#while Bly continues to mentally suffer

[triscribeaucollection]

(Working on the next chapter of Gave My All, thought I'd share the latest section and provide zero context):

Thankfully, the rest of the trip passed with relative peace, although Bly couldn’t help but wince when that same cadet kept popping up in his shadow. Apparently young Stance took ‘any brother who wants the same is welcome to join me’ as permission to constantly keep Bly in his sightlines - possibly genuinely due to his commitment to reuniting with his Jedi, but more likely, Bly suspected, as a passive aggressive kriff you to his older brothers.

Styles continued to glower whenever their paths crossed. Grey just seemed to grow more resigned by the hour.

“Either the captain’s going to stuff his shiny in a sack to keep the kid from going anywhere when we get to Yavin, or I’m going to have both him and the commander tagging along with me, I’m not sure which yet.”

Rex snorted at him over the holocall. “You say that like the Jedi aren’t going to find us first.”

Bly eyed the small blue figure of his little brother for a long, suspicion-filled moment. “What do you know that I don’t?”

“Just because we’re keeping a low profile doesn’t mean I haven’t been checking the newsfeeds. Palpatine’s dead.”

“...what?”

“Apparently,” Rex said with visible glee, “Some Jedi operatives did a bit of digging, and Amidala called an emergency session of the Senate to air out his dirty laundry for all to see. Bastard decided to take off, tried to kill her on his way out, but Windu was waiting and got him first.”

A deep, shuddering breath went out of Bly, and he sank back in his seat. “What the kriff?”

“I’m going to take a wild guess, and say several million of our minds getting dumped back in time had an effect on the Force.”

“What, and the Jedi got pulled along too?” But even as he said it, Bly’s mind whirled faster than hyperspeed, considering the implications. The Jedi hadn’t suspected Palpatine the first time around - hadn’t liked him, sure, but distaste for politics and a Chancellor visibly snatching up emergency powers didn’t exactly translate to ‘Sith Lord plotting his total takeover’. But to investigate now- to expose him, to kill him, before the war could even truly get rolling-

Something changed.

The Force is connected to all things, Bly, Aayla told him once. In the same way an atmosphere covers an entire planet, and the slightest flicker in one spot can cause a storm thousands of miles away. Our actions may seem small and inconsequential in this moment, but they can add up, build and grow, until the entire galaxy is changed because of them.

#star wars #time travel au #commander bly #captain rex #fan fiction #commander grey #captain styles #clone trooper stance #wip #old rex's mind + young rex's body = the Best of shenanigans #while Bly continues to mentally suffer #x'D

[that-bookworm-guy]

Character Creation Tag (Alexander)

@pens-swords-stuff did this and this looked cool so I thought I’d do it with my baby Alexander

1) What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.?)

The name. I knew he would be a bookworm too 

2) Did you design them with any other characters/OCs from their universe in mind?

Nope, he was the first character and everyone else was built around him.

3) How did you choose their name?

always loved the name, since I was tiny. I never knew anyone called Alexander so I have no idea where I got the name from, but it was also a name I was considering when I came out as trans but it didn’t suit me, so my character’s name was born. 

His last name is Fawn, which just came to mind and seemed to fit.

4) In developing their backstory, what elements of the world they live in played the most influential parts?

Oooo so in the first book he loses his family. I wanted to really concentrate on his backstory at the start to show how normal his life was and how unprepared he was for everything to go tits up. Everyone has a special power and his is enhanced intelligence and he experiences everything from being able to read minds (Not a lot), to having visions about the future and hearing his powers voice. He wants to get rid of it, so I really wanted to show how much it affected him.

He has ADHD so I wanted to show that through his every day life and I made sure it was mentioned in passing. I wanted to show how he was in school because there are some important characters that come back from there.

His family were well off with house staff and technology because I wanted a clear contrast between his old life and his new life on the run. 

5) Is there any significance behind their hair colour?

Nope

6) Is there any significance behind their eye colour?

Nope

7) Is there any significance behind their height?

Nope, he is average

8) What (if anything) do you relate to within their character/story?

He has bad anxiety and depression. I didn’t want to hide it and I’ve had it all my life so I wanted to write a hero who had a mental illness and although it does slow him down, it doesnt stop him.

9) Are they based off of you, in some way?

The whole story came to be because I had a dream where my sister was taken and I had some kind of powers that helped me to get her back. This is basically the outline to the whole of book 1. So in a way yes.

