#of the politics or cultures of every place she goes to

[deafsignifcantother]

if music be the food of love, chapter one

♥ chapter two! ♥ relationships: aroace Alastor x deaf female reader (queerplatonic) ♥ word count: 2.1k ♥ pinterest board ♥ warnings: reader got hurt by someone they loved before death, reader is shorter than him, bickering, reader loves tea, lonesome reader, alastor invading space ♥ my idea is that reader has a small stereo on her chest that lets out classical music based on her mood. I imagine that it comes from both her chest (softly) and the outside of her manor (loud as fuck).

Your manor is only visible to the town when the lights are on a tall hill and covered in trees. However, even if all the lights were off, people would at least know it's there.

There are two reasons: the tale and the music.

Tale, a story for the newcomers. They speak of a demon who plays music all day, doomed to play music forever. Oh, the music. The music can be heard from even miles away.

It's refined and dainty, and it reeks of misery. The classical music never seems to repeat itself; it goes on and on and on and on. The demons hear you only through your music. When you cry, the violins and cellos grow with a cruel crescendo. When you sleep, the music is soft, almost quiet. Everyone comes to an understanding, assumption, that if the music were to stop, you would be dead.

The demons who try to step closer to your manor will find themselves experiencing unfathomable sorrow and guilt. The sound of your music is the demonic ability you possess, and it's out of your control. Due to the sadness of your death, you are forced into misery in the afterlife. When you were alive, those you loved and devoted yourself to only broke your heart.

Everybody affected by your music feels that grief.

Alastor doesn't understand why people fear your manor. Your love-related pain doesn't affect him at all.

He starts up the hill, moving both on his feet and through the shadows. On his way to your manor, he focuses on the landscape. The landscape is beautiful; the forest below is so dense that the red sky disappears. Personally, he loves the music. He loves tuning in on you and hearing how you're doing. He sparsely gets to visit, so hearing the song of your heart is always so welcoming.

The worst thing to him is how long the damn walk is.

You're in your house, passing through the dining room, when the lights flicker. The people from the nearby town stutter when the usual sad music suddenly becomes upbeat.

Opening the door, you are greeted by Alastor's traditional smile. You're the one that initiates the hug. He gently wraps his hand around you, only for a short time before he pulls away and establishes his distance.

"Long time no see, my dear." He signs, his claws adding a flare to the simple signs. Truthfully, his sign for "my dear" translates directly to "sweetheart," which he's aware of, just putting faith into you understanding what he means.

"I'll start some tea." You sign, turning immediately to the kitchen.

He smiles at the jazz sneaking its way into your music. The people outside know what it means.

Alastor looks around at the new decor; the place is different every time he enters. It's all the things that you enjoyed when you were alive. That's what is most noticeable about you beyond the aura you possess and how stuck you are to the past; you refuse to acknowledge your situation, which is both a curse and a blessing.

From the kitchen counter, you look at him, seeing him behind you, his staff out of his hands.

He leans a bit forward. "I have news! Have you heard of the new buzz, the new project from the princess of hell?"

A small smile forms. "Charlie?" You remember many years ago when she appeared at your door, in tears due to your involuntary magic, begging you to teach her ASL. You politely declined, though you wrote her a long paper about Deaf Culture (often derailing to rant about your opinion on common debates/crazy events). You've never seen her again, but you're confident she's read it.

You continue, "Her projects are... sweet?"

"Sweet and quite peculiar. She believes that demons can be redeemed. How absurd!" His smile grows, his eyes squinting in interest. He knows you're devoted to being good and staying away from violence. He's here to convince you to join her cause.

"Fascinating," you can't help but show your pure astonishment. "She's on our side."

"Oh, how kind you are!"

The tea is ready. You turn entirely away from Alastor, and he lets you. Your thoughts are apparent; he has spent weeks excited about this conversation. He's absolutely fighting the urge to spill out every argument he has; he wants to mention that if you participate, you'll see each other daily. That hasn't even crossed your mind yet.

You pour the tea and take your time, a little nervous to continue the convo. Alastor's eyes remain on your frame, your casual clothing. The last time he saw you, you were dressed up despite spending your days alone.

You hand a cup to him. Neither sign; you stand still, staring at each other and drinking. Both of you already know what the other will try to say next. Your eyes are deep in thought while he is locked on you. The only reason you are doubting being involved with everything yourself is that you know your aura makes others depressed. It is not very good, isolating. On the opposite stance, Alastor always noticed how your music gets positive whenever he's around. He knows (guesses) that in the hotel, with his presence, your saddening demeanor would be no more.

He moves abruptly, you follow, and he sits on a heavily cushioned couch, dipping deeply, which makes him smile. Your soft smile grows—more piano.

"What are your thoughts?" He prompts with one hand. You take a very long sip of your tea before putting it down.

"I wouldn't make them feel comfortable," you explain. "That's all I think about."

"Ever so pessimistic, my dear. You never know unless you come to visit. What do you say?" He grabs his mic and jokingly reaches it to your face, "A simple visit?"

You put a hand to your temple. "My love," you sign without noticing how his lids droop in comfort, "do you really think I would belong?"

He puts his hand to his chin in faux thought. "Of course I do! The princess will approach you with open arms."

You let out a small, broken groan. You're not going to be winning this little debate. Alastor's going to be able to rebuttal everything you say. Knowing that, why is it still so hard to give in?

You put your hands in your lap before returning them to your temples. His smile grows, and the static radiating off him grows ever so prominent, tickling your skin. You look up at him when you notice the change in the air.

The way he looks at you gives away his intentions. He is standing tall in his usual formal way in his seat, but his eyes are ever so casual. He gazes at you more than anything. His smile is still wide and prideful.

You wiggle a finger at him. "Ah."

He squints.

You continue, "You want to see me more, don't you?"

"Who wouldn't?" He plays off, shrugging. "Your captivating presence has every demon in hell dropping their jaws agape."

"Youuuuuu," you smile mischievously, "you want to see me more."

He continues to wave his hands. "Your accusations are futile, go ahead and fill your pretty head with things such as affection," his shoulders bounce as he chuckles, "dreams about how I miss you."

A breathless laugh leaves your lips. Rather than continue the teasing, you let the positive atmosphere linger in the air. You lift your chin with confidence. "Practically admitting it."

"I know what you want me from me." He signs. You smile at how he interpreted it. You don't bother responding. Instead, you give him a sly smile and lift your cup, taking another long sip; his bottom eyelid is twitching.

The last time he saw you, he signed you many compliments and even danced with you to the rhythm of your music. He let you put your hand on his face as he leaned his forehead against yours.

Admittedly, you only started teasing him because you wanted him to tell you that he missed you. Obviously, he did. You didn't expect him to be so stubborn about it.

When you don't respond, he continues. "When I'm here, your heart sings in happiness."

You nod and sign with one hand. "Very true."

"Well, I find the sound lovely."

"Very appreciated."

You watch as he leans back and crosses his legs, lifting and finishing the teacup. You both spend a few seconds without conversation, just looking at each other. In an attempt to hide how flustered you are starting to look, you lean your head back and gulp down the tea to the point where the cup is hiding your face. But you can only keep it in that position for a short time. After finishing the drink, you place it back down, finding that Alastor is already sitting with his fingers intertwined and waiting for you. His eyes sparkle.

"My dear, I missed you very much." And as quickly as the affection comes, it disappears. "I must give the little lady what she wants. There, are you happy?"

"I missed you too, Alastor. Thank you for coming up again."

Sappy, sappy, sappy. Will you agree to return to the hotel with him now?

He straights his bowtie and stands. "My dear, I'm afraid our time here will be cut short; I have a hotel to show you, don't I?"

You stay seated, just eyeing him. Peer pressure, you sigh and try not to roll your eyes. A simple nose exhaling is enough to show him how you feel.

He leans his head to the side. "Is there anything I can do to convince you?"

You finally stand and meet his eyes. His eyes are gorgeous; you love the way he looks at you. He doesn't take his eyes off you when you step close to him. Your hands reach for his overcoat, and you adjust it fruitlessly, only wanting an excuse to touch him.

You smile. "I can cook you something for your long trip back."

"Our."

"Your."

You both lean in, smiles straining.

He tries again. "Our."

"Biscuits, I assume," you turn your heels and motion for him to follow you. The motion you make is beckoning, and when you flick your wrist, he grabs it and pulls you into him. He lets you go to see your response. Your heart is beating out of your chest. You fall for people too easily. His touch is demanding, yet his face is calm, and with how close he is, all you can do is stare up at him. Your feet stumble a bit to adjust to your new stance. He will fight tooth and nail to get you to follow him back; throughout his days, he always wonders what you're doing and your music might sound like. He'll close his eyes and try to imagine the melody in moments of silence at the hotel.

You can't find yourself stepping back. "I'm perfectly okay with where I am." A lie. "Nobody will bother me if I'm out here."

"And nobody will bother you when you're next to me, get it?" After he signs, both of his hands hold your cheeks. He tilts your head back and forth to try and lighten the mood that's getting a little serious.

You try to hold his wrists and pull his hands down, but he fights against you. He lifts your face so he can look at you head-on. The waist bends his body; he curls himself up to you. Your touch falls to his sleeves and then moves to his biceps, your fingers grazing him gently.

The music is fast-paced, like your heart. It sounds almost angelic, a new ethereal sound surrounding it.

"Okay," you fold but then immediately chew on the inside of your lip.

"Perfect!" He presses his forehead to yours quickly before pulling away. He's taking this win. He turns and eyes the room, motioning. "Packing anything?"

With a small sigh of defeat, you place your hands on your temples again. What would you even need? Like a spoiled child, you realize that if you did need something in particular, Alastor would get it for you. You smiled and shook your head to yourself. "I don't think I need anything at all."

"Spectacular!" Another dramatic sign. "Come along then." The fast twirling of his staff blows air onto you when you start to walk behind him, eyeing how his fingers twist. His head turns as he glances at you from the corner of his eye, his head dipping as his smile widens. The static in the air becomes thicker.

You take a deep breath. If you can say 'I told you so' to him, you will be bringing it up until the end of time. He knows that, so it's good that he's confident in himself and his deductions. He'll ensure you won't be leaving and isolating yourself any longer.

[phoenixcatch7]

Something that always bugs me is that the way fanfic authors have it, there's absolutely nothing between 'beloved son treated and raised precisely the same as the two blood siblings in the blood based ruling lineage' and 'despised and excluded indentured servant psychologically manipulated into having no self worth cut off from any emotional support'. This is, historically, a very, VERY recent binary, as the fostering system outgrows things like orphanages and the idea of the nuclear family is cemented.

There is a whole range of different statuses that exist between those two extremes just in Western society, and more than that outside of what I already know. Wardship, for example. Fostering without adoption. Room and board apprenticeship.

