#Imperial gambit spoilers

[kawaiisimp]

Say what you want about Xifeng Wine, but this shit had me kicking my feet and giggling:

Shut up! I know he's terrible, but GOD DAMN! *insert old-school cartoon character seeing a hot chick noises* A fine specimen right here!

Also, this THIS:

MADE ME FERAL! WHAT WAS THE REASON! WHY DID THEY SLUT HIM OUT LIKE THAT!?! Not complaining tho...👀👀😏

#the tale of food #the tale of food event spoilers #I want his card so bad #also I need to get better taste in men from this game bc I be simping for the worst ones #new obsession = H I M #sorry swallow bun and shredded jerky you've been replaced #also I need the 8th to get here bc I NEED the event to continue #this might be the only thing i post about for a bit tbh... #Imperial gambit spoilers #imperial gambit #Xifeng Wine #kawaii simps #ttof

[thevikingwoman]

Couldn't get the thought of Meryta and Tansui having a fling out of my head, so here we are. Stormblood spoilers.

Fandom: Final Fantasy XIV | Words: 2085 | Read on Ao3

After freeing Isari village and Gosetsu, the group decides to stay the night for a celebration in the village. The Warrior of Light; finds brief relief in the arms of kindred spirit Tansui.

Meryta Khatin x Tansui | After MSQ Tide Goes In, Imperials Go Out Rating: Explict. Sexual content, outdoors sex, fling, au ra scale sensitivity headcanons, slight timeline divergence, ode to Tansui's hair I guess

Under Familiar Stars

Someone has lit a bonfire at the beach, and there are plenty of people drinking and bragging, a release after the dread of oppression. Kicking the Empire out of their waters, and Isari, feels good, and she suspects especially for the Confederacy to feel at home in their own waters again. The wounded taken care of, and the fighters resting, many have chosen to remain here for the evening rather than return to Onokoro.

Their gambit worked, and it’s not as if she’s surprised – it had to work, but that it worked so well is very good. It would have been better had they captured the viceroy, but all in all the outcome is as good as she can hope for.

She walks through the people on the beach, young pirates and villagers sitting in the sand. Someone has pulled out a Shamisen and plays a happy tune, someone else is singing along.

Neither Lyse, Alisaie, or Gostetsu are with them, and perhaps they’ve already made their way to the beds the innkeep offered. They’re setting out early next morning; it was only on Alisaie’s insistence Gotsetsu relented to take a night’s rest.

She checks the porch in front of the inn, and she doesn’t find them there, and not many other people. Most have joined the revelry at the beach. She does find Tansui, leaning against the railing, an empty cup in his hands.

“Meryta,” he says.

“Tansui.”

She comes to stand next to him.

“So, things did work out for you. Mark you, I’m glad it did, you and the little Miss’s plan.”

“It had to work,” Meryta replies. “And you all did your part, too.”

“Only after –” he pauses, and looks directly at her. “Is that how things are for you? Just…” He snaps his fingers and gestures vaguely.

She thinks over the question. She does impossible things, with the crystal’s blessing and all that comes with it, whether she understands it or not. Another day and another primal dispersed. But not just that, and she thinks of Aymeric drawing his bow against Estinien possessed without a pause, about Papalymo telling her to leave, Ysayle falling from the sky. The dead bodies at Rhaelgar’s Reach and the blood in her mouth as Zenos rounded on her. (She doesn’t think of Haruchefant, dead on walkway, the fading light in his eyes)

“Not at all,” she says. But the truth is; they’ve won enough, whether in the crystals light or by the whim of an old dragon. “Sometimes. Often enough,” she amends.

“I can’t believe it. Glad am I you came here.”

The wind blows freshly from the seas. Tansui’s braid has loosened, the purple strands whipping about his nape. She tied her own hair back again earlier, a mess after the storms called by the Lord of Revel. She has the sudden desire to unravel his more, to see it falling loosely around his face, to run her fingers through it.

“Walk with me,” she says on impulse. She’ll miss him, and the boldness of his convictions.

They descend the stairs from the inn together, and walk away from the village and the people. The air smells like sea and salt. They reach the shore, the sea lapping at their feet.

“The Ruby Seas are yours,” Meryta says, gesturing to the dark waves. It’s incidental to why they’re here, but she’s happy it turned out this way. Despite their initial distance, she finds she likes the Confederacy pirates. The Ruby Tithe seems a way to maintain a balance here, but mostly they are just a comfortable and uncomplicated group.

“At least until the Empire turns it’s gaze upon us again.”

“Hopefully not too soon. We need security at our backs for what we need to do.”

Hopefully the Empire and the Viceroy will never gain a foothold here again, and they’ll succeed in all they need to do. For Lyse. For Raubahn. For Yugiri and her people.

“Did you bring me here to demand more from us?”

“No, just for a walk. I’m but thankful for all you did, and I’m glad you were here.”

“Were you now,” Tansui says, and he smiles. Meryta looks away.

Together they make it up from the beach towards the grass and trees. They talk quietly about the Confederacy and the delicate balance of nations around the Ruby Seas, and how the Garleans disturbed it, scorching all in their path. They meander their way past the fishing huts and up in the hills behind.  She tells a little of Eorzea and her adventures, but mostly she turns the conversation to the Ruby Seas and the rhythm of the land and sea.

Mertya looks up and the stars are familiar, constellations in sky aligned in well-known positions from her childhood. The constellations are the same, but their placements in the sky are different half a world away. They’ve fallen silent now, Tansui follows her gaze up at the heavens.

She can’t help looking back at him, her eyes roaming down his neck and his chest, his haori sliding to reveal more of it. There’s a thin line of blood with a bruise blooming around it which she didn’t notice before. It’s likely the nick of sword.

“You’re injured,” she murmurs. Unbidden, she reaches for him. She doesn’t have much aether left from all the ordeals today, but perhaps she has enough, reaching for those stars above –

“Nothing serious.” Tansui smiles at her, his dark eyes tender in the moonlight. “There’s no need, unless - is that an excuse to touch me?”

She places her whole hand on his chest.

“Perhaps.”

The crisp air stills, and they’re alone, far from everyone else and Tansui’s hands land on her hips. He bends his head as she reaches up, both of them drawn to the spark between them. His lips are chapped, tasting like sea salt and battle, his beard delightfully rough against her skin. She groans and draws him closer, slipping her hands around his neck. They kiss hungrily, deeper, and she buries her hands in his hair, her desire to unravel it still in her mind.

Panting, they lean their foreheads against each other. She toys with hairs at his nape and leans in again, kissing him slower this time, savoring the taste of him. She brings her lips to his jaw, his beard scratching her lips, and she groans when his fingers carefully slide along her horns.

“Meryta, come. Let us celebrate our victory beneath the stars.”

There’s a question in his eyes, and when she nods, he leads them a little further uphill, then spreads his haoki on the ground, and pulls her down with him for a lazy kiss on the ground.

He has her undressed shortly, where they lay, and his hands are on her, tracing her scales across her hips and her belly. His touch is firm and bold, and she can’t help the sigh that escapes her as she reaches for him. His chest is firm and warm, old scars and new bruises. She makes short work of his pants too, the sea air embracing them.

She kisses him, and puts her fingers through his hair, finally unraveling it completely. Tansui’s hands wander back around her waist, and she gasps when one of them finds the base of her tail and strokes. He grins and does it again, his other hand cupping her sex.

“You do like that, hm?”

“Yes,” she hisses, hands roaming his body without focus. All she can feel is him, stroking the sensitive scales at the base of tail, now gripping the top of it, letting go. His other hand is busy too, finding the wetness between her legs. She gasps and she wants, grateful for a lover who’s been with an auri before, someone without shyness or questions.

He slides one finger between her slit, finding her clit. Another adds pressure, and she bucks her hips towards him. Her own hands slide lower, through the coarse hair on Tansui’s belly, following its trail lower still. Her fingers brush against his cock and it’s his turn to groan. Pleased, she takes him in hand, pushing herself towards him once more. She almost let go of him when he slides one finger into her, and his other hand down and up her tail.

“Please, Tansui,” she gasps, her hips tilting, seeking his hand, his fingers inside of her.

Instead of granting her what she wants, he grasps her tail firmly around the base, his hand almost wide enough to circle it, and he holds her in place as his other hand withdraws, featherlight strokes to tease her. She whines in frustration and claws at his hips, trying to pull him closer.

“Tell me, what do you want, Meryta?” he smirks, his breath thankfully still a bit strained.

Her cunt clenches around nothing, the fire of need building in her. Frantic, manic, and suddenly her ears are ringing, filled with the laughter of the Lord of Revel. She summoned him, and slayed him, all within today, and she needs and she wants and she’s here on their clothes spread beneath the stars.

She wrenches herself free, and moves them, putting Tansui on his back with her above him. He looks dazed and flushed.

“I want you, Tansui.”  He lets out a little laugh at that, and she hovers above him, letting her slick coat his cock. “Do you want me?”

He nods, his hands on her waist now, but he doesn’t pull her down, waiting on her, letting her tease him now. Her impatience burns in her though, and she lowers herself on him, only a bit careful to adjust to him, letting him fill her, relishing in the fullness inside of her.

She moves slowly, at the pace she wants, drawing gasps from him. His hair is fanned out beneath him, almost evenly dark in the moonlight, the purple only a tone of grey. Tansui puts his hands between them, grinning as he finds her clit again.

Meryta rides him faster, his dark eyes never leaving hers. Even like this, his fingers are skilled and confident, his other hand caressing the sensitive scales on her hip. She tries to hold on a little longer, but she can’t, her orgasm washes over her, inevitable like the ocean far behind them.

“Beautiful,” Tansui whispers, “no, don’t close them!”

Meryta manages to keep her eyes open, but she sways and slumps in the aftershocks. Tansui’s strong arms catch her, and suddenly she’s on the ground beneath him, staring up at him, his hair in a curtain around his face.

“May I go on?” he asks, his voice rough. He accentuates with a small thrust of his hips. She gasps and nods and it’s enough for him as he moves faster, his eyes hungry. She sighs as he moves into her, swollen and sensitive, a pleasant feeling with no urgency. She’s free to observe him, how his veins strain in his neck, how he gasps and – unfairly, squeezes his eyes shut when as he comes, collapsing on top of her with her name on his lips.

They kiss, and Tansui rolls off her, cleaning them both with a scrap of fabric found somewhere, his calloused hands gentle and careful.

Without need for words, they curl into each other, and fall asleep beneath the stars.

     --

It’s a short walk back to the village the next morning – much shorter than she expected and she’s thankful an early riser didn’t stumble upon them.

“There you are,” Alisaie says when she sees her, buckling her pack. “I was afraid we’d have to send out a search party.”

Meryta’s cheeks heat, and she ducks her head. “The inn was too crowded.”

Alisaie eyes narrows, focusing on the pirate behind Meryta, and then she smiles, far too innocent.

“I normally leave diplomacy and it’s intricacies to my brother, but I’m certainly glad we could arrive at a mutual beneficial conclusion.”

Meryta sputters and busies herself finding her travelling coat and packing her gear. She’s saved from further discussion when Gosetsu bellows from below, his rightful impatience showing. They all hurry outside for their final goodbyes.

“As Rasho said, our fates are intertwined. I do hope our future cooperations will be fruitful.”

Tansui addresses them all, but his gaze lingers on her, and when they get on their way, his hand brushes against her arm. She winks at him, one more levity before they return to their journey and grave task ahead.

