#for beltalowda

[talesfrommedinastation]

“The people who escaped your pitiful grasp hold duty, honor, and family above all—things you will never have.

And we, here in our system, are unbent, unbroken, and unbowed.

Come to our home, and we will burn you into dust, so small that even the stars can not collect what remains of you.

We will space your soldiers, we will obliterate your ships, and we will be without mercy for anything that remains. If you come for the Sol system, the last thing you will hear is the screams of your own destruction in your ears.

The gauntlet is thrown. I recommend not taking it.”

Camina Drummer, 'Duty, Honor, Family' Far Past the Ring.

[talesfrommedinastation]

Earthers: Look at all this tall bois on this station!

Belters: LMAO, look at these thicc stocky beratnas up in here.

Source: The Expanse wiki.

In the Bad Batch, it's not that Hunter is by any means small. It's that the rest of them are freakishly tall even by regular human standards.

Though compared to wrecker, Hunter is of course, very smoll.

[redshift-art]

I no longer felt connected to my previous profile picture, so I made a new one

[fandomibatrix]

Camina Drummer, S06E05

Something about Drummer makes you want to commit to her..fiercely

[lady-wyrd]

people who love The Expanse, what are other Sci-fi shows that you love?

[talesfrommedinastation]

Oh man, @eyecandyeoz got me when I'm cooking in the kitchen! I've got even more one-shots from Tales from Medina Station happening soon! But let's start from the beginning and work our way back (all are The Bad Batch and/or The Expanse):

Far Past the Ring:

The forested planet was small, even by outer rim standards.

According to the scans on the Marauder, outside of a handful of native non sentient animals, there were no others on the small, forested planet. It was a perfect hiding spot outlet for Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, and Omega.

"What's this place called?" asked Wrecker, wrestling Gonky into yet another lifting session.

"Station 47, I believe," Tech replied, steering them towards a landing spot in the middle of a field, "It's been an abandoned outpost by the Republic for quite some time. There is not even a presence of sentient life forms here."

2. A Conversation in the Sick Bay:

The room was unlike any sick bay that Crosshair had been in before. Unlike the cold, sterile rooms of the Empire's hospitals, the hospital room on Medina Station was designed to be a calm and peaceful environment. The clone's room was filled with soft lighting, the walls painted a gentle blue, almost as if he was in the deep end of a pool. Black and white pictures of engineering layouts of Medina Station itself were framed next to each other on the wall.

3. The Fairest in the Galaxy, or Echo the Disney Princess (this one I'm cheating, and just putting the Magic Mirror's rhyme, because it's just that insane):

“He was maimed and turned into a wreck

Then rescued by some guy named Tech

I afraid to tell your majesty

Echo, CT-1409, is more fair then thee.”

4. Mi Omega:

Sjael was unusual, in the fact that she enjoyed sitting in the examining room of a doctor’s office. Having grown up in her father’s clinic, she always associated the sterile environment with the end of waiting after a long day of school, her bespectacled father coming in, and giving her a series of slaps on the back, (as Dr. Drummer was many things, but a hugger, he was not) before taking her and her sister home. 

But this time, when the door opened in Sjael’s examining room on Medina Station, a different Dr Drummer appeared.

5. Tenye Fo Me, Teki:

Tech looked over to see Wrecker fiddling with the gun deck, again. Normally, he’d have some strong words to tell his brother to be careful with the Marauder , but his mind was elsewhere today.

As it usually had been since they arrived on Station 47.

He picked up his backpack, checked his guns, and began to walk off into the woods. Omega and Hunter were out hiking in the woods, no doubt trying to get a new signal and see if they could contact Echo. 

6. Kom Wanya Xom:

It was a typical Friday on Medina Station for Dr. Sjael Drummer. After finishing up the latest creation of the newest sucrose strain, Sjael quickly made sure that the processes had completed before sterilizing her lab equipment, turning off the fume hoods, and wiping down the tables.

Once she had stopped cleaning, the engineer waved goodbye to her colleagues, went to her locker, and changed from her lab coat to her long blue vest, which hung over her black shirt and leggings. She then wrapped the drapes of the vest around her torso, to make sure none of it would get caught in the spokes of her bike. 

7. Good Enough:

Hunter and Tech had agreed, while at the Marauder , to discuss a new possibility of going to the Ring Gate. After weeks of talking about her new home, Sjael had convinced everyone, with the exception of Hunter, that Medina Station���the planet sized space station within a place called the Ring Gate–would protect them from the Empire’s reach. 

