An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Post: so you know the rule in fairylands, a title, a pun, these are the kinds of thoughtful lines of questioning...
Writer: confusedlucifer (aka sinfullucifer), kromiprice (aka actualtrashbag), tinfoil-on-the-windows, generallyhuxurious on tumblr and AO3, audsbot, constant-instigator, justalostmonster, fallingforthevillain, ginguzzler
Reader: rhythmia
Rated: Teen and up audiences (references to sex acts)
Summary: Like it says on the tin. :D
Length: 6:11, 6.21 MB
Cover Art: rhythmia, with photograph by adege on pixabay.
Image description: Black background with a photograph of delicate purple mushrooms growing on a mossy branch. Text on black background reads: A Socratic discussion on whether performing oral sex will get you stuck in fairyland. Text on bottom of photograph reads: read by rhythmia, photo by adege. Text curved along the mossy branch reads from top to bottom: ginguzzler, justalostmonster, kromiprice, fallingforthevillain, tinfoil-on-the-windows, generallyhuxurious, constant-instigator, audsbot, confusedlucifer
Notes: Recorded as part of the Out of the Auditary podficcing challenge! Many thanks to confusedlucifer, kromiprice, tinfoil-on-the-windows, generallyhuxurious, audsbot, constant-instigator, justalostmonster, fallingforthevillain, and ginguzzler for permission to record this piece!
Additional random thoughts below the cut:
As soon as I looked at what the Out of the Auditary challenge encompassed, this post, long saved in my Evernote posts, came to mind. :D It’s such a ridiculous and fun example of what folks on tumblr can use it to do. :D
Of course, because this post has been around for so long, and involves so many users, and taking into account the purge of December 2017, it was an Adventure of detective work to find everybody for permissions.
Speaking of so many users, that was another Adventure of figuring out how I was gonna get all the credits onto the cover, lolololol.
Speaking of the cover, I went searching for images of ‘mushroom fairy rings’ among other search terms, hoping for appropriately phallic mushrooms lololol. This photo was amazing in terms of looking ethereal and colorful, having enough space for me to attempt to jam a lot of text on there, and having dick-shaped-ish mushrooms versus the flat-topped ones in a lot of faerie rings. Thank goodness for pixabay and google image search (set to “images okay for reuse”).
I learned how to cajole photoshop into doing curvy text on this project! First I used the freeform transform to rotate the text to about the right slanted angle. Then while the ‘T’ and not the ‘pointer’ bit is selected on the side toolbar, one of the top toolbar options allows you to fiddle with the text shape, and I chose the arc and could mess around with curvature and whatnot before moving it around in place.
Speaking of which, we see a lot of the Mercy of Kalr crew only being told Sensitive Plot Things on a need-to-know basis. Were they told anything about the Presger gun in Ancillary Mercy, or as far as they knew did their Fleet Captain really just go outside and blow up a fleet of ships with a handgun?
If one wanted to refer to a ship politely -- especially post-Ancillary Mercy -- is it reasonable to use their ship class as a title, e.g. "begging the Mercy's indulgence?" Or given how deeply it sounds like honorifics are baked into polite use of the language, would that just end up sounding really weird? (Sorry for all the worldbuilding questions if they're too much, this little stuff is just super interesting to me!)
This is a super interesting question and I think you’re absolutely right, the use of courtesy titles is absolutely a feature of the Radchaai language and culture, and until now there were none for ships, just a familiar name that might as well be “Mom” or “Sis” or something.
I am going to guess that among themselves, it’s going to be something like “begging my cousin’s indulgence.” But that won’t work for non-AIs. Presumably ‘citizen’ would do as well for AIs as for Humans, but that’s going to be a weirdly loaded term in the R2S, at least as long as Radchaai remains the lingua franca.
I’m not sure if the ship class works or not. It might. Hmm.
Speaking of ethical fan-creator interactions, I have a TERRIBLE CONFESSION: I added the "handsome and intelligent" bit to that quote, which was intended to be The Joke but I entirely failed to signpost that properly and I have been WRACKED WITH GUILT ever since and I deeply apologize for maybe unintentionally gaslighting you.
Oh, gods, no! I actually laughed out loud when I saw it, I knew you’d added the text in. It really was the next logically amusing step after my saying “what, wasn’t that in the books already?” So, seriously, no worries.
I was going to ask about rebellious youths wearing fingerless gloves ("Don't think you're leaving the house like that, young lady!" / horrified editorials decrying the collapse of traditional values / etc) but that lead to a sadder question: what level of counterculture CAN you get away with in Radchaai society, before getting dragged off for reeducation? How prone are they to pathologizing unconventional behavior?
That’s a really good question, and I suspect they’re very prone to pathologizing unconventional behavior. Re-education, after all, fixes so much. I don’t doubt that unconventional behavior that originates in the lower houses or “uncivilized” annexed populations is treated more forcefully than, say, some Awer teenagers being purposefully shocking. The question of just where all those lines are, though--that would be some careful, delicate worldbuilding. In real life those lines are all there and we mostly understand them but they’re so complicated by race and class and so many other factors.
Asking for art reasons, um: is it reasonable to treat the red spaceship on the cover of 'Sword' and 'Mercy' as a depiction of the Mercy of Kalr? Or is the (lovely!) cover art more in "generic sci-fi mood-setting that shouldn't be taken representationally" territory? (And if the latter, is there anything in particular to keep in mind, as far as the Mercy-class design or aesthetics go?) Thank you for your time!
So, the painting is really just “generic sci-fi mood setting” and I have no idea if John Harris even read the book. (To be absolutely clear I LOVE the painting. I’m just not convinced it’s meant to literally depict anything in the book.)
To be a hundred percent honest, I don’t have a clear idea of the outside of any of the ships, because no scenes ever required it. Or, not till book 3 and then I just kind of fudged it. So do whatever seems best to you! It’ll turn out awesome.
