Head Engineer, Melanie Cavill
i'm conducting an experiment. everyone who's from an english speaking country state your country, regional area and what you call the following images. i need to see something
no but we should
given they were the only people not yet involved in the parentcule, but definitely will be considering jawbone and Sandra Lynn have hopefully worked out their shit and would potentially be open to that
consider: no inter-friend group dating not just because they are all friends and don't see each other like that, but also because all the bad kids are now at least tangentially related
have we as a fandom considered what the thistlesprings canonically being swingers/having a sexually open relationship could do to the parentcule?
WHO LET TOMMY COOK 🗣️🗣️🗣️
having got back into writing recently after years of not writing anything, it's been so incredible to start back in this little fandom full of the most wonderful and supportive people I've ever had the joy of interacting with online!
also I will update soon I promise lmao it's almost there
... confused? Well, it's summer here, and that means summer reading! Here's some of my favourite Tessjoel stories that are in progress right now, and have been updated within the last month.
These are just unfinished tales - here's some of my finished favourites from the last year.
Taste your beating heart by @beerandyarn I can't tell you what this story is really about without spoiling it. The mystery is way too much fun. But let's just say it's a TLOU AU set in the early days of Tessjoel and there are ... other mysterious things than just Cordyceps out there. The characterisation is fucking awesome and this is the slow burn of slow burns. Like, part of me wants to shake elfin for making me suffer and the other part of me can't get enough.
Of Artists and Architects, by @oliviassunrise It's kind of hard to transplant characters from the TLOU universe into a modern AU without losing them in the mix. You have to really understand them so as not to shed their personalities while building a softer, mushroom-free world around them. Kayli does this beautifully and you still feel like Tess is Tess and Joel is Joel. This is no basic repackaging though - there's so much soul to this story, you can really feel the care and love with which it is written.
A Soul for Sale or Rent, by @bumblepony I don't want to give too much away about this one because it's full of surprises and takes a concept that could be ridiculous but ends up being so clever and heartbreaking and heartwarming. Ellie is a ghost and only Joel can see her. While Tessjoel isn't the focus of the story the way it's included is so clever and haunting (I think about it randomly, ok) that you've gotta check it out. So original.
deep red bells by melforbes Subtle queen. All this author's stories are like poetry, but they manage not to divulge into aimless whimsy and are always anchored with a strong story and pathos. This is an AU where Joel's daughter is abducted and Tess is a young cop with a tantalising dark past. The magic is in the dialogue. It's dark, but not heavy, and I'm pretty sure it's going to kill me.
I Saw the End, it Looked Just like the Middle, by @elpickett A new Tess lives series, and it has a really interesting narrative structure. As with the stories above, I don't want to spoil that, but there's some insight into FEDRA which I really enjoy. I love to read different ways Tess Lives Truthers fix explore the canon and bring her to Jackson. You can tell the author has really put a lot of thought into how this is going to work and how to 'save' Tess in a believable way.
Let the Burial Rite be Read, the Last Funeral Song Sung, by @stephpuppet An AU with a dark and gentle premise - Grim Reaper!Tess! Ever since I saw Meet Joe Black and Dead Like Me I've had a yen for this kind of tale, personifying Death as a sympathetic and empathetic, a wise creature who maybe experiences emotions they do not understand. ANYWAY. I love different interpretations of this theme and combining it with my hyperfixation is a treat for the new year. Grab your tissues, the first chapter is devastating.
my latest finished project! it was a christmas present for my partner as sea shanty society at uni needed a new mascot and he is first mate this year
i bought the pirate fabric a while back and shamelessly stole the seagull fabric from my mother while at home for christmas
wagnetic gets it
So I’ve read a lot of different fics and wanted to clarify the different terms I’ve seen applied to Yusuf. I’ll reference what is cannon, but more importantly I want to clarify that these terms are not synonyms. Not all Mediterranean/middle-eastern brown Arabic-speakers are the same.
Saracen: This is a historical term no longer used, but it was widespread in Europe during the period when Joe and Nicky are supposed to have met. It came to be used in place of “muslim” or “pagan” to describe someone. So, when you have Nicky call Joe “Saracen” you are both showing the narrow-mindedness of medieval Europe and only committing yourself to the fact that Joe practices Islam. However, this is more akin to a cultural slur than something Joe would every apply to himself. It’s not an ethnicity to Joe, it’s an insult. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saracen
Maghrebhi: This references a region of Northwest Africa called “the Magreb” (“the west” in Arabic) and is similar to saying something like “Eastern European” to describe oneself. The real actor, Marwan Kenzari, is the son of Tunisian immigrants and this ethnicity term is one that he might use for himself. I believe this is accurate to cannon as well. This is historically accurate as well, an identity label that existed at the time. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb
Moor: This is the European counterpart to Magrebhi which was later expanded to cover Arabs as well. This is something that Nicky might call Joe without meaning to insult, but not something that Joe would call himself. I haven’t seen this one pop up yet, but I figured that I would add it. The historical term was actually Mauri which is fun to spell. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors
Berber or Amazigh/Imazighen (plural) : Berber is both largely anachronistic and could be considered offensive. The region of Northwest Africa did not come to be commonly known are the Barbary coast until the 1500s CE. Furthermore, the term originates from the Greek for “Barbarian”…as in calling the inhabitants of the area barbarians as a name. It is understandably confusing as the term “Berber” is totally normalized in historical sources in English. The name originating within this language group to describe the people is romanized as “Amazigh” (singular) but appears to be anachronistic. It would be better to reference a specific tribal group or region like “Numidian” (reference to a 200 BCE indigenous empire) for an ethnicity. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbary_Coast, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berbers, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numidians
Arab/Arabian: This one gets me mad. The Maghreb was conquered by the Arabic empire. Arab originally referred to the Arabian peninsula which is thousands of miles away. Calling Joe “Arab” is like calling Booker “Roman” (but Gualle was controlled by the Roman Empire, so the French are Roman). Modern usage has blended the ethnicity across the former Islamic Empires because of conquest and the eventual ethnic blending. If you are going to refer to him this way, be reflective about it: it’s the result of the eradication of indigenous cultures. What gets me the most upset is realizing it’s probably just uniformed white writers thinking “speaks Arabic and is from a region I consider desert” but it’s very annoying. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabs
Seljuk: This derives from the Seljuq dynasty and references Turkish-Persian (modern Turkey, Iran, and the surrounding areas) people. The Seljuk Turks never occupied the Maghreb, though it is the correct time period. Maybe Joe is fighting with the Seljuk Turks, but he is not one. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seljuq_dynasty
TL;DR: some of the identity terms I’ve seen thrown around are either plain wrong or could be considered offensive. There’s a big difference in using the language of the inhabitants of a place and the language of foreigners to describe someone’s ethnicity and we as a fandom can do better. Also, the whole fandom is looking up Ligurian and Italian for Nicky, so let’s do better for Joe…
Melanie: I can't kill you now we've saved the train together. It'd be against my moral compass.
Layton: Your moral compass is a fucking roulette wheel
el, she / her welcome to my brain dumping ground, expect varying and frequent dumps of a large variety of fandoms, including some fics I'm working on and most likely plenty of cat photos
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