Rise Up, Oh Heart, For There is Another Battle to Win

Anonymous asked: e, w, & q?

Oooh, yay!  From this ask meme.

e - easiest person to talk to

Adler.  Always Adler.  Or my mom.

q - questions you’re always asked

“And how do I spell that?” if I’m using my full name, or “And what does that stand for?” if I’m using R.  Also I have a lot of people ask me about college and my plans for the future, to which I have to say…look, folks, I’m a college student, I’m struggling to plan my next meal, what do you want from me.

w - worst habit

Procrastination.  Right this moment, I’m procrastinating a report, a presentation, and a poster, all of which are due in about ten days.  You’re enabling me, which I appreciate.

Anonymous asked: Omg for that cannon thing can you please do Grantaire from Les mis and rey from Star wars??

Mmmm YEAH.  From this thing.

Grantaire

• Canon: Grantaire is a boxer, fencer, and dancer.  I know these are common knowledge, but I feel like there are some really glorious opportunities afforded there.  He’s also evidently well-studied, just…in really random stuff, which speaks to me.
  
• Headcanon: Even supposing he’d lived through June 6th, Grantaire wouldn’t have survived long without his friends.  He’d have faded away, been found dead in the street within a month.
• Heartcanon: This is, what, what I think should have happened?  I don’t know, might’ve been nice if someone lived?
• Soulcanon: I might have liked a little more description of the death scene, Vic!  Would’ve been nice!  But my firm belief is that Enjolras probably died pretty much on impact, whereas Grantaire took a minute or two to bleed out.  He didn’t mind, because he fell looking at Enjolras’ face, angled so that the other man looked alive and merely pensive, and he’d say there are worst last sights.  He kept his grip on Enjolras’ hand until he was finally too weak to force his muscles to cooperate.
• Crotchcanon: Sooooo the night before the barricades rose Enjolras probably decided…well, eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we may die.  ‘Be merry’ here accompanied by an intense eyebrow wriggle.  Fight me.  Grantaire figured that at least this way he would know that Enjolras’ skin tasted like before they died.  If I ever wrote fic for this ‘and then there was wildly improbable sex’ incident, it would be intense angst.

Rey, my own sunshine daughter

• Canon: Rey is flawless.  Rey built her speeder and taught herself quarterstaff fighting.  I hear she refused to trade a droid even though she was offered sixty portions.  I hear she managed to fly the Millennium Falcon through an old star destroyer on her first try.  She met Han Solo and he offered her a job.  One time she lightsabered Kylo Ren in the face.  It was awesome.
  
