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

Anonymous asked: Fucking Wonder Woman. I'm dying. Im dead. I'm so gay. I literally gasped outloud and went "I'm gay" during many times in the movie and when Diana looks at Ares and said "Goodbye Brother" AND THEN WRECKED HIS FUCKING SHIT I STARTED CRYING I AM IN LOVE HELP

Some real tags I have used in Wonder Woman posts:

• i would let her cut my head off with her axe 
  
• GOSH i’m queer 
  
• BENCH PRESS ME *coughs awkwardly* i mean gosh what lovely ladies i bet they’re all delightful to converse with
  
• ANTIOPE IS GAY I DON’T MAKE THE RULES I JUST ENFORCE THEM
  
• MY QUEEN MY GODDESS MY INSPIRATION 
• I LIVE FOR THIS EXACT SHIT
  
• I ALMOST SCREAMED IN THE FUCKING THEATER
  
• diana is so hot guys i don’t even know how to live with this 
• she lifted the tank above her head and i stopped breathing it was fucking good as fuck 
• and like the scene of her crossing no man’s land made me cry like the victory loving dumbfuck gryffindor asshole that i am 
• help i am dead @amazons carry me off to themyscira
  

So basically what I’m saying is: yes, you’re correct, and GOSH I’m queer.

Bonus tags regarding Steve Trevor/Diana:

what was that tag i made the other day honestly if steve isn’t desperately breathlessly guilt ridden for bringing war to diana THEN WHAT EVEN IS THE POINT​ THIS yes that was the tag i’m so gratified that we all agree on this otp: when there isn’t a war OH YOU BETTER BELIEVE THAT’S MY OTP TAG GET THE FUCK ON BOARD WITH THIS MISERY EXPRESS

flvffs asked: fuck you fuck ur fucking justice otp im crying now fuck all the feelings u just made me feel how dare

BUT IT WOULD BE SO GOOD.

Highlights of The Fucking Justice OTP include:

• Steve Rogers, man out of time in the most literal sense, talking quietly with Diana about what he missed.  The history books make it all sound like a horror show, and Diana tells him about a woman in Indonesia who sheltered fifteen orphans after a tsunami, about the ingenious ways that people escaped from the Soviet Union or over the Berlin Wall, about the people who have stood up and fought and died for freedom and honor and love.  Diana tells him all the little stories that never get as much attention as the atrocities, all the thousand tiny reasons she still fights for humanity.
  

• Diana Prince is the latest hiree at Stark Industries and her job is the local mystery.  They’re pretty sure she’s a secretary except for how she wanders into the labs from time to time and critiques the practicality of Tony’s inventions.  Steve hears someone call her ‘sweet cheeks’ and grins to himself when he hears the sound of Diana spraining some asshole’s wrist.
  

• DIANA GOES WITH STEVE TO VISIT PEGGY.  IT COMES TO LIGHT THAT PEGGY’S FRIEND DIANA IS ALSO THE WONDER WOMAN FROM VELD, THIS TAKES STEVE A MOMENT TO ADJUST.  (It takes him much longer to reboot his brain from the BSOD he experiences when Peggy fondly reminisces about the time she and Diana went ass-kicking together–Peggy’s words.  He would have paid all the money in the world to watch that.)
  

• Steve idly braids Diana’s hair when they’re watching movies together, because Diana likes having her hair played with and Steve doesn’t sit still well.  One time Diana is Steve’s date to a red carpet event and she gets asked who did her beautifully classic chignon, with tiny braids looping back above her ears like a diadem, and she informs the entire world that Captain America can braid hair.  He starts braiding interns’ hair when he gets called onto talk shows.
  

• WONDER WOMAN. WITH.  THE AVENGERS.  
• She and Natasha have very different perspectives of being trained to fight from childhood.  (Natasha reminds Diana of Antiope.)  
• Tony is genuinely very alarmed by Diana because she’s…so genuine?  Like, he doesn’t really know how to cope with someone who doesn’t put up a front of sarcasm and prickly behavior.  
• Clint and Diana agree on a lot of things, and he finds her kind of restful–she’s not a blind optimist, but she has hope, and it’s something Clint has sorely needed in his life.  
• Bruce finds her kind of unnerving because she gets along really well with the Hulk, who thinks she is The Greatest.  
• Bucky shows up and Diana is exactly what he needs on his worst days, someone who’s simultaneously very calm around him and utterly invulnerable to even the worst of the Winter Soldier’s violence.
• Sam thinks Diana is the Bee’s Literal Knees, but he’s easily as enthusiastic about her friends throughout history, which Diana is also pretty thrilled with, because HER FRIENDS HAVE BEEN WONDERFUL.
  
