#i'm not a phantom historian and even i know that!

[britishchick09]

jessica mason: "don't use phantom's andre and firmin because they're copyrighted!"

me: "...but firmin in in the original book?"

jm: "you also can't use piangi or gerard carriere or nadir khan..."

me: "but i used those names in the rewrite! they look and act different from their original counterparts so they're not the exact character... oh no....."

cdaae: "names can't be copyrighted. you can use nadir's name as long as you don't copy susan kay's characterization!"

me:

[flagbridge]

The Raoul (de Chagny) Navy: An Exploration of the Vicomte's Naval Background:

Our beloved Vicomte, Raoul de Chagny, is a young junior officer in the French Navy ("le Royale"), but this hardly gets much exploration. It's a detail that is often glossed over--I anticipate because Naval historians and Phans often do not have much Venn diagram overlap--until now. Let's just say my username is a Naval reference.

Note: the "Raoul Navy" is not my invention--our hilarious and wise "Phantom Dark Web" friends at Leroux Less Traveled (incl. @box5intern) came up with it, and I love it.

I've started digging into book Raoul and his Naval background and turns out we are missing out a whole lot about Raoul's character background if we don't dig into it. So I'm going to tell you what the book tells us and what that means. I'm going to give you the overall pieces up front, and then explain:

Raoul looks very young and feminine (except for his "little" mustache, which he effectively has grown to prove that he can)--and everyone treats him like a baby

Raoul at this point has already completed three years of Naval training including a world tour, so he is fairly experienced and even worldly for his age. He is described in the French as a "cadet", but he would likely be a sub-lieutenant at this point since he has graduated from the Naval Academy.

He's on a six month leave before going on a very dangerous mission to recover remains of a lost Arctic mission--a mission he himself is unlikely to return from.

And everyone still treats him like he's a baby (especially the old dowager widows), even though he has had quite a bit of life at this point--so he has something to prove.

What we know about Raoul and the Navy (Here is the English):

"He was admirably assisted in this work first by his sisters and afterward by an old aunt, the widow of a naval officer, who lived at Brest and gave young Raoul a taste for the sea. The lad entered the Borda training-ship, finished his course with honors and quietly made his trip round the world. Thanks to powerful influence, he had just been appointed a member of the official expedition on board the Requin, which was to be sent to the Arctic Circle in search of the survivors of the D'Artois expedition, of whom nothing had been heard for three years. Meanwhile, he was enjoying a long furlough which would not be over for six months; and already the dowagers of the Faubourg Saint-Germain were pitying the handsome and apparently delicate stripling for the hard work in store for him."

We also learn in another paragraph that the de Chagnys had admiral in the family, so the Naval connection is likely a family business for second sons. Raoul is a second son, so a career as a military officer would have been a distinguished career for him.

Borda: First ship

Brest is the main port of the French Navy and home of the Ecole Navale (or French Naval Academy. In the 20th Century it moved, but Brest is still, along with Toulon, a major naval base)

According to the French: Le jeune homme entra au Borda, en sortit dans les premiers numéros et accomplit tranquillement son tour du monde (Note that the French calls him a "young man", not a lad)

The Borda is traditionally the training ship of the French Navy, and there have been six of them. This would have been a cadet/midshipman cruise for Raoul. He would have been on the ex-Valmy, an 120-gun ship of the line, which became the Borda training ship in 1864.

The Borda is also the ship of the Ecole Navale (French Naval Academy)—this means that Raoul attended the academy.

The Naval Academy is two years in Brest, and then their third year is the World Tour—so that timing also aligns with where we are in the book. Raoul would have begun at the academy at 18, and he is at the start of the book, 21 years old.

After the Borda, which he completed with honors, he did an uneventful world tour.

This would have been his third year, still as a midshipman.

He could have been assigned to any ship for this training cruise—possibly a cruiser (the d'Estang is pictured below in 1884 in Algiers), which did long range missions. Note: Their max speed was about 15 Knots (which is a very respectable speed that some warships still transit).

This world tour cold have been as far east as what is now Vietnam, or through the Suez--but likely near French colonies.

With influence, he is assigned to the Requin expedition.

French: Grâce à de puissants appuis, il venait d'être désigné pour faire partie de l'expédition officielle du Requin, qui avait mission de rechercher dans les glaces du pôle les survivants de l'expédition du d'Artois, dont on n'avait pas de nouvelles depuis trois ans.

The Requin was a real ship in the Mediterranean fleet, but did not go on its first mission until 1885, which means that this is a deliberate or unintentional oversight of either Leroux himself or his narrator. The Requin was a steel hull—and the Artois was actually a 18th century Royal Navy ship so this piece is a complete fabrication. However, Arctic missions at this time were frequent and tended not to go well.

However, Raoul could also be excited about getting to go on a new steel-hulled ship. The Redoutable was already in commission—commissioned in 1876.  Most of the rest of the fleet at this point were ironclads.

[thebnha-auhoard]

Tell me more about Persona?

Like worldbuilding and their actual personas! And what call backs do you have to the games? (It's a me! Cookie!)

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehe. It would be my pleasure!

In regards to the call backs to the games, I'm going to say that literally all the games are canon. All of the mainline and spinoff Persona games are canon in this au. Yes, including the Dancing Games. Hatsune Miku is canon.

This of course, has consequences to the world. For one, people are going to notice fast that something off happened when they look back at the past. Yeah a good chunk of them was forgotten due to Persona shenanigans but the Phantom Thieves of 2017? That's an interesting case.

Stealing people's Hearts? Impossible escapes? All the people of Shibuya claiming to have saw a Demon shoot a bullet through a False God? That's bound to catch historian's eye. And that's not even mentioning the papers that Dr Maruki published and the recovered research of Isshiki Wakaba!

It's something that would catch the eye of the HPSC, historians, and Quirk Researchers. The whole Cognitive Psience may be just an early version of a Quirk that mutated wildly, and that's what makes the Phantom Thieves of 2017 a subject of study once the Present Day Phantom Thieves make an appearance.

So yeah lots of callbacks to the games. A lot of callbacks to the games. In fact...you may see some familiar faces and some familiar Personas...

For Worldbuilding I like to say that there is going to be heavy emphasis on both the past and present of mha and Persona canon. So we're going to get how Yoichi got access to the Metaverse App and how the knowledge of Personas goes and effects all the characters in general.

A good one honestly would be Yagi and Torino both knowing that All For One is very much alive before canon events happen. My reasoning behind this is because Yagi would have used the Metaverse to go and gather information on All For One and his forces and Gran Torino would 100% know about the Metaverse. He was Nana's Confidant and Toshinori's teacher. He would have known.

As such, Igor would go and tell Yagi that his job is unfortunately not finished. The False Demon Lord is weakened but not killed. There is still a job to be done.

