#HOWEVER i think i could write a much more compelling mystery now

[juniperhillpatient]

goddamnit I want to get back to writing horror now

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

every book i read in july + august!

it's that time again!! forgot to do this at the end of july because of my dissertation, and have also read a few really long books which have slowed me down considerably. but here we go!!

The Old Woman With the Knife by Gu Byeong-Mo

I really enjoyed this! It's a well-paced thriller about an old woman facing problems at work, struggling with her age and dealing with her much younger coworkers. oh, and she's an assassin. very enjoyable, has the vibe of a good thriller movie.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie

Christie was one of my favourite authors as a kid but it's been ages since I've read any of her books, and i was very glad to find they absolutely still stand up! I even knew the twist going into this one but it didn't ruin the experience at all, I was still gripped. They're so well written - i love how she writes characters who really feel like people you could know.

The Overstory by Richard Powers

This book was completely unexpected and so brilliant. It follows the lives of seven complete strangers, starting in the late 1800s to the present day. They're brought together at various points in their lives because they all have the same goal - to stop deforestation and protect america's trees. It's so much more tree-y than you could imagaine, there's one character who has a near death experience and starts hearing trees talk to her. I was compelled by all the characters and I always love books that show strangers touching each other's lives. It is very long (more than 600 pages) and, like I said, very tree-y, so be warned, but still enjoyable.

Call for the Dead by John le Carré

I absolutely loved this!! The first George Smiley book, and I understand why he's such a famous character now. Every character is SO fully formed, which I don't usually expect from thrillers, but that's why le Carré is the best!! The plot of this one wasn't quite as perfect as The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, but it was still really good. Can't wait to read more!!

Lanark: a Life in Four Books by Alasdair Gray

I think it's fair to say this is the weirdest book I have ever read. Like, I can't even conceive of how one human could come up with this.

It is, like the title says, a life in four books; book 1 is about a boy growing up in post-war Glasgow, book 2 is about that same boy becoming a starving artist, book 3 is that boy arriving in a dystopian reimagining of Glasgow called Unthank, where he starts turning into a dragon and is then swallowed by a portal into a mysterious facility called The Institute where he's hired as a doctor to cure other people who are turning into dragons, and in book 4 he returns to Unthank, becomes a politician against his will, grapples with the hopelessness of late-stage capitalism, meets god, and then dies. Also, the books appear in the novel in this order: 3, 1, 2, 4. And that's really only a brief summary, there is so much more weirdness than that!

It's absolutely mental; I'll admit I found it hardgoing in places, and I read to a very high level. I wanted to read it before I left Glasgow, and I do feel a certain Glaswegian-ness about it that I really enjoy - it's one of those books where the city is really another character (even in the dystopian sections), and in this case it's one I actually recognise. It's not for the fainthearted, and it's definitely not a casual read, but if you're up for it I would definitely recommend!

The Forgery by Ave Barrera

This was absolutely brilliant! It's about an artist in Guadalajara who is hired by a wealthy client to forge a painting. However, everything is not as it seems, and things start to go seriously wrong. It feels like one of those books that's going to become a classic. Would highly, highly recommend!!

Dark Places by Gillian Flynn

I wanted a good thriller, and Gillian Flynn always delivers. This should really be classed as a horror novel; it's one of those thrillers that goes beyond 'exciting, compelling, mystery' into the territory of 'these are the worst things human beings can do to one another'. Reading it almost makes you feel dirty. I loved it

Silverview by John le Carré

This was probably my least favourite le Carré novel I've read so far - and it was brilliant. It's a standalone, unlike the others I've read which were all part of the Smiley series; it is also his last novel, published posthumously in 2022. I think the change in time frame makes a significant difference to the overall vibe - espionage is very different in the present day, when this novel is set, than in the 60s and 70s when the Smiley novels are set. This made for an interesting change - it was also fascinating to see le Carré's perspective of the modern world show through this novel, compared to the older ones I've read previously. I really enjoyed it.

Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein

This one didn't quite land for me. I just didn't fully understand what it was trying to do, or how it was trying to do it. I felt it wasn't very developed, which is maybe a product of how short it is, or maybe that's the point and I just didn't get it? I don't know. I found the prose quite difficult to read, not because it was particularly complicated but because it has lots of needlessly long sentences. I think this is supposed to make the prose seem like speech, but for me it just made it irritating to read. Wouldn't recommend this one, but it was shortlisted for the Booker prize so what do I know!

Headshot by Rita Bullwinkel

This was absolutely brilliant. Set over two days, it follows the eight competitors in the 'Daughters of America' girl's boxing tournament. Most of the narrative takes place solely within the fights themselves, revealing the details of the girls' characters, past, present, and future, all within the moments of the fight. It was very unusual but (in my opinion) it really worked. It kind of replicates the feeling of watching a boxing match, exciting and kind of viscerally sickening at the same time. I loved it.

Currently Reading: The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan

Five years after starting my history degree I have finally overcome my aversion to reading history for fun! This is such a good one to start with, absolutely fascinating (even if i am getting slightly frustrated by the lack of detail in some sections - in the scope of a 600 page book spanning almost 3000 years of history, it makes sense that specific archaeological sites only warrant a couple of sentences, but I'm used to reading entire papers about that one site and I'm hungry for more detail lol). Posting this now because there's no way I'm finishing this one before the end of the month.

On My Radar: I really don't know! I have a huge tbr shelf to choose from now that all my books are in (almost) the same place. I am feeling like reading some more Agatha Christie - maybe I'm regressing to childhood interests in the face of a major transformative period of life, or maybe they're just really good? I don't know. It's also possible that it'll take me a month to read The Silk Roads, so who knows!

If you read this far then tell me what you're currently reading in the tags/replies! Or just a good book you read recently, or a bad one, or one you're looking forward to - i'm unemployed, living with my parents, and i've got covid, please talk to me 😭

[magicalswordgirls]

Heh, I’ll draw a better Aerial next time. The important thing is that I got over my fear of drawing mecha and also over my fear of building plastic models of robots, so thanks, Okouchi! Some headcanons and ranting under the cut. (With spoilers)

For some reason most of my WfM fanfiction has been centered around Aerial/Ericht ever since the theory about Aerial being Eri started circulating during the first season. I’ve been thinking about AU’s where she doesn’t lose her body and instead is an older teenager/young adult who has to deal with a mother obsessed with revenge while also trying to protect her little sister from the consequences of said revenge (and precisely because of that, she ends up questioning herself wether following her mother’s path is worth it or not).

I think that Eri was a character with a lot of potential in the story. She’s this girl who lost absolutely everything, who might be sad and angry about it but can’t do much on her own. She loves her family and even if she also wants to help her mom get revenge, she knows that it’s wrong and she doesn’t want her clone/little sister to get involved in any of it but, yet again, she can’t prevent the fact that her sister is used as a pawn, and she’s also being used, even if her mom doesn’t want to admit it. The dilemma of wanting to help her mom while simultaneously wanting to protect her sister’s innocence is a very compelling part of the story. Also the relationship between the sisters had a lot of potential. Eri could’ve seen Suletta as everything that she wasn’t able to become and that could’ve lead to very complicated feelings. There were a lot of elements that would have turned Ericht into a very interesting and nuanced character and I’m not even mentioning the transhumanism angle, there was a lot that could be explored in that area.

However, as we know, there wasn’t much about this character in canon (even if she was important for both the protagonist and the antagonist of the show). She remained a mysterious figure throughout most of the story and we didn’t get to know much about her motivations. In fact, most of what we know about her comes from the short novel “Cradle Planet”, the anime didn’t bother to put that information in the story and that’s why for most viewers she’s this creepy girl haunting a Gundam who’s almost as big as a jerk as Prospera. To be honest, I was expecting her to be more conflicted during her battle with Suletta or at least I wanted to kow why she was so convinced to follow her mother’s plan. At the end we didn’t get any of that, and she remained as an underdeveloped character.

So yeah, I have the impression that in my head I made up this nuanced and tragic character out of someone that ended up being a Funny Little Guy inside a keychain. Well, I guess this is very common when one starts liking a secondary character from a show. (I always wondered how people would make long essays and fafics about characters that didn't do much in a show... guess I'm that kind of person now).

Well, I suppose that I’ll have to stick to my fanfics and headcanons, at least I know that nothing I could write’s gonna be more wild than what actually happened in canon. So there’s that.

…Thanks Okouchi :/.

P.S: I like to speculate what kind of teen/young adult she would’ve been, specially in slightly less tragic AU’s, maybe she’s more like she was in the Prologue or she’s a little bit messed up because she’s shielding her sister from everything that’s wrong with their family. Idk, I just find her very fun to write (although I’m always aware that I might be creating some sort of pseudo OC, man I really wish that canon had given us more material to work with!)

[loquaciousquark]

hi! i’ve been a fan of your writing since da2 and i’m so glad you’re playing bg3 now too. it’s been really interesting following your play throughs and character choices and how that ties in with your fic. i know you went with the choice to have astarion kill tav when he firsts bites her because it’s hilarious and i always want to do that, but i think i’d miss the scene after with the whole camp (and all the approval for defending him lol) and ahhhh i just don’t know! if you feel like it, i was wondering if you would talk more about your HCs around that choice and what to you makes it worth losing the morning after scene with everyone because i feel like it’s such an important group moment but… i want to punch him for killing me and also kind of slow things down with him so we stay just reluctant but oddly compelled allies for longer

Ahhh, what a fabulous question! Thank you so very much for this handcrafted opportunity to sit you down at my kitchen table with a cup of coffee and trap you for the next three and a half hours.

So the first bite scene ending in Tav's death wasn't actually intentional! I started playing BG3 in a three-person MP team with @eponymous-rose and @mystery-moose, and it so happened that my character (Tavish Gale, already ironclad) was the one who came across the boar and triggered the bite scene that night. By pure chance I rolled two natural ones on both those checks, and when it cut to the next morning and Tav was outright DEAD, we couldn't stop laughing! We had no idea what to expect or what the consequences would be, and when I switched to a SP campaign so I could horrifically binge this game like the gremlin I am, I felt compelled to recreate that glorious, character-defining moment.

However, as you note, that does mean you miss out on that lovely post-feed conversation where everyone says they're okay with him. On the other hand, you get that absolutely flat read of "Oh no. Something terrible happened here. :|" and then you get to punch him, so, you know, basically equal losses on either path. I know you get a ton of approval points after with the survival track, but I'm finding I'm not hurting for approval even in early game (I actually had to go and mod his approval 15 points lower about halfway through Act 1 this run because I was triggering his romance scene too early ahead of the party).

I actually need to probably sit down and write out the details of what happens here, but I do think a couple things take place. I know for sure that Tav fails the checks & doesn't fight it because she gets sucked into the feeling of relaxation and lethargy and the sense that nothing matters anymore. She spends most of Acts 1 & 2 fairly certain they're going to die any day, so why not live life to the fullest and do whatever you want in the moment without thinking about the consequences? If she's going to go out early anyway, why not to a relatively painless vampire bite instead of the agony of ceremorphosis? She probably realizes she's dying in those last seconds, but it's very much a "finally" instead of "oh no," so it's not really any skin off her nose.