Wwx is older than jc. Him being adopted and legitimised, despite not being jiang, would cause a succession crisis. By rights, as the eldest male (and prodigious and well liked besides) he would be first to inherit in some people's eyes. Being adopted formally in this way would cause those rumours of bastardry madame yu was always banging on about (though I'm never convinced those rumours were as prevalent as she believed). Jfm would lose reputation and status, yzy would take a tremendous hit to her reputation, jc's place as heir would suddenly be cast into uncertainty, coming under intense scrutiny as people suddenly feel as though they had a choice in who to support, and wwx would be forced into a role and potential future he has absolutely no desire for. And by putting him in a position where he could become head of jiang, there's the risk that he might assassinate jc to become the undisputed heir, something impossible if he isn't brought into the family officially. Would wwx ever dream of doing so? No! Not even slightly! But it is a valid fear of the time and culture, jgy just proves that worst case scenario.

Instead of being the child prodigy coming out of nowhere, the son of respected rogue cultivators so generously taken in the jiang and well trained, suddenly he'd be 'proof' of infidelity, both families involved would become scandals, even post-humeously. As jgy and mxy prove, being a bastard is a lower social status than the right hand man of the sect heir, head disciple of a major sect. Now wrapped in gossip and scandal, they would no longer be called the prides of yunmeng.

And then of course that kind of divisive succession would backfire horrendously when lotus pier is burned and jc tries to rebuild the clan while wwx goes demonic cultivator! It would be DISASTROUS for the jiang, jc having lost a lot of his legitimacy and political support, wwx's now filthy reputation being tied even tighter to the clan, reflecting on them so much more. Worst case gossip would be that the jiang as a whole are turning to demonic cultivation. People who wanted wwx for heir would be in a very dangerous position! People who disliked jc as heir would make it even harder for him! Not that the jiangs would/could have predicted the war and the burning of the sect but fr it would have made an already nigh impossible situation even harder and more volatile.

And it's not like wwx is treated purely like a servant! He isn't going round fetching tea and carrying jcs sword and keeping one step behind. He eats every meal with them, he gets pocket money from them, he is openly and pretty universally considered siblings with the other two, and nobody except yzy acts like it's weird, or he's acting above his station for it (though people like the wens and jin aren't above trying to use that 'son of a servant' thing when they're targeting him to get their own way).

Yes, yzy is deeply insecure and blames him, yes during their goodbyes jc gets hugs and wwx gets orders. They're far from perfect. That's the most affection jc ever got from either of them. Jyl got nothing, she wasn't there. Which is pretty representative of her treatment from her parents, ngl. But wwx had support from jc, had sorta paternal support and a safe authority figure in jfm, had maternal support and care from jyl (though she shouldn't have had to, but that's a different conversation). There are actual family servants (yzy's twins) who grew up with her and were trained for it and they act very differently to wwx. For all yzy throws her weight around and jfm is a bit of a doormat, wwx grew up well cared for and well loved.

The fact that the family as a whole was pretty messed up and his part in it made it worse? That's on the family members themselves. His never arriving would not have fixed that family. For wwx, genuinely, there really wasn't anywhere else he could really go once he was orphaned. If he hadn't died on the streets perhaps he could have made it as a civilian working for someone else, dabbling in cultivation because we know him.

The wen and jin would have eaten him alive. The lans? Don't make me laugh. I love a good 'wwx gets betrothed to lwj as teens and he moves to gusu and Fixes Everything' as much as the next person but let's not kid ourselves, canon wwx would have ended up whipped to death or expelled with the way he is. As a visiting disciple he got so many punishments and kicked out not even halfway through the year! Him living there with lwj as adults is due to him 'redeeming' himself through mystery solving and lwj being fully, openly ready to ditch the sect for him. Even then they're constantly on the road night hunting and lwj being the lightning rod of all of wwx's trouble making tendencies (and being 100% down to breaking the rules with him without enacting punishment). They might accept him now but it would not have happened without lwj doing it first (and the juniors all loving him lol).

The nie? Maybe, but that would have left NHS in pretty much the exact same position as jc: inferior second fiddle, unskilled, constantly compared to him. Wwx would be in the exact same position of being pressured to tone himself down and keep his dangerous ideas to himself, and NHS would have double the fear of inevitably losing both his brothers. And of course, the nie aren't exactly as patient and laid back as the jiang sect as a whole, with their hyper aggressive murder resentment swords. The first sign of wwx acting 'outside' of the clans best interests and getting risky and he's going straight down those stairs the same way as jgy.

Tldr: there's more options to raise a kid than full adoption or abused servitude, even today, and though officially adopting wwx would have made everything SO much worse, his other options would not have survived him. He deserved better with the jiangs but frankly so did the blood kids (and the mother and the father). All three were emotionally neglected and adoption would not have fixed that.

This is why I believe that if wwx had been even a day younger than jc everyone would have been so much happier.

[tarnishedsilverjewelry]

I have a request idea about Kuai Liang x reader; in the past timeline when Kuai Liang was sub zero, he and the reader were husband and wife before the restart of time, now in the new timeline, they meet for the first time where the reader goes on a trip to Fenjian for study in college where she runs into Lord Liu Kang and the Lin Kuei Trio and as soon as she lays on Kuai Liang both of them couldn't take their eyes off each other and feel a connection with each other and that "I know you somewhere" feeling. Can you write about that?

Again and again

A/N: ugh every request I get is so GOOD UR MINDSS I SWEAR!!

‼️I used Y/n in place of a name!! If you don’t like that don’t read it‼️

Warnings: none!

So if you didn’t know, Fenjian is a real village in Guangdong province, which on a map is a southern province( and if the maps prove correct) borders the sea

You’d come initially to Beijing for schooling, and it had done you well! You’d met good people and eaten good food. But..you just felt restless there.

A friend recommended reveling with him to visit family in Shanghai and then to Fenjian to see more of the country. You agreed excitedly, excited to not only experience more of the culture, but also get better at the localized dialects than just Mandarin or Shanghainese

As you traveled further down south, you felt your body relaxed this odd tension you’d felt since you arrived. You had been oddly tense, struggling with your speaking more than you had back home, and you felt more drawn to smaller Fenjian restaurants than the more popular and more crowded restaurants your friends dragged you to

Your stay in Shanghai was only about 2 weeks, and you made friends with your friends family and was welcomed back easily.

But when you arrived in Fenjian, the smallest village than you had experienced something just clicked. You took a deep breath of the fresh air and smiled. “This place is nice.” You said without much struggle. “You’re getting better! And you really think that? Fenjian is my home and I love it but…it’s boring!” She laughed at you, thought her mockery lacked any heat

“I’m from a small town! I can appreciate small towns!” You tried weakly. “We’ll come on! My uncle is waiting! Then, you meet Madame Bo! She’ll love your appetite!”

You let her pull you along through the dirt paths to her uncles house. Here, you noticed that speaking was..easier. You’d been practicing with the local dialect and apparently it had paid off. He was kind enough to laugh with you when you stumbled on your words or said the wrong thing

That night, you met Madame Bo. She spoke enough English to hold polite conversation and it helped you coast along with ordering on your own, which your friend complimented you on happily.

You said you were open to trying anything and that was how you and your friend ended up with basically the whole menu. “Here. This is braised snake porridge.” Madame Bo said, stopping to show you how to eat everything.

Upon realizing you had ordered too much, your friend looked around before locking with someone “Kung Lao! Raiden! Join us! Meet my friend!” They shared a look and shrugged, sitting across from you

You managed to introduce yourself relatively well, which earned more praise from your friend and Raiden. Kung Lao and you made fast friends, despite the language barrier. Your shared love for food bonded you easily enough.

I’m slow and awkward English he said “We have…go. We meet friend also.” You nodded and said goodbye, not expecting him to pull into a hug. “We are..friends now! So I hug you!” He laughed, which made Raiden roll his eyes. Raiden gave you a side hug before going to greet friends.

When your food was cleared, and the bill was paid (you’d gotten a discount from Madame Bo because “I’ve never met such a nice foreigner!”)

The sun had set already, and a small local band was playing happily for a small crowd of dancing patrons. “I’m going to dance! Join me if you want to!” And just like that, you were alone drinking your tea content with just watching your friend dance with Raiden and Kung Lao

“Oh hey! Another foreigner!” Was that fucking Johnny Cage? Yes, and he was sitting with you and trying to flirt with you.

He was really laying it on thick, but seemed to take it well when you turned him down. And the conversation after was about movie production—pretty interesting stuff actually

And finally, he got up to dance too, and left you alone again. You laughed lightly at your friends feeble attempts to get you to join them, and while distracted you were joined by a man clad in yellow.

“Not joining?” He asked kindly. “Oh no, I don’t dance. Not well anyways.” You shrugged, tearing your eyes away from your friend to look at him.

His left eye had a thick scar—that was evidently still healing— running through it, his dark hair pulled back cleanly enough to appear short, his eyes were sharp and combined with his bicep which was as big as your head seemed like pretty dangerous

But his thick lips were pulled into a small and kind smile. “Do you?” You quickly followed up with “Dance. Do you dance?” Kindly, the man shook his head. “I do, but certainly not like…that.” He pointed his head to Johnny Cage (how the fuck did he know him?) who at first glance appeared to be…flailing

“Mm. My name is [Y/n]. What’s your name?” “Kuai Liang, I must say Johnny is the foreigner I’ve seen here.”

Laughing softly you pointed to your friend “I’m here for school on an exchange program. And to get better at my speaking. My big accomplishment was ordering with minimal English tonight.” Kuai Liang nodded, leaning forward

“How exciting! Are you staying in Shanghai? No, no that can’t be right. Beijing. You’re staying in Beijing!” He declared, mostly joking. “Uh-yeah! You a psychic or something?” This made him laugh harder at his shock.

“Kuai Liang, I see you made a friend.” A calm voice said with a kicking edge. “Do you mind if I join you?” The man asked you. “No of course not!” The man sat next to Kuai Liang, looking between the two of you with an odd look.

Liu Kang did not add much to the conversation between you two. And was mostly zoned out, suddenly struck with memories he’d long since buried, he tried not to dwell on them.

“I…perhaps this is odd to say, but I feel like I know you. Perhaps we have met before?” Feeling emboldened you denied it “Id remember a face like yours, you’re too handsome to forget.” Kuai flushed.

“You’re too kind, [Y/n]! But you are right, a face as beautiful as yours is too hard to forget…perhaps I could try and teach a few slower dances? The band is finally slowing down it seems” Liu Kang watched with a fond smile as he guided you through a dance

Looking down at the tea cup clutched between his hands, he nodded to himself. He’d made the right choice when he was weaving the fabrics of time and humanity together. When you were struck down with Hanzo, he was the one to comfort Kuai Liang

And when he started molding worlds to his desires, and creating life itself he created you from memory—someone seeking knowledge, someone kind and loving and gentle, and when needed a fighter.