This of course makes Yagi be even more adamant on keeping up as All Might and to keep pushing despite it being clear he is reaching a limit. Some things can't change and Yagi's need to protect and save others is one of them.

As for everyone’s Personas, hehehehehehehehehehehe. Oh boy I am excited for this one. The whole class got Personas and it all happens throughout the course of the first school year and a bit into the second school year.

Everything is centered around Greek Gods/Heroes and there may be some fun familiar Personas here. Especially the last one.

Anywho- Everything under read below. Feel free to ask about the reasons why a character has a particular Persona.

Midoriya Izuku's Persona: Hades

Bakugou Katsuki's Persona: Helios

Uraraka Ochako's Persona: Gaia

Asui Tsuyu's Persona: Neptune

Kirishima Ejirou's Persona: Theseus

Hatume Mei's Persona: Hephaestus

Iida Tenya's Persona: Hermes

Yaoyaorozu Momo's Persona: Athena

Satou Rikido's Persona: Hestia

Ashido Mina's Persona: Psyche

Kaminari Denki's Persona: Dionysus

Jirou Kyoka's Persona: Orpheus

Sero Hanta's Persona: Arachne

Tokoyami Fumikage's Persona: Hypnos

Shouji Mezou's Persona: Prometheus

Ojiro Mashirao's Persona: Ares

Kouda Kouji's Persona: Pan

Aoyama Yuuga's Persona: Atropos

Todoroki Shouto's Persona: Icarus

Shinsou Hitoshi's Persona: Nyx

[noblehcart]

because its my blog and i can post what I want and so here's ZARA'S TOP TEN LIST OF FAVORITE BOOKS below the cut and with a very brief discussion on why.

Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux This book was one of the first books that really truly catapulted me back into reading as a young adult (the first being A Winter's Tale) and I remember sitting up and crying at 2am in my bed as I finished this book just sobbing and if i'm honest ? Feeling so ashamed that I take my normal life for granted. I have never had such a reaction to a book before and honestly I don't think I ever will again in such a resounding way. For me this is not a love story its a story about humanity and our relationships with each other.

Phantom by Susan Kay This book comes second because I don't have the same emotional connection as I do to the original but hands down in reading a book cover to cover and returning to reread snippets I have read this book so MANY times my god. I always go back to this book when I'm bored or need to revisit a friend. This book is definitely flawed and its got its issues but its one of my all time favorites and I'm so glad to have like three copies (hardcover, pdf and kindle) so its always on hand. I love the depth and exploration for Erik and what shaped him and his life and the people around him and how they were affected by him. Like wow. Its just a book I will always have on my shelf forever till I die.

The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy Its just so good and I don't know why more people haven't read it. Its the beginning of the creation of superheroes and double identities and it has a FEMALE LEAD. The entire book is in the POV of the brilliant and beautiful Marguerite and honestly if I had known years back that it was from a female pov I'd have gotten into it much MUCH sooner. Its dynamic, the characters are so good and the villain is so deliciously good at being bad. I loved the movie, but the book just captured my heart because Margot is this wonderfully clever but soft heroine that just speaks to me.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo WHAT can I even say about this duology other than the characters are flawless and by that i mean they are so flawed and relatable and complex. Its a wonderful book of found family and slow burns and enemies to lovers with fantastic representation. I absolutely couldn't make myself get into S&B but you can pry the crows from my cold dead hands because I adore them and go back to reread this series all the time!

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova This is also a big reread for me, but mostly I go back and reread sections that interest me most but the entire book is just gold. Its just MINDBLOWING that we never know the main heroine's name which is just shocking, but we never needed it or would've noticed if it wasn't pointed out. Its this complex beautifully woven story with history, globetrotting, mystery, suspense and some thrilling aspects that I just love love about it. This is the book that sent me down the Dark Academia rabbit hole guys.

The Golem & Jinni by Helene Wecker This book honestly is on par with The Historian for me because the pacing is very much the same and it took me a bit to read it as did the The Historian, but man am I glad that I did because its complex, its such a human story told in such a supernatural fun way that's just thrilling in a slow build sort of way that ends beautifully and I can't wait to start on the second book soon! The character development and the world building just really draws you in and makes you forget your current time to be absorbed into theirs and its brilliant.

The Invisible Life of Addie Larue by V.E Schwab I'll be honest and say that this book almost didn't make the list because at first I didn't think the book was as good as the hype, but upon looking back and rereading snippets again and rereading the ending more thoroughly- my god, this book is definitely going to be a CLASSIC. Its beautifully written and one of the books I made myself slow and savor each word and sentence as it wove the magic over the years of addie's life. Its a VERY good book that I'd definitely recommend to anyone and everyone. Addie has grown on me in such a different way and I love love her.

Entwined by Heather Dixon THIS is one of my all time childhood/youth/teen favorites. Yes its YA and yes it might be a little boring to the adult reader, but its one of my absolute favorite retellings of the 12 Dancing Princesses. I still go back and reread it because its that good and has a special place for me. The villain and world building is so good and easy to follow along. Its fantastic and I'd go back and reread this book over and over again. Its great if you love magic, sisters, princesses, unexpected love, dancing and magical objects.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte This is on the list because I remember loving reading the story in highschool and feeling so connected to Jane and now as an adult I love her even more for her actions and choices. Its one of the first classic books I ever bonded over with my brother on and so that in itself is a miracle. Jane just has a special place in my heart for the romance, the mystery, the dynamics and the characters and their development is just absolutely wonderful with a fantastic ending. Can't really ask for more.

The Book of Esther I have done and read and watched nearly everything I can find on the book of Esther, which is kinda the oddball on this list because its a book in the Bible, but its still a book in my definition. Its just such a beautiful story of overcoming oppression, tragedy, fear, genocide and this beautiful painting of faith in terrifying times. The twists and turns and thrills and complexities that come with this story before and after if you know the history and its setting- Persia (-gestures to Kay's Phantom-) just absolutely has me fascinated. There's also the aspect that just maybe the 1001 Nights are inspired or based off the story of Esther just absolutely delights me with its fantastic similarities because I adore that story just as much as this one. I love Esther's bravery, courage, wisdom and discernment and she's absolutely one of my heroines IRL that I look to.

Honorable mentions:

I, Strahd by P. N. Elrod - The only reason this isn't in the top ten is because it reads sO MUCH like Kay's Phantom that if I had to chose one of these it'd be Phantom, but this book was so good and really helped get me back into reading during one of my many many slumps. It was a great blend of myth, royalty, supernatural and tragedy that I've reread it a few times already recommended it to a LOT of my friends.

Wintersong by S Jae-Jones- The only reason why THIS one didn't make the ten list is simply because I already have ten and because it would be between this and Jane Eyre and lbh Jane Eyre is almost the perfect book. It was a toss up of faerie girls and Miss Eyre won it because she really was my first classical book love.

