#but maxwell is now gideon

[vanmarkham]

for every first playthrough ive done ive kept the generic names bc im so bad at naming on the spot

muren tabris is also minerva in game lol bc I based her originally on an oc in my inquisitor’s timeline and then she became her own thing

but I’ve had a garrett and marian hawke, elissa cousland, and a maxwell trevelyan lmao

[mariocki]

Donald Sutherland guest stars as the appropriately named Philip Guest, a less appropriately unbalanced kidnapper, in Gideon's Way: The Millionaire's Daughter (1.21, ITC, 1966)

[beartrice-inn-unnir]

10. What is your favorite genre book to recommend to someone who doesn’t usually like that genre?

Usually when people ask me for a rec for a genre they don’t usually like, they are asking for sci-fi, and I start by trying to figure out different access points based on what they already like. I’m not much of a hard sci-fi person, tending more to the space opera and political thrillers, so here’s a few “if you like x, maybe try y”:

If you like romance, give Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit a try. It’s definitely sci-fi in setting and plot, but it also hits nicely in the formulaic patterns of a arranged-marriage, strangers-to-lovers story that will help you through it even if the sci-fi elements are throwing you off. The author has another similar book that increases the sci-fi elements and is enemies-to-lovers as well, so if you like Winter’s Orbit, Ocean’s Echo is a good next step.

If you like non-fiction, The Martian by Andy Weir is a great pick. I have multiple friends who got into reading again as adults via The Martian. It’s well-written, well-grounded, funny, and very sci-fi. If you’ve already read it, then maybe give To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers a try. It can be described with all the same adjectives, plus it’s a short novella, so if you’re hesitant, it’s less intimidating.

If you like mysteries or political thrillers, boy is there a lot of great sci-fi out there for you. The crux of a lot of sci-fi is space or high-tech settings with a plot that asks questions about personhood, and that mixes really well with detectives and spies wandering around trying to solve problems and find truths. Try Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells (it’s partway through a series of great books and novellas, but that one’s the most traditional mystery plot) or A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (ambassador solving her predecessor’s mysterious death while trying to do his job)(I’d also recommend this one if you read a lot of classics) EDIT: just realized I mistyped - book 1 by Arkady Martine is A Memory Called Empire.

If YA/ Bildungsromanen/ New Adult figuring the world out through trial and error is often your jam, try Provenance by Ann Leckie (for the kid who really wants to do things right) or The Warrior’s Apprentice by Lois McMaster Bujold (for another kid who wants to do things right, but is also a high-energy chaos gremlin).

If you like fantasy, you probably already have read some sci-fi; it’s all under the speculative fiction umbrella and genres are vague anyway. All the same, I know this is the Locked Tomb Website, but give Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir a shot (it’s got magic and mayhem and an epic locked-room whodunnit mystery). The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord is also good - it has a team of people traveling together and thinking about morals and discovering new abilities, plus some romance.

I’m sure there’s lots of genres I’m forgetting right now, but feel free to send me another ask for any specific one!

[agena87]

I got tagged by the super duper awesome @igotsnothing . Thank you, dearie, MWAAAH! 💛

*

3 ships: So difficult to only choose 3, so I'll choose 3 from my fandoms (canon or not), 3 from simblr, and 3 of my own. OK? OK:

Fandoms

• destiel: even if I live to be 130 (as one of my primary school teachers said each "girl" in the class will be), I'll still be obsessed with them (I'm a Dean lover, I want him happy with his angel for eternity, OK?);

• the Doctor/Master;

• merthur

Simblr

• mattodore by, well, @mattodore : I can't get enough of them (esp. Theo);

• arturion by @lost-souls-story (I'm also kinda obsessed with Elias/Alex and Felix/Tao, but arturion will always be my favs);

• Julian/Lawrence (but I'm also getting quickly involved with Gideon/Sasha) by the one and only @igotsnothing , seriously, HOW do you keep me interesting in vampires when I don't even like them in the first place? I'm a werewolf person, ffs! 😆

Mine:

• any version of Wolfie/Mal, either as their OG selves, their genderswapped versions, or any mix of them;

• Max/Lucas;

• Maxwell/Casey from my Sacrélège universe (characters that I need to try and remake, after losing my CC)

Last song: Come Sail Away by Styx (my 3rd favourite song of all time, after Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd (absolute favourite) and Nothing Else Matters by Metallica)

Last film: Still Encanto, so have my last drama instead: Strong Girl Nam-soon (I have only watched the first 7 episodes yet). I don't know why I waited this long to start it, knowing how much I love Strong Girl Bong-soon (I watched that one many times), which it's a spin-off.

Currently reading: Still nothing...

Currently craving: broccoli *nom nom nom*

Fave color: still red (and yellow, and electric blue, oh! olive green too, I forgot that one the last time I was asked).

Relationship status: Rela-what? LOL, I'm a proud aro-ace person, I don't need one of those

Last Thing Googled: "fashion week ss24". I'm not into fashion AT ALL (I'm the least fashion-aware person you could imagine) for a little project I have (we'll see if it ever see the light of day, though).

Current obsession: WILLA (Landgraab-)MÜNCH!

---

Now to tagging... Um... 🤔Let's see:

@pralinesims @theosconfessions @void-imp @ezra-trait @mourirmoths @tricoufamily @saruin @mattodore @cassandragoth26 @unusualsims and whoever feels like it (as for the persons tagged, feel free to ignore, as always)

[watcherscrown]

Do you have any convoluted military sifi recommendations?

Ooohhh, I really just started in on the genre kind of recently, and not all of these are military/serious. Tones will vary.

To start with a tumblr-popular series and all time fave

The Murderbot Diaries

This series is funny, not That convoluted but has a lot of world building, and includes a lot of shenanigans. Murderbot is a rogue AI/android trying its very best to not get attached to these dumb fragile humans. (Task failed successfully).

Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie -

one of my few 5 star series. I love everything about the characters in this book. The main character is the AI of a destroyed spacecraft that is hundreds (thousands?) of years old. She used to be part of a hivemind made of overridden human corpses but is the only remaining part of the whole. And she's out for revenge.

Winter's Orbit and Ocean's Echo by Everina Maxwell

In all honesty, these are both really romance novels set in a space-opera/military backdrop. I think I liked Ocean's Echo more than Winter's Orbit but I'm a sucker for soul-bonding tropes. These are both m/m romance books set in the same universe but each is a standalone book, and you can read them in any order. I did them backwards and it didn't make much of a difference. Winter's Orbit has a murder mystery/conspiracy plot and Ocean's Echo focuses more on the military system.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir

Is it fantasy? Is it scifi? Is it horror? YES. The Locked Tomb series starts out as a science/magic system oriented And Then There Were None murder mystery set all in one house, but the universe is sprawling and covers much more than that. The sequel, Harrow the Ninth is much more experimental in its prose style, and takes place on a spaceship. The third installment, Nona the Ninth, is more traditional military scifi that takes place on a conflict-ridden colonized planet. All very good.

The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling

Okay this one's not really convoluted or military but it is sci-fi and I love it a lot. This is an extremely claustrophobic book with a two-person cast set in an abandoned mining cave on a distant planet (moon? i don't remember). Very spooky very good and I love the two VERY flawed characters and their whole dynamic. The main character lies her way into a job recovering something from this old cave system, but the woman on the other line has an agenda of her own.

EDIT: I totally forgot to mention the series I'm reading now, the first or which is Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee. it's about a space empire's extremely fucked up governing system and a military officer who gets bound to the revenant ghost of a dead war criminal. the first one is pretty dense but I'm enjoying the sequel better. Yoon Ha Lee is a trans man married to a man and these books have Lots of gender going on.

Things I haven't read yet but are on my list and I've heard good things about:

The Red Scholar's Wake by Aliette de Bodard

The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson

The Outside by Ada Hoffman

The Light Brigade by Cameron Hurley

[fundiepredictions]

First names

Last time I did this one there were only three families, now double as many and that means we have a lot more double names.

We have four Anna's

The three Maxwell Anna's, the originial, AnnaMarie and AnnaPatrice and Anna Duggar

We also have four Daniels, Daniel Maxwell, 2nd son of Christopher and AnnaMarie, Daniel Keller, Daniel Shrader and Daniel/Dan Beasley

We have four Johns

Besides the well known John David Duggar and John Webster there are John Maxwell and John Shrader.

