some imperial radch character designs i drew as i was reading!!

So I am very late to this train, but I just finished Ancillary Mercy and checked out ao3 for fics and am I missing something or is everyone sleeping on Seivarden/Basnaaid? Please allow me to make my case:

Who better to deal with Seivarden than the stubbornest person in the universe? Basnaaid handles things that may be very upsetting to her in a mature manner without becoming stone, which is something that Seivarden could definitely learn from and a characteristic that would be great in a partner for her.

Home girl Basnaaid is not interested in fancy clientage offers, which is fine because Seivarden doesn’t have anything backing her house name other than “oooh, it’s old.”

They are both conveniently located in Awn’s shadow and would both like to be catapulted away from that role immediately.

Their actual canon interactions are nice and not drama-filled like with Ekalu. No shade to Ekalu, just that “she’s hot and good in bed” is not a good reason to pursue a relationship with someone who offends you every time she opens her mouth.

I very much want peoples’ opinions on this, because perhaps I’m just not understanding. I also get that people have different ships and different tastes, just surprised more people didn’t spot this one.

the best thing about breq and seivarden is they both end up with girlfriends/ships who will NOT put up with their unintentionally thoughtless bullshit, even if it means prompting them to have a full on mental breakdown as a result. Mercy of Kalr and Ekalu may not have been picked out by destiny to be main characters, but like HELL they're gonna let the mc's take them or their feelings for granted

like social hierarchy be damned- Fleet Captain Justice of Toren "Breq" One Esk Nineteen and very ''senior' officer Lieutenant Seivarden Vendaai will drink the "respect your partner" juice or perish and they both love their gfs/ships all the more for it <3

seivarden tripping and stumbling into having three girlfriends, one of which is a spaceship, is kind of incredible and something we should all admire and strive for

*blows a kiss to Mercy of Kalr*

sometimes I'll finish a thing and be like "ah that was nice" and not realize for several days that actually no, my brain has latched on like a lamprey and I can no longer know peace as it becomes the Subject that rotates in my thoughts like a rotisserie chicken

Ancillary Mercy - Anne Leckie

Chapter 8, page 130

"And you certainly don't have to apologize for insisting your lover treat you with some basic consideration."

Photo description under cut:

A cropped photo of a page from the book Ancillary Mercy, by Anne Leckie. It reads,

"'Just between you and me - well, and Ship, of course -' I glanced over at Five, who left the room. 'Seivarden has behaved the same way to countless other people in the past, both lovers and not, long before she had the problems that ended with her off duty in Medical now. She was born surrounded by wealth and privilege. She thinks she's learned to question that. But she hasn't learned quite as much as she thinks she has, and having that pointed out to her, well, she doesn't react well to it. You are under no obligation to be patient with this. I think your relationship has been good for her, and good for you, at least in some ways. But I don't think you have any obligation to continue if it's going to be hurtful to you. And you certainly don't have to apologize for insisting your lover treat you with some basic consideration.' As I had spoken, Ekalu's face hadn't changed. Now, as I finished, the muscles around her mouth twitched and tremored, just barely perceptibly. For a moment I thought she was about to cry. 'So,' I continued, 'on to business.'"

I know I say this as a confirmed seivarden stan but I would have killed to see her interact with captain hetnys and sword of atagaris. or with basnaaid! can you imagine? all the class stuff gets explored in ancillary mercy from the seivarden/ekalu angle but imo it would possibly have been more fun to watch her have a status showdown with hetnys and figure out how to treat someone similar to awn, especially since breq is constantly wondering how she would treat awn & comparing basnaaid to awn. I just think there was potential for all of those relationships to be messier and more dramatic which is maybe a personal taste thing but still

Okay but that scene when Seivarden finally earnestly apologizes to Ekalu and she forgives her but then she gets that mischievous look in her eye and asks if she can behave and Sei’s heart just fucking stops like. I felt that in my bones. Anyway I’m a lesbian.

daydreaming about seivarden when she’s feeling all right. she grins. she swaggers. she says “kiddo” and “our tisarwat” and sings old love songs she barely remembers, off-key. she puts her booted feet on breq’s bed and presses her shoulder against breq’s shoulder. she promises ekalu she’ll be good—she’ll try to be good. i adore her.

