#//i kind of miss doing novella style..

[possessedbyforcesunknown]

My Favourite Jooster Fics

Bertie's Blog (ongoing series)

The writing is so charming and whimsical. I've never read a Wodehouse story but I assume that if he wrote Bertie as a modern-day blogger he would write exactly like this. It gave me some Bridget Jones' Diary vibes if Bridget Jones was a gay man in his twenties with a career in blogging (influencing?). I just love picturing a cute blond Bertie and his tall, clever, solicitor boyfriend. They even have a meet-cute!

2. Refused Entry (probably abandoned)

(TW: sexual assault) Begging the author to release chapter 5 because this is just one of the best stories I have ever read. So much potential. Bertie catches the eye of a perverted male OC and Jeeves' protective side comes out. POV alternates between the OC and Bertie—their inner monologues are great. I just love reading about Jeeves from another character's perspective.

3. The Pianist (last updated Feb 2023)

Long fic about Bertie and Jeeves' paths crossing in different circumstances starting from childhood. Slow burn. Literally 'invisible string' coded.

4. My Man Wooster (ongoing series)

I can't wait to read the fourth fic!! Literally everything you want for a role swap, featuring Bertie as England's worst valet and Jeeves as the Olivia Pope of 1930s London. I need them to get together so badly!! There are also hints as to why Bertie has fallen so far from high society and my boy is going THROUGH it.

5. Something of Vengeance (15/15 chapters, Sherlock Holmes crossover)

The romance isn't very direct but it's still one of my favourite stories. Interesting plot and seeing old Johnlock react to oftentimes air-headed but always kind-hearted Bertie is so cute. I need to reread this soon!!

6. All's Well That Ends Well (4/4 chapters, Completed)

I'm a sucker for anything ABO. A classic 'Bertie gets himself into trouble and Jeeves saves the day' story. Jeeves really is a saint for having so much self-control because there are quite a few romance tropes like accidental lap-sitting. It just tickles my brain.

7. The Yaxley Affair (one-shot)

I was hesitant to read this because it's a crossover with The Man from UNCLE but I'm so glad I did. It's quite a long story at 57k words (novella-length) but very worth the read. The older, 'established relationship' version of Bertie (now Lord Yaxley) and Jeeves are perfectly-written. It's like Ilya and Napoleon are stuck in a generic spy thriller but they're constantly in disbelief at how Jooster don't follow the 'norm' and still survive. (Do you know what I mean?) The author (Mice) has also written a number of great fics in this fandom.

8. Jeeves and the Best Laid Schemes (6/6 chapters)

I haven't read a lot of stories from Jeeves' perspective. In this fic, Jeeves is trying to make Bertie take a hint about his true feelings but he keeps getting sidelined by other characters. I love it when Jeeves is the one who falls first.

9. Jeeves in the Shower (one-shot, E)

Short and sweet. I just love it when Character A finds Character B taking a shower and they proceed to have sex.

10. Jeeves and the Gadsby Filly (one-shot)

Bertie in drag meets Jeeves in a night club and are drawn together. Don't know how else to describe it but fluffy and cute.

11. Totleigh Academy (3/3 chapters)

I'm a reader of simple tastes. I will always click on a high school AU (which are hit or miss). This is a hit!! Teenage Jooster dynamic is just lovely.

Final Note: There are probably more fics out there because the writers in this fandom are so good at writing in this sort of Wodehousian style. They capture Bertie's voice so well and the dialogue in some stories is just sparkling!! I would recommend the entire catalogue of fics on AO3 tbh.

[aconflagrationofmyown]

You’ve definitely become one of my favorite Elvis writers on here, Marina.

And I wanted to ask you, are you planning to do more Elvis series? Like a series of Hollywood!Elvis, where he fights to be a serious actor and falls in love with one his co-stars. Or more Elvis AU, since we already have Pirate!Elvis. For example Cowboy!Elvis. Spy!Elvis like a James Bond or Agent Elvis. Mafia!Elvis. Even a Superhero!Elvis.

I think you’d do such a good job bringing all those concepts to life 🤭

My sweet anon, thank you so much, what a kind thing to say, I’m so glad my writing has brought you joy. 💋🌸💋 As for AU’s I did start a series about Hollywood E, yet never finished it. And for now I’ve got riverboat Captain E and father figure E to chew and that’s a lot on its own…but never say never. I think this would be something I’d have to have pitched to me and see if it resonates? So far I’ve not fully cooked up anything else original that hasn’t been done better by others. I’m always happy to dish out recs, fyi.

BUT THAT SAID…I’m messing around with little snippets, a filthy fairytale in collaboration with @elvisabutler and this demented Regency Elvis headcanon below that “my sexy secretary” @ab4eva took down from a chat. Enjoy…

I Bet on Losing Dogs -🥀 A Regency Elvis Blurb

18+ blurb, warning sexual content ahead, arranged marriage, romance novella style stuff

Imagine this: Regency Elvis whose wife has recently left him for a foreigner, taking with her his only child -a daughter who cannot inherit. He needs an heir.

Zero promises of love or fidelity or even bare respect for his new wife but…there’ll be position and status and jewels so long as you perform your wifely duties without complaint.

Jaded and lonely, I need freshly betrayed Elvis buying off a nobleman for his daughter, a Baron who’s mortgaged his estate for debts, Mr. Presley gets the association with your family’s nobility and you get the much needed wealth that new money brings.

And so your new husband comes in nightly in an embroidered robe and a solitary lit candle to consummate your union. He’s got all that chest hair displayed and a lil ponch of a belly showing out his robe as he slowly undoes the tie every night, never rushed, and you can feel the jitters down to your toes every time as you hug the sheet to your chin.

*Let go, Darlin,* he’s always murmuring as he pulls the sheet from your grip, *must do what needs done*

He fucks you hard and fast for such a delicate woman and then tosses you spending money to make up for it.

Reminds you after each visit to yoru chambers that you have a job to do. One single job.

*Gimme that son and maybe you’ll get that sea bathin’ ya been hankerin’ for*

(Elvis is from Yorkshire if he was ever transported to an English Setting AU, ok? No question, unless the question is Irish versus Yorkish)

Each time, when he finishes and pants into the humid crook of your neck, his hand blindly strokes away your tears and he whispers in gravelly apology, *I’ll leave ya alone, moment ya start to swell, I swear it, I’ll leave ya alone lil girl*

But that’s not why you’re crying, you wish he’d stay, he doesn’t know how cold you get when he leaves you and his sweat and spend cools on your skin and leaves you shivering.

You could curse the woman who laid here before you, who broke his heart and still haunts this place, like the wall opposite the bed with its outline of a portrait missing on the sun-bleached wall.

You wonder what she looked like, this missing wife.

You wonder if she secretly craved the burning stretch of him like you do, possibly not if she left for someone more…continental. Was he too voracious for her? Or was it the loneliness that finally ate her through like the moths who try the same with the bed canopy.

One night, Mr. Presley’s hand slips from your shoulder down to your breast, very rarely does he maul you there except in his direst paroxysms of pleasure, but tonight he slips and grabs and it’s so sore you nearly cry aloud from the ache.

*I swear I’ll leave ya be* he had said and you bite your lip savagely, cinch your corsets cruelly and wonder how to make him love you, tolerate you even. Anything so that you’re not left alone like he promises.

Are your breasts sore from being with child? You worry so.

So the next night you scheme, and when he shakes atop you and catches his breath and makes to roll away, you grab hold of him and keep him close.

*Six months* you murmur, and he seems confused by your meaning, *six month’s you’ve visited me nightly save for menses and Lent, and no child to show for it. Won’t you stay? Nurse says if the man remains…after…the chances are greater.*

Ensuing cockwarming between two people who’ve barely spoken outside of bed…little chats…because neither can sleep and in fact, he doesn’t really sleep that much at all, he admits.

*what do you do then? At nights?* you ask.

He reads a lot, he tells you and he’s got a telescope, and you tentatively ask if he’ll read to you.

He agrees with a shy *i-if ya want that, I will*

About the books. You asks if he will tonight instead of leaving and he says yes.

Then he hesitates and asks lowly, *can we…once more?…before?*

He asks if he can do it again, before he grabs the books, because he firmed up again while acting as a stopper in your warm cunt.

You’re already a wet mess down there and perhaps he moves you around, spoons you.

Puts himself back in and you’re so wet from what he gave you before and your excitement at the intimacy you feel in this movement.

