#maxer-blaster

HI ok these are all heroic age antarctica-centric bc that's all i've had rattling around in my brain for a solid year and a half now so if anyone has non-polar recs pls feel free to throw em in the replies lmao

if we're talking harrowing survival there's nothing more fucked than shackleton's trans-imperial expedition aka endurance and the ross sea party. the classic here is endurance by alfred lansing (and ofc south by ol ernie shackles but i feel like his own account is less approachable to a first time reader) but i also highly recommend the lost men by kelly tyler-lewis for the ross sea party half of the story that often falls to the wayside.

and we can't talk abt shackleton without getting into scott & the terra nova & the race for the pole which WILL take over ur life if u get into it lol. the worst journey in the world by apsley cherry-garrard is required reading (and so is cherry by sara wheeler, possibly my fave biography of all time), and for a more general overview a first-rate tragedy by diana preston is the absolute gold standard. for amundsen ask @roaldamundsen there's the last viking by stephen r. brown which i haven't read yet but i've heard v good things about (nb: u may be recommended roland huntford's books when it comes to amundsen. read them if u want but he's got a Thing against scott which in turn distorts how he approaches amundsen but then again every polar biographer wants to make tender romantic love to their special little guy so)

OH and we can't forget the northern party aka six guys in a hole (NOT sexy) (well–). there are banger first-hand accounts (especially raymond priestley's) but weirdly enough my fave when it comes to this part of the terra nova story is a polar affair by lloyd spencer-davis, which is technically abt the sex lives of adélie penguins. it was the first book i read connected to terra nova and although it leans more popular history than rigorous biography or historical analysis it rly primes u to understand the fricative relationship between the expedition's two intertwined objectives – scientific advancement and imperialist glory – that were the root of most of their issues.

outside of endurance & terra nova i'd be remiss not to rec The gateway book to antarctic history, the madhouse at the end of the earth by julian sancton. i should have put this first bc this is genuinely one of my fave books of all time, polar-related or otherwise. it's a comedy it's a tragedy it's an adventure it's an insight into colonial ambition (although imo this aspect could have been pushed further) it's a romance for two specific guys it could easily be a musical it might be adapted into a tv show or movie in the near future?? it's an absolute trip i rec it to anyone who stands still enough to let me shove a copy in their hands. read madhouse NOW

finally i want to give a shout out to the australasian antarctic expedition which in comparison is less insane than everything else here but it's entirely possible the guy who was once on the australian $100 note ate his dog handler. so like. read alone on the ice by david roberts

I'd have to choose Fantasy High or Unsleeping City bc I LOVE urban fantasy.

As for classes, either Gloomstalker Ranger or Oath of Vengeance Paladin. (I know, edgy lol.)

Ooh, great question. So I made a Fantasy-High sona for artfight back when people were doing those and she was a wizard/bard multiclass. Her name was Diamond D'ambrosio. Her deal was she was supposed to be going to Hudol but went to Aguefort first to take advantage of their system to earn credits faster with the intention of going back to Hudol but ends up realizing she likes the chaos of Aguefort.

This is art I did:

And this is art someone did of her with her fox familliar:

So that would be fun!

I also *have* played in a Bloodkeep one-shot with my friends and my character was a chosen one elf party girl named Cass and I cannot find art of her right now but this is art @tippanyakii did of her brother with a savior complex who's always cleaning up her messes [Oph I'm so sorry :((((] She was a pact of the tome celestial warlock I believe.

Not for us to enjoy his suffering

But bc he needs to expel all that emotion. He needs to do the hard cry that gives you a headache and makes you take a nap.

It'd be good for his soul.

i can honestly say i have no idea,, the only one coming to mind is this brokeback mountain one

I mean, there's definitely an argument to be made (and has been, in my ask already) that we don't actually see Izzy enjoy pain? What we see is Izzy enjoy Ed getting his fire back (and, let's be honest, Ed doesn't have a lot of fire in 1x03 or in 1x10, he's a depresso and not even a depresso espresso, there's no espresso there, there's just depresso, and he's not... bothering with anything, really? He's disinterested in life in general, and Stede left him and he reacted with depression, mourning and sadness, instead of anger or fire or whatever he would have done previously, which is what Izzy is trying to get back in that moment: Ed's fire, Ed's desire to live, Ed's self-defense instead of Izzy having to look out for him) and be deeply relieved and maybe a little turned on that the man he loves is touching his neck. Most of which we get from Con O'Neill's expressions and breathwork.

And then we have him having his toe cut off and potentially having a horny physical reaction to that, but - and I realize I harp on this a lot - a physical reaction does not a kink make, and it could be a self-defense mechanism, or even an autism misfire (I've talked about my own misfires too) where his brain just goes "FUCK WHAT WHAT DO I DO UH HORNY YEP HORNY NOW THAT'LL DO" instead of a reasonable response.

But, assuming he is a masochist, we don't know how (or if) he pursues those tastes. All we know is how Ed treats him (chokeslam, toe snip) and the appearance of a reaction. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's possible that when they get shore leave, Izzy's the first one to go get tied up and consensually beaten on at a brothel.

I actually decided to call it Reunion AU awhile back as it deals not only with Sam and Izzy meeting again but the entire Flying Gang reconnecting and making amends.