Love Begins
Origami Around
RMH
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Cosimo Galluzzi
Aqua Utopia｜海の底で記憶を紡ぐ
EXPECTATIONS
Product Placement
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Kiana Khansmith
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Interview Vampire Daily
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shark vs the universe
PUT YOUR BEARD IN MY MOUTH
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izzy's playlists!
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@alcyoneusgalaxy
tainted cup independent wiki!
since The Lion's Tusk is out today and A Trade of Blood will be released next week, I thought I'd make a quick post to promo the independent wiki I've been working on for the series! would love to get more contributors-- you don't have to make an account, you can just click the "edit" button at the top of every article
it's live right now at khanum.wiki!
found the lysis note
Damn I can't believe Tauri is one of these
I SEE THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BOOK OF INTENSIFYING DINIOS KOL FEELS!!!!!
Currently reading A Trade of Blood by Robert Jackson Bennet and the rain tasting at the start of Chapter 23 was so reminiscent of the ‘Goku and Vegeta standing in rain’ meme that I had to stop reading and draw it
Anyways I know my Dinios Kol design is kinda shitty but it’s stuck around so… not sure actually but this man desperately needs a redesign
Shadow of the Leviathan fandom im begging you to consider the sex pollen potential of the biopunk setting
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
ohhhh my god I finished that fic IN JUNE and couldn't say ANYTHING the first time I saw this post because of event anonymity rules. very glad you found it regardless 😂
And now, an collection of Ana's supposed "diplomacy skills" *cues yakety sax*
I know that "cats with hands" from a Trade of Blood are almost certainly more lemur-like. But this is the only image I can have of them
YEs I know she's a creepy gray spindly long white haired woman with yellow eyes but I'll tell you what: Ana from Ana and Din will always live in my mind as the mean as fuck cheerleader coach from glee
Tell me you cant hear her fucking saying this shit
Me: *explains to my partner Tainted Cup and Din's Engraving augmentation*
My partner: So you're telling me some guy has his mind palace organized by the Dewy Deci-smell System?
Love a woman who hides in closets and trunks so she can think in peace!!!
also shoutout to the image of Ana popping out of the trunk like a Spirit Halloween decoration
woman of all time, to me.
In [Book 4], we will return to the Outer Rim—I'm thinking. I do have to warn everybody: I rewrite the heck out of my books, I throw them away all the time—but we will be returning to the coast. We will see people we've seen in the Outer Rim before, from previous books, some of which have been in high demand, and we will learn a lot about the titans, the history of them, of how they have acted and behaved on the Empire, as well as what is the world like outside of the Empire—that is something else that will be explored. It will probably be a very pivotal book for the Empire, I think things will probably change significantly after this, but I'm trying to have each one focus on different aspects of the society: I'd say the first book is about the Engineers, the second book is about the Apoths, the third book is about the Orbiis and land management, and then the fourth one will be about the Legion and the people who are on the walls.
— Robert Jackson Bennett in conversation with Antonia Hodgson (Waterstones interview 08/04/2026)
I think all of Dinios Kol’s former lovers should unionize
I would be thrilled to be wrong but I genuinely think that the payoff of the "yearning" plot-line for Din is going to be reuniting with Kepheus Strovi only to find he is either happily married or otherwise in a serious relationship.
A whole recurring plot point of Din's alteration is that his perfect memory is dangerous and unhealthy long term and that the people that get it are often driven mad. And he even brings up in the first book that relationships are complicated for engravers because of it.
So for Din this "relationship" is always clear in his mind and present. He remembers them together as though it was yesterday (or right now). When he sleeps with other people, it doesn't change that at all. If he loved Strovi at all, he remembers loving him forever.
But for Strovi it's not the same. His memories will fade as time passes and he'll have opportunities to sleep or date around (just like Din) and those people will be fresh in his mind in a way Din isn't. And that's not even accounting for him having an incredibly dangerous job where he doesnt know if he or Din will survive long enough to reunite.