We also have four Nathan's, Nathan Bates, Nathan Keller, Nathan Caldwell and Nathan Maxwell

The names three people share

David (Keller, Waller, Rodrigues)

Elizabeth (Maxwell, Wissmann, Bontrager)

Esther (Shrader, Bates, Maxwell)

Hannah (Duggar, Rodrigues, Keller)

Isaiah (Bates, Shrader, Caldwell)

Joseph (Duggar, Maxwell, Shrader)

Joshua (Duggar, Maxwell, Bontrager)

Samuel (Dillard, Rodrigues, Hook)

Susanna (Wissmann, Bontrager, Keller)

Timothy (Rodrigues, Caldwell, Shrader)

The names two people share below the cut

Andrew

Benjamin

Bethany

Brooklyn

Caleb

Carson

Christina

Deborah

Felicity

Gemma

Gideon

Jackson

Jeremiah

Jill

Josiah

Josie

Lauren

Lydia

Micah

Michael

Michelle

Nehemiah

Olivia

Phillip

Rebecca

Spurgeon

Stephen

[scots-gallivanter]

ELEVEN

You can see five kingdoms from here: Scotland, where we’re standing; England over there, the Isle of Man, Ireland, and the kingdom of Heaven up there

THE REV. ANDREW PATTERSON, during a walk with the author along a Wigtownshire promontory in 1987, as quoted in the Irish News and The Herald

WITH ITS MANY drumlin hills the gorse-glad Machars peninsula of Galloway has a gentle, timeless beauty; and for me Lord Cockburn was winding readers up when he rated the Solway ‘the stupidest of all firths’ with few rocks, no islands and ‘no edging of picturesque mountains’. He wrote: ‘For to point, as the natives always do, to the dim ghosts of some distant hills, of which only the outlines are visible, and to explain with an air of triumph, these are the English mountains, is mere stuff.’

A reincarnated Cockburn should chum me up Windy Hill to get some sense into him. Okay, at less than 100 yards high it’s a hillock, but, although the views of the Cumbrian peaks and those of the Isle of Man are not to be sniffed at, there is undoubtedly magical scenery to behold north of the border. From the summit of this hill that has Wigtown, Scotland’s National Book Town, below it, your payback is an expansive swathe of hills; and the copses, coves, cliffs, bays, lochs, standing stones, forts, cairns, and tumbledown ruins, of these firth lands. You can take in the bay’s nature reserve and, if you are lucky, spot an osprey. In 2004 the first pair in a century visited Galloway and liked it. Wigtown now has CCTV cameras linked to an osprey’s nest.

Wigtownshire was Covenanting country during the ‘Killing Times’. Covenanters were either freedom-fighters battling against absolute rule by bishops, or theocrats worthy of the Taliban, who wanted a fundamentalist Scotland. You could argue either case, if you had the time and inclination. An obelisk on a lower contour of Windy Hill remembers two covenanting martyrs, Margaret Maclaughlan and Margaret Wilson, who were tied to stakes in Wigtown Bay on May 11th, 1685, and drowned as the tide advanced. A commission had condemned them as Presbyterian activists, and a pardon, issued in Edinburgh on April 30th, was ignored.

According to the records of the parish of Kirkinner, MacLaughlan’s head was ‘held down within the water by one of the town officers by his halberd at her throat, til she died’. Storytellers say he had an unquenchable thirst for the rest of his life. In History of the Hereditary Sheriffs of Galloway (1864), Sir Andrew Agnew, stated:

‘If going on an errand his unnatural craving obliged him to carry a huge pitcher on his back; if he crossed a stream, even before ribald companions he was irresistibly compelled to kneel down and, like the men chosen by Gideon, to lap water like a dog.’

Karma may also have dealt with the constable, Bell, who had tied the victims to the stakes. He had three sons born with webbed feet. Agnew observed:

‘We have a female relative, aged 92 years, who assures us that she has seen three of Cleppie Bell’s descendants in the district, who were all afflicted with this deformity of the fingers and toes.’

Provost Coltrane, who had been a ‘witch tester’, and was chief magistrate at the execution, was commonly said to have sold his soul to the devil. According to J Maxwell Wood in Witchcraft and Superstitious Record in the Southwestern District of Scotland, when he died in 1708, the windows of his house looked as if they were on fire, and for long afterwards his ghost, a terrifying figure, walked the earth, snorting fire from its nostrils. Even the house where he lived and died was for many years avoided after nightfall. When kirk sessions put adulterers in neck manacles and sackcloth, publicly humiliated Sabbath-breakers, and hanged petty thieves, it was a fitting end to a Holy Willie who had lurked on the streets looking for drinkers to punish.

THE CURSE

That simmer’s day the king’s dragoons hung three men

Fae the gibbets fur no renouncin their hatred o bishops,

An twae Mairgarets wur mairtyred tae the ocean –

fixit ticht tae stakes tae droon as the tide rose abune the bay o Wigtown.

They were aw merkit oot as malaperts, troublemakers

whae listent tae meenisters preach frae beneath their blankets

in amang the hills o Gallowa’,

Loth even in the face o daith itsel tae stoap bein the foot sodgers o god:

freedom fechters railin against Episcopalianism

Mairgaret Maclauchlan an Mairgaret Wilson wir laid oot

on the mudflats at Bladnoch, clingin oan tae their crates like crabs.

Yin o them sang hymns but the sat watter dried them in her mooth.

An offecial pullt her heid up, giein hur a last chance tae recant her creed

but she speired instead fur a gless o watter.

There’s plenty o watter there fur ye, said he,

an pushed her back unner.

It’s said he’d a son, whae was born wi webbed feet.

Luckin fittit his hale life, he wuz, an aye thirsty forby.

(From The Magician’s House by Andy Murray, 2023)

The Machars has a myriad of antiquities: cup and ring markings, old homesteads, and standing stones. Three miles west of Wigtown on a bank of the river Bladnoch stands Torhouse, the reputed burial place of the mysterious king Calgacus, who fought against the Roman invasion and is mentioned in Tacitus’s Agricola. It is one of the best-preserved stone circles in Scotland.

Down the eastern flank of the Machars sits Garlieston which, because of its similarity to Normandy, was the location of the top-secret Mulberry Harbour project that prepared troops for D-Day. Secluded Cruggleton Bay, one of the most pleasing beaches along the Solway, is a sheltered arc of sand fringed by mature trees, a short stroll from Galloway House, the ancient seat of the earls of Galloway. To the south on an outcrop of shale are the crumbling remains of Cruggleton Castle, known by locals as the Arch or the Black Rock of Cree. An arch is all that is left of an English garrison from the time of Robert the Bruce.

Ninian built Scotland’s first recorded church, Candida Casa, at Whithorn around 400 AD, and spread Christianity across Scotland. He was described by Blaeu’s Atlas in 1662 as ‘A tutelary god in the furthest corner of Galloway, whither of old men from distant parts undertook pilgrimages, for the sake of religion, to see the relics & church of Ninian, and to carry away a portion of sacred dust, which was in these days considered a signal evidence of sanctity.’

James IV made several pilgrimages to the cradle of Christianity after his queen recuperated from ill health following a visit to the shrine. I thought my haversack was heavy, but the royal couple didn’t travel light. In Wigtown and Whithorn Historical and Descriptive Sketches (1877) Gordon Fraser stated: ‘It would appear that in this journey the queen travelled in a litter, sometimes called in the treasurers’ books the “Quenis chariot.” Seventeen horses were required to carry her majesty’s wardrobe and baggage.’

According to the eighth-century Miracula Nynie Episcopi, Ninian ‘studied heavenly wisdom with a devoted mind in a cave of horrible blackness’. There is a stimulating cliff-top walk to this much-visited cave from Whithorn’s neighbour, the Isle of Whithorn, which is not an island, but an old fishing port on a headland near to which cruel Coltrane had a farm. Seven crosses are cut into the face on its west side. Eighteen stone memorials and crosses that were found there are now in the museum at Whithorn Priory.

The finale of the 1972 cult film, The Wicker Man, was shot here and at the dramatic Burrow Head, where Sergeant Howie, played by Edward Woodward, was burned at the stake within an enormous wooden structure, as the pagan villagers danced and chanted. The remains of the wickerman’s legs were visible for many years but were eventually moved.

John Kincaid McNeillie, who was brought up in the Machars, left a legacy of more than 40 books, including a number of cult classics, such as The Wigtown Ploughman, which follows the life of Andy Walker, the son of an abusive father. It was an exposé of the appalling living conditions of Scotland’s rural poor under ruthless landlords in Scotland in the 1930s. McNeillie also turned out weekly nature journalism in Country Life. One wonders what he would have made of one Dale Maclauchlan, a roofer, who shelled out £5,500 in 2021 for a jetski to meet his girlfriend in the Isle of Man in contravention of COVID lockdown regulations. Maclaughlan set off from the Isle of Whithorn on a 27-mile trip to Ramsey. The media called him ‘the jetski Romeo’ but the courts weren’t impressed: he was jailed for four weeks. He recalled: ‘One minute I was staring at the sky going up a six-foot wave and the next I was staring down into the abyss. The water was black and was getting in my eyes and mouth. But the thought of Jessica kept me driving on.’

Due west is another cave that was once inhabited, along from startling sand dunes at St Medan’s beach, from where the views across Luce Bay to the Mull of Galloway are superb. We stand now on a ‘go stargazing’ site, chosen for its pristine, open dark skies.

‘Och, I wish I was back in ma ain wee cave’, Johnny Logie told the Sunday Post in April 1958 when he was in hospital with pneumonia. Logie, a former Ayrshire miner with hearing and sight problems from a pit fall, had lived in Sheep Cave for 30 years, gathering all the furniture he needed from driftwood, and collecting rainwater. He practised his own version of the good life, was renowned for his seaweed-fed vegetables, and was virtually self-sufficient. He died in 1962, although there were signs a few years ago that his cave was often visited: stacked kindling, an upturned drum with a candle on top, a bed made from pallets, and fish crates for seats.