And due to the difference in angle, for the first time, you actually come from the feeling of your husband inside you. His flaming hot body behind you, his thick arms wrapped around your body, the delicious rub of him in your womb.

And you’re quite sure you’ve already made a child but he doesn’t need to know. Not yet.

Anything to keep him coming back.

[redgoldsparks]

October Reading and Reviews by Maia Kobabe

I post my reviews throughout the month on Storygraph and Goodreads, and do roundups here and on patreon. Reviews below the cut.

Finna by Nino Cipri, read by Amanda Dolan

Ava is having a rough time: three days ago she and Jules broke up, and since then she's been avoiding them at their horrible mutual job at LitenVärld, a dystopian Ikea. Then a customer goes missing in a wormhole in spacetime, and Ava and Jules are chosen to try and retrieve the missing grandma. Very short, very fun. Written by a nonbinary author. Gave this a re-listen as an audiobook because there is a sequel now :D

Defekta by Nino Cipri read by Ramon De Ocampo 

This novella takes place in the same LitenVärld store that Ava and Jules worked at in book one in this series, but follows Derek, the store's most loyal and dedicated employee. He lives in a shipping container in the store's parking lot, and has no friends and no life outside his time at the store. In fact, he doesn't even have any memories from before he started working at the store... or any explanation for why the store seems to make sense to him, and even speak to him, in a way it doesn't to any of his co-workers. Then something even more shocking than an wormhole occurs in the store: the furniture starts waking up and coming to life. Derek's entire worldview and sense of self are completely upturned. Unfortunately this story didn't capture me as strongly as book one; despite being a novella it felt oddly slow. I was rooting for Derek and the wayward furniture by the end, but the structure of the story was not as strong or streamlined as Finna. I do still want to keep reading Nino Cipri because I love the way they effortlessly include nonbinary characters in their sci-fi and I want a third installment that returns to Ava and Jules!

Princess Floralinda and the Forty Story Tower read by Moira Quirk 

A four hour fantasy novella read by the talented and wonderful Moira Quirk, who also reads the Locked Tomb audiobooks. This original fairy tale features Floralinda, a princess captured by a witch and imprisoned in a tower full of monsters. When all of the princes who try to rescue her fail Floralinda has to to take up arms against the monsters herself. I was entertained throughout my whole time listening to this story, but it didn't have a particularly strong emotional impact. I would mostly recommend it to Tamsyn Muir completionists; though it was published in the same year as Harrow it feels like an earlier work. I kind of wanted the ending to be either more hopeful or more horrible.

My Aunt is a Monster by Reimena Yee 

Safia is blind, but she was raised by booksellers who read her stories of adventures and the wide world. After her parents tragically die in a fire, Safia is adopted by a distant relative, a reclusive aunt who used to be the world's most famous adventurer. A curse ended her traveling career, but a rival adventurer and the discovery of an ancient city might pull the whole family back into the world. This book was sillier than I expected, but I still greatly enjoyed the art style and the magical whimsy.

Thistlefoot by GemmaRose Nethercott read by January LaVoy 

Isaac and Bellatine Yaga grew up on the road with their parents' traveling puppet show, but neither has a good relationship with their parents as adults. Isaac ran away as a teen and has lived as a train-hopping actor and scam artist into his early twenties. Bellatine moved across the country to study woodworking in New England were she is trying desperately to live a normal life despite her power to bring inanimate objects to life. Her power, and Isaac's shapeshifting ability, are inheritances of a generational trauma from a history they barely know. But then another inheritance arrives for them in New York: a house on chicken legs, built by a Russian Jewish ancestor who survived the pogroms of the 1920s and the turmoil of the Russian Revolution. To Isaac, the house is an opportunity. To Bellatine, it is a home. But it comes with a curse: a shadow man follows the house to America, wanting to finish the destruction he started. I loved this story, woven through with Jewish folklore and American folk songs, a road trip story, a story of facing and accepting family history and how far its shadow falls into the present. I image this book gets compted with American Gods by Neil Gaimen and The Golem and the Jinni by Helen Wecker but it is very much its own book with its own lyrical tone. And its queer! Highly recommend.

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu 

This queer, modern retelling of Hamlet is set in a scientific lab and contained mostly within a tense 12 hours. Hayden Lichfield finds his father's cooling body in Elsinore labs within the first few pages; he immediately calls on the sentient AI system, Horatio, who controls the security cameras and many other aspects of the building. Horatio reports a 1.5 hour gap in the video logs. Hayden and his father, Dr Lichfield, were working on formula to reverse death. Hayden's immediate assumption is that the killer was after his father's research. The lab goes into lockdown and Hayden is trapped inside with his uncle Charles, lab technician Gabriel Rasmussen, Hayden's ex and research intern Felicia Xia, and her father Paul Xia, head of security. Unless they find an intruder, one of them is the murderer. I enjoyed how deftly this novel kept me guessing even when following a plot I know well. I was genuinely unsure how many, or who, of the people trapped in Elsinore would survive the night. I was also into the unashamed queerness of an AI in love with a human, and the ways in which that love could and could not be reciprocated.

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson read by MacLeod Andrews

This book does an unbelievably thorough job of recounting one of the most devastating recent thefts from a modern museum. In 2009, an American student studying at London's Royal Academy of Music broke into the Tring museum, which contains thousands of natural history specimens including birds collected by Charles Darwin and his contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace. Darwin and Wallace both independently formulated the theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest in the same decade, by observing and collecting birds on remote islands during the height of the British Empire. They both believed in the importance of preserving these birds for future science. At the same time, the colonial empire had developed a huge appetite for exotic and colorful feathers for Victorian hats, the cabinets of curiosities and natural history specimens which were in vogue in the upper class, and for another aristocrat's hobby: tying salmon flies. These appetites nearly drove many bird species to extinction. Modern day lovers of the Victorian art of salmon fly tying now comb the internet for feathers from these rare birds, desperate to get their hands on materials mentioned in Victorian books. The majority of these feathers are now semi-illegal to possess or sell. It was this obsession that drove 20 year old Edwin Rist to break a window at the Tring and escape with nearly 300 stolen bird skins. There followed a long detective investigation into how he'd done it and what happened with the feathers afterwards. I enjoyed the audiobook and was impressed by the persistence of the author, who pursued this story for half a decade.

Asylum by Greg Means and Kazimir Lee 

A short but rich story about platonic adult friends who bond through a competitive fantasy card game, but end up supporting each other through all kinds of life transitions both joyful and heartbreaking. Allen and Zekia are both single, both wish they were dating or partnered, but instead they're sharing hotel rooms at geeky conventions, setting up mutual friends, attending weddings and funerals, babysitting other people's kids, and most of all playing the card game Asylum. Zekia, a Black lesbian, struggles with her self-worth, feeling unlovable and too socially awkward to date. Allen, a straight cis man, take a more philosophical view of his situation, appreciating the good things he has in life, including his many strong friendships. The black and white art is simple, clear, and effective. I read it all in one sitting!

Sincerely, Harriet by Sarah Winifred Searle

This is a very quiet and soft story of a girl struggling with an invisible chronic illness, and the resulting isolation and loneliness. Harriet and her parents recently moved to Chicago (to be closer to hospitals and specialists) and she doesn't know anyone in her neighborhood yet except the older woman, Pearl, who lives on a lower floor. Harriet misses friends she made at a summer camp and sends them postcards, lying about her new busy and fun social life. Pearl lends Harriet a series classic of books to try and gently nudge the girl out of her shell. But Harriet struggles to focus on them, instead wondering about a possible ghost living in the attic. There are other emotional struggles hinted at, but they are very subtle and a lot is left to the reader's imagination. The line art is very careful and lovely.

[simon-roy]

A BRIEF REMINDER:

The final order cutoff for the Image Comics edition of GRIZ GROBUS is TODAY! So if you're a comic book store owner, a independent bookstore manager, or anyone who reads comics, consider ordering the book!

What is Griz Grobus? Here, from the solicitation text:

On a distant planet, a prying scribe, a sentimental constable, and a mayor resurrect a sleepy town’s long-defunct priest-bot. But "Father Stanley" is not what he seems. Meanwhile, in another universe, a hungry wizard accidentally conjures a war-god into the body of a goose. These two intertwined tales make up GRIZ GROBUS, the hit Kickstarter graphic novel sensation now at Image Comics!

Perfect for fans of Hayao Miyazaki, Asterix, and Arthur C. Clarke, and readers 12 and up!

