city led to a wealth of industrial equipment that could be repurposed for war, agriculture, reconstruction, and mobile community support. As the government shutdown entered its third year, Port Harrow was one of the more successful of these communes, successfully managing both a mass agriculture and self-defense project by retrofitting industrial frames into multipurpose, proto-mech units//

The years coming in like a flood, dulled by both alcohol and time to a prosaic wash of color. She'd been in an agbot at first, but even the agbots needed some self-defense capability, as the raiders neither cared about growing seasons nor common sense; they just took whatever was to hand and fuck everyone else. At time went on, the attacks ramped up - but the people back home in the factories managed even more inventive fuckery in response. God, the thump of the rivet gun, how it'd hiss on a miss in the wet dirt of the fields. Petrochaff'd fuck up the old-school oil bikes they were using, leave them baking on the asphalt with the smell of a spilled deep fryer. The damn things came with caution paint on the legs, but the kids still climbed her anyway. They liked to sit on her head as she scanned the hills.

Then she read a name and it all soured instantly. More brandy. A wretched turn in her stomach.

//Union Far-Field Teams arrived just after the burning of Concord Square, when it became clear that the remnants of Unified Body governance could no longer hold even a suggestion of power. Crisis management NHPs were deployed in places of deepest anarchy to prepare the ground for reclamation and reconnection squadrons, which arrived later that year. Even deeply independent-city states, like Rouge Mountain and Port Harrow, capitulated after a brief exchange, bringing an end to the crisis before the next yea//

I mean, how could they resist? They had agbots and heavy industrial frames; Union had fucking mechs. They had rivet launchers and digging tools and junk-data ewar modules taped together from pornbots and netmail viruses; Union had AIs, for fuck's sake. Even if they blew a mech with a lucky shot, fuckers just printed another that same night. It was unwinnable. That beautiful thing they made, that open garden where everyone was for everyone else, where everyone had enough and the only thing you answered to was your neighbors...

It was unwinnable.

//sequent years saw a formal capitulation by autonomous zones, a return to Union-led Unified Body governance and entry into the embrace of galactic civilization. Reconstruction efforts began immedia//

They had pictures. She couldn't even recognize the streets.

//iolent holdouts retired to on-world educational facilities and, for the more extreme ideologies and antisocial dispositions, off-world contain//

What the fuck's so extreme about it? Help out your neighbor, you don't need anything else.

//ishment of permanently stationed Serapis Coordination Force to track down and pacify remaining violent bands and promote the ideology of unifica//

They held a gun to her head and asked her what she believed. Of course she lied.

//dless, a managed diaspora in subsequent years//

And no matter how you love something, there's a time, always a time, when it's not worth it anymore.

Harriet leaned back. Her head swam. The hangar blurred in front of her eyes, more than usual - she didn't fucking need glasses, not yet, she wasn't that old. Upside down, the team's mechs hung like rainbow stalactites, a row of independence splashed in bright colors and bristling weapons and anime boobie-girl decals. Why shouldn't she leave a place that didn't need her anymore? Fuck, she had enough experience for any lancer squadron. Anyone. Best of the bunch, this, and yet. It was like the carnival sideshow version of home, some punk-fuck pageantry of the anarchy she fucking lived for years, for years -

But it was better than what was left for her on a home now staffed with strangers.

Lurched forward. Stomach definitely did a thing there. Maybe call it a night. Finger wiggling to the little red X.

//spite media management discouraging public displays supporting 'non-standard political philosophies', shows of support for community leaders and organizers during the crisis remain standing in areas most strongly affected by the supply disruption, including Steeltown, Port Harrow, Perrbroke, Rou//

She squinted into the blown-up, artifacted image. Unfamiliar street, but that was a fucking agbot. Held up, scaffolded in steel. Sodium lighting. Big rock in front of it, sanded down, pocked with names. No laser etching, all hand-carved. Blurry, but she thought she could recognize some of them. That smear of shadow might have been a friend, a lover, a co-worker. Might've been her.