The naturalist and writer Gavin Maxwell, who is famous for Ring of Bright Water, was also a seeker of solitude but was no cave-dweller. He was born near Port William; his mother was a daughter of the Duke of Northumberland, and his father was heir to the Galloway baronetcy. A life-size bronze otter sits on top of a rock overlooking Luce Bay as a memorial to Maxwell, whose blue-blooded forebears founded the village of Port William, but don’t get so laid-back by the tranquillity that you chat to the man who forever leans against a wooden fence looking out to sea. He won’t reply: he’s another statue cast in bronze. In front of him there is a plaque with the first verse of the poem Leisure by W. H. Davies:

‘What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare?’

Twelfth-century Glenluce Abbey is worthy of stares: it stands in magnificent disrepair in the north-west of the Machars, surrounded by pastureland and lapped by the meandering River Luce. There is a peculiar theory published in MacTaggart’s Gallovidian Encyclopedia that one of the abbey’s vaults (evidently long-buried) contained the library of Michael Scot, the wizard:

‘Here are thousands of old witch songs and incantations, books of the ‘Black Art,’ and ‘Necromancy,’ ‘Philosophy of the Devil,’ ‘Satan’s Almanacks,’ ‘The Fire Spangs of Faustus,’ ‘The Soothsayers’ Creed,’ ‘The Witch Chronicle,’ and the ‘Black Clud’s Wyme laid open,’ with many more valuable volumes.’

In the 16th century Gilbert Kennedy paid a monk to forge a signature on the title documents of Glenluce Abbey, then paid an assassin to murder the monk. He duly hanged the assassin for the murder.

The abbey stands on the banks of the Water Luce. In 1836 Sir James Hay of Park formed an islet in the river just before it reaches the sea.

When his son, Captain, later Admiral, Dalrymple Hay returned from visiting St. Helena, he named the island Helena and planted willows from cuttings of the tree at Napoleon’s grave. The willows are still there.

 

[pollard-zero]

gideon. it/its, 21+ ♡ romantic || ☆ platonic or familial || 𝗫 enemies or broken up

A

aella, child of ares (cyprus) aeon (the changeling exchange) aeryn gilmore (inner demons) ainsley langford (wayhaven chronicles) alcyone ("retribution," he cries) alenya wierszy (bladeweaver) alouette vogelsang (vögel der rose) ambrosia manes (cursed ambrosia) anharen (raiders of the caravan) apeiron ward (spellbound: a ghost story) arabella (the catalyst) arden fields (infinite blue) arden "little weasel" set (these reluctant years) ariarissa (the abyssal song) athena "bug" argent (into the shadows) "atlas" (valhalla) "atrax" (respice finem) atticus verissimo (next in line) aubrey graythorne (crème de la crème) aurelia "aura" crown (we wretched creatures) aurora (swallow the moon) avalon (villain's promise)

B

"boring bailey" miller (ghosted) ballad io (sentience) beckham "beck" oleander (home sweet) bee whitlock (such happy campers) bellamy fairchild (the error) benton crowley (when life gives you lemons) berry bloom (heaven's dog) beverly "badger" clearwater (roadkill) billie fischer (the lonely shore) blaire velvet (water to blood) blythe steele (social services of the doomed) bryn fleetwood (greenwarden)

C

calista (the brightest stars) calliope "cali" beckham (the fernweh saga) camille "philippe" de gonzague (gonzague) cassian grahm (misplaced) "preacher" cassidy abrams (larkin) catherine leblanc (when clouds break) cèilidh antitho (kenneski) célestine vailia (reaper's bay) chandler hale (emberwood) charlie bloomfield (the fog knows your name) charm brightbird (soulmates inc.) chauncey lambert (bad ritual) cillian sweet (our life: beginnings & always) clarice "claire" montistteti (they all fall down) clementine "new kid" deacon (conspiracy in emerson) colette diremourn (those long dead) "collins" (dead weight) curie, aka "sidney perth" (saturnine)

D

daemon (the abyssal) daisy newton (two sides of a robot war) dallas "rookie" torrence (chop shop) daphne blake (body count) december moone (snakeroot) delilah "@lovely" hawthorne (blooming panic) denver (dark as night) diana copeland-smith (the murder of devon whicker) "ditto" (drink your villain juice) dolly kingston (infamous) dorian gray (decaying picture)

E

easter "bunny" montgomery (a life worth living) edelweiss hyde (when bodies collide) eiffel de angelis (take two) eirwen (swan song) elias "loser" machiavelli (error 143) elidyr lywel (from the ashes we rise) elliot wiseman (mind blind) elphaba "elphie" craft (witches of ferngrove) emilia thornton (twisted wonderland) enki (crown of exile) evîn cizîrî (a tale of crowns) everest "lifeline" graham (before we are ghosts) everleigh carter (second sight) ezra (blood moon)

F

farrah hartford (in ourselves we trust) fawn "bambi" becker (fallen hero) fen (manor hill) filipe addario (honor bound) finch hawkins (midnight diner) florence “flower” bannerman (get good or get lost) fortuna martinelli (college tennis: origin story) "four" (the numbers game) freddie "penance" lockwood (slaughter☆squad) friday mcallister (apartment 502)

G

gabriel (son of satan: the mortal coil) georgie kromberg (the shadow society) gianna de leon (press play) giles "guy" byrd (a comedy of manors) ginny "drizz" hendrix (creatures' cradle) guenevere (guenevere) gwendolyn "winnie" mccormick (our life: now & forever) gwenvaël "gwynn" venegard (the king's hound)

H

hadley maxwell (disenchanted) harper "heart" reed (speaker) hart avantus (leas: city of the sun) hawthorne de-ash (these reluctant years) hendrik wolfsbane (wolfsbane) hikaru lovac (the one chosen) honey faraday (homecoming)

I

imara (honor amongst thieves) imari (vanguard) imogene "genie" coffinwood (burning academia) ingrid "indie" morrison (circuit) iphis "phi" varyn (wayfarer) iris schwartz (the night market) isobel "belle" love (the zeus dilemma) isolde minh (split the body asunder)

J

january marconi (redsugarsociety) "jay doe" (when the sun rises) jericho "jj" jones (the spirited: origins) jett roe (superstition) jolene "joey" bishop (dahlia hills) josephine "josie" / rui min chan (merry crisis) jude hudson (the decoy) juniper "junie" nelson (you live and fern)

K

kasey downs (when twilight strikes) katya marsh (paranormal preparatory school) kerrigan holmward (myrk mire) kingsley ferris/müller (the hunt: demon eyes) kitty wilder (in the ocean of stars) krystal castle (gone to hell in a handbasket)

L

lacey gillespie (the bureau) lachlan "lake" rogers (more than me) lainey fulbright (sinners) lancelot (the great protector) lavencia (the night that feeds) leonin (touch of lies) libelle raygat (stigma: dragonfly) liliana vinteren (checkmate in three moves) lotte (folksaga) lovely boone (two against the world)

M

madeleine suleiman (the wrath of sekhmet) magdalyne cross (degrees of lewdity) manon rousseau (love♡verse) maria "marie" domingues (the overtaken) marion renaud (trouble brewing) marley woodbridge (ghost simulator) melrose (incubus) memphis "izzy" wylbourne (before dusk sets in) mercy karstark (the northern passage) merlin ivyflower (new witch in town) mikah "mikey" schmidt (ace of spades) mimir sonnen (ouroboros) mina harker (bleeding heart) mira "viper" reyes (subject zero) mirielle boone (citadel: a medical romantic drama) moira "momo" thompkins (one knight stand) monet "blondie" abernathy (love language: masked) mordred le fay (the bastard of camelot) morgan "ripper" daitan (hollowed minds) myrddin (the hunting of beasts)

N

nate hampton (swallow the dark) noelle "nellie" waters (model citizens: unmasked) "neo" (remember, you will die) nevada warvel (the monsters around us) nova d'arcadie (arcadie: second-born)

O

odette "dottie" kirby (unwilling souls) olivia edgecombe (the trials & tribulations of edward harcourt) omega (wolf set free) orange flowers (limerence) orcheil treles (of crowns and echoes) oz vanlaere (abyss)

P

parker caine (absentia) "lucky" penny maverick (venatici house) persephone (fields of asphodel) peyton brooks (demon bound) phoebe blackburn (ofna: birds of a feather) piper hadley (brimstone manor) poppy telleman (wolfebound) promise fauneus (spring panic) puppet (sol kha-ne lubri)

Q

quincey "rich kid" james (golden)

R

ravinder "ravi" northbreaker (god-cursed) reagan "rae" callahan (novaturient) "reaper" (project hadea) reese (the one who made red) reid lancaster (tournament of souls) ri'en, harbinger of calamity (fell star) "the devil" rinesa (demon, fireforged) ronan powell (professor of magical studies) rosalind de vesphire (crown of ashes & flames) rosie macarthur (all trails lead home) rowan greenberg (psy high)

