#I need to name this story/series

[cecexwrites]

Maite's family

The Grandparents: Lito & Tati Contreras (Juan & Leticia Contreras)

The Blueprint Siblings: Tia Jimi, Mami (Tia Jaci), Tio Ru & Tia Pia (Jimina Contreras-Hayworth, Jacinta Contreras-Herrera, Raul Contreras & Paloma Contreras)

The Spouses (Or spouse adjacent): Tio Rocket, Dad (JJ) & Roommate (Orlando Hayworth, Jason Herrera & Jennifer Rhodes)

The Siblings 2 (Electric Boogaloo): Eddie, Rocco, Mimi, August & Max (Eduardo, Rocco, Maite, Augustin & Max Contreras-Herrera)

The Cousins: Bacon, Lala & Baby (Logan Hayworth, Mila & Arielle Contreras-Hayworth)

[jonsnowunemploymentera]

And remember kids, the next time someone tells you, "George R. R. Martin wouldn't make Jon Snow the typical fantasy hero because that's cliche".....

Oh yes he would!

One viewer wants to know what character would you play (on the show)? GRRM: If I could magically clap my hands and become a different person, it would be cool to play Jon Snow who's much more of the classic hero. Everybody wants to be the classic hero! ABC Interview, 2014

GRRM: And the character I’d want to be? Well who wouldn’t want to be Jon Snow — the brooding, Byronic, romantic hero whom all the girls love. Meduza Interview, 2017

In fact he already has ☺️

[drawingoddessy]

Here’s som concept art from my spin on @chaotickit au!

[edwards-exploit]

Not pictured: The Fireman, Micheal Moraghan.

Anyway, Rushton! I know the W&SR only had four 0-6-0 tank engines but I bent canon a little to make him work (who says that they didn't have OTHER engines who helped them out that didn't make it...?)

Thomas and Edward never met him, but they WERE told of him...

more about him under the cut, though some of it might be subject to change

Rushton was built in October 1871 along another of his class MR no. 67, and he was bought by the W&SR to keep up with increasing passenger demand in 1904. His train, the "The Coastal Express", was to be an express passenger train that ran from its terminus station of Crosby to Brendam, as the railway planned to extend their line there (before abandoning the project in 1909 and moving to Tidmouth in 1912).

The fact that he's a tender engine and an express passenger engine very much got to his smokebox, as he began treating everyone and everything beneath him and developed a cold attitude- goods trains, maintenence, the tank engines, the passengers (though, in all fairness, he didn't outwardly show this and was polite to them), his own crew...

Which, for Micheal. with his short temper, did not go well. Rushton and Micheal got into arguments and Alec, who tried to play mediator between the two, got into the crossfire often. Unfortunately, the two were the only ones willing to put up with Rushton's attitude and were the ones who were semi successful in reining him in when he bullied the tank engines or when he went too fast. so he was stuck with them and they with him.

In 1909, before the closing of the Brendam Port project, Rushton was his usual self- snobbish, cold, and hard to work with. As per usual, his crew was Alec and Micheal.

Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps it was the fact that it was night and things were less visible, perhaps it was Rushton going way too fast to finish this train already so he could go back and sleep, perhaps it was Micheal arguing with Rushton and telling him to suck it up, or perhaps it was Alec not paying attention to the water levels or the tracks as he tried to tell them both to knock it off...

In any case, there was a very, very nasty accident.

...

The other engines could swear up and down that they could still hear Rushton passing them by. Especially at night. And if you listen closely, maybe you can hear the men on the footplate, trying to tell him to slow down.

(not pictured: a young thomas immediately crying because he didn't know HUMANS CAN DIE FROM RAILWAY ACCIDENTS, wellsworth and suddery no. 3 laughing at thomas- what, he's been coddled enough, let him learn!- and young edward trying to soothe a crying thomas)

[king-spite]

genuinely believe that the only correct way to approach the whole marecal vs mareven deal is to adore all three of them with your whole heart. and see them as a trio rather than a love triangle. like sorry but if you don't lowkey fw all of them and like each of them as a character on their own AND accept the many layers of the relationship they have with one another you're not getting things right :/

[greencarnation]

Printed some fliers and stickers to put up around town tomorrow. Remember that posting isn't the only way to spread awareness and build public consciousness in your area

[hebuiltfive]

Can I interest you in a quick Monday WIP Snippet?

Do you ever sit down and look at a WIP, regretting why you ever thought it was a good idea to keep adding more and more ideas to it? Because I do, with this one. I have to keep reminding myself to just focus on the current chapter I’m working on, else it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the size of what this thing could become. Ah, well. Hopefully it’ll be worth it!

