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shesadollette · 8 months

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❝ In Blood and Uniform, We Devote Ourselves ❞

Note: Since I won’t be using “hero” and “villain” as their names, here’s how to differentiate between them: hero as the female spy protagonist, villain as the female kitsune (tw: harsh language, slight discriminatory remarks, indications of violence, wartime era background (1943 to be specific)).

꒰ ⨾ ꒱ Total word count: 2,617

᪥⚘ Taglist: @linsyfelisyya, @raiha-storm65557, @kitcathhhh, @dumdumpew6

ʚᰔɞ Prompt by the lovely: @raiha-storm65557 🌷💕 (i tried my best in cooking up smth by blending history with mythological/folklore creature(s)).

╰ ✧₊˚⊹ “Don’t move,” her voice was so gentle despite everything. Even if Hero wanted to disobey, they couldn’t. All they could do was shiver in the cold wind. Why? What’s happening to them? They wanted – no needed - to run away but it felt like their lungs would collapse the second they would move. “You’ll be alright,” Villain whispered in their ear.

*ੈ𑁍༘⋆

A Japanese. She recognized the language all too well, alas not from the mysterious voice speaking.

To trust the words of an enemy is akin to jumping into a tiger’s lair unarmed; you are just asking for a dagger to be plunged into your own heart, her instincts whispered.

“Um, excuse me, miss. I’d like to pass through,” her teeth clamored as her quivering voice uttered indifferently. The shivering figure gave the source of voice a clumsy head bow and gripped her coat and scarf tighter, the action did little to stave off the frigid air and hunger of that day in the bitter winter of the year.

She considered her options: if she was getting mugged, she could probably use the dagger. If the stranger was a mere senile woman, she’d best leave her be. If—

Her chin was angled up by fingers less freezing and less shaken than her own.

The young woman caught the lady looming over by her eyes first: raw sienna and upturned. Her middle to lower third ratio possessed a high nose bridge followed by a sharp cupid’s bow on full lips ending with the narrow point of her chin. She felt a certain sense of unease by how her features looked so serenely taut as if pulled by a string, yet the aura emanating from her was uncanny, like it would snap any second.

Ink black hair pulled into a simple neat bun revealed an elegant neck draped around by a rich blue kimono seamlessly flowing down akin to a river at midnight, a maroon obi tied at the waist and an intricate obidome on the obijime. White camellia etchings intertwined and separated in a whirlwind of dance on a sleeve and continued their way down the fabric in a perpetual luscious stream.

Silence perambulated by while both women were still as statues.

The lady hummed softly as her eyes narrowed and her lips reduced to an indiscernible frown. “Such delicate features…” She spoke quite strangely, each word enunciated sharp and constricted, her breaths merely condensed to an imperceptible foggy mist, “At one glance, one might say that you are a huntsman or — likely — a poacher, fleeing away from some sort of conflict.” Nails dug into the young woman’s chin, rotating her face gingerly from side-to-side, deep in scrutinization.

Panic flared and she thought of running. But running seemed more like a wish than a will as her boots were kept rooted in the heap of snow. The desire did not falter since the lady continued regarding her icily, “Times like these make people very desperate to take up such jobs to suffice for their family or themselves, you know? Strange however, since your eyes tell a different story.” She gripped her chin firmly, bringing it front to a stop and stared into her soul. “You do not possess the carnage nor the experience that they carry. So what are you, if not one?” Then, conspiringly, “Are you perhaps a spy?”

Shit. She knows. How did she know? She caught the lady’s wrist in her trembling gloved grip, firmly pushing it aside and backed away with a long stride.

“You ask a lot for somebody who dresses haughtily as such,” scoffed the young woman.

“At such a young age too. How old are you?”

She gritted her teeth, jaw clenching while a shaking fist curled itself and waited just for another slip out of the lady’s lips. Famished and fatigued, her mind was traversing nowhere and everywhere all at once as her patience stood on thin ice.

“I assume you are not one to talk, are you? Ju-ri,” the last two words crawled coolly out of her lips.

Her glare upon hearing her true name being spoken blatantly mitigated, causing angry brows to soften as her fist ceased trembling at once. Her brows flickered uneasily, eyes widening first in shock, then migrating to wonder before finally settling on fear. The air suddenly felt more frigid as her sense of alert woke up.

Not a word once more, only this time, it was heavily tangible.

The lady’s placid sigh broke the wall of frost between them before reaching into her low-hanging sleeve. Manicured fingernails painted in red held the recipient the piece of paper upfront. Slightly torn around the edges with marks of it having been folded repeatedly. The young woman’s quivering hands snatched it.

It was a letter. A home address scribbled and a date: December 20, 1941. Dear Nam Ju-ri, … From, beloved brother Nam Ju-young.

Two years ago, he marked his presence with the faded black ink, two years later he was still never again heard from.

“You dropped it,” the lady’s voice sounded again, only now, her words carried the barest trails of Ju-ri’s mother tongue. The usage nigh gave the young woman some sort of odd comfort from the familiarity. Nigh.

It must have fallen out of her coat pocket since she did not recall ever holding it. She cursed herself internally for not being more vigilant as her fingers fastidiously folded it into the tiniest piece she could manage before shoving it deep into her breast pocket.

“Apologies for the impropriety. You may address me as Lady Yōko. In return for your name through spontaneous means, you shall receive mine.”

Ju-ri’s surge of adrenaline peaked itself on tiptoes through blinds when her tongue reciprocated in Hangul, “Cut the formalities, yeah? I don’t need it. I never gave you mine willingly, you took knowledge of it upon yourself.”

Miss Yōko vacantly eyed her. “I have been met with many people coming from various different backgrounds. Be it swindlers, crooks, perverted soldiers, bastards, whores, so many more. Compared to the majority of them, a lowlife from Joseon smuggling her way out to Japan does not make it any special.”

The young woman’s lips twitched instinctively in aggravation as wry laughter wrung itself out of her lips. She cursed. “You know what I hate the most about people? It’s their sense of knowing-it-all. If you don’t learn to tone that grating pride I swear—” A fist was raised that was meant to be a threat; though, she flunked it too close to the lady’s cheek instead.

She caught her wrist mid-air feasibly. “Was it merely my “pride” or are you just too cowardly to face the truth?”

Ju-ri shifted awkwardly and planted all her strength into wrenching her wrist out albeit the lady’s punishing grip only tightened the more she tried as her fist trembled and trembled. Why… is she not wearing gloves? Is she not afraid of frostbite? The thought slithered idly into the young woman’s mind merely during that slip of the second.

“Why?” mused Miss Yōko. “One man’s blood does not equal another man’s burden. I wonder imploringly why you view us the same way even if some of us may not have taken innocents’ blood on our hands.”

“It’s different when it’s agreed upon by one nation and not because of that man himself!” She dared to glare upon her opponent’s eyes and caught the last second of her pupils dilating and constricting akin to slit pupils of a predator, a dark brow raised prolonging the unspoken question.

Imminent fear surged through her hollow being heavily as her heart palpitated in her ears. Her pride was dragged six feet under as a soft gasp escaped, her fist going limp from the incessantly futile struggle. Miss Yōko looked… terrifying. Predacious, even. Quite fury outlined her usual stagnant features. It began to hurt. It hurt. If she wasn’t wearing a coat perhaps the lady’s nails would’ve dug through her wrist and drew blood. The young woman dipped her head and grimaced as her mouth articulated a strangled noise of surrender so subtle she was almost certain it went past her ears.

The fingers that clamped on her wrist loosened their grip almost immediately. Ju-ri sucked in a breath and moaned softly in pain several times as she staggered back and cradled her aching muscle. “Crazy bitch,” she exhaled harshly through gritted teeth in-between breaths.

The lady’s gaze was on the glimmering snow. Breathing slowly. Eerily still. “He was right after all. You do have a short temper and the tendency to put up a rather undesirable fight.”

“Huh? Who?”

A heartbeat of palpable quietude.

Miss Yōko side-eyed her, “Maeda. He left the inn two years prior. One of my former patrons. You came here for him, did you not?”

Her brows furrowed as the foreign syllables danced in her brain.

“Mae… da?”

The lady flicked her gaze up. Ju-ri blinked, her pupils back to how they were. She held her gaze while nimbly fishing into her collar’s slip and handed a sheet to the young woman, faced down. “Take it,” she prompted, tilting her head when Ju-ri made no further inclination to. “It is yours. He told me to give it to his little sister one day if I ever encountered her searching for him. Seems as if today has finally marked that day to be bountiful.”

