radchmeme | Discussion post

How are we counting? I can think of a few characters where I have no idea how old they are for the purpose of this rule.

Anaander: is 3000 years old, but some of her bodies are less than ten. Personally putting those bodies in sexual situations squicks me and I don't want to prompt that or write it or read it, but I doubt Anaander would give a fuck and I can see different people drawing this line in different places.

One Esk 19: at the point in time immediately the rest of her was killed, One Esk's consciousness was about 2000 years old, and her one remaining body had been alive for about 400 years, but was developmentally 16 years old (put into suspension at 16, suspended for centuries, then thawed out and hooked up just days before everything went to hell.)

Tisarwat: was 17 years old before Anaander made her into part of Anaander. Then she was 3000 years old with a 17 year old body. A few weeks after that, Breq and Medic took the implants out, resulting in an entirely new person. That person has the memories of a 17 year old and a 3000 year old, the body of a 17 year old, but her consciousness is by now less than two months old.

Same anon: I forgot two.

Dlique and Zeiat: it is never stated in canon how old they are, or indeed whether chronological time has any meaning to them.

Physical age; I'm not getting into the mental age mindfield. Dlique, Zeiat and Tisarwat are fine. No Uran, kid Anaander, or kid One Esk 19. Setting a story later when they're older is fine.

Edited 2016-12-02 18:10 (UTC)

Got it. Thanks for clarifying.

No problem. And wow, how did I type mindfield instead of minefield...

Makes sense to me that a mental minefield would be a mindfield.

A thread for songs you would not put in a serious playlist, but which you are irrationally, embarrassingly convinced are perfect for Radch characters. Or, alternatively, put your music on shuffle, and then comment here and make a case about how the next song that comes up is perfect for a particular character.

This thread is brought to you by Mawgs' crack Anaander playlist, and by my efforts not to include Dresden Dolls' 'Girl Anachronism' in any Seivarden playlist I may or may not be making. The struggle is real.

okay but Girl Anachronism is clearly just... about Seivarden. I mean seriously

...And the next song on shuffle was They Might Be Giants' 'The Mesopotamians', which is now giving me vague Breq&Sphene vibes. hey man i thought that you were dead, i thought you crashed your car / no man i've been right here this whole time playing bass guitar

And okay, 95% of The Mariner's Revenge Song is way too specific to apply, but think about Breq singing It took me fifteen years to swallow all my tears among the urchins in the street / until a priory took pity and hired me to keep their vestry nice and neat / but never once in the employ of these holy kin / did i ever once turn my mind from the thought of REVENGE, oh

YES. Definitely a song for Breq. It has all her favourite things: ships, marine biology, justice, and revenge.

While I'm on the Decemberists, I can really easily imagine Seivarden drunkenly, earnestly karaokeing 'We Both Go Down Together'- it doesn't work at all as a Breq/Seivarden song, but it does have classism and people falling off cliffs! But any song about overdramatic devotion reminds me of Seivarden. ...She's totally the one who puts 'Take Me To Church' on all her playlists. Or 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark'. Or both, she's not a subtle person.

And speaking of the Dresden Dolls, Breq and 'The Killing Type'? I've seen the pictures from a thousand years of battle and I think it's such a bore-

Don't know that one, I stopped after her first solo album. *looks up lyrics* Okay, at first I couldn't see it, but by the time I got to the end I was on board. She could be singing to Awn in one verse and Anaander in another.

Seivarden is totally the person who puts 'Take Me To Church' on all her playlists. On a locked partition that only she and Mercy of Kalr have access to, there's probably also one with 'The Mystery' by the Indigo Girls, which she sings along to when she's drunk enough.

"So what is love then,
Is it dictated or chosen?
Does it sing like the hymns of 1000 years,
Or is it just pop emotion?"

And

"But you like the taste of danger,
It shines like sugar on your lips
And you like to stand in the line of fire,
Just to show you can shoot straight from your hip

There must be 1000 things you would die for,
I can hardly think of two.
But not everything is better spoken aloud,
Not when I'm talking to you."

Ship joins in for this part:

"Oh the pirate gets the ship and the girl tonight,
Breaks a bottle to christen her.
And basking in the exploits of her thief,
She's a very good listener."

Pretty much de-anoning for this comment, since I've already posted about this on Tumblr, but: Girlyman. 'No Matter What I Do' is so Seivarden it should get hazard pay:

"I had a dream, maybe you could tell me what it means
The world it was ending, sending me into the blue
The stars went away, the sky was a blackened ball of grey
Nothing to say, I sat and waited there for you

It's like I never felt before
Everything's changed and now is more
But still there's the thought, it's all for naught, it won't come true
I keep it all locked inside my chest
Like feeling like shit is for the best
Like feeling the earth still turn no matter what I do"

And 'Long Time Gone' is the most Breq thing ever except that (crossing the fandom streams here) it's also the most Cheris&Jedao thing ever in a completely orthogonal way (and I feel guilty about both of these headcanons because it's actually about the songwriter's struggle with cancer.)

"When I look around for anything familiar
Even my reflection shows another face
Even my voice singing sounds out of place

Every lie that I believed when I was little
Every thought that I was selfish, I was bad
Now they gather round me, all that I have

I'm a long time gone
The calendar carried along
No one could see me and no one could save me
From my own song
When it all comes home
Living this life all alone
No one to care for me, nothing is fair
It's a climb up the stairs to a place unknown"

I remember people talking about playlists on tumblr but have no idea who was who, so don't worry you're still anon to me, lol. And you're right, 'Long Time Gone' is great for Breq (actually Seivarden and Tisarwat both probably get emotional about it too when either of them is feeling especially mopey)

That's TOTALLY Cheris & Jedao, omg. *ninefox gambit fan high five*

Discussion post

the under-17 rule

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SONG THREAD

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Re: SONG THREAD