isfjmel-phleg

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Survived! The worst of it was shooing out students who clung on to study rooms till the last second. And I think we need to have a policy about keeping lights on in the study rooms when in use.

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I work until eleven PM on Tuesdays now, starting tonight. The student worker just left, the library is full of windows displaying pitch-blackness closing in, and I feel like the last survivor of something.

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"would you recognize this person if you saw them in public"

friend, I often have trouble recognizing people I actually know if I see them in an unexpected place or with a different haircut, do not underestimate the depth of my ability to forget or doubt my memory for faces

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Tagged by @brown-little-robin to share 9 books I plan to read in 2025. Thank you!

Once a Castle by Sarah Arthur. Preordered! I enjoyed the first book in this series (Once a Queen) and am curious to see where it goes next.

Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins. Preordered and will arrive just in time to be my accompanyment on the convention trip. One should always have something sensation to read on the plane.

Robin: Tim Drake Compendium One by various authors, aka THE TIM TOME. It's an absolute brick. I've previously read or skimmed probably most of the issues it collects, but getting to everything in order should be helpful.

The House of the Seven Gables and various other works by Nathaniel Hawthorne. I am woefully behind on classic American literature.

The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Previously read by a friend, who passed her copy along to me. I'm not really sure what it's about beyond that delightful title.

The two-parter collection of Zero Hour. Properly getting the full picture of The 1990s Crisis Event should contextualize a lot of things.

Stitch by Pádraig Kenny. Need to preorder. It's a middle-grade Frankenstein retelling, and I've previously enjoyed this author's handling of monster themes, so I have great expectations of this one.

Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend. Me waiting for literally years for this book to actually come out as it gets bumped back over and over and over -> 💀

Blackout and/or Crosstalk by Connie Willis. After the delight that was The Road to Roswell, I want to read more of her books.

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It's always entertaining seeing what the original comic fans thought, like this letter to New Titans circa 1995.

Bart was a very new character at this point, with his solo series only having recently started, so his characterization was still in the Fresh Out of VR stage, and yeah, bless his heart, he had his annoying moments in this series (this seems to have been a common observation among readers).

But he was so good at it.

Grant seems to have been well-liked by readers of New Titans, including the guy who wrote this letter, who is Correct.

"He's not a skater." LOL maybe he should have been! Let him have A Phase. As a treat. He's going through some stuff and it's the 90s, of course he gets to have a Mullet of Angst.

Blatant Grant/Tara shipping, for some reason. Male readers whose letters got printed were often bigger shippers than one might expect from their demographic.

"Their bickering would only make their relationship stronger" sir I have some concerns about you

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Today we drew names for the (optional) secret pal gift exchange thing among campus employees for this semester. I initially drew my own name. Although I have no doubt that I would be an awesome secret pal for myself, that would be Frowned Upon In This Establishment, so I had to draw again.

I got my neighbor/friend and I'm so excited. This is going to be fun. Both finding just the right things for her and somehow keeping my identity a secret. She's going to have a great semester and that is a threat.

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"10 people I'd like to know better" tag game

Tagged by @healerqueen. Thank you!

Last song 🎧: "Break My Stride" by Matthew Wilder, because I had the exercise playlist of mostly agressively 70s/80s/90s stuff on for motivation.

Favorite Color 🎨: Maroon/burgundy.

Last Book 📕: I recently finished a gigantic JSA 1999 omnibus and am in the middle of a Space Boy reread and a collection of Gaskell short stories.

Last Movie 🍿: The Polar Express, since I didn't get to see it over Christmas break.

Last TV show 📺: Stargirl. This is a rewatch, and honestly, even though they kind of throw the JSA lore into the blender and that's more obvious to me now that I've read more, it's really a lot of fun as this sort of show goes. I'm enjoying it and would love to see a live action YJ show in a similar vein, but please don't consider this a general recommendation to everyone. (It does strike me as something Magpie might watch though.)

Sweet/Spicy/Savory 🍔: Sweet or savory, depending on the occasion.

Current obsession 🌀: I've been really annoying about Damage lately. Sorry. It will continue. :P

Last thing I searched 🔎: I can never remember how to look this up. It was probably the song mentioned above so I could find the link.

Looking forward to 👀: Going to a candlelight concert with my neighbor/friend and some other ladies from our Bible study group next week. Going to [major city in the northeast US] to present my Secret Garden paper at the English honor society convention (it's officially decided! this is a new city and state for me, so it's especially exciting. I don't think it's near enough to any of you, but if you want to DM me about the details to check, you can).

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So this is a pretty whimsical rather than information-seeking question - feel free to skip if it doesn’t work.

