#stargate exile

[sweet-little-tank-top-number]

Jack meets a wraith named Sting:

[agent-troi]

‼️‼️‼️

[mariacallous]

Five years ago, Jack Ma was not just one of the world’s richest billionaires, but also—perhaps only after President Xi Jinping—the most famous Chinese person in the world.

In the early aughts, Ma built a business empire around his company, Alibaba, which quickly took off as an online shopping juggernaut that first challenged and then outsold Amazon in China, all while branching out into countless other services. For millions of young Chinese people, Ma was their country’s answer to Bill Gates: Ma, a former English teacher, was a self-made man whose example seemed to illustrate the sky-high achievement and wealth that one could attain through a combination of entrepreneurial vision and relentless drive.

In China, Ma was in constant demand, the subject of numerous films and TV shows, while overseas, he became a kind of unofficial face of his country. He operated his own philanthropic organization, paying special attention to Africa just as China was becoming the continent’s leading global partner. He took star turns at Davos. And he bought the struggling English-language Hong Kong newspaper, the South China Morning Post, evincing a willingness to risk losing a great deal of money to revive an old publication with British colonial-era roots and turn it into a globally respected, Chinese-owned news operation.

Then, in 2020, on the eve of what was expected to be one of the biggest initial public offerings (IPOs) in history, Ma’s world was turned upside down as his empire became the target of hostile regulatory actions from the Chinese Communist Party. Authorities canceled the IPO of Ma’s Ant Group (an Alibaba affiliate), levied anti-monopoly actions against his businesses and those of other tech giants, and summoned Ma for hostile lectures and questioning.

Soon, the man who once seemed to be everywhere was scarcely seen at all. To avoid further trouble, without fanfare, he reportedly slipped away to live in a kind of exile in Japan.

In certain ways, Ma’s story is a uniquely Chinese one. It demonstrates the Communist Party’s obsession with control, as the party has long worked to prevent the emergence of a fully independent private sector in China. It is also part of the saga of Xi, who has worked hard to concentrate power in his own hands and who brooks no rivals in public attention and adulation.

Yet the humbling of Ma—and an entire class of other newly minted, mega-rich tech entrepreneurs in China—also speaks profoundly to political developments in the United States surrounding President Donald Trump’s reconquest of power after four years out of office.

In bringing this new class of business titans to heel, China’s leaders made a carefully considered strategic decision about the direction of their country’s political economy. In effect, they were saying that Beijing would never grant a dominant role to the extraordinarily lucrative and freewheeling private technology sector. Put slightly differently, that sector would have no sacred cows and would never be allowed to cast a shadow on the party and state.

In the emerging Trump regime, we are seeing just the opposite. The administration is a collection of billionaires that almost mindlessly celebrates wealth. On his first full day in office, for example, Trump gathered in the White House with two of the world’s richest men—Larry Ellison of Oracle and Masayoshi Son of Softbank—along with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman to salute the launch of a new project called Stargate, billed as a $500 billion joint venture to build artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Trump’s explanation for why this merited his support was almost childishly vapid. “AI seems to be very hot,” he said. “It seems to be the thing that a lot of smart people are looking at very strongly.”

So far, few details about the project are known. But as Washington Post coverage suggests, the companies investing vast amounts of money in AI are almost giddy that, unlike the Biden administration, the new White House seems willing to largely let the tech giants make up their own rules as free from regulation as possible.

The centrality of tech titans to Trump’s ambitions is, of course, best captured by one man: Elon Musk. Many of the richest and most powerful U.S. businesspeople were on hand for—and helped fund—Trump’s inauguration festivities, including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. But it is Musk who has dominated the scene ever since Trump tapped him to help downsize the government and streamline regulations outside of any traditional institutional framework.

To say that this invites concerns about conflicts of interest doesn’t begin to capture the extraordinary partnership between Musk and Trump. In contrast with Xi’s China, Musk and big tech capital are rubbing out the lines between business and the state.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed by Musk, has now officially become part of the U.S. government. Originally, DOGE was set to be co-led by Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. But as the Post reported, their visions for the organization diverged—and Musk’s prevailed. Whereas Ramaswamy favored an approach based on legal strategies and a mastery of regulatory arcana, Musk seeks to place technology at the center of streamlining efforts.

Musk built his world-beating fortune through technology. It would not be unreasonable to expect that the access he gains to government data while working for Trump and the tech tools that he chooses to pursue will profit him immensely. On Inauguration Day, Musk even promoted his aspiration of landing humans on Mars—a long-held goal for his company SpaceX—as a national project, saying, “We’re going to take DOGE to Mars.”

The following day, Musk, seemingly unafraid of Trump’s ire, rushed to cast doubt on the Stargate venture. As in so much other technology, Musk is a player in AI, too, and one can readily imagine that knocking Stargate was a way to further his own interests.

