memento unde veneris semper

As I'm sure you all know, Andy Weir has written some other books; feel free to give them a shot. But there's a lot of lovely "two people inspiring one another to do great things", cross cultural connections with aliens, people working together to save the world with SCIENCE, etc books out there, so here are some to consider:

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

One of the greats. Two people inspiring one another to live (often out of spite), with flashbacks for backstory, on a roadtrip to kill the emperor.

The Best of All Possible Worlds by Karen Lord

I hype this book a lot. It's got cooperation, cultural studies, resettlement politics, sociology, and a little bit of magi-science.

Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold

Another one of the greats. Space welding technician gets sent to teach space welding to a zero-g native group of four-armed people and they all work towards liberation and independence together. Engineering! Family! Space! The Evils of Capitalism!

Drunk on All Your Strange New Words by Eddie Robson

Professional translator for psychic alien ends up investigating a locked-room murder mystery. Aliens! Linguistics!

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

What if there was a disaster on earth and humans had to start planning to go to the stars in the 1950s? There's space, teamwork, pushing back on dumb policies and forward on smart ones and more science!

Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor

Something strange has landed in Lagos' lagoon. Science! Human-alien interaction! Suspense!

My Enemy, My Ally & The Romulan Way by Diane Duane & Peter Morwood (and the other books in their Rhiannsu series)

yes, these are Star Trek novels, but they're really just awesome sci-fi about cross-cultural cooperation and understanding. 100/10.

To Be Taught if Fortunate by Becky Chambers

SCIENCE! It might be a crisis back on earth, but we're focused on the science and teamwork and what life might look like on other planets.

Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson (and the rest of the trilogy)

Tbh these are on my tbr pile, but I've heard great things. Science! Space! Politics!

If you're looking for something with even more politics, philosophy, economics, etc, consider:

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine

The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin

If you're interested in graphic novels, try:

On a Sunbeam by Tillie Walden

Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

A sign every artist and crafter should have on their site and window.

here’s the closeted furries “hey man… can u bum me a cig” and “the one uncle nobody invites to the family reunion but SOMEONE keeps telling him where it is anyways”

if you want an idea of what john is like, imagine hau from pokemon sumo

ALSO the ppl who kept asking me for trans thomas art, HERE he’s trans in this au (; 

ft John:

followers and mutuals the

strength to continue

Okay, so we already know that Durge had the Bloodthirst dagger which was created from Bhaal’s own blood and carried by his chosen.

But there is another dagger in the game you can find that also canonically belonged to Durge, Stillmaker.

We see Stillmaker portrayed in Dark Urge’s official artwork, and it’s also Durge’s blade in Idle Champions, as you can see.

I’ve noticed that Stillmaker matches Bloodthirst in design, but it is conspicuously green, as opposed to every other Bhaalian weapon I’ve seen which are red.

You know who else’s canon weapon has the same green coloring? Gortash. And who is the color green associated with? Bane. Stillmaker looks like it was made in the same design to Gortash’s crossbow.

I posit then, that being close to one another as they were, Gortash either made or commissioned Stillmaker to match with Bloodthirst and gifted it to Durge. It’s far more his style in looks, and I feel it’s something he would have done as he describes Durge as his nearest and dearest, and we know they worked very closely together and admired one another.

It truly makes my Durgetash heart flutter!

EDIT: Here is a close up of the weapons together in game!

EDIT #2: We were discussing on discord yesterday, Orin would have of course kept the Bloodthirst blade after dispatching Durge because it’s made of Bhaal’s blood and carried by his Chosen, but she would not have wanted some sugary gift from her sibling’s Ex and probably tossed it away and Dolor ended up with it, and that’s how it ended up in his stash.