dhampyresa

Missed a week there. oops.

CURRENTLY AIRING SHOWS

Star Wars Rebels: S03E08 & S03E09: Those two eps focused mostly on Ezra and Kanan, who I don't really care for. (Quite frankly at this point the only explanation for Ezra's Hondo-related stupidity is that loves has blinded him.) I totally called the revel in "Inside Man", but I thought they'd leave it for the finale. But it was super well done! I loved everyone's reactions from Zeb's apologectic "I didn't kill him, so I guess we're friends?????" to Hera still not trusting Kallus to Chopper's enthusiasm. ALSO NEXT EPISODE WE GET MAUL YES


Lucifer: S02E10 & S02E11: Also a show with a reveal that was well done but came unexpectedly early. The show also keeps throygh expected characters into situation where they have to interact and it's great -- Dr Linda and Lucifer's mom? DAN and Lucifer's mom? Amenadiel and CHLOE's mom? Who also apparently knows Maze, I want to see that! I continue to really enjoy this stupid show and really look forward to the second half of the season.


The Librarians: S03E02 & S03E03: Also quite fun. I feel like this season is slightly too manichean in its views of Egyptian and Norse myths and/or that our interpretations don't quite match up. I prefer my Frost Giants not as evil but as amoral forces of nature -- but lol at Stone telling a roomful of Frost Giants his favourite natural disaster was global warming at their reactions. I'm going to headcanon that Anubis was under Apep's influence in the werewolf episode.


Legends of Tomorrow: S02E07: This was the final episode of some sort of crossover I didn't follow. I ship Sara/Kara now, idc that they're in different universe.


Class: S01E07 & S01E08: Episode 7 is made of tropes I love (people coming to care about each other despite differing interests! PEOPLE MEETING THEIR GODS AND RAGING AT THEM) so that was amazing. It's even a fucking roadtrip episode, in a way. My favourite of the eps this season. The season finale was also quite good, if heartbreaking. There's something almsot poetic in Charlie having to kill April to be able to use the cabinet when she was the one who made it so he didn't have to use it the last time. I thought the show would pull its punch with that and have Charlie's people show up again, but no. MATTEUSZ LIVES! I was so worried about him and Tanya but they both lived!


NOT CURRENTLY AIRING

Luke Cage: S1E010: I feel like I'm watching this more out of obligation that anything by now. I just DO NOT CARE about Diamondback. And there goes the obligatory CAin and Abel reference.

OH HEY SO I'M FINALLY CAUGHT UP ON THE SHOWS I'M WATCHING


CURRENTLY AIRING SHOWS

Star Wars Rebels: S03E06:

FINALLY A SABINE AND MANDALORE EPISODE I AM HERE FOR THIS

I appreciated getting the glimpses we got into Fenn Rau's captivity: play space!chess with Sabine and hahaha Kanan's "More like a cranky guest". I feel bad for Fenn Rau. He wanted to do what was right for his people.

Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo as Mandalorians!

So Sabine's mom is maybe working for the Empire?! WHAT

SABINE GOT A JETPACK! :D She's been wanting one for ages.

I'm hoping this episode means we'll get more Sabine content for the rest of the season.


Lucifer: S02E06, S02E07 and S02E08: Trixie accepting Maze's real face is my favourite scene, but it's very very closely followed by Maze and Dr Linda. "He's not dead, but trust me, he's going" places quite honourably -- I needed that, thank you, show.

CANNOT BELIEVE LUCIFER BROKE DR LINDA but thankfully she got over it.

I'm really enjoying Ella. Chloe and Maze roomates hijinks are amazing. Mum is up to no good, but frankly what I want most right now is for Azrael to show up about her knife.


Legends of Tomorrow: S02E03, S02E04 and S02E05: YES FINALLY WE ARE DONE WITH THE NAZIS

This show remains ridiculous, yet entertaining. I quite like Amara, but I'm meh on Nate, as far as new additions go. Still don't really care about Ray, either and the whole ~am I a hero without my suit~ thing isn't helping.

REALLY enjoying Sara as captain, though. I also continue to enjoy Jax and Stein -- especially totally rational fear of zombies. Poor dude.


