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lifblogs · 11 months ago

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Lif’s Books Read in 2023

Bolded titles are my favorites and ones I recommend.

1. Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

2. The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin

3. The Pale City by Marshall J. Moore

4. The Ashen City by Marshall J. Moore

5. The World We Make by N. K. Jemisin

6. Children of Memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky

7. The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu

8. Babel by R. F. Kuang

9. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

10. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

11. Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

12. The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

13. The Prince by Jennifer L. Armentrout

14. The King by Jennifer L. Armentrout

15. The Queen by Jennifer L. Armentrout

16. Heart of the Sun Warrior by Sue Lynn Tan

17. All Systems Red by Martha Wells

18. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett

19. Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao

20. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett

21. Wicked by Jennifer L. Armentrout

22. Marvel 1602 by Neil Gaiman

23. Torn by Jennifer L. Armentrout

24. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells

25. Brave by Jennifer L. Armentrout

26. The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin

27. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

28. Even Though I Knew The End by C. L. Polk

29. The Awoken City by Marshall J. Moore

30. This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, and Max Gladstone

31. The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin

32. The Stone Sky by N. K. Jemisin

33. The Broken Kingdoms by N. K. Jemisin

34. Son of a Sailor by Marshall J. Moore

35. The Kingdom of Gods by N. K. Jemisin

36. Orpheus + Eurydice reWoven by Air and Nothingness Press

37. The Sun and the Star by Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro

38. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

39. She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

40. The Awakened Kingdom by N. K. Jemisin

41. The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang

42. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V. E. Schwab

43. Life by Pumpkin by Leslie Popp

44. Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells

45. The Dragon Republic by R. F. Kuang

46. The Burning God by R. F. Kuang

47. Iceberg by Jennifer A. Neilsen

48. A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske

49. Exit Strategy by Martha Wells

50. Network Effect by Martha Wells

51. Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

52. Home by Martha Wells

53. Shards of Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky

54. Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

55. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

56. Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky

57. This Guilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne

58. On Writing by Stephen King

59. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

60. The Children of Húrin by J. R. R. Tolkien

61. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

62. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

63. A Soul of Ash and Blood by Jennifer L. Armentrout

64. The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien

65. A Restless Truth by Freya Marske

66. Galatea by Madeline Miller

67. He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

68. The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien

69. The Fellowship of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien

70. Fall of Ruin and Wrath by Jennifer L. Armentrout

71. The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan

72. The Librarian by Air and Nothingness Press

73. The Librarian Card Catalogue by Air and Nothingness Press

74. The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien

75. Dracula by Bram Stoker

76. Prisoners of a Pirate Queen by Marshall J. Moore

77. The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien

78. A Fire in the Flesh by Jennifer L. Armentrout

79. Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

80. A Power Unbound by Freya Marske

81. Lore Olympus: Volume 1 by Rachel Smythe

82. Lore Olympus: Volume 2 by Rachel Smythe

83. Lore Olympus: Volume 3 by Rachel Smythe

84. Lore Olympus: Volume 4 by Rachel Smythe

85. Lore Olympus: Volume 5 by Rachel Smythe

86. Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

87. The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson

88. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett

89. Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson

90. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

91. Dawnshard by Brandon Sanderson

92. The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson

93. White Hot Kiss by Jennifer L. Armentrout

94. Stone Cold Touch by Jennifer L. Armentrout

#books #reading #a certain book is crossed out #because i learned afterwards that the author #is horrifyingly antisemitic #and has crazy views about revolution #that involve mass death and violence so

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dancelikejinz · 2 years ago

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Heartstrings Rewoven

Pairings: Yoongi x reader

Warnings: nothing to warn, just a lot of cuteness, fluff and kiss unless you don't like that.

Word count: 700

In the vibrant streets of Seoul, a tale of friendship and unspoken desires begins to unfold. You and Yoongi have been besties for years, your lives intertwined like the melody and lyrics of a perfectly harmonized song.

As the sun sets, casting a warm golden hue upon the city, you find yourselves perched on a rooftop overlooking the twinkling lights below. The gentle breeze tousles your hair, and a comfortable silence settles between you. The sky is dotted with stars, and although it's chilly out, you aren't bothered by the cool autumn air. In fact, you feel quite at peace.You're so wrapped up in your thoughts that you don't notice a soft voice calling to you from behind you.

"Y/N!" you hear, and then there's a warm body pressed flush against your back. Warm breath fans across the back of your neck before resting just behind your ear. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and your heart rate quickens as goosebumps break out over your arms.You glance over your shoulder, smiling softly when you see Yoongi grinning.

"Hey," you say quietly."I've been looking all over for you."Yoongi wraps his arms around your waist, pulling you closer into him. He leans his head down onto yours, inhaling deeply. "Why?"You look away shyly, playing with your fingers as you gaze out into the darkening skyline. " Because I missed you.""Well… I couldn't sleep." You bite your lip, embarrassed. "And it wasn't because I was tired. I…I miss you," you admit."Me too."Your heart flutters at the way he says it, but he pulls back slightly

His eyes meet yours, and you're captivated by the intensity of his gaze. The city lights reflect in his dark orbs, making them shine with a hint of mischief. His voice is low and filled with emotion as he speaks again, "Y/N, there's something I need to tell you."

You hold your breath, anticipation coursing through your veins. The world around you seems to fade away, leaving only the two of you on that rooftop, bound by an unspoken connection.

Yoongi takes a moment to gather his thoughts before he continues, his voice softer now, "I've cherished our friendship for so long, and you mean the world to me. But lately, I've been feeling something more—a longing that goes beyond friendship." His words hang in the air, and he searches your face for a reaction.

A mix of emotions swirls within you, joy and apprehension blending together. You find your voice and reply, "Yoongi, I... I've been feeling the same way. These unspoken desires, the way my heart races when I'm with you—it's been consuming me too."

A tender smile graces Yoongi's lips, and he cups your face gently with his hands. "Y/N, I don't want to lose you. I want to explore this connection, this bond we share. Will you take a leap of faith with me?"