China has not reined in its tech sector out of any belief in democracy, but rather through a seeming understanding that the new forces of wealth, data, intelligence, information, commerce, and communications can hijack a country’s political system and lead it into dangerously uncharted territory.

Trump, who betrays little technical sophistication, has done the opposite, as he has embraced the big tech sector and celebrated its wealthiest. If this is not challenged, the world might one day look back at this time as the moment when the U.S. state was captured.

[mylittleredgirl]

20 questions for fic writers

tagged by @geneeste. :) i may have done this one before, but tumblr blog search was traditionally unhelpful and i have several very important things i should be doing, so here we are <3

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 219

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 655,471

3. What fandoms do you write for?

stargate atlantis is the runaway lead, then sg-1, 90s/00s treks, the x-files, and a grab bag of other things. only two fics so far for m*a*s*h but the forecast looks good!

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

no sooner met (star trek voyager, j/c, eight years of friends-to-lovers in 5k or less)

career day (stargate sg-1, clone!sam/jack, damn that sure was a choice to go back to high school amirite)

next chapter (the good place, chidi/eleanor, the intimacy of reading)

first date (star trek voyager, j/c, falling in love again)

occupational hazards (the good place, chidi/eleanor, eleanor would rather not be the architect)

5. Do you respond to comments?

eventually!!!! i tend to keep nice ones on my home page for a while to cheer me up and then sometimes they get buried. i wake up nights like "damn the good place fandom really went all out with amazing comments on that random fic in like 2018 and i never replied," so maybe i need to go through my inbox and belatedly clear my cosmic debts.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

twilight (stargate atlantis, sheppard/weir, what if john didn't break the cycle). strong on style but real weak on comfort.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

weaving loose ends (stargate sg-1, sam/jack) ends with a wedding! in twenty years of writing romance fic, that has maybe only happened once?

8. Do you get hate on fics?

not yet! but the year is young.

a fic of mine did cause a dramatic fandom schism once, in the dancing with the stars fandom no less. a splinter fan group created in exile! a mod claiming to be personal friends with the stars! everybody storming out and then blocking each other! so my fic did cause hate, but somehow i personally escaped unscathed. i didn't even get blocked. (lesson: in some spaces, rpf is encouraged until They Fuck. second lesson: if you start a fire and then stay very quiet, everyone forgets about you.)

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

i do!! i guess!! but i'm struggling with it right now and it's giving me a complex. and "what kind" is like......... vanilla het fic for the most part tbh. gauzy curtain vibes, even. basically, i have to really sit and think about whether to rate something M or E, you know?

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written?

nope!

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

nope!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? 

yes, but not since the x-files days. rip geocities webrings we salute you for your years of service.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no, but i think i'd like to! passing chapters back and forth sleepover style like "haha write your way out of THIS" would be fun. (or collaborating in a more mundane way, i guess....)

14. What’s your all time favorite ship?

john sheppard/elizabeth weir (stargate atlantis). first fic in the tag and i'm still fuckin there. three years on tv and a lifetime in my goddamn brain.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

realistically, i'm feeling pretty down on the chances that i'll ever finish ANY wip that's longer than 20k, but the two long ones withering on the vine that i'd like to finish are a sam/jack sg1 episodic soulmate fic and "what if janeway went undercover with the maquis instead of tuvok: the novel."

16. What are your writing strengths?

stealing one of geneeste's answers because "character complexity" is a good one! i don't feel satisfied with any fic unless i feel like i have learned something new about a character, or highlighted it in a new way.

my more specific strength, according to @coraclavia, is missing-scene fics that weave through an entire series canon to make a thesis statement (they are In Love).

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

😭 i can't write anything long 😭 i really wish i were different 😭 i envy those of you with staying power who can return to a story after going to work or writing something else and keep plugging away at it. i used to write sprawling things when i was a teen, but since becoming Adult With Job now many years ago, i've totally lost that skill!!

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

haaaahahahaha. talk about a weakness. i literally couldn't bring myself to write a fic that required dialogue in Ancient from stargate, a language that -- i cannot stress this enough -- is not even real. i'm like "well maybe i'll study latin for three years and then analyze all the episodes where they speak it to reverse engineer the differences so i can write the bastardized space latin correctly" GIRL WHY. JUST FUCK IT UP.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

first completed story that i recall would have been star trek voyager in my early teens, and by the grace of rural internet and some kind of prescient sense of self-preservation, it does not live online. first internet-published fic was several years later, for the x-files. for better or worse, that one can still be found.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

i think pieces (stargate atlantis, sheppard/weir, catharsis through sex pollen) might be the new best, and i had a lot of fun writing erasers on pencils (stargate sg-1, clone!sam/jack, catharsis through truancy).

