#I really love all the different variations and Gideon

[thoughtfulfangirling]

One of the things that has me so invested in The Locked Tomb series is that it's got such a vibrant and active fandom. I just want to take a moment to appreciate the fact that some thick, not technically YA novels with no current visual adaptation has the fandom it does. I'm proud of all of you. That's really fucking cool. And FUN!

[betelgeusing]

righteous gemstones finale thoughts roundup spoilers galore

Peter Montgomery being the shortest person in his family was an inspired choice, Steve Zahn in his villain era hell yeah (he was also so good in George and Tammy recently)

Always surprised by how much genuine love and tenderness Jesse seems to have for his wife and children, as clumsily as he expresses it

But for real Jesse finally pulling ahead of Simkins by taking responsibility and going to get his family members safe (and trusting Gideon to help him do more than he could alone) was a great end to his character arc this season

(He appears to have been that way since he was a teenager?? cute. Jesse for sleeper favorite of the season honestly)

(Speaking of teen Jesse, the interlude episodes really show how badly Eli and Aimee Leigh failed their children. Giggling about how Judy's therapist would have to deal with her in the future instead of TRYING TO HELP IN THE PRESENT, for example. they are wonderful characters to watch, and it's nice that Eli is bonding with Gideon now, but they fully neglected raising their children in favor of their careers and it's WILD that Eli acts baffled that his kids as adults are a fucking mess)

Plague of locusts WILD choice though. Like OK we'll just accept that it happened I guess

Stephen Dorff was underused. Shea Whigham too but his character seemed like more of a cameo to begin with. Dorff could have been the primary villain instead of just popping in early and then late. Oh well, I guess they did the rival megachurch pastor last season so it would have felt too repetitive

I would love to see more characters like May May everywhere. She was so well written and performed

Comparisons to Succession are valid and idk maybe it seems like the Gemstones get off too lightly, but I think the core sweetness to the show makes it what it is and distinguishes it. You know the Roys are always going to end up at odds; you know the Gemstones are always going to end up united. Ofc they're equally shitty/crooked people to everyone not part of their families, but then, they're different shows with very different tones

I would be lying if I said I wouldn't watch Baby Billy's Bible Bonkers. Tiffany tearing it UP on the piano

also the way Baby Billy is with Chuck and Karl is the most precise depiction of how it feels when you have to watch your maternal and paternal extended family members interact with each other I've ever seen

(Bisexual Baby Billy confirmed?? Though I'm not sure anyone was asking for it)

BJ Judy matching outfits FOREVER

Keefe and Kelvin beat the queerbaiting allegations I HAD FAITH . they are GLOWING in the last episode. (Keefe's distaste for Taryn from EPISODE ONE is also hysterical. Jealousssssss)

Keefe's outfits are the best in the show sorry BJ sorry Judy you guys ran a tough campaign but it's true

The variations on the word "daddy" in the last few episodes are killer. Specifically Jesse's almost-whispered "datty" and the way the Gemstone siblings tell Baby Billy "you are NOT my daddy, boy"

"Daddy-boy" making MULTIPLE appearances as a disrespectful reference to Eli lmfao (and Jesse calling him "Elijah" for the 5 minutes he was pissed at him)(also Jesse being mad at Chuck for all of an hour before forgiving him. He's simply not built for grudges)

Aimee Leigh final shot shmaltzy? Maybe but I will take every excuse to see Jennifer Nettles in the role again <3

[night-bluesky]

Curious Tides by Pascale Lacelle is getting some hate for being slow and drawn out but y’all… some books are just like that and are part of the style (the Hobbit anyone?). Same with criticisms toward timeline confusion (except I don’t think it was hard to follow at all and liked how the backstory was intertwined with the present). It’s like Ninth House meets Gideon the Ninth meets Shadow and Bone.

I LOVED this book. I loved the premise and the world building and I loved that it being long drew out the sense of suspense and confusion as if we were experiencing the world with Emory and Baz. I liked learning more about the magic system and the Order and the characters.

I think my biggest complaints from this book are the lack of expansion on esclipses. Hear me out: there’s solar and lunar eclipses but what are the specific variations that lead to some being Tidecallers? What’s the difference between being born on a solar eclipse and being born on a specific variation of it; what’s the variation?? Also college was talked about early on but whatever happened to Emory taking her classes, especially the emphasis on her needing a makeup exam. College helps set the tone for prestige which is great for world building, but there’s aside from the beginning, there’s not really any mention of classes or homework.

Yes these complaints override the positives for some people but for me, these are easily justified. I really liked this book and I loved the ending and epilogue and I can’t wait to learn more in Stranger Skies. Like. I really need someone to talk to about how much I loved this book.

[sorrowfulwill]

What's your headcanons on the Reverse Falls character roles and/or relations (like romantic, family, platonic)? There's lots of variations among different people's personal RF AUs, and I'm interested to see the nuances and variations of yours.

For example, are Pacifica and Gideon cousins, siblings, best friends, strangers to each other or something else? Do the young Gleeful twins have another sibling, do they have parents, do they live permanently in Reverse Falls? What's Stanford's role? Is he a manipulative mastermind, a scamming conartist just trying to make money from the Tent, a loving Grunkle? Who is related to who and who are best friends, or lovers, or enemies?

Mk I’ll give a few sorry if there’s bad wording it’s like 4 in the morning where I live rn

Pacifica and Gideon are cousins but often refer to eachother as best friends for plot sake

The gleeful twins (mainly Mason) are spoiled little rats and a bit mean to will but not like straight up abuse. Mabel is a bit more chill around Will. Will sees them like family or friends.

Stanford is a piece of shit. The gleeful twins were put into his custody after their parents were shit and shit got worse. Stanford is a con artist that uses the twins passion for entertainment to fuel his bank account. He often leaves the twins alone with Will so they’re Will’s problem now. And due to this constant neglecting the gleeful twins have gotten more aggressive and rude towards everyone around them for attention. Stanford is the one that abuses Will as well

Nobody’s really in love

Mabel and Pacifica are a bit complicated. there’s a possible plot idea where Pacifica tries to be Mabel’s friend, Mabel tries to make Pacifica more like her and separates her from her own cousin, Pacifica speaks out, Mabel gets possessive (literally), and shit goes down Mabel is almost exposed but conveniently dodges all irresponsibility, Mabel hates Gideon forever because he interfered.

The gleeful twins live permanently in reverse falls and managed to drop out of school so they could line their grunkle’s pockets.

oh yeah and Stanford maybe gets fucking killed at the end by Will but that’s a maybe

a lot of this was just straight info dumping so I can’t tell if I answered your question or not but enjoy the long post

[recurring-polynya]

As we all know, I am Perpetually Rewatching Bleach, and I hit the Reigai Arc a while ago, but I didn’t feel like recapping it, because recaps are a ton of work and I am Tired, but Bleach 333 might be the Bleachiest episode in all of Bleach, so I had to.

In the immortal words of Gideon the Ninth: “Things were happening too much.”

So, this is pretty deep into the arc-- all the lieutenants are in the World of the Living and all the (real) captains are in Soul Society, Nozomi has just unlocked her zanpakutou, and Reigai Zaraki and Byakuya showed up to start shit.

At the end of the last episode, all the lieutenants put their reiatsu in Nozomi’s sword (why does some variation of this happen every filler arc??) and she blew up Zaraki and Byakuya. The episode opens with Renji muttering “Did we get ‘em?” which is really how every episode should open. It looks like they successfully KO’d Zaraki, but Reigai Byakuya survived, and he proceeds to take out all the lieutenants with a single Soren Sokatsui.

This seems bad, but then, the Captain Commander shows up out of nowhere and sets Reigai Byakuya on fire. Yes. Really.

Ichigo and Rukia get Yamamoto up to date, but the best part of this scene is that Renji is just...lying there in the middle of it, like a sleepy boi.

All of sudden, more Reigai show up, and there’s a split screen reaction shot, but... it’s just of the unconscious lieutenants. Friends, I literally screamed. They made this episode just for me. We’re also going to start counting SSRS’s, because this episode has... a lot of them.

I also want to point out the Ichigo, Nozomi and Kon seem to be entirely uninjured; Rukia, Chad and Uryuu are able to get themselves up, Renji is Hanging In There, and all the other lieutenants are toast. I am pretty sure this Says Something About the Lieutenant Class.

Oh God, there is so much Peak Renij Dialogue in this episode.

At this point, Renji attempts to sit up, and falls down again.Good hustle, buddy, you tried.

Somewhere around here, my husband got up to let the dog out and he said, “pause it if anything good happens.” I had to pause it almost immediately because Reigai Ukitake and Kyouraku showed up and then this happened:

There’s like 4 minutes straight of releasing, literally everything is on fire, and after being told to stay back like 5 times, Nozomi jumps into battle and we get split screen reaction shot #2.

Nozomi attacks Kyouraku and Ichigo goes after Ukitake. Yamamoto literally grumbles “Those darn kids...” and then Unohana comes out of nowhere and casts four different binding in a row on Yamamoto while an electric bass guitar plays. I say this all the time, but this is exactly how I would fight if I were a shinigami fighting another shinigami: just bind the fuck out of them and then attack them while they’re down. This scene was incredibly gratifying to me, Unohana is the GOAT.

How’s Renji doing?

Keep working at it, you’re doing great, pal.

The true purpose of filler arcs is more fights for characters that we didn’t get to see fight enough, and this episode delivers with some excellent Kyouraku and Ukitake throw-downs. Whoops, here’s reaction shot #3:

Because his spiritual energy has been on its last legs this whole arc, Ichigo is supposed to use his powers very carefully, for example, not going to bankai or using Getsugas, except when he can’t think of anything else, which is constantly. #4.

Did I mention that Fake Ukitake and Fake Kyouraku are Very Real Husbands this episode? Because they are.

We cut back to Rukia and Renji (still prone) and Kon. Kon is Big Sad because he can’t help. I have no love for Kon, but I respect this great compliment he lays on Rukia after she punches him.

