Feb 1
GULPP..I totally didn't just write an entire fic in my english class because i was bored who does that ahahaha..
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
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GULPP..I totally didn't just write an entire fic in my english class because i was bored who does that ahahaha..
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Blessed—or cursed, depending on how you look at it—With an eidetic memory, Elle Burns is one of the union’s most secret weapons. A spy embedded in a southern senators household as a slave. Keeping her head down, she’s able to pass on secret messages to Washington to help aid the union in the Civil War. But all of this changes when she meets one Malcolm McCall. A Pinkerton detective, Malcolm is on a mission. Already a veteran of several successful espionage missions he’s heard word of something big is going down and he’s on the hunt for what. Unfortunately he never expected his contact in Richmond to be the utterly bewitching Elle. As a white man posing as a Confederate soldier, It would be dangerous for him to act upon his attraction. But he’s somehow can’t seem to stop himself. Cans to manage to track down the mystery in Richmond while keeping their emotions in check? Or will they end up falling in love?
What a fun historical romance! There’s all of the action and adventure of some of the best romantic suspense in this with all of the heartbreaking and aww-inducing moments of a great romance. The story centers around two spies for the union, one black and one white. One female and one male. And how working together with their series of contacts they’re able to uncover a fairly major threat to the union. I don’t want to give that threat away, but if you’re a fan of history, it’s pretty easy to figure out where the plot is going and it’s quite fun to go there. When I figured out my jaw dropped and i went “oooooohhhhh” and rubbed my hands in glee.
I really liked Elle as a main character. I liked that she had her roots in a real life spy who was also an enslaved women with a eidetic memory. Seeing her taking the reins and using the Southerners and white people’s preconceptions against them was cool. I was here for it. I like to relationships with the other enslaved people in the household as well as that with Malcolm. I liked that the story never forgot the huge gulf in opportunity and respect that stood between them. I found Malcolm a fun hero. He was alpha without being annoying. He knew his strengths and he played into them. his backstory mirrored Elle’s in an odd way -- he’s Scottish and one of the refugees from the Highland Clearances. It wasn’t fully the same--it can’t be--but it gave the characters a place to communicate and understand each other from. I liked that his skills wasn’t in his arm but in his voice. That he used his words to get what he wanted. He was charismatic and a skilled liar which served him well until all of a sudden it really really didn’t. He was a good foil for Elle and together they made a good team.
I also liked how Southerners were portrayed that they weren’t just a melodramatic villain twirling their mustaches. They were complex characters with wants and layers, and even though they were truly on the side of inhumanity they weren’t themselves portrayed as a monolith. There were Southerners who fit the strereotypes and others who really did not. I also liked that one of the most horrific characters in the novel was a white woman aka the stereotypical southern belle. She was Scarlett O’Hara as she really would have been if she hadn’t been the designated heroine of Gone with the Wind—Spoiled, horrible, deceitful.
You know, like the actual Scarlett... but not glamorized.
Frankly this book needs to be turned into a movie or Netflix needs to be developing this into a new series. I would watch the heck out of it.
Trigger warnings because this books does need them include: Racism, racist language, discussion of rape, attempted rape, slavery and all of it’s trauma, so yeah. Make sure you are in a good place before reading this.
But if you’re looking for something to read this Juneteenth, consider this book by a Black author that actually has great historical basis (and cites its sources--I stan a romance that cites its sources) about the Civil War and the fight for African American Emancipation, then you’ll want to read this.
Five Stars
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Lives to live for - Prologue
Summary: Three years after the events of the Blip and the world has returned to a new normal. New York City has become the new hub for all powered people, from vigilantes like the Defenders to the Avengers and Inhumans, the City is buzzing with life. In all that is Shannon Cousland, a retired SHIELD agent and mutant. Having the power to heal herself, has her body age very slowly. Looking like a 28-year-old, she was actually born in 1610 in Scotland. But something big is happening which forces Shannon out of retirement, facing foes she thought were long gone.
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Original Female Character (in later Chapters), Wolverine x OFC (Friendship)
Warnings: Cursing
Word Count: 870
Notes: New to all of this. Trying to form many ideas I have into a story. English isn’t my first language but I try my best. Please comment if you like it and what I can do better, I only want to get better so thank you already!!