S

sable "sherlock" holmes (sherlock holmes: an affair of the heart) moon saetbyeol (precious: the eyes of shan) santiago "saint" hayes (smoke & velvet) saorise "lord blackwell" o'hare (thicker than) sawyer (last legacy) scout newman (the passenger) seelie (talon's end) seraphim mcknight (fellow traveler) signe (the wroth ode) sigrid butcher (my love will never die) sigurd vamirel, the white wolf (the exile) siiveth vyrenhal (aesemyr: the withering) the royal child silke (of royal birth & forlorn fate) sin (the story of sin) sinéad (na daoine maithe) siobhan "bliss" beaumont (the six that thrive) sirius ripley (supernova: renegade) skye donovan-rosovsky (witchcraft u) sloane sweetwood (the ballad of devil's creek) socks wheeler (mind games: trepidation) their royal highness, sofie (royal affairs) solaris pyre (throne of ashes) sora dexter (stars arisen) "warden sparrow" (within your eyes) stanza venture (moon rising) sterling johannson (the golden harp) stevie briggs (tricksters)

T

talwyn "wynnie" wildegarde (shepherds of haven) teaghan (courting the crown) temperance (summoner's return) tempest larnete (sinners & saints) thevira, "queenslayer" (regrets of the traitor) thistle emerson (to the whistling winds) "thrim" (seekL) thunder bat (top villain: total domination) tinsley "teddy" whitman (mirror mine) trace mccallum (solid/ground) "treasure" (wall) trystan "tryste" davenport (valiant)

U

V

valentina "little heart" kozlov (vendetta) valora, the mad princess (a prophecy undone) vaniya "erebus" kincaid (emberfate) venus "wraith" sokolov (safe house) verity fairfax (love undying) "the vessel" (the night abridged) vetra woodard-briggs (skin & scales) victory hellström (seven days in paradise) vierna (the soul stone war) violet van dietrich (noblesse oblige) virginia campbell (queenstown's detective) vizaria (court of the gilded roses) vedette "vivi" valles (the veiled star)

W

whitney markov (heart of the house) wilhemina "mina" reed (the midnight bay) "wraith" (lamb to the slaughter) wylan albrecht (twisted gold) wysteria harlowe (the edge of dawn)

X

xander hoffman (young's home for retired robots)

Y

yaëlle (meraki: calais' gift) song ye-jin (crash course in you) yvette "star" rhys (fallen lights)

Z

zed (hybrid) zelith evenvale (virtue's end) ziarin bellévé (witch blood) "zorlok" (zorlok)

[iphigeniarising]

NOW READING: Casket of Souls - Lynn Flewelling

Books Read in 2024

January

No Country for Old Men - Cormac McCarthy Letters From Palestine - Ghassan Abdullah, Kenneth Ring True Tales of Arctic Heroism in the New World - Adolphus Greely Memories of the Andes - José Luis Inciarte Kick at the Darkness - Keira Andrews Fight the Tide - Keira Andrews The Terror - Dan Simmons What Lies in the Woods - Kate Alice Marshall The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne The Manson Women and Me - Nikki Meredith

February

A Thousand Ships - Natalie Haynes Farm Boys - Will Fellows The Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien Reforged - Seth Haddon The Two Towers - J.R.R. Tolkien Autobiography of Red - Anne Carson The Absolutist - John Boyne The Origin of Others - Toni Morrison Black Gun, Silver Star - Art T. Burton The Return of the King - J.R.R. Tolkien

March

The Magpie Lord - KJ Charles Dead Wake - Erik Larson He Who Drowned the World - Shelley Parker-Chan Hidden Figures - Margot Lee Shetterly Ocean’s Echo - Everina Maxwell I Had to Survive - Roberto Canessa The Luminous Dead - Caitlin Starling Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir In the Hurricane's Eye - Nathaniel Philbrick

April

A Certain Hunger - Chelsea G Summers The Sunshine Court - Nora Sakavic Steal the Sky - Megan O'Keefe The Indifferent Stars Above - Daniel James Brown The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien RHatO vol. 1: Dark Trinity - Scott Lobdell RHatO vol. 2: Who is Artemis? - Scott Lobdell These Fleeting Shadows - Kate Alice Marshall

May

I Am Still Alive - Kate Alice Marshall Bunker Hill - Nathaniel Philbrick Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee - Dee Brown Batman: A Death in the Family Ordeal by Hunger - George R. Stewart Luck in the Shadows - Lynn Flewelling Thunderstruck - Erik Larson Stalking Darkness - Lynn Flewelling

June

An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States - Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz Feed Them Silence - Lee Mandelo The Splendid and the Vile - Erik Larson River of Teeth - Sarah Gailey Manhunt - Gretchen Felker-Martin Traitor's Moon - Lynn Flewelling Dragon Age: The Silent Grove - David Gaider Incident at Gunn Point - Ralph Cotton

July

Endurance - Alfred Lansing The Woods All Black - Lee Mandelo Shadows Return - Lynn Flewelling The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown

August

The White Road - Lynn Flewelling What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia - Elizabeth Catte The Demon of Unrest - Erik Larson In the Garden of Beasts - Erik Larson Road to Surrender - Evan Thomas Camp Damascus - Chuck Tingle Taste of Marrow - Sarah Gailey Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann

September

The Wager - David Grann Leeward - Katie Daysh The Devil to Pay - Katie Daysh All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque The Nightland Express - JM Lee Tombstone - Tom Clavin We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson

October

Unspeakable Things - Jess Lourey No One Can Know - Kate Alice Marshall Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes The Summer of 1787 - David O. Stewart Time is a Mother - Ocean Vuong The Foxhole Court - Nora Sakavic The Raven King - Nora Sakavic The King's Men - Nora Sakavic Strikeforce Vol.1 - Tini Howard

November

Strikeforce Vol.2 - Tini Howard The Sunshine Court - Nora Sakavic The Queen's Starfire Throne - Hailey Turner Local Woman Missing - Mary Kubica

[castelleve]

𝘒𝘕𝘖𝘞𝘐𝘕𝘎  𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘙  𝘗𝘈𝘙𝘛𝘕𝘌𝘙  𝘞𝘌𝘓𝘓  𝘊𝘈𝘕  𝘗𝘖𝘛𝘌𝘕𝘛𝘐𝘈𝘓𝘓𝘠  𝘔𝘈𝘒𝘌  𝘞𝘙𝘐𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘎  𝘛𝘖𝘎𝘌𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙  𝘈  𝘓𝘖𝘛  𝘌𝘈𝘚𝘐𝘌𝘙.

REPOST DO NOT REBLOG !!

NAME :  Inc.

PRONOUNS :  she/her

PREFERENCE  OF  COMMUNICATION : tumblr IMs, tags in threads, i give discord to friends

NAME  OF  MUSE(s) :  OH GOD UHHH not including NPCs: Henri, Beau/Mortau, Damian, Krisha, Sylvester, Dalet, Sebastian, Gemini,  Serena, Onya, Claudia, Shang, Michael, Jessica, Grace, Ryan, Heth, Hei, Vav, Mika, Angelisa, Solomon, Dantes, Eung-Ju, Atari, Hayami, Helena, Hana, Elliot, Darva, Namalee, Afraa, Gabriel, Theo, Anastasiya, Nocturne, Adelaide, Juniper, Gideon, Enoch, Beatrix, Penny, Augusta, Baphomet, Touma, Ambrus, Kenichi, Maxwell, Lundy, Irusan, Foxglove,  Miguel, Officer Ishibashi, Roy, Germaine, Suki, Lucia, Dakota, Lucas, Jezebel.

EXPERIENCE  /  HOW  LONG  (  MONTHS  /  YEARS? ) : I have been writing for about 11 years now! 

BEST  EXPERIENCE :   OH GOD SO ig it kinda sucks cause this is actually fairly recent BUT the best RP experience I ever had was my plot with @batoushoujo, @cxnfectioniism and @desparialuna . It’s the first group plot I have ever been involved in. Ever. And it’s just,,, been a lot of fun. Even if one of us is off for like 8 months, when we get back on we can pick off right where we left off and it’s really nice. Another good one is meeting @ohfiendangelical and @piinetrees​ cause they’re really great people and have a very interesting shared world / over arching plot with their muses. I’m really glad to have met everyone I mentioned here.

RP  PET  PEEVES  /  DEALBREAKERS :  SEVERAL THINGS HONESTLY. 

People who don’t read my rules is a big pet peeve of mine. And I can tell when someone either hasn’t read them or just does not give a fuck about them. In addition, when someone doesn’t read my bios. I know a lot of my muse bios aren’t complete, which is why I have the blurbs there, but when I DO have the full one up I can tell when people don’t read them. Again, either they don’t read them or they like to casually glance over a few very important details, leading me to the next one:

I get a lot of people who want romance with Damian, when he’s (gray)aromantic. There is a reason he is plotting only when it comes to ships and the reason is 99 times out of 100, he isn’t gonna like your muse back. He’s going to be a toxic, shitty, emotionally neglectful and kind of abusive boyfriend. Hell, he’s not even that great of a friend. Similarly, people also want to ship with Enoch. He’s not aromantic, but he’s the same in the toxicity and he’s not even attempting to improve himself like Damian is. I’ve got, like, 60 other muses to interact and ship with, so it confuses me when people want the worst ones that I’d like to be more selective with. ‘i can fix him’ does not work with my muses - it just enables them.

