#it’s enough that I do hunts + allied society quests

[impossible-rat-babies]

the fact that the xp stuff keeps happening on blm is hilarious like. I Will Not engage in content w others on that job. I will not do fates. I will not do MSQ roulette. I Refuse to subject others to I have no idea how to play this job

[ralofofriverwoods]

For the ask game: Pinewatch and Cistern

Pinewatch: If you could rewrite the backstory of any character, who would it be? What would it be?

Hmmm this is a hard one! Usually I don't mess much with existing character backstories, but it would have been nice to be expanded upon would be Irileth+ balgruuf's, and how they became friends, as well as whatever the fuck ulfric was doing before he shouted the high king to bits. I have a feeling I wouldn't actually change much of those though

One that id actually change would be gelebor and his brother's story. It seems weird that his brother would become a vampire, assuming they never left the forgotten vale. The only thing that the entire region has to do with vampires is that auriel's bow is there, and that's practically an antithesis to a vampire's existence! And it also doesn't make sense that gelebor and his bro are the ONLY live snow elves left, and the rest became falmer.

So id change pretty much everything about the forgotten vale, inhabitant wise.

Firstly, id alter what areas have falmer. The caves and stuff could definitely still have em and be believable, since iirc they're connected to Skyrim(or at least close enough), but the open areas(like the place with the dragons) should still have 'uncorrupted' snow elves. Sure it may not be a metropolis, but it would be like a small town in Skyrim at least. Like rorikstead and karthwasten combined, perhaps.

Second, I'd have to connect how vampires happen. As we know there's really only one way in canon to get vampirism straight from the source, which is molag bal, but I think that's stupid and I don't like him so I added sanguine as another way. That being said I think it would actually come from some vampire travelers. Gelebor welcomes you to the forgotten vale pretty easily, even if you've collected daedric artifacts like pokemon cards, so it would be safe to assume they either don't check very far for daedric influence, or they kind of just don't give a shit. Either way, I think this is how vampirism was introduced.

Some adventurers made a journey to the forgotten vale, possibly hearing about some ancient treasure or boon from auriel, and met a knight paladin that welcomed them, and didn't notice a vampire in the group(or that they were all vampires, either works). From there everything was normal, but a vampire decided to have a snack one night, and accidentally(or on purpose) infected someone with vampirism.

This could lead to either a split between vampire Snow elves+non vamp snow elves, or a small circle that simply collect power under everyone's noses. This could go on for generations, until gelebor and his brother eventually became fully fledged knight paladins, at which point they would be split just like in the base game, but with more people backing them up on either side.

Of course you could then choose between these mini factions as the dragonborn, depending on what side of the quest you are playing. If playing on the vamp hunting side, you'd be able to turn a few vampires back, who would then become followers, and vice versa. If you wanted you could even have the brothers be convinced to join the other side with persuasion or intimidation, depending if you wanted to be more or less angsty. You'd need a high score in either to do that though, at least lvl 80 speech.

This would also fix the sad reality in the game, that the only snow elf that yet lives(and isn't falmer) was gelebor, who killed his own brother for somehow becoming a vampire. I think it would be much more narratively appealing to have both 'uncorrupted' snow elves and 'corrupted' falmer exist at the same time, in big enough numbers to each have their own societies. It would open up a good opportunity for the falmer+snow elves to make an allied debut back into the world at large in a future game as well!tes6

Cistern: Which Guild Hall is your favorite? Why?

Unmodded id have to say sky haven temple. It has very pretty architecture, and though I haven't seen it past where you're supposed to kill paarthurnax(because I'm not killing peepaw partysnax >:( ) it's still very pretty. This may change when I actually progress that story line, but ATM it's not half bad. The finished thieves guild and dark brotherhood aren't too shabby either, though the tortured people in the dark brotherhood take a solid 3 points away from the atmosphere.

Overall I like all of them so it's hard to pick favorites, but as I'm still not used to seeing sky haven much, they've deffo got my vote.

Modded would have to be the thieves guild with the opulent thieves guild mod. From just the screenshots alone that shit is killer in the best way. Much warmer and more welcoming(at least for a cistern)

[thesilverheroineproject]

The monomyth known as

the Hero’s Journey

has become widely popular. Unfortunately,

the original

was clearly intended for men and not women. In response, some feminists have created their own, female-centered version, called the Heroine’s Journey. Lucky for us storytellers, both can be abstracted into a structure that works for a wide array of stories.

I’ll take you through a tour of The Heroine’s Journey by Maureen Murdock. She created this journey to help real women through life’s hardships, but it has a lot to offer as a story structure. In honor of its feminist roots, I will refer to the central character as the heroine, with female pronouns. However, it applies to male characters just as well.

To show you how it might work in a story, I’m going to develop an ongoing example. I’ll name my heroine Mara. As we go through the steps of the structure, she’ll ride beside us.

Why Use the Heroine’s Journey?

Like other mythic structures, you should use the Heroine’s Journey if it fits the story you want to tell. The structure of the Heroine’s Journey is particularly well suited for:

Character arcs: The stages of the original framework correlate with how the heroine feels, not what she is doing. I’ve externalized this framework, but it’s still a strong choice for a story about an internal struggle.

Quests for identity: The heroine may battle dragons and claim treasure, but the real core of the story is her struggle to find herself.

Themes of privilege and oppression: The heroine taking the journey must triumph despite living in a society that undervalues who she is. You don’t have to include privilege and oppression in your story, but if you want it, this framework will help you bring it out.

Most of all, the Heroine’s Journey is about a heroine who must find balanceas she struggles between the sides of a duality.

Finding Your Duality

First, identify the duality that lives within your heroine. It might be obvious. If you have a half elf, half human caught between those races, that’s clearly your duality. It can also be abstract concepts – perhaps your heroine’s caught between membership in a group and following her individual path. Or between the excitement of travel and the comforts of home. Whatever it is, both sides must be essential to her wellbeing. If you use the light side and the dark side of the Force, you’ll need to portray the dark side as constructive when used in moderation.

The structure refers to one side of the duality as the feminine, and the other as the masculine. Your next step is to pick which side of your duality is which. Use your discretion, but in general:

The feminine is the side of the duality that your heroine identified with as a small child. However, society undervalues the feminine. The story begins as the heroine chooses to reject it.

The masculine is the side of the duality that your heroine adopts as she comes of age. Society prizes the masculine, but in many tales it has been poisoned, misinterpreted, or taken to such extremes that it has become harmful. The heroine sets out on her journey by embracing it.

Example

Mara is a war orphan who was raised by the Sali people. They’re a peaceful farming culture that meditates every day and values quiet and contemplation. However, they’re a minority in the nation they live in. Their culture and society will be Mara’s feminine. Though they raised her, Mara is actually descended from a warrior culture, called the Barock. Once nomads, they’re now the ruling class. They will be her masculine.

The Eight Stages of the Heroine’s Journey

Here’s an overview of the stages of the journey. I lightly modified the stages from Murdock’s original structure to create a version that was easier for writers to follow.

1. Shift from Feminine to Masculine

During stage one, the heroine rejects the feminine in favor of the masculine. She may still be tied to the feminine, but she increasingly resents that attachment.

The Mother

She could have any number of reasons for rejecting the feminine, but a unhappy relationship with a feminine role model, known as the mother, is chief among them. To the heroine, the mother represents the worst of the feminine end of her duality. She might be powerless, unhappy, flawed, or just interpreted that way. The mother is threatening to the heroine because she’s afraid of becoming her, just as Luke Skywalker fears becoming Darth Vader.

Alternatively, the mother may be intimidating in her strength and perfection, particularly if you decide to make the feminine more privileged than the masculine in your story. The heroine may reject her to avoid feeling inadequate next to her.

The Father

As she rejects the mother, the heroine will embrace a metaphorical father. The father represents whatever the heroine admires in the masculine. He may have a dark side, or be a despicable person altogether, but she isn’t aware of that yet. He opens to the door to a path that leads away from the mother, and makes the heroine feel like she could succeed on that path. In turn, she does her best to gain his attention and approval.

He offers an escape from the mother, but at the same time he might rub in that the heroine is tied to the lowly feminine. He could praise her strength and brilliance as he tells her the feminine makes her weak and stupid. This will only spur her harder to prove herself in his eyes.

As a result of this dynamic, the heroine discards the feminine, and any part of herself tied to it.

Example

Mara has no memory of before she came to live with the Sali. She is content to live with them until she turns twelve, and is allowed to go into town to trade at the market. There she learns that everyone thinks of the Sali as cowards, because they hide behind their walls when the swarm comes, instead of helping to protect everyone. She also meets the Barock. They look like her, and they appear powerful and confident. She’s curious about them; the older warriors humor her by showing her how to handle their weapons.

But her Sali guardian doesn’t approve of the way Mara has begun to prize possessions she gained in the marketplace, or how she runs off to the market when she has nothing to trade. He forbids her from going to the market for a month, instead mandating regular meditation. This only makes her more determined to leave the Sali and join the Barock.

2. The Road of Trials

In stage two, the heroine sets off on a journey, departing the ordinary of the feminine and fully embracing the masculine. This might mean she actually leaves home, sword in hand, or it could just mean that she abandons sewing classes and goes fishing instead.

Regardless, she has something to prove to herself and others. In her new journey, she is surrounded by masculine allies. They still think she is less, or at least not one of them. In her heart, she believes they’re right. But that doesn’t mean she’ll give up. She’s fixated on showing everyone that they’re wrong.

For that, she needs big victories. She wants something to show others, like a trophy or treasure. In pursuit of her prize she will face threshold guardianswho try to deter her, and battle real or metaphorical monsters.

In her enthusiastic pursuit of the masculine, she forgets to stay in touch with her inner self. All her actions are designed to make her look better to her masculine allies; she never does anything because she simply wants to do it. She’s always compensating for the feminine lurking within her.

Example

At sixteen Mara finally comes of age. She forgoes the Sali coming of age ceremony, and abruptly leaves to join a band of Barock warriors. She wants to help them protect others against the swarm. The group agreed to take her, but not all of them think it was wise. They’ve been training with weapons their entire lives, and their skill is superior to hers.

So she trains day and night. Whenever there is a fight, she is out in front; no one can call her a coward. The mark of a great Barock warrior is the stinger of a swarm queen. She’s determined to capture one of her own.

3. The Illusion of Success

By stage three, the heroine has faced great trials and emerged victorious. She feels the thrill of success, and her confidence is bolstered by the applause of others. She has built an impressive, masculine reputation.

But that does not dull her appetite for adventure and victory in masculine pursuits. On the contrary, as soon as she finds success on one quest, she immediately sets out on another. Her victories are never enough, so she tries to do more and more to distract herself. She must maintain the outside validation and applause that makes her feel justified as a person.

Somewhere inside, she begins to realize that something is missing from her life. She feels stretched thin. She looks in the mirror, and isn’t sure she knows the person looking back. Even her victories seem empty. She counsels the great and powerful, but does not feel great and powerful herself.

Example

Mara collects her first queen stinger, and then another, and yet more. In her twentieth year, she destroys an entire swarm with a fire trap, and is hailed as the savior of the town. The Barock remark that she is remarkable despite her Sali upbringing, and she’s given a pass to watch as the High Council deliberates.

But the stingers and praise feel small and trivial to her. They were too long in coming and too hard won. Mara spends her spare time pouring over her battle maps, devising new strategies to try against the swarm. She never stops to rest, because she doesn’t know what she would do with herself if she did. She is nothing without her endless hunt of the swarm.

4. The Descent

In stage four, tragedy strikes. It could be a cataclysm that shakes the world, or a private matter that no one else knows of. Regardless, she is suddenly made aware of what’s really important to her. When her allies come to usher her along on the next adventure, she turns them down.

They tell her she is a coward. Or perhaps that she is selfish, impulsive, or whatever despised quality the masculine attributes to the feminine. But she doesn’t hear them. She is already far away, undergoing her own inner turmoil.

She begins a period of voluntary isolation, descending into a metaphorical cave. There time passes slowly. It’s dark; there are no sights or sounds to distract her. There she searches for herself.

She may have to sift through a maelstrom of emotions. Anger, remorse, and grief may all set upon her. She might be afraid to follow her thoughts and feelings to their conclusion, but she knows she must.

Example

Mara and her warriors are battling against a large swarm that is precariously close to a village. A lookout catches sight of the queen in the distance. There is just the barest of openings to pursue her. Mara takes it, leading a group after the queen.

She succeeds, but on her return, Mara finds her departure opened a breach in the defense. As a result, a nearby Sali settlement was overrun, killing everyone inside. The old memories of being in the Sali come back to her and she weeps over the fallen. She tells her warriors to move on, but she stays to bury every one of them. The Barock think she’s lost her nerve, but they eventually leave. She continues her work alone.

5. Meeting With the Goddess

The heroine begins stage five in her darkest hour. But she is rewarded for her struggle when she encounters the goddess.

The goddess symbolizes the true nature of the feminine, and the best of what the heroine left behind. The goddess imparts a great truth to the heroine about herself and the feminine.

When the heroine parts with the goddess, she feels reborn.

Example

Mara spends weeks burying the fallen. She leaves the destroyed settlement, but does not return to the Barock. Instead she wanders aimlessly.

Then Mara sees an old Sali city, abandoned since the invasion of the Barock long ago. She goes there and walks through what’s left of the ancient Sali temples and streets. Everything is familiar from her childhood, yet greater than it. She is filled with nostalgia and wonder. She remembers the happy days in her Sali settlement, and begins to miss it.