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Looking out on the panorama of Hell’s Kitchen at dawn always made me feel nostalgic. The tall skyscrapers, the busy streets and the greyish air were charming in their own ways, but they couldn’t beat the blue skies, wild waves and dramatic landscape of my home. Scotland was home. Scotland was what made me myself. As cliche as it might sounded, you can take a girl out of Scotland, but you can’t take Scotland out of that girl.
Sipping my tea and staring out the window, I was lost in my thoughts so that I didn’t hear the slight knocking at the door. However, it grew louder and louder until it shook me awake. Walking through my open kitchen, I put my mug on the living room table and made my way to the front door. The knocking turned into a banging when I turned the locks and opened the door.
“Fucking finally, thought you were still asleep”, said a gruff voice while walking into the flat like he owned it. Plopping down on the sofa, Logan looked to smug for my liking. “What would you have done if I was still asleep?”, I asked while closing the door and returning to the sofa to sit down. “I would have come the same way as one of the red fuckers.” I laughed out loud: “I would have loved to see that, you, climbing up the fire escape. You would have woken up everyone in the building!” “Hah hah, Shannon, very funny.” “I know I am a comedic genius. Now what do you want, Logan? It’s too early in the morning to start drinking with me even for you.”
I looked curiously onto Logan who uncharacteristically shifted in his seat. His smugness from early was gone. He was nervous, something that I hadn’t seen many times in our century long friendship. “Charles… he wanted me to check up on you. Something about what he saw in Cerebro.” I sighed. Charles Xavier only wanted to protect me, as he wanted to protect all mutants but the fact that I lived more than 300 years without Charles’ interference kind of made his protection attempts a bit useless.
“And you are his messenger boy now? He knows I am fine. And the thing in Cerebro? We are in fucking New York City! What are you expecting? Of course, a bunch of mutants will turn up here, especially with the heroes, vigilantes and whoever that are running around freely and unbothered. New York is a dream city for us.”, I observed while standing and walking towards the kitchen.
“Shannon… He was frightened! There are mutants here that are powerful. Nearly as powerful as you are and we both know what might happen when they do something stupid! Especially now with all those other powered people around.”
Logan followed me through to the kitchen. His demeanour was serious, and he watched me intently. Something was brewing in the city that never sleeps and mutants were involved. I turned to him and shouted:
“And what does Charles want us to do? I am not searching for them, Logan, I am retired. Go to SHIELD or the Avengers, hell go to fucking Jessica Jones if you want to find them.”
Logan looked resigned, he knew why I didn’t want to get involved with any suspicious activities involved with powered people. The moment Tony Stark announced he was Iron Man, I put in my resignation to Fury and retired. I was tired. I wanted to settle down and live a life that I wasn’t able to have for the last 400 years. Now I was here living in Hell’s Kitchen living a relatively normal life, expect maybe the occasional drop in by the vigilantes and heroes of New York who needed healing. A boring life but not too boring, I thought.
Taking a deep breath, I composed myself from the outburst and explained calmly: “I won’t be doing anything actively, but you can tell Charles I will have an ear out and ask our powered friends if anything weird is going on. That’s it though. Nothing else.” Logan visibly relaxed. He nodded at me and gave me a side hug turning to go to the front door. He stopped shortly before opening it: “Your not-so-boring life suits you. Just 50 years ago, you would have been the first to run to find everything out.” I smiled at him sadly: “Running into danger is not my MO anymore. Having to fight your loved ones does that to you.”
Logan was about to answer when suddenly we heard a loud crash in my bedroom. Grabbing a kitchen knife, I followed Logan who ran across the room with his claws out. We stopped at the bedroom door and listened carefully. We were able to hear two muffled voices, female and male. The female was cursing while the male just grunted what sounded like in pain. I recognised them. Straightening myself up, I motioned Logan to stand down and opened the door: “Murdock, Jones! What the fuck are doing in my bedroom!” Matt Murdock, in his Daredevil suit, and Jessica Jones stared at me stunned. “You got a lot of explanation to do!”
