#airman eoin colfer

[yourartmatters-itswhatgotmehere]

i love Airman my entire life ah♥

Books Read in 2020 → Airman by Eoin Colfer

“No more than ten minutes old and through some trick of the light or photographic mishap, it seemed as though Conor’s eyes were focused. Impossible of course. But imagine if somehow they had been, then Conor’s first sight would have been a cloudless French sky flashing by. Little wonder he became what he became.”

[officialairmanfandom]

Conor’s initiation to the Battering Rams

Back on the Little Saltee, Conor fell into the habit of practically attaching himself to any sort of warmth or comfort he could find. Huddling up to the little hole in the wall to savor the tiny amount of sun that occasionally break through, sometimes he would even stick a small diamond in there to collect a tiny amount of heat so he could press it to his face. Conversing with the friendliest guards he could find. Using bits of hair and string he found to patch up his clothing and blankets. Sleeping on top of his clothing so it would be warm in the morning. Even asking for some guards to tap the ends of their cigars into his hands so he could cradle the hot ashes for a moment. Filing a seashell into a comb to brush the snarls out of his hair. Once he even gave a guard one of his diamonds to heat his slop before it was delivered, unfortunately it was only slightly warm by the time it arrived in the lunatic wing, but it had still been a lovely birthday present.

But the day that had been the warmest during his entire stay on the Little Saltee, was the day he took the ink.

The Rams had a small area dedicated to their meetings and initiations in a hollowed out part of the mine that required swimming under a stone passage to access, Conor nearly inquired about the amount of oxygen in the space, but he was answered by the sight of several cracks in the rock that a slight breeze wormed through.

As he sat in a circle of a dozen of the burly men that made up the Battering Rams, Conor gently held his folded shirt, looking wearily at Otto Malarkey for any sort of reassurance The tattoo artist was an older man, but wether he was 40 or 60, Conor could not tell. The man moved with slow and intentional grace, prepping the homemade ink and sharpening the needles on a coarse stone. Conor watched this process with great interest, completely fascinated by each step. After the tattooist finished cleaning the needles with the flame of a small candle he pushed the back end into to a smoothed and polished stick. “Stay still boy.�� The artist grunted around his freshly lit cigar, thick, fragrant smoke filling the little cave as he loaded the needle with ink.

Poor Conor, he really did make an excellent effort, but as the first tap against the stick forced the needle under his skin, Conor tensed his arm and flinched further into the needle. A short cry came from the boy as the sharp object jammed into the delicate muscles just beneath his skin. An uproarious, deafening laughter ripped through the cave. Malarkey slapped his knee, lighting his neighbors cigarette with his own as they watched the tattooist scold Finn. The boy wiped away the few tears that had managed to escape from his eyes, and bit his lip as he listened to the surly old man berate him, for a moment Otto was worried that Conor would back out, or worse, start crying. But he was pleasantly surprised when Connor threw back his head and barked out a laugh that undoubtedly hurt like hell when the old man yanked the needle out of his arm where it had embedded itself quite firmly. The old man prodded at the purple bruise that had quickly formed on Conor’s arm. “I thought Otto said you were a smart one” the tattooist criticized through his thick Irish accent. “Funny,” Conor said through gritted teeth as he readied his arm again. “He told me the same thing about you.”

The next several ‘taps’ of the needle went straight through to his bone.

Nearly 2 hours filled with loud conversation, crass jokes, and painful jabs from the tattooing needle went by. Despite the searing pain and near constant jokes at his expense, Conor felt relief, and an odd sense of comfort. He had found unexpected safety and kindness in the most vicious corner of the miserable place called Little Saltee. That’s not to say these sheep were in any way docile, the moment the artist was done he slapped the tattoo so hard that Conor thought he would pass out, he almost yelped, but the punch that came from the next Ram knocked the wind out of him before he could make any sound. The pain became worse as each man tried to show up the one before in the brutal final step of the initiation. for a brief moment Conor thought the Rams were trying to kill him, but when he looked to Malarkey the big man winked and slapped a handful of sand into the fresh tattoo. “Fair enough” Conor thought miserably.

