#machigi

[ Image descriptions: two head-and-shoulder illustrations of atevi, the indigenous people of the Earth of the Atevi from C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series of science-fiction novels. they are black-skinned humanoids with pointed ears and golden eyes.  One portrait is of an young atevi male, looking fairly put out, his hair unbound and loose around his face, done in a sketchy washy style.  The other portrait is of a young female, done in a looser painted style. Her hair is tied back behind her head in a loose ponytail with a cord, with wisps of hair blowing around her face.  She is wearing a rough-spun, brown collared shirt. end ID. ]

It’s been a while since I’ve done anything with Foreigner fan-stuff, but if you’re interested in the series*, you might enjoy some of the work I’ve done.  I will warn you ahead of time: it’s mostly fan fiction (I wrote a book, called Connection, about Machigi, the Lord of the Marid), though I did some work on maps that I need to get back to**.  It’s all available on my website***, if you want to take a look (jackalgirl.net) and also on AO3 (the version there has more illustrations and also features a 100% consistent misspelling of the planet’s capital city because I just can’t even right now).  See my pinned post for links, or just hit up my website and scroll to the “Foreigner” section.

* I can’t recommend Foreigner enough -- it’s so, so very good.  All you folks who’ve been reposting The Terror and Pride and Prejudice giftsets and fandom-related things: I assure you that you will love this series.

** I’ve been rereading the 21-book series and trying to incorporate as many of the place-names that I come across as I can, as well as creating book-specific close-in maps.  These are all available on jackalgirl.net.

So, I was messing around in the kitchen today (nothing exploded, yay!) and since the madeline pan I bought from King Arthur Flour is very prominently stamped with “USA Pan”, I figured I’d try looking up to see if it might cost less to buy directly from the manufacturer (answer: no; KAF and UP charge the same).

BUT!  I saw a whole section at the website about allergy ID pans & bakeware: it’s aluminum anodized to purple, which according to the description is the standard color in the US food preparation industry for segregating tools used to prepare food for people with food allergies.  I hadn’t ever known about this (otoh, I’m not involved in the food preparation industry nor do I regularly cook or bake for people with food allergies, so I’m not surprised to have only just discovered this).

It reminded me so very strongly of Machigi’s kitchen staff at Tanaja presenting all of the human-safe comestibles on green-glazed ceramic tableware (the Marid has an exceptional ceramic craft industry) in C.J. Cherryh’s Foreigner series.  Delightful!  And potentially useful, too.

[ Image description: book cover, against a marbled paper background in muted blues and greens, depicting a primitively-styled pair of jellyfish-like creatures with their tendrils interwoven and the text “Connection: being a fan work set in the world of C. J. Cherryh’s Foreigner, by Kathryn Woods Prentice.  End ID. ]

It’s done.  Finally done, friends. I mean, completely posted and edited and first edition made available -- my Foreigner fanfic, “Connection”, is complete.

If you’re interested in such things, it’s available in two places (for free!):

Archive of Our Own: Connection series page (which includes a section of illustrations not in the eBook versions and which I might continue to update)

Jackalgirl.net: as a downloadable eBook in ePub (3.78 MB) and PDF (19.58MB) formats.

I am gob-stoppered (and still in somewhat of a haze) to note that C.J. Cherryh gave me the ok to make the ePub/PDF documents available, but it’s important to understand that this doesn’t make it official, endorsed, supported, or even recognized by her or DAW Books.  It’s still a completely unauthorized, unofficial, self-indulgent, almost 100% non-canon novel.  Don’t get attached.

I highly recommend that you read all 21 books of Foreigner before you get into this -- firstly, because Connection is set after all that; secondly, so you have a good sense of the canon characters and world before you start; and lastly because it’s a cracking good read.  However, doing this should not be necessary -- if you want, you an jump right into Connection.

Disclaimers: for personal use only, not for sale, do not sell copies of either or both of these files.  Opinions expressed within are mine only and do not reflect those of C. J. Cherryh or DAW Books.

It was early evening when the last of the day’s meetings had finished and the ministers all took their leave.  Machigi retreated to the map room to stand by the bank of windows there.  The sky was taking on clouds with dark bellies, little summer squalls in scattered packets, and shafts of sunlight broke through and dappled the harbor, the boats, the city with an ever-shifting pattern of light and shadow.  

The staff were preparing supper.  Though the kitchens were not particularly near, some configuration of the palace’s doors allowed the scent of the seasonal meat offering to waft into the map room as it cooked: dekau’in, a plains staple from this time of year, well favored by the house in his childhood.

Then, down in the city, a bell rang the time change.  Other bells picked it up, and for a moment — between the sound of the bells and the smell of the cooking and the rippling light across the landscape below — he suddenly found himself deep in a memory:  standing beside his father in this very spot, a young boy trying to understand what it was that Ardami, the lord of all of clan Taisigi, was doing, feeling, facing.  

His father had spoken to him, trying to convey some sense of statecraft.  Asked him a question.  “Lords, of the smallest sept to the aiji himself,” his father had said.  “They all must surround themselves with the keenest tools and take especial care to keep those tools sharp.  What do you think is the most important tool that we lords have at our disposal, son of mine?”  Machigi remembered the boy he had been, not truly understanding what it was his father was asking, being confused, having no response.  Ships?  Good staff?  Strong alliances?  These were all important things, especially in the ever restless, often fatal Marid — but was Father saying that one was more important than the rest?  He remembered feeling helpless in the face of that question, and could not recall whether his father had ever provided a solution.

But now he was a man, fully grown, standing in the boy’s place beside the memory of his father.  He was a man who had experienced much in a short amount of time since his father’s assassination and who could, now, finally provide an answer.  The answer is in me, Honored Father, he said silently to his father’s memory.  The answer is me.  

The clouds closed ranks, casting the city into evening shadow.  The bells stopped their ringing and somewhere, some servant closed a door, cutting off the scent of supper.  He blinked and his father was gone.  

But the answer remains, Father.  The Marid remains.  I remain.

--=-=-+-=-=--

If any of my followers have read C.J. Cherryh's Foreigner series and are interested in seeing more of my writing, I am working on a drabble about Machigi, the aiji of the Marid -- because, readers, I flat out adore him. Of course it is a ship.

I am only up to book 13 ("Intruder"), so I am 100% aware that the author probably has plans for a relationship for him, and that I'm probably going to encounter those plans as I make my way through the later books. Please do not tell me anything. I will get there on my own. For now, please let me wander around in my AU in ignorant, soft bliss. If you join me there, I hope you enjoy. : )