————————————————————

“I had never categorised you as a wallflower, Scott Tracy.”

“I was in need of a respite.”

“From what, exactly? You hadn’t moved from that position since you arrived.”

He opened his mouth to try and argue his point, but Lady Casey met his eyes with a harsh glare.

“Do not try to deny it. I’ve been keeping my eye on you all evening.”

Scott, beginning to feel more like himself again, let his lips curve into a cheeky smile. “How thoughtful of you, Lady Casey.”

“Indeed, I heard the stories from your trip to the Wycliff Manor earlier this spring.”

The smile was instantly wiped from his face. Trust society gossip to spread like wildfire.

“I will not be having a repeat of that affair again tonight, do I make myself clear?”

[something-familiar-lost]

i love huddy SO MUCH 💖💖💖💖 and I think the firsy episode of season 7 with them just hanging out and being all lovey dovey was so sweet and lovely, and i just love them but darn I don't really like the way they got together and i think their relationship could have been written better.

I feel like cuddy has forgotten literally everything she ever knew about house???? she got upset at him for lying to her about something to do with a patient. That's not even in the top ten worst things he ever did/said to her at that point(not saying she can't be upset just that it's. That's House. He lies about patients and for patients.). i mean i get it they're in a relationship now but still.

[hellsite-detective]

Hellsite Detective in...

The Bad Banana

it was another cool day in Tumblr City. the breeze was blowin' through the streets and the rain was poundin' down hard against my window. the ceilin' fan that hung above me spun slowly and hypnotically as if blown by a wind that wasn't present. as i sat there in my chair, smokin' my cigar and watchin' that fan spin eternally, i grew hungry. thankfully i keep a small fruit bowl in the corner. gettin' up to go grab a bite, i picked a banana out of the bowl. it was a bright yellow, but you might not have known it from the monochromatic filter over the scene. as i began to unpeel it, a voice spoke from the back of my head sayin'...

...hold on...

...go ahead...

...what...

naturally confused, i spun around to see if someone had snuck in while my back was turned. but no, no one was there. however, the words continued to resound in my head. almost like they were callin' me to somethin'. i walked over to the window and took a look outside and the traffic lights at the intersection caught my eye. i looked at them, and looked back at the banana in my hand. that's when it hit me...

see, there was a post i've been lookin' for for ages. in fact, it was the post that inspired me to open my office up in the first place. it was a post comparin' the colors on bananas to the colors on traffic lights. back then, i couldn't find it. but now? i had the experience i needed. i decided to re-open this personal case of mine.

i tucked the banana into my coat and strolled through the rainy streets. i came across that hoppin' joint with jazz music always pourin' out the doors onto the street. the neon sign above the door read "The Search Bar." i headed inside, ready to do some business with my associate, but they were nowhere to be seen. they weren't sittin' at their normal booth. curious, i decided to ask the new robot bartender for help...

say, doll, you know where i can find the Boss?

[Oh! I do apologize. Don Google is upstairs in their office, but they are not seeing any visitors today.]

heh, well we'll see about that, won't we? say, what's your name?

[I am H.A.V.E.N. It stands for Hostess Attending to Virtual and Informational Needs. Essentially, my purpose is to keep track of Don Google's database so they do not have to. I also serve the drinks.]

Haven, huh? nice to meetcha, Haven. i gotta go see the Don though, whether they like it or not. i'll be seein' you later.

i tipped my hat to Haven and walked to the door leadin' to the stairwell. my mind lingered on the robotic hostess, wonderin' what an advanced artificial intelligence construct like her was doin' in this world that had it's basis in 1940's noir, but i wasn't gonna think about it too much. i headed up the stairs and into the Don's office. their goons whipped out their guns and almost took my head clean off, but the big fella themself stopped it.

the office was a far cry from the bustlin' night club on the first floor. where as the club had neon lights and kept things rather dark, probably for the best, the office was more well lit and elegant. it held a more warm atmosphere than the club, but somehow it was more oppressive in here. the walls appeared to be made of wood, bookshelves lined the walls, and a chandelier hung from the ceilin'. there was a carpet in the center of the room that had a kaleidoscope of colors rangin' from blue, red, yellow, and green. and directly across from the door was the desk. mahogany, it seemed, and real fancy too. a giant round window overlookin' the city streets was placed behind it with a large letter "G" formed in the window frames. the Don spun around in their large leather chair and puffed on their cigar.

"'Ey there, Miss Detective. What can I do ya for?"

i'm lookin' for a post involvin' bananas. specifically in relation to traffic lights. you got anythin' like that for me?"

i set the banana i had brought down on the desk and they chuckled at the sight.

