#cav & spooky

[cav1ty-aj]

yippie!!! me and @31616-aj’s pilot dragons!!!

[agbpaints]

Played a game of Classic Battletech yesterday- 7,000 points of the rag tag forces of the CCAF arrayed against a high-tech Escorpion Imperio raiding party from the far reaches of the Periphery. Our mission was a king of the hill scenario- capture and secure a center point (presumably some high tech wreck site) and keep the other guy from moving on it. I brought a sturdy, mobile gun line made up of a Blackjack and Grasshopper, backed by a fast cavalry group of a Man O' War, Wraith, and Spider, while my opponent fielded a Kingfisher supported by Battle Cobra, with a Hellion, Mist Lynx, and Fire Moth as outriders

Ngl what happened next was a bloodbath- clans have a bad tonnage deficit already and my opponent was too timid about pushing his fast movers onto the point. My Wraith and Spider made it there first, followed shortly thereafter by my Man O' War and then finally the Grasshopper, at which point I just had an insurmountable tonnage advantage that he couldn't kill before I scored the win. I managed to hit the Fire Moth and Mist Lynx with disabling shots early and the Gargoyle's SRM racks loading inferno ammo were enough to intimidate the Kingfisher into pulling its punches to avoid a heat lock. Clans really need boots on the ground early contesting the center point and to find a way to criple the opposition before they arrive, because even though we were evenly matched in mechs and BV, I just had more tons that could happily sit in the center ignoring their melting armor long enough to hit GGs.

On my side the Wraith, Blackjack, and Grasshopper were real stars. The Wraith, as always, is an immensely destabilizing piece for people to deal with, that forces them to either chase the buzzy little cav mech that keeps backstabbing stuff or actually deal with your battleline. Even if it 'only' deals 21 damage every other turn as it bops around, striking and cooling off, it has a bad habit of living in people's heads. The Blackjack 3 is a brutally efficient little flashbulb, carrying enough heat sinks to fire its twin PPCs while running for 3 turns before boosting away to cover to cool. It's effectively a small and better optimized version of the K1 Catapult. The Grasshopper is just a rocket powered brick that refuses to die and sinks heat frightening well for a late Succession War era design. It will bravely march into the fight and beat face until either it or every opponent is unsalvageable scrap.

On my opponent's side, the Kingfisher and the Battle Cobra were the real threats. As an omnimech with a standard engine, the Kingfisher is frighteningly durable and carries a truly fantastic ammount of GUN into fights to get nasty and brawl with. It got kinda stuck behind a hill for a bit but once it rounded the corner, PSRs began to be forced and armor counts started spiraling downward rapidly. The Battle Cobra is a similar beast to the Blackjack- the two pulse lasers it carries are spooky accurate and it can about sink them to keep you and your cav mech tomfoolery the fuck away from it. It's a little faster, but more fragile and less capable in rough terrain.

[r6shippingdelivery]

twitch cav wholesome christmas headcanons

During the holidays, Emmanuelle likes to paint a little red nose on Taina’s face when she’s in her outfit. Effectively making Taina the Red-Nosed Spooky Interrogator!

Taina is not used to cold environments/temperate climates so if she goes up with Emma for the holidays Emma makes sure to stock up on extra hot chocolate and blankets for her gf :3

Taina steals all of the blankets in the winter, much to Emma’s annoyance but only because Emma is still human and does need a minute amount of insulation.

They watch Christmas movies together and Taina has convinced Emma to wear little reindeer horns on her headset during practice (if anyone breaks them with the practice bullets, let’s just say Caveira’s coming for them.)

Ill think of more when i am not tired :3

Hey nonnie, these are adorable!! Thank you for sharing <3

[casbooks]

