#( and next I'll annotate them /eventually/ )

[korinthiakos]

Me right now re-reading the lord of the flies: * slowly undog ears the pages *

[thoughtfulfoxllama]

I recently got the Oxford "Annotated Book of Mormon" from the Library, and I love it

Reading "Come, Follow Me" this week, I found an interesting polarity "Faith-Skepticism"

In Alma 30, we read about Korihor, in 31, the Zoramites. And, in the original chapters, 30 & 31 were in the same chapter, indicating a connection between them

Korihor represents Extreme Skepticism (yes, I know, he never disbelieved, but that was his philosophy), while the Zoramites exhibit Blind Faith

This may be controversial, but Skepticism isn't a bad thing. God created us as rational beings, to think about things. He didn't create rationality so we could ignore it. Science is rooted in skepticism (I'm not sure if this is right, so I'll test it vigorously)

Skepticism is only negative when it prevents one from actually applying Faith. The Lectures on Faith make it very clear that Faith is an Action, not merely a belief. Next Week, we read one of the most important sermons in the Book of Mormon (Alma's Parable of the Seed). He makes it clear that we can only see the affects of the seed if we nurture it, and let it grow

Many Scientists were also Men of Faith (such as Heisenberg, or Newton). Even those who weren't religious didn't outright deny the possibility. For example, Darwin was active in his Church while writing "On the Origin of Species," said until his death he didn't know if God was real or not, but wasn't going to assume he's not there (and he once told a group of atheists that it was folly to say God didn't exist, because you can't know)

The idea of Science being anti-god is only so popular nowadays because of people such as Dawkins, who (like all too many people, religious & atheistic) don't understand what Faith actually is

On the other hand, there is Blind Faith. The Zoramites had faith, that is for sure. The Zoramite Prayer only consists of Thanks, and no requests. But what did that Faith lead them to? It led them to Pride (we're unconditionally saved, you're unconditionally damned). It led them to neglect & even condemn the poor (similar to the "Seed Faith" we see, especially with Televangelists). It eventually led them to War, because of their blind hatred for an "other" they had created (which is sadly too common in the Modern Church, be it with the LGBT Community, Liberals, or even Beards (yes, there is a story behind that. And yes, I do have a glorious beard))

So, what did Mormon want us to learn? We have 1% of the records he had, and even then, they're abridged. Everything in the Book of Mormon has a reason to be there.

I think he wanted us to acknowledge that humans have Polarity inherent in us. We have to learn how to balance that polarity if we are going to be healthy & happy. We can't let either Skepticism or Faith lead us. We need to test the "Seed of Faith," and see if it is good. We can't let Faith overrule us (and inadvertently let Wicked Seeds infest us), and we can't let Skepticism overrule us (refusing to test any seeds)

If we see a beggar on the street, Skepticism can lead us to help him ("what's God going to do for him"). If we are that beggar, Faith can allow us to accept the charity they need ("God sent that person to help, so I'll accept their help"). These are two opposing forces, but they both lead to God's Will being done (charity being given). We need to learn how to balance, and when to express each attribute

[luvvyouforever]

rhys and john keats - modern au!rhysand x college student!reader ❥

↳ reader can barely handle the weight of college but rhysand is there to pick her up and help the pain.

↳ so self indulgent it hurts. set in a modern age where reader is a college student but rhysand is still high lord? idk honestly. mentions of stress, self doubt, comfort, crying. my day-to-day life essentially.

↳ requests are open! check characters in pinned post and link for requests is in my bio :)

the living room of your shared apartment with rhysand is a sight to behold. papers, printed copies of poems, books, pens, highlighters, and three energy drinks enclose you in a circular shape. it's horrifying and the sight is not eased by your messy hair, dark circles, and tear-stained cheeks. the semester was getting to you, clearly.

three papers were due for one class in the next two weeks. six quizzes were on the agenda and you had easily ten multiple page texts to read before class at 9am the following monday.

it had never been this stressful before but your time in college was coming to an end and that only ramped up the amount of work you had to complete. your final few semesters were certain to end you and you'd never get to walk across that stage to receive a blank page of paper which would eventually be replaced with your actual diploma. that's how it felt, at least.

minutes full of agony passed until you heard the familiar flapping of strong wings on the balcony. you didn't move from your sitting position as rhysand sauntered into the room, smile so wide it reached his violet eyes.

"my dear y/n," he whispered. his voice was so sweet that another tear forced its way out of your eye and down your cheek again. he must have sensed it, the stress pouring down your bond, or maybe he could somehow smell the salt of the tear as it dripped onto the page in your lap. he knelt down to meet your face and he pouted. "what's going on, darling?"

for the first time that night, you tore your gaze away from your work and met his eyes. "there's too much," you mumbled with a watery voice. "i can't do this."

he made a click with his tongue while examining the piles of work on the floor. his fingers lifted the assignment prompts and poems and syllabus requirements. more tears fell and you silently cursed each and every one of them.

"why can't you do it? what's challenging you?" he asked gently. it was not meant to condescend but he was trying to figure out how to help you in the best way possible.

"i feel like the analyses i'm coming up with are dumb, i don't understand the lines, the rhyme scheme is stupid, and i don't know what my thesis is for a moronic paper on keats should be. it's stupid and dumb and i'm stupid and dumb."

rhysand moved his hands to your cheeks before you could even react and pulled your face to meet his strong eye contact. his purple eyes bore into yours and he poured liters of reassurance down the bond. that mental claw in his head brushed against your mind in a calming manner. "do not say words like that, my love. you are so intelligent. and you're fully capable of managing everything on your plate."

you sniffed, feeling pathetic in his strong gaze. "i don't feel that way, though. i don't know how to deal with this stress, rhys. it's impossible. it's like this huge tower looming before me and i'm being asked to climb every single step in the best possible way or else i'll be pushed off of the top."

rhysand breathed out a sigh and his hand found your own. "i'm gonna help you climb that tower, okay?" he grabbed a brightly annotated copy of a keats poem and read over it.

"have you even read keats? or dickinson? do you know what a thesis statement is?" you asked. there was a bite to your words but it didn't faze rhysand in the slightest.

"of course i do, love. what do you think i do in my spare time when i'm not being an expert ruler? there's a small section i had put in the library, down on one of the lower floors, and it's full of human books. there's anthologies of authors, textbooks on writing, math theory, whatever you want, it's there. and i've perused it all. this poem-" he held up the printed keats "-is one of my favorites.

"so, the way i interpret this poem is that in order to withstand and stay strong in the face of suffering, we should indulge in poetry, beauty, and art. don't you think so?" he began to recite some lines which resembled this theme and suddenly, it all made sense.

he did that two more times with the other texts you had to write about. everything connected when he taught it and read it. you now had three outlines completed with well-developed thesis statements, annotated stories and poems for discussion, and three out of six quizzes were completed.

"thank you," you said, pouring as much love through your bond as you could. "really, thank you. this means so much to me."

"of course, my dear. shall i put on a sweater vest and glasses and replace your professor from here on out?"

you giggled and finally stood from the floor. the two of you walked into the kitchen to begin making a nutritious, filling dinner with your favorite velaris-sourced wine. "i would absolutely take you up on that offer if it didn't mean everyone in the class would be vying for your attention."

rhysand's arms wrapped around your midsection while you prepared food for dinner. his head leaned forward so that his mouth was by your ear. "i only have eyes for the smartest person in class."

can you tell i'm an english major? this is all very self-insert, i read the keats poem i talked about like two weeks ago :p

[wrongcaitlyn]

I HAVE RAMBLINGS ABOUT TYT

Nico and Apollo def have geek out sessions over greek mythology like they are NERDS and Apollo def grew up having snippets of the Iliad and Odyssey read to him so the moment Nico showed even the slightest of interest in Greek mythology as a kid, best believe Apollo used that to warm up to him 😭🙏

ALSO I can just picture little Apollo curled up next to Leto as she read him all these different poems (I'd like to think she read to him in Greek and while Apollo wasn't completely fluent in Greek, he def understood it very well but then he lost it 😞)

Also, Leto definitely called Apollo sunshine, and that's why he calls his own kids that. Every time Apollo would ask why he was named Apollo, Leto would scoop him up and say it was bc he was the light of her life, and Apollo is the god of light, so ofc she named her pride and joy after the god of light

Anyways whatever u do don't think about sixteen year old Apollo drunk (and probably high) out of his mind, curled up in a hotel room that he hardly spent any time in wishing he could've spent more time with his mother before his father whisked him away and into the spotlight :(

UGH AND DON'T THINK ABOUT APOLLO READING THE ILIAD TO HIMSELF WHENEVER HE MISSES LETO

clearly I have very strong feelings towards the relationship Apollo has with his mother and the fact that he should've had more time with her but bc he was in the spotlight all the time as a kid he didn't get to :(