Same with the anxiety and depression, a lot I wrote about it true and was how I was feeling at the time. I feel it made it more realistic to a reader that way. 

I can be quite cheeky and was often got told off for it when I was younger, so I really wanted to include that element of fun into his character.

10) Did you know what the OC’s sexuality would be at the time of their creation?

I knew he wasn’t going to be straight. Whether he knew that about himself yet was another story. But it’s turning out to read like he is bi, so I will definitely be sticking with that.

11) What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: Writing, drawing, edits, etc.)?

So there was a scene where he got caught and basically got beaten up but a police officer (They are all working for a corrupt government and know it). I knew I wanted him to get caught and I knew he was going to get treated like a mini adult (He is 13) and that it was going to be a massive shock to him. 

But when I wrote that part, it seemed too light. He was basically being interrogated in a cell where they police have no rules. 

Then it was too harsh, like way too harsh. 

And he didn’t care if he died at this point, he thought he lost everything and in this situation he would have given up. I needed to give him a reason to fight, to be brave and not quit. He needed to get his sister back but thought there was no chance.

So I thought back to my anxiety. If i want something I can’t do it (like ask for sauce in a restaurant) but if my friend with anxiety wants it and can’t ask, you bet I’m going to try to ask for some. 

So I put in his best friend (and the guy he may or may not have a crush on) with him, but he was beaten up worse. So he could find some will to fight again.

12) How far past the canon events that take place in their world have you extended their story, if at all?

Oh god I have planned this so much. SO basically I had it so well planned out that me @izzytheheartbrekker and @lantern-keeper had a half hour convo about how I could get my characters to break into this one building. All the reasons they gave couldn’t work because I basically wrote myself into a corner that made it so the ideas would not work at all. They needed to break into this building to find files. The files can only be found in this building, I tried to move them but they just didn’t make sense to be anywhere else because of how I wrote the first book and the characters. But they are on the run and trying to lay low so have no reason to enter this building at all. 

They can’t just walk in. It’s guarded because of how I wrote the building in the first story. It was basically a suicide mission. But the character’s traits also held an issue. They wouldn’t break in for fun or a dare.

I did work it out in the end. 

But their story is always going and I have ideas that will never get put into the story. I have everyone’s back stories wrote that I could form another book on

13) If you had to narrow it down to 2 things that you MUST keep in mind while working with your OC, what would those things be?

Anxiety. Anxiety controls his life. He wouldn’t do certain things or act certain way because of it. 

He loves his sister, in the book I’m currently writing (book 2) I know the first few chapters are missing their interactions. Everything that happened in book 1 was because he was trying to get his sister back, I need to remember that.

14) What is something about your OC that can make you laugh?

His cheekiness, he always answers back, and he doesn’t always mean to. 

15) What is something about your OC can make you cry?

His love for people. I cried when I wrote the scene his sister got taken, because I know how much his life revolves around her. 

‘“Trust me.”

These were the last words that Alexander said to his little sister before… well you’ll see.’ - start of chapter 9

‘Rosia didn’t look so sure. She ran towards her brother and leant against his chest. He wrapped his arms around his little sister and lent over her like a shield. Protecting her from the world outside of his warmth. If he could take all the pain away from her, he would in a heartbeat. She didn’t deserve this, she didn’t deserve any of this. His shirt felt wet against his skin and he realised they were the tears of his sister. He bent down and rested his hands on the side of her shoulders, before leaning forwards and gently kissed her forehead. Looking into her watery eyes, he tried to smile bravely. He couldn’t bare to see his sister so scared. He wiped away her tears with his sleeve and held her against his chest once again.

“We’ll be alright Rosia. We’ll make it somewhere safe tonight and then we will get away from all of this.”

Rosia lifted her head and looked at her protector. With her face red, eyes puffy and gently sobbing, she opened her mouth and gently whispered one word.

“Promise?”

Alexander stood up and held out his hand.

“Trust me.”’ - end of chapter 9, book 1

WHY DO I DO THIS?

16) Is there some element you regret adding to your OC or their story?

I want him to be an arsehole sometimes, like it would be easier to write, but he is just so darn nice and lovable. 

17) What is the most recent thing you’ve discovered about your OC?

He doesnt want to burden anyone, he is struggling and didn’t tell his best friend. His talent has grown out of control.