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier THIS BOOK omg its another 12 Dancing Princesses retelling and its so beautifully and wonderfully crafted in its world building and the magic and the everything of it. ITS SO GOOD and tbh I'd definitely recommend this book more to the adult reader than I would Entwined, but- BUT it didn't make the list because I would personally pick up Entwined far more often and remember the characters far more than I did in this book. It is a very very good book and I also highly recommend you read it if you like retellings, vampires, fae complexities and a blending of fairytales.

ACOTAR by SJ Maas- I did really enjoy reading this series but it is definitely not one of my top faves because its really only the last two books (not the novella) that I actually devoured. Its a good series and I def recommend reading it because its almost worth the hype but my quibble here is that I could EASILY slip out of that world/the books never absorbed me like others have. Also I didn't care for the main heroine shhh don't come after me guys.

A Voice in the Wind by Francine Rivers So this book was a toss up between it and Esther and it was a TOUGH one because I do go back and reread this trilogy at least 2-3x a year, but I do reread and study and think a lot more about Esther so it lost out in that competition spot. But its an excellent series and the first two books just have my heart for the romance and the intrigue going on during this time period. Its a wonderful slow burn though I'll admit the third book is slightly out of pocket, but still so good that I had to make pinterest boards about this series.

Eye of the Red Tsar by Sam Eastland THIS book is so so SO GOOD if you're into reading about the Romanovs and Russia shortly after that. The entire series is so so good and I normally don't like mystery and thriller plots but this book does have a special place for me, but was beat out by the golemn & the jinni. Pekkala is fascinating and the people and cast he meets along the way just build up in such a delightful way.

The Holy Thief by William Ryan Again this only got beat out by The Historian by a margin because vampires, but The Holy Thief oh my god is very much on par with the Eye of the Red Tsar because its the same time period and magnetic energy. I was so invested in this book and its characterse and it might be due to my love of all things Romanov/Anastasia musical wise, but it was so good and I highly recommend it. I wept, I laughed, I sat on the edge of my seat it was a great read.

The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran This is a recent read and like wow...it just really blew my mind and touched me in a way I don't usually get outside of my belief system and IDK but this book is everything and more than the hype and the only reason its not on the list is because it didn't quite beat out Esther for me but its such a good book.

Tagging you because I would love to see everyone's Top 5 or 10 favorites : @walkingshcdow, @myhiraeth, @kingmakercastle, @demonstigma, @historiavn, @swede, @lordofthestrix, @fasciinating, @reverdies, @ensnchekov, @malka-lisitsa, @paramounticebound , @delanuit, @starlsssankt, @aigonakru

[whitepolaris]

The Gold Canyon Restaurant

by Janice Oberding

The small but rapidly expanding town of Dayton, Nevada, has two claims to fame. The first has to do with Hollywood and movies. No one in these parts is likely to forget that many of Marilyn Monroe's and Clark Gable's scenes from their last film, The Misfits, were shot in and around Dayton. The second is somewhat more precarious. Dayton has dubbed itself Nevada's oldest city, but the nearby tiny town of Genoa makes the same claim. While historians argue that merits of each town's claim, residents to go about the business of enjoying the Nevada lifestyle.

When folks who live in the Dayton-Genoa-Carson City area think of a fine steak dinner with all the trimmings, it's the Gold Canyon Steakhouse that comes to mind. Housed in a building well over a hundred years old, the steakhouse offers a uniquely Nevadan ambience: mirrors and brass, moose heads, rusting farms implements, and paintings of a youthful Mark Twain and of bawdy courtesans who rules the hearts and pocketbooks of long-dead silver barons.

When Bonnie Stryker bought the building several years ago, she had no idea that a couple of ghosts might come along in the bargain. What she did know was that the building had once been a boardinghouse, and its location on Main Street was the perfect spot for her restaurant. So Bonnie remodeled, redecorated, and opened the steakhouse. Business was brisk as word spread of Bonnie's fine steaks and soups. Soon, rumors of supernatural activity were also spreading.

A Mustachioed Phantom

Employees were the first to notice that strange things were happening in the restaurant. "I know for a fact this place is haunted," said a former employee. "The first time I suspected it was the first time I closed up.

"It was after midnight," the employee continued. "The place was empty and I was alone. I walked through to the back room and the kitchen making sure all the lights were turned off. I had this feeling like someone was following me. I felt kinda of silly looking around and making sure no one was there, but I couldn't shake the feeling. I didn't say anything to anyone the next day because, well, with most of the lights turned off the place does seem eerie. Maybe I let all teh shadows and the old stuff on the walls get to me.

"A week later I closed up again. I still didn't like being in the steakhouse after everyone else left, so I tried to get things done as fast as I could. I was just ready to leave when I heard someone walk right up to me and stop. I knew it had to be a ghost; I was so scared I didn't even turn around. There was a blast of cold air on my neck and something gentle tapped me on the back of the head.

"I couldn't help it. I started to cry. Then I heard like a whoosh-and whatever it was, was gone. Now, that wasn't my imagination!"

Another woman told of seeing a mustachioed man one evening. "He looked like he was really mad. It was a Friday night and we were incredibly busy, so I thought I'd better take a minute and explain that I'd take his order as soon as I could. I smiled and said, 'I'm sorry to keep you waiting, sir.' He glared at me and dissolved, just like they show ghosts doing in the movies. I was so scared I dropped my tray. I worked there another six months, but I never saw him again after that night."

One person who claimed no belief in the supernatural admitted to watching a heavy lantern slowly swing to and fro at the empty bar. "It wasn't an earthquake. I still don't know what made that light."

While some employees laugh at the thought of ghostly residents in the building, others are serious about their experiences.

"I've seen him," a former bartender claimed. "He looks like an old time gunslinger to me-all dressed in black and with a thick black mustache. He was pacing back and forth, back and forth outside the kitchen door. So I came out from behind the bar and said, 'Hey mister. What are you looking for?' He turned to me with this expression like he was sad or lost or something and then walked into the kitchen. You've got to remember that there's only one door that goes in and out of the kitchen. Wherever he went, he didn't come out of the door. Yeah, he's a ghost."

Gunfight on the Doorstep

Bonnie didn't know what to make of the stories her employees were telling, and she was very philosophical about the matter. Maybe there was ghosts in the steakhouse, she thought, and maybe there weren't. Then she, too, began to experience what cannot be easily explained: that certain feeling that something unworldly is very close by.

A local historian says that many yes ago, a gunfight took place right outside the door of the old boardinghouse. Unfortunately, the sharpshooting gunslinger didn't have much time to enjoy his victory; he was lynched nearby even before his victim's body had cooled.

Not only that, but in Dayton's early days the old building that houses the steakhouse was the scene of several deaths. Is it possible that one or more of the deceased, including the gunslinger and his victim, came back to haunt the place?

