i really like this thing where websites will have separate “log in” & “sign up” buttons and if you click “log in” it takes you to a sign-up screen anyway so you have to click “i already have an account” and then it will ask if you want to sign in with your facebook account or with instagram or linkedin or deviantart or whatever, and if you choose “username & password” it asks if you want to put in your username or use your thumbprint, and once you put your username & password it emails you a confirmation code, and once you put in the code it says “do you want to give us your phone number for future sign-ins? do you want to sign up for facial recognition? do you want to give us your bones? give us your fucking bones?
been thinking a lot about the idea of an old immortal from the americas. andromache and quynh and lykon dream of this person. they spend years, decades, centuries, trying to find her, and just can’t. they don’t recognize the cities they see in the dreams, and the oceans don’t look like any coast they’ve ever traveled. by the end of the millennia, they’ve checked what must be every corner of the world.
eventually andromache and quynh hear rumors of some far-off land ‘found’ by some northern people, but then their dreams are swiftly infiltrated by two fuckers who keep murdering each other and they do know where those idiots are, so they become preoccupied.
the four of them search based on every scrap of information they can carve from the dreams. they go to greenland and back and find fuck all. but the dreams never stop. they learn about their unfindable sister - they get to know this person, this person who should be their friend, this person who too comes from warriors, but who also sings under her breath, who spends more time in the rivers than on dry land, who tells stories around the fire. who loves so fiercely and loses too fast. who is, at the end of the day, just like at the end of each decade, alone.
they are conveniently in europe on their way to the witch trials when the ships set off and the dreams change, slowly and then all at once. what was once relative peace with the occasional blows of infighting or war becomes disaster. more often than not these days, their sister’s hands are soaked with blood, either from invaders, or, too often, from her own people, as she tries to stop the wounds and the disease. it doesn’t work. it never works. she wields knives like they’re extensions of herself, and she is furious. the village she’d been in for years falls with no survivors, and she goes into battle swinging. she never stops. she pulls men off of girls and cuts their throats, and sinks ships before anyone can get away from her. it’s never enough. she’s pinned down and gutted too many times to count.
the old guard catches the glimpse of a familiar insignia under their sister’s blade. they hop a spanish ship and take control. they reach the shores of the land they thought they’d only ever see in dreams.
but by the time they get there, their lost immortal has vanished.
the old guard 2 is so funny because the first two thirds are like “huh booker seems way less depressed, maybe exile was good for him” and then he jumps at the opportunity the SECOND tuah shows him a way to kill himself. never let your immortality stop you from being suicidal little french bastard (affectionate)
It will forever be funny how magicians bait you with a start of like. A privileged typical magical school and you go meh and then there’re like. Small things you keep finding creepy but go meh maybe its just oh so special. Quentin talking about his depression and knowing exactly from which roof to jump to not survive, Julia using her ring to gash open her arm so she wouldn’t forget about magic, beast appearing and burning dean’s eyes, alice’s brother who used too much magic and burned into a wild and cruel spirit. All weird and kinda disturbing but its mixed with so much humour and dumb privileged college kids on weed you kinda ignore the implications of how fucked up magic is
And then it all comes to a head when youre forced to mentally confront the fact that the beast, the main villain, a man who’s face is always obstructed by flies, who has been killing you and your friends for 44 time loops, is a hero of your childhood books which saved you from suicide. Books which were written by a man who sexually abused this boy for years which is why now he’s trying to destroy everything and be the only one left. Like what the actual fuck. And to drive the point home it deals with pregnancy as a result of SA and they go robbing a bank to afford it. This show pick you up by the scruff and takes you on a rollercoaster and shows you that magic comes from pain. That there is no talent, that the strongest mages are those who don’t stop. And then it takes your hand again and shows you that life is still beautiful even with all the horror. That there is hope and love and sometimes love is also hideous and evil and cruel but that’s okay. There might not be a happy ending but love was there. You did it because you loved and because you did something to change the world for the better and even if it turned completely wrong the sentiment was there. You existed and you mattered and maybe that’s enough
This week, I read a fic that was around 20 years old, which had originally been posted on the author’s personal website and which she added to AO3 a few years ago. She listed her email address with the fic, so after I finished reading, I sent her an email saying how much I enjoyed the story, how much I appreciated the work and effort she obviously put into it, and thanked her for uploading it to AO3. She responded the next day and thanked me for my message, then said she had a few more stories in the same series that she hadn’t gotten around to uploading. I checked this morning–she added a 35,000 word novella and thanked me in the summary.
👏 comment 👏 on 👏 old 👏 fics 👏
I need to tell Copperbadge that she changed my life with Stealing Harry, after this fanfic I found many good fanfics but none as good as hers, she is on a pedestal and I have never been able to find another story that I loved as much
ALT