• Headcanon: Rey has definitely…done what needed to be done.  By which I mean she’s definitely killed a dude, and possibly eaten them, depending on how strapped she was for sustenance at the time.
• Heartcanon: I appreciate why Rey didn’t kill Kylo at the end of the movie.  Nonetheless, that hunting-wolf prowl with her teeth bared and the light of a dying star on her skin really did it for me, and I might have liked to see them deal with the fact that even Jedi kill, sometimes.  And Rey’s NOT a Jedi, is the thing, so–yeah.  Basically the summary here is that I want to see Rey kill a dude with a lightsaber.  Kylo would be ideal, but not at all mandatory.  I also really want to see her talk to a Force ghost, and I really, really want that Force ghost to be Anakin Skywalker.  I am only interested in the Rey Skywalker thing insofar as it makes her Anakin’s granddaughter, not Luke’s kid (I’d love it if she was Leia’s kid, Rey Organa is also a plot I’m into, but that seems a little less likely), although I feel like Rey as the savior of the Force Mark III is really excellent.
• Soulcanon: Okay but as long as we’re playing defiance-of-all-reason, what I really want is for Rey to be a midichlorian pregnancy.  The Force decides that the last go-round of a Chosen One went horribly awry (although I have some thoughts on whether that…is strictly speaking true, in the Force’s eyes), so this time, the Force is like “I’m gonna do it again, and it’s going to be another angry sand orphan, but instead of an ex-slave who immediately gets indoctrinated into a powerfully repressive and increasingly rickety ancient Order, it’s going to be a scavenger with a moral backbone like soldered titanium and a quarterstaff, and she’s just gonna fucking wreck people with both.”  And the Force drags Rey kicking and screaming into her destiny and drops her in Luke’s lap like “Be nice to your auntie, bye-bye now” and Luke is like “Um…I don’t deserve this.”  Luke, you fucked off into exile for fifteen years and left your sister to run another rebellion, this time against her son.  You deserve to have your Force-auntie fucking wreck you with her stick and her moral backbone.
• Crotchcanon: Um…the OT3 is a thing and y’all can fight me.  The Damerons.  Poe struggles for a little while with the fact that he seems to have two (young) heroes trying to actively seduce him, in their awkward ways.  Rey’s version of ‘seduction’ is just to press various foodstuffs into his hands and watch with an eager smile as he eats them, Finn’s is a little more like actual flirting, but not a lot.  Finally he just comes back to his quarters (he has a private room by virtue of being a squad leader) and finds Rey literally sitting naked on his bed, legs crossed and calm as when she’s polishing BB-8′s optical sensor.  Finn apologizes, hovering anxiously near the wall, and says that they’ve been trying to convince him to date them but he doesn’t seem to get the message, so Rey got impatient.  Poe gives in to the inevitable.  And then there’s sex.  Lots of sex.  Poe gets the shock of the decade when ever-so-serious General Organa reaches up to clap him on the shoulder in approval, once the others let him out of his quarters again.

Anonymous asked: heyyyyy, i would love an exr au where one of them has to teach the other how to dance and it's so frustrating because "he won't fucking cooperate" and there's the deal with sexual tension so one of them just snaps and. . . i'll let you decide their fate ;)))) (love your work btw)

Heeeeeeey, sorry this took a little while, life…is happening to me.  But! Abuse of the fact that Grantaire is canonically a dancer!  Sexual tension!  Here we go!

“One-two-three, one-two-three, that’s-my-foot, one-two-three, one-two—Enjolras!” Grantaire huffed, doing an awkward sort of two-step to back up without releasing his grip on his partner’s hand and waist.  “There are actually nerve endings in my toes, do you mind?”

“I’m trying, you’re not telling me what to do!”  Enjolras scowled down at the floor, brow furrowed as he tried to place his feet, and tugged his hand out of Grantaire’s.  Grantaire released him without a fight, dropping his hand from Enjolras’ hip and immediately missing the warmth.

“It’s a waltz, not brain surgery,” Grantaire said.  “I told you what to do when we started.  There are literally three steps to this dance.”  Enjolras stopped, his frown deepening until it seemed etched into his face, and Grantaire sighed.  “Come here, we can try again,” he said, holding out his hand again.  “Your hand on my shoulder, the other like this,” he coached, pulling Enjolras in again.  “Come on, Apollo,” he said with an attempt at an encouraging smile, “weren’t you valedictorian in high school?  You can do a waltz.”

Keep reading

Anonymous asked: I want to learn so many languages but it's like next to impossible and there is so much I want to do with my life but no way to get to all of them....

I feel you so much, my friend.  If I had the money to be a perpetual student, I would be one of those people who was just an expert in everything with zero real-world experience.  I don’t really have any advice for you (I mean, unless you’ve never heard of Duolingo, which is a great language-learning system that also has an app and is free, unlike Rosetta Stone), except that it’s completely possible to learn a bunch of miscellaneous crap on your own.  

• The Wikipedia spiral is treacherous, but a good default.  
  
• Get a random book from the library or troll the free books on the internet, buy one if you have the money.  
  