She is perplexed by how open the city is. It has no walls to block out the swarm. The only thing marking the city borders are enormous braziers. She can only conclude that before the Barock came, the Sali did not struggle against the swarm like they do now.

6. Reconciliation With the Feminine

In stage 6, the heroine heads back to the familiar surroundings she left behind. She finds and nurtures her inner child, the part of her left from before she rejected the feminine. She may seek to bond with the mother, and to gain new understanding about her.

She spends her time on simple tasks of a feminine nature. She receives no glory for her toil. Former allies find her and try to convince her to return to the way she was before her descent. Even the mother or others of the feminine may not welcome her back, remembering her rejection of them with bitterness.

But she continues her humble work. She maintains hope that if she continues down the path that feels right to her, she will be redeemed. She waits patiently for improvement.

Example

Mara returns to the settlement she was raised in. They tell her she is not a member of the Sali, because she did not undergo the coming of age rite of their people. But she refuses to go. She sits on their steps and fasts until they allow her to work the land beside them. She speaks with childhood friends, but they hesitate to socialize with her.

Her Barock warriors find her there. They tell her to get herself together and come back with them. She refuses. They warn her there is a swarm that is coming soon. She says she has other, more important work. Slowly, the Sali begin to trust her again. She undergoes the coming of age ceremony she missed.

7. Reincorporation of the Masculine

In stage seven, a crisis erupts in the realm of the feminine. In dealing with this crisis, the heroine once again faces the masculine side of herself, ready to emerge and dominate. She now understands the inner need that the masculine fulfills, and why she lost herself in it before. She recognizes that while the masculine was not her true goal, it was an important part of her journey.

And she refuses to let it take control. Instead, she channels her masculine impulses to positive ends. She solves the crisis with serenity and grace. When it is over, she asks for no rewards.

Example

There is a weakness in the wall around the Sali settlement. When the swarm comes it breaks and they leak through. Mara does not have her sword, so she grabs a staff and runs out to fight them. She blocks the opening in the wall, allowing the Sali to fall back and reach safety. She is tempted to continuing fighting, to see if she can outlast the swarm. But the Sali call her to retreat behind the next wall. They will survive without the crops the swarm will destroy. She listens, and retreats.8. The Union

By stage 8, the heroine has found balance between the feminine and the masculine. But she is not finished until she helps others find that balance as well. She uses her synergy of the feminine and masculine to bring everyone, on either side, together. If they are embattled by a great enemy, her leadership guides them to victory.

If it fits your story, this is also the time to discard your duality altogether. The heroine could reveal that it is false, arbitrary, or destructive.

Example

With permission from the Sali leaders, Mara acquires a new set of weapons. They are not flashy, but functional. However, she does not think that simply cutting down the swarm is the answer. The Sali traditionally burn a special incense when the swarm comes, but only inside because it’s not allowed elsewhere. She thinks this incense repels the swarm, and that is how the Sali used to survive before the Barock came. Mara convinces the Barock leaders of the town to try it.

The Sali gather the ingredients for the incense in large quantities, and prepare bonfires. Because there are no large and protected braziers to burn it in, Barock warriors must protect the fires from the swarm when it comes, or the creatures might put them out too quickly to have an effect. The swarm comes, grouping together and rushing at the fires. The warriors stay firm. Soon, the whole area is filled with the fumes from the incense. The swarm weakens and retreats. The town is completely undamaged.

The town leaders mandate the construction of large braziers immediately afterwards. The Sali and Barock design and build them together.

The Union With the Hero’s Journey

If you’re a structure-phile who’s been wondering this whole time whether your story could be both a hero’s and a heroine’s journey, your answer is ��yes!” Mara just did it.

Here’s how the stages of these two structures match up:

Heroine’s JourneyHero’s Journey

Shift From Feminine to MasculineOrdinary World; Call to Adventure

The Road of TrialsCrossing the Threshold; Tests, Allies & Enemies

The Illusion of SuccessThe Approach

The DescentThe Ordeal

Meeting With the GoddessThe Reward

Reconciliation With the FeminineThe Road Back

Reincorporation of the MasculineThe Resurrection

The UnionThe Return with the Elixir

Because the hero’s journey focuses on external struggle, and the heroine’s journey focuses on internal struggle, they have a lot to offer each other.

Applying the Structure to Your Story

It’s important to remember that the Heroine’s and Hero’s Journeys aren’t recipes that should be followed precisely. Don’t add a literal goddess to your scifi story just because the Heroine’s Journey has a goddess stage. Instead, find a world-appropriate story element that symbolizes truth, and use that. It’s these larger, more general concepts that make the structures strong. Use them to find meaning and inspiration for your story, and bring them out. If breaking the rules of the journey makes your story feel stronger to you, do it.

[homelessrobin]

1.7 Primitive Accumulation: Brazilwood

There are few countries in the world so much created by the world economy as Brazil. It is one of the very few countries to receive its name from a trade good. Greece and Turkey, for example, never exported lard or fowl. Yes, some countries and areas gave their names to goods, China comes immediately to mind. But in Brazil it was the trade good--the Brazilwood used for dye--that christened the area. The pau Brasil first attracted European interest in the distant subcontinent, but its boom was brief and its harvest difficult.     The problem was that to harvest dyewood from the sweltering tropical forests, the large trees had to be cut and transported to the coast. This, of course, required labor. Europeans had not come to the tropics to do such arduous work. But they found it difficult to induce the local population to work for them. Although there may have been as many as 6 million people living in Brazil in 1500 and they were concentrated close to the coast and rivers, the men had no tradition of hard work and the women could not cut and haul the logs.     The seminomadic Tupi people whom the Portuguese encountered gained most of their sustenance through hunting, fishing, and gathering. Women conducted their rudimentary agriculture; labor was little specialized nor had capital been accumulated. These people were so “backward” that they did not pay taxes or work for others. The Tupi classless subsistence societies also engaged in little trade and produced for themselves only simple artifacts.    For some of them, trade was more a contest than a profession. Jean Lery, a French huguenot who visited Brazil in the 1550s, wrote of the most peculiar exchanges of the fierce Ouetaca. When another people, say the Tupinamba, wanted to trade with the Ouetaca, they would show their trade good from afar, as would the Ouetaca. If both agreed to exchange, the Tupinamba placed his item, for example green stones, on a rock two hundred steps away and returned to his original place. The Ouetaca would then walk to the rock, take the stones, place down his featherwork, and retreat. The Tupinamba would then return to get the featherwork. Then the exchange became interesting: “As soon as each one has returned with his object of exchange, and gone past the boundaries of the place where he had first come to present himself, the truce is broken, and it is then a question of which one can catch the other and take back from his what he was carrying away.” Since the Ouetaca ran like greyhounds, they usually won the contest. Lery advised his European readers: “Therefore, unless the lame, gouty, or otherwise slow-footed folk from over here want to lose their merchandise, I do not recommend that they negotiate or barter with the Ouetaca.”    The Ouetaca were exceptional, to be sure. Most Tupis willingly traded some goods and were not “Indian givers.” However, their needs were limited. They had no sense of private property, commodities, or acquisitiveness. Lery became aware of this in a conversation with an older native who was curious why the Portuguese came from such a distance in search of Brazilwood: “Do you not have wood in your country?” he wondered. When Lery explained that the wood was for dye, not firewood, his interlocutor asked why they needed so much of it. The Frenchman replied that in his “country there are traders who own more cloth, knives, scissors, mirrors and other goods than you can imagine.” The Tupi considered this a while then mused: “this rich man you are telling me about, does he not die?” Assured that Frenchmen too died, the old man wondered what became of the traders’ goods after death. Lery patiently explained that they were bequeathed to heirs. The Tupi had heard enough: “I now see that you Frenchmen are great Madmen. You cross the sea and suffer great inconvenience . . . and work so hard to accumulate riches for your children or for those who survive you. Is the land that nourished you not sufficient to feed them too? We have fathers, mothers and children whom we love. But we are certain that after our death the land that nourished us will also feed them. We therefore rest without further cares.” The budding mercantile capitalists of Portugal ran up against this culture that they considered backward. They could not see that the native Brazilians already had the advanced values of a leisure-oriented ecologically sensitive society.    To convince the Tupi to sweat and toil carrying heavy logs that they no doubt believed were better left to stand erect as trees, the Portuguese and French exploited traditional local values and attempted to create demand. First, some of the Europeans went native. Unlike Robinson Crusoe, who attempted to remake in the image of Europe the desert island on which he was shipwrecked, some Portuguese and French adopted native (un)dress, learned their languages, and married into their communities. They then played upon traditions of reciprocal labor to begin to send the forest to Europe. The European traders also offered steel swords and axes, which the warlike Tupi found useful in combat. By allying with selected villages and providing them with weapons, the Portuguese attempted to create demand for arms by raising the level of violence. The French would then use the threat of Portuguese-armed villages to strike up alliances with their enemies. Here in the remote tropical forests of the southern hemisphere, the quest for dyewood was replicating the wars of Europe.     But the Europeans could not inculcate in the Brazilians the virtues of accumulation and property. John Hemming recounts the complaints of a Jesuit priest, one of the vanguards of the culture of capitalism, who objected that the Tupi had “their houses full of metal tools. . . . Indians who formerly were nobodies and always dying of hunger through not having axes to clear fields now have as many tools and fields as they want, and eat and drink continually. They are always drinking wines in their villages, starting wars and doing much mischief.” The introduction of steel axes had permitted entire villages of Brazilians to act as if they were European aristocrats. With their needs met, the Tupi were hard to exploit.     It became clear to the Portuguese that if they wanted more than simply enough, more than a healthy sustenance, in short, if they wanted capital, they had to turn to another form of labor. The rules of the Tupi labor market were set too much in favor of the aborigines. Since the small Portuguese population was not anxious to cross the Atlantic to break their backs in tropical agriculture, the Portuguese in Brazil took to enslaving their Brazilian hosts. But this was not ideal either. Many male Tupi, disdainful of agriculture, which they considered woman’s work, preferred to die rather than dig. Others used their knowledge of the areas to escape. So traders turned to a people well equipped for the tropics and accustomed to agriculture: African slaves. But to purchase them required more money than dyewood could provide. Hence the Portuguese turned to sugar plantations. The “golden age” of Brazil began as the age of dyewood ended. Dyewood became an unimportant trade good, and the native peoples were driven ever farther into the remote interior. Today, the only trace left of the age of dyewood is the country’s name: Brazil.      

[ibitchytimemachine]

Chapters: 22/30 Fandom: Dragon Ball Rating: Mature Summary:

MEDIEVAL AU: Princess Bulma's home is attacked in the night by an unknown enemy. She flees to her homelands strongest ally, the country of Vegeta to beg the King for his army's aid, and finds an unexpected friend his his proud, gruff eldest Son Vegeta. VegeBul, Slow burn.

*Ninja edit: The writer got in touch with me so I can tag her now! @neala-ernswa

Thoughts below the cut. Beware spoilers!

I had a really hard time reading this one. The story is interesting, good. I like the  AU. Vegeta’s character is OOC, but that doesn't bother me. The moments of smut in this fic are really hot. Something about when Vegeta tells Bulma she tastes like a peach did things to me. The moments they are together physically are vivid, romantic, sexy. The writer incorporated things like the Oozaru and characters such as Piccolo and 18 in an interesting way. I like how physically brazen the writer makes Bulma also. Bulma kicks the shit out of Raditz and it is hilarious and after what I am calling Bulma’s heroes journey she fucking kills King Cold. She is badass. The meat of this fic is nicely written, but it is obvious, in the middle chapters especially, that editors were needed. The grammar and spelling is rough. Honestly it did slow me down reading, but I enjoyed the immersion enough that I could forgive the flaws.  I feel like the writer had great ideas, but needed refinement to the style and technique of this story. 

I liked this story, I don't read a story to the end if I don't enjoy something about it, but the thing that really made me want to share this story happens in Chapter 17: The Kings Final Accent (I am pretty sure they meant Ascent, but this is the type of spelling/grammar issue I was talking about earlier). In the story Bulma has lost her whole family. Her father was killed in an attack from the Colds. In her culture, the (I’m fairly sure this is only royal) survivors are responsible for making sure their loved ones get from the palace to the Temple. Because Bulma is the lone survivor of her family she is tasked with doing this by herself. This is almost her hero’s quest. She must pull a cart with her fathers remains up a steep hill to the Temple and push him into flames so he will move on to the afterlife. She struggles. She has doubts. She is alone and resolved to do this in a way that would make her people proud. She falters and a young girl comes to her aid. Not Vegeta, not ChiChi, not a member of the house guard or army. A peasant girl. This was a poignant moment for me personally because it reminds us that no matter what we think we can do, it is important to remember that people care. People are inherently good, and want to help. 

I have really struggled with depression and anxiety and my family situation makes it hard to settle down. We move a lot. I just got to another new city, am trying to ingratiate my daughter into another new school with more new friends. I am job hunting again, while staying home alone with our two year old. My husband works a lot. His job is 40 minutes away (this is where we could afford to live) his schedule has him leaving at 9 in the morning and getting back around 9 or 10 in the evening. He is also working on his dissertation so he is constantly studying and writing. I am not good with making friends. I worry about what to say to people and I worry I am bothering them. When I move away from a place, it is incredibly difficult for me to continue a relationship with the people I have grown close to. So it is safe to say I have no real friends. The few good friends I do have are those friends who you don't really talk to much but the second you get together with its like you haven't been apart. Except I am apart from them. They are on the other side of the country, and here I am trying yet again to start over at 34. I’m not good at making friends online, or ingratiating myself into online communities, so online friends are really not a thing for me. My skill set is quite specialized and the market for my skills in my area are saturated, so I would have to take a low paying entry level job, which adds to the issue of trying to meet people. 

