#order of the raven

[greyfeu]

girls!!!!!!!

[yesokayiknow]

happy birthday to the worst girl in the universe (23 november 1986 - 2016 (eventually))

[purpleshadow-star]

It's kind of funny (heartbreaking) that there were multiple Ravens who wanted a number, to the point where some tried to manipulate Jean into helping them one way or another, but none of them would have been next in line. No matter what they did, there was always someone ahead of them on the list. Someone who wasn't even on the team. That someone wasn't Neil. Neil was a surprise to everyone, including Riko. That someone was Andrew.

Kevin might have had to beg Riko to go visit Andrew, and Riko might have laughed at Kevin and dismissed Andrew when Andrew turned him down, but make no mistake, if Andrew had accepted and had become a Raven, he would have taken that #4 spot within his first year.

If we're being real, Andrew had more of a chance at becoming part of the perfect Court than any of those Ravens ever had. Even Jean thinks of Andrew as one of them.

The other Ravens never stood a chance.

[infrared135-36]

everyone QRTing this with “um actually 🤓☝️ limbus company/arknights/fgo/pgr IS different!” girl open your eyes please. People say these things about all of these games because they like playing them but at the same time feel extremely defensive about the fact that they’re playing gacha. “I know this game is a gacha but it isn’t like other gachas!” It is literally a gacha game. The developers chose this genre of game over literally any other for a reason. If they wanted to make a visual novel/rpg/etc they would have just done that. In their “dead months” these games still make more money than most indie games have ever made. I don’t have a problem with people playing these games knowing what they are, the problem is the point at which a player starts arguing that the game is “not like other gachas!” You can argue these points for any of these games, that’s why the OP edited the meme to look like this. Play whatever you want but understand the fact that any game created in the gacha genre (and the more western “loot box”) is exploitive to its players. You’ve fucked yourself as soon as you start believing this isn’t the case for “your” gacha.

[f4keplastictr33s]

do yall ever think about adam ‘to feel awake when my eyes are open’ feeling alive when he’s with ronan bc ronan is ‘a heart attack that never stopped’ bc sometimes it just hits me and it ruins my day i hate them

[devilbunzzz]

reposting these gg/brainworld designs i did cuz im thinking about them

[mrkida-art]

Just a little guy from Ravenhill

[selenophany]

LAMIA 🪸🌴🪷

original video by Rexlent

𓇼 | Endless Count of Favorite Characters

[artbyfuji]

crazy way to find out 🤯

[xbomboi]

how Ever After High characters treat ice in drinks

raven: asks for no ice when she remembers to, otherwise chews on the ice cubes

apple: barely even takes a sip of her drink at all

briar: asks for no ice

maddie: asks for no drink in her ice

ashlynn: doesn’t gaf

cerise: chews on the ice cubes

faybelle: duplicates the ice cubes with magic

darling: does the same shit apple does

dexter: asks for no ice; they give it to him anyway

daring: looks at his reflection in the glass

cedar: are you stupid? she’s a puppet.

duchess: doesn’t order a drink but regrets it later

sparrow: chews on the ice cubes

blondie: it has to be just right.

cupid: drinks the ice cubes after they melt

hunter: asks for Extra ice

lizzie: off with the ice!

kitty: nobody knows. she doesn’t eat out.

alistair: plays with the ice cubes with his straw

bunny: idfk but instead of a fruit her weird ass puts a carrot on the rim of the glass

chase: drinks exclusively from water bottles

courtly jester: probably drinks dangerous chemicals.

humphrey: asks for no ice but orders Two drinks

hopper: asks for no ice because he sits in his drink. weirdo…

holly: too busy being a chatterbox to order

poppy: orders for her and holly; they both get ice

ginger: is probably making the drinks tbh

melody: doesn’t gaf

meeshell: terrified of ice in her drink

justine: drinks the ice cubes after they melt

ramona: eats the ice cubes First.

jillian: doesn’t gaf

nina: gets ice and shrinks down to stand on it while sipping from the straw

farrah: has whatever ashlynn gets

crystal: take a guess. no take an actual fucking guess as to what Crystal “Winter” does.