The walk over to the Idunn, Sjael’s house sized gunship, was quick and quiet, with hunter being especially silent. Tech paid him no mind–he was already thinking about how to potentially get to the station if Sjael’s ship did not have hyperdrive. 

8. Into the Techiverse!: (This one's a little funny, as two of the first segments were generously written by two of the OCs owners, @ilikemymendarkandfictional and @moosethren, both of whom are talented writers as well, count this as a tag. I will put my own in as a result below)

Tech knew multiple things, but there were two on his mind today.

The first was trying to better understand the new technology available to him in this new universe, that of the Sol system, including that of the blue-tinged alien technology, the Protomolecule.

The second, was to understand how the coffee maker in the main systems office of Medina Station worked. 

9. Shoxa mi dem Setara:

It was a quiet night on the Marauder, on Station 47. It had been a week since the remains of Clone Force 99 had landed on the remote planet, and the quiet of the forested planet had been a welcome distraction for everyone. This was especially so for Tech, who was sitting in front of the camped Marauder, looking at his data pad, chewing on a ration bar. Omega, Hunter, and Wrecker were inside of the ship, asleep already. 

Tech, meanwhile, was struggling. After all, it was quiet moments like these where his mind would wander. He wondered where Echo was with Rex, sometimes, and other times, thought about Crosshair, and what he was doing with the Empire. 

I like big projects, and I can not lie. Tagging y'all if you want to join in: @wrenkenstein @supremechancellorrex @perfectlywingedcrusade @techs-stitches @isthereanechoinhere96 @sunkissedclones @sued134 @that-salmonberry-punk

Creator Self-Promotion

Rules: post the first lines of your last 10 fics you posted. If you have less than 10 fics posted, post the first lines of all your fics.

"But K, I don't write but I still create can I still play?"

Post your last 10 pieces and give us a play by play. What was the inspiration? Any fun facts you can share with us?

Anyway let's get on with it

1. Fishing for Compliments - Merman!Crosshair x F!Reader

A sigh passed the young woman’s lips as the sun began to disappear beneath the waves. The waves rocked her quaint vessel as if it were a mother soothing her child. Her meal as well as a plate of identical food remained untouched as she kept her gaze to the depths. Every ripple of its surface a reminder of the mounting minutes that her company kept her waiting.

2. Drop Me a Line - Wrecker x F!Reader

The young woman stifled a yawn as she continued to work the mass of dough to her standards to be plopped into pans to bake. She continued working the dough sparing glances to the chrono on the wall as the sky outside began to lighten with the sunrise. Her pulse spiked when the chrono was checked again. She abandoned the lump of dough as she snatched up a pastry box. The bell chiming as the door opened and closed.

3. Budding Romance - Rex x F!Reader

“And you’re sure you’ll have them there.”

“A bit of faith would be nice, Anakin.”

4. Skin in the Game - Wrecker x OC (Rina) (18+ Please view responsibly)

Wrecker was on the hunt. Thankfully the Marauder held only a few spaces to hide away as he searched the ship. His target tucked away by the sensors. Vibroblade twirling between his fingers while his idle gaze stared at the screen. The demolitions expert took a breath, hoping to find answers.

5. Hair Support - Tup x Reader

The days of the Clone Wars tended to drag on in between assignments. Thankfully, the Republic saw it fit to dispatch your research team with a clone legion escort to ensure the lush jungle planet would not eat you and your colleagues alive. It was in the sweltering heat of the afternoon that one of your study binges was interrupted. You shook your head knowing who dared tread into your tent.

6. Interrogations - Echo x F!Reader (18+ Please view responsibly)

The former arc trooper sighed. Another fruitless attempt at slipping free of his bonds. The chair he was bound to chilled any amount of exposed skin. The room kept dark to prevent him from gathering his bearings. He bided his time, waiting for the tell-tale clicking of his keeper. It was a whisper at first but grew louder as the automatic doors parted.

7. Personal Tastes - Hunter x F!Reader

Strands of meat sizzled and spat as she flipped the tangled mass. Her work distracting from the pair of eyes watching you from the doorway. Her culinary tasks from the staccato chops of a knife to peppers to the accented clink of a mortar and pestle offered a calming tune.

8. Just This Once, Everyone Lives - Rex x Reader

Your bottom lip remained captured between your teeth as the speeder came to a stop. The building looming over the city streets twinkled in the night. A beacon for personnel to gather while dressed to the nines. A hand curled around yours, smoothing over your knuckles.

9. Keep Away - UniversityAU Wrecker x Reader

You filed out with your fellow undergrads as your last class for the afternoon let out. the professor's voice offering mention of the end of the first sprint. You traversed amongst the student body's current before veering off to a corridor. The current loosening its grasp the closer you ventured toward the sanctuary of paper and ink.