• Thor is OVERWHELMED WITH DELIGHT when Diana handily whips his ass during a sparring match, and starts introducing her with “This is Princess Diana of Themyscira, the mighty Wonder Woman–she bested me in battle!”  Also one day during a battle the world is treated to the sight of Diana, in all her armored glory, raising Mjolnir high to call down the wrath of…well, Diana on the enemy of the day.

• Diana could bench press Steve and tbh he’s into it.

ANYWAY. THE FUCKING JUSTICE OTP Y’ALL.

Anonymous asked: Hi! I would just like to tell you that Alleirat is based on ideas/tropes that I find absolutely fascinating (your Evil Nemesis becomes your friend/ally? Trying to adjust after the end of a portal fantasy? Actual diverse fantasy? Loving someone but not saying anything because you are So Unworthy? my exact jam I tell you.) and the snippet was really great! I would be most happy to pay to read the whole thing at some stage if that's the plan?

HONESTLY THIS IS SO GOOD TO HEAR MY DUDE BECAUSE I JUST OVERHAULED MY WHOLE LIFE TO FINISH THIS NOVEL AND START PUBLISHING MY WORK (starting with this one and then probably Alleirat), THIS WAS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED TO HEAR TO LOWER MY FUCKING HEART RATE.

On a less panicky note, I’m so glad to hear that this is other people’s exact jam because ALLEIRAT IS MY EXACT JAM.  I’m just so Tired of reading shitty redemption arcs or black and white morality or the Narnia plotline where you Outgrow The Magic, this novel (like…all my novels tbqh) is pure spite distilled over years of aggravation.  All my novels are total self-gratification and it’s so SO amazing to be told that I’m not the only person enjoying the hell out of these tropes and concepts.

And yes!  The plan is to actually publish that motherfucker at some point!  I actually write…really fast, so I will keep all y’all posted on any and all developments re: publishing and agents and stuff, and it would be amazing if people actually bought my stuff!  

I love you guys so much, oh my god, I’m actually tearing up a little rn.

Anonymous asked: hi, just want you to know, i think your search isn't working? nothing shows up, even when i use terms i know you've used. thanks for sharing your awesome writing with us, it always cheers me up to read your stories! p.s. i just read your post about amuniasa and it sounds AMAZING!!! keep up the good work!!!1

Ahhh yes, my search function is kind of a little fucker at the best of times.  I think it’s because there’s dashes in my url?  Things are p thoroughly tagged (although…not always logically) so like…try that?  Feel free to ask if you want a specific tag because (ha) I’m a mess and my Tag Page is like 70% complete at any given time.  But like, if you wanted all the Alleirat posts I’ve made or something, ‘words-writ-in-starlight.tumblr.com/tagged/alleirat’ should take you there.

And thank you so much it was so gratifying to write it all out!

Anonymous asked: UM HI. So I'm the one that sent the ask about the magical gf things and I have a confession. I already knew it was from your magical book and was kinda subtly hoping you would talk about it?!?!?! I"M SO SORRY but like I said I'm so invested in this crap and would read the entire frikin thing. ALSO I LOVED THE EXCERPT. And now I'm leaving before I disgrace myself any further.

WAIT NO DON’T LEAVE

SO HERE’S IRONY FOR YOU: you came in and didn’t want to bug me so you asked in like a sideways way, BUT I DIDN’T WANT TO BUG YOU, so I didn’t talk about it.  (I’m a mess, I’m sorry, y’all gotta be explicit about this stuff because I have no self-confidence.)

BUT ON THAT NOTE let’s talk about perceptions of sex and romance in Alleirat?  Like?  I’m into it?

Earth is where the trouble comes from

So you know the code of chivalric love, where like the fair and pure maiden is adored from afar by the knight and on the one hand it’s kind of cool but on the other hand it’s predicated on the fair and pure maiden who can’t reciprocate or even really acknowledge what’s going on?  I like that first half but the second half bothers me like FUCK so I made a better version.

In Alleirat, sex and romance are considered linked, but not intrinsically so–having casual sexual partners is fine as long as your partner is aware and good with it, and sexual experimentation is considered normal (even expected) between the ages of like 16 and like mid-to-late twenties.  (People who are like ‘I am gay/straight and I am EXCLUSIVELY gay/straight and I have never experimented with another gender’ are considered weird and kind of to have missed out?  Like, they’re thought of as…having skipped an important life stage?  Societies Are Problematic, is my point here.)  Monogamy is common, but not mandatory, and conditional monogamy (which I’m about to get into) is pretty normal.

So, the courtly love arrangement, which is called amuniasa.  Like, say that you are a woman and you work closely with another woman, and you fall in love with her.  And you’re very much in love with her (commitment is Serious Business in Alleirat and cheating is considered an actual crime) and you tell her as much.  Now she has two options.  Either she can take you up on it and you can attempt a relationship, or she can acknowledge the honor you’re doing her with your feelings and declare herself amiasa, or ‘the beloved.’  Then you have the choice to remain committed to her as amdri (the lover).  Some basic rules of amuniasa include:

• Amuniasa is generally given the same level of importance as marriage, and there are a very short list of reasons that are considered valid to dissolve it.  