A grayscale photograph. Dirt with a suspicious hint of blood speckled sparsely on an upper corner of the flimsy faded sheet. White lines veined from several crinkles yet the implications were crystal: A little girl in a hanbok to the left of a boy a tad taller in height. A hand was across his temple in a salute and the military uniform was too loose-fitting for his small shoulders. Both had wide toothy grins.

They did not have much nevertheless it never was the reason they weren’t content. Father would still come home. Mother wasn’t too ill. She remembered that day so many years prior when the photograph was taken yet never saw it for herself until… her vision stung, either due to the extreme weather or she traversed too close into memory lane.

Maeda… is Ju-young. Ju-young was here before? What a fucking small world they lived in.

Realization dawned upon as the back of her hand was pressed to her runny nose and the other grasped the photograph near her heart. “It should’ve been me…” she whispered, her knees met the snow. “It should’ve been me…” Her figure hunched over while she fisted the crumpled sheet tighter, loose dark hair grazing the snow. “That fool. He could’ve done so much more with his life…”

Several soft exhales passed when she felt a warm weight pressed on her quivering bicep and shot a glance up to find Miss Yōko kneeling in front of her. The lady’s gaze was fixed on Ju-ri’s shuddering cupped fists while her palm worked on to soothe the tense muscle. She flinched away from the touch without a thought. The lady retracted her hand gingerly in return.

“I-I didn’t know. Um—” the young woman sniffled to hinder the weight of her congested voice. She wiped her nose on a sleeve, blinking her eyes away and biting her lip, embarrassed under the scrutiny during her vulnerability. “It’s just that… I never expected him to wear the uniform for real and to be out there on the battlefield, fighting for your country. Unwillingly. He was only fourteen when he left. He could’ve turned twenty-three this year—”

“I never said that he was gone,” elaborated the lady, her stature kempt. “I merely stated that he had left the inn. Although, I have not heard from him again either for a good while.”

“Again? You two write to one another?”

Her long lashes lifted to meet Ju-ri’s while a brow raised itself high. “How should I keep him in touch on whether or not I’ve encountered his other blood?”

“…You mean it? You’d really help him even if he’s… even if we’re…?”

Her gaze softened, a soft exhale escaped her nose. “It’s only a matter of good business. I am also a woman of my word. Naturally, he had a small price to pay in exchange for my aid.”

Ju-ri felt her heart fall to her stomach.

“I consider myself a collector and a tradesperson for that matter. With favor, comes a price. Whatever one has given or traded with me, I shall help them to the very best depending on the amount presented as a remuneration.” She craned her head back, scanning the frosty surroundings and clicking her tongue, “Even we ought to delve ourselves in human affairs when the economy is undoubtedly precarious during the war. It does not matter whose hands I shake, what matters is the art of a chase. The hunt. The thrill of it.”

We? Human affairs? Ju-ri thought it best instead to not question the lady’s peculiar choice of vocabulary.

“But, I do not have anything valuable as of now to give you.”

Miss Yōko kept still, shifting a moment later to lift a knee to stand up feasibly, back facing her. “Perhaps your shocking presence in and of itself should be enough for now. It’s better than finding your rotting corpse engulfed in maggots instead,” she muttered, her head craned imperceptibly but not facing Ju-ri, “He talked of you. Highly. He said that he was sorry for not being able to come home to see you grow up.”

Soft flutters of snowflakes twirled and whirled around them as her zori shuffled several steps forward with shallow crunches, palm reaching out slightly to catch the flakes. “Isn’t it nice to have someone care for you dearly? I fail to fathom how humankind holds one another in such high regard despite their lifespan, in such a gruesome era too. Fascinating…”

Ju-ri endeavored her best to make sense of the lady who might be the only chance of finding her lost blood and as her lashes drifted downward, she caught the lady’s shadow looming over… except it didn’t look quite right. The silhouette was not reminiscent of the lady’s. She scaled the shadow nearly up to its head when the lady swiveled three-quarters around.

“Ju-ri, let us leave.”

Her head shot up directly and a soft “Huh?”

“We have to make haste. I sense an abnormality in the weather. It’s subtle, but it is there. A blizzard at best, if my senses are correct, it’s arriving early.”

“How in the world could you tell?”

“I cannot explain everything as of now, however I’ll only say that I’ve spent longer winters in all of its bitterness. I run an inn several paces away. You ought to warm yourself up and eat your fill. Then, we can talk more inside.”

“Why should I trust you?”

At that, Miss Yōko’s lips twitched, bemused. “The choice however, is always yours, for I do not own you and I believe you might be harboring some sort of prejudice against me. But know this, your brother would not leave traces of him behind without knowing you’d search for him. Either way, you need to stay alive for that, it seems.”

Her zori marked the snow with dense footprints threatened to be covered by capricious winds and snowfall. Ju-ri had to choose, and to choose quickly. But, even options were scarce. She swallowed the heavy lump in her throat and sniffled as she watched the lady walking further away without a glance behind.

The photograph was shoved brashly in another pocket. Gloved palms pressed on snow momentarily and a forefinger twitched before her leg made the first inclination to stagger up. She wiped her eyes and nose on a sleeve before fixing her scarf and sniffling. Her boot slumped heavily to stumble after the lady.

What hope — or unlikely — trust, meant for Ju-ri she never knew, but the figure shrouded by snowflakes a few feet away may be her very first flicker in almost an entire decade of desolation.

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streetsrot · 11 months

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HUMANS OF NIGHT CITY - CASSANDRA MONTEIL. aka important npcs to v's story, inspired by the official humans of night city posts ⸻ word count: 1k. tw: abuse, kidnapping, torture, drugs tldr; cass is v's wealthy corpo ex who betrayed her in a series of fucked up events that resulted in her kidnapping, torturing, and drugging v in order to save her own hide.

⸻

cass is v's ex-girlfriend, a legacy corpo who grew up being trained for the cutthroat, competitive chess board that is life when working for any major corporation. cassandra's parents are high level executives at militech, a position she herself now holds. she meets v when the both of them are in their late teens, in the late 2060s. with the unification war brewing and eventually reaching a peak, cass distances herself from her family, wanting to find her own path and break away from the corporate world she's known her whole life. she disavows corporations entirely and she has dreams of working as a media, focusing on boots-on-the-ground journalism. cassandra begins hanging out around mercs and though she sticks out like a sore thumb, she's charming enough that nobody questions it.

this is how she meets v.

the two of them hit it off after v saves cass's life during a regular shootout in heywood. accepting cass's offer to go out for drinks afterwards is one of v's biggest regrets in life. cassandra falls fast, in love with the idea of v and fascinated by the thrilling, high stakes lifestyle that she lives. v warms up to cassandra slowly, unable to shake the worry that anyone from a family like the monteils can't be trusted. every time her doubts come up, v reminds herself that cass has no contact with her family, and cass always seems to find a way to do something nice for v. she showers her in gifts, in loving affirmations, and she frequently makes little moves that fulfill v's desires for physical touch. before long, v is smitten.

their relationship is an intense one, filled almost entirely with soaring highs — an extended honeymoon phase that seems like it will never end. until cassandra messes with night corp. in her efforts to write a tell-all on the elusive, secretive corporation she finds herself wrapped up in a web of her own making and it's not long until night corp catches onto the fact that she's robbed them of restricted files. the corporation assumes she's done it to report back to militech. suddenly, her big break into journalism could be the destruction of a company that's already in the middle of a war, and should night corp work with arasaka, could mean the permanent end to militech's presence in night city. it would mean the brutal torture and execution of her parents and once night corp caught up to her, it would certainly mean worse for her.

out of options and unsure of what to do, she reaches out to her parents and explains the situation. cass, with the help of her mother, crafts a plan that ensures not just her and her family's survival but establishes her as the hero in the whole situation. she makes v, the unloved streetrat with no family, the fall guy. the story she spins states that v, an up and coming merc, stole from night corp in an attempt to hit the major leagues. cass caught word of it, reported the actions back to militech, who, in a show of good faith and as an olive branch during wartime, sent cass to retrieve the stolen materials from v in whatever manner she thought best. that way, they could be returned where they rightfully belonged.

not a word of her story is true.