Books of 2023

Book 30 of 2023

Title: To the Limit: An Air Cav Huey Pilot in Vietnam Authors: Tom A. Johnson ISBN: 9780451222183 Tags: AC-47 Spooky, B-52 Stratofortress, CH-47 Chinook, CH-54 Tarhe, EOD, LAO Laos, LAO Laotian Civil War (1959-1975), LAO Operation Commando Hunt (1968-1972) (Laotian Civil War) (Vietnam War), LAO Operation Shining Brass / Prairie Fire / Phu Dong (1965-1975) (Laotian Civil War) (Vietnam War), O-1 Bird Dog, OH-13 Sioux, OH-23 Raven, OV-1 Mohawk, Pathfinders, UH-1 Huey, US Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, US USA 11th Aviation Group, US USA 11th Aviation Support Group, US USA 12th Cavalry Regiment, US USA 12th Cavalry Regiment - 2/12, US USA 15th Medical Det. - Mercy, US USA 173rd Airborne Brigade - Sky Soldiers, US USA 1st Cavalry Division, US USA 1st Cavalry Division - 11th Pathfinder Co., US USA 20th Aerial Rocket Artillery Bn, US USA 20th Aerial Rocket Artillery Bn - 2/20 - Blue Max, US USA 227th Assault Helicopter Bn, US USA 227th Assault Helicopter Bn - C/227, US USA 228th Assault Helicopter Bn, US USA 229th Assault Helicopter Bn, US USA 229th Assault Helicopter Bn - A/229 - Bandit, US USA 229th Assault Helicopter Bn - A/229 - Python, US USA 229th Assault Helicopter Bn - B/229 - Preachers, US USA 229th Assault Helicopter Bn - D/229 - Smiling Tiger, US USA 229th Assault Helicopter Bn - D/229 - Tom Cat, US USA 478th Aviation Co, US USA 7th Cavalry Regiment, US USA 7th Cavalry Regiment - 1/7 - C Troop, US USA 7th Cavalry Regiment - 2/7, US USA 8th Cavalry Regiment, US USA 8th Cavalry Regiment - 1/8, US USA 8th Cavalry Regiment - 1/8 - B Troop, US USA 8th Cavalry Regiment - 1/8 - C Troop, US USA 8th Cavalry Regiment - 2/8, US USA 8th Engineer Bn, US USA 9th Cavalry Regiment, US USA 9th Cavalry Regiment - 1/9, US USA 9th Cavalry Regiment - 1/9 - C Troop, US USA Fort Polk LA, US USA Fort Rucker AL, US USA Fort Rucker AL - Hanchey Army Air Field, US USA Fort Wolters TX (1963-1973), US USA General Creighton Abrams, US USA General John "Jack" Norton, US USA General John Tolson, US USA LRRP Team (Vietnam War), US USA United States Army, US USA USSF Green Berets, US USA USSF Special Forces, US USMC 3rd MarDiv, US USMC United States Marine Corps, US USN Construction Battalions (Seabees), US USN SEALS, US USN United States Navy, USA 5th SFG, VNM 1968 Tet Offensive (1968) (Vietnam War), VNM A Louie Airstrip, VNM A Shau Valley, VNM An Khe, VNM An Lao Valley, VNM Ba To Airstrip, VNM Battle of Hue City (1968) (Tet Offensive) (Vietnam War), VNM Battle of Khe Sanh (1968) (Tet Offensive) (Vietnam War), VNM Bong Son, VNM Bong Son Pass, VNM Bong Son River, VNM Camp Evans (Vietnam War), VNM Camp Radcliff (Vietnam War), VNM Cay Giep Mountains, VNM Central Highlands, VNM Command and Control North/FOB-4 (Vietnam War), VNM Da Nang, VNM Dak To, VNM Dam Tra-O Lake, VNM Dia Dong, VNM Dong Ha, VNM DRV NVA 22nd Regiment, VNM DRV NVA 325C Division, VNM DRV NVA 325C Division - 7th Bn, VNM DRV NVA 325C Division - 9th Bn, VNM DRV NVA 3rd Division, VNM DRV NVA North Vietnamese Army, VNM DRV VC Viet Cong, VNM Highway 1, VNM Highway 19, VNM Hill 450, VNM Hill 814 (LZ Peanuts) (Vietnam War), VNM Ho Chi Minh Trail (Vietnam War), VNM Hon Kon (Hong Kong Mountain) / (Signal Mountain), VNM Hue, VNM Hue Phu Bai, VNM I Corps (Vietnam War), VNM II Corps (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Bird (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Dog (Vietnam War), VNM LZ El Paso (Vietnam War), VNM LZ English (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Geronimo (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Laramie (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Pat (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Pepper (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Sally (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Sandra (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Sharon (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Signal Hill (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Stud (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Thor (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Tiger (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Tom (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Two Bits (Vietnam War), VNM LZ Vicki (Vietnam War), VNM Marble Mountain, VNM Nui Mot (The Rockpile), VNM Operation Arc Light (1965-1973) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Delaware / Lam Son 216 (1968) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Jeb Stuart (1968) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Pegasus / Lam Son 207 (1968) (Vietnam War), VNM Operation Pershing (1967-1968) (Vietnam War), VNM Phan Rang Air Base, VNM Phu Cat Mountains, VNM Quang Tri, VNM Quang Tri Province, VNM Qui Nhon, VNM RVN ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam, VNM Song Ba, VNM Song Chal Truc, VNM Song Re, VNM Song Re Valley, VNM Tam Quan, VNM US MACV Military Assistance Command Vietnam (Vietnam War), VNM US MACVSOG (1964-1972) (Vietnam War), VNM US UH-1 Huey Firefly Missions (Vietnam War), VNM US USAF Phu Cat Air Base (Vietnam War), VNM US USMC DHCB Dong Ha Combat Base (Vietnam War), VNM US USMC KSCB Khe Sanh Combat Base (Vietnam War), VNM US USMC MMAF Marble Mountain Air Facility, VNM US USMC QTCB Quang Tri Combat Base (Vietnam War), VNM Vietnam, VNM Vietnam War (1955-1975) Rating: ★★★★ (4 Stars) Subject: Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Aviation.US Army.Helos.Slicks, Books.Military.20th-21st Century.Asia.Vietnam War.Laotian Civil War.Aviation.Helos