[saintdri]

Strange constellation little gift for @faewaren <3

[cometblaster2070]

i think another reason why i REALLY love the eah shannon hale books (aside from how generally amazing they are) is how shannon hale expands more on the royal and rebel problem.

like in the show, we don't really explore the sides of the royals and rebels beyond the usual stance of whether they go against following their stories and support raven, or whether they want to follow their stories and condemn raven for not signing and starting the entire rebel movement.

but in the books i love how shannon hale expands upon the sheer amount of utter classism present in the eah world, and especially present in this school; perfectly encapsulating how those in power are very, very concerned about keeping this brand of classism ongoing, about keeping that divide between the 'Royals' and the 'Commoners' apparent.

just the little details of the royals and the commoners having different seats in the auditorium, with the royals having comfortable padded seats as opposed to the commoners having more uncomfortable and hard chairs, how they both have different common rooms; just the little details in general which highlight how the entire concept of destinies and signing the book and legacies is a system that is established in order to keep this classism going.

the legacy system honestly just breeds more of this classism; it tells the royals they are above the commoners and it tells them about how they deserve the happy endings and the prince charmings and the glittering gold palaces, and it tells the commoners of their place beneath the royals and firmly shows them the differences between themselves and the royals and how the commoners should be happy and complacent with the endings that they get.

overall, it tells both of these groups to simply accept what is being presented to them; presents the narrative that change is unfamiliar and dangerous and bad, and as such, they should never question their system and should instead just be happy with what they get, because, surely, this system is fair, so it just ends up being what they deserve.

hell, even the fact that before raven basically formed the royal/rebel movement, people were simply separated on the basis of being royals and commoners; it could literally not be made more obvious.

anyways, i just love the way shannon hale's books expand on this and i love how you can very clearly see the ignorance present in the eah world and how everyone's worldview is turned on its head because of raven and her actions 10/10.

[bubblu]

Ik I made him but otto is so hot

[pingu-4]

I've seen a lot of raven!Neil fics where neil helps jean and Kevin escape form ravens and he escapes with them/joins them later.

But what I really need to see is a fic from jean's and kevin's pov, where they escape but Neil is stuck being a raven, stuck being nathaniel.

I want to see them join foxes but still think about what is happening with Neil right now, what punishments he is getting for their escape. I want to see them scared for his well-being, while not being able to patch him up or do anything. I want to see them trying to heal, being full of guilt at the same time, because Neil, their ally, their savior, their brother is probably going through hell because of them right now and he's all alone. I want to see them guilty, because Neil has helped them so many times, he had saved them and they left him there to suffer, even though they know that if they even tried to come back to nest Neil would kill them himself.

I want to see Jean mourning his partner forever. I want to see him turining around expecting Neil to be there only to see empty spot next to him. I want to see him grabing car keys to go back to nest, to Neil, when loneliness, guilt, fear, everything is too much, only to be stopped by Kevin from doing anything stupid, from going back to their abusers. I want him trying to keep up on living, only because Neil gave up on his freedom, his life for it. I want Jean to miss his little British devil, while literally anything reminds him of neil.

I want Kevin getting himself drunk only not to think about about what it cost for him to be at foxes, not to think about who pays for it, who he had left behind. I want him to wonder why Neil sacrifaced himself for him, he understands why Neil did it for jean, but him? What did he do to deserve it? I want him to feel guilty he didn't help Neil more, to wonder why he didn't do anything when he had the chance, wonder if he would be brave enough to do anything different if he had a chance to. I want Kevin to miss this loud mouth who gave him a chance of better life.

I want them both to live with a ghost of Neil among them. To talk about him, what would he do in any situation, what they remember about him even though it causes them pain and they are trying to move on, because they are too afraid to forget about him. I want them to wonder why they didn't manage to force him to go with them. I want to see them hoping to see Neil every morning when they wake up, only to be met with harsh reality. To think every short red-head might be him. To have so many feeling when they get that one phone call from Neil. To wonder if there is any way that they can help him. I want to see them as puzzles with one piece missing, learning to live that way.

I want to see the foxes wondering who that raven jean and Kevin often talk about is. To wonder who is that guy that they never met, that had such a big impact and is so important to these two broken boys. I want foxes to see Kevin and jean and just know that they lost something, that even though they escaped and are healing, they are still grieving someone. I want them to hear stories that involve that third person, that "neil" but never getting a direct answer as to who exactly he is and what happened to him.

I want Jean and Kevin hearing the news that "nathaniel wesninski" got injured in some freaky incident and them knowing it wasn't and incident. I want them to be terryfied of what riko did to Neil. Or being even more terryfied of what if it was Neil that did something to himself. They know he is strong, stronger then them both, but what if when he is all alone, facing hell, without any support, without anyone who he has to fight for he finally gave up and decided to die on his own terms?