Wait, oh my god, did Apollo go to his own mother's funeral?? Bc like Will was in middle school when she died, right?? So would have he trusted Will enough to be alone in the house for a few days, or did he just not go?? And how many times did Apollo look at his sixteen year old son and realize that the neglect Zeus put him through (ignoring Apollo's very clear addiction in favor of making him famous ofc) was definitely abuse. HOW MANY TIMES DID APOLLO HAVE TO REALIZE THAT HE GREW UP TOO FAST EVERY TIME HE LOOKED AT WILL??? 😭😭😭

ALSO ALSO IDK IF IT WAS INTENTIONAL BUT HAVING APOLLO, THE PROTECTOR OF YOUNG BOYS, BE THE ONE TO RESCUE NICO FROM AN ABUSIVE SITUATION AND GAVE HIM THE RESOURCES HE NEEDED TO HEAL???? AMAZING

I think Kayla def tried to teach everyone that Will was friends with archery. Just bc archery is severely underrated 😞

(Only Piper managed to actually hit the target, and Jason somehow sliced his hand open??? He has a very faint scar now, and if someone asks about it while he's with Leo, then Leo will come up with the most ridiculous stories instead of telling them the truth 😭)

Also, I think you've mentioned it before, but did either Darren or Kayla try to teach him archery? Idk but the mental image is very funny and it probably took him a plethora of tries to hit the target and Kayla was probably so proud

ANYWAYS IM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG IM DOING THIS INSTEAD OF WRITING MY CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT (I love that class but also UGHHHHH)

HAVE A GOOD DAY 🫶

FIRST OF ALL THIS JUST MAKES ME SO HAPPY TO SEE LIKE AHHSDFHLSDFJ OMG TYT RAMBLES

the whole part about apollo and leto... YES YES YESLKJDSFASDF AHHH apollo was 100% raised on greek mythology and he does have various copies of the iliad and the odyssey and other myths, an old worn-down version from his mom which had been passed down to him in her will, and a bunch of fancy pretty ones bc if he ever sees a pretty copy of the iliad or the odyssey he WILL buy it.

i think that he did go through a phase where like,,, he was just completely uninterested in that sort of stuff, considered it childhood and whatever. but i think that eventually, esp when taking in will, he went through what i'll call the "dumb and poetic try-hard intellectual" phase where he actually did read through the whole thing, read through various translations, annotated some copies, attempted to learn greek (modern greek, not ancient greek lmao), and just in general getting in touch with his heritage bc he realizes, watching will who's so small and resembles him so much, that those memories of him and his mom were actually some of his happiest moments of childhood, not annoying ones. and so he does try to replicate that, despite having not left his family on the best of terms *cough* really bad onesSLKJDF

and as someone who had a parent speak to them in their language, knew how to understand that language, but refused to learn it themselves bc it was boring, there's gonna be such an intense regret there from apollo, thinking that he should've taken the opportunity to learn when he could. he definitely would still understand bits and pieces, maybe a few quotes that were his or his mom's favorites, but it's just a lot harder to learn a language once you've grown up ://

as for the funeral, he did not go, because he still wasn't on speaking terms with his father, and well,,, yeah. he didn't want to cause a scene, also didn't want to tell will much about it, but i do think leto left some things to apollo in her will that apollo had to fight pretty hard to actually get sent to him

and GOD the emotions of apollo watchign will grow up... AHSDFJ ILL NEVER GET OVER IT like its hard to accept but he eventually does recognize it. and it's painful but it also feels good to know that that'll never happen. to watch his son at 16 spend his afternoon doing homework, and at 17 having a healthy relationship with his best friend, and at 18 applying to colleges... it definitely makes apollo proud, but it also breaks his heart a bit. because he couldn't imagine ever forcing the childhood that he had on his son, and he has to admit that his father hadn't felt the same sense of protection or care, and that even though his mom did, she wasn't in a position to do anything that would truly help :/

ALSO ALSO IDK IF IT WAS INTENTIONAL BUT HAVING APOLLO, THE PROTECTOR OF YOUNG BOYS, BE THE ONE TO RESCUE NICO FROM AN ABUSIVE SITUATION AND GAVE HIM THE RESOURCES HE NEEDED TO HEAL???? AMAZING

KSDJFLKASJDFSD PARALLELS AHHSDHFHDSFJ no bc that actually just makes me so happyyyyy like yes apollo is a good father yes he always has been and yes he always will be!!!! to literally anyone who needs it. i love him so much. can you believe when i was first outlining this fic i was like "hm, yeah, he plays an important role, but like i'll make sure not to make him a major character or anything"

now we're here. apollo is probably like. the third most major character after nico and will. in greatest of luxuries, at least.

kayla absoluTELY tried to train everyone in archery, and apollo's trying to avoid it bc he's trying not to think back to 2002 when darren tried to teach him archery, and kayla has the exact same instruction style bc darren had taught her, and hes actually better than will and will's friends bc he's learned before, but he fails on purpose bc the memories are too painful because THEY WERE HAPPY-

sorry pollen is possessing me! it will never leave

ANYWAYS IM SO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG IM DOING THIS INSTEAD OF WRITING MY CREATIVE WRITING ASSIGNMENT (I love that class but also UGHHHHH)

this is SO real bc i am responding to this to avoid doing my lit essaysdlkjf

THANK YOU FOR THE ASK

[mareastrorum]

Reading Tag Meme

Tagged by @grayintogreen

The last book I read:

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang. Utterly fantastic book with unrestrained critique of white supremacy, colonialism, and classism.

A book I recommend:

My absolute favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas as translated by Robin Buss for Penguin books. That edition also included very helpful footnotes since I was not intimately familiar with French history for that era. I read it during the 2 months I was preparing for the bar exam, and it kept me sane. It is very long, but very enjoyable and the best revenge story I've ever read.

A book I couldn’t put down:

Dune: Messiah by Frank Herbert. I was so hyped after reading Dune and breezed through Messiah in no time at all. Easily one of my favorites.

A book I’ve read twice (or more):

The Lord of the Rings trilogy. There aren't that many books I expect to reread; I usually just feel like it on a whim. But LotR is one I have reread and will again because it's just that type of trilogy.

A book on my TBR:

So many, omg. The Jungle by Upton Sinclair has been on there for a while, I should get around to it. Eventually.

A book I’ve put down:

I cannot remember the last book I DNF'd. I've gotten very good at scrutinizing books before I buy/borrow.

That said, there is a book popular among this fandom that I almost DNF'd, but I forced myself to finish and then skimmed a second time to be sure. The more I think about it, the more I detest it. I get why other people enjoy it, and that doesn't ease my opinion.

A book on my wish list:

I don't really have a wishlist anymore because I can afford just about every book I've ever wanted. It's just a matter of remembering to buy it and getting around to reading it. That said, I want to get Persuasion by Jane Austen as annotated by David M. Shapard, and I keep forgetting to order it. I have Pride & Prejudice and Sense & Sensibility annotated by Shaphard, and it helps so much to have context on the opposite page of the one I'm reading for reference. I definitely recommend those versions for anyone who lacks sufficient social context for those books to understand what anyone's talking about.

A favorite book from childhood:

The Hobbit. I reread it every summer after the first read. I have very fond memories of reading it in the shade with a water bottle.

A book I would give to a friend:

I tend to gift nonfiction because fiction tastes vary so widely. what if? and other books by Randall Munroe have been a hit with everyone I've gifted them to.

A book of poetry or lyrics that I own:

I actually don't have a poetry book. I have folklore, fairy tales, short story anthologies, and some really old children's books from numerous cultures across multiple continents, but not poetry. I need to fix that.

A nonfiction book that I own:

About 30% of my books are nonfiction, and I have a lot of books. Epidemics and Society: From the Black Death to the Present by Frank M. Snowden was a book I picked up literally the day before COVID lockdown in 2020, and I recommend it to anyone interested in how people dealt with epidemics through the past few centuries. It helped a lot with my anxiety while isolating because it showed that this has all happened before; COVID wasn't the end times.

What I’m currently reading:

Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski. I've read it before and am refreshing because it's useful for TF&TS.

What I’m planning on reading next:

I think I'll do Seasonal Fears by Seanan McGuire next. I enjoyed Middlegame and am looking forward to the sequel.

I'll tag @captainsparklefingers, and anyone else who would like to!

[laventadorn]

Hey, you're one of my favorite writers and I'm looking to start writing fanfiction. Have you got any tips for beginners? ❤️

i've been letting this percolate, but instead of bubbling gently away with ideas, it's rather been losing direction in my brain's spin cycle.

Part of my problem is that I do not personally find writing advice very useful! A former teacher and essayist, John Holt, said, "We learn to write by writing, not by reading other people's ideas about writing."