Stomach lurched like a sick generator. One little tear, big as a lost world, tracked its way down her cheek and died in the collar of her jumpsuit.

Yeah. Time to call it a night.

*****

Harriet Spall Callsign: Temperance Background: Worker (heavy machine operator) License Level: 3 Licenses: Nelson III Grit: +2

Pilot Skill Triggers: +2 Assault, +2 Hack or Fix, +2 Invent or Create, +4 Read a Situation, +4 Take Control Pilot Stats: Size 1/2, 10 Evasion, 10 E-Defense, Speed 4, HP 6 Mech Skills: Agility 2, Engineering 3 Core Bonuses: IPS-Northstar (Sloped Plating)

Talents: Juggernaut: Momentum (when I Boost, the next Ram I make gains +1 Accuracy and knocks the target back an additional 2 spaces), Kinetic Mass Transfer (when I ram a target into another target, the other must save Hull or be knocked prone; when I ram a target into an object or structure, they take 1d6 kinetic damage), Unstoppable Force (1/round and for 1d3+3 heat, I can supercharge a Boost to ram through people and objects). Nuclear Cavalier: Aggressive Heat Bleed (first attack I make on my turn in the Danger Zone deals +2 additional Heat), Fusion Hemmorhage (first attack I make on my turn in the Danger Zone is Energy damage and deals +1d6), Here, Catch! (gain the Fuel Rod Gun integrated weapon).

Mech: Goodbye Paradise Frame: IPS-Northstar Nelson Frame Traits: Momentum (1/round, when I Boost, gain +1d6 bonus damage next melee hit), Skirmisher (may move 1 space after attacking, ignoring engagement and not provoking). Frame Core System: Perpetual Motion Drive (Active - for the rest of the scene, Skirmisher allows me to move 4 spaces instead of 1)

Mech Attributes: Size: 1 Structure: 4; HP: 12, Armor: 1 Stress: 4, Heat Cap: 9, Repair Cap: 5 Attack Bonus: +2, Tech Attack: +0, Limited System Bonus: +1 Speed: 6, Evasion: 13, E-Defense: 7, Sensor Range: 5, Save Target: 12

Equipment Loadout: Main/Aux Mount: Tactical Melee Hammer (Threat 1, 1d6+2 kinetic +1d6 explosive damage), Mod: Thermal Charge (Limited 4, expend a charge to activate its detonator, dealing +1d6 explosive damage) Main/Aux Mount: Pistol (Range 5, Threat 3, 1d3 kinetic damage) Flex Mount: Power Knuckles x2 (Threat 1, 1d3+1 explosive damage, knocks prone opponents on a crit if they fail a Hull save) Integrated Mount: Fuel Rod Gun (Limited 4, Range 3, Threat 3, 1d3+2 energy damage, clears 4 heat)

Systems: Thermal Charge Mod (included in Tactical Melee Hammer attack) Ramjet (activate as a protocol, apply 2 heat, until the start of my next turn gain move +2 spaces when I Boost in a straight line with melee attacks gaining Knockback 2) Armor-Lock Plating (can Brace while Grappling, applying 2 Heat and ending the grapple; until the end of my next turn, attacks against me receive +1 difficulty, I can't fail contested Agility or Hull saves, and I'm immune to Knockback, Grapple, Prone, or being moved by any external force smaller than Size 5) Personalizations (+2 HP: safety signs and up-to-date hazardous materials notices) Custom Paint Job (when taking structure damage, roll 1d6, ignoring damage and returning to 1HP on a 6: caution yellow-black patterning)

*****

I got lucky. This isn't my first brush with Lancer, nor my second. Like a lot of the games I'm making characters for this year, I got Lancer some time ago and bounced off of it for reasons I couldn't really articulate. I think, at the time, it was a clash between expectations and reality. I had been pitched Lancer as a system where you could tell any of a variety of mech stories, a wide universe where conflicts could take any shape and theme and, at the time, I had a real taste for scrungy, scavenger-ass mechs scrapped together out of car batteries and nuclear paperclips. Lancer, apparently, doesn't tell that kind of mech story, and with the system's native complexity and its major favoritism for tactical combat over personal stories and gritty campaign play, I bounced.

