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bereft-of-frogs · 2 years ago

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Favorite Books of 2022:

Okay here's the positivity, I've split my list into New vs Rereads.

New:

Nona the Ninth, by Tamsyn Muir - not over it, obvious answer, what more is there to say?

In the Dream House, by Carmen Maria Machado - really clever and creative memoir, I'm currently rereading Her Body and Other Parties because I just love Machado's writing so much.

This Is How You Lose the Time War, by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone - fun fact I originally read this because I'd gotten it for my friend as a late Christmas present last year but then read it before giving it to her, so it was the only one of my top 5 that I didn't own. Until this Christmas when I got it from my brother who, and I quote, 'googled what you should read if you like that lesbian space necromancer series' which is also 100% how I picked it out for my friend and also 100% true.

The Secret History, by Donna Tartt - the seminal dark academia text, I read 300 pages in a single day and I am already planning on going as Murdered Vermont Farmer using things already found in my closet for next Halloween.

The Fifth Season, by NK Jemisin - oh my god this was so good. Both an excellent example of how good second person narration can be and how satisfying good plot twists can be. I 'guessed' this one early and was so gratified as it developed.

Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - what an unexpected delight for a book I essentially read because of BookTok drama. In case you'd already forgotten, the routine Classics vs YA drama took an unexpected turn in January when the first shot about how the booktok girlies should read Crime and Punishment was parried with 'um Crime and Punishment is a YA novel actually', and lead to 1) at least one Booktokker trying to read it and gifting us with their angry annotations like 'omg why is this book so bleak and depressing' (it's Russian Lit, there are so many memes about this) and 'um is this book really about him murdering an old lady' (yes that's the plot that's on the cover what did you think the 'crime' was), 2) a solid year of jokes, 3) me reading it sincerely and really enjoying it. So thanks booktok!

Ok, now onto the Rereads:

1. & 2. Gideon and Harrow - yup I read these both twice this year, still faves, still cry every time, not over them either.

3. American Gods, by Neil Gaiman - always a favorite.

4. Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel - This one for sure hit different after COVID, but is still so, so good.

5. Lord of the Rings - I really like my new 3 in 1 copy, it’s so pretty and drives home that these are really one extended story spread across 6 volumes rather than a true trilogy, so yeah I recommend a 3-in-1 edition if you are in the market for LotR books. It does make it rather heavy to carry around, but at least it’s paperback and I found this one wasn’t too hard to physically read.

Honorable Mentions: Dracula (Dracula Daily was THE MOST fun I had all year), The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (takes place in the What We Do In the Shadows Universe you cannot take that headcanon away from me, Dracula is the #Drama, no notes, a worthy successor), The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (excellent), The Midnight Library by Matt Haig (the amount of hate this book gets on Tiktok is unnecessary and kind of toxic, imo), Revenge of the Sith novelization by Matthew Stover (Stover, why are you Like This? Why?)

If anyone has StoryGraph and would like to follow me/be friends, I’m on there under bereft_of_frogs, so please feel free to friend me!

The #Salt (aka my bottom 5 books of 2022 and a little mini rant on each) under the cut:

2. Rule of Wolves, by Leigh Bardugo - Another really disappointing sequel that made me wish I’d stayed a Six of Crows duology-only girlie. Though I did really like King of Scars, specifically for the continuation of Nina becoming a necromancer and infiltrating Fjerda. That part really fell apart in this book. A lot of things fell apart. It honestly felt sort of like Bardugo just wanted to be finished with this universe? Because a lot of things were resolved in really weird ways and really quickly. It also felt like it lost some of the interesting nuance in the worldbuilding that SoC had. And of course, she really showed off how bad she is at portraying the passage of time in her writing with this one. I was given the impression by King of Scars that it was taking place months at most after the events of Crooked Kingdom, and then out of nowhere it’s actually been 2 years so Nina can totally move on! But it still never felt like it had been 2 years and I feel like the end of the grief narrative was really abrupt and I just…couldn’t get into the romance because of how rushed that resolution was. I hope she’s done with this universe, aside from whatever extra writing/retconning goes on with the TV series - or at least, I’m done with this universe aside from the TV series. In future rereads, I’ll likely stick to my unofficial trilogy of Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom/King of Scars.

3. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, by VE Schwab - This book is SO HYPED and for WHAT? I’m a big fan of lyrical, plotless writing, but that means actually having lyrical writing and no plot. This book just decided to do all the plot in the last 30 pages. So it was like 70% meandering, 30% rushed weird romance plot? And I’m sorry, I will NEVER be over the ‘not like other girls’ feminism of the main character. You cannot convince me that she would not have been in favor of the French Revolution. She’s an anti-clerical feminist but as soon as the Revolution happens it’s like ‘ew those peasant women are too violent, fuck all of them, I’m getting out of here.’ It’s a prime example of the hollow historical feminist archetype that is luckily starting to get some critique, where the main character fits perfectly with modern ideas of feminism, without the author actually having to put that much thought into their actual principles and how that fits into the historical context.

4. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, by Eric LaRocca - This one was just bad. Read like a first draft. Went nowhere, said nothing.

5. Nothing But Blackened Teeth, by Cassandra Khaw - I almost put this together with the above, because I think they had similar problems. Really under-developed, but at least this one had good writing. It was beautifully written, it just…went nowhere. The characters and their relationships were really surface level, and the intriguing premise just…never really went anywhere. Both I think get more hype than warranted because they’re rather short and they have striking covers. Both I compared to short films that a young/student horror director would send around to short film circuits or use as film school theses while they were working on developing and funding the feature-length project, but unfortunately that’s just not how book publishing works so we’re not going to get to see the fully developed works.

Dishonorable Mentions: Dead Space by Kali Wallace (just finished it, the flattest characters I think I’ve ever encountered in fiction), If We Were Villains by ML Rio (I had this rated higher and then I actually read The Secret History and was like…oh my God, this is so much worse, what a poor imitation), Winter’s Orbit (I feel real bad about this one but…maybe I just don’t like romance, but I could not stand how 50% of the book was just miscommunication), Lost Stars by Claudia Gray (still got 3 stars, but I think this one is just overhyped. If you want to know what reading this book is like, just watch the original trilogy, pause at any major plot point, watch the ‘are we the baddies?’ Sketch and then continue on), What Moves the Dead by T Kingfisher (I also gave this one 3 stars, and I think it’s…really not that bad but I can’t stop thinking about the hubris of saying that you’re going to write a more fully fleshed out version of The Fall of the House of Usher and then add on a whole sub genre, 4 extra characters, another whole plot, and barely make it any longer)

#books #reading #my brother and his gf got me the little cat statue! and a mug that looks just like the void creature it is so excellent #thank you booktok drama for the crime and punishment rec that was truly your peak

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boop-le-snoot · 4 years ago

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PARTY FAVOURS I CHAPTER 29

First time reader click here

Feels like this story is flopping. Is it flopping? Idk. This chapter is 100% plot and it is spooky. Cursed demon box. Helpful Stephen Strange and grumpy Wong. Hovering Bruce and Tony. Loki being a honorary Gen-Z. Found family but make it ✨superheroes✨.

"That's a lot to unpack," Peter stated once I had given him the bare bones report of the situation at hand. "Uh, are you okay?" The boy was obviously upset at my predicament, placing a supportive hand on my shoulder.

"Kinda?" I offered, making space for Wanda and Pietro who decided to join me and Peter, away from the arguing adults. The mission discussion - an absolute disaster - started as soon as Peter had walked in. Evidently experienced in such matters, the boy ignored the bickering and came over to steal me from Bruce's clutches to peacefully finish his egg sandwich in the company of his peers.