Arriving: June 5, 2024 Lunar Code: 0424IM239 ISBN: 9781534397866

Nice things other comics professionals have been saying about the book:

 "Griz Grobus' dual dovetailing narratives let us discover an alien world and a human heart, full of Ghibli style and the finest Tor-novella poise. The team creates a universe, and is generous enough to let us live there." —Kieron Gillen, The Wicked + The Divine, Die, Phonogram

"Rich, beautiful and very funny—one of my favorite comics. Get every book Simon makes." —Tonči Zonjić, Lobster Johnson, Who is Jake Ellis?

"Simon's worldbuilding skills are yet to be matched, but on top of that his stories are both crazy and profound!" —Carlos P. Valderrama, Giants

“It’s amazing. You won’t get a better world builder than Simon Roy. He’s taking us places and I am here for it. Do not miss this.” —Daniel Warren Johnson, Transformers, Do A Powerbomb, Wonder Woman: Dead Earth

"When Simon Roy announces a new book it's an event - and a must buy for me and anyone who loves the medium of words and pictures!!!” —Geoff Darrow, Shaolin Cowboy, Hard Boiled

“Simon Roy’s science-fiction embraces heady ideas of futurism while never forgetting for an instant the foibles and frailties of the humans that exist in it. Griz Grobus is no different—an alien world made lived-in and real by the very human characters who exist within it, where at the end of the day, a full belly is what is worth aspiring to. Another extraordinary piece of work, an addition to a growing body of modern classic science-fiction, Griz Grobus continues the trajectory that began with Habitat.” —Jed McKay, Avengers, Moon Knight, Doctor Strange

“Simon Roy has a way of making strange & alien worlds utterly charming. His world building is unique & filled with quirky characters I strangely want to eat with. AND—I really want an Elaphure.” —Ben Templesmith, 30 Days of Night

"Griz Grobus combines beautiful art and mystical storytelling with an intriguing look at humanity on a world half-alien, half-familiar. A sly and often funny take on the creation of new myths and the rediscovery of the past." —Adrian Tchaikovsky, Hugo and Nebula award winning author of the Children of Time series

"Seriously, it's the perfect kind of Ursula Le Ghibli world and I adore it. The right measure of everything from the writing to the art." —Goran Gligovic, Dagger Dagger, Company of the Eagle

PS - If any of this piques your interest, I'm also running a kickstarter campaign for the hardcover edition of REFUGIUM, - the sequel to this very book! If you or your customers enjoy Wayne Barlowe's strange creatures, or the work of Dougal Dixon, it might scratch a particular itch for you...

[phaedraismyusername]

2022 was a soil, rot, and fungus kind of reading year for me and I regret nothing

The Beauty by Aliya Whiteley

A post-apocalyptic novella following a group of isolated men years after a plague killed off all of the women. Its told from the perspective of a young man who's place in the group is to tell stories of what was, and when they stumble upon a secret in the woods, what could be. Its weird, mildly distressing, kinda gross, but super super interesting. Highly recommend.

Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval

Translated from Norwegian by Marjam Idriss, it follows an international student studying in Australia who finds herself in a bizarre living situation with an older woman in a converted space with no internal walls and no privacy. It focuses on sexuality, exploration, and obsession, with some of the most viscerally tactile descriptions I've ever read. It's uncomfortable and frequently gross in that way only female authors can be, but I don't regret reading it.

Eartheater by Dolores Reyes

Translated from Argentinian by Julia Sanches, this book is about a young girl with a compulsion to eat earth which gives her visions of missing people and victims of violent crimes, and how this ostrasices her from her family as a child, and how she chooses to use this ability to help the community when she's older. I found this one a little harder to connect with, translated novels often feel drier and more distant to me because of what's lost from the native language, but reading the authors note really really helped contextualise it and increased my appreciation for what the author was doing so I recommend reading it too.

Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford

It's short, it's weird, it's a five star read, what else can I say. It follows a young healer, living in a small community with her father, as she learns to exist amongst people who are scared of what she is, but need her skills, and how far she'll go to protect that connection when she thinks she's found it. It's full of the healing power of nature, moral ambiguity, ethical greyness and dark themes. I loved it.

What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher

Possibly my favourite author of the year, This is a retelling of The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allen Poe (which I have not read) and follows main character Alex as they return to the home of their childhood friends after learning one of them is sick and possibly dying. T Kingfisher is an author who's style either works for you or it doesn't, and for me it really really does. The blend of humour, dread, and body horror was a joy and I read it in one sitting with no effort at all. And it's chock full of fungus, which is apparently my jam now.

[wondereads]

The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer: Review

Genre: Low Fantasy

Age Range: Adult

My Rating: 5/10

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an electronic review copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Lost Story begins with two boys who disappeared for six months before mysteriously showing up whole and hale. No one knows where Jeremy and Ralph went, and Jeremy won't say while Ralph can't remember. Fifteen years later, Jeremy makes a living by finding lost girls when he is approached by Emilie Wendell, who wants him to find her long-lost half sister, who went missing in the very same forest he did. At first, Jeremy is vehemently against the idea, but when he discovers who Emilie's sister is, he knows it's a chance he can't miss.

This book is obviously heavily inspired by other portal fantasies, particularly The Chronicles of Narnia. Unfortunately, because of it's focus on other stories, Narnia and fairy tales, it makes this story feel too derivative. Not nearly enough attention is given to worldbuilding and plot, making the story feel aimless and the world feel like a 2D backdrop for the characters to move around in front. There are a few things introduced as major plot points, but pretty much everything is resolved around two-thirds of the way through, removing an urgency for the latter parts, which just feels like the characters walking around with no purpose.

I'd say my favorite part of this book was Jeremy, Rafe, and their relationship. They're both fun characters and I loved seeing them come together. I think I would have much rathered to see a character-driven story solely focusing on them instead of the awkward plot and unnecessary characters. This could easily have been a slower, if shorter, story about just them and their complicated feelings surrounding each other and Shannandoah.

Unfortunately, I think the third main character, Emilie, is pretty much useless. While she provides a reason for Jeremy and Rafe to return to Red Crow, that is pretty much the extent of her role in the story. Things just seem to slot into place for her, and I don't see why she was a necessary character. She's also a very basic character, very cheerful and upbeat, and she doesn't really encounter any occasions for development, which makes all the time we spend with her seem pointless. Jeremy could have easily found the cold case file on his own, removing pretty much every reason Emilie needed to be there.

The writing is a bit difficult because I do like the writing style but I don't like the execution. This is a style I enjoy, the kind that speaks directly to the reader, and it made reading this easier and more fun for me. However, there are multiple instances where the perspective is unclear, and I did not like the Storyteller Corners. They were interesting at first, but eventually they are just used to explain things directly to the reader instead of weaving information and hints into the story itself, and it feels lazy.

Overall, I wish this book had given its attention to Jeremy and Rafe, a quest to restore Rafe's memories and figure out their relationship on the way. Instead, there are so many useless plot points and characters shoe-horned into the story. I don't understand why the King of the Bright Boys was introduced in that way; he could have just been an encounter (because their altercation with him definitely does not read as climactic). Emilie, Skya, and the Valkyries sort of just seem there, more as plot devices than characters. They delay opening the book for so long for seemingly no reason. This book would have likely done much better as a novella.

[shimmerbeasts]

NAME :　Miss Tantabis, usually called Miss T or T for short.

PRONOUNS:　She/Her, might wanna see how I feel about Them.

PREFERENCE  OF  COMMUNICATION: Discord. While I can use the Tumblr IM and use them as icebreakers, I have gotten more used to using Discord nowadays as it is far more reliable.

NAME  OF  MUSE(S): My primary muses are Jinx, Silco and Vi. My secondary muses are Naafiri, Sevika, Vander/Warwick and Kindred. When it comes to my secondary muses, they are not all equal and sometimes one goes more silent while the other one is far more awake. I tend to go where my muses lead me when it comes to replies.

EXPERIENCE  /  HOW  LONG  (  MONTHS  /  YEARS? ): I started rping around the time I finished my A-levels aka my school graduation. That is nine years now. I started on Facebook and forums during these three years when I was in the advanced levels of high school. However, I quickly moved over to Tumblr. I think that was either already in 2014 or at the very least 2015. Though, if we wanna go by writing alone, I have been telling stories since I was six. That means over twenty years worth of writing by now.