Description: **The riveting memoir of a Vietnam War helicopter pilot. “When you step into a Huey with Tom Johnson, you’re in for the real thing. No one has previously captured the Vietnam helicopter experience with such gripping authority.”—Robert F. Dorr, author of Chopper   **   From June 1967 to June 1968, Tom Johnson accumulated an astonishing 1,600 flying hours piloting the UH-1 “Iroquois”—better known as the “Huey”—as part of the famous First Air Cavalry Division. His battalion was one of the most decorated units of the Vietnam War, and helped redefine modern warfare. Johnson’s riveting memoir takes us into key battles and rescue missions, including those for Hue and Khe Sanh. In harrowing detail, he tells of being shot down in the battle of A Shau Valley, of surviving enemy attacks during the Tet Offensive, and of a death-defying nighttime river rescue, in which only the bare feet of soldiers hanging off the Huey’s skids kept the helicopter from plunging under water. From dangerous missions to narrow escapes, Johnson’s memoir vividly captures the adrenaline rush and the horror of war, and takes you on a ride you’ll never forget.

[iamthescalesofjustice]

had a locked tomb dream in which one of gideons lowkey-only-bc-she-glosses-over-it-in-her-narration powers was teleportation as in she fucking kept teleporting and didnt seem to notice or think it was weird and when people called her on it she was like ‘yeah its called flash-stepping i read about it in some ancient-ass comic books i dug up in a back corner of the library on the ninth’ and everyone is like ‘???’ bc she says its not a necromantic technique bc everyone who did in it the ‘comic books’ (only the sixth know what manga is) she read was a warrior and most of them used swords so clearly its a secret advanced cav technique. and, she says, its not like it uses any spooky necro stuff, its ‘just a matter of honing yourself until you can move really fast’ so it might look like ‘teleportation’ to all of them but clearly that just shows that she got really good at it and is better than all of their fancy smancy ‘properly trained’ cavs. anyway, it turns out that using flashstep as the framework is the only reason why its been short line-of-sight bursts for her until now, once the penny drops she can straight up pop between planets. also she at one point mentions how ‘the wind’ roars really loudly in her ears while doing it and it turns out thats the sounds of the feral river ghosts bc she is, and i cannot stress this enough, constantly taking brief dips into the river. 

[parragone]



wait why did they go through all the trouble of introducing Sam Fisher the Spooky Bitch only to not make him captain of Team Spooky Bitches

like i get it Cav is spooky, she's gonna be spooky, but like. you introduce him as this "Badass" who's gonna whip the team into shape and thEN HE'S A SIDELINER? HE'S ON THE BENCH?? COACH WHAT

[bobotheninja]

they’re coming

[corvuscrowned]

today marks one year since i posted my very first fic, The Disappearing Act, which i suppose makes it my fandomversary. i’ve written a lot of words since that first fic, but i’ve also made some incredible friends who have been exceptional support both in my writing and in life.

i wanted to take a second to thank some of the folks who have made my fics possible with alpha and beta reading. this is a remarkable amount of volunteer labor that i think sometimes goes unappreciated in fandom, and the folks who are willing to help each other out with writing are seriously the glue holding all of this together. many of my betas have worked on numerous of my projects with me, so here are some of the amazing friends who have alpha and beta’d multiple of my fics over this past year, and a cheeky little plug for some of their own writing.

@m0srael​, who was an angel who swooped in to beta my first longfic when i was just a fandom baby and made me feel welcome and supported when i needed it most, and has read many a word for me thereafter. check out: my remarkable erised gift To Vanish Into Something Better, as well as their amazing timey-wimey fic, Our Time, that I will never forget.

@thebooktopus​, an early fandom partner in crime who was a joy to learn the ropes alongside. oh, maddy - saver of endings, calmer of crows. where would i be without you? check out: the soft yearning of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, the scaldingly sexy What Have You Been Hiding Under Those Robes, Professor Malfoy?

@t4tvegaspete​, the love of my life, who has alpha or beta read the vast majority of the fics i’ve written this year (we’re talking over 250k of my words), and without whom i would unequivocally not be the writer or person i am today. check out: their sexy-spooky Deal With The Devil and their wistfully sharp A Problem For Another Time.

@cavendishbutterfly​, who has made my fandom experience so warm and memorable and who never complains when i slide into their dms to ask if they can beta something for me, “uhhh... by, like, tomorrow?” ugh, cav, i don’t have words to say how much brighter you’ve made my time in fandom. check out: their cozy mystery cluefest The Ever Changing Room, their flannel, mitski, and cat infused friends to lovers song from the morning birds.

@vukovich​, who is evil in the way i enjoy most, who was a guiding hand in my early days of fandom, and whom i will now stop saying nice things about because i know she’s allergic. beta’d my 80k erised in like a week like a fucking champ and caught every plot hole i crammed into the thing. check out: her sexy, evil Vis-à-Vis-à-Vis, and her sexy, bittersweet Fearfull Trill.