cass drugs v, waiting for her to pass out and once she does, she slots a datashard into her that plants false memories so that when v awakens, she makes no attempt to deny what she's done. private solos retrieve v's body, throw her into a trunk of a car, and eventually restrain her in an undisclosed drop point. she comes to and finds herself bound and woozy, face to face with cass's mother who explains that "her daughter simply lied to get close to her". when cass arrives, v expects her to deny this. she never does. cass tells herself that she is doing this for her survival, for the survival of her family, and that, as much as she loved v, v likely would have ended up dead in an alley someday soon anyways. this way, she would be dying so another could live.

cass hands v over to night corp where she is interrogated and tortured for days on end. she never expects to see v again, and she assumes her dead as tensions are smoothed between militech and night corp. in reality, the corrupted data slotted into v's head is discovered by a night corp netrunner, tasked with traversing through v's memories. the data is wiped and soon after, v pieces together the truth of what's happened. in light of new knowledge, night corp strikes a deal with v: if she hacks into militech and wipes the copy of the files militech has surely made, she can walk free. but, if she is discovered in this operation, the corporation will claim v escaped from detainment and is acting of her own free will.

v is never caught. days later, a fire breaks out in cassandra monteil's japantown apartment. the rest of the apartment building remains untouched, but due to "mechanical failure", the sprinklers in the penthouse space are never triggered. all that's left in the apartment is a warning : if i ever see you again, i'll kill you myself.

in the year 2077, cassandra has followed in the footsteps of her parents; the end of her relationship with v denoting the end of her dreams as well. she has turned into everything a younger version of herself swore she would never be, but she excels tremendously as an elite corpo for militech and, because of this, looks back scornfully on her youth, scoffing at the idea that she had ever dared to dream of being something else.

v and cass have yet to directly cross paths again, though the chances are high. despite this, the events of her relationship with cass have left a mental scarring on v that she has never fully healed from. while she is by no means closed off to the idea of love or long-term relationships, she does have some trust issues that she hasn't realized are abnormal. v does not speak of cassandra or discuss the events that led to their separation unless she is extremely close with the individual she is speaking with.

#if you read this whole thing did you know that i love u and i will buy you a large fry from mcdonalds #i'll even go all in on a mcflurry #⟨ v. ⟩ ⿻ accessing file … ▸ headcanon #⟨ v. ⟩ ⿻ accessing file … ▸ meta #⟨ v. ⟩ ⿻ accessing file … ▸ world building #⟨ v. ⟩ ⿻ initializing program … ▸ honc ░#⟨ v. ⟩ ⿻ booting relationship database ▞ ■ ▸ cass

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dimiclaudeblaigan · 11 months

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So.. I wanted to try to make an alignment chart for where I think the Fodlan characters should be. It was... uh... highly chaotic.

I also made an equally chaotic chart to go with it!:

Blue: Hard Faerghus, ride or die for Faerghus

Light Blue: Faerghus but Leicester aligned without Faerghus (ex VW)

Yellow: Hard Leicester, ride or die for Leicester

Light yellow: Leicester but slightly aligned to Faerghus and/or the CoS

Green: Hard CoS

Light green: CoS but Faerghus aligned during wartime

Orange: Adrestia but slightly CoS aligned

Red: Hard Adrestia, ride or die for Adrestia

Gray: Leicester aligned, could be slightly Adrestia aligned or Faerghus aligned

No color: Aligned to/has possibility of being aligned to more than one at once

STOP RIGHT THERE BEFORE YOU CONTINUE!!! This is how I feel the alignments should've been handled based on story/character context. I am not saying this is strictly, directly canon (except for a few such as Dimitri, Rodrigue, Matthias and Miklan as they are story locked loyal to Faerghus and I still could never see them aligning anywhere else. I've talked about Miklan in that regard before, so that's not for this post).

SO! By character:

Dimitri, Rodrigue, Ashe, Sylvain, Matthias, Miklan, Dedue, Felix: Hard Faerghus

Felix, Ingrid, Annette, Dedue: Faerghus but would align with Leicester if Faerghus wasn't an option (Dedue in VW I do think would align with Leicester without Dimitri)

Gilbert, Yuri: CoS and Faerghus both

Mercedes: Faerghus and CoS. Could be partially Adrestia aligned due it to being her old home

Hapi: Faerghus primarily, but may be aligned with Adrestia or possibly the CoS (brainworming that one)

Catherine, Flayn, Seteth, Jeralt: CoS but would aid Faerghus (would also aid Leicester but are less likely to consider themselves truly aligned to Leicester)

Cyril: Hard CoS. Will aid Leicester or Faerghus as needed

Hanneman: Primarily CoS, somewhat possibly Adrestia alignment based on Edelgard's stance toward crests (though unlikely)

Manuela, Linhardt: Adrestia, but partially CoS/most likely to align with the CoS if not Adrestia

Dorothea, Ferdinand: Between Adrestia (as it's their home), the CoS (in SS context as they try to win back their homes), and Faerghus (non SS context). Dorothea I believe would be better suited to Faerghus'/Dimitri's ideals, while Ferdinand I believe should always side with Faerghus against Adrestia in the war to get his home back. Dorothea may be aligned with Edelgard in CF context. Ferdinand should not be aligned with Edelgard specifically, but rather, Adrestia itself (thus being in opposition to Edelgard in the war, and aligned with Faerghus for it)

Shamir: CoS primarily, but a smidge of Leicester and Faerghus if hired

Jeritza: Adrestia, but can be CoS or Faerghus aligned (Mercedes could convince him, and Faerghus alignment opens him up to meeting Dimitri)

Petra: Adrestia aligned as far as being the only place in Fodlan she's lived at (by force, technically), but is more aligned to the CoS and Leicester, and could be aligned to Faerghus

Monica: Primarily Adrestia, but could become Faerghus aligned due to Dimtiri's association with Edelgard and TWS (and in AG's context, that on top of the Lions saving her). Could become CoS aligned due to her hatred for TWS

Caspar: Primarily Adrestia, but may be aligned with the CoS, Faerghus or Leicester if against Edelgard

Constance: Adrestia, but may be Faerghus aligned due to the School of Sorcery and her connection to Mercedes. Would align with Leicester if it was her only option

Bernadetta: Adrestia, but not unlikely to become CoS or Leicester aligned. Not very likely to be Faerghus aligned but not impossible

Leopold: Hard Adrestia, but has a respect for Leicester and would not be against aiding them if necessary

Edelgard, Hubert, Waldemar, Death Knight: Hard Adrestia (Death Knight using the war to his advantage and partially why Jeritza has trouble defecting)

Lysithea: Leicester aligned, but could easily become Adrestia aligned for Edelgard or Faerghus aligned due to their deep connections with TWS (as many of its primary and most notable nobles have a connection to TWS post Duscur)

Hilda, Holst, Judith, Balthus, Erwin: Hard Leicester

Hilda: Hard Leicester but would aid Faerghus if needed

Lorenz: Leicester/Hard Leicester but definitely aligned with Faerghus during the war and fighting for his home/lands/people. A ride or die for Leicester, but also has deep respect for Faerghus

Raphael, Marianne, Leonie: Leicester primarily, possible CoS or Faerghus ally but unlikely to be truly aligned outside of Leicester

Claude: Leicester aligned, Faerghus ally (AM). Not hard Leicester aligned due to being royalty from another nation entirely, but is deeply loyal and aligned to Leicester (Fodlan in general post AM, as he merged Leicester with Faerghus in an official setting).

#DCB Three Houses Stuff #absolutely random shit nobody not even me asked for

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slashcrz · 11 months

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( alexander ludwig , 28 , he/him , cis man , merian 4 ) - have you seen MATTHIAS MERIAN? we’ve heard through the grapevine that they’re PROTECTIVE but also DESTRUCTIVE. when you think of them , you think of GOLDEN FLAMES FLICKERING IN CRUMBLING CHAPELS, DISTANT SOUNDS OF COMBAT && THE FEELING OF SNOWFALL, CRIMSON AGAINST ICE, A SNEER TO HIDE A HIDDEN HEART.