 After each man had had their turn tormenting the boy, someone shoved a lit, half smoked, cigar in his hand and poured the rest of the bottle of whatever mystery alcohol they had been sharing between them onto Conor’s bloody pulp of a shoulder. He let out a sharp hiss as the liquid sterilized the wound. Malarkey threw his hand over Connor’s shoulder, getting in one last slap with the motion before he pulled the young man into his armpit “WELCOME TO THE BATTERING RAMS BROTHER!!!” he roared, causing a ground shaking chorus of hoots hollers, and cheers to sound through the cave. Conor’s blood boiled with excitement within his veins, as he raised his fist and joined in on the chaos. But in the back of his mind, he had found comfort in the presence of his brothers.

[child-of-the-sea-and-sky]

Two books that continually test my willingness to write fanfic are Beholder and Airman

Airman especially cause there's so much potential for AUs!! like what if Conner did go to America and ran into Isabella there? Or if he never returned home but his brother tracked him down later in life? Or if he'd gone full in on being a gentleman thief? I just... it drive me crazy cause I don't trust my own writing to stay true to the characters but also I can't stop thinking about it

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

[shortace]

Did it occur to anybody else that a 'ram' is old slang for a cuckold??

[skygemspeaks]

love owning copies of my favourite childhood books because a lot of them are books i bought as an adult once i had money of my own and there are some that i haven't even read yet since i bought them because i was just never in the mood for it, but it felt comforting to know i had it on my shelf should the need ever arise

anyways this is all to say that today at work i for some reason thought about "airman" by eoin colfer which i haven't read in maybe 10 years and now i'm taking a break from mdzs to give that a reread

[andmaybegayer]

Last Monday of the Week 2023-11-06

It was Bandcamp Friday so I'll open with a rundown.

Listening: One song per album let's go

Do The Hate by MiSLeD, off TERRORTORIES, a deeply uncomfortable sounding song.

I originally picked up MiSLeD's acoustic album a few Fridays ago and took a while to come around on their unbelievably blunt and hyperlocal style. A sledgehammer through Johannesburg concrete, I have come to love 'em. Do the Hate has an aggressive chant that makes it genuinely kind of uncomfortable to listen to and also extremely fun to yell along with.

The Length of the Chain by Chamber Mage, off their 2022 demo tape and thus far their only album release unless you go see them live.

I picked these guys up off I think the Topic Lords podcast? Solid reliable heavy metal. Can't wait to see their first full album, they're from Denver so if you're from that part of the world definitely find out if they're playing.

All On Fire by Double Sun, from the album of the same name, Pretoria boys playing bluesy punk.

One of the last bands I saw in Johannesburg before I moved. I had the three-part Dead Wreck Beach stuck in my head for a good long while. I'm still not sure what it is about Gauteng that produces so many psychedelic punk bands but I'm not complaining.

Two Jack de Quidt albums, soundtracks from Friends at the Table which I have been getting really into.

First up, The Tower, As Built By The Divine Candidate Chital, from the soundtrack for COUNTER/weight, meditative track to match the meditative and still incomplete two-player game The Tower.

Apperances of The Tower in F@TT games are always great. It's a game that the GM and composer have been working on forever and they get really, really into it.

Next, gotta be Marielda, from the season of the same name. The clarinet from this is so memorable.

The intro tracks to every game are obviously the ones you hear the most, and they're all bangers.

All Through the Night [Patrick's Version], from the Titus Andronicus demotape for their most recent album The Will to Live. Rough cuts from studio sessions.

I adore The Will to Live, when I'm honest I really don't care much for most of Titus Andronicus's work other than The Monitor and now The Will to Live. These are good at capturing what I like about live performances: performers going ham and not necessarily performing well but definitely performing the most.

And lastly, Threshold from sungazer, off the album Perihelion. This was an experimental piece combining rhythms at both extremes of human perception, with the overall rhythm of the song being as slow as possible with individual bars being impossibly fast.

There's a whole Adam Neely video on it, because he's one part of sungazer.

Alright on to the rest of the show:

Reading: Back into The Count of Monte Cristo, rapidly seeing the roots of many other stories I've read crystalize into this genre, most notable Eoin Colfer's Airman.

Watching: The various Hackaday talks that have been uploaded over the past week, some good ones lately like A Hacker's Guide to Audio and Video Formats.

Playing: on Saturday evening I finished making dinner and sat down to play Titanfall 2 from the start because for some reason my save was incomplete and I figured I'd just start over. And then it was two in the morning and I had beaten Titanfall 2. Great game.