Class: S01E03, S01E04 and S01E05: April continues to be my favourite -- I have A Thing for characters who tell the world "you will not break me and you will not take my kindness from me" -- but poor Tanya! I feel so bad for her! And the intro with her dad was really well done. Matteusz's "I don't like guns" is probably the hardest I've laughed at this show. Idk, something about the delivery really got to me.


NOT CURRENTLY AIRING

Luke Cage: S1E08: I feel like I should be more invested in this. It's entertaining, but I don't care about Diamondback and him being Luke's secret brother (?) so it makes the show lackluster for me. Less of that, more of Misty, Claire and Shades, please.

Nirvana in Fire: E06: Have made no progress.

Miraculous Ladybug: S01E02: Have made no progress.

CURRENTLY WATCHING

Airing shows

Star Wars Rebels:
S3E03: It has been AGES since we got an episode where Sabine got the starring role!
She looks really good with dark hair and the dark uniform and hahaha she beat up Governor Pryce. "My clan taught me better" yesssssssss
Have Kallus and Sabine ever interacted before? Kind of sad we didn't get to see her pass his message along to Zeb Garazeb Orrelios. (Kallus is the new Fulcrum, calling it now.)

S3E04: WHOA HERA DAMN. I want the main arc of the season to be Hera vs Thrawn high stakes space chess (and for the voice acting on Thrawn to sound a little less bored).
Did not expect to feel bad for Chopper -- but then he went back to blowing shit up.
My crackship sails on! They were both on screen at the time at least once this episode; that makes it not a crackship anymore. (It's Sabine/Numa, for the curious.)

starwarsfruitbowl is doing weekly Rebels watching posts. (Or I am, rather.)


Lucifer: S2E02: This is a stupid show and I love it so much. I am always 100% there for people getting righteously angry about stuff and boy howdy does Lucifer have stuff to be angry about. I am also always there for fish out of water situation so everything dealing with Mum is gold. I have no idea what's going on with Amenadiel, but I don't like it. I continue to love Ella as a character -- she's a great foil to Lucifer. (I continue to ship Dr Linda and Maze.)


Legends of Tomorrow: S2E01: I did not expect this show to be back so soon! It was entertaining. I could have done without the new dude being, well, a dude, but alas.
This week they did the tried and true "Timetravel vs Nazis" episode. In an unlikely twist for the genre, the Nazis didn't win WW2 in that new timeline. I know I was suprised too. I appreciated that Stein was the most affected by this. Anyway, they win against the Nazis.
Also appreciated the physics nerding out and Mileva Marić getting her due credit.
Then they get scattered in time and space. I think that was supposed to be Arthurian times? Hey, non-Breton Arthurian folks, is it reasonable to assume something set in Tintagel 831 is meant to be Arthuriana?
It's cool that they haven't forgotten Sara's bisexual.
Okay, was I supposed to know who the speedster at the end was? And Justice Society of America!


Not currently airing shows

Luke Cage: S1E07: IN YOUR FACE COTTONMOUTH and that's all I have to say.

Nirvana in Fire: Have made no progress.

Miraculous Ladybug: Also no progress.


Fanvids

Toy Soldiers from Deirdre on Vimeo.

BOOM! CLONE FEELINGS.

I'm quite impressed the vidder managed to not jar me by switching between early Clone Wars, late Clone Wars (there's a definite shift in the animation about halfway through*) and even live action at one point.

* Late Clone Wars has my favourite animation of the Star Wars cartoons. It goes late Clone Wars > early Clone Wars > Rebels. Rebels is weirdly smoothed and streamlined, early Clone Wars is spiky. Late Clone Wars strikes a good balance. /CGI animation feelings

I have spent a not insignificant amount of time searching through the online database of recipients of the Légion d'honneur. There's an alphabetical by last name list and a search function. (Fyi, I did find the person I had originally gone looking for.)

In case anyone wants to see if they have any ancestors/namesakes who got the Légion d'honneur.

Even though the people in the database are only those deceased before 1977, it does have everyone awarded from 1802 on and it's possible to get more recent records if you have a specific query.

It's super interesting! The oldest person I saw in the database was born in 1768. 1768! And sometimes when you input an uncommon last name they are all from within 50km of each other -- birth places are listed -- it's pretty hilarious.