When i reject a plot idea and people take it as a challenge. ‘No’ does not mean ‘convince me’. ‘No’ means, ‘I’m not interested’, ‘the muses we’re using aren’t compatible for this’, or ‘this is against my rules’. No is a complete sentence and I shouldn’t have to explain over and over again why I said it.

Lack of consequences. Now, this is just my prefered way to run my blog, nothing wrong with not wanting realism in your writing... but I do want it in mine. If your muse provokes one of mine, gaslights them, tries to hit them, etc. depending on the muse... I’m sorry, but yours is probably going to get their ass beat if it’s someone like Damian or Serena. Now, if it’s someone like, say, Lucas or Suki, they’ll probably be the one who ends up beaten up but I digress. Consequences is what drives a plot. It’s what makes interactions interesting. 

Trying to force interactions with incompatible muses. I’ve got 60, man, if one doesn’t work out, there is 59 more to pick from. Just let the interaction die and we can use a different combo.

Probably more but this is getting long

MUSE  PREFERENCES  FLUFF,    ANGST  OR  SMUT :   I find fluff kind of boring at times, and smut is not something I’m 100% comfortable with writing. I do like my angst, but too much can be draining. All in all, plot driven threads are my favorite. 

PLOTS  OR  MEMES :   A mix of both? I like to have an idea of where to go, but flexibility in how to get there. plus, memes are really fun to answer when I’m not in the mood for my drafts. 

LONG  OR  SHORT  REPLIES : It depends! Both? Neither?

BEST TIME TO WRITE :    When I should be sleeping ghfvghjf either RIGHT after waking up or when I’m tired as fuck at like 2 in the morning. One time I pulled an all nighter and i got like 20 drafts done. 

ARE  YOU  LIKE  YOUR  MUSE(S) :  Edit: wow I forgot this section omg. It just depends on the muse. Thry all have something in common with me, but I try to make them as different as I can as well.

TAGGED  BY  :   i stole it from @piinetrees haha​

TAGGING  : @yesfxckyxu @pvremichigan @ohfiendangelical @hhemeraa @smokes-and-bullets @batoushoujo @perennial-tenacity @wiildhearrted​ @nullificationofthevoid @stainedcarmine  @suizokukans @zhuangshii​ whoever else sees this and wants to steal it

[asleepinawell]

Book Recs

I was gonna do one of these at the end of the year, but I’ve somehow managed to read 26 books this year already (12 novellas, 14 novels), almost all featuring queer authors and/or characters so this is already a long list.

Note: There’s a few on here I was kind of meh about, but in most of those cases it was a ‘book might be good but it’s not for me so i’ll mention it to put it on people’s radar anyway’ type of thing. Insert the usual necessary tumblr disclaimer about all of this being only my opinion and your opinions are valid too etc etc.

In order of when I read them:

Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower by Tamsyn Muir - Fantasy novella from the author of gideon the ninth that’s a twist on the classic princess trapped in a tower waiting for a prince story. Quite fun. (novella)

The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht - Dark fantasy about revenge and magic. m/m couple but like I said it’s pretty dark and twisted all around so definitely not a happy queer romantic story. My opinion was interesting premise that could have been executed better and probably should have been a full novel to embellish on the world building potential. (novella)

A Memory Called Empire & A Desolation Called Peace - Arkady Martine - Probably tied with murderbot as the best things I read this year. Scifi, f/f couple, wonderfully done exploration of what it means to fall in love with a culture that is destroying your own. More of the many queer anti-imperialist books that have come out recently and certainly some of the best. The second one is a direct continuation of the first. (2 novels)

The Tyrant Baru Cormorant - Seth Dickinson - This is the third in the Baru Cormorant series (The Masquerade) and was my favorite so far. The second and third book were originally one book that got split I believe and the second book didn’t stand alone as well (though was still great), but the third book really made up for that. Dark fantasy world starring a queer woc whose country and culture is destroyed by the imperial forces of that world colonizing and assimilating them. She vows revenge and decides to work her way up within her enemy’s ranks to enact it from within and bring an empire to ruins. Really really fascinating study of so many different aspects of our own world and the systems which enable and allow bigotry and how bigoted and violent narratives are used to control minorities. This is definitely a darker series and I was particularly impressed with some of the commentary on the racism prevalent in non-intersectional feminism as depicted through a fantasy world. Can’t wait for the last one to come out! (3 novels, 1 forthcoming)

The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells - There’s six of them--5 novella and a novel--and the first is All Systems Red. Told from the point of view of a self-aware droid/android that is rented out by a corporation to provide protection in a dystopian capitalist hellhole future that isn’t that unlike our current capitalist dystopia but is in space. Muderbot hacked the chip that controlled it and instead of going rogue just wants to be left alone to watch its favorite tv shows. Murderbot is painfully relatable and the books are both funny and poignant. Highly recommended. (5 novellas and a novel).

Winter’s Orbit - Everina Maxwell - This was a m/m romance novel with a scifi backdrop of royal intrigue. Generally I’m more into scifi with a queer relationship in the background than vice versa, so it wasn’t my favorite, BUT I think it was still well written and someone looking for more of the romance angle would enjoy it. Has all your favorite romance tropes in it, especially the yearning. (novel)

The Divine Cities - Robert Jackson Bennett - Three book series. I’m very conflicted about this one. Set in a fantasy world where an enslaved nation overthrew the country enslaving them and now rules over them. It’s a story of what happens after the triumphant victory and within that it’s also a murder mystery tied into the dying magic of the conquered nation. It also has a six foot something naked oily viking man fist fight a cthulhu in a frozen river. The second book was by far my favorite, mostly due to the main character being brilliant. My conflict comes from the fact I don’t feel like the story treated its women and queer characters well. Like it had really great characters but it didn’t do great by them overall. That and the third book didn’t live up to the first two. But still definitely worth a read, can’t stress enough how cool some of the world building was. (3 novels)

Into the Drowning Deep - Mira Grant - This might be the only one on here I disliked. It’s got a doomed boat voyage and creepy underwater terror and monsters and a super diverse cast of characters, but I just didn’t enjoy the writing style. While having a diverse cast is great, there were a lot of moments where it felt like characters were pausing to explain things about themselves that felt like a tumblr post rather than a normal conversation you might have while actively being hunted by monsters. I also bounced off all the characters. But a lot of people seem to have liked it so if you’re into horror and want a book with a f/f main couple then maybe you’ll enjoy it. (novel)

Dead Djinn Universe - P. Djèlí Clark - Around the early 1900′s, a man in Egypt discovers a way to access another world and bring Djinn and mysterious clockwork beings called Angels through. As a result, Egypt tells the British to get fucked and Cairo becomes one of the most powerful cities in the world. So Egypt, magic, djinn, a steampunk-ish vibe, oh and the main character is a butch queer woman who enjoys wearing dapper suits and looking fabulous while she investigates supernatural events. Her girlfriend is also mysterious and badass. And she has a cat. There’s three novella (one of which technically might be considered a short story) and then the first novel. You should absolutely read the novellas first (A Dead Djinn in Cairo, The Angel of Khan el-Khalili, The Haunting of Tram Car 015). Super fun and imaginative series. (3 novellas and a novel, more forthcoming)

River of Teeth & Taste of Marrow - Sarah Gailey - From the book description

“In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true. Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two. This was a terrible plan.”

Queer hippo riders!!!! Very much a western but with hippos. Main couple included a non-binary character. Loved the first one. The second one I was more meh about due to one of the characters I was supposed to like having obnoxious man pain that a woman had to take the brunt of the whole time. Also there were less hippos. But queer hippo riders! Definitely read the first one, and they’re both novellas so no reason not to read the second as well. (2 novellas)

A Psalm for the Wild-Built - Becky Chambers - I may be the only person who hasn’t read the long way to a small angry planet at this point, but I did grab her new novella and I loved it. It made me want to go sit out in the woods and feel peaceful. The world it’s set in feels like a peaceful post-apocalypse...or diverted apocalypse maybe. Humans built robots and robots gained sentience, but instead of rebelling they just up and left and went into the wilderness with a promise that the humans wouldn’t follow them.The remaining human society reshaped itself into something new and peaceful. It’s the story of a monk who leaves their habitual monking duties to go be a tea monk and then later wanders into the wilderness and becomes the first human in ages to meet a robot. Very sad there’s no fan art yet. (novella, more forthcoming)

The March North - Graydon Saunders - This was such a weird book that I’m not sure how to explain it. The prose style is hard to get used to and I suspect a lot of people will bounce off it in the first chapter. There’s no third person pronouns used at all and important events get mentioned once in passing and if you blink you’ll miss them. Set on a world where magic is extremely common to the point that rivers sometimes run with blood or fire and the local weeds are something out of a horror movie and most of the world is run by powerful sorcerer dictators, one country banded together (with the help of a few powerful sorcerers who were tired of all the bullshit) to form a free country where powerful sorcerers wouldn’t rule and the small magics of every day folks could be combined to work together. The story revolves around a Captain of the military force on the border who one day has three very powerful sorcerers sent to them by the main government with the hint that just maybe there’s about to be a big invasion (there is) with the implication of take these guys and go deal with this. The world building is extremely complex and very cool...when you can actually understand what the fuck is going on. There is also a murder sheep named Eustace who breathes fire and eats just about everything and is a Very Good Boy and belongs to the most terrifying sorcerer in the world who appears as a little old grandma with knitting. It had one of the most epic badass and wonderfully grotesque battles I’ve ever read. But yeah, it is not what I would call easy reading. Opinions may vary wildly. I did also read the second one (A Succession of Bad Days) in the series which was easier to follow and had a lot more details about the world, but overall I was more meh about it despite some cool aspects. The chapters and chapters of the extreme details of building a house that made up half the novel just weren’t my thing. (novels).