Rukia and Renji decide they gotta go help and-- and Renji is UP! The man is up!

Except that Yamamoto abruptly busts out of his wards and Rukia has to breathlessly gasp “What is this reiatsu?” as per her contract.

SHIT FAM the real Unohana is here and she’s got Dramatic Singers! Fake Unohana is literally about to pee herself and so would you if you say this coming for you:

Wards still be exploding, Obligatory Renji Protects Rukia (and Kon) Shot!

Split Screen Reaction Shot #5: Karakura Kids Edition

Then, um this happened.

AHEM.

This was my favorite SSRS in the episode because it was kinda high concept. Rukia starts talking in the left panel, but you can still see her arm moving the middle panel. Didn’t they do this in Pacific Rim, with the heads-up displays? Or maybe that was Voltron. I don’t care, I love this shit.

Anyway, when Renji picks up the dialogue, BAM, he takes over the middle.

The fireball has done nothing to the Reigai, so we get a walking-thru-flames drama shot that ends with... yet another SSRS.

They start to attack Yamamoto who is 1000% ready to throw down, but then Kageroza shows up and declares that he will be taking on the old man himself.

Ichigo gets real concerned that Kageroza will use Yamamoto’s power against him (Yamamoto is like, ‘whatever’). Nozomi volunteers to act like a decoy, and Kageroza does his villainous laugh, “you’ll never steal my spiritual pressure-- NANI??”  It turns out Nozomi already charged her sword up with the Head Captain’s spiritual pressure when Kageroza...was...checking his phone? I do not know how me missed this sneaky, sneaky maneuver:

I guess he didn’t see anything because they were behind Ichigo’s back. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

Anyway, it’s not enough, so Yamamoto attacks. That’s not enough, so Ichigo unleashes his final Getsuga (not, like, the Final Getsuga, just like, the last one he has. Very confusing naming scheme here.)

Does this count as another SSRS? It doesn’t do the BAM/BAM/BAM, so maybe Rukia/Renji/Kon have been in split screen mode this entire time, and it’s just a revisit. Whatever, I’m gonna count it. We’re up to 8.

Ichigo is now spent. He mumbles “Did I get ‘im?” and then falls out of the sky.

“I NEED RENJI TO CATCH HIM,” I scream, while my husband winces and pinches the bridge of his nose. “GET UP, RENJI!” I yell. “YOU CAN DO IT.”

He’s thinkin’ about it!

Oh, no, Ichigo, did not, in fact, “get ‘im.” Kageroza appears to have survived, which I guess justifies a SSRS #9.

Look at Renji’s face. He’s ready. He’s goin’.

And he’s off!!!! I LOVE THIS MAN.

UGH, we have to sit through Kageroza explaining how he survived the attack by absorbing Nozomi’s attack and Ichigo’s Getsuga who cares who cares who cares, get to the good stuff--

yaaaasssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss

Kageroza is powering up his attack, we’re gonna get the “To Be Continued..” any second, but NO there is STILL TIME FOR ONE MORE!

Ten. TEN. This episode is only 22 minutes long and they managed to fit in 10 split screen reaction shots. I suspect this may be the record.

This entire episode was just split screen reactions shots, people powering up, shots of my OTP, and Renji catching Ichigo and then cradling him lovingly. Perfect episode. 1000/10.

[my-lady-knight]

Favorite Reads of 2020

I take back everything I said last year about how 2019 was a comparatively bad reading year for me. 2020 was even worse. I only read 48 books, I could barely focus on reading even when I did find a book I liked, and, just like last year, I ended up with fewer favorites than usual. Starting in August I’ve been having trouble reading any written media that isn’t TOG fic. And some of my eagerly awaited releases by favorite authors ended up being disappointments (Deeplight by Frances Hardinge and Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee).

2020—the year that keeps on giving.

I sincerely hope 2021 will be a better year in all respects, including my reading habits, but, as with everything else, who knows.

Regardless, here’s my list of favorite reads of 2020, in chronological order of when I read them:

Network Effect by Martha Wells

I’d read the first four Murderbot Diaries novellas when they first came out and enjoyed them, but I didn’t fall head-over-heels in love with them. Maybe because they were novellas, and too short to get fully invested? Possibly. As it turns out, Network Effect is the novel-length fifth entry in the Murderbot Diaries that turned me into full-on squeeing fan—SecUnit, aka Murderbot, continues to be its delightfully acerbic, antisocial self, SPOILER makes another appearance and oh how I’d missed this character, the supporting cast is fun and endearing, and the novel-length story means there’s time and space for the brand-new corporate espionage/colonization/alien civilization murder mystery to unfold and spread its wings. (Sounds like a Sanctuary Moon plot tbh). SecUnit is possibly my favorite non-human fictional character atm, and I am now fully on-board for every and any new story in the series.

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

When I first heard about this book and read the words “time travel romance”, I immediately went, “Nope, not gonna read.” I don’t like reading time travel stories, and honestly, I was imagining it to be something like The Time Traveler’s Wife, which granted I haven’t read but also sounds like it’d be the opposite of my cup of tea. 

And then I went to a reading where Amal and Max took turns reading chapters – letters written by Red and Blue, enemy agents who repeatedly taunt and thwart the other’s plans to ensure their side is the one to win the time war and who can’t resist smugly outlining just how they’re staying one step ahead of the other – and the prose was witty and gorgeous and clever and intricate, and Red and Blue were snarky and arrogant and talented and fun. I had to read it. And I ended up loving it, this enemies-to-lovers story that is a meld of fantasy and science fiction such that they’re indistinguishable from the other, where the past is as equally fantastical and alien and imaginary as the future, where Red and Blue’s power play transforms into something different and scarier and more intimate than either of them imagined. 

To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers

Becky Chambers has done it again, writing a gentle, hopeful story about humans working together out of a share a love and fascination for scientific exploration and wonder for all the possibilities the entirety of space can hold. With the advent of both space travel and technology that alters human physiology to allow them to survive otherwise inhospitable environments, a team of four astronauts and scientists have embarked on a mission to ecologically survey four distant planets and the life forms that inhabit them, from the microscopic to the multicellular—not to conquer, but to record and to learn and to share the gathered knowledge with the rest of Earth. In the meantime, lightyears away, Earth is going through decades without them, and the four of them must also contend with a planet that may have forgotten their existence—or that’s abandoned the entire space and scientific exploration program.

Reading Becky Chambers is the literary equivalent of sitting down with a warm mug of my favorite tea on a bad day – I always feel better at the end and like I can imagine a future where humanity does all the wonderful things we’re capable of doing.

A Song for a New Day by Sarah Pinsker

I started reading this book right as NYC was gearing up to go into lockdown, which should have made this a terrible choice to continue reading since part of the premise is that a combo of multiple stochastic terror attacks and a brand-new, deadly plague upend the world as everyone knows it by causing the U.S. to pass laws that keep people physically apart in public for their own safety and make concerts, theatre, and any other kind of artistic gathering obsolete.

But that’s largely just the set-up, and the real story is that of Luce Cannon, an up-and-coming singer-songwriter who played the last major concert in the before times who twenty years later performs in illegal underground concerts, and Rosemary, a younger music-lover who’s only lived in the after-times, and who’s taken a new job scouting out talent to add to the premier virtual entertainment company’s roster of simulated concerts.

It’s a love letter to live music and what it feels like to connect and build community via music in unusual and strange and scary times, the energy involved in making music for yourself, for an audience, exploring the world around you, imagining and advocating for a better tomorrow, and embracing the fear, the possibility, and the power of change, both good and bad. This was the book I needed to read at the beginning of the pandemic, and I’m thankful I ended up doing so.

The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019 edited by John Joseph Adams and Carmen Maria Machado

When I end up loving half of the stories in an anthology and greatly enjoying all but two of the rest, that’s the equivalent of a literary blue moon for me. My favorites included the following;

"Pitcher Plant" by Adam-Troy Castro

"Six Hangings in the Land of Unkillable Women" by Theodore McCombs

"Variations on a Theme from Turandot" by Ada Hoffmann

"Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Memphis Minnie Sing the Stumps Down Good" by LaShawn M. Wanak

"The Kite Maker" by Brenda Peynado

"The Secret Lives of the Nine Negro Teeth of George Washington" by P. Djèlí Clark

"Dead Air" by Nino Cipri

"Skinned" by Lesley Nneka Arimah

"Godmeat" by Martin Cahill

"On the Day You Spend Forever with Your Dog" by Adam R. Shannon

Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

No one is more surprised than me that Harrow is on this list, given that I am one of approximately three people in the universe who did not unequivocally love Gideon the Ninth. 

And yet the sequel worked for me. 

Maybe because this time I already knew and was used to the way the world and the Houses worked, and I knew to not take anything I read for granted because I could be guaranteed to have the rug pulled out from under me without even realizing. Maybe Harrow’s countdown/amnesia mystery worked better for me than Gideon’s locked room mystery. Maybe the cast of characters was more manageable and fewer of them were getting murdered left and right before I got a chance to get used to them (and some of them even came back!) Maybe it’s that Harrow blew open the potential and possibilities Gideon hinted at and capitalized on just how fucking weird and mind-blowing the whole premise is in a way that felt incredibly and viscerally satisfying.

Also SPOILER happens three-quarters of the way through. That was pretty fucking awesome.

Ring Shout by P. Djèlí Clark

P. Djélí Clark is a master of melding history and fantasy in ways that are in turn imaginative and clever (his fantastical alternate-history, early 20th-century Egyptian novel A Master of Djinn is one of the books I’m most looking forward to in 2021), while also using fantasy to be frank and incisive about the history of American antiblack racism (as in the above linked story in The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy 2019). Ring Shout combines the late-nineteenth and early 20th-century history of the rise and normalization of the KKK with Lovecraftian supernatural horror, in which the release of The Birth of a Nation summoned literal monsters (called Ku Kluxes) that became part of the KKK’s ranks. Maryse Boudreaux is a Black woman who’s part of a grassroots organization hunting both the monsters and the human members in order to keep the Klan at bay. However, there’s soon to be another summoning ritual atop Stone Mountain that will unleash even more Ku Kluxes into the world, and Maryse and her friends are running out of time to prevent it from happening.