You can't help but mirror his smile, feeling a surge of courage and love. "Yes, Yoongi. I'll take that leap with you. Let's discover what lies beyond friendship together."

In that moment, everything feels right. The world comes alive with possibilities as the unspoken desires that have woven their way through your friendship are finally acknowledged and embraced. With a mixture of excitement and nervousness, you lean in, closing the gap between you, and your lips meet in a gentle, tender kiss.

As your lips touch, it feels like the culmination of years of shared moments, unspoken words, and stolen glances. The world around you fades away once again, and all that matters is the love and connection you've discovered in each other.

From that night on, your friendship blossoms into a beautiful love story. The vibrant streets of Seoul become witnesses to your journey, as you navigate the complexities of love hand in hand, never losing sight of the deep bond that brought you together.

And as you continue to explore the depths of your newfound love, the city's lights illuminate the path ahead, guiding you through the challenges and triumphs that lie in wait. Together, you create your own melody, harmonizing perfectly as your tale of friendship and unspoken desires unfolds, creating a love story that will forever be etched in the streets of Seoul.

#bts #yoongi #fluff #suga #yoongixreader #cute #kiss #y/n #seoul

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criticalhitgaming · 2 months ago

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A Web of Pasts Rewoven #58 - Honkai Star Rail 2.5

#youtube #honkai star rail #star rail #hsr #gaming #games #video games #rpg #gameplay #story #hoyoverse

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sirthisisa-wendys · 3 years ago

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Hello Wendy!!!! Congratulations on your 1k! You deserve it and I hope for many more followers for you. May I request a Priest Suguru x Goddess (pantheon) f! reader with sinful touch? I would also like to write something for your event if you allow me to ❤️❤️❤️ Once again, congratulationnnns

I love this idea! Here goes nothing (Thank you for requesting bby)!

Beloved: Priest!Geto Suguru x Fem!Goddess!Reader

wc: 1.3k

tw: fluff (based on the second part of your request in my inbox)

1K Follower Event Masterlist

"You're quiet tonight," you whisper, trailing your fingers along your favorite priest's jawline. "You're not even playing the lyre. What's on your mind?"

Suguru takes your hand and kisses each one of your fingers, then touches your nose with his index finger.

"Nothing," he lies, and you frown, humming softly.

"You're not being truthful."

"I know." You raise up on an elbow and look down at Geto in the moonlight, your hair falling over your shoulder. "I'm not sure I want to discuss it right now." You sigh, leaning down to kiss his lips before the stars begin to call your name, their twinkling like chimes in your ears.

"I'll wait for you to talk about it when you're ready." And with those words, you vanish into thin air, becoming a mass of shimmering particles that Suguru always reaches out to touch after you've gone.

And you don't tell him where you go. But you do tell him when you'll go.

It's always been this way. Ever since Suguru was a child who washed up on your temple steps like a lost piece of a ship and you were just beginning your eternal existence, you'd been attached at the hip.

From friends to lovers, it had all been so seamless. He was your human lover, and you would spend your days with him, exploring all of the things humanity had to give you. Which admittedly, wasn't much, but he still managed to make life exciting. And at night, you would whisk yourself back to the palace of your father, sitting at his feet while he grew old and lost his sight to the endless years of watching over his subjects.

"Y/n," your father whispers this night.

"Yes?"

"I am growing old. Soon, you will take my place as the goddess of humanity, and I will retire to the Fields of the Aged, like my father, and his father before him." Your first thought is of Suguru, and the idea of abandoning him is akin to the taste of metal in your mouth. Unpleasant.

"Father, why not allow Minerva to take your place?" you wonder, placing a hand on his wrinkled knee. "She is wise, and older, and much more equipped to be--"

"You are more beloved among the people. Minerva is also a wife, and a mother." And you are neither of these things. Your father does not say it, but you know that's what he is implying. And even though you are sitting at his feet on the heavenly dais, you cannot find the strength to argue that you're merely a goddess of dance and festivals, not an omnipotent ruler.

_____________________________________________________________

And when you return to Suguru, it seems he is more withdrawn than usual, his eyes never once looking at you as he goes about his chores in the temple.

At the fifth hour of this treatment, you stand, walking over to him and placing a hand on his back.

"Look at me." Suguru turns his head, but his eyes do not connect with your face at all. "Please, look at me." And he does for a brief moment, his hands dropping the towels to the freshly cleaned floor. "What is the matter?"

"You know the Oracle speaks for your father here on earth." You straighten up, walking over to his side and looking into his dark, brooding eyes. "And I heard what he is planning." You swallow hard, then grip both of his arms with an intensity you've never expressed to him in your current form.

"It will all be okay," you reassure him as his eyes cloud with sorrow. "I am not leaving you." He politely removes your hands from his bare arms, shaking his head.

"But I will die. And you will only be able to watch from the heavens."

"My father is not changing power to me for another thousand years," you mention nervously. Your hands shake as Suguru backs away from you, his hair blowing in the wind coming in from the open window.

"You don't know that. You don't know that." And he turns to leave the temple, hurriedly walking away with only the clothes on his back.

_____________________________________________________________

You lay at the foot of your father's throne, eyes welling up with tears for the third time in an hour.

"Father, please! I need you to help me find my priest. He has gone missing!"

Your father wets his lips, beginning to speak, but your sister cuts him off.

"For what? For him to die? Loving a human is not wise, little sister. They all have such short lives." You want to snap at your older sister, but your father speaks, his voice old and worn like an oft-read scroll.

"If I give you the power of the Sight, you will not be able to revoke it. All of the things that come with it will be granted to you in time, but the All-Sight is a powerful gift only to be used when it is necessary."

"Please," you choke out. "I need him." Your father stretches his hand forward, and without touching you, a ball of white light floats from his fingertips to your forehead, soaking in slowly. You don't immediately feel anything, eyes remaining unchanged, but then you begin to see everything. Everything.