As the night progressed, Liu Kang stayed and watched you both. He had only heard second hand snippets of your meeting with Kuai Liang, after you died alongside Hanzo he was too struck with grief to speak of either you with anyone for more than a few sentences, but especially you.

Your name and your stories were his ways of keeping you with him, and sharing that meant sharing you. Kuai had lost you already, and he was not willing to share your memory now. Hanzo had many friends on the team, you were as far separated from them as possible.

So now, seeing you as a dynamic and real person and not a painting or drawing was an opportunity he felt he couldn’t miss. Was he the god fire and keeper of time? Yes! Could he rewind time to see this as many times as possible? Also yes! But he wouldn’t abuse that power, he would see it now in real time.

At the end of the night, when Madame Bo was cleaning up and you both had finished off another pot of tea, you yawned. “Excuse me, I’d better go. But it was nice meeting you.” Kuai Liang felt panic surge through him and he called out for you. You turned with a confused look

“I’d like to see you again sometime soon. Is that okay?” “More than okay. Tomorrow maybe?” “I’ll be here then. Noon sharp.” He declared firmly. Giggling you said “Goodnight Kuai Laing. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And pressed a chaste kiss on his cheek before feeling the restaurant. Leaving him red in the face with an ear spitting smile on his face.

Oh yes, staying was the right choice

Kuai Liang had been lonely for many years. His ice abilities had created a wall around his heart that could not be moved.

It was not until he had made peace with Hanzo—and was convinced to go out to a local restaurant—did that change

You were sat watching the small crowd dance, and clapping along softly. Hanzo noticed this, and to his dismay forced him into sitting across from you

“Not joining?” He asked awkwardly. “Oh no I don’t dance. Not well anyways. Do you? Dance, I mean?” He shook his head

“No, not like them. I know a few slower dances.” You nodded smiling softly. He felt the ice around his heart crack at the gesture. “Hm. Well, my names [Y/n]. Nice to meet someone who isn’t insistent on dancing.” Kuai felt a smile tug at his face. “Kuai Liang. And that man, in the yellow is my friend Hanzo. Forgive my bluntness but I’ve never met a foreigner here before.”

Unphased by his words you smiled wider “I’m in an exchange program! I’m staying in Beijing. But visiting friends family. And working on my speaking.”

Kuai nodded and the conversation flowed throughout the night. Through attempts at dancing together, through lots of tea, and plenty of teasing from your friend and Hanzo

At the end of the night, Kuai insisted on walking you back to where you were staying. Your friend had already left you and Hanzo had gone too. You walked slowly through the cool night, the conversation did not stop and even on the doorstep were hesitant to say goodbye

“I’d like to see you again sometime soon. Is that okay?” “More than okay. Tomorrow maybe?” “I’ll be here then. Noon sharp.” He declared firmly. Giggling you said “Goodnight Kuai Laing. I’ll see you tomorrow.” And pressed a chaste kiss on his cheek.

[jedi-enthusiasm-blog]

The Many Names of Peace (pt.1/?): Mercy

Inspired by Why We Did Nothing by BairnSidhe

Part I | Part II

CONTENT WARNINGS: THE RUUSAN REFORMATION AND HOW IT PUT THE JEDI IN A TERRIBLE PLACE, MANDALORIAN-JEDI HISTORY AFTER THE RUUSAN REFORMATION WHICH INCLUDES PADAWAN HUNTING. THIS INCLUDES:

Cultural genocide (discussed in detail). The Ruusan Reformation is made much worse here, and the Dral'han/Excision is also commented upon.

Child murder (discussed). Padawan hunting, and how Mandalorians killed children and took braids and beads as trophies.

Corpse desecration (discussed in detail). Lightsabers and Padawan braids and beads are taken from their owners. I realize this doesn't seem important for many of us, but it's very important for the Jedi.

Systematic identity erasure of a mixed race character (discussed). Tarre Vizla's Jedi status is barely known by Mandalorians because House Vizla treated it like a dirty secret.

Please mind your headspaces.

"If you hate genocide so much, where were your people at the Dral'han?" Terith asks with a scoff.

The Jetii stops muttering and goes still. Slowly, she turns, with a movement too fluid for a human. She's shorter than them, very slim and apparently frail, and her blond —almost white— hair is tied in a braided bun. Her eyes, which are a glowing emerald green, are burning.

"Where were we? You're asking me why we did nothing when your people were attacked?" The kage Jedi asks the Mandalorian with a soft tone of voice and a polite nod, looking almost like a respected jaieh accepting a padawan's question.

It is not.

Underneath their buy'ce, Terith's lips curl at her words, at her threat.

Zahara begins to move from one side of the room to another. It's too controlled to be called pacing, but the tension is visible in her movements.

"Not all Jedi are human. In fact, most aren't. There are species with very long lifespans and, considering Force-sensitives tend to live a few decades longer than others of their species, two hundred is far from an uncommon age among Jedi" The Jetii doesn't seem to be answering their furious question at first. "We were not there, Mandalorian, because every sitting member of the High Council during the genocide of your people remembered how Mandalore reacted when they came for us, first."

Drovan, her crechemate, her enishee, her brother of the soul, was a member of the EduCorps. He hadn't wanted to be a Knight, done the math, and decided to free up a space for somebody else. In particular, he was fascinated by the History of the Order. Zahara remembers quiet nights, when she was at the Temple resting after a taxing mission, when she Drovan used to sit down on comfortable cushions and her closest sibling rambled about what he was learning.

She's heard him ranting about the Ruusan Reformation, and the cruel limitations it places on her people even now. She's read it herself, once she began her Shadow training, learning every single restriction in search for loopholes that could be exploited to make the Order's job and life easier.

Her people's memories are long. Kages remember. The Jedi remember. Zahara remembers.

"They vividly remembered when the Republic we served brought down our Temples, when they took us from our homes, when they tried to destroy a whole branch of our Order" Zahara lists, voice cold and eyes blazing, "when they took our armor, our back-up and defenses, when they stole everything but our Lightsabers… and when your people laughed and called it easy hunting."

The Mandalorian pride in Terith's heart wants to protest, to deny the Jetii's words. But she speaks like a scholar in a subject she's clearly well versed in, like a grieving verd mourning the violence against her people they'd known nothing about.

History isn't always kind, Mandalorian history in particular rarely is, but it's always worth learning from. It's something Kyr'tsad and the extremists among the Nu'Mando'ade don't understand, and Terith refuses to make their same mistakes.

So, they swallow the growing lump in their throat, ignore the stone sinking in their stomach and try to listen.

Zahara's voice begins to break away from the calm, even tones of a teacher, and slowly fall into the ragged tones of soul-crushing grief. Her breath becomes shallow and rapid, and air gets stuck in her throat. Still, she continues.

"The Republic had been destroying us for two hundred years by the time of the orbital bombardment on Mandalore, and in that time, the number of Lightsabers and Padawan braids and beads seen on Mandalorian armor as trophies skyrocketed" The Jetii hisses, spitting the word trophies with the same venom he would use to say hut'tuunla or demagolka. "We were trapped, betrayed and dying… and your people murdered our young and desecrated our corpses, and had the nerve to carry the stolen lives of our kin as proof."

The air grows colder, a sharpness in it that's as familiar as her own reflection. The galaxy around her sings with promises of vengeance, of justice. Justice for her enishee, justice for Feemor and his charges, justice for Jaieh Ta'ra's murdered Padawan, for the all Jedi dead during the Mandalorian sack of the Anohrah, for the bastardization of Jaieh Tarre Vizla's story and the systematic erasure of his Jedi identity, for all the Jedi younglings dead at Mandalorian hands.

Not against the Mandalorian that did any of those things, but against a Mandalorian, anyhow.

"Your people sacked the Temple, stole the life and soul of a respected Jedi Master, got two of his Padawans murdered, erased every single hint of his Jedi upbringing, and perverted everything he stood for in life, all because he happened to be Mandalorian as well."

The song reaches a crescendo, the highest notes she's ever heard in a Force song, making her ears ring. The melody sounds off-key, and the final notes become loud and insufferable high-pitched screams. Zahara grits her teeth, and breathes in deeply. The xari in the air slowly dissapears.

She will not take revenge.

She's a Jedi, and revenge is not the Jedi way.

She will not Fall. She will not let her anger act upon her and betray everything she, Drovan, Feemor, Ta'ra and her Padawan, Tarre Vizla and his Padawans have ever stood for.

Zahara will not take revenge because it's not what Drovan would have wanted. It's not what any Jedi would want.

She will not take revenge because it's not as useful and satisfying as the thores of passion lead you to believe.

This Mandalorian is innocent. They haven't done anything wrong. They're angry about their people's genocide and rightfully so. They're ignorant, and ignorance can be fixed.

Words, the sharing of knowledge, bringing understanding when there was previously none. Those are her greatest weapons, and she can wield them freely and with as much efficiency as a Lightsaber.

Terith is frozen in place, mind racing with the desire to be anywhere else, away from this hurting, angry sorceress that sees them as an enemy. The manda in their chest screams, in offense or the pain of dishonor Terith isn't sure.

They wish their buy'ce was recording. That way they could investigate the Jetii's claims.

Everyone and their mother has heard the rumors about the Jetiise. Sorcerers from the Core that don't reproduce like other beings, but take children from their parents and train them to be as emotionless as droids, beings that beat all the love and concern for others out of themselves because they believe attachment is a weakness.

Terith believed them, once.

Now Terith doesn't know what to believe. The Jetii speaks with too much knowledge and pain to be lying, nobody can fake that well, and the air around them both is mournfully singing as the truth of her words sink into the depths of their runi.

Zahara breathes out slowly. Still hurt, but… determined not to Fall, not to take out her grief and anger on someone who's done nothing wrong.

"So" the kage Jedi flashes a polite but completely unfriendly smile, "why did we do nothing when they came for your world?"

Within their battered heart, stung with the pain of dishonor, with the stain on the manda itself, Terith knows the answer before the Jetii says a word.

"We did nothing because Jedi are merciful, Mandalorian."

(Notes under the cut)

Dai Bendu

Jaieh — Jedi Master (rank and role).

Padawan — apprentice, learner, student. Lit "the one who learns". Please picture a Jedi hearing a politician saying "Padawan learner", and containing the urge to eye twich.

Enishee — crechemate.

Anohrah — Jedi Temple, home. Before the Ruusan Reformation used to refer to the Temple the speaker was from.

Xari — darkness, the Dark Side of the Force.

Mando'a

Jetii(se) — Jedi (add 'se' at the end to make the plural).