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson - In this world parallels universes exist and we’ve discovered how to travel between them, but the catch is you can only go to worlds where the ‘you’ there is already dead. This turns into an uncomfortable look at who would be the people most likely to have died on many worlds and how things like class and race would fit into that and what we would actually use this ability for (if you guessed stealing resources and the stock market you’d be correct). The main character is a queer woc who travels between worlds with the assistance of her handler (another queer woc) who she has the hots for. She accidentally stumbles on a whole lot of mess and conspiracy and gets swept up in that. Really enjoyed it. (novel)

Witchmark - C.L. Polk - Fantasy world reminiscent of Victorian England (I think?) where a young man with magical gifts runs away from his powerful family to avoid being exploited by them. He joins the army and fights in a war and comes home to try and live a quiet life as a doctor, but a murder pulls him into a larger mystery that upturns his life. Also he’s extremely gay and there’s a prevalent m/m romance. This one was a fun-but-not-mind-blowing one for me. (novel, 2 more in the series I haven’t read)

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon - This was one of those that everyone loved but I couldn’t get into for some reason. I tried twice and only got about halfway through the second time. It’s got dragons and queer ladies and fantasy world and all the things I like, but I wasn’t that invested in the main story (which included the f/f couple) and was more interested in the smaller story about a woman trying to become a dragon rider. There are few things that beat out a lady and her dragon friend story for me and that was the storyline that felt neglected and took a different turn right when we got to the part I’d been waiting for. But, I know a lot of people whose reading opinions I respect who loved it, and if you like epic fantasy with dragons and queens and treachery and pirates and queer characters then I’d say you should definitely give it a try. (novel)

Bonus: I didn’t read these series this year, but if you haven’t read them yet, you should.

Imperial Radch (Ancillary Justice) - Ann Leckie - Spaceship AI stuck in a human body out for revenge for their former captain, but that summary does not come close to doing it justice. Another one examining imperialism and also gender and race.(3 novels)

Kushiel's Legacy Series - Jacqueline Carey - This is two series, six books total, and starts with Kushiel's Dart. Alternate universe Renaissance-y Europe in a fantastical world where sex isn't shameful and sex workers are respected and prized. Lots of political intrigue and mystery. A lot of BDSM and kinky stuff too (the main character is a sexual masochist, oh and also bi!). I first read this series when I was fifteen or sixteen and it definitely made a big impression on me. Same author also wrote the Santa Olivia series which I’d also recommend. (6 novels)

The Locked Tomb (Gideon the Ninth) - Tamsyn Muir - I mean, if you follow me, you know. If you don’t follow me you still probably know. I’d have felt remiss to have left them off though. Lesbian Necormancers in Space. Memes! Skeletons! Biceps! Go read them. (2 novels, 2 forthcoming, 1 short story)

Books On My To Read List:

Fireheart Tiger - Aliette de Bodard

The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water - Zen Cho

Black Sun - Rebecca Roanhorse

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

Ninefox Gambit - Yoon Ha Lee

Also, if anyone has any recs for scifi/fantasy books starring queer men (not necessarily having to do with a queer relationship) and written by queer men I’d love them. There’s a lot written by women, and some of them are great, but I’d love to read a story about queer men from their own perspective.

[honeybee-bunnybee]

♡ whitelist! ♡

💐 i thought it'd be good to make one of these, just so people know what i REALLY like making stuff for! a lot of it is really niche, so i don't expect to get requests for it, but if i do i'll probably be really excited!!!

🐝 characters (games, shows, books, etc):

🌻 cookie run: almond cookie, espresso cookie, timekeeper cookie, bell pepper cookie, earl grey cookie, licorice cookie, chess cookie

🌸 don't starve: maxwell, wilson, wagstaff, wes, wx-78

🌻 amateur surgeon: dwayne pipe, hubris d'obscene, alan probe

🌸 ace attorney: the phantom, roger retinz, trucy wright, shelly de killer

🌻 ni no kuni: oliver, swaine, gallus, cap'n crossbones, aapep, leander, roland, guardian of worlds, conductor

🌸 pokémon: giratina, spiritomb, banette, darkrai, gastly/haunter/gengar, shaymin, combee

🌻 deltarune: spamton, jevil, mike, rouxls, swatch

🌸 halloween horror nights: paulo ravinski/the director, dr. albert crane/the caretaker, h.r bloodengutz, gideon grim, doctor white

🌻 moshi monsters: scamp, dr. strangeglove, furnando

🌸 hollow knight: pale king, zote, oro, dung defender, hive knight, elderbug, hunter, collector, nosk, tiso, cloth

🌻 the architect trilogy: the projectionist, reddington rousseau, rick rousseau, jacques

💐 ships:

🌻 cookie run: almond x espresso, licorice x earl grey

🌸 don't starve: maxwell x wilson, maxwell x wagstaff, maxwell x wes

🌻 amateur surgeon: dwayne x alan, alan x hubris

🌸 ace attorney: shelly de killer x roger retinz, roger retinz x manov mistree

🌻 ni no kuni: guardian of worlds x conductor, cap'n crossbones x gallus

🌸 deltarune: any variation of spamton x jevil x mike x swatch x rouxls

🌻 halloween horror nights: paulo x albert, bloodengutz x gideon

🌸 hollow knight: dung defender x pale king, tiso x grimm x zote

🌻 the architect trilogy: projectionist x architect, projectionist x reddington, rick x jacques, j.w x everett x roscoe

🐝 aesthetics/stims

🌸 pastels

🌻 food + drink stims

🌸 horror academia

🌻 plague doctor aesthetics

🌸 horror aesthetics in general (no actual gore and other things of the kind, though)

🌻 the color yellow as a whole

💐 more may be added!! for now, though, you know what i like <3 request away!

[rockislandadultreads]

Same-Sex Marriage in Fiction: Titles To Read

Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers

A refreshingly timely and relatable debut novel about a young woman whose life plans fall apart when she meets her wife. With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She’s a straight A, work-through-the-summer certified high achiever. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that. This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her father’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows. In New York, she’s able to ignore all the annoying questions about her future plans and falls hard for her creative and beautiful wife, Yuki Yamamoto. But when reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.

Winter's Orbit by Everina Maxwell

While the Iskat Empire has long dominated the system through treaties and political alliances, several planets, including Thea, have begun to chafe under Iskat's rule. When tragedy befalls Imperial Prince Taam, his Thean widower, Jainan, is rushed into an arranged marriage with Taam's cousin, the disreputable Kiem, in a bid to keep the rising hostilities between the two worlds under control. But when it comes to light that Prince Taam's death may not have been an accident, and that Jainan himself may be a suspect, the unlikely pair must overcome their misgivings and learn to trust one another as they navigate the perils of the Iskat court, try to solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war... all while dealing with their growing feelings for each other.

Last Couple Standing by Matthew Norman

A couple determined not to end up like their divorced friends try a radical experiment—and get in way over their heads—in this hilarious, heartfelt novel from the author of We’re All Damaged. The Core Four have been friends since college: four men, four women, four couples. They got married around the same time, had kids around the same time, and now, fifteen years later, they’ve started getting divorced around the same time, too. With three of the Core Four unions crumbling to dust around them, Jessica and Mitch Butler take a long, hard look at their own marriage. Can it be saved? Or is divorce, like some fortysomething zombie virus, simply inescapable? To maximize their chance at immunity, Jessica and Mitch try something radical. Their friends’ divorces mostly had to do with sex—having it, not having it, wanting to have it with other people—so they decide to relax a few things. Terms are discussed, conditions are made, and together the Butlers embark on the great experiment of taking their otherwise happy, functional marriage and breaking some very serious rules. Jessica and Mitch are convinced they’ve hit upon the next evolution of marriage. But as lines are crossed and hot bartenders pursued, they each start to wonder if they’ve made a huge mistake. What follows is sexy, fun, painful, messy, and completely surprising to them both. Because sometimes doing something bad is the only way to get to the heart of what’s really good.

Twisted at the Root by Ellen Hart

Mystery Writers of America Grandmaster Ellen Hart’s intimate storytelling returns in Twisted at the Root, where Hart’s latest mystery shows the importance of finding the truth. Everyone thought Rashad May and Gideon Wise were happily married. That is, until Rashad was convicted of his husband’s murder. Four years later, Rashad’s brother contacts Ray Lawless – Minnesota private investigator Jane Lawless’s father and the original defense attorney on the case – with potential evidence of a wrongful conviction. When the case is reopened, Jane and her father must work together to attain justice for a grieving widower. Who actually killed Gideon and why? There are suspects and motives galore, and Jane must discover the truth. She must also track down her missing brother, Peter, who was involved in the original trial, and who might be hiding secrets of his own.