I'm almost certain Astarion is shocked out of his mind when her heart stops. I don't think he realizes what's happened until he sits back and she's ice-cold and smiling, and his first instinct is to run off into the dark ASAP before everyone else wakes up and shanks him. Except because this happens IN THE MIDDLE OF CAMP, LARIAN, I think someone sees the whole thing go down and realizes Astarion didn't mean to do it and Tav was a brick-thick idiot who leaned all the way into her own death.

On pondering, I kind of think it was Shadowheart, who is utterly disgusted with both of them but who also knows she can bring Tav back with a scroll and does so without much drama. She'd be the kind of person to see what was going on, but who doesn't care enough to intervene or go "hey everything okay over here I can't help but notice you're engaging in some risky behavior", but who also wouldn't leap to TIME TO KILL ASTARION the moment it went too far.

I think Tav wakes up with a raging headache, and now that there are suddenly consequences she can't immediately brush off, she gets embarrassed and mad. Cue the punch, the argument, and probably everyone else waking up in the aftermath. Lae'zel initially wants to boot him from the group, I think, but Tav's anger burns out pretty quick (and she's pretty aware of her own failures to stop him), and she points out that if they're going to saddle themselves with Wyll's, Gale's, and her own baggage, it'd be pretty hypocritical to dump Astarion over his. So we still get some defense of him to the group, and I think Karlach (and probably Wyll, and honestly maybe Shadowheart who saw his fear) would be onboard with keeping him around pretty quickly. Promises never to do it again, keep your teeth to yourself, etc.

Astarion I think spends this entire conversation very, very scared and doing everything he can to hide it. I think he's completely overwhelmed by euphorically feeding on a thinking creature for the first time and then completely horrified by killing her - not because he likes her but because what if this is why Cazador commanded us not to, what if I can't control myself on my own without his compulsion, what if I really am the beast he's always said. He's panicking from the outrageous swings of emotion and talking really quickly and trying to put up a bold front, but inside he's about half a hair from snapping off into the woods and never coming back.

I think it's the punch that kind of shocks him out of the spiral, and then Tav then defending him to the group helps him flip into the "well obviously I deserve to stay and in fact to kick me out of the group would be not only stupid, but deadly" mode long enough to get through the night. He tries to put on the usual devil-may-care indifference, even though everyone can see through it, and they have a tense few days where everyone's pretending everything is fine even though it's really, really not.

Astarion & Tav are also avoiding each other religiously here, until something happens in a battle (the harpies, I think) and one of them gets injured because of that avoidance. That night, Tav stakes him to the ground and makes them talk about it. I think this is where she says she's not actually averse to him feeding on her and in fact asks him to do it that night - to get them both over the hump of what happened the first time. Astarion needs to feed without fear & she needs to not get swept up in the lethargy, and if he's going to get back to the sneering equilibrium he ought to have in the first and second acts, he needs to be successful at this and he needs to feel like he's won, or at least like he has an edge over her again. She's a little transparent about wanting to be bled in part to help him get back to this position of control, and in part because she does like forgetting the weight of reality, and in part because, again, they're gonna die in like twelve hours, surely, so who cares?

Anyway, it goes as well as it can for the two of them, even if they're both a little prickly throughout, and by the end they're a lot more comfortably back in that manipulative space they prefer. From there it moves on compliantly with canon into the party leadup (Loviatar and such) and then the party itself, and then progresses as scheduled with the rest of the game.

Ahh, it's so fun to think about these kinds of things. I'll continue to ponder, but I think this is either it for them or very close. Thank you so much for asking and for letting me ruminate! <3

[dullyn]

KIT, MY BELOVED (AFFECTIONATE) For the Arthuriana ask: ♘🫅💚 📽😏🥖 (I think I know who you'll say but it's just an excuse to hear u wax about Lance again) 👨‍👦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Sarah thank you for enabling me <3

♘: Bors, please save me Bors. I just love him so much and when he finishes the Grail Quest, ah.

🫅: I want to say Guinevere because like,, that’s my girl. However, my favorite lady has to actually be Iseult the Fair. She’s just so smart and crafty, especially when it comes to dealing with the barons and King Mark’s suspicions of her. Like when Tristan carries her while disguised as a well meaning peasant and she is like “the only man I have between my legs besides you is that man” and it’s like hell yeah he is girl.

💚: The Lot-Pellinore blood feud. I don’t know if that counts as just one thing since it’s like an ongoing arc, but god it’s just so funny. They just keep one upping each other with more murder until Percival is just hanging at the round table lacking like any living brothers.

🎥: I recommend everyone go and read Sir Galahad, A Christmas Mystery. It’s a poem, and not a very long one, but I still think everyone should read it. It’s such a whimsical take on the Grail lore.

😏: Yes.

🥖: Okay so oddly enough Bors is my favorite french. The entire WIP originated as an excuse to write a Bors-centric story and then I realized it was far more compelling to write Lancelot-Guinevere interactions. This love of Bors can be seen in the snippets before each Part (old man Bors my beloved). But yeah,, Lancelot gave me brain worms and now he’s the protagonist. That being said I love my dumb Lancelot, he gets like smarter as the story goes on because he is currently a fifteen year old boy, but he’s so precious. Just a stupid baby with a sword who then grows up into a murderous bastard.

🧑‍🧒: Sir Ector. The way that he raises Arthur and Kay and does all he needs to do and asks like zero questions. Ideal father figure, just supporting his random adoptive son he got from a wizard.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿: Lamorak, just because the funniest thing he could do in the blood feud is exactly what he did. He banged his enemies’ mom (rip to Morgause). It reads like a bad middle school joke.

[sheikzine]

“Two eyes watched them from between the leaves, sparkling from the sunlight...” (3/5)

During the applications period, we'll be posting a part of a Sheik fic every week, written by our writing mod! Click here for part two

Applications will remain open until May 9th, 11.59pm PST

Two eyes watched them from between the leaves, sparkling from the sunlight, and for a moment they were all Link could make out. Then Sheik made a noise—a kissing noise, followed by their gloved fingers brushing together as they extended their hand—and after the eyes seemed to regard the two of them, it slowly made its way out between the leaves.

One paw breached the cover first, spotted brown and white, and it hesitated for a moment in the air before pressing on the ground. Then, after a moment of movement, the other paw revealed itself–then a nose and a set of ears.

It was a creature Link had never seen before—likely due to what appeared to be a secretive nature—but he had to admit it was as adorable as it was mysterious. While it tempted him to get up and approach it, he felt compelled to stay still and wait as the creature slowly inched its way across the grass, eyes flicking between Sheik’s hand and eyes. Finally, as it neared the last couple inches, its eyes settled on Sheik’s fingers, and all movement paused as it sniffed at their fingers… before suddenly, it closed its eyes and pushed its head against Sheik’s fingers, and a rumbling noise that seemed entirely too loud for its tiny size erupted.

Sheik hummed, clearly pleased, and turned their hands to move their fingers back and forth. First, they worked at its cheeks, then moved to the spot behind its ears, only to move back along its cheek to the underside of its chin. Then it flopped over on its side and Sheik chuckled, glancing at Link with what appeared to be an excited expression on what he could see on their face, before they added their second hand to the mix.

“Do you know what this is, Link?” They asked as Link slowly pushed himself up to a proper sitting position. Ignoring the pain in his leg was easier now, especially since he had something else to look at that was much more interesting.

“No,” Link said, leaning slightly to the side to get a better look. It had flopped on the ground with its back facing him, and he could no longer see its face. “But it’s cute.”

“It is,” Sheik agreed, smoothing their fingers over its fluffy fur. “This is a cat. Well—a kitten, rather… it doesn’t look close to a year old, but it’s not terribly young either.”

Kitten. Link mouthed the word to himself, finding it strange, yet fitting. There were no kittens in Kokiri Forest—just Deku Babas and one big nasty Mido. He shivered at the thought of Mido finding one, wondering if the boy would subject a kitten to the same treatment he had brought onto Link.

The heavy sigh escaped him before he realized, and immediately he felt eyes on him. There was no reaction at first—Link hoped Sheik would either ignore it altogether or think it had been the wind. However, Link would not be so lucky; Sheik scooped the kitten up in their hands and clutched it close to their chest before sitting down fully on the ground, legs crossing in front of them.

Then came the dreaded question; “What is it, Hero?” And Link found himself sighing yet again before looking up into ruby red eyes.

“... I was wondering what Mido would have done with a kitten if we had any in Kokiri Forest,” He explained. Sheik nodded slowly to show they were listening, but said nothing more. Continue. So he did. “We had no pets. We were all focused on having fairies instead.” Rustling came from his shirt as Navi moved to peek over the edge of his collar, so he lowered his hands back down to the ground to prop himself up once more and let her see. “I bet he would have been mean.”

The corners of Sheik’s eyes crinkled ever so slightly in what appeared to be a wry expression before they looked down at the kitten, fingers curling in and out underneath its chin repetitively. It seemed to like it because the rumbling noise grew louder and it bared its neck even further. Sheik quickened their motions.

“You’ve spoken about Mido before,” Sheik said. “He’s the Kokiri who bullied you all the time?” While it sounded like more of a statement than a question, Link nodded anyway, thinking back on all the times he’d gotten into fights with the ginger.

[blondiest]

Asking here so tumblr won't eat your replies in the meronia tag. Do you have any headcanons for them (or for lawlight) in an omegaverse setting?

both grateful to you for the consideration bc UGH!!! WHY IS IT EATING MY POSTS!!! and mildly horrified that i am going to blast this at 8x as many people as i would be blasting it at on my sideblog.

100% kidding. i already spent, like, three separate posts talking about spit at this point, so i think any illusion of dignity i once held is long gone.

however. to be totally honest with you i have spent approximately zero moments thinking about the omegaverse, and i will say i don't have any original thoughts for lawlight ever & have no intention of writing them. i pretty much exclusively enjoy them bc of the immense talent of authors within the fandom; i don't think i would have ever warmed up to the idea of them together otherwise.

so, having it out of the way that my skull is completely empty on this topic, allow me to seriously entertain it. there are a few things that i think work well about the trope, and a few things i think could be tricky. for example— the most obvious upside is that the dynamics give an obvious, easy excuse for characters to act on their attraction to one another despite whatever hurdles stand in the way, which make it an appealing option in some ways for meronia given the somewhat complicated vibes going on there (& there's i guess an opportunity for continued complicated vibes since it could be written to have them hook up before actually sorting through any of the “Mello being bitter as all fuck” shit gets resolved). second thing that i feel like fits nicely for them is the possessiveness aspect because. uhhh. Mello is very abnormal about Near in a lot of ways and imo that's Definitely One Of The Ways He's Weird. third reason that i can, like, see the appeal is that there's the built-in intensity kind of inherent to the trope, which again could be made more interesting and fraught by a persistently messy dynamic between them.

to me what makes it less appealing is that the very basic default dynamic in omegaverse is not one i find particularly compelling for Mello & Near. not saying that it's Bad or Wrong or Incorrect Writing or anything, just that it's not, like, my thing for them. i think the dynamic probably Could be done in a way i would enjoy, i just think it would have to be executed in a certain way. also i am going to put this in the clunkiest way possible bc it's late on my body clock rn (<- excuse; i'm actually just stupid) but like. something about the idea of Near being submissive due to Biology Reasons just kind of bores me idk. i very much enjoy writing him being into Mello bossing him around but i prefer for him to be actively kinda freaky about it tbh, and something about the Innate Biology Stuff of omegaverse kind of dulls that effect for me. maybe there would be a way around it, but that would be a possible sticking point in terms of interest for me.

all of this being said i definitely borrowed a tiny tiny tiny bit from omegaverse for i'm lost and i'm lonely (i hunger for you only) [which is, by the way, not recommended reading as i feel like i need to rework mello's characterization now that i'm more used to writing him, but it's still a concept i like a lot. if you go into it with the knowledge that it's a bit OOC (suspension of disbelief: Mello having a single ounce of emotional intelligence & self-awareness at age 18) then i imagine it could still be kind of a fun, short, highly incomplete read].

i pretty much just borrowed the idea of like, biting & bonding (bc it's. about Near being a vampire. hehe) but it's a T rated fic (... for now) so it's, like. not a sex thing idk. that being said, if i was going to write omegaverse for them (i do not see this happening bc i have a lot of WIPs i find compelling already) it would probably be with the same sort of setup in that fic (mafia Mello coming back to Wammy's bc Near is mysteriously/suspiciously super fucking sick & shit is looking bleak)

anyways. i'm sorry if this isn't what you were hoping for bc i didn't give you literally any headcanons but!! it was a fun question to engage with still, so thank you for asking it. also, final thought, Light is an omega. GOODBYE

[mediaevalmusereads]

Revelator. By Daryl Gregory. Alfred A. Knopf, 2021.