Buy'ce — helmet.

Verd — warrior.

Kyr'tsad — Death Watch, lit "death society".

Nu'Mando'ade — New Mandalorians.

Hut'tuunla — coward. Very harsh insult.

Demagolka — someone who commits atrocties, a real-life monster, a war criminal - from the notorious Mandalorian scientist of the Old Republic, Demagol, known for his experiments on children, and a figure of hate and dread in the Mando psyche

Manda — collective soul of the Mandalorians.

Runi — spirit, soul of the individual.

Zahara is a kage Jedi Knight, officially a Sentinel and a Finder, which is used to explain why she can be in places she isn't supposed to and bust slave rings without prior Senate authorization. Unofficially, however, she's a Shadow. It's common practice for the Jedi to register Shadows as Finders in order to give them more freedom of action.

Terith is a Mandalorian bounty hunter, but they're very picky about their jobs and have interest in medicine, particularly "mind-healing". They were born in a New Mandalorian family but found greater calling to Jaster and the True Mandalorians and switched allegiance once they were of age. They are mildly Force-sensitive, not enough to become a Jedi and only gives them good instincts.

The Dral'han is the orbital bombardment of Mandalore done by the Galactic Republic in roughly 800BBY. The Republic used Jedi ships, but there were no Jedi involved. Mandalorians believed the Jedi were guilty at first, but the truth was uncovered only a decade later.

Dai Bendu is not my creation. It's a colang, although the story of the language is something I made up. Dai Bendu is the language spoken by the Order of Dai Bendu and, later on, the Jed'aii Order. It fell out of use after the Jedi joined the Republic in 25,000BBY, but came back in full swing during the Jedi-Sith Wars when it was very useful to speak a language the enemy couldn't understand.

I don't know if it's canon, but in this story Force-sensitives live longer than the average of their species. Those who aren't trained only live a little longer (a decade in humans), but for those who, like the Jedi, have training that lifespan increases (three to four decades in humans).

"Free up a space". Taken from the Jedi Apprentice series, where Jedi age out at thirteen and there are limited Masters, and where those who aren't chosen are sent to the Corps. Drovan knew he didn't want to be a Knight, so he requested to be sent to the Corps as soon as possible to give the chance of becoming a Knight to someone who actually wanted to be one. Unlike Jedi Apprentice, however, this is an imposition from the Ruusan Reformation, and the Jedi try to bend this rule as much as possible.

Kages' memories begin forming almost at birth. Zahara remembers with vivid detail most of her life. She's doing an alliteration: she remembers because she's a kage and because she is a Jedi.

This is the "Ruusan Reformation but make it worse" AU:

"Brought down our Temples". The Ruusan Reformation demanded the centralization of the Jedi Order. Therefore, all Jedi were forced to move to Couruscant, and their other Temples were either destroyed or repurposed.

"Took us from our homes." Although Terith doesn't know it, Zahara is being redundant. The word for Jedi Temple in Dai Bendu also means home. She's putting enphasis on how painful it was for the Jedi to lose their homes.

"Tried to destroy a whole branch of our Order." The Shadows were supposed to be dissolved after the Ruusan Reformation was signed. However, the Jedi managed to keep training Shadows in secret.

The Jedi used to have weapons, armor and many defenses besides their Lightsabers, but the Ruusan Reformation ordered their demilitarization and "demilitarization". Among the things they lost were the right to carry their birth cultures' sacred armor and weapons. A Mandalorian Jedi wouldn't be allowed to have armor, for example.

Mandalorians tend to take trophies from their enemies after a battle. This is done both for, well, bragging rights and to respect the memory of a worthy opponent (similar to their remembrances for their fallen comrades). However, the bragging rights part can overshadow the respect for a worthy opponent part, and many Mandalorians hunt down defenseless "enemies" to steal important objects from them. The Jedi in particular were a favored target for these… individuals, seeing as they had no armor, only carried one weapon and were usually alone or in pairs because that's how the Senate decided to send them in missions. The victims were usually Padawans, hence the name Padawan Hunts.

Tarre Vizla's story shows the greatest difference between how Jedi and Mandalorians (at least in that era) treat different cultures and double cultured children. The Jedi don't hide that Tarre Vizla was Mandalorian, everyone knows that he left the Order to rule Mandalore, and know what happened to his armor and what he wanted to happen to his body and Lightsaber. However, Mandalorians either don't know or refuse to recognize Tarre Vizla's Jedi status.

"Sacked the Temple". Tarre Vizla left his armor to his Clan and his Lightsaber to the Jedi. When he died, he wanted to be burned in the Temple (both cultures burn their death, so little to no issue here) and his ashes to be spread on Mandalore. House Vizla, however, did the equivalent of spitting on Tarre's funeral pyre and sacked the Temple to steal the Darksaber.

"Stole the life and soul of a respected Jedi Master". Tarre Vizla was a Jedi, and the Darksaber is his life. House Vizla, however, had no respect for their relative's other culture and did the worst thing they could do to him: killing and hurting his Jedi family, and stealing a sacred item they knew was sacred.

I headcanon that Tarre Vizla had three Padawans. He finished the incomplete training of the first because their Master died, did the whole training of the second and got promoted to Master as a result, and only started the training of the third before he went to his home planet to unite Mandalorians against the Sith Empire. Two of them were killed during House Vizla's sack of the Temple.

"Erased every hint of his Jedi upbringing." House Vizla replaced the Jedi Order symbol on Tarre's armor with the symbol of House Vizla, refused to acknowledge Tarre's desire to be remembered as a Jedi and forbade anyone from speaking about his Jedi status, and never say that the Darksaber is actually a regular Lightsaber they stole.

"Perverted everything he stood for." Lightsabers are a Jedi's life, hold their souls in the same way beskar'gam holds a Mandalorian's. Tarre. Ever since it was stolen, the Darksaber has been used as a symbol of authoritarian and tyrannical leadership, warmonging, imperialism and military violence. It's so fucked up that the crystal is beginning to break (the white cracks, originally the Darksaber was pure black) and, had those who held it been trained Force-sensitives, the crystal would have bled.

Terith doesn't know they're Force-sensitive, but they know their instincts are rarely wrong, and they can feel the honesty and grief coming from Zahara in waves. They don't doubt her precisely because they know she's not lying, she's seeing things as she sees them and, even if she's wrong, it's something Terith believes to be worth looking into.

[danieyells]

Venting about people complaining about MC lol

Is2g everytime i see people whining about 'why can't the mc do anything for herself!!! She should be badass uwu' it's like they don't. Understand her narrative role or function. Or that she's a regular human with an artifact that doesn't do anything for her and she's not allowed to have another one and cannot remove the one she has.

She is SUPPOSED TO BE DEFENSELESS. She is your window into the world and story as a regular ass person! 'i would pick up a weapon--' no the fuck you would not because they would not give you a weapon because regulations say one artifact per person and your ring is your one. 'they're so mean to her why doesn't she stand up for herself!!' because she is a human and they are several times stronger than her physically and she is from a culture where politeness conformity and not making a fuss is kind of the norm and is kind of expected of her 'why isn't she doing anything for herself!' what is she supposed to do. Literally what do you want Basic Bitch Human With No Defenses Besides The People Around Her Who's Going To Turn Into A Creature In Ten Months And Has No Way Of Investigating Or Progressing On Her Own to do. She goes on a mission with them every week she barely even has time to go to classes. She is probably extremely stressed and exhausted. She is completely helpless by design. If you don't like it write a fanfic or find another series or something. MCs like this are meant to be windows into the story, a place you as an ordinary person can project yourself into an extraordinary situation it's not badass wish fulfilment where you're in control, especially not this early on. If she got out of line they would probably put her in containment, or worse she would get hurt and be More Useless and then you'd bitch and moan some more.

Things are allowed to not be to your taste! Things are allowed to not appeal to you!! You do not have to partake of them if it bothers you!!! There are things out there for you and if they don't exist you can make them!!!

[siren-sovereign]

How did you become a Luciferian/Satanist and why do you remain one?

Theistic Satanism was not something I was actively searching for when I got into it. It was actually something I kind of just stumbled into.

I was never really looking for a faith, as I had been disillusioned by the idea of religion long ago. It never even occurred to me how badly I needed something to believe in until I started believing in it. The concept of faith and religion has been so muddled and distorted over time that now I feel a lot of “religious” people aren’t really religious and just use use religion as a mask to cover up or justify controlling the people around them and to justify their own opinions. So many people nowadays treat their religion like it’s an extension of politics and not the spiritual comfort it’s supposed to be.

So, as I mentioned, this was not something I was looking for, but it was very much something I needed. I was introduced to Theistic Satanism through a dating app of all things. Long story short, I matched with this girl who happened to be a Theistic Satanist and her dating profile was not subtle about that. She had mentioned on there that she’s passionate about her faith, her church, her gods, her people, etc. The kinds of things I’m used to seeing Christian conservatives saying on their profile about Jesus and all that. Her profile really stood out to me and I wanted to know more about her and about her beliefs.

We ended up matching and I began asking her about the faith. I asked questions about core beliefs and the gods within the pantheons of Hell. I asked about the place of queer people and trans people within the faith. I asked about consciousness and afterlife. For every question I had, she had an answer for it that resonated with me— answers that just made sense.

All of the things that were being told to me were things that aligned with my personal gnosis prior to finding Theistic Satanism. While it was true I had identified atheist for the majority of my life, I still held onto my beliefs in the supernatural and had started exploring my spirituality and very basic witchcraft prior to my introduction. I had just barely begun exploring the occult and after hearing everything she had to tell me about Theistic Satanism, I knew this was the next step in my spiritual path.

She ended up inviting me to the church’s first open mass and when I had arrived and met everybody else who was there, it was like coming home for the first time. The people, the gods, the culture, the faith, the craft— it was a literal dream come true to have a space like this.

I don’t think everyone in the world should convert and become a Theistic Satanist, hell, same goes for Theistic Luciferians. It’s certainly not for everyone. But with how much goodness has been brought into my life in such a short time, I strongly believe that everyone needs faith like this. Something that makes them feel seen, something that gives them hope and joy, something that uplifts them and those close to them, something that works for them and doesn’t infringe upon others.

The world can be a terrifying place, and for a lot of people it’s something that grows more and more terrifying every day. Trust me, I know it. As a trans woman and Theistic Satanist living in America right now, it feels like the world is quite literally against me. But it’s because of my faith, because of my gods, that I’m holding my head up high. Despite it all, I’m still here and my gods hear me and see me for who I am. Theistic Satanism has truly changed my life for the better and I’m living each and every day filled with Satanic joy.

For the first time in a very long time, I feel secure. And I have Satan to thank for that.

Ave.

