Richelle Mead is just ridiculously good at accidentally making her characters queer.

Sydney has someone magically see her aura and describe her with THE DEFINITION OF DEMISEXUAL word for word. I'm sure Richelle Mead never even heard the word demisexuality, she's just that good at writing accidental queerness.

She probably just tried to make her different from Rose's sexual assertiveness and immediate attraction, but here we are. Sydney's whole characterization was spot on the a-spec experience, I already wrote a whole "essay" about it, so I'll stop here.

Adrian's absurd bad reputation does not work at all, he's a young, attractive, rich, royal male, no amount of sex in the world would get him slutshamed. People are just being biphobic. Plus, he has impeccable chaotic bi vibes, he's clearly bi/pan.

And the amount of homoeroticism between Rose and Lissa? Look, I value friendship deeply, it's just as important and deep as romantic relationships. I'm not one to say "there's no heterosexual/platonic explanation for this" just because two characters love each other a lot. Hence the multiple posts gushing about how much Sydney and Eddie love each other.

When I say Rose and Lissa are in lesbians with each other it's because they were actively lusting for each other. Their very first scene has Rose saying that she's sure that being bitten by Lissa (the very well established erotic metaphor) is better than sex. She didn't have to do that!

The books are actually pretty heteronormative, and almost every character gets a designated opposite gender partner, but that just ends up making them bi. Although Mia is a pretty good candidate for "victim of comp het".

There are exactly 2 minor characters who Richelle actually intended to be canon lesbians, and yet almost every major character is queer. That's not even getting into the conversion therapy allegories.

Reasons why The Indigo Spell is my favorite Bloodlines book:

If anyone wants to explain what their favorite book in the series is and why, please tag me :)

Sydney Sage + surely books can solve any problem

Rated for efficiency

3/5, the fire amulet didn't stop the Strigoi, but it may have kept Adrian alive long enough for the calvary to arrive

For solving the mystery: 2/5, she solved it the second it didn't matter anymore

For throwing at a serial killer: 2.5/5, it did distract him, the Strigoi arrival was terrible timing

"I’d feared dating for years but was again pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to talk to him. It was a lot like the Shakespearean outing: an endless source of topics that we both knew lots about. It was the rest of the experience that still left me unsettled—the “date” stuff. The dating books I’d read since our last outing mostly advised on when to have sex, which was completely useless since I had yet to figure out holding hands."

"None of the advice I’d gotten from the books or my friends really prepared me for how to handle discussions about alternative energy sources. One of the books—one I’d chosen not to finish—had a decidedly male-centric view that said women should always make men feel important on dates."

1/5, not very useful. (Maybe if she'd gotten a book on the asexuality spectrum and demisexuality)

For claiming Ms. T making her research spellbooks counts as inappropriate behavior: 0/5

For getting Angeline out of being expelled after she punched a motivational speaker who tried to physically pull her up to the stage and throwing a speaker at another: 4/5

For self-defense: 5/5, heavily used to escape the vampire hunters

For Ms. T's goal of using Sydney's curiosity and interest in self-defense to tempt her into willingly study magic on her own: 83/5

?/5, unclear if bought or helpful

For distracting her from Adrian in a plane: 0/5, became the topic of conversation, got them to make up

For battling Alicia: 4/5, knocked herself out using spells that were too advanced, but won

"My preferred theory was that I’d simply been caught up in how serious Adrian had been about his art, how the emotion and passion had seized hold of him. Girls liked artists just as much as bad boys, right? Even now, something stirred in my chest when I thought about the enraptured look on his face. I loved that he possessed something so powerful in him.

But, as I told myself constantly, that was no excuse for climbing all over him and letting him kiss me—on my neck. I’d bought and downloaded the “bad boy” book online, but it had been completely useless in advising me. I finally decided the best way—if not the healthiest one—was to act like the moment had never happened."

"My body doesn’t know any better. I’m as susceptible to lust as anyone else.” There was probably a book about that or at least an article in Cosmopolitan."

"Some part of me—nearly as snarky as Adrian—suggested I pick up a book on denial the next time I was in the self-help section."

