#A Swift Return

[beneathathousandskies]

Book Review (Blog Tour): A Swift Return - Fiona Barker

Hello! This morning I am joining The Write Reads ultimate blog tour for A Swift Return by Fiona Barker, which was published by Tiny Tree Books last month. A massive thank you to Tiny Tree Books for sending me a physical copy to review. Disclaimer: I received a copy as part of The Write Reads Tour. All thoughts are my own. Book Summary: Aria has her head in the clouds. Yusuf keeps his feet on…

[mmemirrorball]

sprinkling some tayblessings onto your dash ✨

[musings-n-museums]

i'll still harbor your love in my heart. promise.

loml, taylor swift || calyspo, george hitchcock || i'm not sorry for loving you, jorge rivera-herrans || la la land, damien chazelle || pink in the night, mitski || (credits in images..)

[macksartblock]

=> fight (your husband)

[padmestrilogy]

luke & leia || peter

taylor swift / phoebe bridgers / anton chekov / jodi picoult / lindsey drager / jandy nelson

insp.

[cataclysmictide]

I Love You, That's All

The Louvre - Lorde/Edgar Degas/The Creation of Adam - Michelangelo/Art Heist, Baby! - @otrtbs /The Gathering Storm - Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky/The Last Great American Dynasty - Taylor Swift/The Louvre - Lorde/Unknown/Art Heist, Baby! - Otrtbs/New Year's Day - Taylor Swift/Margaret - Lana Del Rey/Unknown/Art Heist, Baby! - Otrtbs/New Year's Day - Taylor Swift/Ships in a Storm - Ludolf Bakhuizen/Interior with the Artist's Wife Emilie Heise -  Carl Holsøe/Art Heist, Baby! - Otrtbs/Half Return - Adrianne Lenker/Art Heist, Baby! - Otrtbs/My Tears Ricochet - Taylor Swift/Art Heist, Baby! - Otrtbs/Fourth of July - Sufjan Stevens/Unknown/Psyche Revived by Cupid's Kiss -  Antonio Canova/Bigger Than The Whole Sky - Taylor Swift/Love in the Heart of Everything; The Correspondence between Vladimir Mayakovsky & Lili Brik/Art Heist, Baby! - Otrtbs

[llumimoon]

You don’t need a reason to love somebody, you just do.

[the-swift-tricker]

double standards smh 😔

(id under cut)

[id a heavily edited version of the "hello,human resources?" meme. the original comic showz a young woman sitting in her office cubicle while an attractive man leans around the corner and says "looking good susan" to which the woman replies "aww you're sweet" with hands clasped and a small heart floating nearby. the second panel shows a similar situation but this time it's a fat man with acne saying "looking good susan" to which she replies by picking up her phone and saying "hello human resources?" with a distressed look on her face. the comic has been edited so a picture of ramin karimloo as the phantom of the opera is pasted over the attractive man in the first panel with a speech bubble near his head that reads "i'm a sewer dwelling byronic hero who's disfigurement has left him ostracized by society". in the second panel a picture of danny devito's penguin from batman returns has been edited over the fat man with a speech bubble near his head that reads "i'm a sewer dwelling byronic hero who's disfigurement has left him ostracized by society" end id]

[dymitre]

The return of the King ✨❤

[titsthedamnseason]

we’ve made it to london n3 yall and it has been a wild ride! i hope you guys have been brainstorming some good guesses because i have to be honest there isn’t much to work with swirling around my brain haha but even so its time for the surprise song game! just leave your guesses in the tags or replies and the winners will receive shoutouts from yours truly 😊

my guesses are all over the place. i’m going to double down on my imgonnagetyouback x better than revenge combo but i also think london boy is a possibility. for some reason i also really feel like she’s going to finally sing the full version of so high school so i have to say that. and for insurance purposes ill go with so long london x the 1 on piano. who the hell even knows

[theroguequeen]