• For languages specifically, Duolingo is fantastic and they have an ever-expanding collection of languages, including colloquialisms.  I’d start with something that’s spoken in your area so that you can get some practice with real people (Spanish is a dominant language in a lot of the US, so that’s a good fallback because it’s also useful).  Google it, make an account, even if you don’t know if you’ll use it.  It’s free, take advantage.

Yep.  That’s pretty much what I got.  If you figure out a way to get to more stuff, or get more hours in the day, please make me the first person you tell, because I would love to have six more hours in the day to get stuff done.

Anonymous asked: i think I like a girl. A straight girl. H el p m e I m a wr ec k :((

Oh, babe, trust me, I wish to God I could show you a switch to flip to not have crushes on straight girls.  I feel you on a visceral level, as I too have landed myself in that position this summer (she’s just so pretty, guys, and her accent does stuff to me).  But, alas, no such switch has presented itself to me.  That being said, here are some things I can tell you for sure about it.

• You’re going to be fine, even if it feels a little like you’re dying in the moment.
  
• If they figure it out, they’ll either
• move on with their life and treat you as well as they ever have, which means they’re going to be a valuable friend,
• be a dick about it, in which case they didn’t deserve your affection in the first place, or
• turn out to be less straight than you thought, which is unlikely but a nice fantasy.
• Life is too short to pine away over someone who can’t return your feelings.  That sentence will come back to bite me in the ass with my roommate the next time I insist on keeping my mouth shut to a crush, but it’s true.  
• Let yourself look at other people, see the line of their jaw in the sun and the way the tendons move on the back of their hands, the way their eyes look in the light, hear the way their voice makes the air tremble, and let yourself like those people too.  You’re not betraying her by moving on.
• Moving on isn’t something you can force yourself to do.  It’ll happen when you’re not paying attention.  One day you’ll realize that you don’t feel that swooping twinge in your chest when you look at her, and you’ll miss the feeling a little, but it’ll be gone.
• You’re going to be fine, babe, I promise.  It’s not fun, but c’est la vie.  One day this will be a distant memory, time moves on and so will you.

Anonymous asked: 95-97?

Wheeeee, these are fun, I’m so easily amused.  This thing again.

95. Last movie you watched?

STAR TREK BEYOND, and darling, it was a glorious experience.

96. Favourite actress?

I…um.  Dunno.  I’m watching Veronica Mars right now so my first impulse is Kristen Bell.  Daisy Ridley is a good contender.  Gina Torres.  Lucy Lawless.  Rinko Kikuchi.  Charlize Theron and all the other women in Fury Road.  The entire female cast of Star Trek.  I don’t know, other people.  It’s a long list.

97. Favourite actor?

…John Boyega, Oscar Isaac, the entire male cast of Star Trek. Tom Hardy. That’s…I’m not good at the favorite actor/actress questions, I hope this has been appropriately vague.  I mostly based my answers on the roles that came up as favorites, I know basically jack about these people except that Daisy Ridley could deadlift me and has an open invitation to do so any day.

Anonymous asked: 87-91

Yay, more of these!  I hope you’re all aware that I’m ruthlessly procrastinating, yes?

87. First person you talked to today?

Depending on whether Skype chat counts: either my mother (Skype) or my summer roommate (in person).

88. Last person you talked to today?

I am literally talking to Adler right now on chat, if that counts.  Barring that, my summer roommate was the last human being I exchanged speech with.

89. Name a person you hate?

Ohhhh, well, the easy go-to is this dude named Sawyer, but I have worse grudges.  Some of my cousins, maybe.  My physics teacher from last semester, my health teacher from high school.  A lot of teachers, actually, I have a bad track record with teachers.

90. Name a person you love?

My mom, my dad, Adler.

91. Is there anyone you want to punch in the face right now?

Right this second?  Low-key want to punch my orgo teacher for talking me into doing this internship that’s driving me insane.  High-key want to punch Donald Trump, but c’est la vie, c’est la fucking vie.  And I perpetually want to punch about forty people I knew in high school, my cousins, and all three of my grandparents.  I think it would be cheaper and quicker than therapy.  I also really want to punch the dude who called me baby on the street, I don’t like being catcalled.  …I am a violent soul, okay.