10. Nothing Fight - Crosshair x F!Reader

It could be easy to say Clone Force 99 had a culture separate from the sea of clones. Clone medics would be reassigned in the blink of an eye and nat born medics often assigned whoever pissed off the higher ups. This led to your current long term assignment. Having a medic on board being the main reason one of your patients was released to his squad early pending observations.

NPT - @photogirl894 @rain-on-kamino @tecker @techs-stitches @littlemissmanga @annwayne @fakegingerrights @merkitty49 @moodymisty @starrylothcat

Wanna promote your work here too? Do it!

[stephentraceyfan]

Bertold -The Expanse

Stephen as Bertold in The Expanse

[iainjclark]

Oil paints on cold-pressed watercolour block. Camina Drummer from The Expanse, portrayed by Cara Gee.

[babolat85]

[inkandguns]

Yeah I didn’t expect to be back at FedEx ground for a full week..

But here I am blasting Macho Man and chugging a sugar free Red Bull at 0430.

[zmediaoutlet]

Please... carrotfricker context... I beg thee

oh fam, I wish I had more context to give you. Carrotfricker's that person who did the cool collage art, although in retrospect the gimmick on all of the pieces was the same -- but hey, way to do the thing you had the idea for, thanks for the art, etc.

Unfortunately, they then caught The Jesus or something and Jesus told them to delete their blog because, idk, what if the devil got in them via interesting collage edits. Specifically,

To be honest it looks like parody to me, lol. I hope someone out there is the User Formerly Known As Carrotfucker and they're now doing something insane like vampireposting, like that person who was inexplicably popular for while.

If they really are born again or whatever... dude, idk. I know times are tough out there and we're in the godawful 20s again but surely there's a better choice you can make than The Lord, right? Try edibles, or cross-stitch, or The Expanse. The Expanse has Camina Drummer. She's way better than the Bible.

[talesfrommedinastation]

Redneck Neighbor Doug: Why Belters are Space Cajuns

If Mandalorians are space rednecks, then Belters from The Expanse are space Cajuns. This is not up for debate, according to the nerdiest Southern man of all time, my neighbor Doug, who, it turns out, loves this show too. I'm 99% sure he's also a TNG and Battlestar fan, but that would just kill me with exhaustion if we went into full deets about it.

Onto our friends in the Belt and why they have so much in common with the French-Americans who reside in the wilder parts of the deep American south of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

I will elucidate now, via Doug, on what Belters and Cajuns do that make them…them:

They make do: First thing we see in the entire series is how much the Belters are royally crapped on by life. They live in space, which permanently alters their bodies, to the point where they can not survive on a planet. To quote, “Belters work the docks, loading and unloading precious cargo…never meant for us”. They don’t have the wealth of Earth or the incredible military drive of Mars, but they’re scrappy, innovative, and do what they can to survive, whether it’s by smuggling, pirating, or allying themselves with powerful folks. Like the French folks in Acadia who got flung from their homes to the bayous of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, who scrape a living by fishing, boatmaking, bartending, and/or serving as a member of the X-Men. Cajuns and Belters do what they can to survive, giving them an edge that others do not have.

They party hard: Belters love drinking, having parties on their ships and in port, banging everyone on the crew, and overall just being wild. After all, you never know when you’re going to get your air or water cut off by the Inners, might as well live it up. And Cajuns, well, they invented Mardi Gras and their saying is ‘Laissez les bons temps rouler’ or ‘let the good times roll’. Life isn’t easy on a swamp that is constantly wacked by floods or hurricanes, but they party as much as they can. Just like the Belters.

Their women: Some of the best damn characters in the series are the angry ladies of the Belt (Camina Drummer and Naomi Nagata). Man, they something else. They’re loving, fierce, smart, crazy, and can go from Bambi to Banshee in five seconds. Cajun women love to host parties, help with church, and cook and make an amazing roux from dirt and crayfish, but God help you if you piss one off. Those pot carrying arms can snap a neck quicker than a blue crab shell. 

They speak in patois: Ever heard Cajun French? It ain’t from Paris, that’s for sure. It’s mixed up and raw and beautiful in its own right, and for many generations, it was looked down upon by English-speaking neighbors. Belter creole is similar, a smashed up beauty of a language that has come out of life in space, filled with English, Chinese, Farsi, German, Hindi, and other languages. It even has a similar lilt to the bayou! 