[autumnleaves1991-blog]

Day 2: Wind - Din Djarin

November Writing Challenge 

Day 2: Wind - Din Djarin 

Spoilers for Season 2 Episode 1 (if you haven’t seen it, WATCH IT!) 

Originally I was going to write this for Frankie Morales but after watching the Mandalorian again (for the tenth time) this idea came to me. Enjoy! 

Let me know if you want to be added to a tag list. :)

Day 1: Heartbeat - Agent Whiskey 

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The razor crest broke through the atmosphere of Tatooine and you took a deep shuddering breath. Deserts always gave you anxiety, especially after meeting the Mandalorian. Your ship had crash landed on Jakku and with only a few rations of water, and protein packs you made the trek through the desert to find help. On the fifth day when the water was long gone, and you felt the cool grasp of death on your hand did you find salvation in the form of beskar armor and a tiny green child. 

The Mandalorian was on Jakku for a bounty and just like with the child he didn’t have it in his heart to leave you for death. He scooped you up and nursed you back to health, with every intent on dropping you off on the nearest habitable planet. But, when the time to part finally came, and you grabbed your small knapsack and walked towards the open hatch. Something stopped you, a feeling too great to ignore and when you turned a questioning look in your eyes, your gaze landed on the small green child. Reaching his hand out towards you, eyes closed, and when you looked up to meet the visor of the Mandalorian you knew that there was never a choice. So you stayed. 

That was ten months ago. Since then the three of you had been on a variety of missions and traveled across the galaxy, never staying in one place for too long. You helped make repairs, took care of the child, cooked, and even assisted on a few bounties. This latest mission was a quest to find another Mandalorian on Tatooine and this included meeting up with an ally from a previous mission. 

The crest began its descent into the mechanics workshop and you rushed from your seat with the child trailing close behind and down the ramp towards Peli. The older woman squealed and rushed towards you but at the last moment sidestepped you and dropped to the ground clutching the tiny green child to her chest. 

“Oh I have been so worried about you!” she shouts and you can only see the tip of the child's ears as she smothers him in hugs. 

You smile to yourself as Mando comes down from the ship. Peli shouts at the droids moving towards the crest, “Hey! Don’t you remember he hates droids!” 

“Actually the crest could use a once over, it’s okay,” Mando tells her. 

Peli rolls her eyes, muttering under her breath, “oh he likes droids now…” 

You can’t help the laugh that escapes at the woman’s antics and she draws around to look at you, “Oh sweetie I am so glad to see you too. Hope this one,” she gestures with her thumb to Mando, “has been keeping you out of too much trouble.” 

You smile brightly, “No more than I would have been in naturally, it’s nice to have someone to have your back though.” 

“We need your help, we're looking for a Mandalorian and a place called Mos Pelgo, do you know where that is?” Mando asks, cutting right to the chase. 

“The only Mandalorian I know of is you, and Mos Pelgo was wiped out by bandits but, I can show you on the map where it would be if it was still around,” Peli calls forward an old R2 unit that pulls up a map. But Peli warns him off of using the crest to go find it, saying the ship would spook everyone. 

“Do you still have that speeder bike?” he asks. 

Your heart rate jumps thinking of the last time Mando took off on a speeder bike and left you and the child alone with Peli. “Does that mean I get to keep this little womp rat with me?” Peli coo’s at the child. 

“No...he comes with me...they both do,” he takes off towards the bike to prepare. 

Your head snaps up at this comment and you take off after him. “Mando...what do you mean? There is only one bike and it’s a least a two day ride…” you leave the rest unspoken. 

He stops for a moment, the visor raising to meet your eyes, “I know but I need your help to look after the child, it’s been quiet with Moff Gideon for months, I don't want to leave you both here unguarded, this is the best action,” he continues fussing with the bike and getting it powered on. “Can you please go to the crest and get your things and the kid’s ready to go?” 

You don’t respond, only nodding. Thirty minutes later and you're all ready to go, Mando puts the child in a bag on the side of the speeder before mounting it himself. You move to get on behind him when Peli lightly touches your shoulder handing you a pair of goggles, and a scarf.

“To protect your face from the sand,” she tells you. You smile and thank her quietly before placing the goggles on your head, and wrapping the scarf over your nose and mouth. 

You reach forward and place your hand right on Mandos shoulder, before swinging your left leg  over the speeder. Mando’s left hand comes around his back and grasps your hand pulling it around his waist. He held it for a moment longer than he should have before kicking the speeder to life, your right hand coming to grasp his waist. You slide your body forward slightly and press your front to his beskar covered back. You hear a faint grunt when your thighs tighten around his legs. 

He turns slightly, his voice sounding huskier than normal, “Hold tight to me, I don’t want you sliding off,” and with that he revs the speeder and you take off across the desert. 

In that moment you feel elation. The warm body of your mandalorian close to your own, your hands wrapped tightly across his armored waist, and the feeling of the wind on your face. You can’t help the laugh that escapes you as you the landscape rushes by. 

Riding on the back of the speeder is the most liberating thing you have done in years. You glance behind you to see the baby with a large grin on his face. He was loving this as much as you. 

After several hours you make camp for the night. Mando makes a fire, and sits the child down between his legs. A noise startles you from over the ridge and to your horror two sand people are behind you weapons raised. What you weren’t expecting was the sound that came from the Mandalorian who came to stand in front of you. He spoke with his hands and the sand people lowered their weapons greeting them warmly. You ate with them at the fire, and when it came time to rest, you laid out your cots with them nearby. 

Mando sat with his back against a rock, your bedroll laid out next to him, the child already sleeping against his chest. His head lay gently over the beskar chest plate. 

You can’t help but feel slightly envious of the child being so close to him. You try to sleep, but end up tossing and turning. Your mind restless, thinking of the last time you were in the desert alone. 

“Come,” a voice quietly pulls you from your fitful sleep. 

Your eyes open and you look up at the Mandalorian who is gesturing with his hand for you to move forward. You sit up quietly, careful not to disturb the sleeping child. Mandos arm wraps around your shoulder and pulls you into his chest. The cool beskar feels nice against your cheek and his arm rubs designs into your arm. Your arm wraps around his waist tightly. 

You let out a shallow breath, “thank you Mando,” you whisper. 

“Din…” his voice barely above a whisper. 

Your head lifts up to look into the visor, “what?” you whisper back. 

“My name is Din,” he tells you. 

You repeat the name over and over again to yourself before trying it out on your tongue, “Din...I like it.” 

Through the modulator you can hear him release the breath he was holding in. He pulls you closer and your head lays back against his chest. His gloved fingers tracing patterns into your back.

 “Goodnight Din.” 

Day 3: Clarity - Maxwell Lord 

[keepmeinthedark]

To The Top || A Marauders Band AU

Chapter Two: You Gotta Not

Read here on A03

So Lily Evans brought a big asset to the band?

Only if you consider Remus Lupin to be a big asset, which I do.

Did Lily introduce them?

In time.

What happened in the meantime?

Before Remus joined the band there was just James, Sirius, and Frank. They lived together in this house called Maxwells house. It belonged to these twins Fabian and Gideon and they opened it up to anyone who needed a home. 

And what was Remus doing? What were you doing?

I was in Germany at the time, Remus was at university. But he had been friends with Lily since they were young and even though he was staying in a student accommodation he wasn't too far away for their friendship to change in any way.

//

Lily and Remus had spent New Year's Eve together. One of Remus' classmates held a party which they attended and stayed until the clock struck midnight. By the time they had made it back to his accommodation, it was three in the morning. They had both slept in Remus' bed without bothering to change their clothes or even take their make-up off, which then lead to one of the worst mornings in both of their lives.

It was eight in the morning when Remus's phone went off. He groaned when he saw his twin brother's name appear on the screen and held the phone to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Re, where are you?"

"What do you mean?" he paused. "Am I supposed to be somewhere?"

He could practically feel Rom rolling his eyes. "You and Lily both promised Mum that you'd help with the fate. Remember? The fate? The one that Mum has been stressing over for weeks?"

Shit.

"Ohhh yeah, yeah I completely remember god who do you take me for? Yeah me and Lils are on our way now, well be like five minutes tops I promise." and with that, he quickly hung up.

Shit Shit Shit Shit.

"Lily come on, we have to go," Remus said quickly as he shook his best friend awake.

Lily only groaned as she lifted her head off the pillow, she watched Remus rush around the room to grab the makeup wipes and cleaned off the smudged eyeliner he still had on. 

Lily didn't wait for an explanation, she just got out of the bed and found her way towards the nearest hairbrush.  It wasn't until they were waiting for the bus that Lily had asked where they were going.

"My mum's thing, remember? We said we would help."

Lily didn't look like she remembered but she nodded anyway. 

 "How long do you think we'll be?" 

Remus shrugged, "No idea. Why? Got somewhere to be?"

Lily rolled her eyes, "Got a hangover to cure is more like it."

 They had gotten to the fate twenty minutes later and immediately regretted not faking a sickness to get out of it.

Hope Lupin was a powerhouse and an amazing mum, she was loving and caring, and gentle. But she was a single mum who had raised three boys and was in the middle of raising another, which made her incredibly scary when she was stressed.

