#Honey talk!

[melancholy-of-nadia]

LUL5 IS COMING THIS WEEK

Chapter 5 is... 10k words im sorry its so long y'all. BELIEVE me, it was a struggle to write such emotional ups and downs. SO YOU'RE IN FOR A RIDE. Banner is done. don't ask me how long it took to find images.

[LUL5] BIG Spoiler Below!!! Literally, the first words in the chapter.

[fair-itself]

There's a lot I could say about The Subtance as an unflinching, gruesome close-up portrait of systemic misogyny, internalized sexism, self-hatred, and the brutality of fame, but more importantly, you know what I bet? I bet there is exactly one customer of The Subtance who is doing everything right. Week one, makes a living as a fitness influencer; week two, enjoys a lavish retirement funded by her other self's earnings. Week one, jogging, yoga, filming tiktoks, enjoying the vitality of youth; week two, Alaskan cruises, mahjong with the girls, enjoying unlimited free time and liberation from the crushing weight of the societal expectation to care what other people think of you. Keeps her other self on a nice air mattress with a quilt and always cooks a big recovery breakfast to be waiting for her when she switches. Walks out of that creepy alley every week whistling. Has no idea potential complications even exist. Every other user is living a psychedelic horror show of trauma, goop, and rage, and she's just at Barnes and Noble picking up the latest selection for book club. I know I'm alone in this, but I would happily watch that sequel.

[vmkhoneyy]

“People are inherently terrible” no!!! Have you ever seen a child wait for their friend while they tie their shoelaces? Have you ever known someone who would bring hurt squirrels and rabbits and mice to the nearest vet just so it doesn’t suffer? Have you seen someone grieve? Have you ever read something that hit your heart like a freight train? Have you looked at the stars and felt an unexplainable joy? Have you ever baked bread? Have you shared a meal with a friend? Have you not seen it? All the love? All the good? I know it’s hard to see sometimes, I know there’s pain everywhere. But look, there’s a child helping another up after a hard fall. Look, there’s someone giving their umbrella to a stranger. Look, there’s someone admiring the spring flowers. Look, there’s good, there’s good, there’s good. Look!!!!

[stars-and-branches]

In light of all the insane shit that's been happening in the USA im spreading this around again

[k1d1c4rus]

thinking about how armand was turned bc he was dying from being stabbed by a scorned grown man who was in love with him. he nearly died from rejecting unwanted advances. its such a key explicit detail of his origin that teaches him yet again that what he wants is utterly unimportant and even deadly in the face of survival. everything about his character is informed by the fact that he adapts entirely to the situation he is forced into because that's the only way he can survive. he adopts the satanic doctrine for 200 years not because he believes in it but because he knows that is the only way he'll survive and as soon as lestat arrives he knows he can abandon it. for half a millenium he believes he can't get what he wants and also survive, he has to choose one or the other. God.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

All he knows is flirt with men and lie.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[harrowharkwife]

i'm so used to there just being random unidentified bones laying around everywhere in these damn books that it finally occurred to me, just now, to wonder where the bones on new rho came from. y'know, the bones palamedes always tried to teach nona necromancy on.

they're his.

palamedes, who always loved teaching, living on borrowed time in a body that's not his own. palamedes, mentoring, teaching- parenting, by sixth standards, mind you. and that boy is sixth, through and through.

and the entire point of teaching nona necromancy in the first place was to try and determine if nona is, well, nonagesimus, right? so it has to be bones, it can't not be bones. bones are, like, her whole thing.

but they're not in the nine houses, anymore. things are different, on new rho.

they burn bones here. dig up the cemeteries. a society terrified of zombies will evolve to dispose of its dead differently.

the only bones he has access to now are his own. (camilla wouldn't let anyone take them- skull or hand, doesn't matter. they're still him, and she doesn't let go, remember? it's her one thing.)

palamedes woke up every morning wearing someone else's body to then gently place the shrapnel of his own in the cupped palms of a girl who's the closest thing he'll ever have to a daughter and try to teach her- how did the angel put it, again? normal school, as much as possible, for as long as possible.

(but hey, in a roundabout way, at least it's a chance for him to touch camilla again, right? nevermind that she's not there to feel any of it because he's in the driver's seat, that he can only stay for fifteen minutes at a time. it's atoms that belong to camilla touching atoms that used to belong to him, and that's close enough. he'll take what he can get, these days- if she can be their flesh, he can be the end. so what if holding his own bones is a mindfuck? so what if looking at them makes him nauseous? surely he can suck it up and deal with it for fifteen minutes. it's the least he can do— his poor camilla was the one who had to scrape the bloody pulp of them off the floors of canaan house.)

(speaking of, here's a fun fact: we actually only see nona practicing with the bones one time, on-page. camilla's final line in that scene, before palamedes takes over, is none other than: 'keep going. there are some bones left.' ow!)

remember, too, that the only part of dulcinea, the real dulcinea, that palamedes ever physically touched, was her tooth- the one that ianthe gave him, pulled from the ashes cytherea burnt her down to. he only ever touched dulcie once, and it wasn't until after she was already gone, but that doesn't matter- it still happened, and you can't take loved away.

in this same roundabout, bittersweet, by-proxy sort of way, palamedes has been physically touched by nona, too: the atoms she currently occupies, touching atoms that he used to occupy, and never will again.

the main interaction we've seen between palamedes and his mother took place back on the sixth, with her acting as mentor and him as pupil: the two of them studying a set of hand bones, juno encouraging him every step of the way.

we know that harrowhark's "most vivid memory of her mother was of her hands guiding harrow's over an inexpertly rendered portion of skull, her fingers encircling the fat baby bracelets of harrow's wrists, tightening this cuff to indicate correct technique."

they're still small for a nineteen year old, but the wrists are bigger, in this new set of memories nona's making. and it's not an inexpertly rendered portion of skull anymore- it's a hand, now, albeit one crafted from [a piece of skull reassembled (painstakingly—passionately—laboriously reassembled) from fragments, manually, and not by a bone magician, from the skull of someone who, soon after death or symptomatically during, had exploded.] and the identity and origin of these bones is no mystery at all. they belong to palamedes, and he's consented to their use for this purpose, and that matters.

but the details are just set dressing, really. the foundation of the memory is the same.

palamedes and his mother, juno and her son.

harrow and her mother; pelleamena and her daughter.

nona and her father-mother-teacher; palamedes and his daughter.