A former employee sums it up. "The ghosts are here 24/7, and lots of people come in and joke and laugh about them. But when the last customer has gone, the lights are dimmed, and you're all alone, the laughing stops. That's when you know the ghosts are real."

[yarpharp]

Someone in the notes brought up the fact that Solas tried to teach the Dalish and got rejected, to which I respond: There is nothing more upsetting and insulting than someone showing up to your doorstep and accusing you of being "wrong" about your own culture.

This is a fantasy RPG, and Solas is an immortal elf. In perfectly normal circumstances, no one HAS a way to inform a culture of aspects they might have lost or "gotten wrong." It's not their fault for being inaccurate. And you can't blame them for being angry that someone would roll up and declare "you are all wrong about the gods. They were never gods. You are children that fumble about and know nothing."

The Dalish, just like its IRL inspiration, are a COLONIZED PEOPLE. Perhaps they aren't trapped in cities, but they still suffer the same issues that city elves do. They have been hunted and abused. Their religion is outlawed, their language equally forced out of practice. They have lost SO MUCH. The Dales were destroyed to nothing over the course of a DECADE by the Orlesians. That means a loss of thousands of elves. How many of them were cultural leaders, religious figures, historians? All they have is their own personal ability to try and decipher the ruins of their own temples. All they can do is their best, because they are always barely scraping by on the edge of a knife.

All the Dalish have left is their pride, which is perhaps what makes Solas even more of a hypocrite to me. The man himself is so proud of his culture; can't he understand that while they might be "wrong" in his eyes, they are desperate to stay themselves? They're all one big bundle of generational trauma, where generations have been spent just trying to survive and stay themselves against the tide of Andrastians/Tevinters and their colonizer agendas. For him to expect them not to have suffered culture loss after centuries of him sleeping off the erection of the Veil is goddamn ridiculous.

Solas did not handle his encounters with the Dalish correctly. From what vague context he gives, it sounds like he reacted like a man with too much pride, too much bitterness. For all that Solas seems to enjoy teaching others about his culture, he's still a prick. His guilt and expectations for others is ridiculously high. He reacts to so much of the current day in Thedas like someone who still is learning about how it all works. He's also living in a state of denial: he thinks everyone around him are just phantoms, brief flickers of life. He can't bear to contemplate just how horrible his actions ended up being.

Again, I have a lot of personal PERSONAL BEEF with Solas for trying to play "savior" when he doesn't even try and understand them for THEIR PERSPECTIVE. I'm not saying that the Dalish have moments where they act badly, but I think they're justified in reacting to Solas like that. They've been burned and hurt too many times.

The one thing I have a lot of personal, PERSONAL beef with about the entire Solas/Elvhen vs. City Elves/Dalish thing is simple: a lot of people in this fandom keep ignoring that this is one huge allegory for generational trauma and colonialism. Including Solas.

Maybe it hits home harder with me, especially because the real world inspirations the writers admit to using are Natives. And boy, I see the bones that make up the Dalish are absolutely Native-coded.

Constantly hunted? Constantly looked down upon for trying to keep to their traditions, even if the memories aren't as complete as they once were? Their very positive views on magic and the spiritual that run counter to common belief? Their religion is outlawed by the DA equivalent of the Christian church? The illegal verses of the Chant speaking about Chartan? The facial tattoos, the traveling camps, their attention to raising wild breeds of painted horses (the famed Dalish All-Bred in DA:I), the harts, following the migrations of the halla?

And then factor in the City Elf vs. Dalish experience. It reflects a lot of the same issues we have now. "City Indians" vs. "Rez Indians." The arguments about blood-quantum parallel a lot with the "elf-blooded" shit in DA. They don't have the ears, but they were raised like an elf! It reminds me of a very small dialogue in The Masked Empire between Fiona and Michel de Chevin, where Fiona immediately clocked him as half-elf because he never treated her poorly or called her slurs and subconsciously ducked his head slightly in doorways like he expected to bump his head in an alienage shack. Michel clings to his Chevalier code desperately, because if anyone found out he was half-elf, he'd be tossed back into the Alienages. It's peak "You're mixed but you can pass as white" coding in my eyes.

So then Solas rolls up, shitting on all the existing elves, calling them "children" and decrying them as idiots clinging to barely-remembered bits of history.... Good God, you ass. Like, I get it. I'm sure if one of my ancestors appeared before me and saw what has become of our people, they'd be horrified. But idk, there is also pride to be had in resisting and enduring and outlasting every government's attempt to erase what they see as a subpar culture.

When he asks "Did I judge the Dalish too harshly?" I always wanna just reach through the screen and go "YEAH ACTUALLY"

[theoutcastedartist]

The Two Halves of Solaris:

Mephiles & Iblis

The two halves were created by Chaos and worshipped by the Ancients. These are my designs for their corporeal forms (to differ from '06) in my Sonic Boom AU: "Shadows & Lights"

Shadows & Lights AU Short Summary:

Both Shadow and Sonic were facility experiments known as "Project Shadow" and "Project Light", where the goal was to create beings that could simulate the powers of The Two Halves of Solaris: Mephiles and Iblis. This secret. facility was located near one of the old temples the Ancients built as places of worship for their gods.

Project Shadow was perfect on the 1st attempt, seen as "The Ultimate Lifeform" because of how closely he resembled Mephiles in both appearance and (theorized) abilities.

Project Light on the other hand... not perfect on the first attempt. Most versions of the experiment would not live past year 4 for "one flaw or another", often discarded and recycled to create better versions of Light, each time getting closer to the appearance and abilities of Iblis. The last version of Project Light was "Sonic". This is the only version of Project Light that Project Shadow had ever met.

Shadow and Light had only known each other for 3 years at the facility, before an incident with G.U.N ended with Project Shadow being in stasis for 50 years, and Project Light being sent forward in time 55 years.

Shadow retained most of his memories from the facility when he awoke, though he has forgotten about the existence of Project Light.

Project Light remembers absolutely nothing, not even their own name. They were pretty much nameless for 5 months until they met Dr. Eggman, who dubbed them "Sonic" due to their incredible speed. Then 3 years later, Sonic met Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks.

The actual AU itself starts when Tails and Amy are curious about Sonic's childhood, to which they admit that they don't have any memories of such. Their earliest memory is waking up near temple remains far away from the island, a mysterious island that has no record of even existing.

Together, Sonic and Co sent out on a journey to uncover Sonic's past and explore uncharted territory. I mean, what else are they gonna do on a Saturday?

Mephiles and Iblis are responsible for the creation of the Phantom Ruby and Master Emerald (dubbed as the "Shattered Crystals" by Lyric and historians who). The Two Halves are not inherently destructive or evil, instead more benevolent in this AU.

Mephiles is the power of the mind, the intelligence and creativity. The Phantom Ruby grants anyone the power to warp reality with the mind, but if a mind is weak and uncreative, it will be swallowed by the Phantom Ruby itself, leaving nothing behind but a mindless husk.