#Final Fantasy 14 #ffxiv #ffxiv fanfic #wol x Tansui #meryta x tansui #writing about meryta #meryta khatin #I had fun with a fling #mery has a good time #much love for Tansui's hair #stormblood spoilers #viking writes #published 8/16/2023 #tansui #ffxiv tansui #woltansui

[spoilertv]

#SpoilerTV

[leahsfiction]

thinking about if mxy only partially succeeded at putting wwx in his body...

man i love scifi where a person is supposed to be implanted with a different person but it doesn't quite take

(spoilers: Memory Called Empire, while excellent, is on the edge but not exactly the thing I'm describing)

Ninefox Gambit is this!!! it's really too bad i couldn't stomach that one subplot in the sequel and therefore who knows if I'll ever read the rest of the series

Imperial Radch (Ancillary _ novels) is this too. it'd be spoilers to point at who in there is this the Most

#gotta reread some of these

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2022 Reading Challenge - Book 3 of 26

Title: A Desolation Called Peace (Teixcalaan #2) (2021)

Author: Arkady Martine 

Genre/Tags: Science Fiction, First-Person, Third-Person, Female Protagonist, LGBT Protagonist 

Rating: 10/10 

Date Began: 01/21/2022

Date Finished: 02/10/2022

At the edge of Teixcalaani space lurks a mysterious alien threat. All attempts to communicate with them have failed, and human casualties are rising. From the front line, military commander Nine Hibiscus makes a final gambit for diplomacy, asking her government to send a language expert to find a way to speak to the aliens. On an impulse, Three Seagrass answers the call. Knowing she’ll need help, she seeks out her once-friend Mahit Dzmare. Mahit has her own problems; her botched integration with Yskandr puts her in political danger among her countrymen, leaving her life and identity on the line. Meanwhile, in the heart of Teixcalaan, imperial heir Eight Antidote learns about the distant war— and discovers a way to save countless lives. But to do so, he’ll need to think for himself and work against the wishes of the adults in power. All four must succeed in order to prevent an unwinnable, never-ending war.

How wide, after all, could the concept of “you” stretch? Could it be as wide as a species?

Review, content warnings, and minor spoilers for both books under the cut. 

Content warnings: Depicted-- Violence, death, mass death, warfare, colonialism/imperialism, PTSD, dissociation/depersonalization, sexual content. Mentioned-- Genocide, cannibalism, suicide, ritual suicide, self-harm, gender dysphoria. 

So this book snuck up on me. When I read A Memory Called Empire, I liked it right away due to its interesting narrative gimmick. A Desolation Called Peace is a bit different from its predecessor, featuring multiple perspective characters and a broader, more existential storyline. It took me a little bit longer to appreciate compared to the previous entry. But the thematic threads and parallels in this book are intricate and well-done. By the end, it exceeded A Memory Called Empire in terms of ideas and execution. While I have other books to get through on my never-ending list, I’m sorely tempted to reread these two.

Like the previous book, philosophical ideas about identity are integral to the story. A Memory Called Empire’s protagonist Mahit is technically two people at once (kind of— it’s complicated), muddying the water regarding what it means to be an individual. A Desolation Called Peace takes this a step further by examining different plural identities and all the similarities and differences between them. Sometimes this is literal, such as the alien hive mind. Sometimes this is figurative, like a commander who feels such a strong connection to her crew that they feel like parts of herself. And many different ideas in between. Much of what I like about this theme verges on spoiler territory, but it’s a treat to read. Plurality is so pervasive throughout the book that it’s fun to make all the different connections. I especially like the gradual realization about the Shard pilots, how this compares to the aliens, and how Martine uses this discovery.

There’s also lots of exploration about language and communication. Some of this is through a colonial lens, like Mahit and Yskandr conversing with each other in Teixcalaani rather than Stationer, their native language. This connects to the running idea that as enamored with Teixcalaan as she is, Teixcalaan will never see Mahit as one of them. Some don’t even see her as human. Yet Mahit can’t even escape its influence in her own head. Much of her arc is about coming to grips with loving a culture that doesn’t wholly love her back— and how enough exposure to imperial civilization, no matter how innocuous, makes one an outsider among their own.

Communication is an obvious sticking point with the antagonists as well. A Desolation Called Peace centers around finding a way to speak with an entity that has no recognizable language. The aliens are a hive mind; they don’t have a need for language at all, and see it as something primitive at best and evidence of non-personhood at worst. I liked the interlude sections from their perspective since they use a singular “we”. It’s appropriate that the aliens never get an official name— why would they need one?

The alien conflict parallels the series’ exploration of imperialism. As the reader, we obviously know what’s going on with the human characters. And we also understand the aliens on some level; it’s clear from the prologue that they’re a hive mind. But neither side has this luxury within the novel. The humans don’t view the aliens as persons because of their lack of language; likewise, the aliens don’t view humans as persons because they USE language. This is especially ironic considering how integral language is to Teixcalaan’s cultural identity. It’s just a fundamental difference between the two.

So rather than seeing each other as people, the two sides fear what they don’t understand and immediately begin killing each other. It’s only when the humans realize the aliens are a hive mind that anything changes. It’s not unlike how Teixcalaan treats other humans; they believe at their core that they’re the prime example of humanity. To them, people like Mahit from non-imperial cultures aren’t really human; something Teixcalaan uses throughout its history to justify subjugation and oppression.  

Despite being about a hostile alien threat, the story is much slower than A Memory Called Empire. I think this was a good choice; as much as I liked the last book, the action and peril sometimes felt at odds with its more philosophical core. The sequel has a heavier character focus, which I think complements its central themes in a way A Memory Called Empire didn’t.

Characterization is greatly improved from the last book. At first I was hesitant about Martine’s choice to split this novel among multiple perspectives. While Mahit does reprise her role, it seemed a shame to have her share the spotlight. But it totally works; all four leads bring something to the table. The cast in general also feels more tight than A Memory Called Empire; none of the characters really “fizzle out” like One Lightning and Thirty Larkspur did last book.

Upon finishing A Memory Called Empire, I had some reservations about where Mahit’s character would go. I got so attached to both her and Yskandr that the thought of them merging into a single identity seemed kind of sad; almost a soft character death. But again, A Desolation Called Peace surprised me. While there’s a sense that the lines between them are forever blurred, in practical purposes their integration manifests as mutual support for one another. Mahit is permanently disabled from their botched integration last book, so it’s nice to see them make the best of things despite their uncertain future. It’s also fun to see aspects of Yskandr’s self-assured, sarcastic personality emerge in Mahit’s behavior. It’s a cool way to frame character development; while our interactions with others do shape our personality, it’s rarely so literal as with Mahit and Yskandr.

Initially, I found Eight Antidote to be the least compelling lead. He’s a minor character from the last book and we know very little about him. But his storyline became my favorite by the end. His arc actually focuses on individuality; he’s a ninety-percent clone of his predecessor, and was supposed to literally become him with the imago technology— meaning he’d never get a chance to develop as his own person. But since that didn’t happen, now he has to figure out the kind of person he’s going to be. He feels markedly different from both Six Direction and Nineteen Adze, and his determination to do the right thing at personal cost is genuinely inspiring. As the heir apparent, I imagine that attitude will be an uphill battle— especially since the Emperor’s identity tends to be subsumed by their role.

Three Seagrass will never be my favorite character, but making her one of the POVs adds a lot of nuance. Her impulsiveness and stalwart determination to do the impossible feels more realistic, or at least more understandable, than in the last book. I like that this entry addresses Three Seagrass’ fetishistic and patronizing treatment of Mahit; I’m glad it’s something she’s forced to confront about herself. Her genuine appreciation for the Stationer comic as a piece of literature is a nice touch toward the end. She goes from being an almost too-perfect character to someone much more complex, which is everything I could ask for after my complaints last book. Unlike the others, she doesn’t connect much to the plural identity theme, but that’s okay. Her direct connection to imperialism— especially as a “well-meaning” imperialist, is its own thing.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about Nine Hibiscus. She shines for me in her relationship with Twenty Cicada. It’s always nice to see an intimate, platonic male-female friendship. They’re extremely different people physically and mentally, yet they complement each other so well. I love the line about them being so in tune with each other that they’re practically the same person. Themes. Outside that, I like getting a glimpse of someone in power who’s forced to grapple with an unwinnable situation and all the struggles that come with that. Nine Hibiscus’ foil Sixteen Moonrise adds some depth, especially in the conclusion; something to examine more closely on a reread. In the end she was probably the weakest lead for me, but that’s not saying much.

Among the supporting cast, Nineteen Adze continues to be great. While she’s less prominent in this book, I STILL found myself questioning her motives right to the very end. What a fascinating character. Twenty Cicada and his connection to the central themes of the novel is pure *chef’s kiss*. The Stationer councilors, a weak point in the last book, feel more realized and compelling, even if they’re never the primary focus. I like the detail of Amnardbat being consumed by her role as leader of Heritage; not so different from the Emperor of Teixcalaan, huh?

I have very few complaints about A Desolation Called Peace. Admittedly I still have some issues with the writing style, especially Martine’s (over?)use of multiple sentence fragments, complete clauses, and random tangents within single sentences. Like last book, I found the story hard to follow at times because of this. Either it’s improved a little, or I’m getting better at parsing it, because this wasn’t quite as noticeable as before. But it’s still something I dislike in a duology I otherwise love.

My other criticism is less a complaint and more something I would have done differently. It feels like a huge missed opportunity that Twenty Cicada isn’t one of the perspective characters. He ends up so critical to the plot and resolution of the story that our brief glimpses of the man just don’t feel like enough. He’s got plenty of unique traits and beliefs wrapped up in his identity that he certainly wouldn’t be a boring character to follow. Instead we get his best friend Nine Hibiscus; she’s fine, and I understand why Martine chose to take her perspective instead. She offers much more emotional impact, especially around the conclusion. But if it were me, Twenty Cicada would be the obvious choice due to his relation to the story, its themes, and the climax of the novel. I’m glad he’s the POV of the epilogue, but that’s such a brief snippet. This is all my opinion, obviously; I think Martine did well with the choice she made, even if it’s not what I would have done in her place.

This is the conclusion of the series, and certainly feels like the conclusion for Mahit. But there are some loose ends hanging around that could be expanded upon in the future. I know Martine has expressed interest in writing more about Nineteen Adze; I could certainly get behind that. Eight Antidote also feels like a character with a much longer story to tell. We get a little more information on the Sunlit in this novel, but there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding them. There’s also the fact that the City is supposed to be some perfect algorithm, but we see it malfunction several times through the story. That was a big thing in the last book that this one barely explores. And of course, there’s the rebel/mechanic/surgeon lady who has the damaged imago from last book; we still don’t know what she plans to do with it and how that might shape the political landscape of Teixcalaan.

But if this is all we get, I’m satisfied. Teixcalaan was a fascinating science fiction duology; I love stories with unique or experimental narrative ideas that execute them well. While the philosophical cores of both books are their strongest points, the actual story, characters, and plot devices used to explore them don’t suffer for it. There are so many layers that I’m sure I missed stuff; I look forward to rereading them sometime in the future.

#10/10 #taylor reads #2022 reading challenge #i have ffxiv brain worms so it's taking forever for me to write and upload these lmao. sorry #book review

[macgyvertape]

Trials of Osiris has been corrupting Guardians with Darkness

meta joke: trials is just as toxic in universe as it is to play

spoilers for Lore through season of the Chosen

So this has been ongoing since season of the Worthy, that the Lighthouses on Mercury are actually sinister, and that darkness has been influencing guardians enough that the Praxic order has had to step in when they torture or kill others.  Theres a layer of irony that as rightfully concerned Aunor and the Praxic Order were about Drifter telling us to “embrace the darkness” in Gambit, here it is in trials this spreading corruption, and even guardians who were killed by those corrupted grow to become corrupted themselves.

More under cut because it’s a long summary of events

The first Guardian incident, is in season of the Worthy, where an unknown class Guardian, loses it and after emptying his clip in a Hunter, tries to kill the Hunter’s ghost. Thankfully the Hunter rezzes in time and is able to save his ghost. (Chapter 5 – [Ambition])

The next incident is listed in item lore for Tomorrow's Answer and The Scholar.  A warlock, Sola Scath, exhibits brutality when killing another warlock named Trestin, and then tortures Trestin’s fireteam member warlock Yara Croy.  

