#THEY'RE SO BIG

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

WIP Re-Intro: Herald At Dawn

Title: Herald at Dawn

Genre: Steampunk fantasy murder mystery

Status: 30k, draft 0 mostly finished

POV: Third person limited, multiple POVs

Setting: A steampunk city called Volimere, loosely based on victorian/edwardian london. Fashion is 1890s based, technology is, uh, wherever I think is coolest before the 1940s. Technically, its set in september & october of 1891, but thats largely because any later and the sleeves on women’s shirts get unmanageable. 

Universal TW/CW: Murder, corruption, legal systems being really really shit at their job, implied homophobia, cheating/affairs on spouses (past), bribery, death, implied past sexual assault, severe injury

Plot/Synopsis: 11 years ago a woman named Marisol Ekker was murdered by the wife of her son's father, Evelyn Belmont. Despite all evidence, Evelyn Belmont was acquitted and faced no punishment. Nearly a decade later, investigative reporter Alexandrina McLelland approached Marisol Ekker's son, Nathaniel Ekker--who was 12 at the time of her death--, to write an article about the corruption in the case. It is published in The Clockwork Herald, the newspaper where Alexandrina works, and exposes the dirty laundry of one of the city’s wealthiest families, the Belmonts. Soon after a string of murders begins. At first suspicions point to someone entirely unconnected with the Ekker trial or Alexandrina’s article, but as the pressure mounts (and the danger gets much closer to home), it becomes clear that the article and the deaths are far more connected than anyone initially thought.

Main Characters & Important Side Characters (Character Into links to be added):

Alexandrina "Alex" McLelland. 31, she/her, aroace. Investigative reporter at The Clockwork Herald and the narrator for this story (most of the time. sometimes there's another narrator)! Possesses a strong sense of justice and a weak sense of self preservation. Firmly believes in pockets. She wants to finish what her father started and expose the crimes of the city’s wealthy and powerful. This is, unfortunately, going rather slowly.

James Blakely. 32, he/him, gay, editor at the Herald. Alex's childhood friend, and Leo's partner. Is best described as a golden retriever with anxiety. He worries too much for his own good. James inherited editor-ship of the herald from his uncle 10 years ago, but he had been working there in various capacities since he was a teenager.

León "Leo" Rivera. 33, he/him, bisexual & bilingual. Writes the pages on politics at the Herald & is James' partner. Leo wrote the original articles on the Ekker trial 11 years ago; he used to be a court reporter. He does his best to not get hurt by his job, but sometimes he’s terrible at it (Chapter 10. Chapter 10 is when he’s really, really terrible at it. Though to be fair it is not in any way his fault). 

Nathaniel Ekker. 23, he/him, queer. Tailor, and the son of the woman whose murder was the focus of the Ekker trial. He agreed to do Alex's article on the condition it would be anonymous (and it was). He was 12 when his mother was killed by his father’s wife. His aunts raised him, and he only returned to Volimere 4 years ago t0 reopen his mother’s shop. 

Arthur Hall. 30, he/him, cishet. Investigative reporter at the Volimere Daily, and Alex's (mostly friendly) rival. Also one of her closest friends. Despite this, they have a lot of disagreements. He was supposed to co-write the article with her but ended up not doing that.

Ronald Wilks. 65, he/him, bisexual & polyamarous. Sports & Entertainment reporter at The Clockwork Herald. He used to work with Alexandrina’s father (Donovan), before Donovan died. He was not supposed to be as plot relevant as he is and I do not have a lot to say about him (yet).

Taglist maintained below the cut, ask to be added or removed!

@thelaughingstag @gr3y-heron @another-white-void @amethyst-aster @akindofmagictoo

[frommybookbook]

nnghghng

Those hands are just so sexy. That's all.

