#koudelka spoilers

[savingthegeneration]

Is it okay child? For you not to follow him?

Yeah, it's okay. I have a feeling that someday, somewhere we'll meet again.

Koudelka (2000) dev. Sacnoth

[hephaestuscrew]

When I think about Minkowski, Eiffel, Hera and Lovelace post-canon, the relationship I imagine is something that could be described as a group queerplatonic relationship. As I like to think about it (and other people are obviously entirely free to think about it differently), the relationships are entirely platonic, but they prioritise each other, they take care of each other, they live together (although with a fair amount of individual comings and goings), and they are the most important people in each other's lives. External people tend to wonder who is dating who in that house and are surprised to learn that no one is. But I don't think they'd feel the need for a term like QPR. I don't think they'd be searching for that language to describe their dynamic to the world or to each other.

Of course, I also think of them under the term 'found family', but I'm not sure they'd use familial language either. I think they'd leave that unspoken. And words like 'friends' and 'housemates' - while true - don't fully capture who they are to each other.

In fact, when I'm thinking about how they describe their relationships to each other post-canon, the word that I keep coming back to is that they are a crew.

They are still a crew post-canon. But "crew" means something different now that the station is gone. "Crew" had already started to mean something different while they were up there. (See this post.) It's a choice now. It had already started to be a choice while they were up there. Once, "crew" described their shared relationship to the Hephaestus. Now it only describes their relationships to each other.

I think Minkowski definitely still calls them "her crew". And the others end up doing so too, although perhaps to a lesser extent. Sometimes it's in a casual or joking way: talking about"Crew Movie Nights", or despairing "Does no one else in this crew know how to load the dishwasher?" Sometimes it's in a purely internal way: thinking "I ought to head home - the crew will be wondering where I've got to", or ranking "Keeping my crew safe" at the top of a mental list of priorities. Sometimes it's in a serious way: asserting "I won't let the crew down", or saying "You'll always be a part of this crew" as an act of reassurance in moments of doubt and fear.

And when they call each other a crew, it means family and commitment and love and responsibility and trust and care. It means all those things that Goddard Futuristics didn't care about when it gave them that word.

There's a kind of reclamation in that, in turning a piece of that military language into something different and beautiful outside of that context, in knowing "The mission was a lie, the station was a deathtrap, but some of the people I met up there are my people now."

[herawell]

Me: Infidelity is one of the worst things you could do to someone, to take someone who loves you so much and stab them in the back.

Dominik Koudelka: *exists*

Me: Get cuckolded idiot.

[nobodysdaydreams]

💐

Thank you, Milk!

Sadly, I'm behind on my tmbs stuff at the moment, but I have slowly begun to dip my toes into the world of Wolf359 fanfic. So, with no context, I hope you enjoy this:

The man said other things as well, something about Goddard Futuristics sending their deepest condolences, life insurance policies, generous financial compensation and assistance for the families, anything they could do to help, but all of it was white noise. Dominik covered stories and tragedies like this, but he didn’t…he didn’t live it, and Renée…no Renée was too brilliant, she was unbeatable, she couldn’t be gone, that couldn’t be right, there must be a mistake of course, it had to be a mistake.

But there was no mistake. The representative came straight from Goddard itself.

Renée was gone.

[hellishfig]

the first chapter is published! second is in the process of being written, no idea how long it will take, but until then here’s the link!

the best part of getting other people to consume media i like is inflicting my ideas about said media upon them

[sharpestasp]

Vorkosigan Again

Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold, copyright 1991

Chapter One

"I am afraid"

Hell of an opening line.

Apparently Betan medicine is far better than Barrayaran, for Cordelia's damnation of how Koudelka's injuries were handled.

"In those mirrors, I am altogether beautiful" - her thoughts at how Aral looks at her. I may have cooed.

Oh he called her Dear Captain.

I love that Cordelia asks about the duties entailed, and how that briefing goes.

"I'll keep trying to change your mind." And I feel like Aral loves that, too, about her.

Poor Illyan. I see his argument, but having a remove from the Palace is also, as Aral says, good PR.

Now we meet Kareen and Gregor, and both Cordelia and Aral are trying to be reassuring.

Business for Aral, socials for Cordelia... that won't last.

I have not yet taken in any spoilers about Kareen. I probably ought to, given she was involved with the Prince. Willing, unwilling, victim, co-conspirator? That kind of thing is making me antsy about her.

OH BLESS THAT OPENING, once they are alone. Even if Cordelia did not kill the man.

And it looks like Kareen might be untainted, loyal to the Emperor, not her husband.

Droushnakovi, an amazon in pining for open service, perhaps?

OH! And she's been assigned to Cordelia, by Negri, with accord from Kareen.