-97/5, absolutely useless, irrelevant topic

100/5, excellent for becoming the co-parent of a tiny protective dragon with the boy you're totally not in love with, very cute. HOPPER!!!

For stopping Adrian's heart: 5/5

For picking her new witchy coven name: 4/5, very reasonable, not sure if she actually chose from it

5/5, Sydney successfully broke and sealed Alchemist tattoos

12/5, got an impressed “Where did you learn that, Sage?” from Adrian Ivashkov, can't argue with results

4/5, not as good as a screwdriver but did the job, successfully turned off the knock-out gas

5/5, aided their escape, terrified some Alchemists, should've killed them painfully but you can't have everything

4/5, Declan seems to be learning Spanish well

Happy birthday to my darling Sydney Sage Ivashkov, I may have gone overboard on this one

so. hypothetically. what prompts would you like to see for a bloodlines appreciation week

The most romantic things Adrian Ivashkov has ever done

1. Listening to Sydney's info dumps about random nerd topics, encouraging her to speak, paying attention and remembering stuff

2. Improving himself, going to therapy and dealing with his mental health issues and addiction, overcoming his serious case of affluenza, giving up spirit to take his meds

3. Leaving royal life behind to be with her with zero hesitation, then becoming a pre-school teacher, and being deliriously happy about it

4. Selling the cufflinks he had deep emotional connection to because it was gift from his now dead aunt, so Sydney could realize her dream when they're getting married in a rush for asylum

5. Learning to cook, which I'm completely sure he did for Sydney, not just that first time when he didn't have money for a birthday present, but because Sydney already had issues with food and certainly needed to be on a special diet to recover from re-education

He also has some pretty dreamy lines and some grand gestures but you know...

(I'm sure it's still valentine's day somewhere )

Gathering my sydrian prompts in one post

Some of these were originally directed at people who asked for prompts, and others were AU ideas, so they go from extremely vague to way too detailed. I'm copying them all here for my own convenience, but if anybody is interested, please go ahead and use them, and let me know you did.

The contrast between Adrian's entitlement as he demands Sydney find him alternative accomodation in Bloodlines and Adrian sheepishly asking for her help so he can see his father in The Golden Lily!

Even when he apologizes later, while it's an improvement, it's still kind of the worst apology ever. She's terrified to be in a spirit dream, and he follows it with another request. He's just starting to take some responsibility. But in TGL...

He takes into account what her preference would be (driving herself instead of lending her car), acknowledges that it's an inconvenience and that she's under no obligation to do it, and cuts down on his vices so he can save the money to pay her back. It's a small moment, but I think it shows how much he's starting to grow.

The most romantic things Adrian Ivashkov has ever done

1. Listening to Sydney's info dumps about random nerd topics, encouraging her to speak, paying attention and remembering stuff

2. Improving himself, going to therapy and dealing with his mental health issues and addiction, overcoming his serious case of affluenza, giving up spirit to take his meds

3. Leaving royal life behind to be with her with zero hesitation, then becoming a pre-school teacher, and being deliriously happy about it

4. Selling the cufflinks he had deep emotional connection to because it was gift from his now dead aunt, so Sydney could realize her dream when they're getting married in a rush for asylum

5. Learning to cook, which I'm completely sure he did for Sydney, not just that first time when he didn't have money for a birthday present, but because Sydney already had issues with food and certainly needed to be on a special diet to recover from re-education

He also has some pretty dreamy lines and some grand gestures but you know...

(I'm sure it's still valentine's day somewhere )

I'm gonna start posting my nonsensical ideas for Sydrian aus because I miss them

Ridiculous youtuber au where Adrian watches Sydney's videos so he can pass his art history class and keepsnwatching every nerdy thing she posts because he has a crush on her. He eventually makes his own art channel and by the time they meet at a convention they're huge fans of each other

This idea brought to you by how much I love that he actually listens to her talk about stuff like ancient Greece and encourages her, and even remembers some big words sometimes

Also brought to you by how much Sydney loves watching Adrian paint, like in t-shirts scene, and how excited she gets to see his paintings even when she doesn't get them, since Tumblr cut that from the original post somehow

Hopper can be an actual rabbit and Adrian makes him a little dragon costume for a video

Silly Sydrian AUs N° 2: Fake marriage AU

When they get married and go to Lissa for refuge and people assume they're faking it to help Sydney, they are correct.