[inkskinned]

it's extremely critical that you see the photo of the perp walk for luigi mangione as being propaganda. i've seen so many people wave it off and instead fawn over his looks. and trust me, i know it ended up being kind of pathetic and weird - but please don't brush it off as a "modelling opportunity" for him. it's a fucking terrifying message the police are sending.

i want to make a few comparisons here, in case you're not from the US or familiar with why the perp walk thing is something to pay attention to. just to set the groundwork for why this is a purposeful, unusual, and cruel act by the nyc police - for why this is not a common occurrence and for why that matters.

the prosecution alleges the show of force is due to the charge of "terrorism." for comparison, in june 2015, tsarnaev was found guilty for the boston marathon bombing, which killed 3 people and injured hundreds. his actions are considered to be an act of domestic terrorism. i have spent the last hour looking through google for pictures of similar to mangione's perp walk - and so far, i have found zero. i also just do not personally remember a moment like that, despite living in boston at the time.

they allege that luigi is a stone-cold killer who carried out a longterm plan, making him particularly dangerous. again for comparison: in nyc, recently cory martin was found guilty of the killing of brandy odom. the murder was planned and premeditated to steal insurance money. and yet no staged perp walk. why didn't her life matter enough for a "show of force"?

but mangione gets paraded by a veritable army of police officers as if he is a rabid animal. for a single citizen who allegedly killed one other single citizen, the "largest perp walk ever" occurs.

so what is the "strong message" that the mayor and the police were trying to send here? the mayor speaks as if mangione is already convicted of terrorism. there is a very thin number of people who feel threatened by the CEO's death. none of us felt like mangione needs to be under massive armed guard.

the message is that you shouldn't resist. they are trying to "make an example" of him - that if you behave badly and kill a single rich person, you'll be treated as if you killed hundreds of people. you will be treated worse than a man who was found guilty of terrorism. you will be considered guilty without trial. the message is that the rich are a protected class, and you cannot touch them without massive punishment. they are trying to prevent a revolution by showing dominance and force against you.

the message is that the police are a puppet of the wealthy and that the law is not equally applied across class disparity. it is "some are more equal than others." it is "one life is more precious than another."

the show of force wasn't for luigi. it was for us. it was a warning. they are trying to remind us who is really in control.

[cuteteacakes]

I actually managed to squeeze them into a spot on the shelf ;u;

[tweedlebean]

Everyone always talks about how scary geese are but the turkeys... The turkeys frighten me

[evgar]

decided to redraw and improve this silly thing i did two years ago

here's the two compared like damn the colors on the first what was that 😭

[astrellium]

I'm exploring the Ruins of Vashj'ir for the first time in like, forever, and I'm struck not only by their beauty, but by a probably very ill-advised urge to build them in Minecraft

[egophiliac]

last chance to guess what the new round of birthday outfits will be!

[pokimoko]

Asexual bird? Please

How about two asexual birds?

[hunnam]

Alexander Ludwig as Dorn Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024) dir. Adil El Arbi & Bilall Fallah

[rubydubydoo122]

I saw someone say a while ago that Jason attacking Tim at Titans Tower was just Tim hallucinating bc he was feeling guilty about being Robin even though Jason's not dead. Which is great, amazing, I think the whole Titans Tower thing is Bonkers, but I think it would be so much funnier if Jason tried to Gaslight Tim into believing the Titans Tower incident never happened, not because he's like evil, he's just super embarassed about it. like Or Tim did actually hallucinate Jason at TT but thinks it was real, so when he tells Jason about it, Jason's so fucking confused, and Tim thinks Jason's Gaslighting him

Tim: Remember that time when you broke into Titans Tower and beat me half to death while wearing a Robin costume from party city

Jason: What? Tim, I know i'm crazy, but I'm not...Insane.

Tim, pulling down his collar: I literally have the scar to prove it

Jason: Bruce told me that was from Clayface pretending to be me, which, might I just say rude. Tim... are you ok? Did you hallucinate me attacking you? like, I know I've done that before, but...

Tim, frowning: I don't think I hallucinating. I was benched for a while after because I had to recover-

Jason: well, you were benched around the time I was dropping hints that I knew who Bruce was outside of Batman, he probably just benched you to keep you safe. You probably were working too many cases with too little sleep and your imagination started to run wild.

Tim: Are you gaslighting me?

Jason: Are you gaslighting me?

[idolomantises]

Man is it just me or are a lot of TV shows nowadays are written to have big emotional episodes in scenes with very little build up.

[sirenetica]

Worked on these during MCC

[xinnamonbun]

Stupid.

[llamahearted]

two people will go through similar things & learn to cope in different ways

print ♥︎ song

[k0ushii]

didnt even try with the background but idc

(og pic)