The Légion d'honneur (Legion of honour) is the highest French honour for military and civil merits. It's got five levels of distinction, the lowest being Chevalier (Knight) and the highest Grand Croix (Grand Cross). Most of the recipients are French, some are not; some are famous, most are not. All are listed in the database (supposedly, I haven't checked individually).

Simone Veil is Grand Cross and I mention her because she's a badass. She's the main driving force being the legalisation of abortion in France, a survivor of Auschwitz and a member of the Académie Française*.


* When you get elected to the Académie Française (French Adacemy), you get given a sword and called an Immortal. THAT IS SOME HIGHLANDER SHIT RIGHT HERE.


READING

Finished reading

( Books read )

Lucifer v1 (Vertigo comic) by Mike Carey (writing) and Peter Gross, Dean Ormston and various (artists) (1999 - 2006): This is not to be confused with the current Lucifer ongoing (writing by Holly Black, art by Lee Garbett).

I reread this recently because after the TV show was announced I decided to offer this for yuletide and I got matched on it. (The fic I ended up writing was The Devil's Party, ~3k of post canon gen.) Issue 1 of the new run came out Dec 16 2015 so I was afraid I might be Jossed at the last minute by a canon formerly closed for almost ten years, but I wasn't, entirely -- in fact, I may have gotten some stuff right.

( All text, no pictures )

Anyway, A++ would totally reccomend.


Still reading

Contes et récits de l'histoire de Carthage by Jean Defrasne
Le Déchronologue by Stéphane Beauverger

Partial list of comics I am following, which I will add to as I remember them:
Lucifer
Scarlet Witch
The Wicked + the Divine (sort of. When I remember it exists)


Reading next

Adding: The Library at Mount Char - Scott Hawkins (via netgirl_y2k), The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker (via isis ) and Anna Cowan's Untamed (via skygiants ).

( To read list )


TV I'm watching tomorrow, probably.

Entirely on purpose this time.

READING

Finished reading

I'm going to slowly make my way through this list, one book at a time. See if I don't!

( Books read )
D'un monde à l'autre (La Quête d'Ewilan, tome 1) by Pierre Bottero (read in 2015): The last time I tried re-reading a book I loved from my childhood, it was the Livre des Etoiles series and it didn't go so well.

So I was kind of apprehensive with rereading the La Quête d'Ewilan trilogy, but there was no need! THIS BOOK WAS AMAZING.

The book follows Camille and her best friend Salim, teenagers from a small French town. Camille semi-accidentally discovers that she has magical powers and is in fact the titular Ewilan. In an interesting twist on the "normal teenage girl discovers she's from another world" trope, she is not the heir to a throne (or two, like Tara Duncan is -- kind of what that crossover now, ngl). She's the child of two very powerful magic users who sacrificed themwelves to save the kingdom from the Ts'liches.

The Ts'liches are the main antagonists of this trilogy. They are a cross between a giant lizard and a giant praying mantis, they're two meters tall at least and they are fucking terrifying. I love them, they're amazing fantasy villains.

One thing I didn't notice when reading these books the first time was how racially mixed Gwendalavir is. The first three people met in Gwendalavir are Bjorn (blond), the next one is described by Salim as "as dark as he was" (Salim has Cameroonian origins, fyi) and Edwin who I imagine as looking like Alexander Siddig because that's exactly what he's described as looking as.

Also, Ellana appears in this book and I love Ellana a lot! I especially love that while Ellana ends up falling in love with Edwin and taking Salim on as her apprentice (she's a Marchombre, a rogue/thief type of thing), the friendship between her and Ewilan is given a lot of narrative weight.

The plot of this book involves Ewilan going on a very dangerous quest to the Beaux-Arts of Paris to find her older brother, so he can fight in the war against the Ts'liches in her stead. Normally I would be angry to have a girl hero be replaced by a boy hero, but here it's framed pretty explicitly as the adults going "EWILAN YOU ARE A CHILD your brother is an adult. We're not involving children in this war if we can avoid it" which is an entirely reasonable stance for responsible adults to take.