--

i am sure many of my fic-writer-meme friends have done this already but @ussjellyfish if your answers have changed since whenever you did it last; i'd love to hear how @havocthecat, @anretc, and @coraclavia would answer this; and blowing dandelion meme seeds over the fence to the mash fandom: @remyfire!

[howtofightwrite]

The fun part with this is that there already is some crossover between aliens or UFO encounters and cryptid folklore. Now, this does betray that, to some degree, modern folklore has taken a more science-adjacent tone. You can see this in terminology. Instead of folklore, we have pseudo-science fields like cryptozoology or parapsychology.

The difference between cyptozoology and folklore centering on strange creatures in the forest is simply that we, as individuals, would like to see ourselves as less superstitious, and more rational, than those who came before us. And those who came before us felt the same way about their predecessors. The terminology changes, but the underlying idea of looking for something inexplicable, or finding something new remains the same. This is something you may want to keep in mind while creating new strands of pseudoscience to account for the supernatural creatures in your world.

The irony is, in scratching off the comic book approach, you're skipping over something interesting and fun. What happens when the supernatural creatures of folklore and myth are aliens? Erich von Dänikenis probably the most prominent advocate for this idea. If you've ever seen Stargate, his idea of, “paleo-contact,” and the idea is that major mythological figures were aliens should be familiar. This is specifically a branch of pseudo-archeology and psuedo-history.

It's not hard to spin this off into the idea of, “supernatural,” creatures that are actually exiled aliens. The Fey are particularly good for this, if you've spent any significant time looking at Celtic myths, though this also works with any sufficiently detailed pantheon. Again, that's basically the route Stargate went with the Egyptian pesedjet, and gradually expanding into more cultures as the TV series' continued. This is also the route Marvel went with Thor, meaning this is, literally, a comic book approach.

While the actual comic book is much darker, the original Men in Black film does a wonderful job of existing as a quasi-fever-dream suggestion for a world where supernatural entities operate as a kind of police force regulating visiting extraterrestrials. The technology they're playing with is said to be of alien origin, but really, we're solidly in Clarke's Third Law territory here.

The fuzzy territory Men in Blackbrings into focus also illustrates one difficulty with this idea. The difference between an extraterrestrial and a fey or demon is the perspective you bring to the discussion. They're allalien beings. Aliens have become a new form of outside creature. The difference between the premise of War of the Worldsand Doom II lies in the aesthetics of the monsters that came from Mars. This doesn't mean you can't use both, but you should be aware that they will naturally, “fill the same slot,” in your story, and it's something to be conscious of. At the same time, this also creates a natural delineation if you want to mix and match different approaches to the supernatural and aliens.

The short version of this idea is that you can divide most supernatural fiction into a few general approaches. Either the monsters are hidden from the world via some (probably magical or technological) means, hidden via their own actions (which is to say, staying hidden), or they're a part of the daily world. With some play between the second and third category depending on how many people are in on the secret. Mixing fantasy monsters and aliens gives you a good excuse for why one group might fall into one of the above categories while another does not, and allows for some wild combinations. Such as a world where aliens are a part of everyday life, but the supernatural is hidden by some mystical veil, a world where aliens hide among the population using technology while monsters try desperately to avoid being discovered by the modern world, or a world where supernatural  beings are simply a part of everyday life, but the world is currently under a covert alien onslaught. Really, there are a lot of options here, and the only limit is your creativity.

I will say, this is something that is tailor made to have fun with. It's is a wild mix, and there is a lot of freedom to how you approach this, including a lot of ways you can shake up conventional interactions between the groups.

-Starke

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[deadheaddaisy]

What’re your most rewatched ENT episodes? What about your most rewatched Stargate episodes? (And do you think those have anything in common, like similar plotlines or similar themes?)

Oooh, now that's something I hadn't ever considered. Let me see.

By now you should know that I don't do anything by half measures. So I managed to cull my list down from over 200 to 79 of my most-replayed episodes (and this does not mean they are the highest-rated or best, just what I rewatch regularly, sometimes for certain scenes only, sometimes because they're good in the background). I went for both SG-1 and Atlantis as they both overlap with Enterprise in air-dates (The Storm overlaps with Babel One and Unending in timing, for one, and now I feel really ancient since SGA is 20 years old and the others are way older).

Green shows my go-to, will always rewatch these when I need something on. The other colours don't really matter for the purposes of this ask.

Most of these are quite action- or humour-heavy. Hathor and Bound are very much "the guys get brainwashed by pheromones" though I find the women of the SGC far more capable than Enterprise's in taking back their base (knocking out several men to do so, partly out of frustration and partly to stop being attacked themselves). There's also the issue of consent and what happened to Daniel, though that's kind of sidelined. 