Iblis is the power of the heart, the flames of hope. True strength is found in kindness and compassion for others. The Master Emerald grants limitless power based on a person's heart, but if that heart is cold and dark, their intent is selfish, it will slowly destroy that person from within and take their life as collateral.

Both the Phantom Ruby and the Master Emerald are currently lost. No one knows where the majority of the shards are located, not even the last of the Ancients, Lyric. The very few that have been found are mostly corrupted...

Tags for this AU on this blog are:

#shadows&lightsau

#ShadowLightAU

(You can tell I'm a fan of "The Muder of Me" lmao)

[nealiios]

The Supernatural 70s: Part I - Corruption of An Innocent

"We're mutants. There's something wrong with us, something very, very wrong with us. Something seriously wrong with us - we're soldiers writers."

-- with apologies to the screenwriter of "Stripes"

Dear reader, I have the darkest of revelations to make to you, a truth when fully and wholly disclosed shall most assuredly chill you to the bone, a tale that shall make you question all that you hold to be true and good and holy about my personal history. While you may have come in search of that narrative designer best known for his works of interactive high fantasy, you should know that he is also a crafter of a darker art, a scribbler of twisted tales filled with ghosts, and ghouls, and gargoyles. I am, dear innocent, a devotee of horrors! Mwahahahaha!

[cue thunderclap, lightning, pipe organ music]

Given the genre of writing for which most of you know me, I forgive you if you think of me principally as a fantasy writer. I don't object to that classification because I do enjoy mucking about with magic and dark woods and mysterious ancient civilizations. But if you are to truly know who I am as a writer, you must realize that the image I hold of myself is principally as a creator of weird tales.

To understand how and why I came to be drawn to this sub-genre of fantastic fiction, you first must understand that I come from peculiar folks. Maybe I don't have the Ipswich look, or I didn't grow up in a castle, but my pedigree for oddity has been there from the start. My mother was declared dead at birth by her doctor, and often heard voices calling to her in the dead of night that no one else could hear. Her mother would periodically ring us up to discuss events in our lives about which she couldn't possibly have known. My father's people still share ghost stories about a family homestead that burned down mysteriously in the 1960s. Even my older brother has outré memories about events he says cannot possibly be true, and as a kid was kicked off the Tulsa city bookmobile for attempting to check out books about UFOs, bigfoot, and ESP. It's fair to say I was doomed - or destined - for weirdness from the start.

If the above listed circumstances had not been enough, I grew up in an area where neighbors whispered stories about a horrifically deformed Bulldog Man who stalked kids who "parked" on the Old North Road near my house. The state in which I was raised was rife with legends of bigfoots, deer women, and devil men. Even in my childhood household there existed a pantheon of mythological entities invented explicitly to keep me in line. If I was a good boy, The Repairman would leave me little gifts of Hot Wheels cars or candy. If I was being terrible, however, my father would dress in a skeleton costume, rise from the basement and threaten to drag me down into everlasting hellfire (evidently there was a secret portal in our basement.) There were monsters, monsters EVERYWHERE I looked in my childhood world. Given that I was told as a fledgling writer to write what I knew, how could anyone have been surprised that the first stories I wrote were filled with the supernatural?

"The Nightmare" by John Henry Fuseli (1781)

My formative years during the late sixties and early seventies took place at a strange juncture in our American cultural history. At the same time that we were loudly proclaiming the supremacy of scientific thought because we'd landed men on the moon, we were also in the midst of a counter cultural explosion of interest in astrology, witchcraft, ghosts, extra sensory perception, and flying saucers. Occult-related books were flying off the shelves as sales surged by more than 100% between 1966 and 1969. Cultural historians would come to refer to this is as the "occult boom," and its aftershocks would impact popular cultural for decades to come.

My first contact with tales of the supernatural were innocuous, largely sanitized for consumption by children. I vividly remember watching Casper the Friendly Ghost and the Disney version of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I read to shreds numerous copies of both Where the Wild Things Are and Gus the Ghost. Likely the most important exposure for me was to the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? cartoon which attempted to inoculate us from our fears of ghosts and aliens by convincing us that ultimately the monster was always just a bad man in a mask. (It's fascinating to me that modern incarnations of Scooby Doo seem to have completely lost this point and instead make all the monsters real.)

ABOVE: Although the original cartoon Scooby Doo, Where Are You? ran only for one season from 1969 to 1970, it remained in heavy reruns and syndication for decades. It is notable for having been a program that perfectly embodied the conflict between reason and superstition in popular culture, and was originally intended to provide children with critical thinking skills so they would reject the idea of monsters, ghosts, and the like. Ironically, modern takes on Scooby Doo have almost entirely subverted this idea and usually present the culprits of their mysteries as real monsters.

During that same time, television also introduced me to my first onscreen crush in the form of the beautiful and charming Samantha Stevens, a witch who struggles to not to use her powers while married to a frequently intolerant mortal advertising executive in Bewitched. The Munsters and The Addams Family gave me my first taste for "goth" living even before it would become all the rage in the dance clubs of the 1980s. Late night movies on TV would bring all the important horror classics of the past in my living room as Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, the Invisible Man, the Phantom of the Opera, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Godzilla all became childhood friends. Over time the darkened castles, creaking doors, foggy graveyards, howling wolves, and ever present witches and vampires became so engrained in my psyche that today they remain the "comfort viewing" to which I retreat when I'm sick or in need of other distractions from modern life.

ABOVE: Elizabeth Montgomery starred in Bewitched (1964 - 1972) as Samantha Stephens, a witch who married "mortal" advertising executive Darren Stephens (played for the first five seasons by actor Dick York). Inspired by movies like I Married a Witch (1942) and Bell, Book and Candle (1958), it was a long running series that explored the complex relationship dynamics between those who possess magic and those who don't. Social commentators have referred to it as an allegory both for mixed marriages and also about the challenges faced by minorities, homosexuals, cultural deviants, or generally creative folks in a non heterogeneous community. It was also one of the first American television programs to portray witches not as worshippers of Satan, but simply as a group of people ostracized for their culture and their supernatural skills.

Even before I began elementary school, there was one piece of must-see gothic horror programming that I went out of my way to catch every day. Dark Shadows aired at 3:30 p.m. on our local ABC affiliate in Tulsa, Oklahoma which usually allowed me to catch most of it if I ran home from school (or even more if my mom or brother picked me up.) In theory it was a soap opera, but the show featured a regular parade of supernatural characters and themes. The lead was a 175 year old vampire named Barnabas Collins (played by Johnathan Frid), and the show revolved around his timeless pursuit of his lost love, Josette. It was also a program that regularly dealt with reincarnation, precognition, werewolves, time travel, witchcraft, and other occult themes. Though it regularly provoked criticism from religious groups about its content, it ran from June of 1966 until it's final cancellation in April of 1971. (I would discover it in the early 1970s as it ran in syndication.) Dark Shadows would spin off two feature-length movies based on the original, a series of tie-in novels, an excellent reboot series in 1991 (starring Ben Cross as Barnabas), and a positively embarrassingly awful movie directed by Tim Burton in 1991.