Rating: 3/5 stars

Genre: southern gothic, horror

Series: N/A

Summary: In 1933, nine-year-old Stella is left in the care of her grandmother, Motty, in the backwoods of Tennessee. These remote hills of the Smoky Mountains are home to dangerous secrets, and soon after she arrives, Stella wanders into a dark cavern where she encounters the family's personal god, an entity known as the Ghostdaddy.

Years later, after a tragic incident that caused her to flee, Stella--now a professional bootlegger--returns for Motty's funeral, and to check on the mysterious ten-year-old girl named Sunny that Motty adopted. Sunny appears innocent enough, but she is more powerful than Stella could imagine--and she's a direct link to Stella's buried past and her family's destructive faith.

***Full review below.***

CONTENT WARNINGS: racism, suicide, self-harm, blood, animal suffering, violence

OVERVIEW: I don't quite remember how I learned of this book, but mysteries gods in the Appalachian mountains sounded right up my alley. And in a lot of ways, this book delivered; I loved the mystery of the family cult and the way the past and present intersected. My rating is influenced by a couple things: one, I think Gregory could have pushed the prose a bit more, and two, I think the wants of the god and the themes of the cult could have played off each other a little better. Thus, this book gets 3 stars from me.

WRITING: Gregory's prose is fine, but not especially to my tastes. It's easy to understand and fairly quick, but I thought it leaned a but too heavily on telling. It's not the most egregious example I've seen, but when it comes to genres like southern Gothic and horror, I'm really looking for a strong sense of atmosphere. Personally, I thought the prose relied too much on character dialogue and stating emotions rather than showing them.

PLOT: The plot of this book follows a girl named Stella Wallace in two timelines: one in which she is 9 years old and comes to live with her grandmother, Motty. The other follows Stella when she's in her twenties and returns to Motty's house after hearing of her death. In both timelines, Stella must reckon with her family's strange religion and her role as the so-called "revelator."

There were a lot of things I liked about the plot. I enjoyed the mystery of the religion (which feels a bit like a cult) and what Stella's role was in the hierarchy. I also liked the themes that Gregory plays with, such as men acting as authorities or mediators, writing down and providing commentary on women's stories and not allowing the women to read the testimony of anyone still living. I also loved the way Gregory explored the theology of both Christianity and the family religion; Stella asked some very pointed questions, and it revealed a lot about the nature of devotion and power within religious organizations.

I do think, however, that some of the themes could have been pushed a bit so that everything commingled better towards the end. Without giving anything away, I will say that I think Gregory didn't explore the goals of the God as well as he could have and those goals didn't quite line up with the themes established prior. So while the horror aspect of the plot was fine, I think it could have come together much better to say something about gender and religion or something.

CHARACTERS: Stella, our protagonist, is fairly compelling because she has a stubborn, independent streak. Her grandmother, Motty, doesn't treat her very well, so when Stella acts out, it's easy to be on her side. She also is fiercely loyal to people she cares about (such as Abby, Merle, Alfonse, and even Sunny), so if you're a fan of found families, you'll probably like the relationships in this book. I do think Stella's personal arc was a bit underdeveloped; I'm not sure if Gregory was trying to play with the themes of "I'm a monster," but it seems to be the predominant narrarive and I honestly don't think Stella exhibits enough self-loathing to really grapple with that in a meaningful way.

Supporting characters were great in that it was clear what they were there to do and they complimented Stella's story nicely. Motty, Stella's grandmother, was interesting in that I was never quite sure if she was trying to help Stella or was jealous of her. Abby, Stella's surrogate father, was charming and his admiration for Stella was endearing. Sunny was also kind of fun in that her origins are unclear and she is way too similar to Stella to think there isn't something going on with her.

Antagonists such as the members of the family "church" were interesting because they exhibited some of the main pitfalls of some organized religions today. The rigid gender hierarchy and the power afforded to men was compelling and I liked the way Gregory explored that through the control of the various books (testaments of past female revelators).

I do think the god could have been shaped a bit more so that when it is revealed what its goal actually is, it would have dovetailed nicely with the themes of the church. As it stands, I didn't exactly find the god horrifying since none of the things that are revealed about it are particularly explored in Stella's narrative. I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm being a bit vague, but hopefully you'll understand if you read the book.

TL;DR: The Revelator is interesting for the way it explores sexism and hierarchy in religion while also questioning the way power is structured. However, it could have been stronger with more atmospheric prose and themes that intersected more closely.

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC REVIEW: The House at Watch Hill by Karen Marie Moning

3.75/5. 10/1/2024.

vibes: urban fantasy, lightly gothic, witchy bloodlines, vampires

Heat Index: 3/10

The Basics:

After the shocking death of her mother, Zo Gray is broke and directionless--until she gets a call from a lawyer realizing that a previously unknown relative left her a massive inheritance in Divinity, Louisiana. Before the house and the money is officially hers, however, she has to live in this intimidating, mysterious home--and put up with the suspicious townspeople--alone for three years. She can hardly say no--and the groundskeeper is quite hot--but Zo can't ignore the odd happenings in the mansion. Like doors that go to nowhere. And what about the secrets surrounding her lineage? They could be more mysterious than she'd possibly imagine..

The Review:

Okay, so first off--for the purposes of my blog, just have to make it clear: this isn't a romance novel. It was categorized as such on NetGalley, and I do (as someone who hasn't read Karen Marie Moning before) believe that the author has a reputation as a romance novelist. But this isn't one. Like, there are romantic setups--potentially more than one. There is sex. And there is more to be seen in the next book, I imagine. As of now, however, this is much more about urban fantasy witchcraft than it is about the love story.

So, while I do think there definitely could've been more development devoted to characters like Devlin and his dynamic with Zo... What was clearly more important to the story was Zo's relationship with her late mother, her dynamic with her friend Este (which I loved) and the mysterious attorney James Balfour.

I really liked Zo as a protagonist--she's not a shrinking violet, but she also isn't this Headstrong Female Protagonist. She's struggled in life, she's looking for safety and security, and she's ready to jump on a good opportunity, even if it's pretty creepy. I relate to that--and I think a lot of people in their twenties and thirties for that matter will relate to that, especially during the tough times we've been going through economically as a nation. Her love for her mother and pain over her loss is palpable--I'm fortunate enough to still have my mom, but it was really visceral and made me a bit emotional. Based on the dedication at the beginning of the novel, this entire story felt deeply personal, and I respect that.

As I said before, this was my first Karen Marie Moning book. I like her writing style--even when the pace of the story isn't super fast, the actual texture and tone is, if that makes sense? It keeps you reading, it keeps you compelled. I do typically enjoy a good bit more romance in a story, but I was by no means bored or frustrated here.

I also really liked the worldbuilding with regard to the witches. It was quite fun, and seemed to me a blend of more recent urban fantasy trends and more Witch Classic stuff. Which worked for me as someone who enjoys Witch Classic. The vampires could have used more explanation and expansion, but based on the ending of this book, I do think that will happen.

The Sex:

I did find this kind of frustration. One of the thing the book establishes early, which I really liked, was that Zo is very unapologetically sexual. She's more sexual than she is romantic, and you don't see that too often, even now, with female leads. There's no shame; it's very sex positive.

But like... the sex scenes are basically just described vaguely in retrospect. I wouldn't call it closed door, but it's pretty close. And because they're described as so mind-blowing, and because sex is actually kind of important to the magic and the story here... I felt a little thrown off. I also know, based on what other people have shown me and discussed about KMM's other books, that this is probably a shift. At least from her notable works. So I was a little let down there.

That said, if you're good with low heat sex scenes, or for that matter just don't care either way, it'll be totally irrelevant. By no means does it damage the book's quality, I just do think there are expectations that should be set and that's what reviews are for!

Overall, this is an entertaining, well-paced read that's perfect for October. If you're into witches, you're going to be pleased--and I definitely want to read more from this author (and the next in the series).

Thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[variousqueerthings]

SO WE'RE DOING! The Impossible Astronaut/Day Of The Moon now

sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 8/10

sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or to have agency over her emotional interiority): 6/10

interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 3/10

furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 7/10

companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 4/10

the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 7/10

doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 6/10

isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 3/10

internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 6/10

Politics (how conservative is the story): 5/10

FULL RATING: 55/100 (if I can count….)

so this is almost as low as Victory Of The Daleks in the rankings, but to be clear: I don't actually mind these episodes! it's the criteria of the whole thing that evens out in strange ways

Idk if I should be adding a point of "but actually a lot of it is quite interesting" anyway, why these ratings?

OBJECTIFICATION: can we talk about how much better Amy's wardrobe is this season? I feel like there was maybe feedback given that her constant short skirts made no damn sense when in life or death situations that require running and jumping and fighting etc.