I think that 1) writing and 2) reading are the best ways to develop one's writing -- but this is the sort of vague, all-encompassing statement that sounds like "in order to live your life, you have to live your life." It's true! but functionally useless.

So, to try and make something useful out of these gobs of information in my brain, I think it depends on which of the following you want to develop:

Process

Understanding of your taste

I'll go more in-depth into these behind a cut because I started embarrassing myself with the length of this.

Process

This refers to just the way you go about getting the actual writing done. Some people are very regimented and this works for them -- cf. wake up at 5 and write for two hours, have breakfast at 7, then write until 10, and so forth (I think Ursula K. LeGuin did something like this? anyway it makes me want to spit blood, I'd die). Some people like to write best with fancy pens in fancy journals. Some people keep diaries next to their bed and write when they first wake up. Some write x number of words every day. etc. If you're so inclined, you can read what other people share about their processes.

However, not a flippin' one of those have ever worked for me. I couldn't explain why to you or myself; but I've tried all kinds of other people's processes and they were nothing to me. It was like trying on clothes that didn't fit.

Obviously this is not to say those people hadn't experienced enlightenment and worked out the best method for them. They just hadn't worked out the best method for me. They're not supposed to! I tried, it didn't work, that's all.

It's useful to see what other people have worked out; maybe it works for you! I have a writer friend who writes every day and publishes novels regularly. But I cannot write every day. I've tried, and eventually all I do is punish myself for not meeting my word count goals, and then I turn into a gnarled ball of anxiety and guilt. It's counterproductive.

(I did learn what not to do, though. I also learned I have a tendency to get in my own way. I can add more about my self-discovery process in another post if you want.)

tl;dr - One size doesn't fit all. Just because it worked for them, it doesn't have to work for you. This is normal and natural.

2. Understanding your own taste

We all like some writers and not others. (I'm honored to be one you like!) It doesn't mean writers are bad when we don't like them, nor does it mean our taste is bad -- it just means what and/or how they like to write doesn't align with what and/or how we like to read.

A piece of writing advice I do find useful is that you learn what you like by studying what you like to read. For instance, my very favorite author is Jane Austen. My favorite thing about her (there are many things I love) is how she develops characters; character is the most important aspect of a work for me. So it's useful for me to study how she creates and delineates character (I also read annotated editions of her books because, well, English degree nerds do stuff like that for fun).

It's not all this high brow, though -- when I come across a fanfic Snape I like, I also study that :3

By doing this, we're not so much trying to replicate this person we like and admire (although we can, and other writing advice says to do this explicitly as part of the learning process) as we're trying to understand ourselves and learn from people we like and admire. In this way, we learn how to do grow toward the place we want to be as writers.

(This is also not limited to authors -- you can study books, TV shows, movies, etc. All fiction eventually ends up at the same place, and we tend follow our own taste across mediums. You can also study one author for their prose, another for their humor, a third for their world-building, etc. - it's the Olympics!)

tl; dr - Studying your faves to understand yourself helps develop your writing. Metacognition is the process of thinking about one's cognition; this is that, but for reading taste. The more we learn about ourselves, the more we can do.

--

I was going to add a third point about writing voice and a fourth about interests but this was legit getting embarrassing in length, and idk about you, but if someone gives me too much information at once my brain shuts down. If you are not like me, feel free to tell me! I didn't want it to turn out to be useless to the target audience, i.e. you who sent the ask :)

Also hit me up if this is too vague/all encompassing. I'm hard to shut up once I get going; I find it hard to get going usually because I know it's hard for me to shut up!

[arcthebreeder]

Log_36.TXT

12/01/2023, 11:24 (GMT-5)

December has finally arrived, however, I still have some annotations about the last battled November gave us.

As I previously stated, due to Loogarmon's evolution and posterior rampage, Canoweissmon took his place as Regulusmon's partner in the tournament, a powerful combo nonetheless, however, they had some scores to settle first. Some time before the fight, which, took place on the 29th, Regulusmon and Canoweissmon asked me to visit the train station they used to live in when we first met, due to time management issues I had, we only were able to pay our visit a few hours before the fight.

They decided to do some sparring like they used to, leaving behind the dispute they had going on thanks to the path Regulusmon took. The little session helped Canoweissmon a lot, since he got to understand why Regulusmon had so much respect for Vamdemon even if he seemed "evil"...

When Gammamon evolved into GulusGammamon, he felt isolated from the rest of the team, considering that the circumstances of his evolution originated from a dangerous virus, he considered that his existence was just a time bomb, that will explode eventually, with either a backstab to the team, or his self destruction, specially now that he's Regulusmon, a Digimon that expels GRB and it's own existence could mean a hazard for those around him, however, the vain thought of Vamdemon made him reconsider this, since he also was an "evil" digimon, but he was there, helping us made GulusGammamon felt secured and that his powers would mean no hazard anymore, but when Vamdemon gave up his life to save him, he knew he had to control every drop of GRB that could came out of his body.

Canoweissmon got to understand that his brother is not just plain evil now, he just felt like an outcast, and with that understanding, came the growth, growth that allowed them to coordinate in the tournament fight we had hours after.

The match was held late at night, and our rivals were Plesiomon and Gaioumon, the fight played out without any casualties, but it totally was an interesting match, Canoweissmon and Regulusmon fought together like brothers once again, we won, naturally, and our next fight will be held on Monday.

And regarding Helloogarmon... I'll keep you updated.

ATT: ARC

[tommykinard]

✨ + #april writes for the 2k followers thingy 💗 also congrats!!! so happy for you!!!

ahhh thank you april!! i absolutely adore your writing idk how i'm supposed to just pick a handful of them <3

in no particular order, these are just the first ones that come to mind:

i'll heal eventually (but faster if you're next to me) i've seen snippets of this and it sounds so cute!! gym teacher buck getting injured and nurse eddie?!? sign me up! i can't wait to read this one

we are a fresh page on the desk (filling in the blanks as we go) also on my list to read!! if you can't tell by now, i'm a sucker for aus and this sounds so fun

he never thinks of me (except when i'm on tv) I LOVE THIS FIC SO MUCH HELLO?!? again, obsessed with the au premise of childhood friends buddie and famous buck. the multimedia aspect is also so fun and I love it so much

plus two of your poems + edits that i absolutely love:

a poem about pining —by eddie diaz this is such a perfect poem and i love the annotations!!

—reaching hands, by me first of all this is DEVASTATING and on top of that this edit is gorgeousss, i love that you used that shot/still(?) from 4x14

join my 2k celebration!

[sonic-candy]

I'm back (ish) + updates

As I said months ago I'll be back by fall, and it looks like my guesstimate was correct! Just a smallish update.

TLDR; Working on Mega/Gigamix (At least one chapter a month) added a link to a fan translation of a doujinshi and added Slime Mori Mori to my TBA list and various minor stuff.

Kinda drifted away from the AB/Tezuka fandom a bit these past few months due to getting into the Kirby Fandom, but I'll never forget my roots.

Due to Team Phoenix getting an official English release, I decided to drop it from my project list. The Marine Express Manga by Ikehara Shigeto (Artist of Mega Man Megamix/Gigamix/Mastermix manga and the Jetter Mars manga) is still on the list to do. As far as Doujinshi goes, I haven't really seen anything that caught my interest.

Shoutout to @meion for translating Prophetic Dream(s)! I added a link to their site on my project list which is in my pinned post!

Speaking of Ikehara Shigeto and Mega Man, I finally started on Gigamix's first chapter. Sense the first chapter is a sequel to a story in Megamix, I decided that was a good way to get back into things. I'll start on Megamix soon, my goal is to do at least one chapter a month. The chapters are insanely long and I use my phone to scan and crop them properly so this sounds like a good goal to reach. No, I did not accidentally scan Gigamix first before the Megamix Vol.2 and realized it while uploading them hahahah.

I recently got into the Kirby fandom (The games, Anime, and the Kirby Manga Mania) these few months so I'll try to get some Doujinshi eventually, but it seems the ones I like are not in stock right now. Kirby Manga Mania is already in English so why bother. I'm not sure if the Japanese scans are available anywhere so maybe I'll work on that?

And lastly, another fandom I semi-gotten into while getting into the Kirby anime fandom is Rocket Slime or Slime Morimori, a spin-off of the Dragon Quest game series I haven't played any of those games nor the Slime Morimori trilogy. (I suck at Mega Man games but that didn't stop me from watching the 90's cartoon via annotations or reading/scanning the mangas) But as you know, I'm a sucker for niche stuff like this so when I found out there was a three-volume manga I decided to add that to my project list as well.

