valentinegoestotortall-blog

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I wish I knew the exact time and date that harry told snape ‘there’s no need to call me sir professor’ so that I could take a moment of silence to remember the moment each year

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She’s so idealistic, but also so completely practical. One of my favorite characters.

Thayet?

Thayet honestly deserves more dialogue than she gets but I think she is summed up best by the scene where she just wades in the ocean and screams a war cry at the top of her lungs just for the hell of it when they’re taking the trainees to Pirate’s Swoop. You gotta love her idealism and desire to change things though as well:

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This is my most favorite Sandry quote - the one you posted is great too!

“A girl nearby muttered,“If that’s a lady, I’m a cat.” Reaching out, Sandry lifted the pitcher of milk from the table. Cradling it in both hands, she walked over to the mutterer. I am Sandrilene fa Toren, daughter of Count Mattin fer Toren and his countess, Amiliane fa Landreg. I am the great-niece of his grace, Duke Vedris of this realm of Emelan, and cousin of her Imperial Highness, Empress Berenene of the Namorn Empire. You are Esmelle ei Pragin, daughter of Baron Witten en Pragin and his lady Colledia of House Wheelwright, a merchant house. If I tell you my friend is a lady, then you"- carefully she poured milk into Esmelle’s plate-“you had best start lapping, kitty.” She set the pitcher down and returned to her chair.” 

Favorite quote for sandry!! She has so many good ones quite honestly

She really does! SO many. My fave Circle book is Will of the Empress though and she really gets to grow as a character in that one. I think a great example is her tirade against Berenene’s policies regarding forced marriage in Will of the Empress: 

and continued

Send me a character and I’ll post my favorite quote.

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➣ NATIONWIDE TRACTION, PLEASE!

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to all of the jewish people that may be reading this, i hope you and your families are safe today. i hope that you are able to grieve with your community and hold on to each other and hold each other up. 

i am thinking of you all. i am thinking of our communities and our people. 

אנחנו נתגבר ונשרוד גם את זה.

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Hermione: I haven’t gotten an ‘F’ since I failed recess in second grade in the muggle school.

Hermione, mockingly: Teachers need a break too, Hermione.

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kel <3

Kel.

Top 2 during squire years, bottom 2 as a knight

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That fanfic is like...All The Emotions™. 

So I’m rereading First Test (and soon all of The Protector of the Small) for like the millionth time… And I realized that I never really did get why Neal was so adamant about becoming a knight when he so clearly prefered his other studies… And so I was just reading the passage after Kel gets in her first fight with Joren & Co., when Kel is being heald by Duke Baird… And he’s described as wearing black in mourning for his two lost sons… It never really registered that his sons were Neal’s older brothers. That they must have died during the war. And it just dawned on me that there are no more Queenscove knights left. That Neal felt compelled to fill the gap left by his brothers. Since “there has always been a Queenscove knight”. Like. That’s some heavy stuff you guys. For a bookish 15-year-old to lose his brothers in a war and decide to fill their shoes himself by becoming an old page… Like wow I have so many Neal feelings all of a sudden. Everything hurts. No wonder he refuses to talk about his reasons for becoming a knight…

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Well, now you gotta read this fanfic.

So I’m rereading First Test (and soon all of The Protector of the Small) for like the millionth time… And I realized that I never really did get why Neal was so adamant about becoming a knight when he so clearly prefered his other studies… And so I was just reading the passage after Kel gets in her first fight with Joren & Co., when Kel is being heald by Duke Baird… And he’s described as wearing black in mourning for his two lost sons… It never really registered that his sons were Neal’s older brothers. That they must have died during the war. And it just dawned on me that there are no more Queenscove knights left. That Neal felt compelled to fill the gap left by his brothers. Since “there has always been a Queenscove knight”. Like. That’s some heavy stuff you guys. For a bookish 15-year-old to lose his brothers in a war and decide to fill their shoes himself by becoming an old page… Like wow I have so many Neal feelings all of a sudden. Everything hurts. No wonder he refuses to talk about his reasons for becoming a knight…

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I cannot sit idly by and watch this terrible thing happen. I mean, I can barely sit idly by and watch good things happen!