Maryse is a fantastic character, as are her two friends—brash, unapologetic Sadie and WWI veteran, weapons expert Chef—her mentor and leader of the Ring Shout group Nana Jean, and all the other members of the group who work and fight together as a team and a family. Maryse’s past and the journey she goes on in the book to uncover the truth and stop the summoning is harrowing and heart-stopping, the supernatural elements are both horrific in and of themselves while also undergirding the real-life horror of the KKK and the hatred they engender. It’s smart, it’s fun, it’s eye-opening, and it’s also being turned into a TV show starring KiKi Layne. It’s really, really good.

The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley

“Stick to the brief.” This is the maxim given to Dietz and all the other soldiers who join the war against Mars, where soldiers are broken down into light to travel to and from their assigned battlefields instantaneously. Only Dietz isn’t experiencing the jumps like everyone else – Dietz, like Billy Pilgrim in Slaughterhouse-Five, has become unstuck in time and is experiencing all the battles in the mission briefs out of chronological order, to the point that Dietz starts to build a picture of a war and a reality that’s been sold to Dietz and everyone else on Earth as pure fiction. 

I’ve always appreciated Kameron Hurley’s stories, but this is the first book where she fully succeeded at writing the book she set out to write—it’s fast-paced science fiction thriller in the form of a loaded gun that takes brutal aim at late-stage capitalism, modern military warfare and the dehumanization of everyone involved on all sides, the greed of ungovernable governing corporations, nationalistic and military propaganda, the mythology of citizenship and inalienable rights, and it’s viscerally bloody and violent without being grotesque in the way all of Kameron Hurley’s books are. Especially important for me, I loved that Dietz went through the entire book not being gendered in any way, shape, or form (those last five pages didn’t exist, what are you talking about), and I love in general that Kameron Hurley is committed to writing non-male characters who aren’t less violent or fucked-up or morally superior to men just because they’re not men.

Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga

Middle grade is a hard sell for me these days, as are books in verse, and I wouldn’t have known this book existed if it weren’t for the Ignyte Award nomination list earlier this year. As it turns out, this book, the story of Jude, a pre-teen girl who wants to be an actress who leaves Syria and the encroaching civil war with her mom to go live in the U.S. with her uncle and his white wife and their daughter while her dad and older brother stay behind, is full of beauty, curiosity, humor, confusion, grief, pain, and joy, and the poetic prose is both lyrical, nuanced, and perfectly fitted to Jude’s voice. I devoured this book in one day, which is the quickest amount of time it took me to read any book this year, including novellas.

Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram

The first book Darius the Great Is Not Okay was one of my favorite books in 2018, and I’m ecstatic that the sequel is equally as amazing.

It’s been approximately half a year since Darius went to Iran, met his maternal grandparents in person for the first time, and found his best friend in Sohrab, and in that time he’s come out as gay, joined the soccer team, got an internship at his favorite tea shop, and started dating for the first time. Darius is also working through some things though—when and if he wants to have sex with his boyfriend, his grandfather’s worsening illness, his dad’s recent depressive episode, his emotionally distant paternal grandmothers on his coming for an extended stay, the fact that he’s getting to know and growing closer with one of his teammates who’s best friends with Darius’s years-long bully, and a bunch else. 

Darius the Great Deserves Better has the same tender and vulnerable emotional intimacy as the first book, more conversations over tea, new instances involving the mortifying ordeal of being a cis guy with a penis, even more Star Trek metaphors, and so much growth for Darius as he works through a lot of hard situations and feelings, and strengthens his relationships with all of the people in his life he loves and cares about. I can’t think of any other book that’s like these two books, and I love and treasure them dearly.

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

I had zero awareness of this book until a bunch of SFF authors started praising it on Twitter a couple months before the release date, and I was intrigued enough to get a copy from the library. I loved this book. I happened to be reading it right at the time of the presidential election, and it phenomenally served the purpose of desperately-needed distraction from the agony of waiting out the ballot counts.

It’s book about the power behind borders, citizenship, exploitation, and imperialism, set in a late-late-stage capitalist future, in which a prodigy invented the means to access and travel to slightly divergent parallel universes to grab resources and data – but only if the other universe’s version of “you” isn’t there. It’s the story of a woman named Cara – poor, brown, born in the wastelands outside the shelter, security, and citizenship privileges of Wiley City – who’s comfortably employed to travel to all the parallel worlds no one else can visit, because all her counterparts in those worlds are dead from one of the myriad ways Cara herself could have died growing up. It’s the story of Cara traversing the muddied boundaries between her old life and her new one, the similarities and differences between her own life and that of her counterparts, as well as the figures of power who defined and shaped her and her counterparts’ existences, and solving a mystery involving the unexplained deaths of several of her counterparts and the man who invented multiverse technology.

It’s a story of the permeability of selfhood and self-determination, and complexity of power dynamics of all kinds – interpersonal, familial, collegial, intimate – and the interplay between violence and stability and identity, and how one can be both powerful and powerless in the same dynamic. It’s a story with literary sensibilities that is unequivocally science fiction, written with laser-precise prose that flays Cara open and puts her back together again.

I worry this description makes this book sound dry and removed when reading this book made me feel like I was coming alive every time I delved back into it. This is a book I cannot wait to reread again to experience the brilliance and skill and thoughtfulness and emotion of Micaiah Johnson’s writing. I have no clue what, if anything, she’s writing next, but I have a new favorite author.

Honorable Mentions

Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo

Stormsong by C. L. Polk

The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

Sisters of the Vast Black by Lina Rather

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

The Haunting of Tram Car 015 by P. Djèlí Clark

Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (I feel bad putting it here and not in the first list – it is undeniably a modern classic and a brilliantly crafted book! But I had zero interest in any of the Italy chapters, and I found the way he finally figured out how to access fairy magic by essentially making himself mad to be both disappointing and narratively unsatisfying.)

War Girls by Tochi Onyebuchi

For my yearly stats on books written by POC authors, in 2020 I read a total of 24 books (one of which was co-authored by a white author), which is fewer than last year (30). However, because I also read fewer books this year overall, this is the first year ever that I achieved exactly 50-50 parity between books written by POC and white authors. I honestly wasn’t expecting this to happen, as I stopped paying deliberate attention somewhere around April or May. Looking over my Goodreads, the month of September ended up doing a lot of heavy lifting, since that’s when I read several books by POC authors in a row for the Ignyte Award nomination period. But also, it does look like the five or so years of purposefully aiming for 50-50 parity have materially affected my reading habits, by which I mean even when I’m not keeping my year’s count in mind, I’m still more likely to pick up a book by a POC author than I was five years ago when I had never kept track at all. My goal for next year is to once again achieve 50-50 parity and to not backslide.

[callunavulgari]

Yuletide Letter | 2020 edition

Dear Yuletide author,

Hi there! First, I’d like to apologize for the fact that parts of this is almost entirely copy/pasted from last year’s yuletide letter. I’m aware you probably had no idea, but I’m gonna feel weird about it unless I say something. Secondly, thanks so much for telling me a story! My most sincere wish is that you have fun writing this. I trust that I’ll love whatever you come up with. :) 

Fandoms:

The Locked Tomb trilogy, Wolf 359, Rolling in the Deep, Stormlight Archive, Spirited Away, Modao Zushi.

Over all, I’m pretty sure I’ll be pretty happy with whatever you decide to throw at me. I’m not particularly picky, and enjoy a variety of ratings, themes, and genres. I have a list of over 2000 bookmarks on Ao3, which I would like to say might help you find the things that I like, but odds are you’d just get stuck in it.

General flavors on things: I really love atmospheric settings, stories that you can really feel. A great example of this is A Cornstalk Fiddle. Or wild peaches. I enjoy alternate universes in almost every variation, from soulmates to daemons to canon divergence (I really like canon divergence). I’m super fond of slow burns, though it’ll be hard to convey that in a yuletide fic unless you’re REALLY inspired and/or bored and decide to make it 20k+. 

Other things I like:

sun/moon trope

enemies to lovers

poly

YEARNING

AUs that are almost entirely canon except one of the characters is secretly some kind of creature (vampire, demon, selkie, etc)

magical realism

post-canon fic

found families

I do tend to prefer a fic to have some kind of ship to it, but that’s definitely not required. I am fully on board with explicit fics, but do ask that if there is smut, it’s not just smut. I like how introducing sex to a story changes various character dynamics, and I really, really like the sexually/emotionally charged lead up, but when it really comes down to it, I’m reading the story for the characters.

Dislikes:

Non-con 

Dubious consent is usually okay, but varies based on the circumstances and the pairing. My anon box will be on for the duration of the holiday season, so if you feel the urge, just ask me.

Most hard kinks. Again, it varies, and you can ask me, but I’m not particularly interested in any hard smut for the above fandoms.

Mpreg and/or omegaverse

And then more specific info on the fandoms below the cut because this is already long.

The Locked Tomb trilogy

This series has basically wedged itself right up under my ribcage and made itself at home. I’m okay with a variety of the characters in the tag set, but I mostly would love to see a story centering around either Harrow and Gideon or Augustine, John, and Mercymorn. I am super, super weak for enemies to lovers AND all things yearning and tragic it’s really no surprise I seized onto both of these. I would love a fic exploring the relationship between the above three (the more pining and tragic, the better). But like, that fic would also probably delve into some dubious consent, which again. Is fine to a point. But I mean? Two characters who are torn between loving the third and hating him (and at least slightly torn between two different feelings with each other? Poetic cinema.

