#having a LOT of feelings abt these twooooo

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

yeah these guys were never friends and only see each other as coworkers

[phighterss]

cataclysm fun facts abt the reader n shit cuz i like rambling abt my fic

the self insert is, believe it or not: is not technically a self insert as they have their own identity and small stuff abt their appearance that is already decided and i consider them an oc of mine that other ppl can use and whatnot

They identify as gender neutral and look physically androgynous and use they/them pronouns. And while their orientation isn’t set in stone, they are able to date any gender. You can make them have a preference if you want, though. I like seeing what people headcanon them as being so don't feel restricted by my own personal views on them lol

A few personality traits are also already decided: they are snarky, reckless, and egotistical with little to NO idea how to function in society I'm pretty sure everybody knows this if you’ve read the fic LOLL

The first pairing that will probably take place is scythe and them because scythe is interested in them from the very start and she will likely be interacting with them a lot, as for whos next, i literally have no idea i have to write that outtttt

As i said before they have two mothers (l-l-l-l-l-l-lesbains…I LOVE LESBAISN) and they will probably be seen somewhere in the future for angst or something idk SCYTHE WILL BEAT THEIR ASS FOR LEAVING YOU TRUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also said this before but their class is a SUPPORT but they never talk about it + dont want to talk about it + changed their name and use a different gear then the one they had at birth (transgear guys theyre transgear!!!!)

They dont have any siblings

One of the friends that used to be in their gang was firework the one mentioned in chapter twooooo yes they will also meet at some point

Chapter three starts off where we wake up from unconsciousness and medkit is treating us ( TRIGGER WARNING WE HAVE IMMEDIATE SEXUAL TENSION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! /half joking uhm its not sexual but there's tension when it comes out you will see) i am trying my best to hold back and stay true to that slowburn tag but its DIFFICULT… OH SO DIFFICULT.

If u have any ideas for the fic or want to show me ur self insert stuff go ahead i love seeing it plsplspls calling you over like pspspspsppspspspsppsp

[hunxi-after-hours]

the saga continues!

separate point bc more spoilers, but i'd love to hear your thoughts on mahit x three seagrass! i'm sure it gets explored more in book 2, but i've got a couple weeks' wait for it from the library so i'm just Thinkin. obv real people do experience love across imperial/colonial lines, but taken as a narrative element it can't just be distilled down to an isolated experience b/w 2 people. their relationship fundamentally exists, in part, for us as readers to extrapolate broader meaning from...(1/2)

...on the surface, i like them a lot! but we can't divorce them as people from the context of their experiences/histories. three seagrass' fascination (and at what point does interest & appreciation become fetishization?) with "barbarians" is a whole thing, but then when she tells mahit that she wouldn't feel any different if she were texcalaanli that felt like a whole nother moment of Not Getting It, even if she meant well. they're giving me much to think abt! (2/2)

hah, well, first things first anon, I’ll just have you know that I read your asks and immediately started laughing in A Desolation Called Peace, which isn’t so much a threat as it was Arkady Martine absolutely coming for me where I lived (so like, an authorial threat)

lately, we’ve had more and postcolonial SF/F hit the shelves which is awesome, and yet the Teixcalaan duology is unique for me among them in the way that it grapples with 1) empire as seduction and 2) does so from the perspectives of characters who are not just lethally intelligent, but also chronic overthinkers. which is to say, the complications of the relationship between Three Seagrass and Mahit, what it means to them as individuals as well as them as symbolic representations of legacies that they never asked for yet still contain within them is something that both Three Seagrass and Mahit pay careful attention to, as well as Arkady Martine

in attempting to steer away from spoilers, I shan’t say much more about them specifically, but relationships across imperial lines, like you said, are profoundly tricky (especially for chronic overthinkers). it reminds me of one of Chen Kuan-hsin’s theses in Asia as Method: Towards Deimperialization, in which he argues that the decolonial project cannot be completed without a corresponding deimperialization in the former imperial center (it should be mentioned that I have no idea if he originated this argument, but his book was the first place I came across it and alas I do not have it hand to consult). in other words, it is not enough for the formerly colonized to shuck off the toxic aspects of imperial ideology, but the imperial centers themselves must also recognize the flaws in their former imperial ideology and actively change them. which, narrowed down to the level of the personal and romantic, likewise corresponds to the work both parties need to do. in book one, we are privy to much of Mahit’s personal struggle with the seductive nature of empire and imperial culture (and it’s worth noting that this continues to be an ongoing journey! it isn’t as simple as throwing off the chains of Teixcalaanli superiority and retreating into Stationer chauvinism; it a negotiation that is is personal and dynamic and constantly changing). I don’t think it’s too much of a spoiler to say that in book two, we get Three Seagrass’s POV (and what a delight she is), and begin the work of recognizing herself as a fundamentally imperial agent, and how she deals with (waves vaguely) all of that thorny business

woof, no idea if that was coherent, but let me just say that I am (chinhands) for your Teixcalaan journey, have fun with book twooooo

anon who read the singing hills cycle a couple weeks ago on ur rec here--i just finished a memory called empire and!!!! i'm in love, what an incredible story. i can't wait to get my lil hands on the sequel >:)

you can’t see me but I’m basically the embodiment of “the tiger is out of its cage the book recs have been accepted / yes / YES” right now