“Trestin knelt a few paces away, beaten. [Sola] bent her glowing hand into Trestin's chest plate, lodging a vortex grenade into her armor. … Yara shook the shock-hold on her mind and pulled her Sidearm. She snap-fired a round into the Warlock's shoulder. The Warlock recoiled from the force and whipped an open palm of malformed Void at Yara, releasing unstable energy that shattered the pistol's frame into ragged scraps. "No more of that."”

From Sola’s POV:

“Sola could feel the Light twisting from her prey's core. She jerked her hand, which dripped with hungering power, and plucked at something deeper. Sola worked her power between her prey's ribs and felt them give way. She dug in, in spite of the pleas, feeling for a grip to hoist their Light to the surface and find what hid underneath.”

Saint then shows up and rightfully kicks Sola from Trials, but it’s interesting that she says “"Isn't Guardian-on-Guardian violence the point? Strength through death." Which is the basics of the Hive’s Sword Logic, and the philosphy of the Darkness.

Next time we see Sola is in the Lore for Temptation's Hook, where she is being taken into custody by Praxic order member Aunor Mahal, after taking someone to a outer-system Pyramid, but returning alone. Aunor mentions this is the first time Ghosts seem to be corrupted as well, and Sola numbers the 5th corrupted Guardian.

Next time we hear about Trestin, she has been apprehended by Aunor for toturing civilian Eliksni fleeing house Salvation and then torturing her own fireteam when they intervene, and is now hearing Darkness whispers. (source: Sola's Scar & The Messenger)

“She had betrayed them, or so Sadhij had screamed: "We're supposed to be the thin line drawn before the Darkness, you traitor!"

|| Thin indeed. So why not step over it? ||Because they didn't have it in them. She checked. Cracked them both open and dug deep, just to be extra sure. But it wasn't there.”

Pointing out the similarities to what Sola did, torturing someone and digging into the light. Trestin sees the pyramid, and describes it as “pulse in time with her heart. Attuning to the desire churning within.”

Even when playing on a simulated version of the Lighthouse on Mercury there are still problems.

During the time of the Festival of the Lost, (so before Beyond Light and on og Mercury) Shayura, yet another Warlock,  starts by repeatedly killing killing a hunter named Leitka with a sword, (Pyrrhic Ascent Vest) and when stopped by her fireteam and called on it, she says that she was caught in a flashback of them fighting the hive lightless like during the Red War, and where she was on titan and fighting a Knight (Pyrrhic Ascent Gloves, Pyrrhic Ascent Gauntlets, Pyrrhic Ascent Vestment)

Her fireteam member, Titan Reed-7, while witnessing her do this has flashbacks himself of the Darkness whispering to him

“Reed is outside of his own body, remembering faces frozen in stone, recalling the whispered plea of his Ghost's tortured voice on Io. || Don't you see? ||” (Pyrrhic Ascent Plate)

Shayura interprets the moment of the Traveler reassembling itself as justification to hunt down Guardians who use powers of the darkness.  Thinking of being lightless in the Red War:

“She remembers those feelings of desperation and abandonment and how she would have accepted any opportunity if it meant living. Her desperate moment did not end in such darkness, but she cannot help but wonder about other Guardians. That when faced with the choice between annihilation and salvation, they might make the wrong choice.” …. She does not need to witness the Traveler's grandiose power to know what is being asked of her, and she does not need time to set herself to work.

Shayura's path is clear.” (Pyrrhic Ascent Boots)

The word choice here is interesting and debatable. “Salvation” has long been associated with the Pyramids and Darkness. A few examples: Eramis and House Salvation, Garden of Salvation, with the Darkness lady statue inside it, “The cutting word is a doorway—the first syllable of hated salvation” (IV: Whispers). That she uses Salvation in this context, it could be argued that as much as she thinks she is serving the light she is unkowningly serving the Darkness.

After what is implied to be more than one kill “Fragments of Ghost shells are scattered atop the console, each glittering with a faint sheen of ice” (Pyrrhic Ascent Bond), Shayura seeks out to permakill an awoken Warlock in Trials who she knows is using stasis. I’d like to point out that her ghost knew what she was up to, went along with it, and did not report it; it could be argued it is corrupted like Sola’s ghost. Shayura justifies her actions to her opponent in Trials:

“I am not here on behalf of the Vanguard," Shayura says with imperious certainty. Flames begin to spread down the length of her Sword. "I am here on behalf of the Light.” and attacks her fireteam when Reed-7 tries to stop her, and the other member Aisha uses stasis to stop her. (Pyrrhic Ascent Bond)

There are definitely comparisons that can be made between Shayura and Shin Malpur, and one could argue that the cause is trauma from the Red War, but it’s sure a coincidence that once again the pattern of brutal killings and trying permakill a guardian is connected to Trials.

Based on the previous pattern of events it will be interesting to see how things play out for Shayura’s fireteam and her opponent. There is a second essay about how the Lighthouses have a connection with the Pyramids, and Brother Vance infact set up Trials to study that, and could hear a correlation between the music of the lighhouses and the Guardians being more ruthless

“the frame's vibrant description of Guardians spinning deeper into ruthlessness. He could feel a crescendo hanging just moments ahead. He noted the resonant murmur undulating through his skin and into his bones” (Chapter 5 – [Ambition])

#destiny 2 #destiny lore #trials of osiris

[dragonheart-swtor]

Imperial Agent Storyline: Drunk History Version

Since people really seemed to like the last one! Y’all’s collective wish is my command. Spoilers for the Imperial Agent storyline, obviously. Enjoy!

- so you start out with your agent on Hutta, a little polluted slimeball of a world that literally everyone but the Hutts canonically hates. there's lore but we're going to ignore it. the important thing is that you're here to con a Hutt, always a dangerous gambit, into working with/for the Empire.

- you sneak into a corner to space facetime your boss, a guy we only ever know as Keeper because Intelligence is weird about names. sneaking into corners to facetime people is a repeating theme throughout the story.

- you are informed that you've already got a cover story set up, and you'll be posing as an infamous pirate called the Red Blade who'll be able to get in close to the Hutt in question, whose name I've forgotten. Nethro or Nefro or something.

- "wait, what about the actual Red Blade," you ask your boss, probably

- "he's halfway across the galaxy, you don't need to worry about him," your boss replies, in a textbook example of what we in the writing business call “foreshadowing”

- (spoiler alert: you need to worry about him)

- but we won't worry about that for now. bada bing bada boom, you stroll on into the Hutt's place. you are immediately confronted by a guy who, shock and horror, actually knows the real Red Blade and knows you ain't him. (one would think that all-seeing Intelligence would have known about him, but nuance.) this is a problem for a number of obvious reasons.

- your options are as follows: bribe him, kill him, or sleep with him. (this is also something of a recurring theme throughout the story.) whatever option you take, he's dealt with. (yes, this is the man eris fucked five minutes into her storyline.)

- (I didn’t want to pay him money, leave me alone.)

- anyway, the mission progresses smoothly. meet the Hutt, do some jobs for the Hutt, betray the Hutt's right hand and stab him in the back right after convincing him you were friends, invade the Hutt's rival's palace, McMurder the Hutt's rival, you know. your average day at the office

- most of the way through, the Hutt's other right hand starts to be suspicious about you. this is Kaliyo Djannis, and she will be Plot Relevant™.

- by which I mean she shortly thereafter walks in on you facetiming your boss and gets hired by Intelligence to help out for gods know what reason. welcome to your first companion

- (or possibly you walk in on her facetiming your boss in your room, I.. don't remember, honestly. something like that.)

- anyway one Hutt is dead the other is working with us bada bing bada boom this is going great and hey remember when I said you needed to worry about that guy you're impersonating this whole time? yeah, about that,

- so the real actual Red Blade comes sailing in to Hutta and Intelligence immediately calls you up like "hey, hate to bother you, but your cover's about to get blown in a big way and we need you to murder the guy whose identity you've stolen before he can expose you.” 

- "so, just like that training mission last week. gotcha, boss, no problem."

- murder time™

- congration you done it! go home to Dromund Kaas.

- "You're on Imperial soil now, agent. Welcome home." [nonhuman Agent immediately experiences 27492738957 microaggressions] (this joke isn’t mine, for the record)

- first off, Intelligence HQ has a bomb aesthetic, as does the entire Empire in general

- second off, you do walk in on your boss talking to - by which I mean "being given a speech by" - a Dark Lord, which is less than optimal for a number of reasons, first and foremost that speeches by Dark Lords of the Sith quite often immediately precede someone getting killed

- said Dark Lord is one Darth Jadus, who will proceed to be a thorn in your side for approximately the next three hours of gameplay

- (don't worry, after that three hours you'll get a worse thorn)

- Darth Jadus decides he likes you and declares you "his" agent, which you immediately get the gist is about the worst thing that can happen to an Intelligence agent from the way everyone around you treats you like you've just had a ticking bomb strapped to your back for the rest of this meeting

- you're sent on a handful of missions, including one to the Dark Temple which, you know, Force-deaf people aren't supposed to be in, but Jadus Does Not Care

- Jadus calls you into his office at one point and tells you he's going to do some ritual to bind you to his service or something, it's not really clear, but it's clearly Not Optional and also terrifying in concept

- now, quick sidebar. there are basically two paths to take here: one where you suck up to the Sith and treat them with the utmost care and respect and fear like you're kind of supposed to, and one where you mouth off at every opportunity. Eris is mortally terrified of Sith, so she just kind of.. submitted knowing she was going to die if she didn't.

- my second run, however, was just a "hey how bad can I fuck this up" character because I already knew the story.

- I decided to mouth off to Jadus at every opportunity, including adamantly refusing this ritual.

- "What can he do to me?" I asked the person I was playing with. "I'm the protagonist! It's not like he can kill me!"

- Jadus: *kills me*

- me:

- (mechanically, anyway; story-wise I'm sure he just. put her on the brink of death. but mechanically speaking he literally actually did kill my toon)

- (this should be a warning for exactly how much this storyline is willing to put its usually-heavily-plot-armored protagonist through.)

- anyway.

-  do some missions, blah blah blah, Sith possession in the Dark Temple, blah blah blah, you know the drill

-  well, turns out Jadus is going on tour with several hundred Imperial civilians, military, and Sith, allegedly all hand chosen, to share his ~vision for the Empire~. that's all well and good, whatever I gue-

- sorry what do you mean his ship exploded

- what do you mean a member of the Dark Council just blew up in orbit

- cue Kill Bill sirens

- Panic! At The Intelligence HQ

- this throws everything into chaos; not only was Jadus more directly involved in Intelligence, but he was a Dark Councilor so now there's a massive power vacuum

- the Sith who ends up filling this power vacuum? Jadus's daughter, Darth Zhorrid.

- remember when I said you'd have a bigger thorn in your side after Jadus?

- so yeah. so Zhorrid is, for lack of a better word, fucking terrifying

- she's sadistic and completely careless of others' lives or wellbeing and oh yeah she also instantly latches onto you even harder than her father did and demands you find his killer

- a lot of your meetings with her aren't really plot-relevant so I'll sum them all up here:

- Zhorrid was horribly abused by Jadus, completely broken. She tells you a story about how she used to sing, and her father hired a tutor, then had her sing at a Kaas City performance until her throat was so damaged she could never sing again. He tore every scrap of joy out of her life, completely failed to teach her what she needed to know to survive the rigors of the Dark Council, and instilled every ounce of hatred, sadism, and complete lack of pity he could in her.

- She kills people for no reason other than a whim, because she was listening to a Sith opera and the aria was "very moving" (an actual literal thing that happens).