“He’s been repressing his power which means he isn’t focusing it, which means it’s growing and every time he relaxes the hold even a tiny bit, that will happen” He pointed to Alex. “and it’s only going to get worse the longer he does it. And by longer I don’t mean days, I mean hours. His mind is developing at a fast pace just as teenagers brains do, except quicker. Christ Alex we’ve spoke about this and you didn’t listen.” Theo was becoming clearly more and more agitated by the second.

“You spoke about this, without me.”

Theo looked at Alex, who looked like he was about to blackout again any second. He calmed down a bit, feeling sympathy for him. “He didn't want to worry you.”

Jathan turned to Alex, “You’re my best friend, I want to know if you’re suffering I want to help Alex.” He turned back to Theo “Isn’t this why we placed the seal in the first place so he wouldn’t lose control. Can't we just do that again?”

“You saw what happened the first time we can’t risk that again.”

“What will happen if he continues to repress it?”

“Worse case scenario, it takes over, he can’t take it, his brain shuts down. But that’s if he doesn’t give up first”

“He dies? Shit, Okay, okay and best case?” He inhaled deeply.

“It takes over, it leads his life for him until he goes mad.” He paused. “Then his brain shuts down.”

“That’s exactly the same just worded differently.”

“It’s exactly the same apart from one takes longer.”

“I am still here, and I can hear you.”

Jathan turned to Alex quickly “Shut it, you don’t get a say in this after you didn’t listen the first time.” He turned back to Theo. “So what do we do?” (First draft)

18) What is your favourite fact about your OC?

“I think the scars showed that you survived, you fought and you won. They show you were brave, that you’re stronger than you think. You got these scars so Haylan and Leo didn’t get any. That’s incredibly brave.You’re incredible…. bly brave.”

Alex looked back up and saw tears running down his face. He lunged forwards awkwardly and hugged him, succeeding in knocking him over. Jathan laughed in between sobs as Alex laid on top of Jathan.

He thinks he is smooth, but boy is he not.

I tag @immzies-adventures-through-books and anyone else who wants to do this because I have been lacking on the writeblr side so I’m not sure who writes anymore and I also tag @phantom-solitaire because they are reading my first book currently so I want to show them more of my baby

#writing #writer

[qqueenofhades]

Friend! Out of curiosity, as Resident Historian, do you have any thoughts on historical ableism and acceptance/non-acceptance of disability? (Ideally especially during the Golden Age of Piracy but I'm also generally fascinated)

Hehe. Of course I have Thoughts. When do I not have Thoughts.

Medieval disability studies have started to become a considerable trend in just the past 10 years or so, and that link above provides a brief overview and several selections for further reading. The medieval era is obviously the one I know most about, and there was – if no form of institutionalized or regularized medical care for the disabled and ill – not total ignorance of it either. Almshouses (essentially charity homes for the sick and disabled) and leper hospitals were increasingly common in Europe from the eleventh century on. Leprosy was associated with the crusades, and the founding of hospitals for them was viewed as both a social necessity, to segregate those with a highly visible, contagious, and debilitating disease from others, and as a charitable duty for the care of holy people (crusaders) who had achieved some virtue by their actions. There was considerable influence in ideas about the holiness of suffering, and that those who did so were closer to God. In fact, medieval care of the disabled was strongly influenced by classical Christian ideas of piety: care for the sick, feed the hungry, etc, and there were orders of monks and nuns dedicated to it. 

As ever, your class was the strongest determining factor of the care you received: if you were wealthy, you could pay for servants to tend your needs, and live fairly comfortably in your own home. Disability and illness was not a disqualifying factor from attaining high office (as you might expect in a world without modern medical care – everyone would be subject to the same things), and there are many representations of disability in medieval manuscripts. But if you were poor, you were reliant on whatever care your family could or wanted to provide for you, or had to hope you could get a place at an almshouse or similar institution. There were superstitions around disability, and if you had to work for your living in any way (aka everyone below the nobility), this seriously disadvantaged you. But the disabled lived fairly freely in their communities, including in positions of power, weren’t an uncommon or unexpected sight by any means, and had some basic (if doubtless not particularly comfortable) system set up for their care, based on religious charity and individual piety.