Anonymous asked: 35-38

*bounces excitedly*  I love when people do ask memes!  Yay!  From this thing!

35. Would you rather live without TV or music?

Um…is ‘neither’ an option?  But seriously I’d probably say TV, on the stipulation that I could keep books, music, movies, and all other not-made-for-TV media.  My ADHD ass needs distractions, I would maybe go clinically insane stuck in my own brain without lots of audiovisual input.

36. Have you ever liked someone and never told them?

Honey, look, it you hand me someone grandstanding about how gay people are going to hell, or someone getting into a girl’s space without permission, or someone messing with someone based on their religion, and I am the ballsiest person this side of the Prime Meridian.  That being said, I don’t tell people when I have crushes on them.  This is helped by the fact that I’m a professional at emotional control and therefore generally don’t notice a crush as anything other than above-average levels of rambling until something drastic happens.

37. What do you say during awkward silences?

Depends.  If I know the person well, I’ll come up with something truly bizarre like “Did you know that John Quincy Adams kept a pet alligator in his house during his presidency” or “Some people have a third set of false ribs in addition to the two that are standard issue” or “You are 50% genetically identical to a banana.”  If it’s someone I don’t know or don’t trust not to mock me for being weird, I try to acquire some inner Zen and keep my mouth shut.

38. Describe your dream girl/guy?

Well, I’m flexible on the gender thing, but honestly?  Someone who’s a bit of an asshole.  Not someone mean or whatever, someone who’s enough of a dick to think that, for example, my jokes are funny, not just bitter.  Someone with enough of a backbone to bicker with me, because it freaks me out when people are 100% acquiescent all the time.  Someone with a good sense of humor and a nice laugh and appreciation for black humor, because I’m a cynic.  Someone who understands that it’s not personal if I need a few hours to myself, who won’t fucking flip out on me if I say “this is a medical emergency and you are not bleeding out so frankly you’re not my priority right now.”  Someone who’s willing to listen to me make commentary on my favorite movies, and willing to put up with my periodic episodes of sensory overload or food issues.  Someone who shows actual interest in me physically and mentally but is still willing to stop if I seem uncomfortable, which I guess…is a pretty low bar, on further reflection.  Oh well.

Anonymous asked: I wanna know more about the Hero and the Crown! i picked up McKinley's the blue sword one day but got distracted and for one reason or another never finished and now i'm trying to track her stuff down again

Oh, BABE, I’m actually jealous, I totally want to read Hero and the Crown again for the first time.  Buckle up, this is going to be quite a book rec.

Okay, so so so so SO, first things first, I don’t blame you for getting distracted during The Blue Sword, it’s a little more political machinations and army tactics and training than Hero and the Crown.  They take place in the same country, Damar, and they’re a set, but Blue Sword takes place hundreds of years later–to put it in perspective, Hero and the Crown happens in a time that’s still horses and knights and swordplay, whereas Blue Sword is a colonization, guns n’ steel, not quite up to telephones era.  Aerin, the main character from Hero and the Crown, is a legend and revered folk hero to the Damarians of Blue Sword, because Aerin is AMAZING.

All right, so, Hero and the Crown is the story of Aerin Dragon-killer, first sol of Damar (first sol being the highest female rank except for being actually married to the king).  Aerin is daughter of King Arlbeth and his witch-woman wife, who was the object of much suspicion from the country before her death, and even more suspicion afterward.  So that suspicion all spills over onto Aerin, who is tall and gawky and not good at being a first sol–in fact, she’s so spectacularly bad at being a first sol that some of her cousins are fairly convinced she’s illegitimate.  She breaks dishes just by being in the same room, she perpetually brings her sword (which she’s not supposed to have) and her saddle (which is for a warhorse rather than a lady’s pony) back to her chambers, she prefers to punch someone in the face rather than scheme, and, just to boot, she exhibits absolutely none of the royal line’s hereditary magic.  Basically, Aerin sucks at being a first sol, which would be fine with her if everyone didn’t expect her to be a first sol all the time.