"I wanted to ask if I could see your memory of that time," Wanda meekly offered me a piece of candy. I accepted it - sugar sweet sugar, how I love thee so! The witch continued with a smile: "I think it would be helpful to see what we're dealing with, magic-wise."

"Sure," I trusted her. "Just don't scramble what's left of my sanity, please," All of us laughed at my remark as I laid down on the cold floor with my head in Wanda's lap. Her powers felt like small brain zaps, tingles that began at the front of my forehead and ran down into my spine. I followed her instructions and thought about the times I remembered, finding the box, placing it into my closet, the nightmares. I had a mild headache by the time she was done; no grudges against her - Wanda tactfully avoided my private moments and looked only at the ones containing the artifact.

"You've gotten really good," I complimented her with pure adoration.

"Thank you," She blushed, smoothing back my stray hairs. "That stuff is really strong. I don't think you should go near the box," She admitted. "And Doc should take a look at you. You have a residue left. I don't think that's good either."

"Well, fuck," I said in muted resignation.

"Press F to pay respects," Pietro joked in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere.

"Your luck is almost as bad as mine," Peter pointed out.

I scoffed. "Well, if I see any spiders around, I'll be sure to stay away in case they happen to be radioactive OsCorp runaways."

All of us laughed. Despite the grim situation, I didn't feel doomed. I was surrounded by friends and my boyfriends and my bestie who happened to be a mythical omnipotent god- welp, once again, I was getting too emotional. Once the adults were done arguing, we could start making sense of this mess and hopefully clean it up before the monster is out of the box.

"Mortals," I heard Loki scoff. The next moment, the Asgardian sat down noisily next to me, pout on full display. "This house is a nightmare."

His expression - or the accidental use of a meme - sent me completely, tension leaving my body via copious amounts of nearly hysterical laughter. Through tears and hiccups, I saw Wanda cackle with me and Peter show the meme in question to Loki, noting that he had been once sent to time-out on top of the fridge by Tony himself. Soon, all of us were laughing, much to the displeasure of the adults.

"Children, what is the issue?" Thor asked, irritated.

"We're just waiting for you to be done with arguing," I spoke before Loki could start bitching about Thor calling him a child. "Then I can show Steve and Loki where exactly have I buried the box so Stephen can take me to the healers and get this thing out of me or whatever," I pointed out the most logical plan of action.

Two long strides and the sorcerer was standing over me, boom-boom-whooshing and generally making very pretty golden patterns to appear and land on top of me. Tony and Bruce anxiously hovered behind him, both of my boys concerned and ready to mother-hen me. Ugh, so disgustingly adorable. Wanda's hand encompassed mine - she was nervous.

Stephen took a solid five-minute silence break before coming to a final conclusion. "Wong can get rid of the residual traces of the artifact's influence," The sorcerer announced curtly. "It's good you got rid of the artifact, a few more months and you would have started slipping into insanity if the magic within it was not released," He explained, slowly reaching out a hand to place it on top of my head. I wasn't sure if it was a gesture meant to bring comfort or another diagnostic test but leaned into the touch nonetheless. "Tell me, did you have any behavioral... Disturbances after...?" He trailed off.

I chewed on my lip, evaluating. "I honestly don't know. I've always been kind of an asshole," Honesty was the best policy. "Nothing seems out of order, sleepwalking aside."

"I see," Strange gave me a tight-lipped smile. "Perhaps, it was your stubborn nature that forbade the artifact from corrupting your mind completely. As evidenced by Captain Rogers, even undesirable character traits bring good into this world now and then."

That seemed a little bit hostile. I frowned, giving a questioning look to a frowning Loki.

"Speaking from experience?" Not the one to hold back upon witnessing first-grade bullshit, I withdrew from Stephen's touch, raising a sarcastic eyebrow.

Surprising everyone, the man laughed soundly, eyes crinkling at the corners. "I most certainly do," Shooting me a positively mischievous wink. I felt like I was missing something.