@sorrybutblog​​, who is currently alpha reading my longass 110k and growing WIP with exceptional patience and irreplaceable insights, and who has allowed me to send her even more thousands of words of rambling thoughts in dms without complaining once. a vision, a saint, should become emperor of the universe. check out: her age-bent, whip-sharp and characteristically poignant Not Nineteen Forever, and her comforting, enrapturing, and mysterious Heartlines.

@crazybutgood​​, SPaG wizard extraordinaire, who has beta read more words for me than i can count with remarkable turnaround time and the sweetest, kindest words of support. check out: her fluffy, origami-infused fangfest Heart On Your Sleeve, and this amazing podfic she did for T4T.

@moonstruckwytch​, who beta read almost all of my fearfest fics from last year and was a hell of a beta and spooky writing partner whose company made last october unforgettable. check out: their fast-paced, rivetingly romantic catch a break, and their spooky My Bloody Valentine entry iterum.

this isn’t even close to a full list of everyone who has helped work on my fics in this past year, and i’m sending every single one of you a bouquet of noncorporeal roses. thanks to all of u, and to everyone who has read anything i’ve written, looked at my silly doodles, chatted with me abt fandom meta, and made this space feel like a home for the past year. you guys are all the coolest.

[hafula]

Thoughts on paul? Both as a reader and. From a system perspective

forgive me for how long this is in advance. i didnt realize when i started it so its going under readmore.

okay. god. paul made me EMOTIONAL like idk it was so everything with them sprinkling hints to whatever the fuck they got going on and all theyre doing to keep in contact when they cant be present in the same time, and when palamedes finally possessed naberius and kicked out ianthe and they had a Moment and they kept having Moments and it made so much sense for them to merge their souls completely. a new type of lyctorship. like it wasnt two bodies independent and it wasnt the adept absorbing their cav, it was just completely melding to become one person and i like how they highlighted that they Were camilla and palamedes, now theyre literally camilla-and-palamedes while not being specifically either of them but the sum of both in a new person you can still recognize. pure and utter 2 way street sort of devotion shit. this is what lyctorship should have been to me. it really should have been combining two separate souls into one, instead of a power imbalance or being split apart in such a way. idet john and alectos lyctorhood would be achievable for Literally Anyone Else though just bc of how it was described... i digress. i really do think it all goes back to devotion and the deep and unspoken bond between a necro and their cav... it all goes back.. it all goes back

anyway that also ties in with the system aspect for me though bc im an alter whose gone under fusion with another part before and its like.. yes we used to be two different parts but we were at a point where integration was safe and now instead of being either part were both in very complicated and nuanced ways. new person while also not at all. and bouncing back to before the merge it is quite a stereotypical thing for parts to interact through recordings and letters, but like... its a stereotype for a reason. i find notes from my alters usually in our discord server. when the dissociations too bad its like the only way we can communicate unless we go through connor or take to journalling. but it never felt impressed upon as weird or anything to really truly note upon in the sensationalized way other did allegories in medias tend to do, and theyre Literally sharing the same body since palamedes is a spooky ghost. also i said it before but the smooth transitions between pal and cam were my favorite part of it all because you really couldnt tell until pal stepped out of line with what other Extremely Fucking Observant Weirdos expected of cam. the one time they visibly switched was when the jig was up anyway which like! it works then! it didnt feel cheap! i loved paul!! every second!! i never found myself worrying where itd go because it didnt go anywhere—tmuir stayed in her lane even if she was unaware of it, displayed an incredibly complicated character relationship well, and didnt make any jabs that could have been ableist. i dont think it could have ended up any other way to me, paul is like one of my fav ntn characters i think.

tl;dr pauls my best friend and tmuir still stays winning in my book. no real objections from me from my first readthru, though if i pick it up again ill update to see if that changes.

[aeondeug]