[rosesradio]

if nico and jason attended edgarton post-hoo, what extracurriculars and electives would they take? (yes i need validation that some ideas i have for an au are in-character)

so i remember seeing the thing on jason taking just about every extracurricular in existence both to experience mortal life & distract from the demigod side of things, & that's one thing i can actually agree with richard on. i could totally see him wanting to explore any & everything, and nico can't help but fall more & more in love with him as he watches him discover who he is.

jason would show him plants he helped grow in gardening club and have movie nights with movies from film club, yapping about behind-the-scenes fun facts. he'd get all flustered, asking if he's talking too much, but nico's so lost in how much he loves jason that he wasn't even paying attention to the movie in the first place.

also, ofc, jason picking up sports with ease, grateful to be playing on a team instead of being the leader. nico never intended to be the kind of boyfriend to go to his boyfriend's events in full face paint, but once he sees jason playing rugby...👀 he's there, face paint and all

also hc that even though he excels at the topics, jason doesn't like any sort of club related to like...debate or politics, because that reminds him too much of his praetor days. not to mention in one of those clubs some pos guy would be like "let's have a debate about human rights" & nico would have to hold jason back from summoning lightning on his ass 💀

as for nico, i don't think he'd be into as many extracurriculars (he loves his rotting at home/in the dorm time, just like me fr), though he would try out some at jason & his friends' insistence. nico would join some sort of paranormal research club, quickly rising in the ranks as he has the Strange Ability to attract paranormal sightings like nothing else. as much as jason respects & admires nico's underworld culture, the club isn't really his thing. still, he'll go on watches every now and then & pretend to be scared so he can hold nico's hand <3

also, i know edgarton is an all-boys school, but like...in my mind, piper goes there too, and she has nico join the baking club...they deserve to make some tasty treats together even if nico burns his more often than not

[dandyghest]

WHAT IS DEADWOOD LODGE?

Deadwood Lodge is:

🎨 an ongoing multimedia passion project by yours truly!

🌲 a cluster of cabins in the woods where misfits and other "monsters" can find refuge and community in !

📖 a worldbuild with two realms to explore: our every day earth with a couple of extra ingredients, and the fae realm filled with 37 (technically 39) fae Courts with their own individual cultures, religions, and politics !

THE PROJECT: A storytelling project and creative endeavour that began in late 2019 to try my hand at every available conceivable method of sharing stories and art. Music, video, photography, drawing, paper mache, writing, collage, website coding, animation, ambient audio - anything goes! Though it was shared in the form of a serial zine in the past, my current plan is to house everything on a website once I have that set up :o] In the meantime, everything is scattered across journals, sketchbooks, computer files, various paper mache masks, and one wall collage... and also some posts online that you can find tagged as "deadwood lodge"!

THE LODGE: Tucked away in a pocket in the deep woods, Deadwood Lodge is a camp with five main lodging cabins along with a mess/main hall, an activity cabin, a yurt, a bathroom building with full amenities, and a medical building. If you enjoy swimming or other lake activities, you can take a 1-2 minute walk down the path beside the activity cabin (where kayaks, canoes, and life jackets are available). Various (wheelchair accessible) hiking trails are available (in a labyrinthine pattern in the surrounding woods), as well as a nearby field for sports and other activities. In the evening the campfire is a popular hangout spot for many lodgers.

The five cabins are all named after major organs within the (human) body: Brain, Vagus, Lung, Heart, Stomach. Each cabin has its own overarching theme that highlights one aspect of the lodgers' individual selves within each cabin. Lodgers choose which cabin they'd like to stay in and may move cabins as often as they'd like. People grow and change and friendships wax and wane, so the living situation of course may reflect that!

THE WORLDBUILD: This could all easily take place in our own world, if you're willing to suspend a little bit of disbelief! The worldbuild mainly takes place on our regular ol' earth. The only (potentially) added bits are easily explained by the presence of a separate realm: the fae realm! Doors may open between the two realms (earth and fae), but fae generally regard humans as odd pests and thus don't have much interest in interfering with us at all.

WAIT HANG ON, FAE REALM?: Yes, the fae realm! Complete with accidentally-sentient automata!

There are 37 (technically 39) fae Courts that a fae could belong to, and each Court has its own culture, religion, magic, and politics. One thing that unites all fae though - they cannot lie (99.9999% of the time) and they love human stories as a result. Stories function as a currency between Courts and are highly sought after for status and power.

Also the fae realm is extremely hard to escape from. This is fine unless you want to leave.

SO IF FAE ARE REAL, WHAT ELSE IS REAL?: Ghosts! Wandering whisps! Black shucks! Monsters of all kinds! Sentient dolls and automata! Magic! There's also a brand new pantheon of deities to fill the fae realm! Vampires exist, too, and they can overlap with fae (Bramwell is proof of this), but the magic reacts in odd ways when this happens.

ANY LAST PITCHES?: Ummm ... Which buzzwords to choose.... Nope, actually I'm not doing that :o)

All I can give you is the concept of the existence of Millie, the weird little dead girl who antagonizes Bramwell daily and loves to get into things she knows are off-limits for good reason (such as fae magic + politics). Also Wardell, the human man who was coerced into fae servitude and now wanders alone while fulfilling his duties as a black dog shapeshifter, until he stumbles across an starry-eyed fae that he cannot seem to shake off his tail.

[the-valiant-valkyrie]

I don’t know if this is going to resonate or matter to anyone, but as a black gamer who has seen this trope time and time again in video games and tv and movies, I really like the way NotGames goes about establishing Jeremy’s character. Specifically, how they dive around turning him into another victim of the dreaded white savior trope.

[Not for Broadcast spoilers beneath cut 🫡]

Personally, I think Jeremy separates himself from falling into this trope in two ways. The first, and the most simple of the two, is Megan’s presence and character. Though she starts out being the culture correspondent without much political or cultural sway, she inevitably rises to the same position Jeremy once held of being the country’s most beloved and trusted news anchor. Despite having this position, she hardly treats it the same way that Jeremy did before her.

She’s willing to use her power to benefit Advance- and by extension, herself. She understands that the country trusts her, and uses her position on Channel One to placate them, lulling them into a false sense of security and compliance. She acts in every way Jeremy wouldn’t- and while she comes to her senses as the world begins to crumble around her, she made a bold departure from Jeremy’s ethics in a way that has explicit consequences.

Not saying that Megan is white, because she isn’t- or her actress isn’t, at any rate- but she hits every other beat that Jeremy hits in regards to power and influence, and by introducing a character who does it wrong, it’s way easier to digest a character who does it right. It doesn’t feel as out of the blue. In many ways, Megan is a great foil for Jeremy’s character.

The second (and more important) element of Jeremy that stops him from drifting into the white savior trope is the way that he weaponizes his defiance. I’m not sure if it was written intentionally or not, but Jeremy is a really great example of being an ally to those around him- regardless of if it’s in regards to race, or status, or gender.

Jeremy is acutely aware of how much influence he has over people around him. He knows how much his word matters to those who watch Channel One- he knows the National Nightly News is the station everyone trusts. And so, when he is asked by everyone around him to throw his morals to the wayside for the sake of Advance, he refuses and defies them in whatever way he can.

He addresses the power outages and resource shortages directly, despite being scripted to treat them as alleged claims. He outright goes off-script after J-Zuss’ performance to tell their viewers that the NNN will never silence ideals. Even when he has to endorse things like the Team Membership Cards or transition centers, he twists the knife just enough to elude to his disapproval, even if he can’t say the quiet part out loud.

But he also goes out of his way to abide by his moral compass even to his own detriment. And I think that’s a really important- and potentially even overlooked- element of his character.

The entire reason he has a gun during the Heatwave broadcast in the first place is because he wrestled it off an officer. And why did he wrestle it off an officer? Because he was silencing one of his guests- arresting them for speaking their mind- and violently retaliating when his friends tried to help. Even when Truman was practically slandering him- accusing him of being the Advance bootlicker he would rather die than become- push comes to shove, Jeremy would rather scrap with an officer than stay silent and passive.

Jeremy Donaldson is not a passive man. Because he is aware that passiveness is the same thing as compliance. He is aware that staying silent about Advance is the same thing as endorsing them. He is aware that not helping is the same thing as harming. And his moral compass will not allow him to become a blunt instrument for Advance to wield.

The CCO would have tackled and arrested anyone else who dared to get in the way of his work. But no one would dare hurt Jeremy Donaldson- especially not on live television.

The security team in the Heatwave B route would have gunned anyone else down in a matter of seconds. But they wouldn’t dare do that to Jeremy Donaldson. They give him a countdown- hell, the even slow down their counting to give him more time to come to his senses.

Because they know the power he has over the country. Because they can’t just put their boot on his neck and bully him like they bully everyone else.

I found it very fascinating that Alan’s race was meant to play a critical part in his position as a pawn to the dark side of Disrupt. How he was supposed to be a pied piper for people of color, lulling them into a dance sense of security so they could all be rid of once Advance was out of the picture. Admittedly, I bristled a little bit when I realized the new, race-related layer that added to Jeremy specifically being the one to expose Disrupt for who they really are. But, when looking at his character in a deeper light, I feel like it’s hard to see him as a standard issue of the white savior printing press.

Jeremy, to me, is a great example of a white ally protagonist. He weaponizes his position of power for the purpose of good- does things that other people can not do for the purpose of good. I feel like I don’t see a lot of characters written that well in most media- especially not explicitly political medias like this one.

[wonder-worker]

"Despite her indisputable agency and successes as ruler of the Mercians, the title of ‘queen’ eluded Æthelflæd. [...] Her feats were adjudged by Irish, Welsh, and Anglo-Norman chroniclers as worthy of the title, but in contemporary West Saxon and Mercian sources Æthelflæd is known as the ‘Lady of the Mercians’. This title was not an indictment of her merits, but rather a reflection of Mercia’s relative status within the context of West Saxon hegemonic expansion. […] To all intents and purposes, every indication within contemporary West Saxon and Mercian sources is that Æthelflæd was not viewed as a queen, that her subordination to her brother [Edward the Elder of Wessex] was well known, despite her having garnered immense authority as the Lady of the Mercians."