PLEASE DO NOT BE PART OF THE TRAP.

[mcalhenwrites]

6 Name the frogs

13 Geckos Automata

Thank you for the ask! :D

6 for Name the Frogs: What makes this fic special or different from all your other fics?

A few of the reasons are spoilers, so I’ll have to navigate around those to answer this question. Some of them deal with the types of relationships I write in the story! (Though I did add a reporter character friendship again.) While I do tend to stick with certain themes in all my stories, like characters navigating trauma, in this one the main character, Irving, is the son of someone openly detested. It makes him a pariah, even though Nestor mistreated him. People think he has been groomed to take over for his father. That has led to some interesting relationship developments in his adult life… And a lack of them, sadly, especially for a kid who acted out in class to impress his peers for laughs. He has been crying out for friends his entire life. 13 for Geckos, Automata: What music did you listen to, if any, to get in the mood for writing this story? Or if you didn’t listen to anything, what do you think readers should listen to to accompany us while reading? Geckos, Automata doesn’t have much of a “playlist” - a lot of my stories don’t, since I tend to either get hooked on a new soundtrack or song in a moment OR I’m repeating the same Yasunori Mitsuda music as I always do. Can’t help it, Mitsuda is good.

Uh, anyway! Here are some songs I definitely recall listening to while writing:

“Abel’s Ark” from Xenosaga Episode III OST, by Yuki Kajiura I want to note that I listened to a lot of this soundtrack recently while editing, and it really fit the mood. But “Abel’s Ark” is the one I keep putting on repeat.

“Dead” from Koudelka OST, by Hiroki Kikuta A peaceful melody from a horror game works well for some of the more heartbreaking moments in Geckos, Automata.

“Waking the Monster” by Darren Hayes When listening to this song, you can definitely sense why it fits the story so well. I actually listened a lot of his music during the writing of this, from “The Future Holds a Lion’s Heart” to “Hero”, but “Waking the Monster” maybe fits a little too well? I’m worried I subconsciously took a lot of plot from the song, even though I actually converged a recent plot with an old one in order to develop the one in Geckos. The old one is from 2011, and yes this song was out back then, but it was about necromancy and stealing from tombs. The one in 2020 that developed alongside some new characters (Duncan, Rosalia, and Kieran) was simply a desire to write a story in a post-apocalyptic world where a group of people banded together and traveled along the train tracks.

“Coffee with a Bullet” from Shadow Hearts OST, by Yoshitaka Hirota I listened to a lot of both SH I & II OSTs, but this one stands out to me a little more than the others. If Hirota didn’t compose it, Mitsuda did. Yes. Mitsuda. I’m predictable.

There’s also a massive chance I was listening to KHUX music at this time, because it hadn’t finished yet, and I was obsessed. This includes a lot of songs from the earlier Kingdom Hearts soundtracks, especially any related to darkness. The game wrapped up in June of 2021, a few months after I wrote the original Geckos draft in one month, so it’s very possible that I was listening to KH music frequently at the time.

[herawell]

#she finally gets out of postflight quarantine and goes to see him and comes back a mess#Hera who wasn't even happy about potentially 'losing' some of her crew to outside randos is immediately also distraught#'what do you mean people stop wanting to be with each other?#how often does it happen? how can you tell? are you going to do that to me?'#lovelace and doug are awkwardly trying to explain things and console minkowski at the same time with limited success#luckily jacobi is not around to make things worse bc he is dealing with the fallout#of him and maxwell making each other their beneficiaries as a joke#(alien zombie maxwell 6 months later: where's my fucking money daniel)

IDK if Dominik is ok given that someone asked about him in an AMA and Gabriel made a face like that cartoon about your DM rolling something really bad for your character but if he is still alive...

I read a book as a kid where the MC's mom is describing how her first longterm relationship ended and tells this story about how they jokingly read each other's tea leaves predicting each other's ideal futures, but then she started crying because they realized the futures didn't match up. I kind of imagine something like that happening. He's happy to have her back, he waited for her, but Minkowski starts talking about her crew she's still responsible for and all the things she still needs to fix and realizes she's not back yet, not really, and how long can she ask him to keep waiting for a version of a woman who is never coming home.

[herawell]

Not me thinking about how part of why Minkowski didn't want to go back to Earth may have been because she and her husband didn't part on good terms after she chose her career over him (not shaming her for it but a two-year absence is not the kind of decision you unilaterally make when you're married) and she can't face him now that she chose a death trap over him. Not without having something to show for it.

[auncyen]

23 for the ask game!