some people are saying that daemon loved younger rhaenyra more and that's why it's her younger version he sees in harrenhal and even so it's obvious younger rhaenyra has a special place in his heart that but does not mean he loves older rhaenyra less. I think what's hard for him is that younger rhaenyra adored and idolized him and older rhaenyra still loves him so deeply but is no longer worshipping every step he takes especially in the situation they are in now. She still desires him, she still wants him but as she said herself and made clear before she can no longer wait for him even if it means that he is not at her side. It hurts her and she is still waiting for him to return but she is tired of chasing him just for him to slip through her fingers again. And deep down daemon always knew that he put her through a lot. Younger rhaenyra was always craving his presence and everytime she thought that maybe this time he would stay he was gone all over again. Younger rhaenyra was going absolutely crazy about him and idolizing him made it easier for her to deal with him being gone while she was already aware that the way he treated her was not okay. Now it's not enough to bring her gifts and to take her on a adventure, she needs to feel secure. And relationship go to different phases that does not mean you love someone less but in a different way, more solid. I think they both still share those moments of being high by each other's touch and feeling the rush, the desire is still there but right now it's not the time for it (even so they deserve a kiss and make up sex) and can we please all remember how this man was touching her face and looking at her in the fight scene like did that man look like he was not craving her touch?? He is there in harrenhal and out of his mind because he simply can not deal with what she said. This man fucking dies for her. Like he is still so crazy in love with her and I think if we got more scenes of them being married and happy at dragonstone maybe more people would realize that. And I really hope after this whole visiting alicent we get to see rhaenyra being allowed to feel her rage.

[grecoromanyaoi]

n like the thing is there is no need for neither palestinians nor israelis (or non israeli citizens living in israel) to die. the hostages couldve been released months ago in a deal. no lives r worth more than others it doesnt work like that. israeli lives shouldnt take precedence over palestinian lives, and its horrible how often they do n how popular that way of thinking is. n u can say all of that n not like. get mad at ppl for getting kidnapped from their homes or from a party?? like its their fault??? r u insane???????

[marlynnofmany]

Seeing Faces

It’s rare when we get a shipment to deliver that’s not packaged somehow — either in Earth-standard boxes, another world’s version of shipping crates, or a livestock pen of some kind. Even that bunch of alien trees had been thoroughly wrapped at the bottom. But this collection of machinery parts didn’t have so much as a layer of cling-wrap on it. I guess the owners figured these things were sturdy enough not to need it.

They were probably right. The metal chunks were heavy. I tried to guess what they were made for as Blip and Blop muscled the biggest ones onto a hover sled, clearing the way for Paint and me to gather up the smaller pieces. Captain Sunlight bid the customer farewell and shut the cargo bay door.

“I think these look like vertebrae,” I said to Paint. “Greasy vertebra. Ew. I’m going to need a new shirt.” The offworld engine oil of whatever didn’t seem acidic at least, so that was nice. I sighed about the black smears.

“Strange vertebrae,” Paint said, juggling her own armload of odd shapes that didn’t seem to be rubbing off on her orange scales. Not that I was jealous or anything. “There would need to be a dual spinal cord.” She tapped a claw on one of the holes.

“Hm, yeah. There are probably animals like that,” I said. “Or robots, as the case may be.”

Ahead of us, Captain Sunlight opened the door to the appropriate storage hold, then headed off on captainly business. It was impressive how different a vibe she gave off compared to Paint, for all their physical similarities. Both were little lizardy people, but one strode with her lemon-yellow head held high, every inch the authority figure, while the other was Paint. She somehow bounced when she walked, even when weighted down by unwieldy metal things.

“I’ll bet these stack really well,” Paint said. “They look like they interlock. We could probably build a spinal column without them falling over.”

“We probably could,” I agreed. “But I don’t want to be the one responsible for bending one of the flanges because we wanted to test it out.”

“Hm. Yep yep yep. But I maintain that we could.”

“We could.”

The two of us entered the storage hold to find Blip and Blop racing to see who could unload the sled faster. It’s not that the Frillian twins were overly competitive, but they were twins. They’d apparently hatched at the same time, and had been in a low-key competition to see who was better at life ever since. But they smiled while they did it.

“Done!” Blip declared, setting down a lump of metal big enough for Paint to hide behind. She raised her hands in triumph, fins fluttering.

“Doesn’t count,” Blop said as he put down his own piece. “You didn’t line them up right. Mine are tidier.”

They squabbled about this while Paint and I unloaded our metal chunks nearby. I had to kneel to keep from dropping the things. It would be just my luck if they did warp on impact, or bounce off each other and whack me in the shin.

The Frillians took their debate out the door before I finished. They’d already moved on to who could steer the hoversled with the minimum of touching.

“Ha,” Paint said. “They do stack.”

I turned to see only one of the things set on top of another, with Paint ready to catch it if it slid. She took it down before I could say anything.

I just nodded and arranged my own into a reasonable huddle, then wiped my hands on my shirt. It was only when I moved toward the door, with a look back at the big pieces, that I got a good look at the one that Blop had set on its side.

This was the logical place to put it, not sticking out past the rest, but the thing that caught my attention was the shape when seen from this angle. Those two holes could have been eyes, and the flanges were shaped like stubby arms. There were even a couple slots in the middle like nostrils.

I burst out laughing.

“What?” Paint demanded.

“It looks like Zhee!” I said, pointing. “Big bug eyes and everything!”