But I got lucky. Later, during a lull in my weekly role-playing, a friend offered to run a one-shot, two-person session of Lancer with pre-built mechs, and it was a god damn hoot. Having someone there to walk me through how the systems interacted, through the joy in building complex machinery and then bashing it against one another - that very much helped. Any system, no matter how much it might not appeal to me specifically, is improved with the spice of enthusiasm. I went home and immediately, badly tried to put together a Kidd dronebot before learning of this challenge and saving my enthusiasm. And now here I am, and here's my machine. It wants to run into your shins and hit you with an exploding hammer.

Lancer's one of the few systems I've run into on this journey to which I can't really say, "It's good, but." Lancer does precisely what it intends to do, and if that's a thing you also want to do, then you're going to have a fantastic time. It doesn't fully stay in its lane - there's enough storygame swerving to allow a full Shinji Evangelion arc, if that's the thing that floats your artillery platform - but it puts a hell of a polish on the thing it wants to do well. Each little bit is comprehensible at first glance and clicks together satisfyingly. The machine it creates is beautiful and deadly, though you have to want it in order to run it at peak efficiency. Also, shoutout to COMP/CON, the free online character-building tool, for being way more organized than me hanging out with an open notepad file and a PDF.

Next up: The laughter of thirsting gods.

[nodanova18]

I can't send this as an anon in your black clover next generation blog so I'm sending it here if you don't mind, can you give us a list of all the next gen ocs and their parents? I love your designs btw!!!

Hello! Don’t worry I don’t mind! It’s quite a long list so bear with me.

Black Clover Next Generation(Nodanova’s AU)List of Parents/Kids

Going in order of captains, black bulls, and others + other kingdoms

Clover Kingdom

• Yami Sukehiro/Nacht Faust

Yami Kaya (Light Magic, 23 yrs)

Yami Kaeda (Dark Magic, 23 yrs)

• Charlotte Roselei/Vanessa Enoteca

Dimitri Enoteca-Roselei (Briar Magic, 20 yrs)

Chloé Enoteca-Roselei (Thread Magic, 15 yrs)

• Jack The Ripper/Nozel Silva

Adrius Silva (Steel Magic, 25 yrs)

Acier Silva II (Slash Magic, 20 yrs)

Argent Silva (Lead Magic, 19 yrs)

Adeline Silva (Mercury Magic, 15 yrs)

• Fuegoleon Vermillion/Bridget Oriel || The Salamander (@t-f-t’s interpretation of the fire spirit)

Felicity Vermillion (Catalyst Magic, 23 yrs)

Calix Vermillion (Wind Magic, 20 yrs)

Titaia (???, ???)(not my oc, but she’s canon to my au)

• Mereoleona Vermillion/Dorothy Unsworth

Reina Unsworth-Vermillion (Magma Magic, 24 yrs)

Alistair Unsworth-Vermillion (Nightmare Magic, 20 yrs)

• Rill Boismortier/Charmy Pappitson

Louis Boismortier (Paint & Cotton Magic, 19 yrs

Riley Boismortier (Food & Cotton Magic, 4 yrs)

• William Vangeance/Patri

Willow Vangeance (World Tree Magic, 17 yrs)

Second Unnamed Child (Light Magic, 10 yrs)

• Asta/Yuno Grinberryall

Licita Grinberryall (Sun Magic, 19 yrs)

Elias Grinberryall (Wind Magic, 17 yrs)

Lune Grinberryall (Moon Magic, 15 yrs)

• Noelle Silva/Kiato

Kaiyo Silva (Water Magic, 19 yrs)

Delphine Silva (Water Magic, 15 yrs)

Third Unnamed Child (Performance Magic, 13 yrs)

• Gauche Adlai/Grey

Ella Adlai (Mirror Magic, 18 yrs)

Malachi Adlai (Transmutation Magic, 17 yrs)