As it turns out, Ewilan's brother (a) has not inherited his parents' power, (b) wants nothing to do with this war, holy shit are you people bonkers and (c) actually enjoys life on Earth, by contrast with Camille and Salim who have no reason to stay, as they are friendless and neglected by their families -- part of the reason they go looking for Matthieu is even that they think they can leverage that into being able to stay in Gwendalavir.

In light of (a), (b) and (c), the adults reluctantly agree to let Ewilan help with the war effort. She is both The Ultimate Magic User (their magic is called Drawing -- "le Dessin" -- and I really like how it works) and one of very few people who can not only teleport, but teleport between worlds, but she is also only thirteen and they really were hoping they wouldn't have to involve a child in this war.

I need to read the other books already. There's another two in this trilogy, another trilogy and then the Ellana-focused trilogy.


Still reading

Contes et récits de l'histoire de Carthage by Jean Defrasne

Le Déchronologue by Stéphane Beauverger: I read a whole chapter of this this week and omg this book is batshit in THE BEST POSSIBLE WAY.

I had to flip back to the first chapter to remind myself who a specific character was and in the process remembered that I am shipping Henri Villon/Yves Brieuc pretty hard and also, wow, I love all the research that went into writing this book. The siege of La Rochelle! Motherfucking Richelieu's siege of La Rochelle (yes, the one from the painting)! Villon was there and he is so sketchy about the whole thing.

I want to do a chronological reread at some point. The book is in non-linear order.

Things that happened this chapter: someone was talking about "gaudy, mismatched furniture [from the future]" and so I am choosing to believe that tense scene happened in a room entirely furnished with cheap IKEA knock-offs, Villon arrived in Tortuga while blaring some (iirc country) music through speakers on his boat as you do and Villon and Le Vasseur's conversation basically boiled down to "I'm not threatening you, I'm just saying I know how you die AND YOU DON'T neerneerneer".

I just really love all the clever things it's doing with the concept of "Pirates of the Carabbeian + time travel".


Partial list of comics I am following, which I will add to as I remember them:
Lucifer
Scarlet Witch
The Wicked + the Divine (sort of. When I remember it exists)


Reading next

Changes: I have decided I would read City of Blades and I've added Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds via a rec from yhlee . I have also decided that I wouldn't read two books by men in a row (comics somewhat excluded from this, because tracking down authorship of comics is a hassle).

( To read list )



WATCHING

This is as far along in these shows that I have watched. I would love to talk about any of these. No spoilers for currently airing shows, please, but I don't care about shows that are complete.

Jessica Jones (s1e2 00:00)
Supergirl (s1e3 00:00)
Agent Carter (s2e3)
Lucifer (s1e11 23:00)
Legends of Tomorrow (s1e11 00:00)
Clone Wars (s3e11 00:00)
Underground (s1e6 00:00)
Shannara (s1e6 00:00)
Daredevil (s2e1 00:00)

Lucifer: MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZE! I am fascinated by every single interaction she has with everyone, be that Dr Linda (I ship it), Chloe, Lucifer, Amenadiel or Trixie.

Legends of Tomorrow: I am really enjoying this team of losers. That's right, you have superpowers! Good on you for remembering this time.

Clone Wars: I keep boggling at how bad at politics Anakin is, seriously. He's a very all-or-nothing kind of guy and as Aaron Burr would say politics is "the art of the compromise / Hold your nose and close your eyes". (I have a file of Clone Wars notes, lmao.) Ahsoka's new duds are cool.

Underground: THIS SHOW IS SO GOOD. Seriously, it has the best twists.


OTHER STUFF (Reading related)

I seem to be mostly in a "fanfic" phase, reading wise. If I were to post about the fics I was reading, would anyone be interested?

Also, I occasionally find interesting stuff on the internet, I probably should toss them in these.

Like I said previously, I wrote 8 fics for yuletide: 1 assignments, 6 full-length treats and 1 madness treat (presented here more or less in the order in which I wrote them). Now you get to hear me talk about them and be a giant nerd. At length.

The Devil's Party (2987 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Lucifer (Comic)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Lucifer Morningstar, Elaine Belloc, Mazikeen, Beatrice (Lucifer), Rachel Begai, Lady Lys, Duma Angel of Silence
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary: Lucifer returns from the Void in Hell. Lucifer returns from the Void in LA. Both these things are true.

