space emperor stuff

Read on Ao3 or Read as Google Doc Page for my 'space emperor' story that's unfolding as a gay sci-fi pulp pastiche romance novella.

[creekfiend]

Iden and the Space Emperor have two beautiful daughters btw

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

I really like when child characters experiment with cruelty as like, a developmental stage and a response to their environment rather than as foreshadowing of villainy to come. Often children will be written as doing something awful and that’s it, that’s their moral event horizon, we’re supposed to understand that they’re Bad Forever and can only get worse.

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

I know I wrote Iden as having killed the pashuun by reflexively throwing it to the ground after it bit him but now I kind of think he should have had more agency in hurting it. He’s far more interesting as a foil to the space emperor if he has developed real impulses towards sadism and cruelty in response to trauma. An uncomfortably imperfect victim in contrast to Patsy, who has the blood of entire planets on his hands but has enjoyed the privilege of retaining a grotesque sort of innocence.

[space-emperor]

something I’m eager to explore is the politics of “humanity”. most inhabitants of the galaxy are descendants of Earth humans that have divergently evolved to greater or lesser degrees over millions of years. the word “human”, however l, is politically fraught. the space emperor uses it once and everybody flinches—it’s not a slur, exactly, but only poets and fascists use it. it invokes the idea of some grand, ancient racial unity, in opposition to truly “alien” species like the Djesh and whatever Pex is (…lowkey a chupacabra…) and is also kind of a spit in the eye to the more dramatically diverged post-human species, most of whom descend from ancestors who were forced to settle on less conventionally habitable planets and are therefore disenfranchised by imperial norms.

[space-emperor]

iden’s attitude towards patsy is that post that’s like “when you meet someone 3 levels more autistic than you and it puts you into a rage”. recognition of the self through the other.

[space-emperor]

iden and patsy go to have sex for the first time and both have to conceal their mutual disappointment that the other has humanoid genitalia

[space-emperor]

“Oh,” said Iden.

“Is it okay?” the space emperor asked anxiously. “It’s not… too weird?”

Iden smiled weakly. “Weird? No, no, of course not. Not weird.” He bit his lip. “In fact… no, never mind. I mean, it’s fine, it’s good. Great. Very nice.”

The space emperor was not reassured. “It’s all perfectly functional,” he said, trying to keep the edge of desperation out of his voice. “No problems. I haven’t gotten any complaints about it.” He paused for a moment, remembering their earlier conversation with a hot flush of discomfort. “Not that anyone wou… I… um…”

Iden graciously interrupted him. “It’s very nice,” he said, and gave the space emperor’s hand a reassuring pat. “Nothing wrong with the classics.” He shed his own clothing with easy grace, the subtle hollows and ridges of his many scars casting small shadows across his lean muscles in the raking light of the lamp. The space emperor watched him, entranced, until Iden stood naked before him.

They stared at each other for a long moment.

“I really thought you’d be more alien,” the space emperor confessed.

“Oh, fuck off,” snapped Iden.

[space-emperor]

iden and patsy go to have sex for the first time and both have to conceal their mutual disappointment that the other has humanoid genitalia

[space-emperor]

I think the funniest thing to do with Patsy is to have him be a guy who is naturally just. Fantastically well-suited to mundane communal governance. He’d be the perfect anarchist community organizer with a passion for boring local politics who gets enthusiastic about the most efficient and equitable way to replace the pipes at the water treatment center and makes 40 minute PowerPoint presentations about it and enjoys watching others’. But alas, his talents have been horrifically squandered by being the emperor of space.

[myimaginaryradio]

King Of Spain - Moxy Fruvous

[angelicguy]

I don't even like blasting my ray gun anymore. I don't like flying my UFO around anymore

[sirduke]

don't say that

[angelicguy]

I don't even like invading planets

[space-emperor]

Oria is, uh, not an especially sentimental person nor is she prone to keepsakes, but shortly after Iden came to live with her I think he angrily made her a Galaxy’s Meanest Aunt certification card or something and then years later he found it carefully preserved among her spartan possessions.

[miraclemaya]

trying to teach a princess about revolutions and she excitedly asks me what her role in it will be and i have to look away sadly

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

Random bar patrons: “Why hasn’t anyone done him in yet? I mean, seriously. Huge galaxy. There’s got to be at least a handful of planets populated by elite assassins, yeah?”