If you go the Harrow & Gideon route, I’m actually kind of interested in the idea of an AU that still keeps the necromancy? I mean, necromancers in space is a great concept and I LOVE it, but I also love the idea of necromancers who work in a flower shop! Or a morgue! Or who have a shitty kiosk job at the mall and keeps raising rabid undead squirrels and setting them loose in the food court for fun.

Wolf 359

This podcast. Haunts me. It has basically ruined me for all other podcasts. I adore all of the characters, so you can feel free to write about whoever you want. Favorites are Eiffel, Jacobi, and Hera, so if you throw something at me that has the three of them interacting I could probably die happy. I’m good with gen fic, but I’m also a fan of Jacobi/Kepler, Eiffel/Jacobi, Hera/Eiffel, and would honestly probably fully embrace any other ship you could possibly throw at me.

I like the idea of Hera getting a body after the series. I like the idea of Eiffel finding himself again. I like the idea of Jacobi finding a new family (cough, Hera and Eiffel). I like the idea of Jacobi and Hera becoming best buds. I like the idea of Jacobi working through his grief over Maxwell and Kepler. I like the idea of Hera learning how to be herself in a big wide world that isn’t entirely on her side. I like the idea of every single member of the crew who touches back down on earth learning how to be people afterwards. I like the idea of Minkowski and Lovelace getting closer, especially if Minkowski’s husband is a part of that dynamic.

I just really like found family and people holding each other up when the going gets tough, and this podcast has that in spades. Also? Have you listened to Zero Hours? Because if you want to introduce some of that dynamic I would be forever in love.

Rolling in the Deep 

I honestly wasn’t sure whether to include this one in my list of wants or not, but ultimately decided on it because I think that anything you wrote for it I would be happy about. I’ve left the character section blank because I’d be okay with whoever you wrote about. This is one of those books where I don’t have many shippy feelings, but love the concept. Though, if you want to write about the mermaid they brought back with them and ANY of the characters, I would be particularly cool with that. 

I just really liked this book a lot, so yeah. Anything. Bonus points for post canon. Bonus bonus points for mermaids.

Stormlight Archive

Kaladin/Shallan/Adolin. I know Sanderson said that thing about how Adolin and Shallan would be down for it, but Kaladin would balk and just - listen to me: forget all that. My default reaction to love triangles is usually to happily ship them in a poly setting and these three are no exception. 

You want to write me an AU? Sure! Throw it at me! Canon and/or canon-divergence? Even better! Daemons? Yes, please. 

Alternatively, if you’re not really crazy about poly, I would be okay with something exploring the relationship between Shallan and Jasnah. I really adore Jasnah’s character and wish we had more of her headspace. 

Spirited Away

Spirited Away is my ultimate comfort movie. It is my go-to when I’m sad or sick or upset, and let’s be real here. It’s been a particularly upsetting year. And I would really love post-canon content with either Chihiru, Haku, or both. 

I would love fic where they find each other again. Where they keep finding each other. Where Chihiru walks from her new house down through the forest and just, stares at the entrance for a while. Where Chihiru is haunted by that place through the years, where she both yearns for it and marvels at how like a dream it felt. Where it’s changed her fundamentally, like walking into the fae realm. Where she meets spirits in strange places and speaks to them, only to realize no one else can see them. A fic where Chihiru is twelve, and then fifteen, and then twenty-three, and then even older, and is still just so taken by that place she disappeared to when she was a child and the people she found there.

Above I mentioned wild peaches as an example of a story that I really like, which is a fic of Sarah in the aftermath of the Labyrinth. That is almost precisely the feeling I’ve been craving from a Spirited Away fic, basically since I first watched the movie.

Modao Zushi

I’m weak for Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. That is basically all it comes down to. The yearning. The rivals (kind of?) to friends to enemies to friends to lovers concept in this had me really messed up, let me tell you. I am particularly weak for Wei Wuxian as the Yiling Patriarch. That could tread close to the dubious consent line if you want it to, or it could not. Don’t worry about it. As long as it’s not non-con, I will happily accept whatever you have to offer.

I am also pretty okay with basically any AU for this. Not really picky. I will say though that I am particularly enamored with the idea of a dancer and/or composer/musician AU for this one. I’ve written about it twice and it still hasn’t scratched the itch. I just really want them to dance with each other. 

[reginavere-arch]

@messianique​ said: Talk about Jenny and the kids !

emily, bless you for giving me the excuse to do this

first of all, jenny is just? so bemused about the fact that she ends up having a household with five children, three of which are hers. she always kind of expected that she would eventually have a child, maybe, but like? one. and it was always a pretty big maybe. but then once that family exists? gosh, she just doesn’t know how she could have ever imagined anything else. 

she’s a little distant from MICHAEL and GIDEON at first, just because she isn’t quite sure what her role should be with them. they both have mothers, neither of them are hers, and while she isn’t upset that they’re there, she’s? not quite sure where to start. i think there’s a warming-up process that goes on between all of them, and that she does consider them ALL “her” children, but....i do also think, as long as their mothers are alive or somewhere in the picture, she is careful about not exceeding her own role with them. she definitely starts out with having them call her “jenny,” but she also wouldn’t?? CORRECT them if they were to start calling her some variation on “mom.” (whether or not that happens seems more up to you and your ideas of those two tbh!) 

i think all three of the lance/art/jenny kids are close with all three parent figures, and they’re obviously all adored. i think i overstate the “favorites” in the following, so just keep that in mind as you read! i don’t see it as hard and fast favorites/preferences or that having those preferences mean they like the other parents any less. 

CATHERINE’s relationship with her is very much like what it is in my general legend-based au for catrin. catherine is her first baby, and i still think the pregnancy is sort of rough on her. not to the same extent as the legend-based au, but enough. while jenny has a bit of a learning curve when it comes to parenting, she loves catherine enormously, and they are close when catherine is young. they tend to....not quite clash, but just....talk past/around each other when catherine hits her teenage years, and there’s some complication/conflict surrounding that, though i don’t think it ever becomes unhealthy. they just don’t quite know how to communicate with each other all of the time, and it leads to misunderstandings. they do eventually figure it all out, though. i do think catherine always has a preference for art??? from the time she was just a baby, he was always the one who could get her to stop crying the fastest, she always wanted to tag along wherever he was going, etc. 

LEO is as much jenny’s as cat is art’s. her pregnancy with him is a lot easier, and he’s an easier baby in general. he sleeps through the night remarkably early, he isn’t fussy at all. and he has the advantage of the fact that jenny’s roughest lessons in parenthood were learned through trial and error with catherine. he also just? seems to have the same attachment to jenny that catherine has with art. he just wants to be with her, which means she ends up carrying him with her pretty much everywhere she can. i think he’s a little bit of a chameleon, and i think he picks up key aspects of the three different personalities he grows up seeing. leo and jenny have a very easy relationship all through life. i haven’t figured out if i think leo is the one who takes up ballet or if that’s tristan, but honestly i could see it going either way. speaking of.... 

TRISTAN is the biggest surprise of the three, as far as jenny is concerned. and i see him as such a split combination of lance and jenny, though i can’t really explain why adfg. he’s probably the one of the three who doesn’t seem to have direct preference for one parent. he looks a lot like lance, though there are definite aspects of jenny: a coppery tone to his hair, green eyes. i tend to think of him as both the most independent of the three, in a certain sense, and also the one with lance’s sort of blind adoration/loyalty?? the mild favorites his siblings seem to have doesn’t really make sense to him, he just adores all three. but i also think he inherited a lot of jenny’s personality, and that they generally get along really well because of it (though they can sometimes step one another’s nerves as well, for exactly the same reason.) 

ASK ME HEADCANON QUESTIONS: ACCEPTING 

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

Hi CJ, I have a question. I'll understand if you don't want to answer it, but what are your thoughts about the fighting about Lou and Vi that keeps happening? Do you think thier routes are unequal? I keep seeing posts about ppl insisting that the devs favor Vi and ppl getting nasty towards her about it. I love Louis and sometimes I agree with the posts but they are so mean about it that it makes me feel bad. You don't have to answer but I'd like to know your thoughts on the whole thing. Thank u

…….Sigh.

Okay. 

Anon, I’m sorry that it’s taken me a while to get back to you, given all the things I’ve had weighing down on me recently about my blog and life outside the fandom.

I answered this already and was ready to post it but then erased everything. When I reread it to make sure it was alright, I said, “Yeah, okay, that’s really nice and positive and… I don’t like it.”  So, let me try again and get what’s really on my mind off my chest. 

Basically, there’s a difference between being positive and being fake, and that answer I gave you originally was fake. 

You guys know that I like to remain mostly positive about everything on this blog. I don’t tolerate hate towards each other or towards myself. I rarely answer hate anons, if ever. I don’t start shit with other blogs because they happen to disagree with me on one little thing. 

Yeah, I get mad about things and complain and be anything but positive when it comes to topics such as Mitch’s death, Lilly’s character just in general, the flaws with ep4′s ending, ect. If you’ve been here a while, you know what I’m talking about.

When I talk about positivity, I mean it more in a way that I like to focus on the good within the fandom while also discussing things I would’ve liked within the series or things I didn’t like and would’ve changed, certain ‘what if’ scenarios. I try to do these things with a kind and optimistic outlook while also allowing myself to be truthful in how I feel. 

What I’m trying to say is I try to be a good person on here. I try to be nice, respectful and encourage you guys to create good things within the community and get invested in these characters and other topics. 

However, I also firmly believe in honesty. 

You asked for my opinion on this topic? Okay. I’ve yet to ever give a fake answer and I’m not starting now. 

If you’re new here: Hello. My name is CJ and I am a Louis/Clouis blog who loves twdg and discussing all the different characters, ships, and story elements within the game. I’m about to talk about some stuff with full honesty that it may get me some hate but y’know what? I don’t care, we’re gonna discuss it anyway. 

What are my thoughts on the constant fight between Louis/Clouis and Violet/Violentine?