PLOT-POINT: so I was rating this lower as I was watching, but then we got some compelling River tragique stuff and Amy's emotions about Rory is A Thing, as well as concerns around pregnancy

Amy is very helpless though, a fair bit of her feelings are more related to how Rory feels about her having feelings -- he's sad because she's captured, he's going to save her, he's sad that she still loves the Doctor more than him, he's happy that it turns out she meant Him all along, he's nervous when she's talking about her pregnancy, he's happy that she loves him

Amy's being in love with Rory is explored from Rory's side, and not so much from Amy's... we're just assuming that however she sees Rory has changed, and in the writing, it has, although I don't think it follows on from where they were end s5

COMPLEXITY: not as pointlessly complex as it's gonna be, however... the silence have actually been here forever and control everything and they compelled humanity to go to the moon so they could get... a spacesuit.... I feel like there's other ways to go about this but ok...

and the spacesuit is for this mysterious girl who possibly wears it and kills the Doctor in the future, and they're not sure why, but possibly there will be some good explanation

oh and that Big Black Box they imprison the Doctor in? unnecessary

CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: Rory and the Doctor! have a little chat! I think this is the first time Rory and the Doctor feel like equals a bit, and it's not about this stupid "competing" thing they had going with Amy in s5

This depends on how you look at it with River as well, but yeah, technically also River as a kid. And also River kisses the Doctor. I mean I... look there's this ongoing tragedy right, River and the Doctor meet back to front (strangely never out of order? I have questions about how well the timeline is maintained, considering they could just be meeting whenever and not in linear reverse orders, but ok it's reverse linear and her final face is genuinely sad to see. this River isn't sure how much longer she'll live, but she knows she and the Doctor will no longer be in a relationship moving forwards because of the linear reverse stuff

(ok but it's Twelve that takes her on their final date together, so it's not strictly linear reverse chronological! Idk if this gets explained or not)

AND THEN. there's Amy and Rory. Ok here's a hot (lukewarm?) take -- I wish they weren't married yet, because I think this moment is the real gamechanger in their relationship, from Amy's side of things (Rory of course has been hanging onto any scrap she's had to give him from day one)

this is the moment where I think she unequivocally makes a point about loving Rory without any weird bro-ey punch to the shoulder or sounding like the words are difficult ororor... where throughout s5 even imo through their wedding there's a sense of being unsure -- I wish they'd called off the wedding actually. I wish they'd gone "actually let's properly start again, let's redo this one on proper terms!"

because yeah, there's a flip in this episode, I may actually enjoy Rory/Amy this season! i'm going to pretend they're not married, I'll assign their marriage to the future

also Amy is maybe pregnant. and maybe not. and maybe yes. and there's a woman on a screen. Sure hope this won't be an elaborate plot where Amy actually isn't even on the Tardis and nobody tells her anything and she's pregnant without knowing it and gives birth without having any say over her circumstances for nigh on 9 months or what have you, and then immediately has that baby taken from her, and then basically recovers from that... that would be..... silly

AND THIS LITTLE GIRL WHO MAYBE KILLS THE DOCTOR IS A TIMELORD WOAHHHH THAT'S KIND OF COOL! new timelord! wonder who that could be.....

COMPANIONS MATTER: like. a bit. Amy goes investigating and gets captured. Rory is there when they save her. River shoots a bunch of Silence. And like, technically the astronaut is also River...

I like that Amy is off on her own for a bit, I like that she makes a couple of decisions on her own, especially trying to shoot the astronaut like yooo, that's just willing to Kill for the doctor! she misses and she's happy about that and finds some more Astronaut Clues (such as a picture of herself with a baby... hmmmm)

s5 struggled with this sort of thing a lot

“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: the Doctor does solve things, as the Doctor often does often, but through figuring things out and not through being the bestest of all time

PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: Not much one way or another. put it solidly in the middle, because DW doesn't always have to mention the past

“SEXINESS”: Aha, yeah. so much. First episode starts with a throwaway joke of one time the Doctor got painted nude and hid under a woman's skirts. and then we... have a bunch of innuendo. one of my least favourite exchanges, which at least can be explained by River thinking they're in a long committed relationship, but it's sooooo...

The Doctor: shout if you get in trouble River: don’t worry. I'm quite the screamer. Now there's the spoiler for you

and also this bit, when they start rubbing their backs against each other while Amy is strapped to some kind of table and they're surrounded by The Silence:

The Doctor: oh and this is my friend River, nice hair, clever, has her own gun, and unlike me she really doesn’t mind shooting people. I shouldn’t like that, kind of do a bit River: thank you sweetie The Doctor: […] she’ll definitely kill the first three of you River: oh, the first seven easily The Doctor: seven, really? River: oh eight for you honey The Doctor: stop iiiit River: make me The Doctor: maybe I will

setting aside the guns - will always wonder about River and guns as the outlier - I feel like this sexiness is in lieu of building their relationship, at least on the Doctor's side. like, River can be a flirtatious character (although I wish that maybe a bit less of her dialogue was Like This), but where did this come from for the Doctor?

the Doctor in the first of these episodes was talking about how little he trusts her, but now there is this I suppose. I wish she'd had the chance to do something that made the Doctor reevaluate her instead, like oh, maybe I do think I can trust her actually and not just because she shoots people for me and promises it'll make sense in the future

and like... why the "bad girl" lines... why why why

INTERNAL WORLD: it's the 60s in America. we don't see a lot of it, but I assume it's... fineish? lotta especially white guys in suits + one head of security for the racist president who's Black, which I guess could have happened, there is a history of "one is allowed" in many bad societies... but it seems like it was for colour blind reasons, which doesn't track wiiith next point...

POLITICS: there's this whole thing where Nixon keeps stepping in and out of doors and going "I'm the President" or whatever and he gets them out of various tight spots by being the president

and technically the writing isn't going "Nixon, our favourite president who is very interesting" he just happens to be the president at the time, and they need the moon landing... so, not as egregious as the Churchill stuff, where they're asking me to sympathise with his perspective, even if I don't agree with the means... I'm just kinda like "wish they'd thought of a different way to do it, especially because actually when you think about it they did not need the president there at all. the scenes with the president are just for comic relief on the whole. there are more interesting people of this time who could have been the episode's Historical Person"

and then on the flipside we have Canton Everett the Third, which I think is meant to be the point, like, this time wasn't always great despite the massive progressions into space, and this is the perspective we care about! he's gay and his (unseen) boyfriend is Black!

where do I land on that final joke, where the president is homophobic (which, yeah, I guess he was but...)? how do I feel about him being an outed/ousted FBI agent (again, I guess there have been and are gay FBI agents, but this is your first gay man M*ffat)?

it's not perfect... quite like the character, think there was more to do than just a joke at the end of an episode, and like. DW during the time when it didn't have a wealth of queer characters should've challenged itself a bit in what it was doing with those characters

like RTD2 is about to give us an extravaganza, hell yeah some of them may be in the FBI or the police force, but... maybe not when that is Thee character (River Song as well, technically... wish we'd gotten to experience her polyamory, but anyway Tangenting now!)

FULL RATING: 55/100 (if I can count….)

SO! it wins points on some big ones -- lack of objectification, big Plot stuff (understandable, it's the series intro), big Character stuff, and the Doctor -- while setting it all in motion -- is also simultaneously a bit clueless about the mystery and running around with the rest of them

where it's weaker is that... dialogue... curse you M*ffat, and the politics is shaky. and on the big stuff, it's still struggling to have the companions need to be there AND in true M*ffat form is overly complicated for no damn reason

So it really is the epic highs and lows of season introductions

"We're the Doctor's friends. We do as the Doctor's friends always do. As we're told." fuck ooooooooooff

[rcksmith]

Lust — Kaz Brekker

Gif by @kitsyoung

Request: “Hey. I really like your writing and I was wondering if you would consider writing a Kaz piece with the smut prompts 76, 1 & 33. Obviously with your au rules. If it’s too much I completely understand tho”

“7, 17, 36, and 73 from the smut list for Kaz Brekker please? If not, no worries! 💖 Thank you!”

“Holy shit that last kaz brekker smut- AMAZING. Was wondering if you could write another smut with smut prompt #6? Of course if this bothers you just ignore it. Thank you so much 🥰”

Smut prompts:

1. “You look so good with my hand wrapped around your throat.”

6. “Do you think of me when you touch yourself?”

7. “The only way you’re getting off is on my thigh.”

17. “after that little stunt? you’re not getting off that easy”

33. “Maybe I should get you a collar so you don’t forget who you belong to.”

36. "If I have to pull over, you won’t be able to walk for the next week.“

73. “You know, you look real pretty when you cry.”

76. “Shh, don’t worry, I’ll take very good care of you.”

Couple: Kaz Brekker/ Fem!Reader

Warnings: swearing, explicit smut, dirty thoughts, dirty talk, nsfw, jealous, mention of fight.

Word count: 5k

A/N: All smut requests for Kaz must follow these rules.

Thank you so much for the requests and for all affection 💖 I decided to compile these requests, since they were the same central plot. I added all the elements that were asked for individually, and made sure that all ideas were respected and written down. I hope you like it and good reading.

English is not my first language, so I so sorry if have a mistake.

Requests are open. Love you ❤️

— — — — —

There is a theory that always, somewhere, there will be a person capable of making you lose your breath, and your reasoning, whenever he appears on the scene. Someone who robs you of your breath, your heartbeat, your ability to think clearly and your control to keep your hands not shaking.

And Kaz Brekker would always be that person for you.

From the first time you laid eyes on him, it's been a feeling of dying and going to heaven. Except that Heaven was, in reality, a hot, burning hell. Where your greatest punishment was being forced to watch his tall figure, who exuded masculinity by every inch, walking in front of you like a Renaissance painting very superb.

Nothing that Van Gogh, Da Vinci, and Picasso created has bordered on the personification of beauty that he was.

Kaz was beautiful in a very mysterious, dangerous and chilling way. You would describe his aura as the height of midnight in an enigmatic city, his hair the color of the core of sin and his features as lines that the god Ares would have drawn. Everything about him reeked of the fog of suspense stories, with a touch of lust.

All the looks he directed at you were caustic, flickering and intense as a candle flame, reverberating through your veins like angry eels and always make the room feeling charged with electricity, like the ground after the fall of a lightning. Everything between the two of you seemed to be filled with something fiery and arcane. From the gazes, the rubbing of shoulders, the times when the skins touched. Everything was a compilation of sensations that make you catch your breath whenever Kaz Brekker appeared.

He was your kryptonite. In all senses.

And that was exasperating in the extreme, at staggering levels. You felt your center of your sex vibrate whenever he directed you that voice whit baritone intonation and predatory looks, whenever the button-down shirts were tight enough for you to revel in the contours of his body, or sometimes when he wore the cane to signal or stopper something. This was the worst of them. His cane.

Have you lost count of how many times Kaz stopped you as counting money, by putting the tip of the cane over your hands, or stopped you from going somewhere by blocking your path with the cane, lifting the object horizontally in front of your belly. And every time you felt your legs tremble, your breath fade and a very dirty part of your brain whisper that you wanted him to use that object in you in more fun ways.

Your body was so responsive that there were times when you knew, with every fiber of your soul, that Kaz was able to read the paths in which your thoughts wandered. He lowered his gaze to you, in that breathless connection that promised to contain the most nefarious paths of sin, and maliciously curved the left corner of his lips in an arrogant, oblique expression. At such times, you could feel in your soul the words he did not say:

I know the perverted things that you are thinking.

And the truth was, he really knew. Kaz memorized every change in your breathing, every blush on your cheeks, every trembling of your hands, every your trembling look whit a frightened girl who had been caught thinking of something impure. He knew how your body was responsive, needy. And he himself had to control himself not to push you over the desk in his office and fuck you like an aggressive animal, bringing all your perverted thoughts to life.

It wasn't his physical reactions that kept him from taking action, but an even more visseral reaction than the pulsing desire he felt for you. Mine. The primal, determined, burning sensation of possession. That it ran through his veins like hot, bubbling lava. The desire was familiar, but this statement, not. Like the jealousy he felt for you, he quickly recognized the danger he was in.

If Kaz touched you…he knew he would never be able to let you go.

Mine. A statement that resonated spontaneously whenever he saw you, a testament to the reactions the two of you triggered in each other. However, not even the awareness of the dangerous game that was between you was able to dispel the climate of provocative sensuality that pulsed in the places whenever the two of you were together.