- She acts like a complete spoiled brat child. At one point the other Dark Councilors literally beat and torture her, presumably for this reason because she's insufferable and arrogant and way out of her depth, and she cries to you about it

- If you’re like me, your response to all this is basically “cool motive, still murder”

- I have sidetracked  very hard. where was I

- so you spend a while trying to hunt down the people who blew up Jadus's ship. There's a bunch of rebels, you hunt them down, they've got biotech weapons called Eradicators set up to destroy cities on multiple planets, skippity skip to the big reveal

- Jadus is alive, and he organized the whole thing so he'd be able to remake the Empire into the image he wanted. He tortured and enslaved the survivors of the Dominator's destruction

- Jadus gives you a whole speech about how fear is a gift to be shared and "Through victory my chains are broken" but there must be chains to break and blah blah blah holy shit this man is genocidal

- you have three choices: join him for real, pretend to join him so you can sabotage his ship and then kill him (at the cost of hundreds of thousands of Imperial lives), or refuse outright and save those hundreds of thousands of lives but Jadus escapes (and you know he's allegedly likely to return and do even worse damage later).

- (Quick sidebar again, for those who haven’t played it: Eris chose the second option and has nightmares about it for the rest of her life. It's actually extremely haunting in-game - as you're running through Jadus's ship to sabotage it as fast as possible, you can hear the distress calls from various colonies and planets being attacked, the screams of the dying that you doomed. It's horrifying.)

- so yeah there’s really no winning that situation but hey! at least Chapter One’s over. surely in Chapter Two things can’t get worse.

- Chapter Two: Things Get Worse

- there's this guy, Ardun Kothe, an SIS agent. he's a huge threat for some reason I don't remember. you're supposed to infiltrate the SIS to get close to and eventually kill him. not an easy job, but okay, we can do this.

- Intelligence sets up the meeting; months ago they sent the first word to Kothe that there was an Intelligence agent ready to turn and they've been building up from there, sending him a steady stream of information

- enter Hunter, aka the worst bastard in this entire storyline and that is an achievement. He's the one you meet first on Nar Shaddaa.

- you do some missions for the SIS, whatever, it's not important. You finally get to meet the rest of the team - and Ardun Kothe.

- Kothe wants to speak alone, which is p typical tbh. He expresses some doubts, which you assuage as best you can; he gives you your code name: Legate. It's from a form of sabbac, he explains, you'll have to play with him sometime.

- (It is difficult for me to make what happens next funny instead of horrifying, so forgive me if the tone changes a bit here.)

- Everything is going fine.

- "I'm sorry about this, Legate."

- What?

- "Keyword: onomatophobia. Engage Thesh protocols, phase one."

- Everything is not fine.

- You black out and have an extremely rude awakening.

- So it turns out whatever happened with Jadus, the Dark Council decided you were too dangerous (usually for doing your job too fuckin well) and that you needed to be leashed. So not you have mind control programming in your brain, and anyone who has your keyword can take complete and unequivocal control of your body. this is, in a word, not great.

- (This is, as I mentioned, actually extremely horrifying. You have dialogue options and they don’t change what you actually say. You have an opportunity to shoot Kothe and even if you try to select it nothing happens. But we’re not here for the horror take (not today, anyway) so let’s just This Is Fine that and move on)

- Tl;dr you can’t harm Kothe or any members of his team, you’re forced to obey anyone who has your keyword, and this wouldn’t be that much of a problem because we’ll just tell Watcher Two what’s happened and oh wait you can’t tell anyone about your programming either. well, shit.

- You go on to work double agent, like it was planned, with this new, uh. twist

- about a third of the way through the chapter, your mind kind of cracks and you start having hallucinations - seeing things you know can't be real during a holocall, passing out in the middle of your ship and waking up in medbay.

- After that, a new voice lives in your head! Watcher X, someone you either killed or let flee on Nar Shaddaa, has sort of joined the party. Is he an AI in the spinal implant the real Watcher X gave you? is he a figment of your broken mind trying to process its situation? Who knows! Not you! either way, this is not optimal but at least he seems to be being helpful this time

- so anyway we should probably try and figure out how to undo this programming bc Intelligence is being Wholly Unhelpful

- (ASAP, please, especially with how horrible Hunter acts toward you - let’s go with “uncomfortably leery,” which I promise is generous.)

- by the way, your companions still have no idea what’s going on during all this, although they try to be varying levels of supportive (thank you vector I love you bug husband)

- Good news! The Intelligence Archive almost definitely has information on what they did to you and how to fix it. Bad news! You’re definitely not authorized to look that up and crashing the power mainframe to make sure they don’t see you do it sends the security droids after you. whoops.

- Good news! There’s a way to fix you. Bad news! You have to make and inject yourself with a still-kinda-experimental cocktail of chemicals and it may or may not give you permanent brain damage. it’s fine. this is fine.

- also it takes a while to kick in which is Less Than Optimal and by the time it finally does you’ve just been left with a binding order to stay and guard the door on what is, for you, a suicide mission. there’s some incentive to “break your chains” for ya.

- You fight and kill Kothe. Who, shock and awe! is an ex-Jedi! this was in no way painfully obvious by how he kept talking about “sensing” things, I’m sure. definitely not.

- Hunter escapes, because of fuckin course he does. Hunter, who suddenly seems far more in control of everything than he had before. Hunter, who knows far more than he should. Hunter, who ends up leading you to a much, much larger conspiracy.

- End Chapter 2.

- Hate to disappoint, but Chapter 3 is honestly the least interesting to me personally, so this’ll be brief compared to the previous chapters

- You spend a lot of time hunting down this much larger conspiracy, including Hunter specifically. There's a lot of betrayal and secret reveals. (It's not tedious by any stretch of the imagination, but the story beats definitely don't stick in my head as well as the first two chapters, even after two playthroughs.)

- you go to Voss and, in order to get into a Voss-only archive, get married to a person you just met before almost immediately leaving the planet (and your new spouse) behind. this is never mentioned again.

- you get hold of a holorecording from the Star Cabal, the big conspiracy. problem: the holorecording contains a trap for the brain-enhanced Watchers, and now half of Intelligence is in a vegetative state. this is not optimal.

- partially as a result of this, Intelligence basically gets dissolved, which is Not Great because it puts you right under the thumb of yet another asshole Sith lord

- the Watchers are recovering, though, so that’s something. Watcher Two, now Keeper (the old Keeper got promoted), contacts you so you can keep working on this Star Cabal thing.

- you get intentionally captured so the Star Cabal can torture you and you can “break” and give them false information to lead them into a trap. you are immediately afterward expected to get back to work like nothing happened. this is never mentioned again.

- You track the Star Cabal to their base, way out in the Unknown Regions iirc, and infiltrate it during a meeting of the top agents.

- murder time 2: electric boogaloo (well, more like murder time 45, to be honest, but shh it’s fine)

- You fight the Star Cabal guys, chase Hunter through the whole place, and finally corner him.

- (Salt warning ahead on my part for the next story beat, if you can call it that.)

- Hunter, when beaten, reveals what I personally think is the most bullshit stupid reveal in the entire game: he is actually a she, and has been using a stealth field generator (or something similar) to change his/her appearance the entire time. There are multiple interpretations of this - "he's trans" is my least favorite, sorry-not-sorry, because a) it's pretty clear she still considers herself a woman and Hunter is just a convenient persona, and also b) a clearly predatory man is absolutely horrid representation as far as playing into harmful stereotypes about trans people, thanks. Personally, my rather cynical interpretation is that they wanted one more shock value reveal at the end of the storyline and I guess couldn't come up with anything better. It's my least favorite thing in the whole IA storyline.

- anyway, that's not really important. I just needed to be mad about it for a minute. ignore me. moving on

- The important part is this: what you gain from the Star Cabal's base is an item called the Black Codex, an ancient piece of technology with the power to erase all records of a person's existence.

- Unless you are very stubborn about it the Agent’s reaction to this is basically “oh thank fuck I’m freeeeeeeeee” and you fly off into the hyperspace sunset with your crew, giving middle fingers to the Sith whose grip you’re escaping all the way. which, really, who can blame you.

And that’s the Imperial Agent storyline, folks. Roll credits. I’ll probably do the Bounty Hunter storyline next while it’s still fresh in my mind, but I could also do the Sith Warrior storyline probably if y’all’re more interested, vote now on your phones.

#unfortunately I don’t remember jack shit from the Jedi Knight storyline #so until i finish replaying it y'all're just gonna have to hold your horses on that one #swtor #imperial agent #drunk history swtor #i have the original much more serious version of me summarizing that first scene with kothe in drafts btw #should anyone want to see it #it's the version where i actually tried to get across to someone who'd never played the game the absolute horror of that scene #and was; i think; fairly successful #the notes on the sith inquisitor post have finally slowed down so i think it's time to post this one

[extraordinarilyextreme]

Crown Prince Li Kaiqing, Chen Ji, and Fushui

MAJOR spoilers for 《骊歌行》 Court Lady (2021)!!! This is just me blabbing about my feelings.

so we all knew that Crown Prince (CP) and Chen Ji (CJ) were gonna be BE cuz they have historical prototypes. after Chengxin was executed, Li Chengqian grieved for a long time, refusing to attend court and also building a shrine for him in the palaces.

well, even with that knowledge, i still cried like a little baby at the end of the drama. there’s not a single un-sad 感情线 in this entire show, but i really do think that the mess of these three is tragic.

before we dive into the mess that i’ve become, a huge round of applause to Li Zefeng for his amazing portrayal of the Crown Prince—the good-intentioned, sort of foolish boy that we first meet and then later the wide-eyed, paranoid, remorseless man. and of course similar props to Wang Yizhe’s two roles of sweet Chen Ji and scheming Fushui (and Sun Langlang for voicing them! Wang Zhi’s VA!).

so as i’ve already said, CP is really a whole different person after CJ dies. and the contrast between CJ and Fushui (FS) is very plainly evident: CJ dressed in pale white-blue, FS mostly in grey-black; CJ kept his hair loose, FS wears a bun (or hat, when he rises thru the ranks); CJ is a lowly palace entertainer, FS is well-trained in combat and medicine (and ends up as Senior Imperial Physician, somehow); CJ was terrible at weiqi, FS is good at weiqi but pretends to be bad at it. CJ was targeted and subjected to rumors, but no one dared question CP’s relationship with FS—because CP was in so much grief after CJ died, how could anyone bear to do that to CP again? even though FS was absolutely the one that everyone should have removed from CP’s side immediately…

when CP and CJ first meet in episode 7, CP is kind of a typical princely character: he’s kinda entitled, the world is his, his future is bright… and i firmly believe he 一见钟情 because while CJ still treated him with courtesy and respect, it’s obvious that CJ didn’t expect or want anything from him. and this continues in episode 9, when CP is trying to clear his thoughts by the riverside and runs into CJ who is fishing: CP brattishly orders CJ to stay and keep him company, and CJ is honestly more confused than anything as to why the freaking Crown Prince of the country wants to spend the whole goddamn day here. of course, it’s because CJ represents a freedom for CP: here, the Emperor won’t compare him to Prince Zhou or Prince Han; here, the Empress won’t admonish him over and over again; here, there’s no scheming advisors who try to curry favor with him. here, as CP tells CJ to use, it’s just “you and I” without care for rank or formalities.

(but also the death flag in episode 9 was atrociously obvious LOL with CP promising “I will make you a grave” to CJ’s absolute terror. on-the-nose. still made me sad later on, so that’s that i guess. in any case, the episode ends with a 定情信物 whereupon CP gives a jade from his belt to CJ.)

CP watches CJ perform (as he is an entertainer from Prince Han’s mansion) for the first time in episode 10, and we see it again in episode 12, episode 16, and episode 17. based off 《三国演义》Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the lyrics are as follows:

大丈夫只患功名不立 A great man should only worry about not gaining fame and honor/

何患无妻 Why worry over not having a wife/

舍生忘死报恩住 Leaving behind life and death to repay my Lord/

忠肝义胆待友朋 Treat my friends with righteous loyalty/

我要做有血性的英雄 I want to be a hot-blooded hero/

为义而生 To live for righteousness (loyalty)/

为义而死 To die for righteousness (loyalty)

CJ plays the main role of Zhao Zilong (Zhao Yun), and he helpfully compares the story to a game of weiqi in episode 16.