If Elystan, Tamett, and Josiah switched bodies for a day (your choice of who looks like who), how would things play out? And just for extra fish out of wateriness, let’s say they not at school. They’re each at their counterpart’s home.

Oooh, this would be fun!

Let's explore all the options.

If Elystan were to switch bodies with Tamett, he wouldn't be able to get over how freeing it would be to exist in a body that lacks the limitations of his. He'd do a lot of running and climbing and bicycling and whatever other physical activities he could think of. I don't think Tamett's family would be too thrown off by this; Tamett's usually pretty active. But Elystan would probably have a hard time suppressing his talkative, argumentative tendencies to pass as Tamett, who is quieter and more laidback. He wouldn't know what to do with Tamett's relationships with his sisters. He'd probably end up getting Tamett in a lot of trouble.

If Elystan were to switch bodies with Josiah, he would be surprised at its problems. He tends to assume that Josiah is pretty healthy and active (at least in comparison to himself, and he's kind of jealous, which is where the mean comments come from), so he'd be shocked to find that Josiah's body is exhausted and in pain. But that's nothing he isn't used to. What he'd have a hard time with would be keeping up Josiah-like behavior. He'd enjoy doing a caricatured imitation, but convincingly portraying a dutiful, "well-behaved," tidy excellent student and gifted musician for twenty-four hours is a bit out of his range. He'd be too sociable with Mikaiah and Tamett (if he's there) and the sisters, and he'd definitely butt heads with Odren. His brattiness has a different flavor from Josiah's (more "I'm entitled because I'm fragile and precious" than "I'm entitled because I'm flawless and superior"), and that would be noticeable. The sheer weight of responsibilities and expectations would be more than he could handle, and he'd probably be relieved to return to his own body.

If Tamett were to switch bodies with Elystan, he would be miserable. He's very active, and suddenly becoming a severe asthmatic with a heart condition would be so frustrating. He'd initially enjoy having access to Elystan's vast array of extravagant Acceptable Indoor Activities, but after a while, he'd be bored out of his mind trying to keep himself occupied. Interacting with Elystan's family wouldn't be a problem, but he'd resent being fussed over. The upside would be that he wouldn't have to repress his anger as he usually does; if he's Elystan, no one's going to think it odd if he's petulant or has a tantrum (as long as he doesn't scream too much), so that might actually be cathartic. He could say whatever he wanted. That's a scary amount of power. Not enough to make him like this switch though.

If Tamett were to switch bodies with Josiah, he, like Elystan, would be surprised at the condition it's in. He'd be able to navigate Josiah's life socially pretty well, because he lives in that household, but like Elystan, he doesn't have the same skills, and that would definitely create suspicion--he'd have to feign illness or something to get out of lessons so no one would notice. He'd also get along better with Josiah's siblings, and Mikaiah would be absolutely delighted to have an elder brother who finally spends time with him. He would be shocked by some of the interactions that Josiah and his father have; I think he tends to assume that Odren does nothing but dote on his Favorite, but to find out that Josiah is subject to a lot of private critique and control from his father would recontextualize the real Josiah's behavior for him. It would be an eye-opening experience, but ultimately disappointing.

If Josiah were to switch bodies with Tamett, he'd be pleased at how strong and functional it is (Tamett is clearly the prime real estate here). He'd like a lot about Tamett's home life--two living parents who have a solid (if still flawed) relationship with their children, four sisters who adore him, free time to amuse himself. He'd struggle with the humbler living conditions--the Lȧsryggs are pretty comfortable compared to most Noriberians but obviously have nothing like the height of luxury that Josiah is accustomed to--and the expectations to help with some household chores, and Tamett's parents would be shocked by the sudden superior attitude. He'd have a hard time acting like Tamett, and as much as he'd appreciate the family's love and acceptance, he would have no idea how to reciprocate, or he'd be so overcome that he'd have to leave suddenly before someone catches him crying because it's so much like how his mother was with him. He wouldn't have a bad time as Tamett, but he wouldn't be ready to deal with it long term.

If Josiah were to switch bodies with Elystan, he'd be surprised at the extent of its ailments (he tends to think that Elystan is exaggerating or making it up most of the time, but no, it's actually worse than Elystan lets on), but he'd be able to adjust to a sedentary life pretty well. Welcome it, even. With everything that's expected of him, he finds the notion of having nothing to do but rest and read appealing--but it's not what he expects. He can't enjoy reading or any other quiet activity because he's too distracted by feeling awful. He can't get much rest because he keeps getting woken up by asthma symptoms. He'd be in a horrible mood constantly and would totally take it out on anyone within range. And the real Elystan is capable of that, especially during his post-Book 2 era, but the way Josiah goes about it would be noticeably different from Elystan. He'd be a jerk to everyone, and Delclis and Amarantha would avoid him (Amarantha would give him a piece of her mind first, and that wouldn't go well), but Bethira would probably be able to get through to him. He would let her mother him in a way that the real Elystan resists. But on the whole, a negative experience.