— Matthew Firth, Early English Queenship, 850-1000: Potestas Reginae

Æthelflæd's role as co-ruler in the tenth century [...] takes on an element of pragmatism. There was no male heir to the rulership of Mercia, and presumably no prospect of this given either Æthelflæd's abstinence or Æthelred's illness. In turn, their daughter Ælfwynn would only have been around 12 years old at the turn of the tenth century, thus representing no reasonable alternative to her father’s rule. For Edward, annexation of Mercia was not a resolution to this problem, especially with Aethelred still alive, no matter his physical condition. This would have risked rebellion in Mercia and conflict between the two kingdoms, which would have rendered both vulnerable and jeopardised the gains that had been made against the Danes in preceding decades. For Æthelred and Edward, Æthelflæd's promotion to co-ruler served a useful political artifice. It maintained the status quo, giving the semblance of Æthelred's continued involvement in governance, even if those powers in practice devolved to Æthelflæd. This then avoided any potential power vacuum developing during Æthelred's convalescence, it placed an individual with personal loyalty to both rulers at the head of Mercian government, and it ensured a succession tolerable to both Edward and the Mercian elites in the case of Æthelred's death. In short, Æthelflæd's rise to power preserved political stability. It remains, however, that in all extant diplomatic evidence for the couple’s rule prior to 911, this was formalised as co-rule and a tradition of this, as codified in Æthelred and Æthelflæd's charters, entered subsequent cultural memory.

Although Æthelflæd was well positioned to take over governance of Mercia upon Æthelred's death, this did not mean that the Mercian ruler’s passing went unnoticed in Wessex. Æthelred's death represented a shift in the West Saxon–Mercian political dynamic, and Edward was poised to take advantage. According to the Chronicle, he immediately moved on Mercia’s southern borders, seizing London and Oxford and their surrounding lands. Yet there is no indication that this was an act of aggression directed at Æthelflæd herself, and it may be that this annexation represented some agreement between the siblings. The Register characterises Æthelflæd's period of sole rule as one of great activity, defined by remarkable outward-facing political and military agency. Æthelflæd goes on to build further burhs in the north and east of Mercia, annex key Danelaw burhs, and even arrange an incursion into Wales. However, she is never shown to be active in Mercia’s south. The implication is that the West Saxon–Mercian hinterland was stable, and sovereignty settled, so long as the siblings ruled over the two kingdoms. This allowed both Edward and Æthelflæd to turn their attentions to the project of extending their hegemony into those territories that had been claimed by the Heathen Army at the end of the ninth century.

[...] For all her independence in ruling Mercia, any doubt that Æthelflæd was, at least on a performative level, subject to her brother’s authority, should be put aside on review of the numismatic evidence. No coins were issued in either Aethelred or Æthelflæd's name. Those Mercian coin designs likely to derive from their reigns are remarkable for their distinctiveness – a symbolism undoubtedly imbued with meaning for a Mercian audience – but they bear the inscription Eaduueard rex: King Edward.

[...] However, whatever political or cultural considerations lay behind the Register’s decision to characterise Æthelflæd as Lady of the Mercians, rather than as their queen, was clearly absent from external sources. The histories and chronicles of societies separated from tenth-century England by time or place (or both) demonstrate no such reservations. While few sources purport to record the perspectives of Scandinavian settlers to Mercia’s east, no less their experiences of the Lady of the Mercians, Welsh and Irish sources provide valuable insights. In reporting her death in its entry for 918, Annales Cambriae names her Queen Æthelflæd (Edelflet regina), as does Brut y Tywysogion (Edelffleda vrenhines). This prominence is yet more pronounced in the Irish annals. In noting her passing, the Annals of Ulster declare her to have been famosissima regina Saxonum (the most famous queen of the Saxons). The claim that she was queen of the Saxons, rather than just Mercia, is also reflected in Brut y Tywysogion, as well as in Fragmentary Annals. In this latter, of course, she features more prominently than the simple recording of her death in the other Welsh and Irish chronicles. Fragmentary Annals names her as queen around eight times, identifying her as ‘Queen of the Saxons’ (rioghan Saxan) to Aethelred's ‘King of the Saxons’ (righ Saxan). All four texts are, as noted, later compositions or collations, and thus not necessarily contemporary to Æthelflæd's queenship. Nonetheless, they give some insight into the cultural memory of Æthelflæd's rule in Mercia and the perceptions of it held by her western neighbours.

It may also be that Æthelflæd's legacy simply grew in the telling. And here we come full circle to Henry of Huntingdon’s panegyric. William of Malmesbury does not accord Æthelflæd the title of queen, nor does John of Worcester. Geffrei Gaimar introduces Aethelred as king of the Mercians and later asserts that Æthelflæd was the rightful heir to his kingdom, but she herself is never named queen. Henry is, in contrast, refreshingly direct. While his prose closely follows the Register, and so titles Æthelflæd Lady of the Mercians, his verse is unambiguous. Æthelflæd was regina potens rexque trophea parans (a mighty queen and a victory-winning king). There is, of course, no evidence for Æthelflæd's ceremonial endowment as queen, quite the opposite in fact. But, to borrow from Stafford again, medieval authors ‘knew a queen when they saw one’, and in Æthelflæd, Henry of Huntingdon clearly saw a queen in action. So too did Welsh and Irish chroniclers who compiled their various annals around the same time as Henry. Perhaps then, the ideals of queenship had shifted into the twelfth century and beyond, and so Æthelflæd was more readily recognisable as a queen by later historians. More likely, however, is that the political impetus that saw her modelled as the ‘Lady of the Mercians’ had died alongside the West Saxon dynasty in 1066.

[...] Æthelflæd's political trajectory was remarkable among pre-Norman royal women. She ruled Mercia as its queen in practice, if not in name, for seven years, exercising singular military and political agency. She achieved political stability within her realm, secured its defensive capabilities, reconquered lost territories, and expanded Mercian hegemony to the north, east, and west. There is little wonder that the Lady of the Mercians stood out to later generations of historians, that she attracted their admiration and praise, and that they claimed for her the title that she had been denied in her own lifetime: queen.

[nereidprinc3ss]

aubrey plaza is a zionist. all i had to google was “aubrey plaza zionist”; i understand they were being very rude about it but please attempt to educate yourself next time. ❤️

hi, I'm writing this on my laptop because I couldn't focus on my phone so please excuse if the capitalization is weird or inconsistent, and fair warning this is going to be very rambly and not incredibly eloquent. but we are for real going to talk about this now

i do not consider Aubrey plaza relevant to what is going on in Gaza. i do not consider knowing every single actor's uninformed takes on a genocide as being useful or important. a lot of these celebrities don't even have a high school diploma and can't conceive of an issue they cant pay their way out of, so I don't go to them for their politics or their ethics. she is utterly irrelevant to Gaza and she is utterly irrelevant to me politically speaking. I called her hot. that has absolutely no bearing on my values and I sincerely resent the idea that calling a celebrity hot suddenly means you are responsible for knowing everything about them and you are endorsing all of their idiotic takes. I absolutely would not consider knowing Aubrey plaza's take on a two state solution as being self-education because it literally could not mean less. I know my opinions, I know where I stand, and she does not factor in.

if we want to talk about educating ourselves, lets talk about following journalistic sources on the ground in Gaza, lets talk about reading books (a good read is the hundred year's war on Palestine by Rashid khalidi), lets talk about donating. I'm not going to sit here and pretend to be the most educated person in the world, or that I have the authority to make declarative statements about Palestine, but I sincerely hope people do not consider paying close attention to American celebrity culture as being activism or self-education. what is going on in Gaza is more than any of us can conceive of and I think its really strange to water it down and make it about celebrities. if this were an Aubrey plaza stan blog, these messages would receive a very different response, but as it stands, I am not an Aubrey plaza stan, never claimed to be, and spoke about her one time. I am glad to know that we have fundamentally opposing views, and if I were in any way supporting her that would stop with this information. but I'm not and never was. what I will not do is call her hot again because Zionism is NOT sexy! and I agree that we should not be uplifting celebrities who are known zionists. but if your activism only goes as far as knowing what actors and actresses have the wrong opinions, that's not enough and it's not activism.

i hope this doesn't come across as too defensive. I acknowledge that this is not the most productive use of anyone's time. I'm probably making it too much about myself but it has really been odd to be accused of being a Zionist because I said one thing about a celebrity when that is so unaligned with my values. I'm aware that is such a first world issue--me whining because I don't like how I'm being perceived on the Internet, but I think it bothers me because this is so far from being an issue about Aubrey plaza and I find it upsetting that the most flagrant and vehement pushback i've ever gotten on this account has been about one comment I made about a celebrity because that's all people know about the genocide in Gaza. that's not activism and it is not useful or helpful to the people being rounded up and exterminated.

tumblr is not the number one place to be educating yourself, but I will link to a website that is a really good starting place to learn more about the issue. its true that if you don't have an expendable income, being informed and educated is the best tool of resistance you have to help the palestinian people. and that doesn't mean just skimming and reblogging whatever comes across your dash, it means seeking out information and making a concerted effort to learn. I would really really recommend this website as a starting point if you don't know much, it's not overwhelming and it's very informative.

i haven't talked about it at length here because sometimes I think an issue warrants its own dedicated space, not to be mixed in with smut and fanfic and my day to day ramblings, but I am capable of being wrong and sometimes there's not a clear right or wrong thing to do. I apologize if I handled anything poorly but I assure you that my goal is always to be doing the right thing. still, I am not an authority, and I don't become an authority just because I have a small following. I don't think everyone with a few thousand followers on Tumblr is qualified to be talking about this because most of us are not educators and are not well informed enough ourselves to be trying to educate anyone else, but it's entirely possible I haven't been clear enough about where I stand. this is just a criminal minds blog, but the girl who is typing on her silly little Chromebook in her silly little bedroom right now is always pro decolonization. I do not wish to associate with Zionists, on my blog or in my personal life.

and let me reiterate I'm not an authority, I don't know everything, and I don't claim to. but you also don't know anything about me beyond this blog, which is so incredibly far removed from any real world issues. I truly hope Tumblr is not the place where any of us are doing most of our activism and talking about Palestine.

anyways I wrote this over the course of like two hours and will probably come back and edit it a lot so please do not take any of this as being like set in stone, some of it is reactionary and some of it is more level headed and well thought out, but I hope it makes enough sense and that I got my point across effectively and in a way that is not harmful

[ilovedthestars]

i think i'm gonna have to go back to doing a mini liveblog of Hands of the Emperor because this book just gives me so many Thoughts.

one thing i am appreciating only a few pages in is the depth of worldbuilding. it goes beyond the classic "think through how every system works, the weather, the economy, the government, etc, and make sure they all Make Sense" and indeed it honestly doesn't seem that concerned with Making Sense, at least not in the way where every element has to be planned out and fit together in advance. it's not that it doesn't, it's just not trying that hard

no, what i'm impressed by is the thought that's been put into the cultures. Victoria Goddard clearly understands, as a friend of mine once explained to me, that culture is much more than "food, festivals and fun." she's put thought into all the little parts of a culture that are so much harder to see and understand. things like formality and politeness and humor. unspoken social rules that nonetheless guide how everyone acts.

and it's all made visible and used to great effect, particularly to highlight the tension Cliopher feels when returning to his hometown. all the little mismatches in expectations, like when his old friend laughs at his statements of fact as if he's making a joke, that make him realize that he doesn't understand this familiar place & people as intuitively as he used to. it's really effective at showing that discomfort, in a way that i don't think you could get any other way

[coochiequeens]

Yes I already covered this and how Nessa’s car was vandalized. But I will always share stories about the gender cult threatening women.