So while I was reading GtN and HtN I occasionally stopped to be like “Wow, it’s great how these can be just so gay!” And like. That is really great. Super great. I love that about them. But I also remember at least once stopping and going “Wow, it’s great that there’s no homophobia here!” And like at the time I just kind of nodded along to myself. Around when I just finished GtN, I remember being very fond of the bit after the book with like the guy explaining like. The deal with necro/cav relationships in The Media and throughout history and how actually none of these things have ever been romance. This is just a pure relationship, unaffected by naughty things like ROMANCE. WHY DOES EVERYTHING NEED TO BE ROMANCE?! shouts the author of this paper. And I laughed at this. Because it reminded me a lot of people who do this shit with queer love. They do it with history and just go “Why does Sappho have to be gay, why can’t she just have passionate feelings for her BFFs”. Which is mindbogglingly stupid to me and anyone who has so much as LOOKED at some of the poem fragments. But like people do say that shit. And they do this a lot over like queer anything in fiction unless it like punches you in the face with rainbows immediately. “Why do Bubblegum and Marceline have to be gay? They’re just friends!” is a take that I legitimately saw on the day of the finale. And not just once. I saw it a few times. And I’ve seen that happen over so many ships in so many things, whether or not the ships end up canon. “Why does it have to be gay?” and the specific sort of outrage over it I’ve seen in essay length posts is just common, and that sort of outrage reads very similar to the argument that dude made about necro/cav relationships. It reads like that and close enough so that I made a joke about it even. I didn’t think too, too much on this at first though because I mean. We have Abigail and Magnus. They’re right there. A man and a woman, a husband and a wife. So like I was able to simultaneously go “omg it’s just like those why can’t they just be friends WHY DOES IT NEED TO BE GAY people” and also “wow it’s nice that there are spooky negative queer experiences of SADNESS here”. Which has got me thinking. Ok. So we have that essay. Now what else do we have in the books? I suppose could point at the entirety of Gideon and Harrow’s just furious refusal to admit that they might actually be in love with one another. Even though it appears to be obvious to literally everyone else in the galaxy. And is obvious to the readers. Hell, Gideon even has a moment of feeling like she needs to tell Harrow something the day before she dies. Something which is heavily romance coded, I don’t know the word for it. But like a “Wow I feel a need to tell them something and it’ll be my last shot” before a death just kind of always reads “It was an ‘I love you’. They needed to say it and didn’t get a chance”. So we’ve got that and, specifically, we’ve got their outrage at the suggestions. Gideon stresses that she’s JUST Harrow’s cav. And she’s very fucking insistent on that. Part of the why is that she knows Harrow is in love with a fucking dead girl in a casket but like. It just hits a certain way. There’s also Harrow’s just repeated disgust she expresses towards the concept of necro/cav relationships. She needs to explain away to herself that like, well, Abigail and Magnus were ALREADY married before he was named her cavalier primary so maybe that makes it fine. And even then she’s not like super duper comfy with the idea. A taboo has been broken, Harrow feels, and she needs to get really rules lawery to find any comfort with that. Other small things that feel of note to me here are the nature of the ways we know that these two are gay outside of like. Their weird thing for one another. With Gideon we’re introduced to it basically immediately with her joke about titty mags. Harrow specifically makes a comment at some point that some of the magazines Gideon gets are very gross, yes. Her interest in women is explicitly made sexual from the get go, and the idea that The Gays are just weird sex fiends and there is no love there is a frequent one. With Harrow meanwhile we know because she says she’s in love with the girl in the Locked Tomb. Who is very much dead. A thing that is fucky enough that like there is an entire song and dance about “GIDEON THE FIRST IS MAKING OUT WITH A CORPSE??????” and how Harrow is a hypocrite for being so offended by that all. Also the girl is behind the door. She is something that isn’t supposed to be seen or known about or, heaven forbid, woken up. That is all the ultimate taboo and Harrow not only fucking broke that but she looked at the girl and went “Wow I’m in love” on the spot. So we have this collection of things that could be read as some sort of metaphor for like...The taboo nature of queer love. “Why can’t they just be friends?” and issues of purity and the lack thereof. And we have characters who are very clearly in love but who can’t just admit that because they think there’s something fucking wrong with that. Gideon’s JUST her cav and Harrow is also in love with a dead chick. We also have Magnus and Abigail around who are just like. Happily married and fine with things regarding their whole necro/cav aesthetic. Ianthe doesn’t seem to give a shit that Gideon’s into Harrow at all. There’s a fondness for necro/cav relationships enough that there’s an entire romance genre centered on them and like characters in the cast are fond of those, some of them. Things appear to be Fine, at least as far as their friends are concerned. Maybe the asshole writing the essay that kicked this pondering off would have an issue and a stuffy old grandma would pitch a fit. But like their friends don’t have a problem with necro/cav shit. But we still very much have Gideon and Harrow being “Well no. We’re just a necromancer and their cavalier. GOD.” Now part of what got me thinking about this is that I recently decided to start watching Bly Manor. Because fuck it we haven’t yet. And specifically part of why is I remember seeing an analysis of it done by Rowan Ellis which had this bit where like the argument that “Bly Manor proves you can do queer stories without homophobia being a part of it!” is brought up and like...Ellis is like “Ok but we very much do just lock a queer woman in a literal closet while she screams to be let out”. And lo and behold in the first episode we very much do just lock a queer woman in a literal closet while she screams to be let out. In an episode showing that she’s like just unable to go back home for...some reason. And that she has some sort of difficulty with her relationship with her mother. No, the show is not having the character literally go “Wow I sure am in the closet and I kind of fucking hate that woe is me I am so gay”. But figuratively? It’s all over the place in that first episode. I’m not sure about the others because I haven’t watched them, but it is there in the very first one. And that’s something horror does very well. It takes things that are scary and uncomfortable and bundles them up in shades of metaphor. It hides them from  you by showing you the thing cleverly disguised. Maybe you do not notice it the first time through perhaps. Maybe you felt that a certain thing like the closet scene resonated very hard with you and you’re not sure why. But you perhaps don’t consciously go “Aha! It is the horror of being closeted!” Upon looking back on it or back through it though you might notice it. And be like “Oh that was there. Holy fuck.” Now maybe you’re also someone who isn’t like. Comfortable. With straightforward depictions of specifically queer suffering. Maybe it’s just too scary. But with this show hiding it in a metaphor you got to sit through that. You got to be brave enough to sit through a very, very scary thing. And afterwords you go to think about it. This is the power of metaphor and it’s something horror has been very, very good at doing for ages. Maybe racism or homophobia or whatever else is too nerve wracking for you to look at face on in media, but maybe you can watch a movie or a show where the horror of those things are very much there but cloaked in metaphor. And so maybe we are getting that with Gideon and Harrow’s weird issues around how “taboo” their feelings are. Two people who are just unwilling to believe that it might be that thing, in part because that thing is “taboo”. Except instead of the taboo being literally “They’re lesbians, Harold,” it’s instead cloaked in a comforting metaphor of necro/cav relationships and some dude who is really fucking offended at people’s space ao3 fanfictions about his historical favs. Which is important because every fucking scrap of anything one gets is an argument. It can’t just be that they’re in love. It’s that you must PROVE it and some asshole with a degree or just a bone to pick is going to come by and be like “WHY CAN’T THEY JUST BE A NECRO AND A CAV” about it all. And like I’m someone who’s known they’re into other women for a long while now. At least half my life. We have conquered that hurdle. But we haven’t entirely unpacked all the weird little societal bullshit that is still in there. Hiding. Lurking. And that societal bullshit specifically frames that sort of love as something gross and taboo and “Why Can’t They Just Be Friends?”. With that last thing hurting a lot. I’ve constantly run across people going “Why can’t they just be friends?” or going “They just have a sisterly relationship!” about things I shipped. Even when those things involved shit like the characters kissing on screen or mentioning that they’ve been dating in a sequel series. I can’t simply like my ships. I can’t simply see myself in romance. Because my sort of love is so taboo that it is, in itself, a debate. Maybe being shown the thing cleverly disguised as another thing might help me unpack that. At the very least it helps me look at it. When it’s something that hurts a lot to this day.