Friendship and found family are big, big drawcards, and there are several excellent episodes across all three series that highlight this, which is what I love most of all in my shows. Fighting back against a takeover makes an appearance across all three, too, which makes Foothold, Prometheus, the Storm arc, and Midway so enticing in Stargate; and Shockwave, The Catwalk, and Chosen Realm (okay, the second half, as the first half makes my blood boil) in Enterprise. 

On the whole, I'd say most of these episodes either show the crew/team/individuals kicking ass and taking names, or facing natural disasters (especially Inferno), alien threats, or war time. I also love individuals showing their true natures and growth (hence both versions of Proving Ground, Death Knell - Samantha Carter is an absolute badass in this one - Sleeping Dogs, the Romulan/Andorian arc, Malcolm's Section 31 arc, Rodney's sister episodes (David Hewlett and his sister bring their true sibling dynamics to both).

And then humour, of course. John Billingsley is a hoot in The Other Guys and Bound (and I love Phlox in all the Enterprise episodes, natch), and then Rodney's performance in Duet and Harmony makes my day. And Window of Opportunity, Wormhole X-Treme and 200 are among the very best of SG-1's line-up. 

I am a big fan of (space)ships, hence my love of episodes introducing these (aside from the NX-01 and NX-02, naturally). Thor's Chariot introduces us to the sexy beast that is a Biliskner-class Asgard warship, with Earth's Prometheus making two appearances; in Enterprise's Proving Ground we see the Kumari Andorian warship (and then again in Babel One, getting the living hell blown out of it, sadly); and in SGA, an Aurora-class battle cruiser in Inferno (not to mention the Daedelus showing up in The Siege). 

I love Marauders because it shows Malcolm in his element, being an actual tactician and playing with his big guns; while Hoshi shows how all that training he gave her made her a crack shot; even if the whole Klingon storyline doesn't do much for me.

Vox Sola introduces my rarepair and I dig it for Hoshi and T'Pol's interactions (also in Sleeping Dogs, plus Hoshi insisting on using all the torpedoes). For me that's very much a Death Knell and Upgrade kind of situation - and Foothold, go Sam yet again! - for SG-1. And then Elizabeth and John facing off in The Long Goodbye - the diplomat against the military leader? Yes, please. Plus, the kiss! 

I have Exile in there even though I hate the stupid nightgown-wearing what the hell because it's such a Hoshi-Malcolm-centric episode, right down to Tarquin using an avatar that looks very much like Malcolm - short, dark-haired, light-eyed. I imagine Hoshi feels safe around Malcolm so Tarquin uses that look as part of his stratagem to trick her into feeling at ease. And also because Hoshi shows just how tough she actually is when her people are threatened.

This is already way too long an answer, or I'd go through every episode, but as you can see, several of them cross over in themes, across all three series, and it depends on what I'm looking for at the time.

Thanks for the ask!

[geekymoviemom]

Shuffle your on-repeat playlist and list the first ten songs

I was tagged by @aintinacage and @capsicle13 thank you!! 💖

1. Glorify Your Name - Tony Martelle

2. More Than a Feeling - Boston

3. Slice - Five for Fighting

4. Under Pressure - Queen + David Bowie

5. Somebody That I Used to Know - Gotye

6. Exile - Taylor Swift

7. This is the Time - Billy Joel

8. If I Lose Myself - One Republic

9. One Lonely Night - REO Speedwagon

10. Lose My Soul - TobyMac + Kirk Franklin + Mandisa (may she rest in peace 🙏 😢)

List your top 15 TV shows because it reflects your personality

In no particular order…

1. Star Trek - The Next Generation

2. Stargate SG-1

3. Stargate Atlantis

4. The Big Bang Theory

5. Dark

6. SEAL Team

7. House MD

8. Fringe

9. 24

10. CSI

11. Bones

12. Star Wars - The Clone Wars

13. Star Wars - Rebels

14. The Crown

15. Downton Abbey

Thank you so much for the tags, this was fun! 💖

Tagging: @gaiagalit @sherlollyandspoilers @thelettersfromnoone @wendywobbles @distractionsfromthefood @90spopstargirl @norbertsmom and anyone else who would like to play.

[koi-koi-fish]

Changed the name of my Youjo Senki/Stargate fic from the placeholder "Tanya's expedition" to "The forlorn hopes of lost exiles"

I think it goes hard. Though I didn't change it needlessly or just change it so it'll sound cooler. The new title is more accurate to the story that I want to write.

[miyamorana]

Miya’s 2023 Fanfic Recs Part 5

Here are all the cool, complete fics I’ve read this year. Separated into 5 posts because there’s nearly a hundred of them.