( Assignment )

Lion Champion (1376 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Nancy Whitehead, Doreen Green, Tomas Lara-Perez, Ken Shiga
Summary: Nancy's life takes a turn for the unexpected.

( Treat )

Hunter's Moon (1293 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Gwen Variants (Marvel Comics Covers)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Gwenverine/Laura Kinney
Characters: Gwen Stacy | Gwenverine, Gwen Stacy | Gwoot, Laura Kinney
Additional Tags: Post-Apocalypse
Summary: Gwen's day gets weird.

( Treat )

All's Fair (1006 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Hellenistic Religion & Lore
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Ἄρης | Ares (Hellenistic Religion & Lore), Αθήνα | Athena (Hellenistic Religion & Lore)
Summary: Ares and his sister have a complicated relationship.

( Treat )

Ogygia (1570 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Ancient History RPF
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Scipio Africanus/Hannibal Barca
Characters: Hannibal Barca, Scipio Africanus
Additional Tags: What-If
Summary: Hannibal was captured after Zama.

( Treat )

Zero Sum Game (1357 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Fantastic Four (Comicverse), Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Victor von Doom, Reed Richards, Valeria Richards, Franklin Richards
Additional Tags: Secret Wars
Summary: It's not the Sheriff who finds the ship, it's the Foundation.

( Treat )

Lies told by firelight (1533 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Loki: Agent of Asgard
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Loki (Agent of Asgard), Verity Willis
Additional Tags: Post-Canon
Summary: As it turned out, what Loki had meant when he'd said "I need a break. So... Let's skip ahead a bit" was "Let's do yuletide".
As it turned out, what "Let's do yuletide" meant was "Let's spend the end of the world telling stories about stories".

( Treat ) totally guessed it was me based on those).

Because I wrote this fic ON THE PLANE. I did everything on that bloody flight, from canon review (canons I could have reviewed from my hard-drive: Agent of Asgard, Spider-Gwen, Mulan) to brainstorming to writing to editing to... Yeah. Everything but post the thing.

You wouldn't know this from the posting date though, because it's dated as one day BEFORE my flight, for reasons of it being a meta joke for it to be posted on the solstice (makes sense if you read the fic). I don't think anyone caught it, but I am ridiculously proud that I thought of this meta reference so now you get to hear about my brilliance.

Loki's feelings about yuletide that prompt Verity's "Wow. You're actually a gigantic sap." are totally my feelings about Yueltide and fic exchanges in general. Whatever, I'm a sap, I own it.

I really like " "I'm the Skald," Loki said. "The mythmaker at the end of everything. The narrator of sinners and sorcerers. The deceiver. The storyteller." " as a line, but my favourite is "There was something ugly in the way Loki said that last word, something twisted and sharp like barbed wire.". I'm quite fond of "a campfire vigil for the internet age" as a phrase.

(Doom actually is signed up for yuletide, but he's changed accounts to one Loki doesn't know about. It's cool, Loki is going to write his old account a fic anyway.)

(Loki is female through most of the fic because of how hot my recip said she was as Goddess of Stories and yeah, I can only agree.)

Yeah, I think this fic turned out really well, given the givens.

God Games (512 words) by sevenofspade
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Ambition (ESA Short film)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: The Apprentice (Ambition short film), The Master (Ambition short film)
Summary: This is how the world is made.

( Madness )

Dear Yuletide Writer, thank you! I genuinely love all of these fandoms and would love absolutely anything you write in any of them. Seriously, I mean it. If that's all you wanted to know, fell free to stop reading right now. If, however, you'd like a better idea of my general likes and dislikes and specific prompts for specific fandoms, read on.

My previous letters are here and my ao3 account is here.

( General Information )

HERE BE SPOILERS! I'm assuming you're at least as far along as I am in all of these fandoms. Let me know if that's not the case.

( Demon Knights )

( Fantômette )

( Locke & &Key )


( Lucifer (Comic) )


( Tara Duncan )

( Ultimate Spider-Man )


I kind of run out of steam in places there, sorry about that! But I legit love all of these, so have as much fun as you can writing, I know I'm going to love reading it ♥.