TWs; violence, war, miscarriage, death, loss, blood mention/injury mentions, religious themes.

name; matthias merian.

nicknames; none.

birth date; april 11th, an aries

orientation; heterosexual

relationship; single, one former marriage, annulled.

politics; fuck the french, war is the only way to protect one's self && nation, trust no one.

religion; struggling within his faith; used to be a devout catholic, now feels he doesn't know what to believe.

languages; tba.

headcanons && backstory.

the beginning of his story is one full of family, laughter, joy, and activity. long nights spent in the church, a head ducked in prayer, chasing his siblings around the training grounds; teasing his youngest brother, finding lizards to spook his sister, eating persimmons from the trees in the horse yards. he'd always been strong, climbing trees as soon as he could walk, and never balking at a skinned knee. when matthias first grabbed a sword, later a musket, he realized he was a proficient fighter - and balanced his time between church && prayer, and fighting && training. he was one of the best; brutal, a force to reckon with, and took on the hope to be a defender. switzerland trained a powerful army NOT for themselves, but to help others in need, to assist others during wartime. love came swiftly, or some form of it. maybe it was never meant for more than just a crush in the gardens, a laugh after a first kiss, but she was a perfect puzzle piece to what matthias thought his life would be. a wedding followed quickly- they'd courted only a year, and as a new badge was pinned to his uniform, matthias wondered if he was on the top of the world. but then france attacked, and only sweden answered their call for help. switzerland was left largely on their own, but had the forces to defend themselves. the battle was brutal, and it thinned their army, it changed the lives of his family, even for his sweet younger brother, now broken from the sight of the horrors of a battlefield washed in blood. matthias was full of anger; he had hate in his heart, and nowhere to put it. god had betrayed switzerland. his father had died. his friends had died. matthias lost his faith, he lost his way, and he found himself growing cold && harsh under the weight of his anger. romance fizzled out quickly with he && his wife after switzerland pulled through their victory, and he returned home. he was too angry now to remember to be a good husband, and though he was never abusive... he was absent, he was cold, his heart had closed, and she found herself falling into deep unhappiness. matthias did not even realize that she written to the pope, to request an annulment. it was granted only when the prince departed from the church in a raging outburst, cursing god && his followers, shouting in the middle of the chapel his grief, his anger towards the sky, calling their priest a fool. he was marked as haunted, a man who had lost his god, and she was given permission to divorce him without fault. he did not know until after she left, that during the months since he had been home, his wife had been with child, but had lost it in the night while he was gone, bitching in a cavern with his valets about the woes of the world. their marriage was a three-year ordeal, and when she left, his home stayed dark && empty && alone until matthias moved back into the swiss palace from his estate, and took up his place within the militia once more.

#francehq.intro #{{ muse ;; matthias m. }}

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griancraft · 2 years

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Band of brothers fics are either incredibly life changing inspirational and kind or the most graphic and obscene porn you have seen in your life and there is little to no in between

#and a lot of the time both are very very minimally tagged #shout out to the bible doesnt mention us and the history books forget us it is that middle ground and fuck it kills me every time #tw nsft #me when historical homophobia and stories of wartime love between two people who can never get together but love each other all the same

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sosekisuggestions · 7 years

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Alternate Ending

((I turned this into an opium!au drabble instead, I’m sorry, because I think Sensei is too pained to even think that there could be another ending to his past. For what it’s worth, you can think of it as alternate ending to if Sensei won the war and visited the families of his comrades.

Also I’m sorry it took so long. Writing about wartime stories can render someone pretty darn emotional, though I still had my fun writing them.))

A soldier dreams of coming home to his beloved after the war.

Sensei saw his comrades with their boyish grins. The men would cradle the yellow photos in their hands and they would hold them against their hearts, hidden behind the silver badges of their bloodstained uniforms. As the days in the battlefield went by, with each passing wait for death to come and shoot him at the back of his head, more of his friends’ names were crossed off from the survivors list. He chuckled bitterly while he gathered their remains, which included the charred bits of what’s left of those photos, the beautiful women that those fallen soldiers would come home to if only they had survived.

He never kept pictures of his beloved. He only had his memories of her.

There was this feeling inside him, this brewing envy when he thought there would be no one to greet him home. No one would be able to tell, of course, not with his rigid salute blocking the view of his bloodshot eyes.

No amount of red poppy coronations would be able to comfort these mourning women. Those flowers were worthless formalities, a form of courtesy for the family of those who have passed on, and he had to stand there and watch them break down into tears right in front of him.

Would this have happened if he had died instead of her?

He remembered then, he had his fellow comrade’s head resting on his lap, and he was forced to inject morphine into his friend’s veins, just like he always did for his first lover. Those eyes would stare up at him and they would gasp to him looking for help. They should have known better than to bet on their lives. As unlucky as he was, Sensei survived for this long, but not without having to watch the light fade from yet another person’s eyes before him.

He remembered the memories of war. He was covered in dirt amidst the fall of smokes and fire and the sun rose with another day to fight, with or without someone to come home to. He remembered how he writhed in pain, how he wriggled like a filthy worm to ensure his survival, even when there was only the Nisshoki fluttering in front of him standing tall and proud, centering the pile of bodies that once fought for their beloved Yokohama.

Sensei glanced at the red poppies while he waited for the soldier’s wife to stop crying. Red poppies, the symbol of lost lives. That woman, that tragic, fallen lover–she was his first red poppy, and she won’t be the last.

He will keep what little remains left of his beloved–her dreams of staying with him, of visiting Yokohama one day–along with her laughter, her tears, her story. He will protect this city, as broken as it is, he will sustain it with only the most marvelous form of grace.

That feeling of envy still brewed within him. Sensei dared himself to look back, to see the soldier’s wife and children in their little home and in their little peace, and he turned away from what never could have been.

Somehow, somewhere, there was this charred desire to hear the voice of his beloved, in the only words that a soldier such as he would deeply cherish:

“Welcome home.”

#soseki hc #opium au #tw: opium #tw: drugs #tw: wartime stories #natsume soseki #anonymous

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fangirleaconmigo · 3 years

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Should You Read The Witcher Books?

So I’ve been meaning to make this post for a long long time and I just keep forgetting. But here it is.

I’m writing this post because I write a fic with Book!characters *and* I often share my favorite book passages, analysis, and quotes, on here. I love the books! I think it’s why most of you are following me. As a result of this, people say these kind of thing to me a lot:

“Wow, I really need to read the books.”

“Because of you I’m going to read the books.”

“I started the books this week because of your fic/analysis/passion for them.”

When I hear that, I usually feel two things at that once:

1) Incredibly honored. What could be better than sharing your love of books?! It is one of my favorite feelings in the world!

2) Absolute panic. Dawning horror. Wait, that’s three things.

Let me explain.

Ok. So.

If you go from my analysis posts and/or fics to the books and expect them to be similar in tone or content, I worry that you will feel blindsided. And I don’t want that to be because of me! I care about my pocket friends! I care about the lovely people who do me the honor of reading my work! I’m a worrier!

SO, I have to be very clear about what these books are, so I don’t lead you astray or make you feel baited and switched. I’m going to share my incredibly subjective, fallible opinions directly and honestly from the heart, and you can take what is helpful and leave the rest.

*TW for mentions of violence, child abuse, and sexual assault. Please take care.* I list the kinds of violence that happens in the books but not specific plot spoilers.

For those who are not aware:

The Witcher books are DARK ADULT fantasy. Despite having a whole lot more humor, warmth, and friendship than TWN, they are still much much darker than TWN. Maybe not so much the first few books, but as the book series progresses and the war begins, it becomes incredibly dark and bleak and violent. It is interspersed with humor and friendship, but there is no getting around the unrelenting horror.

We are talking wartime atrocities. We are talking mass murder, dismemberment, gore, rape, sexual assault, torture, among other things.

And possibly most notably, once Ciri leaves the care of Yen and Geralt (no spoilers how it happens) she is still a child (adolescent) and is alone and constantly being assaulted and sexually abused. One person I saw on Reddit called the last three books a whole lot of child torture. TWN has noticeably dialed back the rape and will almost certainly not to do this to us. Which is good. I would not want to see that with my own two eyes. Reading vs seeing is very different for me.

These books are about a whole lot of things. Among the themes are the horrors of war and the evils of racism, bigotry, and oppression. They very accurately (in my mind) depict the way power pits the marginalized against each other and protects itself. How power structures manipulate and exploit the marginalized and how they dispose of them the moment they no longer need them, and how they get away with it. How imperialism, war, and violence propagates itself.

They are also about how bodily autonomy is necessary to the dignity of the human spirit and they show the damage it does to a person when it is forcibly taken from them. It shows how society can crumble when children are not protected or loved.