And honestly unless I missed something, the two were not textually or even implicitly in an exclusive relationship where they promised to wait for each other. Lord knows Din certainly didn't seem sexually exclusive.
I know that it's not the fun cute payoff but in reality these were both two very young men who had a pretty short romance. It would be similar to hooking up with someone during a college summer. You might genuinely fall in love during that time, but very few people are going to put their life on hold waiting because of it.
I know you just said you'd be happy to be proven wrong, but I actually really like this as a continuation/summation of the engraving problems theme!! I saw this post 2 weeks ago and was like. oh god I have so many things to say but book 3's not officially out yet, so (long rant + some non-mystery spoilers under the cut)
Extremely curious what you make of book 3 having barely any reference to Din's memory leading to angst about his past relationships!! Like, it "should" have happened, right? I'm sure a lot of my belief that something's missing is "I wanted it to happen due to my emotional investment as a fan of their specific relationship," but I don't feel like I'm making up that there are indications towards Din's feelings being unresolved as of books 1 and 2 (the aforementioned engraving issues, the entire chapter 8 of ADOC stating almost textually that he's sleeping around because just sitting with the precise somatic memory of their time together is too difficult). But instead it implies Din has found a way to make peace (in a resigned, cynical sense of the word) with the difficulties of engraving+romantic relationships completely off-screen--which I am lowkey pissed about, because then what is or was the payoff of the yearning in book 2? Was it supposed have any? (because I feel like I'm not the only person who thought there would be more payoff) Or is it just context from Din's life to show that he's a (sort of) normal person who has (sort of) normal problems? At this point I don't even know if their reunion makes sense as a plot point, but that still makes their arc feel extremely inconclusive to me. I keep hoping there's a Watsonian angle I'm missing but so far I'm only ending up at "well the author probably spent most of the time thinking about the murder mystery setups instead, guess I'll write some reunion scenes myself"
I'm rereading my own rant and realizing "I think he knows what I have chosen, wherever he may be" probably was the author-intended conclusion. Which actually is one of the themes I love about them (admiration for each other entirely because they both put service to the Empire above all else; they both choose that instead of finding each other again), but it's still 2 sentences of thoughts to completely put to rest a year and a half of yearning, so I feel like my expectations for slightly more aren't completely illogical
Also it's interesting that the least believable part of this post to me is Strovi falling in love with someone else (even though I completely agree with all the reasons you listed!) I'm sure a lot of this is because the only characters we see him interact with for more than half a sentence are Din, Ana, Miljin, and Vashta, but also IMO the entire point of his character is to be the foil/counterpoint to Din's beliefs about what honor/service to the empire is/should be. His character makes the most sense to me when it exists to say "the part of the Empire that Din thinks is so much more important and honorable than himself actually sees him in the exact same way and values/cares for him even more than he cares for himself." So I can imagine him theoretically moving on and finding someone else if I think of him as a person, but not if I think of him as a specific character in this narrative (if that makes any sense at all).
(Actually by writing this out I'm starting to convince myself of some circumstances where it would actually further that theme of conflating love/admiration/usefulness… could be interesting! But as established here I feel like "things I think are interesting about the romantic relationships in this series" turn into "things that happen offscreen between books")
ok never mind I'm taking back the entire first half of the rant because in the Waterstones webinar interview earlier today robert jackson bennett said "book 4 will be about the legion and the people stationed at the walls" and "there will be some returning characters / some high-demand characters" so 🤞🤞🤞🤞🤞
very curious to see how this might play out!!!
Just read A Trade of Blood, the most recent installment of the Shadow of the Leviathan series. Mild spoilers behind the cut.
I think I might try to go back to being vegetarian again.
No Kepheus?? :(((( Tauri was great, especially in that he was completely different from Kepheus. Now I’m imagining that he and Kepheus served together on the sea walls….they knew each other…….Dinios has two hands and a dick big enough for them both………..you see the vision.
The revelation at the end packed a punch. Ooooooooof. Who would have found that shit and possibly wanted to use it??