It was like playing with a powerful drug. One slip and he would be addicted forever.

On days like this, when Kaz had just come out of an exasperating meeting with Peka, a businessman and mobster who was always looking for ways to try and bring Kaz down, his already bad temper turned to terrible. He felt compelled to break something, drink a whole bottle of the best English whiskey in that club, and punch someone. Kaz felt the anger pulse through his veins, in a pure and perfect way.

He left the office, turning off his cell phone so he wouldn't be disturbed and descending the stairs to the center of his Crow Club, mind buzzing and anger seeping in his blood. He needed to unwind, maybe get into the car and head home. Maybe actually drink that whiskey bottle. Maybe both.

Kaz was about to take another step down, running a gloved hand through his hair to get it out of his eyes, when his gaze met your figure. And that was when the already terrible temper rose to the very badly.

Normally, a vision like that would have just bothered him, a compulsion to do something. But that day, Kaz was at the height of his angriest feelings. And seeing you, bold as a goddess in that little black dress, next to Jesper at the gambling table and flirting with a guy to your left, did things with every last bit of patience and self-control he had.

His eyes never left you as he took another step, running his hand through his hair again to contain the unruly strands. You were laughing, downing another drink and placing a card on the table. You turn back to the man to your left, your eyelashes fluttered gracefully in a promise to allow him to guide your rein tonight.

But there would be no goddamn rein for that fucking guy to guide.

Kaz gripped his cane tightly, descending the other short stairs and advancing toward your with dangerous, determined, and angry steps.

"...in this part of the year, criminal law cases drop a lot." The damn guy was telling you, his boring blond hair falling over his blue eyes in a way Kaz found annoying.

To fucking hell with that blond-haired Dande.

“Y/n, Jesper!” Kaz tapped the end of his cane on the table, stopping the cards under the polished wooden end.

Everyone at the table looked at him startled, their actions frozen. He saw you swallow hard, a soft tremor sigh in your shoulders.

Good!

“Shouldn't you be at the door?” Kaz turned to Jesper, his eyes sparks with annoyance.

“Right now, Boss.” He stood up, giving you a strained smile and heading towards the door.

“Kaz…” You started, voice softly intoxicated.

You knew you weren't supposed to be at the gambling table, let alone so late at night and drunk, even if Jesper was by your side. You had the ability to win every play, in any game, and that ended up not only driving the others away, but leaving the men, already drunk and irrational, aggressive and with an extremely bruised ego. And they almost always wanted to retaliate physically. As much as there were security guards and cameras everywhere to keep something bad from happening, Kaz couldn't stand the thought of someone hurting you. Not even blinking insultingly in your direction.

He sent you an icy, sharp, steady look. A clear warning for you to stop there any excuse you were about to give. To be careful with the next words you would say. You swallowed hard, looking away and getting up from the table. Slightly wobbly from the drink, you fished your coat from the chair next to you, giving a strained, apologetic smile to the guy you'd been flirting with so far.

“I better go home and call an uber and…” You started, but Kaz cut your sentence.

“I'll driver you.”

His tone exuded annoyance and impatience, giving no opening to any objections, demonstrating that he was in no mood for games. Much less defiance of his orders. You knew him too well to recognize that that night had pulled his nerves beyond what he could handle, the strain and irritation in his eyes told you something had happened beyond what you knew. His jaw, straight and strong as glass, was clenched tightly, his night-colored hair was disheveled in an overwhelmingly attractive way, and his black robes sinfully marred every line of his body.

You should have become wary of the dangerous energy that he exuded through every pore at that moment. However, to your inebriated and excited brain, Kaz Brekker has never looked so fucking hot! Your underbelly vibrated in response to the personification of sin that Kaz was, your heart racing at alarming levels as you followed him out, walking over to his car.

Like every piece of Brekker's clothing, his car was sleek black, with big black wheels, tinted glass and dark leather seats. Hades' chariot. You felt your breath catch when Kaz opened the passenger door for you, his eyes avoiding yours, his jaw still clenched and dangerous energy exhaling through every fiber of his tall, lean body.

Holy Mother of God, this man was a perdition!

Kaz contained an instinctive desire to go back inside and tell that aspiring Dande that you weren't available. Instead, he closed the door when you got in and turned around in the car, closing his own and squeezing the steering wheel harder than he would have liked.

Midnight height light streamed in through the darkened car windows and gently illuminated the curve of your cheek, highlighting your skin that Kaz might have named the color of the gods. So much attention was too seductive. Emotions and reactions still bubbled through each his vein like scandant water, mingling with months of frustrated desires and burning sexual tension.

At that moment, jealousy laced him. Mine. Amazing and at the same time propelled by dangerous strength, Kaz tried to trap that feeling back into the dungeon of his soul. He controlled his fury, yet he couldn't completely tame. Annoyance turned to anger. Starting driving the car forward, Kaz tried to think of anything but how you looked like the Goddess Aphrodite on that dark bench. Splendid as a heat ray in a winter day.

“Kaz…” You started, that gentle, repentant tone that stirred every spark in his soul.

He hated how his name on your lips sounded so sensual, so right and so delicious. He would give everything he had to hear you moan his name.

“Don't start” he warned, now not because of latent annoyance, but because he didn't know if he could stop himself if he heard your voice.

However, you didn't make things any easier for him.

"You don't have to be so angry." You go "I wasn't even using all my intellect on the game, I wasn't trying to win."

Kaz didn't even know if that was the core of the problem anymore. Was he angry that you went to a table where it was dangerous? Yes. But the waters were much deeper than that, much more dangerous. The way your smile, sweet and sensual, was directed at that guy, reeled in Kaz's mind, impregnated with the plague. He felt the blood burn in his veins just remembering how melted you looked for that man. And as much as he couldn't blame you, because you were free and single, the primal, irrational part of him screamed so much louder now.

Mine.

“This does not matter anymore.” It was the only thing he managed to say, the very sensations drowning him.

“And it wasn't even that dangerous.” But unlike him, you were obliterating the burning emotions that Kaz exuded. “There were only a few players drunker than a door, and Jesper was on my side, and also James, who was very charming and...”

Kaz almost lost direction, making the car bounce smoothly. He staked his eyes at you, puzzled and bubbling.

“James?”

“Yeah, the blond guy who…”

"I don't want to know, Y/n." He cut you off "I don't want to hear about the guys you allow to drool around you like mangy dogs."

The distilled rage was impossible to contain, and before Kaz knew it, the words were out. He turned forward again, his hands tighter on the steering wheel.

“Wait…” Your tone was slightly smug, and the way you rubbed one thigh against the other was impossible for Kaz to miss.

The grip on the steering wheel tightened.

“You are jealous?” Your intonation dropped to a low, sensual, provocative level.

Suddenly, Kaz's entire body became very aware of your body inches away. He could feel the heat that you radiated and the lyrical, sweet and sinful scent of your perfume flooded all his senses. The air grew thin, puffy and stuffy, and if it had been December cold outside, Kaz would still feel the height of summer in that car. Flashes of excitement and danger rippled through the car, and the brief silence grew even more charged with sexual tension and lustful anticipation that stirred every fiber of Kaz's being.

He made the mistake of looking at you again, and your softly mischievous smile that promised a lifetime of satisfied desires only served to incite his madness. Kaz had never understood how a man could want a woman so badly that he acted irrationally and carelessly. But now he understood. And when he realized you tried to stifle a sensual sigh from the way he was looking at you, his body won the fight against his mind and Kaz stopped abruptly the car at the red traffic light.

The sexual tension between you had become unbearable. In one moment, Kaz was fighting the series of overwhelming and disturbing emotions that dominated his entire being, and in the next moment, he had taken your mouth with his in a fiery, fierce, animal kiss. Stealing all the air from both of you, his thoughts, and his sanity.

He held your face firmly in his hands, his fingers going down to the strands of hair at the nape of your neck, turning everything into something more caustic and desperate. Yours hands went to his arms, moving up to his shoulders and cupping the sides of his neck, pulling him closer. Kaz's tongue inched into your mouth without waiting for permission, conquering and claiming every fiber of your body, of your soul, in a continued of kisses you couldn't tell where one ended and another began.

The moan of satisfaction you let out gave him a lust and desire unlike anything Brekker had ever felt. Like hot, addictive honey down in his throat. He was still gripped by jealousy, annoyance and possessiveness. With the desire for you pulsing in his body just like his heartbeat.

Kaz pulled back millimetrically, his blue eyes overshadowed by the heat of the moment, his lips red and swollen from the sinful kisses he gave you. At that moment, Kaz Brekker looked like an angry young God, and you've never felt more attracted to someone in your life than you are now.

You looked at him, panting and needy, wishing with all your might that he repeat the same actions. And you knew he realized that. Perfectly. You saw the spark of male satisfaction ignite in his eyes as he absorbed your desire. He was so close... so very close, and you couldn't stand the enormous anxiety for a caress, a kiss, anything.

His cocky smile intensified as you put more pressure in your touch his skin, your fingers trailing down his neck and back to his shoulders, silently pleading for him to do something with you. Anything he wanted.

Kaz lowered his one gloved hand to your jaw, thumb and forefinger squeezing your chin and making you look at him directly, you staring into the deep, shrewd blue of his eyes. He pulled you closer by the grip on your chin, the husky, erotic words hitting your lips like a promise of sin as he said:

“Maybe I should get you a collar so you don't forget who you belong to.”

It was impossible to control the loud, needy sigh that escaped, your center throbbing in despair and wetting the thin cloth of your panties. You wanted he to touch you more, pull your body against his until there was not a single sigh left, claim your soul and your body as his. You had parted your lips to say something, most likely a plea for him to continue, but the traffic light turned green and Kaz took his hands off you, straightening up on the bench and putting the car move.

In the absence of his warmth, his body, you felt cold, empty and frozen. As if Kaz were your sun and you were Icarus. Feeling the compulsion to need to get closer, complete its magnitude and bask in his rays. Every cell in your body begged for him, in needy and submissive requests, telling you to accept anything he told you, that he gave you, as long as it touched you.

“If I knew that to make you kiss me I would have to flirt with someone else, I would have done it a long time ago.” You teased, a satisfied, malicious smile on your lips.

Kaz looked at you in annoyance. In a clear warning that you should never more do that again.

"If you wanted me to kiss you like the brat you are, you just needed to have asked." He countered your game to the full.

"But if I want more than that?" But just as he knew how to play, so did you.

You swiped the tip of your tongue across your lips, kicking off your shoes and pulling your legs over the dashboard of the car, exposing your nearly bare thighs through the thin black fabric of your dress. Your actions instantly caught Kaz's eyes, and his grip on the steering wheel grew stronger and his breathing heavier.

The air inside the car became more ardent, burn, charged with eroticism and lust that left both of you breathless. An electrifying energy coursed through their bodies, as if they had been struck by a bolt of fire. You wanted him in a way you never thought you could want anyone.

Kaz took a deep breath, and looked at you with dangerous predator eyes as he said:

"If I have to pull over, you won't be able to walk for the next week."

The words made your body tremble. But if Kaz was trying to dissuade you, that was the last thing he should have told you. Instead of taming the fire inside you, it threw gasoline into the aggressive fire. You pressed your thighs together, your body sensitive to his words filled with burning promise.