All of the above was a way to say that I understand Bulma’s character in this chapter. I feel her pain. Sure she has Vegeta right behind her, but she is alone in this task. She has friends and people who she cares about and who care about her, however she has no one who truly understands her plight and the pressure she is under at this moment. Vegeta is there, but he has not suffered the loss she has. She is alone in her grief and there are no others who can truly understand her. Then the girl, who Bulma calls pure, identifies that there is this person who is broken and in need and regardless of what society thinks is acceptable reaches out and helps. It is exactly what Bulma needs, support. This chapter was phenomenal. 

I would recommend this story to anyone who wants a VegeBul fic in a high magic type of setting. If you can look past the issues I talked about earlier and want a romantic slightly OOC Vegeta,and and interesting almost Game of Thrones kind of world you may enjoy this fic. 

If you liked this review, after you check out this fic, head over to my A03 and check my stuff out too!

[multiverseforger]

Born Nathaniel Essex in Victorian London, Sinister became a biologist in 1859. He was a contemporary of Charles Darwin and became obsessed with Darwin's theories. However, Essex believed his peers were shackled by too many moral constraints and that their research should be beyond morality. Essex believed that humanity was undergoing increasing mutation, due to what he called "Essex Factors" in the human genome. He dreamed of bringing the perfection of the evolution of the human race to the masses. After the loss of his young son due to birth defects, he delved deeper into his work. Essex's theories were mocked, making him bitter, and his revealing of an unorthodox experiment resulted in his ousting from the Royal Society. Angry, Essex stated that if becoming a monster was what was required for his work to progress, then he would become a monster.[9]

Essex met with Cootie Tremble and the Marauders, the group he would eventually lead. The Marauders kidnapped homeless and neglected people off the streets of London and used them as test subjects for Essex's experiments. Essex ordered the Marauders to awaken the immortal Egyptian mutant En Sabah Nur, who would become known as Apocalypse. En Sabah Nur ordered the Marauders to take him to Essex. During this time, Essex's wife, Rebecca Essex, was pregnant with their unborn child and was shocked to find that Essex had dug up their first-born child to experiment on him. Nur met Essex and became interested in Essex's work. Nur offered an alliance with Essex in continuing his research. Left with the choice of continuing his work or his wife shunning him, Essex allied himself with Nur. Essex explained to Nur that Nur was the first born in what he believed would be a great mutation in the human race.[9]

The time-travelers Cyclops and Phoenix confronted Nur, believing that they were to prevent Dr. Essex's future transformation into Mr. Sinister, but unaware that Madame Sanctity of the Askani had sent them to the past to stop Nur from conquering England. Essex was necessary for the birth of Nathan Summers, also known as the mutant Cable, whom Madame Sanctity worshiped. Nur defeated Cyclops and Phoenix and leaves them for Essex to experiment on. Phoenix explains to Essex that continuing his work with Nur would lead to the destruction of the world. Deciding to leave his life of unorthodox research and dedicate his life to his wife and unborn child, Essex returned home to learn that his wife had freed all of his captives, prematurely had the baby, and was dying of stress. Asking for forgiveness at her side, Rebecca denied him and stated, "To me, you are... utterly… and contemptibly… sinister!", with her dying words. Essex agreed to Nur's offer and was ordered to create a plague to destroy the weak of the world, as Nur's first prelate. In his alien ship, Apocalypse painfully transformed Essex into an ageless being of extraordinary pallor with telekinesis, asking him to shed his past name and choose another. With his new abilities and dispassionate outlook, Essex took the new name, "Sinister", Rebecca's last words to him.[9]

Sinister has shown an obsession with Scott Summers, and the Summers genetic line. This led Sinister to create a clone of Jean Grey called Madelyne Pryor, with the sole purpose of breeding with Scott. That successful quest resulted in the birth of Nathan Summers.[10]

At some point, he is approached by Professor Xavier and Magneto regarding his genetic collection of DNA. Xavier wanted Sinister to prioritize collecting mutant DNA in a comprehensive database that would be safe, secure, and redundant. He offered to provide samples that Sinister would have trouble getting on his own including Magneto and himself. Sinister agreed to the compromise but had his memories erased of the encounter such that he would not remember meeting Xavier and Magneto.[11]

1990sEdit

Mister Sinister returns in the title X-Factor, leading the Nasty Boys[12] and has allied himself with the mutant terrorist Stryfe.[13] In the storyline "X-Cutioner's Song", the character impersonates Apocalypse and uses his Four Horsemen to capture Cyclops and Jean Grey.[14] Sinister hands them over to Stryfe in exchange for a canister containing his genetic material,[15] but finds it empty, unknowingly unleashing the Legacy Virus in the process.[16] Afterwards, Sinister confronts Cyclops to reveal that the canister contained the deadly Legacy Virus. It was during this conversation, that Sinister said, "I care enough to wish you and your brothers to be protected from this illness", but he corrected himself in saying that he meant "brother".[17]

In 1996, Mister Sinister's origin story is told in the limited series, The Further Adventures of Cyclops and Phoenix. It establishes the character as Nathaniel Essex, a scientist from the 19th century obsessed with evolution who made a pact with the ancient mutant Apocalypse to become a virtually immortal being.[18] It furthermore establishes that Mister Sinister created Cyclops's son Nathan, who becomes the time-traveling soldier Cable, in order to destroy Apocalypse.[19]

It was also revealed that Sinister had initiated the Morlock Massacre because he saw his signature in them (as many of them were experiments of Dark Beast, a student of Mr. Sinister from an alternate timeline known as the Age of Apocalypse), and he would not allow unauthorized use of his theories, so they were slaughtered.[20] Though some of his Marauders did not survive the battle, many of them returned thanks to Sinister's genetics mastery and the fact that he had multiple clones of all of them.[21] He also considered doing the same with the Genosha mutates, who were experiments of Sugar Man (another student of his Age of Apocalypse counterpart). Yet in the end he did not because the mutates were sterile and so in his opinion, they were not a tainting of his work.[20]

Another running storyline for the character was his mysterious ties to the X-Man Gambit; these ties were first introduced in X-Men v2 #6 when Sabretooth encountered Gambit and the X-Men and implied that the two had a history working together.[22] When Rogue briefly absorbed Gambit's memories,[23] she realized the relationship between the two: that Gambit had been an agent of Mister Sinister, recruiting Sabretooth and several other villains, to serve as Sinister's Marauders.[24] Furthermore, he had served as a guide for the group in the tunnels, before abandoning the villains upon discovering their plans on wiping out the Morlocks. His payment for these deeds would be Mister Sinister's services as a scientist, to correct a genetic defect regarding Gambit's powers that was causing him to slowly lose control over them.[25]

2000sEdit

Mister Sinister appears in the title Gambit;[26] besides revealing the connection between the two characters, Mister Sinister would provide Gambit with a chemical compound designed to neutralize the genetic modification process that the Skrulls were using as part of their infiltration process of Earth, as the alien shapeshifters had formed an alliance with Apocalypse to conquer Earth.[27] It was also revealed that Mister Sinister had genetically altered the villain the Living Monolith, allowing him to access Havok's power, in order to serve as replacement for Havok in Apocalypse's plan to harvest the power of The Twelve.[volume & issue needed] Following Apocalypse's defeat, Sinister attempts to use the High Evolutionary's space station to mutate the human population but is stopped by the X-Men.[28]

Sinister's actions would have worldwide repercussions: by helping High Evolutionary strip all of mutantkind of their powers, Sinister unknowingly wiped out a community of evolved mutants known as The Neo.[29] The surviving Neo began hunting Sinister down, forcing Sinister to go into hiding as the Neo known as Domina (whose daughter was one of the dead) kills over 17 Sinister doppelgangers left behind by Sinister as he goes into hiding.[30]

Sinister would resurface in the pages of Weapon X, experimenting on mutants under the guise of Dr. Robert Windsor.[31] It is revealed that the character worked alongside the Nazis during World War II and created a clone of Namor called N2 which was destroyed by Captain America.[32] He would be accompanied by the Marauder Scalphunter in the series, with Scalphunter serving as his bodyguard.

Mister Sinister reappears in the "X-Men: Endangered Species" storyline, sending the Marauders and Acolytes out to murder all those who have knowledge of the future;[33] In the "X-Men: Messiah Complex" storyline, Sinister, leading a mob of many of the remaining evil mutants, seeks out the first mutant child born since Decimation (also known as "M-Day", when the Scarlet Witch de-powered most of the world's mutant population). However, the character is apparently killed by Mystique, who presses his face onto an unconscious Rogue, whose powers had been amplified into an instantaneous death-touch.[34]

Some years ago, Kraven made a deal with Mister Sinister. He and the Blob tracked down the X-Men, and they fought the united forces of Spider-Man and the original X-Men. Kraven fled after a short battle, but not before wounding each member of the X-Men. Kraven returned to Sinister, with genetic samples from Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Iceman, Angel, and Beast. Furthermore, Sinister requested a sample of his DNA.[35] Mister Sinister later cut a deal with Carnage in order to obtain a sample of the Carnage Symbiote. After removing the sentience from the Carnage symbiote sample, Mister Sinister combined it with the DNA of the original X-Men and Kraven the Hunter where he will use this creation on a later date.[36] Years later after the death of Kraven, an ex-Morlock who had kept his powers post M-Day named Joe Buggs was murdered by a mysterious mutant hunter. His friend Ed (who had lost his powers) went to the X-Men for help. He claimed that the man who killed Buggs was Kraven the Hunter. Although they were skeptical about Kraven's apparent resurrection, the X-Men called on the help of Spider-Man, who had battled Kraven many times over the years. After discussing the battle that they had with Kraven years ago and the fact that he had given samples of the X-Men's DNA to Sinister for cloning, the lights went out on the wing where they were located. The hunter attacked and quickly dispatched Colossus but was held at bay by Spider-Man's webbing. He broke free claiming his name is Xraven and was able to defeat Cyclops and Shadowcat, holding her hostage, giving the ultimatum that he would kill her if they did not surrender. Spider-Man insulted Xraven, claiming that Kraven would never threaten a helpless girl. Xraven was momentarily fazed by his comment, but attacked again, claiming that he is the "favored one". Cyclops realizes Xraven's weakness and tells him that Mister Sinister sees him as nothing but a pawn. He tells Xraven to read his mind, in order for him to see the kind of a man Sinister really is. After Xraven sees Cyclops' memories, he flees but the X-Men become aware of the fact that he was able to get DNA samples from Shadowcat, Colossus, Nightcrawler, and Wolverine. Returning to Mister Sinister with the samples, Mister Sinister tells him that he planned to clone a new generation of mutants, and that he would unite all mutantkind. After seeing what Sinister's real intentions were in Cyclops' memories, Xraven destroys the samples, claiming that Mister Sinister would breed slaves as opposed to warriors, and Xraven attacks him.[37]

Miss SinisterEdit

Learn more

It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled Miss Sinister. (Discuss)



Miss Sinister in X-Men Legacy #214 (September 2008). Art by Scot Eaton.