It’s a waste of time. 

There are so many talented people out there who are wasting their energy on sending hate to each other, making nasty posts about the developers, shitting on the characters and the community, and then constantly wondering why this fandom is so damn negative.

I made an instagram account a long time ago for this blog where I started posting my favorite screenshots of Louis and posts from this blog. I followed the #twdglouis and #clouis tags and was seeing a lot of great things until I wasn’t anymore. 

I don’t post on instagram anymore because it’s a shitshow of hate. What’s new in the #clouis tag? Violentine hate. What’s new in the #twdglouis tag? Violet hate. 

I don’t know if y’all know this, but if I’m in any of the Louis tags, it’s because I want to see some good Louis content. OBVIOUSLY.

I swear, if these people sat down, took ALL of that energy they’re using for this nonsense and put it towards the thing they claimed to love, we would have the most amazing content of any fandom out there. I would be able to check the louis tags every day and see brand new, beautiful artwork and read amazing stories. 

But no.

 As for your second question, that’s where my honesty really comes into play.

Do I think Louis and Violet’s routes are unequal?

Yeah, I do. 

I think Violet’s romance has a few more things to offer than Louis’.

When you go fishing with Violet and Brody, you don’t get a choice- you have to hang out with Violet. 

If you go hunting with Louis and Aasim, you have to choose Louis if you want to hang out with him. 

Brody mentions that she hasn’t seen Violet warm up to someone like she has Clem in a long time. 

Not a single person mentions anything about Louis in regards to Clem coming along. 

Violet stands up for Clementine in ep2 no matter what you do. She takes on the leader position and you can imply that she and Clementine spent the most time together during the two week time skip, making their romance feel more balanced and understandable.

Louis is still on iffy terms with Clementine and you can imply that they barely speak until their talk during the archery practice, making their romance feel rushed and questionable. 

Violet’s romance has a star gazing mini-game.

Louis’ romance does not have a mini-game. 

Violet makes Clementine a pin so that they can remember that night because it was easy to retexture one of Violet’s pin and have Clementine wear it.

Louis can’t give Clementine anything because the idea of a piano key necklace was scrapped even though they could’ve made a small model for it for her to wear. 

I’m sure there are more, and yeah if I’m being completely 100% honest with you? It does bother me sometimes and it’s okay if it bothers you, Anon. What really matters is what you do with those feelings. 

Because y’know what?

Just because I can play a mini-game in Violet’s route doesn’t make me like her more Louis, but it also doesn’t make me want to spam hate posts about her. 

Complaining and whining and talking shit about the developers because so many believe Violet is favored over Louis isn’t going to do anything. 

Melissa saying she prefers violentine doesn’t make me want to drop everything clouis because “Oh Melissa said it so it’s canon even though we went over this her word doesn’t mean anything.” 

Sterling not being on the commentary while Gideon is doesn’t mean anything. 

The ending stats don’t mean anything. 

The hateful people on here and instagram don’t mean anything. 

None of it means anything. 

The only thing that means something is you and how you deal with this.

Clouis is the love of my life, as I’ve said many times. 

I love Violet. I think she’s a great character and I appreciate the happiness she and violentine have brought to many people in our community. 

All the things listed above? They may bother me sometimes, but I can and have written fanfics that have solved this problem. I’ve talked with you guys about it, talked about how I will be forever bitter about a lack of piano mini-game while also sharing cute headcanons and gushing about the wonderful clouis moments we do get in canon. I’ve read amazing clouis fanfics and admired beautiful fanart. 

I don’t pick fights, I don’t write hate posts, I don’t shit on the devs [although I will admit that I’ve thrown my fair share of shade at Kent but that was over Mitch’s death so that’s completely different right? …Right?]  or throw little baby tantrums because someone said something I don’t like or someone doesn’t like Louis or WHATEVER. 

I focus on better things, like this blog, you guys, Louis, Clouis, and many other better things. 

Anon, as I’ve said before, all this nonsense is just that: nonsense and a waste of time. It’s okay to feel the way you do but I encourage you to take those feelings a create something better with them. If you, or anyone, ever want to talk about this more, feel free to DM me. If something like this is bothering you, I am more than happy to try and help you. 

Alright, that’s enough brutal honesty for one night. 

I don’t think I’ve ever admitted to thinking that about the different routes so I’m a little nervous about that, but I’m also not going to pretend that I think they’re equal just to remain neutral and “positive.” It’s actually kind of cathartic to get it off my chest… huh. 

God, I hope this post got across everything I tried to say because I don’t want to rewrite it again.

Also, drinking game: take a shot every time I say positive or a variation of honest. 

Unless your underage. Then use apple juice or something. 

I don’t know what I’m typing anymore ignore me

[veliseraptor]

hi - any recs for fantasy that focuses on female relationships, thank you!!

thank you for reminding me of this! I feel like I’m missing a bunch, but here’s at least a short starter kit for a few that came to mind.

Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir. I just finished this one and it was delightful. Very tonally different from most of the things I read, but excellent - mid-escape attempt from the house where she grew up as a servant, Gideon gets roped into a mission with her long-time tormentor Harrow. It’s not exactly a positive relationship (at least not at first), but it’s a great one, and for a book with a lot of necromancy and murder, it’s a really fun ride. Though I kind of cried at the end.

Broken Earth Trilogy by N.K. Jemisin. A major driving force in this trilogy is a mother/daughter relationship, but there are a lot of other relationships with women - most of the major characters are women, and there’s wide variation in how they relate to each other.

Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone. Some of the books more than others (Full Fathom Five and Ruin of Angels stand out (both have the same main character) but they’re also very strong in Three Parts Dead and Four Roads Cross.

Roses and Rot by Kat Howard. Centers entirely around a relationship between sisters, both of whom are selected for an exclusive artists’ retreat where not everything is as it seems. (Fairies. There are fairies.)

Vows and Honor by Mercedes Lackey. Full disclosure that I’ve only finished the first book in this series, and the prose style may not be for everyone, but it’s another series that is all about a pair of women and their adventures together. 

Girls of Snow and Ice by Melissa Bashardoust. It’s a retelling of Snow White with a twist, and I came to it for that and left with a lot of feelings about the relationship between the main character (the stepmother) and the Snow White analog.

Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. Okay okay, your mileage may vary on this one and the female relationships are not necessarily the main focus, but there are a lot of them that are very significant and a major part of the series as it goes on. People critique the gender dynamics a lot, and that’s fair to a certain extent, but I love the variety of characters and the ways they interact with each other, personally - other than Rand, almost all of my faves in this series are the ladies.

Other mentions - it didn’t click for me as much, but you might try Cold Magic and Cold Fire by Kate Elliot, and the Orphan Tales series by Catherynne Valente has been on my list forever and I love the author.

I’m also not putting Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie on here because calling it about “female” relationships is complicated (gender in that series is...not) but it might also be relevant to your interests.

[aliteraryprincess]

Strands of Bronze and Gold by Jane Nickerson

Warning: Contains spoilers 

Welcome back to Fairy Tale Friday!  We were going to have a retelling of “Rapunzel” as the first post of July since that won the popular vote.  However, there was an issue with the library and after waiting a long time, I decided to just buy it myself.  I now have my copy, but I still have to read it.  So in the meantime we’ll look at a retelling of one of the runners-up: “Bluebeard.” 

(Side note: yes, I did print that picture from the internet.  Apparently there aren’t any illustrated versions of “Bluebeard” hanging around in my personal library or the public one.  I wonder why...)

As a Retelling:

Strands of Bronze and Gold begins with our protagonist, Sophia, coming to live at the plantation of her godfather, Monsieur Bernard de Cressac, after the death of her father.  This itself is a deviation from all versions of the original story, which all feature the heroine going to the Bluebeard character’s house as either his bride or his betrothed.  In the most well-known version of the story by Charles Perrault, the heroine first visits Bluebeard’s country house in a group of several ladies who stay for a week.  After a week of fun and parties in Bluebeard’s lavish and expensive home, the heroine gets over her initial aversion to him and agrees to marry him.  Sophia is similarly enamored when she arrives at Wyndriven Abbey, the English manor M. Bernard had reconstructed in Mississippi.  Sophia immediately falls in love with the Gothic building and is taken in even more when she sees the luxurious and beautiful items inside.  Though it becomes clear to the readers early on that M. Bernard’s feelings toward her surpass that of godfather and guardian, Sophia remains unaware, attributing his more forward actions to his French background.  She does eventually become engaged to M. Bernard, but it is unwillingly.  By this point she is afraid of him and wants to leave, but her family needs the money he can provide and Sophia is willing to sacrifice herself to help them.  However, unlike in the fairy tale, she never actually marries him.       

Nickerson portrays M. Bernard as extremely charismatic and manipulative, which is in keeping with how Bluebeard appears in the fairy tale.  In just the first few chapters, we see him charm and dazzle Sophia with his worldliness and attention to her.  He’s quickly able to convince her to come out of mourning early by appealing to her vanity, which seems harmless at first.  However, as the story goes on, we see how dangerous he really is.  He has a volatile temper that he can only keep in check for so long, and he becomes violent when he loses it. We see this fairly early on when he discovers some old love letters a boy had written to Sophia.  M. Bernard is also controlling, not allowing Sophia to attend church and withholding the letters her brothers and sister send her.  He wants all of her attention to himself and can’t even stand sharing it with the cat Sophia falls in love with.  In a scene of true horror, Sophia finds her poor cat dead and hanging from a noose in the woods.  She tries to convince herself that M. Bernard couldn’t have killed the cat, but we as the readers know better.  It’s our first glimpse of exactly how violent he can become.  In addition to his personality, we must also discuss M. Bernard’s appearance.  While he does not have an actually blue beard as in the fairy tale, his hair and beard are black with some silver, which gives it a blueish look.  We find out later in the story that he’s actually referred to as Bluebeard in the nearby town.  There is one major difference in M. Bernard’s looks and Perrault’s Bluebeard: M. Bernard is described as the most handsome man Sophia has ever seen.  In contrast, due to his beard, Bluebeard is considered ugly by all the ladies.  The heroine is only able to look past the beard after seeing his splendid country house.  However, there is precedent for a Bluebeard character to be attractive.  In the Italian tale “How the Devil Married Three Sisters,” the devil transforms himself into an handsome man in order to convince the girls to marry him.               