"Yea, I think I got what your lookin' for."

with a wave of their hand, one of their goons fetched a file from off one of the shelves and brought it over to them. they thumbed it open with one hand, the other hand draggin' on the cigar. they slid it across the desk.

"This what your lookin' for?"

and there it was. the post that started it all. it had finally come full circle. i grabbed the file eagerly and began to leave the room, but the Don wasn't finished with me yet.

"'Ey, Miss Detective! Don't think I've forgotten about that little favor you owe me..."

i stopped dead in my tracks. preparin' myself for the worst, i stood there frozen. i couldn't even turn around to look at them. but shockingly, the conversation took a different turn.

"I'm not lookin' to cash that in just yet. Just be on the look out for a call, got it? I'm lookin' forward to our partnership."

i couldn't see them, but i knew their snide smile was bearing down on me at that moment. fear filling my body, i left the lion's den and went back to my humble office to file my prize away. as i did so, my stomach rumbled...

damn it. i left the banana with the Don...

Post Case: Closed

[doodlingwren]

Every now and then I always find myself wondering. What if I made a Saint Seiya fan character. And I always end up realizing I don't really want to bother. I'll keep drawing my usual bunch of idiots that already exist in the franchise and bye bye

[not-feeling-the-aster]

I wonder what came to be of Snow's granddaughter. We don't know much about Snow's children, but it's highly possible that they would go into hiding or at least keep a low profile, or maybe they would be charged for some crimes (again, there isn't enough information about them). But what about the girl?

I like the idea of Tigris somehow reaching out after the revolution, feeling protective of her. She would help her understand more about their family's past and ensure she was better than them. And after that, who knows? Maybe she moves to one of the Districts (if they still exist as we have known them) and lives far away from the Snow legacy.

.

.

.

And then I got carried away and started to imagine a story about Katniss' daughter and Snow's great-granddaughter meeting each other as teens/young adults. Because drama.

[necrotic-nephilim]

do you ship helena bertinelli with anyone? if yes, then which characters and why? what's your favorite helena ship? do you have any helena rarepairs? (i know you've talked about helena/steph and you're so right about it, it's a very interesting ship)

!!!! i have so many ships for my best girl ever yes oh my god thank you for asking.

my top pairing is probably Vic Sage/the Question. Vic is the basic answer, but man. i love them so much. no couple has matched each other's freak like that have. Justice League Unlimited is a great adaptation of Helena in general, but it also did a great adaptation of Helena and Vic's relationship. how he just dedicates himself to helping her with no expected return, but also wants to make sure she doesn't go too far in a hunt for vengeance that never ends for her. i think a lot of characters often want to change Helena or expect things out of her for their own needs, like the Batfam and the BoP. but Vic is one of the few people who just wants her to be better for her own good. when he tries to stop her from killing it's not because of his morals, it's because he doesn't want this crusade to consume her. and i just. man i think about them a lot. Helena rlly likes weird little men who give themselves wholly to her.

Zinda Blake/Lady Blackhawk is also a top ship for me. tbh i just like Zinda. but i do love how Helena and Zinda interact, being the more rough and tumble members of the BoP. they're both outsiders, in different ways. Helena is an outsider of the Batfam and Zinda is literally from a different time and an outsider to the current world. their friendship is so genuine and i think if Babs and Dinah can have. whatever homoerotic nonsense going on during BoP, then Zinda and Helena deserve some homoerotic nonsense too. as a treat.

if we're willing to count New-52 Helena, then i enjoy Helena/Dick/Tiger. i think Helena and Dick being a past relationship is really important in pre-Flashpoint for Helena's development, though i don't ship them as a serious couple beyond a fling. but in the New-52, i think this throuple be fun. Helena and Tiger respect each other as two very driven, no-nonsense agents and then well. they both clearly have some kind of thing for Dick. so it's fun finding the balance of how they could all work together romantically.

and ofc. it's a crime to mention Helena ships and not mention Renee Montoya/the Question. every time they interact it's really fucking gay. it's so gay that Kate Kane, Renee's own ex, assumed Helena and Renee were gay. i cannot be convinced against this ship. i genuinely think this ship should be canon. i mean. DC did tease us with this moment from an alternate universe and it's lived rent for me since. fucking criminal for us to only get one panel of what we could have if DC let Helena be a fruit in the main universe. being in love with Helena Bertinelli should be a right of passage for the Question mantle, i personally believe. if you asked me like. genuinely who i want to see Helena date in the current comics, Renee is my top pick. (i would say Vic but he's fucking dead and the New-52 butchered him so rip my mans-)

lois lane (2019) #10

besides those ships, just about every ship for Helena probably falls into the category of rarepair. like you said i've talked about my love for Helena/Steph before bc god. i think it should be a thing more people ship. once i finish the fic i'm writing about them i will convince others to like it.