Sapko was born in the aftermath of WWII in the wake of the Nazi occupation of his country, with death camps still real and raw in the memory. He (like all of us) is a product of his time. He has a lot of valuable story to tell.

Also, he is a product of his time in that he is an older straight white male. That shows. I have a whole thesis ready to go about The Witcher books, feminism, and misogyny. I’ve seen people say they are incredibly feminist, and others who say they are so misogynistic they had to stop reading them. It’s complicated. As always, I have thoughts. Maybe I’ll share some other time.

But suffice it to say, these are not modern ya books. Sapko is adamant that he is a storyteller and not a moralizer or a deliverer of Messages. He does not gaf about meeting modern social expectations of ‘good representation’ or ‘good politics’. It is adult, it is challenging, it is tragic and bleak in many ways, and it has its limitations in perspective.

If you do not want to read such things, please don’t. If you believe they will trigger you, please take care of yourself first. Your safety and wellness is the most important thing, always.

I will never be one of those book fans that’s like “READ THE BOOKS YOU PLEBES” like it’s some fucking requirement. Firstly, gate keeping can get absolutely fucked. Secondly, not everyone wants to read an EIGHT BOOK SERIES. Thirdly, some people are neuroatypical in a way that interferes with reading. (My son has such severe ADHD that he can only read graphic novels) So, I also see it as ableist to talk down to people for not reading long ass high fantasy books. And lastly, not everyone wants to subject themselves to stories with so much child abuse that could potentially trigger their trauma or depression etc.

So how can I read them? Why do I love them?

Well, I am a survivor of just about all the kinds of abuse that Ciri goes through. I am not the chosen one nor can I time travel (if only). However, take away all of the medieval fantasy elements, and my childhood and adolescence felt a whole lot like hers.

Survivors of abuse all need different things.

Not every survivor needs the same kinds of stories. I, personally, felt recognized and seen, even though it could be tough to get through at times. Loving Ciri, watching her fight and never give up, seeing her as the hero, seeing her as the person that everyone we love (Geralt, the Hansa, and Yen) are fighting for and rooting for and trying to protect…I don’t know…it was really important to me. I’d like to be more eloquent about that but I can’t seem to find the words at the moment. Hopefully you get what I’m trying to say.

I’m also extremely invested in stories that tell me true things about oppression. It helps me work through my thoughts about the world around me.

And look! There is magic and dragons and touching, hilarious, heartwarming moments, as well as some of my favorite characters and relationships put to page. Ciri may be my favorite child character of all time. She is right up there with Lyra Belacqua or Tiffany Aching for me. Geralt and Yen were really important to me. Milva and Eskel and Regis and Nenneke were really important to me. THE 😭 HANSA😭 They moved me in ways that mattered to me and they all live in my heart now. Again, I wish I could be more eloquent about that at the moment, but they all probably deserve their own posts. Regardless, that found family aspect will always feed my soul.

But there are things you may not want to read because you cannot unread that shit. And everyone has different needs and that’s ok.

And as for the things that I create?

My fics will ALWAYS be a kinder, gentler version of any canon. I write for comfort and healing and connection. I see these characters suffer on screen and in the pages and my empathy response can be intense! So, in my fics I am giving them the closure, grace, growth, love, sex, whatever it is I wanted for them that they never got in canon. It makes me feel better. That’s what I go to fic for. My gentle stories are the furthest thing in existence from a bleak dark fantasy.

And when I share my ‘meta’ or analysis, I’m always sharing the things that I love. I know that many (if not most) of my fandom buds aren’t going to read these books so I consider it my contribution to the fandom to pick out the parts you’re going to love and share them with you.

And yes, those lovely things are in them.

But they ain’t the only things. I never bring you the bad parts, but they are there too and I wanted to acknowledge that.

So. Please be sure that if you want to read past the first few books, that you go in with your eyes open and that your self care comes first.

Because I care about my fandom peeps and I don’t want to lead you astray.

That being said, these books meant a lot to me, warts and all.

So, if you do read them and you want to geek about them PLEASE DO drop into my asks. I will be thrilled and will probably write you a thesis in response. Let’s geek out over them together.

#the witcher #the witcher books #this is just how I feel man #thinking about the witcher books yet again

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lucidasidera · 4 years

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Stucky was in the narrative

I have to say that it’s almost flattering how hard the MCU felt they had to salt the earth during Endgame. I was checked out of fandom then, I had little kids and was attempting to adult, and I remember being in the theater and watching Steve pull that compass out and thinking, oh, that’s how they’re doing it. I wasn’t even surprised, just business as usual.

But this year was the year for escapism and I tumbled hard back into fanfic and meta and all those lovely things that I’d missed for almost a decade and now I’m just angry. Because it’s insulting, honestly, to pretend that this is not a hole of their own making.

The narrative in TWS is completely unambiguous. And while I don’t mean to say that Stucky is canon, I do mean that it was purposefully implied in the structure of the movie. Sam asks Steve directly what would make him happy. Peggy tells Steve that she regrets not that they’d missed being together but that Steve hasn’t gotten to live his life. Natasha is written as trying to set Steve up with multiple women whom he systematically turns down because he can’t connect with them, because they lack shared life experience. The writers make it sexual and imply that Steve hasn’t been with anyone since 1945. Steve is adrift and angry and lonely.

Peggy and Sam and Natasha are all, thematically, asking the same question and the MOVIE ITSELF says that the answer is Bucky. It’s not even about Steve dropping his shield for Bucky, or being with him to the end of the line, or “even when I had nothing, I had Bucky”, it’s that the narrative explicitly says: Steve is missing a part of himself and he can’t move forward in life, romantically and otherwise, without it and then Steve recognizes that missing piece when he recognizes Bucky.

If the characters were precisely reversed, with Bucky the canonical wartime love interest now in a nursing home and Peggy as the most important person in his life who fell from a train in 1945 and violently resurfaced in 2014, it wouldn’t even be SUBTEXT who Steve was going to end up with after TWS, it would be plain text. Heterosexuality is the lens through which these stories are usually filtered, and that’s why it feels familiar, but that doesn’t change what the narrative is. Geez, it’s almost like us queers have eyes and a brain too.

#stucky #anti endgame #ca:tws #stucky meta #I'm still mad #i will die mad about it #stucky was in the narrative

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yi-dashi-a · 7 years

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For the memories meme/prompt: something of war and death.

Your character has full access to all of my character’s memories. Which memory does your character force my character to recall?

//always accepting this, for real

Battlefields were strangelyserene, if one could ignore the smell. For there to be so much action, and thennothing. For the landscape under foot to be redefined by the carcasses of thedead, and for the colors of either side to be stained deep red. There was auniformity to it all. It was the end of a story, the hard cover of the back ofa book, a finale…

Or at least that’s how Yi remembered coping with a scenesuch as this one. How he wished he had just forgotten things like this.

“Luo…” Said the exhausteddisciple Gai, his dao still crusted with the blood of battles gone by. Despitehis short stature he was bulky beyond his years, though that didn’t help muchto carry the weight of the war, it seemed, “|We’re wasting our time. We don’thave much of it.|”

“|Keep looking…|” Luo replied.The eldest of them all had seen better days surely. Though the exertion of theInvasion should have kept them all fit, he instead had begun to waste against rationsignored, “We can’t move on yet.”

“Seriously, Luo! We are wasting our time.” Another bruised man,Kang, butted in, cruelly kicking over corpses of Ionians and Noxians alike ashe scanned the ground, “How many have died here? Hundreds! If I have to lookinto another decapitated head’s festering eyes I will just take off on my own.The war’s moving on without us.”

“Calm it down, Kang…” Shaungsaid, but the true intent to diffuse the situation wasn’t present in his voice.By his side, the butch woman known as Zan made up for his half efforts,

“Yeah! Come on, Kang. We’re justtrying to do what’s right.”

But as all the young adults bickered amongst themselves, theYi of the present’s gaze slowly panned from them to another lonely soul. He satalone, on a rock in the sea of destruction, staring off into space. It wasalmost difficult to recognize himself with his full beard down to his chest,and the bloodied rags of Ionia’s war regalia clinging to his form. But therewas himself, looking like a statue but listening intently. How else could he berecalling this memory so clearly now if that man hadn’t have been paying woefulattention?

“You think I’m being unreasonable? What about you guys? Shu? Yao? Oh yeah!Wei, you got an opinion on this?” None of the other three men gave any sort ofanswer, simply grimacing as they kept to their combing of the ground beneaththeir feet, “By whatever Celestial you want to thank for this mess, this is fucked.”