Keladry of Mindelan (via incorrect-tortall-quotes)

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I second the recommendation for the Circle, Updated. I don’t normally like modern AU’s, but really enjoyed that one. I’ll add a few others, but there’s not a whole ton of Emelan fiction and of what there is, I haven’t read much. There is quite a bit on fanfiction.net that I have never looked through.

A True and Honest Thought. About Tris and Niko from Niko’s perceptions. < 20k words

Time of Forging. Tris goes to Lightbridge. Well done. Incomplete, but what’s written is lovely. < 5000 words

Asfoetida and Mustard Seeds. Short snippet of Gorse’s life. < 2500 words

The Distances Between Us All. Tris is homesick and starts to make new friends at Lightbridge. < 1000 words

Four Times Niva Hated Everyone and Everything (And One Time She Didn’t). Lark and Rosethorn when they were just beginning at Winding Circle. < 2500 words

Forged. Sandry asks Daja for some advice. < 1000 words

a problem shared. What should be done with a new mage with unusual talents? < 2500 words

Lost Children. Briar and Tris work to make sure young ambient mages don’t go undiscovered. < 1500 words

Matters of Policy. Another Tris goes to Lightbridge story. I really enjoyed this one, but do be warned there is a Briar/Tris relationship that’s not mentioned in the tags. < 75k words

tea without music. Briar and Tris friendship fic. Written by dirgewithoutmusic. < 500 words

Would You Like Some Lightening With Your Soup? Tris’s friends try to convince her not to go to Lightbridge. < 7500 words

Conflict Resolution. Three times Sandry handled things her foster-siblings’ way, and one time she went with hers. < 2500 words

The Greatest Potter in Emelan. A craftsmage encounters the members of the circle at four very different points in their lives. The reason I ended up listing so many other fics is that I was looking for this one. Highly recommend! < 5000 words

Do you guys have any fanfic recommendations for Circle of Magic?

Hi, anon!

I… am going to interpret your question in a general Emelan fashion in the hope that is okay? I unfortunately do not read very much Circle fic, so it would be great if people could jump in with their suggestions too!

in the very palm of your hand by dirgewithoutmusic - A series of moments for each of the Emelan kids and for each of their friendships. From age ten, through disasters together and disasters apart, they are a family and they have made a home. 

the Circle, updated by FletcherHonorama - same kids, our world. (part of a series)

Always Us by KrisEleven - They were meant to be together, but what if Niko had not saved them? What would they have become then? (part of a series)

Saati by Lisafer - Sandry’s death isn’t unexpected, but her confessions are. (Daja/Sandry, major character death warning) 

Hearts and Houses by Kit - Life for those on the brink of completing their novitiate can be tumultuous. Lark and Rosethorn, before they knew-or were-each other. A love story in four parts. (Lark/Rosethorn)

Heartlight by journeycat - They are Sandry and Crane, and that is enough. (Sandry/Crane, explicit)

The Shortest Day by PeroxidePirate - Long Night Eve is a strange time to be caught between cultures. But it’s easier if you’re not the only one. (Daja/Polyam)

Unravel the Weave by ivyspinners - In one universe, Briar and Tris woke Winding Circle up before the pirates could sneak in. In this one, they did not.

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There is exactly a modern AU that’s quite good! the Circle, Updated

So I’m at work today thinking about the Circle of Magic books, as y’do, because I found pdfs online and I’m halfway through, and I’m thinking about the idea of craft magic as so powerful, ambient magic, the little non-showy things that pin the world together. And I got enough worldview from Tammy Pierce that I’ve kind of wanted to know how to spin thread since I was ten, but this isn’t that world any more. We don’t weave our own cloth or smelt iron with our own two hands, we don’t have to grow our own vegetables to get them fresh.