“A gambit [sacrificing insignificant pieces to protect the significant ones] is what Zhao Zilong did in the Battle of Changban. In order for Zhao Zilong to save A Dou, he couldn’t save Madam Gan. So, Madam Gan committed suicide. Isn’t Madam Gan a gambit?”

to which CP responds: “Thank goodness you are Zhao Zilong, and not Madam Gan.”

CJ: “The Crown Prince regards me as his soulmate [知己]. Even if in the future, the Crown Prince were to sacrifice me as a gambit, I would be willing.”

CP: “What are you saying? You and I are friends. No matter what happens in the future, I will never treat you as a sacrificial gambit.”

(so, like, death flags everywhere! 知己-mention! and, c’mon, i think for CP’s consort to be jealous/insecure is a little bit justified considering the amount of times CP has CJ perform this piece with a line like “Why worry over not having a wife”.)

backing up for just a moment before everything goes to shit, other notable events are CP finding out his wife is pregnant in episode 13 (but he spends the day fishing and then cooking the fish with CJ at the riverside, and they walk off with arms draped around each other’s shoulders), CJ hurting his leg after climbing a cliffside to pick red flowers after CP mentioned his wife loves the color red most in episode 14, and finally CP leading a blindfolded CJ to a new house just for him to tick off another romance-y trope in episode 15.

CP: “Didn’t you say you didn’t have a home? So I bought you this little estate. When you fall in love someday, have children, and have a great career, this will be your home.”

(the point is they’re both still kind of in a honeymoon phase right now, tho it ends quickly in episode 16 when our FL Fu Rou warns CJ against being so close to CP—but CP is a little bit too idealistic right now, a little bit too stuck in his blissful fantasy, a little bit foolish. foolish, and incompetent, and unable to protect the people he loves bc he unwittingly endangered them to begin with.)

of course, things come to a head in episode 17 when CP’s wife tells her sister about CJ, leading to the Emperor eventually finding out. but while that’s happening, CP goes to see CJ at the estate he bought for him.

CP: In the future, I won’t come here anymore. Therefore, let’s put aside differences for today and be friends like we used to. We will never have those kinds of days again.

CJ confesses he’s going to leave Chang’an: I want to learn swordsmanship well, and become a wandering hero, feeling at home wherever I am. When the Crown Prince becomes Emperor in the future, I can help you take care of bad guys along my journey out there. This will be my way of helping the Crown Prince to keep the empire stable.

CP gives his dagger to CJ: This is not a reward, but a gift for my friend who is about to leave. In the future, whenever you look at it, it will be like looking at me.

CJ: A gift from my soulmate. Chen Ji will definitely take good care of it.

(for ppl who’ve watched Qing Ya Ji, the parallel to Zhongxing and Fangyue here killed me. but there’s also a parallel within the show itself near the end when Fu Rou gives the Emperor a collection of scrolls and explains that the late Empress hoped that he would treat her writings like he were seeing her—one of Court Lady’s many confirmations that CP and CJ should be read as a romantically by paralleling it to visible, het relationships. ALSO, CP has CJ perform Zhao Zilong again right after this conversation, like a last nail in the coffin.)

so the Emperor finds out in episode 18 and angrily orders CP to kill CJ himself, lest he be stripped of rank. Fu Rou warns CJ, but he refuses to escape.

If I run away, the Crown Prince will not be able to fulfill the Emperor’s order—what would happen to the Crown Prince? […] Life and death are not the most important things; the most important thing is to stay true to yourself.

and so CJ unsheathes the dagger CP gave him.

The Crown Prince regards Chen Ji as his soulmate, Chen Ji also regards the Crown Prince as his soulmate. ‘A man of service dies for the one who knows him.’ (An upright man can die for his soulmate.)

CJ quotes “士为知己者死” from Sima Qian’s 《史記·刺客列傳》Records of the Grand Historian, tho if you’ve watched Winter Begonia, it should probably also look familiar.

CP pushes aside the soldiers who’ve accompanied him on the journey to CJ’s home, but it’s too late: CJ took his own life, using the weapon CP gave him, in order to protect CP.

the chorus of Lu Hu’s 《万里》 Ten Thousand Li plays as CP staggers toward CJ’s lifeless body.

呼吸，想着你, When I breathe, I think of you

在梦里，在心里, In my dreams, in my heart

怪完相遇，怪自己, After I’ve finished blaming that we encountered each other, I blame myself

别离，痛彻心扉！Farewell, my heart is broken

(this is a song from the OST we hear multiple times with the other couples in the drama—and we also see many couples by the same river that CP and CJ would fish together by. i think, like, all the couples associated with this song except our main one have a BE…)

in CP’s immense grief, he has the weiqi pieces from his last game with CJ glued to the board, never to be moved again, and he has the flowerbed outside flattened. we get our callback to episode 9: “Chen Ji has no family. I promised him that if he died, I would make him a grave.”

CP doesn’t meet FS until episode 37, but what the Emperor says in episode 19 about Chen Ji is what really makes the whole thing a tragedy.

You must be cautious when choosing friends. He would only have misguided you.

and that’s the thing, the Emperor isn’t wrong!!! it ultimately truly is the Crown Prince’s love for Chen Ji that destroys him. his love for Chen Ji ruins him, ruins the imperial family and threatens the dynasty as a whole. because when Fushui shows up, a man who shares Chen Ji’s face, the Crown Prince trusts him unconditionally—it’s the Crown Prince’s desperation to see any small part of Chen Ji again that leaves him vulnerable to FS’s manipulation: CP forgets who he truly is. because how could a man who looks like Chen Ji ever betray him?

CP is thrown from his horse in episode 37, striking his head upon a rock.

he wonders: Chen Ji, have I also died? Did you come here just to pick me up?

(but of course it’s FS, who was actually going to kill him but the soldiers arrived too quickly.) they meet officially in episode 38.

CP: I thought I was going to die. Dimly, I felt someone approach me—he wanted to save me. I originally thought it was Chen Ji who couldn’t bear for me to die, so his spirit appeared. I didn’t expect that it was you.

FS remarks that CP has brought up “Chen Ji” several times already; immediately, he understands that this is a weakness to exploit.

CP basically throws a temper tantrum in episode 39 when he discovers he will have a permanent limp from now on. (idk if it was an intentional parallel, but CJ also had a limp after falling from the cliffside in episode 14.) FS is the only person that CP allows to approach him, and FS gets him to eat grilled fish (which is apparently CP’s favorite food—how much of the people we love do we carry with us?)

FS acts innocent: I really am bad at lying; as soon as I lie, you see right through me.

it’s everything CP wants to hear.

CP tells him: When I fell off my horse, and was on my last breath, you came to my side and encouraged me to continue living. I’m now crippled and in despair, but you talked sense into me to eat grilled fish. Everything that has happened—if it were Chen Ji, he would also have talked sense into me, encouraged me. Sometimes, I feel that you are Chen Ji, just with a different face.

(obviously it’s the same face for us tho cuz he’s played by the same guy. but anyway, when FS comes clean about everything in episode 51, he mimics the words CP says here.

I am not Chen Ji. I, Yang Fushui, came to your side to find an opportunity to take revenge.)

back to episode 39, FS says he doesn’t want to be “another Chen Ji” because he doesn’t want to die so young—he’s afraid of death.

CP: I guarantee you that I won’t let anyone harm you. What happened to Chen Ji will never happen to you.

(and it’s true! FS gets away with so much goddamn shit because CP’s wife doesn’t dare criticize FS, and even the Emperor doesn’t after knowing what it’s like to see his son in such heavy grief. CP’s wife thinks this is her chance at making amends; she felt real remorse after CJ died, and honestly that line from It’s Quiet Uptown sums it up best: “If I could trade his life for mine/He'd be standing here right now/And you would smile and that would be enough.” a shame, of course, that CP was FS’s freaking main target. nobody wants to repeat the tragedy of Chen Ji, so no one questions Fushui.)

but, like, FS isn’t truly even that subtle—it’s just that CP is so blinded by his love for CJ. from episode 46:

CP: I have taught you for so long, but you’re still terrible at playing.

FS: I am doing it on purpose. Only if I play poorly, will the Crown Prince be willing to continue teaching me.”

CP: Even you put on an act before me? […] You are the person I trust the most. Don’t lie to me.

(太子，你醒醒吧!)

so FS successfully sows discord between CP and his brother Prince Han; the Empress passes away (always sickly, but her illness was very much exacerbated upon seeing her beloved sons turn on each other); CP’s wife kills her own sister in what she believes is a beneficial political move for CP; Prince Han’s wife is wrongfully executed; Sheng Chujun is killed and silenced too after he discovers FS’s plans. CP stages a coup against Prince Han. (the man who looks like Chen Ji must only want the best for him, right?) FS gets away with everything and goes to visit CP in prison in episode 51.

AND HERE! HERE! FS is supposed to kill CP; that’s been his goal from the very beginning. CP hasn’t eaten for days in the prison, but FS shows up with a grilled fish and CP eats without a second thought that it could be poisoned.

but. FS has been at CP’s side for so long now. he’s orchestrated CP to lose everything. there is nothing left that CP could give to him but the mere fact that he’s still breathing.

in episode 49, FS poisons Lian Yan’er and Yan Zifang is obviously upset on behalf of blissfully ignorant, head-over-heels Ma Haihu.

FS: I will kill whoever gets in my way.

YZF: What about someone you love? If it was someone you loved, you would be just as ruthless, right?

FS: It is human nature to be greedy and selfish. Where does love come into play? This question—you’ve asked the wrong person.

(but FS’s expression changes. someone he loves? he’s startled, he looks afraid.)

FS ruined CP’s life; and at the same time, gave CP reason to live again. CP started playing weiqi again, his relationship with his wife improved; he started smiling again. there was a passionate fire to him that he never had before (this was his second chance to do everything right, to protect the people he loves!)... the kindling, unfortunately, was his trust in Prince Han and his parents. from episode 39, FS comes in and sits down next to CP after CP trashes his room during his tantrum.

CP: Do you know why I treat you differently from other people?

FS: Because I remind Your Highness of your friend who already passed away—Chen Ji?

CP never stopped loving CJ; he loved Fushui, because he never stopped treating him as Chen Ji. after the failed coup against Prince Han, CP smiles in prison in episode 51 when FS visits him.

CP: It was fate who made us each other's soulmate [知己]. [...] If you can continue living well, I wish that you live your life to the fullest, with both smiles and tears.

how can Fushui bear to take the Crown Prince’s life when he’s received nothing but unwavering trust from him? when he explains who he truly is, when he calls CP foolish for trusting the wrong person, FS is on the brink of tears. his mouth trembles, his breaths shake. when the poison begins to take effect, and CP agonizingly reaches for him, FS takes his hand—just as CP gripped CJ’s lifeless hand so long ago, just as CP reached out to the person he thought was CJ when he fell from his horse. FS takes his hand, sobs, and gives him the antidote.

(Consort Yan’s eunuch is, of course, outraged.

Yu He: If you can’t bear to kill him, then I will!

Fushui: I forbid you. [...] He has nothing left to lose. I forbid you from killing him.)

so, we have the Crown Prince, ruined by his love for Chen Ji—and Fushui, who both took and freely gave the Crown Prince’s life back to him. it’s a love story; it has always been a love story.

and finally, FS gets Ma Haihu killed in episode 53. he picks up the comb MHH carved for Lian Yan’er (a 定情信物!), and when he speaks, ends up telling the story of CP and CJ as well.