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Thanks for the tag!

Tagged by @from-the-working-classman, thank you!!

Rules: In no particular order, post one GIF each from ten of your favorite movies, but don’t label them!

Tagging: @isfjmel-phleg, @thoseveganelves, @thebohemianbelle, @freenarnian, @brown-little-robin, @theamiableanachronism, @rillabrooke, @madamescarlette, @magpie-trove, @oenothera5, @awfullybigwardrobe44, @brontes, and anyone else reading this <3

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Is Cazda...crying? Oh no. Help.

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There are posts for explaining your url but i want one for blog title, so ill just make one myself:

Reblog this and tell us in the tags what your blog title means!

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"anxious"

image description: a gray-and-brown ceramic wolf standing nervously, paws pointed inwards, tail tucked between its legs.

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in the middle of making sculptures for the shop, I decided to make one for myself :] ponyo my beloved

image description: a clay statue of Ponyo halfway between fish and human, and a movie screenshot of Ponyo holding her bucket :)

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DC lately has developed a habit of putting Grant Emerson into situations fraught with Plot and Character Development Potential and then proceeding to do Absolutely Nothing with it.

He's back from the dead! And can still remember being a Black Lantern and thus probably the horrific circumstances of his own death! Are we going to examine that? No. Now he's on a mission that reunites him with one of his most prominent mentors, whom he hasn't gotten to interact with since like 2000, and will they get to even speak to each other? Nope. Then they give him a new teenage sidekick who's actually a deaged octogenarian who probably knew the father Grant never got to meet. Will we explore this dynamic? Especially when it's hinted that they're both terrible influences on each other? Absolutely not. Don't be silly.

Anyway, the latest development is such a fascinating potential plot for him, and he's not even getting to show up while it happens.

So apparently there was a Situation that resulted in a lot of heroes getting their powers drained. But it was resolved, another day saved--except not everyone has gotten their powers restored. And it turns out that one of those heroes is none other than Damage.

(Justice League: Unlimited 2024 #1)

And it appears that Stargirl and Captain Marvel or whatever he's calling himself these days have been tasked with investigating the problem and restoring those absent powers.

What we don't know is how Grant is responding to this, how it's affecting him, and whether he even wants those powers back. Because if I had to pinpoint one superhero who views his powers as a burden and a curse more than a gift, that would be Grant. Ever since his powers activated, his life has been nonstop stress and trauma (not that it was great before but now it's even worse). He has to worry constantly about hurting people or destroying things. He thinks of himself as a weapon. It's not an enviable existence.

He's not like heroes such as Bart or Kon, who rely on their powers for most things in life or for a sense of identity/self-worth. If he woke up one morning and his powers were gone, it's extremely likely that he would be relieved more than devastated. He would finally be free to lead a relatively normal life.

But instead, everyone's insisting on making sure that he gets his powers back. They're too useful not to have around, and he's obligated to do what he was engineered to do whether he wants to or not: be in effect a soldier, a weapon. He's probably surrounded by people who can't understand why he wouldn't want to keep living this life. How is this affecting him? If a means of restoration is found, would he refuse it, resulting in conflict?

Of course, it's a foregone conclusion that he must remain explosive; otherwise the whole point of his character is gone. But there's so much story that could be told from this scenario, and they're just. not. doing anything with it.

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Look at the beautiful art that @praise-the-lord-im-dead made of my OC Rachel and her sister when they're lost in the capital city of Faysmond in Book 1 Chapter One!

I love how she captured the Art Nouveau aesthetic of the city, how Rachel and Estelle are such a contrast to the colorful people around them, how the sisters are such tiny vulnerable figures in the vastness of this beautiful and daunting world. I love the nature motifs: the birds in the trees above the door, the fish on the door itself, the figures holding wheat (a symbol of prosperity, perfect for the design of a city that was trying to recover after a war), the duck-shaped handle of a passer-by's umbrella.

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Tagged (quite a while back, sorry!) by @novelmonger to make a poll of beloved female characters and see who everyone else likes most - thank you! I went with some potentially lesser-known characters, so we'll see how this goes.

Leaving an open tag for anyone who thinks this looks fun since I'm not sure who did this when it was going around back in the fall.