"There you two are!" she exclaimed when she saw Remus and Lily making their way down the field where the fate was being held. "I was about to send Petunia off after you guys, honestly why are you so late?"

Remus panicked, "Headache," he said.

Hope placed her hands to her hips and raised an eyebrow, "Is headache code for a hangover?" 

They both nodded.

Hope sighed, "There's coke, bananas, and water in that tent over there. Go and tip half of the water out of a bottle, fill the rest with coke, drink that, and eat a banana. I don't have time for this." she told them, quickly adding, "Its a hangover remedy," after seeing their confused faces.

"Where was this remedy all the other times we've been hungover?" Lily asked, acting offended.

Hope shrugged, "You never asked." 

"Still could've been useful." 

"How am I supposed to know that you're hungover if you never tell me!?" Hope exclaimed, throwing her hands in the air and turning her back on them in order to do other things.

"You're Mum!" Remus yelled back. "You know everything!"

"Two minutes! Get a move on!" was all that Hope yelled back.

 As Hope had promised the flat coke and bananas had helped their hangovers but unfortunately didn't make them any more prepared for the long day ahead of them. Remus' parents had divorced three years ago when Lyall had admitted that he had fallen for someone else. Remus doubts that his parents have ever been in love. They had his older brother, Lycus when they were in their twenties and before they were married. They did get married not long after he was born and three years after that they had Romulus and Remus, the twins also weren't planned. Neither was Macca, Remus' younger brother who was only 2 years old at the time of the divorce. 

His father's new girlfriend didn't last very long and got intimidated by the fact that he had four sons. Romulus has always said that he was certain that there was no girl, to begin with, they had never met her and their dad wasn't exactly someone who had luck when it came to romance. Romulus swears that he made her up to use as an excuse to get a divorce. Lycus believes him. Remus doesn't. 

Hope and Lyall still remained close friends and the boys are allowed to stay with either one of them as much as they like, but they spend the majority of their time with Hope, or at least Lycus, Romulus, and Remus do. Macca, who is now five, spends Monday to Thursday with Hope and Friday to Sunday with Lyall in hopes that he will grow up to have a close relationship with both parents.

Remus had nothing against his father, he was a good dad and never failed to make Remus feel loved. But he wasn't yet out to his dad yet and wasn't sure if it would go well if he did come out to him. He likes to think that his dad would try to be supportive but still doesn't want anything to change between them. Not only that but he preferred his mum's cooking.

Lyall worked as a teacher for a primary school near where he lived and Hope owned her own florist in town but would always pop into the other shops there to see if they needed any help when she had the time, which is what led to her helping out with the local coffee shops fate in order to help raise money for cancer research. This wasn't the first time Hope had dragged her children out of their usual routines to stand in a field in the middle of winter and most certainly won't be the last. But they always came, Remus would never admit it but he quite enjoyed these things. Hope had always wanted to help with certain school and church events and Remus was proud to have a mum who was so loved in the community, even if she was scary when she got into her boss mode.

By the time Remus had finished their drinks and properly woke up, there was already a crowd of people going around each stall, Remus had seen Romulus surrounded by little kids. He called them over when he saw them.

"Remus! Lily! You two are captains get over here!"

"Oh bloody hell," Remus said under his breath, noticing the football that he had in his hands.

  Sirius felt like his figures were going to fall off. It was January 1st, who set up an outdoor event on January 1st.

They had only just got there and he already wanted to desperately go home, he didn't dream his parents irrelevant and leave his whole family behind at the age of 22 just to play in the freezing cold, but James had insisted that this would be worth it and he seemed so excited for every gig Sirius could never say no.

It was during their first set that Sirius had seen her.

She had been all that James had talked about since their gig at the pub on Christmas eve, he could recite her description by memory.

Dark red hair that reached her chest.

Emerald green eyes.

Plus size

A smile that glows.

Exactly a head smaller than James.

Two piercings in her ear lobe and one in her cartilage.

A tattoo of a small tattoo of a wolf behind her ear.

And she was wearing white Doc Martens.

Yep, that was her. It had to be, she ticked every box (apart from the tattoo as she was too far away for Sirius to get a proper look. But she looked like a girl that would have one.)

Sirius' heart leaped. James was going to be so excited, all he could talk about throughout Christmas was how much he regretted not asking for her Instagram. He had to tell him.

He was going to tell him.

He had it all planned. He was going to give James that smile that only James got, the one that said "I know something you don't know," James always got so excited at good news. 

Then he was going to ask James once more how Lily Evans looked, and James would go on a ramble, giving out as much information about this girl that he could remember. Then he would spin James around and point her out and knowing James he would probably scream. Sirius couldn't wait, he was a hopeless romantic after all.

As they went through each song he couldn't take his eyes off her, he had to make sure that he knew where she was when he told James. And he was going to tell him, he was certain of it.

That is, he was certain of it until he saw him.

Now that's a sight that he will never be able to get out of his head.

Short blond curly hair.

Tall.

Thin, yet still had a bit of muscle.

Crooked nose. 

Amber eyes.

And a large scar going across his face, from his right eye down through his nose and ending just before his lips.

God his lips!

As they played on Sirius began to notice more and more about this mystery boy. He seemed to be friendly with Lily, they were playing football with a group of kids and it was obvious that he was pretending to not be good for their sake. There was another boy with them who had similar features. Must be a brother, Sirius thought.

The boy was dressed in a Queen t-shirt, a white one with a long-sleeved black shirt underneath, and his jeans were ripped. He wore eyeliner, his nails were painted black and he had multiple rings on his figures.

Sirius had never been more turned on until he saw him take a five-minute break to smoke a cigarette.

Sirius could never date a smoker. James was enough trouble, Sirius had lost count on how many times he had told him that he ought to quit but he never listens. Smoking kills everyone knows this so why did some people think that by some miracle they could be the exception.

Sirius was about to give it all up then and there, make his eyes go back to following Lily around, or maybe even have his brain focus on what he was actually supposed to be going. But once the boy had put out his cigarette and rejoined the group of kids one of them had fallen over and hurt their knee. The boy crouched down to their level and talked to the boy until he laughed while Lily got a wet paper towel and a plaster.

Damit, Sirius thought. Why do guys with kids always have to be so damn attractive?

 For the rest of their set, the only thing Sirius could see was him.

He had forgotten all about Lily Evans until they had finished. When they had gotten off the stage James had been bouncing up and down. His smile was the widest he had ever seen it. 

"It's her," he said quickly.

"Whos her?" Frank asked, looking at the crowd confused.

"Her, her. That girl I met a the pub last week. She's here."

"Go talk to her then." And while you're at it get me her mate's number?

James began to pale, "I can't just go up and talk to her," he told them shaking his head. "What if she hates me?"

Frank raised an eyebrow, "Why would she hate you, I thought you hit it off?"

"We did!"

"So go talk to her!"

James looked at Lily and then back at Sirius and Frank. He had now started picking at his figure nails, slowly picking one off and throwing it onto the ground.

"What do I say?" He asked, desperately. 

Frank seemed very confident. "Mate, you've just played for the entire day she surly noticed that it was you at one point. She's probably begging for you to go and talk to her."

James looked confused, "Then why hasn't she come up to me?" His eyes suddenly widened. "What if she really isn't interested? I mean I know I didn't ask for her Snapchat or anything but she didn't ask for mine either!" he said in one breath. Sirius was sure he may faint if he thought anymore.

Both James and Sirius looked at Frank who rolled his eyes. "She's the girl. You're supposed to be the one to ask her out and make the first move. Most girls are scared to ask out guys cause guys suck." He said it as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "Just take a deep breath, channel your confidence, and swipe her off her feet. You've got this."

James took a breath and nodded before making his way towards Lily who was having a conversation with a much taller boy. He looked a bit like Sirius' mystery boy but older, taller, and with darker hair and no scar. Maybe another brother.

Sirius and Frank both watched James approached Lily in silence. They watched him ask to talk to her, Sirius didn't miss the smile that appeared across her face. Unfortunately said smile began to slowly disappear once James began talking and before anyone could realize that this was indeed a bad idea, Lily had slapped James across the face and had begun to walk in the other direction. 

James all but stomped back towards Sirius and Frank, his glasses had fallen to the tip of his nose and his face had gone nearly bright red, though Sirius couldn't tell if it was from anger or embarrassment. 

He mumbled a "Let's go" and grabbed all of his belongings before making his way towards the van. All Sirius and Frank could do was stare at each other in disbelief.

"This is why we don't leave him alone unsupervised," Sirius mumbled. 

[fundiepredictions]

Youngest and oldest

The oldest:

Steve Maxwell (72)

Suzette Keller (68)

Teri Maxwell (68)

Loren Wissmann (66)

Gloria Wissmann (65)

Mike Keller (63)

Gil Bates (58)

JimBob Duggar (58)

Michelle Duggar (57)

Kelly Bates (56)

Esther Maxwell (three weeks)

Audrey Busenitz (1 month)

Ryker Bates (1 month)

Lily Bates (2 months)

Theodore Wissmann (2 months)

Baby Maxwell (~3 months)

Gideon Hill (3 months)

Owen Wissmann (4 months)

Nora Duggar (5 months)

Gunner Forsyth (5 months)

First list is now 15 years difference, second list a half year.