Sexy Steampunk Babes: Chapter Sixty Seven
Added 2026-02-14 13:22:52 +0000 UTCComments
good stuff
Marius Petrauskas
2026-02-18 03:21:08 +0000 UTCGeorge didn’t share her pessimism. This was going to be great. Sure, William had started off this week worried they wouldn’t have enough time before the Northern fleets got here. Now… now they couldn’t get here fast enough. He couldn’t wait! Somebody needs to smack George. I can understand being eager to kill some Blackwood or New Haven airships, but they still have to evacuate. Even if he has come up with a cunning plan that can destroy 3-5 opposing airships, that is not going to alter the immediate outcome. The RN and allies, including the Jellyfish are still going to have to retreat. About the only way he could really defeat them is if he figured out how to make AIR-2A Genie rockets and fire them from Corsairs. Those would be close to a guaranteed one shot, 1-2 kills per weapon since they come with 1.5 kt nuclear weapons. One will definitely kill an airship if it hits. One exploding between two airships might well take both of them out. No, I am not advocating for William to literally go nuclear. I am trying to point out that there are no easy win gambits so George's glee over being able to kill a few airships is misplaced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIR-2_Genie
Trevayne
2026-02-17 20:56:11 +0000 UTCInteresting thought, is Blicland going to close for the duration or will it keep operating? We know that all the Blackstone and New Haven linked cadets have left. We also know that some of the others left due to fears over their safety. However, what do Blackstone and New Haven do with it? Do they just let it continue to operate, since they are trying to pretend this isn't a coup. Their fleets have supposedly arrived to provide security for the capital. Keeping the academy running might help them sell that. On the other hand, the school has a core, which could power one more airship.
Trevayne
2026-02-17 18:46:43 +0000 UTCIt is sort of amusing to see just how far off the rails of an academy story this has gone. The first two books were mostly academy. There was the threat of a war with the Blackstones and New Haven in the future, but defeating Tala's team in book 1 meant that the opposition had to spend most of a year rehabilitating her. However, Blue had to have to orcs capture some airships and things started going down hill from there. The captured airships and the inability of the Blackstones to find them set up the underships as a means to resolve how and why that happened. The Blackstone ambush of the orc airships meant that Yotul had to flee with her surviving undership. She went to the Lunites, who naturally saw the opportunity to raid the capital of Lindholm to try to get the secret of the Kraken Slayer. The Lunites conducted a very successful raid on the capital, probably destroying anywhere from 20-27 Crown Vassal airships. Unfortunately for them, the one vassal airship they didn't destroy was the Jellyfish and we know how that turned out. However, the raid was successful enough that it created an opportunity for Blackstone and New Haven. The war that was supposed to be a year or two away is beginning right now. Thinking some more about this, this whole mess happened because of Yelena's greed. William used his kraken slayer device to kill Al'Hundra and get cores for himself and Marline. It was the Queen's idea to negotiate with William for more Kraken Slayers and go after the rest of the cores she could recover. This was foolish because she didn't have airships for those cores. Instead of creating a much larger RN (her probable intent), all she managed was to put a gigantic target on her back as the word spread that the Queen of Lindholm has both the single largest concentration of readily transportable wealth in the history of the planet (all those cores) and the secret to how to get even more. Don't get me wrong, I like Yelena as a character. I understand why she managed this massive error. It is hard to imagine that when you have the opportunity to gather massive wealth from the ocean, the smartest move is to just leave it alone. if she had just settled for grabbing Al'Hundra's hoard of mithril cores, she might have avoided the raid. One kraken could have died of natural causes, especially a very old one like Al'Hundra. It was killing multiple krakens that revealed that Lindholm had figured out a way to do it. That was what made Lindholm a target.
Trevayne
2026-02-17 18:40:09 +0000 UTCThinking some more about the chapters, do we know if the queen has exchanged geases with William yet? They agreed to do it in chapter 64, but I am not sure it has actually happened yet. It doesn't need to happen immediately, because the Yelena is in no position to start putting William's tech info to use and William doesn't need his safety net until he starts turning over technical information. Both of them certainly have lots of other things they have to do, and they get even busier once it is confirmed the northers are on the way. We know William feels it when he has an active geas. He had one with Marline, but the restrictions disappeared for him when he gave her the core. He has multiple geases with his senior mage crafters and Xela, but I don't think they place any restrictions on him. Those are just geases to keep his secrets. The upcoming deal with Yelena is the first geas since Marline that actually binds him as well as binding Yelena. The restriction he is accepting is staying off the throne of Lindholm and we know he has no problem with it because he has no intention of claiming the throne. The reason this matters is because if Yelena sees the sort of visions of William's world that Xela got to see, I would certainly expect her to ask what kind of government does it have to produce those marvels. I expect William will answer her by stating that most of the really powerful countries are democracies. While there are a few monarchies around, they are constitutional monarchies where the monarch has seriously limited power. I expect Yelena will do a lot of thinking after that. She will probably ask William more questions about his world and that will give him some idea of how she seems to feel about democracy.