[cav1ty-aj]

happy anniversary to the love of my life @31616-aj <3

[itsbenedict]

ooooh! general thoughts on gideon the ninth?

it tends to take two people i know recommending something for me to give it a shot, and easily the main reason i upgraded it from "i should check that out sometime" to "okay, lemme go to barnes and noble" was nightpool's tags on this post. i had to know just who the heck this guy was who i was second-most-likely to secretly be after scott

anyway we barely meet the guy in this one so i guess i'll have to read Harrow the Ninth too

nonspoilery thoughts: i feel like i've seen someone make this joke before, but it's an entirely accurate analysis: this is absolutely a deep AU davekat fic. Dave Strider Gideon is one of my favorite protagonists ever, with her narration constantly butting in on the very serious necromantic purple prose. it's a shame she was forbidden from speaking for so much of the book, because every word out of her mouth is gold. i particularly cracked up at “Did you know that if you put the first three letters of your last name with the first three letters of your first name, you get ‘Sex Pal’?”

speaking of Sex Pal, Sex Pal was my second-favorite after gideon, because in a spooky haunted ruin full of egotists and lunatics, he was just relentlessly reasonable. this representative of the secret reclusive temple of hoarded knowledge on the planet fucking mercury could've easily been such a huge basketcase- he'd have been well within his rights to be a basketcase- but instead he just kept being perfectly civil and making good decisions time after time after time.

i also quite liked- well, spoiler thoughts:

Dulcinea was a lot of fun, with the "yeah, I'm super dead anyway, so I'm just gonna go hard" energy she had going on- but, y'know, that wasn't Dulcinea. And... I kind of knew she had to be the big bad. Not because I'd seen through her disguise or anything, but...

...I mean, people have been talking about Gideon the Ninth on my dash for ages, and I've osmosed some things, but... I had never heard the name Dulcinea Septimus before. The way she was making constant goo-goo-eyes at Gideon, I knew there was no way in hell she wasn't either the main villain, or dead by the end, or more realistically both... and not be like, a major ship everyone was constantly talking about. Obvious Gideon and Harrow were endgame, but I know I'd have heard out of context Daverezi Dulcideon shipping discourse before if there wasn't some horrible reason nobody was shipping that. Something was going to happen by the end to make sure nobody thought that was cute, because it was so cute. Hell, I'd ship it if it weren't all a horrible ruse by someone who was trying to kill everyone and also (potentially, if nightpool's evaluation is reliable) me.