Sydney got caught for one of the 5 other things she was doing against the Alchemists, like being in contact with Marcus, doing magic, stealing files or being too close to the whole gang, maybe she actually ran away in the the end of TIS but got caught. Adrian rescues her because he loves her, even though they weren't in a relationship.

Lots of mutual pining, Adrian doesn't want to take advantage of the situation she's in, or to think that she's only with him because she needs him or because she's grateful, Sydney thinks he doesn't want her after she rejected him much more forcefully than in canon.

I don't know if it's better to not have Daniella there so they're alone in the apartment or have her there and not knowing their marriage is fake, so they have to sleep in the same bed and act lovey dovey in front of her.

When they run away to rescue Jill they both wonder it the other is gonna want to end things now that they're not under the queen's protection anymore, but they keep finding excuses to keep up the act even though they aren't at court.

The contrast between Adrian's entitlement as he demands Sydney find him alternative accomodation in Bloodlines and Adrian sheepishly asking for her help so he can see his father in The Golden Lily!

Even when he apologizes later, while it's an improvement, it's still kind of the worst apology ever. She's terrified to be in a spirit dream, and he follows it with another request. He's just starting to take some responsibility. But in TGL...

He takes into account what her preference would be (driving herself instead of lending her car), acknowledges that it's an inconvenience and that she's under no obligation to do it, and cuts down on his vices so he can save the money to pay her back. It's a small moment, but I think it shows how much he's starting to grow.

Gathering my sydrian prompts in one post

Some of these were originally directed at people who asked for prompts, and others were AU ideas, so they go from extremely vague to way too detailed. I'm copying them all here for my own convenience, but if anybody is interested, please go ahead and use them, and let me know you did.

Adrian and Eddie will claim that "Literally everyone played this game as a kid, everyone knows the rules", but when it's time to actually explain the rules to Sydney they will start shouting contradicting rules over each other and arguing passionately about who's right

Sydney will get fed up and look up the rule book, and then they will enter a brief truce where they agree the official rules are the wrongest of all

"I don't care what the Uno rule book says, Sage, you can stack a +2 card on another +2 card and make the next person draw 4 cards"

"That's right. It has to be the same number, though. People stacking a +2 on a +4 are just cheating."

"Absolutely."

"And you're allowed to put down two identical cards at once. If you have two red 7s you're allowed to put them both down"

"No, you're not, Castile!"

The argument resumes. Sydney rolls her eyes. Rinse and repeat whenever they play a new game.

Random headcanons, lightning round

I already had this post in my drafts. My answer to @biwonderland98 on the VA ask game is getting long, and tumblr mobile will only allow me to copy this one paragraph at a time. So I'm posting it as the answer the headcanons question, then I'll link it when I finish the ask. Am I gonna post on the tags every night this week? Maybe. Ask games are just so much fun, and getting work done is not.

The most romantic things Adrian Ivashkov has ever done

1. Listening to Sydney's info dumps about random nerd topics, encouraging her to speak, paying attention and remembering stuff

2. Improving himself, going to therapy and dealing with his mental health issues and addiction, overcoming his serious case of affluenza, giving up spirit to take his meds

3. Leaving royal life behind to be with her with zero hesitation, then becoming a pre-school teacher, and being deliriously happy about it

4. Selling the cufflinks he had deep emotional connection to because it was gift from his now dead aunt, so Sydney could realize her dream when they're getting married in a rush for asylum

5. Learning to cook, which I'm completely sure he did for Sydney, not just that first time when he didn't have money for a birthday present, but because Sydney already had issues with food and certainly needed to be on a special diet to recover from re-education

He also has some pretty dreamy lines and some grand gestures but you know...

(I'm sure it's still valentine's day somewhere )