So recap:

Dropped

Team Phoenix (Offical English translation coming soon)

Recent upload(s)

Gigamix Vol.1, Ch.1

Ongoing Soon

Megamix Vol.2, Ch.1

TBA

Other AB/Atom the beginning doujinshi

Marine Express manga

Kirby Doujinshi

Japanese scans of Kirby Manga Mania?

Slime Mori Mori manga

Some other comics/manga I have around

Various

Upload older PC games (Ok so not scanning but still thought I'll share this here as a reminder for myself)

As always, thank you for the support! If you find my post via tags then welcome! Feel free to toss any spare change my way on my Ko-Fi that's available in my pinned post I've been thinking about switching to Buy me a coffee as Paypal fees are super high, but I'll use this for now. along with my master list of projects with links to all of my work done so far. My Twitter and Discord are also available if you need to contact me.

(Usually, I pin people but honestly, A good chunk of my followers are on discord/twitter so I'll just drop the link in there instead. Ask if you want me to tag you next major update)

[joyful-soul-collector]

I'm annoyed that I have gifts for two different online friends that ghosted me, that I'll never be able to give them now.

I made one a painting of a story they were writing, and the other friend I'd annotated a book of flower meanings where I marked flowers that reminded me of them, since they loved flower symbolism. I don't want to throw these away because I worked so hard on both of them, they took hours, but at the same time like... Idk, what else am I going to do with them? They're unique gifts, made personalized for those specific people. I can't just gift them to another person. I suppose I can still use the book and throw out the annotations because I made them on sticky notes, but that'd just be throwing out 90% of the gift anyway. It'd be like if I somehow washed the watercolor off that painting, it'd just be paper again.

I'd planned to meet both of these people in person one day. I'd made them with the purpose of them being physically given when we met. Hell I just found out I'm going to England next year, and if I was still friends with one of these people I would've been able meet them. We would've been online friends for 5 years by then, and we would've finally been able to meet and see each other for the first time. We could've planned something fun to do together, even if it was just hanging out and talking in a Cafe all day.

But they stopped enjoying talking to me. Apparently for no reason other than that "we're different people now". Which apparently means they had to block me and never speak to me again. And the other friend, I don't even KNOW why they left, they just did.

I feel like every day I realize more of what I lost when they left. I have so many things that remind me of them both. I still enjoy all the things they introduced me to, and eventually I won't associate flowers or certain songs or podcasts with these people, but right now it just sucks. Right now I have gifts that won't ever be given and songs that used to make me smile.

Ik this all sounds dramatic n shit but I just really miss them right now. I really thought these were people I was going to talk to, at least occasionally, for the rest of my life. And what sucks so much is that even if they came back, if they decided they wanted to be friends with me again for some reason, I wouldn't want them back. I don't want to hang out with people who think it's okay to just completely ghost someone they're close to with no explanation, I don't want to be friends with someone who thinks being "different people now" is grounds enough for a dramatic friendship breakup text and blocking me on everything because if we grow apart apparently that means we can never speak to each other again.

I don't want to be friends with people who don't want to be friends with me. And yet I'm still so fucking angry and sad that they're gone.

[highlordofkrypton]

Now, you've got your stack of printed paper. Time to prepare your signets! If you recall, that's what we call the "booklets" once the paper is folded.

Tools:

Scrap piece of paper/cardboard

Awl / pushpin - or anything that can make a hole

Optional: Bone folder

Cutting mat or some kind of cushion not to ruin your table!

STEP ONE: SEPARATE YOUR SIGNETS

There are two ways to know how to separate your signets. As mentioned in the printing post that I prefer to have 4 leafs per signet. You can either:

Count 4 leafs

Look for the leafs where the page numbers follow one another

In the second photo, you'll see that the two numbers follow one another. That's a good way to know that it's a part of another signet.

Now, my stacks are separated and we're ready to move on!

STEP TWO: FOLD YOUR SIGNETS

Fold your leafs in half to make booklets. I start by folding the paper by hand, then run over the fold with my bone folder.

STEP THREE: PREPARE YOUR GUIDE

We're going to prepare a guide that will be a useful tool for all your future binds. It's super DIY, but very useful.

Get a scrap piece of cardstock. Paper works fine too, but card stock will last you longer.

Measure the height, and mark the center of your guide.

Now, mark the centre between the top half and the bottom half of your guide.

Now, repeat the process between the new lines you've drawn. You should have 7 lines on your guide.

I've numbered the order in which I drew the lines. The reason you want to work in these different sections is just in case you're off, you're still kind of in the middle!

STEP FOUR: PUNCH HOLES

Using your guide as above, start punching holes at the center of your fold. Ideally, at a 45 degree angle. Make sure to use your cutting mat! I ruined a sketchbook cover on this step because I didn't have my mat oops.

STEP AT ANY POINT: GOOD TO DO

Smoosh your signets. Stack all of them on top of one another and squish them with heavy books so that the folds flatten and they'll all be even. When I'm not working on my signets, I smoosh them.

I will send smoosh pics eventually, I need to do some annotations for the person I'm binding this version for which will undo the smooshing, so I'll do it later.

Hope you guys are ready for the next part!

[notebookmusical]

Okay part 2!!! I understand your reading slump and I haven't had a lot of time for reading lately either. I'm sorry you haven't been enjoying your reads. I will also be pretty busy over the next two months and I'm not sure how long it will take me to read or if I will focus on reading much at all but i'm gonna try. I plan on going back to Tomorrow x3 eventually cuz it did seem like it has potential and a story I might like but I always start books and forget about them anyway lol. You can explain the annotating for the Night Circus if you want! I don't like writing in books or anything but I can keep it in mind while reading. Although your annotations looked nice and clean from the pics I saw.I always try to look at any discussion questions in books too. Also if you have any opinions on who to picture for this book, that always helps me a little bit. But I was also thinking of trying to read the new Hunger Games this month. The new movie looks pretty good and I might never read it once I watch the movie. I've heard mixed things about it but I like the clips I've seen and Olivia Rodrigo has a new song for it! I heard it last night and liked it..it definitely has a Hunger Games sound to it. It actually reminds me of Safe and Sound mixed with Carolina. It's funny cuz Rachel and Olivia are sort of alike to me..they're the same age and had to adjust to fame quickly in a similar way. Idk if you ever watched the new West Side Story, but I love her voice.

I agree about the vault songs. I think its more that they picked certain songs cuz they wanted the album to tell a specific story. Taylor explained this with Slut vs Blank Space, and Is it Over Now vs Out of the Woods. For Maisie, it was more like some had an acoustic sound and she obviously wanted more fun songs maybe. Like..I prefer listening to The Last One or Truth Is over Run, but I understand why she picked it. Also my sister noticed a cool double meaning in the song..like is being the last one a good thing or bad thing basically and I thought that was interesting. Like I'll be the last one cheering you on..after everyone left or I'll be the last one you would even think of..and other people are more important than me. It's funny cuz sometimes we have different interpretations of a song. One example is High infidelity and the lyrics about killing the one you love and never loving them enough. She thought it was her that didn't love him enough and I thought it was him not loving her enough. So for Suburban Legends, I get a little confused too and can understand maybe why people would like the other songs more. I think at first, I just took the 2nd verse literally, about the high school reunion..which is something I then started thinking of my own life and relating to it. Then the line about I broke my own heart and you were too polite to do it kinda reminded me of Midnight Rain or the idea of You're On Your Own Kid..and how she had to choose between her dreams or relationship and the song is a fantasy if she chose him. This also ties in with the title of suburban legends once I actually thought about it. So when I compared it to Dorothea, it's kinda a similar idea..almost like the same perspective of the song Dorothea. Cardigan has a similar feel of lost love and longing to me. But I've now seen other interpretations that she is using high school as a metaphor and the song is back and forth and the person did not care about her as much. I kinda realized that cuz the first verse didn't quite match up with that interpretation. However it seemed to match with my experience in general so that's what the song means to me. It might have a hint of Gold Rush too..which I also connect to. To be clear, I don't really mean the story within the songs..just how it relates to me and my life. Teardrops, Hey Stephen and Stay Beautiful also tell a similar story.But like the ruin line I interpret as nothing the person did..just how life is, and you don't end up with the person you wanted in high school, but you'll always wonder what if. Idk if this is confusing, I thought it would be obvious or the point of the song, but it didn't seem to be the common interpretation lol. Also I can't believe she added more dates to the tour!