There was a woman who sacrificed her life for your bright future. You only needed to enjoy it, yet you took the road of self-destruction.

and then he remembers what CP said to him in the prison in episode 51.

CP: If, in this world, fate truly exists, then so do the hearts of men.

FS remarks now: If you have a heart, you will be easily hurt, or even lose your life.

heartless Fushui, who kills without batting an eye, who nearly upturned the entire Tang dynasty, who doesn’t know of love. in the end, he couldn’t bear to end the Crown Prince’s life.

so, yeah. these three broke my heart. i really wonder what Chen Ji would say to the Crown Prince when they see each other again at last in the afterlife. what the Crown Prince would say to Chen Ji. how violent love can be. what it means to live in someone’s memory. or maybe they would return to the river and spend a long day fishing together again.

#court lady #骊歌行 #cdrama ramblings

[lol-jackles]

Happy new year! Im late but I just finished the queens gambit and fell into anya taylor-joy's rabbit hole. I think her acting is incredible and she has charming personality. Some people think she can get oscar in the future. Im curious what you think about her?

I’m half way through the Queens Gambit.  Been watching it slowly whenever my sister and her kids are over.  We just finished the episode where [SPOILER] an important person in her life died in Mexico [/SPOILER]   I was supposed to see Emma in the theater before covid19 changed that.  

Anya is very talented, of course.  She has an abundance of natural talent and in her case, as it was the same for Hailee Steinfeld, it is more advantagous not to take acting lessons until she is much much older.  At this point in time, I think her acting strength is playing those cold characters who are imperious and calculating.  If she continues this trend I would like to see as the next Nicole Kidman or Angelina Jolie, there aren’t a lot of actresses that can do those traits well like they can.  So yes, I can see an Oscar or nomination in her future, she’s consistently gotten good roles that includes leads, and she made her non-lead roles memorable.

[morhath]

[pesters u with book questions] 2, 6, 12, 17, 29, 35, 40, 44

it’s not pestering if I love to talk about books!

2. longest book I’ve ever read

If we’re talking a single work, I feel like it’s probably a fanfic.  Or Homestuck.  But I do love huge tomes, so other possibilities are the Stormlight Archive books and the Inda books.

6. fave stand-alone

Oof I’m a big series reader, and a lot of my fave stand-alones have later become series, so...  The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison (which I hope becomes a series), The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Provenance by Ann Leckie.

12. book I passionately hate

Angle of Repose solely because of the eggplant breast thing.  And that one book with the exploding baby because of something something linguistic relativism alien perspective something something.

17. fave book with a queer character

Ahh the answer I want to say is a spoiler.  Let’s go for second place and say the Imperial Radch series by Ann Leckie in which basically every character is queer.

29. currently reading

I have ADHD so uh there’s a lot: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, King’s Shield by Sherwood Smith, Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner, Prince of Dogs by Kate Elliott (trying to finish this before the library takes it back in nine hours), The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay (currently a little stuck on this one), Daughters of the Wild by Natalka Burian (also stuck), The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman... the list goes on.

35. three books I’m looking forward to this year (going to include 2021 since it’s November)

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine (March 2021), Immunity Index by Sue Burke (May 2021) and HOLY SHIT CAN’T BELIEVE I FORGOT Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson BASICALLY ANY DAY NOW???

40. weirdest book I’ve ever read

My “weird” tolerance isn’t super high, so I tend to just put the really odd ones down.  Weirdest book I’ve read and finished and enjoyed is probably The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman.  It’s one of my favorite books and also I cannot ever in good conscience recommend it to anyone.

44. book I love with a terrible cover

You knew I was gonna say Animorphs or the Cat series, didn’t you?  Well yes, Animorphs or the Cat series.  Also I haaate the new Queen’s Thief covers and feel bad that I hate them.

#clockworkcrow #life #friends #reading #books #I don't think it's important enough to tag all these books lmao

[ask-valerian-40k]

The Climactic Fight of Saturnine

Spoilers, obviously 

* * *

Two Termite wrecks smouldered in Mortalis Kappa, surrounded by the corpses of the Sons of Horus they had tried to deliver. Haar left his men checking for survivors, and walked through the arch into Mortalis Lambda, where another Termite wreck lay surrounded by a ring of black-armoured dead. Garro was standing with Bel Sepatus. The two kill squads, along with Garro’s remnants, had combined to meet the three simultaneous incursions.

They had been mercilessly precise.

‘One hundred and seventy-five kills,’ said Haar with a grin. ‘Biggest haul yet, and only nine of ours lost. You know, I wish I was able to see the dismay on their damn faces as they stepped into your sights.’ He paused. ‘What?’ he asked.

Sepatus was listening to his link.

‘There’s a stray one,’ Garro said to Haar. ‘Got through into operations. Trickster is assigning a kill team.’

‘Just one?’ rumbled the Riven Hound.

‘Mournival,’ said Garro.

‘Even so,’ Haar said. ‘He can’t get far. He might as well be dead already.’

Sepatus looked at them. ‘I have requested we be permitted to deploy and join the hunt,’ he said.

‘And?’ asked Haar. ‘I fancy getting some Mournival red on my fist.I hear they make the effort worthwhile.’

Garro snorted.

‘I am waiting for Trickster to give the word,’ said Sepatus, glancing at them both with a lofty air. ‘If the main board remains clear of target tracks for another five minutes-

‘The bang of decompression drowned out his next words. They were bathed in frosty light.

Sons of Horus snapped solid out of the air all around them, in the midst of the two kill teams, throughout Kappa and Lambda.

Cataphractii. First Company. One hundred brothers of the infamous Justaerin Terminator section, the most feared and notorious warrior elite of the XVI.

One hundred warriors, and First Captain Abaddon.

Havoc ignited.

* * *

* * *

The battle in Kappa and Lambda zones never left the limits of those joined killing chambers. It lasted thirteen minutes. It was close, tight-packed, immediate, with no cover and no room for evasion: the Justaerin, regarded as the most mercilessly able of the Sons of Horus, a legacy that had been remarkable even in the time of the Luna Wolves, against the Praetorian’s two hand-picked kill teams.

There was no quarter. No limit. No hope that any of them would walk away unscathed. The kill teams fought for Terra, and for honour, driven by a deep hatred and long-held yearning for vengeance against those who had betrayed them. Abaddon and the Justaerin personified that.

The Justaerin and their First Captain abandoned any dreams of glory or famous victory within nanoseconds of arriving. They could plainly see their gambit had failed. The loyalists had outplayed them, and were waiting for them. The exhilarating promise of their ruse had evaporated.

They fought for nothing more complicated than survival.

Mutually assured surprise. Mutually assured destruction. An instantaneous orgy of raw and savage killing.

There was no range of any sort. Warriors found themselves pressed together, face to face. Weapons blazed anyway, in circumstances that the doctrines of any Legion, no matter their methodology, would have ruled for close-quarter combat. Bolters roared, point-blank, detonating men whose physical debris injured those around them like shrapnel. Plasma weapons and bulk lasers blasted against plate, their scorching beams passing through two or more bodies at a time. Assault cannons were pressed to faces or the sides of heads, and fired. An entire quarter of Kappa was filled with fire, as a flamer gouted in the thick of a throng. Space Marines died standing up, Cataphractii plate locked out, frozen like smashed statues. Space Marines died explosively, burst apart with such force only scraps of them remained.

The Justaerin quickly tried to dominate through the brute power of their Terminator exo-plate, swinging demolishing fists and scything blades at anything and everything, overpowering and smashing legionaries in more conventional suits of warplate. Heads crushed, limbs snapped, bodies tore. Some warriors died from three or even four simultaneous blows from as many opponents.

But the kill teams had the likes of Garro among them, with Liber-tas, which could cut anything, and Haar, whose size and power fist wrecked Terminator panoply like foil. They had Bel Sepatus, and his avenging Katechon Paladins, who did not flinch, and who had longed for a worthy combat.

Bel Sepatus, in the thick of everything, believed he had found the glory his genesire had predicted. He killed two Justaerin Terminators in the first second and a half with the gleaming edge of Parousia.

Abaddon killed with astonishing speed and meticulous efficiency. For the first minute of the fight, he merely tried to centre his thoughts and reconcile the sudden reverse of fortune. For the next three, he began to believe the Justaerin could prevail. They were the Justaerin, after all. They were the best of the best, Angels of Death beyond compare. They had never failed. They had never been overcome. There was no stage of war on which they could not triumph. He began to calculate the logistics: how they would break out, where they would go, how they would secure, what the next step would be. Into the Palace, into the Sanctum Imperialis. Divide up, run terror strikes to damage the citadel. Conduct solo missions. It would take time for Dorn and Valdor to run them all to ground in a maze like the Palatine. Perhaps the original spearhead mission was doomed, for none of them could reach the Throne Room alone, but there were other plans they could improvise. Other targets. The Sigillite. Valdor. Dorn. Bhab and the Grand Bastion.

By the fourth minute, he had decided on the aegis. There was no question. That should be their target. They would break clear, leaving this rabble dead in their wake, and bring the aegis down. That would be enough. That would end the Siege of Terra. The Palace would be open to bombardment from the fleet. Great Lupercal would raze it from orbit. The Vengeful Spirit would send down monumental beams of high energy, and annihilate the Palatine and the Throne within.

In the fifth minute, Urran Gauk was decapitated by one of the Katechon. Abaddon quickly hacked the killer apart, but the loss was psychological. His schemes seemed to recede, like ghosts, like dreams departing at sunrise. His vision of the Palatine bombarded and ablaze grew distant, and smaller, and out of reach.

In the sixth minute, killing without pause, Abaddon began to re-evaluate. The skill and tenacity, the rationally brilliant approach to warfare that had carried him every step of his long career, and made him First Captain of the finest company in the finest Legion, the first among firsts, a name taken seriously by even primarch genesires, centred him like an axis. They were cornered. They were trapped. They were being killed by the dozen. Not even the Justaerin, not even they, could prevail. Loyalist reinforcements would be coming. Even if they killed every last bastard in the chambers, their hope was dashed.

He voxed retreat to his surviving men. Activate homing beacons and get out. Pull back to the Mantolith. Retreat now.

Yes, the Sons of Horus were not above that. They were wise warriors, not fools. They knew to read the flow of a fight and act accordingly. They were no good to anyone dead. Damn the Imperial Lists and their simplistic ‘no backward step’. Only a fool never took a backward step. The Sons of Horus were more like the barbarian White Scars. Those heathen primitives got that much right, at least. ‘Withdraw to advance’. There was always another day, and that other day might bring victory instead. If you stood your ground like a yellow-armoured fool, you couldn’t live to see it.

By the seventh minute, Abaddon realised he was going to die.

They had sent the homing signal repeatedly. Once every three seconds, standard protocol. Extraction ordered, urgent.

No flare had come.

Their signal might have been blocked. The Mantolith might have withdrawn from teleport range. No, the damn thing’s grid had jammed. That was it. Abaddon could picture it, the filthy tech-adept scum, frantically scurrying around the Termite cabin, trying to repair a burned out grid, his beacon signal flashing on their consoles. The teleport had failed so many damn times on the approach. The magi had blamed it on bedrock, on energy obstruction, on everything but themselves.

It was their own shoddy, miserable incompetence. They’d barely managed to get Abaddon and his men to the target. Now the inadequate bastards couldn’t get them back out.

In the eighth minute, Abaddon decided that if he ever got out, if he did manage that somehow, he would track down Eyet-Good-For-Nothing-One-Tag, and kill her. He would kill her and her whole shitting linked unity at the Epta war-stead for their ineptitude. He would hack off their hands and feet, and load them into a teleport grid, and transfer them, unprotected, into hard vacuum. Or the heart of a star. Or on an unset, diffuse pattern so the organic drizzle of their remains rained down over multiple sites at once.