PART 5: CROSSOVERS (11)

Batman/Lois & Clark/MCU (1)

Boku no Hero Academia/Encanto (1)

Boku no Hero Academia/Harry Potter (2)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer/MCU (1)

Hades/Harry Potter (1)

Harry Potter/Merlin (1)

Harry Potter/Stargate Atlantis (1)

Julie and the Phantoms/Spider-Man (MCU) (1)

Julie and the Phantoms/Voltron: Legendary Defenders (1)

MCU/Teen Wolf (1)

Part 1: Boku no Hero Academia (33) Part 2: Other Anime and Cartoons (20) Part 3: Television (16) Part 4: Video Games, Movies and Books (16)

Fandoms: Batman/Lois & Clark/MCU Title: New World, Same Old Problems Author: RavenclawAngel Pairing: None Rating: Unrated Word Count: 43,309 Series: Part 1 of Steve Rogers: Man out of Time and Place (Words: 93,680 - Works: 3) Summary: The battle in Siberia does not go as planned. Now Steve Rogers has to face his sentence: Exile to Earth B. Let him be somebody else’s problem from now on, according to General Ross. For his part, Steve isn��t sure what to make of his new home or its inhabitants, but it’s better than camping.

Fandoms: Boku no Hero Academia/Encanto Title: Of Quirks and Miracles  Author: Starlight (Fandom_Eclipse) Pairing: None Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 7,280 Summary: Mira-bella

So dinner was a total disaster and I ruined Isabela’s engagement, but on the plus side I found Tío Bruno!

He apparently spent the last decade living in the walls of Casita with the rats. So that’s a thing.

Midori129

I’m sorry, he *what*

When Abuela’s quirk starts to fail, Mirabel asks for help on an online quirk forum. She receives it in the form of a certain Midoriya Izuku. Neither are entirely prepared for what’s about to happen, but at least they’ll have a friend with them.

Fandoms: Boku no Hero Academia/Harry Potter Title: The Last Black Author: Toboe1087 Pairings: Aizawa Shouta/Yamada Hizashi, Kaminari Denki/Shinsou Hitoshi Rating: Teen Word Count: 93,904 Summary: Of course a goblin would be the one to tell Harry that he had a surviving family member. His life never made sense, so he really shouldn’t have expected assuming the Lordship of the House of Black to be easy. And of course the last surviving Black wouldn’t make Harry’s life easy, either.

Fandoms: Boku no Hero Academia/Harry Potter Title: New Friends, New Heroes Author: Blueseabird2 Pairing: Aizawa Shouta | Eraserhead/Harry Potter Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 3,018 Summary: Harry goes on a vacation with Teddy and there is trouble that isn’t Harry’s fault. But Teddy gets to show off and Harry gets a new friend so everything’s great! Hermione will be so proud of him.

Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Marvel Cinematic Universe Title: Collision Author: Crunchysunrises Pairing: None Rating: Teen Word Count: 6,087 Series: Part 1 of Personal Assistants, Superheroes, and World Save-age (Words: 22,911 - Works: 3) Summary:  Five times that Buffy runs into Tony, four conversations they have, three times Buffy admires Pepper’s shoes, two times Tony offers Buffy a job, and the one time that she accepts.

Fandoms: Hades/Harry Potter Title: Littlest Master Author: The_Dark_Elf Pairing: Thanatos/Zagreus (background) Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 10,416 Summary: Prophecy was an odd thing, and the Fates not as all knowing as they had once seemed. Still, Thanatos was finding it difficult to believe this child would one day be his Master.

Or

Thanatos isn’t entirely sure how he got a mortal son.

Fandoms: Harry Potter/Merlin Title: The Immortal and the Revenant Author: RileyWilliamsJr Pairing: None Rating: Unrated Word Count: 153,326 Summary: As usual, Merlin has utterly failed in keeping a low profile by inadvertently getting himself dragged into a mess of a situation that appears to have something to do with a seemingly unkillable snake man, a toad woman, an order of phoenixes, and a boy named Harry Potter who, he quickly finds, is equally bemused by his current predicament. When he discovers how lost the boy is, he resolves to help him and his friends get rid of this dark lord–as well as their malignant (and worse, ineffectual) new teacher.

Fandoms: Harry Potter/Stargate Atlantis Title: Ad Astra Per Magicae Author: zathara001 Pairing: None Rating: Teen Word Count: 31,845 Summary: John Sheppard’s posting to Antarctica gets more interesting than he’d expected when he recognizes part of what they’re working on as being similar to the Ancient Runes he’d once studied with his cousin Harry Potter.

Fandoms: Spider-Man (MCU)/Julie and the Phantoms Title: Double Tap to Like Author:  breakaway71 Pairing: Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson/Reggie Peters Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 17,247 Summary: Peter Parker and Reggie Peters each have their own reasons for feeling lonely, so when an Instagram post draws them together, it’s easy to fall into an unexpected friendship. Maybe it’s a little unconventional, but what other kind of friendship is there when you’re a superhero, or a ghost?