Connections was kinda hard for me today! I kinda had the right idea but sometimes I can't fill in every word in the category. I actually got blue first today which were the words that were letters. I knew royal flush and family went together but not the other two words even when I knew the category, so that happens sometimes too. I was so stuck on the double words one cuz I thought it was something to do with spelling. Or I'll get two categories pretty easily and be sort of lost with the other two haha. The game also tries to trick you a lot, like with apple and dell computers from yesterday too so it just depends. I think usually the easy ones are easy for me, and the hard ones are hard but there have been a few times I got purple first or 2nd. One time was the guitar parts, but I didn't know the horror directors from the other day at all. I usually find that fill in the blanks are pretty hard though. I hope you have a great time seeing Hadestown tomorrow!!! Can't wait to hear all about it!

if it makes you feel any better, i haven't picked up a book at all in like four days, and i most likely won't until i'm on a plane on friday! i'm trying to decide what book i want to take with me — i'm thinking of maybe bringing beautiful world, where are you by sally rooney; it'd be a reread/an annotation project (and yes, i know i'm in the middle of like four of those right now) but that's what i'm leaning towards. i might also try to read an arc on the plane? it's not a very long plane ride, so we'll see. with the night circus, i'm double annotating — which means i'm annotating two copies at the same time! one copy is for traveling book club (each person picks a book, you annotate → send it along to the next person in the group chat who then annotates/reads your annotations → passes it on, etc) and then i also wanted to annotate it for myself! but it's a very lengthy process. double annotating always takes me 50 million years. my friend em has fancasted dev patel as marco, and jessica henwick for celia and has been saying so for years so i always think of her + her fancast when people ask me this question, but personally i am terrible at fancasts and have yet to find someone who is the perfect celia / marco / etc. to me!

i haven't read tbosas either! i keep meaning to and then i ... never do. i feel like i should also reread the hunger games, if i'm going to read that though! have you listened to the new olivia song? i really liked it! i think it fits the vibes of the trailer/what i know of tbosas really well. and i have not watched the west side story movie! rachel is really talented, i remember seeing the video of her at broadway flea back in the day singing a little fall of rain with chris mccarrell haha! we have some mutual friends, fun fact!

i thought about changing my url to a the last one url but i felt like i had just changed mine to this and i'm trying to be better about changing my urls every single month. i also thought about changing it to a hockey url though! so we'll see! and yes — broke my own heart ... reminded me a lot of midnights! i think we talked about how a lot of the vault feels very midnights-y, and i think that's a prime example! and yes — like the 1! i love those what if/sliding doors stories/thoughts!! and i can't either — i'm hoping to get vancouver tickets since that's much closer to me than where i currently have eras tickets for (and my friend and i could maybe stay with my father), which would make things a lot easier/cheaper.

it's been a hot minute since i replied, but connections today (nov 5) was easy for me! the royal flush one was silly! i totally guessed with the horror directors one and all my friends in my group chat were surprised i got it! i started playing murdle a few days ago, and i've been having a lot of fun with it! there's the mini murdle and then the daily murdle — you should give it a try! my group chat also did colorfle for a while, and some of them do bandle, actordle, and moviegrid but i don't listen to enough music/watch enough movies to participate in those haha.

hadestown was fun; we had an understudy for orpheus (john krause!!!!), but the paramount theatre's sound system is really really finicky, especially for shows where the band is on stage, and so i just had a really hard time with act one sound wise. i could barely hear him, and then everyone else was super loud/the music was really loud, and it just detracted from the overall experience, but they fixed some of it by act two so that was more enjoyable! i also think (and i have thought this every time i see it, but it was more so noticeable this time) that act one feels very long in comparison to act two which is much faster paced! i also still think that they should close act 1 with wait for me, but i don't know where why we build the wall would fit! hmm...

how was your weekend? did you get up to anything fun? sending you a warm hug + hope you have a good upcoming week!!! 🤍 xo

[nonasemporium]

on the direction of colorism as an intentional narrative device in tlt:

(sources pending, I will eventually annotate a copy of the texts and I may choose to grace the internet with specific quotes and a more purposeful examination, but I am not that kind nor prepared right now)

easy source right now, as previously mentioned:

cavaliers are often described as darker than necromancers. yes, one could make the point correlate instead to the draining of life, the representation of death in them, etc. but it's not only on the basis of 'this person is an ashen version of the other,' it will also be related to the base, or seem greater than it, even if they're related, even if they're both white.

examples now under a cut to save your dash some space:

take the twins, where it IS the same base: coronabeth, even, who is not a necromancer nor a cavalier (despite her best efforts) is not only referenced as a more lively tone than ianthe, but legitimately golden, olive-toned, tanned rather than not washed out. also even with hair color, we can see the twins have some shade of gold (coronabeth's actually gold, ianthe's implied to be a lot more washed out) and naberius has brown hair. (when white people are involved, which all three are stated to be imagined as) often-times hair color can have meaning correlating to this ironically.

colum is silas' nephew, and described with tans and yellows, tan-skinned, jaundiced, 'weatherbeaten', brown hair in contrast with all the whites and paleness of silas. again, both white, both relatives, and yet his cavalier is specifically noted to be darker in various manners--both hair and skin.

and personally I love pointing out white-on-white colorism because it's incredibly bizarre and shows the levels of which whiteness is built and maintained on is incredibly fragile and arbitrary.

now outside of that we have our nonwhite cousins, Palamedes and Camilla. Even within the text there's an acknowledgement and focus, despite also putting them both as piles of gray, in what's darker in Camilla and lighter in Palamedes.

"Crouching in front of the hatch was a rangy, underfed young man: he was wrapped in a grey cloak and the light glinted on the spectacles slipping down his nose. Standing next to him holding a big wedge of broken sculpture and the flashlight was a tall, equally grey-wrappered figure with a scabbard outlined at her hip. She had hair of an indeterminate darkness, cut blunt at her chin. Up close, he was gaunt and ordinary-looking, except for the eyes. His spectacles were set with lenses so thick they could make spaceflight grade, and through these his eyes were a perfectly lambent grey: unflecked, unmurked, even and clear. He had the eyes of a very beautiful person, and the head of someone with resting bitch face."

and in the separate description:

Palamedes: "medium brown hair cut short and with no particular thought for aesthetics, dresses just in greys, eyes particularly lovely clear grey."

Camilla: "has very dark cold-brown hair – chin-length, straight and with a fringe – dark eyes. She’s compact and has lots of lean muscle,"

also the specific statement of: "and I imagine her of being Middle Eastern extraction, though due to Sixth House parameters both will be fairly mixed. They’re actually second cousins, so there ought to be a faint resemblance."

I could get into this more but I will not, I'm going to move forward.

I'll come back around to second house, I promise, but I'm going to move forward with four house. I'm just going to take the quote from the post:

"Both Isaac and Jeannemary are around fourteen and have pretty much the same body shape still: Jeannemary is semi-muscular and has lots of corners, Isaac is skinnier. Both are natural brunettes, though Isaac has bleached hair (orange, fauxhawk) and Jeannemary is described as having curly hair. Both have multiple ear piercings and eyeliner and the visual is somewhat Glassons storecard punk. Both have dark brown eyes. Jeannemary has a somewhat dusty, fierce, monochromatic appearance (brown hair, brown skin), and I imagine her as Māori. Isaac I imagined as NZ Chinese."

I italicized Isaac, the necromancer, and bolded Jeannemary, the cavalier, very purposefully, with times their descriptions lined up both bolded and italicized.

I want to give a very short detour onto why I feel like pointing out/drawing attention to times and ways the bodytypes are brought up, because I feel like also it can be easily missed. Bodytypes/muscle/etc have certain ties into racialization, this also ties into class (obviously). I have a lot of personal trauma with this, with the equation of these things and history of them with athletic ability, how that has also been utilized, both as a tool to refer to certain groups as more capable of violence and of receiving violence (as well as labor), it gets complicated and I feel like these allusions to the class structure within TLT either purposefully or subconsciously brings these correlations up.

When reading about the use of a physically stronger, darker featured person that you will, at the end, literally consume to take into you aspects of their strength and to keep as a pool of resource for yourself after you have essentially 'spent' them in the process of your own uplifting, after the 10,000 years of John purposefully leading and shifting the society itself to favor and replicate certain structures based off especially the roman empire and catholicism, I wish I could more succinctly put into words why to me that so clearly correlates to both racism and colorism, but I am very limited in communication despite my best efforts so instead I'm putting this forward and hope those reading have the comprehension skills and knowledge to at least begin to consider the parallels.

Also, in regards to race and colorism, there are specific histories, especially in specific colonial powers, towards indigenous groups that should be taken into consideration when discussing how features may be engaged with.

okay! sorry for that foray now we're moving to the fifth house:

Magnus is a curly-haired, medium built Samoan man, Abigail is a white woman with long, glossy dark hair. She is beautifully and tastefully dressed, and he wears well-tailored and not very flashy outfits.

Because I'm self-indulgent, I do still like seeing black Abigail headcanons and art, which I suppose takes away from some of my points, but not really, because this will circle back to being about how white people interact with these narratives and descriptions within fandom and not about how sometimes people of color might indulge themselves with characters they relate to, that remind them of loved ones, or represent some other self-indulgence.