Making: Abortive attempts at designing some adapters for my vacuum cleaner because I realized I took my reference images wrong and had to start over, fortunately before I wasted any filament.

Also Hack Week at work, so I'm working on some original code with two much, much more experienced python developers, which if nothing else is a good learning experience.

Tools and Equipment: Modern text editor configuration systems can be rigged to almost completely bootstrap themselves if given an internet connection. You should use this to your advantage. I use lazy.nvim in bootstrap mode now and it's so easy.

Side note, nvim's lua configuration mode is real nice, major improvement over vimscript when you want to do anything complicated. Sorry Tim Pope.

[victoriagleasuredesigns]

It is finally September, and I am looking forward to the Fall season! ⚙️🚂 It also means a new book stack. This month’s @owlcrate @OCthenest @words.and.whimsy reading challenge is Take to the Skies, with steampunk stories! You can join this challenge in the free Owlcrate Nest app.

What are you looking forward to read this month?

Here is my September TBR:

Airman by Eoin Colfer

The Aeronaut’s Windless by Jim Butcher

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg

Sky on Fire by Jenn Lyons

Ghost Station by S.A. Barnes

Snow by Tracy Lynn

The Book That Broke the World by Mark Lawrence

What is more classic than a steampunk themed quilt? Find this quilt and more in our Etsy shop at VictoriaGDesigns or www.victoriagleasuredesigns.com 🤎

[meandmyechoes]

do you still like airman by any chance

The novel Airman by Eoin Colfer? I remember fondly of it 😄 You are welcomed to rant about it in my inbox

[thetrinityquotes]

“Are you an angel or a devil, sir? I need to know. Are you taking me up or down?

Aurora to Klaus

[officialairmanfandom]

Conor dances like Victor

When Conor returned from university, Isabella threw a ball. It’s was not an extremely large event, but a good portion of the Great Saltee was invited, several of the Battering Rams were also welcomed at Conor‘s request. After Isabella had performed all of her pleasantries, and the band began shifting their songs, Conor asked her to dance. Catherine and Declan were absolutely overjoyed to see their son relaxing enough to ask Isabella to dance. He had always been such a gentleman, Victor had taught him well enough to be the perfect suitor to any lady of royal descent. But maybe they should’ve stopped him.

As the song became more lively, people slowed their dancing to stare at the Broekhart boy and the queen’s outlandish display. Conor was leading Isabella in a fast paced Waltz that left her skirts spinning around her ankles without a single hint of shame on his face. The queen however, was struggling to maintain eye contact between her barely hidden giggles. A flurry of excited whispers broke out amongst the ballroom. The voices ranging from extremely amused to mildly appalled, to downright mortified.

Yes, Victor Vigney, the brilliant scientist, the man with limitless charisma, master of social etiquette, notorious French womanizer… had been the one to teach Conor how to dance.

Otto Malarkey wiped a tear of admiration from his eyes as he stood next to the horrified/amused Broekhart parents. “Oh the Viennese Waltz, such a lovely dance” Linus Wynter stroked his beard thoughtfully “A Viennese Waltz you say?” He chuckled to himself, “That blasted Saltee kiss must have burned away his last drop of shame!” Declan massaged the bridge of his nose. “Our son is a debauchee Catharine!”

“Our son, Declan, is the reason Victor will never truly die”

Most people would give Conor a break that night. His social skills were obviously messed up from being on the little Saltee for so long, maybe just this once it’s fine to be such a scoundrel at a Royal Ball. After all, Conor was such a polite boy growing up, and he’s been through so much. He deserves his mistakes. But a select few people totally know that Connor is just like this. Victor was his mentor after all..

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Background and reasoning:

Back in the 1700s and 1800s the Waltz was considered obscene and inappropriate due to the proximity between partners it required. The Viennese Waltz, originating in Austria which became popular (for something so inappropriate) in France, was a whole different animal. It’s faster more complex and was wildly more inappropriate in public opinion back then. it was slightly more acceptable for young married couples to perform at a private ball. To put this in perspective, this is like that one scene in spy kids 2 where Juni asks the presidents daughter to dance, but the same level of inappropriate as if they were older teens and decided that it would be a good idea to do a Bachata style dance.