The world is a blur, but you can see the gods of the past roaming around the heavenly halls, the future gods bumping into each other and starting fights, and the present all at the same time.

You scream out in terror, crawling back on your hands and feet and backing into a wall, still hollering in fear.

"Y/N!" a voice calls to you, and you can see fragments of your sister floating around in your field of vision. "Y/N! Focus on me, focus on the sound of my voice. Bring yourself back to the present. Bring yourself back."

But the images do not cease, and endless versions of the future play out while the past is unwoven and rewoven over and over again at the same time. You're stuck there, eyes flicking back and forth between the scenes before you can't tell what time is anymore. Then, it all goes dark.

_____________________________________________________________

A song is being played.

It's soft, and the sound of the stringed instrument is familiar...

In what life did you become accustomed to hearing the lyre?

The past? The present? Or--

Words drift into the ether, and you find your lips mouthing the love song, and your fingers twitch along with the plucked notes. When the song is over, you gather your strength to open your eyes but find them sealed quite shut.

"I love you." A kiss is placed on both of them, and then a kiss is placed on your lips with care before your lover stands up to leave.

"No..." you moan, and a sharp inhale is heard.

"What did you say?"

"Stay." Suguru walks back, then touches your cheek.

"I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving you." When your eyes can finally open, you take in the absolute normalcy of your vision, and your head swims as you try to focus on Suguru's worried face.

"You came back..." you croak, and Suguru looks away sheepishly.

"Your sister came to get me. You were in terrible shape when I arrived, but..." He holds up the lyre. "Music seemed to help."

"Where did you go?" you wonder, but the throbbing headache stops you from inquiring further. "Nevermind. My head hurts..."

"Rest," Suguru encourages you, pulling your sheets around your figure. It's only when you lay back on your pillows that you realize you're not in the temple. You shoot up in the bed, eyes wide.

"Wait, you cannot be here; you'll d--"

"Die?" Suguru wonders, raising a brow. "Good thing that's not an issue for us." Us?

"Suguru, what--"

"Your father is very gracious," he murmurs, smiling widely. "I suppose being your favorite priest is enough to grant you eternity." You lay back on the pillows again at Suguru's guidance, and he presses a kiss to your forehead. "Now, seriously. Rest. We have all eternity to figure out, and I'm not wasting a single day."

#geto suguru x reader #geto suguru #wendy's 1k event #otherworldly beings #jujutsu kaisen #jjk

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irrealismora · 4 years ago

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Chazzawrites' 30 Day Writeblr Challenge - Day 3: Introduce your Main WIP

Oh Bingus. Okay. Okay. I'm finally doing it.

WIP Intro: The Book of Daemon

Title: The Book of Daemon (aka tbod or TBOD)

Genre: New Adult Speculative Fiction

POV: First Person Limited POV (alternating between two MCs)

Status: 2nd Round of Editing (out of 4)

Length: 187k

Blurb:

It's a simple story, really.

Dante is the ruthless Head of the Main House, Leader of the 13 Xenyx clans. Coen is just a "freak" who struggles to survive the minefield in his head.

Dante lost everything billions of years ago in the attack that slaughtered his clan. Coen - left on the side of the road by his parents and adopted not once but twice - never had anything in the first place.

Dante wants to protect whatever is left of his family, even if it means shedding useless things like compassion or mercy, even if it means alienating himself from his own clan. Coen wants a reason to live past today, wants to feel like he actually belongs.

Dante never expected his brother to be alive. Coen never knew that gods existed, or that he could be one.

Dante didn't think he could forget the person he used to be. Coen didn't know that he was something dangerous.

Dante doesn't know who he is. Coen doesn't know what he is.

Neither of them are ready for the return of an old enemy. Neither of them are ready to lose everything again.

Neither of them are going down without a fight.

Prologue:

"It's a simple story, really.

It begins with death and it ends with birth. All along the middle part, there is unimaginable pain but also vast oceans of joy. Perhaps there is good and bad, and perhaps there are battles lost and won, but they don't matter too much. At least, not as much as the prices paid to steal a bout of laughter, to disappear into an embrace, to grasp another's hand with every intent to never let go.

There is sorrow, absolutely. Enough tears to cease a drought and enough screams to wake the dead a world over. There is blood, just enough to scar the memory but not enough to make us forget why it was shed at all. There is darkness abundance, a bleakness one only faces when all that is left to face is their end.

But there is also happiness, I promise. There is the simple delight of being alive to feel the heartbeat of ones beloved or to see the smile of one's child. There are the bonds built from steel or iron, thin air or intertwined pinky fingers, but nevertheless stronger than the pull between this earth and its star. There is the promise of you and me and us and we, brought together by nothing more than coincidence but held together by love.

Ah, yes. But of course, there is love. There is the flawed love, the one that snarls and bites, the one that comes after 'for the sake of' but never after 'because of.' But there is also the love that builds, the love that gives and gives until millennia frays into minutes into seconds and is rewoven into the next eon, the simple love that links together 'I' and 'you.'

It's a simple story - really, truly - and I believe it's time you heard it."

About this WIP: There are actually some questions that'll come up later on in this challenge that'll flesh out TBOD so if you're interested, you can check my posts for the next couple of days to learn more!

#####

Thoughts on this challenge: This. Actually. Was. Painful. To. Write. Before I started this challenge, I was actually trying and failing for months to write a blurb for TBOD. How does one summarize something so massive, something that is way too near and dear to my heart to be summarized in so few words? Well, I did it. My brain hurts from it. But I did it. I actually like what I came up with. It felt right this time, not just forced. Now I'm gonna go play mind numbing video games.

#####

Click here if you wanna see yesterday's prompt!

Or click here if you wanna join in on the fun!

Tomorrow's prompt: "Who is your favorite character from your main WIP?"

#chazzawrites challenge #wip intro #wip excerpt #writeblr #writers on tumblr #writers community #tbod #aaaaahhh #I'm stupid happy I did this

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slaaneshfic · 5 years ago

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Conclusions and sorrow

I've nearly finished editing the three books. I'm slightly overdue with submission, but it is what it is.