In seventh house, we have "Dulcinae" and Protesilaus.

Protesilaus: "massive, buff, and also sort of sickly and indistinct-looking in his colouring – he is described as being made up mainly of muddy, ashen browns. Think Greek warrior, but with no vibrant colouring. Biggest on cast, even bigger than Colum Ash. Imagined him as mixed Pasifika."

I have opinions on how men of color overall are discussed in the text and through word of god but I'm going to be very brave and move forward.

"Dulcinae": "a girlish woman who looks extremely fragile and sickly, like a neurasthenic Victorian maiden. Eyes should be extremely blue. Hair is light brown in long curls; skin is pale. Pretty in a frivolous, invalid way. Gives the impression of being slight. Outfits should be gauzy and nightgownish. Imagined her as Pakeha/white."

and now we'll come to the second house:

"The only ones who seemed even vaguely compos mentis were the Second House: as it turned out, they had been the ones to call Teacher to the access hatch, and now they sat ramrod-straight and resplendent in their Second-styled Cohort uniforms, all scarlet and white. They both affected the same tightly-braided hairstyle and the same amount of extremely gilt braid, and also the same serious-business expression, and they could be told apart by one having a rapier and one quite a lot of pips at her collar."

"Captain Judith Deuteros and Lieutenant Marta Dyas are alike in posture, bearing and extremely crisp military uniform (think a cross between US Navy whites and the Regency navy). Unlike every single other necromancer on the cast, Judith never wears necromancer robes, but is dressed in the exact same way as Marta. Judith is somewhat less completely scrawny than other necromancers on the cast, though she should be less built than Marta is; Judith is imposing, solemn-faced and reflective, Marta is more keen-eyed and restless. I imagined both as Tongan."

Here we have a cav/necro pair that is largely described similarly, with the exception being a more understandable difference in build, although while Judith is reflective and imposing, Marta is keen-eyed and restless. Both in the text and the added description give a lot of overlap. Gideon rarely makes an attempt to discern them in GtN.

but what about John/Alecto? what about Gideon/Pyrrha?

and we don't even know about the other lyctors!

okay. see, this is where we're going to get a little more complicated and part of where I'm making an argument it might be narratively intentioned.

John is Māori. He is a man of color, and he is coming from a society where he was racialized. Specifically, at least as a general consensus, his "faceclaim" in a sense is Taika Waititi.

Anyway, without getting into every facet of how I think the series engages with and addresses men of color, because that scope starts getting out of this specific topic and into a different one, I want to state that I think it actually further represents themes of colorism.

John makes himself God. He makes himself god and to him that becomes some strange performance of western civilization roman empire 2.0 space imperialism planet consumption speedrun mixed w New Catholocism or whatever, but where there's a PERFORMANCE of equality where there actually isn't. Just like I argue John not ONLY makes new classes with necromancers and cavaliers (I'm not even getting into everything else with this), but ALSO he did not in fact shatter gender oppression, he just shifted it and patted himself on the ass for it.

YES it is queernormative and as a queer man himself, it makes sense this would be important to him, just like it makes sense for it to be important to him that race manifest very differently (go pretty unacknowledged really) across his New Roman Empire in Space. But he has his own limits and biases and I would argue both colorism and misogyny are present for him.

He chose to make Alecto the way he did. And he had all of his own reasons for it, but surely it can also be noted how linked those reasons can be to both colorism and misogyny as well. I know he made her a specific barbie that had specific history to him, but does this barbie and his choice in her also highlight his priorities, just as blatantly as his choice of empire?

I need Alecto to come out so I can finalize some of these concepts, but it is still colorism for a man of color, especially one wounded by rejection (as we see in Nona) to see power in dominating a white woman. To see a SUBVERSION in the act of it. I think John sees a lot of things as subversion without seriously considering the levels he's actually engaging in. I think John is shallow.

Which brings me also to G1deon and Pyrrha. I think John had some concepts around their dynamics, their relationship, in their interactions that was in these same lines. I think John saw G1deon a specific way, I think he passively compared himself (including how he discusses it in Nona, again), I think the way he engaged with G1deon did now show solidarity or equality (G1deon was also an engineer!) but showed superiority on John's end. Also he made G1deon how he did before he crafted his 10,000 year old weird empire. If I could put it into words more eloquently, I would, but I feel like John saw triumph in G1deon being Pyrrha's necromancer and I also think he then delegated him to "attack dog" for himself (as we see in Harrow the Ninth especially!!!)

I genuinely think 100% that regardless of if G1deon is racialized as black (I think he is personally), he is meant to be darker and racialized more than John was. And I think John subconsciously compares that! I think it is instead further evidence towards narrative on colorism, including the way he's separate from Mercymorn and Augustine through HtN.

This is without getting into Pyrrha as a cop, but I feel like I've used a lot of words already.

I'll get into this more sometime in the future, perhaps even after Alecto when I am free to vomit out all the various concepts I have with a better understanding of where it's building (as an autist, w my specific type anyway, I do struggle with feeling secure in theorizing until I have rest of the content) but ANYWAY.

Long post, mostly about the appearance of Harrow and Gideon.

And before I get into it, I need to put at least two notes:

Trying to find the link for where she stated Erana James is a good fancast for Harrow, but I don't know if I can get a link for that which is frustrating. If anyone has a link or recording of that specific statement, I would appreciate it. **Edit: [thank you to my wife for the links, duckduckgo hates bad bitches who are impatient with poor search results]

But for reference, Erana James:

(winter shade?)

and then go ahead and give a little sunshine:

Personally, in my head I see Nona as out more, skin less covered, more likely to take in sunshine (?), but it is also weird space technicalities so maybe she has less sunlight than Harrow even if Harrow is covered head to toe constantly. Either way, I feel like this is the typical range, with acknowledgement of how skin, especially melanated skin, fluctuates depending on exposure to sun.

edit: adding a couple more for further reference

[mimisempai]

Wait for me on the other side 6/8

Summary:

Mobius must face both his past and a brutal news. He opens his heart to Loki. Loki wonders about what connects them...

Notes:

Prepare some tissues...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/32948254/chapters/82394134

House on the cliff - 2019

Mobius returned home, patiently awaited by Croki. While he was feeding him, he noticed that he had a message on his answering machine.

"Mobius, pick up, I have something to tell you. It's about Ravonna."

Forty-five minutes after Casey's call, Mobius rushed into the hospital.

He headed to the admissions office and spoke to the first person who came in.

"Hello, I'm looking for Ravonna Renslayer. I'm Mr. Mobius."

"Hold on a moment."

The young woman consulted her computer and looked up.

"Yes. Mr. Mobius. You are expected in Doctor Cho's general medicine department."

She pointed in the right direction.

When he arrived at the ward, he asked for Dr. Cho.

He waited a few minutes and a woman approached him, holding out her hand.

"Hello Mr. Mobius, I am Dr. Cho, I am the one who takes care of Mrs. Renslayer. Since you were the person to notify in case of an emergency, we called you."

"What happened? Is she okay?"

Dr. Cho motioned for him to follow her, "She's fine. She had a relatively minor collapse, but we'll have to keep her for a day or two, wait for the results of the tests we did. Since you are her only family according to her file, even for something minor we had to call you. I'll take you to her room."

Casey was waiting outside Ravonna's room when Mobius arrived with Dr. Cho. They embraced.

"How is she?" Mobius asked.

"You know her..." replied Casey, shaking his head. "I had to bring her some work, the latest reports from the financial department."

Mobius looked disbelieving and laughed, "Of course. The last thing we would want to do is let a little collapse endanger the company."

Mobius entered the room quietly. Ravonna laid on her bed, connected to monitoring devices, reading her reports and making annotations, papers scattered around her on her bed. She didn't hear him right away, and when she raised her head, she lowered the report but didn't put it down.

"Hi.", Mobius whispered.

Ravonna did not smile, simply nodded and continued to work on her files as if Mobius were not there.

After a while, she said, "I don't need you."'

Mobius simply replied, "I'm going to stay until your exam results come in."

"That's not until tomorrow morning."

"I'm not going to drive all the way home that late. I'm staying."

Ravonna shrugged and returned to her reading. The silence was deafening.

After a moment, Mobius picked up one of the magazines about expensive watches that was on the table and asked, "Do you mind if I..."

Ravonna shook her head, "Go ahead. If you're still interested in that kind of thing."

Mobius didn't look up and began flipping through the magazine.

When he looked up about ten minutes later, Ravonna was asleep. Mobius watched her breathe in the dimly lit room, the monitoring devices flashing silently. He picked up the papers scattered on the bed and stacked them neatly on the nightstand.

Then he sat down, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in the hospital room chair. Since this was impossible, he picked up a piece of paper and began to write to Loki.

I know I haven't written in a while.

