Mal's thought dump

Everything-But-The-Grocky Edition, since they were taking up too much space and this is long enough already. Divided roughly by category but not by rating, expect porn, angst, etc. Please remember to comment and kudos directly on the fic, not here.

Gen

Cunk on Erid by Macremae / @dykegrindr rating: teen warnings: none author summary: In this BBC documentary special, Philomena Cunk travels to the planet Erid to pose the questions no one else would even think to ask. rec: Exactly what it says on the tin, cracky and brilliant. Complete.

Discordant by @evienyx rating: teen warnings: none author summary: “What are you talking about?” Grace's fingers played quick chords as he spoke. He didn’t even look as he did it, but it did not make them any less purposeful.

“Discussing possible reasons why Tau Ceti is not infected while other stars are,” Eva replied deftly. “I would invite you to join, but we were just finishing—”

“Oh, that’s easy.” His hand twisted a knob, and the notes came out sharper. “It is infected—Petrova Line and everything.”

In Grace's opinion, dreaming about time traveling is no excuse for getting out of practice with his Eridian. To the rest of the Petrova Taskforce, it seems a bit odd that their resident Astrophage expert has suddenly taken to carrying a keyboard around and playing it whenever he speaks. Eva Stratt resolves to figure out what is going on. rec: Epic time travel fic of the "wake up back in your bed as if your entire life was just a dream" variety, it'll hit you over the head with an angsty brick and you will LIKE IT. It's a fix-it (my description, not the authors) that creates as many problems as it solves, and a really interesting character study of Grace as he would have been at the end of his life on Erid. Aroace soulmate yearning that will rip your heart out. Also very good Eva POV. Overall just an amazing dreamy vibe, unique and very well written. WIP with consistent updates.

Show Me a Self-Contained Group in an Isolated Area and I'll Show You a Betting Ring by Top40Trash / @proginoskes rating: not rated warnings: author chose not to use author summary: "Gossip is a demeaning and heavily gendered word that I don’t think shows the appropriate respect for Doctor Lokken and her contributions to the mission.” DuBois crossed his arms as the ascent pushed them back into their chairs.

rec: Slice of life on the Vat, delightful Olyesa POV. The ground crew really gets to shine here, nearly every named character is present and intact with all their quirks. Olyesa is much more integrated into that web of relationships than Ryland was and it shows. Canon compliant. Complete.

Yao & Ilyukhina Live They get their own section because they are very important to me.

Expendable (48 bolts and a cup of coffee) by strangeandintoxicating rating: teen warnings: suicide, major character death (canon) author summary: "What do you think happened, Captain?"

"Don't know. Don't care. Need coffee."

A pause. Then, "Do we wake Grace?"

"No."

"But—"

"No, Ilyukhina."

rec: My favorite Yao and Ilyukhina fic hands down, their characterization here is perfect. Earth's heroes finally get their due. Canon compliant. Complete.

orbital trajectory assist by traybake rating: teen warnings: none author summary: Ilyukhina and Yáo do not die whilst in their medical comas aboard the Hail Mary, but they do not wake either.

Not until Operation Time Go Fishing.

This makes all the difference.

or; Ilyukhina hasn't even been awake one hour, and they've already nearly died three times and there's a literal alien rock that's distressed beyond belief.

rec: A true "What if they lived?" fix-it fic, with WIP "What if they got to go home?" sequel! Very funny and realistic depiction of two actual astronauts walking in on Grace and Rocky's Chaotic Deathwish Adventure. Complete.

two fewer funerals by Cimmeria rating: teen warnings: none author summary: "Olesya," she says. "Ilyukhina. I'm the engineer here, and he is pilot and commander." She hooks her thumb over at Yao as she says it.

"You," she continues, gesturing forwards with both hands, "are our scientist. I hope you remember science?"

"Um." Do I remember science? I think so.

Or: The Hail Mary, with two fewer funerals.

rec: Everyone wakes up together, just as Stratt intended, and it's delicious. Spot on Grace POV in this one. Only three four! chapters so far but they are SO WORTH IT. Even if you never read WIPs, try this one, it's like Andy Weir but better.

Ships

Strattland

Little Science Lapdog by Likelightinglass rating: explicit warnings: none author summary: Ryland Grace has some inappropriate thoughts sitting in Eva Stratt's office alone.

When she comes in, he gets to learn some new things about himself and what he likes.

rec: Sooo much more than it says on the tin - a fun, fluffy, Stratt/Grace fantasy that's just a little left from canon without being wildly OOC. Also contains some extremely high quality aroace femdom porn that remembers to treat the domme as a person. Sort-of WIP, this is a completed one shot that continues to get bonus updates.

Running From The Bullets by youhaveamerryheart rating: mature warnings: author chose not to use author summary: Eva Stratt liked outliers. She always had.

So it was a bit of a disappointment to find that face to face Dr Ryland Grace was actually very milquetoast.

rec: Angsty slow burn romance that is secretly an Eva Stratt character study. They're both allo in this one but otherwise very in character, and it really has the vibe of falling for someone as the sun is setting on the world, one of the many ways Eva's POV permeates the narrative. WIP nearing completion (?) nearing where the book leaves off anyway.