What I was not spoiled on by dashboard osmosis somehow, was the ending. Like, what? Gideon dies at the end?!? Harrow's Lyctor ascension scene was like, very well done, and super cool, but I can't believe that Gideon's just, straight-up gone now, modulo whatever part of her has sort of been absorbed by Harrow for Lyctory purposes. Harrow's a good character, sure, but is the next book really not going to have Gideon interrupting the narration with blunt observations and dirty jokes constantly?? How the fuck!

also :( sex pal bit it too. i mean cool sacrifice with the turbocancer and all, good move, not pointless at all, A+ way to go out- but maaaaan, i wanted more of him

speaking of character deaths, oof baboof with Jeannemary. we get Isaac's tragic death versus the ultraskeleton murderconstruct, and she cries her eyes out and has to deal with loss, a cav without her necro, that character arc gets teased- and then the one-two punch, holy shit. really took advantage of my expectations there; i was not expecting her to die after surviving round 1.

and magnuuuuuuuuuuuus!!!! nooooooo!!!!! if dulcinea had killed anyone else first, i'm sure there would be shippers and apologists, but she had to open by kicking the dog as hard as possible. if she'd killed off, like, fuckin Silas or Judith or some shit, people would like her still, but noooo, she had to go for Mister Dad Guy, who did nothing wrong!

...oh, i said i totally called Dulcinea being the big bad, but i can't give myself that much credit- while i knew for meta reasons she couldn't be as innocent as she seemed, my main suspects for most of the story were actually Ianthe and Coronabeth. my reasoning went... they killed Magnus and Abigail, right? and all they had on them was the initial Teacher key. and... presumably there's only one key per House, right? and if the two have some kind of rivalry going on, if they're competing against each other, then one of them would be without that key. If one controlled Naberius and the other needed to skulk around solo, they'd need a key, and they couldn't get it from Teacher- hence needing to kill someone who already had one. and who would be a more attractive target than the Fifth, whose cavalier was demonstrably incompetent in combat, and whose necro was a spirit-talker who could potentially out her by calling up her victim if left alive?

what i missed was that Coronabeth wasn't a necromancer, and so the idea of one of them going it alone and trying to compete the necromantic trials separately made zero sense. poor Corona!

another reason they were main suspects was- i'd also never heard the name Coronabeth, but I'd heard about Ianthe a lot. she's a Vriska, apparently! she's missing the arm and everything! she has to be up to no good somehow! and since i hear about Ianthe all the time, but never once heard about her hot twin sister she's always with, I assumed Coronabeth also was bound to be a villain or dead, because no one talks about her and she's apparently such a big deal in the life of someone so prominent in fandom. i... did not predict the exact manner in which she would be sidelined. "she could've taken me!" is... pretty brutal!

anyway, definitely ordering Harrow the Ninth immediately, because the dangling plot threads left after this thing have got me by throat and i gotta know what the deal is with gideon's mysterious ancestors and the chilly weirdo in a coffin and this Emperor Undying dude i might secretly be.

[gffa]

CELEBRATE THE STAR WARS GALAXY’S GREATEST HOLIDAY WITH LIFE DAY TREASURY WRITERS CAVAN SCOTT AND GEORGE MANN TALK TO STARWARS.COM ABOUT THEIR NEW BOOK, COMING FROM DISNEY LUCASFILM PRESS THIS SEPTEMBER. The galaxy far, far away meets wintery tales of holiday cheer? That might sound like a stretch, but it’s a no-brainer according to Star Wars author Cavan Scott. “Winter festivals are all about hope in the darkest times, about being surrounded by family and friends,” says Scott. “What is more Star Wars than that?” He has a point, and he’ll soon prove it — alongside co-author George Mann — with Life Day Treasury: Holiday Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away, coming September 7 from Disney Lucasfilm Press. Revealed here exclusively on StarWars.com, Life Day Treasury will be a collection of eight stories centered around the Star Wars galaxy’s favorite holiday, Life Day, as well as other holidays and winter festivals, featuring stunning paintings by Grant Griffin. The tales promise to span different eras while bringing themes of hope, family, kindness, and love. Life Day Treasury began with an idea that Scott had for Star Wars holiday stories, which ended up resulting in a reunion and a collaboration. “When I made the original pitch for the book, [Lucasfilm Publishing creative director] Mike Siglain suggested that we bring George on board as he had already produced two wonderful books of Star Wars folklore, Myths and Fables and Dark Legends. Teaming up made total sense, especially as George and I have a long history of working together,” he says. “Who wouldn’t want to make up Christmas stories with one of their best mates? Of course, our friendship was severely tested when I insisted on playing ‘Christmas In the Stars,’ the galaxy’s greatest festive album, on loop during our work sessions.” “Life Day Treasury is an idea that Cav had been talking about for some time, and I’d always thought it would make a brilliant book,” adds Mann. “We both love Christmas tales, from spooky fireside ghost stories to heart-warming winter fables, and it seemed such a good fit with Star Wars.” And as Mann had crafted Myths and Fables and Dark Legends with artist Grant Griffin, he was brought along for the ride, as well. “Grant did such an amazing job illustrating Myths and Fables and Dark Legends, that there could only be one choice when it came to the artist for this book,” Mann says. “He’s a true inspiration, and he knows how to bring the mythic side of the Star Wars galaxy to life.” One tale dials back the clock to the High Republic era — centuries prior to the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and during the height of the Jedi Order — as can be seen in the above art depicting a Jedi in a snow-kissed city. “Cavan has been involved with the High Republic project since the very start, so it seemed like an obvious choice to set one of our stories during that time, and it was fantastic to be able to get involved with this exciting new era and to tell a story about Jedi Master Stellan ‘on patrol’ during Coruscant’s winter festivities,” Mann says. “It’s inspired by that classic ‘Christmas in the city’ sub-genre, which shows a different side to the pomp and circumstance of the High Republic.” And there’s one tale guaranteed to melt hearts that can be summed up in three words. “I think the first line in my original pitch for the book was ‘Ewoks in snow,’” Scott says. “Anyone who talks to me about Star Wars knows my love of the furry little warriors and this seemed too good an opportunity to miss. Both George and I are huge fans of winter folklore and through stories like this we wanted to explore the customs and beliefs that had developed on a number of worlds in the galaxy, including, of course, the forest moon of Endor.” So when the holiday season comes and it’s beginning to look a lot like Hoth, grab a blanket (preferably one that’s Star Wars-branded) and enjoy a new kind of Star Wars book. “The Star Wars galaxy is so rich and deep that you can tell almost any sort of story within it, and festive winter tales are no exception,” says Mann. “These are the perfect stories to curl up with before the fire, sipping a hot blue milk.” Life Day Treasury: Holiday Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away arrives September 7 and is available for pre-order now.