I've made five attempts at drawing this exchange from Ancillary Mercy now. I just love it so much.

Ekalu: We should find somewhere more private. If, that is, you can behave yourself.

Seivarden: Yes, I'll be good. I'll try to be good."

Ekalu: Will you now?

(character designs inspired by @tenowls 's imperial radch designs)

Love in Sword when Breq and Mercy of Kalr are just watching Seivarden talking to the Sword of Atagaris Amaat lieutenant and providing commentary ("Ekalu wasn't exaggerating" "No, she wasn't"). Underrated bit of ship gossip

WHERE is Sievarden why is she barely in Ancillary Sword at all yet 😭

Watching Breq grieve her ancillaries and the companionship and comfort and touch they provided her, now being just one person so touch starved and heartbroken and stressed after tearing open her old wounds and remembering loving Awn and feeling that horror all over again… while also knowing full well how horrifying her past actions were and confronting that she’ll never be the same…

WHERE is Sievarden when you need her??

Also, the scene where Sievarden blatantly asks if Breq could hypothetically fuck her and Breq’s just like “I can but I won’t lol bye.” And then Sievarden with Ekalu instead just going “I would if she wanted me to” while KNOWING that Breq can hear everything onboard MoK is the funniest thing.

Please (well don’t actually spoil) tell me these two end up wrapped up in each other’s arms and holding on for dear life again

ekalu immediately apologizing to breq because she thinks she is going to take seivarden’s side in the domestic argument they’d been having because obviously seivarden is breq’s Favorite only to find out breq’s greatest joy in life is giving seivarden shit

Canon Polycule Showdown

(vote for your favorite! check the description if you don't know them)

[ID: 1. Three book covers from the Imperial Radch trilogy. 2. Three book covers for The Infernal Devices trilogy. /end ID]

Meet the contestants!

Breq/Mercy of Karl/Seivarden/Ekalu

Status: Canon

Description: Mercy of Kalr and Seivarden are each in a romantic relationship with Breq, and Seivarden is in a FWB relationship with Lt. Ekalu. All these relationships are incredibly hard to describe because they're from a fictional culture that handles romance and sex very differently from any real culture that I know of. Mercy of Kalr is a spaceship, Breq is its captain and also a spaceship AI in a human body, Seivarden and Ekalu are two of her lieutenants. Mercy of Kalr and Seivarden asked Breq to be in a relationship in a move that felt very much like sitting your boss down to talk about benefits, except the benefits in question are cuddles.

Tessa/Will/Jem

Status: Canon

Description: Tessa loves both boys, and they both love her with no competition. In fact, it’s more like they believe the other one’s more deserving of a relationship. Also Jem and Will are parabatai which is like a platonic soul marriage.

Fandom ask: ancillary justice c:

please note i tore through these in a haze while fixating entirely on seivarden and breq so. you know. biased answers because i need to reread to remember more of who everyone is

The first character I first fell in love with: seivarden. she’s so pathetic. zo’n faalhaas. most unfortunate most good at sex. my poor cold and wet little meowmeow. she’s just like me fr.

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: translators! it’s not “love them so much” as “i like them more than i thought i would” cause they sound very l0l r@ndom!!1!! spoOn o.O when you haven’t read the books ngl

The character everyone else loves that I don’t and The character I love that everyone else hates: putting these together cause i have not had sufficient interaction with fandom to know this! (i miss being in fandom like. in fandom in fandom)

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: not enough time has passed for this to be a thing

The character I would totally smooch: breq and ekalu and skaiaat and maybe even seivarden

The character I’d want to be like: none of these people are aspirational to me thank you very much

The character I’d slap: whatserface downwell from athoek and her fucking mother. also seivarden but mostly cause i think she’d be into it

A pairing that I love: i have brevarden brainworms. they’re just so fucking dysfunctional? like especially when it turns out breq is just constantly crying and asking for hugs and shit like. oooooh you fuckers have some unhealthy attachment i want to study you. (also… stone top breq and so desperate to please seivarden go brrrr) also i like mercy/breq(/seivarden).

A pairing that I despise: i have not run into anything that makes me go “what is wrong with you” yet (cause freshly into this etc)