By the ninth minute, bleeding from a dozen wounds, two of them critical, he had resolved to kill the Lord of Iron too. If he got out. In that dream of escape. He would find the great Perturabo and kill him. This had been his great idea. Perturabo had seen the flaw, the Saturnine fault. He had toyed with it, cooed over it, revealed it to Abaddon furtively, like some pornographic image. He had gulled Abaddon into this. He’d used the First Captain, with his reputation, and his authority, and his unrivalled connections. He had used Abaddon to make this happen. Perturabo, damn his soul, had played First Captain Ezekyle Abaddon like a fool. He had tempted him with glory, made him feel smart and noticed, preened his ego. Made him feel like it was all his big, clever idea. The bastard had even made Abaddon beg him to let him do it. The Lord of Iron, lord of shit, had manipulated Abaddon into using his influence to draw resources from the Sons of Horus, coerce the Emperor’s Children into playing along, broker the help of the Mechanicum. He’d made Abaddon do all the work and take the credit, so if it failed – if it failed – if it failed like it was failing now, Abaddon would be to blame.

Perturabo had deniability if it turned to shit. Perturabo could claim ignorance if three companies of the Sons of Horus, including the elite, not to mention how damn many of the Emperor’s Children, failed to return.

In death, Abaddon would be blamed for the disaster, and his memory dishonoured. In death, he would be disgraced. Called overreaching. Called ‘that fool Abaddon’.

Abaddon would find the Lord of Iron, in that dream escape from this hell-pit. He would annihilate those damned war-tometa with meltas. He would face Perturabo, and tear his skull off his spine, and ram the haft of Forgebreaker down the stump of his neck, and keep ramming it until the bastard’s body split like a rotten gourd.

In the tenth minute, Abaddon arrived at a point of calm. Of serenity. He accepted his onrushing death, which was surely only seconds away. It had become a game, a contest, like the old practice cages. How many of them could he kill before he was bested? Some? Most? All? Some were fine warriors. Sepatus, he was magnificent. Haar was a brute, but an interesting challenge. Garro… Abaddon fancied his own chances in an even match, but the man’s sword was a piece of work, and so was Garro’s skill with it.

He realised, as he killed, and killed, and killed, that he owed the Lord of Iron a genuine debt of gratitude. Abaddon was a warrior. He’d always been a warrior. It was his life. His purpose. He excelled at it. The warp was a distraction. It was just another weapon. Those who knelt before it and pledged their worship, treating it like some kind of god, they were fools. All of them. Magnus. Lorgar. Fulgrim. Fools. Horus was a fool. The warp was nothing.

Being a warrior was everything. It defined him. The skill of combat. The lessons of defeat. The joy of triumph. That was his sacrament. Let them worship their false gods and giggling abominations. This was what he had wanted. The chance to fight, like a man, not a daemon. The chance to take the Palace, and claim Terra, the old-fashioned way. By force of arms.

He had wanted to win as a warrior. Perturabo had let him try. He owed the Lord of Iron thanks for that.

This was everything, he realised, as he entered the eleventh minute, with almost everyone dead. This moment. Its simplicity. Skill and courage, tested to the limit, for no other reason, to serve no grand plan or devious ruse… just tested for the sake of skill and courage.

This moment was his life in its purest form. His life distilled. He fought Katechon, and Imperial Fists, and Blackshields, and Cataphractii Terminators, and Tactical Space Marines, for no other principle than to find out who was best. There were no sides. No good or bad. No rebel cause or loyalist alliance. No Warmaster. No Emperor. No point to anything outside the broken, blood-smeared walls of the killing chamber.

Just war. Only war. The binary test of the galaxy, that you passed in triumph, or failed in glory.

Death, rushing closer, was immaterial.

How many could he take? How many more times could he prove his prowess?

He was Abaddon. Let them come. Let them all come. Find more, and bring them too. Bring anyone. Bring everyone.

He would take them. Or he would die. Either way. It didn’t matter any more.

In the twelfth minute, Nathaniel Garro reached him, cleaving through one last Justaerin to close with him. They duelled, blade into blade, munitions long since exhausted. Garro was good. His sword was remarkable. He dealt Abaddon two wounds that would have killed lesser men. He drove Abaddon back, boxing him against the chamber’s ancient wall. Good tactics, but a mistake. When Abaddon pivoted, it was Garro who found himself boxed, his back to the stone. Abaddon threw a punch that smashed Garro against the wall. The man slumped, dazed, chestplate cracked. Abaddon swung to finish him.

Bel Sepatus blocked his descending blade. Sepatus. Now, a proper test. A dance of equals that carried them into the thirteenth and final minute of the fight. Their blades clashed and parried with such speed. It was joyful. The Blood Angel was amazing. The deftness of his skill, the precision of his strokes, the intensity of his address. Sepatus produced nuanced swordplay that Abaddon could barely turn back. There were skills here to learn, tricks to appreciate and copy. And the Kheruvim’s attack was absolute. A miraculous degree of murderous focus.

Abaddon was sorry to kill him.

His blade cut Sepatus in half.

The Riven Hound slammed Abaddon into the wall. Bricks shattered. Abaddon fell bones break and organs rupture. Haar was size and brute strength. There was no skill to speak of. Just beautiful fury, like one of Russ’ pack-dogs, or Angron’s thug Kham. A wall of strength that crushed everything before it. The Blackshield had him by the throat. Haar took six or seven of Abaddon’s kill-thrusts in the belly and chest, and refused to die. Just refused. His strength seemed to grow as the blood wept out of him. Haar’s power fist, like a siege ram, hammered at Abaddon’s head until his helmet broke and deformed, and Abaddon’s face was a mess of gore.

One more like that. One more and it’s done.

But Haar was a dead weight, pinning him to the wall. Abaddon’s blade had found Haar’s throat and slid in, up into the brain, and out through the back of the Riven Hound’s head.

Abaddon couldn’t move. He could barely see. Endryd Haar’s dead mass was slumped against him, crushing him against the wall. Abaddon tried to get free. There wasn’t time.

Garro was back on his feet. That sword of his, gleaming.

Garro raised it.

This was it then. 

One downward slash from a sword whose edge cut everything. This was it.

Abaddon wanted it to never end. Ever. Ever.

The end came anyway.

* * *

Garro lowered Libertas.‘No!’ he yelled. ‘No!’ He punched the wall.

* * *

Haar’s enormous corpse shifted and fell away as the teleport flare faded.

‘My lord!’ the Mechanicum adepts cried. ‘My lord!’

They carried him to the arrestor seats, and tried to peel the bloody visor of his helm away without taking his face with it.All the other seats in the Mantolith’s compartment were empty.

‘We tried,’ a magos said. The grid… We had to reposition the Termite to fire the grid again. It took time. I am sorry.’

Abaddon murmured something.

‘What is he saying?’ the magos asked.

‘We are returning,’ one of the others told Abaddon eagerly. ‘Full rate. The motivators are running. We are exiting the fault, lord, ahead of the enemy’s attempt to seal it. The medicae will be waiting for you.’

Abaddon’s mouth stirred again.‘My lord?’ the magos asked, leaning in to hear.

‘Let me go back…’ Abaddon whispered. He was weeping. ‘Let me go back…’

* * *

Saturnine by Dan Abnett

#Saturnine #Dan Abnett #spoiler #spoilers #I love abaddon so much #I love this SO much #dan abnett is a genius and a heartbreaker #so good #wh30k #wh40k #horus heresy #Siege of Terra #ezekyle abaddon #abaddon the despoiler #this is where the black legion really starts in the lore #my life for the true warmaster

[mxmearcstapa]

Maddening Lions Final Update!

Months late! Sort of fuzzy due to lack of memory! But here! Right now! Without any delay! The winner of the White Heron Cup is-- The exciting conclusion of my New Game+ Maddening Lions playthrough!

As usual, SPOILERS FOR ALL ROUTES OF FIRE EMBLEM: THREE HOUSES

Paralogue: Arianrhod:

Dozens of hours accumulated and many tearful Divine Pulses throughout my Maddening run so far told me this map would be harder, than it actually was?

Like 100% I kept waiting for something horrible and unreasonable to occur, and it just... didn't. We went straight up the stairs to the right, the whole army, magically sniped a couple units, and moved straight towards Hubert, stayed away from the mages left... worst thing that happened were Cavaliers kept spawning.

Cavaliers!! That was Hubert's big reinforcement maneuver! Fucking horse bois!! Do you know what Dimitri's defense is? How dodgy Wyvern Dedue is?? FOOL!

All you need to do is tank one Meteor (Mercedes and Flayn are well up to the task), and you're golden.

Also! I don't know if they fixed the game-breaking bug yet, so friendly reminder not to save in the prep menu of The Silver Maiden paralogue.

Naruto Running @ Ft Mercius: This was where things started to slog again. Getting to a position where we could move more offensively took a little time, but Wyvern Dedue took care of the first mage on the orb. I don't remember anything on this map being specifically troublesome--just getting to the Death Knight is a hassle because there are giant demonic beasts all over, and very many punchy bois (Warmasters) kept advancing on us, intent to crit. The Death Knight himself was actually comparatively pretty tame: as we nabbed his Scythe in the Caspar-Mercedes paralogue, he was only equipped with a Brave Lance (and if that itself is not a reason to recruit Caspar, what is??).

Invading Enbarr: The beginning of this map is such complete ass that I had to restart several times so I would have Divine Pulses left to use for later. We had to do a LOT of rearranging and fervent praying on the left side of the map. Dimitri could take a couple hits, but the enemy army has such freakish accuracy, mixed range and damage type, and non-zero critical hit chances that it was a struggle. Eventually, with some extra magic range, healing, gambitting, dancing, and the grace of RNGsus, we pushed through and were able to break into Enbarr proper. After that, it was just slow and steady progression. It did take quite a while to get up to Hubert, though. I tried to clear as much map as was necessary to keep stragglers off my tail and waited out Boltings with Mercedes and Flayn. This first map of the final two maps probably took 4 hours alone.

The Apex of the World: I really like the song for this map. It's interesting to me when music is shared across maps--these things are meant to be tied together. For Dimitri and Edelgard to have the same music for their final map is absolutely rife with meaning.

That is about all I like about this map. XD

Because the Imperial Palace is insistent that it has a roof, flying units can't fly over walls. Myson is a monster and his mages gave me headaches. He is now guarded by a Fortress Knight, so it's harder to snipe him. The beasts are only slightly less aggressive than the omnipotent Crit Masters. And Edelgard just keeps hurling shit across the field, twice in the same turn. At the very least, she has the decency to target Dimitri with one of them if he's in range, and he mostly dodges.

We ignored the treasure and punks on the left except to take a couple mages out so we had breathing room as we fled. We stayed out of Myson's range until we could gambit him and his dumb friend's face off. I believe I had 2 Blue Lion Dancer battalions on top of Dancer Flayn, and even then, it was hairy. Half my army went up right to deal with the beast and the archer while the other half went up the center to fend off the oncoming magic and reinforcements. At long, long last, we shot our tiny, useless arrows to break Edelgard's barriers, and Wyvern Hilda and Dimitri wailed on her. Final hit belonged to Crit of Fraldarius, Felix the Punchboi, Demolisher of Healthbars, Long May He Reign. And I S C R E A M E D.

No deaths!

At long last, at 142 hours and 39 minutes* New Game+ Maddening Blue Lions complete! (*recorded time, likely doesn't count all the damn restarts I had to do 🙃)

#fire emblem 3 houses #feth #fire emblem three houses spoilers #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #fe3h spoilers #fe3h paralogues #fe3h timeskip #fe16 #fe16 spoilers #molly's madlions #maddening mode #blue lions

[servantofclio]

Recent Reading: Yoon Ha Lee, Revenant Gun

Last night I finished Revenant Gun, which does an amazing job of finishing up the Machineries of Empire series. So far, at least; there is certainly room for more in this universe. But most major plot threads are dealt with and most characters get their just desserts, more or less.