Patsy: “Dozens of them. Who are we talking about?”

Random bar patrons: “It’s got to happen sooner or later. Surely. It can’t go on like this. It just gets worse and worse.”

Random bar patrons: “Right? I’d do it myself if I thought I had any chance of success.”

Iden: “I completely agree.”

Patsy: “Do what?”

Random bar patrons: “And I’m sure loads of people feel this way. Millions. Billions, probably. Forty nine planets were declared uninhabitable just this last imperial unit—that’s crazy! It can’t go on like this. Things are getting desperate.”

Random bar patrons: “Exactly. If things were more stable, I’d understand, but it’s been nearly seven standards since they blew up… what was its name? Luddow?”

Iden: “Lutoya.”

Random bar patrons: “Yeah! That was crazy. And for what? So wasteful… like, I’m not saying it would have been right to have invaded it, but that was a whole habitable world just poof! gone. Anyway, I’m just some guy and if I’m saying all this, there have got to be loads of others better equipt to do it, right?”

Random bar patrons: “There’s a rebel alliance.“

Random bar patrons: “Well, there’s rebels. The ‘alliance’ part never seems to work out.”

Iden: “It needs to. That’s the only way anything is going to change.”

Random bar patrons: “I hear you. But still—somebody’s gotta do it, right? What’s wrong with people? In all this big blasted galaxy, there’s gotta be someone who could get in there and have a go at him…”

Iden: “Surely.”

Random bar patrons: “It’s not like it would be hard. I mean, all it would take is a pretty face and a complete lack of self-respect… somebody willing to put out for the greater good, then WHAM, crush his windpipe while he’s still riding the wave, problem solved.”

Iden: “I think it would be a lot more complicated that that.”

Random bar patrons: “Nah. I’m telling you. A suicidal slut assassin could safe us all. There’s gotta be somebody willing and able to pull it off. I’m just surprised it hasn’t happened already.”

Iden: “Well. Maybe suicidal slut assassins are more complicated than they sound. Maybe they dream of more than revenge.”

Random bar patrons: “But there’s trillions of people in the galaxy, there have got to be thousands who’d—”

Iden: “Maybe it’s harder than it sounds to kill someone so intimately. Maybe it’s pretty traumatic to turn yourself into a sexy human weapon at the expense of everything else.”

Random bar patrons: “Sure, but—”

Iden: “You do it then, if you’re so confident! Patsy, we’re leaving. These… these armchair revolutionaries don’t know what they’re talking about.”

[sparrowlucero]

tweaking the design of these guys a bit. They're a tiny, solitary, sapient alien that evolved to survive in an endless windstorm. I initially imagined them as sea dwelling, but I think they might work well with a setting I've been tossing around, a little planet dominated by oceans of wheat

[humunanunga]

Enough of the trope where memory loss undoes the damage or the corruption or whatever. More content where removing memories just removes the context.

The tragedy of needing to grieve and not knowing what or who you lost or why. The angst of having trauma and being denied the awareness that it's trauma. The suspense of being different somehow and left to wonder how and when. The tension of knowing that something is off and you can't find where it hurts. The Adventure Zone gets it. Kingdom Hearts gets it.

There is an aching inside you and you don't know how it got there.

[hungry-skeleton]

Ma'am this is the space restaurant we only serve bumpy fruit and severed tentacle

[podcastwizard]

that's fine can i get a glass of something bright blue that's bubbling so violently it'd be impossible to take a sip. extra dry ice on the side

[space-emperor]

things I’m looking forward to writing

-Iden and Patsy encountering historical reenactors

-the space emperor encountering Rich People™️

-honestly from the moment I started writing back in 2018 I knew I wanted disco to be a prominent theme and joke and have scenes set at space discos and maybe even have it be an earnest appreciation of disco as a genre and dance as a humanizing element. but then I played disco elysium and I was like well dammit now I can’t have an idiot amnesiac villain protagonist having spiritual epiphanies about the universe at a disco or people will think it’s plagiarism. so I might not actually write that into the story. BUT. know in your hearts that Iden is a clubber and Patsy would fall to his knees sobbing to by corniest dance ballad you can possibly imagine.

[natalieironside]

*sassy gay friend from a 90s sitcom voice* Well, Mr. Emperor, I wouldn't mind having a 'heavenly man-date' of my own

[emilreloaded]

@space-emperor