Trevayne
2026-02-17 05:26:30 +0000 UTCWilliam might have good reason to think the Queen would be opposed to democracy. It means giving up her own power after all. Also if he tells her and she is against it she will be suspicious of him going forward.
karl grimm
2026-02-16 03:52:56 +0000 UTCWilliam seems thinking in terms of one thing at a time. That said many of the weapons that Will is introducing might naturally push society more towards democracy. As it stands mages matter most in society. So much so that Verity, a slave, was allowed to attend the academy. By allowing muggles to fight on equal terms with mages he is closing the gap at lest in terms of fighting power.
karl grimm
2026-02-16 03:50:10 +0000 UTCOn a related, but different issue, I wonder what is going to happen to New Haven? The one thing I am sure of is that William isn't getting it. Yelena has already expressed reservations about William having Blackstone by conquest and Summerfield by marriage. She would not let him have a third duchy. Pretty sure she would just marry him herself first. Thinking about it, William should really reconsider his reluctance. He ought to sit down and talk with Yelena about where things are going after the war. She might be opposed to a democratic transition, or she might be open to argument. Right now, he just assumes she is opposed. I think we can all agree that if she was willing to entertain his ideas, it would be a lot easier to implement them if he was the Prince-Consort. Getting back to New Haven, I expect a thorough house cleaning there, especially if their Solite backing comes to light. The Blackstones were traitors to the monarchy, but New Haven is a traitor to the whole idea of an independent Lindholm. At a guess, maybe Yelena makes one of her children the new Duchess of New Haven. Appointing an elf would make it go over easier in a traditional elf ruled area. However, it would point out that things have changed and they aren't going back to the Elven Empire, or at least one that isn't run for and by Lindholm.
Trevayne
2026-02-16 00:35:36 +0000 UTCThinking some more about the post war situation, William can also make progress with democracy. He is going to have several subordinate counts and other nobles that need to be confirmed or replaced. To borrow an idea from another story, he could direct that each noble establish an advisory council, with two elected representatives from each of the farmers, the townsfolk, and the subordinate nobility/gentry. This gets his people in the habit of conducting elections without immediately trying to overthrow the existing order. They would not have much power, but would be set up to serve as a management council in the Lord's absence or as a recency council if the lord is a child. The really nice thing about introducing a degree of democracy this way is that he can do it on his own authority. He isn't taking power away from his vassals, he is just telling them that they should consult with their councils. He is changing how things work in Blackstone and that is within his authority. If things work out and Blackstone is doing better, he can point to his reforms as to why they are getting better and the other nobles may considering similar ideas themselves. It will certainly give him some ammunition in arguing that Yelen should expand something like this to the rest of the duchies.
Trevayne
2026-02-16 00:14:04 +0000 UTCI am curious as to how the war will go, but assuming Yelena's side wins, I am really curious about how the peace will go. Some things are obvious. Slavery is over, both because the slavers are rebels who are getting attainted and possibly executed for treason and because there were plenty of loyal orcs fighting for Yelena. After spending this much Lindholmian blood, I don't see Yelena backing down either. That means William is going to have to do the equivalent of the OTL US Reconstruction in Blackstone and unlike OTL, this time he has to get it right. At a guess, he will arrive with some troops and airships to officially take over, but then what? I figure he can buy some time with the orcs by giving them their current lands and tell them he will keep the humans out if they stop raiding. Then he can start with some tours. Take mixed groups past wreckage showing how orcs have killed humans and humans have killed orcs. Pointing out to the humans that he is not going to kill the orcs for their convenience, and if they can't learn to live together, it at least separately on their own territories, they can leave. There are at least four other duchies on Lindholm. The orcs don't have any place to go, so if push comes to shove, William will side with the orcs.
Trevayne
2026-02-15 22:41:14 +0000 UTCI am really curious about where Tala is going to wind up in all of this. One guess for the near term, she is not going to be affected by whatever surprise William comes up with. I think she is too interesting a character to kill this early. I do think there is a good chance she will witness it though. If he kills an airship in some sneaky fashion, she will see it and dislike him even more. I still think in the long run she is more flexible than her mother and not as set in her ways. I think Eleanor is going to be killed in combat or executed for treason. I think Tala is going to have to pick up the pieces. I am hoping she winds up as an advisor to William on how to avoid stepping on toes unnecessarily in his new Duchy. I doubt very much he can take over without killing people, and that is after the war. That said, there is a difference between killing 1-3% of the population and killing 15-30% of the population.
Trevayne
2026-02-15 19:01:07 +0000 UTCThinking about it, I think William needs to make sure the Alchemists have nothing to do with any POW camps he eventually sets up. I don't think Piper would go full Mechanicum and try to turn any captured Blackwoods or New Havens into servitors, but why make her have to resist the temptation? I expect she is regretting her blithe comments about how politics is ephemeral while science is immortal.
Trevayne
2026-02-15 18:51:26 +0000 UTC