23. A "wow" moment--very old school on this one but Shadow Hearts: Covenant just popped to mind so going with that. (also SPOILERS but like this game is old enough you've either played it or won't.) A thing about the Shadow Hearts series and the spiritual predecessor Koudelka is that all of them have some attempt to bring back the dead, typically with very very very bad results. In Shadow Hearts: Covenant, one of the people who tries it is actually your protagonist and the wise-albeit-crackpot old man helping him, both really ought to be knowing better from past experiences. If you played Koudelka/SH1, you know it's not going to go well. You kind of hope it does anyway because they're trying to bring back the heroine from SH1.

It does not go well. But it also does not go quite as disastrously as some of the other attempts in the series (Koudelka's and Shadow Hearts: From the New World's failed rites are literally the catalyst for the entire plots of those entries) and for a moment, you get to see my favorite female character from that series again, and you get to see normally tough cocky brawler start crying as he tells her he loves her before her soul goes back to the afterlife.

And then they figure out what the final antagonist is planning to do with a component of that ritual but like w/e that's the Big Damn Emotional moment of the game and it knows it and that's part of what makes it an 'awe' moment for me, it just goes all-in on the emotional stakes.

[herawell]

#kinda wanna write this now lol#lovelace's sibling was really close to her so koudelka feels like its better to go to her than any romantic partners#the ai is like chaotic good and is trying to free itself v subtly so it scrolls thru ppls internet history for fun n stuff#and she finds koudelkas stuff and what hes looking into so shes like HEY I KNOW THE AI ON THAT SHIP#HIT ME UP#and then they find kate whos literally just like '....ugh'#but is like a good person or whatever so shes willing to help out#as long as ppl dont start thinking she CARES or something

a really fun wolf 359 au would be where Koudelka gets like, family members of all the hephaestus crew help him figure out what happened to his wife…. and he gets kate. like, lovelace has a sibling who misses her enough to talk about the hephaestus 1 mission with a complete stranger, and maybe hera has like, an ai friend who doesnt like the thought of her being stranded in space, but then there’s kate who literally just…. doesnt care?

koudelka calls her up one day like “contact me if you care about your ex boyfriend” “which one?” “Eiffel” she hangs up. who cares what eiffels up to, like fuck that guy. but then she finds out he’s only in this mess because he wanted to help anne, so she’s like shit, now shes gotta get herself into a whole government conspiracy. fuck doug eiffiel. she’s still gonna help though. still gonna help

[amfictheatre]

Minkowski hcs because she’s cool

She has a lot of scars that eiffel often asks about post-story. She’s too embarrassed to tell him they’re from piercings she got in her teens.

She has naturally wavy dirty blonde hair- although it used to be very damaged cause she dyed it a lot. When plaited ( she usually wears it in a single french braid or a bun ) it reaches just past her shoulder blades.

Post-story, she ends up having a very amicable divorce with Dominik. He ended up finding someone else approx 2 years after she was pronounced ‘dead’ anyway.

Her, Eiffel and Jacobi and hera ( haven’t figured out out how that works but it does) live together and Lovelace has a room but is often away travelling.

She’s pansexual and had a gf in high school.

[captainfaygeleh]

so i’ve had this headcanon

effiel is sent to earth as planned and works with mr. koudelka to save the world from decima until everyone else makes it home

rattling around in my head for a few days now and honestly it’s just jammed in there, so enjoy the expanded version

the ship is on autopilot so it goes right back to canaveral, and it’s a shuttle so it lands of all things. effiel is thankful he didn’t get dumped in the ocean for one (1) whole minute until he’s shuffled off it and stuck in a very dark room at Goddard

he doesn’t know how long he’s there for, but long enough to lose his voice.

he screams about decima, about cutter and pryce betraying all of them, about bob, about his blood and his immunity, hoping that there is at least one sane person out there, someone willing to realize what kind of shit show they are about to enter into

he has meals delivered, twice a day, through a slot in the door, but no one speaks to him

he doesn’t stop talking

he talks to renee (refuses to talk to her, the her in his mind, at first, but he can’t help himself) to hera, to loveless. to hilbert, even. he calls out to bob.

the meals stop coming. effiel stops talking.

and honestly, the fact that he doesn’t completely break down is a testament to all of the other shit he’s survived. and it’s not like he hasn’t already tried to escape, but he’s a sealed room with no door, so what the hell is he supposed to do?

thank god for alien blood. it takes two weeks for them to find him

he’s laying in bed to conserve energy when the door slides open and a tall hazmat suit walks in

“aren’t you a little short for a storm trooper?” he croaks.

the hazmat suit introduces himself as dominik, doug says hi, and then passes out

he wakes up with a bunch of needles in his arm, and a crowd of hazmat suits above him

he learns that the decima virus had been activated, leading to the quick death of 40% of the population, the slow death of another 10%, and the mutation of another 10% into rapidly healing, incredibly strong--

“zombies,” says effiel

“we haven’t actually--”

“nope, they’re zombies, do not go with the ‘Walking Dead, oh no for some reason we can’t call the things hungering for our brains zombies’ nonsense. they’re zombies. i need this win.”

he learns that goddard had been abandoned after the outbreak, that rumors of the companies involvement with the virus had led this group (of journalists? really?) to break in and see what they could learn

“most of it had been burned, but there were still security recordings.” the hazmat suit paused. “of you.”