Underpinning most of my PhD research has been my ongoing relationship with the two elderly Staffordshire bull terriers that my partner and I adopted right at the start of it, around Christmas 2016.

It is with overwhelming heartbeat that yesterday, after I visit from the mobile vet, we discovered that Lea has a late stage inoperable growth. The vets are returning tomorrow and we will be saying goodbye to lea. I don't have the words yet to address the feeling of loss, or the anxiety of this ongoing 48 where I with lea at every moment to make sure she is as comfortable as possible. it's a lot. And I need to keep writing things in order to occupy my mind. So this is a draft (since edited, but that's in InDesign files I can't access from my phone) of the potential lines beyond the PhD, including the thing I worked on for a year regarding dogs, but couldn't emotionally deal with even prior to this last illness.

I could not have done this research without my relationship with Buster and Lea. The concept of care which I've addressed is as much drawn from this relationship as it is from Sedgwick. How to care for someone across the lines of different bodies and senses and desires. The concept of play as emergent collaboration equally comes from learning to play with dogs who had suffered neglect at the hands of their original owners, and then a year recovering in the noisy RSPCA kennels before they were well enough to be rehomed. I love you lea.

Conclusions and exits.

The structure and methodology of this PhD Output consisting of three approaches to a central area of art practice, and within each approach multiple overlapping attempts through the various documents, turns the issue of a conclusion into a challenge.

Rather than attempt to draw books and documents toward a unifying conclusion, erasing the differences between then, I have offered conclusions in the documents individually. Some of these are clearly labeled as such, some are more demonstrative, and some left as provocations.

Throughout the three books are indications of where future paths could proceed. For continuation of creative research and the application of concepts developed, these indications are generally placed at the end of documents. Paths which are more tangential, or areas where the research could be reinforced through engaging with a separate discipline or practitioner appear in endnotes.

In place of some kind of ending for the PhD Output as whole I will raise three of the avenues of future research not already mentioned in individual documents, that will be pursued at its end. All of these examples incorporate work already commenced, that for practical reasons has not been addressed in documents.

The Incomplete Object.

Archeologist Chantal Conneller has produced a large amount of research focused Star Carr, a Mesolithic site in Yorkshire (Conneller, 2004, 2011; Little et al., 2016; Milner, Conneller, & Taylor, 2018a, 2018b). In particular, Conneller has provided a framework for examining some of the objects recovered from the site, and through this reassess the historic inhabitants of the area’s relationship to animals and objects. The objects, twentyone of which were found during the site’s excavation by Professor J.G.D. Clark between 1949 and 1951, consist of the “uppermost part of the skull of a red deer, with the antlers still attached” and are referred to as “antler frontlets” (Conneller, 2004, p. 37). In offering an interpretation for the frontlet’s use, Clark “suggested they could have been used either as hunting aids, to permit hunters to stalk animals at close range without being seen, or as headgear in ritual dances” (Conneller, 2004, p. 37). This interpretation resulted in an impasse between a “‘functional’ and a ‘ritual’ analogy” and has according to Conneller, meant that “in the intervening 50 years they have been ignored” (Conneller, 2004, p. 37).

Conneller’s research breaches the impasse of an animal derived object needing to be either functional or ritual by use of philosopher Gilles Deleze and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari’s work in “A Thousand Plateaus” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987). Firstly, Conneller outlines how in Deleuze and Guattari, “animals come to be seen [...] as an assemblage composed of a number of ways of perceiving and acting in the word” (Conneller, 2004, p. 44). In this view, animals are not singular fixed entities, and the objects derived from them are therefore not limited to being symbolic of the animal whole or else be understood only as practical material. Animals are here understood as collection of “affects” (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987, p. 253), and the objects derived from them convey those Affects to the user in a manner which outside of the binary of ritual and functional. From this point Conneller proceeds to “examine the specific ways in which different things are seen to modify or extend the capacities of people in particular contexts” (Conneller, 2004, p. 51), bridging Deleuze and Guattari to theorist Donna Haraway’s concept of “situated knowledges” which replaces a fixed epistemological view with “webs of differential positioning” (D. Haraway, 1988, p. 590). The use of animal objects becomes simultaneously a process of taking on capacities as well as the ethical/epistemological/affective engagement with the world from another position.

These observations from archeology are useful not because they set some historic precedent for how art should function, but because they articulate processes which are important to art from another perspective. In the documents in this PhD Output which examine artworks I have consciously treated both the processes deployed by the artist and those of her characters in the same manner. In the art I am interested in, things are not easily split between the practical and the ritual but form processes across these lines to perform different things.

Finally, when I contacted Conneller in 2019 she was continuing to examine the frontlets of Star Carr in terms of how they function as “unfinished things”. Conneller has already observed that the frontlets were “broken up as a source of raw material” (Conneller, 2004, p. 46), but is now considering how this occurred concurrently with their uses. A framework for considering art objects which do not reach a fixed state, but are continually re-worked, and drawn from while being used is relevant to a number of documents in this PhD Output. It is relevant to the analysis of artist Tai Shani’s works (SHANI, 2019) which undergo edits between redeployments, or the ongoing work “sidekick” (Price, 2013) by Elizabeth Price. Going forward, I would consider how unfinished things connects to the writing practice of William Burruoghs both through the “cut-up” technique to “cut oneself out of language” (Hassan, 1963, p. 9), and the process whereby his novels were re-edited in subsequent editions. Burroughs is also relevant to the other side of unfinished things whereby these things are not just refined, but are a source of material for future things. I am also interested in the process by which computer software is updated via “patches” (Fisher, 2019) as another model for an unfinished thing.

I’m interested in the political implications of objects which refuse the linear transition from raw material to finished commodity, but is instead part of processes which cross that distinction. To borrow the image from Karl Marx’s Capital Vol. 1 (Marx, 1981), what would it mean for “coat” to remain functioning as “ten yards of linen”, to be always in a process of being woven/unwoven/rewoven into different forms? I feel there is something here to be pursued via the concepts of Incomplete Provocations, and the improvisations and departures which are centred in Tabletop Role Playing Games.