They are ungovernable: There’s a reason the Cajuns were never quite able to fully rebel against the various governments that took over their swampy goodtimes. They’re loyal to each other and their land, and that’s about it. Belters are the same–they’ve tried with the OPA, and even then, there’s different factions and squabbling (Anderson Dawes vs Fred Johnson, for example) and it’s only until there’s a genuine, alien threat to they get all united (plus Camina Drummer comes to power, but that’s neither here nor there). 

They’re good at figuring out solutions: Cajuns live in gator and snake infested swamps that flood and hurricanes smash through routinely. But they live and thrive regardless, with their pirogues and their bridges and their houses on the water. Same with Belters: their lives are lived in space, with crappy gravity and air. But they’re scrappy and tough and figure out how to survive. A Redditor pointed out that many of the more ambitious, driven Earthers left generations ago to live on the Belt, as the option was staying on Earth and living on an increasingly overcrowded, shitty planet. Not unlike the ancestors of the Cajuns who left France. 

The Spice Must Flow: Belters have to pack their shitty food full of peppers and spices to make it palatable, to the point one of the nicknames for their most famous dishes is called ‘red kibble’. And have you ever had proper Cajun food? Crawfish, alligator, boudin, and frogs are freaking amazing when done properly, although my fancy British friends were horrified that I enjoyed them. Pass me them mudbugs with some Cachere’s seasoning, collards, and corn, I wanna feel the pain. 

They work in weird and hard places: See above for both Belters and Cajuns. Jobs Cajuns have had range from oil fields to swamps to cities filled with yellow fever. But they take it and have a good sense of humor about it. Same with Belters–they work on rough ships, in radiation filled places in space, and don’t bitch about it. To quote the gaunt Belter, ‘They built the solar system on our backs’. 

Everything and anything can be used as a weapon: A gun? Peshang! Guns are for fancy Inners. Belters will use guns, AND pipes, chairs, each other, elevators, fists, a toothbrush, shives, you name it, they’ve killed with it. They’re tough and scrappy, and so are the Cajuns, whose fights are notorious in the bayou and beyond. Don’t mess with them. 

So yeah, Space Cajuns.

[redshift-art]

Naomi Nagata from The Expanse

[thevisibilityarchives]

The Expanse [TV Series] (2015-2022)

Network(s): SyFy, Amazon

Creators: James S.A. Corey

BIPOC

Summary: 200+ years in the future, humanity has ventured into the far reaches of the solar system, colonizing the Milky Way and spreading the political turmoil of Earth among the generations to come. A fragile peace exists among the three factions that arise, a peace that cannot last when something greater emerges that threatens them all, changing the course of humanity for all time to come. 

Full review: For every generation, there is a defining sci-fi television show that captivates audiences, tapping into visions of the near future while simultaneously managing to address modern sociopolitical themes and changing mores. 

Can The Expanse be ranked as one of those shows, among the likes of Star Trek, Firefly, and Battlestar Galactica? Undoubtedly, it’s a question deserving of consideration and debate.

In a time before streaming, the impact would be more obvious thanks to ever-present television ratings data, fights over family television screens, and demands for network advertising time. But when a show exists solely within the realm of the digital sphere, on a streaming service like Amazon Prime, there’s a bit more nuance to consider when judging its success and audience impact. 

Conceived by authors Ty Franck and Daniel Abraham under the pen name James S.A. Corey, The Expanse originally aired on the SyFy network in 2015, a high-budgeted adaptation of their book series that was well-received by critics and audiences alike until its early demise (due to said budget) at the end of its second season. With a bit of luck, the show was picked up by Amazon Prime studios, given the Jeff Bezos Budget, the TV-MA stamp of adultification freedom, and was renewed, allowing it to take off for the remaining four seasons which concluded in 2022. 

The series retains the core features beloved by sci-fi fans, the formula complicit in defining those generational sci-fi hits: space exploration, the imaginativeness of the near future, the role of politics, and perhaps a central and often missed detail – its diversity and multiculturalism. 

There is a sharp division between the science fiction and fantasy crowds when it comes to multicultural representation. Often, the two genres are clumped together, their metadata schema combined as one – sci-fi/fantasy. Yet within these two genres, the approach to racial and cultural diversity could not be more different. 

This reaction has never been more pronounced than in the past year, during the airing of Prime’s Rings of Power and HBO’s House of the Dragon. Both shows cast actors of color into roles wherein the networks, as well as actors themselves, received criticisms, not for their performances, but simply for the color of their skin.