In five minutes of insane courage, you took your feet off the dashboard, leaned toward Kaz, and brushed his neck with your lips. In slow, burning, hot kisses, you traced a path to the pulse in his neck, opening your lips slightly to brush your tongue over that pulse point.

“Please.” You beg.

Kaz's moan was low, but loud enough in your mind. You were being his undoing and you knew it. Suddenly, the car veered to the right and came to an abrupt stop. You would have lost your balance if Kaz's hands hadn't clung to your waist, pulling you in one movement to his left thigh, pressing your soaked core into the black fabric of his pants.

You gasped loudly, or he, or both. And in the next moment, his mouth was on yours again. The kiss was more aggressive, possessive, angry and ardent. Kaz kissed you as if he wanted to decree you his, proclaim his possession. You didn't see when he removed his gloves, but the touch of his skin with on your thighs was all you could think of.

“Kaz…” You moaned into his mouth, and the grip on your thighs moved up to your hip, digging his fingers into your thin dress-covered skin with such force it was sure to leave marks tomorrow. "Please."

You knew what you were begging for, but the moment Kaz forced your waist to move against his thigh, rubbing your pulsing core against his thigh, you forgot even your own name. And Kaz knew it. Then, like dominant man who wanted to see you surrendered to him that he was, his mouth went to your ear as he whispered:

"Do you want me to fuck you?" Kaz wiggled his thigh against you, making your clit roll against the soggy fabric of your panties.

You moaned loudly, your hands tightening on his shirt, your face hiding in his chest as an overwhelming, aching pleasure invaded your system. It felt good, but unbearable for being so little, churning something in your belly that made you despair for more.

"Y-yes." You whimpered, rolling your hips on his thigh.

Kaz's bare hand crept up the slit between your thighs, your dress already balled up at the top of your waist, and dipped his fingers into the juncture of your pussy and his thigh, pulling your panties to the side and making you feel the fabric of his dark pants against your wet, hot flesh. You moaned louder, your grip on his shirt tighter and your hips rocked harder for have any friction.

“Do you want me to fuck you like the little slut you are? Is that what you've wanted all this time?” His words, husky and strong, in that intense, dominant intonation, sent all your self-control to hell.

"Yes." You sobbed. “I-I need you."

But his hand in your panties went up to your chin, and he forced you to look him in the eye once more. The electric intensity of that look turned you on even more, making you gasp as his thigh still rocked against your throbbing clit.

“After that little stunt? you’re not getting off that easy” It was very hard to think with all the stimuli he was giving you, but the thunderous blue eyes warned you to pay attention to his words “Do you think you deserve me to fuck you?”

His gaze invaded you so deep and so warm and intense that you wondered if he was trying to leave a burning imprint on your soul. All over your body, overwhelming desires resonated, and you gave in to the compulsion to roll his thigh further, whimpering from the pressure on your clit.

"I'm s-so sorry." You whimpered, eyes pleading with he "It won't happen again."

"Won't happen what?" He tightened his grip on your chin, not painfully, but firmly to get your attention.

"It won't happen again, Sir."

The reward for your obedience came in an aggressive, hungry kiss, his hand in your chin dropping for your hip and wiggle his thigh at your needy pussy.

"Do you want to cum?" He teased you.

"Yes, S-sir."

"The only way you're getting off is on my thigh."

Then, as if to reiterate his statement, his mouth clutte to yours once more, his thigh swayed with more vigor and his bare hands moved up to the neckline of your dress.

His warm palms and long fingers lowered the straps of your dress and released your braless breasts, your nipples hard with pleasure and your breasts swollen with arousal.

Your moan was muffled by Kaz's, and he just released your mouth to lower his lips to your left breast, capturing the innocent nipple with his mouth and rolling his tongue across your flesh. You moaned louder, your waist twisting desperately against his thigh as your hands tangled in the strands of his black hair.

Kaz delighted in every inch of you, his hands going back to your waist as his mouth attacked your other breast, leaving a trail of hot saliva on his tight, needy nipples. Brekker was consumed by a fierce hunger and need, so overpowering that he pressed his fingers to your skin as if you were his last meal. He'd wanted for so long to do all that, to dive into your body like a starving man, savoring every inch of your warm skin.

Letting out a loud, delighted moan, Kaz increased his thigh movements as he suckled on your nipple, feeling flung to hell heaven as you squealed softly and collapsed onto his thigh, smearing his black fabric with your hot cum. But Kaz couldn't care less about the fucking pants. His cock hard and rigid as a sword hilt throbbed desperately, commanding him to sink into the heat of your slippery walls.

"This is much better than I dreamin." You whimpered softly, your face still buried in his neck, your waist wiggling slyly in his thigh.

"Do you think of me when you touch yourself?" He teased you, taking his hands to your panties away from the center of your pussy and pulling them between your legs, tucking them in his pants pocket.

You nodded, your mouth dipping into his neck in broken kisses as your hands went to his pants belt, trying to get rid of any barrier between the two of you as quickly as possible.

"Please, please." You begged, flustered as Kaz stopped your hip movements with his hands "I need to feel you inside me."

Your plea was sated with an arrogant kiss as Kaz reached for his pants, pulling the fabric of the boxer together and letting pop out his dick throbbing, pulsing and his swollen head, brushing in your pussy with lazy strides.

"S-sir!" You cried, trying to earn more.

"Shh, don’t worry, I’ll take very good care of you."

The strong, long arm wrapped around your waist, pressing your chest against his chest as Kaz guided his dick to the entrance to your pussy, with one hand. He play whit you, pressing his head into your entrance just enough to make you feel the pressure, recoiling when you swayed frantically for more. The painful pleasure sent tears to your eyes, and you sobbed loudly as you were just toy in his hands.

A few hot tears ran down your face as you whimpered, helpless in his arms to get what you wanted.

"You know, you look real pretty when you cry." Kaz pressed his mouth to yours.

In that second, he completely sank his dick into you, swallowing your loud scream as the thickness of it widened you and hit the bottom of the well. The grip of his arm around you tightened, and Kaz lifted you and brought you let down badly, drown his dick even more deeply inside your hot, wet, desperate walls.

"S-sir!" You moaned loudly, his mouth leaving yours, but not pulling away enough and letting you feel his hard breath hit your lips.

You followed his thrusts, bouncing your waist up and down hard and letting his dick beat frantically inside you, robbing you of your breath and your ability to think. Your moans mingled with his, the pornographic sounds of their bodies crashing together were loud and you thanked God the car windows were black and the street was deserted.

"So fucking good slut!" Kaz growled against your lips, one hand leaving your body to snake down to your throat, maintaining a firm, dominant grip.

You moaned his name and his title between loud moans and broken sobs. Yours hands closed around the shirt off his shoulders and the waist shimmied between the thrusts, making sure his dick was completely inside you.

“You look so good with my hand wrapped around your throat!” Kaz tightened his grip on yoir neck, watching you tilt your head back and expose your entire body to the delight of his eyes.

He growled louder, spurred on by that sinful sight, and increased the rhythm that pounded inside you, filling every inch of you and sinking down as anatomically as possible. Kaz felt possessed by a wild beast, insatiable and euphoric, and each thrust he gave you was more force he inflicted on you, marking you as his.

Kaz pulled your neck to him, pressing your mouth to his as he growled against your lips: “Mine.”

You nodded frantically, the apex bursting in a burst of pleasure as his dick came out and sank in hard, desperate, urgent strokes.

“Yours”

You promised, kissing him urgently and swallowing a low cry as his dick shuddered inside you, flooding you with the hot liquid until your walls overflowed, giving you a feeling of being incredibly full. You whimpered into his mouth, exchanging a sloppy kiss as Kaz gave you a few more thrusts, making sure his cum would fill your every inch, not letting you dare waste a drop.

“Mine” he repeated through the kiss.

so, the weather??? HAHAHA, anyway friends, i hope you enjoyed. Don’t forget consult the rules if you want to request for some Kaz smut. Love u. O

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

everything i read in may!

it's that time of the month again! i didn't get to read as much as i wanted this month because unfortunately i have to write this stupid dissertation 😔 but i did also read some really good books SO let me tell u about them!!

The Sunshine Court by Nora Sakavic

I was actually on a book-buying ban and then this book came out and i blacked out and in a day it was in my hands and in another day i had finished it. So so good i absolutely loved it. Reawakened my long-dormant obsession with this series.

To be completely honest, i was never particularly interested in Jean in the original series, but i very quickly fell in love with him. I'm so honestly invested in his recovery and i cannot wait to find out what happens next. It was super interesting to see this world from two new perspectives. I also really enjoyed Jeremy!! Jeremy babe what are your secrets... i need to know... i also really liked that jean's relationship with renée wasn't retconned for the sake of jerejean. Even tho they're obviously not going to be endgame they still get to be really important to each other (and i can't wait for their inevitable reunion at the winter banquet with jealous jeremy 👀). Anyway i'll shut up now but. Thank you nora ❤️

Damascus by Christos Tsiolkas

This book billed itself as historical fiction focusing on early christianity, which is a historical period/topic that i've studied a lot so i was interested. However, the book in reality doesn't really fit that description in my opinion. Bear with me here because the only thing i can think of to compare it to is a modern take on a hagiography.

Hagiographies have this weird semi-fictional, semi-truthful quality about them. On the one hand, they consist of biographical information about a (usually) real person - who they were, how they became christian, what happened to them. On the other hand, they were meant to act as a guide to faith for their readers, and so also include much more abstract discussions of spiritual struggles/didacticism. Damascus really felt the same way, like it was telling a truthful story on one level but, on another, it was meant to be a much more timeless discussion of faith. I'm still not 100% sure if i enjoyed it or not, but it was certainly thought-provoking and really gave me some insight into the experience of being faithful (which i don't personally have).

The City & the City by China Miéville

I thought the concept of this book was really, really interesting and well executed, but the actual plot wasn't so well executed and kind of let the rest of the book down, imo. The concept is of two cities that exist on top of each other. Physically and geographically they are the same city, but political borders have been drawn through it that separates them - for instance, one side of a street could be in one city, and the other half in the other city. Citizens of one city are not allowed to acknowledge the existence of citizens of the other - if they walk past them on the street they must "unsee" them or risk being arrested by the supranational secret police that maintains the borders between the two. If you want to go to a location in the other city you have to pass through a central checkpoint border, and, once across, you must "unsee" your original city. It's a really compelling concept, and I think Miéville explains it really well (much better than me lmao).

The book follows a homicide detective investigating a murder, but when he discovers that the body was driven across the border between the cities it becomes an international case. Unfortunately I found the ultimate resolution of the mystery/story quite unsatisfying :( I would still recommend it but just with a bit of a warning.

The Crow Road by Ian Banks

My parents have been trying to get me to read Banks for ages, and I'm so glad I didn't listen and waited until now because I feel like this book came to me at the right time of my life. It's a coming of age story, essentially, with a surprise murder mystery element that really sneaks up on you towards the end. It is brilliantly written, very emotional in parts and also very funny at others. I also loved it because the protagonist is the same age as me, living in the same city as me, and facing similar feelings of existential dread about the future. Really, really brilliant!! Would highly highly recommend.

