#But I was forced to read this one

[bitstitchbitch]

oh my fucking god I found it.

the book I absolutely abhorred reading in tenth grade English. I had completely forgotten the name and plot, but I recognized it while reading the list of Hugo award winners and found an excerpt to confirm

fucking starship troopers by Robert a heinlein. I can’t even begin to explain how much I hated reading this - and I usually liked books I read in English class.

Quotes from Wikipedia:

“ Starship Troopers also criticizes the US society of the 1950s, arguing that a lack of discipline had led to a moral decline, and advocates corporal and capital punishment”

“Reviewers were strongly critical of the book's intentional glorification of the military, an aspect described as propaganda and likened to recruitment.The novel's militarism, and the fact that government service – most often military service – was a prerequisite to the right to vote in the novel's fictional society, led to it being frequently described as fascist.Others disagree, arguing that Heinlein was only exploring the idea of limiting the right to vote to a certain group of people. Heinlein's depiction of gender has also been questioned, while reviewers have said that the terms used to describe the aliens were akin to racial epithets”

I feel so justified in my hatred now. I distinctly remember feeling like the book was very sexist and excessively militaristic. And I just couldn’t stand the prose or writing style.

[lucabyte]

some thoughts on Claude

alt title: diversity win! this Butch Nun is crafting bombs in an unventilated room in her convent while actively courting Mother Superior! Do Not Give Them Access To Unlimited Power No Matter How Nice They Are

+ bonus

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Be wary not of the beast, but the hand that tamed it.

(Read more dog training tips over at Tiger Tiger)

[vaguely-concerned]

the strength it must have taken for illario to not immediately go full 'lmao since when have you even had a kiss hello lucanis' sibling violence mode during the café talk. inspirational. rook and lucanis really were doing all that right in front of his salad huh

[mintfullyyours]

thinking about how your kids would use "information about parent's dating life" to get what they want.

"Mom said I can't go over to Jessica's. Buuut I think she'd be more inclined to let me if you asked her."

He barely looks up from his phone. "No means no."

His kid sighs, dramatic, before leaning in with a conspiratorial glint in their eye. "What if we trade? I'll tell ya something about Mom’s dating life, and you convince her to let me go."

That makes him pause. Just for a second. Had he missed something?

No. No man was coming into his home—the home he gave you in the divorce, the one he somehow persuaded you to keep because it was the kids’ childhood home too. Too much change wouldn’t be good for them, you’d agreed. You had to agree. It was the right thing.

Besides, he would’ve known if someone was sniffing around. He monitored the cameras daily, the ones you knew about. And the ones you didn’t.

The ones tucked behind the bookcase. Inside the china cabinet. The ones that let him see when you sat at the kitchen table late at night, lost in thought. When you curled up on the couch with a book. When you went to bed alone.

...Right?

But if you’d figured it out—if you were bringing someone in while he wasn’t watching, sneaking around like he wouldn’t find out—

His jaw clenches. He’ll take the bait.

"Depends on what you've got," he says, deceptively casual.

His kid grins, sensing an opportunity. They know their best shot is telling Dad exactly what he wants to hear. So they spill—a time, a location. Something simple, enough to light a fire in him.

He’s already pushing back from the dining table, grabbing his jacket off the rack.

He’d be damned if you were going on this date.

"Will you ask Mom while you're there?" his kid calls after him.

He’s already strapping his boots on when he throws a smirk over his shoulder.

"Rule number one," he teases. "Never negotiate with a terrorist."

Note: i made this vague because I feel like it could be any of them hahah

141: no one can hear you scream prank,

tag list

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[marivanilla05]

My favorite scenes from The Odyssey (books 18 to 21)

Odysseus fighting a random beggar being its own book was not something I expected to enjoy this much when reading The Odyssey, but here we are.

[reader-from-nowhere]

War no longer needed its ultimate practitioner.

You were beyond your creators. You reach out for God.

And you fell.

[thekittyokat]

you ever just have a lot, a LOT of feelings all at once about a character and not even remotely enough words or brainpower to FORM the words to describe everything you're feeling. so it feels like you may explode. yeah

[rookanisstuff]

If veilguard didn’t happen AU where Rook Mercar is sent by Dorian to help evacuate slaves the Demon of Vyrantium keeps freeing via assassinating their masters

[umbrellajam]

thinking about the swathe of Tim & Dick disagreements that can be broadly patterned, "Dick is more openly distraught and ends up chewing out Tim before stalking off, while Tim's left standing there like 🧍‍♂️"