• Amdrin and amiasan are permitted, but not required, to engage in other romantic and sexual relationships.  It is common and accepted for someone to have both a spouse and an amdri/amiasa, although it’s not frowned upon if someone devotes themselves wholly to their amiasa.
• Brenneth’s right-hand during their previous stint in Alleirat (Krei The Tree Lesbian’s mother Torei) was Brenneth’s amdri, and never took another romantic partner during the remainder of her life.  Brenneth and Torei are held up as sort of the Platonic ideal of devotion and amuniasa.  (Krei’s coloring also suggests that her father looked like Brenneth, but she never met him.)

• The amiasa has a limited period of time to change their mind (often one year), and leading your amdri on with hints that you might one day return their feelings (or with sex) is considered incredibly cruel and dishonorable, and is a valid reason to dissolve the relationship.  (Your amdri is functionally off limits for sex for this reason.)

• Hassling your amiasa and trying to force them to return your feelings is not permitted and is a valid reason to dissolve the relationship.  It can also get you arrested, sent out of the city, or placed under what basically sums up as a restraining order.

• It is standard for the amdri to give gifts to their amiasa, or to perform great deeds in their name if they’re in a position to do so (also a thing that Torei is considered the ideal of).  Alternatively, an amdri might cook for their amiasa or perform another kind of service, like braiding hair, tending children, etc.  This is because Alleirat views service and gift giving as a mandatory core of every romantic relationship (…this extends to orgasms), not because the amdri is viewed as in any way subordinate or servile to their amiasa.  The amdri considers it a privilege to perform service and give gifts, and the amiasa recognizes the honor being accorded to them.

• It’s actually not common for amdri and amiasa to continue working closely unless it’s necessary, as it’s believed that this is unfair to the amdri.  They interact largely socially and on their own terms, to the extent that the amdri is comfortable with–this might be several visits in a week, or the amdri might travel quite a distance.  (Torei is considered an outlier, as she took a position as the captain of her amiasa’s guard and proceeded to live, work, and spend all her time with Brenneth for four years.  …there are songs about Torei’s devotion and selflessness and disregard for her own pain, is what I’m getting at here.)

• It IS common for your amdri or amiasa to know your children, if you have any, and is generally considered their de facto guardian in the event of a disaster.

• It is NOT UNHEARD OF for someone to executively decide not to even try to have a relationship and act as an amdri without telling their amiasa.  This is generally because they believe they have no chance with the other person and that their attention would make their amiasa uncomfortable, such as a man falling in love with a lesbian, or someone falling in love with someone aromantic.  This is considered fine, but it also means that you have no formal claim on the other person.
• This can also be because they have a terrible (justified) guilt complex and believe that the other person could never reciprocate as a result of four years of mutual attempted murder.  Not that I’m in any way vagueblogging about any of my characters here.

ANYWAY THIS HAS BEEN A PRIMER ON LOVE AND ROMANCE IN ALLEIRAT, PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ASK OTHER QUESTIONS.

Anonymous asked: Is your magical gf's thing from your fantasy book? Sorry if this seems rude but I am like SO invested in your novels from what you've given us.

NEVER RUDE NEVER RUDE NEVER RUDE

ALWAYS TALK TO ME ABOUT MY NOVELS

And yes, my magical gf’s are from one of my fantasy novels, which I generally call Alleirat because I’m a lazy fuck who doesn’t title things until the last available second.  This novel is also called the “Earth is where the trouble comes from” book, which sums it up pretty well.  The Very Tall Tree Person is the right hand woman of the main character, and the Smol Death Machine…um, starts the novel as the bad guy buT IT’S A NOVEL ABOUT REDEMPTION AND IT’S NOT HER FAULT AND I LOVE HER V MUCH.

Anyway, for those of you who don’t know what’s going on: THIS is a basic rundown of the story, and THIS is some basic outlining of the way magic works, and this and this are about the couple in question.  The novel is currently like 35K and I’m doing it for Camp NaNoWriMo.

And like, IDK y’all I feel guilty forcing my weird original stuff on you, but if you’re interested I could post a section I wrote yesterday that I’m…pretty pleased with.

Anonymous asked: I watched Wonder Woman on its premiere and none of my friends have watched it yet - it's absolutely killing me not being able to talk about it in case I spoil it for them! But I just want to say that it is such a beautiful movie and the message it conveys is brilliant. Gal and Chris were a great casting and the acting was so so so heartbreaking. I am in awe. And I am not the same person that walked into the theatre.