[playing-card-coining]

idk if its been done before but if not, could you do a flag for ca/cav/cadaver/cor/corpse pronouns? thank u !

I’m sorry these pronouns are a bit too spooky for us :( but we’d love to do any others if you’d like!!!

[cavendishbutterfly]

CAV I just read your microfics for "cinderella" and "peculiar" and I gotta know the answer to question 1 of the writer asks!! Because!!! Your mind wow

Hiya Phoebe <3 thank you for the ask! And I’m so so glad you liked those microfics. I keep thinking I might write more in this world one day, if inspiration strikes.

(spoilers ahead)

1: What inspired you to write the fic(s) this way?

A Cinderella-style ball is a favorite indulgence of mine, so when I saw the microfic prompt “Cinderella” I knew I wanted the boys waltzing in princely attire. Hell, I wanted Harry to be a prince. So I made him think he was one.

In part two I wanted to escalate and explore. If Harry had lost his memory, why was he trapped? Why had no one found him? I wanted a weird atmosphere to heighten the sense of wrongness (we were also admittedly heading into spooky season). I wanted to see how Harry might fall for Draco here with no memory of their pasts. I think I’d had some odd dreams myself before writing this second part, so Draco’s rude awakening...that was pulled a bit from my own recent experience.

Send me more questions, if you have any! Here’s the original post.

[obsidiancreates]

I’m startin’ up a taglist for my Milo Murphy’s Law fics!

Here’s a link to the fics I have so far, feel free to peruse and decide if you’d like to be on the list or not! :D

Reasoning (Dakavendish) (Little accidental love confession fic)

Midnight Chat About The Past (That No Longer Exists) (Established Dakavendish relationship, Dakota talks about his backstory)

The Crossover Nobody Asked For (VenturianTale and Milo Murphy’s Law) (Pretty self explanatory there, Dakota and Cavendish go to investigate possible alien activity and meet the VenturianTale characters, who are all nuts, and some shenanigans ensue. Slight Dakavendish at the very end.)

A Day Of Unexpected Truths (Part One) A Day Of Unexpected Truths (Part Two) A Day Of Unexpected Truths (Part Three) A Day Of Unexpected Truths (Part Four) A Day Of Unexpected Truths (Part Five) A Day Of Unexpected Truths (Part Six) A Day Of Unexpected Truths (Part Seven/Finale)

(When one of Doof’s inventions accidentally zaps Dakota, he’s compelled to tell the truth all day without even realizing it. This leads to many incidents of a flustered and confused Cavendish being subjected to Dakota’s honest, open thought of him. In the end, will Cavendish finally get a clue and realize Dakota’s true feelings for him?

Spoiler alert: Yes.)

Blood Blooms In The Crystal Glow (Prologue) Blood Blooms In The Crystal Glow (Part One) Blood Blooms In The Crystal Glow (Part Two)

(Cavendish drags Dakota to investigate some mysterious, spooky glows and lights in the woods, thinking it might be aliens and a shot at that promotion. Instead, they find a creepy old manor. Strange energy signals make Cavendish throw caution to the wind, and they discover a whole new danger within the manor walls...

AKA Cav and Dakota find vampires, but not yet ‘cause we’re only 3 parts in. But it’ll happen soon don’t worry.)

So that’s all my current Milo Murphy’s Law fics! I also post them over on AO3, if you prefer reading on that platform, but yeah this post is specifically about if you’d lile to be tagged when I post MML (mainly Dakavendish) content here on Tumblr! :D

Just let me know in a comment, reblog, or ask, and I’ll add you to the list!