Divination Storytelling

The second exit is far more practical and straightforward. During my research I have used and developed methods for creating parts of narratives based on sortation systems such as card decks and dice rolls. In 2018 I produced an artwork entitled “The Sodden Gates of Vulnerability” which borrowed a mechanic used in multiple games whereby the space in which play takes places is procedurally generated. A hypothetical example of this mechanic would be a game which takes place in a derelict spaceship, the interior rooms and corridors of which is represented with cardboard tiles. When the players reach the exit of one room, a new random room tile is placed at the exit from the first, so the spaceship is configured, and unpredictable, with each subsequent playthrough. In The Sodden Gates of Vulnerability I combined some of the lore from Games Workshop’s derelict spaceship exploration game “Space Hulk” (Games Workshop, 1999) with their subsequently released rules for randomly generated spaceships (Hunt, 2013), to randomly generate prompts for a narrative built from a fictionalised version of my own past.

As a result of the cessation symptoms I was experiencing while coming off antidepressants I found memories returning that medication use had suppressed. In addition, there were physical cessation symptoms which mnemonically triggered some often confused memories of spaces in the town centre of Luton where I spent my teens, frequently from times in the early hours of the morning after leaving a club or a party. I reconstructed these fragmented memories, and the bodily feelings which connected them to the present, and any emergent feelings and noted them down as prompts on index cards. Some memories were so abstract as to not describe a place but just a sensation, or an action. These abstract memories, combined with some other images and thoughts were written up in a list and labeled 1-20.

The Sodden Gates of Vulnerability was produced as a single take spoken performance to microphone. It began with a short reflection on the different ways in which physical geography and brain chemistry are both modulated by chemicals. After this I shuffled and dealt an index card, describing the derelict spaceship/ 4am Luton Town Centre space it represented in the manner of Games Master setting a scene for players of a Role Playing Game. I then rolled a 20 sided dice and used the corresponding entry from the list as a prompt for what the player (the audience to whom the work is addressed) did in traversing this space. A partial transcription of one room follows;

“You stagger out of the thickening fog into the area where escaping heat from the many times kicked in door makes a dim pocket at the edge of the street. Banging on the door that feels like it should have given in by now and it is finally opened by someone inside. You roll in, and so does the fog, and the door opener is already turning the corner ahead into the living room so you guess you will follow them, remembering to shut the door behind you.

The living room is thick with dust and hair and ash over the brown carpet and old sofas. No one has their feet on the floor, all bunched up to keep warm or to manage some symptoms of intake.

You just want to buy, but that isn't how this is going to work out. It never does.

Everything slips. Someone makes you take a music cassette and in lock-eyed intensity tells you why you will like it and when you will die.

A man takes you to one side and rapidly ages while sharing with you a one sided conversation about how he has lived his life. He has little ears like fins and catfish whiskers and it's clear from the way he holds and interacts with the portable stereo he cradles that he has a relationship with Fabio and Grooverider which is both more beastially physical and more vapourusly transcendental than you will ever understand.

You slip out and it's dawn and you have the cassette and you don't think you bought anything but now do not think you need anything so maybe you bought it and weren't paying attention during intake or maybe someone else was in charge of your body.

You roll out with the fog and luckily town is down hill but my god you would never be able to find this place again and my god you would probably never want to because all those people would want to check how closely you been following their advice on how to live.

Oh yeah the plot twist is you're a rabbit”.

Going forward, I would like to explore the mechanics of procedural narrative based on sortation systems, both as an improvised Rendition, and as material which is subsequently cut up and deployed in other ways, possibly as a development of Diagramatics. I’m looking into how I might produce these works for a platform like YouTube, possible using a split screen where half the image shows the face that speaks, and half shows the sortation system such as tarot-style cards.

Dog Mod

Running throughout all three books of this PhD Output are dogs. When I started this PhD in 2016, I soon afterward began living with Lea and Buster, two elderly Staffordshire Bull Terriers. The importance of this relationship to the research is something I have attempted, and failed, to articulate on many occasions in the last three years. As much as the majority of the documents in this PhD Output are underpinned by a desire to understand my own trans* non-binary gender identity, they are also a response to learning about what Deleuze and Guattari would call dog affects, as well as negotiating my emotions towards Lea and Buster particually during the sadly increasing points where they have become unwell.

In mid 2019 I sketched an outline for what I called the “Dog Mod”. In the language of games, a mod is something added to the game which alters part or all of its systems in some way. Mods are often produced by a third party, and can range from something which simply adds some different functionality (such as the campaign generator for Space Hulk referenced in the previous section) or completely reorientate the system, such as the mod “DayZ” that reconfigures military sim “ARMA” into a zombie survival game and spawned an entire genre of video games (Davison, 2014).

The aim of Dog Mod was to produce a document which could provide a means to reconfigure the rest of the PhD Output through its unspoken focus, dogs. Dog Mod is something I decided was both conceptually and emotionally too overwhelming for me to be able to complete in time for submission, but I remains as a point of departure for my future research. It connects the Becoming-Animal of Deleuze and Guattari (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; Stark & Roffe, 2015), philosopher Patricia MacCormack’s expansion of this into animal rights discourse in the Ahuman (MacCormack, 2014), with other ideas around, animals, play and care (Chen, 2012; D. J. Haraway, 2016; Massumi, 2014; Vint, 2008).

Bibliography

Anckorn, J. E. (2019, October 24). Does The Dog Die?: A Not-At-All Comprehensive Guide to Stephen King’s Canines. Retrieved 26 November 2019, from We Are the Mutants website: https://wearethemutants.com/2019/10/24/does-the-dog-die-a-not-at-all-comprehensive-guide-to-stephen-kings-canines/

Chen, M. (2012). Animacies. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

Conneller, C. (2004). Becoming Deer: Corporeal Transformations at Star Carr. Archaeological Dialogues, 11(1), 37–56. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1380203804001357

Conneller, C. (2011). An archaeology of materials: Substantial transformations in early prehistoric Europe. New York: Routledge.