"Bluebeard” has often been considered a warning against female curiosity, and Nickerson makes use of this theme.  Sophia’s curiosity is a major part of her personality.  She is constantly asking questions, and she immediately develops an interest in the various locked doors in the house.  Early on when she is asking M. Bernard questions about some of the servants, he calls her curiosity a nuisance and tells her essentially to mind her own business.  However, we as the readers do not see it this way, but rather as a positive trait.  It is, after all, part of what helps save her life.  While Bluebeard only gives his keys to his wife once, M. Bernard gives Sophia his keys several times.  Instead of one forbidden key, there are three: one to the churchyard gate, one to the chapel inside the churchyard, and one to the folly.  He tells her they are forbidden because they are unsafe.  Unlike Bluebeard’s wife, Sophia does not immediately gravitate to the forbidden areas.  Instead, she explores the locked rooms she is allowed access to in hopes of finding more information about M. Bernard’s previous wives.            

Most variations of the fairy tale give us very little information about the wives.  Perrault’s story only tells us that Bluebeard had been married several times and no one knew what happened to them, which is a bit alarming.  In some versions, including the previously mentioned Italian one and a Scottish one called “The Widow and Her Daughters,” the brides are all sisters.  There are also several variants that do not specify the murdered women were married to the Bluebeard characters.  This includes the English “Mr. Fox” and the German “The Robber Bridegroom.”  The heroines of both stories are engaged to murderous men and see them killing other ladies, but there is no mention of the other women marrying the men.  Nickerson sticks to Perrault’s version in this regard, but she provides us with a great deal of information on M. Bernard’s four previous wives.  Sophia is not originally aware that he has been married so many times or that he is a widower.  She arrives expecting to find a Madame de Cressac only to find out that the first women to bear the title supposedly fled with a lover and the next three all died. The housekeeper tells her the basic information on them and the official stories on what happened, but Sophia also learns a great deal on her own.  She even finds signs of them in her bedroom, including a strand of hair and the name Adele carved into a piece of furniture.  While exploring the attics, she finds the belongings of the other women along with portraits of them and strands of their hair; all four of them had red hair, just like Sophia.  As time goes on, she feels a connection to them, referring to them as her sisters, and even starts to see their ghosts.  They warn her away from M. Bernard, and she soon realizes that she will meet their same fate if she stays at Wyndriven Abbey.            

Sophia does eventually enter both forbidden areas of the estate.  The first is the folly, which she does enter out of pure curiosity, like Bluebeard’s wife.  However, she does not find the door locked nor does she find dead bodies.  Instead, she finds Bernard and a room full of explicit artwork he refers to as his “Temple of Love.”  He tries to force himself on her and she only escapes due to the arrival of a servant.  After this encounter, Sophia decides she cannot stay there and resolves to escape.  M. Bernard leaves that same day on business and gives her his keys again.  She uses them to enter his bedroom to search for money and instead finds the teeth of the murdered wives.  She goes to the chapel to find the bodies in order to expose M. Bernard after she escapes.  In Perrault’s story, the forbidden room is cover with blood from the dead women it contains.  Nickerson’s scene isn’t quite so gory, but is horrifying in it’s own way.  All that really remains of the murdered people are their bones, the clothes, and some dried blood stains on the floor.  A major difference between the fairy tale and this novel is the way in which M. Bernard finds out about Sophia’s discovery.  Bluebeard realizes his wife entered the room when he returns and sees a blood stain on the key.  Nickerson does not use this.  Instead, a slave who knows about the murders and has helped with them in the past follows her and locks her in the chapel until M. Bernard returns.          

Nickerson’s ending deviates greatly from all versions of the fairy tale as well.  In Perrault’s, the wife is able to hold Bluebeard off long enough for her brothers to arrive and save her.  While her brothers and sister do come visit Sophia, they are not around to help her in the confrontation.  In fact, part of what sets off the events of the ending is M. Bernard angrily sending them away.  However, we do see a version of Perrault’s ending in a nightmare Sophia has.  She dreams about being in terror and asking her sister if she could see their brothers coming.  In other versions of the story, the heroine outwits the Bluebeard character and escapes or, as in “Mr. Fox” and “The Robber Bridegroom,” escapes his house unnoticed and reveals everything the next day at the marriage celebration.  Sophia, on the other hand, fights M. Bernard off and escapes into the woods.  Forests can often be a place of terror, and Sophia even compares it to the one in “The Robber Bridegroom” in the first chapter.  However, over the course of the story, it becomes her place of refuge.  It is where she goes when she needs to get away from the confines of the house and M. Bernard, and it is where she meets her love interest, Gideon Stone.  In the end, the forest continues to be a safe place for her.  While he chases Sophia through the woods, M. Bernard steps in one of the traps he has set for poachers and dies of his injuries.             

My Thoughts:

I didn’t realize this was a Gothic novel going into it, so that was a great surprise!  Most people on Goodreads had shelved it as historical fiction and fantasy.  While there is the obviously supernatural aspect of the ghosts, I wouldn’t describe this as fantasy at all.  The ghosts are very understated and more akin to those in books like The Turn of the Screw than ones you’d find in fantasy novels.  I really appreciated this since I love the Gothic genre (It’s actually part of what my MA dissertation was on).  Nickerson also does an excellent job building the atmosphere.  One of the key concepts of the Gothic novel is creating a sense of dread for the reader.  She builds the story and reveals aspects of M. Bernard’s personality and history slowly, and the reader watches in horror as Sophia falls into an abusive relationship that we know could be the death of her.  It’s upsetting, but expertly done and the best aspect of the book.

I also really enjoyed Sophia’s character arc.  She’s extremely naive at the beginning as well as a bit vain and even a little silly.  She’s easily taken in by M. Bernard’s charms and all the expensive items he gives her.  But she’s a good person who clearly cares about people, even if she doesn’t know the best way to help them.  As the story goes on, she has to learn to navigate M. Bernard’s moods and keep him from getting upset.  She loses her naivety and becomes disillusioned with the extravagances of Wyndriven Abbey.  However, she retains her kindness and need to help others.  She finds little ways of helping the slaves at the estate and is ultimately willing to sacrifice her own happiness for the sake of her brother.  She is thinking of others even as she makes her escape.  She wants to find the bodies so M. Bernard will be brought to justice, keeping him from hurting anyone else and providing closure for his murdered wives.  She also resolves to escape alone instead of going to Gideon for help because she knows it would put him in danger.  When it’s all over, she wants to use Wyndriven Abbey and the money she’s inherited to continue helping other people.  She’s a sweet, likable character that I enjoyed watching grow.     

My biggest problem with the book is that despite the slow build of most of the story, some aspects felt incredibly rushed.  The romance between Sophia and Gideon is one example.  Nickerson gave their relationship very little time in comparison to the relationship between Sophia and M. Bernard, and I found it hard to believe that they were really in love with each other.  I also found the final chapter disappointing.  After all the build up, we don’t even actually see M. Bernard die.  He dies weeks later due to the injuries he received from the trap.  There is also apparently a great deal of scandal after everything is brought to light, and we don’t get to see any of it.  Instead, it is related to us by Sophia and Gideon in conversation.  I wish we had gotten to see everything instead of hearing about it later.  It caused the ending to fall quite flat for me. 

My Rating: 4 stars

Other Reading Recommendations:

The starred titles are ones I have read myself.  The others are ones I want to read and may end up being future Fairy Tale Friday books.  I haven’t read many retellings of this tale, so there aren’t as many starred ones as usual.  

Other Retellings of “Bluebeard”:

The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angela Carter*

“Bones” by Francesca Lia Block*

Mr. Fox by Helen Oyeymi*

The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher

Fitcher’s Bride by Gregory Frost

Some Fatal Effects of Curiosity and Disobedience by Laura Madeline Wiseman

The Grey Woman and Other Tales by Elizabeth Gaskell  

More Retellings by Jane Nickerson:

The Mirk and Midnight Hour

A Place of Stone and Shadow

About the Fairy Tale:

Secrets Beyond the Door: The Story of Bluebeard and His Wives by Maria Tatar*

Bluebeard Tales from Around the World by Heidi Anne Heiner

Have a recommendation for me to read or a suggestion to make Fairy Tale Friday better?  Feel free to send me an ask! 

[centrumlumina]

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Happy Yuletide! This is my first year taking part, so I’m sorry if this letter is missing anything. All my prompts are just suggestions - if you have different ideas, feel free to run with it! Also I’m normally a multishipper so I’m generally easy-going about pairings.

My AO3 username is centreoftheselights.

Likes

Focus on female characters and their relationships, either shippy or platonic.

Non-traditional relationship dynamics, including consensual polyamory and queerplatonic relationships.

Hurt/Comfort, particularly where the Hurt aspect is emotional or psychological. The Comfort can be shippy or platonic.

Fluff, domesticity and established relationships.

Mutual pining and dramatic misunderstandings.

Introspection and character-focussed works.

AUs and tropes are great, but subverting the “usual” for an AU or trope is even better!

Explorations of in-universe queerness in AUs (e.g. A/B/O where the characters don’t fit typical gender roles, multiple alien civilisations with different ideas of sexuality).

If it comes up: I really love space (both in sci-fi contexts and as an aesthetic), Greek mythology, fae, and dragons!