The room's inhabitants slowly ticked out in pairs and threes, eager to complete their assigned tasks. Loki had insisted on coming along to the sanctum with me, even almost getting up in Stephen's face, but Bruce - out of all people - managed to calm the Asgardian down, and together we convinced him his magic would be considerably more useful during the retrieval of the cursed box. Loki was worried - everyone with a pair of functional eyes could see that the spiky attitude was his way of showing he cared about me, which made my insides briefly turn to mush. I didn't expect him to take the title of my best friend so seriously and I definitely was not complaining.

Tony was the last to leave, jittery and shaky, clutching me like it was his last time seeing me, kissing me hungrily in front of everyone. The joke or two he made were weak ghosts of his usual sharp snark.

"I love you and I'll be back soon," I whispered into his ear, feeling him freeze and his fingertips dig almost painfully into my sides. Louder, I repeated: "Not planning on dying any time soon, y'all gotta chill. Let's go, doc?" I addressed the tall sorcerer who was tactfully pretending to be busy with his smartphone.

Wanda pressed a duffle bag into my hands mouthing "clean clothes" a split second before Stephen opened a portal and with a great deal of curiosity, I stepped through it, eyes immediately drawn to the dimly lit space filled with books and antiques. So many books, so many unusual trinkets. The chandelier that hung over our heads rivaled the ones I'd seen in million-dollar-homes of dad's friends.

"Follow me," Stephen extended an arm in the direction of a smaller door, "Please do not touch anything."

I walked a pace behind him, satisfying my curiosity by looking around like a child in a candy store. The air smelled different in the Sanctum, almost as familiar as Loki's magic but less frosty... Warmer. A dash of red fabric swished from somewhere towards me; I giggled. The Cloak of Levitation liked me - not nearly as much as it liked Peter though - so I brushed my fingertips along the fabric, greeting it quietly. Talking loudly in this building was out of the question. I felt like any moment, a disgruntled librarian would appear to chastise me for making noise.

"Strange," A short Asian man appeared, book in hand and looking none too happy. Guess that's the librarian... "I got your text. The room next to yours is prepared for the ritual," The man I assumed to be Wong gave me a curt nod in the way of greeting, doing a quick 180° and walking us back to a small but tastefully decorated room with a single cot in the middle. It was pleasantly warm, a small fire lit in the fireplace, willowy smoke of incense rising from a few strategically placed sticks.

"The bathroom is that way. I'm afraid you'll have to be fully nude for the procedure," Strange declared apologetically, pointing to a door hidden behind the divide.

I snorted, but of course, the weird voodoo shit would require me to be naked. Not that I was embarrassed or anything but still. Tony would have a field day. Locating a chair, I dumped my duffle bag on it, flying out of my hoodie and sweatpants in record time. My underwear and socks followed, feet unpleasantly chilly despite the carpeted floor. I ran a hand over the faint bruises on my hips, evidence of last night, fondly - either Tony or Stephen had left marks on my body and that was... It was great. I loved it, drugs or not.

I heard someone clear their throat and turned around, nearly cracking up at the way both men suddenly averted their gazes, blush riding high on their cheeks. I snorted: "I'm hot, what else is new?"

Wong shook his head, busying himself with some sort of a book; Stephen lingered, eyes fixated on the very same bruises. His tongue darted out, wetting the plush of his bottom lip, and damn, this wasn't the time to get horny. I shook my head and with that, the sorcerer caught himself too, mutely motioning me to lay down on the cot.

"Whenever you're done eye-fucking each other," Wong piped up sarcastically - wow, I liked this man already. Stephen grumbled something quiet and rude, provoking another snort from me.

I followed their instructions - shortly after the Asian man began reading - or rather singing - something in a language I didn't know, I felt myself fall into a deep sleep. Or, I thought I was falling asleep. At one point, my eyes opened to an empty room, a thin sheet covering my bare body, and a silence that made chills run down my spine.