The series X-Men: Legacy reveals that Mister Sinister had been anticipating his physical death for some time, putting events in motion that would lead to his resurrection. It was even revealed that besides the Summers family, Mister Sinister had also been manipulating for some time events in the Xavier family as well as the Marko, Ryking and Shaw families. By using the Cronus Device, he manages to implant within their DNA the seeds through which to ensure his own rebirth. Then he transferred his own consciousness and powers to the machine which after his death would activate itself and his consciousness would take control over the body with his DNA imprint.[38] When that happened, Sinister's consciousness took control over Professor Xavier's body to save him from a gunshot wound.[39] However, the combined efforts of Sebastian Shaw and Gambit destroy the machine, enabling Xavier to successfully drive Sinister's consciousness from his mind and body. At the end, a female character appears called Miss Sinister.[40] Her name is revealed to be Claudine Renko, and she possesses telepathy and a healing factor similar to Sinister, but not all the memories or mind due to the fact that she was engineered to be Mister Sinister's fail-safe in the event the Cronus Device would fail. When that ultimately occurred, Claudine was activated.[41]

Later X-23 (Laura Kinney), flanked by Gambit, encounters a young girl named Alice and witnesses her being murdered, though the next day Alice appears to them somehow alive. Encouraging them to follow her to a peculiar desert laboratory, Alice introduces them to her employer/owner/adoptive mother, Claudine. Revealing herself openly to X-23, Claudine explains that Alice is also a clone, fourth of a series of five created by Essex as another experiment alongside several other children that live in the complex.[volume & issue needed] Claudine later on approaches Gambit and the latter having left the X-Men's base to strike out on her own, seemingly asking for the former's help. Claudine at this point seems to be suffering from injuries inflicted earlier by Wolverine's son Daken. A near fatal strike from X-23 reveals the nature of the injury as Claudine's body morphs into that of Mister Sinister.[42]

Mister Sinister then incapacitates Gambit and X-23 but is quickly re-absorbed back into Miss Sinister who then straps X-23 to a peculiar chair and expands upon her own origins, stating that while everyone believes her to be merely a clone of the mad scientist, in truth she actually was an ordinary woman with her own personality, mind and dreams, but in her search for immortality she allowed herself to be infected with a virus which would grant her a healing factor, however while the virus was apparently ineffective, Claudine would learn later that the virus actually was engineered to transform her into a host of Mister Sinister as it contained his own DNA and thus his immensely powerful telepathic powers, which would lead to his resurrection. When the Cronus Device failed, the virus was automatically activated and Claudine was compelled to go to the laboratory in the desert, where she would be used as a host for Essex. Claudine believed she had been able to stop the process, possessing only vague, but invasive memories of Essex's life, but learned later that she had only delayed the inevitable. Now everything that makes Claudine is being swallowed by the malignant presence of Essex within her mind, and in order to free herself of Sinister and prevent her own death, she aims to switch bodies with X-23, thus inheriting Laura's healing factor, something she had always wanted. The plan backfires when Essex controls Laura's body and uses her to mortally wound Claudine again. Laura manages to overcome Essex's presence in her mind, expelling it through force of will. Laura, Alice and Gambit manage to escape the laboratory as it collapses and arrange for the children to be given new homes before setting off on their journey again. However, in the wreckage left behind, Claudine is still alive, although just barely, and is being watched over by the fifth Alice clone, the new host of Essex.[43]

When next seen Miss Sinister found herself within the company of the reality displaced X-Men of a dead universe. One in particular who came into her graces by the name of Jimmy Hudson had been hiding a secret within his D.N.A., a sort of genetic anomaly that would enable her to create and control spontaneous mutation with time to experiment on it.[44] Over the following months Claudine would find that this substance called Mothervine was originally conceived for the purpose of controlled mutant child births, after further study she found it could also be used to cause further advancement evolution's within natural born mutants or trigger mutation in non-mutants.[45] But the secondary and primary mutations caused were debilitating to the point of being lethal, a great many she tested it on would die during the procedure.[46]

[angiewang19]

discussing anti-Blackness in a Chinese-American household

Over dinner, my parents and I had a heated argument about Black Lives Matter and anti-blackness. Racism is always going to be a tough conversation in America (thanks Lauren for the reminder -- it’s somewhat comforting to know that we aren’t all screaming at each other for no good reason, and this is supposed to be ridiculously uncomfortable). At the CMC event, Johnson articulated some observations I’ve witnessed over the years, and I felt triggered and empowered to have this conversation with my parents. 

In “20+ Allyship Actions for Asians to Show Up for the Black Community Right Now”, Michelle Kim writes: “In our quest to survive, some of us may have been striving to become White-adjacent— as successful as White people, as fitting in and assimilated as White people, as deserving as White people of dignity and respect — and along the journey, consciously or subconsciously, have adopted the language and beliefs of White Supremacy and anti-Blackness.” 

Additionally, many Chinese (and more broadly Asian) immigrants feel a strong sense of, “I helped myself climb the ladder to the American dream, so it’s up to Black people to help themselves.” Framed in a different way, an open letter shared via Subtle Asian traits  illuminates a prevalent perspective from the Asian-American community during this time: “Asians have been discriminated against, and we’re fine. Why can’t Black people do the same?”

I believe the root of this issue is that many Chinese-Americans have trouble recognizing their own privileges. Our accomplishments and our community’s circumstances as a whole are not just the products of our hard work but also the products of our privilege. 

At this point, many first-generation immigrants like my parents would object that they had close to no privilege when they came to the United States. My parents arrived in the Bay Area as post-docs at Stanford, living in a tiny apartment and making ends meet with their meager stipends. My mom’s favorite place to shop was at garage sales. There, she shopped for my clothes, toys, and even the measuring cups and spoons that we still use in our kitchen today. Yes, my parents had very little in terms of traditional capital, but they had other forms of capital. 

First, it’s important to note that they arrived in the US as post-docs. This fact reveals my parents’ privileges like a Russian nesting doll. Their PhDs are glaring forms of privilege, but what enabled them to earn their degrees? Starting from a young age, my parents excelled in school not only because they worked their asses off but because my grandparents created an environment conducive to learning and studying. That safe and stable environment represents privilege. Although both my maternal and paternal grandparents were lower-middle class, some kind of force pushed them to realize that education is an impetus for upward mobility. That narrative, imposed on their children, represents privilege. My parents also talk about the mentors they’ve worked with throughout their educational journey, people whom they still communicate with. They had individuals who believed in them, advised them, and supported them as they were the first in their families to embark on this educational pursuit. That’s cultural capital. That’s privilege. 

In our argument, I reminded my dad that when he was doing research in Japan, he was one of his advisor’s favorite students. His advisor was extremely demanding, and my dad worked his ass off for this man. He said something along the lines of, I worked so hard, and the only thing I received from him was a recommendation letter for my US visa paperwork. The truth is, you aren’t entitled to that letter, and the only thing you received from him was a crucial thing. If he hadn’t written a letter for you, there’s a chance that your life today would be unrecognizable. I can’t believe this takes reminding, but to cross paths with people who are willing to dedicate time and energy to help you with your agenda --big or small checklist items-- is a privilege. 

After entering the workforce, my parents encountered their ups and downs. When I was five years old, my dad commuted from Mountain View to Berkeley, waking up at 5 am to catch the train. My mom lost her job in the 2008 financial crisis. But when they pivoted towards new opportunities, nobody was rooting against them. In fact, I’d argue that many of these Silicon Valley tech companies actually prefer Asian-Americans like them. In their eyes, Asians (specifically Chinese immigrants) are diligent workers, decent people, and have wickedly good technical backgrounds. These hiring managers know that many Asians strive to be twice as good to get the opportunities they dream of, and that kind of drive serves their corporation’s interests as well. This model minority stereotype has worked and will continue to work in my and my parents’ favor. That, my friends, is yet another privilege. 

My parents firmly believe that if lower and middle class folks value education more, they too can scoop up the opportunities my parents have had, like it’s a free-for-all Easter egg hunt. The issue is, a Black girl from the South Side of Chicago might not have parents and role models who preach the importance of education. She might do her schoolwork in a space with crying babies, fighting parents, and gunshots in the background. Perhaps, from doing some googling online, she might realize that college would be the opportunity of a lifetime, but she doesn’t have a counselor who believes in her and helps her fill out the complicated mess of college applications. Her parents might say college isn’t an option; instead, she should work and prioritize the family’s financial needs. Her resume might be put aside because of her distinctly Black name. And if she successfully enters the workforce, there’s a good chance she might not be perceived as an equal. This is a product of centuries-long oppression. I don’t believe that my parents (mostly my mom) have a nuanced understanding of this aspect of America. 

Throughout their lives, my parents had opportunities to work hard and show people what they’re worth -- as intellectuals, team players, and humans. If the Black girl was able to find a job, she had a single opportunity to work hard and show people what she’s worth, but she would still be constrained -- by means of America’s racial contract. My immigrant parents often discuss the wealth they missed out on because of their relatively later arrival in America (so they missed good deals on buying houses) or not having the cultural background to play workplace politics better (to take on leadership positions) or the fact that I’m not a legacy student (I don’t need to explain why this is helpful). But ultimately, the opportunity to work hard is a privilege. The opportunity to work hard is a source of hope -- that individuals are able to do something to better their lives. A significant portion of the Asian-American community, and more specifically, the Chinese-American community, has this privilege. 

Having privilege is a nebulous mix of lottery luck and willpower. Nobody likes to acknowledge what they have but didn’t directly earn. But we need to face the fact we don’t live in a fair, equitable, and just society. My parents got defensive when I pointed out their privilege and mine. Yes, it’s not White privilege. But we don’t fear for our life when we go on a run or get pulled over by the cops. We aren’t blatantly turned away when we take out a loan or mortgage. We deal with the occasional microaggression which pales in comparison to what Black Americans deal with on a daily basis. We aren’t the benefactors of White privilege, and we can’t understand what it feels like to be Black and blatantly and constantly oppressed, either. It is undoubtedly a strange spot to be in. 

This privilege and our struggle to come to terms with it prevents us from being stronger allies of the Black community. It is a sense of, “we still don’t have enough.” How much privilege is enough until everyone in the Asian-American community is satisfied, happy, and ready to fight alongside the Black community? We all know the answer to that question: we are so fixated on what we don’t have, which obscures what we do have. 

What we do have should be a strong enough impetus to fight for a community that has given us many of the privileges we have today. Our Asian-American culture is rooted in hard work, no excuses, and no bullshit -- and I hope that we can mobilize together and use these aspects for good beyond our own self-interests. 

[bisexualsatan-blog]

Your turn! The companion ask with your favorite inquisitor/warden/hawke :D

Oooh yay! Thanks! I actually have an ongoing headcanon in which all of the origins in all of the games exist, just in different roles. So I’m going to do my Trevelyan from that universe.

Character Name: Sabine TrevelyanRace / Element / Class / Specialization: Human Mage, prior to the events of the Conclave she was somewhat of an artificer, interesting in creating practical magic for daily use, including things that could be used even by those without magic. After the explosion of the conclave, she is one of those who devotes herself to studying the Rift and it’s relationship with the Fade.Gender Identity: Woman

Short bio: Sabine Trevelyan was born to a devout, dutiful family, who planned to send her to serve in the Chantry before her magic was revealed. The quickness with which her family sent her to the Circle and cut off all ties save those necessitated by maintaining their image was enough to make her question what she’d been taught, and the reality of Circle life solidified her belief that the Chantry was a cruel failure. But she still had the ambition of her Trevelyan blood, and the knowledge of how the Chantry and nobility worked, so she did everything she could to establish herself outwardly as a good, loyal, devout mage. In time, she was able to levy her bloodline and the connections she herself had established into becoming magical advisor to the Divine, a similar position to the one Morrigan held in Celene’s court.

Recruitment Quest: When the Circles rebelled, Sabine stayed at the Divine’s side, helping with reaching out to her fellow mages for the Conclave. She was attempting to reach out to her family for aid when Corypheus attacked. She presents herself at Haven after the Inquisitor returns from their first journey to the Hinterlands and offers her services. 

Where they can be found in your headquarters once recruited: At Haven she is found with Minaeve, studying the materials you bring back. In Skyhold she is down in the Crafthold with Dagna.

Side Missions (eg: fetch / gather / kill quests): You can use her to gain connections with her family in the Freemarches for influence points; she also has knowledge of several small groups of mages who can be recruited, and caches of magical tomes and artifacts, but these will only be revealed if the Inquisitor sides with the mages.

Personal quests:

Quest 1: Available upon recruitment is a fetch quest to recover a forbidden tome with collected legends regarding Andraste being a mage, rather than or in addition to being chosen by the Maker. The tome is located in the Fallow Mire, and requires defeating several waves of undead. Extra approval will be gained if Sabine accompanies you on the quest.

Quest 2: There is a couple that Sabine has helped before, a Chantry Sister and a mage from her circle that took advantage of the rebellion to flee together. She receives word that they are being hunted by a group of Red Templars and asks the Inquisitor for help rescuing them. If the Inquisitor refuses, all potential romance and further friendship is cut off although she will remain with the Inquisition. If the Inquisitor agrees and brings Sabine along there is a large approval gain and this can trigger a romance. The Inquisitor has the option to recruit the mage and the Chantry Sister as agents at the end of the quest.

Quest 3: Sabine’s family, thanks to her position with the Divine and now the Inquisition, has invited her to a ball they are hosting in Orlais. Sabine invites the Inquisitor if romanced or on friendly terms. The Inquisitor can decline which, depending on dialogue, will result in an approval drop but not the romance ending. If the Inquisitor attends, there is a potential duel, some stolen kisses (if romanced), and the opportunity to compliment or insult Sabine’s parents. Both result in approval gains.

Things that raise their affinity with the player: Siding with mages, helping those in need, insulting Orlesians, criticizing the Chantry, pursuing every quest related to gaining magical knowledge, asking Sabine’s advice, supporting Leliana as divine, and politically motivated decisions during Judgments 

Things that lower their affinity with the player: Siding with templars, refusing to help people, agreeing with the Chantry’s actions, agreeing with Cullen, insulting Sabine, putting Gaspard unilaterally on the throne, overly harsh decisions during Judgments

Are they romanceable? Yes, by women only.Can the relationship become sexual? YesAre they open to polyamory? Yes.If they can be romanced and are not, will they begin a relationship / relationships with other character(s)? If so, who? If the Warden did not romance Leliana, and the Inquisitor does not pursue a romance with her, there will be clues that Sabine and Leliana have formed a romantic partnership, one that will continue after the game if Leliana becomes Divine. If the Warden romanced Leliana, Sabine and Josephine will be often seen together.

Which other characters are they friendly towards? She would get along with all the mages. Her and Dorian are the ultimate in wlw/mlm solidarity and love to have wide ranging magical debates. She respects Solas and finds him fascinating, asking endless questions of his knowledge of magic and history. While she, at least internally, has a lot of disagreements with Vivienne in regards to the role of mages and magic in society, she very much respects the other woman personally, and her political finesse, and regards her as a valuable ally to cultivate. She and Varric get along well, and often discuss the political situation of the Free Marches while sharing a bottle of whiskey. She secretly loves the way Sera pulls Nobles noses, and is always friendly with the other woman although Sera’s clearly wary of her magic and noble birth. She knows Cassandra from her time serving the Divine and while they are not particularly close, they get along fine and she respects her. 