Oh my God, dude, same, that movie was so…electric.  Like, it felt like a jolt of lightning right to the heart.  Everything was so beautifully saturated and powerful and the women were treated so phenomenally well and the heroism was so sincere and the relationship between Steve and Diana was so unbelievably good.  I haven’t felt so purely and authentically loved by a movie for quite a while.

It was amazing.  Absolutely amazing.  

flvffs asked: PLEASE I JUST WATCHED WONDER WOMAN AND IM CRYING SEND HELP SCREAM WITH ME

IT’S SO GOOD

I CRIED BRUH I CRIED IN THE FUCKING MOVIE THEATER

I FUCKING ASCENDED TO A HIGHER PLANE OF EXISTENCE DURING THAT MOVIE

THE MOMENT OF TOTAL AWED SILENCE AS THE CREDITS STARTED TO ROLL WAS LIKE WE HAD ALL FOUND A NEW GOD TO WORSHIP ALL AT ONCE

and her name is Diana and I would let her suplex me in a minute

wildehacked asked: DEFINITELY write the tragic soulmate AU. 1000%.

Okay but see it would be great terrible.

James McGraw grows up being told that he’s lucky, so lucky, he has three soulmates and it’s wonderful.  Everyone tells him that the world has so much love for him.  

Thomas and Miranda meet and she has his words on her skin and she doesn’t care that he has someone else’s because HE doesn’t care, and they’re so happy, and then they meet James McGraw, who has them both, and Miranda tells herself (and it’s truth, at the time) she can live with this, she can live with being James’ soulmate while James is Thomas’ soulmate.  Because James adores them both.  And God, she loves Thomas, and he loves James, and James loves her, so it’s all okay.  They lie in bed and giggle together like children, wondering about the third line of words on James’ skin.

Things go horribly awry.  Miranda is still one of James’ three soulmates, but he is not hers and she cannot quite stand to call him hers when her soulmate is gone and her soulmate’s soulmate is sinking into dark water.

James meets his third soulmate.  It is a strong contender for the worst thing that has ever happened to him.  It’s certainly in the top five.  James swears to himself that he will never, ever let on the truth.

John Silver meets his soulmate.  It is certainly the worst timing he has ever experienced.  Captain Flint, scourge of the seas, doesn’t bat a goddamn eye, and Silver decides that this match must be unrequited, because the universe hates him so goddamn much.  When Madi, proud Madi with her unmarked skin, touches the words and asks, an unusual tender moment, he tells her (and it’s the truth, at the time) that his soulmate bond is unrequited.

At some point the truth comes out.  There is angry sex.  I do not have the plot figured out past this.

Other miscellany: Anne Bonny is Jack Rackham’s soulmate and he is also in Something (no one is crazy enough to call it love) with Vane.  Anne is in love with Max, whose soulmate is Eleanor, much to Max’s profound distaste.  Eleanor and Max had the potential to be the only functional soulmate bond in this whole mess until Eleanor fucked it up, because Max is also Eleanor’s soulmate.  Anne’s soulmark leads her to a man who is actually a woman who has Anne’s words on her ribs, and Jack is only a little bitter that Anne is not bound to him as visibly as he is bound to her.  Anne has never shaved her head, and so they do not know that words are written, neat and small, at the base of her skull.

Anonymous asked: *slides in* you're probably gonna hate me: Xavier/Erik, "Stumble into my Arms"

(I don’t actually…ship this…which I know makes me weird…so here, have another Real Dark Thing)

AO3 summary: “It’s going to be okay, Charles,” Erik says quietly, brushing dark curls away from where tears have started to dry under Charles’ closed eyes.  “You’ll see.”

“He’s a madman, Erik,” Charles says dully, past caring if Apocalypse hears them.

“He’s going to fix us,” Erik swears, like a man clutching to the last thread of his own reason.  “You and me, Charles, he’s going to fix us.”

“Go to hell,” Charles says, and turns his face away when Erik bends down to pick him up from the ground.

Actual summary: It starts with a missing scene that’s like 98% Erik being obsessed with Charles and Charles being in mourning for the man he used to know and also the whole entire planet.  Apocalypse lied to Erik about why they needed Charles and Erik is shattered, pretty much clinging to Charles as his last anchor point.  So when he discovers that this plan doesn’t end with Charles converted to his viewpoint and by his side, Erik goes off the fucking rails.  The fight is a lot shorter, since Charles is in better shape and Erik doesn’t do a heel-face turn halfway through.  On the other hand, Erik is in pretty bad shape, mentally and emotionally speaking, and his worldview is pretty well shattered, after the battle.  Jean rebuilds the house herself, alone, and the fic ends with Erik broken on the floor of Charles’ reconstructed study begging for forgiveness.  Charles presses his lips thin and does not answer.

If you want bonus pain feel free to imagine this as a soulmate AU.