#bright memes

[brightephemera]

Fanfic Guessing Game - Air

(Can't seem to send in an ask to serialephemera so I'll chuck one here for you <3)

Believe it or not, this story has only one instance of "air" that hasn't been posted yet.

The night was fine, the air still, the crickets staying at a discreet distance.

Thanks, crickets!

[thethirdsisteroftheeast]

Bright + ao3 tags

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I guess I’m doing this SWTOR meme?

9. Rivalries. Who do they hate most? What’s the fastest way for someone to earn their dislike? 

Vierce Savins:

Imps.

Sith.

Senior Agent Zane, the SIS guy in charge of the Deadeyes capture operation. Jorgan loves it when you give this officious SIS spook sass, and man, Vierce obliges. Vierce is an expert at hating; he’s an equally accomplished expert at backing his friends up, and that includes messing up any guy coming between friend and friend’s goals. Hanging up on Zane is just a bonus.

Vierce feels 100% awful about lying to Agent Balkar on Nar Shaddaa. I’m a little surprised Balkar remained so friendly after...Vierce is surprised, too. In the back of his head is always this little hope that he’ll be able to smooth things over sometime when their interests converge. As they surely must, Balkar’s not a bad guy.

It’s pretty easy to get in bad with Vierce Savins, as Elara Dorne can attest. It’s also pretty obvious. Break your word, commit cruelty toward the weak, cross his friends. Be Imperial. Cheer for the Frogdogs.

KotDA to be addressed in a separate post.

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Knights of the Dawning Alliance OCs

8. Romances. A companion? An NPC? One of your OCs? Someone else’s? Nobody? Explain!

All KotDA links are to digest chapters. ctrl+F the character name to get to their section.

Haha. Hahahaha. I include extended Bright!verse here...

Ruth (across all Ruth AUs):

Quinn. The first, the longest, the worst, the hardest. That resounds through every Ruth timeline. She existed because Quinn gloated at a Jedi and I picked up my jaw and howled “MUST REROLL FEMALE NOW.” That’s right, the extended Ruth!verse can be traced to “I hate to burst your bubble, Jedi...that’s a lie. I’m reveling in it.”

Wynston. Their fling was a product of the new Legacy system. I thought that of all my characters, Ruth and Wynston were the likeliest to be on the same side of any given conflict, even if Wynston was more by the book (haha). They had sex because Wynston has no shame. They had a novel-length romance AU because I got carried away.

Theron. The reluctant third. I didn’t feel strongly about him but he was good for her at a time when she badly needed a friend and an outlet. I was really warming up to him, too...

Jorgan. Total crack. But he’s the long cozy retirement guy. The others never could be. Jorgan could love her fighting and love her coming home to rest. It was a dumb long shot, but I really liked Jorgan.

Jaesa. I never wrote that one but I had it in mind post-Quinncident. It would be like Lodestone but sapphic.

Larr Gith. Only on a vaguely sticky datapad in Pierce Junior’s quarters. I guess I also did write a short version post-KotDA.

Wynston:

Nyss. Selina. Ryessa Thaye. The dictator. Liira Vodd. Juda. Lord Zavrasha. Baroness Cortess. Yana-Ton. Fixer Nineteen. Pacha Gann.

Ruth. As mentioned, Legacy link.  The Force keeps shoving them together. They used protection but spawned a lot of stories.

Kaliyo Djannis. The longest romantic relationship of his life, and an unmitigated disaster.

Lana Beniko. I resisted this, I really did, but Wynston’s not big with the self-control and Lana would want to know whether she can get away with it. They’re unreasonably happy about it. In fact, the only thing that can tear them apart...well, there’s a chapter about that.

Scythia:

Tries to use Andronikos. It doesn’t go well. Andronikos is obliged to spend several years on the run after escaping her, but he’s been wanted by dangerous people before and he’ll be wanted by dangerous people again. He’ll do fine.

Calline:

Ace aro and happy.

Larr Gith:

Doc. Creepy as hell but they made each other feel good, and they saved a lot of lives. When she spiraled into the dregs of the party circuit eventually even he couldn’t follow her, but the fights fade with memory.

Sana-Rae, the Voss envoy to the Alliance. Larr thinks she’s hot and Sana-Rae has Voss ideals and, well, it wasn’t meant to be, but they got a kiss and a strong alliance out of it.

Indo Zal. That was just fun. She deserves a publicist.

Tebbith:

Felix Iresso. This was never consummated. Tebbith fled after an incident where his feelings nearly cost lives. (I can’t find the link, sorry.) But how can you live with Felix Iresso and not adore him?

Koth. This was probably my most difficult KotDA pairing, and I compensated by making their actual relationship dreamily drama-free. Tebbith is a man of theory and decency, and Koth is a man of action and decency, and I think they grounded each other.

Fade:

Elara Dorne. Fade worships her. What I don’t know is whether Dorne reciprocated. It is Dorne, after all, who brings Fade home after Fade’s abortive attempt on Ruth’s life. It is Dorne who thinks that maybe she can still be reached from the midst of her vengeance frenzy.

In other continuities...

Vierce:

Illyris. Yeah, there’s a girlfriend who tragically dies for angst. There are a lot of people on Kegled II who tragically die for angst, Illyris just got a name. And a sunny, mischievous personality.

Elara Dorne. Forever.

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9. Rivalries. Who do they hate most? What’s the fastest way for someone to earn their dislike?

From Knights of the Dawning Alliance specifically.

Ruth: From a “can’t stand to be in the same room”? Probably Quinn. From a “this is a Bad Person and I wish to eliminate them”? Tossup between Valkorion and Darth Scythia. As Valkorion’s influence becomes deeper and more personal he gradually eclipses all other enemies.