BEST  EXPERIENCE: God, this is a hard question. I had many experiences in so many different rp communities. Not all of them were pleasant. However, I believe what I would deem my best experience, is the fact that through rp, outside of meeting amazing rp partners, I also made some very close friends. Some of these people, I have known for years, and they helped me through strife and tribulations. I cannot thank them enough for being the awesome human beings they are. At the same time, I am just so happy with how rpers give me a chance and how they have helped me so much with my ability to world build and finally embrace my own creativity. It may be an ongoing struggle, I still sometimes have, but I know I have people here who adore my ideas and my style and for that I cannot thank them enough.

RP  PET  PEEVES  /  DEALBREAKERS: I think the only real dealbreakers I have are things like blatantly expressed homophobia/racism, etc. Basically, people being dicks. Though that isn't really a surprise and not really RP-related. I think, in that regard, something I really despise is when people try to tell you how to write your blog, your muses, what you curate on your dash. I am not a big fan of one-liners either and normally, prefer multi-para replies. At the same time, if you can give me something to work with and the passion is there, I can also do shorter stuff. I also do not like it if communication does not happen, even though I know I too have to work on that sometimes. RPing is a two-way street and many of my pet peeves relate to that street being disrupted.

MUSE  PREFERENCES  FLUFF,   ANGST  OR  SMUT: I tend to say that I am predominantly a horror writer. Both due to my themes, my choice of characters and my writing style. Because of this, I absolutely love angst, whether that be heavily emotionally taxing angst or gory and violent angst. However, I am not opposed to fluff either, though I prefer if it is coming out of angst. I think that is called hurt/comfort. Smut is something, that while I do enjoy writing it sometimes, is not my biggest strong suit. I can normally only do certain types of smut and even then only with people I trust deeply and where my muses really have chemistry.

PLOTS  OR  MEMES: While I love using memes as an ice breaker just to gauge how our muses would interact with one another and whether our writing style mashes, I am more of a plotting kind of person. I still have to practise this craft a bit more. However, I prefer to have at least an idea of the dynamic we attempt to build with our muses and I always enjoy discussing potential scenes and plots we can do with that dynamic. If we manage to do the proper groundwork, most plots write themselves.

LONG  OR  SHORT  REPLIES: I prefer long threads and replies. I thrive on multi-para to novella roleplays. Threads, which are filled with details and characterisation. I love it when I can really sink my teeth into what has been written and when the reply challenges me to bring forth my A-game. Longer threads keep my passion going and usually make dropping things harder.

BEST TIME TO WRITE: I normally write in the early morning hours or afternoon. I do not think there is a best time to write. I am trying to learn to be able to write at pretty much any time. However, I also always check what I am in the mood for. Or I plan to try to finish specific replies. It does not always work.

ARE  YOU  LIKE  YOUR  MUSE(S): From my primary muses, the one I relate to the most and the one who is the loudest and easiest to write for me, is without a doubt, Jinx. While I may not have psychosis or the tendency to commit acts of murder, when it comes to Jinx's personality like her creativity, her wrathfulness and her tendency to overthink, those are elements, with which I deeply connect. By now I have written Jinx and built her and the world she inhabits in a way, which makes her both similar and different to the version of Arcane. This version of Jinx is very dear to me and in my eyes indeed shares some of my qualities.

Tagged by: @knifvd, @ferinehuntress and @tealsteel

Tagging: @the-rogue-dragon, @thenextchapterbegins, @demacianhcart, @blackrosesmatron, @moxxee, @moxxietude, @hexcoremagician, @jynxd, @powdied

[daisywords]

Just finished North Woods by Daniel Mason in an effort to diversify my reading a little bit (and on a rec from a friend who only read litfic) and like. It was fine. The prose was very nice, and some of the characters were intriguing. I just kept hoping that it would all come together more interestingly and satisfying in the end. And then it was...fine.

I'm discovering that as a rule I personally tend to be unimpressed with the kind of novel that's really just a short story collection or a few novellas masquerading as a novel. To me it seems they are always desperately reaching to be greater than the sum of their parts, and they always fail.

Not that books like this can't be good (I liked Cloud Cuckoo Land okay*) but I don't tend to find that the loose connections between narratives really add that much. Like sure, that's a way to explore themes across narratives in a way that you might not be able to do with a more insular story. But I guess I find myself more uncharitable than other people I know with the whole "oooh and the storylines were all connected!" like yeah I know. because the author made them all up and made them connected. Which like, yeah, that's how all fiction works, but like. "They're all connected" isn't enough. They're all connected and therefore What?

Not that books like this don't usually have a "therefore What" in mind, but I have yet to read one that I feel actually accomplishes this as well as it ought, since that's usually their whole Thing™

Something that North Woods did do particularly well with its multiple narratives, in my opinion, is the variety of voice and tone that really embodied various distinct characters and writing styles in a way that felt natural and true to the different formats while still remaining engaging. That's one of the things that was enough to keep me reading to the end, and it's pretty impressive in its own right.

But as I went on, I was only really reading to finish, and then the big finish was. well. spoiler alert but they're all ghosts together I guess. so.

Okay so we just kind of stomped on some of the creepy and subtle ambiguity that lent a lot of charm and interest to the various stories by just completely ripping aside the veil, as it were. That's not an inherently bad choice depending on where we're going with this, but I guess nowhere is where we're going now that we're here. Why demystify your mystery if you're only going to make it boring and not really reveal anything new?

And the whole time I was waiting for what the whole thing with the panther was going to lead up to. Yes, there are two times where a (the?) panther explicitly comes into play, but the other mentions of it are woven so subtly and exquisitely throughout that for a while I thought that was the main throughline we were following, just as much as the house/woods. It's even on the cover! And for what? That it was there throughout? for What????? the vibes??

In the unlikely event that someone who sees this post has actually read this book, maybe you're going to be like "daisy, that's because you are stupid and don't have reading comprehension and are missing the obvious" okay great well then tell me. I am genuinely asking.

But also I do have to say skimming the goodreads reviews there is a lot of "it has themes of connection because the stories are all connected. this is very profound and also impressive"

And also! I'm going to say it! Some of the storylines are kind of shallow and melodramatic! This could have been interesting if we actually delved into the character more instead of just kind of skimming through their life story, hoping that the combined weight of the other interesting-enough pieces will sink the surface-level stuff into some level of profundity. Very pretty nature writing, though.

Anyway I don't feel bad being uncharitable to this book because I'm pretty sure it's a pulitzer candidate or something and has plenty of good reviews. (And there are a lot of good things about it!) Mostly I'm using it as a poster child for its structure, because the whole loosely-connected-narratives-across-history/place thing I feel like keeps cropping up in the kind of books that my mom's book club reads and that people say are really good but don't really do it for me. (And I feel like this style of book is getting more popular? maybe that's just me?)

Anyway if you're still reading: do you tend to like these types of books? why or why not?

*Cloud Cuckoo Land in my opinion was weakest when it tried to sell us on the connecting threads as well, but that's an idea for another post

[docholligay]

House in Fata Morgana: The First Door--1603

I have never reviewed a visual novel before, but @iscahwynn made me a very generous offer and a long line of patience, knowing that we are trying something very new. To that end: Please don’t spoil me for the game at all! If you are reading this, I have only gotten through the part written above, and I don’t want to be corrected, even if I’m wrong, even if I’ve missed something, i don’t want to have anything confirmed or denied, and I don’t need any trigger warnings or extraneous explanation. Iscah would like my pure, naive experience of the game. Thank you!

Non-Spoilery: Holy shit, I don’t think I have consumed a visual novel with this kind of fervor. In fact, the only other visual novel I think of where I was like, ‘I have to keep reading what happens” was We Know the Devil, and while I would say that game whups on this one prose-wise (I can’t relate to a lot of what people love about WNTD, but holy shit was the prose some of the most beautiful game stuff I have ever read. I wished the whole time it was a short story or novella instead. Still do!) this one has a lot of plot driving through it and the writing is also very strong--I am used to a certain amount of ‘anime gotta anime’ writing styles, and there is none of that here. 

Spoilers below

I love a story that rewards patience. I could see some people saying that this moves too slowly, but I like to read a Meaty Tome, and so it doesn’t bother me to have to deal with a certain amount of setup, especially because I know this is a collection of short stories, sure, but it’s a collection of short stories taht are all driving at an ending. It might not even be fair to call them short stories so much as…episodes, maybe? I don’t know, they are connected but years apart. I guess i’m actually spitballing too much for having actually not played beyond chapter one. 