ABOVE: Johnathan Frid starred as Barnabas Collins, one of the leading characters of the original Dark Shadows television series. The influence of the series cannot be understated. In many ways Dark Shadows paved the way for the inclusion of supernatural elements in other soap operas of the 1970s and the 1980s, and was largely responsible for the explosion of romance novels featuring supernatural themes over the same time period.

While Dark Shadows was a favorite early television program for me, another show would prove not only to be a borderline obsession, but also a major influence on my career as a storyteller. Night Gallery (1969-1973) was a weekly anthology television show from Rod Serling, better known as the creator and host of the original Twilight Zone. Like Twilight Zone before it, Night Gallery was a deep and complex commentary on the human condition, but unlike its predecessor the outcomes for the characters almost always skewed towards the horrific and the truly outré. In "The Painted Mirror," an antiques dealer uses a magic painting to trap an enemy in the prehistoric past. Jack Cassidy plots to use astral projection to kill his romantic rival in "The Last Laurel" but accidentally ends up killing himself. In "Eyes" a young Stephen Spielberg directs Joan Crawford in a story about an entitled rich woman who plots to take the sight of a poor man. Week after week it delivered some of the best-written horror television of the early 1970s.

In retrospect I find it surprising that I was allowed to watch Night Gallery at all. I was very young while it was airing, and some of the content was dark and often quite shocking for its time. Nevertheless, I was so attached to the show that I'd throw a literal temper tantrum if I missed a single, solitary episode. If our family needed to go somewhere on an evening that Night Gallery was scheduled, either my parents would either have to wait until after it had aired before we left, or they'd make arrangements in advance with whomever we were visiting to make sure it was okay that I could watch Night Gallery there. I was, in a word, a fanatic.

ABOVE: Every segment of Night Gallery was introduced by series creator Rod Serling standing before a painting created explicitly for the series. Director Guillermo del Toro credits Serling's series as being the most important and influential show on his own work, even more so than the more famous Twilight Zone.

[the-fae-folk]

The ravens.... keep giving me omens. I'm getting nervous and perhaps a little afraid. Is there anything I can do to prepare for the unknown yet inevitable?

Once we heard a little girl wandering in the forest and reading aloud from a foolish book called “The Phantom Tollbooth.” It was an entertaining story. The little girl, called Zoey, called it her favorite. One quote was particularly memorable. “Expect everything, I always say, and the unexpected never happens.”This, as even the character in the book realized soon enough, is not only impossible, its laughable. It’s not possible to prepare for the unknown. It’s not possible to prepare for every eventuality. For every danger. Those who try end up ruining themselves in a mad panic when things go wrong in ways they cannot imagine.That is life, Child. It is messy and full of strife and unexpected dangers. But it is also filled with wonders. Have you ever met someone that seems to be filled with grace? Who always seems to know what to do in the face of the greatest disasters? It is not because they prepared ahead of time for that exact circumstance. It is because they understand that life can and will go wrong in ways no one could possibly predict. So they simply plan for the worst of things, and accept that there will be things they can never possibly prepare for. Then when such things arrive anyway, they calm themselves and find ways to deal with the problems as they come.Read the stories and you’ll see many who tried to prepare for coming danger, even when they held gifts of omens or prophecies, there was always something that they could never prepare for, could never dream of. An old sorcerer who used to live in the branches of a beech tree and eat beech nuts would always give advice to those who came to see him. Whenever anyone asked of the future he would say this; “All prophets speak in riddles for all the best reasons. We cannot even interpret the past correctly, what historian is there that could correctly interpret the future?”So prepare for what you know is coming, and find a way to calmly accept and move through whatever unexpected things come your way.

[xelaislost]

The Girl and The Nook

Written on March 4, 2020

         There's an old library a few blocks away from our house. It's famous by the historian architecture that was engraved with it. It had three floors with wooden railings on each floor and with each step, there is always a creaking sound that follows you along with the annoyed 'Shh' of the middle-aged librarian. 

I used to hate that place when I was around eight years old. I used to hate how haunting the place feels. And honestly, a middle-aged librarian who's obsessed with keeping the place quiet and a rowdy eighth years old kid who uses his fingers like a gun are two types of people who should not breathe the same air. 

But I was forced to seek refuge in it as I battled against hamlet, Shakespeare, and a gentleman named 'Mr. Darcy' once I hit high school. 

 I would sit at my usual spot (the third table on the second floor that's beside the 'historical fiction' section). I vividly remember the vanilla-like smell of the old beaten copy of 'wuthering heights'  that was used by God knows how many high schoolers. I remember how I'd usually go back and forth from the book to the dictionary and then back to the book again. I remember how much I feared the deep words because I was scared of getting submerged in them. 

And lastly, I remember the girl in the nook. She sat at the nook of the third floor. The floor that usually held history books and autobiographies of some people who I guess are now the phantoms whose works haunt the floor. I'd see her mostly around four in the afternoon, carrying the same book that wrote 'memoirs of an unsent letter' as she take the stairs towards the third floor. 

I'd usually ignore people but seeing her at the same spot and at the same time every day, holding the same book ignited some curiosity within me. 

"I must be crazy," I whispered to myself when I found myself stepping on the first step of the stairs that led to the third floor. I'm not supposed to be up there. I'm supposed to be sitting at my usual table dreading words that I cannot comprehend. 

But instead, I found myself pretending to scan through the covers of the books as I take a peek at the girl who was sitting on the floor. It is as if her petite body is cradled by the nook and her soul is latched with the book in her hand. Her black hair is all over her face, her black-framed specs keep sliding down her nose, and her eyes would squint every now and then. 

I take a step in her direction. It took four creaks and I stood in front of her. The lack of words escaping from my mouth made the environment awkward.  She did not look up nor spared me a peek. She was so immersed in what she was reading, her face looks like it is about to dive into the book. 

I faked a cough. 

No response. No reaction. 

I faked another one again. 

This time, she looks up. "Can I help you?"

The sound of her voice surprised me. You would expect a soft voice from a person that looks like her but hers was deep and hoarse at the same time; as if she was singing or screaming all night.

"Do you know which corner of this library I can find some scientific books?" My petty excuse extends.

She pointed at the stairs, "On the first floor, and then just ask the librarian."

I nod, awkwardly. I gave her one hesitant thanks and then turned away. The creaks of the floor followed me through every footstep.

***

 Two weeks and countless hidden glances after I attempted another interaction. This time I pointed at the book that seems to nestle her hand every day, "May I ask what story does that book holds?" 