DNWs

Character/ship bashing

Unhappy endings (ambiguous is fine)

“On-screen” death, suicide, gore, rape/non-con or sex involving under-16s (referenced is fine, particularly where these topics exist in canon)

Watersports, scat, vore, feederism

Cheating (except for canonical instances)

High School AUs

Sex Education (TV)

Character: Maeve Wiley

Things I love about this canon: Snark, complex relationships, dealing with Real World Issues without getting preachy, sex positivity, characters who are flawed but still trying their best.

Prompts & Ideas:

I would love to see an exploration of some of Maeve’s relationships with the other women on the show - for instance, her relationship with her sister, her complicated feelings about moving in with Anna, her great friendship with Aimee, or what happens when she finally meets Jean.

Maeve in an F/F relationship! Realising her feelings for Aimee run deeper than she thought, enemies to lovers with Ruby, a snark-filled courtship with Ola, or any other pairing that sparks your fancy. This could also include Maeve exploring LGBTQ+ identities and culture outside of a relationship!

I’m also fine with Maeve being shipped with any of her canon love interests or if you prefer her single.

This fandom is an exception to my High School AU DNW, given that the canon is set in a high school!

The Strange Case Of The Starship Iris (Podcast)

Characters: Sana Tripathi, Arkady Patel, Brian Jeeter, Krejjh

Things I love about this canon: Found family feels, Be Gay Do Crime, fighting fascism in space!, Arkady and Violet being cutely awkward around each other, Brian and Krejjh being couple goals, taking care of each other in all different ways.

Prompts & Ideas:

Pre-Canon era! What did the OG Iris crew get up to before Violet joined the ship?

A variation on the above: how have things changed for the OG gang since Violet, and later Park & McCabe, joined the crew?

Or really anything about the crew’s relationship is fine with me!

The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir

Characters: Camilla Hect, Palamedes Sextus, Dulcinea Septimus

Things I love about this canon: swords and skeletons, twists that hit you like a punch in the gut, MEMES!, everyone here is a messed-up asshole (affectionate).

Prompts & Ideas:

Any exploration of these three navigating their relationship. Are they an OT3? A polyamorous V with Palamedes in the middle? A V with Camilla in the middle? Are Camilla and Palamedes in a queerplatonic relationship? Do they get each other immediately? Do they dance around awkwardly for ages trying to figure things out? All of these sound good to me!

AUs are great! Modern day AUs, the canon AUs from HtN, AU where Dulcinea made it to Canaan House, or anything else you can come up with. I love seeing these characters reinterpreted across different worlds.

This fandom is an exception to my “gore” and “death” dnws, canon-typical necromancy shenanigans are fine!

DNW “on-screen” main character death. (References to canon/past deaths are okay.)

Dames & Dragons (Podcast)

Characters: Corbin, Fran, Slake, Maeri

Things I love about this canon: the worldbuilding, any time when the teens are socially awkward, “roll to fall in love”, everyone teasing each other - but also the contrast between the fun/awkward moments and everyone getting to be badass!

Prompts & Ideas:

Almost anything with these four interacting and being friends. I just love these awkward teens with my whole heart.

I would be happy with any combination of these 4 characters for shipping, or purely gen fic. Canon ships (e.g. Fran/Falen) are also fine.

[minijenn]

So doing this pallet swap last night made me come up with a new UF AU idea, one that has some… pretty good angst material… So…. A while back one of you guys (and I can’t exactly remember who, sorry, feel free to identify yourself so I can give you credit for this concept!) brought up the concept of an AU where the roles of humans and Gems are kinda swapped in the framework of UF. So instead of Gems being the space faring race bent on conquering all planets they come across for their own needs, humans do that instead while the Gem Homeworld is its own peaceful little corner in space, much like Earth is in regular UF. But here, the humans are trying to expand Earth’s empire (for reasons explained in a bit) but a few human rebels (who you might be familiar with (imo there’s a lot less history here, all of this war stuff happened within the last idk 30 or so years btw instead of over thousands because well… human lifespans are fuckin short) fought back against their own kind to protect the Gem Homeworld and they managed to actually save it. 

Thing about Earth in this AU is that its kinda… a mess? Like their whole “let’s go conquer other planets thing started out of mankinds’ own selfishness, and they were actually pretty successful at it but after they failed to get a hold on Homeworld, a certain illuminacho decided to take advantage of their failure and just sorta… take over. So yeah suffice to say that its kinda Weirdmageddon all the time back on Earth, with Bill having been in charge for about a decade or so, and he kinda just enslaves humanity and forces them to go out and get more planets for him (and he still wants Homeworld because he’s a dick). As for the Diamonds, they’re sort of a background influence back on Homeworld, not in power, but working in the shadows so they can eventually get in power of the planet and rule it as their own. So yeah kinda a swap between the Diamonds and Bill in here as far as roles go.

So yeah kinda scrambled and all over the place with the history here, but let’s go into the infinitely more interesting parts in here, the character swaps. So first off, Greg and Rose switch roles here. Which means Greg (of all people, I know) actually led the rebellion against Earth to save Homeworld, fell in love with Rose, and then (idk how) was the one who “died” when Steven was born (Steven’s like the only character in this AU who doesn’t switch with anyone, but he also doesn’t have a Gemstone though he does have some Gem powers (not as many though, here the emphasis is on how he’s different from everyone else around him because he’s human, seeing as how he’s living on a planet almost entirely populated with Gems).

So in a sense, the Crystal Gems are kinda swap with the Pines family in this AU as far as roles go (there’s basically no personality switching here… mostly). So the Gems are like idk doing their own thing and they consist of Steven, Amethyst, Pearl, and Rose. Where’s Garnet you might ask? Well let’s work under the assumption that Garnet was the one who had the idea to build the portal in this AU (after being influenced by the Diamonds, who kinda swap roles with Bill in this AU) and she worked along with Stan and Ford and Greg (and the other Gems) back in the day to do it but she inevitably got sucked into it and has been gone for 30 years (so basically, Garnet and Ford switch roles). So the other Gems are trying to get her back (while keeping all this a secret from Steven, who doesn’t even know anything about Garnet, of course).

So on the Pines side of things, we have Stan, Ford, and Mabel (I’ll explain where Dipper is in a bit), with Stan and Ford being kinda all that’s left of the human rebellion on Homeworld so they still try to keep the place safe and sound and everything while training Mabel to do the same (Pines parents are dead I guess, whatever), and the camaraderie between them and the Gems is more or less the same. 

As for the rest of Homeworld, we got Gems everywhere instead of humans, and quite a few of them swap roles (more or less) with some variations with the residents of Gravity Falls in UF. Peridot and Pacifica would probably swap roles (kinda), so would perhaps Jasper and Gideon (though Bill would also fill in bits and pieces of Jasper’s role too for reasons I’ll explain in a bit) and while this is a rough comparison and isn’t perfectly parallel, like I said, that whole pallet swap between Dipper and Lapis inspired all this, so they would kinda kinda swap roles kinda. So while Lapis wouldn’t really live with the Crystal Gems per say, she’d be on actually good terms with them and she’d out there trying to figure out the reasons why whatever little sector of Homeworld they all live in is so strange. As for Dipper, I kinda think the main idea would be that he got I guess separated from the  other Pines when him and Mabel were really little thanks to some Earth-loyal humans still poking around Homeworld, But instead of taking him back to Earth, they kinda just…. idk, keep him imprisoned for like several years (basically the poor kid kinda grows up as a prisoner) until he’s about 12 and he’s finally saved by Steven, Mabel, and the others. Yet even after being reunited with his family, Dipper’s kinda bitter cause it took them so damn long to find and rescue him, and he bitterly doesn’t consider Homeworld to be his home and so he wants to go back to Earth and he does (not knowing that its currently being ruled by an insane dorito). But he eventually escapes Earth after learning that and makes it back to Homeworld and him and Lapis bond just like in UF and its cute and sweet until Pacifica and Gideon show up (after similar to UF events) and something akin to the Return/Jailbreak happens? And the whole Malachite equivalent here doesn’t involve Gideon it involves Bill who decides to just show up and intervene and get rid of the Pines  (and the CGs and Lapis), but Dipper stops him by agreeing to let Bill possess him (possession’s knida different here than it is in UF so Dipper stays in his own body during all this, idk I haven’t fully figured it out) so Bipper happens but Dipper takes control from Bill just long enough to trap them both in… idk a Kindergarten or something like that. And of course Lapis is distraught because her baby, so she ends up fusing with Jasper (who was sent by the Diamonds) into Malachite in our Sock Opera equivalent in an attempt to save Dipper but of course it doesn’t work and then idk from there, angst or something happens but yeah eventually Dipper is saved and he’s still kinda distant from the rest of his family so he ends up settling down with a post-redemption arc Pacifica at whatever barn equivalent there is because ship (Lapis and Peridot still get together in this AU of course)

Woo well that was a fucking wall of text but as for other ideas for this AU, mostly I just got other character swaps in mind, like McGucket swapping with Bismuth, the teens/cool kids swapping with like the Off Colors maybe? Perhaps Aquamarine and Topaz swapping with Lars ans Sadie and so on? But yeah generally in this AU Gems are pretty chill and non antagonistic while most humans are. Oh! And I almost forgot to mention Connie! I'm not completely sure about this yet but she might be a full Gem in this AU (a younger one, who's still close friends with Steven amd Mabel (who are already close friends here). As for everyone else... Idk like I said this AU just sprouted in my brain last night so its really new but idk I think it has a lot of interesting potential. So feel free to ask me more about it, give some thoughts/headcanons/ideas/AU name suggestions/whatever! *runs back to my corner and cries about how angsty this AU could be*

[elfyourmother]

@foundcarcosa the differences are much more apparent when you listen a lot. like by the time DA2 came out I’d played FFXII like 50-11 times so i never thought they were samey

it’s hard to explain because a lot of it is intangible minor stuff like tone and how they’re written totally differently etc

ppl (including me) love to clown Gideon bc he really only has 1 v. distinctive voice and doesn’t disappear into roles the way other VAs do. it’s why I hate how they recast him as Lor’themar in WoW because he’s straight up just using The Fenris Variation and it’s jarring and immersion breaking

but for instance there was no point playing DA2 where I was like “lol it’s elf balthier” the way playing ME2 I always giggle my way through all Tali’s trial bc of Space Loghain and Morrigan

[ashadeofpemberley]

The Perfect Christmas

For @anneelliotscat my dear giftee!