So i am 98.6% sure we are in England (please don’t tell me!) Given the references to the Thirty Years’ War, the Golden Age, and winter being a rainy season, all packed into one. Also Rhodes is a British name. I might be wrong but I would be surprised if I were. 

How do I organize this “progress reviewlet” or whatever I want to call it? Let’s just go with the flow.

Again, I love that this is unvoiced. It makes the game read so much more like a book to me, which makes me consume it voraciously, and also doesn’t take me out of the moment. Intensely aware that I am in the minority here, but when I’m reading something that I think probably takes place in late Elizabethan England, and I’m hearing Japanese, it takes me out of the immersion and it’s more like watching an anime, which is fine but doesn’t light up the same center of my brain, generally. Actually, the same would be true if it were English. I can’t mainline the story and let it play out in my mind the way it does when I read it. I read this like I do a visual novel, I barely pay attention to the art except in the “where is everyone standing” way, and that’s not even very helpful for this. So in reading it like a book, I feel like I saw Mell slap Nellie, I feel like I saw the light cross the White Haired Girl’s face as she failed to strangle Mell. It just makes the whole thing more immersive for me. 

Speaking of Nellie, what a wild ride that was. I mean, we knew something was going to be up with Nellie’s level of spoiled when we heard that they removed the thorns from the roses in the garden so she would never be pricked. In that moment, we learn something about the fact that Nellie doesn’t understand what consequences are, she never learns that the things we may want can hurt us. And so she keeps going for the exact things she wants, and she has no sense of danger or of the need for pragmatism, or anything beyond the desires and whims of a spoiled child. 

It truly says something about the quality of the writing that pretty much my most hated squick came up and all I could do was go, ‘Oh girl what happens next” and just kept clicking. I mean, the game very much tips its hand to it, it is not trying to shock you because that’s not the sort of game it is. It wants you to understand that this is who Nellie is and of course this is how she’s going to act. 

But for as monstrous as she is, you feel for her, or I do, when she says, not wrongly, that she was only ever, a “a doll for the family to play with” 

The idea of paintings being alive, of being changed as they are painted, that really stuck with me, and I know the painting was the small mystery within the bigger ones contained within the game, I can’t quite get anywhere with it, but I do agree that paintings have a quality of life to them. This is why it could be some future girl, it could be Nellie, it could be another person in another time. 

So witches. Let’s talk about this. I know that we have a lot of cross talk about the white haired girl, and if the white haired girl is the witch she takes herself to be or if she’s a hidden princess. And then we have the maid. These two are the unnamed characters within the story thus far, and I know they must be unnamed for a reason, but I didn’t really take the witch thing on its face until the rose turned in her hand. 

Oh, Doc, so you think there’s a real witch, and you think it’s the white haired girl? One, yes, I suppose I do and two, no, i suppose I don’t. Remember, the Maid is with her, and I’m also remembering the that the title of this game is The House at Fata Morgana, and I also know, being the one thing I know from the start being about fatas morgana, that they supposedly come from Morgan Le Fay, A WITCH. 

So, I’m wondering if the maid isn’t the witch, and if she isn’t creating all of this as an illusion, and IF she is creating all of this as an illusion, how much of it is the facts of that matter? Or the truth? Those are different things, but related. Is it all created of whole cloth? 

I mean, i feel like the game of the story has to clearly be about the White Haired girl and the Maid, I can look at a title card--OH SHIT AM I THE WHITE HAIRED GIRL?? (Please don’t tell me but do put a pin in it) that would make sense, we’re both the two unnamed characters, we’re on the title card. Hm. 

Is it better to know something, or to be happy? I mean, this is basically the core question and thesis of this segment, and it seems to lean heavily toward no. Everyone was happier not knowing, except, i do want to point out, Nellie. I’m not arguing she’d be happy knowing, she’s not, but I do want to say she would be UNHAPPY in either circumstance. 

I don’t agree with the maid that his error was his kindness. His kindness was not his fuckup. It was his desire, and his drive, that came outside of any thought of the family (especially rich considering how he lectures Nellie) to HAVE this girl who captured him in her own flame. She didn’t even mean to, like the candle means no harm to the moth. But kindness, no, kindness was not the issue. 

But I do love when she says that we have to follow the paths we’ve begun to trod down. He can’t change any of it, and so he has to go forward. 

In all, I liked this section, I have no idea how it will stack up against the others but I can see it laying building blocks for the future of the story. 

While being cautious of spoilers, please, if you have any questions, i’ll try to answer!

[msmargaretmurry]

hi there! you've mentioned one thing you're pretty good at is pacing and i always enjoy the way you talk about craft. would you mind getting a little into how you pace stuff and how you know things are working/not working regarding that?

hello anon! i'm so flattered that you came to me to ask! i would be happy to talk about pacing! ❤❤

i will get the most obvious and most annoying advice out of the way first: write a lot and read a lot. like any skill, you get better at writing the more you practice! in my experience, the more stories you write, the more you just kind of develop a sense for where the beats of a story should go, and developing a narrative arc or character arc becomes more second nature.

with reading, i do honestly think that just reading a lot without even being that critical about it is helpful, but obviously reading with pacing in mind is best if that's what you're working on! i pay so much attention to pacing in books i read because bad pacing is so annoying to me. i have more patience for it in fic, because we're all just having fun here, but in published books i'm like, buddy wtf was your editor doing 😂😭

anyway, reading for pacing! just pay attention to if the story feels rushed (what do you think is missing? what beats don't feel earned and what do you think would fix that?) or feels like it's dragging (what do you think could be omitted from the story without losing essential information or development? are thematic or character beats being repeated unnecessarily?) or if it feels well-paced — finding that balance between keeping you engaged in what's on the page in front of you and interested in/anticipating what's going to happen next — and then you can pay attention to what is happening at what points in the story, and think about how it wouldn't have worked as well if you learned certain information later, or if those characters kissed sooner, or if the story spent more time on x instead of y.

also, read the kind of thing you want to write. if you want to write short things, read short stories! ditto longer stories, read novels or novellas. pacing is similar across the board but the length of the story definitely affects it! when i'm talking about pacing i'm generally talking about my long fics, if that is helpful context.

but i know none of that is really helpful if you're working on a story RIGHT NOW!!! so. some thoughts on pacing while i'm writing!

firstly, i'm not a detailed outliner, but i do keep a loose story structure/beat sheet that i sometimes fill in ahead of time and sometimes fill in as i go, to help keep myself on track and to keep the overall shape of the story in mind. there are a lot of different ways to structure a story, so if you're not familiar with beat sheets, do a little googling and find one that you feel like fits your story and/or jives with your writing style. if you're writing something with a strong romance arc, i definitely recommend specifically looking at romance novel beat sheets or romance plot outline guides! just remember that you never have to adhere religiously to the beat sheet if it feels like it's limiting your story 💖

usually my own writing process goes something like this: i write the first chunk of story (10–20k ish) with little to no planning, then take a break and see how what i have maps onto the beat sheet, and think about how the story i've started might hit future plot beats. if i have concrete ideas of scenes i'll pencil them in, and go back to discovery writing. rinse and repeat every 10–20k words.

a process similar to that might or might not work for you — maybe you're much more of a planner, and that's fine! you gotta find what works for you, and sometimes that takes some trial and error!!

another thing for me with pacing is that if i'm trying to write a scene and it feels forced, or it feels really hard to write, there's probably something wrong with it. often the thing wrong is that i'm trying to get my characters to do something that i haven't earned for them yet. which means i'm either going to have to go back and fix something to better build up to the current moment, or (and this is what i do most often) figure out a new goal for the scene that gets the development a step closer to what the original intent of the scene was, and push that plot beat or character moment further down the line. i do think it probably takes some practice to learn to tell the difference between "this scene is hard to write because there's something wrong with it" and "this scene is hard to write because writing is just hard today" but i promise there is a difference! 💕

i wrote some about keeping track of ideas and plot threads in long stories here, which i think is also helpful for this topic. especially wrt keeping track of subplots and stuff, and ESPECIALLY with the stuff about giving characters the space they need. i truly do know the temptation to push on through so you can finish the story faster, trust me, but having the patience to NOT force it can really help with pacing.

i can't remember where i originally learned about it, but i think about the rule of threes a fair amount when i'm writing. that is, if something is important and you want the reader to pay attention to it/expect something from it, say it or show it or allude to it three times. foreshadowing clues, character traits, etc. not a hard and fast rule but useful to keep in mind!