“greaaaaaat.”

“mr. effiel-- doug.” he says. “i’m-- my wife-- your commander--”

“you’re renee’s husband? holy shit.”

“yes, I--”

“look i know this is not the time for this, but i am so fucking mad at her”

aaaaaaaaaand then they fight decima zombies and try to save the world and then renee and co finally show up with bob to save the humans

[sciencematter]

31. “You haven’t lost me.” Minkowski/Koudelka?

31. “You haven’t lost me.”

Dominick Koudelka is tired. As it stands, a space station that he had written a story on, one that every crew member from was apparently dead, has just been heard from again- more or less. His wife- Renee- Renee had contacted Earth and he really isn’t entirely sure how he feels about that. Of course, he’s relieved- she’s alive and she’s okay, he’s going to get to see her again- but on the other hand, she’s been legally dead for three and a half years.

He’d never given up hope, of course, wearing his wedding ring on a chain around his neck so that it can rest close to his heart, occasionally twisting it when he’s nervous. His hope, as determined as she has always been (and, he hopes, always will be), had paid off. Renee was coming home.

She would be a little battered and damaged, hurting and so- she wasn’t going to be the same woman he had kissed goodbye in Florida, that much he knows. Extreme events have a way of changing a person and she would always be just that- a person.

“She’s coming home,” he says to himself, quietly, as he folds a shirt in preparation for a long journey. The crew of the Urania (which, from local stories, was not the same crew that had left for the Hephaestus) were in a hospital halfway across the country. A military one, of course. 

 Yes, his Renee is home- or, at least, she will be. Soon.

For now, it’s enough to keep repeating she’s coming home in his mind in the hopes that she, alive, home, is thinking the same.

When he sees her, it takes almost all of his willpower to hold back tears as she scans the room. Renee meets his eyes and he sees something in them, a spark, and he rises from his chair and simply smiles.

“Renee,” he breathes. Then, she’s hugging him, pulling him close and burying her face in his neck with a sob-laugh sound he never really wants to hear again. He holds her close, hand tracing up her back as he says “I thought- they told me that you were-”

“You haven’t lost me,” she replies, voice soft. “I’ve missed you, but I’m here. We’re going home.”

“Missed you, too,” he laughs. “Yes- and yes, we are. Home.”

[herawell]

#Mr Koudelka doing his service to this nation#dead husband/bf is a trope inversion I think we should capitalize on a lot more often.#but not in an annoying "her whole life revolved around him'' way

I just realized that Minkowski's husband is victim of the sexy lamp/fridged wife trope. Absolutely no plot purpose aside from a vague mention that she misses him sometimes in the early seasons. Dominik Koudelka is the dead wife Minkowski pulls out a picture of to look sadly at for a moment as her 2000s mspaint emo style fringe falls in front of her eyes before she puts it away straightens up and loads her harpoon to go kick ass. And we love that for the two of them

[fromthecommsroom]

Adjustments

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2E1qOMb

by timetosin

The survivors club have returned to earth and must live with the consequences of their time in the stars. Hera, Eiffel, and Minkowski figure out who they are in relation to one another, those around them, and themselves. The survivors club grieves their losses and Eiffel and Minkowski create new memories together. ((Minffel Centric))

"Here, home back on earth, the little survivors club ate dinner together as a family, laughed and talked immensely, and when Hera insisted played the questions game until they screamed. Yes, things were by far much better on earth for everyone, despite the sadness. Regardless, Hera missed the hectic abyss and the star systems, she missed the time of their lives that brought them all together."

Words: 2922, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Wolf 359 (Radio)

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: F/F, F/M, M/M

Characters: Hera, Doug Eiffel, Renée Minkowski, Daniel Jacobi, Isabel Lovelace

Relationships: Doug Eiffel/Renée Minkowski, Mr. Koudelka/Renée Minkowski (past), Daniel Jacobi/Warren Kepler (past), Hera/Alana Maxwell (past), Isabel Lovelace/Renée Minkowski (implied onesided), Minffel centric

Additional Tags: Post-Hephaestus, Post-Canon, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Adultery, everyone is sad, minffel, minffel pinning, spoilers from finale, doug hera and minkowski centric, everyone is adjusting to life on earth kinda poorly but they are a family and together, minffel more in second part, survivors club, some mentions of things happening between canon episodes

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/2E1qOMb