Which other characters do they not get along with? She avoids Cullen at all costs, but speaks civilly to him when circumstances require it, although the Inquisitor can walk in on a heated argument between them after the Mages or Templars are recruited. She has little interaction with Blackwall, and is wary of Iron Bull given how the Qunari treat their mages and his apparent belief in the rightness of the Qun. She finds Cole fascinating and very sweet, but tends to avoid him because the idea of her personal thoughts being spoken aloud is one of the worst things she can imagine. Privacy is very important to her after life in the Circle.

Opinions on other races? Other elements?

She doesn’t know much about elves, dwarves, or Qunari, but doesn’t trust Chantry doctrine on them, and much like Leliana in Origins, will correct her behavior if called out on racist speech or actions. Her friendship with Dagna, and her own interest in artificing, has made her deeply curious about the relationship dwarves have with lyrium and magic and she intends to study it further, particularly after the revelations regarding the Titans.

How do they feel about magic / religion / the government?

Sabine is very pro-mage, and anti-Chantry, but also believes that the Chantry is too big to be destroyed and so must be reformed from within, willingly or not. She admires Anders actions and believes the rebellion was necessary, but ultimately thinks it requires someone like Leliana to step in and force the hierarchy and system to change, and thus being to alter the opinions of the people who believe in the Chantry. 

Something guaranteed to make them leave the party: If the Inquisitor has gained no approval with her and recruits the Templars instead of the Mages, she will leave the party, believing the Inquisition to be an ineffective tool to accomplish her goals

[kalinara]

Rip/Sara - Gideon. Rip - self-worth. Rip - stubbornness. Rip - temper. Rip - fights. Rip - friends. Rip - era (any/all). Rip + team - era (ie., how much culturally does Rip miss/not realize he's missing/realizes he misses and doesn't care in his interactions with the team). Rip - time travel. Rip - music. Rip - concentration. Rip - aloof (what's it masking?). Rip/Sara - time. Rip - team. Rip - families. Rip and Jax - bond. Rip and Rogues - mastery.

I think you’re trying to murder me.  Fortunately, my babbling knows no bounds.

However, these will likely be shorter than my other headcanons/meta.

Rip/Sara - Gideon:  So Gideon is an interesting complication to any Rip pairing fic, because, well, she’s there.  She’s always going to be there.  And regardless of whether you see her relationship with Rip as having romantic elements, it’s still going to be a factor.

I wonder if, in a way, it would be rather like living inside of your mother-in-law.  Which seems awkward.

I have to say though, I don’t think that Sara would propose a threesome.  She did think that Gideon was hot, but I don’t really think Gideon is her type personality-wise.

Rip - self worth:  ...  Really?

Okay, I don’t think Rip is completely without self-worth, but I think that his self-worth is particularly wrapped up in the various roles he plays.  And that becomes a problem, because said roles have a disconcerting habit of disappearing on him.

He has value as a husband and father.  Until his wife and son are dead.  He has value as a Time Master, until they betray him, are revealed to be corrupt, and are destroyed.  He has value as a guardian of the spear of destiny, until he was captured and turned.  He has value as the Captain of the Waverider, until he is supplanted by a more capable alternative.

The problem with Rip is that as soon as he loses his role, he doesn’t really know how to find a new one.  I’m not sure he really knows how to define himself in his own right, without the input of the people around him.

Rip - Stubbornness:

Hah, well, that is definitely a character trait that Rip has.  I don’t think Rip is stubborn just for the sake of being stubborn though.  Rather, I think he generally has a very clear idea of what his goal is, what he wants, and how things are supposed to be.

That doesn’t make him any less difficult to deal with sometimes though.  But as we’ve seen, especially in season 1, he can be swayed and reasoned with.  And he really seems to value that the team will call him out, force him to back down, and make him see things another way.

I do feel a little sorry for Vandal Savage sometimes though.  Because Rip will not ever give up.  :-)

Rip - temper:

I tend to see Rip as being a hot-tempered sort.  His anger comes in flashes and dissipates pretty quickly after the initial eruption.

The one exception is if you hurt someone he cares about.  Then he will come for blood.  This is the man who hunted Vandal Savage through centuries.  I wouldn’t recommend it.

Rip - fights:

Hm.  I think Rip, on a whole, was never really prone to fighting.  When he lived on the streets, he was a small child.  So any fight he got into would not have ended well.  At any point that he was attacked, the goal would have been to strike quickly and escape.  I doubt the Time Masters would have had much patience for casual fighting either.

This isn’t to say that Rip can’t handle himself in a fight.  We’ve seen that he can.  But I don’t think he enjoys it the way that certain other characters do.  I think that, for Rip, a fight means that either his life, someone else’s, or the mission is on the line.  

This might make for an interesting contrast with Sara, who I think DOES enjoy the fight.  I think that if she ever realized exactly how good he was (like in the scene in Out of Time), she would be very enthusiastic about the idea of a friendly match.  And he would NOT.

Rip - friends. 

I’m not sure that I think Rip has the capacity to have casual friends.  I think he has acquaintances/allies and then he has people that he would 100% throw himself into a volcano for, with no middle ground.

And it makes some sense, given his upbringing.  You get the sense that the Time Masters didn’t necessarily produce an environment that allowed for casual friendships (though the children did appear to play together at the Refuge), so if you’re going to break the rules you might as well go all out.

...I think that might be Rip’s motto anyway.

Rip - era (any/all). 

I think that as a Time Master, Rip isn’t really supposed to have a favorite era.  But we also know exactly how well Rip seems to follow rules like that.  But for all his interest in the Wild West trappings, or his success in fighting Time Pirates, I don’t think that’s what makes an era particularly interesting to him.

I think it’s the people.  Rip’s favorite eras are the ones that his favorite people reside in.  He loves the Wild West because of Jonah.  He loves the 1940s for the JSA.  He loves the early 21st century for his team.  (And specifically 2130-ish because that’s where he and Kendra finally killed Savage).

Rip + team - era (ie., how much culturally does Rip miss/not realize he's missing/realizes he misses and doesn't care in his interactions with the team). 

Rip was raised in the future by a scary time-space cult, so he’s definitely got a different cultural background than the rest of the team.  But I think it’s less about pop-culture trivia (you never know what might be relevant to a Time Master’s studies after all.  Some future war may have been averted because of the ambassadors’ mutual love of the Backstreet Boys), and more about the way they look at the world.

I make fun of Rip’s “because, fuck you” tendencies, but the thing is, in the world that Rip grew up in, his entire life would have been wrapped up in rules and regulations.  Everything regimented.  Everything monitored.  The man lives with an AI who watches and records his dreams.  Freedom, privacy, democracy, those may not even be values in Time Master society so much as historical concepts.

Can you imagine how strange Sara, Jax, or Ray’s childhood would sound to Rip?  Or heck, even Snart and Rory’s?  

I think Rip is always fundamentally aware of how alien he is from the rest of the team.  In a way that they aren’t.  But I also think that’s part of why he values them so much.  They fill a need for him that his own culture has never been able to provide.

Rip - time travel

I think Rip, deep down, simply loves to time travel.  It’s just...fun.  He loves to visit different times and meet different people. 

If Rip Hunter hadn’t been raised by the Time Masters, he would have still somehow managed to go out and build a time sphere in his garage and do it that way.

I know, because I’ve read the comics.  :-P 

Rip - music. 

I think that Rip loves all kinds of music.  But that he hasn’t listened to much of anything since his family died.  He hasn’t sung, or touched an instrument since then either.  

However, in the time between season one and season two, that was starting to change.  He’d be in the engine room, supervising Jax’s repairs (hardly necessary at this point, but Jax was still anxious enough to want to make sure he was doing it right), and find himself humming a Rolling Stones song under his breath.  Thankfully, Jax didn’t hear him.  If the crew knew, he’d never hear the end of it.

(Jax actually did hear him.  He and Gideon were colluding on having the ship play some of Rip’s favorite songs as a surprise but Rip disappeared before they could.)

Rip - concentration. 

A headcanon to do with concentration.  Hmm. 

Oddly enough, I’ve got nothing.  :-)  I think Rip is generally very good at concentrating on tasks at hand, but that the crew would try anyone’s patience and I’m sure havoc would ensue.  (Possibly conveniently timed for when Rip has been working too long and missed food and sleep.  Making it very easy for someone like Sara or Jax to nag at him to go to sleep since it’s obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to get back in the right frame of mind.)

Oh, I know.  Rip hates concentrated orange juice.  It is a terrible thing.

Rip - aloof (what's it masking?). 

Rip Hunter is a seething mass of white-hot rage, hopeless love, and impossibly bad decisions all thinly wrapped in a veneer of British sarcasm

Rip/Sara - time. 

I have to admit, I see Time Canary as possibly the most star-crossed of any potential Legends of Tomorrow pairing that comes to mind.  Because I do think they’d be good together.  I think they have a strong emotional bond, and they’ve been good support for one another on many occasions.

But they’ve always had issues in terms of timing.  When they met, Sara was dealing with resurrection and bloodlust, and Rip had JUST lost his family.  

Later, after they’ve worked together for some time, with Sara’s bloodlust under control, her slow coming to terms with Laurel’s death, and Rip finally starting to move past his grief and trauma, he disappears. 

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and circa Raiders of the Lost Art, I started to see a lot of signs that the two characters might be ready to come together.  Sara’s reaction when she thought Phil was Rip.  Phil’s kind of tentative attraction (I see Phil as basically Rip, with all the baggage stripped away)...

But then there was the Legion.  And evil!Rip.  And even though Sara clearly doesn’t blame Rip for what happened, that’s a whole mess of new guilt and trauma that he’ll have to work past to even be remotely able to conceive of pursuing a romance with Sara.  And Sara’s got her own issues: the captaincy, the quest, (and her understandable frustration with his general personality.  :-P)

I think the characters definitely love each other, and that it’s possible that eventually that love could move into a romantic direction, but so far, the timing has never been right.

Rip - team. 

I think that Rip Hunter loves his team to a ridiculous, irrational, near obsessive extent.  He would die for them in a heartbeat.  He has no idea what to do whenever he’s without them.  And he wants to hug them or beat them to death with a broomstick on a daily basis.

I also think that he has no idea how to communicate any of this to any of them.  And he’d probably die of embarrassment before he ever made the attempt.  So they have no idea.

This is why I find all of the teases about Season Three so fascinating.  It will be so interesting to see what happens to cause Rip to break so completely with the team, how the aftermath shakes out, and what ways he ends up functioning without them.  I’m dreading it a little too, of course.  But it ought to be a fun ride.  :-)

Rip - families. 

I always find myself wondering how Rip and Miranda initially established themselves as a family.  Because it’s not like either of them had much experience to base it on, as far as we know.  Rip’s account of his backstory involved starving on the streets and then the Refuge.  Though, if Miranda was recruited at the age of ten as well, it’s possible that she may have memories of her original family life.

But can you imagine how confusing it must have been at first?  I mean, obviously a Time Master’s education would have included concepts of family dynamics and marriage.  Since so many historical events were fueled by those kind of things.  But there’s a difference between reading about it and living it.

I’d like to imagine, from the little bit we see of Miranda, that she adapted to life in 2166 Whitechapel very well.  She seems like the sort to be able to make friends easily, and possibly she was able to study them as she went.  And Rip is the sort to follow her lead when it comes to such things.

On the plus side, having grown up very separate from modern or even future ideas of family dynamics, Rip and Miranda would have had the freedom to basically discard anything that didn’t suit them.  I’d imagine whatever they came up with would have looked rather odd to an outside observer, but worked very well for them.  :-) 

Rip and Jax - bond.

One of the things that I thought season two did really well was establish a clear and strong bond between Rip and Jax.  And that’s pretty impressive considering that Rip was gone for eight episodes, and the characters did not have a huge amount of interaction in season one.  There were a few good bits here and there: Rip choosing Jax as engineer, Rip’s concern in the 1950s, his gentleness with Jax’s father dilemma, and the endangering part of River of Time, but the real thrust of their dynamic seemed to come about in Out of Time, and carried on through Rip’s return.

I know I’ve said this before, but in a way, it actually makes a lot of sense that the two would get along.  They’re the youngest men on the ship (even though there’s a ten year age difference between them).  They’re both mechanically minded and they both truly love the Waverider in a way that only an engineer or mechanic can.  They’re not childish or silly in the same way that Nate or Ray can be.  

If there is one character that I think Rip might have been able to truly relax around and be a functioning human being with, I think it’s Jax.  (And I think we saw that a bit in Fellowship, with the jelly beans).

And Jax is one of the two characters (the other being Sara), who I think really do feel an honest connection to their mission and the quest.  He’s definitely a character that I could imagine captaining a time ship himself in the not-so-distant future.

Rip and Rogues - mastery

I am tempted to make jokes about Rip wearing a leash, but I will behave myself.

The thing that’s always been interesting about the Rogues in season one is that, of all of the characters, they were the only ones who really had any sort of experience working as a team.

The Hawks were always “us against the world” even when Kendra had her memories.  Ray, Martin and Jax were all fairly new to the superhero thing.  Sara had a bit more experience with the League of Assassins and her brief stint with Team Arrow, but those experiences have a certain level of baggage attached.

But Snart and Rory have been a criminal team, off and on, for decades.  They’ve regularly worked with other people too.  They have justifiable confidence in their skills because they’ve practiced them for decades.  And Snart, in particular, has been a leader of groups for about that long.