Prompt: “Well, that wasn’t so bad.”

Rating: G (Literally this might give you a cavity)

Summary: A super short and sweet ficlet about Gideon’s first Christmas. 

AN: Sorry for any mistakes, I procrastinated to the max and didn’t have time to send it off to a beta! Hope you enjoy anyway!

Rumpelstiltskin slumped back in his chair with his sleeping son resting in his lap. Having never really been a fan of the holidays either in Storybrroke of the Enchanted Forest, he still couldn’t wrap his head how in a matter of two weeks his wife had managed to turn their home from a cluttered mess of Gideon’s ever-present toys and magical antiquities into a cosy Christmas wonderland that would have made even Martha Stewart turn positively green.

This was Gideon’s first Christmas and as far as Belle Gold was concerned, it was to be the grandest affair since the invention of glitter. The library had been ransacked for information about what would constitute the perfect family Christmas. Luckily for them, family was something they had in abundance. The whole clan had been enlisted to help with preparations right down to the former Evil Queen, who had been charged with bringing an assortment of apple-flavored pastries to dinner. Despite her recent good behavior, most of the guests, save Henry, opted for the pumpkin pie Ruby had brought with her from Granny’s.

Baelfire and Emma had been put in charge of finding a tree for the family room, and in hindsight Gold could admit that it might have been a mistake to give his daughter-in-law an axe, sheriff or not. For not having had very many family Christmases, both of them had very, very strong opinions about what constituted a good tree.  

“Are you insane?! This one looks like someone you’d see in a Peanuts special!”

“Well at least mine will fit through the door! Yours needs its own zip code!”

After six hours of heated debate and threats of frostbite, the couple returned to the house hauling in what could quite possibly have been the largest pine tree ever created along with a three foot sapling that had lost a fair amount of its needles on the drive back. It had taken several mugs of hot chocolate with cinnamon and a promise to simply buy a plastic one for next year from Belle to get the two back on to speaking terms long enough to do some light trimming. Gideon even participated as he “helped” put the stars on top with a little assistance from his older brother Bae, who was by far the tallest of the Gold men (though Henry was giving him a run for his money.)

After the trees had been suitably drowned in tinsel, various holiday knick knacks they all had found in the attic from his days spent as Mr. Gold, pawnbroker, curse victim, and apparent reindeer enthusiast, Rumple thought the worst was over.

Then came the food.

Now, Rumpelstiltskin was no stranger to a good feast. He had seen plenty in his time as the Dark One, and plenty more after whatever curse they were under currently was broken, but nothing could have prepared him for the absolute sugar-coated insanity that had descended upon his kitchen for the last two weeks. One thing he had always admired about Belle was her tenacious spirit. If she wanted something, she would go after it whatever it took. Unfortunately, that spirit was the same one that told her that making enough food to feed Storybrooke and a good portion of Maine was an excellent idea. If the oven could speak, it probably would have asked for an attorney or a therapist by the end of the first week. By the end of the second week of marathon type cooking, Rumplestiltskin could confidently say that a grand total of two pigs, three lambs, four turkeys, seven Cornish hens, and one terribly unlucky duck had all met an untimely end in his kitchen. Normally, Belle was an incredibly gentle person, but she had tenderized that duck like it owed her money.

Of course, that only covered the main courses. His wife had outsourced several side dishes to various guests since her kitchen was currently serving as the clove-scented hell of the animal kingdom. Snow White had graciously taken up the task of making the potatoes…all eight variations of them. Potatoes had been scalloped, baked, roasted, mashed, smashed (“Yes there’s a difference, Rumple!”), fried, shredded, and covered with cheese. At promptly five o’clock this morning Mr. Gold watched as a seemingly endless parade of dwarves marched dutifully to his kitchen, each of them armed with an aluminum pan fill to the brim with some combination of starch, butter, and salt. Looking back, he really shouldn't have been surprised. The Nolan’s and their dwarfish friends personally catered Emma and Baelfire’s wedding reception in a matter of two days, it was a wonder that hadn’t caused another famine with two weeks to work.

Henry had volunteered to make the gravy and stuffing (with the supervision of Regina), Leroy offered to bring drinks (including non-alcoholic options for those who were still breastfeeding), and Mulan had kindly brought in an assortment of fruit from her latest travels. Ariel and her husband had been sent an invitation but unfortunately had to decline due to a recent hurricane, they did however send a lovely (albeit a little soggy) fruitcake as an apology and a promise to visit at New Year’s.

That left the cookies. Although Regina was taking care of the rest of the desserts, Belle has insisted that she be the one to make and decorate cookies. He had to admit, the spool-shaped ones were certainly clever, and Henry adored the book-shaped ones, Belle had even managed a batch of swans for Emma, but it was Gideon who had been positively delirious with excitement as he mounted an ungodly amount of frosting and sprinkles onto each of his wizard hat cookies. He was certainly his father’s son. Rumple hadn’t bothered trying to count the number of cookies that had been made, consumed, and then remade within the last two weeks, if for no other reason than he was convinced they were spawning when he wasn’t looking.

All in all it was a party to rival even the grandest event in the Enchanted Forest, let alone Storybrooke.

Guests had started to trickle in right after lunch. Bad and Emma were the first to arrive, but only because they were each trying to ensure that the other wasn’t planning on sabotaging their respective trees. Ruby had brought along Dr. Hopper as her guest, to absolutely no one’s surprise. Those two had been dancing around each other long before the first curse took place, though being no stranger to silent pining, Gold supposed he should keep that little observation to himself. Mulan had carpooled with the dwarves, seeing as she didn’t have a car in this world and there were no appropriate places to park a horse in the Gold’s driveway. The Nolan/Mills clan had arrived last seeing as there was some debate about how best to transport five dozen apple turnovers with three gallons of gravy.  

If you were to tell Rumpelstiltskin a year ago, that he would be having Christmas dinner with the Charmings, the former Evil Queen, a Chinese warrior, a werewolf, a former cricket, several dwarves, the Savior, the son he’d lost, his grandson, his True Love and his newborn son he probably would have asked what curse they would be under and how much alcohol there was in this new curse.

After dinner was over and everyone was properly comatose with food, they all adjourned to the living room to watch the children open their gifts. Gideon had received several new books from his mama and papa along with a small cape that was a gift from his big brother (“You know, so he can practice that dramatic woosh thing,”) and a tiny dreamcatcher from Emma and Henry.

The festivities continued on long into the night. Stories were shared, jokes were told, and a few even decided to dance (that might have been due to Leroy’s special eggnog though).

The last of the guests had finally left just as Gideon settled himself into a deep sleep on his papa’s lap.

Looking around all he could see was colorful paper, stray cups and plates, and the odd scarf left behind. And strangely it didn’t bother him at all. Seeing his wife so content surrounded by family and friends was more than he could have ever wished for her.

There was only one thing left.

“Rumple, look it’s snowing!!”

Gently removing himself from his son’s sleeping form, Gold smiled as he walked over to where Belle had been collecting the last of the plates by the bay window.

She looked at him quizzically, “I thought it wasn’t supposed to snow until next week?”

He shrugged, “Well, I was put in charge of exterior decoration.”

“Rumple, you didn’t use magic did you? You know how I feel about altering weather patterns…”

“Sweetheart, I promise I didn’t use a single drop of magic on this.”

“Then how,”

“Let’s just say,” Rumple cut her off with a quick kiss to her lips, “I called in a favor from a certain Snow Queen who happened to be in town recently.”

Belle only smiled as she shook her head.

“This wasn’t so bad, was it Rumple?” She asked resting her head on his shoulder as they both looked out at the softly falling flakes. His only reply was another kiss to the side of her head.

If having their home be covered in tinsel and obscure family members for one day a year made his family this happy then, well, that wasn’t so bad at all.

[kalinara]

On one hand, the change in the Time Ship dynamic did seem rather abrupt.  But in a way, it makes a lot of sense.

Rip has spent god knows how long trapped in his own mind, surrounded by phantom, monstrous versions of his friends (and we know how much he loved his friends), frightened and very hurt, and Gideon is the one face that Eobard couldn’t corrupt for him.

It’s an interesting question as to how long she existed in there.  It’s pretty strongly implied that that was the real Gideon, since she remembers it afterward.  So was a version of her there all along?  Or did she just materialize once he came on board ship.

We know she monitors dreams, can she interact with their minds as well?

I suppose there’s a possible argument that a variation of stockholm syndrome may be at work here.  She’s not one of his captors, but she was the only person that Eobard didn’t know to corrupt.

But I think this is notably different than say, the Doctor’s Wife.  Because Gideon has always been able to interact directly with Rip.  She’s always been expressive and emotional.  And she’s always been, in her own way, very human.  Mindscape-Gideon was nothing like Idris.  She wasn’t eerie or otherworldly.  She wasn’t eccentric or confused, or with vast unknown perceptions.

Gideon was smart and sensible and the only person who knew what was going on, but she was definitely human.  And honestly her dynamic with Rip until the kiss wasn’t really much different than it had always been.  ( “Take care of him.”  “I always do.”)  So, as abrupt as it was, it kind of felt natural as well?

She left the Time Masters with him.  We all tend to forget that.  They programmed her, I’m sure there were safeguards, but she went with him.  And it can’t just be because he ordered her, because even when he was imprisoned at Vanishing Point, she helped Snart and Sara deal with the other timeships.  Heck, that was HER plan.

And, unlike say the Doctor’s Wife, which ended up a sweet interlude in the status quo, I actually feel like this might go somewhere, plotwise.   I have no idea WHERE.  But I am rather fascinated to find out.