"Stephen?" I called out. I sounded like I was underwater to my own ears. "Wong?"

I was met with silence so deafening, I had no choice but to sit up and look around. The fire was burning strong in the fireplace, several logs blackened from it as sparks flew. It took a second for me to realize it made no sound - there was no crackling. Something was very wrong, the dread was creeping up on me.

Very familiar dread.

With the sheet firmly wrapped around me, I hopped off the cot, suddenly noticing the drawings on my arms, my legs. I was covered in runes similar to the ones I had seen on the cursed box - and my memories weren't missing. As clear as day, I recalled messing around with the box, debating on opening it, taking it out of my room only to find it back on my desk in the morning, some serious Anabelle shit.

I jumped as the floorboards cracked somewhere in the house. Every logical thought I had, backed up by every horror movie I had ever watched, screamed at me to NOT go towards the creepy noise; like moth to a flame, I was drawn in and couldn't resist the unnatural urge to investigate it. On silent feet, I padded out of the room, desperately trying not to think about the lonely, dark hallways filled with strange ancient objects. My steps made no noise.

On the couch, in the main room we'd arrived, sitting lazily, was Tony. I'd recognize his hair anywhere - and the Led Zep tee, old, frayed edges and loose threads. "Tony?" I asked hopefully, trying to make sense of this...

He turned around.

It wasn't Tony. Whatever it was, it wore Tony's face, it held his brown eyes and crow's feet around them - it wasn't him. Wrong, like the lack of sound in this place, misplaced and unnatural. The doe browns didn't sparkle, lifeless, dull color of dried mud. As much as I wanted to go and bury my face in his chest, my limbs filled with lead, my whole body screaming "DANGER".

The impostor kept quiet which only solidified my suspicions. Real Tony would be running his mouth already, poking fun at my impression of a sheet ghost.

"Princess?" The... Thing asked in Tony's voice, but it fell flat and monotone.

"Whatever you are, you sure as Hell ain't Tony," I stated firmly, hoping for some answers. "What the fuck?"

Not-Tony's face changed, familiar features twisting into something sinister, the malice making me sick to my stomach. The creature stood up, causing my feet to take an involuntary step back as he advanced slowly.

"You have no choice but to submit," The Thing replied calmly. "You're not getting out of here. Not even your little Asgardian pet god can save you," Its tone was absolutely flat. I would have thought the thing was a robot if not for the obvious involvement of magic in this situation. Its words filled me with dread as thick as molten lava; unfortunately for the creature, unlocking my memories gave me enough rational balance to be acutely aware of it and therefore, able to fight it.

I could fight it. I didn't know how exactly, but I could resist it. "That's a really bold thing to say for something that... What even are you? Magical STD?" As my brain desperately focused on finding a solution to a problem I didn't know all the details of, my mouth had a mind of its own.

The creature growled, a far more primal noise than a human could make. "You don't know what you're up against, child. I am one for we are many," Suddenly, the room was filled with shadows as if someone had turned off all the lights and cranked up the moon to be the brightest it ever was. The shadows moved, oozed, motion sinister without any light to back it up.

I had no choice but to pucker up. Nobody was coming to rescue me; in fact, I always have taken pride in being a self-saving princess. Damsel in distress wasn't really my style. The hunch in my shoulders disappeared, giving way to a stubborn and stiff expectation of the upcoming altercation, hands bailed in fists.

"I mean, like Legion the demon from the Bible?" I recalled what little I knew from Wikipedia. "I mean, I'm agnostic myself, but if you feel like identifying with that, you should probably see a therapist."