But I need to... I wanted to tell you about someone who is very close to me. We are not related by blood, but I consider her to be family to me, like a big sister.

We grew up together in the orphanage.

She is well-known. You know her work... Ravonna Renslayer, the CEO of Time Keepers, the famous watch brand.

I always liked to put watches together and take them apart and Ravonna was good at putting things in the right light.

We decided to create Timekeepers when we were fourteen years old. We wanted to sell quality luxury watches that everyone could afford.

A dream of two orphans.

We promised ourselves that when we would be rich we would buy the house on the hill.

But Ravonna lost sight of our dreams and always wanted more. More money, more fame.

Mass production, overpriced watches, I had no pleasure in creating anymore.

Every meeting became a war zone.

Someone had to surrender. I did.  I quit. Without notice.

That's when I started Miss Minutes, my little store and got back to my roots.

Mobius must have fallen asleep because when he opened his eyes, he was aching from his position in the chair.

Seeing that Ravonna was still asleep, he went to the hospital cafeteria to get a cup of coffee, and when he came back up fifteen minutes later, he saw Dr. Cho.

"Ah, Mr. Mobius, we just reviewed her results with Mrs. Renslayer. Unfortunately, she has forbidden me to talk to you about them and does not want you to visit her anymore."

Mobius was hurt of course, but not surprised either, given their tense relationship.

Dr. Cho, however, took pity on him. "I can't go into detail, but regrettably, you'll have to prepare for the worst."

Mobius' heart leapt in his chest and with a tight throat, he asked, "How long?"

Dr; Cho put her hand on his shoulder and said, " At any moment. I'm sorry."

Mobius left the hospital in a daze and drove to the house on the cliff. As soon as he arrived, he fed Croki, sat down in his chair and continued the letter to Loki. At this time, it was his only source of comfort.

Loki's apartment - 2021

Loki, in casual attire with Croki by his side, was sitting on his couch reading the letter from Mobius. He was very moved by the way Mobius opened up to him.

His heart cried at the sadness he felt in the letter. Obviously Ravonna was someone dear to his heart.

Once again, Loki was frustrated by the barrier of years between them. He wanted so much to be with Mobius, to support him. He sighed as he continued to read the letter.

I don't know what I expected.

Part of me thought that given her condition, I would get more than a "She doesn't want to see you anymore."

But of course, that's not how things work. When I left TK, I rejected everything she stood for.

That's how she saw it.

I think the fact that I bought the house cemented our disagreement for her and it's too late to change things now.

One thing is for sure: if I was really hoping for a tearful little bedside meeting, I'm as stupid as she thinks I am.

Well, good. I seem to have poured my little heart out here. I'm sorry.

Thanks for reading.

I want to tell you things I've never told anyone.

Things I didn't know myself until I wrote them down to send to you.

Maybe that's the strangest part of it all.

Love, Mobius.

Loki lingered on this letter, and especially on the last word, "LOVE". He patted Croki's head, thoughtful.

He had so many questions.

Love, Mobius.

Was it casual? Mobius was the kind of person who knew exactly what he was saying. Every word was important.

So the next question was, did Loki feel the same way?

Loki didn't need to reflect, he knew what he felt.

The question that remained was, did they have a future...?

Mobius' house - 2019

Croki trotted over to Mobius' bed. Mobius was lying down, unable to sleep, but it was too early to get up. He felt like picking up the phone but resisted.

Loki's apartment - 2021

Loki couldn't sleep anymore, something was disturbing him since he had read Mobius' letter.

He got up and went to his computer, he had to check one thing about Ravonna Renslayer.

Two minutes later he rushed out of his apartment and drove to the house on the cliff.

Mobius House - 2019

Mobius après s’être préparé pour aller au travail, sortit de sa maison et se dirigea vers son pickup.

Mobius House - 2021

Loki braked hard and ran to the mailbox. He put a piece of paper in it and raised the flag with a sudden movement.

Mobius House - 2019

Mobius drove away from the house without seeing the flag that was rising behind him. A few minutes later, his phone on the passenger seat began to ring.

Glancing down, he saw that it was Dr. Cho.

He pulled over to the side of the road and with a lump in his throat, took the call.

"Yes?"

-Mr. Mobius, this is Dr. Cho. I'm afraid I have some difficult news for you.

A few minutes later, in a daze, he parked in front of his house. On his way to his house. He saw that the flag was up.

He opened it, took the note, read it and then let his arm fall back, the paper flew away before landing further.

You need to go back to the hospital right away! Ravonna Renslayer died on-

A few days later, Mobius sat in the back of the church while the pastor preached to a crowd that Mobius knew was there more for Ravonna's fame than for their connection to her.

He didn't listen to the sermon and, clutching Loki's last letter in his pocket, he thought about what he had written.

Mobius, I'm so sorry about Ravonna.

Even though every pain is different, I know what it's like to lose the little family we have left.

I knew I had to at least try to warn you. I thought I could do it in time.

I hoped we could change what happened. I was wrong.

I guess these things can't be changed.

What I do know is that the shock is still fresh for me, even though it happened two years ago, so I can't imagine what it's like for you.

These things just happen...sometimes. I know.

Last February, I remember it was Valentine's Day, but it was really hot for a day in February.

I was at the fountain in Valhalheim Square.

And something happened. I won't bore you with the details now, but it was hard. Not like what you're going through, but it bothered me a lot.

And a friend gave me some good advice.

She told me to go to a place that would bring me peace.

That's what I did. I drove to the house on the cliff.

And that was the day I got your first letter.

It's a place we both love, a place that has a huge meaning for both of us, I hope you can find some solace there.

And I hope that what has kept you and Ravonna apart will eventually seem less important, and perhaps, in time, disappear.

YOURS, Loki.

Loki's words echoing in his head, Mobius was anxious to get to the house, to seek and perhaps find the solace that Loki spoke of.

When he arrived, he saw the flag raised. He opened the box, and took out not a note, but a book.

When he turned it over, his heart stopped for a moment.

For all times - Always by R.RENSLAYER

He returned home and sitting down in his chair, he opened it and saw first a small note from Loki's hand.

The book won't be published for a year.

or two, so don't show it to anyone. But I thought you should see it.

He turned the first page and could not stop the tears from flowing.

To Mobius

This is the story of a dream.

The story of a brother and sister bound by an ideal

But like all true stories, it doesn't always end well.

They chose a different path.

They drifted apart and never found each other again.

But without the presence of one in the life of the other, neither of them would have become what they are.

A story of two lives, a story of two successes, a story of two paths.

Underneath was a photo, Ravonna and him in front of the house on the cliff.

He continued to flip through the book, his eyes blurry with tears, and felt as if he was going through pieces of his life.

Pictures of TK's creation, of Mobius' workshop, of their first offices.

The day of the first opening.

Then the various collections of watches over the years, from the first one designed by Mobius to the latest luxury watches. Created after his departure.

Pictures of the rise of TK.

Photos taken after Mobius' time.

Until the last photo.

It was the front of Miss Minutes, of his shop.

A single sentence underneath.

We have taken different paths, our views have drifted apart, but you will always be my brother. For All time. Always.

Mobius wept for a long time over Ravonna, over the lost years, over what could have been. Then when the tears had dried, he closed the book and placed it neatly on the shelf. His hand lingered on the title for a moment.

Then, looking determined, he took his old sketchbook, sat outside the house and began to draw.

Loki's apartment - 2021

Loki, looking bewildered, was contemplating a sketch of the house on the hill.

At the bottom of the house, written in charcoal, it read:

I WANT TO MEET YOU!

FOR REAL THIS TIME!

_______

As a reader, I hate cliffhangers... I apologize in advance for being so cruel, I hope you will forgive me 😭

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 (End)

[stargazerauraa]

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Present day

The only thing keeping you at this god forsaken job is good pay and your friends. You don't necessarily enjoy it, but having them there makes it more bare able.

If it were up to you, you'd simply make art for a living and just dance as much as you wanted. Unfortunately, life doesn't work like that.

At least not for you anyway.

The only reason you got the job was because Seokjin recommended you.

"We need to close this deal, they have three other companies willing to buy. Please have the paperwork on my desk by the end of the day." The tall man placed the paper on your desk as soon as you enter the office area.

It's a huge, open office and his private office is far away from your desk, he must've been waiting for you.

You exhale in annoyance as you place your bag next to the papers you're ready to simply throw into the trash.

Being met with the one thing that definitely doesn't keep you at this job as soon as you make it to work, is not your favourite thing in the world.

The thing, more like person, is your ex boyfriend. Namjoon.

Ever since the breakup it's been hard seeing him at work everyday. Eventually the awkwardness that fell over the two of you every time you were alone disappeared.

Both of you were able to have a normal conversation again. It didn't stop the frustration you felt occasionally though.