It’s my little Scottish pilot OC Stevie Brown
I think that one of my secondary characters is going to be a Scottish immigrant in Denver, CO. She is a lab tech forensic scientist doing things like DNA screening and etc for a hush hush government entity (think Abby Sciutto from NCIS as far as work goes). What sorts of things can I add in to make her seem authentically Scottish? Are there good phrases I can drop in, or foods she'd prefer, or just a mannerism what will read "Scot!".
A Scottish person living in the US will most likely adapt to the culture around them, so in terms of language, I wouldn’t worry too much about her not sounding authentic enough. However, she may still slip some Scots words into conversation.
Some words she could use could be aye/naw (yes/no), ken (know), wee (small), wean/bairn (child/baby), crabbit (moody/grumpy), eejit (idiot), tube (also idiot), bampot (idiot, again), glaikit (stupid), scunnered (tired), blootered (drunk), boke (retch/vomit), braw (pretty/attractive/nice to look at), feart (afraid), lassie (girl/young woman), wan/yin (one) and greet (cry). Some phrases she might say could include “you’re no right in the heid” (meaning you’re crazy or stupid), “I’m up to high doh” (I’m stressed out/worked up), and “away and boil your heid” (something you say when someone’s talking rubbish or being a nuisance). There’s also “yer da’ sells Avon” which is supposed to be an insult but is just something stupid we say for a laugh.
She might occasionally drop some of these words into conversation - perhaps without realising it - but she won’t be speaking broad Scots whilst surrounded by Americans. Also, some of these words are regional. If she’s from the Highlands or Islands, she probably won’t use them, and if she’s from the Aberdeen area she’ll most likely speak Doric. But if she’s a Lowlander these will do.
Some things you could do to make her seem more authentically Scottish could be:- have her start conversations with strangers in public, like on the bus, in a waiting room, in a queue, etc. Scottish people will talk to anyone and everyone; and not just small talk. She’ll have their life story by the end of the conversation.- have her complain about the weather. If it’s too hot, she’ll complain. If it’s too cold, she’ll complain. If it’s raining, she’ll ask when it’s gonna stop, if it hasn’t rained in a while, she’ll wonder when the rain’s coming back.- she might like a drink. Scottish people love to drink, and we’re good at it, but obviously avoid making it seem like she has a drinking problem. We love a drink but we’re not alcoholics.- Scottish people have a great sense of humour. We laugh at everything. We laugh at ourselves, at each other. We love innuendo and double entendres. We’re very self-deprecating. Scottish comedy tends to be heavily based in the pretty shitty aspects of Scotland, and we make a lot of jokes at our expense. Also, we like to rib our friends, and generally the closer we are to someone the more we will do so.- have her support a Scottish football team, particularly Rangers or Celtic, plus maybe a local team. If she comes from a Protestant background, she’ll be a Rangers fan, if Catholic, it’ll be Celtic.- she might start sentences with “see” especially if she’s asking a question or explaining something, or “here”, kind of as a way to get everybody’s attention. Also, when asking a question, she might ask “how” instead of “why”.- she may be more cautious with her money. Scots aren’t tight, but we don’t like to waste money. It will be simple things, like bring lunch from home or mending clothes rather than throwing them out, just the average stuff you do to save money, and generally we don’t waste money on status symbols - if we buy an expensive car or a big house, it’s because we wanted it, not to show off how much we have. - she’ll lament the lack of good Scottish food that she’s used to back home - square sausage, potato scones, Scotch pies, Irn Bru - and if she can, she’ll buy them by the barrel-full.
When it comes to food, Scots love our home cooking, so when she has time she might make soup, stew, or stovies (which is like a stew made of potatoes, onions, carrots and usually beef), or sweets like tablet, cakes, biscuits, or shortbread - and she’ll make loads, and probably offer some to her friends.
Scottish people are very patriotic. We are fiercely proud of our country, our culture, our language, our history, and our contributions to the world. And being abroad makes us even more so. Generally, we’re not dicks about it - it’s about how much we love our own country, not how much we hate yours.