Which could lead to a whole sad and sorry ‘the world is too advanced, too removed from our basics’, but no.  No, I don’t want to think that way at all.  Because you know what?  We still have plants.

We still have plants, even in the middle of a choked and crowded city (New York, Briar lives in New York, or maybe L.A., but no place smaller or greener), and in a neighborhood where the only growing things are weeds in the sidewalk cracks and brave blades of grass in yards of dirt packed hard as concrete, Briar knows the location of every public park or weedy vacant lot within two miles of wherever he lives.  So the Briar Moss of today would be constantly drifting between homelessness and foster care and juvie hall, pulled into a gang maybe a little older than book canon but still too damn young, and the dandelions and crabgrass would always get a little taller, greener, stronger near to wherever he lived.

And I’m thinking that growing things aren’t just a luxury, I’m thinking about Briar learning about community gardening, when he gets older, people growing things on purpose in the kinds of places he used to live.  Guerrilla gardening in the middle of the night, because he’s got a new life now but some things you don’t forget, and I can’t stop picturing him in a hoodie and ripped-up jeans, vines tattooed all across his skin covering over the old gang signs, slouching along the sidewalk in front of the no-longer-vacant lot between the liquor store and the apartment block.  There’s tomato plants there now, and bean vines, a handful of other hardy-ish food plants that Briar scattered as seeds and told to grow, strong and stubborn, no matter who tries to rip you out, and then left to the people in the neighborhood to see to after that.  It’s about the only fresh vegetables you’ll get anywhere near here, and it didn’t take that much work on his part.  Just a few seeds and a little secret magic, and then people do for themselves.  (And sometimes Briar slouches along through the nicer neighborhoods, the really nice neighborhoods where he almost has an excuse to be now, just to make everybody nervous about the tattooed brown boy in the ripped-up jeans and the hoodie, and silently encourages every last dandelion and blade of crab grass he can find to disrupt perfect lawns and break cracks in the sidewalk.)

There’s space in this world for that kind of magic.  There’s space in this world, where clothing is mass produced and machine-made, for Sandry, because people still wear clothes, don’t they?   She’d end up an Etsy-loving hipster, draped in her own handmade ultra-chic knitwear and a dress she sewed herself.  And there’s a difference, isn’t there, Sandry taking up knitting because it’s trendy and therefore allowed (but also because the yarn tingles magic in her fingers) as a hobby, versus weaving yard after yard of bandage because it's needed.  But people still wear clothes, and Sandry wants to be a fashion designer when she grows up, to get cloth into shape and form, to keep people comfortable and warm, to make things that look good.  And somebody has to, the world needs the person who can run yards of cloth through her hands, not to painstakingly embroider all the cuffs and hems by hand, but to see the bigger picture of all the thousands of people who’ll wear this clothing once it’s made.

Daja grows up surrounded by metal, everywhere she goes, and she might never see the inside of a smith’s forge her entire life.  Instead her heart jumps one tiny beat the first time she ends up in an auto mechanic’s shop.  It’s factories that make these parts, cogs and gears and pipes and engines, factories and not somebody’s hammer and anvil, but they still sing to Daja once they’re made, and somebody has to know how to put them together.  She can fix anything, Daja in oil-stained overalls with a kerchief tied around her hair, the coils on a toaster, the engine of a car, the delicate wiring in somebody’s ipod.  She welds and solders, finds weak spots and rust, maybe invents a little here and there.  Just because most people don’t know how all their modern gadgets and technology are put together, doesn’t mean somebody doesn’t have to.  And that’s the point of the craft magic, isn’t it, hasn’t it always been, the idea that somebody made that thing you take for granted and there’s honor in the making?