it also must be said that obviously i'm not perfect at any of this. i do think it's one of my strengths as a writer but we all make mistakes and i am definitely still learning and growing!! so once again this is where having a good and trusted beta reader comes in. sometimes you are truly just so deep in your story that you can't tell that the pacing is wonky and you need someone to tell you so you can fix it!

my final little piece of advice here is that if you're writing something long, don't rush the ending. an abrupt ending can definitely be used effectively, especially in shorter works, but in long stories it often leaves the reader wanting. i've read so many books this year that i was really enjoying and then they ended and i was like, well i would have loved another 30–50 pages to properly wrap all that up! i think this especially happens in fanfic, which is so relationship-centric, that fics end super fast after the couple gets together, when sometimes there was a lot of other stuff going on in the story that could use some tlc in the denouement. or, if it's been a long and feelingsy journey for our lovers to get to their happy place, having just a little bit of them actually navigating that happy place and all the baggage they dragged in there with them can be SO nice and cathartic. obviously once again not a hard and fast rule — all stories are different and need different things and that's beautiful!! — but something i like to keep in mind ❤

i hope this was helpful and good luck with your writing!! 💖

[pjstafford]

Happy Birthday to David Duchovny.

August 7, 2023 is the 63rd birthday of my favorite writer of the 21st Century. David Duchovny has written four novels, one novella, co-written a graphic novel, three albums of original music and scripts for movies and television plus a chapbook of poetry. Why do I like his writing so much that I celebrate his birthday? He has a style that fits my world view in a way like no other writer.

It was Charles Dickens who wrote this passage, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way-“

It is David Duchovny that writes in a way that seems to claim that this is every day. He knows in the depths of despair, a person can find something funny. In the celebration of joy a bittersweet wish for someone gone surfaces. He instills frailties and flaws in all his characters and then celebrates resilience and the way we find connections. Those who might criticize inconsistencies in his tone of written books, films or television are missing the point. We all walk around daily with tonal dissonance. We yell at the people we love while being kind to strangers. We relish the beauty of a sunrise after a night beside a dying relative at the hospital. We worry over things that won’t matter a month from now and, yet, seem to pay little attention to the significance of action and thoughts of today. We are intellectuals who make foolish decisions and we are fools who intuitively do the right things. We are selfish and generous. No writer expresses this reality of life as well as Mr. Duchovny. He tells good stories which cross genres and forms. He is interested in the way stories get told and how we connect to them. He paints with words a reality of life that contains so much tragedy and fairy tale, it feels real even when it is about a cow’s journey to India or a man’s fevered dream before death due to COVID. He is interested in how we all write the narrative of our own life and that inspires me, when I frequently fail to achieve or have done something stupid, to consider what the narrative of my own life should be, to forgive myself, to seek a reason for joy.

I truly hopes he writes more in the years to come. So, with that selfish wish that he has a long life so I can enjoy his words, I wish him a Happy 63rd. .

[skarlette1]

Making It Tick: Vivacious Voice

I promised a bit of “behind the scenes” for Libido League #14: Vivacious Voice, so we’ll start out with non-spoiler bits for those who haven’t read it yet. I’ll clearly label where spoilers begin. If you wanna skip the “inside baseball” about my real-life writing process and just discuss fictional plot and character stuff, scroll right on down to the “SPOILER” section.

To anyone expecting that the next novella-length Libido League e-book was going to feature Mnemonica and Lashlust, I say this: So was I! I have the rough draft of that novella done, but it is very, very rough. It needs a LOT of editing. It will get there, but it’s going to take some time. Hopefully, you’ll see it in the first half of 2024.

So, after I posted the penultimate chapter of Pearl Girls in mid-November, I looked at the calendar, the state of the Mnemonica/Lashlust novella, and realized that I wouldn’t be able to give it the editing it deserved before the end of the year. That meant that 2023 would be the first year I published NO new e-books! I didn’t want that to happen!

So, I got creative.

Ever since I published the first version of “Quid Pro Quo” here on the blog back in June, I’ve been wondering about the next meeting of Platinum Panther and Allie Kaza’am. I’d already written a little bit of Penelope tracking down her father’s car, to relax between larger projects. It was shaping up to be pretty hot. Maybe I could finish that before the end of the year?

However, when I offer an e-book for sale, I do my best to ensure it’s a complete story. Even when it says “#14” on the cover, I want a reader to be able to pick up just that e-book and understand the characters and situation well enough to enjoy the story. That meant that the new story couldn’t stand on its own, it needed both “Quid Pro Quo” and “Horny New Year” in the same e-book.

Easy-peasy, right? It’s just copy-and-paste, right?

Not quite! “Quid Pro Quo” featured Flechette and was kind of a sequel to her previous run-ins with Allie Kaza’am in “Ambushed” and “Prove Me Wrong.” So they needed to go in, as well. But those flash fictions were originally written in the 3rd person point-of-view. All my e-books are told from a 1st person POV. It’s kinda my style at this point. Rewriting them from 3rd to 1st person POV couldn’t take that long, could it?

It could! Particularly when I hadn’t finished writing the new “Vivacious Voice” story yet! Plus, rewriting Flechette’s chapters into 1st person revealed that there was a missing piece to her story, so I also had to write “Missing Time”! The whole time I was wondering if having two different 1st person POV narrators in the same novella would be too distracting for readers. What do you think? I’m considering using it again in future projects and would love some feedback.

I hope you’re beginning to see why I posted no new stories on the blog in December! But, I finished all that writing and formatting (plus three possible covers that you helped me choose the best of) and managed to hit “publish” before the end of the year! Yay!

But enough about me. Let’s chat about our girls, both good and bad.

SPOILERS BEGIN HERE

Flechette: Let’s start with the new girl on the block. Although she’s shown up in my flash fiction since the very early days, and the character’s “secret origin” is kinda the first story I ever posted to the EMCSA, she’s never featured in an e-book before. Part of that is that I’ve never been at a loss for characters, but part of that is that I didn’t quite understand her well enough. I think I do now.

We all understand the trope Flechette is built off of, right? Every A-list superhero team needs to have an archer, right? Even though it’s patently absurd that when you’re facing opposition that can crush tanks like candy wrappers and shrug off grenades, the person you most want on your team is armed only with a bow-and-arrow, right?

Right!

So just building out from the stereotype, we know that Flechette needs to be both stunningly talented and tirelessly dedicated. With no superpowers, how else is she going to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Doctor Q and Captain Alpha? It takes a special kind of crazy to do what she does. The messed up lives of Clint Barton, Oliver Queen, Kate Bishop, and Roy Harper can attest to that.

Rewriting her previous flashes from Flechette’s POV, I really found her no-nonsense dedication to the job coming to the forefront. The bit that really unlocked her character for me is when Platinum Panther is telling Flechette why she’s the most qualified for this mission and Flechette just cuts her off her flattery by acknowledging that she’s the least dangerous person on the team if she succumbs to Allie Kaza’am’s voice and then compliments her on the strategy. She’s got no ego to bruise here. Flechette is driven to be her best self every day, but doesn’t need to be better than anyone else to do it. She just needs to be better than she was yesterday. That’s the thing that drives her to put in all the hours at the gym and on the archery range (and never skip leg day).

It’s also the thing that makes her frustrating to Allie Kaza’am. With no secret shame to toy with, and no repressed joy to tease, Flechette doesn’t offer Allie anything to play with. That’s why she ends up tiring of Flechette rather quickly, tricking her into straightforward “deals” to do Allie’s bidding, and eventually underestimating her. “Driven and dedicated” might not get Flechette laid very often, but it comes in handy when capturing supervillains!

Allie Kaza’am: Speaking of supervillains, Allie drives this whole story like a stolen car. We already discussed the original influences of her character back in a previous “Making It Tick.” Let’s talk about what’s driving her in this story.

After the events of “Daring Truth”, where she humiliated the leader of the most powerful team of superheroes, the smart thing to do would have been to get as far from Skarlette City as possible! Instead, she worms her way into a high-class New Year’s Eve party just so she can manipulate Platinum Panther’s boss into revealing how to get in touch with the armored heroine. Does she stop when she uncovers Panther’s secret identity, knowing that will make her a number-one priority for the League to capture? No! Even when Flechette gets the drop on her, she keeps going, looking for a way inside Libido League Tower so she can meet Penelope in her own “home turf”. Playing the “get captured on purpose” card scores her everything she could want: an A-list superheroine (with a billionaire’s bank account) kneeling, meek and submissive before her. She could have had her fun, made off with a lifetime score, and vanished into the wind. Instead, she steals a prize possession that Penelope won’t be able to let go. Why does she do all this?