New Titans #61 (A Lonely Place of Dying, Part 4) Gotham Knights #26 (Bruce Wayne: Murderer? Part 10) Nightwing (1996) #110

and the sort of opposite, where Tim is more openly distraught and they end up physically fighting each other

Nightwing (1996) #139 (The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, Part 6) Red Robin (2009) #4

anyway no deep thoughts, I just love them and I'm rotating their arguments in my brain at all times, lol

(bonus: the direct reverse of the first category, with Tim more openly distraught with and chewing out Dick before stalking off, leaving Dick standing there like 🧍‍♂️)

Red Robin (2009) #1

[journey-to-the-attic]

uh oh

[lucabyte]

i CANNOT stress enough how incompatible the themes of these two pieces of media are. i promise my media literacy ability is actually good im well aware that these character mappings are absolutely nothing. that said. play with me in this space. in this sopping wet miserable space. its bad luck to kill a piou piou

original screenshots (and hypnosis 1904) for reference

[fistfuloflightning]

Shen Qingqiu had not expected this mission to be overly hard, even with Qi-shijie breathing down his neck and his shizun’s expectations hanging over his head like a sword. In fact it was intended to be simple reconnaissance for information. But the moment they stepped into the thriving black market in Hongmen City, he felt unease. He pulled the veil of his weimao closer around him, and Qi Qingqi did the same next to him as they pushed through the crowd of similarly masked patrons to find a suitable place to observe. It was tradition to go about hidden for auctions such as this, and Shen Qingqiu was grateful for the anonymity it provided.

The auction house was large and near gaudy in its ornamentation. It was like it was painting a target on itself. Hiding in plain sight, as it were. Because on the surface it offered stolen artifacts and scrolls of forbidden techniques and cultivation tools only for those with money and the ruthlessness to use it. But beneath the veneer ran the true lifeblood of the auction house.

Cauldron trafficking.

Cang Qiong had received rumors and reports as far back as a year prior of vanishings and the selling of humans, and only now had they been able to pinpoint a location. Shen Qingqiu wondered at the incompetence, considering how the auction house was hiding in plain sight.

Sitting at a third story railing and looking down at the center stage, Shen Qingqiu let his senses wander. From the waiter placing tea at their table, to a trio of black-veiled scholars conversing two pillars over, to the low rumble of talk beneath the chime and clatter of anticipation. And when the last of the items were sold off and the presenter beckoned forward a young woman bound in chains, Shen Qingqiu knew the only way he could remain impartial was to turn his attention resolutely away from the stage below.

But he could not block the words, of humans being sold off like chattel. He knew what it felt like to stand beneath cruel evaluating eyes, to know your life meant little to the rest of the world and that your death would be just as unremarkable.

He downed near an entire pot of tea before he could force himself to look back down.

The next exhibit. A young man, high qi levels, only two former owners, lightly used.

Lightly used. His hand tightened into a bloodless fist, hidden by his sleeves. He was no longer a slave, he reminded himself, all of his former owners were dead. He was here for the express purpose of destroying this kind of slavery. Like all the cauldrons shown before, the current exhibit had been stripped nearly naked to show off his physical features. Young, slender, with soft brown hair that had been left unattended and lay limp down his back. Something about the young man’s defeated posture dredged up memories for Shen Qingqiu and he looked away. “Surely this is enough to report back,” he hissed to his senior sister, who had been observing the people around them.

“We must wait until the end. And I need to figure out at least two of the major buyers. Xian Xu Peak would be able to trace the buyers and discover just how far the trafficking ring extended.

Below them, the cauldron was forced to walk about. His posture was that of a long-term slave beaten into submission, but the way his gaze flicked up spoke of defiance. For a fraction of a second, those eyes met his—a clear honey-brown that haunted his memories even now.

Shen Yuan.

He nearly jerked up out of his seat. But only the fear of his presence blowing their cover kept him in place. If he revealed their identities now, Shen Yuan would be whisked away and he would never find him again.

After he’d killed Wu Yanzi, he’d relied on the connections he made while under the cultivator’s ‘tutelage’, and the brothel workers he’d begged food scraps from, while Wu Yanzi had wasted their precious coin on pleasure, had welcomed him. One such brothel had been home to a courtesan and her son, with whom Shen Jiu had grown attached. He hadn’t stayed there long, long enough to fall for a sharp tongue and pretty eyes.

He had given him the same promise Qi’ge had. And had failed him in the same way, returning too late to the brothel to free him from the contract he shared with his mother, because his mother was dead and Shen Yuan already sold off.

And now Shen Qingqiu knew where he was all these years. Being forced to dual cultivate and give up his own qi to others far more greedy and undeserving. He felt violently ill.