i also think Helena/Cass could be fun. in a *lot* of ways Helena and Cass are narrative parallels to each other. Helena was a victim of her family being murdered at about the same age Cass was forced to be a murderer. Helena grows up to believe in lethal justice because of this, and Cass grows up to be staunchly against it. Cass' Batgirl suit was made *by* Helena. they both want to be protectors of the most vulnerable people. they balance each other out in a lot of ways and i think they should kiss about it.

also probably a rarepair, i think Helena/Lady Shiva is fun. their fight during Birds of Prey (2010) had... questionable moments for Helena's characterization, but i do love so much that Helena knocks Shiva off her feet and gains a deep respect from Shiva. like. Shiva gives her a nickname and shows her admiration. i would like to see fanfic where Shiva continues to be weirdly admirable of Helena and bothering her non-stop. they could be a fun fucked up toxic yuri moment. this is just. so gay to me.

birds of prey (2010) #6

my most rare Helena pair would probably be Helena Wayne, actually. but specifically Helena Wayne of JSA (2022). ever since, for some reason, it was made canon that the current Helena Wayne was named after Helena Bertinelli and took the name Huntress to honor her i *cannot* stop thinking about them meeting. because in-universe it makes *no* fucking sense for Bruce to name his kid after *Helena Bertinelli*, someone he's regularly at odds with and doesn't like. it's clearly an awkward explanation to try to make the whole two Huntress situation make sense. (it's almost as bad as Helena Wayne in the New-52 using Helena Bertinelli as an alias.) but because it's such an odd choice, i do think it could be fun for Helena Wayne, when she's back in time to see Bruce, to find Helena Bertinelli to get to know the woman she was named after and Helena Bertinelli just being. baffled by the idea of *Batman* naming his kid after her. it could be a fun fucked up moment.

my other super rarepair is Kara Zor-L/Power Girl. they had like. one meaningful interaction of JSA Classified and it's been PLAGUING me. something about when Power Girl doesn't remember her past and she's seeking a friend, she instinctively goes to find Huntress? but it's wrong bc this isn't *her* Huntress and neither of them understand why Power Girl would seek Helena out? god it's so good. i'm always a big fan of ships where one person in the ship is *so* obviously using the other person as a replacement for someone they lost and they both know it. it's such a doomed angsty thing where you could play with Helena actually really liking Kara, but knowing that she's just a replacement for Kara's Helena Wayne. good fucked up shit man.

and lastly: i really ship her with Dawn Granger/Dove. there's no canon basis for this, they didn't have a ton of interactions even when they were both on the BoP. but there's a very kind innocence to Dawn that contrasts Helena's violence really well. and i do love a ship with a corruption kink vibe to it. let Helena corrupt Dawn. i could write such fucked up porn about these two.

[sassymajesty]

Hi Nina, I was a Patreon subscriber of yours and just sadly found out that your Patreon is no longer active. Is there a way to re-read your EIB stuff that were exclusive to Patreon subscribers? (e.g. Clarke’s POVs) I can’t count how many times I’ve re-read the series and still love it through and through.

i had to step away from everything after leaving patreon, but the plan has always been to put it all on ao3. and that's where it's all going now!

and here's how it'll work. i'll create a new story in the boe series (and one for southern au as well) where i'll put all the extra one shots as chapters, with the same name (and pov indicator!) as they were on patreon. i'll also finish posting the life at home chapters, and i'll post the three chapters of illicit affairs au as well

the plan is to post one new chapter of something every couple days until i run out. it's quite a lot of things so i won't be posting much about it here, so [youtuber voice] if you want to get a notification for all the updates, make sure to follow and subscribe to my ao3 profile for the next couple months or so

[pharawee]

Fong Bovorn as Chan & JJ Rathasat as Juldis in SunsetxVibes the series.

Source: starhunter_entertainment @ ig

[gwyns]

NIMONA WESTON — BETWEEN INK AND SHADOWS

She didn’t believe in luck as a rule—Nim’s father had carried a coin in his boot for years, and it had done him no good at all—but whatever game the fates were playing, her fortune held.

[transvaltrans]

Looking back on the books I read this year, and was reminded of just how much Megan Whalen Turner's The Thief- absolutely frustrated and disappointed me. Spoilers ahead.