Bullying and hypocrisy are her buttons. Larr Gith would be out on her ass if Ruth didn’t need her.

Scythia: Scythia, née Jora Mei, has a list of people who have put one over on her.

Most of the names have been crossed out.

Eliminating the rest is a bit of a hobby.

Scythia is a champion grudge-holder. I think only Vierce surpasses her.

Scythia dislikes arrogance, waste, rudeness, thoughtless aggression, failures to learn from history, and other people’s free will.

Calline: In a little chamber at the end of a long hallway at the bottom of a tall shaft in the basement of a big castle is a little version of Calline who hates that her brother was taken away. Hates that he took himself away. Hates that she had to grow up without her big brother there, and hates that it was his choice.

She doesn’t go to that room very often. She has it out with Wynston (there are two sub-scenes in that chapter separated by other people) not long after rediscovering him...but the little Calline is still there, in a way.

She’s a businesswoman, and not a squeamish one. She dislikes contract breakers.

Wynston: Hate blinds you. Don’t indulge in it. People can be selfish, cruel, short-sighted, destructive, careless...but they’re just people.

That said, the enemies of his inner circle are likely to have bad days. And Quinn will be his forever grudge, because he took a vibrant, charming young flower who made concrete progress and made her the fist of a corrupt Empire.

Larr Gith: Emperor Vitiate. And, by extension, Valkorion. He made her not fabulous. He needs to burn.

Speaking of dying in a fire, it’d be great if Forcier-than-thou Lord Scourge could just go away.

Only the knowledge of her status as Jedi keeps Larr Gith from rolling into grudges every day. If she were merely perfect she would be in enemies up to her eyeballs. As it is, she’s perfect with a reputation to protect.

She is frenemies with Ruth. Ruth is similar to Larr Gith except shorter, frumpier, older, and tainted with an ancient evil that she hasn’t exactly managed to expel. Ah, if it weren’t for their shared cause...

Tebbith: Tebbith is slow to process emotional reactions, and careful not to let them get too powerful. Strangely, it almost places in him Wynston’s boat. Tebbith considers the success of the Alliance to be proof that people of goodwill can come from all walks of life, and can overcome their differences. Except Ruth and Larr Gith, sadly.

Fade: Fade was a perfectly normal Empire-hating Republic soldier until a Sith cut her only brother down over a trade disagreement.

A trade disagreement.

Her career goes off the rails as she hunts the Emperor’s Wrath. With Havoc she starts assassinating Sith like it’s her job, always angling closer to the real target. When Command tries to rein her in she goes rogue, forsaking her command. Ruth Niral must die. She’ll get a nice batch of paperwork stuffed into her mouth after.

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Rules: list your favorite TV shows in GIFs without naming them and tag ten friends. 

Tagged by @depizan.

Consider yourself tagged if you like TV and gifs.

[brightephemera]

Music!

Rules: We’re snooping on your playlist. Put your entire music library on shuffle and list the first 10 songs. Tagged by @depizan!

Status Quo (”High School Musical” soundtrack)

Memory (from ”Cats,” performed by Sarah Brightman)

Sacrifice (Buffy the Vampire Slayer “The Gift” soundtrack by Christophe Beck)

Almost Like Being in Love (Nat King Cole)

Passionate Kisses (Mary Chapin Carpenter)

The Great Gate of Kiev (from “Pictures at an Exhibition,” Modest Mussorgsky)

Cliffs of Ancient Dragons (”Chrono Cross” soundtrack, Yasunori Mitsuda)

The Boys of Summer (Don Henley)

You’ll Be Back (from “Hamilton,” performed by Jonathan Groff)

I Won’t Say I’m In Love (”Hercules” soundtrack, performed by Susan Egan)

Tagging anyone who wants to play.

[brightephemera]

Babylon 5 for the fandom meme? :D

Aw heck yeah!

SPOILERS FOR BABYLON 5. A LOT.

the first character i ever fell in love with:

Delenn, actually. She’s so earnest, so spiritual and yet so cognizant that history cannot be wished away.

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Garibaldi was my hero, but he loses luster with every rewatch.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Delenn/Sheridan. Definitely my least favorite aspect of Delenn.

my ultimate favorite character™:

Ouch. Uh, Lennier? Delenn? Vir? G’Kar? Londo? G’Kar and Londo only when taken as a unit? Vir stands up better than Lennier in Season 5, so overall, Vir.

prettiest character:

Captain Lochley.

my most hated character:

Sheridan. I like Morden more than I like Sheridan. I like the First Ones lurking in the unknown regions more than I like Sheridan. I probably like Byron more than I like Sheridan, but it’s hard to tell because I skipped most of his scenes. Would that I could have done the same for Sheridan.

my OTP:

Talia/Ivanova. I would’ve loved to see more of that relationship before the bottom fell out. Platonically, of course, G’Kar/Londo forever.

my NOTP:

I didn’t have a problem with a lot of the plot pairings, except as mentioned Sheridan/Delenn.

favorite episode:

Wait, picking one? “And The Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place” was spectacular.

saddest death:

Sheridan. I don’t even like him and that episode brought a tear to my eye.

favorite season:

2 and 3 are both stellar and 3 builds on 2, so probably 3.

least favorite season:

5. If you skim the first half the remainder is comparable to previous seasons, but man, there’s some clunky stuff in there. Season 1 had trouble finding its footing but for Sinclair I’ll forgive a lot.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

Sheridan?

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

Morden. My good and dear friend, Mr. Morden.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

Vir, absolutely.

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

Does Londo/G’Kar count?

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

Zach Allen/anybody, really. Or Garibaldi/Lise.