Luca Adlai (Transmutation Magic, 6 yrs)

• Magna Swing/Luck Voltia

Seihi R. Swing (Lightning Magic, 19 yrs)

Faith Swing (Fire Magic, 16 yrs)

• Zora Ideale/Kirsch Vermillion

Erik Ideale (Ash Magic, 20 yrs)

Zoe Ideale (Cherry Blossom Magic, 17 yrs)

• Zora ldeale/Nebra Silva

Liana Silva (Steel Magic, 15 yrs)

• Finral Roulacase/Finesse Calmreich

Fiore Roulacase (Spatial Magic, 18 yrs)

Laurence Roulacase (adopted, 10 yrs)

• Gordon Agrippa/Henry Legolant

Harriet Agrippa (Poison Magic, 21 yrs)

Leslie Agrippa (Poison Magic, 21 yrs)

Ethan Agrippa (Poison Magic, 15 yrs)

• Liebe/Ladae Silva(oc)

Loelia Silva (Steel Magic, 18 yrs)

Lizbeth Silva (no magic attribute, but can use mana, 15 yrs)

• Leopold Vermillion/Neige

Theodore Vermillion (Fire Magic, 16 yrs)

Nieve Vermillion (Snow Magic, 14 yrs)

• Mimosa Vermillion/Langris Vaude

Sherry Vermillion (Plant Magic, 19 yrs)

Gin Vermillion (Spatial Magic, 15 yrs)

• Solid Silva/(oc)

Flavius Silva (Water Magic, 18 yrs)

• Sol Marron /Fragil Tormenta

Fiera Tormenta (Snow Magic, 19 yrs)

Vicente Tormenta (Earth Magic, 16 yrs)

• Kahono/Mura(oc)

Merodi (Song Magic, 15 yrs)

• Sally/Millie Maxwell

Molly Maxwell (Gel Magic, 20 yrs)

Diana Maxwell (Alchemy Magic, 19 yrs)

Sullivan Maxwell (Alchemy Magic, 17 yrs)

Diamond Kingdom

• Mars/Fana

Jupiter Ezra Diamond (Crystal Magic, 21 yrs)

Phoenix Ezra Diamond (Fire Magic, 16 yrs)

• Fanzell Kruger/Dominante Code

Alexis Kruger (Wind Magic, 24 yrs)

Ari Kruger (Wind Magic, 24 yrs)

Alec Kruger (Wind Magic, 24 yrs)

Heart Kingdom

• Lolopechka/Gadjah

Princess Menodora (Lightning/Blood Magic(artificial), 21 yrs)

• The Spirit Guardians Children:

Floga: Pyrrhus (Fire Magic, 20 yrs)

Sarado: Acker (Earth Magic, 22 yrs)

Smurik: Saru (Wind Magic, 24 yrs)

Potrof: Meadow (Plant Magic, 23 yrs)

• Bow Nocde/Dazu Tayak

Dhara Nocde (Catalyst Magic, 21 yrs)

The Zogratis Legacy

These children were created by the magic of Morris Libardirt, Lucius Zogratis, and The Dark Triad

• Lucius Zogratis/Morris Libardirt

Micah Zogratis (Modification/Knowledge Magic(artificial), 25 yrs)

• Dante Zogratis/Vanessa Enoteca

Seraphina Zogratis (Body Magic, 25 yrs)

• Vanica Zogratis/Acier Silva

Vivienne Zogratis (Plasma Magic, 25 yrs)

• Zenon Zogratis/Allen Fiarain

Aiden Zogratis (Fire Magic, 25 yrs)

Hino Country

• Yami Ichika/Imari Komari/Kezoukaku Ginnojomoriren

Yami Himawari

Yami Chisana

Yami Ginnojomoriren

And these are my most relevant and/or favorite next generation kids! If you’re still reading, thank you! If there are any more questions, feel free to ask!