Fandoms: Julie and the Phantoms/Voltron Legendary Defenders Title: Second Skin Author: breakaway71 Pairing: None Rating: General Audiences Word Count: 591 Summary: Lance doesn’t always feel like Lance.

Fandoms: MCU/Teen Wolf Title: Frost Bite Author: Nyxelestia Pairing: past Steve/Bucky, background relationships Rating: Teen and Up Audiences Word Count: 173,129 Series: Part 1 of Winter Wolves (Words: 330,543 - Works: 5) Summary: The last living relative of Bucky Barnes seems to be a normal teenager in a quiet and weird little town in California.

The keyword being ‘seems’.

“You’re Captain America!” the boy shouted in disbelief.

Steve smiled and nodded sheepishly. He glanced at the sheriff, whose eyebrows were also going up as he looked Steve over, and then looked back at the boy.

“Yeah, I…I am. The original one,” Steve added, focusing on the boy. “Your grand-uncle…Bucky Barnes was my best friend growing up, and his family practically adopted me when my own died. I…I always planned to come back to his family, even after he died. When I…woke up, a few months ago, I looked for his family. And that’s…well, you.”

Stiles’ mouth opened and closed as he gaped in shock.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, June 15th and Friday, June 16th

Buffy is pouring cream in a huge cup of coffee. BUFFY: It's all Faith's fault. She's like poison. No worse, she's like acid that eats through everything. Buffy switches to pouring sugar. BUFFY: Maybe she's a bomb. Buffy stirs.

~~Superstar~~

The Sunnydale Herald is looking for at least one new editor. Contributing to the Herald is a great way to get your Buffy on! Find out more here.

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Faith and the Jolly Red Giant by Luna_delCielo (Faith, Silmarillion Tolkien xover, T)

Triple threat by Bl4ckHunter (Angel, Connor, Chuck and Firefly xover, T)

Money (Still) Makes the World Go Round by AJ Fields (myfanfiction) (Xander/Anya, G)

Modern Witches and Kisses by DragonBinx (Tara/Willow, G)

Position Filled by hysteriumredux (Faith-centered, multi-xover, FR7)

[Chaptered Fiction]

There Should Be Groveling - Ch. 5 by slaymesoftly (Buffy/Spike, strong R)

Xander the Teenage Witch: Something Wicked - Ch. 1 by v_o_x (Xander/Larry, T)

Harmless Fun - Ch. 1-3 by MaggieLaFey (Buffy/Spike, E)

take me home - Ch. 1-16 by ChaosNina, HappyWhenItRains (ChaosNina) (Buffy/Spike, E) COMPLETE!

Ashes to Ashes - Ch. 1-4 by HappyWhenItRains (ChaosNina) (Buffy/Spike, Spike/Drusilla, M) COMPLETE!

Held Together - Ch. 11 by MadeInGold (Spike/Angel, M) COMPLETE!

Darkest Before the Dawn - Ch. 82 by Luna_delCielo (Buffy, LOTR and Silmarillion xover, T) COMPLETE!

Aspectus - Ch. 1-2 by Kirinin (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

There Should Be Groveling (sequel to Redemption Redux) - Ch. 5 by slaymesoftly (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Inner Demon = Literal Cat - Ch. 12-13 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Reweaving Time - Ch. 6 by Joan963z (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Harmless Fun - Ch. 4 by MaggieLaFey (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

A Place in the Sun - Ch. 15 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

To All We Guard - Ch. 5 by simmony (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

We're Going to be Friends - Ch. 4 by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, R)

The Neighbor's Point of View - Ch. 20 by the_big_bad (Buffy/Spike, PG)

From Hell with Love - Ch. 13 by temporarytitle (Buffy/Spike, R)

Bring Him Home - Ch. 24 by acb6293 (Buffy/Spike, R)

Next Time Won't You Sing With Me - Ch. 14 by Willow91 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

The World in Shadow - Ch. 8 by ManifoldTime (Buffy, Stargate xover, FR18)

Fate Plans and We Laugh - Ch. 10 by Hermionetobe (Buffy, Dawn, Faith, Batman xover, FR15)

An Iron Love - Ch. 7 by Buffyworldbuilder (Dawn-centered, Iron Man and Stargate xover, FR7)

Insubstantial - Ch. 5 by flootzavut (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

She Came Back Wrong - Ch. 3-4 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

There Should Be Groveling (sequel to Redemption Redux) - Ch. 5 by Slaymesoftly (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Harmless Fun - Ch. 2 by MaggieLeFay (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

We're Going to be Friends - Ch. 4 by scratchmeout (Buffy/Spike, R)