I’m being deliberately vague here, and you know what, let’s back up -- I know I’ve recommended Machineries of Empire to assorted people, but I don’t seem to have actually posted much about the series here.

This is military-ish space opera and reminds me of the Imperial Radch series more than anything else. In the first book, Ninefox Gambit, Kel Cheris, an infantry officer with a gift for mathematics, gets tapped for a near-impossible mission and paired with a renowned tactical genius to do it. The trouble is, the tactical genius in question has been dead for centuries and is generally assumed to be insane.

The setting revolves around a social order dominated by six political/social factions which each control an aspect of society, and high-level mathematics that allow the existence of terrifying exotic technology... but that also requires observance of a rigid and brutal calendar. In short, there is corruption and violence at the heart of Cheris’s society, and over the course of the books, the status quo comes under serious attack.

Definitely read Ninefox Gambit first; the book is marvelously inventive and has, in Cheris, a wonderful protagonist. Then read Raven Stratagem and Revenant Gun. I’m going to put more specific comments about Revenant Gun under the cut. SPOILERS BELOW:

When I started reading the book, I was not prepared for a version of Jedao who’s basically a teenager and totally in over his head. I was not prepared to whisper protect him at my Kindle. And he doesn’t ever quite exhibit Jedao’s tactical acumen, but he does mostly have Jedao’s attitude, and then the poor guy isn’t even human. It also drove me nuts that he figures out Kujen’s a monster and decides “oh okay I’ll pretend to play along and try to suborn things from within,” and then I realized that of course Jedao decides that, because that’s the decision he made before, too.

I liked that, while we get some explanations that for why Kujen is the way he is, and why he’s made the hexarchate the way it is, there’s also no real attempt to justify or redeem his actions. He surgically excised his own conscience; he’s done. Even the fact that he did so suggests he was pretty well not quite sane at the moment he did it.

Bless Kel “done with all your bullshit’ Brezan. Love him. It was nice to see Kel Inesser after she’d been talked up so much. Also nice to get a servitor’s POV.

Cheris has such an interesting journey; most writers wouldn’t turn the protagonist of book 1 into the antagonist of book 2, and now in book 3 she’s frequently absent from the action, or seen through others’ eyes. But she remains crucial to the outcome.

And she gets an ending of her own, a retirement of sorts, and I am so happy that Cheris and Jedao mark 2 and Brezan all seem to end up in relatively good places.

#servantofclio reads #revenant gun #revenant gun spoilers #machineries of empire

[cassyblue]

@redharvesting tagged me in a thingy. I actually saw it so I am doing it right away before I forget >.>

RULES: Choose any three fandoms (in random order) and answer the questions, then tag 10 people you want to know better.

Three Fandoms:

Imperial Radch

Machinaries of the Empire

TAZ

More under the cut

The First Character You Loved:

Breq. Like I know she’s the main character, but god is she relatable. 

Cheris. She’s a jock but she’s a nerd. She’s like my sister but gay and murder.

Fuckin Taako. The character voice. The attitude. I’m good out here. 

The Character You Never Expected To Love So Much:

Honestly, I didn’t think that I was going to like Seivarden at first. But then she just was a clingy mental health wreck and I was like Same, my dude. 

Jedao??? Like I was like oh man I am not going to like him. And then I read Extracurricular Activities and holy shit the geese thing just made me go, yep that’s my murder boy. 

Augustus. I thought he was gonna be annoying as fuck but then he just turned into cashew ghost man who bonds with chaotic wizard. 

The Character You Relate To The Most:

Breq. I could write an entire thesis on why Breq is very important to me n shit.

Mikodez minus the gross shit. Ah yes, doesn’t sleep for days, only eats candy, doesn’t take his meds? I hate to say it, but I relate to that MickyD. 

I really want to say Aubrey bc like I love bunnys and am a dumbass gay. 

The Character You’d Slap:

Anaander. However, it’d be instant death to slap the Lord of the Radch. 

Honestly, there’s so man. Probably Mikidez and Kujen. 

Fuckin Lucas. Buddy I like u, but why do you have a living elevator. 

Three Favorite Characters (in order of preference):

Breq, Seivarden, and the Geck Ambassador

Cheris, Khireuv, and Brezan (I mean I like Jedao, but I honestly like these three more...my mind may change after I finish the ARC copy of Revenant Gun)

Taako, Lup, Duck Newton

A Character You Liked At First, But Don’t Anymore:

Honestly, my favorites haven’t really changed since reading Provenance. And like the Radch books are wrapped up. 

MIKODEZ. Oh my gooood, I was not prepared for how nasty he is in Raven Stratgem. Like I knew he was bad. But not like gross bad. 

I liked Gandy at first, but then idk she stopped being interesting to me?

OTPs:

Brevarden, the otp of all otps In Radch

Cheris/Khireuv. I know they aren’t going to time to actually have a relationship because fuckin Yoon told us that on his dreamwidth (he drops spoilers like nobody’s business. I’m not kidding he literally like has been talking about stuff since before Ninefox Gambit was published). 

Taako and Kravtiz, I love the contrast with them. 

Tagging: @my-heart-is-a-fish, @bisexuallegolas, @venndaai, @spacetwinkloki, @gardenvarietyunique, @darling-child-tisarwat, @oyveyzmir, @sylvanauctor, @pwntastica, @chanderclear

you don’t have to if  you don’t wanna. 

#long post #tag games

[yukinojou]

So my Yuletide gift this year is brilliant

Promises

(3301 words) by Anonymous

Chapters: 1/1

Fandom:

Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie

,

Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee

Rating: General Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Characters: Gem of Sphene, Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq, Seivarden Vendaai, Shuos Jedao, Kel Cheris

Additional Tags: Crossover, ancillaries are a contentious issue, off-label uses for the Kel, Radchaai-typical pronouns

Summary:

"There's something else you ought to know," Station said. "This Jedao appears to be half-dead, or possibly half-alive. I can see why she'd be of interest to Sphene, given Sphene's predilections."

Breq investigates Sphene's latest scheme.

Post Ancillary Mercy (series spoilers) and post Ninefox Gambit. There has been some timeline finagling to make the crossover work.

#imperial radch #machineries of empire

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 7 of 26

Title: The Shadowed Sun (Dreamblood #2) (2012)

Author: N. K. Jemisin

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Third-Person, Female Protagonist.

Rating: 7/10

Date Began: 2/15/2021

Date Finished: 3/02/2021

Ten years have passed since the events of The Killing Moon. Imperial Kisua rules the once peaceful and deadly city-state of Gujaareh. But war stirs on the horizon. Wanahomen, the exiled heir to the Sunset Throne, seeks to reclaim his disgraced father's legacy. And with his unexpected allies-- the so-called barbaric Banbarra tribes--he might just succeed.

To assist his gambit for the throne, the priesthood of Hananja sends two of their own into the Banbarra canyonlands. Hanani, the first female trainee of the order, has to contend with an unfamiliar culture and the arrogant whims of the Prince in order to succeed. But her greatest challenge comes from her self-doubt-- and events that will challenge the very core of her faith.

Meanwhile, a mysterious plague strikes Gujaareh. Transmitted through dreams, it afflicts nearby sleepers and casts them into an endless nightmare. If they are to retake the city, Hanani and Wanahomen must find the disturbing source of the sickness before it's too late.  

If only the poisoned fruit did not keep ripening in my time. 

Full review, some spoilers, and content warnings under the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Some sexual content. Domestic/child abuse. R*pe via inc*st and threatened/attempted r*pe. Graphic violence (including police brutality), murder, warfare, body horror, and death (including child death). Structural/social misogyny and ableism are discussed and challenged to varying degrees.

I'm in the minority when it comes to The Shadowed Sun. While there are aspects of the novel that I really enjoyed, I had a hard time getting into the story. My main issue is that there were three separate plotlines, but they didn't really connect to each other until the last third or so of the book. The primary plot was also the one I found the least interesting, which didn't help. A lot of this is personal preference; I'll go into specifics below.

Unlike my experience with The Killing Moon, characterization was one of the strongest parts of the book for me. Sunandi and Nijiri returned as important side characters rather than leads, and I found I liked both of them more in this story. They were even sort of friends after ten years, which was fun when compared to their tense and mildly antagonistic dynamic in the last book. 

Instead, The Shadowed Sun starred newcomer Hanani and Wanahomen--a very minor character from The Killing Moon. What's interesting about these two is neither were especially likeable characters to start. Hanani initially came off as painfully timid, submissive, and naïve. Wanahomen began as an arrogant, sexist asshole. But both of them went through significant emotional development over the story, and I really liked the sheer character growth. 

Wanahomen in particular was a hard sell for me, but Jemisin put in the work. He did let go of some of his worst traits pretty easily-- like his hatred of the Hetawa and reverence for his father-- considering that they were beliefs he'd held for most of his life. I'm also a little torn on his eventual romantic relationship with Hanani, due to a particularly horrible act of his that she quickly forgave. But ultimately I chose to let these details slide because I liked his arc. Hanani took me a little longer to appreciate, as she spent most of the novel in various states of emotional trauma. But her arc of self-acceptance and reclaiming her womanhood was SO cathartic by the end. Their eventual banter-filled dynamic reminded me strongly of Sophie and Howl from book!Howl’s Moving Castle. Of all things. 

I also appreciated the stronger focus on narcomancy and dream worlds, which were sadly lacking in The Killing Moon. It was cool to see more firsthand perspective on the workings of dream magic. In particular, the nightmare world during the climactic chapter of the book was disturbing, imaginative, and emotional. That entire chapter just slapped from start to finish-- I loved that the solution was ultimately kindness and compassion. 

There were lots of small details I liked as well. The Banbarra being loosely based on the Anasazi was really cool to me on a personal level. Cliff dwellings! Fuck yeah! What other novel can I read that has fantasy!Egyptians and fantasy!Anasazi interacting with each other? Wanahomen's daydreams served as a subtle but important hint for later stuff, which was cool. The theme of fatherhood at its worst and best--and all the complicated emotions that entails--was something that didn't hit me until after I finished the book. The title is a fucking pun, so thanks for that. I was also surprised to see a mostly happy ending in an otherwise dark series.

A lot of my struggle with the book came down to pacing. As I mentioned, there were three story threads. There was Hanani and Wanahomen hanging out in a canyon. There was miscellaneous political intrigue around the upcoming coup in Gujaareh. And finally there was Tiaanet's story + the magic dream plague + its disturbing source. But the primary story was the canyon one... which I just didn’t find interesting. Lots of sitting around, cultural clashes, and horrific personal trauma. This was fine for a while, but once I reached the 2/3rd mark, I struggled to get through it. The plots also felt disconnected from one another until the end, so scenes from the two more interesting stories seemed sudden and sporadic. It tied together pretty well in the strong last third of the book. But there was a long investment to reach that point. 

There was also a lot of r*pe in this book; way more than anything I've read by Jemisin. On a literary level, I get it. A central theme in this book is misogyny, and there's lots commentary around that. Both Gujareen and Banbarra society revere women in different ways, yet they have very limited social roles. Sexual violence happens regardless of how much women are supposedly admired by their cultures. And in the book, it was rightfully portrayed as disgusting and traumatic. But this content was emotionally exhausting and uncomfortable. It's probably the main reason it took me so long to get through the book. Tiaanet's arc was especially disturbing, though it ended in a very cathartic way. 

So yeah, mixed feelings on this one. In terms of themes and ideas, The Shadowed Sun did a lot right; so I can't justify anything lower than a 7. But story-wise, I really liked the last third of the book and kind of wished the rest was like that. Jemisin's writing usually clicks with me more, so this was an odd exception. If you're interested in this series, it's not for the faint of heart. Please mind the warnings on both this and my review of The Killing Moon.  

#7/10 #2021 reading challenge #i usually write these in present tense but decided to switch it up #taylor reads