And of course weather magic still matters, because in this world, Tris would be eleven years old in the middle of tornado alley in a city where people still believe a kid can be possessed by Satan, and she would know when tornadoes were coming.  Every time, she’d know.  There are sturdy buildings and umbrellas and weather satellites, and for all that, one little girl can do more with the weather–can save lives, when she gets older, can nudge a tornado just a mile off course and save half a county, can face a hurricane, a blizzard–than any meteorologist or government agency could hope.  Tris with her hair shoved under a hat or yanked back in a ponytail, still weird, because this world doesn’t have much space or belief for magic, but still with a place, because the wind’s still blowing in Oklahoma and the waves are climbing higher and higher off the coast of Florida, and that never goes away.

I’m not saying I want a modern AU, exactly (though this is a fandom I've never played around in, and if a really good one exists I would totally read it.)  Just, it’s really interesting to me, to take the themes and apparent lessons of a medieval setting and see how they relate to the world that we, the audience, live in.

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I recognize that the leadership has made a decision, but given that it’s a stupid-ass decision, I’ve elected to ignore it.

Keladry of Mindelan (via incorrect-tortall-quotes)

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Hi! I loved your POTS rec list! Some great fics on there. Do you have any favourite SOTL fics?

Thank you! The POTS series is my favorite, so I don’t have nearly as many recommendations for SOTL. Some of my SOTL recommendations are in the POTS time period, but focus on Alanna. One of my previously recommended authors, devilinthedetails, also writes some SOTL works, especially about Alex. I’ll especially recommend this piece and this piece, but if you go through the Alex tag, anything written by her won’t disappoint. LadyLingua writes (exclusively?) SOTL fanfic. I recommend a couple specific pieces below, but you can also look at her page for more.

it’s a dangerous business, going out your door (you never know where you might be swept off to). Series about Kourrem bint Kemail. 30k words

Hear Her Roar. Moments in Alanna’s life.

Raising Lion Cubs. Moments in Alanna and her family’s lives as her kids grow up.

The Decision. About Alanna, set after POTS. New Life is devilinthedetail’s take on the same situation. Both are well done. 

War Crimes. Alanna and Buri during their time in Sarain.

First Frost. Alanna and Thom as young children.

Terrifying Sweet. Alanna and George.

In Hand. Alanna and George get married. Really cute.

The Lioness and Her Cubs. Alanna as a mother.

That Time of Year. This one’s a bit silly, but cute and funny.

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First of all, devilinthedetails writes POTS fanfic prolifically and it’s all amazing. There are far too many of her stories that I enjoy to recommend them all, but I especially recommend this series on Roald’s time as a squire. westernsunset has also written quite a few lovely fanfics recently.

I will also second the recommendations for Lady Knight Volant, its sequel The Temple of Sayuko and Fallen. All of these have very good world building and good story telling. I don’t love all of the relationship choices in Lady Knight Volant, but it’s not my fic and I think it’s very much worth reading anyway. Phoenix Quest is another story with great world building about female pages and squires who follow after Kel. Part I is complete and Part II is ongoing and updated on a weekly basis. All of the aforementioned fics are very long, > 100k words.

Kel

Reputations. Cute, short K/D fanfic. < 5000 words.

When She Jousts. A llovely character study of Kel from the point of view of a few other characters. < 2500 words

Training Styles. About Kel’s relationship with Wyldon as a friend post Lady Knight. <1500 words

Brightness all. Another super cute fic about Kel and Wyldon as friends involving a puppy. <1500 words

Five Worlds in Which Lady Keladry Did Not Become a Lady Knight … as seen by one where she did. Lovely writing! < 5000 words

the things you carry. What if Kel was arrested for treason after defeating Blayce? Cannot recommend this one more highly; the writing is absolutely amazing. < 7500 words

to heed the voice of honor. What if Wyldon didn’t let Kel continue after her probationary year? By the same author as the things you carry. < 15k words

Neal

Unwilling. Why does Neal decide to become a knight? Very well done character study. < 20k words