A popular TikTok comedian has reported her car was vandalized following a series of videos she did criticizing non-binary activist Jeffery Marsh for allegedly inviting minors to communicate with him privately.

Shumirun Nessa, also known as @therealoverloadcomedyon TikTok, became the target of trans activist aggression after posting a series of videos responding to non-binary content creator Jeffery Marsh. In her first video, dated February 22, Nessa took issue with Marsh’s “therapeutic services,” some of which appear to be geared towards minors. 

In Nessa’s video, she showed a few seconds of a close-up of Marsh wearing green eyeshadow, false eyelashes, and speaking through clenched teeth as angrily told his viewers to “stop telling trans people we’re inspirational.”

Mimicking Marsh’s pressed tone, Nessa tells Marsh: “Stop telling kids to go on your Patreon and chat to you privately without their parents knowing.” Nessa ends her video with a facial expression characteristic of her comedic styling, one which has earned her over seven million followers on the TikTok platform.

Following her critique, Nessa became the target of backlash from trans activists, who accused her of mischaracterizing Marsh’s intentions towards minors and likening her words to murder and violence. While many replies to Nessa’s video thanked her for her cadence, others took the opportunity to attack her appearance, religion, and political views. 

“Please show us proof.. or are you just accusing someone with hearsay? Allah would be proud..NOT,” one user wrote in response to Nessa’s February 22 video.

Another commented: “This is transphobic. I have made excuses for you when you previously did problematic things but this is definitely far past the line. You are spreading harmful rhetoric that gets trans people murdered.” 

Despite being a Bangladeshi woman who was born in and lives in England, one user @bluebelleofthesouth2.0 responded to Nessa’s 18-second clip with information regarding “child marriage in the Middle East.” 

The woman shared the screenshot of information with a caption addressing Nessa directly:

“I genuinely liked you before this. Now I see you so fucking differently. Jeffrey isn’t fucking doing that shit and until you can provide proof that they are SIT DOWN… But we have proof of what men in your culture do every fucking day to little girls.”

Another user responding to the clip accused Nessa of “tokenizing” herself for “white supremacists,” and suggested that Nessa “really need[s] to go with the ethnic project.”

One non-binary TiktToker named Chelsea Hart responded to Nessa with an emotional two-minute video which she has since made private. In the video, Hart proclaimed that Nessa had “put Jeffrey’s life in danger and put every nonbinary person and trans person’s life in danger with [her] behavior.”

Hart said Nessa’s humorous TikTok was the “third time [she] has seen this lie about Jeffrey.” Hart declared that “recently, a bunch of conservatives have made it a point to edit Jeffrey’s videos in such a way that it leaves out the context that Jeffrey is a counsellor and a coach helping adults deal with childhood trauma.”

She says she does not know how Nessa got “swept up into far-right conspiracy theories,” and swears multiple times while defending Marsh, insisting that his content is for adults and adults only. 

She talks directly to Nessa, saying “you were so willing, without any groundwork, to label Jeffrey a predator which would put Jeffrey’s life in danger…”

Hart goes on to reference the murder of a trans-identified teen Brianna Ghey that took place in England and accuses Nessa of “putting another trans life in danger… because cis people always believe each other over us.” She continues lecturing Nessa and again asserts that her short video “put a trans person’s life in danger less than a couple of weeks after a trans person was brutally stabbed to death in the country where [Nessa] lives.”

“Jeffrey Marsh is a fucking counselor,” Hart angrily shares, demanding Nessa take her video down.

In response to the backlash against her February 22 video, Nessa uploaded her second TikTok on March 1. 

In her video Nessa says: “…a lot of people made stitches of me saying I’m transphobic… they’ve even attacked my scarf, my religion… and these people have also said [Marsh is] not talking to the kids.”

To defend her position, Nessa pieced together five clips of Marsh directly addressing minors taken from his own TikTok page, adding “so yeah, there’s a lot of videos of [Marsh] addressing kids.” 

The main video she takes issue with is one where Marsh tells his audience: “Your parents screwed up. It’s okay to say so! That’s why I made a Patreon.” 

Nessa responds to that clip and asks Marsh, “So you wanna talk to kids whose parents have screwed up? Why? Why you wanna talk to these particular kids? Why?”

She stitches more of Marsh’s footage where he informs his audience that his Patreon allows them to “connect in a way that has more privacy, so [they] could talk to each other in a way that’s more open and stuff that [they] wouldn’t share, like, in the comments…” 

Nessa invites Marsh to clarify on his offer of private communication. 

“So you wanna talk to kids on a social media platform privately about topics that cannot be talked about in… comment sections… because why? Why you wanna do that? What could be the reason? You teach kids how to go no contact with their parents…is that what you’re teaching them on Patreon? Or is it this” she asks, as she points to a screenshot from Marsh’s Patreon where he shared a post headlined “more on sex.”

Then Nessa goes into some frequently used grooming tactics by predators which include gaining access and isolating the victim. 

Finally, Nessa shows a clip of Marsh in a tiara talking to his viewers and saying, “If you do not have a family that loves you… I’m going to be your family.”  

Nessa boldly responds, “No, you cannot. You are a stranger on the internet. You are not their family,” and also notes that age restrictions can be turned off on Patreon, so children can indeed access his account where he coaches and encourages kids to go “no contact” with their parents. 

Nessa ends her final video telling viewers, “you guys decide what you wanna believe.”

But on March 3, Nessa would report she had faced a real-world attack for her videos on Marsh.

Calling it her final address of the controversy, Nessa shows multiple clips of Marsh’s own content in which he repeatedly encourages his followers to go “no contact” with their parents. 

Nessa responds to the clips and asks her own audience and to those intent on debasing her, “So if Jeffrey Marsh is really wanting to talk to the adults, why is… why are they already saying to the kids, ‘go no contact with your adults…?’” 

Nessa even refers to Marsh with “they/them” pronouns in a show of respect for Marsh and his “nonbinary” identity and to prove that she is concerned with his content regarding children as opposed to his “gender identity.”

Approximately two days prior to filming her final video on the topic, her car was vandalized outside her home. She admits that she has no cameras to show footage and does not know who is responsible for damaging her vehicle. Still, Nessa asserts that this is her final video on the topic “for obvious reasons.”

Nessa provides footage of her car in the TikTok, showing one of the back doors had a piece of panel seemingly ripped off. She confirmed in the comments she is in the process of getting cameras to monitor her property.

While Nessa received an immense amount of backlash for stating her concerns about Marsh’s conduct, she is not the only one who has expressed similar worries.

On March 3, the same day as Nessa recorded her final video on Marsh, screenshots began to circulate on social media from a UK school warning parents and carers about Marsh’s content.

While the source TikTok for the screenshot has been made unavailable, it was initially posted by a mother who claimed she had received it from her son’s school.

Marsh has long been the topic of discussion amongst pro-woman activists for regularly denying the existence of biological sex, and even taking platforms to advertise feminine hygiene products. 

In 2020, Marsh took place in a tampon advertisement campaign while calling himself a “non-binary person who does not menstruate.” Marsh claimed his intention behind taking the paid gig was to help end the stigma associated with periods. He said in a video: “And then the hate came for me,” and scolded women who took issue with his participation in the tampon promotion, claiming that they were “policing” gender by criticizing him.

In January, Reduxx noted that Marsh was well-known amongst child safeguarding advocates for his catalogue of videos directly addressing the “kids” in his audience. Marsh has encouraged people to go “no contact” with families or relatives who invalidate their gender identity, and has advised parents to provide “gender affirming care” for their children.

Violence directed at women who criticize gender ideology or proponents of child transitioning has seen a distinct uptick over the past year. 

In November, Reduxx reported that mother and activist Jeanna Hoch was attacked after attending a Tacoma demonstration in support of women’s right to free speech. Colorado Springs Antifa published a blog post about Hoch on their official website in which her home address was offered at the top of the post, as well as a link to a flyer with her photo, full name, age, and address. The flyer also featured a QR code and a link to the blog post itself, which painted Hoch and the other women who attended the Tacoma event out to be far-right fascists. 

On November 6, Antifa members distributed physical copies of the flyer in Hoch’s neighborhood and showed up at her home. Antifa members also took pictures of one of her vehicles and posted her license plate online. One of her vehicles was vandalized during the visit, with one Antifa member gluing a death threat to the driver’s side front windshield of her car.

Most recently, a Reduxx exclusive revealed a woman in Australia was left permanently disabled after being physically assaulted by a trans activist for her views on gender ideology.

By Yuliah Alma Yuliah is a junior researcher and journalist at Reduxx. She is a passionate advocate for women's rights and child safeguarding. Yuliah lives on the American east coast, and is an avid reader and book collector.

Early life and education

Marsh was born in York, Pennsylvania, and grew up on a farm nearby. Marsh often spoken about having felt misunderstood during a self-identified rough childhood.

Marsh attended college at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and earned a BFA in Musical Theater, later moving to New York City to pursue a career in cabaret performance[1] before becoming an internet celebrity[2]and leader in the LGBTIQ community.[3]

If Chelsea’s defense is that he’s a counselor then my question is he actually licensed?

[battyaboutbooksreviews]

[ please support this blog ]

🦇 A Monsoon Rising Book Review 🦇

❓ #QOTD What's your favorite enemies-to-lovers story? 🦇 Even after a lifetime of war, being married to a sworn foe feels far from peaceful. Talasyn must play the part of Alaric’s willing empress while her allies secretly plot to overthrow his reign. But the longer the couple are forced together, the harder it becomes to deny the feelings crackling like lightning between them. When the time comes to act, can she trust him, or must she ignore her heart for the sake of so many others?

💜 The second book of The Hurricane Wars trilogy starts exactly where the first leaves off. Let's break it down:

✨ Characters: As the second book in the trilogy, we should see the bulk of character development in this novel--moments that hint at Talasyn & Alaric seeing one another's perspectives to the point of changing their ideologies about the world & how it should operate. While we are given those moments, they're nearly always rooted in lust (namely, throughout the second half of the novel). The tension I loved so much in the first book still holds, but the pattern starts to become repetitive: an argument, a heated kiss, no real discussion of their feelings & thoughts. Yes, the third book requires Talaysn & Alaric to hold steadfast to their secrets (& potential betrayals), but they could have at least been honest about their messy feelings for one another. The cast grows a little in this book, but we barely see any real characterization for the supporting cast.