[jolieeason]

October 2024 Wrap-Up

Here is what I read, posted, won, received, and bought in October. Let me know if you have read any of these books and what you thought of them. Books I Read: Books from indie authors/publishers: Books I bought: If the Duke Dares by Darcy Burke Vacancy by Linda Kage Playing High by Beth Pellino-Dudzic Tentacles and Teeth by Ariele Sieling The Moving House by Duncan Ralston The Magpie…

[didanagy]

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995)

dir. ang lee

[weirdlookindog]

Lo spettro (1963) - Belgian poster

AKA The Ghost, The Spectre

[bethanydelleman]

what do you think would have been the most personally tragic (plausible) outcomes for each of the heroines?

Catherine Morland - She was somehow forced to ride in John Thorpe's gig for a third time.

Now I'll be serious. I refuse to imagine my dear Catherine in a tragedy.

Marianne Dashwood - Willoughby seduces her and she ends up pregnant and ruined. I've written this, twice. Also, she could have died from her fever

Elinor Dashwood - Edward marries Lucy Steele, she ends up resigning herself to a prudent but loveless marriage or never leaves home, occasionally hearing through her family that Edward is completely miserable

Elizabeth Bennet - marries someone she doesn't really respect and becomes a female version of her father

Jane Bennet - never gets over Bingley, eventually settles for a loveless marriage and it kills her inside

Fanny Price - Edmund marries Mary Crawford and Fanny watches in silent agony as she destroys Edmund's (weak) moral core and he becomes an entirely different person. William's ship is lost and Fanny never hears from him again

Emma Woodhouse - kind of cheating since it's in the book: Mr. Knightley does fall in love with Harriet Smith and stops coming to Hartfield as often, leaving Emma loveless and lonely

Anne Elliot - Captain Wentworth marries Louisa Musgrove out of duty, he also realizes his love for Anne but sees no way out. Anne remains within his sphere through her connection to the Musgrove family, she is aware that he loves her but there is nothing either of them can do about it. After a few years and two children, Wentworth confesses and Anne is forced to remove herself to the house of a distant family member. She eventually marries and Wentworth takes on more and more risks as a naval officer, leading to his ship being destroyed and his entire crew dying. He survives and feels so guilty that he eventually hangs himself, leaving his disillusioned wife and kids to fend for themselves (don't worry, Louisa has a great family and a good fortune).

Lady Susan - Sir James refuses to die and escapes all of her attempts like a clueless cartoon character who cannot be killed. Her daughter is also widely reported to be more beautiful than her.

[mysticstarlightduck]

Six Sentence 'Monday'!

This was supposed to be a Six Sentence Sunday post, but since I missed the tag yesterday, here goes "Six Sentence Monday" instead! Thank you for tagging me, @pluttskutt!

This snippet is also what I like to call: Augustus snaps and shows their pursuers precisely why he was once called the Soulsnatcher (It's slightly more than 6 sentences, I think, but it wouldn't make sense without context!)

[...] Augustus laughed, frustrated, nearly manic with rage, as the thugs surrounded them yet again. This mercenary had just hurt the only person Augustus truly cared about, and now still had the gall to try and mock them - this was the final straw over an already hellish week, and it was really, quite absurd.

He whirled backward, so fast that Harriet was surprised she didn't hear anything snap in his neck. He glanced at her injured arm for a moment, worry written in his features, before steeling himself and walking slowly towards the approaching mercenaries, despite them scrambling to reload their pistols.

When Augustus spoke again, his voice was much deeper, and garbled, and the sarcastic smile on his lips looked more than slightly off "Well, I'm going to enjoy this - it seems it's been a while since someone taught you the proper meaning of bloodshed!" The summoning mark shone around his wrist and the mercenaries fired, only for the bullets to stop mid-air. The necromancer glared at them, expression turning deathly serious. "You should've left us alone when she gave you the chance" [...]

Tagging (gently): @little-peril-stories, @oh-no-another-idea, @rickie-the-storyteller, @illarian-rambling, @i-can-even-burn-salad, @clairelsonao3, @doublegoblin, @talesofsorrowandofruin, @starlit-hopes-and-dreams, @kaylinalexanderbooks and OPEN TAG