Davison, P. (2014, April 30). Bohemia Interactive Tells the Story of Arma and DayZ. Retrieved 30 December 2019, from USgamer website: https://www.usgamer.net/articles/bohemia-interactive-tells-the-story-of-arma-and-dayz

Deleuze, G., & Guattari, F. (1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Fisher, T. (2019, December 17). What Are Software Patches? Retrieved 30 December 2019, from Lifewire website: https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-a-patch-2625960

Games Workshop. (1999). Space Hulk Rule Book (4th Edition). Nottingham: Games Workshop.

Haraway, D. (1988). Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective. Feminist Studies, 14(3), 575. https://doi.org/10.2307/3178066

Haraway, D. J. (2016). Staying with the trouble: Making kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press.

Hassan, I. (1963). The Subtracting Machine: The Work of William Burroughs. Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 6(1), 4–23. https://doi.org/10.1080/00111619.1963.10689760

Hunt, C. A. T. (2013). Campaign Generator Geotiles. Games Workshop.

Little, A., Elliott, B., Conneller, C., Pomstra, D., Evans, A. A., Fitton, L. C., … Milner, N. (2016). Technological Analysis of the World’s Earliest Shamanic Costume: A Multi-Scalar, Experimental Study of a Red Deer Headdress from the Early Holocene Site of Star Carr, North Yorkshire, UK. PLOS ONE, 11(4), e0152136. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152136

MacCormack, P. (2014). The Animal Catalyst: Towards Ahuman Theory. A&C Black.

Marx, K. (1981). Capital: A critique of political economy (B. Fowkes & D. Fernbach, Trans.). London ; New York, N.Y: Penguin Books in association with New Left Review.

Massumi, B. (2014). What animals teach us about politics. Durham: Duke University Press.

Milner, N., Conneller, C., & Taylor, B. (Eds.). (2018a). Star Carr Volume I: A Persistent Place in a Changing World. https://doi.org/10.22599/book1

Milner, N., Conneller, C., & Taylor, B. (Eds.). (2018b). Star Carr Volume II: Studies in Technology, Subsistence and Environment. https://doi.org/10.22599/book2

Price, E. (2013). Sidekick. In K. Macleod, Thinking Through Art: Reflections on Art as Research (1st ed., pp. 122–132). https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203819869

SHANI, T. (2019). OUR FATAL MAGIC. London: STRANGE ATTRACTOR PRESS.

Stark, H., & Roffe, J. (Eds.). (2015). Deleuze and the non/human. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.

Vint, S. (2008). ‘The Animals in That Country’: Science Fiction and Animal Studies. Science Fiction Studies, 35(2), 177–188.

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toussainttwins · 5 years ago

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He truly had no idea what had gotten into him to go and try to find the seamstress' shop... but here he was, standing right infront of it. At least though he'd washed himself as well as his clothes. Cautiously he stepped inside, wonder apparent in his eyes. She was a master at her work, that much was clear. When he didn't spot Natanis, he called out "Uhm, signora Natanis? I... I wanted to ask you, if the polish and other equiptment was useful for your friend? " Oh, how silly he felt just now.

The ornamented door to the left swung open and revealed the mistress of the illustrious shop, in the arms of no less illustrious knight errant. The fashionably cut beard of his was buried deeply in Natanis’ decolletage and, judging by many giggles and pleads, tickled mercilessly.

Upon discovering that they were not alone, the carefree couple froze. The pose was rather picturesque and reminded of a classic tale of a dryad captured by a lustful hunter. Only the hunter in question was displaying all the signs of a dangerous distress, despite the shiny armour to protect his strong frame. A blank panic in his eyes turned him into motionless marble, as effectively as any spell.

“Oh, what…I must have forgotten to lock the front door! What a hornless goat I am,” the merry blonde exclaimed, closed her eyes and gave a theatrical sigh, full of utter, unspeakable grief. Her companion voiced something akin to a choked hiccup in agreement, but gallantly continued holding his precious, semi-undressed burden.

“How lovely to see you, little master! The sky itself is made clearer by your presence alone! I was just about to demonstr…tell you, darling Doduhare, what a wonder a simple polish can do to a hoof! A true miracle-maker resides in our fair Beauclair! For it was no one else, but young Giuseppe, the bootblack of San Sebastian, that shared that wondrous, bright bit of knowledge with me,” chimed the seamstress, quite comfortable to the very tips of her vainglorious hair, entwined with pearls. Something of her cheerful confidence seemed to land on the knight and gradually rewoven his terrified expression to one of a calm, benevolent dignity.

“Dear master Giuseppe, may I introduce you Milton de Peyrac-Peyran, one of the bravest protectors of our Duchy, a famous knight errant whose glorious adventures it takes a whole full moon and all her stars to recount.” Natanis declared from her high position, her very words blushing with pleasure at having such a sangbonbon to call her own. At the end of her introductory speech, the honey-gold eyes returned to Milton, caressing him by a sweet gaze, while a more open expression was clearly not welcome.

“Forgive me, gentlemen, but I simply must leave you. For a mere wink. A seamstress dress is a face of her business and mine got…ravaged by this hot weather.”

Making sure that the pretty seamstress was engulfed by the maw of a another room and, thusly, out of hearing range, the knight spoke in hushed tones: “You seem to be a quick young lad. Being a knight requires one to be no less quick on their feet. As far as I am concerned, today I visited the harbor…a secret service to our beloved Duchess…got my boots soiled and needed your craft. We would NOT have any reason to meet anywhere else. Would we, master Giuseppe? Especially not in a certain shop in Hauteville…” de Peyrac-Peyran did not look the boy directly in the eye, but the golden coin winked merrily enough between his fingers.

“And a fair service demands a fair payment.”

#toussaint-bootblack #♥trick is better than truth (rp answers)

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 3 years ago

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alright fuck it, 20 more! happy pride!