The entity growled, shadows gathering around it like fabric on a string, and lunged. Paralyzed by sudden blinding, deafening fear, I turned tail and ran.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub @mostly-marvel-musings @vozit @littlegasps @pilloclock @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads @hermione-grangers-wife @individualistfem @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby @cutenessloading @romeo-the-cactus @jelly-fishy-babie @mikariell95

#party favours #bun writes #tony stark x reader #bruce banner x reader #stephen strange x reader #tony stark x y/n #bruce banner x y/n #stephen strange x y/n #tony stark x you #bruce banner x you #stephen strange x you

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desperatelyseekingroleplay · 3 years ago

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looking for longterm hurt/comfort RP partner, over 18yo, OC or fandoms (ask, might work), MxF or MxM, in either case the H party being M. On discord or a similar platform

me: Claire, she/her, 36, London timezone GMT

So... this is long, but on the plus side: if you don’t like long I’m the wrong match for you anyway.

What I usually write:

-Deep and elaborate. My main interest is character development, the human element of the story. E.g. okay there is zombies/a bomb threat/a killer on the loose/a mystic artefact to recover/a crown to secure/a pandemic/a war to win but actually it’s a story about two people falling in love/estranged siblings finding their way back together/the newly assembled unit growing into a team, etc. Bonding, growing, healing, going on each other’s nerves.

-I like my “save the male damsel in distress”.

-complex worlds, so there is a lot of worldbuilding, plotting and character building before I start

-nerd alert. I’m a nerd and that shines through. E.g. two characters are playing chess, I’ll make sure the game can actually be played.

-I pour my heart and soul into my writing so yes, I’m happy for there to be all the memes and chatting about our characters.

-I don’t mind smut but there has to be plot, a lot of it

What I’m looking for:

-someone as passionate about this as I am. So someone who is happy to do plotting and word building and chatting about it.

-someone open-minded and nice

-someone of legal age

-someone who's really into hurt/comfort

Random, but good to know:

-most genres are fine, but I like my happyish endings. And my comic relief, even if I don’t write comedy.

-anthropomorphic characters like elves, aliens, etc are fine

-any time period is fine, AU is fine, the world just has to be coherent

-any question is acceptable, whether or not I can write it in character is something I need to see then and there, but I definitely won’t judge you, ever.

-I love my “people forced into close quarters” set ups. Police/military/spy units, expeditions, political campaigners, etc. It forces character clashes. Fun.

-I love puzzles and codes and clues and all that

Time/availability:

-I’m in GMT and I tend to post daily, at least once. Depends on how high work is piled on top of my desk. Should I not be able to respond I’ll drop you a line. I’ll post when I have gaps in my day, so could be any time.

Style:

-lit/novella if possible. If there are typos, so be it. I put the sex in dyslexic -literally- from time to time, too. I'd rather we each find our characters'/character's voice(s) than focus on perfect spelling. No need to be a native speaker.

-I tend to write a paragraph at a time, but I'm flexible. It should be a back at forth

-3rd POV, present or past tense. I sort of prefer present but I’m fine with both

Limits:

-Tempted to use the euphemism bathroom, but let’s spell it out: anything to do with human waste.

Because there are a lot of things one can do in the bathroom that I like a lot, like giving an ill character a sponge bath.

-Dead, ill or injured dogs, foxes, horses, rats or hedgehogs. That’s a hard limit. An odd one but oh well. I have absolutely no issue with dead, ill or injured human or anthropomorphic characters. Or a medical/pandemic setting monkeys

-Killing our characters without a warning/agreement. Let’s be honest, if you e.g. want to make an MI5 shaped cake, you have to break and possibly waterboard some eggs. That’s a given in certain genres. But I fancy myself a happy ending for at least my favourite character, so I’m happy for us to have no-kill list or a red-shirt list.

If you think we might click, message me:

Discord: CG#8000

#Desperately Seeking Roleplay #Roleplay Partner Ad #Roleplay Partner Search #Roleplay Partner Needed #Rp Partner Wanted #Rp Partner Search #Original Roleplay Wanted #Long Term Roleplay Wanted #Seeking Roleplay Partner #submission #hurt/comfort

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