On my radar

And that's it! i'm currently about halfway through The Wall by Marlen Haushofer, which I am enjoying but I'm not really sure where it's going/where it can go from here. In June I really want to stick to my book-buying ban, and luckily I have a huge tbr pile to choose from. I'll probably read The Forgery by Ava Barrera next, and I also have a non-fiction book about utopianism/post-scarcity/univeral basic income that I really want to get to. And as always, if you read this far i love you ❤️ and tell me what you read this month/what you're reading now/want to read next month! talk books to me!!!!

[havendance]

Okay, since finished reading Batman/Huntress: Cry for Blood, I'm putting together my thoughts on it and how everything fits into my personal Helena Bertinelli mythos. Anyway, I thought the writing and the story-telling was good. This is more about my personal thoughts on how I like her backstory. Without further ado:

I fully admit to being biased to Huntress (‘89)  and Helena’s re-introduction into the Batman-comics in Detective Comics #652 and #653 since those were some of my first introductions to her and I don’t like change, but there’s still some cool stuff in this retcon that I’m definitely going to steal.

Let’s start with what I liked: I liked that the Bertinelli family massacre felt like a massacre. I like how much more it grounded Helena in the network and politics of the mob. In the Huntress (‘89) run she felt much more apart from all of it. And part of that was from her just being apart from the family business in that run, but also, everything just feels so much more connected in this. Like, her showing up to the weddings and funerals? Her being apart from the mafia but still a part? Very good.

Tangentially related, I’m of mixed opinions about her brother. In execution, it’s like look! she has a brother who’s never been mentioned before and will probably never be mentioned again! It feels like he’s just here to increase the body count. However, as an idea, I like it. I think Helena should have another dead boy haunting her. She deserves more mainpain. I’m going to save it to bring up if I ever write that Knightfall AU I’ve got in my back pocket.

I do prefer previous incarnations of Helena’s origin where her survival of the massacre was due to accident and luck rather than being something purposeful. Idk, just something about the fact that it could have gone the other way. The image of her lying there on the floor, playing dead in a spreading pool of her family's blood. I like it. (I’m not sure if that’s an image from the actual comic, but it’s an image sitting in my head, so…)

I guess related to that, I was largely uninterested in the mystery of why she survived. I also thought the whole subplot of ‘actually Helena was illegitimate and her parents' marriage was terrible and unhappy’ was just unnecessary? Like, what does it add to her character? And like, it’s not like any of that is unexpected per se. I’m not surprised by the knowledge. I guess there’s this idea of Helena experiencing disillusionment of the parents she lost so young, but, idk. It just felt unnecessary.

More of a sidenote: but the fact that just about every Huntress-centric mini-series (the exception being Nightwing/Huntress I guess) feels the need to revisit the Massacre, to add a new unsolved mystery? Like, on one hand I get it, it’s a way to re-establish her character. But also, on the other hand, can’t she catch a break? Can’t she move on? Will her search for vengeance never end?

Of course, now that I’ve written this, it's kind of obvious that she can’t. That she has to be constantly tormented by this tragedy at the root of her. Still, I think they could mix it up every once in a while.

This is more subjective, but I think I liked the version of her origin where she was an adult when the massacre happened better. Like, there was nothing wrong with her being a kid, but I just really liked Huntress (‘89) and Helena being a college student and then the massacre happens and she’s not anymore and everything’s still raw and she's wrestling with it all at the same time that Huntress is going out. 

I think this one’s mainly a matter of which one I read first because Helena as a little girl letting everything simmer and simmer for years before it finally blooms into the mantle of the Huntress is also very compelling in a different way.

I’m neutral on the whole ‘trained by mob assassins’ vs ‘trained by her bodyguard’ thing. That being said, I feel like a lot of people in dc are trained by assassins. At least in the Bat corner of things.

Finally, I’m not feeling the whole ‘inspired by Batman’ part of origin. Like, I get it. If you retcon her backstory to take place in Gotham, you have to reckon with the bat. It’d make less sense for to have not been inspired by Batman. Still, I just really liked how independent from Batman Helena’s original origin in the ‘89 was. 

And on a related note, I really wish that they would stop giving Helena Batman!daddy issues. Like, I’m so tired of some guy showing up in every solo and psycho-analyzing her like ‘the reason you have such a tumultuous relationship with Batman is because of the lack of father-figures in your life.’ Like, at least Helena told the question he was full of shit when he tried to pull it this time. But seriously, do you have to bring it up in literally every Huntress run/mini we get?

And like, I have to acknowledge the fact that this is a consistent and core character trait for her and that if you ignore you do lose a lot of her canon character. But! I think it’s stupid. Girl! He’s not worth it! Not the least because Batman is a terrible father figure to latch onto!

[androxys]

I saw this prompt from @aliteralchicken​ a while ago and then got distracted from it but eventually circled back. Here are some of my very specific comic recs! Detailed listing and the blank template below.

This was fun! I definitely encourage anyone who sees this to do one of these themselves.

This Character/Mantle/Team has a lot of solos, but this is the best one: Batgirl (2009) featuring Stephanie Brown. Look, I almost made this Cass’ 2000 solo, but the ending to Cass’ series was just... shaky. And that isn’t Cass’ fault any more than Stephanie is to blame for the way that this series was rushed to completion for Flashpoint and the New 52. But I think the writing here is a little more solid over the whole thing (thanks to being the same writer the whole way through) and I’m just a sucker for Steph. And Babs, having such a strong support role!

I would read anything with these characters in it so here’s one of them: I’ve read every Tim Drake appearance in New Earth continuity. I’m working on the Superboy solo, now that I’ve finished Death and Return of Superman. I’ve read the first ~10-12 of Impulse’s run, and am looking into finding Cassie’s early Wonder Woman stories. I followed these four in to Geoff Jones’ Teen Titans run. I read Young Justice (2019). But Young Justice (1998) just takes the cake for the best stories and dynamics for this group.

You insult this comic you insult me personally: Death, the Deluxe Edition, by Neil Gaiman. Moment of appreciation for Neil. The Sandman in general was really eye-opening for me, in a philosophic sense, regarding how I understood what the ~meaning of life~ was or should be. Namely, that the meaning is what we make of it, and we might as well make it kind. Death and her stories here really embody that the most for me.

Would recommend to someone who has never picked up a comic and to a long time fan: Gotham Central by Rucka and Bruebaker is a cop comic. I know. But importantly, they know too. This is a really tightly written series with moving plots, complex characters, and compelling thoughts. Renee Montoya in this comic... I could write essays. But because it’s ground level, it lets anyone who just likes mystery or procedurals walk right in and get started, rather than having to be up to date on all the Bat-lore. If you do know, however, there are so many good details.

This adaptation had one job: Hush. Nothing else to say.

I have beef with this writer but this is the exception: I wouldn’t say I have beef with Tom King, I just think that having read some of his Batman work, and then reading Mister Miracle, he just needs to play with characters that aren’t Batman. This feeling was reinforced reading Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, which I almost put up there instead. Mister Miracle won out because it was what converted me back to King.

Doesn’t have to be great, just has to be nostalgic: It’s well documented on this blog how much I love the JLA: Tower of Babel story. I also want to go on record and say how much I love the JLA title. Did you know that stories from the 90′s were perfect and never bad ever?

Characters or Genre that I don’t usually read but I enjoyed: I don’t care about Green Lantern. I’m sorry. Hal Jordan is just some guy. But Green Lantern/Green Arrow is a classic for a reason. This one is also really compelling to me when I think about the larger cultural context this comic was being published into.

And as promised, blank template:

[nerdwriting]

The Creative Directors Behind Fate: The Winx Saga Must Not Be K-Pop Fans

Also, they have a pretty wrong idea of the role fashion should play in a show.

There are a few words that will stand out across most reviews of Netflix's Fate: The Winx Saga - drab, boring, flop, flat, unimaginative. Critics and audiences consensus is that the show is not only a mediocre-at-best story, but also an atrocious (and ultimately confusing) choice of adaptation of the color pop and fairy magic cartoon it’s based on, 2004 italian cartoon Winx Club.

Fate has plenty of it's own issues - white washing and erasing characters, cringey dialogue, outdated melodrama, etc. But where it truly, unequivocally fails is as an adaptation. Fate misses everything that was magical and lovable about the original series, in all levels, from bizarre writing choices, - such as never actually developing any sense of friendship between the characters, who are based on a cartoon about…..a group…….of friends -, but it's especially and immediately felt in the art direction and costume design.

Winx Club is set on a fantastical world, Magix, where each of our main characters hail from a different planet, à la Sailor Moon. Alfea, the fairy school they attend, is the most common background: a pastel colored, futuristic high tech-meets-fantasy, art nouveau inspired castle. Alfea sets the tone for the whole visual of the cartoon: bright, colorful, futuristic meets vintage, leaning into the technological positivism of the Y2K style, uniting it with magic, DnD worthy monsters and, of course, fairy wings. Often featured are also the Red Fountain school, where the Specialists train, and especially Cloud Tower, the goth and gothic inspired witch school Alfea has an OxBridge rivalry with (How cool would that be in a live action? I guess we’ll never know…).

On Fate, Alfea is the only school we ever see, and it’s another beige boarding school in not-Britain, somehow set in a magical world where everyone has the exact same technology and even social media that we have on Earth in 2021, no transformations and, most egregiously, no fairy wings.

This lack of visual creativity is pervasive throughout the whole show, and its most heartbreaking iteration is in the characters' wardrobe. The styling has the barest bones of a color scheme, - such as 'Bloom has to only dress in red since fire, duh',- the clothes are ill fitting, bland, dark and very dated. These are supposed to be teenagers who enjoy fashion, and yet they look like varying types of soccer moms from 2010.

The series seems to operate on an old and tired vision that women and girls can’t have depth and have adventures and fight monsters while also caring about fashion, a vision that the original show played a big, big role in challenging in the early 2000's. Fashion and costume design sets as much of the tone of a visual medium as the script does; through clothes we can gauge characters’ backgrounds, passions, and personality.

Winx Club has some of the best examples of this in the cartoon sphere - Bloom’s comfortable and bright style, Stella’s glitzy and bold, Musa’s edgy and cool, Aisha’s sporty and fun, Techna’s neon and tech gear inspired, Flora’s earthy and romantic, they all work as extensions of each character and serve a narrative purpose. And that’s not even mentioning how insulting it feels that in their quest to make Winx “edgier, darker” and fit for an older audience, the creators of Fate somehow decided that was in opposition to caring about style and fashion. Most “girly” shows, including the Winx Club are just as much adventure action shows as the ones geared towards boys, and it’s emphasis in fashion, friendship and color does not detract from that. The original run of the cartoon deals with war, violence, grief, abusive relationships and even genocide; leaning into those plotlines would not require Fate to erase any integral parts of what made Winx so beloved, and the fact that they did shows that the Netflix team completely missed the point of fashion in the original show, and really, the point of fashion and costume design in the world building of any show.

That, however, is not a mistake K-Pop makes very often; (This might seem like a bit of wild swerve in topic, but stay with me here). Unlike it's western counterpart, the Korean pop scene never lost the emphasis on music videos and how the visual medium can complete and potentialize music and performance; the K-Pop culture is very album and concept oriented in a way that has been all but lost in many other pop circuits, and the music video, styling and set design of a ‘comeback era’ is a key point of excitement among fans.