It’s simple: Allie Kaza’am wants to be hunted.

It makes her feel desirable to know that Platinum Panther is searching for her. To know that Penelope’s brilliant brain is obsessed with her, and is daydreaming about becoming Lily for her. Allie can’t be content with winning because her real game is getting Penelope to wrap her whole life around Allie.

Why does she care about that?

A big part of it is simply how audacious all this is. Allie gets a huge thrill from the risk itself. The more dangerous something is, the more exciting.

But if that were the only thing, she’d get more out of outwitting Flechette. Flechette is one dangerous heroine to have on your tail and a one impressive victory when she sinks to her knees. But Allie finds Flechette boring. Once she finally turns Flechette’s resistance against itself in “Prove Me Wrong”, the best Allie can do is force the heroine to forget all about her!

Until there’s a way that Flechette can help Allie capture Panther. Because, in her own twisted way, Allie Kaza’am is smitten with Lily/Platinum Panther/Penelope Payes. She’s just as obsessed with Lily as she wants Lily to be obsessed with her. That’s why the thing that sticks in Allie’s craw about Lily is not that she’s constantly trying to capture Allie and bring her to justice. It’s that Penelope insists that she’s “100% straight” and the only reason she could possibly have so much sex with Allie is because of her voice powers.

It’s not enough to have Penelope obsessed with her, she wants Penelope to admit that she’s attracted to her.

When Allie’s tactic of “look how irresistible I am, even your hardass archer submits to me, so why can’t you?” backfires, that’s why Penelope’s outburst hurts her deeply. That’s why she finally loses her cool and launches into the rant that allows Flechette to break her conditioning.

Like so many supervillains, it’s the thing she wants most that proves her own undoing.

Platinum Panther: So what about our central heroine? Coming out of the events of Libido League #13: Panther’s Passion, Penelope is kinda reeling. She took a chance, trusted a “normal” guy (at least, not a superhero), and got betrayed. She’s ready to reject any chance at connecting with anyone new. She’s goes to a party out of a sense of obligation to an old friend, ready to reject anyone he introduces her to. Surprise: She’s met with someone from her “secret life” as a superheroine that completely takes her by surprise. Allie strips off Penelope’s defenses of wealth, status, and connections as easily as she stripped off Platinum Panther’s armor in Libido League #3: Daring Truth. Penelope is left exposed, open, and vulnerable in a setting she’s supposed to be powerful in. She’s tried to be clever and stubborn and outwit the villainess, but she gets outmanueverd and the most surprising thing of all happens:

Nothing terrible.

Allie does get away with Penelope’s secret identity, but she doesn’t hurt anybody. As a supervillain, she skates on the edge between being a threat that needs to be stopped and being a nuisance that can be tolerated. So Penelope can rationalize that she’s seeking her out “to bring her to justice” rather than “because she’s fun and sexy”.

Which, of course, leads to her getting outmaneuvered in “Quid Pro Quo” and the beginning of “Vivacious Voice”. Penelope is really getting sucked into the cat-and-mouse game with Allie (the mouse, of course, is Penelope/Lily). They could easily settle into a pattern of this: Penelope tries to capture Allie, Allie tricks her into becoming Lily, many orgasms are had, Allie slips away.

But Allie pushes Penelope too far, too fast. And Penelope very nearly goes for it. She gives into everything Allie asks of her until Flechette shows up. Looking every inch the upright superheroine that Penelope feels she’s supposed to be, all those voices that drive her come roaring back. While she’s furious at herself for submitting, she lashes out with all that rage directed at Allie. Which leaves her where she started: frustrated and alone.

Oh well, at least Penelope can console herself that her arch-nemesis Terence Tartarus is headed to prison. No way anything could possibly go wrong with that!

Sorry for the long blog post. I didn’t have time to write a short one.

I’m dying to know: What did you think of the e-book? (spoilers okay in the comments)

[ferinehuntressmoved]

˚ * ⊱ ᴘᴀɴᴅᴀ & ғʀɪᴇɴᴅs　[ ⋯ ]　@saintlei, @ofspvrta, @decidentia, @couturiere 　⟹ old meme ; old blog ◈　❝ saitlei asked: ⭐️ my roleplay pet peeves !! / ofspvrta asked:🍷 a character i want to write but never made a blog for / couturiere asked: 🎹 the worst roleplay trend i ever saw & 🔑 my favorite type of threads / decidentia asked: ❓ — three adjectives that describe you / decidentia asked:💍 — any piercings? ❞

Okay, so, I just figured since all these are from the old blog I'll just put them all together for one big post.

i'm not sure if I have any real pet peeves. Maybe writing wise, its threads and replies that puts my character into a situation that should never happen (say I give you a starter of caitlyn not really interested or bored, then you reply back with your character in a bad situation asking for help making it look like caitlyn is callous and uncaring). Or I think my biggest pet peeve is threads that have no way of being responded to. With roleplaying, its a give and take. If you don't give me anything to really respond to then there's not much to go on. Roleplaying requires a bit of pro-active engagement on both sides; I have to make my thread easy to respond to just as you have to do the same. And I don't me dialogue; I have threads that have absolutely no dialogue and you can still respond to it! Its ensure that there is enough give that someone can take away from it and respond to. If you don't do that, it bugs me a little because I can't just figure out what to do or how to respond which frustrates me.

A character I wanted to write but never have.... honestly, I don't know? I've tried to write the characters I want, but if its a dead fandom or no interest its hard to stay on that blog. I know I wrote a little bit with Korra and Evie Frye, but it didn't really seem to generate much interest so I dropped them, along with other characters I've enjoyed. I kind of need that engagement to really want to keep a character.

Worse roleplay trend. If there was one, I'm not sure. I tend to only really write and follow those who kind of match my style. If there was a trend, I probably missed it XD Maybe word count requirements? I find that a bit annoying in the past; which was a big thing more on forum writing then tumblr.

Oh, my favorite type of threads are those that are fully engaged, plot filled, and leading a story! Add on if they turn into novellas; I am a big supporter of people who LOVE to write a lot, please, if you want to give me 16 paragraphs, DO IT!!! I will never be upset by length or amount of words. But I absolutely adore threads that lead to a story; have the thread affect Caitlyn so much that it becomes a part of her history! That I will reflect back to it in other threads, interwoven into the fabric of her story.

Now, three adjectives. I don't... do good with these XD I never look at myself in a good way omg. Maybe dependable, empathetic, and tired? You know what I mean, that tired mom syndrome we both have XD

And I use to have piercings!!! Sadly, not anymore, everything is closed up now ;_; but I use to have my ears pierced and my belly button pierced. Its been almost a decade since I've had piercings.

[deuterosapiens]

So uh... does anyone actually like Inferno?

I saw the genre swap, was exciting to see a detective noir Hellraiser film, and then, oh, then did I learn.

So, our first film without Clive Barker. What wonderful world of exciting new- hey, hey producers, whatcha got- hey, why do you have the screenplay to Se7en in your hand? What are you doing with that permanent marker? Why are you scratching the title out and writing Hellraiser V on the cover?

Okay, so, that might be a bit too much credit. A direct rip-off of Se7en with a coat of Hellraiser paint could be really cool. This was decidedly... not.

I'll give this sequel two things, and these two things only. No more, no less, only flesh:

The twin Cenobites feel as though they were created through sadomasochistic mutilation and therefore, while obviously designed with pointless sexiness in mind, feel compliant with the point of the Cenobites in the original novel. They appear disfigured due to the whole "pain and pleasure are the same thing" thing. This cannot be said of some of the designs in the early films. They aren't particularly interesting to look at, but they don't feel like the fucking CD thing from Hell on Earth.

The Lemarchand Box (identified as the Lament Configuration, spoken out-loud for the first time in the series) is not a Pokéball.

There's a direction these films have obviously talen that I don't much care for because it does conflict significantly with one of the most interesting aspects of film one. It's an aspect that Clive Barker himself kind of ignored in Scarlet Gospels, but since he's the creator, I'll accept his wishes on the matter. Seeing as Scarlet Gospels is clearly in greater continuity with the film than the novella, I guess I'll accept that too.