Also, we have this word “thrawn” which essentially means we don’t like being told what to do, especially when it comes to politics. We don’t like non-Scots getting involved in our affairs - especially when it comes to the issue of independence. Your character won’t like her American friends making comments on Scottish and even, to an extent, UK politics or culture, regardless of her feelings on the subject.
This is quite a lot information and I think I’ve basically dissected your average Scot, but I think their good things to consider when writing a Scottish character. Hope this helps.
Mod Haggis
Guys, gals and non-binary pals, meet the second protagonist of Warhammer: Renegades – Iris de Bar! She’s a former Bretonnian “royal” (she was towards the middle of the totem pole) who took up archery as a hobby and is now traveling the world with Abbi and Oroch to stop the spread of Chaos. Reblogs are appreciated!
And part 2 of 2 – original fic!
charred fields you left in me by bansheesquad Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Original Work Rating: Teen Tags: Fae & Fairies, Scottish Character, References to Ancient Celtic Religions & Lore
The complications of coming home to settle in the family estate after a life of adventuring through the realms: a fae-bound warlock, a knight with magic, the need of an heir that the locals will accept as their own, and what happens when you let your fae patron start meddling before you've even begun.
What to do when the daughter you made a fae bargain to 'fix' starts noticing the whispers that follow her wherever she goes…
all my doors and windows open to you by bansheesquad Chapters: 8 + 9/? Fandom: Original Work Rating: Explicit Tags: Princes & Princesses, Arranged Marriage, Developing Relationship, Political Marriage, Family Dynamics, Weddings, Misunderstandings, glamping, Vaginal Fingering, First Time
When the war ended and the treaties were signed it was Marisol and Cristóbal left, her brother marrying Jocelyn of Dierhof in a move to cease hostilities as he wore their father's crown. Constancia and Anna-Maria were gone. Felipe, Jóse-Maria and Raúl died in the field before they could be married off – Raúl had, in fact, married his lover in the early days of the war, a third wedding Marisol had missed and Cristóbal too. So it was Marisol offered up for the sake of securing the peace. Or: Marisol leaves home to gain a wife for the sake of peace and recovery, and discovers that she has a knack for running a household if her new wife would actually talk to her.
Chapter 8: Sometimes you're just that lonely and homesick you've got no other choice but to sleep with the wife you've barely said a kind word to since you both tried to set up a household…
Chapter 9: One nice day without disaster is had: early breakfast, a stroll through the vineyard, and a horseride instead of walling themselves off in a house full of ghosts and misery.
The Laundrette by bansheesquad Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Original Work Rating: General Tags: Scottish Character, Scottish Culture, Grandparents & Grandchildren, Death, Supernatural Elements
It's 11:23 on a Tuesday night when Callum ends up in the laundrette. No one ever actually intends to end up at the laundrette.
tougher than the rest by bansheesquad Chapters: 1 + 2/? Fandom: Original Work Rating: Teen Tags: Farming and Ranching, Cowboys & Cowgirls, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Running Away, Identity Reveal
When Edith looked back on it she'd have said there were omens her granny would've seen that heralded Winona's coming to her daddy's ranch; the owl hissing and making a spectacle of itself outside her window three nights in a row leaving a terrible mess of hair and bones, the type of thing her brother Billy liked to collect in a lacquer cigar box secreted 'neath his bed to upset their mama even to this day. Edith Connolly, youngest child and only daughter of a ranching family, and how she comes to run away with Winona Mullins after a chance encounter out riding.
Chapter 1: Where there is a stranger newly arrived on the ranch upending Edith Connolly's quiet existence.
Chapter 2: A shotgun wedding, and a late night shared cigarette in the looming shadow of a second, no less unwanted, wedding.
💋💫💘🎶
Kissing in the dark or kissing in the rain: Neva’ kissed someone b4, but I’d say rain, I’m a sucker for romantics, people
What is your sun, moon and rising sign: my birthday is in October so I say libra and it’s the old signs not that new stuff
Three ways to win your heart: Well ain’t that somethin’. I’d say, listen to me rant, be affectionate and bake with me, I’m a baker at heart
Favorite song rn: From Now On - Greatest Showman
Send me more :) ❤️