I would be thrilled to be wrong but I genuinely think that the payoff of the "yearning" plot-line for Din is going to be reuniting with Kepheus Strovi only to find he is either happily married or otherwise in a serious relationship.
A whole recurring plot point of Din's alteration is that his perfect memory is dangerous and unhealthy long term and that the people that get it are often driven mad. And he even brings up in the first book that relationships are complicated for engravers because of it.
So for Din this "relationship" is always clear in his mind and present. He remembers them together as though it was yesterday (or right now). When he sleeps with other people, it doesn't change that at all. If he loved Strovi at all, he remembers loving him forever.
But for Strovi it's not the same. His memories will fade as time passes and he'll have opportunities to sleep or date around (just like Din) and those people will be fresh in his mind in a way Din isn't. And that's not even accounting for him having an incredibly dangerous job where he doesnt know if he or Din will survive long enough to reunite.
And honestly unless I missed something, the two were not textually or even implicitly in an exclusive relationship where they promised to wait for each other. Lord knows Din certainly didn't seem sexually exclusive.
I know that it's not the fun cute payoff but in reality these were both two very young men who had a pretty short romance. It would be similar to hooking up with someone during a college summer. You might genuinely fall in love during that time, but very few people are going to put their life on hold waiting because of it.
I know you just said you'd be happy to be proven wrong, but I actually really like this as a continuation/summation of the engraving problems theme!! I saw this post 2 weeks ago and was like. oh god I have so many things to say but book 3's not officially out yet, so (long rant + some non-mystery spoilers under the cut)
Extremely curious what you make of book 3 having barely any reference to Din's memory leading to angst about his past relationships!! Like, it "should" have happened, right? I'm sure a lot of my belief that something's missing is "I wanted it to happen due to my emotional investment as a fan of their specific relationship," but I don't feel like I'm making up that there are indications towards Din's feelings being unresolved as of books 1 and 2 (the aforementioned engraving issues, the entire chapter 8 of ADOC stating almost textually that he's sleeping around because just sitting with the precise somatic memory of their time together is too difficult). But instead it implies Din has found a way to make peace (in a resigned, cynical sense of the word) with the difficulties of engraving+romantic relationships completely off-screen--which I am lowkey pissed about, because then what is or was the payoff of the yearning in book 2? Was it supposed have any? (because I feel like I'm not the only person who thought there would be more payoff) Or is it just context from Din's life to show that he's a (sort of) normal person who has (sort of) normal problems? At this point I don't even know if their reunion makes sense as a plot point, but that still makes their arc feel extremely inconclusive to me. I keep hoping there's a Watsonian angle I'm missing but so far I'm only ending up at "well the author probably spent most of the time thinking about the murder mystery setups instead, guess I'll write some reunion scenes myself"
I'm rereading my own rant and realizing "I think he knows what I have chosen, wherever he may be" probably was the author-intended conclusion. Which actually is one of the themes I love about them (admiration for each other entirely because they both put service to the Empire above all else; they both choose that instead of finding each other again), but it's still 2 sentences of thoughts to completely put to rest a year and a half of yearning, so I feel like my expectations for slightly more aren't completely illogical
Also it's interesting that the least believable part of this post to me is Strovi falling in love with someone else (even though I completely agree with all the reasons you listed!) I'm sure a lot of this is because the only characters we see him interact with for more than half a sentence are Din, Ana, Miljin, and Vashta, but also IMO the entire point of his character is to be the foil/counterpoint to Din's beliefs about what honor/service to the empire is/should be. His character makes the most sense to me when it exists to say "the part of the Empire that Din thinks is so much more important and honorable than himself actually sees him in the exact same way and values/cares for him even more than he cares for himself." So I can imagine him theoretically moving on and finding someone else if I think of him as a person, but not if I think of him as a specific character in this narrative (if that makes any sense at all).
(Actually by writing this out I'm starting to convince myself of some circumstances where it would actually further that theme of conflating love/admiration/usefulness… could be interesting! But as established here I feel like "things I think are interesting about the romantic relationships in this series" turn into "things that happen offscreen between books")