“Kang!” Zan cautioned, but itdidn’t stop the Wuju Practitioner and his unkempt, muddy locks of hair fromstreaming up about him as he marched up to the trembling Luo,

“It’s fucked! Fucked as fucked. You’re fucked, Luo.”

“Please…” The once proud standingwarrior seemed to crumple up as his comrade grasped at him by the rags of hisrobes, “We have to keep looking–”

“–For what? For a corpse among corpses? Why now? We didn’t fish Tehn or Jheiout of the sea, did we? We didn’t hold prayers for De. But yet, when it comesto the kid you just want to stick yourcock in, we have to spend all this time looking for her and ‘doing thingsright.’”

“I never had sex with her…” Luowhispered, but it was immediately overpowered by the bursting in of a scratchyvoiced man with two pairs of swords tied to his legs,

“Quit it, Kang! You’re going toofar.”

“Ah! Wei! Here you are with youropinion. Guess what? I don’t care! It all comes out now.” His focus returned squarely to letting his irate spittle landupon his fellow student’s face, “What were you two always doing out in thestableyard then, huh? She was fourteen when I first saw you two sneaking off. You were a grown man!”

“I was nineteen, and I never had sex with her.”

“What the fuck difference doesthat make? You were still a damn man. I hate you, Luo!” the proclamation seemedto make the man finally go limp, his legs barely holding his weight, “I’ve alwayshated you. Always so serious. Kissing Yi Dashi’s feet. And Ren was like a sister to me, yet you drummed it intoher head somehow that she was old enough to know what loving someone even was! Always with her, I love Luo. I love him! More than anything. You disgust me…”

The speaking of her name did something to the air. It madeit double in thickness, not just for he but seemingly for everyone. No onecould look at each other, not even Kang to Luo as he dropped his head and beganto spontaneously bawl. Even himself in the past, on his solitary perch, finallyroused from his trance, getting to his feet and making his careful way to hisdisciples.

Yet even if breaths were hard to take, the Yi of the presentstill took them. Maybe it was somehow a protective measure he didn’t even knowabout, his mind wasn’t properly digesting the direct memory before him. It toldhim to space out, to just let it be, and so he did.

He too hadn’t heard any of their names in a long time, yet hismind wanted to keep it that way.

“I can’t find her!” Kang cried, dropping hisWuju brother and not caring as the man all but fell limp to the muddied,bloodied ground, “We’ve got to go. I can’t do this anymore…”

“She was… is my best… friend… Kang.” The broken-downman mumbled to the mud, “She thought whatever she thought. I just wanted to say goodbye.”

“Enough.” Though more gravel gathered in his throat by the day, Yi’svoice still boomed in the space. All were attentive to his commands even thoughtheir varying levels of hysterics, and the Dashi dipped his head as he spoke, “Da-Renis here, somewhere. If not, then she has escaped, somewhere. But if she ishere, she has died in defense of the country.” The man, the foster father tothem all, warbled in his convictions a moment, but cleared his throat to speakon, “If she is here, her sword is here, and even if she’s not put to rest itwill at least mark her sacrifice when we cannot. Da-Luo?”

He said nothing, almost not evenseeming to breathe.

“Wu-Shu?” He called instead, andthe young man rushed to his call, “Pick up Luo. Everyone else, we’re going. It’snot a waste of time what we’ve done here… but we’re going. The war rageswithout us.”

And Yi supposed he wasn’t so different from the man whoshushed all screams and cries, organized the marching order, and set off withhis dwindling squad once again. He knew his own face, even behind the scruff ofwar, and he knew when he was concentrating on being distant. One of hisgreatest talents was to remove himself from body, and just let his Wujutraining make the rational decisions.

The man would cry about it though. The memory wouldn’tpersist long enough to show that part, but he’d cry the heaviest tears he’dever cried up until that point. He’d even feel guilty about it after, and heknew that because he still felt guilty to this day. Crying more for some students and less for others wasn’t something he could control, yet somehow his mind still thought torank his woe as if it meant something more.

“… She’d want us to continue,Luo.” The Master said to his student, “She’d hit you for falling down now. Youknow that, don’t you?”

“Don’t fucking say it’s okay whathe’s done, Master!” Kang replied in the man’s stay, though Yi would at leastlike to think he saw a little nod from the exhausted disciple. He and Yi both knew the true extent of it all. Perhaps he’d have to have a talk with Kang about it later…

#WUJU THRIVES IN STORY NOW 『Drabbles』#WHY DO YOU FIGHT 『Memories』#tw #trigger warning #for uh #accusations of having sex with a minor #though purely from one character's perceptions and not actually a thing that happened in headcanon #so don't lampoon me T__T #this has been sitting in my drafts for a while because I knew I wanted to write this #but I never wanted to bite the bullet #but then i did #I just want to write the wartime dramas pls #lombra dalla

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babygirlizz · 4 years

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izzie’s favorite movies and tv shows of 2020 (aka the worst year ever)

another year, another movie and tv show review. this year has, to put it simply, sucked. 2020 has been so terribly awful that sometimes the only light you can see are the absolute bangers of movies and tv shows that came out this year. with that being said, some of the movies and tv shows didn't come out in 2020. if the are mentioned in this post it is because they either: had a season come out this year, i found them this year, or they became popular this year.

SPOILERS: it may not come as a surprise but just in case you didn't realize, there will be many spoilers ahead, read at your own risk.

tw // death, suicide, drug use, mild adult language. if any of these things might trigger you, i strongly urge you not to read this post.

there is no specific order of these shows and movies, i'm just writing as they come to mind. if you enjoy any of these movies or tv shows, or if you have any suggestions for me, please let me know!

TV SHOWS

1) Santa Clarita Diet

Okay, so I know this show doesn't have anything to do with 2020. But, I found this show in 2020. I put it off for a while, thinking it wasn't my style of a show, but boy was I wrong. I loved this show. Sheila Hammond (Drew Barrymore) is a normal suburban wife and mom. She is a real estate agent with her husband Joel (Timothy Olyphant). She struggles with the fact that she isn't very adventurous. This all changes when she throws up an insane amount at a house showing. She then finds herself craving adventure, and craving human flesh. Yeah, she's a zombie. Not only is this show super hilarious, but it also shows the growth that they have with their characters and their family. I'm also team Abby (Liv Hewson) and Eric (Skyler Gisondo).

2) Outer Banks

So, I'm from NC. And, watching this show at first bothered me because I can very obviously tell this show isn't actually filmed in the obx, and the geography isn't exact, but once I got past that, I loved it. John B (Chase Stokes) is a teenager that lives in the poor side of the outer banks. He has a friend group called the Pogues which consists of JJ (Rudy Pankow), Pope (Jonathan Daviss), and Kie (Madison Bailey). They absolutely hate the Kooks, which are the rich kids. A while after John B's dad gets lost at sea, presumed dead, the group finds some evidence that may solve the mystery, and make them rich. In the process, John B falls in love with a Kook names Sarah (Madelyn Cline) whose father Ward (Charles Esten) may have a little more to do with the mystery than he let on. Through friendship, murder, and secrets, the gang may just figure out what happened to John B's dad.

3) Love, Victor

Alright. I loved loved loved Love, Simon. I also really loved the book "Simon vs. the Homosapien Agenda." So, when I heard about this show, I was so excited. Victor (Michael Cimino) is a teenage boy that moved to Creekwood with his family. He meets Felix (Anthony Turpel) who lives in his building. He also meets Mia (Rachel Hilson) and they begin dating. But, he also meets Benji (George Sear). While trying to get used to a new school, new friends, and a new relationship, Victor finds himself questioning his sexuality. With the help of Simon (Nick Robinson) and his friends, Victor finds it in himself to finally come out, and he admits his feelings, for Benji. This is such a good show, but I was so upset when season 1 ended on a cliff-hanger.

4) The Haunting of Bly Manor

The sequel to The Haunting of Hill House. Now listen, haunting of hill house was an absolute banger. When I saw that Bly came out I nearly died. I was so excited. But, I was alone in my apartment and also a lil bitch. So, I had to wait a week until I was home with my family to watch it. Now, I was so excited to be scared, and there were a few jump scares and ominous moments, but this season was more centered around the story line of Dani Clayton (Victoria Pedretti) and her new life in a foreign country. When seeing an ad for a live in job as an au pair. When she gets there, she meets the two young children she’ll be looking out for and the other workers of the house, including the gardener, Jamie (Amelia Eve). Throughout her stay at Bly she begins to notice weird behaviors from both children and by the end of the series she sacrifices herself for the children. Sadly, this story is being told by Jamie who Dani had fallen in love with during her stay at Bly. Now I was somewhat upset about the lack of horror, but was still very intrigued and drawn in by this series.