It’s an interesting dynamic.  Because Snart is by far a better leader than Rip ever was, but there is no way that he would have managed to lead this group.  It's not his quest, and while the crew liked and respected him, it’s not clear that they would have trusted him enough to follow him.  

One of the things I’ve always wished for was to see more direct interaction between Rip and Snart, and Rip and Mick.  (Particularly the latter, since the show is not subtle with their many parallels.)  There is some good fic out there to fill the lack, at least.  :-)

(I may have to hold off on responding to the rest until tomorrow.  :-))

[quietya]

If You Like...Sarah J. Maas

At the end of 2016, I asked if there was anything you guys wanted to see on the blog. A couple of you mentioned posts that linked popular books with underrated books. I’ve been sitting on this for a while, trying to come up with matches, and right now my easiest match? Is Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. One, because a lot of you love it, and two, because I’ve actually read it.

So, without further delay, here are some books you probably haven’t heard of but you might like if you love Throne of Glass.

Death Sworn by Leah Cypress

When Ileni lost her magic, she lost everything: her place in society, her purpose in life, and the man she had expected to spend her life with. So when the Elders sent her to be magic tutor to a secret sect of assassins, she went willingly, even though the last two tutors had died under mysterious circumstances. But beneath the assassins’ caves, Ileni will discover a new place and a new purpose… and a new and dangerous love. She will struggle to keep her lost magic a secret while teaching it to her deadly students, and to find out what happened to the two tutors who preceded her. But what she discovers will change not only her future, but the future of her people, the assassins… and possibly the entire world.

Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers

Seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where the sisters still serve the gods of old. Here she learns that the god of Death Himself has blessed her with dangerous gifts—and a violent destiny. If she chooses to stay at the convent, she will be trained as an assassin and serve as a handmaiden to Death. To claim her new life, she must destroy the lives of others. Ismae’s most important assignment takes her straight into the high court of Brittany—where she finds herself woefully under prepared—not only for the deadly games of intrigue and treason, but for the impossible choices she must make. For how can she deliver Death’s vengeance upon a target who, against her will, has stolen her heart?

Scarlet by A.C. Gaughen

Will Scarlet is good at two things: stealing from the rich and keeping secrets - skills that are in high demand in Robin Hood’s band of thieves, who protect the people of Nottingham from the evil sheriff. Scarlet’s biggest secret of all is one only Robin and his men know…that she is posing as a thief; that the slip of a boy who is fast with sharp knives is really a girl.

The terrible events in her past that led Scarlet to hide her real identity are in danger of being exposed when the thief taker Lord Gisbourne arrives in town to rid Nottingham of the Hood and his men once and for all. As Gisbourne closes in a put innocent lives at risk, Scarlet must decide how much the people of Nottingham mean to her, especially John Little, a flirtatious fellow outlaw, and Robin, whose quick smiles have the rare power to unsettle her. There is real honor among these thieves and so much more - making this a fight worth dying for.

Mask of Shadows by Linsey Miller (coming September 5, 2017)

Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class―and the nobles who destroyed their home. When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand―the Queen’s personal assassins, named after the rings she wears―Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge. But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.

Shadowfell by Juliet Marillier

Sixteen-year-old Neryn is alone in the land of Alban, where the oppressive king has ordered anyone with magical strengths captured and brought before him. Eager to hide her own canny skill–a uniquely powerful ability to communicate with the fairy-like Good Folk–Neryn sets out for the legendary Shadowfell, a home and training ground for a secret rebel group determined to overthrow the evil King Keldec. During her dangerous journey, she receives aid from the Good Folk, who tell her she must pass a series of tests in order to recognize her full potential. She also finds help from a handsome young man, Flint, who rescues her from certain death–but whose motives in doing so remain unclear. Neryn struggles to trust her only allies. They both hint that she alone may be the key to Alban’s release from Keldec’s rule. Homeless, unsure of who to trust, and trapped in an empire determined to crush her, Neryn must make it to Shadowfell not only to save herself, but to save Alban.

Midnight Thief by Livia Blackburne

Growing up on Forge’s streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And when that’s not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass guards helps her take what she needs. But when the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows how to get by on her own, and she’s not sure she wants to play by his rules. But he’s persistent—and darkly attractive—and Kyra can’t quite resist his pull. Tristam of Brancel is a young Palace knight on a mission. After his best friend is brutally murdered by Demon Riders, a clan of vicious warriors who ride bloodthirsty wildcats, Tristam vows to take them down. But as his investigation deepens, he finds his efforts thwarted by a talented thief, one who sneaks past Palace defenses with uncanny ease. When a fateful raid throws Kyra and Tristam together, the two enemies realize that their best chance at survival—and vengeance—might be to join forces. And as their loyalties are tested to the breaking point, they learn a startling secret about Kyra’s past that threatens to reshape both their lives.

StarCrossed by Elizabeth C. Bunce

Digger thrives as a spy and sneak-thief among the feuding religious factions of Gerse, dodging the Greenmen who have banned all magic. But when a routine job goes horribly wrong and her partner and lover Tegen is killed, she has to get out of the city, fast, and hides herself in a merry group of nobles to do so. Accepted as a lady’s maid to shy young Merista Nemair, Digger finds new peace and friendship at the Nemair stronghold–as well as plenty of jewels for the taking. But after the devious Lord Daul catches her in the act of thievery, he blackmails her into becoming his personal spy in the castle, and Digger soon realizes that her noble hosts aren’t as apolitical as she thought… that indeed, she may be at the heart of a magical rebellion.

The Orphan Queen by Jodi Meadows

Wilhelmina has a hundred identities. She is a princess. When the Indigo Kingdom conquered her homeland, Wilhelmina and other orphaned children of nobility were taken to Skyvale, the Indigo Kingdom’s capital. Ten years later, they are the Ospreys, experts at stealth and theft. With them, Wilhelmina means to take back her throne. She is a spy. Wil and her best friend, Melanie, infiltrate Skyvale Palace to study their foes. They assume the identities of nobles from a wraith-fallen kingdom, but enemies fill the palace, and Melanie’s behavior grows suspicious. With Osprey missions becoming increasingly dangerous and their leader more unstable, Wil can’t trust anyone. She is a threat. Wraith is the toxic by-product of magic, and for a century using magic has been forbidden. Still the wraith pours across the continent, reshaping the land and animals into fresh horrors. Soon it will reach the Indigo Kingdom. Wilhelmina’s magic might be the key to stopping the wraith, but if the vigilante Black Knife discovers Wil’s magic, she will vanish like all the others.

The Falconer by Elizabeth May

She’s a stunner. Edinburgh, 1844. Eighteen-year-old Lady Aileana Kameron, the only daughter of the Marquess of Douglas, has everything a girl could dream of: brains, charm, wealth, a title—and drop-dead beauty. She’s a liar. But Aileana only looks the part of an aristocratic young lady. she’s leading a double life: She has a rare ability to sense the sìthíchean—the faery race obsessed with slaughtering humans—and, with the aid of a mysterious mentor, has spent the year since her mother died learning how to kill them. She’s a murderer. Now Aileana is dedicated to slaying the fae before they take innocent lives. With her knack for inventing ingenious tools and weapons—from flying machines to detonators to lightning pistols—ruthless Aileana has one goal: Destroy the faery who destroyed her mother. She’s a Falconer. The last in a line of female warriors born with a gift for hunting and killing the fae, Aileana is the sole hope of preventing a powerful faery population from massacring all of humanity. Suddenly, her quest is a lot more complicated. She still longs to avenge her mother’s murder—but she’ll have to save the world first.

Daughters of Ruin by K.D. Castner

Rhea, Cadis, Suki, and Iren have lived together since they were children. They are called sisters. They are not. They are called equals. They are not. They are princesses. And they are enemies. A brutal war ravaged their kingdoms, and Rhea’s father was the victor. As a gesture of peace, King Declan brought the daughters of his rivals to live under his protection—and his ever-watchful eye. For ten years they have trained together as diplomats and warriors, raised to accept their thrones and unite their kingdoms in peace. But there is no peace among sisters, and all plans shatter when the palace is attacked. As their intended future lies in ashes, Rhea, Cadis, Suki, and Iren must decide where their loyalties lie: to their nations, or to each other.

The Storyteller by Becky Wallace

In a world where dukes plot their way to the throne, a Performer’s life can get tricky. And in Johanna Von Arlo’s case, it can be fatal. Expelled from her troupe after her father’s death, Johanna is forced to work for the handsome Lord Rafael DeSilva. Too bad they don’t get along. But while Johanna’s father’s death was deemed an accident, the Keepers aren’t so sure. The Keepers, a race of people with magical abilities, are on a quest to find the princess—the same princess who is supposed to be dead and whose throne the dukes are fighting over. But they aren’t the only ones looking for her. And in the wake of their search, murdered girls keep turning up—girls who look exactly like the princess, and exactly like Johanna. With dukes, Keepers, and a killer all after the princess, Johanna finds herself caught up in political machinations for the throne, threats on her life, and an unexpected romance that could change everything.

The Shadow Queen by C.J. Redwine

Lorelai Diederich, crown princess and fugitive at large, has one mission: kill the wicked queen who took both the Ravenspire throne and the life of her father. To do that, Lorelai needs to use the one weapon she and Queen Irina have in common—magic. She’ll have to be stronger, faster, and more powerful than Irina, the most dangerous sorceress Ravenspire has ever seen. In the neighboring kingdom of Eldr, when Prince Kol’s father and older brother are killed by an invading army of magic-wielding ogres, the second-born prince is suddenly given the responsibility of saving his kingdom. To do that, Kol needs magic—and the only way to get it is to make a deal with the queen of Ravenspire, promise to become her personal huntsman…and bring her Lorelai’s heart. But Lorelai is nothing like Kol expected—beautiful, fierce, and unstoppable—and despite dark magic, Lorelai is drawn in by the passionate and troubled king. Fighting to stay one step ahead of the dragon huntsman—who she likes far more than she should—Lorelai does everything in her power to ruin the wicked queen. But Irina isn’t going down without a fight, and her final move may cost the princess the one thing she still has left to lose.

Assassin’s Heart by Sarah Ahiers

 In the kingdom of Lovero, nine rival Families of assassins lawfully kill people for a price. As a highly skilled member of one of these powerful clans, seventeen-year-old Lea Saldana has always trusted in the strength of her Family. Until she awakens to find them murdered and her home in flames. The Da Vias, the Saldanas’ biggest enemy, must be responsible—and Lea should have seen it coming. But her secret relationship with the Da Vias’ son, Val, has clouded her otherwise killer instinct—and given the Da Vias more reason than ever to take her Family down. Racked with guilt and shattered over Val’s probable betrayal, Lea sets out to even the score, with her heart set on retaliation and only one thought clear in her mind: make the Da Vias pay.

Sword and Verse by Kathy MacMillan

Raisa was only a child when she was kidnapped and enslaved in Qilara. Forced to serve in the palace of the King, she’s endured hunger, abuse, and the harrowing fear of discovery. Everyone knows that Raisa is Arnath, but not that she is a Learned One, a part of an Arnath group educated in higher order symbols. In Qilara, this language is so fiercely protected that only the King, the Prince, and Tutors are allowed to know it. So when the current Tutor-in-training is executed for sharing the guarded language with slaves and Raisa is chosen to replace her, Raisa knows that, although she may have a privileged position among slaves, any slipup could mean death. That would be challenging enough, but training alongside Prince Mati could be her real undoing. And when a romance blossoms between them, she’s suddenly filled with a dangerous hope for something she never before thought possible: more. Then she’s approached by the Resistance—an underground army of slaves—to help liberate the Arnath people. Joining the Resistance could mean freeing her people…but she’d also be aiding in the war against her beloved, an honorable man she knows wants to help the slaves. Working against the one she loves—and a palace full of deadly political renegades—has some heady consequences. As Raisa struggles with what’s right, she unwittingly uncovers a secret that the Qilarites have long since buried…one that, unlocked, could bring the current world order to its knees. And Raisa is the one holding the key.

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge

Since birth, Nyx has been betrothed to the evil ruler of her kingdom-all because of a foolish bargain struck by her father. And since birth, she has been in training to kill him. With no choice but to fulfill her duty, Nyx resents her family for never trying to save her and hates herself for wanting to escape her fate. Still, on her seventeenth birthday, Nyx abandons everything she's ever known to marry the all-powerful, immortal Ignifex. Her plan? Seduce him, destroy his enchanted castle, and break the nine-hundred-year-old curse he put on her people. But Ignifex is not at all what Nyx expected. The strangely charming lord beguiles her, and his castle—a shifting maze of magical rooms—enthralls her. As Nyx searches for a way to free her homeland by uncovering Ignifex's secrets, she finds herself unwillingly drawn to him. Even if she could bring herself to love her sworn enemy, how can she refuse her duty to kill him? With time running out, Nyx must decide what is more important: the future of her kingdom, or the man she was never supposed to love.

The Kingdom of Little Wounds by Susann Cokal

On the eve of Princess Sophia’s wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne’s heirs, and a courtier’s wolfish hunger for the king’s favors sets a devious plot in motion. Here in the palace at Skyggehavn, things are seldom as they seem—and when a single errant prick of a needle sets off a series of events that will alter the course of history, the fates of seamstress Ava Bingen and mute nursemaid Midi Sorte become irrevocably intertwined. As they navigate a tangled web of palace intrigue, power-lust, and deception, Ava and Midi must carve out their own survival any way they can.