This little detail, humorously enough, I don't recall this line being in the book, is in the nail-headed Hell Priest's introduction to Kirsty: "demons to some, angels to others, explorers in the farthest reaches of pain and experience". Why do I like this line? Because it rather clearly states that they exist outside of the human morality spectrum. What that other hellsite would refer to as "blue/orange morality" (a term I do find quite useful to describing these sorts of things, I'll admit). Clearly, the later films prefer a literal Christian Hell approach, which is almost boring, as I believe it renders the idea of the Cenobites as simply outside of our realm of understanding quite pointless. Oh, so you exist to punish us for our sins. Cool. Great. Excellent.

I really hope the ploy twist here was able to fool someone. I truly hope someone was caught off guard by it. Someone watched this film and had a major Keanu Reevess style "woah!"- moment. I envy their ability to see the magic of incredibly obvious plot twists.

Oh, so you opened the Box and now you must live out an Inferno-based ironic hell as punishment for your personal indulgences. I feel as though being punished for engaging in vice, excess and sexual indulgence is kind of something the earlier films' Cenobites wouldn't really care about. All they care about is that you are having a good time, and that perhaps you'll have a better time without skin, or really, being in one piece.

Way to completely miss the mark on these characters, guys!

You like The Engineer, I like The Engineer. It's like the one singular Cenobite of the original novel that's given an actual name or title. Why did they give this title to the nail-headed Hell Priest? The Engineer is a creator of glorious devices by which to further explore the limits of the flesh (specifically, it's sundering from its owner's body). Kind of a completely different character!

This one was bad, just honestly bad. I did not enjoy this slow, introspective mess. I could get behind a slow, introspective Hellraiser, but let's not kid ourselves about what these movies are about. They are gorey films, that derive their most unpleasant imagery and fear from the beauty and horror of sex. They embrace the whole "one man's squick is another man's squee" mentality. Or they should.

I cannot reconcile this film with any real element from the previous ones. Oh, Leviathan, Lord of the Labyrinth, help me get through Hellseeker.

[pretttydemonwrites]

Thoughts - June 4

Happy Pride Month Motherfuckers!

My writing has been pretty sporadic for the past couple of months. I'm not surprised really, I knew that setting a goal to write every day was going to ultimately wind up with missed days, but that was never really the point of this anyways. Whether I do it every day, every other day, or a couple times a week or whatever, I've already written way more this year than I think I've written in...let's just say it's been a while.

I'd like to expand on why that's happened, why I found myself falling out of love with the thing that I straight up decided to major in while I was in college. (Hint: college definitely had something to do with it)

I pinpoint the start of my love of writing around the age of eleven. At the time it was all My Chemical Romance self insert fanfiction and typical My Immortal style vampire stories. A little after that, I started branching out into doing text RP on Gaia Online and that's when I made my first real OC, Cassandra. Stuck her in a less than savory asylum themed roleplay and that particular group I would go on to do several different plots with. That was all through middle and high school, and those roleplays fueled my writing. I still wrote some MCR fanfiction during that time too, but I was branching out! Original stories, original characters, poetry, hell I did NaNoWriMo in like...2011 for the first time and fuckin crushed it.

I was pretty confident about my writing honestly. My friends and I liked it and that's kind of all I gave a shit about. When I started contemplating going to college and eventually decided to major in creative writing, that's when things started to take a bit of a turn.

For one thing, I don't particularly enjoy criticism! I also don't enjoy being told what format/genre/etc to write in, and when you get into advanced creative writing classes (at least at my college) then they usually focused on specific genres. For instance, I took a novella writing class, and a one-act playwriting class, and a....poetic playwriting class? Gun to my head I couldn't tell you what that one was officially called.

Now, obviously I recognize that the point of these classes was to allow you to branch into different formats, learn the conventions of them and use that knowledge to strengthen your skills. But I was a stubborn bastard and I only wanted to write my stuff.

That being said, my work often felt like it was undermined and looked down upon because my influences were very obviously YA/fanfiction/genre fiction based, whereas everyone else seemed focused on being as pretentious as possible, trying so desperately to be the next great white male author. I was resentful of that, and couldn't understand why my writing was seen as immature in comparison to my peers.

Long story short, I think those feelings kind of festered in me all through college so that, by the time I graduated, I had no intentions of ever turning my writing into any sort of career. I felt discouraged and pretty hopeless about my prospects, so once I was out, I was more concerned with figuring out how I was going to survive and pay rent, and I knew that my writing wasn't going to pay those bills. So I just...let it go for a while.

I'd write something here and there, sure. I think I might have even tried to submit a couple things. By and large though, what once consumed a vast majority of my free time was became something of a past life. "Back in the day I was a writer" and such.

And yet, it was still always one of the first things I would tell people if they asked me about my interests. ("Oh I'm a writer. What have I written lately? HAHAHAHA!") I couldn't let that part of my identity go. It had been a huge part of me for half my life, how could I abandon it?

So it was there, always, even if I didn't do anything with it. And then I got into DnD and other TTRPGs and I was doing text RP again and I realized that....I can still write? I'm still an actual writer? And I could write again if I really wanted to, if I could find a way to push past the discouraged feeling in my gut.

So that's what all this has been for, really. I could go on for a while about this complex relationship I have with writing, but it honestly feels so fucking good to be back in it, to be back working at something again. It's not perfect, I've definitely forgotten a lot of the useful shit I did learn in college, but I think that I could get there again.

If you read through this whole thing, I can only assume that you related to it in some way and if so, I hope you're coming out on the other side of things feeling hopeful for yourself too. Thank you, as always, for reading.

[javaspirits]

--( General )-- Hi welcome to my Multimuse Javaspirits this is a semi selective indies account. With both canon and Ocs. You can easily find my muse list ( muse list here ). I am not quiet done adding my muses but I will always announce when I do. I am on medium activity. If it goes up you will see more posts, if it goes down you will also know as I will post about it !

--(Triggers)-- My only real trigger is terminal illness that is the only thing I ask you tag for me. Please and thank you.

--(Writing)-- I use para, multi-para and novella style of writing I write in the third person. I do not mind how you write you character or the format just understand this is how I write mine. Please select a muse when you send an ask otherwise you'll get which ever one I am feeling in the moment. I use icons & small text for my posts. Please feel free to continue asks, I love that. I will continue asks in their own thread so as to not reblog someone elses ask or my own. I will write with most levels of rp since we all start out somewhere. You are not required to use icons, match my words or use small text.

If you have a trigger and I miss it when I am writing please contact me. Be polite about it and let me know and I will get it tagged. I hate to trigger anyone--its just I interact on a large scale and can't remember ever single set of rules I read.

I do ask for one thing, please tag javaspirits so I can keep track of my rps.

--(Plotting)-- I tend to be better on the fly honestly, but if you want my discord to plot hit me up I am always happy to do so. If we are mutuals. If you want a plot you can ask, if you have something you'd like to try again ask, but also please respect my right to say no. If I am not feeling it. This goes for my rp partners too, if we are writing something your not feeling, lets scrap it and try something else, I am easy to get on with I love to write.

--(Shipping)-- I welcome shipping with chemistry, I ship various things I have a couple of canon characters in fact and my two ocs, I would love interactions for them. Not just romantic shipping, but family, found family, mentor, student, adventuring companions, etc. Please do not pressure me to ship, and no asking to ship is not pressuring me. I will not write cheating threads, and I will not write multi partners. I am very much a one on one ship kind of girl. I have nothing against polyships it just isn't for me. All ships will take place in there own verse!

--(Following)--- If I follow you I want to write with you. I might be a little shy in reaching out. often my form of reaching out is to send a meme this is how I judge interest to be honest. I do not vague post or call out or cause issues. I keep drama to role play. I will not follow someone who tells me how I have to run my own blog, sorry. I will of course accepted asks for triggers to be tagged, I will not allow others to tell me I can not use a certain face, or a plot. If I have to respond to you within a certain amount of days, again we won't be a good fit. I have bouts of extreme activity and I have my days of omg I am so tired how do I adult ?

--(Mun)-- I am Noir or Cat either works really. I am in my late 30's and I have a family. I love to write with others and I am heavily into tabletop rp, many of my ocs come from years of tabletop rp. I enjoy chatting about it, and characters and ships (romantic or platonic ) and you know things in general. You can always send me an Ask, my DM's are open and if you want my Discord, and are a mutual I will be happy to slide it your way.