And then one day Aerin takes her sword and her second-hand warhorse and something called kenet that makes you fireproof and goes to kill a dragon, and she finds out that, while she sucks at being a first sol, she does NOT suck at dragon slaying.  Events unfold from there.  Aerin is stubborn and hot-tempered and snarky and willful, she is everything I ever wanted to be as a kid.  Her perspective on life of “well THAT happened” is an absolute delight to read, and the world of Damar is glorious.

Other things I can guarantee you within the book include:

• a Big Ass Dragon (as opposed to the smaller annoying dragons Aerin largely handles)
  
• not one but two excellently constructed romantic plots (this might be the only book I’ve ever read where the protagonist is in love with two people and it’s…just not an issue, at all, ever, she’s just like ‘that happened’ and carries on fighting a war, this book is probably why I hate love triangles so much)
• magic EVERYWHERE (they call it the Gift and it kind of does shenanigans on its own once it’s strong enough)
• the Blue Sword, Gonturan, which Aerin carried long before she appeared in the eponymous novel
• wizards and mages and small trick-magicians
• a demon army
• AERIN

Other important characters include:

• Talat, Aerin’s second-hand warhorse, who was her father’s favorite horse until a sword cut rendered Talat lame in one leg, and YES, Talat is a character, fight me
  
• Tor, the first sola (heir to the throne), who is called ‘cousin’ in the general sense despite no apparent blood relation to Aerin, and who is at fault for the sword training, the dragon slaying, and probably the army raising, he is also one of the romances and he is HEART EYES over Aerin, I ship it
• Luthe, who I’m not gonna tell you much about because SPOILERS, but yeah, Luthe, FUCK YEAH, you’re going to need to trust me on that
  
• Galanna, another (very vain) cousin, she of the illegitimacy rumor-spreading, who Aerin once drugged so that she could sneak into Galanna’s rooms and shave off her eyebrows, and yes I included her so that I could add that tidbit
• Arlbeth, king of Damar, who gets a mention because he’s king and Aerin’s father, he’s very good at both
• Aerin’s army of wild dogs and hunting cats, who get a mention because??? Why wouldn’t they, that’s awesome
• Gonturan, who gets a mention on account of being awesome
• Maur, the Big Ass Dragon, who gets a mention on account of being a Big Ass Dragon
• AERIN

Basically: Hero and the Crown is amazing, buy it on Amazon here, and I love Robin McKinley like I love lungs, I don’t always think of it because it’s just there, and if you’re in the mood for any other vehemently delighted recs for McKinley’s books, I got you, hit me up.

Anonymous asked: 10-14

Heeeey, people are doing the thing, that’s so gratifying!

10. Who was the last person you had a deep conversation with?

It was @twistedangelsays.  It’s always her, unless it’s my mom.

11. What does the most recent text that you sent say?

“Also: literally what would they even do to him. He predates the CONCEPT of laws, let alone specific ones.”  I’m not telling you what that’s about, I feel like leaving it at that will be funnier.

12. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

Roadside by Rise Against, Young Gods by Halsey, Delilah by Florence + the Machine, From Eden by Hozier, and Welcome to the Family by Avenged Sevenfold.  Oh, and Hum Hallelujah by Fall Out Boy, which is ALWAYS one of my favorite songs.

13. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

YES.  I mean, as long as it’s someone I know and trust.  I am a pettable creature.

14. Do you believe in luck and miracles?

Luck, yes, especially in the capacity of “mine usually turns sour.”  Miracles, also yes, because otherwise I would be really, really dead about four times over.  Which I realize is kind of contradictory to the bad luck thing, but trust me here.