To some degree, this was going to happen; the whole series has been heavily hyped up to me, it's hard for any book to live up to such lavish yet vague praise. But, you know, I actually got through most of the book without being distracted by my own expectations. It was tense, and spare- it felt like every word mattered and hinted at an underlying truth. I love when books withhold from the reader, and nudge at you to consider what might be left unsaid. And I was so, so satisfied when my predictions paid off (totally called Gen palming the stone rather than losing it).

The worldbuilding was interesting and unique, I enjoyed that the author wasn't committed to a super specific and our-world-accurate timeframe for technology, and I found the characters compelling and variable. I always enjoy travel stories, nevermind stories about thieves.

Which is exactly why I was so annoyed by the ending.

Again: I love twists. I love being able to predict them, and I love being surprised. I did not feel like any of the twists in The Thief were unearned; it's a well-composed book, with plenty of foreshadowing.

However, one of the twists, despite being foreshadowed, absolutely blindsided me- because I would not have considered it as a possibility, due to undermining exactly what had me so excited to read The Thief in the first place. Fantasy literature sometimes shies away from politics, into pure escapism and fluff. Even some of my favorite fantasy books are pretty hollow when it comes to their fundamental beliefs, and shy away from challenging the status quo- unless it's to restore old glory (cough The Old Kingdom series).

But I can almost always count on stories about rogues, and thieves, and con artists, to at least bring up the issue of class. These characters so often come from disenfranchised backgrounds, from the poor and displaced. They're street rats and gutter scum, who have clawed their way up from the bottom, and never forget where they came from- can never forget, from the way others treat them. Theft is subversive; there's a reason we won't let go of Robin Hood, but even more self-motivated thieves often have something to say about the unfairness of wealth distribution. Stories about thieves almost always have something to say about the relationship between the wealthy and the poor.

So, yeah, I was really fucking annoyed at the reveal that Eugenides was actually the Queen's cousin. That pretending to be from a lower class background was so insufferable to him; that of course he's only so educated and knowledgeable because he's a noblemen, that it was so hard for him to pretend to be stupid and crass like a peasant. That the reason he was so pissed about being disrespected by his captors wasn't because they beat him and imprisoned him and insulted him constantly, that they treated him as less than human because he was poor and a criminal, a tool for their own use and disposal- but because he was one of them, and it injured his pride- his noble pride, not his human pride- to be treated like that. Like he wasn't one of them, and deserving of their respect.

Fuck, I hate it so much. It immediately took away my favorite parts of the book- the tension between Gen and the magus's companions, the weight of the magus having been a commoner once, the way Gen constantly stuck by himself and refused to just accept his shitty treatment- the way every monarch treated him as a means to an end. I thought there would be more tension in Gen having conflicted feelings of resentment and camraderie with the magus- I thought it would pay off with either some of them acting in his interest for once, and/or some of them rejecting their freindship and leaning back into that class difference between them.

I'm not opposed to Gen having been working for the mountain kingdom the whole time! But there are so many other ways to do that- I was suspecting that someone was holding his family hostage in some way. It's easy to imagine a story where Gen is a lower-class thief, who was also being used by his own country's royalty.

But, making Eugenides a nobleman is a subversion of the classic trope- which means it's clever and interesting. Uugh. It just exhausted me, and- disappointed me. I loved so much of this book, and it had been a while since I'd read a good low-fantasy story about thieves. It was suspenseful, with rich descriptions, and interesting character dynamics. I thought I was getting something like Fly By Night by Frances Hardinge, or The Goblin Wood by Hillary Bell- not necessarily stories about thieves, but stories about the underestimated and undervalued, peasant con artists and hedgewitches. But with more of the tension and bite of your average dnd rogue getting up to stupid shit (my go-to class since I was a kid).

I totally understand why people love this book. There is a lot I really admire within it. But man, I don't think I can get over how much that final twist- not just rejected my original interpretation of the story. That's fine, plenty of good science fiction or horror does that. But that it specifically rejects the character and story type of the lower class thief. The very name of the series, The Queen's Thief, had me expecting a story about that seeming contradiction; about the power imbalance, and a constant game of cunning, of maintaining autonomy despite being bound to a royal power. And I expect there will be some of that, in the later books; it just loses a lot of its appeal, when it turns out Gen himself is a nobleman, who was doing a favor for his cousin, the queen.

I liked that the book ended with more insight into the mountainous kingdom, and Gen's feeling of belonging and pride to a cultural group everyone else had been deriding- but that didn't have to be accomplished by him being related to the nobility of that country. None of this had to be accomplished through Gen being a nobleman; it just felt like a 'gotcha' subversion, taking away, rather than adding more.