Common Bonds (edited by Claudie Arsenault, C.T. Callahan, B.R. Sanders, and RoAnna Sylver) - an upcoming anthology of stories centering aromantics.

The Natural Mother of the Child: A Memoir of Nonbinary Parenthood (Krys Malcolm Belc) - it's exactly what it sounds like, babey! a recent memoir by a nonbinary individual about the experience of carrying out a pregnancy and giving birth to a child.

¡Hola Papi! How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons (John Paul Brammer) - if you aren't already reading John Paul Brammer's hilarious, heartfelt, and self-proclaimed "deranged" advice column, checking out this freshly published collection is a great place to start.

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex (Angela Chen) - one of my favorite pieces of recent queer nonfiction, following the writer's acceptance of her own asexuality as she navigates the stereotypes and stigma that plague the ace community.

Finna (Nino Cipri) - a buckwild novella about a pair of coworkers who a.) just broke up and b.) have to go on an adventure to find a lost customer in an interdimensional furniture store.

The Unbroken (C.L. Clark) - if the first list didn't include enough anti-empire queer fiction for you, here's another one in which a princess and female soldier forge a fragile alliance while working opposite sides of society to end a war.

Gender Euphoria: Stories of Joy from Trans, Nonbinary and Intersex Writers (edited Laura Kate Dale) - compiled by trans lesbian and video game journalist Laura Kate Dale, enjoy this collection of euphoric stories from folks all over the gender spectrum.

Hunger Pangs (Joy Demorra) - more queer vampires, folks! in this one, a dashing captain is assigned to an island full of vampires and finds himself with some Feelings about, and I quote, "the local vampire dandy lord." a nice touch is that you can choose to purchase the book with or without sex scenes included!

The Traitor Baru Cormorant (Seth Dickinson) - more anti-empire fic, following a queer girl with a prodigious gift for numbers seeking to destroy the empire that colonized her homeland and killed one of her fathers from the inside out, by burying herself among its highest-ranking officials.

Bingo Love (Tee Franklin) - SUPER cute comic series about an elderly interracial lesbian couple, tracking their relationship through decades :)

Star Eater (Kerstin Hall) - okay so we have (checks notes) a lesbian taking out an order of cannibal nuns? cool!

Burning Roses (S.L. Huang) - a fairytale reimagining that throws Little Red Riding Hood and Hou Yi, a legendary Chinese archer, together as a pair of crotchety, aging queer women who have to come together to slay the monsters ravaging their country.

The Thirty Names of Night (Zeyn Joukhadar) - a contemporary novel about a closeted young trans man from a Syrian American family trying to solve the mystery of his mother's death, and what is has to do with the journal of a mysterious woman who painted rare birds.

No Man of Woman Born (Rewoven Tales) (Ana Mardoll) - I'm just gonna quote the blurb directly from the author's website, because it slaps ass: "a collection of seven fantasy stories in which transgender and nonbinary characters subvert and fulfill gendered prophecies."

Luisa: Now and Then (Carole Maurel and Mariko Tamaki) - a graphic novel in which 32 year old struggling photographer Luisa encounters her 15 year old self and struggles to deal with her past, while also grappling with her attraction to a female neighbor.

Skye Falling (Mia McKenzie) - a middle aged queer woman who's spent her life going it alone is contacted by the 12 year old child who was born from an egg she donated in her 20s, kicking off a complicated contemporary story about family.

Little Fish (Casey Plett) - a trans woman discovers that her grandfather - a dead and deeply conservative Mennonite - may have also been transgender, and goes looking for the pieces of his life while she and her own friends grapple with addiction, sex work, and mental illness.

Glitter + Ashes: Queer Tales of a World that Wouldn't Die (edited by Dave Ring) - an anthology from Neon Hemlock, focused on tales of queer folk surviving various ends of the world against all odds. features C.L. Clark, who's also included on this very list, and countless other incredible talents.

Jonny Appleseed (Joshua Whitehead) - a two-spirit sex worker and self-described "glitter princess" is called back home for his stepfather's funeral, and spends a whirlwind week navigating how to walk the line between his life in the big city and the reservation.

The Black Tides of Heaven (Neon Yang) - okay let's have one more regime-toppling story: the queer man with a dictatorial mother and a highly praised twin sister begins to pull away from his family's rule, and finds himself torn between them and a growing rebelling.

anyway since pride month is coming up and my local barnes and nobey has once again decided to only put young adult books in their corporate mandated rainbow display, y'all want some queer reading recs that aren't YA?

#bookblr

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silverjirachi · 1 year ago

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Happy Pride, You Fools

I have one final gift for you. Here, in the eleventh hour.

New Astor content. New Astor/Ganondorf ship content.

art by @sherlocktheravencat, used with permission.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/48241084

“It’s about what we have been projecting. The angles have shifted, everything as a whole is just slightly misaligned. Not in a harmful way, just in a way that is… different. It’s almost as if a comet came down and knocked the entire world slightly askew.”

Ganondorf winced. He still didn’t like the idea of his existence here being entirely a mistake.

“But,” Astor said, seeing his hesitation, “it has skewed everything only about eight degrees, toward the Crest of Naydra, which, of course, is associated with wisdom and good fortune.”

Ganondorf looked up. There was definitely a light in Astor’s eyes.

“Perhaps there is some sort of universal guidance smiling on us after all.”

Some background:

I have always been very fascinated by the dynamic between Astor and Ganondorf. Of course, in my own fic, this manifests as something very dark and sinister. But what if there was another way?

Long ago, @sherlocktheravencat commissioned me to create a very special fic, and that was a one shot that combined her very sad and self-insecure Ganondorf—who is trying everything he can to be a good person—from her fic Born Evil, with my very brooding and beside-himself Astor from Exile//Vilify.

You’d think then, that this would be quite angsty. Two evil men told by prophecies that they must be evil. But no, you see. That is just the thing. Here, they are here to have a ✨happy✨ ending and make themselves a ✨better✨ fate from the broken pieces of the prophecies that condemned them. At last, they are not alone.