Commenting upon reactions to Stephen Toussaint, who portrays Corlys Velaryon in House of the Dragon the LA Times reported

“Toussaint is just the latest actor of color to address the racism he faced just for being cast in a major property. Others include Moses Ingram of Disney+ series “Obi-Wan,” and Kelly Marie Tran and John Boyega who dealt with similar online abuse over their roles in the newer “Star Wars” films.”

The vitriol has extended beyond just message board gripes, with actors and fans of color alike receiving flooded inbox messages and even in-person harassment over their simple existence in various fandoms as people of color. 

There is something of an irony here. For fantasy, which is rooted mostly in imagination (with some inspiration from real-life events) seemingly has set up a world where all manner of monsters, magic, and scenarios can be envisioned: and yet a black elf, a brown knight, or an Asian queen magician cannot. Whereas sci-fi, often depicted within the confines of near-future scenarios, has historically been more flexible, even to the point of breaking immense taboos like The Kiss Seen Around the World on Star Trek, only a year after interracial marriage became legal in the United States. 

This emphasis on multiculturalism, combined with the glory of high-stakes drama, the exploration of the final frontier, and the imaginings of what technology still can be creates a formula that appeals across multiple generations still today, a tapestry of impossibility, variability, and sensibility. 

Over the course of six seasons, what begins as a hard-boiled detective seeking to return a trillionaire’s daughter who has joined up with a group of anarchists in the far-flung reaches of the solar system unfolds into a whirlwind of high-stakes political machinations, doomsday scenarios, and interpersonal drama. 

Keeping in touch with an examination of what upward trends of the future tell us, the lives of those depicted onscreen are flush with different types of diversity. Multiracialism is prominent in certain parts of the solar system, Creole dialects are a natural development. Polyamory, new ways of eating, body types,  and religious ideologies emerge. Unlike other media which often falls out of date quickly when looking at the way trends have aligned with the passage of time, The Expanse follows what thus-far seems to be a natural trajectory of what our path looks like (assuming we are still alive by then). Its actors range from Caucasian-American to Iranian, Samoan, Ojibwe, Cambodian, Black, multiracial, Jamaican, and ethnicities far and wide. 

The show is heavily rooted (and its source material, by extension) in the very definition of what multiculturalism is and can be, and a prime example of a thoughtful and true representation of all television sci-fi has given us and shows us is possible: a world in living color in which reality is possible, and no one can tell us otherwise. 

You can find hard copies of seasons 1-4 of The Expanse at major retailers, your local library,  some copies of seasons 5 and 6 via online sellers like eBay and stream it on its home, Amazon Prime here.

Citations:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kirk_and_Uhura%27s_kiss

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/tv/story/2022-08-22/dragons-being-more-plausible-than-a-rich-black-guy-irks-house-of-the-dragon-star

https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/loving-v-virginia

[allez-argeiphontes]

Did I mishear or did Greef Karga just refer to to people who work the asteroid belt as “belters”???

[talesfrommedinastation]

Here’s to all of us whose hearts were shattered by that line from ‘Plan 99’.

But here’s how some psychologists recommend dealing with tragic events: putting your own creative spin on them.

I’ve found, for me, is taking words and quotes that hurt or upset me, and rewriting them in my own way. Especially if the meaning can be changed.*

In this case, “When have we ever followed orders?” isn’t uttered by Tech, resigned but heroic.

It’s said by Sjael Drummer near the end of Far Past the Ring. It’s now defiant, independent, and hawking a loogie right in the face of adversity.

It’s a tragic line from Star Wars that’s now a shout of fortitude from The Expanse.

Writing it out made it seem like something Klaes Ashford would say, or Camina Drummer, right before knocking someone out an airlock. 100% ungovernable Beltalowda.

Now? I smile every time I see it. Tenye wah chesh gut!

Hell, Camina Drummer says a version of it in the new Telltale game: "The Inners may control everything, but they cannot control the Belt."

Take something that makes you sad, and make it yours.

And yes, Sjael, like most Belters in the fic, has her new helmet designed to look like Tech’s. He’s become an accidental fashion icon!

Belters have also started painting their helmets like the clones. In Sjael’s case, she has Ojibwe style greenery that hints at her work with organic sweeteners—she has strawberries, blueberries, and vanilla orchids on the vines!

————————

Tagging my Far Past the Ring readers here: @skellymom @eyecandyeoz @sued134 @cdblake1565 @moosethren @ilikemymendarkandfictional @techs-stitches @supremechancellorrex @amalthiaph

* = Example, my trashy ex Nick said “We won’t be together, the end”, via text when he dumped me.

When he crawled back to me a year later begging for a second chance, sending him a message WITH THAT IN IT was amazing!