“What does?” Paint asked. She came to stand next to me, following my arm, but just looked confused. “Where are the eyes?”

“These!” I said, stepping closer and pointing at the holes. “And those are the arms. Isn’t it perfect?”

Paint cocked her head as if slightly tilted vision could unlock the answers. “Arms?”

I repeated myself, but she still looked lost, so I found a notepad and pencil in a storage cupboard —reliable even when the batteries all run out — and sketched what I saw.

“Ohh, I get what you mean now,” Paint said when I showed her. “Those parts are lifted like pincher arms, and those are roughly the same proportion as Mesmer eyes.”

“Yeah, it’s uncanny,” I said.

Paint took the notepad to study it closer. “How did you even notice that?”

“It was pretty easy,” I told her. “It just jumped out at me when I looked from the right direction. Like seeing faces in clouds, you know?”

Paint’s blank expression said that she didn’t know.

“Do you not do that? Find patterns of familiar shapes in random things?”

“No?” she replied. “Is that a thing I’m supposed to be doing?”

“You don’t have to! It’s just something that everybody does on Earth, ever since we’re kids. It’s probably from a long history of watching for camouflaged predators in the bushes. You’ve got camouflage on your planet, right? You must.”

“Yeah, sure,” Paint said easily. “But I guess not that much. I’ve never seen a face in a cloud; that sounds terrifying.”

“Not really; it’s more like feeling smart for spotting something. Well,” I amended. “It could be a little unsettling if you see a skull or something. But that’s rare. There are whole systems of divination about this sort of thing.”

Paint looked like she was about to ask a million questions, but right then the sound of familiar clicking footsteps tapped down the hall.

“Zhee!” Paint called, whirling with the notebook in her hand. “Zhee, look what Robin saw!”

Zhee came into view looking just as eyecatching and purple as usual, halting at the doorway while Paint eagerly explained the conversation we’d just had. Quickly and enthusiastically. With lots of waving the sketch around, and pointing back at the machine part.

I felt like apologizing as he stared with an unreadable alien expression. His antennae weren’t even moving; I couldn’t tell what he thought of it all.

Finally Paint finished talking. “She says it’s probably because her species watches for predators in the bushes. Isn’t that amazing?”

Zhee made a point of looking slowly from the sketch to the metal thing, then to me. I braced myself for judgement.

Instead, Zhee raised his pincher arms into the same pose and declared, “I am the danger that lurks in the bushes.” Then he slunk out of sight, many legs scuttling in a quickstep way that he knew darn well I found creepy.

Paint blinked at the empty doorway, still holding the notebook.

“Aw, man,” I said. “He’s picking things up from Trrili.”

Paint immediately closed the notebook. “We definitely shouldn’t show her.”

“Agreed!” I said.

After a moment of thought, Paint tore the page out and handed it to me, then took the notebook back to the cupboard. I pocketed it with a final glance at the metal vertebra that looked remarkably like a cartoonish Mesmer squaring up for battle.

Someone had left a roll of no-residue marking tape on a box nearby. I grabbed a strip and stuck it onto the metal, with the ends curved up.

Now the thing had a goofy grin that possibly no one would recognize. But if there were any humans on the receiving end of this delivery, they ought to get a good laugh out of it.

~~~

The ongoing backstory adventures of the main character from this book. More to come! And I am currently drafting a sequel!

[sentient-pineapple]

[macksartblock]

no collective thoughts just drawings before i DM tonight

[a-victorian-girl]

While listening to 'The Moment I Knew' (by Taylor Swift) -and feeling all the sadness and disappointment in her song-, I thought about John.

Because I'm sure he must have felt very similar to Taylor when Sherlock didn't show up to his birthday dinner.

You should've been there Should've burst through the door With that "Baby, I'm right here" smile And it would've felt like A million little shining stars had just aligned And I would've been so happy Christmas lights glisten I've got my eye on the door Just waiting for you to walk in But the time is ticking... (...) And what do you do when the one who means the most to you Is the one who didn't show? You should've been here And I would've been so happy (...) And they're all standing around me singing "Happy birthday to you" But there was one thing missing (...)

@safedistancefrombeingsmart @topsyturvy-turtely @gregorovitchworld @totallysilvergirl @sabsi221b @jawnscoffee @jobooksncoffee @helloliriels @calaisreno @windyspring @meetinginsamarra @kettykika78 @asherloki @gaylilsherlock @catlock-holmes @sarahthecoat @inevitably-johnlocked @peanitbear @toccata-i-voir @221beloved @chocolate1elise @whatnext2020 @happydistraction @ben-locked @jameshavinganxiety