The Great Hunt by Wendy Higgins

When a strange beast terrorizes the kingdom of Lochlanach, fear stirs revolt. In an act of desperation, a proclamation is sent to all of Eurona—kill the creature and win the ultimate prize: the daughter of King Lochson’s hand in marriage. Princess Aerity knows her duty to the kingdom but cannot bear the idea of marrying a stranger... until a brooding local hunter, Paxton Seabolt, catches her attention. There’s no denying the unspoken lure between them... or his mysterious resentment. Paxton is not the marrying type. Nor does he care much for spoiled royals and their arcane laws. He’s determined to keep his focus on the task at hand—ridding the kingdom of the beast—but the princess continues to surprise him, and the perilous secrets he’s buried begin to surface.

Hunted by Meagan Spooner (coming March 14, 2017)

Beauty knows the Beast’s forest in her bones—and in her blood. Though she grew up with the city’s highest aristocrats, far from her father’s old lodge, she knows that the forest holds secrets and that her father is the only hunter who’s ever come close to discovering them. So when her father loses his fortune and moves Yeva and her sisters back to the outskirts of town, Yeva is secretly relieved. Out in the wilderness, there’s no pressure to make idle chatter with vapid baronessas…or to submit to marrying a wealthy gentleman. But Yeva’s father’s misfortune may have cost him his mind, and when he goes missing in the woods, Yeva sets her sights on one prey: the creature he’d been obsessively tracking just before his disappearance. Deaf to her sisters’ protests, Yeva hunts this strange Beast back into his own territory—a cursed valley, a ruined castle, and a world of creatures that Yeva’s only heard about in fairy tales. A world that can bring her ruin or salvation. Who will survive: the Beauty, or the Beast?

Poison by Bridget Zinn

Sixteen-year-old Kyra, a highly-skilled potions master, is the only one who knows her kingdom is on the verge of destruction—which means she’s the only one who can save it. Faced with no other choice, Kyra decides to do what she does best: poison the kingdom’s future ruler, who also happens to be her former best friend. But, for the first time ever, her poisoned dart . . . misses. Now a fugitive instead of a hero, Kyra is caught in a game of hide-and-seek with the king’s army and her potioner ex-boyfriend, Hal. At least she’s not alone. She’s armed with her vital potions, a too-cute pig, and Fred, the charming adventurer she can’t stop thinking about. Kyra is determined to get herself a second chance (at murder), but will she be able to find and defeat the princess before Hal and the army find her? Kyra is not your typical murderer, and she’s certainly no damsel-in-distress—she’s the lovable and quick-witted hero of this romantic novel that has all the right ingredients to make teen girls swoon.

Frostblood by Elly Blake

Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood who has concealed her powers of heat and flame from the cruel Frostblood ruling class her entire life. But when her mother is killed trying to protect her, and rebel Frostbloods demand her help to overthrow their bloodthirsty king, she agrees to come out of hiding, desperate to have her revenge. Despite her unpredictable abilities, Ruby trains with the rebels and the infuriating—yet irresistible—Arcus, who seems to think of her as nothing more than a weapon. But before they can take action, Ruby is captured and forced to compete in the king’s tournaments that pit Fireblood prisoners against Frostblood champions. Now she has only one chance to destroy the maniacal ruler who has taken everything from her—and from the icy young man she has come to love.

I wish this list was more diverse, but that’s what I can think of/find at the moment that I know aren’t super popular. If there’s something YOU think should be on this list, definitely let me know! And if you want more posts like this, I want to know that too! I have a bunch of drafts along these lines, but it’ll help to know what you want to see most.

[comixconnection]

“Angel City” review by Counter Monkey Nicky

They say truth is stranger than fiction, but sometimes fiction can be truer than truth. Such is the case with Angel City, a murder mystery set in the “golden age” of Hollywood that draws bits and pieces of its stories from the very real, and the very hush-hushed, events of the past. And if you aren’t familiar with the sordid underbelly of the silver screen’s most gilded age don’t worry: neither am I, and I haven’t once felt at a loss for not knowing the background details ahead of time. In fact, if you find yourself intrigued by the story you’re reading and want to know more about the era in which it’s set and the real-life-events that inspired its twists and turns, you’re in luck because in the back of every issue there’s an essay that delves into the dark secrets that were hidden in all that glamour and shiny celluloid.

Reading Angel City makes me feel like I’m experiencing Golden Age Hollywood live in the moment -- except of course, no one at the time would have dreamed of letting all that sordid truth leak out into the world! With this fictional story we get to peel back the curtain and peek into the reality of the past. It’s a very appropriate way to tell a story of the Silver Screen, where what was “real” and what was real were not always the same thing. Golden Age Hollywood was a time when “accepted truth” was in many ways more real than the real truth, and everyone was in on the joke...except perhaps for the avid reads of the fan magazines who breathlessly followed the whirlwind society lives of their favorite stars as devotedly as they watched their movies. This was an era when every little girl dreamed of her “one bit shot at stardom,” where if she could just be “discovered” by the right studio executive while she stood in line for the day’s cattle call, she could make it big!

...And then end up owned body and soul by the studio, but of course that part never makes it into the daydreams.

For Dolores Dare that dream didn’t quite work out as planned, but she found a way to make-do and make a living anyway: as an enforcer for the mob! The line between the movies and the mob was pretty thin at times, and for Dolores it was an easy line to step over when her hopes for stardom crumbled. Now she has to reexamine her choices and her allies though, because the girl she came out to Hollywood with just turned up dead. Rather than sashaying into some hard boiled P.I.’s office to pitch him a tale of woe, Dolores does the investigating herself, and what she and her pals turn-up isn’t nearly as pretty as the glamorous life seen on the silver screen...but it might be even more exciting! Because Dolores isn’t just hunting one killer: she’s trying to tear-down the entire web of corruption that runs Hollywood all the way from the movie studios to the police they keep in their pockets.

It won’t be easy, but fortunately she’s not alone in her quest: in addition to allies like Joe, photographer for the Tinseltown Tattler, and Rita, a fellow jaded wannabe-starlet, real-life reporter Aggie Underwood -- the first woman to work the crime beat in L.A. -- drops in to do what she does best and dig up some dirt. Aggie isn’t the only real-life figure to walk across the boundaries of fact and fiction in this story (see Brenda Allen and Eddie Mannix for starters) and for a story that’s all about the truth behind the fiction, that cross-over between fact and fabrication is a perfect way to ground the tale without getting mired in “what really happened?” questions. This isn’t the Black Dahlia Murder that Dolores is trying to solve; she’s hunting the April Fool’s Killer and he’s entirely fictional...but the point of Angel City is that he could have been real. And so could Dolores and Jim and Rita. And for a story about the dark underbelly of movie magic, what’s more fitting than telling truth through fiction?

From the dingiest dumpster to the ritziest ballroom, every inch of the landscape of Hollywood and all its tawdriest secrets are exposed in gloriously-rendered inkwork by Megan Levens whose harsh, raw linework has just enough softness to show the heart underneath all the jaded cynicism of Janet Harvey’s story. And of course, it’s set in sunny California, so even the shadows are bright enough to give you a sunburn! It might seem counter-intuitive to take a crime noir story and drench it in glorious sunlight, but here the light serves to hide the truth even better than the stereotypical dark shadows you expect from this genre. This is Hollywood after all, and all the glitz and glitter has always been designed as a distraction so nobody notices that the sets are cardboard and the jewels are all made of paste; what better way to hid the truth of this mystery than with the blazing light of the sun -- or a spotlight?

The lighting isn’t the only twist Angel City puts on its genre of course; the most obvious is the re-casting of the femme fatale into the hard-boiled detective who claims the leading role, but the whole story is peppered with familiar tropes and faces used in new and exciting ways. This story has “classic crime noir” written all over it but it uses its genre trappings as springboards rather than props to lean on and the result -- especially when combined with all those “true crime” elements that have been so liberally sprinkled across the story -- is a masterpiece. As we all get ready to watch modern Hollywood hand out those shiny golden statues to itself, why not take a moment to dip into the murky waters of the golden age of the silver screen with this nomination-worthy tale?

The first six-issue arc of Angel City is almost over, but we still have copies of each issue on our shelves (for now!) or if you prefer to read your crime noir in complete chunks, there will be a collection out soon that you can pre-order today. Whether you’re a fan of the silver screen or just of stories that revolve around crime, murder, and corruption, you’re sure to be blown-away by this story...as are several members of the cast!

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Hello Fellow Bookworms! Is it just me or does 2019 look to be an amazing year for debut’s. There are soooo many releases out next year that I cannot wait to get my hands on. This post will focus on my top 10, even though I’m sure its going to be hard to narrow it down.

    Crown of Feather’s by Nicki Pau Preto

I had a sister, once…

In a world ruled by fierce warrior queens, a grand empire was built upon the backs of Phoenix Riders—legendary heroes who soared through the sky on wings of fire—until a war between two sisters ripped it all apart.

I promised her the throne would not come between us.

Sixteen years later, Veronyka is a war orphan who dreams of becoming a Phoenix Rider from the stories of old. After a shocking betrayal from her controlling sister, Veronyka strikes out alone to find the Riders—even if that means disguising herself as a boy to join their ranks.

But it is a fact of life that one must kill or be killed. Rule or be ruled.

Just as Veronyka finally feels like she belongs, her sister turns up and reveals a tangled web of lies between them that will change everything. And meanwhile, the new empire has learned of the Riders’ return and intends to destroy them once and for all.

Sometimes the title of queen is given. Sometimes it must be taken.

  Enchantee by Gita Trelease

When smallpox kills her parents, Camille Durbonne must find a way to provide for her frail, naive sister while managing her volatile brother. Relying on petty magic—la magie ordinaire—Camille painstakingly transforms scraps of metal into money to buy the food and medicine they need. But when the coins won’t hold their shape and her brother disappears with the family’s savings, Camille must pursue a richer, more dangerous mark: the glittering court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

With dark magic forbidden by her mother, Camille transforms herself into the ‘Baroness de la Fontaine’ and is swept up into life at the Palace of Versailles, where aristocrats both fear and hunger for la magie. There, she gambles at cards, desperate to have enough to keep herself and her sister safe. Yet the longer she stays at court, the more difficult it becomes to reconcile her resentment of the nobles with the enchantments of Versailles. And when she returns to Paris, Camille meets a handsome young balloonist—who dares her to hope that love and liberty may both be possible.

But la magie has its costs. And when Camille loses control of her secrets, the game she’s playing turns deadly. Then revolution erupts, and she must choose—love or loyalty, democracy or aristocracy, freedom or magic—before Paris burns…

  Dark of the West by Joanna Hathaway Aurelia Isendare is a princess of a small kingdom in the North, raised in privilege but shielded from politics as her brother prepares to step up to the throne. Halfway around the world, Athan Dakar, the youngest son of a ruthless general, is a fighter pilot longing for a life away from the front lines. When Athan’s mother is shot and killed, his father is convinced it’s the work of his old rival, the Queen of Etania—Aurelia’s mother. Determined to avenge his wife’s murder, he devises a plot to overthrow the Queen, a plot which sends Athan undercover to Etania to gain intel from her children.

Athan’s mission becomes complicated when he finds himself falling for the girl he’s been tasked with spying upon. Aurelia feels the same attraction, all the while desperately seeking to stop the war threatening to break between the Southern territory and the old Northern kingdoms that control it—a war in which Athan’s father is determined to play a role. As diplomatic ties manage to just barely hold, the two teens struggle to remain loyal to their families and each other as they learn that war is not as black and white as they’ve been raised to believe.

  Descendant of the Crane by Joan He

Princess Hesina of Yan has always been eager to shirk the responsibilities of the crown, but when her beloved father is murdered, she’s thrust into power, suddenly the queen of an unstable kingdom. Determined to find her father’s killer, Hesina does something desperate: she engages the aid of a soothsayer—a treasonous act, punishable by death… because in Yan, magic was outlawed centuries ago.

Using the information illicitly provided by the sooth, and uncertain if she can trust even her family, Hesina turns to Akira—a brilliant and alluring investigator who’s also a convicted criminal with secrets of his own. With the future of her kingdom at stake, can Hesina find justice for her father? Or will the cost be too high?

In this shimmering Chinese-inspired fantasy, debut author Joan He introduces a determined and vulnerable young heroine struggling to do right in a world brimming with deception.

  Wicked Saints by Emily A Duncan

A girl who can speak to gods must save her people without destroying herself.

A prince in danger must decide who to trust.

A boy with a monstrous secret waits in the wings.

Together, they must assassinate the king and stop the war.

In a centuries-long war where beauty and brutality meet, their three paths entwine in a shadowy world of spilled blood and mysterious saints, where a forbidden romance threatens to tip the scales between dark and light.

  The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Teerdhala

Esha is a legend, but no one knows. It’s only in the shadows that she moonlights as the Viper, the rebels’ highly skilled assassin. She’s devoted her life to avenging what she lost in the royal coup, and now she’s been tasked with her most important mission to date: taking down the ruthless General Hotha.

Kunal has been a soldier since childhood, training morning and night to uphold the power of King Vardaan. His uncle, the general, has ensured that Kunal never strays from the path—even as a part of Kunal longs to join the outside world, which has been growing only more volatile.