5) Julie and the Phantoms

Alright, at first I was not gonna watch this show. I thought it looked a little too young and childish for me, but everyone was talking about it on twitter so I had to. I. Love. This. Show. This show centers around Julie (Madison Reyes). Julie is a teenage girl who, sadly, lost her mother. The one major thing she shared with her mom, was their love for music. Since her mothers passing, she gave up music. This is until, dead musicians from the 90′s show up in her garage. Luke (Charlie Gillespie), Alex (Owen Joyner), and Reggie (Jeremy Shada) all tragically passed away in the 90′s after eating bad street hotdogs. When Julie finds their CD in her garage, she decides to play it and they come back in ghost form. But, only she can see them. With their help, she finds her confidence to play music again. Also, she has to find away for them to stay because they’re slowly disappearing.

6) Derry Girls

Bitch. I love this show. And yeah it didn’t come out in 2020. Shut up. I found this show recently after watching the cast on the holiday special of the Great British Baking Show. I loved the actors so I had to watch the show. This show focuses on Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) a 16 year old girl that lives in Derry, Northern Ireland in the 90′s. Alongside her is her cousin Orla (Louisa Harland), her two friends Clare (Nicola Coughlan) and Michelle (Jamie-Lee O’Donnell), and Michelle’s English cousin James (Dylan Llewellyn). During these years, a lot of people in Ireland struggled, especially because it was during wartime. Even thought this show isn’t focused heavily around the war, it’s amazing to see these teens live a fulfilling life while struggling with the state of their country, and the lack of money that their families have.

7) Elite

HA. This show did have a season in 2020 so leave me alone. But bro, I love this show. At first, I didn’t watch it because I thought I could only watch the dubbed version in English, which I hate. I hate dubbed shows they look so weird. But, once I found out I could watch this show in Spanish, I fell in love. But, sadly, theres too damn much to talk about in one little post. It’s crazy. But basically it just follows the lives of teens in high school that are trying to survive. And no, not in the “I’m surviving high school,” sense. No, people be getting murdered.

MOVIES (tbh i didn’t find a lot of movies good this year lmk which movies u liked this year and maybe i’ll like them!)

1) All the Bright Places

After the death of her sister, Violet (Elle Fanning) is devastated. She closes herself off, and has her parents get her out of doing school work that involves working with others. But, as time goes on, they realize she may need to start to move on. Violet then meets Finch (Justice Smith) who is enamored by Violet. He suggests they do a project together. While finding and visiting some of the smallest wonders of their state, they begin to fall for each other. While you are focusing on Violet and her mental health, you tend to miss some of the signs that Finch’s mental health isn’t great either, but by the time you do, it could be too late.

2) Dangerous Lies

Hmm. This was weird for me. I had only ever seen Camila Mendes in Riverdale, and honestly, not a fan. So, Katie (Camila Mendes) and her husband Adam (Jessie T. Usher) are struggling with money. Katie decides to take a job working for an elderly man, and eventually gets her husband hired there as well. Unfortunately, he dies, but for some odd reason, leaves the house and all of his fortune, to Katie. As they get comfortable in the house, they begin to uncover some very weird and dangerous lies.

3) The Devil All the Time

Ok. Iconic. You got so many hot men in this movie. Bill Skarsgård, Sebastian Stan, Tom Holland, Robert Pattinson. C’mon now. That’s crazy. But, this story is so long and in depth that I wouldn’t even know where to begin. This movie is a bit disturbing. It involves murder, sexual assault, killing of animals, and so much more so if that’s an issue for you please do not watch this movie. It was also quite long, but it was still good.

4) After We Collided

Okay just listen. I was that teenager. I read wattpad stories and was, embarrassingly, addicted to After. This was not a great movie per say, but it was After. This is a sequel to the movie After. This movie centers around Tessa (Josephine Langford) and her recovery after her breakup with Hardin (Hero Fiennes Tiffin). Theres sex, alcohol, bad acting. The whole nine-yards. But c’mon, they’re so cute together.

5) To All the Boys p.s. I Still Love You

Okay it was a good movie. I enjoyed it. This movie focuses on Lara Jean (Lana Condor) and her boyfriend Peter (Noah Centineo) and their relationship post the first movie. But of course relationships aren’t super steady, and John Ambrose McClaren (Jordan Fisher) shows up. Yeah, John Ambrose, from her letter. They become closer and Lara Jean has to decide who she wants to be with. Spoiler, it’s Peter. BOOOOOOO justice for John Ambrose McClaren, he deserved better.

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celiabowens · 4 years

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Book recommendations, Literary Fiction edition(?)

A companion to this post (which should be updated, at some point lol)

Short Story Collections:

Salt Slow by Julia Armfield: grotesque and disquieting collection about women and their experience in society, how they view and perceive their own body and desires. Pretty strong mythic, magical realism, body horror elements in here.

The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks: fascinating collection in which Sacks reminishes some particularly odd stories of patients who had to cope with bizarre neurological disorders.

Home Remedies by Xuan Juliana Wang: a collection focused on the Chinese millennial experience. Stories about love and loss, family, immigration and the uncertainty of the future. (also there’s an extremely beautiful short story about a pair of Chinese divers that broke me forever!!!)

Bestiary: The Selected Stories by Julio Cortázar: unforgettable selection of short stories that mix surreal elements to everyday life and apparently ordinary events. Would also recommend All Fires the Fire by the same author.

Novels:

How Much of These Hills is Gold by C. Pam Zhang: one of the biggest debuts of 2020, it follows two recently orphaned children through the gold rush era. An adventurous historical fiction piece that focuses on themes like gender, identity and immigration, this is one of my favorites 2020 reads so yeah, I’d really push it in anyone’s hands to be honest.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent: historical fiction inspired by the last days of a young woman accused of murder in Iceland in the 1820s. A quite bleak, but beautiful novel (the prose is stunning).

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave: historical fiction novel set in Norway in the 17th century, following the lives of a group of women in a village that recently (barely) survived a storm that killed all of the island’s men.

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead: the 2020 winner of the Pulitzer Prize. The book follows the lives of two boys sentenced to a reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida. A bleak, but important book, with a shocking final twist (side note, I’ve been recommended The Underground Railroad by Whitehead as well, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. If you’re looking for something quite peculiar, if a bit less refined when compared to The Nickel Boys, The Intuitionist is a quite odd pulpy noir set in an alternate NY about...elevator inspectors *and racism*).

The Leavers by Lisa Ko: haunting book about identity and immigration as the main character is apparently abandoned by his own mother (an undocumented Chinese immigrant) during his childhood. Mainly a story about living in between places and constantly feeling out of place.

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa: when everyone would probably recommend Murakami (not much against Murakami besides his descriptions of women and their boobs), I suggest checking out some of Ogawa’s books. The recently translated The Memory Police, published in Japan in the mid 90s, is an orwellian dystopian novel set on an unnamed Island where memories slowly disappear. Would also really recommend The Housekeeper and The Professor, a really short novel about a housekeeper hired to clean and cook for a math professor who suffered an injury that causes him to remember new things for only 80 minutes.

On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong: Ocean Vuong’s debut novel, following a son writing a letter to his illiterate mother. The book seems quite polarising due to Vuong’s writing style (his poetry background is really quite clear and the book doesn’t really follow a regular narrative, rather than portrays events and memories in brief flashes), but I loved it and I’d really just recommend going into it without knowing much? It’s a beautiful exploration of language, family history, trauma, sexuality and more.

Exist West by Mohsin Hamid: this book was fairly popular when it came out (in 2017 I believe) and was often incorrectly marketed as magical realism. Hamid’s book is a brief and quietly brutal journey with a few fantastical elements, following a couple trying to escape their city in the middle of war, as they hear about peculiar doors that can whisk people far away. The doors are, of course, a quite effective metaphor for the immigrant experience and the book does a great job at portraying the main characters’ relationship.