✨ Plot and Pacing: This novel focuses on the cataclysmic event, the Moonless Dark, that partially drove Talaysn & Alaric's political marriage. It takes place over the span of four months, with multiple time jumps. Still, the pace seems to drag at times. It's the action-packed scenes that drive the pacing (as they should). More reveals (political secrets, information about Talaysn's mother) would have allowed suspense to drive the pacing faster.

✨ World-Building: Just as before, Guanzon's descriptions of this world are beautiful & descriptive. I can't believe I'm typing this, but I wish there were fewer descriptions & more INFORMATION. What about the universe beyond the Continent and Nenavar? What about Nenavar's culture & history? There are small hints, but not enough to expand this universe.

✨ Romance: You bookish bats wanted more smut from this trilogy, & you got it. The spice definitely amps up in this one, but again, it becomes a distraction for Alaric & Talasyn when there's SO much more going on. That tension between them remains, the sassy banter still builds toward eruptive moments, & they're both definitely falling for one another. It wasn't the smut that caught my attention, but the soft intimacies between them that REALLY mattered. They start opening up to one another in ways that MATTER--I just wish there was more of THAT than the mindless, poorly timed, frenzy of smut.

✨ Mystery/Suspense: There's DEFINITELY a reveal lurking in the shadows of book three, namely, about Talaysn's mother, Hanan (my mom's name, which throws me out of the story EVERY time I see it). This story DOES end on a cliffhanger, albeit an awkward one, so we'll see where it goes.

🦇 Recommended to fans of Avatar the Last Airbender (or Zutara and Rylo shippers), Fourth Wing, and ACOTAR.

✨ The Vibes ✨ 🌀 Romantic Fantasy Trilogy 🌀 Enemies to Lovers 🌀 Forced Proximity 🌀 War/Occupation 🌀 Southeast Asian/BIPOC 🌀 Marriage of Convenience 🌀 Slow Burn 🌀 Feminine Rage

🦇 Major thanks to the author and publisher for providing an ARC of this book via Netgalley. 🥰 This does not affect my opinion regarding the book.

💬 Quotes ❝ “His Majesty ought to grant me a title.” “On top of all the other names I already call you?” ❞ ❝ “Little hellcat,” he muttered, lost in her narrowed eyes flashing with hints of gold. “Claws out even while you purr.” ❞ ❝ “Deadly. Magnificent. The prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.” ❞ ❝ Just him and me and the monsoon. ❞ ❝ Ever since we met, I have lived in a dream of what could be. ❞

[stephofromcabin12]

(🗣️) I'm trying to write a PJO fanfic and my oc is a daughter of Athena, so my question is how would you make the oc different enough from Annabeth to make her seem like her own charecter. I think I asked something like this before.

Good question!

Firstly consider what similarities they *don’t* share. Its fine to have similarities — they are half siblings after all — as long as you can balance it with some things that set them apart! It doesn’t have to be huge, and they don’t have to be polar opposites.

Examples:

- Appearance, age.

- Place of birth, family situation.

- Interests, skillsets (reading comic books and being into spelling bees is also a sign of intelligence + counts towards being a bookworm, just saying)

- Humor, cultural knowledge (im never going to let the show writers live down that they wrote Annabeth to have never seen a movie. Even before she ran away? Ur telling me Frederick Chase didn’t sit his baby daughter down for A land before time or Labyrinth? Winnie The Pooh? The dark crystal?? JURASSIC PARK????But he’s so nerdy???? Huh????)

On that note:

- There are many ways of being the same thing. Intelligence and strategising can play out in a million ways.

They might both be smart, but in what areas do they excell?

Where are their interests? Annabeth has her love of architechture, maybe your oc is super nerdy about geography and cartography (good for battle strategising) or even cooking (it is a science after all) — the list goes on!

Places that require intelligence, science and logic:

Art restoration and archival work

Cooking and baking (candy making is straight up wizardry, and Demeter kids are unlikely to be into that specific area of cooking)

Finances and business

Painting/sculpting (art in general)

Music, composition especially but also mixing and producing.

Film and stage managing (techies for theatres is a very Athena kid career)

Logistics in general. Every field ever needs people who can work a spreadsheet and calculate all the possible outcomes of a situation before it happens.

Cleaning (if you mix the wrong chemicals ur gonna poison yourself with mustard gas or something worse)

Teaching

Politics

Journalism

Law

Running a non-profit org/organizing events and protests

Archeology (Must be into: dirt and ugly shoes, sincerely, and lovingly, an archeology dropout)

Anthropology, Psychology, Linguistics

Learning languages in general

Vis dev and animation

I could go on but you get the point I think

Basically: Don’t focus on the core areas they have some overlap. If your oc isn’t named Annabeth, likes archaeology and wears a yankee’s cap, you’re probably good to go.

Remember that everything shapes a person (and character) so it’s not so much about the trait or skill itself but more the effects those things have on your character. Same goes for their relationships.

Lastly consider their purpose and goal (purpose is outside the story: You as a writer deciding what role the character will play. Goal is inside the story: The ‘thing’ your character strives for)

It’s probably not the same as Annabeth’s — so work from there until the venn diagram isn’t a flat circle; some overlaps are fine but they’re not one and the same.

I hope that helps!

[nimblermortal]

@drelmurn

Also, warning to neopagans: This one is not for you. I try to be polite and respectful about neopaganism and y'all do some cool stuff, but this is specifically complaining about things neopagans do. So if that's your jam, this is a good place to stop reading.

So the thing is, for assorted reasons we don't have any writing from actual Norse pagans. There's archaeological records and what you divine (ha) from those, but everyone serious is telling you that we cannot have any real idea of what these religious practices look like. There were groves; there were figurines of gods which had their own spaces; it seems likely that rich/powerful people were also priests; there were sacrifices of beasts and animals, and some really freaking creepy funeral rites.

(Part of the volcano rant is about how prior to the volcanic eruptions there is sun symbolism in the archaeological record, and afterward, none. Probably related to the whole "ash blocking out the sun in the Arctic Circle for three years straight, leading to the deaths of 40-60% of the population" thing. So we have that sort of record too.)

And I'm also going to preface with how when I took a bellydancing class the instructor was careful to tell us that she learned from someone who learned from someone from the regions this was practiced, so we were at best three removes from the culture. When we're talking about Norse paganism, we are a thousand years removed from the culture. Put a generation at 20 years, that is 50 generations. If we want to be super generous and assume that every other generation some grandparent taught their grandchild the secret rituals they remembered, we are still 25 removes from a living culture.

Nothing has actually survived.

But, you say, what about the Eddas? Those were written down in the medieval period. Those are contemporary.

Nope! Those were written by Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241). He's an Icelander. Iceland was officially Christianized in the year 1000, it's very easy to remember. Snorri was born 179 years after Christianity got enough of a grip to be enshrouded in law. I've been reading the Grágás (early law book, ~1260) and it has an initial section specifically on Christianity, with the punishments for things like men not knowing the words to baptize a child, much less daring to fast incorrectly. These people were not pagan. Snorri was writing down what he could guess from very old stories, and he begins by saying the gods were Asians from Troy.

There's just a period in medieval Europe when paganism was considered cool, and so everybody wanted their own pagans, and they tried to resurrect the concepts and everybody kind of suspiciously came up with the same general kind of paganism, which is an artifact both of like. How monotheists think about polytheism, and of wanting to keep the cool elements from what they heard from their friend in France or wherever. It's like how everybody knows that vampires can't be seen in mirrors.

So that brings us to my archnemesis Stephen Flowers, who would really prefer I called him Edred Thorsson.

Mr. Flowers originally decided to research runes "after I audibly 'heard' the sound 'RUNA' on a summer day in 1974." Two years later, in 1976, he completed his handbook of rune magic, which he assures you remains largely unchanged in this its third edition, because he uh spiritually inherited everything there was to know about runes in two years. He believes the Norse pagan "ancestors never died but rather were reborn, generation after generation, always keeping their secrets with them - until now, they are us" because who doesn't love some Hindi wheel of reincarnation in their Norse paganism.

So this sort of reincarnation/divine inspiration is one way he gives himself legitimacy. The next is by judicious use of Nazis, because Norse stuff has always had a problem with Nazism. Mr. Flowers, rather than disavowing Nazism in his introduction, goes with "Indeed, the Nazis made use of the runic forms in their most external aspects, akin to what we might call 'branding' today. The beginning rune vitki* of today may take some strange comfort from the fact that the runes did continu to show themselves to be such potent symbols in the twentieth century!"

He will grant that "the Germanic spirit itself was not at the heart of this 'bureaucratic blasphemy,' but rather it was a sort of pseudo-Christian messianic Manicheanism that owned the soul of the Nazi party." Far removed from the true religion Flowers intends to invent! He, after all, intends to create "a system as free as possible from any Judeo-Christian influence" with the classic random flinging of the Judeo- prefix in to seem more, I don't know, cosmopolitan, without showing any sign of having done the slightest research on Judaism and whether it might apply to his construct religion.

*Flowers proposes vitki as a practitioner of runic magic, which he refers to as galdrar. I have been sufficiently wrong often enough not to argue with him on this point; I will say only that there are many words for magic, and for all I know galdr (nominative singular) does refer to runic magic. I have not seen the word vitki elsewhere as yet.

I am probably getting overly het up about Stephen Flowers; I am prone to doing so. He concludes his introduction as follows:

Too long has the Westerner suffered "bearing the cross of alien fruits." They have had their chance and have failed time and again in their impotent effort to satisfy the depths of the IndoEuropean soil. Their aeon has come to an end; the time is ripe for a reemergence of the wisdom of the Eriloz (the vitki). The breakthrough of holy power must take place within the soul of each individual - and it is in this hope that this work has been wrought.

Which just. Having established the word vitki we're now going to add another cool foreign word for the same thing?? Westerners have suffered bearing the cross of Christianity?? It has failed to satisfy the depths of the IndoEuropean - look, it's just a list of white supremacist dogwhistles, okay. And I could be wrong about that, because I don't know white supremacist dogwhistles, but it sure reads like that to me!

I have a friend who is a neo-pagan and is studying Egyptian magic. Apparently the Egyptian practitioners wrote their things down. Which is cool and great, they had a writing system and they were using it, I know nothing about that and have nothing to say about it. She also says a lot of pagan practices are invented wholecloth, which is true and great. It's the "we are reviving a practice that has simply lain dormant for a thousand years until we arrived to accept this unbroken tradition" that drives me wild.

Anyway the key concepts include: appealing to some sense of an ancient unbroken tradition, which should appeal to you specifically because you are special in [spiritual and/or racial trait], and you can reject [practice that many people have been hurt by] because your special nature was reaching out to this the whole time. Sprinkle in appropriate symbols. Use some cool foreign-sounding words. Throw a minority under the bus if at all possible.