[virginiathegray]

Watching creators across the internet yap themselves into hating this game for no reason is actually so sad

[s-4pphics]

teenage!ellie not knowing how to accept that she has a crush on girl so she comes off as stoic and rude but she’s actually nervous and giddy because the girl she likes is so vibrant and loud with her affections towards her….

ellie’s crush doesn’t think she’s rude at all; she just needs some gentle guidance and she’ll nuzzle up like a kitty

baby ellie turning to mush whenever crush comes around but she’s not comfortable expressing it yet because what will people think? they’re already off put by her and now she’s gay?

she tries to protect her crush’s reputation by ignoring her; the other kids like her and think she’s funny. she shouldn’t have to sacrifice her status for ellie

[variousqueerthings]

reblogging again about Big Eden made me think about some of the native american/canadian queer cinema (Indigiqueer Cinema) I've enjoyed.

Found a handy dandy Letterboxd List called Queer Native Pride and Beyond that has a whole bunch of movies I haven't seen yet, and below some of the ones I've gotten to experience (three out of four are linked):

Big Eden: a story about a gay man who returns home, because his grandfather gets sick. A sweet, beautiful man (played by Eric Schweig) starts to secretly make him food to help out. it's an amazing slice-of-life/subtly utopian bit of film-making, in that nobody in the town is homophobic, but being gay/shame is still a big part of the exploration within it.

Wildhood: a movie I got to watch at a film festival (always good to go to your local queer film festivals, many surprises to be had) and it blew me away. a roadtrip movie about two brothers who escape their abusive father to reconnect with the elder's mother and Mi'kmaq heritage. letting go of the instilled shame of being indigenous goes hand in hand with letting go of the instilled shame of being queer

Fancy Dance: this movie isn't about being queer, it's about the ongoing murder of indigenous woman and girls, and it's also a beautiful road trip film between an aunt and her niece, the former of whom is sure her sister is dead but unwilling to face it and to destroy her niece's innocence. Lily Gladstone plays the lead, who's also a lesbian, which is just a choice that works really well for the movie even if it's not the focal point (available on Apple+ TV and however you access movies, but would recommend throwing this one some views if you have access to official streaming)

Honey Moccasin: a 1998 movie i watched at another film festival (this time online), it's anarchic, it's a comedy, it's a thriller, it's got musical beats, it weaves in the intricacies of exploring Native identity and Queer identity, it's a surreal story about a few things, one of which include focus on a "closeted drag queen." it's a movie that beats against conventional film-making to create something not beholden to tropes and clichés forced upon narratives about being Native

[kawamagi-crow]

One important thing i found in the Hbomber vid i dont see mentioned a lot is how often Jame's stealing of content erased the unique experiences and views of the original writers.

Example: The Mulan review.

The original text provides a unique reflection based on the experiences of a Transmasc Asian. the CORE of the whole review is relating said real life experiences and the movie, and how they interact, and the authors perspective as a Transmasc asian.

And what James did? He removed it. not only the important commentary but also the whole mention of the trans experience?? (Changing trans to Lgbt community), He stole other person's words and wrangled them out of any meaning it had.

If i was the Author, i would be fucking pissed.

And I could go a step further and said its VERY ODD AND TOTALLY A COINCIDENCE (/S) how Jame's chooses to change with words (Changing trans to LGBT community), Erasing parts of the community. For someone who criticizes so much "the straights" for erasing gay culture, he seems to be pretty fucking happy in Erasing Trans culture (Or Trans identities!).

James Somerton is not changing words to try to hide his clear Plagiarism. He is changing words to tell his own message. one that does not care for anyone who isn't the perfect image of the Gay man he wants (because not even gay men are safe, Since he throws them under the bus too if theyre "too boring").

I beg for anyone who reads this to read the original Mulan article. Linked below:

[melancholy-of-nadia]

[LUL5 UPDATE]

hi everyone! not sure if anyone is waiting for the next chapter of LUL, but just wanted to give an update regarding this next update since i didn't upload a new chapter this month ;-; i had sudden health issues occur for the first two weeks of this month and then once I got back on the writing roll despite that, I got sidetracked with a minor car vandalism incident (which i still haven't taken care of since I've been visiting my sister since 2 weeks ago).

I am almost done with editing the chapter (thanks to rae who went and edited a lot of the chapter to make it more concise!!). I am sorry I didn't deliver a new chapter for you guys this month, but I will do my best to get you guys a new chapter in December and hopefully LUL6 if there are not any delays (please pray for me).

[abitofboth]

you’ll change your name or change your mind, and leave this fucked up place behind, but I’ll know, I’ll know…

[cordycepsbian]

discord liked this so

[latenightsundayblues]

I imagine their banter and bickering in the process of killing someone would deal greater psychological damage than the torturing itself

[nothing-but-luv-for-you]

be obsessed with me. c’mon, i know you want to. you keep holding yourself back, biting your tongue. why? why not indulge yourself in this twisted love? i know you want this just as badly as i do, so make this easier on both of us and admit you need me.