rapid unscheduled disassembly

ak • she/they • 25 • queer • falls for a villain faster than they can trip on their own clogs • wide range of largely sf/f fandoms

[thirdwifeofriversong]

about this blog

hi 👋 i’m ak :) i mostly post about fantasy and sci fi things here, but you’ll also find content related to other random fandoms (you have been warned if you followed me for one interest).

you can find me on AO3 at honeydew_trap. my DMs are open if you want to rant about shared interests together or make a fandom friend :)

here’s an idea of the content you’ll find on this blog: vorkosigan saga • grishaverse • blue eye samurai • bridgerton • good omens • stranger things • percy jackson • elementary (cbs)

if you like stargate atlantis • stargate sg1 • firefly • farscape, i have a dedicated side blog @inthemiddleofmybackswing <3

[negat0ry-deactivated20150104]

inside front flap copy:

we booksellers of harvard book store think that the original cover for Young Miles (an otherwise fine production) is unspeakably ugly and may deter you from purchasing this hugo award-winning book which would otherwise provide you with hours of entertainment.

with that in mind, we are providing this alternate, less embarrassing cover for your reading pleasure. feel free to discard it and use the original cover if you enjoy flaunting its luridness. or, make it into a spaceship airplane, or what you wish. this has been a free service from

HARVARD BOOK STORE

since 1932

I mean they’re not wrong really

mybloodismaritime is this cover accurate?

[minutia-r]

This cover is 100% accurate.

[theotherjax]

Yeah that’s pretty much the book

[maria-ruta]

I… I… Now I have a goal to gET THIS EDITION THIS IS BEAUTIFUL!!!

[asmywhimseytakesme]

Ok but like, my roommate was once able to identify that the person she was talking to loved the same book series as me because it was the one that has the “really awful covers”.

[mala-taste]

Sometimes I think about how Miles Vorkosigan went through a series of likely traumatic medical procedures to replace every long bone in his body with a more durable, synthetic one. Of his own free will. He didn't have to do this. He himself admits that it hurt like a bitch. And keep in mind that his childhood is already defined by a series of long, painful surgeries that he didn't choose.

I have a lowkey obsession with the way prosthetics and artificial limbs and similar things are treated in narratives, and to me this act is THE essence of both his personality and the way he perceives his culture.

He could have chosen any other job and likely excelled at it but military achievement is so important in his culture, in his family, for him personally, that he will cut himself open and excavate the fragile bones from his body limb by limb to replace them with sturdier, artificial ones so that he can be a better soldier.

I love the mix of implications present in this and tbh it's kind of the essence of my fixation with this kind of narrative device (which is why this is my favourite book series!). It's that mix of stone-cold pragmatism (I want to be good at this->I need better bones to be good at this->I will replace my bones) and raw, desperate, bloody-minded determination (I want this so bad and nothing will stop me from getting it, not even myself; I am ready to cut myself open and mutilate myself if it means getting what I want), and total self-annihilation (I am not good enough, so I need to put myself through massive pain to fit the criteria of good enough, and my pain doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things because without this I'm worthless anyway). Which one is present in which percentage? Is he lowkey returning to what traumatized him as a child, except this time it's his choice and he's the one who's in control? It's up for debate I guess. But I love how it tells you everything you need to know about the man. All the rest of his behavior is just handwaving to keep people's eyes away from the essence of him, and this is it.

[programmerhumour]

Once upon a time…

[friendly-neighborhood-ehrhardt]

[thebeanestbad]

[personification-of-anxiety]

I really wish the overused sentence “You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” was less relevant but here we are

[triassictriserratops]

[no-one-offical]

‎

[hamletthedane]

Bridgerton hot people: *busy making out in various gazebos and library locations*

Me, watching: is this estate entailed or under a strict settlement? If it’s the product of a strict settlement, how was that disclosed to the viscount given he was of minority age (and thus barred from contracting) at his father’s death? Did he later perpetuate the strict settlement in his lineal favor despite having zero obligation to do so given that he now stands as legal fee tail owner? Maybe he just saw it as a way to perpetuate the power of the family and bar against less successful descendants wasting the estate resource, all at the direct, deliberate expense of barring his siblings and their families from a landed inheritance? If that’s the case, why are the younger Bridgerton sons such desirable matches among the gentry?? But maybe that’s not an issue, since all of his younger brothers seemingly have independent allowance, and if that’s generated from the family estate, this must be a strict settlement with a life estate income provision for siblings - def NOT an entailment. Is that why these younger brothers are considered good matches despite being unlanded untitled gentlemen in need of professions? Or maybe their mother’s marriage settlement provided for their independent allowance should their father die?? Are they to obtain their own property without title???

Bridgerton hot people: *have now actively started getting down in said gazebos and library locations*

Me, flipping through a facsimile of a 1788 English law textbook: on that note, why are the featheringtons kicked out of what appears to be an owned home by a male cousin upon their father’s death? Was their estate a strict settlement that benefited a cousin instead of a descendant?? Why would their grandfather force their father to settle away from his own descendancy line, with no allowance or dowry provided for the girls? But if it’s entailed and thus out of their hands (also explaining the lack of allowance), why didn’t their father employ common recovery to undo the entailment???

Bridgerton hot people, looking at me through the television: lady, you realize this show is just cosplay **** with extra steps, right?

[jiyaneru]

i could find you, darling, in any life 𓇢𓆸

[winter-wise]

this fanfic shit is so easy

[thundergrace]

Oh my God! 😭 You dropped this queen 👑

[thundergrace]

To think I thought I knew what ethereal beauty was before now. Laughable.

[lymeandcoconut]

she’s so beautiful i had to include a few more photos

[happibeans]

Her instagram is @queennyakimofficial !

Support Black Women!!! Support Black Womens Art!!! Support Dark Skinned Black Women!!! Support Dark Skinned Black Womens Art!!!

🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤🤎🖤

[thesaltofcarthage]

I’ve reblogged her before, but really, you can’t have too many dark-skinned Black queens on your dash. 

[shotofchinaco]

Brian McFadden: Is Google Cooked? (via Daily Kos)

[the-only-failure-is-never-to-try]

Things that a time traveller would put in a show about time travelling to fuck with me (a chronically online girlie):

1 - This fucking scene

[bareniabirkin]

😟😳😳😳

[squadron-of-damned]

#idk what this means or if i do this but ig i'll just hold my phone with my pinky stuck out from now on?? 

Good question, also no that won’t help.

shitty MS Paint 3 minutes doodle, nto entirely accurate: When you have your pinky hooked on the “bottom” edge of the phone for the extra security so it doesn’t slide out of your hand that easily, you’re wreaking damage on your hand, since the pinky is extremely askew from it’s resting position. You might have noticed that when you hold your phone like that for long time it begins to hurt, like when you are gripping a pen too tightly for example.

Green lines - the fingers are going their natural way. Red line - the pinky is way off, that’s bad.

[theclockworkjudas]

Me: Oh, good thing I never-

Me, looking down at hand: By talos this can't be happening

[h4nds4ndwich]

oh thats why my hadns have started to always be in pain ok

[thirdwifeofriversong]

arfid thoughts of the day after a literal jump scare:🙃

why the FUCK do they put a pickle with your sandwich?? without telling you??! wHO likes that?? who says “ooh, look! a SURPRISE PICKLE! made my day”??? (these are rhetorical questions, do not come at me)

[shop5]

let’s be real the pressure to use AI as an adult is exactly what they said the pressure the do drugs as a teenager would be like but the people that told us that caved immediately for the AI and definitely did not just say no

[chimaerakitten]

I’ve been kicking around a thought lately that when it comes to SFF we could probably bypass some of the perennial political vs. apolitical vs. everything-is-political-apolitical-storytelling-doesn’t-exist by instead formulating a spectrum from politically coherent to politically incoherent

Essentially, politically coherent works are works where the political message of the story is supported by all (or at least most) of the major story elements, and a politically incoherent work is a story where the political messages of different elements are seemingly all shooting off on different vectors.

The nice thing about this is it can bypass authorial intent (and the discussion of whether intent matters). This is about the text.

Like, politically incoherent works that had no authorial thought behind them are a dime a dozen of course, and politically coherent works that clearly had a lot of authorial thought are if not equally common than at least easy to spot. But there are also plenty of works that are politically coherent without the author intending them that way—like, whatever faults there are with Project Hail Mary, the overall opinion the book has about the nature of humanity & of science is consistent throughout. Likewise there are stories where the authors clearly meant a coherent political point and totally wiffed it. (The works @specialagentartemis has collectively termed “cozy colonialism” come to mind)

So there’s a utility in replacing the question “is this story political?” (Yes, always, but if the answer is always yes the question becomes kinda useless) with “Is this story politically coherent?” Because a yes or no there will tell a prospective reader something about what to expect.

[thirdwifeofriversong]

i don’t think people understand how unhinged ocd therapy can be

“oh, you keep getting really distressing intrusive thoughts and are afraid you’re suddenly going to snap and kill your baby for no reason? well, i want you to do this creative writing exercise where you write out exactly how that would happen and what the fallout would be. great job! now take that and read it out loud to yourself five times a day for the next three months”

[iniquiticity]

ok sorry I have to keep posting about xav's wife. so you're betan, broadly considered the most forward, scientifically advanced, culturally and sexually progressive planet. then one day that planet that dropped off the face of the universe appears because another society thought they wanted to conquer it. then from that place comes their diplomat - the emperor's (!! imagine a planet that has an emperor!!! how backwards!!) half-brother. he's dashing and funny and charismatic and handsome and he wants to save his planet. he's probably got a really new vibe that comes from not being in the galactic community for several centuries. who wouldn't be about that?

she's explaining about uterine replicators and sexuality earrings and contraceptive implants. then he explains they have arranged marriage on his planet and infanticide is common for infants with even the slightest developmental disabilities. also if someone impugns his honor he can legally duel and kill them.

reader, she married him.

I wish her and cordelia could compare notes.

[iniquiticity]

ok i found my original xav's wife post.

[iniquiticity]

Now I want to be clear I made several critical lore errors in the original post.

1.when TOI ended, Dorca was the emperor, not Yuri. Do we think Dorca had married Xav's mother at this time? I think it could go either way. We know Piotr married Xav's kid, so let's say Xav and Piotr are 25 years apart, and TOI ended just as Piotr was born. WOG gives me the sense that Xav had been a bastard for quite some time; even if he was legitimated, I don't think he'd "feel" that way. I have many words about Xav as The Bastard and i like to imagine him as VERY much a proto-miles. and one MUST admit that if the betans get involved quickly out of elevating barrayar out of TOI, pre-occupation, and Dorca HASN'T married Xav's mom yet, that means inevitably they're going learn the imperial family is mostly described as "the heir, prince yuri, and prince xav, the bastard." they must have been boonswoggled by that.

2. Presumably the Betans would have become aware of the re-emergency of Barrayar before the occupation, though who can say how much before. Did Xav and Xav's Wife meet before the Occupation? Could she have been one of those first Betans to set foot on Barrayar? Did any Barrayarans leave Barrayar before the Occupation? How early did Xav become The Spacefarer?

I want to be clear this doesn't change any of the important facts about Xav's Wife: he was like 'Yeah, if your husband dies, you don't have custody of your son; he goes to the next man,' and she was like 'okay, I can deal with that.'

[beroebluejeans]

*pastel cartoon of artfully mud-splattered Cordelia Naismith and Aral Vorkosigan smirking at each other, arms crossed*

House of the Dragon meets Murderbot in SHARDS OF HONOR, a swoony new sci-fi romantasy by debut author Lois McMaster Bujold, perfect for fans of Andor.

Enemies-to-lovers ⚔️

Forced proximity 🏕️

Marriage of convenience 👰🏻‍♀️🤵🏻‍♂️

He falls first 😍

“Touch her and die” 😠

Silver fox 👨🏻‍🦳

“Gorgeous!” -Emily Broccolini, #1 NYT-bestselling author of An Heir of Storms and Sapphires and A Queen of Tornadoes and Topaz

“Screaming, crying, throwing up 😭💕” -Goodreads reviewer

“Step on me Cordelia 😩🥵” -Goodreads reviewer

[isaacsapphire]

You forgot

🏳️‍🌈 representation

[beroebluejeans]

^ absolutely, and only because I made this post before I got to that part

really proud of what I’ve done:

and a great point here:

[beroebluejeans]

yessssssss

[silverbirching]

I pulled a muscle in my back trying to flip my desk over, so, uh, well done OP.

[thirdwifeofriversong]

this post and all of the varied responses are so so good (although i have to agree, yes Cordelia please step on me)