Bring Him Home - Ch. 24 by Acb6293 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

[Images, Audio & Video]

Icons: 8 Icons [4 BTVS] by debris4spike (Tara/Willow, worksafe)

Artwork oil painting: "You were the one I loved... the one thing that I tried to hold onto" by thegothicalice (Buffy/Spike, worksafe)

Gifset: I know that I have died before- by gehirnfussel (Spike, Buffy, Scoobies, worksafe)

Gifset: BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER | S7E15: Get It Done by spuffygifs (Spike, worksafe)

Gifset: Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 5.07 “FOOL FOR LOVE” by spikedaily (Spike/Drusilla, NSFW)

Gifset: Buffy & Faith | Exile by slayer-pride-parade (Buffy/Faith, Angel, worksafe)

Gifset: "Why so far away, my love? Why don’t you come over and stake me?" by dailyats (Darla, worksafe)

Gifset: Riley, I don't think this relationship is gonna work... [incorrect quotes] by andremichaux (Buffy, Riley, worksafe)

[Recs & In Search Of]

ISO: alloutofbraincells seeks Buffyverse Novel recs

ISO: Full_Nefariousness92 seeks Rewatch suggestions and tips

Rec: Away-Thing-1801 recced Buffy revamped (UK)

[Fandom Discussions]

btvs but there's more sections that are just Anya... explaining Demon Stuff and Magic Stuff... by annyankers and others

Rewatching Season Six [discussion] by nightshade

"Looks can kill" - Cameron Dokey [Book discussion thread started, also several others] by Taake

How did you first come across BTVS? updated by Biatryce

Discussion of 4.04 "Fear, Itself" updated by Biatryce

POLL: Which Dawn centric episode do you think is the best? by Stoney

What buffy opinion would get you in this situation? [share your unpopular opinion] by Kalus Kartoffel and others

Is there a more terrifying vamp-face in all of Buffy than Dru? by betweenyouandyourgod

Why are there no Slayer-vampires? by menlindorn

Could the truth have gotten Buffy killed? [S2 finale] by whimsiebat

Riley wasn't that bad in season 4 by ResponsibleMoment725

Sending Glory home by LiviaDruzilla

Season 6 thoughts on how the gang act towards buffy by redsky25

In Life Serial… [Tara walks off] by poetic_soul

Interview with Elizabeth Anne Allen [Amy] (circa Summer 1999) by Tuxedo_Mark

Buffy Summers my blonde queen by Sweet-Siren

Angel Season 4 was hard to watch by jms209

The Beast arc isolated from the rest of season 4... by greetings-feline

Harmony is the best by asiamportrayed

Boys watching Buffy [podcast discussion] by chickennuggetsnsubs

Question about rewatching buffy on new 4K TV [DVDs vs streaming, HD vs not] by LeifLin

Order of Seasons by NoShow6106

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[sweet-little-tank-top-number]

Spoiler for Stargate SG-1: Exile (book 2 of the Apocalypse Trilogy) below the cut:

A wraith called referred to Sam as Jack’s Queen.

Context:

In the first book (Hostile Ground), Sam blew up a chunk of the hive as a diversion so that she and Teal’c could rescue Jack.

[agent-troi]

☹️☹️☹️☹️

[depizan]

anyone from imp int that appears semi regularly in the agent story (watcher two/shara jenn, keeper, etc?) mayhaps?

They're both characters I find really interesting. I'd say it's surprising they haven't put any fic appearances (other than Keeper informing Kyrian over holo that he's being arrested for treason), except that I haven't done that much with Kyrian's career when he's not out in the field actively coloring outside the lines.

Well, I do have a couple of Keeper mini-fics. LIke I said, interesting character. He's not a character type you often get on the "bad" side, being more of an "M" or...what's his name on Stargate SG1...Hammond than the sort of leader you normally see in the Empire. He clearly cares about the people who work under him, even if he's able to send them into deadly danger, exile them to Shadow Town, or worse...when necessary. He's a very effective combination of "good authority figure" and "did what I had to do/made the hard (but necessary) decisions."

If I do go back and fill in more of Kyrian's career, or write any Pheodra fics, he's likely to put in more appearances. Getting a little insight into why he ignored concerns about Kyrian for as long as he did (besides that Kyrian tended to succeed where it really mattered) could be fun. The game writing suggests that Keeper sees something of himself in a light side agent, and I've carried that over to ficverse. Of course, Keeper remained loyal to the Empire, despite its flaws, and gained the hardness and big picture thinking that Kyrian...did not.

Watcher Two is...hm, how to phrase it... She's more unquestioningly Imperial than Keeper, but that's unsurprising considering she was literally designed by the Empire. That she still came out a decent coworker/boss is more surprising. Her soft spots are different from Keeper's, and somewhat more personal, but she lacks his experience (I'm pretty sure he was Imperial military before his Imp Int career. Or is that just my headcanon?) and she rises in the ranks at nearly the worst possible time, given how quickly the Sith wreck everything.