So, without further ado, on the evening of the final day of Pride Month, I present to you:

Rewoven into the Stars, a (very wholesome) Astor x Ganondorf fic. Part of both the Stories from Exile and Born Evil universes.

Read here.

***As a reminder, to protect against automatic AI scraping, you now must have an AO3 account in order to view my work. Accounts are free with an email address and they do not track or sell your information. Please consider signing up for an account if you want to continue to support me. Thank you.***

#astor #ganondorf #hwaoc #gastor #exile vilify #stories from exile #born evil #age of calamity

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if-you-fan-a-fire · 4 years ago

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“Wire Fence Cut Ready For Break Spotted In Time,” Toronto Star. January 17, 1941. Page 1. ----- Strands Almost Imperceptibly Rewoven Noticed by Alert Guard ----- AT GERMANS’ CAMP ---- A wholesale escape of German prisoners from a northern Ontario prison camp is believed to have been prevented Friday, when guards discovered a wire fence cut through.

The fence, constructed of strong wire tightly interlaced, was cut through from bottom to top when discovered by patrolling soldiers. The break-through was made on a side of the camp facing a thick bush.

As soon as the break in the fence was discovered, a roll-call was taken of the prisoners, and none, as far as can be learned, had escaped.

So carefully was the wire cut that it would have escaped the casual observation of anyone passing by. The end of the cut wires had been twisted together so that they looked intact, although it would have taken a prisoner only a moment to separate them.

Once out of the prison grounds, the prisoners would have been within easy walking distance of a main highway.

#neys #northwestern ontario #prisoners of war #prisoner of war camp #escape attempt #escape from prison #prison camp #northern ontario #canadian soldiers #prison guards #boreal forest #thunder bay #lake superior #crime and punishment in canada #history of crime and punishment in canada

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lightdancer1 · 3 years ago

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From my Storm of Iron verse:

In the many years to come of his long, long life, John Grammaticus would always remember his one encounter with Narthan Dume. He had been taken captive by the colossal gene-forged monsters Dume built, his Great Yokai. Dume had ordered everyone else in his unit brutally murdered after their removal into the citadel of his realm, the Palace of Phan Khaos.

Dume wore a great suit of armor, more nearly like that of a Knight than a man's, and had enhanced himself likewise. Like the long-vanished Fleshweaver, Basilio Fo, Narthan Dume had taken great works of the Golden Age and rewoven himself.

"An old book of the Second Millennium once said," the man spoke with a heavy accent of his home province, once known in ancient times as the island of Okinawa, 'There were Nephilim in the Earth in those days, and also afterward, when the B'nei Elohim looked upon the daughters of men and took wives to themselves, whomsoever they chose.' "

Dume's face, swollen in size with the rest of him curled into a grim smile, his unnatural aesthetic perfection so strangely akin to aspects that would recur in the later Primarch Fulgrim.

"Cathericism is all that remains of the old Abrahamic paths. Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Ten thousand years and an age when Mankind reforged stars and had power over the dark arts that Kalagann of Ursh, one of my more unpleasant rivals, and the brute that calls himself the Emperor both wield. There are some who might accuse me of callously destroying traces of a Golden Age even as I wielded it to remake myself, to overthrow the last of the old Dragon Kings and to become master of this Pan-Pacific Empire."

He shook his head.

"The true Golden Age died in fire when the Men of Gold and Men of Stone found Men of Iron more than they could control. Such powers they had in those days, powers before which the deeds of these great wars are as nothing at all. We are pgymies squatting in the ruins of the true giants, without full comprehension of what it is that we wield, that we have at our disposals.

Even the smallest armies have gene-forged in armor, though only the truly great like myself, Dalmoth Kyn, the Emperor, and Kalagann can aspire to mastery of the world itself. The Men of Gold, superhumanity, made Men of Stone, AIs that could attach to flesh or metal, who in turn expanded upon their own making and made Men of Iron.

Now superhumanity makes monsters and gods in their image and their likeness."

Narthan Dume had a gaze that none could meet, as was true with Kalagann of Ursh and the being that called Himself Emperor. With the Emperor it was eyes of golden fire like starlight. With Kalagann the maddened Things that lurked behind his gaze and the vast legions at his disposal, even if the Tupelov Lancers and the Geno Chiliad had defected to the Imperium after the Battle of the Murengon and the conquest of Nordafrik.

Dume's gaze was not like either of them, it was the gaze of a fanatic, with small traces of the genetic enhancements at work from the Golden Age. Eyes that shone not with Warp-Light but a true light of their own, a God's eyes for a God's body.

Grammaticus was lifted bodily into the air by one of the swollen hands in vast armor, the giant's face boring into his own with the eyes that shone fully.

"So go back to your lord and master who calls himself Emperor and tell him that the Pan-Pacific Empire will never yield to his threats, or those things he calls Thunder Warriors. His brutes can barely stand or function. My Yokai are Gods made manifest, products of art of the Age I seek to erase."

His grin was cold.

"My Nephilim are on the Earth in these days, mighty men, men of renown, but for all that, they are what the Thunder Warriors are not. I destroy the works of the Age of Technology because it was a golden age in terms of this one, but it has no value for us in this day. To know elements of gigantic endeavors whose secrets are lost, which no amount of recovered knowledge can allow us to rebuild? Why we gain nothing at all from this, save a permanent sense of inferiority."

He dropped Grammaticus roughly, his bones aching as Dume strode back.

"So go, messenger-boy of the so-called Imperium. Inform your master of that truth."

Two of the Yokai stepped in, bodies of an unnatural Fae-like beauty, clad in clanking armor that ground in notes smoother than Thunder Armor but not that much smoother. It was John Grammaticus's one and only encounter with the hulking giant called Narthan Dume and it would be a memory to linger for the rest of that long life of his until his tasks were done.

#omniverse tales #storm of iron verse #The Wars of the Unity #Narthan Dume #warhammer 40k #horus heresy

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