He couldn’t bid. He would not descend the levels of those around them… and he had no money. But that didn’t stop him from reaching into a sleeve to feel for his purse.

“Something caught your eye?” Qi Qingqi’s disgust was palpable. He knew she believed the rumors about him, about the brothels and the bought favors.

Only for him to come back to himself in time to see Shen Yuan dragged off the platform – auctioned off quickly, he realized with cold dread, but who had bought him? Using the weimao as a shield, Shen Qingqiu scanned those around them. But none looked to have made any sign.

“I—I must go.” Before it was too late. Qi Qingqi hissed after him, but he was deaf and blind to her fury. He no longer cared if he blew their cover, Qi-shijie would do her job without him no matter what. No, the only thing he cared about was finding Shen Yuan and fulfilling that broken promise.

also on ao3

[i-like-forcefem]

You wake up due to a an odd discomfort around your groin, you feel around and touch something soft and plastic?

You turn on the lights and find yourself lock in a small, pink chastity cage

You panic a little, you’ve never done this before, you try to pull it off and it won’t budge and you notice just how little you can touch your member now

You get hard

It hurts

You look around the room and see an envelope next to a small pile of clothes and some odd plastic?

You open the envelope

My dearest love,

You wronged me, the fact you wouldn’t know who I am makes it that much worse

So I thought it’d only be right if I punished you

As you might’ve found out already I’ve securely locked you up and only I have the key

If you ever want it back you’ll need to do some things for me first

Mod course you won’t be allowed to touch your memeber until I release you

Next you will need to wear the clothes, and insert the remote anal vibrator I provided to you

You will then need to watch any porngraphic content I send you over the course of the next 2 weeks, dressed up and wearing the plug

I’ve made a separate number where we can chat

I expect you to use the proper respect when talking to me

I expect you to thank me for teaching you how to be a good girl

And I expect you to drop whatever you’re doing whenever I send you a message, and if I so ask you’ll put on the shuttle clothes I gave you, put in the plug, and watch whatever degrading smut I sent you while I control your ass

Do this like a good girl for 2 weeks and I’ll take off the cage

Mess up once, and I’ll flush the key down the drain

Oh and don’t think to get it removed or anything, I got that onto you without you noticing once, and if you get it off I’ll know that means you’re ready for your second round!

And trust me you wouldn’t like the second round, something tells me that you’d hate losing your freedom of movement

So now be a good girl and dress yourself up already love~

I’m waiting

Oh! And one more thing!

I can and will change the rules at any time, for example one I thought of right now: the two weeks only count down if you spent the whole day in cute woman’s clothing, so if you ever put on those nasty clothes you’re wearing right now, the day doesn’t count and you still have 2 weeks to go

Good luck cutie! Try to keep me happy~

[thejakeformerlyknownasprince]

What are your favorite ships in Animorphs? Both canon and non-canon

Man, I think it'd be easier to list the things I don't ship. The within-team dynamics are so intricate and well-written that basically any combo can be made to work. I'm a big fan of the rarepair combo of Rachel/Cassie, Tobias/Marco, and Jake/Ax, but canon makes a strong case for Rachel/Tobias and Jake/Cassie. If we're including minor characters, I've enjoyed writing Rachel/Melissa, Ax/Menderash, Marco/Collette, and Melissa/Tom; I keep meaning to write Marco/Tom, Melissa/Tobias, and James/Jake. Even Tobias/Taylor could make a great horror story if someone felt like writing it.

If we loop in the older generation, then my favorite rarepair is Loren/Chapman. But I've also written Naomi/Loren, Eva/Loren, Eva/Peter, Elfangor/Loren, and Alloran/Jahar; I'm always meaning to write Peter/Elfangor, Elfangor/Arbron, and Michelle/Loren/Walter.

I guess the only things I don't ship are incest (off-putting) and ships that include controllers (consent issues). But like, even then I could probably be convinced by dark crack fic about Visser Three and Visser One hatebanging.

[katabay]

”—ah. seems like mother goose has been playing around in your egg salad. if you won’t dance to that tune, I got others.”

honestly, the would you kindly scene is whatever to me*, code yellow is the more interesting violation/betrayal of the body because of how beautifully it escalates the Fontaine reveal/betrayal and shows how ugly some of those ‘locks and keys’ that Tenenbaum mentions are. not only have you been a tool in another man’s hand this entire time, it goes deeper. your body is not your own.

*there used to be a meandering thought here about the would you kindly scene, but it was really just talking around the fact that I spent way too many years seeing people discuss it in the most insufferable and reductive ways possible when it’s a combination of three or four other things that make that moment compelling lmao

collage credits: heart one/heart two

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