I want them to see other news, that he had died from these injures, and just break down not believing that Neil, their Neil is gone. Is gone and they weren't there for him in his last moment. I want Kevin and jean to wonder if he knew how much he mattered to them, to wonder if they had said it to him, made it aware to him enough times. I want them to suffer because they promised that all of them will escape one day, but while Kevin and Jean are foxes now, Neil forever will be stuck a raven, forever will be remembered as nathaniel wesninski by most people, will never be able to make Neil a real person for someone else then the three of them. I want them to think about how the one person who saved their lifes, gave them a reason to live, died himself and they didn't do anything to prevent it, didn't manage to stop it. I want them to finally spill all the truth to the foxes. To see Jean and kevin learning to live with all of it, trying to live to their fullest, maybe even dedicating their games to Neil. For them, to do it for themselves. And for Neil.

Or i want them to finally have enough, realizing that this is the last moment where they can do something to help, when they hear about the injury. To see them somehow getting Neil out and seeing how much more he is hurt, mentally and physically than he was the last time they saw him, but still being the same old neil. Being happy that he finally is with them but also sad seeing him in that state. I want them to get Neil into foxes, not wanting to leave him, worried, being very protective of him and helping him heal too. Making neil josten real. To have foxes to finally meet that Neil they heard about and being surprised to see how Kevin and jean, not very warm or open people are so fond of him, how they act so different towards him, how they finally are the way they were supposed to be. Together.

[sea-buns]

Never did I expect myself to be mourning the absence of english essays and writing exams and theatre class critiques. Do you understand how fucking amazing of a grade I could get on an analysis of trauma in Critical Role? On Lou Wilson and Emily Axford's finesse in portraying the heavy expectations and double standards placed on children? On Ylfa Snorgelsson's relationship to death? On the journey of a man's relationship to violence? On an analysis of grief in Dimension 20? On the pitfalls of youth? On the dynamic between humanity and religion? On the journey of self-discovery and acceptance? On love in all its forms? On the nature of choice? On everything Brennan Lee Mulligan has to say about capitalism? On the tragedy of im/mortality? On Gerard and Elody's divorce? On the unfeeling and aimless happenstance of the universe? On the role of fate and destiny? I'm not saying it would be easy. I'm saying can you imagine how fucking cool it would have been to turn in 5 pages about a dnd show, feeling good about it?

[trek-tracks]

Hello! I got a whole shelf of old Star Trek novels from a yard sale and I'm deciding which to read first. Unfortunately none of them are D. Duane. Can you tell me what other Trek novels/authors you've enjoyed?

At the moment, I have far more trek books than I've actually read, partially because I have no self-control when it comes to acquiring them, partially because, when I started to mine them for blog content, reading them started to feel like homework (I thought I put marking pages with tabs behind me after grad school). This is also tough because Diane Duane's novels tend to be far and away my favourites (Spock's World, Doctor's Orders, and The Wounded Sky are all brilliant), but you already knew that! They're also a large chunk of what I've read. I've also read a bunch of Blish novelizations and some of the movie novelizations, which are fun but don't quite count in the same way, since they are retelling known stories.

However, there are a few I can recommend. I really enjoyed A Contest of Principles by Greg Cox, which feels like a real extended TOS episode; our main trio all have plenty to do, and the relationships are very fond and very true to the series. Shell Game by Melissa Crandall also has the character relationships I'm looking for. (Actually, both of these at one point pair Spock and Bones together while Kirk angsts from the sidelines while doing his own part of the mission, which is apparently a fruitful scenario).

J.M. Dillard also knows the characters really well. I enjoyed The Lost Years a lot, though it must be said that it is basically the crew breakup novel because it bridges from the show into TMP, so you'll just have to rewatch the movies after to remember that it all turns out all right in the end.

Jean Lorrah's The Vulcan Academy Murders is fun as long as you don't go in expecting a mystery you can't solve in 30 seconds and just want to appreciate the characters and learn more about Sarek and Amanda.

Brad Ferguson's Crisis on Centaurus is worth it for the backstory look into Jim and Bones' first meeting, as well as giving us some time with Joanna McCoy.

I can't actually fully recommend Carmen Carter's Dreams of the Raven, which has a very strange and queasily unethical romance subplot that doesn't land for several reasons and an unsatisfying ending, but it's an interesting look into McCoy with amnesia (and it did let me coin the term "Character Fondness Power Differential" while writing the review).

This ask did, however, remind me that I need to start making a dent in my book collection before buying more (I store them where I can't see them, so I'm constantly surprised by how many I actually have). I think I'm reading Howard Weinstein's The Covenant of the Crown next.

If you search my "trek books" tag, you'll see more!