"Sure. I'll get it to you later." You smile slightly as your eyes search the room for your friends.

He places a hand on your desk and waits for you to look at him, "You're coming to Jin's later, right?"

Every time he asks you to hang out, deep down he hopes and prays that you say yes. Any time with you, he savours.

Namjoon has never admitted that to anyone, not even his best friends. He must keep control over his emotions, especially when it comes to you.

Your eyes make their way back to the man in-front of you, "yeah, Hoseok is picking me up and then we'll make our way there."

Hoseok enters the office and quickly makes his way over to you and Namjoon. He notices the slight irritation on your face and grins.

He'd be annoyed too if he had to see his ex everyday and hang out with them.

"Hey guys, what's up?" He greets you both with a hug. "Nothing really, just talking about tonight's plans." Namjoon replies to his friend, his arm around the shorter mans shoulders.

After some casual conversation you begin working. The day was filled with meetings and a lot of negotiation. You're so warn out you feel like you could fall asleep as soon as you enter your apartment.

You drop down onto your black leather couch, closing your eyes since you know you have some time until you need to get ready.

The leather is cold on your hot skin, calming you in a way. You've been frustrated all day.

Since the breakup you've changed a lot of things. Some of it just fell into place, others had to become a forced change.

The apartments decor went from pink, fluffy and creme all over to black, white and marble. Everything became colder, the only thing you kept the same was your bedroom.

The sheets still a pastel pink with a white blanket laid over the top. White walls with full length mirrors ... this room had to stay the same.

As much as you have hate for Namjoon, you can't deny that there were good times.

The way you used to lay in bed and read, annotating the columns of each others books.

Make love on the pink sheets and wake up wrapped in them content.

Cuddle until you had to get up.

These were moments that haunted your dreams and memories but every night you go to bed, lie on your side of the bed even though you have the whole bed to yourself now.

You still subconsciously lift your arm up and expect someone to be there, but you're met with the same coldness that you felt on the morning of your last day of being one with someone else.

Now you truly are, one. Singular, alone.

The single life is not all that bad, honestly. You've got used to it now and you're not too disappointed by it.

It's just that sometimes the dreams are too real, and the memories are too vivid.

Your phone disrupts your thoughts as it buzzes next to you, "Hoseok? it's not time to leave yet is it?" You feel like you've had your eyes shut for hours.

"Nope, i was just calling to tell you that Jimin, Yoongi, Taehyung and Jungkook will be there too. They have three weeks of vacation time so they're coming over."

You sit up and decide to start getting ready now. Hoseok tells you that he'll be there in an hour but in reality he means 45 minutes.

"Oh that's great! It's been a while since we've all met together." He hums in response, you say your goodbyes and end the call.

-

"I literally do not care about the specifics of your sex life, Jungkook." You manage to say through laughter.

Two beers in and Jungkook's already spilling all of his secrets.

Jungkook squints his eyes at you, "Don't lie, you know you wanted me to tell you." He leans back in his chair and finishes the remaining beer in the glass.

"I definitely didn't weirdo." You wonder where Aimi is, she's not usually late.

You introduced her to the friendship group a few years ago and she fit in well.

Noticing that Namjoon also isn't here yet, you put two and two together, deciding that they're probably on their way together.

Everyone converses while waiting for them. You're daydreaming as Jimin takes a seat next to you. "Hey, you alright?" He drapes his arm around your shoulder  and leans in slightly.

His presence already makes you calm down and relax, "I'm alright, just tired from work. As you know, since you were the one assigning all the work today." You jokingly accuse him, which he just laughs at.

"Well, it was a busy day. Where's Joon? and Aimi? are they arriving together?" His eyebrows furrow slightly as he asks.

You shrug, not putting much effort into your response. "Probably. They always seem to arrive together recently.

At Yoongi's birthday party three weeks ago they arrived together, they did the same last week at the restaurant.

"No need to worry everyone! Your favourite people are here." Namjoon announces as he swings the door open. His voice cutting through everyone else's conversations.

As suspected, Aimi follows behind quickly. You notice the way shes fixing her hair and makeup as she enters the room.

She quickly moves over to you, now occupying the seat that Jimin just did. He must've got up to greet Namjoon.

"Hey, sorry i'm late. Joon was talking so long to get ready." She giggles slightly after finishing her sentence.

You just smile and hand her a drink. That heaviness within your chest is creeping up on you the more that time ticks by.

"Let's do some shots." Yoongi announces from the head of the table while he pours multiple shots.

They begin to pass them down until everyone has a shot.

"Time for some fun. Let's forget about reality for a while."

a/n: this is mainly dialogue for this chapter but i hope it was interesting enough. since it’s only dialogue i’ll post chapter 4 right after this one today :)

[ethernetchord]

hello ethan! i missed you!

i kind of thought you don't smoke, i don't know why. i do smoke, but i am trying to do it less. because it is so expensive, and, of course, unhealthy.

god, maurice. i have always wanted to watch the movie and also read the book, but they are both very expensive in my country, but i will! the book is on my tbr-list for two years now... dead poets society is my favourite movie of all time. and, also, i fell into my dark academia phase again??? partly because of you and your blog... you won't belive me, but i have never seen the lion king... i'm the youngest one of my siblings and i only watched what they watched. i always wanted to watch it but i never got to choose the movie...

one of my faves also is the miseducation of cameron post. both the movie and the book. i am a huge fan of back to the future as well! also, a stupid one, superbad. it's so funny and i love bill hader..

oh, how'd you like the fs movies? which one was your favourite? i'm sure we are soulmates, it's not just coincidence, dear. about dorian grey, i will get to it and i'll tell you when i will.

oh god, who is your favourite doctor? i can't believe you're into doctor who also. and you mentioned halloween, i don't know what my costume will be yet :( based on your profile pics, you would look amazing as four!!!!!!! can't wait for it.

Ii'm fine. for the first time in weeks i feel truly okay! also, i didnt have too much of a hangover! i love talking to you and just letting all my thoughts out. hope you are doing alright! and i hope you're happy to receive my ask <3

-🐝

hi! its good to hear from you, as always. im glad to hear youre trying to give up smoking. i know it can be hard but in the long run it's probably worth it. i grew up around smokers so i never personally had the desire to i guess. I'll put a keep reading here, so that I'm not flooding people's dashes with my incoherent rambles.

getting a physical copy of maurice is really strangely difficult? firstly, it's expensive and always sold out? but anyway, i read a digital version but i do hope to get my own physical copy mainly for annotation reasons and because certain books, certain stories, i just really like to have them close by. i keep the goldfinch next to my bed eventho i've read it 3 times already because sometimes i just itch? to get my hands on it and to feel the story in my hands again. i hope you get to it soon as well, i hope one day we can discuss these books together as well. im so happy you like dps! (do you maybe run a dps oriented blog here... my detective skills are perking up) that film really does mean a lot to me and honestly, just as with the goldfinch, and interestingly you as well, i can't seem to get enough. no bother that you've yet to see the lion king, it'll always be there and i hope that when you do eventually watch it, that it reminds you of me.

(also i can't believe i dragged u back into the dark academia thing, wow my power. i never really considered myself a dark academia blog because i'm so all over the place but i suppose we do align well with that general sub-culture? aesthetic?)

the miseducation of cameron post! i am going to watch it right after i send this your way, i've been meaning to for ages since so many friends have said good things about it (and queer media is so crucial to me) and now that you've expressed your admiration for it i must. as for superbad and the back to the future films- these are classics and in my opinion great comfort films. i never got overly into the lore of the bttf films but theyre entertaining and fun, every rewatch remains enjoyable.

my favourite fear street was probably the second one, i loved the energy and the soundtrack and how fast paced it was. im a sucker for nonlinear progressions so this series really nestled into my heart really quickly. which one did you like the best?

and doctor who? it literally blew my mind when you brought it up last time. my favourite doctor (og series) is 4, evidently, and from the modern series probably 10. david tennant is just a favourite for me and he never disappoints. i also loved the seasons he did, he truly had some of the best companions. i didn't ask last time but which doctor who book were you reading?

if I do end up going as 4, trust me, tumblr will see the picture evidence.

I'm so glad you're feeling pretty good :D (and that the hangover wasn't so bad) i feel the same btw, its nice to just go off in rambles with you and waiting for your next ask always leaves me wondering what more territory we'll end up having in common (as it seems we're nearly identical.) have you been watching any shows recently? do you prefer tv shows to films or vice versa? I've been rewatching merlin personally. also, answer as vaguely as you'd like, but are we close in age? (I was born in 2003) also if you know them, what is your Hogwarts house and mbti? i know these seem odd questions but I love knowing these tiny personality indicators. however, getting to know your actual personality is much more fun.

i look forward to your next ask!

much love, ethan.