She looks up and gave me doe-looking eyes, as if she's been waiting for so long for someone to ask that question, "It's a story about a letter that withered in time." 

"Was it dedicated to someone?" I let my curiosity every fiber of my being. 

She nods. "My grandmother's first love." 

I was taken back. Suddenly, all of the words in my mouth disappeared. But my curiosity grew, "What a cliché." 

I expected her to be offended or even annoyed but she smiled at me and gave me another nod, "I agree. It's one of those cliché stories that you read in novels. A soldier going off to war to serve the country and a poor provincial girl waiting for her love to return. It's the same cliché cycling of longing and dreading." 

"It's not a tragic story without the old familiar longing and dreading," I add which makes her laugh. Her laugh wasn't the type that gave off shy energy. She laughed loudly and if I'm not mistaken I think I even heard a snort. 

She lets out a sigh, "Do you want to know the whole story?" 

I hesitated at first but like every weakling in stories, I eventually gave in. I took up the empty space next to her and gave her a shy smile as I settled down. She reciprocated and all of the sudden all of my perceptions about her in the past faded like sand falling grain by grain from the palm of my hand.

"It's originally a letter that my mother found on my grandmother's attic on the day that we were cleaning up her house just a few weeks after she passed away," She said, letting her hands glide through the tanned pages of the familiar book. 

I stay quiet. 

"It's a letter from my grandmother. The one that she left buried behind the boxes of dusting seasonal decorations. It was my mother who found it. During that time, I was just a seven-year-old girl with wide curious eyes. Fortunately for me, my mother was a writer. She took some inspiration from the letter and placed it here," She gives the cover of the book a light tap. 

"Does the book contain the original letter?" I ask. 

She gives me a nod and then she flips through the pages of the book, she stops when she reaches the middle part. From there, she hands it to me. 

I got hesitant but she gave me a slight nod to assure me that it was okay. 

'My dearest beloved, 

        I write this letter as the wax from the candle drips. I hope that you are safely hiding in trenches or in bunkers or in whatever man built tunnels within the earth. My heart weighs heavier this night as it dreads the last time that I will write to you. 

Tomorrow, when the sun rises from its slumber I will be wedded to a gentleman that used to swing by to offer me flowers as beautiful the sky. My heart could no longer take the nights where I'd stay up thinking if you are still breathing or if you've already met your doom. I could no longer bear the pain of waiting for hours just for you to appear at the doorstep of the house that we built and then end up with nothing but cold air. And lastly, I could no longer carry the heartbreak of losing our child. It was around four months, it had these small hands that I held for about five minutes, it had eyes and small feet. 

I learned that I was pregnant just two weeks after you got left for the military. This was the reason why I kept asking you about baby names in the letters that we exchanged. 

I hope you could forgive me for what I am about to do but I can no longer be in a love that has no insurance of coming back. 

Sincerely,' 

"Eloise," I say as I read the last line. The name tasted quite familiar in my mouth; as if my tongue once said it before. 

"But you see, my grandmother didn't get married to another," the girl next to me says. "She stayed here.." 

"Here?"

"Yes, I recently found out that the land that this library is standing at is the same land that once held the house that my grandmother and her beloved built. And this is the same place where she'd wait for him," 

Just when I was about to say something an old picture slides itself free from the pages of the book. It was a picture of a man and a woman happily smiling as they looked at each other; my heart drops.

"That's..." I manage to say. 

She glances at the old picture, "That was my grandma and--"

"My grandfather," 

There was silence for a few minutes. Until I decide to open my mouth again, "He passed away last year. He used to tell me stories about the woman he loved before meeting my grandmother. I guess the letter was meant to be unsent. Your mother did a great job in picking the title for the story." 

Memoir of an unsent letter. The letter remained a treasure keeper for the memories that were kept a secret. 

[terrie01]

Putting these behind a "read more" because this got waaaaay longer than I intended.

I dream of vampires. I dream of god. I dream of no vampires. I dream of no god. I dream of nothing. And yet that too is still my dream. - Mark Z. Danielewski, House of Leaves

Here's the thing about being a spy: sometimes all you have are your lies.  - Ally Carter, United We Spy

When spies aren't in sewer tunnels, they're usually crawling through air ducts. I'm not sure exactly why this is. It makes you kind of wonder: Are spies just frustrated maintenance men? - M.T. Anderson, Agent Q, or the Smell of Danger

This was how people disappeared from history, wasn't it? They weren't erased, they were explained away. - Kate Atkinson, Transcription

[A]n Assassin without style, everyone agreed, was just a highly paid arrogant thug. - Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

A short while later, as I stare down at the bodies of the six men I have just killed, I cannot help but wonder: Do I love killing? - Robin LaFevers, Dark Triumph

How to throw assassins off balance: cry in front of them. - Leah Cypress, Death Sworn

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. - Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach. - Aldous Huxley, Collected Essays

History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. - Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending

Do you really believe ... that everything historians tell us about men – or about women – is actually true? You ought to consider the fact that these histories have been written by men, who never tell the truth except by accident. - Moderata Fonte, The Worth of Women

Where I'm from, we believe in all sorts of things that aren't true... we call it history. - Gregory Maguire, Wicked: the Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Well, that's history for you, folks. Unfair, untrue and for the most part written by folk who weren't even there. - Joanne Harris, The Gospel of Loki

You may tell a tale that takes up residence in someone's soul, becomes their blood and self and purpose. That tale will move them and drive them and who knows that they might do because of it, because of your words. - Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus

“You’re a storyteller. Dream up something wild and improbable," she pleaded. "Something beautiful and full of monsters." - Laini Taylor, Strange the Dreamer

The universe is made of stories, not atoms. - Muriel Rukeyzer, The Speed of Darkness

We tell ourselves stories in order to live. - Joan Didion, The White Album

I do not know whether there are gods, but there ought to be. - Diogenes, The Home Book of Quotations, Classical and Modern (1937) by Burton Egbert Stevenson

Men change their gods, and when they have changed them often enough they cease to fear their power. - John Brunner, The Atlantic Abomination

We can never be gods, after all--but we can become something less than human with frightening ease. - N.K. Jemisin, The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms

--perhaps monsters were misunderstood gods; deities with plans too grand for humans; a phantom of evil that drank from the roots of good. - Roshani Chokshi, The Silvered Serpents

To the dumb question "Why me?" the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: why not? - Christopher Hitchens, Mortality

We are all subject to the fates. But we must act as if we are not, or die of despair. - Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass

Take it from me, Fate doesn't care most of the time. - Dianna Wynne Jones, Castle in the Air

History is filled with brilliant people who wanted to fix things and just made them worse. - Chuck Palahniuk, Lullaby

Loki (the god of being a needless prick all the time) - Cory O'Brien, Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes

Please!" yelled Loki. "I am not being noble! - Joanne Harris, Runemarks

Dionysus the god of drinking so hard you wake up with TWO hangovers and then they FIGHT. - Cory O'Brien, Zeus Grants Stupid Wishes