Both Conor and Isabella were taught by Victor at some point, Conor 100% asked Victor how to impress girls at least once. and before anyone says anything about Isabella. Can you genuinely say she wouldn’t have made one of her friends practice the dance with her? She was a hopeless romantic and a headstrong teenage girl, of course she was going to learn a saucy dance for the express purpose of laughing with her friends about it. Also, Otto totally loves modern trends, have you seen his hair? and he’s not a member of polite society so he doesn’t care how inappropriate something might be.

Declan and Catherine are definitely tense around Conor’s new friends, but Catherine would welcome them with open arms, regardless of her feelings.

Je vous souhaite un ciel dégagé mes amis!!!

[ordinarybookquotes]

Both men stepped forward to object, but Catherine did not give them time to speak. "I dare say I know more about the science of aeronautics than both of you. And I really don’t think I have crossed the Celtic Sea to stand in a glorified field while my husband experiences one of the wonders of the world."

Airman, by Eoin Colfer

[anakinthetrashking]

Uh oh

Sudden reignition of my love of Artemis Fowl

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

The Arkadians by Lloyd Alexander

The Search for Delicious (Babbitt, Natalie) The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker

Maya and the Rising Dark (Barron, Rena)

Peter and the Starcatchers (Barry, Dave)

The Looking Glass Wars (Beddor, Frank)

Eigth grade bites by brewer (published under author's deadname?)

Minecraft the island by Max brooks

Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism (Byng, Georgia)

The Awakening (Carroll, Michael )

I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You (Carter, Ally)

A Week in the Woods (Clements, Andrew)

The Supernaturalist (Colfer, Eoin)

Artemis Fowl (Colfer, Eoin)

Airman (Colfer, Eoin)

Of Fire and Stars (Coulthurst, Audrey)

Into the Land of the Unicorns (Coville, Bruce)

Out of My Mind (Draper, Sharon M.)

So you want to be a wizard by Diane Duane

The Patron Thief of Bread (Eagar, Lindsay)

Half Magic (Eager, Edward)

Inkheart (Funke, Cornelia)

Bunnicula James Howe

Which Witch? (Ibbotson, Eva)

The Secret of Platform 13 (Ibbotson, Eva)

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks

The Reformed Vampire Support Group (Jinks, Catherine)

The Akhenaten Adventure (Kerr, P.B.)

The Tail of Emily Windsnap (Kessler, Liz)

Savvy (Law, Ingrid)

The Fairy's Mistake (Levine, Gail Carson)

Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg (Levine, Gail Carson)

Ella Enchanted (Levine, Gail Carson)

The Two Princesses of Bamarre (Levine, Gail Carson)

Nightmare Academy (Lorey, Dean)

The Merchant of Death (MacHale, D.J.)

The Ruby Princess Runs Away (Malcolm, Jahnna N.)

If the Shoe Fits (Mason, Jane B.)

How to Become a Planet (Melleby, Nicole)

Game of Strength and Storm (Menard, Rachel)

The Host (Meyer, Stephenie)

Fablehaven (Mull, Brandon)

Five Children and It (Nesbit)

The Borrowers (Norton, Mary)

The Wicked Bargain (Novoa, Gabe Cole)

If I Was Your Girl (Russo, Meredith)

Magyk (Sage, Angie)

The Alchemyst (Scott, Michael)

Scythe (Shusterman, Neal)

The Glitch in Sleep (Wexler, Michael)

You, me, and our heartstrings by See, Melissa

Instructions for dancing by Yoon, Nicola

The Jasmine Project by Ireland, Meredith,

Rise to the sun by Johnson, Leah

Happily ever afters by Bryant, Elise

Everything I thought I knew by Takaoka, Shannon.

The falling in love montage by Smyth, Ciara

The peasant's dream by Dickerson, Melanie

The princess will save you by Henning, Sarah

If I'm being honest by Wibberley, Emily

Opposite of always by Reynolds, Justin A

Summer constellations by Sevigny, Alisha

The wicked deep by Ernshaw, Shea

The supervillain and me by Banas, Danielle

The boyfriend bracket by Evangelista, Kate

An enchantment of ravens by Rogerson, Margaret

Wild beauty by McLemore, Anna-Marie

Stay tuned 🐺

[shortace]

There's something about picking up an Eoin Colfer book that just feels so comfortable and comforting.

[bewildered-galaxy]

Throwback to my 16 year old self who absolutely adored Airman as this young adult steampunk action thriller mixed with science, tragedy and a lot of heart. Also Victor was an awesome character.