Hm, actually I think the most interesting stuff with her, as far as the game story goes, comes later. Which means that if she were to appear in fic beyond giving mission info or taking a post-mission briefing, it'd probably be if I fic stuff with Pheodra. (Who, to her irritation, inherits Kyrian's designation and mission. She is cypher agent material; it was clear in training that he would never be.)

Then again, Watcher Two is so much more what a member of Imperial Intelligence should be than Kyrian, it could be interesting to give them a chance to interact around that. Especially as it's clear Kyrian did trust her (and Keeper) more than was wise. That means some discussion of methods is possible, or other concerns. Hell, she's observant enough--and close enough to being a coworker, rather than a superior--that she might pick up on his doubts about whether he is cypher agent material. (Okay, he knows he's not, he's just trying to do the job anyway. And dreading the eventual training he's certain he'll fail.)

Which raises the question of what Keeper (and Watcher Two, for that matter) thought of their skilled but squeamish field agent who'd been promoted way too soon. Did Keeper think that field experience would eventually file off his soft edges and make him cypher material? Are there aspects of cypher training that would make his flaws irrelevant? Was Keeper going to quietly demote him back to normal field agent once the crisis was over? Let him continue indefinitely as an untrained, field promoted cypher agent? (I mean, obviously, he had field agent training. But that's not the same thing.)

Was part of Watcher Two's job deciding what would be best to do with Kyrian once the crisis was over?

[tough-as-adamantine]

Tag People You’d like to get to know better!

Tagged by @xanican-exile

favorite color(s): Red+Black (edgy, sure, but it’s just cool when it’s done right, ok?), Black+Green (xenomorph style stuff), or Red/Blue+Gold

favorite flavor(s): Love food in general, but I would say seafood, alfredo pasta, or brisket

favorite genre(s): Fantasy and Scifi 100%. Fantasy is my bread and butter for roleplay and RPGs, scifi is perfect for games, and even split for books, movies, and series

favorite music: I have such an eclectic taste for music is hard to pin down a single type, but in general it’s rock in a wide variety of forms. Few favorites for reference, in no particular order: Eva Under Fire, Rev Theory, Within Temptation, Meg Myers, Papa Roach, Halestorm, Disturbed, and a lot more.

favorite series: For TV, Babylon 5, Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, and Firefly. For books, the Looking Glass series by John Ringo, and the Dahakverse/Mutineer’s Moon Series by David Weber. 

last series: Been watching a lot of Law & Order and NCIS in the background, but the last series I actually sat down and watched was Love, Death, & Robots. Hit or miss, but when the episodes are good, they are really good.

last movie: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Was good, not amazing, but the effects were great, story and characters were predictable but fun and good enough, and the references to the Forgotten Realms world were really cool. A- overall, but SS+ tier for a D&D movie lol.

currently reading: Tumblr, mostly.

currently watching: Pirated Warhammer+ content because I love 40k but I ain’t giving GW a dime lol. 

currently working on: A new mini-setting for my next D&D campaign. (It’s a region I’m creating for the adventure, but I’m just going to shove it into Faerune someplace. Easier that way.) 

tagging: @pinklocksoflove​ @deimorous-detective​ @violentemperor​ @royleteas​ @the-expatriate��� (If yall want!)

[morinotsume]

Comfort food(s): cajun fried chicken, chicken & dumplings, beans and cornbread Comfort drink(s): hot tea with lemon, honey & ginger, iced peppermint mocha Comfort movie(s): Jurassic Park, Dragonheart, Moulin Rouge Comfort show(s): Farscape, Stargate SG-1, Firefly, Dark Angel Comfort clothing: so i have this 'nightgown' that's actually a long sleeved cotton dress that belonged to my mom in the 70s and it's super loose and comfy Comfort song(s): anything by Savage Garden or Green Day; specifically the Disturbed cover of 'The Sound of Silence'; 'What a Mess' by SR-71; 'Vindicated' by Dashboard Confessional Comfort book(s): (judge me all you want ok) the Earth's Children series by Jean M. Auel or the Dragonriders of Pern series by Anne McCaffrey; i read both when i was ENTIRELY too young for the content lmao; Marvel Exiles V1, Young Avengers V1 + The Children's Crusade Comfort game(s): Fallout 4/76 (zen out and build settlements), Sims 4 (zen out and build/create sims or making my own mods), World of Warcraft (pick a thing and go Do The Thing there's literally always something to do that isn't treating Mythic+ raiding like it's a second job)

tagged by: @mutantmuses tagging: 🤷‍♀️ whoever wants to do it be my guest lol