“But I rather thought--I mean, I heard you'd killed Balder the Fair." "I never did," snapped Loki crossly. "Well, no one ever proved I did. What happened to the presumption of innocence? Besides, he was supposed to be invulnerable. Was it my fault that he wasn't?” - Joanne Harris, Runemarks

Only Loki stood at the sides and laughed, a laughter more deadly to the self-important gods than any sword or spear. No wonder they had chained him. - M.D. Lachlan, Wolfsangel

You are only limited by your imagination. - Matt Haig, The Midnight Library

If the multiverse turns out to be the best explanation of the fundamental physical constants, it would not be the first time we have been flabbergasted by worlds beyond our noses. - Steven Pinker, Enlightenment Now

According to the current thinking of many physicists, we are living in one of a vast number of universes. - Alan Lightman, The Accidental Universe

Strange as it may sound, if you think of me as a monster, but I can love most passionately. I do not think of myself as evil. - Christopher Pike, The Last Vampire

Does Hallmark make a “Sorry I tried to drink your blood and touched you in a vaguely inappropriate manner” card? - Molly Harper, Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs

You know," he said, "every time a vampire says he doesn't believe in lycanthropes, a werewolf bursts into flames. - Elizabeth Bear, New Amsterdam

This club is for members only. But once you join, membership lasts for an eternity. - Ellen Schreiber, The Coffin Club

Magic is just science that we don’t know yet. - Christopher Moore, Bloodsucking Fiends

Contrary to popular myth, werewolves myth, werewolves are born, not made. No matter how many times they bite someone, that person will not turn, though they will probably bleed profusely and will definitely be annoyed. - Molly Harper, Nice Girls Don't Have Fangs

Because all the monsters have been let out of their cages tonight, no matter what court they belong to. So I may roam wherever I wish until the dawn. - Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses

Real fairytales end in blood or tears. - Luna Lindsey, Emerald City Dreamer

A faery’s home, usually shared with others, was often called a haunt, though grander ones might be called a court. There were other fae whose homes were fortresses, caves, dens, or lairs.

You didn’t want to go home with anyone who lived in a lair. - Molly Ringle, Lava Red Feather Blue

And even though preternaturals routinely preyed on humans when they were alone or in small groups, everyone sane understood that humans in large numbers were both paranoid and extremely dangerous. Even a single lucky human could slay a mighty dragon. As time passed into the modern era their weapons and technology made them even more deadly. - A.E. Lowen, Faerie Rising

Aight, y'all. I have a request.

One of the things I have to come up with when I'm writing RPG books are chapter quotes. The chapter quote comes at the head of a given chapter in a book and serves as a summary of the mood or contents of a chapter. Like this, from Trinity: Assassins -

I am pretty good at finding these, and often end up supplying quotes to coworkers as well, but! I want to extend and expand my collection of quotes and add in some lesser-known stuff, because it's my opportunity to shine a little light on people's good words.

A few requirements, because I gotta follow a style guide:

Must be from a published work with a title. Like, I don't want pithy quotes from a random Tumblr post, cool as they may be.

Must be attributable to a first and last name, not a username, so unless there's a first and last name on that AO3 story, please no.

Short and sweet. A sentence, maybe two. I can't use a whole paragraph.

No song quotes, period, full stop. I'm not allowed. Plays, books, poems, good. Songs, no.

What I'm specifically looking for are quotes on the following topics:

Spies or Assassins, James Bond, spy tropes

History, especially the manipulation of public opinion or history

Storytelling, the importance of stories, the stories we tell ourselves

Mythmaking, the concept of stories or roles being alive/having the ability to affect people and the world, tropes in fiction and reality

Cooperation or building things as a team

Gods, children of Gods, godhood, becoming divine,

fate or destiny but especially how much it sucks to be pushed around by Fate/destiny/Wyrd

Specific gods/mythic beings (especially Norse gods, but really any pantheon you can think of) and their antics

What we owe to each other, community-building, trust, safety through preparation

Multiverses, alternate realities, worlds outside the known world, liminal spaces

Dogs

Technology and magic, especially where they overlap or cannot be distinguished from each other, and our belief in both

Dreams: traveling inside of them, dreams as another level of existence, dreamcrafting, the power of fae/wizards/ghosts/etc in dreams

Fae, psychics, wizards, vampires, etc.

If you have a cool quote you think I should keep in my quote vault for future use, and it isn't something coming from a Big Name Author*, please stick it in a reply or a reblog of this post with the attributon (name and title) for the quote. I'll be keeping this thread around for whenever I need to grab a chapter quote or give someone else ideas. Obviously, putting a quote on the post is no guarantee it'll get used by me or anyone else, but hopefully people will also check the notes for delightful bon mots which inspire them to check out the works in question.

Please keep the notes of this post relatively clean so it remains a good reference post. 💗

*for the purposes of this post, a Big Name Author is one your mom has probably at least heard of - Ernest Hemingway, Steven King, James Patterson, Neil Gaiman, etc. If the author has a Tumblr, they probably don't count as a Big Name. Spiders Neal is an outlier etc etc. Definitely would love more quotes from marginalized authors - it's easy to find a quote from a middle-aged white man on whatever concept - and from currently-writing authors. The point of this is to be able to give attention to awesome people who might sell an extra book or two from being quoted.

If you don't want to see me reblogging this with whatever cool-ass thing people have put on it this time, mute "chapter quotes post".

[glassprism]

you say the estonian production was set in the 1940s but.... aside from the phantom's fabulous leather jacket the costumes definitely look more 19th century to me? am i missing something? are there two different productions and i'm just looking at the wrong one?

I was basically going off a comment on Operafantomet’s site here.

Of course, I should be clearer in saying that the auction scene was set in the 1940s, but since most of the show is a flashback, it’s set further back (so oops, mistake on my part). Productions seem to vary sometimes as to how long the time gap is, and I don’t know if the Estonian production ever says so, but usually there’s a gap of around 20-30 years?

(I have librettos that put the auction scene at 1905, but others have seen it set at 1911. Meanwhile the rest of the show is usually regarded as taking place in 1881, but sometimes it gets pushed back to 1871 or earlier. And then you take into account that Daddy Daae’s gravestone might have dates that don’t correspond, and LND trying to screw with the timeline, and it becomes a mess. BUT LET’S JUST SAY 20-30 YEARS AND APPLY IT AS SUCH TO ESTONIA.)

So if the auction scene is set in the 1940s and there’s a gap of 20-30 years, this would mean that POTO Estonia takes place anywhere from the 1910s to 1920s, possibly even the 1900s? Which is not contemporary, but it can explain your perception that the dresses look more 19th century. In fact, it being set in the 1900s-1910s might be why the dresses look Edwardian, at least according to Operafantomet (definitely the more knowledgeable costume historian).