As leprosy, a visibly disfiguring physical disease, mostly disappeared from Western Europe around 1500, a new focus on mental disability appeared instead, centered especially on the imagery of the “Ship of Fools.” Michel Foucault talks about this in Madness and Civilization, but it was a particular theme in literature and art, based around the 1494 epic poem “Das Narrenschiff” by the humanist Sebastian Brant. It was, once again, a moral commentary on both humanity and, particularly, the corrupt Catholic Church. The “fools” were placed on a ship and ostracized (symbolically) from the body politic; madness was a concerning and troubling political feature among several monarchs (such as with Joanna “the Mad” of Castile and Charles VI of France, as well as Henry VI of England) and it began to be viewed more negatively than it necessarily had been in the medieval era. Aka: as ever, physical disability was easier to understand and to care for, but mental disabilities got the shaft.

In regard to the Golden Age of Piracy (1650-1726, or thereabouts) pirates were, as ever, radical in their social organization and mores. We already know that they were hella queer, had their own form of gay marriage (often shared in a threesome with a woman) and in general were socially liberal, egalitarian, and democratic (honestly, Black Sails is incredibly accurate in capturing the spirit of the historical pirates’ republic and lifestyle, and it was conceived specifically in response to the brutality and oppression of the Navy, which many of them had fled). This extended to their treatment of disability, though medical care and disability had obviously been common to seamen long before pirates. However, while a debilitating injury often meant that a merchant or Navy sailor was turned out with not much option for future employment, pirates established basic workman’s comp and social insurance for everyone aboard a ship. Pirate articles often included specific provisions for disability and loss of limb; Henry Morgan’s in 1671 spell out various sums for the loss of a leg, arm, or eye. Furthermore, disability payments could sometimes continue indefinitely. So a pirate with a peg leg or a hook for a hand or an eyepatch (or all the other pirate trappings, many of which were popularized by Stevenson in Treasure Island) would actually be uncommon. If they got severely or traumatically injured in the line of duty, they could retire with enough money to support themselves, and not need to hazard the dangerous and difficult life of an amputee aboard a traditional sailing ship. (Incidentally, the popular image of a pirate is often how disability began to be represented in the media.)

The excavation and recovery of the Queen Anne’s Revenge has yielded nearly a full kit of medical supplies, and Blackbeard reportedly forced the three surgeons to stay aboard the ship when he captured it. There is some debate about how the image of the “disabled pirate” – Stevenson’s Long John Silver and Blind Pew, Barrie’s Captain Hook, etc – began to be common, and the answer is probably tied to the attitudes of the late 18th and overall 19th centuries, which were absolutely disastrous for disabled people. The rise of the asylums began around now, including the notorious Bethlem Royal Hospital (from where we get the word “bedlam.”) Workhouses were built en masse, where the destitute poor and the actually disabled alike were shoved in indiscriminately and treated abominably, and “asylum tourism,” aka go to the madhouse to admire the architecture (and gape at the patients) was a real and horrifying thing. Thus, disability became tied to immorality, weakness, deficiency, and the need to be publically segregated from society (until then, the disabled had been cared for at home – there were a small number of patients in a few private charity hospitals in 1800, and by 1900, there were almost 100,000 in countless workhouses/asylums/general pits of misery). You have Capitalism! (take a shot) and the Industrial Revolution to thank for that. If you couldn’t work in a factory, and you couldn’t earn a wage, and you were a burden on your family who now would be expected to work for an income to support themselves, yep, it was the madhouse for you. And of course, plenty of totally non-mad people got shipped off as well. As I said. Disastrous.

In fact, we have Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Jane Cochran, a reporter at the New York World, who I wrote about in my first Timeless historical companion piece) to thank for starting a conversation around asylum reform. In 1887, in a groundbreaking piece of undercover journalism, she got herself committed to Blackwell’s Island asylum in New York and then wrote Ten Days in a Mad-House, revealing both the nightmarish conditions and how every doctor who examined her instantly declared her insane with no hope for recovery. It caused such an uproar that there finally started to be some attempt at oversight and reform for mental hospitals (although there is obviously still a long way to go, yeah – the nineteenth century was The Worst for this.)

So yes. As ever, that was probably more than anyone wanted to know, but the Golden Age of Piracy was particularly focused on social and financial care for members of its community who became disabled, paid pensions, and actually would not have needed to have too many walking wounded seamen/sailors, because there was no incentive to have to keep earning a wage by physical labor when you would be supported from the communal treasure chest. Aka yes, the pirates’ republic of the 17th and 18th centuries was light years more politically and culturally progressive than 21st century America (/stares at the latest Trumpcare bill/Obamacare repeal up in the Senate) and it ain’t close.

#history #medieval history #history of disability #golden age of piracy #extasiswings #ask