Everything She Wants by wrldbeyond rating: explicit warnings: author chose not to use author summary: “I can think of a few ways you can prove it to me.” She begins. “But are you ready to take that responsibility on?”

I'm nodding my head before I can even realize, stumbling over my words like a fool. “Yes— I completely am. Ready for whatever.” - or, Ryland ends up offering a favor to Eva in return for research equipment.

did they have crew livestreams like this? did yao wave as he sent back pictures of earth, of the moon, of the planets as they passed? did ilyukhina toast the camera as she sent back samples of asteroid belt dust and planetary readings?

Grace was put into coma by the people who cared about him. They (especially Yáo being Yáo) probably double-triple-quadruple checked everything. They watched him sleep for those first few days — I doubt they went into coma immediately after leaving Earth's orbit. They probably talked to him, assuring him that he'll be okay.

Ilyukhina's coma procedure was probably supervised by Yáo. He made sure that everything was in order, but — he is just one man and he is not a doctor. There was much more room for mistakes.

When Yáo went to sleep, he was alone. He had to rely on the technology completely.

The only information we have on Elven childhood and maturation comes from Laws and Customs of the Eldar (Histories of Middle-earth Volume X).

For at the end of the third year mortal children began to outstrip the Elves, hastening on to a full stature while the Elves lingered in the first spring of childhood. Children of Men might reach their full height while Eldar of the same age were still in body like to mortals of no more than seven years. Not until the fiftieth year did the Eldar attain the stature and shape in which their lives would after- wards endure, and for some a hundred years would pass before they were full-grown.

In other words, Elves grow almost as quickly as Men until their third birthday and then slow dramatically. They look seven when Men are reaching adulthood. They come of age at fifty but often aren’t fully grown until 100 - so fifty might be the human equivalent of 17 or 18, when adolescents come of age in most societies, while 100 is the equivalent of 25, when the human brain actually finishes maturing. Then, of course, Elves cease to grow altogether. Now it’d be really useful to have a graph showing Elven ages versus the comparable human maturities, so ‘thirty-five-year-old Elf’ actually means something. And if we just connect the dots between our data points, we get a really ugly and uneven growth pattern. We want something that starts fast and then levels out, eventually becoming asymptotic (no matter how long they live, Elves will never reach the physical age of a human 30-year-old). 

The obvious solution is a logistic curve, usually used in population growth and resource saturation models. I had to modify it a little bit to manage the fact that Elves grow at the same rate as Men for the first three years of their lives (that’s the ugly little start to the curve there), but from three forward Tolkien’s statements on Elven aging can be perfectly modeling by a logistic function. I set the asymptote at 27: no matter how long an Elf lives, their body will never mature past the physical age of a human 27-year-old. At 18, 19, or 20 years old, an Elf will look 7. At fifty, they’ll be 18. At 100, 26. Just like Tolkien specified, sort of.

So now we can answer all the urgent questions of the legendarium. Maeglin was 12 when Eöl named him; how old is the human equivalent? About five and a half. In the Annals of Aman Fëanor is 16 when his father remarries: what is the equivalent? Six and three-quarters. 

In my timeline for the birth of the Finwean grandchildren, Maedhros is forty when Fingon is born: what does that translate to? 14 and a half. What age-equivalent are Galadriel’s big brothers when she’s born? Twenty-one, fifteen, and nine respectively. 

We do not get many details about Finwë and Indis’ youngest son but the ones we do get paint a very interesting picture and I’ve wanted to write for a while about why.

There are two details that set me off on that quest. The first one is this line, from the Silmarillion: 

High princes were Fëanor and Fingolfin, the elder sons of Finwë, honoured by all in Aman.

The phrasing there strongly seems to suggest to me that Finarfin wasn’t a high prince. Why not? Because Fëanor and Nolofinwë are elder, the text offers, but seriously? If you have three sons, and you arbitrarily announce that your oldest two sons will have a position ‘honored by all in Aman’, that seriously begs the question of why only the two of them.

The second detail is from the Shibboleth: 

 [Findis] did not go into exile, but went with her mother after the slaying of Finwë and they abode among the Vanyar in grief until such time as it seemed good to Manwë to restore Finwë to life.

So after Finwë’s murder Fëanor and Fingolfin and Lalwen go off into exile. Finarfin goes with them but then returns after the Kinslaying, eventually taking up the crown in Tirion. And Findis and Indis…leave Tirion to live in Valimar until Finwë comes back? There’s another version of this in LACE, and in that one they go to the Halls of Ingwë.

I’m sure they are grieving. I’m sure it is terrible. But do you know who just suffered a grief significanly more terrible than yours? Arafinwë just watched all of his children leave for an exile they were doomed to mostly die in, immediately after his brother’s army committed a kinslaying in his wife’s city (also the city far dearer to his own heart than Tirion). What started me thinking about Arafinwë’s relationship with his family was  increasingly realizing I could not imagine there was any meaningful relationship between Indis or Findis and Arafinwë, because if there were they wouldn’t have left him alone under those circumstances.

My attempt at an english version

Explanation below

Aspirations of the Third Prince [Celegorm]

Finally sharing my contribution to the @feanorian-zine !

the sons of Fëanor try baking a cake while blind, deaf, mute, and stuck on Thangorodrim!