As such, music videos that follow storylines, connected universes, boundary pushing concepts and visual effects are the norm, rather than the exception, and a list could be made of works that are beautiful examples of what a live action Winx adaptation could look like. In fact, and very smoothly, here is a small list of exactly that!

A Small List of K-Pop Music Videos That Are Better Winx Club Live Actions Than Fate: The Winx Saga

3. Red Velvet - Psycho

If it was a darker and more somber look that Fate wanted, there was a way to make it actually appealing. While it still feels a liiitle too grown up and elegant for Winx, (maybe this author is biased, as a full proponent for the Y2K fun) Psycho makes a very compelling argument for a witchy, mysterious, fairy tale-esque show that could look scrumptious and definitely not boring, or even a gorgeous example of what the witches in Cloud Tower could look like. Black and white, dark green, pastel blue and pops of jewel tones make Psycho's color palette. To add interest to the understated colors, the styling is heavy on textures; We see plenty of stonework, intricate embroidery, tassels, lace on lace on lace, feathers, bows, opera gloves and lots of glitter. All of that is offset by bold, dark makeup, leather accents and eerie cinematography. Needle & Thread, Marchesa Notte and Self Portrait lend their hyper feminine and intricately detailed tulle gowns, juxtaposed with the creepiness of the lyrics and the dark backgrounds; their deep berry and green fairy tale looks are built with pieces from Zara to Nina Ricci to Dolce & Gabbana to Alexander McQueen.

Red Velvet’s more edgy styling for 2018's Bad Boy would also not feel out of place on the Trix.

2. IZ*ONE - Fiesta

IZ*ONE kicked off 2020 with sweet and fun Fiesta. The MV features rooms with mismatched décor that go from retro to space opera, rocky faux landscapes that feel other worldly, and visual effects that would look perfect on the back of a transformation sequence. Mirroring the set design, the girls wear various outfits by sustainable up and coming brand Chopova Lowena. Their signature skirts made with discarded and repurposed fabrics give a cool and interesting twist on a schoolgirl look that would look very sweet for a band of school fairies that occasionally go off to save the world. Also, wouldn't those bedazzled headphones look great on Musa's fairy outfit?

1. Aespa - Black Mamba and Next Level

Aespa is what fans call a monster rookie. With only three music videos under their belt, they still have some of the most visually interesting work in the industry right now. Their concept is very tied in with high tech, featuring even AI avatars of each member, packaged in a glitzy, fantastical and futuristic aesthetic, candy pop meets cyberpunk. I think I’ve exhausted ways to say that is exactly what a perfect Winx adaptation should feature.

Their debut smash hit, 2020’s Black Mamba is truly a perfect moodboard for live action Winx. Wearing a sequined and colorful mix and match of Dollskill, Gucci, Didu and Balenciaga to a backdrop that features some alien fairy forest realness, a pyschedelic fever dream, rooms straight out of a Y2K catalog or donning lime green and black techwear inside a metro fighting the "black mamba", Aespa look through and through the part of fashion loving fairies who save the world together, while looking fierce, stylish and, most importantly, interesting.

The styling and the sets jump seamlessly from more casual colorful fits with blouses, shirts and baggy pants to barren, darkly lit backgrounds and fringe-and-glitter heavy pieces necessary to fight giant snakes, in a way so fitting to transformation outfits for magical girls we could cry.

In their third MV, 2021's Next Level, the cyber in their concept is taken up a notch (get it. because Next Level-), set to a futuristic urbanscape intersped with a planet made of crystals and the ocasional alien fauna popping up again. We get treated to Monse, The 2nd Skin Co., Johanna Ortiz and The Attico styled to fairy princess standards, sporty sky racers and a white and sequined group styling that is top ten fairy busy saving the world uniform material, or maybe even a specialist worthy getup.

This particular look from Ningning is so Techna that it almost feels as if it's mocking Netflix.

And doesn’t this Karina trapped inside the "black mamba" in Alexander McQueen feel like a perfect Dark Bloom moment?

These are only a few examples of interesting and creative designs that are in line with what a live action Winx Club should have given us. There are so many more I could list, even among other TV Shows, like Sex Education and even polemic dark Euphoria, that know how to have fun with style and design without losing the depth of their stories. In the end, it's hard to justify why Fate creators even wanted to make an adaptation that didn't even try to capture the heart of its source material, and all we can do is watch one more "Restyling Fate: The Winx Saga" video on Youtube whilst mildly dreading season 2.

[zodiyack]

A Work Proposition

Pairing: Sherlock Holmes x Female!Reader

Warnings: Nothing really

Words: 1,370

Summary: The female detective Lestrade has introduced is compelling, and upon seeing her and Sherlock interact, Enola’s cupid skills subtly kick in.

Taglist: @matth1w, @redspaceace-writes, @fandom-puff, @darling-i-read-it, @simonsbluee, @sebastianstanslefteyebrow, @missihart23, @maan24, @beck07990​

Masterlist | Henry Cavill Masterlist

The woman often hired to work with Lestrade, who was a common friend with Sherlock, had been at her job for a few years now. Lestrade thought highly of his new detective friend, so much so that he introduced her to the well known, Sherlock. His plan was to have them crack some cases they’d been stuck on, two mighty detectives better than one, but he had to get them to agree without scaring them off with the idea of meeting and working with a complete stranger.

Y/n agreed quickly, Sherlock taking some convincing, but the thing was, he didn’t tell either of them that they’d be working with another person. Both, however, showed up with mild confusion. It was his fault, he admitted. Confusion had to have been expected with his letters. The letters he’d sent out for his plea of summoning them went as this;

“Dear Detective,

You’re receiving this letter because I am of urgent need. I would like to request your assistance in a case that has us rather stumped. If it isn’t too much trouble, of course.

Though I will not explain too much of the case at hand, I will give you some convincing, hopefully, reassurance. Fear not for your life nor safety, you will be far from death’s doorstep on this mission.

The rest of the details of the case will be provided upon your arrival. Once informed, you may still have the choice of rejecting or accepting my beseechment. I ask you to at least hear out what I would like to solve before any denial of this matter.

Nothing is required except you and a healthy amount of sleep, for both you and your extraordinary intelligence. Bring your tools, or supplies if you prefer that name more, if you wish.

We shall supply you with any and all information you need, as well as a meal in apology for dragging you away from your personal life. I do hope you take my imploration into consideration.

Sincerely, Inspector G. Lestrade.”

It wasn’t the most specific of information, nor the longest letter he could write, but it would do. He sent it off in the mail then went home and slept peacefully. Early the next morning, Y/n was at his door, up and ready without a trace of sleep lingering on her face, whereas Lestrade had bags under his eyes and was yawning ever few seconds.

“Sorry to disturb your sleep, Inspector. Your letter lacked any instructions for when I do indeed accept...which would be now.” She waited by the door politely as Lestrade walked to his kitchen.

“Come in, Y/n, I would hate to make you stand outside.” He called from the other room. Y/n obliged happily, stepping in and closing the door behind her. A few seconds later and Lestrade was scurrying back to her with another piece of parchment. “My apologies, I knew something felt left out.” He chuckled nervously.

“Oh, it’s no worries, Inspector!” She put the note in her satchel, then faced him again. “I hope you get some rest. Again, I’m ever so sorry to have woken you-”

He held out a hand, quieting her instantly. “Y/n, you’ve done no wrong, there’s no need to be distressed.”

Y/n nodded, approaching the door again but stopping with her hand upon the handle, “Perhaps you should go back to sleep whilst you still can. I’ll see you then, Inspector.” A warm smile was thrown his way before she carefully opened the door and left.

They awaited Y/n’s arrival. Enola had tagged along with her older brother, hoping to be granted permission by both men, more hopeful with Lestrade’s words of guaranteed safety. Both Holmes siblings and Lestrade were sat patiently in his office. Well, in truth, only Lestrade dawned patience.

“Excuse my impoliteness, Lestrade, but why exactly are we yet to begin?” His brows were knitted, blue eyes holding great confusion.

“It’ll be only a few more minutes now.” He commented rather casually as he fished out his pocket watch, inspecting it for a second before placing it back in his waistcoat pocket. “My sincerest apologies for the hold up.”

Like he had promised, a few minutes went by and then- Just as Enola and Sherlock were about to rise, thank Lestrade for the job offer, turn it down and then return home for a quiet reading in the library, knocks sounded from the glass of the door.

Y/n stood on the other side, rapping her knuckles against the door, her eyes trained on Lestrade. He rose from his seat, her hand dropping and the knocking ceasing. Enola and Sherlock looked over, suddenly intrigued with the surprise guest as she stepped into the office.

“Please, detective, have a seat.” He smiled and gestured his hand to the large leather couch against the wall.

Enola scooted to the end, resting her palm and the arm of the sofa, Sherlock scooting slightly to make room for the detective despite there are already being enough that no one would be forced to move. It was only polite, plus, they were still strangers.

“I’m very sorry for my lateness, I got rather sidetracked with the anticipation for this case.” Y/n explained with a sheepish chuckle, sitting down and turning to face the others on the leather seating. She extended her hand to Sherlock, “I know you. You’re Detective Sherlock Holmes...and that must be your sister, Enola, I’ve read fantastic things of you two, marvelous work by the way. I’m Y/n L/n.”

“Detective Y/n L/n.” Lestrade corrected before either Holmes could respond.

“Ah, yes. I am indeed a detective, as Lestrade has mentioned, however, I see no need for either of you two to reference me with such formalities. My work pales in comparison to the Holmes cases.”

“I’m honored you think that, but you mustn’t put yourself down,” Sherlock drawled, a small grin upon his lips.

This peculiar, new woman aroused his curiosity just as much as he did hers. If she were a case, he’d be at work on her for hours at a time and still have towers to unravel. A mystery, complex but something he was determined to solve, shrouded her.

Sherlock had his eyes trained on her, the world becoming silent around him as he took in her face, mind creating a mental photograph he could hold onto as long as he pleased. The details of her features were like a rare piece of art, but not one he could find in the museum. No, she was far too unique, far too rare to be held up in a marble building with works nowhere near as beautiful, as desired as her.

“Now that you’ve made acquaintances, we shall speak about the case! I called you both here without knowledge of each other’s appearances, and I am deeply sorry for tricking you, but I wanted to introduce the two...” his eyes drifted to Enola, “three greatest detectives I’ve ever met. I originally intended on having Y/n and Sherlock work on the case, but I assume Enola would enjoy helping out?”

The older Holmes opened his mouth, ready to confirm his sister would be joining the two, but Enola was much faster. “Thank you, but I’m afraid I’ll be the one to decline your invitation for this case. Nonetheless, I don’t doubt that my brother, or detective L/n, would be up for the task.”

She stood up and left the office. Lestrade was ready to begin his explanation on the case before Sherlock rose suddenly and started after his little sister. He pushed past the people working at the station until he reached her, grabbing ahold of her arm and giving her a perplexed look.

“Where are you going?”

“Home.”

“I thought you said you wanted to help?”

She smiled softly at her brother, “I saw the way you looked at detective L/n the second she walked in. You should work with her, get to know her. Worry not, brother, she isn’t here to usurp your name, only provide whatever assistance she can.” Then, she left the station, her words racing through Sherlock’s conscious the entirety of the day.

Maybe Y/n really would usurp his name...without the illegality of it obviously.