Age and Treachery. Neal as Alanna’s squire and their relationship. < 15k words

falls the shadow. Snippets of Neal’s life. Wonderful writing. < 2500 words each

Haunted. Neal’s past and how it affects him as a healer. < 2500 words

A Rousing Defense of the Oft Maligned Disobedience. A punishment essay written by Neal for Wyldon. Hilarious. < 5000 words

Raoul

Indisposed. On Raoul’s previous squire, and why he no longer drinks. < 1500 words

Inevitability. Raoul and Buri! Absolutely adorable. < 5000 words

Owen

Broken to Bridle. Follows Owen as Wyldon’s squire. Their relationship is very well developed. > 200k words

Wyldon and Vivienne

Intervals in Progression. Character study of Wyldon throughout POTS. Very well done. < 7500 words

In The Stands. Vivienne watches as Wyldon jousts against Kel. < 1500 words

Negotiations and Love Songs. The courtship of Wyldon and Vivenne. Very cute and well written. < 30k words

Multiple Characters

Mithros Bless Us, Every One. A series of short drabble about Midwinter holidays, featuring various characters. <1000 words each

a certain ability to recognize objects under our noses. A series of fics about the Conte siblings and their partners. < 5000 words each

Astute. How does Jon learn about Kel’s excursion into Scanra? Really funny. < 1000 words

It's sad that there isn't that many fanfics for Protector of the Small out there. It's an amazing series!

I actually don’t really read fanfics except the occasional short headcanons and things people post on here so I wouldn’t know. But I do agree that it’s a great series!

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What about Tamora Pierce's Emelan series? POC & female lead characters. Daja is also lesbian, though that doesn't really come until Will of the Empress (the kids are pretty young in the other books).

So I’ve gotten into audiobooks. Currently I’m listening to the books on my sister’s account but thinking of getting my own.

Any suggestions for some good fantasy books starring queer and/or POC protags and preferably written by like authors?

Stuff I like are things like Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series, Sherwood Smith’s stuff, the Graceling books by Kristin Cashore, even the Kushiel series and Black Jewel Trilogy for less YA stuff. For less fantasy stuff, I’ve enjoyed the early Anita Blake Series and all of the Mercedes Thompson books I’ve read (most). I haven’t really tried too much sci-fi. Liked Hunger Games but couldn’t get thru the last book of the Divergent series. 🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️🤷🏼‍♀️

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Today Harry James Potter is sitting at his desk, avoiding the date on the calendar as much as he can, each quill he holds breaks because he’s gripping it too tightly. 

Today Ginny Potter runs into work out of breathe because Harry forgot to wake her up and she is so late. She takes a second to situate herself and catch her breathe when the daily prophet lands with a thud on her desk and the date on the page nearly burns into her skin. 

Today Ron Weasley refuses to come into work. He spends the day kissing Rose and Hugo as often as they let him. He visits his Mum and his brother, because even if they say otherwise, he knows they need him.

Today Hermione Weasley-Granger keeps stoic as tiny disputes over land enter the court, it’s only during her lunch break does she go into a stall and sob for those who didn’t get to live to see what constitutes a “real issue” these days. 

Today Neville Longbottom visits his parents with Hannah by his side; he retells the story of what happened 18 years ago to them like he does every year. Alice squeezes his hand through every moment of it. 

Today Draco Malfoy watches Scorpius play outside with one of his dozens of brooms. He watches his child’s face light up as he smiles, racing to catch the snitch that is always just a bit out of reach. The scars on his chest twinge as he swears that he will never allow his son to make the same mistakes he did.

Today Luna Scamander is in the jungles of Brazil accompanied by her husband and two young sons. She watches as pixies jump from branch to branch, and her eyes sparkle with amusement as one of them lands on Lysander who giggles at her touch and tries to grab at the creature with his chubby fists. 

Today Dennis Creevey closes his shop for the day. He apparates to his home and looks at the picture of his brother laughing. Why he grew old and Colin didn’t he will never truly understand.