Then Esha’s and Kunal’s paths cross—and an unimaginable chain of events unfolds. Both the Viper and the soldier think they’re calling the shots, but they’re not the only players moving the pieces. As the bonds that hold their land in order break down and the sins of the past meet the promise of a new future, both rebel and soldier must make unforgivable choices.

  We Hunt the Flame by Hafsah Faizal

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways.

Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.

War is brewing in Arawiya, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.

  The Devouring Gray by Christine Lynn Herman

On the edge of town a beast haunts the woods, trapped in the Gray, its bonds loosening…

Uprooted from the city, Violet Saunders doesn’t have much hope of fitting in at her new school in Four Paths, a town almost buried in the woodlands of rural New York. The fact that she’s descended from one of the town’s founders doesn’t help much, either—her new neighbours treat her with distant respect, and something very like fear. When she meets Justin, May, Isaac, and Harper, all children of founder families, and sees the otherworldly destruction they can wreak, she starts to wonder if the townsfolk are right to be afraid.

When bodies start to appear in the woods, the locals become downright hostile. Can the teenagers solve the mystery of Four Paths, and their own part in it, before another calamity strikes?

  The Girl King by Mimi Yu

Sisters Lu and Min have always understood their places as princesses of the Empire. Lu knows she is destined to become the dynasty’s first female ruler, while Min is resigned to a life in her shadow. Then their father declares their male cousin Set the heir instead—a betrayal that sends the sisters down two very different paths.

Determined to reclaim her birthright, Lu goes on the run. She needs an ally—and an army—if she is to succeed. Her quest leads her to Nokhai, the last surviving wolf shapeshifter. Nok wants to keep his identity secret, but finds himself forced into an uneasy alliance with the girl whose family killed everyone he ever loved…

Alone in the volatile court, Min’s hidden power awakens—a forbidden, deadly magic that could secure Set’s reign…or allow Min to claim the throne herself. But there can only be one Emperor, and the sisters’ greatest enemy could turn out to be each other.

  An Affair of Poisons by Addie Thorley

After unwittingly helping her mother poison King Louis XIV, seventeen-year-old alchemist Mirabelle Monvoisin is forced to see her mother’s Shadow Society in a horrifying new light: they’re not heroes of the people, as they’ve always claimed to be, but murderers. Herself included. Mira tries to ease her guilt by brewing helpful curatives, but her hunger tonics and headache remedies cannot right past wrongs or save the dissenters her mother vows to purge.

Royal bastard Josse de Bourbon is more kitchen boy than fils de France. But when the Shadow Society assassinates the Sun King and half the royal court, he must become the prince he was never meant to be in order to save his injured sisters and the petulant Dauphin. Forced to hide in the derelict sewers beneath the city, any hope of reclaiming Paris seems impossible—until Josse’s path collides with Mirabelle’s, and he finds a surprising ally in his sworn enemy.

She’s a deadly poisoner. He’s a bastard prince. Together, they form a tenuous pact to unite the commoners and former nobility against the Shadow Society. But can a rebellion built on mistrust ever hope to succeed?

  Topic Tuesday! Debut Novels I’m Looking Forward To In 2019 Hello Fellow Bookworms! Is it just me or does 2019 look to be an amazing year for debut's.

[swipestream]

New Release Roundup, 21 July 2018: Science Fiction

A latent psychic swears a vendetta against the aliens who invaded his home, a team of lawyers must prevent the ruin of two galaxies, and mecha mercenaries The Four Horsemen and Wardogs, Inc. both return to action in this week’s roundup of the newest releases in science fiction.

Battle Harem #1 – Isaac Hooke

Jason was a little short on creds so he decided to get his mind scanned. It seemed like a good idea at the time: get paid to license a copy of your mind for use in one of the numerous machines that run society. What could go wrong?

Turns out, a lot.

Jason wakes up in the middle of the radioactive wasteland that was created fifty years ago when aliens destroyed half the Earth. He has no idea why he’s here, or what the hell he’s supposed to do. Worst of all, he’s no longer human: his consciousness has been installed into the AI core of a state-of-the-art war machine, a mech with enough firepower to raze a small city.

Hunted by mutated alien bioweapons, Jason travels the wasteland in an attempt to piece together what happened. Along the way he encounters a few abandoned war machines that also have no memory of their mission, machines that can’t decide whether they want to join him or kill him. It doesn’t help that in VR they all look like super hot women.

Sometimes it’s tough being a machine.

When Jason and his new companions discover what they’re truly capable of, however, everything changes. And not necessarily for the better.

Dark Moon Arisen (The Four Horsemen Cycle: The Omega War #3) – Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey

The Omega War is in full swing. Earth has fallen to General Peepo’s army, and the surviving Human mercenaries have taken refuge at the hidden Winged Hussars’ base in New Warsaw.

On Earth, the defensive forces fight to keep the hearts and minds of their fellow Humans, but Peepo’s plans are slowly converting the people to her way of thinking, and the Mercenary Guild troops continue to root out the forces arrayed against them.

Outnumbered and on the run, the situation is bleak, but none of the Horsemen like being on the defensive. When they get intelligence that Peepo is massing resources at a secret base, they decide to launch a decisive counterattack that may open Earth up to recapture.

Meanwhile, Dr. Sato, the Hussar’s brilliant but unpredictable scientist, unwittingly reactivates a 20,000-year-old doomsday weapon with a mind of its own. If it can’t be stopped, all the Four Horsemen’s plans might become meaningless.

Forces are moving both in the shadows and in the light, but who will rise victorious? One thing is for sure…a Dark Moon has Arisen.

The Fall of Heaven – David S. Grunwell

In the wondrous megacity of Heavensport, robots do all the work allowing its three-quarters of a billion inhabitants free to pursue their passions.

Unfortunately for Rolland Newcastle, someone’s passion is to kill him. Stripped of his wealth, technology, and connections, is this the start of a worldwide purge?

Rolland inherited his troubles from his ancestors, the legal owners of the beautiful planet of New Jerusalem. After cryrosleeping for 223 years, they found that technological advances had allowed squatters’ ships to make the journey in just 3.5 years.

Arriving 200 years later, they found an established world that didn’t want them. The Fall of Heaven was just the start.

Forbidden Sanctuary (Star Lawyers #2) – Tom Shepherd

What terrible secrets will Tyler Matthews and his Star Lawyers discover within the Forbidden Sanctuary on the mysterious, sacred planet Adao-2?

Can the legal team from Matthews Interstellar Industries learn the truth in time to save M-double-I’s century-long quest to open Jump Gate Omega, bridge the 2.5 million light years to the Andromeda galaxy, and prevent economic ruin and war in the Milky Way?

While Tyler, J.B., Rosalie and Lucy (her shapeshifter cat) battle pirates and religious fanatics, Suzie and her holographic A.I. colleagues—former ladies of the night, re-purposed as legal assistants and starship crew– face an even deadlier foe. This unknown enemy threatens to delete all the starship Patrick Henry’s programs and terminate their existence forever.

To make matters worse, Cousin Esteban languishes in prison on Suryadivan Prime, where the former Catholic monk faces a death sentence for crimes he did not commit.

Galactic War (The Pike Chronicles #9) – G. P. Hudson

A crumbling empire. A galactic crusade. Humanity rising to power. Hidden enemies waiting to strike.

Eight years have passed since the Builders and the Dark Ones left the galaxy. In that time, Jon Pike has scored successive victories against the Juttari. Once he drives them out of Diakan space, his forces will be poised to finally strike at the heart of the ruthless Juttari Empire.

But, an unseen power is emerging from the shadows, threatening to destroy all of Jon Pike’s progress and plunge humanity into a new galactic war. Old enemies also continue to pose a deadly threat to the Admiral. Can Jon Pike avoid disaster for himself, humanity and the galaxy?

I Am Justice (The Frontiers Saga: Rogue Castes #9) – Ryk Brown

A chance to gain resources…

A need to prepare a defense…

A trap about to be sprung…

An opportunity for justice…

As his sister faces a critical moment, Captain Scott must chase his friends to regions he has yet to travel.

Sometimes, you just have to take risks for those you care about. Sometimes, quite often.

Incoming – Kevin Orr

The year is 2029, and World War III, which lasted all of 61 minutes, is history.

Nuclear combat destroyed all life on the surface of Earth, relegating mankind to a life underground.

Farrow Lind is tired of living like an insect.

He longs to join the select surface forces, the only group which ever sees daylight.

But when his squad veers off course, he finds himself entangled in the biggest conspiracy in the history of the human race.

“Don’t wanna give the story away but it doesn’t just have plots twists, the whole story is one huge plot twist.” – Amazon Reader Review

The Long-Range War (A Learning Experience #5) – Christopher G. Nuttall 

The gloves have finally come off…

The Tokomak, the unquestioned masters of the galaxy, have dispatched a massive fleet to crush the Solar Union – and the fledgling Galactic Alliance – before the human race and its alien allies can tear the galactic order asunder. Hundreds of thousands of starships under the command of an alien tactical genius, bent on exterminating the entire human race…the darkest hour is truly at hand.

Admiral Hoshiko Stuart has a plan. The Solar Union will dispatch a fleet of its own, with the objective of smashing the alien fleet before it reaches Sol. But, as human technology clashes with alien treachery, experience and sheer numbers, it becomes clear that there can be only one victor…

…And whoever loses will lose everything.

Metal Monsters (Quantum Mortis: Wardogs, Inc. #3) – G. D. Stark

All war is murder for profit.

Some people are just more open about it.

WARDOGS INCORPORATED is one of the largest and most professional mercenary corporations operating in the Kantillon subsector. If you need a bodyguard, an assassination team, or an armored cavalry regiment complete with air support, Wardogs Inc. can provide it for you… for a very steep price.

The Stratocracy of Sfodria has ruled over its people with a very large steel fist for centuries. The giant mechs piloted by their nobles are all but invulnerable and have long served as the aristocratic shield against Sfodria’s enemies. But recently, their indestructible knights have been falling in battle at an unprecedented rate, and no one knows why. Desperate to reverse the fortunes of war before their nation falls to their hereditary enemy, the Stratocracy turns to Wardogs Inc. to train their ineffective and long-ignored militia.

Tommy Falkland and his fellow Wardogs aren’t on the job long before they begin to realize that they may be in well over their pay grade, as they are not dealing with a conventional human threat.

The Pride of the Damned (Cochrane’s Company #3) – Peter Grant

The shadow war started as a simple contract to defend a system against asteroid thieves. The harder Andrew Cochrane and Hawkwood Security fought, the worse things became. Now they find themselves embroiled in an interstellar war with an entire mafia!

Worse yet, the proceedings are so profitable – not to mention bloody – that they’ve attracted the attention of some of the worst criminal organizations in the galaxy. If Hawkwood is to survive, it’ll need all the wits, cunning and ingenuity it can muster – and the unwavering courage and dedication of its people.

The galaxy’s not big enough for both sides. One or the other will go to the wall.

Rogue Pilot (Space Scout #3) – Will Macmillian Jones

Frank Eric Russell was a Captain in The Free Union’s Space Corps, until a series of unfortunate events left him disgraced, dismissed and disgruntled. Now a renegade in an outdated scoutship, he makes a living on the margins of the galaxy in any way he can.

But Frank’s past is catching up with him. The Chief Enforcer of the decaying Galactic Empire, the fearsome Colonel Starker, wants to make Frank a horrible example to the rest of the galaxy of the penalties of crossing his path. The Followers of The Mad God Zog are not pleased by the damage to their holy space station that Frank caused when he escaped from their indoctrination program in a previous novel and want their revenge; and worst of all his old boss wants him back – to carry out some more life-threatening missions for him.

As he flies his elderly Speedbird across the less reputable parts of the galaxy, Frank finds himself living in interesting times…

Shadows of Divinity (The Enochian War #1) – Luke R. Mitchell

Enochia is compromised. The Sanctum. The Legion. The whole damn planet.

Carlisle calls them the raknoth. Red-eyed demons from Alpha knows where. He says they’re aliens. But then again, he also moves things with his freaking mind—a gift he swears lies dormant in me as well—so I’m starting to get a little unclear on what I can and can’t believe anymore. And I know what you’re thinking. A few days ago, I wouldn’t have believed me either.

Then I watched the High General of the Alpha-damned Legion sprout red eyes and tear my parents to bloody pieces.

I don’t know what the raknoth want. I don’t know how they’ve taken control of Enochia without anyone noticing. All I know is that they picked the wrong planet to screw with. Now, I have some questions. And a High General to kill.

My name is Haldin Rais, and I’m going to make them pay…

Target: Earth (Extinction Wars #5) – Vaughn Heppner

What if you could right your greatest regret?

Creed wishes he’d never left Jennifer behind in a dark and alien dimension where Abaddon transformed her into a superhuman killer. Creed helped kill Abaddon and put Jennifer in the Curator’s care—the only one with the hope of healing her—but guilt still gnaws at Creed.

Then one day Jennifer escapes from the Curator, with the pain of her lover’s abandonment driving her. She plans to hurt Creed like he hurt her, by destroying what he has worked so hard to save—the Earth.

When Creed learns this, he breaks his oath as the Galactic Effectuator, steals an advanced stealth ship, phase suit and weapons from the Curator and races home.

Time and incredibly deadly aliens under Jennifer’s control fight Creed. He desperately needs the help of Rollo, Ella and N7 if he hopes to protect humanity and right the greatest wrong of his life by saving Jennifer from the evil Abaddon has done to her.

  New Release Roundup, 21 July 2018: Science Fiction published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames