#this isn't babylon 5

[itberice]

Babylon 5 I 'Gropos'

#Babylon 5 #Babylon5edit #Susan Ivanova #David Corwin #Claudia Christian #Josh Coxx #B5 telling us time isn't real 30 years ago #tvedit #userbbelcher #userstream #my edits

[zevveli]

#Babylon 5 #alignment meme #Zev Original #TBF most of the top row is interchangeable with each other #Also had a hard time coming up with center-right #Vir isn't malicious about it he just...bumbles

[starfightervicki]

You know what I love about Pakleds?

In some franchises, WE are the Pakleds.

Babylon 5. Who made the jump gates? Who knows? Who cares? Let's use 'em! Other species have artificial gravity tech and we don't? We'll stick something together anyway, and use it to make friends with the species that came thiiiis close to destroying us. And if our first four attempts at that end in disaster, we'll make a fifth.

Stargate. Stargate is "humans take alien tech we don't understand and find a way to use it: the movie: the show: the spin-off: the other spin-off."

Stargate lives and breathes humans using alien tech we couldn't make ourselves. And while we are the idiots of the galaxy, we also become a major player in galactic matters, with tech we couldn't make on our own.

Aliens are smart. We are not strong.

We don't let that stop us.

#star trek #babylon 5 #stargate #idiots of the galaxy isn't just me making fun of us #in sg-1 the main character and a gray alien had a conversation where the gray is asking for humanity's unique perspective #after asking what that means and getting a politely-worded explanation the main char goes “so you want someone stupid” #“you've come to the right place”

[thelongestway]

B5 first watch on the rewatch, "The Parliament of Dreams"

This was a fun episode! My B5 friend cackled that this was up my alley, and indeed a showcasing of cultures is that. I actually liked both storylines. Now I get what you all meant about the aides - poor Ko'dath! I guessed it was a makeup issue (the bane of all modern sci-fi!), but Na'toth won me over very quickly. G'Kar is such a drama king, it's hilarious; but I mean, look at all of the Narn! Ok, lol, the Centauri aren't far from that and neither are the Minbari. Londo's inner nature is a feast table; sounds about right!

We finally get to meet Lennier, about whom I know only a meme that goes "If you want to kill me, please do it quickly, I've got tons of work"? Seems to check out? Lennier quickly goes into Delenn's steel grip ("Look up. I don't need an aide who will be forever walking into things." - not an exact quote, but man, is this a good Delenn line!) and goes quiet. FOR NOW. Me to my friend: "of the ambassadors, is it only Delenn that does not sleep with literally everyone on the station?" Him: "Well, Strazhinsky is a big Tolkien fan. And specifically Delenn is Luthien." Me: wat. I guess we'll have to wait and see? There's another name I vaguely remember out of context: John Sheridan or something? Sinclair's story line is just "no ex-wives are contained within it: the TV show." It gave me Disco Elysium vibes, which explains the dialogue. :P The assassin with his bookkeeper glasses! Comedy gold! And so is Na'toth just beating the crap out of the idiot she's been trying to protect, and enjoying it more than a little. Also, I hear you folks (B5 team) also got an Emmy for the makeup in this episode? "Also" as in "the Emmy team sure does like their lizards, huh? Narn, are you the grown-up salamander babies from VOY?" The two giddy Narn as they ferry the assassin out are glorious. Those two look like kids who got their hands on A PILE of ice cream. :P "Have a pleasant flight!" Minbari "jokes" about accidentally marrying people are indeed very elvish. :P I was honestly thinking Sinclair was going to do a showcasing of space exploration as humanity's dream. But no, we go into theology instead (starting with atheism, ha). There are a lot of things wrong with the line - for some reason it assumes the religions are the same as in contemporaneity, etc - but it legit surprised me.

#b5 rewatch #babylon 5 #b5 #sorry I'm late with this one but February isn't easy :P

[babylon5]

the babylon 5 cards are truly something else

#pepper.txt #babylon 5 #OBSESSED with this because iirc this is morden threatening londo for having NO desire to continue working with him. where is the conflict #Conflicting Desires! (they broke up and Morden isn't taking it well)

[branmer]

making my list of directors for my nyr of only watching films directed by women in 2024. im still not 100% sure what im doing re tv shows

#i sort of wanted to do a thing where i only watch tv that isn't from the us/uk #but i would have to make an exception for babylon 5 lmao #it would also mean not watching hotd and other shows going into s2 until 2025 and im... im weak guys im so weak #maybe i could make the rule be '...except for ongoing tv shows' #because i really only have like... two current us/uk shows i want to watch next year (hotd and rop) #so i wouldn't be allowed to start anything new to me basically

[howtofightwrite]

Speaking of martial competence, do you have any examples of characters that are actually written with this in mind?

Loads. Some actually even make good on that.

So, there's different kinds of martial competence. There are characters who are proficient in combat directly, there are well written strategists, there are characters who excel at military leadership, and when they're written well, you can actuallylearn some things from them.

I'm going to give some examples, and at least one cautionary example.

For, just, raw combat prowess, I still go back to Robert E. Howard's Conan short stories. It's easy to meme on the character, especially 90 years after the fact, with the cultural persona that's grown around him, but Howard's original writing is excellent. The character would not have survived Howard's early (and, frankly, tragic) death if it was just the one note gag you might expect, if your only exposure to the character was through cultural osmosis and the films.

Howard's fight scenes were shockingly well written. To the point that it is still absolutely worth reading if you want to write a fantasy fighter.

For strategists, three characters come to mind, but only two are literary, and all are Science Fiction.

Grand Admiral Thrawn is probably one of the best villains Star Wars has ever produced, it's part of why he's one of the few characters that's migrated from the original EU to the Disney era. My personal take is, as a character, he's lost a lot over the years, but the original incarnation from the early 90s novels is a very solid model for a strategist. Particularly in how he takes time to understand his opponents while looking for potential weak points to exploit.

His practice of studying a culture's art to understand their psychology might sound a bit goofy, but the concept does have a real basis. (At least, until it metastasized into a superpower, in later adaptations of the character.) Being able to psychologically assess your foe is an incredibly valuable element of strategy, and one that you probably want to consider when you're writing a character who is supposed to be a “strategic genius.”

When writing fiction, you want to consider all of your characters as if they were people, rather than as hollow, plastic toys. And, yes, the obnoxious villain who knows exactly what your heroes will do because of authorial fiat is going to be a more compelling character than the ambulatory goldfish villain who exists as a prelude for your heroes showing off how badass you think they are.

Granted, even in Heir to the EmpireThrawn was already drawing strategic insights that strained credibility, but understanding your foe is an element of strategic thinking that is often forgotten in literature. So, even as a villain in a tie-in novel (we're not done with tie-in fiction yet), he is worth looking at. At least when written by Timothy Zhan, Thrawn was a well written character, and even if he bordered on a Mary Sue at times, he escaped a lot of that stigma by justifying his competence.

It's also probably worth mentioning in passing that he's one of the few Imperial leaders in Star Wars who isn't also criminally incompetent.

The non-literary example of a strategist would be John Sheridan from Babylon 5. Unlike Thrawn, Sheridan's main strategic focus is on situational exploitation. A little of that comes from his knowledge of enemy procedures and psychology, but at lot of it comes from a rather ruthless approach to technical limitations. An alien race is using technology that blocks human targeting systems? Set up a nuclear mine and then send out a fake distress single to lure them in. Need to deal with a significantly larger, more dangerous ship? Lure them into a gas giant and and let the planet's gravity well drag them past crush depth. Bruce Boxleitner's performance helped sell the character, but Sheridan is a really solid science fiction strategist, who really exemplifies how technical limitations can have enormous strategic considerations.

I'm not citing Sheridan as an excellent example of a leader per se,it's certainly there, but it is harder to unpack from Boxleitner's performance. It does have some good payoffs much later in the series when he starts making some orders that cause his subordinates to sit up and stop what they're doing. And that is a consistent theme even back to his introduction, but, it's a tangible consequence to an intangible cause.

The last example is a negative example, both for strategy and leadership. And, as much as it pains me to say this, at least Orson Scott Card understood that Ender was a bad leader. At least in the original novel. To be blunt, Ender is a mediocre strategist at best. His highlights in the book involve, “inventing armor,” and creative movement in micrograv. That's setting the bar exceptionally low, and while it is reasonably within the range of what you could expect from a pre-teen, that's not much of a justification.

Again, I'm not a fan of Card, and I'm reallynot recommending Ender's Gameto anyone. However, if I didn't mention it, you know there'd be a reblog going for twelve hundred words about how Andrew Wiggin is the best strategist in literature, which, yeah, no.

Do you want a goofy, tie-in fiction, literary suggestion for the best leader in sci-fi? Too bad, because I'm pretty sure Ciaphas Cain is not that person. The Ciaphas Cain novels by Sandy Mitchell are unusual as leadership recommendations, because of how much Cain internally processes the social manipulation involved in military leadership. He's not a great leader, but he is exceptionallygood at explaining to the reader how he's creating that illusion to motivate the soldiers around him. In fairness, some of that is an intrinsic character flaw, he is incredibly insecure, and desperately trying to hide that fact. And the difference between being a great leader, and effectively creating a comprehensive illusion of a great leader is: There is no difference. As a serious complement, it is one of the few times I've seen an author treat leadership as an actual skill, and not simply an extension of a character's charisma. Which is why I'm singling this one out. It might sound like a joke inclusion initially, and the books are quite funny in a Warhammer 40k kind of way, but there is quite a bit of  value to be had.

-Starke

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#writing advice #writing reference #writing tips #how to fight write #starke answers #Babylon 5 #Grand Admiral Thrawn #Ciaphas Cain

[foone]

"The themes of faith and forgiveness were worthy of a theologian. Are you sure there isn't something you'd like to tell us?"

Never shoot pool at a place called Pop's. Never eat food at a place called Mom's. The difference between horses and humans is that they're too smart to be on what *we'll* do.

And I have lost people. Too many people. Lost them to chance, violence, brutality beyond belief; I've seen all the senseless, ignoble acts of "god's noblest creature." And I am incapable of forgiving. My feelings are with G'Kar, hand sliced open, saying of the drops of blood flowing from that open wound, "How do you apologize to them?" "I can't." "Then I cannot forgive."

As an atheist, I believe that all life is unspeakably precious, because it's only here for a brief moment, a flare against the dark, and then it's gone forever. No afterlives, no second chances, no backsies. So there can be nothing crueler than the abuse, destruction or wanton taking of a life. It is a crime no less than burning the Mona Lisa, for there is always just one of each.

So I cannot forgive. Which makes the notion of writing a character who CAN forgive momentarily attractive...because it allows me to explore in great detail something of which I am utterly incapable. I cannot fly, so I would write of birds and starships and kites; I cannot play an instrument, so I would write of composers and dancers; and I cannot forgive, so I would write of priests and monks and minbari....

-- JMS, creator of Babylon 5, in the usenet/GEnie comments

#jms #babylon 5

[hoonieswhore]

Heavenly

(Figure skater!Hoon x Vocalist!fem reader)

Summary: Being the leader of a band was pretty easy, working on new songs and making covers with your friends was the best. The only challenge in your life was living with a "stranger" and your best friend.

Warnings: SMAU with written parts. This story will contain smut at some point. Kys jokes. Sexual jokes. LOTS of curses. Comedy. Fluff. Reader and Hoon are low-key enemies. Minors/ageless/blank blogs DO NOT INTERACT or you'll be immediately blocked. If you wanna be tagged, just send an ask (read my rules before you follow though)

This is my first smau so please be patient with me. I'll try to update every day but that depends on how busy I am. I hope you all like it and please keep in mind that English isn't my first language so there might be typos or any kind of errors.

Masterlist!

Profiles

I. ...Ready for it? - Taylor Swift.

II. Here comes trouble - Neoni.

III. Ignorance - Paramore.

IV. I hate you - WOODZ.

V. Best friend - Conan Gray

VI. One of the Drunks - Panic! At The Disco

VII. MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT - Elley Duhé

VIII. It's nice to have a friend - Taylor Swift

IX. Want you back - 5 Seconds of Summer

X. Complete Mess - 5 Seconds of Summer

XI. High Hopes - Panic! At The Disco

XII. Kill My Time - 5 Seconds of Summer

XIII. About love - MARINA

XIV. Delicate - Taylor Swift

XV. Rock with you - SEVENTEEN

XVI. Death Of A Bachelor - Panic! At The Disco

XVII. Everything Has Changed - Taylor Swift

XVIII. One Day - Imagine Dragons

XIX. Valentine - 5 Seconds of Summer

XX. Falling In Love - Cigarettes After Sex

XXI. Wildflower - 5 Seconds of Summer

XXII. Nothing's Gonna Hurt You Baby - Cigarettes After Sex

XXIII. Lover - Taylor Swift

XXIV. Maniac - Conan Gray

XXV. Babylon - 5 Seconds of Summer

XXVI. Sex, Drugs, Etc. - Beach Weather

XXVII. Sarah Smiles - Panic! At The Disco

XXVIII. Dress - Taylor Swift

XXIX. Puzzle Piece - NCT Dream

XXX. Karma - Taylor Swift

XXXI. Criminal Love - Enhypen

XXXII. Die For You - The Weeknd

XXXIII. seven - Taylor Swift

XXXIV. Not In The Same Way - 5 Seconds of Summer

XXXV. Style - Taylor Swift

XXXVI. I Think He Knows - Taylor Swift

XXXVII. jealousy, jealousy - Olivia Rodrigo

XXXVIII. Afterglow - Taylor Swift

XXXIX. Love Me Now - NCT 127

XL. Love Me Harder - WOODZ

XLI. Paper Rings - Taylor Swift

XLII. Sweet - Cigarettes After Sex

XLIII. Animal - Troye Sivan

XLIV. Adore you - Harry Styles

XLV. Crush - Cigarettes After Sex

XLVI. DON'T WANNA SLEEP - Måneskin

XLVII. King Of My Heart - Taylor Swift

XLVIII. The Shining - The Neighbourhood

XLIX. Don't Stop - 5 Seconds of Summer

L. Timezone - Måneskin

LI. Boyfriend - Dove Cameron

LII. Don't Blame Me - Taylor Swift

LIII. Lover Of Mine - 5 Seconds of Summer

LIV. Wherever You Are - Kodaline

LV. I Like Me Better - Lauv

LVI. Nicotine - Panic! At The Disco

LVII. Mine (Taylor's Version) - Taylor Swift

LVIII. The Only Exception - Paramore

LIX. About You - The 1975

LX. Heavenly - Cigarettes After Sex

#sunghoon smau #park sunghoon smau #enhypen sunghoon smau #sunghoon x reader #sunghoon fanfic #park sunghoon au #park sunghoon fanfic #sunghoon au

[writingquestionsanswered]

Do you have tips on writing lullabies? It's for a mom character from my story who often sings lullabies to her kid. I'm not exactly the best at writing song lyrics, so I would appreciate some tips on writing lullabies.

Tips on Writing Lullabies

First, I want to say that most traditional lullabies like Rock-a-Bye Baby, Hush-a-Bye, and Hush Little Baby are in the public domain, meaning that it's okay for you to use them in your story. If your story is set in our world, you may just want to have your character sing a traditional lullaby rather than writing your own. Just double-check that the song isn't anachronistic and that it is, in fact, in the public domain.

If you're writing a story set in an imaginary world, or there's some other reason why you feel an original lullaby would make more sense, it helps to understand a little bit of what lullabies actually are. The earliest known lullaby was recorded on a clay tablet in cuneiform script 4,000 years ago in Babylon, what is now modern-day Iraq. Like many lullabies over the centuries, it is a little dark and comes with a message for the baby: essentially, stop crying or you'll wake up the house demon. Many researchers believe that part of the function of a lullaby is to help the parent vocalize their fears in relation to the baby, whether that fear is related to the baby's mortality, the potential danger of crying (attracting predators or angering others), or even more personal concerns bothering the mother.

So, a good place to start is with your story's setting... where does the parent character live? Where did they grow up? What concerns do they have or might their parents have had (or the parents of that town/village/culture) that would make it into a lullaby?

For example, let's say you're writing a fantasy and the parent character comes from a village at the foot of a mountain range where mining is the primary industry, and heavy rains fall in the winter months which sometimes create dangerous conditions in the mine. From here you can imagine a parent sitting at home, rocking their baby to sleep while they wait for the other parent to return from the mines... but because it's raining, there's now the fear that the other parent won't return because the rains are so dangerous. How might that translate into a song? How might the parent vocalize these fears in some way to the child?

Some other things to keep in mind are the typical sound and structure of a lullaby:

-- 6/8 time signature with no more than 5 notes is common -- slow, melodic tones reminiscent of a heartbeat -- rhythm that works with rocking or gentle swinging -- few words, repeated over and over

You might even look at existing lullabies and use them as a template. Let's say I want to create my miner-related lullaby using Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as a guide:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, How I wonder what you are! Up above the world so high, Like a diamond in the sky. When the blazing sun is gone, When he nothing shines upon, Then you show your little light, Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.

So, maybe it could be something like...

Rain, rain, the winter rain Mother's in the mines. May she find her way to you her darling Valentine. Rain, rain, the winter rain Father's turn will come. May the sun be shining soon, for now the day is done. It's simple and it tells a little story... these parents take turns working in the mines, and it's dangerous work. The parent left behind is always hoping the other parent will make it home to them, and that the rain will stop so it's not so dangerous.

Another example worth noting is the lullaby from The Hunger Games, Deep in the Meadow. (You can read the lyrics here.) This lullaby is lighthearted on the surface... it paints a beautiful picture of a meadow where the child will be safe and loved. But the darker undertone is that the meadow is the safe place while the rest of the world the child lives in is not safe, and that obviously hearkens to the specific world that Katniss and her family grew up in.

And while we're on the subject, although it's not a lullaby, the ballad The Hanging Tree, also from The Hunger Games, has a similar origin in terms of matching theme to setting. (You can read about it here, CW for dark themes.)

I hope that will help you figure out a lullaby for your story!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[the-gateway-to-madness]

It sorta bothers me that post-series people are still complaining about 3Below being disconnected from the rest of Tales of Arcadia. For me, it was a refreshing break from the densely-packed fantasy lore and an intriguing peek at the way the universe beyond Arcadia and Earth functions. I liked the character arcs and interpersonal connections. And there was ample room for me to come up with a bunch of my own headcanons, which I love! I absolutely love being able to slot pieces of my own mind and soul into an existing world! I don't like shows where I'm told how every little detail works, that's way too much to remember. Instead I want enough to create an idea of the rules and how things might have gone/might continue to go and fill in whatever else I want.

Also, I think 3Below was SUPPOSED to be a lot more connected before Wizards got cut down. Tons of ideas didn't make it into the limited series run- I remember hearing stuff about Mordred being involved, a lost Krel arc, and I'm sure a lot of lore that would have bound the worlds together more closely. When they mentioned Gaylen's core came from Earth, there was clearly supposed to be more to that, but it got cut out. I'm like 93% sure Gaylen was a being who was part of or similar to the Arcane Order, but was drawn to the cosmos rather than to a part of the Earth. That would indicate that Akiridion tech and magic are compatible because Akiridions' energy-based life was initially magical, but those roots were largely forgotten because of how old a civilization Akiridion is. They've been spacefaring since humans were cavepeople. If the Order existed from the primeval dawn of the world, and Gaylen left not long after that, Akiridion could be millenia ahead of Earth. Or, heck, maybe Earth was the first or only livable world, and Gaylen created the Order to look after it before going off to try to find or create life elsewhere. I always headcanoned that Seklos was more powerful than most Akiridions or even the Royals that came after her, given the fact her core alone was enough to stop Gaylen while in the modern era it requires two royal cores. Maybe she was created by Gaylen to be Akiridion's version of an Arcane Order type being, and she created normal Akiridions, which she then had kids with, diluting her power in the Royals that followed. There's so much ancient history to unpack from just the tidbits we were given.

As for the modern era, there seems to very distinctly be a major intergalactic connection. The drunk ship operator in episode 3 of 3b s1 that the Zerons interrogate talks about ship classifications, which indicates a universal or at least an interplanetary system of ship ratings. We also see interplanetary tourism, and signs that Akiridion is one of the most advanced and influential planets out there.

3Below doesn't need to continue the plot of Trollhunters to be a valid part of Tales of Arcadia. It brought an energy to ToA that was somewhere between Star Trek TNG and Babylon 5, and I love how it expands the weirdness of Arcadia. If it was supposed to be a continuation of Trollhunters, they would have made more Trollhunters. But it's not Trollhunters, it's 3Below. And Wizards isn't Trollhunters either! I honestly think that Camelot, Douxie, and the world of wizards could have been written such that the Trollhunters cast was much less focal, and that if they'd given the show the time it needed and deserved to tell its story, it would have been fleshed-out and fascinating all on its own, with or without the TH gang. Where are the magic users beyond the reach of Camelot? Are there merfolk, sirens, harpies, dryads, more dragons, or other sapient races living on Earth with their own civilizations and magic and cultures? There are so many worlds and so many potential stories out there, on Earth and beyond, in the Tales of Arcadia universe. Arcadia just happens to be the narrative meshing point of them all. And I think that's a really cool way to build a universe.

Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk, here's more Akiridion development as a treat for making it this far.

#Tales of Arcadia #3below tales of arcadia #trollhunters tales of arcadia #wizards tales of arcadia #toa #jim lake jr #toby domzalski #jim lake junior #toa trollhunters #claire nunez #hisirdoux casperan #douxie #toa wizards #trollhunters #toa 3below #3below #krel tarron #aja tarron

[beansidhebumbling]

Babylon Rises

What Comes Before-An Introduction

Sleep had never been Nesta's friend.

Lavender oil, chamomile tea, yoga, melatonin- pretty promises that she'd land within the Sandman's grasp. Like the desperate do she tried them all and watched them fail. Her new nightime routine a pilates princess' wet dream, mood lighting and steaming mugs of flower water and the gentle stretching of aching muscles, was aesthetically pleasing and utterly useless.

***

In her youth it had seemed like a superpower.

She did not bow to the night.

Her resistance to rest had been useful when cramming for finals, turning pages in the wee hours in the Aberaes wing, Redbull night shakes entirely unnecessary. It had carried her through college and the early trials of corporate law.

In those hazy days of young adulthood, dancing to club music into the wee hours, glitter dusting her skin and coke her nose, it felt like being invincible. Frenzied messy fucking one hour, dabbing Velvet Teddy on her lips on the corporate commute the next.

Stilettos sharp, mind sharper- Nesta fucking Archeron.

***

But as 35 came and went, marked by middling sushi and excellent company, the creeping fear began.

"You know Nes, averaging 2 hours sleep isn't healthy for you."

Gwyn was in doctor mode, from the worried tilt of her fine brows to her crossed arms as she leaned across the glass table, her matcha pushed to the side.

"Yeah I know. I know. I'm on it, I swear G, just don't tell Em."

"Don't tell Em what?"

The familiar voice floated from somewhere behind her.

Fuck.

***

Nesta eyed her double shot macchiato and wondered for a brief hopeful moment if she could drown herself in it, before turning guiltily to meet her friend's hard stare.

"The tea you gave me didn't work."

"Well shit, Archeron. That should have cleared any grade 5 spirits. What the fuck is clinging to you?"

Emerie shook her head, waves of ebony curls writhing in shared disbelief.

Claiming a seat beside Gwyn, her friend pursed her blue-stained lips in a familiarly threatening way and Nesta found the celebration rapidly descending into an inquisition.

***

The grilling was nothing new.

The same roladex of suspects was resurrected each time- stress, diets, spirits. Each had their favourite.

Gwyn, doctor and yogi claimed it was stress. Her friend, a research fiend, sent links to Pubmed every second day on the hormonal and immunological consequences of stress. In a way that, ironically, did little but exacerbate the pressure she felt.

Nesta hoped for diet, lived in faith that eliminating some carb or nightshade or sugar would bring her the peace of a full REM cycle. And if she dropped from a size 14 to an 8 in the process, then maybe Elain would stop sending her emails about spin classes in that passively bitchy way of hers.

Emerie's theory was the strangest by a mile.

"I'm telling you Nes, with all due respects to any of Berdara's papers this problem is one on the spiritual plane."

The demon-hunter raised an ornately manicured hand as Gwyn opened her mouth.

"Before you start, I don't doubt for a second Archeron could do with taking that stick out of her ass, Berdara."

Gwyn settled back in her seat as Nesta huffed indignantly.

"Whatever this is, it has serious mojo. I'm getting worried, the Illyrian dream traps I've placed around your room are filling far too quickly."

"We live in a haunted house Em, that's not exactly surprising."

Nesta retorted, her eyes tightening as the familiar pulsing in her temples that preceded her routine migraines began.

Today was not going as planned.

"I know the girl who became a mere believer a decade ago isn't lecturing me. I am a hunter Archeron and this isn't my first rodeo."

Emerie's eyebrows raised in challenge.

"I'm not. Definitely not. But Em, like you said I'm just a believer, and only that because I know you. I've no affiliation to the Other. It seems more likely it could be dairy, I was..'

Gwyn's sigh caused the pretty waitress to glance up from her physics textbook at the counter, before returning to her work following Nesta's bashful wave.

"I cannot listen to the potential dastardly powers of brie again, Nesta. That is well trodden ground. Let the rodeo queen continue."

Emerie flipped the redhead the bird before continuing.

"The Others are less concerned with bothering the Unseeing than we are topside. So it doesn't matter that you can't See. They don't exactly mind their manners or well, I'd be shit out of a job. Lucky for you, I happen to be very good at said job."

Pausing, Em reached into the chest pocket of her favourite leather trench, before pulling out an egg sized red jewel with a look of sheer triumph.

"Is that a ruby?"

Gwyn gasped.

Emerie scoffed before muttering dryly.

"Easy to stay humble with you two. "

"This is no mere ruby. This, my idiots, is an Illyrian protection stone. A rumoured fable, I hold the first found in three centuries reportedly."

"By you?"

"Yes by me, Archeron."

Emerie harrumphed.

"You could sound slightly less skeptical especially considering it's for you."

With that Emerie stretched her tattooed palm across the table and dropped the stone in Nesta's palm.

With a lupine smile she added.

"Go buy me another Americano and I'll tell you how I've saved your life. Add a shot of caramel, it's the least you can do for your saviour Nessie."

***

In the sticky blackness of the Other Cassian awakened and mountains moved. With the crack of his wings the promise of war grew ripe in the air.

In his slumber much had changed.

Babylon had fallen. Like him.

But she had found him.

His mate.

And so, like the tide he would rise.

And find his way to her.

#nessian #acotar #nesta #cassian #I'm now sleep deprived #continue or nah? #gemwrites

[ooksaidthelibrarian]

Babylon 5 Rewatch S1E5:  The Parliament of Dreams

man I love the Drazi so much

dude, Garibaldi is testing everyone's faith

I am so sorry but the B5 romantic music to me is always like *air raid sirens* this will be a problem

I really like Catherine, mind you, it's not about her, but so many stories featuring that music end so badly :D

please tell me this is a real pig's head

(read more because this got long)

it's certainly live crayfish he has there (I hopes someone gave them a good home after, they are such neat little guys)

jeez this episode has so much going on

Andreas Katsulas has a great singing voice

I bet the 'you stay put' was ad libbed LOL

NA'TOTH

iirc the actress of Ko D'ath was allergic to the makeup so they ended up having to change out G'Kar's attachés but it works out extremely for this plot

'Catherine's on board' 'Ah.' ...that Ah had a looooot of words

that whole scene at the Cenauri banquet is so quotable

Garibaldi IS cute in an annoying sort of way

'but in purple, I am stunning!'

I really appreciate it that Sinclair and Catherine get to be adults about their reelationship

it's awkward af but also extremely relatable

'I let you and your pants get to your business' LOL

speaking of pants, Catherine's outfit is hot

G'Kar's pyjamas are iconic - I bet Khan Noonian Singh would love those

the iridescence of G'Kar's costume is so pretty

LENNIER :D :D

I once quoted the 'you will be forever walking into things' line in a fic and so far only one person picked up on it :D

Andreas Katsulas always toes the line of ridiculously over the top with G'Kar and it works extremely well - G'Kar just is a dramatic dude

this episode is a really great showcase for the chemistry the cast has with each other

G'Kar switching out his lil religious tomato out with Ivanova's in the background

the way Katsulas uses the panties as a prop to gesture with is so good :D

THE GLASSES OMG

Na'Toth is such a good liar :D

'You will know pain. You will know fear. And then you will die. Have a pleasant flight!'

otoh of course humans are again the only ones where the culture isn't a monolith but otoh I do absolutely love that scene of Sinclair showing all of the different believes of Earth

#babylon 5 #b5 #babylon 5 rewatch #b5 rewatch #b5 parliament of dreams #dai watches b5

[gretchensinister]

Babylon 5 rewatch, S1 E9: Deathwalker

Please Kosh when is the "hour of scampering." Can u send me a teams invite.

I don't think I remember this episode, I really don't know why it was ON SIGHT with Na'Toth vs. the person she called Deathwalker

All right, so multiple species know about Deathwalker, but Sinclair and Garibaldi don't associate this person on B5 with that name.

Looks like Talia figured out when the hour of scampering was

"Understanding is a three-edged sword." -> Child me pondering deeply

I missed weird hat guy's name but I doubt he's human

She was carrying around her old uniform from her war crimes

G'Kar has MANY people he has to kill on sight???

Everyone is trying to get Deathwalker...and not to arrest her it seems

So she was with a group of Minbari called Windswords...and the hole in Sinclair's mind gets brought up again.

When is the hour of longing, Kosh???

Lennier...baby nerd monk vibes...

Well this immortality serum is really just a way for her to toy with people isn't it.

Good point Garibaldi! And he's right to be suspicious, I think I do remember what's going on with that serum.

Those are such intense contacts in her costume, I'm continually impressed by the alien face makeup in this show.

Kosh what are you doing and why

Interesting, that exchange about the Minbari keeping the secret of Deathwalker, because if I remember correctly the concept that Minbari don't lie comes up in several other circumstances

Love seeing all the different-shaped ships, bad circumstance tho

Sooooo shady Kosh

That was the thing! One immortal requires one murder. I remember this now

Kosh you have been shady this episode but thank you for being a deus ex machina for this horrible project paperclip situation

The Vorlons are wary of telepaths oh BOY that is hardly the whole story about Vorlons and telepaths

#babylon 5 #b5-rewatch #b5 rewatch

[babylon5]

hi this is jms from writing i got lock out of my twitter accont so i made this one i need five or 5 thousand dollar's in order to complete babylon fiv5 re boot on the cw production order please can You give me your credit cart number and experienation date and the three numbers on the back. thanks this is really me

#i'd give it just on the off chance it was him even though it isn't #i really want babylon 5 back.

[thelongestway]

Babylon 5, first watch on the rewatch, "Mind War"

This is one of the three episodes I'd been waiting for - because I'd had the soundtrack for it (as well as for "Geometry of Shadows" and "Parliament of Dreams") in my collection since forever. And it does not disappoint, both in A and B plots!

....Okay that's one hell of a transport shuttle.

Ohh, here we go, psionics and psions! Garibaldi, the "play stupid games - win stupid prises" world champion! The psy corps speaking silently is gold, goddamned show offs (and of course it's Sinclair who goes "you will speak to me normally")!

...and it's implied that the shuttle pilot took down their attackers by psionics. Niice.

And then we have a cascade of worldbuilding: Talia's friend and lover (and lol, now I know where every single one of my DMs that did mindfucking got their impression of it from, that description was very familiar) has been experimented on and gained telekinesis and much more. Ironheart (what an evocative name!) murdered the one person who could replicate the process, destroyed the data and ran off, to finish becoming (suddenly LWD vibes and transcendence, say hello to that one lieutenant (?) and Badgey for us!).

I find it interesting here that the runaway psion didn't consider: the psy corps now know it's possible to enchance psionics. That it's not a fool's game. No matter what he does, it's going to be replicated, data or no data.

I love how the psionic interrogation gets played, all sinister acting.

The psy corps gets absolutely schooled ("there goes the another calculated risk!"), one person dies and the other gets blackmailed by Sinclair (for a boyscout type, he does a lot of this). The runaway psion finishes his transformation and gifts Talia with telekinesis, which she had zero aptitude for, before departure.

I wonder, is she no longer technically a Grade... 5, was it? Did telekinesis come with other upgrades?

Meanwhile, Sinclair's girlfriend isn't going to listen to the Narn. G'Kar suddenly stops being a comedic threatning alien, and just... Quietly goes to rescue her. No one here is what they seem, indeed; looking forward to that! I loved the slow collapse out of orbit, and G'kar's "yeah, we are just ants to someone, I sort of like it, even though it's terrifying."

Very strong episode, all around!

#b5 rewatch #b5 #babylon 5 #i like mindfuckers ok