trolls R us

[General Shuos Jedao: A man in black military uniform with red braid makes the 'heart' hand symbol, motto: 'I'm your pun']

[Captain Kel Cheris: A woman in black military uniform with gold braid holds a sword made of mathy equations, motto 'Math is a four letter sword']

Because I'm a TROLL. My daughter informs me that I am CANCELED. :) :)

Mugs available (ninefoxgambit.shop). Frankly, I did it because I want them so I can torment my DAUGHTER. Did I mention TROLL?

You're welcome. :) :)

Also I'm sick, so excuse me while I flop back into bed. :]

What if you were a guy who was actually a girl who was actually kind of the guy

And they were both war criminals <3

(Or, I hyperfixated on the Machineries of Empire series for a week and all I got was a handful of new blorbos and a desire to do more linear algebra)

There were a couple versions of this drawing before this one, here:

First sketch, first digital drawing, finished the sketch since I didn’t like the digital version, did another digital version based off the finished sketch

Anyway

I love her <3 and her gender and identity fuckery <3

Mahit Dzmare, Kel Cheris, and the troublesome fellows in their heads.

Combined prompts from @terminallyuninspired and @frumpkinspocketdimension for this one. Thanks for the requests!

read “Ninefox Gambit”

I’m dead serious. the “Machineries of Empire” series - buy and read them immediately.

Do you like intricate genderfucked sci-fi world building powered by arcane mathematical space magic

Do you like raw characters careening back and forth between despair and mania, who want to make the world a better place, but commit atrocities and sacrifice the lives of millions in the name of that dream

Do you like piercing analysis of imperialism, empire manifested both in violence and in culture, the ways entire cultures are swallowed by empire but also resist and thrive in hiding and exile

Do you like mind control

Do you like characters who crave mind control and the security of conformity, a found family that would die for you, and have it taken all away

Do you like people being made into weapons, objectified to the point they can’t conceive of themselves any other way

Do you like immortals playing games of mutually assured destruction, cat and mouse enemies-to-allies-to-I-would-kill-you-but-I-need-you-you-are-the-only-one-who-understands-me-and-I-love-the-way-you-hurt-me

Do you like quiet little green onions growing in quiet little pots, kept on the desks of dictators to remind themselves that they are human

Do you like questioning the definition of human

Do you like unreliable narrators

Do you like conflicting factions and political alliances and backstabbing and assassins

Do you like canonical edge play dubcon sex scenes that expand the reader’s understanding of the characters’ emotional topography and motivations, and which ALSO scratch a deep and vicious Dead Dove Don’t Eat itch deep inside you

Do you like cats

Listen to me. This series is 50 content warnings in a trench coat. I read all the books and short stories in two weeks over the summer. I think they rewrote me on a chemical level.

You need to read “Machineries of Empire”

I am extremely normal about this

So I've been reading machineries of empire lately... :3

Cheris after the carrion glass incident really said you are what you eat huh

terrible idea: misery x cpr x reeses puffs meme for machineries of empire

jedao/cheris on misery, kujen on cpr, and mikodez on reeses puffs

Out here there are things to look at and I can remember what colours are and what voices sound like. Please, Cheris. Go sleep. You will never realise how valuable it is unless someone takes it away from you forever.

Yoon Ha Lee, Ninefox Gambit

Cheris for the bingo meme

Cheris my beloved <3 This bingo board does not have enough along the lines of "did all the crimes, made some choices I cannot support, and I love her for it."

Ninefox Gambit

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, published 2016

Chapter Three

Hello canon WLW with Cheris's mention of Shuos Alaia. Also, the foxform servitor sounds cute.

Fascinating way to convey a message.

Kel drum code. Love the bits like this, with the servitors speaking via light flashes, not human language, etc.

I do LOVE Cheris's thought paths as she works through finding a proposal.

And the fact she kept harping on 'why is there not a general' coming back to Jedao is a general.

I Do Love the signifiers.

Four, immediately withdraws, on hearing Cheris's plan.

chachacha plot moves forward!

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

Days 13, 14, 15, and 16

Jedao, Cheris, Mikodez, and Kujen from Machineries of Empire

Machineries of Empire is a trilogy of books (Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, and Revenant Gun) by Yoon Ha Lee.

I just think I just think I just think that in the beginning she wanted to be a part of something larger than herself so badly, she wanted to conform in the matrix of the larger Us and even through all that she was still so human she couldn’t help but listen to the ghost in her head and realized he was human too. in the end she again gave up who she was for the hope of something greater

she was such a good Kel but god she was a better Person

Bonus:

I just think they're neat!

There's so much going on with Cheris shooting Moth Jedao in the head (the second time) but I'll put my thoughts under the cut for discussions of rape

The thing that gets me about this is that is makes clear how much they are both Jedao, and how much they see themselves in the other even if they don't want to think about it. Does Cheris empty her magazine into Moth Jedao's head because he admits to raping someone? Not solely. She hates that, it's a line Jedao draws despite all his other atrocities, but she's able to keep her cool in every other situation. Like, even when her people are under threat of genocide she makes it look like she doesn't care! One could argue that shooting Moth Jedao is consequence free, and it is, but mostly it's personal. Cheris did not pursue Khiruev, not for strategic purposes and not even when Khiruev was not chained to her anymore. (Cheris's Kel taboos empower Jedao's own even more.) What really gets her, I believe, is the suggestion that she - that Jedao - could be a rapist. This one cornerstone of morality he's trying desperately to protect. And Moth Jedao, as suicidal as the original, knows this. Yes, he's trying to protect the Revenant, but I can't help but feel that he's asking to be punished for what he did to Dhanneth. Perhaps he's even hoping she'll find a way to kill him, and this is the one transgression she would most hate him for.

I adore the character dynamic of “an AI and their Favorite Human.” That over the course of working together in their otherwise expected to be ordinary job the AI forms the kind of deep attachment to one of the humans that manifests as “if anything happens to this human in particular I will kill everyone in this room and then myself.” (and then the emperor. Yes in that order)

And this is excellent in both modes:

The human is exceptionally smart, kind, brave, and compassionate, in a way that causes the AI to come to respect them as the Best Human and someone that can be trusted

The human is an absolute dork ass loser and the AI points to them anyway and goes ”I want that one” “he wasn’t even one of the options—” “I want that one”