Family Trust by Kathy Wang: this has a really low rating on goodreads which...wow i hate that. Family Trust is a literary family saga/drama about a Chinese-American family residing in the Silicon Valley. It’s often been compared to Crazy Rich Asians, but I believe it to be more on the literary side and definitely less lighthearted.

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee: historical family saga (one of my favorites tbh, I’m absolutely biased, but this book deserved more hype) set in Korea and Japan throughout the 20th century, following four generations of a Korean family. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of the prose, the book has really great characterisation and absolutely fascinating characters. (I’d suggest checking out eventual TW first, in this case).

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker: another recent read, The Silence of the Girls, while not faultless, is a pretty good retelling of The Iliad, narrated through Briseis’ perspective. The prose can feel a bit too modern at times, but it provides the reader with some really strong quotes and descriptions.

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng: and also Little Fires Everywhere by the same author, to be honest. If you’re looking for really really good family dramas, with great explorations of rather complex and nuanced relationships? You should just check out her stuff. Vibrant characters, good writing, and some superb portrayal of longing here.

Nutshell by Ian McEwan: i’m starting with this one only to grab your attention (if you’ve even reached this part lol, congrats), but McEwan’s one of my favorite authors and I’d recommend almost everything I’ve read by him? Nutshell, specifically, is a really odd and fun retelling of Hamlet...told from the pov of an unborn baby. But really, I’d also recommend Atonement (of course), The Children Act, Amsterdam? All good stuff.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles: I’ve read this book this summer and, while I’m still unsatisfied with the ending, I’d thoroughly recommend this? The novel follows Count Alexander Rostov, who, in 1922, is sentenced to a lifetime of house arrest in the Metropol, a luxurious hotel in the center of Moscow. A singular novel, funny and heartbreaking at once, following a vibrant cast of characters as they come and go from Rostov’s secluded life.

Human Acts by Han Kang: from the bestselling author of The Vegetarian (which honestly, I thoroughly despised lol), Human Acts focuses on the South Korean Gwangju uprising. It’s a really odd (and at times grotesque) experimental novel (one chapter is narrated from the pov of one of the bodies if I remember correctly), so one really has to be in the mood for it, but it’s a really unique experience, worth a chance.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: sort of a really chunky historical adventure novel following two artists in 1940s/1950s NY, who create a superhero and use him to wage a one man war on the Nazis. A bit slow in places (the pace can be uneven at times and the book is quite long), but an enjoyable novel that does a pretty good job when it comes to exploring rather classic themes of American contemporary fiction: the American dream and the figure of the artist (I think there’s a particularly interesting focus on how the artists navigates the corporate world and its rules) and their creative process.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel: this is a pretty classic rec, the book really got a lot of hype when it came out? It’s a dystopian-ish novel set after civilisation’s collapse, following a post-apocalyptic troupe (of Shakespearean actors). It’s a really odd, but surprisingly quiet book. Not sure if a pandemic is exactly the right time to read it, but I thoroughly recommend it.

The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng: I feel like this book is extremely complex to summarise to be honest. In short, it’s a book set in Malaya at the end of the 1940s, following a woman who, after surviving Japanese wartime camps, spends her life prosecuting war criminals. But truthfully this book is about conflicts and contradictions and in particular about remembering and forgetting. Lovely prose.

The Secret History by Donna Tartt: and also The Goldfinch. I’m sure no one really needs me to introduce Donna Tartt?

The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton: quite cerebral mystery set in New Zealand in 1866. Honestly you have to be a patient reader who enjoys novels with a pretty complex structure to like this, but if you’re into this sort of challenging read...go for it? It’s a book of interlocking stories (with 10+ pov and main characters) with a really fascinating structure based on astrological charts, which provide insight to the main characters’ traits and personality as the mystery unfolds.

The Hours by Michael Cunningham: ok...do not watch the movie first. The Hours is an incredibly difficult novel to describe to be honest: it begins by recalling the last moments of Virginia Woolf’s life, as she’s writing Mrs. Dalloway. The book focuses on three separate narratives, each one following a specific character throughout a single day of their own life. Goes without saying that I’d suggest being familiar with Mrs. Dalloway itself first though.

An Artists of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro: not one of Ishiguro’s most famous works (most start reading his work with Never Let Me Go or The Remains of the Day), but probably my favorite out of those I’ve read so far. The novel follows Masuji Ono, an artist who put his work in service of imperialist propaganda throughout WWII. Basically a reflection and an account of the artist’s life as he deals with the culpability of his previous actions.

Stoner by John Williams: I feel like this is an odd book to recommend, because I don’t think someone can truly get the hype unless they read it themselves. Stoner is a pretty straight-forward book, following the ordinary life of an even more ordinary man. And yet it’s so compelling and never dull in its exploration of the characters’ lives and personalities. Also, I’ve just finished Augustus by the same author, which is an epistolary historical fiction novel narrating some of the main events of Augustus’ reign through letters from/by his closest friends and enemies. Really liked it.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thien: back to integenerational family sagas (because I love those, in case it wasn’t clear lol), Do Not Say We Have Nothing follows a young woman who suddenly rediscovers her family’s fractured past. The novel focuses on two successive generations of a Chinese family through China’s 20th century history. While not every character got the type of development they deserved, the author does a good job when it comes to gradually recreating the family’s complex and nuanced history.

There’s probably more but I doubt anyone’s going to reach the end or anything so. There’s that lol.

#book recs #book rec #litblr #2020 reads #all the typos are my own LOL #also i didnt put here philip roth or auster #but tbh #i dont think anyone needs me to rec them???

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reignsecure · 4 years

Text

introduction to the association of ares to the socialist movement

I am by no means an expert on either of the topics I am going to write about, but I am in the process of educating myself to expand my knowledge of them.

Expect more parts in the future! I am not done with this topic.

I made a post stating that Ares was the patron deity of all revolutionary movements - the one I am going to discuss is the idea of a socialist revolution in particular. Athene is mentioned. tw for mentions of r*pe

In the Mythos, Ares is a relatively radical God. When he found out that his daughter had been raped, he did not hesitate to strike down her rapist, regardless of the consequences. He did not have faith in traditional justice and, therefore, acted directly on his own accord. He is the ancestor of the Amazons, arguably the most powerful group of warriors to ever exist - and entirely made up of women only. Another example of this is shown in Argos and Tegea, where women took up arms and defeated the Spartans, thus establishing cults of Ares that excluded men. Where history viewed war as a male-dominated sport, Ares was upholding the glory of women-warriors. This introduces us to the side of Ares not particularly talked about: the fighter for the oppressed.

To understand this Ares’ association with revolutionary movements specifically, we have to recognize the fact that Ares, being a God of War, does not just represent mindless fighting on a battlefield between armies. In a way, he is the God of every type of struggle, armed or otherwise.

Further defining this concept, we can generalize history as being a timeline of different types of struggles in itself. The most identifiable one is the class struggle; the antagonism between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The history of civilization has been characterized through the class antagonisms of each epoch, and through dialectics we can evaluate its evolution over time. However, this studying of the antagonisms of the past and present is limited in its purposeful value. It is one thing to understand, it is another to act. One could view that the Goddess Athene presides over Theory, while Ares is Praxis.

This is exemplified in how each Deity is characterized: Athene Promachos is the champion of wartime strategy, thus presenting her authority over the studying of intellectual revolutionary ideas in terms of studying and comprehending them; but this is where her domain ends. Regarding the latter War God, Nestor in The Iliad describes how the great clashing of parties is a “deed of Ares”; To Polydamas, war is the μένος of Ares, in which μένος can mean “will or intent”. He is the action, the doing, and the change.

These seemingly contradictory concepts of socialism are required to be harmonious with one another in order to be completely effective in actual practice. You cannot just rely on reading theory and doing nothing else as this is ineffective, yet you cannot go out and make change without the intellectual foundations needed to do so. This concept of the nature of their duality is exemplified through the relationship between Ares and Athene. Athene is Ares’ check - she keeps him reigned in. When they are working obversely, chaos ensues. The two deities were even occasionally worshipped together, with Athene receiving the title Areia. In fact, the demesmen of Acharnai constructed a sanctuary that depicts Athene Areia crowning Ares in armor.

This idea that these contrasting forces can work together is absolutely fundamental in understanding socialism. Praxis cannot be achieved without Theory, and Theory is useless unless it is used in Praxis. The stories of the battles between Ares and Athene show us the outcomes of the imbalance of these basic structures of the ideology.